Make me, wussy boy.
Marco wrapped his hands around the gun barrel like he was trying to strangle it.
Hilario sighed. This was Rachel’s brother?
Rachel obviously came from magical stock of some kind. Possibly from the legendary Green Realm.
It seemed really improbable Marco was one of those legendary gypsies. Then again, perhaps he was the product of his father’s left testicle. Or something.
While Marco and the gun continued to bicker over Marco’s manliness, Hilario turned to Larry.
“You were saying? She made you come down to her place by the river?” he said.
Larry raised his face. Stared out at the nothingness beyond the windshield.
“The first time I went there I was scared out of my mind,” he said, “You’ve seen that place. It’s like every nightmare haunted movie house all rolled up into one package. I tried to talk her into coming to the Sparrow. But she insisted.
“I walked up those steps with my knees knocking together like castanets. I’d brought a few tools, in a canvas knapsack I’d slung over my shoulder. The knives and scrapers and bowls were rattling like old bones. It took all my willpower to stand there and use the knocker. Actually it took all my willpower just to touch that hideous thing.”
Hilario suppressed a smile. The Sapphire Witch’s front door had a big, iron knocker in the shape of an old fashioned devil’s head. You had to grab the devil’s beard and lift it to knock.
It was actually quite quaint to someone from the unseen world.
Not so much for someone like Larry, apparently.
“The door opened by itself,” Larry said, “Creeped me out. I walked in, calling out hello? Like I was one of those idiots in a horror movie. And soon as I was inside, the door slammed shut. Just about peed my pants.
“It was all dark inside. I couldn’t see a damn thing. It was almost as black as what we’re going through now.”
Hilario’s fingers tightened on the wheel. Larry could feel the motion too. Whatever was happening, they were on their way to somewhere.
The Eye of Malachi was a portal of sorts. But not the sort that the normal beings of the unseen world used. Usually if someone wanted to travel to a different layer of the unseen world, a ride was hitched on one of the five rivers that ran through and encircled the unseen world.
Though, calling them rivers was a bit of poetic license.
Technically the ocean at the shores of Despair, the realm they had just left, was part of one of the rivers. If someone traveled far enough out on those treacherous waters, they would eventually come to another realm. One without horrible monsters cruising the depths.
That was the theory anyway.
Even though everyone hated it, most folk used the Styx because it went just about everywhere and it was controlled by the bone folk. Who were more interested in coins and stories than raping and pillaging.
But the Eye of Malachi was different. It was a singular object that existed in some form in almost every realm. Hilario had heard tales that it was a direct line to the brooding gods that sat on their frozen thrones at the far edges of the unseen world. Or that it was the entrance to the secret realm of the black angels. A thought far more disturbing was yet another tale that said the Eye of Malachi towers were remnants from the War of the Mages. Dark, dark magic that still lingered, snaring up souls foolish to venture inside. Taking them to be devoured by the soul eating terrors that still hungered in their depths.
None of those sounded like an appealing destination.
“Anyway,” Larry said, “A door cracked opened down the hallway. Red light came out around the edges. I was done by then. Ready to get my ass out of there and screw the consequences. I spun around and tried to open the front door.
“But it was locked.
“So, there I was, my heart pounding a million times a minute. My knees were knocking and I was one more scare away from needing a change of pants.
“Then I remembered my ancestors. I remembered I had protections. Though probably not enough against whatever she had. I closed my eyes and held my fists to my chest and silently said a little prayer my father taught me to center myself and give me strength.
“My people say the prayer and laugh at fear. So that’s what I did.
“And in an instant, the red light around the door turned to white. The door opened a little farther and I could see cabinets and a counter. A kitchen. Wherever this place was, or whatever it was, if it had a kitchen, it was my territory.
“I strode down that hallway and pushed through the door.
“Right into the most beautiful kitchen I ever saw.”
Hilario looked at his friend. Had Larry’s blue glow brightened a little? He seemed a little less translucent, his form more defined against the darkness beyond the window.
“The Sapphire Witch had a kitchen?” he asked.
Did gem witches eat? Something beside souls, and the still beating hearts of their enemies, that is?
Larry gave him a look that told him it was a stupid question. Which, maybe it was, but it didn’t really deserve that kind of look.
“Why else would I be there–and you shut up Marco!” Larry said.
Marco and the gun were still bickering. Each of them coming up with colorful, if improbable descriptions of each other’s ancestry. Larry continued his story.
“Sapphire was there. Leaned back against the countertop. Which was made of the most fantastic black granite I’d ever seen. It was pure black, flecked with sparkling bits of quartz and mica. It looked like a night sky seen out in
