The Darkest Gateway

by Jeri Westerson

  The creature flapped weakly but continued to fall, turning on its back. Finally, it splatted spectacularly on the red earth below. We continued flying onward.

  “Erasmus!”

  He sighed with impatience. “Kylie, this is the Netherworld. Things happen here. And no one mourns.”

  I couldn’t believe it. After all we’d just been through, all that Shabiri helped us do, this is how he acted? He’s a demon, Kylie. This is what you signed up for.

  “We have to go back and see if she’s all right?”

  His glare was noteworthy. “No, we don’t.”

  “Yes, we do. Erasmus, we don’t let our friends down.”

  His brows were thoroughly furrowed as he continued to glare…until they rose and he threw back his head and laughed.

  I hit his chest with my fist. “Erasmus!”

  “Shabiri, will you please materialize before she beats me to death?”

  There was a pop and Shabiri was suddenly there, flying beside us. “Am I really your bestest friend?” She batted her eyes.

  “The two of you! A demon’s sense of humor, huh? I’d throw something sharp at the both of you if I could.”

  “Spirited,” she said, “isn’t she?”

  “Can we fly the rest of the way?” I asked, ignoring them.

  “I think we had better,” said Shabiri, scanning the plains below. “I’m seeing more of Lord Satan’s welcoming party.”

  I turned to where she was looking. An army of what looked like trolls were marching across the savannas and kicking up a cloud of red dust.

  “That…doesn’t look good.” I held tighter to Erasmus.

  He spared them a look too. “No, it doesn’t.” He and Shabiri exchanged a silent commiseration.

  “The faster we can get to the exit point, the better,” he said.

  He seemed to turn on the speed again, but over his shoulder a swarm of something was following us in the air.

  “One measly human can sure cause trouble,” I muttered. “I hate to tell you this…”

  “I smell them,” said Erasmus. “More gargoyles. Unfortunately, they didn’t all fall into my trap as expected. They aren’t the brightest of creatures.”

  I stared up at him. “Are we going to make it?”

  He looked down at me with a determination I hadn’t seen in his eyes before. “If I have anything to say about it, we will.”

  He poured on the speed. I could see how much of an extra burden it was for him to carry me. I looked down at the dead book crushed between us. For once, I was actually regretting that it didn’t have any power. I knew I could have summoned something to keep them back.

  What was I thinking? Of course I didn’t want the book back. Get a grip, Kylie. And then I did grip because Erasmus was making all these acrobatic turns.

  I looked around. Even more creatures were showing up. Those dragon raptors. Looked like Satan was pulling out all the stops. Jeesh, what a crybaby. He got most of a soul.

  “As soon as we pass over those hills, we’ll have to descend,” yelled Erasmus over the rush of the wind. “Be ready with the book. You won’t be able to pass through without it.”

  And just that moment, I almost dropped it. I clung on to the book with one hand, and Erasmus with the other. His arms tightened around me. “I haven’t come all this way to let you fall now.”

  Scant relief with armies coming after us.

  I watched carefully as the ridge passed below us. As soon as we flew over to the darker side, the demons began to descend. The wind blew my hair back, and I gazed down to the rough terrain below. Erasmus and Shabiri landed at a run and as their bodies morphed back to normal, they kept running. I could see the place. I hadn’t noticed it when I arrived, but I could tell that this was it—a dark, shimmering gash in the rock face. I could see how beasties and demons could pass through it. Why couldn’t I?

  I tried to resettle myself and suddenly the book slipped from my bloodless grasp. I had been holding it so tight I hadn’t noticed when my grip had gone numb. “Oh shit! Erasmus! The book!”

  He looked back, about to spin around when Shabiri dove after it, scooping it from the dirt. She came up beside us. “And to think I wanted this old thing.”

  “For Doug,” supplied Erasmus.

  Shabiri and I exchanged a loaded look.

  “That’s right, darling. For Doug.”

  Poor, clueless Erasmus.

  We made it to the deep bruise in the hillside. “Give Kylie the book, Shabiri.”

  “Hmm,” she said, looking it over. “It can’t do what it did before, but like you said, it is still a key.”

  “Shabiri,” he growled.

