Pickup Styx (Easy Bake Coven)

by Liz Schulte

  “Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe Sebastian’s right. We should be looking for ways to bring me back to life instead of ways to sneak me in undead. Killing me might be the only way to get me there.”

  “You know, I didn’t think it was possible, but I like that idea even less than the notion of you going.”

  “She might be onto something.” Katrina dropped a large book down with a thunk and then set my grandmother’s Book of Shadows on top of it. “In here”—she pointed to the Book of Shadows—“I can only find a spell that will open a porthole to the Underworld, which really isn’t that much different than transporting, which she can already do.”

  Transporting into hell would apparently kill me instantly, so until now it had been out of the question.

  “However, in this other book, there is a spell for bringing the dead back to life.”

  Cheney came over and read the spell. “This would work … if we had a necromancer, which we don’t.”

  I sighed and dropped my head onto my arms. This was impossible. Necromancers were creepy and verged on evil. They only did magic that affected the dead. Where my magic created, their magic destroyed. Befriending a necromancer had never been high on my priority list.

  “I’ll keep looking,” Katrina said with renewed determination.

  “Wait,”—my head popped up—“I do know a necromancer. Well, sort of.”

  “Where did you meet a necromancer? And how do you ‘sort of’ know one?” Cheney asked, slightly surprised.

  “I met one when I was staying with Sy. She’s a bounty hunter. I can’t remember her name, but I bet he knows. And I say ‘sort of’ because I met her, but we didn’t hang out. She’s kind of mean, but that’s normal for a necromancer.”

  “This could work,” Sebastian said.

  Cheney paced. “Are you kidding me? Selene can’t put her life in the hands of a dark witch she barely knows.”

  “Yeah,” Katrina said with a slight grin. “Haven’t you seen Snow White?”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Cheney looked like he was about to flip his lid, which meant the other two should probably give him space.

  I waved Sebastian and Katrina away and walked around the table. “It’s never going to be perfect.”

  “You don’t know her at all—not even her name. How can we trust this woman?”

  “Because we have to.” I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head over his heart.

  “None of this is a joking matter.”

  “I know, but sometimes if you can’t find the humor in things, all you’ll do is feel sorry for yourself—and who has that ever helped?”

  “What will I do without you? When you became a changeling, at least I knew you were alive. I could still see you if I needed to. What happens if you don’t come back?”

  “Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.”

  Cheney tilted my chin up so I could meet his eyes. “I’m serious. I can’t lose you. I’ve lost too many people in my life.”

  I placed my hand on his cheek. “You will carry on because you have to carry on. A lot of people depend on you.”

  “But who do I get to depend on?”

  “You have me and Sebastian and Sy and my coven.”

  “Those are your friends.”

  “They’re yours too.”

  He nodded, but his face stayed contemplative. I knew Sebastian’s betrayal had cut him deep. He was Cheney’s closest friend. We hadn’t discussed it further, but he’d been short with Sebastian ever since. I didn’t know how to make Cheney believe that Sebastian would always be there to help him. All he had to do was ask. I took a deep breath. “I found someone who has been to the Underworld before and made it out.”

  Cheney snapped out of whatever thought he’d been having. “Who?”

  “I’ll tell you as soon as I find out whether or not he’ll go with me.”

  Cheney narrowed his eyes. “Why do I have the feeling I’m going to hate everything about this plan?”

  “Because you are, but if it works, we’ll be free of all of this.” I kissed him softly. “Free to live our lives however we want.”

  “If this works, I want more than that.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “I want you to marry me—again.”

  I laughed. “Isn’t breaking that bond part of what got us into this mess?”

  “Maybe this is the universe’s way of telling us we should have had faith and stuck it out last time. So what is your answer?” He dropped down onto one knee. “Will you marry me?”

  I knew Sebastian and Katrina were probably watching, but all I could see was Cheney.

  “Of course,” I said without a moment’s hesitation.

  I went to the Horse Head Pub to meet Corbin, Cheney at my side. I couldn’t convince him to stay behind, and honestly I hadn’t wanted to. No one knew how much time we had left together, so I wanted to spend the minutes we did have with each other. Not trying to out maneuver the other one.

  “So who are we meeting?” he asked.

  “Corbin,” I mumbled as I pulled him toward a booth.

  “I think I misheard you.” He didn’t look amused. “It sounded like you said Corbin.”

  “He’s been there.”

  Cheney took a seat. “You can’t trust him.”

  “I know.”

  “He will use you.”

  “I know.”

  “Feed off of you.”

  “Yes, I know. Trust me.” I took his hand. “He’s my best chance.”

  “Selene, my pet, it’s lovely to see you again,” Corbin’s silky voice came from beside me, and his lips ever so softly grazed my cheek. “Erlking,” he said flatly, not bothering to look at Cheney. “Paolo says you need my help.” He smiled, his dark brown eyes glittering beneath his platinum hair. “Is the Erlking not fulfilling your needs?”

