It was hard being down to here to get an accurate scale on how big the place was without actually seeing what was through those doors. But one thing I was sure about, if they had all been cell blocks, then that meant we were utterly surrounded by the most dangerous demons ever known.
“I can assure you it’s this way.” Aurora snapped impatiently over her shoulder and this was getting old pretty damn quickly. I felt like I was being rounded up like cattle and having such a thought in this place sent a shiver through my body.
We entered yet another corridor and I had to wonder how many were in here as the movie Labyrinth sprang to mind. At least this one was slightly less depressing than the last. It actually reminded me of a gallery from a castle only void of the family ancestry on the walls. It was a wide, tall walkway that only had one slatted door at the end. Above sat a scary looking statue that almost looked positioned there to guard the place. It was of a winged creature that was sat in an awkward position, all bent and scrunched up so it could fit on this small plinth above the door.
“Wow that is one ugly looking Gargoyle. I mean I have seen scary at Afterlife but this one takes the biscuit.” I said the closer we got and after catching up to Aurora.
“That’s no Gargoyle.” Aurora whispered in vain as the creature started hissing at us. It was obvious it had heard us and only when it jumped down did I realise it wasn’t an ‘it’, no, ‘it’ was a she and she was not happy.
No wonder I thought she had been a statue, considering her skin was like rough old stone, weathered by nature. Her wings were a combination of an injured bat and a bird after having all its feathers ripped out. It was almost painful to look at and the long finger bones that ran through the wings crawled through me like nails on a chalk board. Her face was no better and the snarling didn’t help as her elongated jaw stretched further to allow for her many rows of teeth to snap at us.
“Eosss!” The creature hissed what sounded like a name and it was one I was sure I remembered hearing before.
“Podarge” Aurora responded angrily and I gathered it was the creature’s name. It became obvious they knew each other when it finally clicked where I had heard that name before...
Eos was Aurora in Latin.
I mentally went back to only days ago when Draven had told me who Aurora really was. She was the Goddess of Dawn and the painful thought of such beauty clogged up my throat so I couldn’t speak. I tried to focus more on the truth and that was just because someone had a beautiful name and the title to go with it didn’t make them a beautiful person inside. I knew this and knowing her, boy did I really know this! And evidently so did Podarge if the way she was snapping her jaws at Aurora was anything to go by.
“Why are you here?” The creature snarled with venom as she looked from her to me.
“That is none of your business Harpie you know who I am so you would be wise to have respect when speaking to me!” Aurora replied standing straighter as if the sight of greater posture was something to be feared.
“Oh I know who you are and of your traitorous ways.”
“What is she talking about?” I asked turning to face Aurora wondering what I was about to hear.
“Nothing!” Aurora bit out at me and what I now knew was a Harpie just laughed in response with a high pitched cackle.
“You call betraying your master nothing?” The Harpie informed me and my mouth dropped before I shouted,
“Draven...? Why you…”
“She’s talking about Zeus.” She said cutting me off before my murderous rage could build.
“Oh…well that’s alright then I…uh…I mean, how could you do that?” I said looking accusingly at Aurora and changing my tune when seeing the angry Harpie taking a step towards me. Aurora just rolled her eyes and then quickly diverted her aggravation to someone other than me for a change.
“My business with that ruthless bastard is my own and does not concern the likes of you and your abhorrent kind.”
“Eh…yeah good one.” I said sarcastically when the Harpie looked even more enraged and started to go into attack mode. She crouched low and opened her frail looking wings as if she was about to pounce. Aurora looked at me sideways a second before sighing as if she was about to do something she really didn’t want to do.
“You die traitor and with it I will cook the flesh of your mortal over your burning corpse to share with my sisters!” I grimaced as she said all this just having images of them all singing Kumbaya whilst waiting for me to roast over a Goddess fire with an apple in my mouth. Actually one more look at this winged Diva and it would be more like them all singing ‘Hell ain't a bad place to be’ by AC/DC whilst waiting for Scouser Al a carte to cook!
“Seriously though, do you have any friends?” I asked which she ignored by focusing on our main problem.
“Zeus should have killed you!” Aurora shouted making Podarge charge at us. Aurora pushed me out of the way just in time before the Harpie could dig her talons into my shoulder to no doubt fly off with me. I fell to one side stunned that Aurora could have possibly just saved my life and watched in shock as business chic turned into office deadly. She spun on her heel and ran at the Harpie that had landed on her hands and one bent knee. As soon as she saw Aurora running at her she pushed off the ground with her toes and started matching her speed towards her.
I had to wonder what they were expecting would happen when they just collided with each other but it became obvious that only one of them had a plan. As Aurora continued to run towards the Harpie I saw her put one hand behind her back just before she reached her target. The flash of metal only caught my eye for a split second before she was coating it with blood. She sidestepped at the last second and spun on her heel once more only this time she held out her blade for a single purpose. The razor edge sliced into the Harpie’s neck and as Aurora continued spinning around to the creatures back it slit half of its throat open.
