Doomed Cases Box Set: The Complete Collection Books 1- 4 & Prequel

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  I could still go back and get in touch with Zach, but I had no idea if the entrance would still be here later on. Ronan had lied to me, but I didn’t want to believe that he knew how to get to Gjöll in the past few weeks. He wouldn’t have let me struggle over finding the way in.

  I walked through the cave a moment later, knowing that I couldn’t turn back. My anxiety increased, because the entrance reminded me a lot of the one from two days ago. If this was the real deal, then the icy river of Gjöll would appear spread in front of me at any moment. I was stepping into unknown territory, not knowing what was waiting for me on the other side.

  My breathing became laboured. I sensed demons close by, heard muted voices and screams. The long corridor widened, and after some time it started to level up. A few minutes later I reached the end, and on my right, I noticed concrete stairs. I climbed up, breathing hard until I squeezed through to the large open space. It was another cave, but this was stretched for at least half a mile. A cold shiver traveled down my spine when I rubbed my tired eyes, seeing a lake that covered almost the entire square footage. There was a small island in the middle and the only way to get there was through the lake.

  The tiny voice in my head reminded me that this wasn’t exactly what I expected. Everyone always talked about a river, not a lake. I also suspected that the mythological Gjöll was filled with nasty surprises. Nameless was hiding here, and now so were Zara and Ronan.

  The water looked calm, and it was difficult to judge if the lake was deep or not. I took a few deep breaths, telling myself that I was in control of this situation, that I still had my magic inside me. I walked up to the edge, looking around, and a moment later a boat appeared from beneath the surface. It was made of wood and it vibrated with demonic magic. I stared at it for a while, contemplating what to do. This whole thing seemed easy, almost too easy. Someone wanted me to get to the other side. Maybe it was just a dream, maybe this whole thing was a hallucination. After all, I had magical tequila in my system.

  I took my leather jacket off and tossed it on the ground, bracing myself as I climbed on the boat. There were two oars inside. I was clumsy, but eventually I figured out how to use them, and the boat started moving slowly through the dark waters. Swimming wasn’t something that I enjoyed, and after last night, I didn’t even want to consider getting into that lake.

  The silence rang in my ears, and after several minutes, my arms started to ache, but at least I was halfway through. I knew that I arrived here completely unprepared, still experiencing the side effects of elixirs that I pumped into myself earlier on. If Nameless was somewhere here, then I had made the right decision, but I was also worried about Ronan. He opened the tunnel for a reason and he did that behind my back.

  By the time I reached the rocky island in the middle of the lake, my skin became hypersensitive to unknown magic circulating around me. I started to sweat and struggled to breathe. The boat disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The island was rocky. There were some bushes and stones scattered around. I spotted someone tied up to a tree, a mongrel.

  He was covered with blood, his eyes were swollen, and he had cuts all over his chest. A moment later, probably after hearing my heavy breathing, he lifted his head up.

  “I knew you would come. My father was right all along. You wouldn’t just give up,” he said. I assumed that I was facing Nameless Thief. He was injured, covered with cuts and bits of dried blood. He had dark brownish hair, deep hazel eyes and wide jaw. He muscles were poking out of his green, now- torn-apart T-shirt.

  “Where is Ronan, and what is going on here? Why are you tied up?” I asked, creating a fire ball that I balanced in my hand. It was a precaution in case this was some kind of trap. My energy was suddenly alive, rising in my system, igniting my protection wards.

  Nameless laughed and shook his head, staring at me with a mixture of anger and amusement.

  “The letter is gone. Your prince has it now and he knows the truth,” Thomas replied, and I felt like my knees were just about to give out on me. No, this was impossible. Arthur couldn’t have gotten the letter already. Nameless was bluffing, trying to scare me.

  I got to him before I realised what I was doing and started shaking him, screaming.

  “No, you’re lying, you son of a bitch. Where the hell is Ronan, and what have you done to Zara!”

