by Hadena James
“I would think Ivy would be problematic, if her mother dies, the Fey believe Ivy will become Overlord,” Archer added.
I couldn’t imagine that would go over well. Ivy was formidable already. She was a woman who was in charge of her own destiny and knew it. The strength of those involved seemed to be the silver lining.
I crawled from the bed and found my clothes in a small night stand like cart. I pulled them out, stripped off the hospital gown, despite the gasps of my brothers and dressed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Lucifer asked.
“I’m a Hunter. I’m going hunting,” I told him. “Jasmine isn’t the only half-breed with power.”
With the protestations of my parents ringing in my ears, I walked out of the hospital and into the crowded street. I stood for a moment, adjusting to the sunshine and waiting to hear the pattering feet of my siblings. It didn’t take long to get my reward. My brother Eli walked out first, behind him, I could hear other footsteps.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Do we have a plan?” Rachel asked.
“Don’t die,” I told her. We were standing outside a cave. We were still on the Island.
“Why are we here?” Samuel asked.
“Because it dawned on me that if I wanted to do something incredibly evil and go undetected, I’d find a spot in Cerebus’s lair where he couldn’t get me. His magic would hide whatever I was doing. When we were in here earlier, I noticed that I felt stronger. I don’t leech from Cerebus, I thought it was from those around me, but then when Jack the Ripper and Spring-Heeled Jack both showed up here… Well, I was terrified and didn’t have much thought at the time, but I’ve had time to stop being terrified and realized that maybe Jack the Ripper and Spring-Heeled Jack were just going where they were being called.”
“You think Jasmine was calling them?” Rachel asked.
“No, I think her Coven was calling Jack the Ripper and Mad Stephen just followed the madness,” I told her. “Besides how better to open portals to the Island than be on the Island when you open it?”
“Yes, but all those Witches on the Island would raise questions,” Samuel said.
“That’s true, but if you only have a few key players on the Island, opening portals and delivering babies and spying on the rest of us,” I raised an eyebrow. “And Vishnu said they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Ragnok said that,” Olivia corrected.
“Well whoever said it, they can’t find them on the continents, maybe they aren’t on the continents,” Rachel finally picked up my train of thought.
“Exactly,” I smiled at her.
“I’m going to be pissed if I get eaten by Cerebus,” Daniel said as he took a step towards the entrance.
“If any of us gets eaten, we’ll need to band together to cut them out. On the plus side, Brenna will start yakking and so will Cerebus, that might work in our favor,” Eli teased.
“Let’s go,” I shook my head and once again walked into the lair of the hell hound.
The lair of Cerebus has a distinctive smell. It is a lot like walking into a zoo, walking straight to the monkey house and burying your face into the ground litter. It has a husky, musky, mammalish smell that also smells a little like death, poo and decaying leaves. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, but it had a feeling of comfort which said all kinds of weird things about me.
“He’s sleeping,” Eli whispered. The giant dog lifted one eyelid. I gave Eli a frown.
“Sorry,” he mouthed. Like earlier, the giant hell hound didn’t seem all that concerned with us. I wondered if he was still full from the dragon he’d eaten a week or so ago. Or if it was something else.
That was the problem with Cerebus. His magic is so dark and so encompassing that any magic cast on him is covered by his own. It was also so thick in the cave that I couldn’t even see the tendrils of our own magic as they left magical footprints behind us. There was no way to track magic through the cave.
“Look for any off-shoots,” I told my siblings. Nick immediately scampered up the massive body of Cerebus. I looked at him like he had just sprouted another head. Cerebus raised one head, looked at him and put the head back down.
“There’s one back here, I think he’s been sedated,” Nick practically yelled.
“That’s good, just give away our position,” Eli whispered to him.
“Oh sorry,” Nick sat down on the beast.
“Have you lost your mind?” I hissed at my brother.
“He won’t eat me, he likes me,” Nick told me.