  She looked at me then. “You offered anything if I would help.”

  “Shabiri.” I was so disheartened. I thought she’d changed. Even a little. “I can’t get back without it.”

  “And once you go back, it will cease to be a key. But there are some in this world who would pay a handsome price to crossover. There are demons who can’t, you know.”

  Erasmus was full-on growling now. “Shabiri! Give me the damn book or I’ll take it!”

  She swiveled and held it away from him. “I’d like to see you try.”

  “Please, Shabiri,” I said. “I know I promised you. I’ll find something else.”

  She looked me up and down with a sneer. Had it all been an act? Everything she said, every secret she spilled?

  A bark and a growl. Cerberus stood on the top of the hill and howled when he saw us. And then he started to trot downward.

  “Shit,” said Shabiri. “You know, this just isn’t fun anymore.” She shoved the book into my hands. I stood there, immobilized. “Well?” she said, frustration and maybe something else I couldn’t identify written on her face. “Go! I’ll hold it off.”

  “But…” I watched as the angry three-headed beast barreled toward us. “You can blast him, right?”

  “He’s a hell hound,” said Erasmus. “She can’t.”

  “But you can stab him with a spear?”

  “And he didn’t die, did he?” she snarked. “You can’t kill a hell hound. You can only delay it, and I can’t use my powers against it. He’s Lord Satan’s own.”

  “Come on, Kylie,” said Erasmus, grabbing my arm to lead me away toward the shimmering exit.

  “Wait. We can’t just leave her.”

  “Beelze’s tail! I’m beginning to wonder about all this friendship you keep spouting. It’s liable to get us all killed.”

  “And while you chatter about it,” said Shabiri, “the beast closes in. Honestly. Can’t someone tell a tale about how brave I was for a change?”

  A hot lump formed in my throat. “Shabiri…”

  “Will you run already? I don’t fancy people watching me get torn to shreds.”

  I didn’t know what to do. She started to run toward Cerberus to distract him, giving us precious time to jump through the gateway, but I just couldn’t leave her.

  I started toward her.

  “Kylie!” Erasmus yelled with the intensity of all his emotions rolled into one.

  I looked back at him. “How can we leave her?”

  He glanced toward the gateway, glanced at Shabiri and sighed. “Oh hell.” He ran forward ahead of me.

  Cerberus was almost on Shabiri. She’d picked up a big branch on her way there with every intention of giving at least one head a smack, when out of the sky, there was a streak of gray. She was suddenly scooped up from the ground. She and her rescuer shot forward back toward the gateway.

  Erasmus was right there when they landed. “Focalor!”

  “It was such a good story; I had to see how it ended. Are you all going through the gateway?” He looked back as Cerberus galloped forward. “You’d better hurry.”

  “Thank you, old friend,” said Erasmus, patting his shoulder.

  “Thanks, Focalor,” said Shabiri. “But you absolutely spoiled my heroic ending.”

  “Oh, well. I can always tell it as if you
’d died. It would still make a good tale.”

  “Beware, Focalor,” said Erasmus, tugging me toward the shimmering gate. “There is an army of trolls and several gargoyles heading this way.”

  “I shall be gone before they arrive. As for this beast…” He flew up and began haranguing Cerberus just above the snapping jaws. He put a hand to his mouth and shouted to us, “Get going!”

  “Will he be all right?” I asked.

  Erasmus tugged me hard toward the shimmer without another word. I held the book tight to my chest and closed my eyes. When we passed through, it was worse than the first time. As if thousands more tiny ants stinging and biting me and tearing apart my every molecule. My skin, my nerves were on fire, burning down to my muscle and bones. I screamed and screamed until I was being shaken and someone was yelling at me.

  “I slapped her the last time to make her stop,” I heard vaguely.

  “Kylie! Kylie, you’re safe! You’re home.” It was Erasmus’ voice and I opened my eyes. “Oh my God.” It was the cold woods of Maine by moonlight, near Hansen Mills, where the ley lines crossed. I somehow didn’t believe we could ever get back.

  “We did it.” I hugged him and kissed him. Then I turned to Shabiri. She looked startled and backed away from me, but I managed to grab her anyway and hug her tight. “Thank you, Shabiri. You are the second bravest person I know.”