The Harpie stumbled back holding her gaping neck in shock but Aurora didn’t give her chance for much else. No, she tripped her up till she was on her back looking up at Aurora with pleading eyes and reaching hands. What the heavenly Aurora did next was shocking because without any care or mercy she brought her knee up before hammering it down and stomping on the Harpie’s face. Her thin stiletto heal first impaled her eye before travelling through to her brain, killing her instantly till Podarge was no more.
Aurora wasn’t even breathing heavy and for someone who thought it wasn’t correct for a lady to fight, she was bloody ruthless at it!
She looked down in disgust, smoothed her hair back and pulled her foot free taking the impaled eyeball with her. Then she walked past me, pulling down her jacket saying,
“Fucking Harpies.”
After the Harpie incident we were both quiet as we walked what I hoped was the last stretch to wherever Aurora was taking me. I still couldn’t get over the shock of Aurora saving me from getting mauled to death by Podarge. It would have been the perfect opportunity to have gotten rid of me once and for all. So did this mean we had her all wrong…was she really here to help Draven?
I wanted to think so. I wanted to think the best of people and give them a chance without my own personal issues with that person getting in the way of my judgement calls. I had little choice in trusting her when it came down to it as this was literally the only option we had left and honestly, there wasn’t a second thought in risking my own life if it meant saving his. So who knows, maybe we would both die trying. These thoughts made me break the silence as we came to another slatted door that looked the same as the previous million it felt like we had already come through.
“That Harpie could have killed me.” I stated using this as my only chance to plant the seed.
“Yes, it could have.” She said looking back at me in all seriousness.
“Could you have still freed Draven?” Aurora stopped walking at my question. Her hand automatically went into her jacket pocket where her fingers played nervously with something I couldn�
��t see.
“It wouldn’t have mattered.” I frowned at her response thankfully making her elaborate.
“If you die, then bringing back the King would only mean my own death, one I would have no choice but to forfeit for his own.”
“Wait, I‘m confused. Why would you die if something happened to me?” I asked coming to stand in front of her and stopping her from storming ahead which was something she was obviously good at considering I had spent most of this trip staring at her tailored back.
“It’s simple. If you die and Dominic comes back to find you gone then, like you and everyone else, he would merely believe I had killed you for my own gain. Therefore I would not live out the hour upon his return.” I contemplated this for a moment and then thought now was a good a time as any.
“Then I should probably tell you, if you gave him a lock of my hair and told him the last thing I said to him, he would know I must have asked you to tell him goodbye.” Aurora’s eyes widened and then she asked the question I knew she would, one whose answer she believed could save her life.
“And what is the last thing you said to him?”
“I will see you again on the other side.” She gave me a thoughtful look and then nodded her head in understanding before saying a word I never even thought she knew the meaning of, let alone be able to form the word.
“Thanks.” I seriously thought I was going to choke on my tongue in shock just hearing it and in true Aurora fashion she rolled her eyes from the look of shock on my face.
“Come on, it’s just through this door.” She said and the knowledge was like music to my ears. I walked past her as she held the door open for me which was completely out of character. I put it down to our sort of heart to heart, or more like mutual understanding on my untimely death should it horribly occur.
The room she followed me into this time was definitely one that I knew what this place had been filled with.
“Draven’s demon is in this prison block?” I asked looking at the floor and seeing the dug cell pits.
“It is in the end cell.” She said nodding to the end of the long room. Not that I had seen many cell blocks in my life but I imagined it looked very similar to the ones we had in the ‘mortal realm’. Of course both types held monsters of society, only these were more the ‘live under your bed and eat your face off’ than just your regular murdering kind.
I walked past keeping mainly to the side furthest away from the scary looking inmates that reminded me more of a bunch of captured, angry beasts. The long pale stone corridor was something I wanted to run down just to get closer to Draven’s demon but I not only wondered what it would look like but more how it would respond to me. I had seen Draven a few times when his demon had been more dominant and it had scared me at first but just like the rest of him I knew it would never hurt me.
So making the decision I went with my impulse and ignored everything unimportant in the room and ran for it.
“Keira?!” I heard Aurora shouting my name in question and multiple things all started happening at once. First I heard the grinding of metal as though a massive crank was turning and then overhead the sound of rushing water. I stopped to look up after only making it three quarters of the way down the cell. Then I heard my name being screamed by Aurora before I felt a body tackle me to the ground.
“Umpf...! Hey, what are you…?” I never finished as I looked up to find Aurora on top of me, pinning me to the floor and being silenced by the sight of a huge pair of glowing wings erupting from her. The wings encased us both in a golden dome and when the water could be heard gushing from an open trap, I thought it was a bit overkill saving us from both getting wet. However this thought quickly fled when I saw the look of pain on Aurora’s beautiful face above me.
