Asmodeus nodded. “I can take us there.”
Hades straightened his suit, his hands shaking with nervousness. “I’ll just go return your boyfriend now.” Jack had made his way back to Hades, comatose once more. “He’ll have his own palace in the Fields of Elysium and will be treated like he was my own son.”
Before Kala could respond, Hades disappeared with Jack in tow.
Talan rested his hand on Kala’s shoulder supportively. “Are you okay?”
Kala nodded, but she was far from okay. At this point, though, all she wanted to do was leave the Underworld. “Let’s just get these idiots and get out of here.”
Talan turned to Asmodeus. “Lead the way, Demon.”
“At least one of us is useful, Grigori,” Asmodeus smirked. “Follow me.”
DAY THREE
Chapter Fourteen
It seemed to Kala as if they had been walking for months, but according to Talan it had only been a full day. That put her into Day Three on her Atlas timeline. It was frustrating not knowing the exact time, but she trusted Talan to know where she was in the countdown.
The two boys had said nothing to each other the entire time, and Kala found she had very little to say as well.
Fighting Hades hadn’t exactly been fun. Kala never wanted to fight dead things again as long as she lived. If she was ever going to live again. The more she learned about Hades the more she thought her vision might not be such a bad thing. The two main culprits in wanting the Atlas mission to fail and leave the world in chaos were Hades and Cronus. It made sense to lock those two down, otherwise Kala would be fighting them every four days until she could find an end to this curse.
It still rubbed her wrong though. Their blank stares reminded her of Jack’s. It would be easier to think Jack was just an empty shell, but knowing that his soul was still inside him was heartbreaking. And now, she’d be doing the same thing to Hades and Cronus: trapping them inside their own bodies.
Jack’s painful words echoed in her head. She knew Hades had put them in Jack’s mouth, but it still hurt to physically see Jack say all those hateful things. But it was still better than her last living memory of him. Kala would rather Jack scream obscenities and hateful words at her than have to remember blowing his brains out, any day of the week.
In a way it was almost cathartic, though. So many unresolved emotions rolling around inside her. Even hearing the worst of her fears somehow made her feel lighter in a sense. As if, for once, Kala might be able to move on someday. It gave her hope.
Talan tried to catch her eye, but she turned away.
Without her memories she had pretty much fallen all over the guy. It embarrassed her and she didn’t want to discuss it with him, especially in front of Asmodeus. But she couldn’t deny that when her brain was wiped, Talan had felt like he was… what? Talan threw the words soul mate around like it was going out of style, but Kala despised those words. If anything, she owed that sentiment to Jack, but he was gone now. Truly gone. Even so, Kala wasn’t ready to move on to someone new. She didn’t think she ever could.
Kala’s love life was the least of her problems, though. She was about to take on Rhea again, but before that the boat guy, Charon. Two things she was not looking forward to. She wished she could use that whole white-fire trick from her vision. Kala had zero clue as to how to activate that skill set, but she’d figure it out soon enough, she guessed.
In a little over 24 hours.
The thought churned her stomach. Kala wished she could teleport out of this place. She hadn’t realized how used to the whole teleportation she had become. Now, having to walk for miles and miles and being stuck in this drab, gray landscape, Kala remembered what it was like to be human.
The last hour the terrain had changed considerably, however, shifting from desert to soft grass, leafy bushes and an occasional outcropping of maple trees. Everything was still gray, but the change in scenery lifted Kala’s spirits somewhat.
After her fight with Hades, Kala noticed that she had a little more color to her skin, making it a grayish pink rather than stone cold corpse gray, which also made her feel little better. All-in-all, having a sense of purpose and destination kept her focused and sane.
Asmodeus’s voice cut through her thoughts and the silence of the Underworld. “Just past those trees,” he announced.