  Cheney stiffened and I held back a sigh. “I need your help with a slightly more delicate matter.”

  “Consider my curiosity piqued.”

  I started to explain, but Cheney interrupted. “I have a question before we go any further.”

  Corbin looked at him with a bored expression.

  “Why would a vampire have gone to the Underworld? What purpose could you possibly have there?”

  The carefully controlled, cool expression evaporated from Corbin’s face, and his eye filled with too many emotions to identify. He stood up. “It was good seeing you.” He started for the door and I caught his arm.

  “Please. I need your help. Please listen to what I have to say.”

  He glanced at Cheney and scowled. Then he looked back at me. “I’ll talk to you. Just you. He leaves.”

  I nodded and stood so Cheney could slide out of the booth. Cheney’s face said that he didn’t like it at all, but he complied with Corbin’s demand. “Don’t do this,” he whispered in my ear.

  “You know I have to,” I said.

  “I’ll be at the bar if you need anything.” His face was a blank mask as he strode away. I hated that I was hurting him, but was dying any better?

  Corbin and I settled back down. Humor was still vacant from his face.

  “Why did he bring up the Underworld?” The fingers on his left hand twitched. “Whatever you’re into, get out of it now.”

  “I wish I could. I have to retrieve the Pole of Charon or I’ll die. No second chances.”

  He let out a slow breath. “What do you think I can do?”

  I swallowed. I couldn’t ask him. “I need to know how to get there, what to expect, and any other information you think might help me.”

  He nodded. “You want my advice? Don’t go. Stay here and face your death.”

  I pressed my lips together and stood up. “Thanks for your time.”

  “Selene—”

  “I have less than four days to live. I’m not going to waste them here.”

&
nbsp; “I’m sorry I can’t help you. I can’t go back there.” Corbin gripped my hand, something desperate in his eyes.

  “Are you also sorry that you took away my last thread of hope and told me to lie down and die?” I yanked my hand from his and went to find Cheney. “Thanks anyway, Corbin,” I called over my shoulder.

  So much for appealing to someone who’d been there before me. Back to the drawing board.

  Our options had never been good, but now they were practically nonexistent. There was only one last person to appeal to, though it wouldn’t be easy or pleasant—my father. He was the only person I could think of who might have an idea of where to find a map or anything to assist Selene in the absence of a guide. Not going wasn’t a choice. There wasn’t a single fiber of my being that was willing to resign itself to the idea that in less than one week I would lose her forever. Selene was strong. She could make it through the Underworld. She had to because every other option was too terrible to think about.

  Approaching my father was delicate though. Whether or not he would help depended on the approach. If he knew this had to do with Selene, there was no way we could trust anything he said. The mission needed to be important to him personally. I hadn’t mentioned my intentions to Selene before she headed to her cousin’s bar to meet with the necromancer. Given their history, it was best not to involve her. She wouldn’t trust anything she knew came from him—not that I could blame her. He had tried to kill her. However, he’d also been the most powerful man among the fae for centuries. He would have the answers I needed.

  I sank into the leather chair in my office, weary. My father cared about me. I was certain of that, but was I certain enough to bet Selene’s life on it? I did take the crown from him—

  Katrina burst through the door in a flurry of human emotion that made me blink. It was no wonder humans had such short lives.

  “You can’t let her go,” she said, brushing a piece of dark hair out of her eye.

  “She has to go.”

  “No. I don’t accept that and neither should you.” She shook her head, hands perched on her hips. Sebastian slipped into the room behind her, stoic as ever. “Have you read about the Underworld? That’s pretty much a nice way of saying Hell, isn’t it? There has to be another way. No one could survive that stuff.”

  “Would you rather she die permanently in a week’s time?”

  Katrina’s brows pulled together and she swallowed several times. I knew exactly what she was going through. I had been through this same argument in my mind more times than I cared to count. It always ended the same way. Selene had to go.

  “It might be for the best,” Sebastian said.

  His words took a second to register. I closed my mouth and looked at him. Katrina slapped the side of his face, hard. Then she burst into tears and left the room. Sebastian didn’t follow her.

  His fingers drifted up to the red hand print on his cheek as if he couldn’t believe she’d hit him. He shook his head and looked at me. “I read the same pages she read. I don’t know how Selene can do it. I am still not sure where Charon is located. Every text, every map has Styx in a different location. Sometimes it marks the entrance to the Underworld. Other times, it separates the Underworld from Hell. If she has to go through it, then…” He shook his head.

  “So you want her to give up and die?”

  “Of course I don’t want Selene to die. I would never want that, but it would be more humane. We don’t even know what the pole can do or why they want it. Doesn’t that bother you? She could be bringing anything back here. ” Sebastian shifted. “And even if she somehow succeeds, there’s no saying that your Selene would come back. The Underworld is designed to work off the sins of those who enter it. I don’t know exactly what will happen to her, but you can be assured it will be designed to test her past the breaking point.”

