"Got room for two more?"
Startled, I turned to see Jenna and Archer standing on the path, Jenna's hand clutching Archer's sleeve as she tried to stay on her feet.
"What?" was all I could say.
Archer took a few careful steps forward. "Hey, this has been a group effort so far. No reason to stop now."
"You guys can't go into the Underworld with me," I told them. "You heard Dad, I'm the only one with-"
"With powers strong enough. Yeah, we got that," Jenna said. "But how are you supposed to carry a whole bunch of demonglass out of that place? It'll burn you. And hey, maybe your powers will be strong enough to get all of us in, too." She gestured to herself and the boys. "Plus it's not like we don't have powers of our own."
I knew I should tell them to go back. But having the three of them there made me feel a whole lot better and whole lot less terrified. So in the end, I gave an exaggerated sigh and said, "Okay, fine. But just so you know, following me into hell means you're all definitely the sidekicks."
"Darn, I was hoping to be the rakishly charming love interest," Archer said, taking my hand.
"Cal, any role you were after?" I asked him, and he looked ruefully at the craggy rock looming over us. As he did, there was the grinding sound of stone against stone. We all stared at the opening that appeared.
"I'm just hoping to be the Not Dead Guy," Call muttered.
We faced the entrance. "Between the four of us, we fought ghouls, survived attacks by demons and ll'Occhio di Dio, and practically raised the dead," I said. "We can do this."
"See, inspiring speeches like that are why you get to be the leader," Archer said, and he squeezed my hand.
And then, moving almost as one, we stepped into the rock.
CHAPTER 29
As soon as we were in, the opening closed behind us. "Of course," I heard Archer say under his breath. I lifted my fingers, and an orb of light sprang from them. Not that it was particularly helpful. All I saw was a bunch of dark, slick granite, and not much else.
"So...is this it?" Jenna asked. "Are we in the Underworld? Because to be honest, I thought it would be hotter." I looked around in the gloom. "I...don't know," I finally said. "Anyone see a sign that says, Underworld This Way? Preferably with an arrow?"
"Unfortunately, no," Archer said. "But something feels weird. Is it just me?" Now that he mentioned it, I could feel something, too. It was like the cavern held a subtle charge. When I looked down, I saw that the hairs on my arms were all standing up. Inside me, my magic churned and thumped. "No, I definitely think we're in the right place. Which means I should probably do this." Facing the three of them, I concentrated as hard as I could. Be safe, was all I could think of as far as protection spells went, but I felt power surge up and then flow gently from my hands. The spell was a milky white, and it curled around Archer, Jenna, and Call like smoke, before settling in.
"Okay, do you guys feel protected?"
"I do," Archer said. "Also, a little violated, but that's neither here nor there." I rolled my eyes. "You two?"
"Yeah," Call said. "Whatever you did, I think it worked."
"Same," Jenna added.
"Awesome." I started walking forward, the others following. "Archer, any helpful factoids about demon-glass you'd like to offer up?"
"Um, okay. Well, after the war in heaven, the angels who fought on the wrong side were stripped down to just their most basic level."
"Right," I nodded. "Dad told me that. Demons are just pure dark magic, nothing more. Until they're put in a body, obviously."
"I don't know, there are times when you seem like you're just pure dark-ow." Archer broke off as I poked him in the ribs. "Anyway, the demons were forced into another dimension. What people call hell, or the Underworld, or whatever. Supposedly-and for us, hopefully-that's where you find demonglass. Which, really, is nothing more than rock that's been permeated with all that dark magic. Demon Kryptonite, basically."
"So we're going into another dimension?" Jenna asked, her voice wavering a little. "Like what the Itineris does?"
"That's the idea," Archer replied.
Seeing as how the Itineris almost always left Jenna trying not to cough out her inner organs, I understood why she sounded a little freaked out.
"This doesn't feel like another dimension, though," I said. "It just feels like-"
"A cave," Call said.
"Yeah, a cave." As soon as I said that, my heart started to pound. Ugh, this new claustrophobia thing was highly annoying. "Other than the weird feeling in the air, which honestly, could be something natural, I'm not sensing anything that makes me think we're in the actual Underworld." No sooner were the words out of my mouth then the orb I was carrying whooshed out. Next to me, Jenna gasped, and I did everything possible to summon the light back. When I could suddenly see everyone again, I thought maybe I'd managed it. But then I realized the light in the cavern wasn't the soft blue I'd made. It was a harsh orange-yellow, almost like a streetlamp.
I blinked. It was a streetlamp. And I wasn't in a cave anymore. I was in a room. A motel room, if the cheap carpet and identical double beds were anything to go by. There were two figures in one of the beds, and from the soft, even sound of their breathing, I knew they were sleeping.
"What the hell is going on?" Archer asked, just as a low moan filled my ears. It was Jenna. She stood beside me, her eyes huge, hands pressed to her mouth.