  Stiffly she accepted my embrace but looked all kinds of relieved when I let her go. “The second bravest? Can’t I be the first?”

  “Nope. Sorry. That title belongs to Erasmus.” I gave him a warm, contented smile.

  We took one step down from the precarious rock ledge and were almost run over by a herd of deer.

  “What are they running from?” I wondered aloud. But then I looked up.

  Baphomet was strafing the woods and setting them on fire.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I looked down at the book. I had nothing. I didn’t have the power of the book, I didn’t have the Spear of Mortal Pain, and I didn’t even have my chthonic crossbow. I turned to Erasmus. “Take me back to my place.”

  He clutched my arms and the dark coldness of transportation gripped me until all three of us appeared, rather dramatically, in the middle of my shop…surrounded by my astonished coven, the Ordo, and some new recruits.

  Everyone froze, mouths hung open, eyes wide.

  “Hi, everyone. Did you miss me?”

  “Kylie!” screamed Jolene and launched herself into my arms. I embraced her with one arm, still holding the book.

  “It’s okay. I’m back.”

  She sobbed on me, and then Nick put an arm around the two of us, and then Seraphina came up and did the same. I looked past them to Doc. He had tears in his eyes and was shaking his head. “I’ll be gosh-darned,” he kept saying.

  I shuffled forward, loosening my coven hug, to gaze at Doc. Even Jolene stepped back, wiping her eyes.

  “How in tarnation did you ever do it?” he said, voice shaky.

  And then Seraphina looked to Erasmus. Before he could escape, she grabbed him into a hug and kissed his cheek, leaving a big purple blob of lipstick there. When she let him go, he hung back, trying to disappear into the shadows, but the auxiliary Wiccans wouldn’t let him, all vying with each other to shake his hand.

  He looked absolutely miserable and I couldn’t stop smiling.

  When I turned my head, I saw Ed. He was blinking away tears. I offered him a warm smile. But when he noticed Shabiri, his whole demeanor changed. He stalked right up to her, took her in his arms, and kissed her. She struggled for only a moment before succumbing. Maybe she’d be getting over Erasmus in no time.

  “How the hell did you do it, babygirl?” Jeff embraced me, and I couldn’t help but inhale a whiff of what smelled like…wet dog.

  “As always, I had a lot of help.”

  Doc was stepping forward to take my hands. “But how did you do it, Kylie? Last we saw of you and Mister—dang it, I’m calling you ‘Erasmus’ from now on, young man.”

  “I am hardly young or a man,” he said from the shadows. He had managed to shake off his admirers.

  “I don’t care. I never should have let you talk me into doing that spell for you. I’m so sorry.”

  He seemed puzzled by Doc’s remorse. “Don’t be. It was the means by which we bargained with Lord Satan.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Look, we’ll give you all the explanations you want later,” I said urgently, “but Baphomet is on his way and he’s setting the forests around Hansen Mills on fire.”

  The auxiliary Wiccans burst into murmuring. I knew some of them were from there.

  “And we’ll deal with him when he comes,” said the last voice I wanted to hear.

  I whirled. Ruth Russell…wearing cargo fatigues, a trooper sweater, and sporting a…sword?

  “You’ve had quite an adventure,” she said, hand on the hilt of the sword, hanging in its scabbard on her belt.

  I turned to anyone who would listen. “What the hell is she doing here?”

  “Mrs. Russell is okay,” said Jolene. “You should have seen her use that sword on a lindworm. It was very Bayonetta.”

  “Since when?” I said, glaring at Bayonetta.

  “Since she showed up expecting to be the Chosen Host,” said Doc. “Kylie, don’t you remember? No one could recall your grandfather ever having lived here. And the Stranges had been wiped out of the memory of even people who looked at the archives. Your grandpa had used a very powerful forget-me spell.”

  Seraphina stepped in. “And she didn’t know who you were. Only that odd things were happening around you. It wasn’t until you reminded her of your grandfather that she remembered she even knew Robert Strange.”

  “So what?” I couldn’t believe everyone was falling all over themselves to defend her. “What about all the stuff she supposedly knew about? What about Dan Parker?”