Kala viewed the aforementioned trees to see another river in the distance. The River Styx. The river that could be used as a weapon by forcing the victim of its waters to make an oath. Kala wished she had a bottle to store some of it for later. Aside from the brief River lesson Asmodeus gave her upon entering the Underworld, even Kala had heard stories about the River Styx before her personal involvement in the supernatural world. She hadn’t heard much, just that some guy had a boat or raft or something and took the dead to the Underworld. If the spirits were anything like coma-Jack, then Charon had a relatively easy job. She wondered how difficult it was going to be to either convince him to take them across the other way or commandeer his boat. A breakout of the Underworld. Surely people had tried. Then, thinking of Jack’s condition once more, maybe they hadn’t.
Talan stayed quiet as the trio approached the river. Though Kala appreciated the Grigori not bringing up her previous behavior, now his silence was beginning to drive her mad. He was hurt, she could see it in his demeanor, but she had no way to console him. She knew in his mind that Talan believed Asmodeus had saved Kala and not him. Which wasn’t true. It was a combination of both their words that had snapped Kala out of her Hades-torture-stupor.
Since there was nothing she could really say to make him feel better, Kala opted for keeping her mouth shut. In hindsight, it was probably making things worse, but what else could she do?
“There he is.” Asmodeus pointed. “Charon.”
A couple hundred feet down river was a flat square of wood floating in the water with what looked like a man steering it with a large pole.
Finally Talan spoke, “I’ve heard things about Charon. Do you know him, Asmodeus?”
“Like personally?” Asmodeus nodded. “On a few occasions, I guess. Not much of a talker.” He raised an eyebrow in thought. “Charon picked this gig for himself. It’s not a punishment or anything. He wants to spend all eternity going back and forth and back and forth and back and… you get the idea.”
The way Asmodeus conveyed his point showed his disdain for even considering that kind of life. And Kala had to agree. What type of supernatural being would opt into motoring dead souls back and forth forever? She just hoped Charon was reasonable.
Talan seemed to be on the same wavelength as he asked, “Do you think he’ll let us cross on his boat?”
It was annoying that they needed Charon’s raft, otherwise they would have crossed the river miles back without the guy ever knowing. It made sense though. Cronus always tried to have several back up plans.
“Do I think he’ll let us use his boat? No, of course not. But between the three of us I’d be embarrassed if we couldn’t get by Charon.” Asmodeus headed towards Charon without waiting for a response.
Kala and Talan made brief eye contact before following the Demon. She wasn’t sure what she read in Talan’s expression, but this was no time to try and figure it out.
As they approached Charon, Kala had a better view of the… creature? He didn’t look quite human, which was a bit of a shock for her. So far in her brief encounters with the supernatural they had all been human-ish. But this guy? He was exactly what she’d expect the Angel of Death to look like. His face was grotesque as if he had been clawed evenly down each side, then sewn back together with a staple gun. He had solid black eyes and his skin was the dark brownish-gray a corpse would have that had been rotting for a long time. Wearing only a long black robe, Kala could see his taloned feet planted on the raft. His veined hands were all that poked out of his draping sleeves and they clutched a long wooden pole that he was using to control the boat.
The river at this point was ab
out a hundred feet wide; Charon was halfway across the water, heading straight towards them.
“Well, at least he’s alone,” Kala said to no one in particular. She didn’t really know if that was indeed a benefit, it just seemed like the right thing to say.
“Charon is half-Demon, half water-nymph. He’s no match for us, but if he won’t let us on his little ship there, it will definitely be a good fight,” Asmodeus informed them. “Let me talk to him first.”
Kala and Talan didn’t argue. If Asmodeus had any kind of relationship with Charon, then they had to try the simplest form of getting across: asking.
After an agonizing wait, Charon’s raft met the shore in front of them. He eyed them over carefully, as if trying to figure out why they were there.
Asmodeus didn’t make Charon wait long. “Hey, Charon. Long time, no see.”
That was casual.
Charon couldn’t hide his disdain. “Yes. I was hoping for a few hundred more years before your next visit.”
“So cold.” Asmodeus acted offended, but Kala knew the Demon could care less what Charon thought of him. “Listen, we need to get across using your boat.”
