“I think we should find at least one Lucent Marble before we do anything else,” Sam said.
“Good plan,” Gemma agreed.
“Let’s go,” Cole said, clearly ready to do what we came to do.
We walked for what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes before we came to a wide river running through the ground without purpose or cause.
The thick black water was disgusting. The thought that Sam had to swim in that mess made me break out in a film of cold sweat. We all stared down at the slow-moving sludge as it went lazily down the river.
“Pretty gross,” Cole observed.
“Smells too,” Logan said.
Sam pulled off his shirt and handed it to me, then kicked off his shoes. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Wait!” I cried. How could he just dive in there? Just like that? But there was no other choice.
He bent so that we were at eye level and looked me straight in the eyes. “I will come back.”
“There are those crocodile demons in there,” I whispered, trying to sound confident.
He nodded.
Then his body shifted as he dove into the water.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sam
The water was thick, sludge-like and coated my fur, pulling and yanking, almost like it was trying to claim me. For a mere second, I was tempted to give up the fight, to surrender. It would be easy. Simple.
I am better than that.
Even as I thought the words, the hound in me stretched out arrogantly and my limbs pushed through the sludge like it was butter.
This is what I was made for. I could do this.
All I had to do was reclaim the scroll, save the Map and then go to Airis. She would get that thing out of Logan once she saw all that I had been through. Then everything would be okay.
Except that you lied,
a voice whispered in my head. I had lied. I lied to Heven. And it haunted me.
After Logan confessed what he did to her mother, after I figured out what was going on with him, I made him swear not to tell anyone. Including Heven. It wasn’t that I wanted to lie to her, but I didn’t know how to tell her. I was torn between my brother and my heart. Heven was rightfully upset about her mother—
I
was upset about her mother, but I couldn’t undo what happened. I could protect my brother and protect Heven from more pain. And it was going to kill her when she found out who put her mother in the hospital.
I was going to tell her. But first, I wanted to get that thing out of my brother. I wanted to prove to her that he hadn’t been himself. And truthfully, I wanted to prove to myself that I was right. I didn’t want to believe the truth, but I had no choice. I’d buried my head in the sand for too long and I couldn’t anymore. I loved my brother and so I had to do this.
A demon materialized beside me. It was completely adept at swimming in this thick, nasty “water” and it reached for me. I bit its hand off. It shrieked, but I couldn’t hear a thing. Its mouth moved, but no sound reached my ears. In fact, it was utterly, eerily, silent here. There was no sound at all—the only things I could hear were my own thoughts.
With the loss of its hand, the demon shrank away, disappearing into the black void of sludge. I kept pushing downward, toward the bottom, wondering how deep this was, but not once stopping. I also took a moment to marvel at the fact I could see down here. It was pitch-black, almost suffocating in darkness. Combine the vast nothingness with the absence of sound and this place was like a void. Which, actually, was more frightening than anything I had seen on land in Hell so far.
My paw hit something solid and I kind of slid-dropped to the solid surface of the bottom. The “water” moved so lazily, so heavily, that I was able to stand on the bottom without difficulty. I began pawing the floor, looking for anything that felt round and hard.
The floor here was not sandy or rocky like other bodies of water. It was rock. Solid rock that didn’t give way to my insistent paws. I moved off to another area and began searching again. Finally, I felt something roll beneath my front left paw. I hadn’t given much thought to how I would pick it up and I stopped, pondering the thought briefly when my back paw rolled over what felt like two more balls. Taking advantage of my flexibility, I rolled the balls beneath my back paw up toward the front one. Then, with impatience, I bent down and took a huge mouthful of sludge. I swished (as good as you can swish sludge) around and confirmed that there were marbles in my mouth.
I pushed off the bottom and headed up. There was no light to guide me to the surface so I just kept going up, not once panicking that I wouldn’t find the surface. I would. Eventually.
When my heart started racing and fear slammed through my chest, I knew it wasn’t my own.
Heven.
I began rushing toward the surface, scrambling, fighting the urge to open my mouth and call out. Something was wrong.
