by Melissa Haag
The back door banged open and Oanen came running out.
I held up my hand.
“Wait. Give me a minute to cool off,” I said.
He stopped, his gaze shifting to my grandma who was looking at me with shock.
“What have you done?” she asked.
“Exactly what I was supposed to do.”
“No, you were supposed to deliver me to hell to seal your power.”
“I do not need to be told the laws set forth by humans and non-humans, alike, because I know them the moment they are created or change. They are in me. They are who I am as much as I am hell’s judge, jury, and executioner. And, I can interpret them as I choose.
“To obtain my power, I must strip it from the first living generation. To seal my newly acquired power, a wicked soul must be delivered to hell. There is nothing written that says that soul must be yours or that you must die when I strip you of power.”
Knowing I was cooler, I went to the woman who’d welcomed me with cookies then provoked me to spare me.
“As a human, you’ve done nothing wicked. Your slate is wiped clean. Your remaining days are your own.”
“But, the soul, Megan.”
I smiled, my mind already seeking the soul I needed.
“Will you keep an eye on Oanen for me? He tends to go missing when I’m not at his side.”
She nodded once, and I let the image of the woman from the gas station fill my mind. Her perfect hair, her pristine makeup, her nice clothes, and her foul, foul soul. As my wings sprouted and wrapped around me, I saw her clearly. Not because of a memory, but because I could see what she was doing at that exact moment. She was driving her car on a road in the city. I could feel her thoughts and knew what she was planning. She’d waited for her husband to drop their son off at daycare, and now she was on her way to pick him up again. The boy would die.
I listened to the pull of the earth and let myself sink into the darkness. I had form, but nothing else around me did. One moment, it felt like I was falling in a void; the next, I was rising. All the while, the woman, where she was and what she was doing, never left my mind. I could feel myself drawing closer to her. A moment before the darkness disappeared, instinct had me squatting down into a sitting position.
My sudden appearance in her passenger seat startled a shriek from her. She jerked the wheel and sent the car careening into a tree. It was a big tree, and she’d been in a hurry to end her son’s life.
I listened to every snap of bone as the metal crunched. I flew forward too, the airbags cushioning any blow, not that I needed it. I was officially a favored daughter of hell, now. Very little could touch me.
When the car settled, I looked at the woman. Her head slowly turned toward me. Vessels had burst in her eyes.
“I take no joy in condemning you,” I said. “But by doing so, I have saved a life and maintained my balance.”
A rattling breath escaped her as I reached forward. Like the void I had used to get to her, she seemed to lose substance. I could see a soft blue-white glow radiating inside of her. It extended in an oval from her head to her heart, the center of it at the base of her throat. I grabbed the glow in my fist and let my wings close around us.
The same sensation of being pulled downward filled me but more strongly this time. I fell into the void, the soul still in my grasp. The woman looked at me with a mix of terror and anger in her eyes. If not for the way my fingers lingered within the illusion of her neck, I would have thought she was alive.
The heat of my wings stayed wrapped around me as we plunged downward. Outside their flaming protection, the temperature dropped until we slowed.
Below me, the darkness began to fade to reveal a vast expanse of black ice, underlit by the faint flicker of blue flame. The soul jerked in my grasp, a wisp of nothing that had no real strength.
Her gaze drifted from mine to look at the world around us, and I did the same. To the left, a land covered in snow and mountains and storms. To the right, a golden flame lit the top of a towered fortress at the bottom of another tall mountain.
As soon as I saw the flame, I knew that was where I was meant to go.
I opened my wings and soared in that direction. My wings didn’t flap to propel me forward; thought moved me. With incredible speed, I crossed the black ice and reached a black, rocky shore, seemingly devoid of life.
Far below, rivers of glowing orange and red twined through the rock in a meandering path toward the fortress. At first, I thought the streams were molten lava. Then, I heard the faint screaming and looked closer. Souls, twisted and tortured, writhed in channels of fire and blood. Like the soul I now carried, they all had form.
The sight of them didn’t bother me. I knew every soul in those hell rivers had earned its place. But that wasn’t where this soul belonged. There was a place for every level of wicked. The streams were for the worst. And this one wasn’t the worst.
A rumble came from the side of the fortress. Something white moved against the black. And, as I neared, I could have sworn it was a man in a robe, pushing a boulder uphill. However, I was too far away to be sure.
The soul and I flew over the streams to the fortress, itself. The dark spires were silent and unwelcoming. None stood out more so than the others, yet I knew just where to go. After reaching my destination, I entered through a window, tucking in my wings to land lightly on my feet. The barren entry point, lit by torches, was as cold and dank as the hall leading from it.
With the soul at my side, thanks to my steady grip, I led her to a door. Everything I’d done so far had been instinctual. A knowing of rightness. And, now, I knew I was almost done. Instead of opening the door, I pushed the soul toward it. She struggled, her hands traveling through my arms even though I could grip her by the base of her throat. She passed through the wooden barrier as if it didn’t exist. I released my hold and withdrew my empty hand.