“Right to the point, as always.” Charon rolled his black eyes. From what Kala could surmise, Charon knew Asmodeus pretty well, which was a big uh-oh in their current predicament. “The answer is no, Asmodeus. You know how to leave the Underworld, just take your friends out that way.” Charon lifted the pole. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
“You still think you’re better than everyone else, don’t you?” Asmodeus grabbed the end of the raft with his foot, preventing Charon from moving it.
Charon hissed at the Demon. It made him look like a human lizard and it was a little intimidating. “Let go of my vessel!” he roared.
“Your vessel?” Asmodeus laughed. “It’s a flimsy raft!”
This wasn’t going well at all. Before it could escalate further, Kala stepped forward. “Please. We just need to use your vessel. Those are the rules. How you wish us to accomplish that is entirely up to you.” Kala wished she could have said that nicer, but years of military interrogation techniques had kicked in instead.
“Who are you to threaten me?” Charon straightened his chest in defiance.
Kala had to admit: the guy was one scary looking individual. But, having just fought an army of rotting zombies, one Demon-nymph or whatever he was, didn’t scare her half as much as it probably should have. “I’m Kala Hicks slash Atlas slash some kind of Gaia mojo in me, this is Talan. He’s a Grigori angel, so you might not want to mess with him, and of course you know Asmodeus, king of the Demons, which aren’t you half Demon or something? Shouldn’t you be doing what he says?”
Charon seemed the most offended by Kala’s last statement as that was the only part of her rant he chose to respond to. “He may be king to the Demons, but he is not my king! I am the gatekeeper of the Underworld and he doesn’t scare me!”
“So, Grigori? Atlas? Gaia? Still a no?” Kala really didn’t want to fight Charon, but it was looking as if it was a foregone conclusion.
“No!” Charon shoved Asmodeus’s foot off his boat and pushed away from the shore before anyone could stop him.
Kala was about to jump in after him, but Asmodeus warned, “Don’t get any water on you! You’re a god and he can make you promise something! This is the unbreakable oath river, remember?”
Being Atlas and half Gaia made the River Styx a big no-no for Kala, but she couldn’t let Charon go. She needed that boat and Kala wasn’t about to let it float away without a fight. Taking a deep breath, Kala ran and jumped with all of her strength. She landed square in the middle of Charon’s raft, not a drop on her.
Charon was more baffled than threatened: apparently no one had ever jumped on his boat before. Before he could gather his wits, Kala took her opportunity and threw him into the water. With a loud SPLASH, Charon was gone.
She waited a few moments to make sure. After a while, when Charon hadn’t re-surfaced, Kala glanced at Talan and Asmodeus with a surprised but happy smile. “That was easy.”
Kala took the abandoned pole and began to steer the raft back to the shore to pick up Talan and Asmodeus.
Asmodeus cringed, “I’d watch out if I were you.”
BOOM!
Uh, oh.
Out of the river, lifted on a geyser that would rival Old Faithful, Charon stood, pointing at Kala. “You dare attack me on my own vessel!”
Kala wished he’d stop using the word vessel. She agreed with Asmodeus, this rickety, wooden, moss-covered, floating pile of crap could hardly be called a boat let alone a vessel.
Despite the fact that she was now facing a monster on an explosion of water, Kala calmly responded, “I told you: we just need it to get across. I promise I’ll give it back to you.”
Yeah, that would work.
Charon waved his hands at Kala and she suspected something was about to shoot out of them so she rolled to the side. White fire, like her vision, seared the spot where she had just been standing, burning a hole in the raft.
Screaming in rage, Charon accused, “You ruined my vessel! I will destroy you!”
“Technically, you’re the one who busted a hole in your little raft here.” Kala knew she was making things worse, but couldn’t stop herself. “And any chance you could teach me how to do that white fire thing?”
Charon’s answer was another blast of white fire. This time, Kala was singed slightly on the shoulder, not being able to roll away in time. Another hole damaged the boat. Oddly, no water was flooding through. Being as it was the boat of the dead, it must be unsinkable.