I tried to calm myself with the realization that Cole was with Heven. So was Gemma. But I wasn’t sure if even they would be a match for Logan if he decided that he wanted to harm Heven. So that left her, essentially, alone.
The girl I loved more than life itself was standing in Hell with my brother, my brother who, when he lost control, left chaos in his wake.
My paw broke the surface and then the other. I pushed myself out of the water with a great leap and landed on the unforgiving ground. Black goop coated my eyes and I stood there wondering what kind of view it was concealing.
Heven
Even as a hellhound I could see that Sam’s strong limbs had to work for a moment before finding their way through the thick, black sludge. Soon he had disappeared beneath the surface and I was left to pace the riverbank. Cole knew he could offer no comfort so he took up position near the water and stared down as if willing Sam to hurry. Gemma didn’t seem that worried, but I knew she was good at hiding her true feelings.
Logan was also staring down at the water, except it looked like he was waiting for something bad to happen. Like he hoped it might. I scolded myself for thinking such bad thoughts about Sam’s brother. He was probably scared and worried for Sam right now.
I went to his side and rested a hand on my shoulder. “He’ll be okay, Logan.”
“Yeah.” He shrugged my hand off him and walked a few steps away. I guess he didn’t feel like talking.
Come to me…
The voice called to me and only me. One swift look at Cole, Gemma and Logan and I was sure. I knew what that meant. The Dream Walker knew I was here. I guess he somehow sensed me. From the minute I came through the portal, a familiar ache at the base of my skull asserted itself. Up until this point, I denied what it could possibly mean, but it was hard to ignore someone when they spoke to you.
I am waiting, little one…
My skin crawled. I hurried over to Cole’s side, knowing that his presence wouldn’t scare away the Dream Walker because I wasn’t asleep, but still hoping his presence would make it easier on me.
“You okay, Hev?” Cole asked, his eyes narrowing on my face.
I nodded. “Worried for Sam.”
Cole sighed and draped an arm over my shoulders. “He’s tough, Hev. He’ll be fine.”
“Thanks for coming with us.”
“Like I would let you come without me.”
I rested my head against his shoulder and we both stared down at the water. It was really nice having a brother. “So…” I began.
“So…?” Cole responded.
“You and Gemma,” I whispered.
“There is no me and Gemma.” He glanced over to where she was standing and then gave me a look.
“You like her,” I sang.
“She’s a fallen angel, Hev.” He said it like that explained everything and pulled away to cross his arms over his chest.
“You’re a Supernal Being,” I countered.
“I’m also human. I don’t think Gemma is interested in a human. Now hush.” He turned his face away to signify he was done talking about Gemma.
I wasn’t so sure about that. I’ve seen the way she looks at him when she thinks no one else is looking and she did show up in Rome at just the right moment to save him. I was about to say as much when the world around us faded and a new place took shape. I jerked and looked over at Cole, but he was gone. His comfort was replaced instead with unpolished, black granite walls that held no windows or light. It was dark except for an ancient-looking lantern hanging against one wall with a flame that was fueled by oil. The floor beneath my sneakers was the same ground all over Hell, shale and rocks.
I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. This was not real. I was not trapped in a dungeon. Screams bounced around me, horrid, tortured screams. I suppressed a whimper. “Cole?”
All I needed was to hear his voice. To know this wasn’t real.
“Heven?” Cole answered, but his voice was so far away. Above me, like I really was in a dungeon and Cole was up above, looking for me.
I resisted the urge to scream, because I knew that I was really right beside Cole on the bank of a nasty black river in Hell and I was waiting for Sam.
Sam! What if he needed my help and I was still stuck in this fake world? I ran to the wall in front of me and beat on it with my hands. The stone was unrelenting and didn’t budge at all. I took a deep breath and stepped back, but stumbled over something. I landed on my butt in a tangle. I spread both hands out around me, to hoist myself up, but my hands didn’t land on the ground. They formed around something icy cold and thin. I looked down.
Bones.