  “Yes,” said Ruth. “What about Dan Parker?”

  “He’s dead. And you killed him in a summoning ritual.”

  “No, she didn’t.”

  I turned. I couldn’t believe Jeff of all people was saying this to me. “Oh yeah? And what do you know about it?”

  “When I wolfed, I didn’t get a sense of evil from her. Because believe me, when I’m wolfed, I can tell something’s off.”

  Well damn. That was a whole lot of corroboration. I turned to Ruth. “Okay. I guess I’m wrong. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry too. I thought a lot of bad things about you until I figured out who you were.”

  We seemed stuck and just stared at one another. Until I put my hand out to shake. She took it. “All fair and square…cos?”

  She winced a little. “Don’t call me that.” Old habits die hard, Ruth.

  “Okay then,” I said, trying to put aside my own prejudices. “If it wasn’t Ruth, then who was it? Someone paid the Ordo to start summoning and someone ritually killed Dan Parker to summon a demon assassin to get me.”

  No one could offer any suggestions.

  “A lot of folks in town aren’t fans of you,” offered Ed, who still had his arm around Shabiri. And she didn’t seem to mind one bit.

  “Yeah, but if they don’t like witchcraft, I don’t think they’d indulge in their own summoning. Doug, how much cash did they send you?”

  “A lot. Ten thousand bucks.”

  “Whoa. So someone with money. Ruth, among your cadre of friends…”

  “There is absolutely no one I suspect. No one even remotely interested in the occult that I can tell. No one side-stepping the mandala on my porch. Except for your Mr. Dark there.”

  Erasmus coolly acknowledged her with a nod.

  “Haven’t we got bigger fish to fry?” asked Nick. “Isn’t Baphomet on his way?”

  “Yeah. And the book…” I dropped it onto the table with a slam. “…is dead. Its last act was to get me out of the Netherworld. I’m not a Chosen Host anymore, Erasmus isn’t tied to it, and Bap
homet can’t get it. Oh! What about the rift or vortex-thingy? We have to close that—” I made a rush to the door, but Doc stopped me.

  “Already taken care of. It’s done.”

  “Oh. You’ve been busy.”

  He smiled with pride. I glanced to where the auxiliary Wiccans were huddled together. Mostly the teenagers who had stood by Jolene and Nick. Some I recognized from when they defended by shop from Baphomet. There was about a dozen of them. “So then, Baphomet is looking for something that doesn’t exist anymore. Do you think he knows that?”

  Something slammed hard to my roof, making the rafters shake. “I thought there were wards.”

  “Oh no,” said Doc. “Jolene, get out the scryer.”

  The auxiliary Wiccans stepped aside for Jolene. She grabbed her Hello Kitty skull bag and took out the stick with the crystal attached. She shoved it into my face. But nothing happened. She pushed it toward Doc, toward Nick, toward Seraphina…only a faint glow. The magic wasn’t gone, but it had returned to whatever level it had been before. The book had enhanced the magic while it was alive; there was nothing but their own skills to rely on now.

  “What about our enchanted bullets?” asked Ed.

  His what now?

  Doc pursed his lips in thought. “Now that, I don’t know. We infused magic into an inanimate object. I believe it would still work. But…I’m not sure. And as for the wards, they should hold. The house, too, is an inanimate object.”

  Ed got out his gun. “Well, no time like the present to find out.”

  George took out his weapon as well and Nick hurried forward to grab his arm. “Be careful, okay?”

  “I’ll do my best. Citizen.” He smiled, mustache and all. I took that to be some kind of game they played. Made a note not to ask.

  There was something I was missing. The book was alive once and now was an inanimate object. And things, not people, could retain magic. “Is the chthonic crossbow still here?”

  I was shocked when I heard it coming toward me, and I didn’t have those Chosen Host skills anymore to catch it. The auxiliary Wiccans dove out of the way when it cleared the staircase. I chickened out at the last minute when it got near and ducked. It smashed into some teapots on a shelf and clattered to the floor. Sheepishly, I went to retrieve it. “Sorry, old buddy,” I said as I gingerly picked it up. I blinked for a mere fraction of a second and it had armed itself. “Okay, you’re still working. But I doubt this will kill a god.”