“Are you always so unbearably pleasant to be around?” My sarcasm bounces off the queen of this godforsaken castle, “What are you going to do when you get your wish and bring dear old mummy back from The Underworld. You know that she will not sit idly by while you take over everything that she once worked for, right?”
“My dear old mummy, as you call her, has no idea what I’m capable of. She hid me away in plain sight. My majic was nurtured by the best of her dark witches until I became the leader of their coven, I was instrumental in raising my father from The Underworld, although this will be different. My mother didn’t die, she fell. My plans are my own for now and you will play your part like a good little pawn.” Nyx sneers at me as she pops a fig into her mouth.
“Why tell me anything at all? Why even show your face or give me your name? What will happen when I make it back here to Faerie and let everyone in on your little secret? What then?” Still trying to get her to confess to her end game. She is not freeing her mother from The Underworld out of the goodness of her heart.
“Lillie, you will play your part and will be none the wiser until the time is right. Time’s up. I suggest you at least grab the waterskin and a few items for the road, the biscuits there will keep longer. Elven majic is a wonderful thing. Isn’t it? Here’s a light knapsack, take what you will but we’re leaving now. I have places to be and things to do.” She throws me a black backpack that I catch and start filling up. I have no doubt that this will not last long where I’m going. I shrug into the fitted black leather jacket and stuff the scarf down in the bag and throw it over my shoulder. I could have resisted but it would have been pointless, the bracelet is weighing down on me the longer it has been on. Unlike my father when he found himself in this situation, I’ve been educated in the ways of these things and the only thing that can help me now is getting to my mother. The pendant at my breasts warms against my skin and for an instant, I feel the weight of the iron forged in angel fire disapate and my connection to Cara flares to life, I even feel the slightest of a link to Daxell, but at the rate we are going we will never complete our kindred bond. I try to reach out to them both, but when Nyx grabs my arm the connection breaks.
“Don’t think that I don’t know what you are doing. If you care anything about your demon … you will walk away now. You will be his greatest weakness and to survive in The Underworld you cannot be weak. Love is a weakness that the demons of hell will exploit. Besides, he will grow bored of you shortly. You are definitely not his type.” She smirks as she delivers her venomous words.
I stiffen, “You know nothing!” But isn’t that exactly what Daxell had said not that long ago?
“If that’s what you would like to believe, then have at it, little goddess, but what are you even a goddess of? You’re pathetic … and weak, and I have grown bored with our conversation.” She marches me from the chamber down a hall to a windowless, cavernous room.
She has struck a nerve on so many levels and I bite out, “What are you going to do? You can’t trace. Only the gods, goddesses, and the fallen have that ability.”
Smirking she waves her hands before her and chants a dark guttural language that I’ve never heard and then suddenly, a bright light begins to swirl in the air before us. It starts off like a mini-tornado, spinning clockwise in the air, a brilliant blue, violet, and shades of red all swirling together as it grows in size to reveal a portal. She just freaking conjured a portal out of thin air. “I’ve learned to adapt. I’ve learned to utilize all the resources I have been given over the years. I can portal to anywhere across the realms that I have physically been to, and lucky for you, I’ve been to the Fields of Punishment in The Underworld.”
I’m stunned and rendered speechless. Then I feel a push from behind and I’m sucked into the portal and carried straight to hell.
Stumbling forward, I find myself standing in a strange land. The soil here is a dark grey, and granular. The sky is crimson red. There are mountains in the distance to my right and off in the distance behind me, there is a large body of what looks like water. The portal closes behind me with a distinctive sucking noise. The backpack on my back is weighing me down, it feels unnaturally heavy. I really didn’t put much in there to weigh it down so much. Although, if memory serves, Da said that he felt weighed down mentally, physically, emotionally, and none of his natural majic could come to the surface. Even his panther was in hibernation.
So, this is The Underworld.
Okay…
All right, to say that I’m freaked the hell out is an understatement. What did Da and Mama say about this place? The Great Divide. I need to get to the mountains in the distance. If I can get there then I can get to Luc and then he can get me to my mother.
I can do this.
What if you can’t do this?
Where did that thought come from? I worry the bracelet on my wrist and move forward, adjusting the pack on my back. Looking out toward my destination, I take a deep breath and begin walking. Scanning the