For some reason, I believed that. Or at least believed that he wasn’t hungry enough to eat the small Demon sitting on him. I walked closer, skirting the backs of Cerebus’s heads. The giant dog suddenly sprang to life. Spring-Heeled Jack ran into the cavernous space, his mad giggling distracted me.
Then we were both being tossed down the gullet of the Hell Hound. I went down one throat. I could hear Spring-Heeled Jack giggling from another. We ended up together. It turned out all throats led to one place. And it was not a pleasant place.
I forced myself not to gag. Jack was jumping around, his fingers clawing at Cerebus’s insides. I had cut him open once before. I wasn’t going to wait on my siblings. I put my hand on the side and started inflicting the wounds I had once healed from the massive beast. We spilled forth from the belly of the beast. I gagged and threw up. Jack giggled at me as he held my hair.
My siblings all stayed a few feet away. I didn’t know if it was the fact that I was throwing up or the fact that Spring-Heeled Jack had a hold of my hair, but they didn’t seem interested in coming forward and helping me. I motioned the nutter away, he moved. I righted myself, squelched another urge to vomit and turned to look at everyone.
“Why are you here?” I asked the madman.
He giggled in response.
“I don’t think he talks,” Rachel told me.
“One can hope,” I shook my head. “Come on, we’ll heal Cerebus and get the hell through the hole really quickly.”
“We can’t heal him, we have to get out again,” Samuel whined.
“We can’t leave him like this,” I pointed to the disemboweled beast. “Or at least, I can’t.”
“I’m with Brenna here,” Nick answered. “We’ll heal him from the rear.”
“That just sounded wrong,” Eli smiled. Nobody was bothering with whispering anymore. The giggling madman and groaning hell hound were obvious giveaways to our being there. My only hope was that they weren’t intimidated enough to move the pregnant Elders.
We carefully slipped past the groaning Cerebus and when we were safely tucked out of his reach, we began healing him. It didn’t take long. Its own magic fed ours and sped the process. Hell hound healed, he got up, turned twice and settled into a new position. We all let out a breath we hadn’t realized we’d been holding, except Stephen who was still giggling.
I gave him a glare that he saw, but ignored. His giggling continued as we passed through the smaller hole at the back of the cave. It still smelled, but now there was a stagnant water smell to accompany it. I found myself grinding my teeth, Stephen was annoying, but he seemed determined to follow us and even more determined not to attack us. Since this appeared to take the effort equivalent to moving the Earth off its axis, I was willing to deal with his giggling, even if it did annoy me.
“It’s a trap!” I heard Ivy before I saw her. We entered into an opening. All four women were there. So was Magnus, Jasmine and several others. I glared at them.
Ivy and the other three women were all tied up, bound magically. I inspected the binding with my mind and found them not nearly as strong as they should be. I gave Nick a look. Nick nodded once, he and Daniel were in charge of freeing the women. Eli, Rachel and myself would deal with the main threat, Samuel and Olivia would deal with the other Witches. I didn’t know what Stephen would do. I was also hoping that Nick was right about Cerebus.
We had all walked in knowing it was
a trap. The information had been deduced by me, but it hadn’t felt like me doing the thinking. I had figured that Jasmine had planted the seed in my mind. I also knew bringing anyone other than my siblings would cause them to bolt. I didn’t need her to plant that seed of information.
However, she didn’t know about Nick’s affinity for Cerebus or Cerebus’s theoretical affinity for Nick. And I still didn’t have a clue about Stephen the Giggler. My sister didn’t seem to know what to make of him either. She stared at him like he was a slimy and unwanted.
“Well, I’m here, you can release the hostages and we’ll go about the business of trying to kill each other,” I told Jasmine.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Jasmine answered. “We need Samuel, he can make sure they all go into labor now. The rest of you are just here to watch.”
She threw potion at me. Stephen stepped in front. The magical bonds wrapped around him. He giggled and they melted away.
“What is he?” Jasmine asked.
“That is a question for the ages,” I responded. “All I can tell you is that he is mad and he likes to tear off women’s clothing, but not ours.”