  My deepest secret, something that I had been protecting for so long had been revealed. I didn’t want to believe any words that were coming out of his mouth. My lungs constricted with panic, my heart beat loudly in my chest. Nameless Thief laughed again, ignoring the fact that I was slowly falling apart.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t have your letter any longer. When I stole those letters from my father, everything turned against me. It was supposed to be revenge for all the forgotten years, for what he had done to my family, but then she tracked me down. I had no idea how, but she knew I had something that belonged to you,” Nameless whispered, looking at me with his crazy red eyes. I had to get out of here, get back on the boat and then walk all the way back to the platform. Maybe it wasn’t too late yet, maybe I could get to the palace in time and prevent Arthur from reading that letter, twist his memory.

  I took a few steps away, losing the last bits of oxygen. I felt pressure in my chest, then flames appeared all around me. Nameless roared at the top of his lungs, like he was in agonising pain.

  “Maxine, I’m sorry … I’m really sorry, but she made me do this!” Ronan shouted, appearing on the other side of the flames. He was on his knees, and Zara stood beside him, holding her machete under his head. She was grinning at me, filled with very disturbing power, energy that didn’t belong to her. I waved my hand, trying to get my magic under control, but nothing happened.

  “Ronan, what the hell is going on here? What did Zara did to you?” I shouted, thinking about the quickest way to the palace. I had to fix this, make it to Arthur.

  “She was ready to kill my son, so I had to entice you here for her,” Ronan said, begging me with his eyes not to do anything rash. I didn’t get why he wouldn’t just use his magic, was this part of his master plan to get himself captured? The girl was still a human, and he could easily disable her.

  “What the hell is going on here? What do you want, Zara? What did I ever do to you?” I shouted, concentrating on my demonic source of power, hoping to toss some fireballs right at her, but my fingertips only sparkled. Nothing happened, the burning energy died. I panicked, thinking about other ways of killing her. Maybe Zach would hate me for it, but I had to get out of here now. She was the enemy, a toxic soul who hated me for no reason.

  “This whole thing was never about her, Maxine, but me, the one who burned alive,” said the voice that turned my blood to ice. I blinked rapidly, seeing that Alexis suddenly appeared next to Zara through the thick white fog. She smiled widely at me and then her laugh echoed around the massive cave. I should have known that she was behind this whole thing. I should have suspected it from the very beginning.

  Chapter 30

  “Death could scarce be more bitter than that place! But since it came to good, I will recount all that I found revealed there by God’s grace.”

  ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

  I instantly noticed that there was something wrong with Alexis’s face. It was burned, melted, and deformed. My mind spun out of control, and everything became suddenly very clear. Of course, she was behind this whole thing. I couldn’t believe I didn’t figure this out sooner. She certainly looked like she had been to Hell and back, thanks to me.

  She had escaped the pits. I guessed that from the very beginning, but I never thought she would trick me and make me look like a complete fool. She knew about Nameless, and she must have caught him when he was trying to escape with the letters, but how?

  I had been very careful two years ago. No one knew that Ronan was the demon who helped me disappear. Alexis somehow figured out everything, and I followed Zara all the way to Gjöll—exactly where she wanted me.
Of course, this was the perfect plan and I was dismissive enough to fall for it.

  “Maxine, I’m sorry. She was ready to kill him. You know he’s my only—”

  “Shut up, old man, we don’t have time for your melodrama.” Alexis cut Ronan off, looking truly overjoyed. “Maxine is finally here, so the party can really begin.”

  The fire surrounded me and Nameless. We had nowhere to escape and my magic seemed useless, disabled by mythological forces. I couldn’t fully concentrate. Alexis was the answer to everything that went wrong in my life in the past couple of weeks. My self-beatings over lost love had blinded me, made me sloppy and useless.