Dodging both Charon’s fire and water from the River Styx was becoming quite the impossible feat and Kala was determined not to get a drop on her. She wasn’t even that concerned about Charon using the water against her, forcing her to make an unbreakable oath. It was the thought of Asmodeus using the river that worried her most though. The things he could force her to promise… She shuddered to think where his mind would go.
Kala needed to figure out a plan. And that plan was to get to the other side on this Swiss-cheese boat any way possible, preferably without getting wet.
Ducking and rolling yet again caused another gaping hole in the boat. With each new injury to his raft, Charon screamed as if he had shot himself. “Stand still, human!”
He saw her as human. Interesting. So far everything about Charon screamed loner. Even though Kala had told him she was Atlas with a sprinkling of Gaia, he was too self-absorbed to care. He just wanted his boat back and for Kala and friends to go away. She’d almost feel sorry for him if… nope, the guy was a baby. She had no sympathy lately for babies.
“If you’d just let us use your damn boat to cross, you wouldn’t have to blow holes in it!” Kala shouted, trying to reason with the creature.
Charon screamed in rage, making the grotesque streaks down his face appear even more hideous. “Why can’t you just go away?!”
“I’m trying! I have fifty feet to go, asshole! Stop attacking me and just push me the rest of the way!” Kala had no patience for stupidity.
“Never!” Charon raged.
“Is it a pre-requisite of the supernatural to be stubborn and stupid?” Kala groaned.
This only seemed to anger Charon further. He leapt from the twenty-foot geyser to land in front of Kala with a sneer. “Prepare to die, human.”
“I’m already dead, moron.” Kala punched Charon across the jaw. Normally, she’d go for the privates, but seeing as she wasn’t sure a half Demon/half water nymph actually had privates, she settled for what was in front of her.
Charon barely moved from her blow.
Ducking, Kala dodged Charon’s arms as he tried to grab her. She turned to Laurel and Hardy on the shore. “Some help would be good here, guys!”
Not waiting to see what the boys would do, Kala returned her focus to Charon.
When the monster flew at Kala again, she used the force of his j
ump to gain the upper hand by grabbing his arms and throwing Charon back into the water once more.
This time, though, Kala knew he’d be back.
TUG!
Charon’s hands wrapped around her ankles and pulled her down into the river.
The water covered her completely and Kala found she was more panicked about the fact that whoever talked to her first would be able to make her promise anything they wanted, than the thought of drowning.
First things first, though: Charon’s hands were still wrapped around her ankles, drawing her down into the depths of the river.
How deep is this thing? Kala wondered in amazement. It felt as if they had been sinking for hours. No matter how hard she kicked, she couldn’t break loose from Charon’s grip. The need for breath didn’t seem to be a problem, she noticed. It wasn’t as if she were breathing in water, she just wasn’t breathing. In the midst of fighting off the ferry man from the Underworld, it was good to note that it appeared as if she could hold her breath indefinitely. Like she had when she had been buried underground. Originally, Kala had thought it was because of her Gaia connection, but apparently, it was more of a “god” thing.
Deeper and deeper.
Kala reached down and tried to pry Charon’s hands loose from her ankles, but his fingers might as well have been made of steel.
Seriously! This river had no bottom!
Then, through the murky grayness, Kala saw a gigantic shadow swim in front of her – and Charon let her go. Whatever creature had helped her, Kala was grateful as she began to swim up to the surface. With frightening speed, Charon and the enormous shadow zoomed past, fighting in the water, the shadow yanking Charon like he was a tiny pebble on the shore.
Kala hurried as fast as she could, wanting to see what creature had attacked Charon.
Still far away, she could see up above the perfect square of the raft with its round holes looking like eyes staring down at her. It gave her a surge of inspiration and she pushed harder for the surface.
Almost there.
Just as Kala burst through the surface of the river, Talan’s hand reached into the water and dragged her onto the raft.
The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) Page 14