Thunder Road (Rain Chaser Book 1)

by Sierra Dean

  This whole world felt like one extended bad dream from which there was no waking.

  We walked for over an hour, me leading him into the unknown. Eventually the pass between the cliffs became so tight my shoulders grazed the black rocks as we continued, and Leo had to turn himself sideways in order to follow me. Just when I thought it might get too squished for him to fit through, it opened up again and we were on the other side.

  The black cliffs were at our back, like large feral trees we couldn’t trust. I half-expected the rocks to grow outward and push us.

  On this side of the passage we were on the top of a ledge, and cascading down in front of us were millions more bones laid out along the edge of a tar-black river, looking for all the world like a beach.

  I took a tentative step forward off the path, testing the bone landslide to see if it would hold my weight. If it wouldn’t carry me, there was no way Leo would manage. The bones shifted and cracked underfoot, making my balance stutter, but I was able to stay upright. My foot sank in to my ankle but stood firm after that. The bone pile must be so dense it could support being walked on.

  “It’s safe. Just a little sinky,” I assured Leo.

  He followed behind me and with his extra weight sank a bit deeper, the bones flowing up to his calves. But soon we were moving forward in sluggish, dragging movements, fighting the tide of death that threatened to hold us back.

  A small boat was moored to the shore, its back end being licked at by the sticky current of the river. Whatever liquid flowed through these banks, it wasn’t water. The smell of it was foul, like burning tires, but also unlike anything I’d experienced on earth.

  My pulse hammered as we approached the little craft, knowing whatever we found there would make or break the rest of the journey for us.

  Shadows shifted on the bow of the ship, shimmering like oil on the surface of water. The shapeless blackness moved as smoke did, swirling and spinning, then as if it had always been real, the shadows became a man. He was slender and stooped, his spine bent at a crooked angle, leaning him too far forward. He had stringy white hair that dangled limply down to his nose, but given the swath of foggy whiteness of his eyes, I didn’t think he needed to see anything.

  “The old man and the sea?” Leo observed. “Is Ernest Hemingway here going to get us to freedom?”

  In spite of how far away we were, the old man grinned slyly at Leo’s words, having heard them across the distance. His beard was white but made of smoke, swirling loosely around his face. He scratched his chin, and as the smoke-beard parted to accommodate his fingers, I saw that the lower half of his face was a bare skull, the grin permanent without lips. He withdrew his hand, and the beard resettled, making him look human again.

  “Come along, come along,” the boatman goaded. “We haven’t got an eternity.”

  He started to chuckle a high-pitched laugh that would have done the Wicked Witch of the West proud. Leo grabbed me by the back of my shirt and pulled me to a halt. I almost slipped on the uneven surface of all the bones.

  “Remember how we talked about the trap feeling?” he said.

  I nodded. “Normally I’d listen to you. But that’s the River Styx, and that makes the creepy dude in the boat Charon, and unless we get him to give us a lift you’d better get really, really accustomed to my charming company, because you’ll be enduring it forever.”

  Leo blinked slowly, looking from me to the terrifying figure aboard the vessel, openly debating which was worse before giving me an apologetic shrug and saying, “Ladies first.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  As we approached the boat, the smell from the river got more and more severe, until my eyes were burning and the hair inside my nose felt like it was being singed off. Why did everything associated with death and the afterlife have to smell so terrible? Couldn’t the underworld smell like cotton candy and unicorn farts or something?

  I imagined getting home and taking a ten-hour bubble bath surrounded by jasmine-scented candles. I thought about leaving hell and driving directly to the nearest bakery so I could breathe in the fresh-bread aroma until it was baked into my skin.

  I’d plant lilac bushes and buy bouquets of flowers every week.

  By the time we reached the boat I was ready to throw up and my eyes stung so badly I was crying. Leo was coughing in dry, labored hacks next to me, so he wasn’t doing much better.

