After at least half an hour, the tunnel dropped and the Watchers asked us to stop in front of the entrance to the cave. I was pushed inside. I felt pressure in my skull, the kind of dread that someone feels when they see death standing in the middle of the room, ready to take them down to hell. I didn’t believe in old stories, but I was thinking about the worst, about the pain that I was going to cause to someone far away, someone that meant the world to me.
Zachary looked around, knowing that he couldn’t fight with the real evil. Azezel used the heavy magical chains to make sure I wouldn’t escape. I knew that there was no point trying to explain what was happening, that I didn’t mean to break any laws. I was caught in what I thought was the entrance to Gjöll, instead I must have opened up an illegal entrance to the underworld, fully controlled by Lucifer. At the same time I had seen the corpses. They weren’t my imagination. I had touched them, spoken to them, but this was psychically impossible. Maybe I believed so hard that I was in Gjöll that I started hallucinating.
I couldn’t move now, being chained up to the cave wall. Zach was asked to stay inside with me and the two Watchers had left the cave. Their magic was powerful, interfering and tangling with my own. It was just a matter of time before they would start torturing me, demanding answers, connecting me with other mongrels. Zach started pacing around, then stopped to look at me. He was very pissed off.
“Who are these creatures? What are they going to do with us?” he asked, shaking his head. “I trusted you and all this time you were leading me on, using me in your magical rituals.”
He still wasn’t getting what was going on and he stared at me with that disturbing look on his face. Watchers didn’t need Zach, he was just a human after all, and I had to convince them to let him go. I was done. The Watchers had me and there was nothing anyone could do to change my fate.
“There is another world beyond the one you know and see everyday. I’m a half demon; my mother was a human. Nameless Thief is a half demon too. That’s why he kept getting away, that’s why you couldn’t catch him, Zach. Demons follow certain rules and tonight I broke them and I’m going to be punished for it,” I said, fed up with lies and deceit. Zach narrowed his eyes at me, then dragged his hand through his hair. He was attempting to wrap his mind around this whole thing, but with miserable results. The Watchers were outside, probably debating what to do with me.
There was a lot more that I needed to explain to him, but I had no idea where to start.
“I knew that there was something wrong. There are demons walking on the streets? What about these men with wings? Who are they?” he asked, somehow relieved and somehow furious. We both knew that I lied to him, but only because I wanted to protect him.
“They are Watchers, demons that are supposed to protect humans from knowing about the demonic world. There is an underworld, ruled by Lucifer. All the demons are divided by factions, and because I trespassed it here, using illegal magic, I’m going to be punished. Don’t worry, they will let you go,” I said, wondering if it was even worth it to pass the message to Ricky through Zach. Tomorrow the detective wouldn’t remember a thing. There was no doubt that Watchers would erase the night from his memory.
Zach took a few deep breaths, staring at me and shaking his head. He was still thinking about his sister.
“This isn’t right. We have been lied to; you’re lying to me now. There is no hell,” he shouted, tangling his hair. I sighed, knowing that maybe I had made a mistake. Zach could never handle the truth about the demonic world. He was beside me before I could blink, grabbing my neck. “Tell me what happened to my sister. The demons have taken her, and you had something to do with it, didn’t you?”
He wanted to kill me. There was no more lust, no attraction. He was ready to end it all.
“She’s alive. I have no idea what happened to her, but I know that she is alive. Nameless was involved with her disappearance years ago. I came here tonight to find him, to solve it all, Zach … I’m sorry,” I said, but his eyes were mad and he didn’t believe anything that I said.
“Step away from the mongrel, human. This isn’t the way. She’s going to be sent down for exposure of our world and violation of protocol,” said Daniel, entering the cave along with his companion. Both Watchers ditched their enormous wings, so they looked like humans.
“Wait, I was only doing what I had to. I’m involved with royal affairs with Rodriguez, the head of Lucifer’s faction,” I said, hoping that maybe that name meant something amongst them, that maybe at least they would reach out to him.