  “She survived being a changeling, she survived a curse that should have killed her, and she has survived Jaron. Selene is stronger than she looks.”

  “You’re just like your father.”

  I glared at him. “If I were like my father, you wouldn’t be here.”

  He took my veiled death threat in stride. “You are too stubborn to listen to what anyone has to say. Do you remember what the kingdom was like before your mother died?”

  I shook my head. What did my mother have to do with anything?

  “Well, I do. After she died, your father became obsessed with protecting what he loved to the detriment of kingdom and everything else around him. He has passed that trait to you. The end of keeping Selene alive does not justify any means to get there, but you are too damn stubborn to listen to me. Maybe your love story is a short one. Did you ever think of that? You cannot tie yourself up in so many knots with Selene that they cannot be undone.”

  “And what does any of this have to do with Selene?”

  He sighed, some of the fight draining from him. “You need to prepare yourself. There is a very good likelihood she will die. You cannot fall apart like your father did. We need you.”

  “Careful, Sebastian,” I warned. I was in no mood to take advice from traitors. “I still haven’t decided what to do with you.”

  He folded his hands behind his back—his usual stance. “I know things haven’t been the same between us, but I do want what is best for the kingdom. I always have. I hope you can trust that.”

  “Wanting what you think is best and being willing to do what I think is best are two different things.”

  Sebastian met my eyes directly. “The choices I made were for both of you. I enabled what neither of you could do on your own. You could never have given her up nor could she have left you. Yes, I helped Selene maneuver you into a position where you were forced to act, but it was the only way to help you get past your own emotional barriers against a change that was inevitable. You father had clouded your judgment.”

  “You can weave whatever tale around it you want. Betrayal is betrayal.”

  “Ensuring you and Selene could be together is betrayal?” He raised an eyebrow. “Yet now she is the most important thing in your life? You can’t have it both ways.”

  I didn’t have time for this argument with Sebastian, but my simmering resentment wouldn’t let me walk away. “How many times did you look me in the eye and lie to my face? You are not here to decide what is best for me. You are here to present me with all the options. You were supposed to be my advisor.”

  “Would you have left her?”

  “No.”

  “Would you have taken a stand against your father?”

  I glared at him. Being betrayed and made to look like a fool was bad enough. Sebastian being right was insufferable. “I guess we will never know.” I started for the door. “You were my friend, Sebastian, and I trusted you. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  Massive trees towered around me, blocking out the light with their thick canopy. I hadn’t set foot in the Smaragdine Forest since the day I imprisoned my father there. It was the land of my mother’s people and the only place I trusted to hold my father. With its ancient magic, they could keep him without causing him harm or discomfort. I approached the small home that housed him. I didn’t see the guard I’d assigned in case the magic failed. A knot of worry formed below my ribs. Within ten feet of the door, still nothing happened to prevent me from approaching. I quickened my pace, my senses on high alert. Every creak, every shuffle of leaves filtered through my ears. The hum of the magic that should have been surrounding the house was missing. The mossy, rich smell of the forest didn’t betray outsiders except for me. The ground around the house hadn’t been traveled on for weeks. I opened the door to nothing. No magical kickback, no people, just silence.

  “Fuck.”

  I headed for the diminishing clan of forest elves who still lived here. They were the direct descendants of the high elves. Having Adan’s support, as well as being my mother’s son, I thought their loyalty couldn’t be compromised, but obviously I’d been wrong. With
every step I took, my anger transformed into cool rage. Crossing the Erlking was a mistake they wouldn’t make twice.

  The community was just as empty as the cabin. Everyone had disappeared. I searched through the homes. Meals were half eaten, letters half written, chores stopped in the middle of completion. An eerie silence hung over the area. No fresh tracks marked the ground. Just like the cabin.

  I went back to the castle and got Sebastian because, despite our personal differences, he was still my second-in-command, and right now, with everything going on, I couldn’t take the risk of bringing in anything new. He inspected the town the same way I had, but I hoped his military eye could catch something I’d missed. Any clue to what we were dealing with. He came back, calm but with a tick of worry in his eye.

  “It had to be magic,” he said.

  “But there is no trace of it.”

  “I know.” He nodded. “But it had to be. Your father is gone too?”

  My head snapped in his direction. “How do you know my father was here?”

  “Because I know you. And why else would you be here? You were going to ask him for help.”

  “He is missing as well,” I said, not trusting Sebastian’s reasoning but curious where he would go with this. I had known Sebastian my whole life. I had trouble believing he would kill an entire community, no matter what he thought it would accomplish, but I couldn’t completely discount the idea either. He’d deceived me for years. Maybe I didn’t know him at all.

  “Could he be behind this?”

  “He couldn’t have done it on his own.”

  “If your father is free. Selene is in danger. We should tell her.”

  “She has enough to worry about. I want her focused on coming back from the Underworld.” I glanced around again. “There aren’t even crickets chirping. What kind of magic can do this?”