  Charon leaned closer, gripping the edge. Up close it was easier to see that his fingers were also those of a skeleton, and he did nothing to hide their appearance from us. Why pretend to be normal down here, after all, where the absurd and horrible was par for the course?

  “Good day, mortal wanderers.” Charon beamed his frightening toothy grin at us and chuckled again. “Are you lost?”

  “We’re looking for the exit,” Leo responded, covering his mouth with his shirt.

  “There is no way out of the underworld,” Charon replied. “What is here is here forever.”

  “Nice try, Captain, but we know we can get back aboveground.” I wiped away the streaming tears where they’d dripped to the bottom of my chin and splattered on my chest.

  “If you know there is a way, why ask the way?” He turned as if he might leave us, and panic hitched my breath and made my heart pound.

  “Wait,” I shouted. “We can pay for our passage.”

  We could, couldn’t we? Best I could tell we still had everything we’d come down here with, so we must have something that would interest the boatman of the River Styx. This being a cashless culture I didn’t have any coins, but last time I checked Leo had roughly seven hundred stolen watches on his person.

  I elbowed the demigod hard in the ribs.

  “Ow,” he growled.

  “Offer the nice man something valuable.”

  Charon eyed us with greedy curiosity, leaning over the side of the boat to get a better look at whatever Leo had for him. He reminded me of a small child being given a chance to take a treat from a jar of candy.

  “I do so admire a pretty penny,” Charon admitted as Leo rifled around in his jacket. “Something shiny, something new.”

  The first thing Leo held out was a Rolex watch, and I recognized it as the one he’d handed to me on Bourbon Street. I’d still been wearing it when we got back to his apartment. I shot him an incredulous look. “Did you steal that from me at the hospital?”

  He feigned hurt. “No. I simply held on to it for safekeeping, thank you.”

  “I was dying, and you stole a watch from me?” My lip curled in a sneer.

  “To be fair, it wasn’t yours to start with.”

  I wanted to be angry, but honestly I was kind of awed by his dedication to hanging on to the things he took from people, including thefts he’d made me complicit in. If he could apply that level of motivation to getting us out of here, we actually stood a chance.

  Charon, unfortunately, was not wowed by the watch. “Time? You give the eternal man the gift of time?” His nose wrinkled up, and he waved the Rolex away. “I wouldn’t row you to a shallow watery grave for the cost of that thing.” He snorted and to himself muttered, “They offer me time.”

  Okay, so the watches were out, which cut back on most of Leo’s treasury.

  I was really regretting making him return that nurse’s bracelet right about now.

  “What else do you have?” I was desperate. I had no jewelry of my own to offer, and my wallet was in my bag, which was still among the items Cade had brought with him from Shreveport. There was nothing I could give Charon, save my jacket, and I doubted he was a big fan of women’s leather apparel.

  Or maybe he was. I wouldn’t judge if that was his thing.

  I did have the cash the frat boy had given me. I rifled through my pockets and withdrew the rumpled twenties, holding them out to Charon hopefully. The boatman sneered. “I say no to time, and she offers me paper? What am I to do with boring green paper in a world on fire?”

  So coinage was awesome, but paper money wo
rth a hundred times more was no bueno?

  Leo dug deeper in his pockets and withdrew a gold necklace chain with an elegant diamond pendant. I bit my lip, not wanting to ask where or how he’d come across something like that. Leo held it out to Charon for the boatman’s approval.

  Charon took the chain and raised the pendant to eye level. The diamond glinted like trapped flame under the storm overhead. His wispy smoke beard curled around his chin and showed me glimpses of his skeleton smile. I shivered involuntarily in spite of the stifling heat.

  “This is pleasing. You may come.” He nodded to Leo and swept his arm to the side of the boat in an inviting gesture, not unlike a game-show girl fawning over a new car.

  It clicked after a second he was only speaking to Leo.

  “Wait, that was for both of us,” I insisted.