“You have that effect on people,” Jasmine sneered.
“Maybe, but he doesn’t seem very particular about his choice of victims,” I responded. “We seem to be at a stalemate, sister. I’m not going to let you use Samuel. You’ll have to kill me and I don’t think you have that kind of power.”
“Do you want me to test that?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Sure,” I smiled at her. She flung more potion. I was ready for it. I cast a spell into the nothingness. It hit the potion and a very surprised Gregorian was in the cavern. Since I hadn’t expected it to be a teleportation portion, this surprised me just a bit as well. Gregorian promptly ate one of the other Witches.
She tossed more potion. Stephen stepped in front of it and disappeared as a droplet hit his arm. He reappeared when it hit my raw magic. He giggled at us. Jasmine shot an arrow at Gregorian. Nick and Daniel were already releasing the hostages. She saw them as she hit Gregorian with an arrow.
“Don’t do it,” I warned her. She didn’t look at me, instead she hit Nick with an arrow. He yelped. There was a thunderous knocking noise behind me that ended with a bellow. The Hell Hound was beating his way into the cavern. It would appear that Nick was right, the Hell Hound did have an affinity for the Little Creator.
The thunderous knocking continued. Jasmine seemed visibly rattled by it. At her side, Magnus also quaked. Gregorian was dealing with the other Witches. This seemed to mean eating them, so I ignored him as best I could.
“Get Samuel, I’ll deal with Brenna,” Magnus shouted to Jasmine. She turned towards Samuel.
“No, I think not,” I told Magnus, I began to pull magic. The cavern was full of it, but most of it belonged to Cerebus and I couldn’t use his. I tried to pull magic through it and found it sluggish and reluctant. If I was having this many problems with it, Jasmine and my other siblings would be having an even harder time. Magnus shot a fireball at me. It singed my hair as it whizzed past. Stephen caught it in his hands and threw it back. I looked at the mad Elder and again wondered what the hell he was doing.
His giggling grew louder. He began moving towards Magnus. Magnus took a step back. Stephen raised his clawed hands and began shredding the Witch. Jasmine went for Samuel. Nick shot something at her. It was dark, thick, black. I looked at him; he was covered in Cerebus’s magic. My brother had many hidden talents regarding the almost and not quite dead.
Jasmine fell to the ground as Cerebus broke through the wall. The stones crumbled around us. Cerebus looked around, saw Stephen and Magnus and swallowed them both. Gregorian turned to face the Hell Hound. The two gigantic predators stared at each other for several heartbeats. I wondered if they would get into some sort of fight. They didn’t. Instead, Gregorian walked around the larger Cerebus and nearer to me.
That’s where Cerebus’s gaze landed next. On me. He stared at me for a moment. I had a vivid recollection of sliding down the throat of the enormous monster. He didn’t eat me. Instead he turned to Rachel and ate her.
“Really!” I shouted, I was kind of tired of rescuing people from inside the beast. He didn’t seem to learn that I was willing to cut him up to get them out. I was sort of ok with him eating Stephen and Magnus, but Rachel was another story.
I thought about what I was about to do and gagged. I gagged again. Then lost it. It worked. Cerebus gave up his eaten prizes and wandered off.
“That is so gross,” Eli commented.
“Not the time,” I fought not to gag again. “Let’s just get these people where they belong and get the pregnant ones out of here and home.”
I turned to grab my sister. She was gone. There wasn’t even a ripple of magic left.
“Fuck!” My voice echoed off the walls and ceiling, returning the expletive to my ears. It sounded harsh and cold in the cave.
“Where’d she go?” Eli asked.
“I didn’t see,” Nick answered. “I don’t know how she got free of it. I used Cerebus’s…”
“I know I saw,” I assured Nick. “I don’t know how she did it either.”
“We were a trap,” Ivy said again.
“I know, we were expecting that,” I assured her.
“No, there were eight of us,” Ivy told me. “They took four, the four that were the weakest and left. They left us four for you to find.”