“Mongrels are supposed to obey all the rules, and there are no exceptions,” Azezel said. He walked up to me, releasing the magical chains. He smelled of freshly cut wood and herbs. His touch burned my skin, and when he pushed me forward towards the other side of the cave I felt the magic rushing through my veins.
Then the ground underneath my feet began to shake, the air got thicker. The warmth began filling up the cave. Goose pimples broke over my skin and sweat ran down my face. Zach was standing behind the Watchers. He didn’t know what was happening, but he didn’t feel sorry for me at all.
It was like in the wasteland, like in the alley when I saved Emma, but this time this was happening to me. The earth extended, and a giant hole opened up in front of me. I looked down seeing the fire and only fire. The pits were in front of me, and the Watchers were planning to throw me down, without a hearing or an order. This was it, this was the end.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Thus every nature moves across the tide of the great sea of being to its own port, each with its given instinct as its guide.” ― Dante Alighieri, Paradiso
The heat stung my skin. I felt it in the marrow of my bones, spreading quickly everywhere. Unknown voices were calling me down to hell, and I wished that I’d made different decisions a couple hours ago. The large hole filled with fire spread in front of me. The Watchers had won. They couldn’t wait to report to Berith that they caught a mongrel trying to illegally enter the underworld. Daniel was hoping that he would rise in the ranks, and his mate only wanted to see me dead.
“No, you can’t!” Zach shouted, suddenly growing a conscience. “This is inhuman. Let her go.”
I looked back at him, smiling possibly for the last time in my lifetime. Zach didn’t hate me after all. He couldn’t let them kill me, his humanity made him look beyond the lies, the deceit, and the pain that I had caused him. I only wanted to preserve his humanity. The demonic world was cruel and he’d suffered enough at the hands of creatures that he didn’t even know existed.
“There are too many mongrels in the demonic community, and we are going to make a good example of her. Trespassing to the underworld is illegal. She must be punished severely,” roared Daniel, pumped with hate. Deep down he was an arsehole. This had nothing to do with breaking the rules. I was a mongrel and that’s why they wanted to kill me. My clothes were sticking to my skin, sweat running down my body. The heat was becoming unbearable, and I felt my skin burning raw.
Zach went suddenly ballistic. He was trying to tear past the Watchers that stood behind me, screaming at them to let me go, but it was hopeless. They were stronger, filled with inhuman energy.
I felt nauseous, trying to move back, but the heat was forcing me forward.
A step further and my feet would slip; with every passing second I was losing more oxygen, taking long raspy breaths. I thought about my mother when Zach was fighting for me. I thought about the demon that fathered me. After all, I would never have a chance to find out who he was.
I clenched my fists, trying not to scream, but my skin was flaming alive. Small blisters appeared on my arms and legs. Then—all the warmth from the cave was sucked out. The earth moved underneath my feet. I lost my balance, knowing that I was going down. A strong cold wind ruffled my hair. It came out of nowhere, cooling me off a little. A moment later I found myself on the ground. I tried to inhale, but my lungs felt like they were on fire. Something was wrong. My vis
ion was blurry when I lifted my head, but I realised that the hole had disappeared. The heat remained, but now I could breathe again. The Watchers looked disoriented, staring at each other in confusion.
“The letter, it’s sealed with hell’s mark, Azezel,” Daniel rasped somewhere in the background.
Beads of sweat ran down my face. A moment later, I saw a thick brown envelope lying on the ground by Daniel’s feet. It reminded me a lot of the one that I received a couple of months ago from the royals, but the seal was in the shape of a skull. The two Watchers stared at it for a long while; neither of them dared to move.
Finally Azezel reached out and picked up the letter. He glanced at his companion like he was searching for a confirmation of whether he was supposed to open it or not. I held my breath, thinking that they were hesitating for a reason, that this message came directly from downstairs.
He finally broke the seal and unfolded the brown paper. His pupils dilated as his eyes moved over the text slowly. After a moment of silence Daniel passed the letter to his companion and looked at me with utter disgust.
The Watchers had no respect for mongrels or humans. Azezel stared at me like I was nothing but an insignificant insect that he intended to squash. I had blisters all over my body, but I didn’t feel any pain. I was high on adrenaline pumping through my system. Maybe I was going to be saved. Maybe there was hope for me after all.
“You may leave with the human now, mongrel. The punishment won’t be carried out. You have been spared,” Daniel stated bitterly, moving aside. He looked displeased, angry. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Who is the letter from? What do you mean that I have been spared?” I asked, wondering why the hell I was even questioning them. A second ago they wanted to toss me down to the pits, burn me alive and torture me, and instead of getting up and leaving I was demanding answers.
“Leave now and take the human with you. He’s your responsibility now, the hell decision has been made,” Daniel said, and then spat on the ground with disgust. It was obvious that he didn’t agree with whoever sent the letter.
Maybe this was stupid, but I didn’t want to move. I had to know who had sent the letter, who knew that I had entered the underworld. Ricky had no idea what was going on, and Zach wouldn’t have had time to get back up. The letter must have been from someone important, someone that knew what I was doing all along.
The two Watchers glared at me like they were ready to carry on the execution anyway. I pushed my feet forward, telling myself that I better get out of here as soon as I could. Zach was staring with mixture of wariness and shock. He still didn’t believe in anything that happened in the cave.
It was clear that the two Watchers weren’t prepared to talk. A moment later Zach grabbed my hand and physically dragged me out of the cave. His grip was so tight that it was cutting circulation to my fingers. I was unable to say anything, moving through darkness, not looking back, not understanding what was actually going on.
I had no idea how much time had passed, but then we were in the water again. The coldness soothed my burning skin a little, and I searched for corpses, but the water was calm, and there was nothing in it.
“Maxine, what the hell are you doing? We need to get out of here,” Zach said when I immersed myself in the icy flowing stream. The water was only to my knees now, but I had to lie flat, it was such a relief not to feel the burning anymore. I wanted to close my eyes and stay there forever.
I didn’t remember much of what happened after that. Everything was blurry, but Zach must have dragged me out of the water, and then we walked for what seemed like forever. My feet were aching, my thoughts racing. I knew that Frederick must have purposely misled me. He must have seen through my magic; he must have known that I was a mongrel. There wasn’t any other explanation.
Once I inhaled the fresh air on the outside I collapsed on the ground, drained of my powers, drained of magic and energy. I couldn’t move, I didn’t feel my limbs, and my breathing became laboured. We were back on earth, to the world that I knew.
Zach was talking to me, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. My skin began burning again and then the darkness shattered me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Here we will drag them, and through the sad wood our corpses will hang, each on the thornbrush of the soul that harmed it.” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Somehow I had to carry on talking and show him that I was ready to reveal everything. There was no point lying anymore or even attempting to tamper with his fragile mind. The Watchers had let him go, so Zach was my responsibility now. Part of me knew that now there was nothing stopping me from being with him, but romance was clearly the last thing on his mind right now.
There was so much that I wanted to share with him. Maybe then he would understand why I was forced to make certain decisions in the past. When Arthur and I were together we had to conceal our relationship from everyone around us, but with Zach things were much more complicated. He was suffering, he felt betrayed and cheated. All this time he had been right: there was magic and other creatures in his world, but he wasn’t allowed to share this new knowledge with anyone.
I pulled away the covers and sat on the bed, staring at the man that was breaking apart. My legs were covered with bandages, but the pain was bearable. I had gone through worse things in life, but this wasn’t the time to worry about my wounds. There was a man in the room that needed me. I filled his head with memories that were fabricated, just because I was trying to protect myself. The image of the pits floated in front of my eyes, but I pushed it away. My fears could wait. I had to tell Zach that I cared about him a lot.