I grabbed her arm. "What is it?" I asked. "Jenna-"
The cracking sound of wood breaking exploded through the room, and three men, all in black, rushed inside. One of them brushed against me, feeling every bit as real and solid as Call on my other side.
The figures in the bed sat up, shrieking, and as they did, I saw the light fall on a familiar pink stripe. I watched Jenna leap out of the bed, fangs bared, as the men in black-members of ll'Occhio di Dio-raised wooden stakes over their heads. There was an awful sucking sound as one of the stakes found its mark.
Amanda, Jenna's first girlfriend. The girl who had made her a vampire.
Both the Jenna in the motel room and the Jenna next to me screamed. And then, just as abruptly, everything went dark again. The only sound was our ragged breathing and Jenna's shuddery weeping.
"It's okay," I murmured, wrapping my arms around her. "It wasn't real."
"But it was," she cried. "Th-that's exactly how it happened."
There was nothing I could say to that. I felt someone move closer to us, and then Archer's voice, very low, said, "Jenna, I'm so sorry." Her only reply was another wrenching sob.
"Okay," Call said. "Let's just keep moving."
At least there was no doubt that we were in hell now. I'd been prepared for fire and brimstone and all of that. But walking into a place that made you relive nightmarish moments from your own past? swallowing, I held Jenna tighter, relit the orb, and we moved on.
We got maybe a dozen yards before my light flickered out again. This time, we were in a brightly lit, cheerful living room. Nothing in it looked familiar to me, and I glanced over at Call and Archer. "Either of you recognize this?"
"No," they said in unison. A scream echoed through the room, sounding like it came from somewhere above us. As we watched, a dark-haired man dashed down a flight of stairs and into the living room. His shirt front was covered with blood, and his eyes darted back and forth wildly. "Elise!" he cried. Moving with supernatural speed, another man came down the stairs, leaping over the railing. I caught a brief gleam of claws, and then I slammed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, the man who'd called for Elise was lying facedown on the carpet. The other man stood over him, panting, blood dripping from his now-human hands. At his side was a woman, her eyes blood-red and her expression every bit as inhuman as the man's. She was also very pregnant, which somehow made the whole thing ten times more disturbing.
Somewhere in the house, a small child started to wail, and the man lifted his nose to sniff the air. I shook my head at the scene, confused.
"They're demons." I knew they couldn't hear me, but I couldn't help whispering. "But I've never seen them before. And if she's a pregnant demon, then her baby..."
And then I looked at the man-mainly his dark, curly hair, the familiar shape of his eyes and nose. "Oh my God," I breathed. "Nick. These are Nick's parents. He was born a demon."
Jenna had stopped crying. "So why is it showing us this?"
As the demons fled through the front door, a little boy, maybe two or three, wandered into the room. There was a streak of blood on his pudgy cheek, and his dark eyes were bright with tears.
I looked at Archer. He was so pale, he'd actually gone gray. "This was my family," he said just as the scene went black. "This is what happened to them. I always wondered, but...God." His voice broke off with a strangled sound.
"That's it," I said. "We're getting out of here." Blue light shone from my fingers again.
"The demonglass," Archer started to say, color slowly returning to his skin.
"Screw it," I said. "We'll come up with some other way, but we can't stay here. I don't want to see anything else." But it was too late. We were standing in moonlight, and I could feel cool air wash over my skin. The scent of lavender flooded my nostrils, and my heart sank. We were at Thorne Abbey. And in front of us, crumpled on the grass, sobbing, was Alice. She looked so young, so terrified. So unlike the powerful creature I'd known. Alexei Casnoff stood in front of her, the grimoire in his hands. There was a blond woman next to him, her hands clasped behind her back. Virginia Thorne, the dark witch who had worked with the Casnoffs to find this ritual. Alexei was already reciting the ritual, light flashing in the dark sky. I heard someone cry out, and whipped my head around to see a handsome younger guy run up to Alexei, attempting to grab the book from his hands. The wind was howling so loudly that I couldn't hear what he was saying. I could hear Alice yell out,
"Henry!" As she did, her hand covered her stomach protectively, and I knew that this must be Henry Thorne, Virginia's brother.
Alice had been pregnant when she was changed, and Dad had suspected that Henry was the father. From the terror on Alice's face, I knew it was true. And so I watched as Alexei Casnoff lifted his hand, like he was swatting a bug, and sent a bolt of magic into Henry Thorne's forehead that killed him instantly.
"No!" Alice wailed, as Virginia Thorne cried out, too. With the same careless motion, Alexei killed her as easily as he had her brother. The light grew brighter, so much so that I had to turn my head away. But just before I did, Alice locked eyes with me. I knew she wasn't really looking at me.
Just in my general direction. Still, her huge tear-filled eyes, the same shade of blue as mine, pierced right to my heart.
And then the scene evaporated.
"Please," Jenna whimpered. "Please, let's go."
Stumbling in the darkness, I nodded. "I am all for that," I said, reaching a hand out to steady myself. As soon as my fingers touched the cavern wall, I drew them back with a shriek of pain.