“Eight? There were eight of you?” The words sounded foreign in my ears.
“Yes, eight of us,” Lisbeth stood and I recognized her. “That bitch took her potion and made four disappear.”
“This is not happening!” I shouted and punched the wall. I suddenly felt the magic building. Her potion had left a residue and Nick being able to use Cerebus’s magic was probably going to end badly.
“Get out,” I whispered to Daniel, my nearest sibling. “Get everyone out.”
I was riding the crest of it. It had swamped me suddenly. The magic was overwhelming. I heard shouting. It was growing fainter.
The magic hit magic and exploded. I was jerked. It felt like I had been harpooned through the stomach and yanked. Portal travel.
I crashed to the floor of a concrete building. My arm snapped with the impact, I rolled over onto my back and stared up into the eyes of Jasmine.
“How unexpected,” she said, smiling at me.
“I hate hearing that,” I told her. “Uncle Levi always says it.” There was a fleeting thought.
“And Uncle Mammon,” I found the thought. Mammon could telepathically talk to me and I could talk to him. Maybe he would hear my pleas if I said his name.
“I admit, your ability to use Pandora’s Box to resurrect Sonnellion was problematic, but I think we found a suitable replacement. Now, you are going to watch us do this and then you are going to die.”
“Don’t tell me your plans, it gives me time to think of ways out of them,” I scolded my crazy sister. Someone grabbed my hair very roughly and jerked me off the floor. The being held me above the floor using only my hair. I had the feeling he was going to be big, like Demon big.
“Fine, sit back and enjoy your last show,” Jasmine nearly skipped across the room.
Roughly I was shoved into a chair, also by the hair. This seemed like an odd and awkward gesture. His hand readjusted and I took the opportunity to break off a horn in his hand. Fire bathed up at him, setting him on fire. He screamed, let go and began running from me.
I screamed my Uncle Mammon’s name, waiting for some kind of response. I also sent a call. However, I believed it was my Uncle that would come to my aid quicker than another Demon.
I was wrong on both accounts. Pendragon popped into existence. Several beings began screaming and running. Pendragon surveyed the scene. Jasmine threw her potion at him. He grabbed my hand as it hit him. We both entered the ether.
Epilogue
Pendragon and I stood silently next to each other. We weren’t de
ad, but we didn’t have bodies. We had effectively been dusted.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone. Pendragon and I could talk. We could also see our loved ones. It turned out that Daniel could see us. He couldn’t communicate though and without me, they didn’t seem to have enough magic to bring us back from the ether. He kept motioning that he was working on it.
This didn’t fix our situation.
We had seen the potion, seen our bodies go through Pendragon’s portal and turn to dust as we landed back in Cerebus’s lair. Mammon had been there along with Levi and my siblings. They had all seen it. They had all cried.
All except Daniel. He hadn’t cried. He had stared at the dust and tried to pull our souls into existence. Nick had joined him a few minutes later, trying to create bodies in case Daniel succeeded. Neither had been able.
Time didn’t exist in the ether. Literally. Our only sense of time passing was watching those around us. They ate, slept, mourned and went about their daily lives, all the while trying to figure out what to do about Pendragon and me.
After a couple of waking up and going back to sleep sessions, Anubis was released from the hospital. A few more and Ba’al and Gabriel were also released. The following “day” Morgana Le Fey, Overlord of the Fey, died.
Ivy Le Fey gave birth only three minutes before the death of her mother. Ivy named the boy Morgan in honor of her. Then Ivy assumed the position of Overlord.
It turned out, Pendragon and I couldn’t enter my house or the Prison. Instead we stayed in the horse stable with my unicorn. Daniel seemed to sense this and came out there often to stare at us.
Another few “days” and Pendragon and I followed a long procession of Elders to the Island. They stood huddled. Daniel made sure it rained, but without touching any of those in attendance as they buried Morgana of the Fey. Someone had already erected a monument on the site. A giant Sidhe Fairy with outstretched wings and crystal tears stood at the spot where her head would lay. The inscription read: