Then his phone rang and our moment was ruined. Zach sighed loudly and pulled away from me. I went back to the kitchen and put the kettle on, giving him some space. I craved a drink mixed with magic, one that could smooth the stinging pain in my chest, but I was hoping to stay on top of my game.
“I have to go. A girl that matched the description from the manor house was spotted in King’s Cross,” he informed me a long moment later, sounding disappointed. His sister. I didn’t want to hide anything from him, but at the same time Zara wasn’t the same person anymore. I had to figure out what happened with her before it was too late.
“Do you want me to go with you?” I asked. Zach was determined to catch the thief, but Zara wouldn’t risk getting caught. She was probably hiding somewhere in the tunnels, separated from Nameless.
“No, it’s nothing that you can do. I’ll give you a call if I need your help, Flower,” he said, and then kissed me. A moment later he told me to be careful and disappeared.
I shut the door, wondering if I was doing the right thing, letting another human being into my fucked up world. My relationship with Arthur had been rocky, based mainly on passion and sex. There was an intimacy between us, but we were always rushing, always afraid that we would get caught. This whole thing with Zach felt different. He wanted to protect me, to take care of me like we were a team.
When he was gone, I took Emma’s dress off and put on jeans and T-shirt. Nameless Thief had warned me to stop looking for him, but I was risking too much just sitting around and waiting for him to make the next move. He was hiding in Gjöll, sending Zach’s sister to do all the dirty work for him, so he wouldn’t suspect anything tonight. I could pay him a visit when he wasn’t expecting me. Zach was out in the field, chasing after someone that wasn’t even human. Things were slow tonight and it was just after midnight.
I picked up some elixirs and re-read the instruction provided by Frederick during that disastrous night at the market. I had promised Ricky to run my ideas by him, but it was late. Nameless had pushed me to this and that kind of opportunity wouldn’t present itself again. Zach pumped me back into action, and I was willing to do what was necessary to protect my secret. Tonight was my chance to straighten things out.
The voice of reason told me not to bother, that attempting to cross over to Gjöll was a bad idea. I needed an experienced demon, someone that had been in the underworld already. I considered calling Paul, the retired Watcher, but getting him involved in this kind of stunt was a shot below the belt.
I had no doubt that he would want to help me, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything went wrong. I left my flat half an hour later, convinced that I was doing the right thing.
The streets were quiet, there were a few humans walking home from a night out, a couple of teenagers hanging around the off licence shop. I needed to get close to the river, possibly somewhere close to the bridge. Frederic had specifically told me how to use the energy of the water to open up the gate. It was a very rare and complicated spell.
The ride in the tube was unnerving. I was getting paranoid, thinking people were staring at me. An hour later I left the station near Hackney and decided to walk until I reached the wasteland near the river Thames.
It was the part of the city where homeless humans hung out most of the time. I walked further down, hours later locating the right spot near the edge of the water. There was a bridge too. The whole place was like a junkyard. Rubbish lay everywhere, some old bikes, metal, and empty beer cans. My legs were aching like hell; some of the blisters must have opened up. It was pitch black all around, so I was certain that I was well hidden. My excellent vision gave me an advantage. It was too dark for any human to spot me unless someone decided to get close.
On the other side of the river there were some abandoned buildings, and I detected a few humans. This wasn’t the most conventional way of entering Gjöll, but I had no other way of finding out how to get there, so this was my only option.
Using my abilities I created protective wards around me, hoping that this would keep away demons that might get lured by strong demonic energy. I’d lived in London most of my life, and the city was filled with unexpected, sometimes nasty surprises.
I had the formula, so the rest didn’t really matter. I was skilled enough to make this work, at least I kept telling myself that. Now I had to get into the cold water and get on with it. Once my feet sunk deep in the edge of the river I was already shaking with anticipation. I concentrated and started spilling the dragon’s saliva around me. My demonic energy slowly connected with the surroundings. My heart rate skyrocketed instantly, and tiny waves of electricity began raising my hair. A thick white fog appeared, covering the entire space.
I spread my arms wide and shook the small bag filled with golden powder into the river. For a split second I expected the ground to descend like in the past, but instead the water in front of me started swirling, creating some kind of whirlpool. I kept steady on my feet, pulling the power from the enormous threads of source, nature and the river. My whole body trembled as I mumbled the words of the formula that I had memorised a couple of days ago. It was some kind of old Latin spell.
I had to shut my eyes when the steps appeared, the water splashing. After a few minutes the entrance was formed. The water was kept on the edge of the steps by a magical binding spell. The steps down below were made of brick, and all I could see was darkness. The burning smell wafted through air, chilling my skin. An uneasy feeling settled deep in my stomach. I couldn’t turn back now. I had to get down there.
Once the energy faded away from my system, the wind stopped blowing, I hesitated for a few seconds, then started walking down slowly. I had no idea what to expect. This part of the underworld wasn’t under the control of any faction. I needed to cross the freezing cold river that separated the living from the dead.
Nameless wasn’t expecting me, and I truly hoped that he wasn’t prepared. The letter was somewhere in Gjöll; I just needed to get my hands on it.
It took me a while to hit the bottom. I was moving down through darkness. After several long minutes I found myself in a long cave-like tunnel, the water dripping down on me. My chest was tight, my muscles tense as I breathed in crispy air. Part of me wanted to back away, but the other part insisted I keep going.
I continued walking, and the cave began to narrow after some time. I had tried to read as much as I could about Gjöll, but it seemed that demons didn’t like talking about that part of the underworld. They believed that it was somehow cursed.
My thoughts were steady, and I kept telling myself that everything would be all right as long as I stayed on the path. The temperature started to drop as I moved further.
In the distance, a saw a flicker of light, and a moment later I stepped into the water. There was a wide stream running right in front of me. This couldn’t have been the legendary river. I had to dive in; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to cross to the other side. The water was freezing cold and I needed an injection of magic in order to cross it without getting hypothermia.
Luckily I had taken the right elixirs with me, the potions that could protect me from whatever was in the water. I unscrewed the bottle, popping its contents into my mouth. As it turned out, the stream was deep. I kept moving further and at first the water reached to my knees, then thighs. My breath became laboured, and my heart started jackhammering in my chest. I kept walking as the cold water moved up to my waist. My teeth were chattering with cold and for a split second I thought I saw something floating in the water.
I moved an inch and then I thought I was hallucinating, seeing the corpses of humans drifting on the surface. I stopped, completely frozen, unable to move. The sudden punch of fear in my gut rocked me, but I told myself that this wasn’t real. The water was supposed to distract me from reaching my goal. These corpses weren’t really there. I told myself nothing like that was possible—until someone grabbed my hand. A woman with half of her face pulled off was moving her mo
uth, but no sound came out of her.
I tried to pull away, but it was like her grip was made of steel. The coldness was slowly spreading through my body, numbing my limbs. My mind was confused. Someone was telling me that I needed to submerse myself in the water, go deeper, further.
“Help me, please help me,” whispered a voice at my side. This was a man wearing a suit. His corpse drifted around me. I could see his bones sticking out of his face and a large wound on his neck.
I splashed the water, trying to push away the dark images that suddenly filled my head. The sorrow that hit me was like nothing I’d ever experienced. My whole body went numb. The water reached up to my waist now and more corpses flowed around me.
I stumbled back, shocked out of my trance. Blood raced through my ears and I couldn’t catch my breath all of a sudden. The water was everywhere and I couldn’t see the way out. The tunnels vanished, and I was so cold.
“Maxine, darling … please take me away from here,” said a voice that I recognised. A second later I turned around, seeing the corpse of a woman. It was the body of my dead mother skimming above the surface, and her mouth was moving. She was speaking to me.
“Mum, what can I do, tell me?” I asked, trying to reach to her, but some other force held me in place, pulling me down. My mother looked so desperate to touch me. Her skin was sullen, grey and deformed. She was reaching out to me with her hand, but then I started splashing the water, screaming.
She drifted away and suddenly invisible forces were pulling me down under the surface. I didn’t have time to catch my breath. The water was quickly filling my lungs. A strong hand pulled me all the way down and I couldn’t get back up. It was clear, but a second too late, that I was going to die in the river of Gjöll, the river that didn’t care if you were from the living or the dying world.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“… a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer. But if I would show the good that came of it I must talk about things other than the good.” ― Dante Alighieri
It didn’t take long to realise that I had to fight for my life.
The water was getting into my mouth and lungs, and I tried to use my upper body strength to get back up. Suddenly my feet weren’t reaching the bottom and something or someone was pulling me down. In a last moment of desperation I pushed my arms, searching for my energy, but there was none. It was like my magic had been wiped out, taken away from me. My mother was out there, and she needed me. This odd, tangling force kept pulling me down, invisible fingers wrapping around my ankles and legs. I jerked my head, trying to gain a bit of oxygen above the surface, but the coldness began spreading over my entire body, moving through my bloodstream. I couldn’t feel my legs any longer; the current was winning, the darkness swallowing me. My mother was calling for me. I heard her voice in the background, slowly fading away. For a moment I saw her smiling face, also lost underneath the dark waters.
I closed my eyes and let these unknown forces pull me right down. I was numb from head to toe, unable to fight with something that I couldn’t see. There were other corpses around me, submerging me in death and despair. My end was inevitable. I started having flashes of my life—Ricky, Arthur, the nuns. Everyone was there, even people that I had left behind, the secret that I was taking with me to the grave. After some time I stopped feeling the coldness, stopped experiencing the pain. It was like I accepted what was happening.
Then, I felt a strong grip, and someone was pulling me out, dragging me upwards. Several moments later, after hearing another person’s laboured breathing, I was slammed on the ground. Wet fingers were touching my face, my throat. I started coughing, spitting up the water, feeling drowsy and disoriented. Mum was still in the water and I had to rescue her, but there was no time. It was so cold, and my limbs felt like they were frozen solid. Strong hands held me and I recognised that familiar aftershave. My lungs felt tight, but I kept breathing in and out, trembling with cold.