Soul delivered. A ripple of ease shook my still visible wings, and I felt complete. Whole and healthy.
A scrape of noise down the hall drew my attention. In the flicker of torchlight, a pale specter leaned against the stone and stared at me. She looked like Ashlyn’s doppelganger right out of the Grecian era, based on her flowing white dress. She lifted a hand and pointed at me, her lips moving. Like the soul I just delivered, no sound came out of her mouth.
I felt the tug again, pulling me upward, telling me not to linger. Turning on my heel, I retraced my steps down the hall and jumped out of the window. My wings expanded, and I soared upward into the void once more.
Oanen filled my thoughts, and I found myself in Grandma's backyard once more. My wings disappeared, and I looked around at the destruction of her yard. Most of the plants on the outside of her garden had burned away to ash.
The back door creaked.
“Don't you worry about any of that, Megan. Come inside and have another cookie.”
I glanced at my great-grandmother, a woman I didn't really know. Yet, she’d given me so much in a brief period of time. And, it wasn't only her power that she’d given. She’d given me more understanding and comfort than anyone else I could remember, outside of Oanen and Eliana.
“Thank you,” I said, moving toward her. “I hope you’ll still be able to garden next year.”
“I will. That ash will make the soil richer.” She paused until I was closer to the door.
“What did you think of it?”
“Hell?”
“Yes.”
“I guess it's just what I thought it should be. Cold, dark, depressing.”
“Only the part furies visit,” she replied.
“There’s more?”
She smiled. “There’s a lot you still don’t know. And, now, there’s someone who can tell you about it. If you’d like.”
“I would. You have no idea how much.”
“I might,” she said with a small smile. “Would you like to stay for lunch?”
She opened the door and motioned me inside. The sight of O
anen pacing the kitchen while speaking on the phone prevented me from answering her.
“The answer hasn’t changed. Megan said she didn’t sense his wickedness, and I trust her.” Seeing me, he paused his pacing. I walked up to him, kissed him lightly on the lips and stole the phone.
I put it on speaker just in time to hear Adira’s reply.
“While he may not be wicked yet, he could become wicked. The kind of magic that requires souls can be dangerous, Oanen. He needs to be found and brought in for questioning.”
“That’s your decision,” I said. “However, Oanen and I will not be the ones tracking him down.”
“Respectfully, Fury, Oanen accepted a position as enforcer for the Council.”
Irene waved her hands to gain my attention and mouthed, “use the voice.”
“Accepting such a role,” Adira said, “means he must heed the direction given by the Council to—”
“Enough,” I said sharply. It wasn’t the double fury voice, just the annoyed Megan voice. I shrugged at Irene at the same time Adira started speaking again.
“We acknowledge that you were unable to sense his wickedness, but that doesn’t absolve us of our obligation to determine what he is planning to do with all that life energy.”
Irene reached over and tapped the base of my throat.
“There,” she said softly.
“From now until the end of time, Oanen belongs to me,” I said, my voice ringing with the full power of a fury. “Any task he chooses to perform on behalf of the Council, he does with me at his side. And since I have spent time with Zayn Sias and have found him to be completely without any trace of wickedness, I will not waste my time tracking him down. Casting spells with life energy is not against the laws of Mantirum or mankind. Your persistence in finding the druid seems unusually driven. I think, perhaps, I would like to question you about that as well as your insistence in naming Nicolette Barchim guilty of a crime she was proven not to have committed.”
Grandma Irene laughed silently beside Oanen, who watched me with his steady golden gaze. However, no indication of what Adira was thinking or feeling came from the other end of the call for several long moments.
“We understand your warning,” she said finally. “Congratulations on your ascension, Fury.”
“Thanks, Adira,” I said in my normal voice. “We’ll see you soon.”
She started stammering, and with a wide grin on my face, I hung up on her.
“That felt so good,” I said. “I think she might be peeing herself right now”
“You know they’re going to try to find reasons to keep you out of Uttira,” Oanen said.
“And they won’t be able to,” Grandma Irene said. “We’ve been using that house to raise our young for a very long time.”
“That was a really cool trick, by the way,” I said. “The only time I’ve ever been able to use that voice is when I was angry.”
“Stick around, and I’ll teach you plenty more cool tricks. Some, your mom might not even know.”
“I’d like that very much.”
We helped Grandma Irene prepare a simple lunch of sandwiches then spent the next few hours getting to know each other. She was a fount of knowledge as she guided me in the responsibilities of my new role and how I would now be perceived by the rest of the world.
“Speaking of perception, I think it’s about time you called your mother,” she said.
I made a face.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to talk to her yet. She took Oanen.”
“And I burned him,” Grandma said with a shrug. “We both did what we needed to do in order to help you become what you are.”
This time, hearing it didn’t send me into a rage because I really did believe her.
“You, maybe. But, Mom was pretty clear in her opinion of my relationship with Oanen.”
Grandma nodded slowly and moved the plate of cookies in my direction.