I wanted to ask what was wrong but the sound of the water was as loud as if we had been lying next to Niagara Falls. Then came the heat that started to seep in and suddenly it clicked as to what caused her pain. I was horrified and left feeling helpless as Aurora once again saved me and this time it would have no doubt been a torturous death. Thankfully it stopped not long after it started and Aurora closed her eyes in what looked like great relief.
Even after enduring what she had to in order to save my life she still managed to get off me gracefully. She even offered me her hand and I took it still in a state of shock. I got up off the floor and saw all her golden feathers ruffle as if to shake off the water that still clung to its tips. She could see I was about to ask so she answered me before I got chance to ask.
“It was the furnaces.” She said as if this would mean something to me. She held out her arm for me to precede her and I turned muttering,
“Alrighty then.” I walked past the large trapdoor above one of the cells, one that looked to have little demons working their ugly little asses off. They shook off the obvious downpour and started back to their shovelling. Water still dripped from where the two half-moon doors met and I could only hope it wasn’t something that happened every other minute.
“We have plenty of time till the next one.” Aurora said as if hearing my anxious thoughts.
“And how much is plenty of time exactly?”
“Well that depends how long you want to drag this out for?” She responded back sarcastically and I smiled.
“Ah, there’s the Bitch I know.” To which she smiled and winked at me making me laugh. I turned my back to her and continued down till we came to the last cell. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what I would find but then the realisation hit me like one of Zeus’s thunderbolts.
“You have no idea.” She said as I approached the edge of the hole only to find the truth,
It was empty.
I turned around slowly and the face looking back at me wasn’t one I could trust, even though it had saved my life. No, the face looking back at me said only one thing,
Betrayal. Betrayal from a person who had been waiting a long time for this day to come. She put her hand behind her back and I thought I knew what was coming, but oh how wrong was I. She brought the small blade that was like a shorter version of a samurai sword and held it in front of me.
“I lied.” Was all she said before she grabbed a chunk of my hair and then…
She pushed.
Chapter 62
Fooled All Along
I fell backwards, landing hard at the bottom of the pit with a painful thud. I cried out and shook my head trying to make sense of what had just happened. I looked up to see Aurora stood at the edge holding a handful of my hair that she had cut just before I fell. If I hadn’t just felt like my spine had been run over by a Mac truck then I would have jumped up and grabbed her ankle. The bitch had pushed me in and the only reason I could fathom was that she wanted Draven for herself. But if that was the case then why did she save me before?
“Why?” I asked gritting out the question between my teeth. She started laughing and it was the ugliest I had ever seen her.
“You ask me why?!” She shouted down at me and that once cool calm façade was now long gone.
“Yes I want to know why! Why would you save my life if only to leave me here to die!?” I screamed back at her.
“Oh I am not leaving you to die you unfortunate and pathetic mortal. Oh don’t get me wrong, if I could kill you I would relish the act but alas no, he needs you alive.” I scowled up at her trying not to show any weaknesses and with it the haunting realisation someone else out there was trying to hurt me.
“Who?” At this she just started laughing again and the sound lashed out at my nerves.
“Oh you’ll find out soon enough, don’t you worry about that.”
“And what of Draven, are you just going to leave half of him down here too?” I asked hoping the only reason she had taken my hair was so that she could get away with bringing him back without him killing her.
“I must say I am surprised everyone was gullible enough to believe I needed you down here with me to free his demon. No in truth…”
&nb
sp; “Oh this will be rich, do you even know what that word means?” I said hitting back and interrupting her.
“When it is beneficial to our cause, then yes, I know what the word means…for example, it is the truth when I now tell you that I could have freed that asshole’s demon from anywhere in the world if I wanted.”
“What!” I shouted feeling like such a fool for playing into her hands like this. After all every single person at that table had tried to talk me out of trusting her but I agreed to go only for one reason…I had been desperate.
“Then why…?”
“Oh come on! Isn’t it obvious? Once those barriers go back up do you know how hard it is going to be for even Draven to get to you? And now thanks to you he will think you dead, so cheers for that.” She said waving my hair back at me.
“Draven will reach me, you won’t be able to stop him.” I said knowing I was right, he would stop at nothing to save me.
“No but as I said, thanks to you he will think there is no one even left to save and besides, he has men that will come for you soon to hide you in another location, one where no-one would ever have a hope in finding you.” She finished by tucking my hair away in her pocket giving it a pat like it was her life insurance.
“So this is your grand plan for revenge is it, to leave me here, tell Draven I am dead and then what? You think he will jump straight back into bed with you?” Again with that infuriating laugh of hers.
“You really are one dumb bitch aren’t you?” She said shaking her head as if she couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it all out yet. I really wanted to respond by informing her how she was actually the dumb bitch considering she was doing the classic movie baddie cliché when they tell the goodie all their plans. So what she didn’t grasp was that I was pumping her for as much information that I could by acting stupid. Because it all came down to one simple truth, baddies all had massive egos that wanted the last word and that last word was always so you would know how clever they were.
The Pentagram Child: Part 2 (Afterlife Saga Book 5) Page 19