I landed on top a skeleton that had once been chained to the wall.
Screams echoed around me once more.
This time they were my own.
“Heven!” Strong hands grasped my shoulders and I was lifted off the pile of bones.
“Help me, Cole!” I begged.
“Everything’s fine,” he said, sounding confused and afraid at the same time.
“What’s wrong with her?” I heard Gemma ask.
I felt his hands on me. I knew I was safe, but I couldn’t stop staring at the broken pile of bones at my feet. Slowly, a few bones began to rattle. I took a step back, afraid of what I was about to see. A long bone—a leg bone—rolled away and a huge, lethal snake uncoiled from beneath. It rose and rose until it came to my shoulder and stared at me with beady dead eyes.
I whimpered.
It opened its mouth to reveal two very long, sharp fangs. At the same time, I heard an odd sort of sucking sound and the splash of water. The dungeon around me melted away and I fell back against Cole.
“Heven? What the hell is going on?” Cole demanded, gripping my arms.
As he spoke Sam leapt out of the black river to land at the water’s edge.
All three of us ran forward with me closing the distance between us first. The thick black sludge was clinging to his black fur and coating his eyes, nose and ears. He blinked rapidly, trying to get the goop out of his eyes. I ripped off the sweater I was wearing over my tee, bringing it to his face and wiping the gunk from his eyes. It was sticky and clung to my sweater. As I cleaned him, I tried to catch my breath. It had been a trick. Just a nasty trick… When Sam could see he blinked up at me with flashing golden eyes.
What happened?
I couldn’t help but look over at Logan. I denied it for as long as I could, but no more. I was positive that he was responsible for my momentary ‘trips’ into alternate places. In his eyes was the briefest flash of recognition and I knew without a doubt that I was right. “You!” I screamed. “What did you do?!”
Logan looked at me like he was shocked I would yell at him. He portrayed the perfect mixture of hurt and disbelief on his fourteen-year-old face.
It really pissed me off.
“I don’t understand. Why are you yelling at me?” he said, wobbling his lower lip.
“Oh, please. Cut the act, would you? Tell me what you did. How did you do that?”
Logan, of course, turned his eyes to Sam. “Sam? I don’t understand why she’s so upset.”
I made a scoffing sound and Gemma frowned, looking over at Logan.
I turned my eyes back to Sam. He was watching me with a pained look in his eyes, but then he blinked and it was gone.
Hold out your hand,
he said.
I obeyed and he opened up his jaws and unrolled his tongue. Three black gobs fell into my palm. They were icy cold and surprisingly heavy. When I closed my palm around them, Sam stalked over to where his clothes lay and morphed back into himself. He hurried to shrug into his clothes and we all stood there waiting to see what he would do after I yelled at his brother.
When he finally was dressed, he looked at me and then his brother. “Logan, trying to get between me and Heven isn’t going to work. I won’t choose. I love you both. Do me a favor and stop doing whatever it is you’re doing to her.”
Logan’s mouth dropped open, but then he recovered to say, “I didn’t do anything!”
Sam pinned him with a hard look. “You know that isn’t true. I realize you didn’t mean whatever you did, but it needs to stop. Now.”
He turned to me. “Are you okay?”
I nodded.
“What the hell is going on?” Cole demanded again.
“We don’t have time for explanations,” Gemma said. “We have to keep moving.”
“Can I see them?” Cole asked as we began walking. I noticed Logan kind of trudged behind us. I felt kind of bad for him because he had been so sure that Sam would choose him over me.
Sam scooped them out of my palm and used my already ruined sweater to wipe them clean and hold them out. We all leaned forward to see the Lucent Marbles. They were beautiful, which was a surprise because they came from such a desolate place. They looked like balls of glass, almost clear, without any imperfections.
“I’ll hold onto them,” Sam said, stuffing the trio into the front pocket of his jeans. I gave a silent sigh of relief that they were tucked away somewhere safe and away from Logan.
“How do we know where the Map is?” Cole asked.
I thought back to the voice that called to me moments ago. “I know where it is.”