“So was I,” she said.
“And now?”
She glanced at Oanen, winking at him.
“I can see that a simple break isn’t possible. And a complex one could be detrimental to a fury who just acquired her powers. What happens next is up to the gods. I only hope, for your sake, there will be future generations because you won’t want to deliver souls forever.”
I didn’t think making occasional trips to hell would be so bad if it meant an eternity with Oanen.
“And what about Mom,” I asked. “Is she going to try to take him again?”
“No. She won’t risk going anywhere near you now.” She paused with a frown. “Well, maybe she won’t. You’ve proven that two furies can be in the same place and not kill each other. However, you may not want to test that theory, again.”
It made me a little sad that I might not ever see my mom again. And suddenly, I understood why she’d deserted me.
“She was sensing my powers, wasn’t she? Just before she left me in Uttira,” I said.
“She held out longer than any mother before her. She loved you very much.”
I took the phone from the table, and both Grandma Irene and Oanen excused themselves.
Knowing Mom hadn’t just ditched me for no reason made dialing harder. Nerves made my hands sweaty. I remembered every shitty feeling I’d had toward her. Not once had I really thought of all the meals she’d made me before she’d left, the clean laundry that had just magically appeared in my drawers or all the times she had stuck up for me at school when I’d been caught fighting. Granted, it hadn’t felt like that at the time, but I could see it now.
The phone rang twice before she picked up.
“Is it done?” she asked.
“I’ve delivered my first soul to hell and sealed my power.”
She exhaled heavily.
“I’m so proud of you, baby.”
The words touched me deeply since I now understood how much she meant them.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Now, you need to ditch the boy. I know it’ll be hard but—”
“No, Mom. I won’t leave him.”
“Megan,” she said with warning.
“There’s something you should know. I didn’t kill Grandma Irene.”
“What?” Shock quieted her next word. “Impossible.”
“Maybe for some. I guess I just saw things a little differently. She’s mortal now. But if you can’t believe that her deeds as a fury are the faults of the gods, you should probably stay away from her. Just in case.”
She hesitated a moment.
“I promise not to make any plans to say hello. She’s earned her remaining days of peace. But, finding a way around sending her to hell doesn’t change your need to leave the griffin boy.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Sparing Grandma was supposed to be impossible. Who’s to say a relationship with a griffin needs to be thought of the same way? Has anyone actually tried it?”
Mom was quiet.
“If it’s a mistake, let me make it,” I said. “I just want to know that you’ll leave him alone.”
She chuckled softly.
“You’re a full fury now. I know better than to meddle in person.” She paused for a moment. “Will you call me again? Let me know how things are going?”
“I’ll call you daily if you want.”
“I’d like that very much.”
I hung up smiling and turned to find Oanen just behind me.
“I could feel your worry,” he said. “And then your joy.”
“We need to talk more about how this feelings thing works.”
He nodded slowly.
“We’ll have plenty of time tonight. Are you ready to go back to the condo?”
“Almost. First, we need to return the car I borrowed.”
Saying goodbye to Grandma Irene was bittersweet. She made me promise that I’d pop in whenever I needed advice or information.
“I know you can use the phone,” she said. “But I missed out on a lifetime of having family. I wan
t to see you as much as I can, now. And with your wings, you can be here in a blink, so there’s no excuse.”
And that turned into a quick lesson on how I could travel from place to place through the void, which wasn’t actually a void but the entrance of the underworld that connected to everywhere.
* * * *
I pulled to a stop in front of Elizabeth Sias’ house and killed the engine. The car, as promised, was in the same pristine condition that it had been when I’d borrowed it.
“We’re here,” I said softly, looking over at Oanen.
We’d opted to take turns driving instead of stopping for a room somewhere. He’d driven most of the way, only letting me take the wheel a few hours before.
When he heard my voice, he sat up and rubbed a hand over his hair.
“I’m going to return the keys, then we can go,” I said.
“How are we getting back to the condo from here?” he asked.
“Your choice. You can fly us or I can,” I said with a grin before getting out.
It was just after dawn, but I hoped Elizabeth would be up.
The street was quiet as I let myself through the gate and up to the house. A prickle of awareness tickled the back of my neck, and I looked around. It felt like I was being watched, but I didn’t see anything. And, either gaining my wings had toned down the volume on my wicked sensor, or there were less of them around.
The curtain moved, distracting me from my thoughts.
I smiled and went up to the door to knock softly. It opened a moment later.
Elizabeth looked over my shoulder.
“You found him,” she said.
“I did. And I’m returning your car in one piece as promised.”
I held out the keys. She shook her head.
“Toss them to me.”
I did.
“I also have a message,” I said quickly. “The Council wants to question Zayn. I let them know that Oanen and I wouldn’t be involved in that. But, I wouldn’t put it past them to send someone else. Zayn should make himself scarce for a while. Will you tell him?”
She nodded.
“Thanks for the car, and tell your brother thanks for his help,” I said, turning away.
“And thank you for yours,” she said before closing the door.