I walked up to him and sat down, still wearing my hospital gown. I wanted to use my energy to take away his pain, for at least a moment, but my body hadn’t recovered yet. My muscles were sore, my skin still stinging in various places. Zach stopped sobbing now; he was immobile, broadcasting only anger and resentment. He didn’t want to believe that he’d lived in deceit for such a long time.
“Your partner, Cora, she was a demon too and she took a risk. She knew that faction discourages any romantic involvement with humans, but she chose to ignore it. Someone must have reported her. There isn’t any other explanation of why she died. The Watcher from her past came back and killed her,” I said, still touching him. Zach didn’t understand how demons shaped humanity, but he deserved the truth. I didn’t agree with hell’s rules, but I wasn’t able to change a thing. I was only a mongrel, and half demons meant nothing in hell.
“What happened to my sister? Did your people take Zara?” he asked, and lifted his head up. There weren’t any more tears, just anger and it was directed at me.
“I don’t know, but she’s alive and well. Somehow she’s gotten involved with Nameless Thief, with his people,” I said, trying to keep my emotions at bay. Zach needed my help to track down his sister, and I already had a plan. There was no doubt that I still had to retrieve the letter, but my priorities changed.
“Nameless? What does he have to with her?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
“She was the one that stole the jewellery at the party and the one that warned me to stay away from him. I saw her down the tunnels, but I wasn’t certain it was her until that party in the manor. ”
“No, Zara wouldn’t be that stupid. She wouldn’t have left us for some demon, a monster,” he said, shaking his head. I was surprised that the nurse hadn’t checked on me yet. Zach was quite loud earlier on, and I had to make sure that he would keep his mouth shut. No one would save me if he started telling other people that there were demons walking on the streets of London.
“I can’t explain what exactly happened to her, Zach. I think Nameless has done something to her, changed her, made her forget about her humanity. I’ll help you find her, I promise, Zach, but you need to understand that you mustn’t tell other people about what you know. This is very important.”
He lifted himself up and looked at me like he st
ill didn’t believe that I wasn’t human.
“So you want me to lie to everyone that I know?” he asked.
“If you want to live, then yes, humans can’t know. They aren’t ready for the truth. I don’t make the rules,” I stated, thinking about that letter last night, and wondering who else knew about my attempt to enter Gjöll.
“Fine, but how are we going to track Nameless now?”
“I have a plan. A few weeks ago his father came to me and asked me to find him. You met him in the palace. As it turned out he chose the only place in the underworld that the factions can’t control: Gjöll. I guess that he made a lot of enemies over the years, and we aren’t the only people that are trying to find him,” I said, knowing that for now I needed to forget about the letter. Right now Zach’s sister was my priority. Nameless had her, and I owed it to Zach to find out what happened.
“You should have told me that she was the one that stole the jewellery at the party,” he told me, looking out the window. I wished that I’d had enough courage in me to go to him and kiss him.
“There is a way to get to Gjöll, to cross the river that separates the living from the dead. It’s the only place which Lucifer doesn’t control, where Nameless is protected,” I said, knowing that Zach wasn’t ready to join me, but it was still going to be hard to convince him not to come with me.
For a long moment he debated over what to do, if he could trust me once again. I was still on the floor, struggling to find a comfortable position when he reached out with his hand.
“Fine, Maxine, I’ll follow your lead one more time, but this time we are playing by my rules,” he said, helping me back on my feet. I could have sworn that I saw that flirtatious gleam in his eyes when part of my thighs got exposed.
“I’m sorry for lying, for deceiving you, but I really had no choice. After all, I’m just a mongrel, half demon. We don’t have much say in the demonic world; our voices don’t matter,” I explained, getting back to bed. Zach did understand, but he was still wary of everything that was coming out of my mouth.
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