  Charon waved the chain at me, light bouncing off the gem. “I see one item and two travelers. Charon is no fool, mortal. No one rides for free.”

  “You’re not exactly doing tours of the Amazon here. Crossing the Styx isn’t my idea of a good time.”

  “Perhaps you would like to swim.” He slipped the necklace into an unseen pocket, gone forever.

  I would not like to swim.

  The thick surface of the river was black, and steam rose from each sticky, oozing bubble. I didn’t think I’d be able to dip a toe in safely, let alone swim to the other side with all my skin intact. I recalled what Dr. Shea had told me, contemplating the river and wondering if the same black tar was what held my lung together. Wouldn’t that be something?

  Leo glanced at me helplessly, evidently out of both goodies and ideas.

  “What about that?” Charon pointed to the bracelet on Leo’s wrist, his eyes demented in their excitement.

  Leo automatically went to take the bracelet off. I admired his immediate willingness to pay whatever price necessary for my passage, but I clapped my hand over his, stopping him before he could unclasp the silver chain.

  “No.”

  Charon’s brows—smoky lines like fog caterpillars—rose so suddenly they almost blew off his face. “No? Mortal girl, it is not for you to say no.”

  I knew I was only making the bracelet more appealing by forbidding him to have it, but my answer wasn’t going to change. If Leo made it across, even without me, he was going to need that bracelet before his time here was done. No way in hell—pardon the pun—was Charon getting Badb’s trinket.

  “That’s not up for debate. Ask for something else.”

  “I want the bracelet.”

  “No.”

  “I want the bracelet, or neither of you gets across.” Charon stated this with the kind of finality that said he’d hear no more arguments. All or nothing.

  Too bad I wasn’t willing to budge either.

  “What do you want, really? You have a million years’ worth of coins and shiny bullshit to play with. It’s not like you can spend it anywhere. There must be something you want that no one has brought you. Something I can provide you after I’m out of here. Name it.”

  Please don’t say sex, please don’t say sex, please don’t say sex.

  Charon was lost in thought, looking downright wistful, except for the terrifying visage behind his beard. His eyes, which up until now had resembled those of a human, turned to bright fiery coals. In that flicker, all his pretense fell away, and I saw the real face of Charon. His bone was etched with scratches, and his eyes burned as twin lamps. The hollows of his face were empty, but deep within the recesses of his skull I saw a thick black tongue licking at his teeth.

  I was really getting sick of this place.

  Mentally I was cataloguing all the insane things Seth had asked me for during my time as his Rain Chaser. A bottle of Crystal Pepsi had been the most absurd, and among the most difficult, since it had been discontinued for over twenty years. Willing virgins were a dime a dozen where bedding gods was concerned. It was the offbeat stuff like limited-edition snack foods that tended to be a lot more challenging for me to come by.

  If Charon wanted Crystal Pepsi, I’d get him a godsdamned case.

  But first I needed him to get me across the river.

  “Anything,” I reiterated, using the same phrasing that had worked with Hades to get us here.

  Did I mean it? I wasn’t sure. I guess it would all depend on what he said next.

  “Many make me such promises. How do I know you are true to your word? You humans have such fleeting memories for creatures who live only moments.”

  “I think we’ve established my word is all I have to give at this point, so if you decide not to take it, I have nothing else to offer. I think that makes it the most valuable thing I can provide.” I surprised myself with how smoothly and earnestly I spoke, knowing that our passage ultimately fell to me convincing him I would get him whatever precious item he wanted.

  “Very well, rainy-day girl. I have one request from the waking world, and if you complete the rest of your journey, I expect you to be true to me. Understood?”

  “If Leo and I get out of here, I promise I’ll bring you whatever you want.”

  A nagging voice in my head told me I was making a huge mistake agreeing to this before hearing his terms, but it was too late. The words were already out. There was literally no turning back anyway. We were stuck here, and forward was the only way to freedom.

  Charon looked at me directly. His false human face had returned. His smile was twisted and mean and made my guts churn in sick anticipation.

  “I want the sun.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Leo barked out a laugh even as my whole body went cold.

  “The sun? Are you nuts, old man? We can’t bring you the sun.”

  “Yes we can,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else. The world around me was hot, but I felt like I’d never be warm again. Ice had replaced my blood, and my heart had turned to a heavy stone, threatening to drag me down below the surface of the bone.

  “She knows.” Charon’s grin was sick and mocking. “She knows what I want.”

  My breath escaped in a stuttering sigh. I wanted to scream and cry and rip Charon apart bony limb from bony limb. I wanted to tell him no and take back every word. I’d have given him the fucking bracelet in a heartbeat if I’d known what he was going to ask for.

  I should have seen this coming.

  How could I be so stupid?

  Leo was staring at me, the weight of his gaze just one more thing I wasn’t sure I had the strength to carry. “What is he talking about?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I’d figure something out. Yes, I’d given my word, and I knew what he wanted, but there had to be another option. If he could coyly use language to take advantage of my offer, I would find a way to use his request against him.

  I didn’t know how, but I would fix this.

  I had to.

  “Do we have a deal?” Charon feigned boredom, but he couldn’t suppress the excitement radiating off him.

  “What does he want?” Leo pleaded.

  “We have a deal,” I replied, ignoring the question.

  The demigod grabbed my arm, wheeling me towards him, and I spun loosely, as if my body was a mere empty shell and I had no energy left to stop him. The truth was I did feel used up. This week had taken its toll, and I was running out of the fight that animated me.

  “Tallulah, what did you do?”

  I lowered my voice and wrenched myself free of his grip, suddenly angry at his tone. “I just promised him my sister.”

  The journey across the river was short, almost laughably so considering how long we’d stood on the shore debating our passage. Leo and I boarded the boat, careful not to touch the river’s surface as we climbed over the side.

  I said nothing else to either of them as we made the brief voyage. I crossed my arms and leaned against the curved interior of the boat, watching with remote interest as the thick, gelatinous liquid oozed and sucked along the wooden hull. It was attempting to pull us back, yet C
haron navigated forward without any difficulty.

  His bony arms held a long oar with which he pushed us over the shallow waves.

  As I watched the river sluice by, small glimpses of white became visible beneath the surface. I leaned forward and realized to my horror that dozens of faces were staring back at me. Their mouths opened like those of fish, and their sightless eyes fixated on me. Seemingly aware I’d spotted them, a dozen hands breached the water and made desperate efforts to grab me from the boat.

  I jerked back and didn’t dare look over the side again for the remainder of the journey.

  Leo, for his part, did not speak to me. The silence between us felt sullen and immature, but I was too tired to try to bridge a peace. I’d get him out alive, and after that he could decide whether or not he still thought I was a jerk.

  He probably would. I wasn’t bound to win any personality contests any time soon, unless there was a prize for Most Ornery.

  After a surprisingly long ferry, the boat bumped against the opposite shore where Charon bid us farewell with another malevolent cackle. “I won’t forget your promise,” he assured me.

  It felt like everyone I met down here was bound and determined to be my new least-favorite immortal.

  By the looks of this side of the river, we were in for another long slog up a bony slope.

  I took a break halfway up the hill, my face and back slicked with sweat and my lungs screaming for relief. Without thinking about how creepy and wrong it was, I plopped down on the ground, the rounded dome of some poor sap’s skull pressing uncomfortably into my tailbone. It wasn’t enjoyable, but it was a reprieve.

  Leo, seeing that I had no intention of moving another inch right then, sat down next to me. His bulk sent a small landslide of bones tumbling back towards the shore. Charon’s narrow boat was already halfway across the passage. It looked like he was speaking to himself, bony jaw wagging, but no sound carried up the slope. The overpowering silence crushed in on us again.