“There you go, let it all out,” Zach said, holding me steady. I was surprised that I recognised his deep voice, felt his warm skin on my face. This was a dream; he couldn’t be here, standing by my side, wet and staring at me with those scary dark eyes. We were in Gjöll.
I pushed my wet hair away from my face and glanced back at the stream. The water seemed calm again and there were no corpses anywhere. I must have hallucinated, but something had pulled me down, I felt it. An unknown being that probably lived under the surface. A moment ago I thought this was the end, and now I was lying on the cold ground, trying to calm my erratic breathing. Zach stared at me in disbelief, the colour slowly returning to his features.
“How … how did you get in here?” I managed to choke out, wrapping my arms around his body. I had no idea why, but I just needed to know that he was real, that this wasn’t a dream. The elixir must have stopped working when I decided to get into the stream. The water must have been filled with a magical trap. Maybe the corpses weren’t really there, and it was the effect of magic.
“I followed you all the way here. I saw what you were doing down the river. There is no one around here, Maxine, and it’s time explain to me what’s going on. I want to hear the whole truth,” he said, bringing me closer to him, and wrapping his hand around the back of my neck. He didn’t seem angry, but shocked. He must have followed me down to the river, but I used a protection spell, so this was impossible. Zach couldn’t have seen what I was doing.
I tried to pull myself together, bring back my energy, but the stream was blocking my demonic power. Zach’s thoughts were chaotic, and he couldn’t understand how he didn’t see the real me before, how he didn’t notice that I wasn’t just an ordinary human. It was too late to try tampering with his mind; he had seen too much. Besides, he saved my life. I couldn’t live with myself, knowing that I damaged him. The water probably didn’t affect him the way it affected me. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that he was able to see my spell down the river, that the magic let him enter Gjöll too.
“Zach, I can’t explain this… You shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous!”
“Whatever, Maxine, this is bullshit,” he shouted, suddenly shaking me. I felt weak. My muscles didn’t want to obey me for some reason. The water had drained me and I kept thinking about Mum. Was it possible that she wasn’t dead, but stuck here, between life and death? “You’re a witch. It’s pure evil magic. You have been leading me on for so long and now I finally know that you’re not human.”
Then I felt them. It seemed to me they came out of nowhere, the strong source of magic connected with my demonic stream of energy, locking it in place. Zach was staring at me, talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him anymore. I saw a light, a fire, then two dark figures emerged from the darkness. The Watchers were here and I realised that Frederick had tricked me. This wasn’t the real entrance to Gjöll, but the corpses…
Both of the Watchers were in their true forms, both of them had enormous white wings. They were holding fiery torches. I instantly knew that this was going to end badly for me. I was a mongrel that led a human straight to the underworld. I might as well get ready to never see the light again, because those two Watchers were going to drag me down to hell.
“A human man and a mongrel, caught using an illegal spell. I think we are in for a treat this evening, Azezel,” said one of them in a deep striking voice that sent chills down my spine. He had beautiful wings, white, shiny covered with snowy feathers. One of them had blond hair, the other brown. Both of them seemed young, probably in their mid-twenties. I was shaking, hoping that Zach would get it together, but he was completely paralysed, staring at the two creatures, stunned.
“You’re right, Daniel, the mongrel will be punished severely,” said the blond Watcher with mesmerising blue eyes.
“Hold on, please. I was misled. I was trying to get to Gjöll, not to the underworld. My name is Max—”
“Stop talking, mongrel. You’ll have a chance to explain yourself soon. You’re in violation of proto
col, and this human has been exposed to our world,” Azezel stated, looking at Zach with wide curiosity. They both went for me before I could decide if it was worth running or not. I had silver chains on my hands. Their energy disabled mine and I knew that from then on all my explanations were useless. My destiny had already been decided.
Zach reached for his gun, springing back to his feet, like he realised what was going on. His attempt was heroic, but stupid. His gun melted in his hand and he roared with pain, dropping it on the ground.
“You won’t be punished, human. You’re not at fault here, but you will follow us down to the chamber. We will decide there what to do with you,” the blond Watcher said, staring at Zach with a mixture of wariness and curiosity. Zach was holding his wrist, looking from me to the Watcher with a crazy expression on his face. He wanted to throw himself at the blond Watcher, and I wanted to erase this whole thing from his memory. “Start walking along with the mongrel. You can still survive this.”
Zach didn’t move. He wanted to argue, but then he noticed his deformed gun and thought better of it. Millions of questions rushed through his mind. I trembled with cold. My clothes were soaked and water was still dripping from me. We started moving, the silver chains digging into my wrists.
Zach was walking behind me, and the two Watchers joined us on each side. There wasn’t any good way out of it, this was my end. I was going down to the pits. There was no point wasting any tears, at least I spent the last few hours with Zach, who now believed that I was a charlatan, some kind of doomed witch that took his sister. He wasn’t too wrong in that respect. A half demon had taken away his sister and turned her into some other being.
Somehow we found ourselves in another tunnel. I could barely walk, still thinking about my options and anyone that could help me. The magic had tricked me, made me believe that my mother was alive. Now I was paying the price.
Doomed Cases Series Box Set Page 42