  Suddenly I felt angry. I’d made my choice and should have accepted the consequences. It was my sacrifice and deep down, I was extremely proud of everything that I had achieved. I was at the bottom of the barrel, but I’d managed to lift myself up. Coming back to London was the best decision that I ever made. I was trying to run away from Arthur, but instead I should have shared my secret with him much sooner. Maybe then he would have understood that I made this huge sacrifice for him because I wanted to protect him, so he could preserve his dignity and reputation. During our affair he kept saying that I wasn’t just his mistress, but his partner. I should have insisted that I would never work for him again, because I loved having my own business and not answering to people like the Queen or Rodriguez.

  “You kidnapped Prince George, and you paid your price, Alexis. This is between you and me, so let them go,” I said, trying to pick up energy from the air, the Earth, but it was like someone or something was blocking it. Alexis had broken into the old monastery and must have found something there that directed her to Nameless or Ronan. Now she had Zara under her control, too.

  She tossed her crimson hair away from her face and smiled at Zara. Ronan opened his mouth probably to apologise, to let me know that he’d been tricked, too, but there was no need. During my investigating with Zach, she had been giving me signs. I had hints that I ignored, because I was too proud to admit that she could get to me.

  “Oh no, your friends are a good motivating factor for you, dear. I had underestimated you, didn’t think that you could be any value to me, but I was wrong. A couple of months ago after years of research, I finally found the spell that could heal me, but I needed royal blood for it to work. My soul was falling apart, and I was so close … and then you ruined everything,” she said, while Nameless was mumbling incoherent words to himself. His energy was fading. I had no idea how long he had been on the island in Gjöll. Alexis must have planned this for ages, bringing me here, away from Earth, away from anyone who could help me. She could truly do whatever she wanted here where Watchers had no control. “I was so damn close until I was sent down to the pits. Luckily for me I learnt something about you, something that changed everything.”

  “What the hell do you want?” I asked, pacing around the fire wall, imagining what could I do if I could get my hands on her. This time around I wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, making sure that she turned to ash. The burning fire was swallowing the oxygen, weakening me. Sweat started dripping down my face. Panic began settling in, and memories of my last encounter with the Watchers flooded my head.

  Alexis laughed, stroking Zara’s hair, revealing part of her face that was slightly deformed, too. Zach’s sister must have been badly burned in the past, or that twisted bitch had harmed her. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now her scar was visible, covering the left side of her cheek and neck.

  “Oh, this is very simple. I want her, I need her to heal my dying soul, Maxine,” she stated, cocking her head to the side.

  I went over what she said in my head and for a second, I thought that I didn’t understand her. But her thoughts were so transparent and clear. She wanted me to give up what I loved the most, something that I was willing to die for—so she could use her blood to prolong her demonic soul. I roared with anger, creating another lightning ball, and threw it toward her. The ball bounced back, coming back, nearly hitting me in the chest. Alexis laughed loudly, and Nameless screamed like someone was tearing him apart. I had no idea what just happened, and why my magic wasn’t working the way it supposed to.

  “I will never give her up, bitch. You can keep me here ‘til the end of time, but this secret is going down with me to the grave,” I shouted, losing control, ready to use all my power to get the fuck away from here, to destroy her forever.

  She shook her head, then took something out of her pocket: a knife. It used to belong to me. I remembered it, because it was a gift from Ronan.

  “Well, maybe I was wrong after all, the old man won’t get your juices going. You guys don’t have that emotional connection. Besides, I have already tried torturing his beloved son and that didn’t get me anywhere,” Alexis said, not looking too pleased with herself. Ronan had protected my secret with a spell, even if he wanted to reveal the location to Alexis, he couldn’t.

  “Just tell me where she is, and I’ll let go of your friends. She’s going to heal me, so I can challenge Lucifer, get back what belongs to me.”

  I laughed nervously and shoved my hands into my pockets. My mind raced as I thought about any spell that could work in this situation. I had to send a message to Matilda, to warn her that she was in danger. Alexis had nothing to lose. She was dying, and she didn’t care about anyone’s life other than her own.

  “You will never get your hands on her,” I said, pacing around, trying to find a crack in her charms. Her smile faded, then she leaned over to Zara and whispered something into her ear. There was that challenging gleam in her eyes. Alexis waved her hands, stealing more demonic energy from Nameless and Ronan, draining them of everything they had. Suddenly I felt pain at the back of my head. The white fog reappeared, stealing my own energy, too, with no effort. I tried blocking her, but the fire had weakened me. None of my spells were working around here. Alexis was taking it all.

  A moment later when I looked back, another person appeared next to Alexis as the white fog resurfaced. A bucket of ice cascaded into my stomach, and I stopped breathing for a good few moments. Alexis had Ricky.

  His apartment was protected by strong magical wards and there was no way that she could have known how to disable them. I screamed and started throwing lighting balls at the fire, but every one of them bounced back. I threw myself on the ground to avoid them, while Alexis laughed. Ricky was on the outside and I was still trapped.

  “Let him go, or I swear on Lucifer that I will hunt you down and rip your heart out of your chest with my bare hands,” I shouted, staring at my business partner and friend. His eyes were moving back and forth from me to Nameless. Overall, he seemed fine, but my time was running out. Alexis brought Ricky here for a reason.

  “Just give her what she wants. She won’t stop, Maxine, please; otherwise she’s going to kill us all,” Nameless said, fighting to free himself.

  “I think you should listen to the thief. Ricky is such a handsome demon and you don’t want to lose him. He’s like your family. You see, Maxine, I did look into your background, your past. You never tried to get attached to anyone, well, apart from the prince,” Alexis said, stroking Ricky’s hair gently.

  I still couldn’t figure out how Alexis was controlling Ronan. I was on my own, and she had all the advantage.

  “My mother was a human,” I barked.

  “That she was, but a human who attracted a very special demon,” she muttered, walking around Ricky. “I bet you really want to know who your father is, Maxine?”

  “Fuck you!”

  She shook her head, and I wished that I’d killed her when I had a chance.

  “You know, I have been trying to find him, too, just so I could satisfy my own curiosity. That name Morpheus must ring a bell, right? Unfortunately, I ran out of time. Other demons were taking their time getting back to me. I had that precious letter, after all, the letter that you wrote to your lover.”

  Maybe I just had to keep talking, make her believe that she had won.
Surely Ricky had a plan; he was stronger than me.

  “I don’t care about my father. He never meant anything to me. Now get rid of that fire, so we can sort this between ourselves,” I said, hoping that if I provoked her, she might stop being a coward and fight me.

  “Oh, I’m sure that you do, that deep down you want to know his identity,” she muttered. “Young Zara here had chosen love, but she wasn’t ready for what came after. I took advantage of her fragile mind.”

  “How could you use this girl like that?” I shouted, all of a sudden grabbing Nameless by his collar and shaking him. That man ripped a family apart, separated a mother from her child. He was worse than Alexis.

  “I’m in love with Zara, and Alexis promised to turned her into a demon if I helped her,” Nameless said, telling me the truth. I despised him, standing up again. This wasn’t a real love, Zara had Zach, had her daughter.

  “Oh yes, I could be very convincing,” the bitch stated. “And I’ll make this very easy for you, Maxine. You either give me the location of the precious little secret, or I’ll slash Ricky’s throat.”

  She wasn’t bluffing this time. The machete was in her hands, and she grabbed Ricky, pressing its blade to his throat. I saw blood and panicked. My entire body went numb, the world started spinning. Everyone was staring at me, and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t let her kill him.

  “I don’t know where she is. The woman who cares for her moves around a lot,” I lied, staring with desperation at Ricky, whose eyes were forbidding me to say anymore. I couldn’t sacrifice one life for another, but Alexis had me cornered.

  “I’m done playing with you, Maxine. I have given up too much, lost too much time. I need to be healed. You need to decide if you’re willing to sacrifice Ricky for someone else who you don’t even love.”