by E. A. Copen
“He was going to die today anyway,” Guy said. “I know you all had a plan to do this in a controlled setting, but you have to realize Mask knew. Whatever Laz knows, Mask knows too, and has had the opportunity to prepare for it. The whole plan was to inject him with some lethal substance, right?”
I fought to sit up, holding my stomach. It’d suddenly decided that drinking cyanide-laced coffee was a bad thing, and it should start hurting. “Nate was going to help me, asshole.”
Guy winced. “Nate was going to render you unconscious first. That’s how those drugs work, am I right?”
Nate hesitated, then nodded slowly.
“Lazarus, what happens to you when you go to sleep or otherwise lose consciousness?”
I flexed my jaw and tried to swallow the tension gathering in my throat, knowing it would do me no good. “Mask surfaces. I can’t stop him.”
“So if Nate had put you under, chances were good that Mask would surface, attack people, and potentially escape, am I right?”
Everyone looked from Guy to me. I confirmed what he said with a nod.
“You should’ve told someone,” Remy said, pulling her sword away from Guy’s neck. “You almost lost your head, old man.”
“I’d have grown it back,” Guy said with a shrug. “Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have hurt. And no, I couldn’t have told anyone. Couldn’t risk it getting back to Mask. The only way to make sure Lazarus died—even temporarily—was to do it without anyone knowing. I dosed him with enough cyanide to kill twenty men. He’s not going to hold together much longer. I suggest moving him somewhere comfortable.”
Nate sighed, exasperated, then moved to put his hands under my arms. “Help me carry him back to the bed.”
Finn and Emma came to help. I tried to stand or assist as much as I could, but my limbs weren’t working right, and breathing was getting more difficult with every passing second. By the time they got me into the bed, my vision was fading fast.
Nate brought his bag in and busied himself getting me hooked up to several portable monitors, taking my vitals and making notes.
Panic rose in the back of my mind. With my death looming so near, all I could think about was what if I failed? What if the poison Guy had given me damaged my body beyond habitability? Coming back was only possible if my body was intact. I tried to express that worry to Nate, but he just patted my arm and said he’d fix things. Without a clear explanation of what he was planning, I still felt uneasy.
“Get out of my way before I put more holes in you!” Emma shouted from the doorway.
Guy must’ve been keeping her from entering. “This isn’t something you should see, ma’am. It won’t be easy.”
Something pricked my arm, but it felt distant. “Let her.”
Guy gave me an apologetic glance and stepped to the side.
A second later, Emma was at my side, my hand in hers. She felt so warm, or maybe I was just cold. It was cold as hell suddenly. “Lazarus, I’m here.” She let go of my hand briefly to wipe tears from her cheeks.
I tried to tell her not to let go, that I was afraid, but the only sound I could manage was a rasping breath.
Emma lifted her head to look at Nate. “He can come back from this, right? Nate, tell me he can come back from this!”
“He can come back from it.” Guy put a hand on her shoulder. It was a mistake.
She turned and clocked him across the jaw so fast I barely saw her move. One minute she was next to me, holding my hand. The next, Guy was on his ass, holding his jaw. I would’ve laughed at his surprise if I had the air to. Breathing was just so damn hard, and exhausting. Maybe a nap would help.
“Lazarus!” Emma’s voice echoed through my head, but she seemed so far away and underwater. “Lazarus!”
I’ll be fine. I just need to get a little sleep. I knew it wasn’t true, even as I was thinking it. I could feel my heart slowing, things shutting down. My stomach hurt, but so did every other injury I’d ever had. Pain flared in my joints and shot through my spine like a lance.
And then I was above, looking down at my body, weightless, just as I had been when I was searching for all the pieces of my soul. Emma hunched over me, crying while Nate jabbed a syringe into an IV port I hadn’t even noticed him put in. Guy crawled into a corner where he slumped over as if he were asleep. The moment lasted too long to be real, and yet it had to be. I was dead, however temporarily, and yet I hadn’t moved on. Why not? I should’ve gone straight to the After.
Wind rushed by me suddenly, pushing me through the nearest wall. I tumbled out into the open air, where a sucking vortex opened beneath me. Spectral arms reached out to grab me by the ankles, pulling me toward the center of the vortex. I screamed and scrambled to find something, anything that I could use to pull myself free. There was nothing but air.
Strong, ghostly arms dragged me to Hell screaming.
Chapter Fifteen
I woke up soaking wet with a gray sky churning above me, a strange pain in my chest, and water lapping at my feet. It seemed normal enough until I took a closer look at the sky. No stars sparkled, no sun cut through the clouds, and no moon dared show itself. Plus, I hadn’t been anywhere near water when I’d died, which meant I wasn’t in the North Pole anymore.
A massive black cloud floated over me. Eyeballs rolled out from the center of it and blinked at me. “About time you came to. I was starting to worry.”
I screamed, turned over, and clawed my way away from whatever the hell that thing was. The rocky shore I’d washed up on was more of an island. Red clay had turned both the dirt and the edge of the water blood red. A few weeping crimson fruits hung from skeletal bushes at the shoreline. I’d seen the rivers of the underworld before, but not anywhere like this.
“Sorry about that.”
I spun around to see the black miasma was gone.
Guy stood behind me in a three-piece suit, dusting himself off. He glanced down, realized he had an extra arm, shuddered once, and seemed to absorb it. “There. That’s better.”
I swallowed. My mouth tasted like blood and vomit. That’s right, Guy wasn’t exactly human. The black miasma wasn’t what I’d seen when I looked at his soul, which was a good thing since that’d left me half-mad. But maybe that was one of his natural forms, and he had to work to appear human in a place like the underworld.
Either way, he was an asshole for getting us here the way he did. I pushed myself to my wobbly legs, stormed over to where he was, and grabbed him by his suit jacket, shoving him toward the water.
“Whoa, hey! What’s the big idea?” He tried to wrestle loose, but I kicked his shin and he went down. “Dammit, what’d I do to you?”
“What’d you do? You killed me, you jackass!”
“Yeah, but you were just going to die anyway. I thought I explained my position pretty clearly!”
I grabbed his face and pushed it toward the edge of the water. Hungry ghosts clamored to the edge of the shore, black hands reaching out of the river like waves, stopping just inches from Guy’s face. He winced.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t drown you in soul goo here and now!” I shouted.
“Because you need me. You don’t know where the book is or how to read it, and you need that book if you want to get rid of Mask permanently. Besides, it won’t kill me.” He grinned. “And when I get free, do you really want me coming after you?”
Something about the way he said it left me with chills. I released his head. “Fuck you, man. You could’ve done that a dozen other ways. What if that stuff destroys my body? I can’t just jump into a new one like you can. I need that!”
Guy stood and brushed more dirt from his suit. “I’ve got it all under control. I left instructions for your doctor friend to find. All he has to do to fix you up is give you a transfusion of my blood. It’ll heal you right up, and you’ll be good as new in no time. Of course, you’ll feel awful for a while after, but you won’t be dead.”
I wanted to throttle him, but punchi
ng out my only help while trapped in the underworld didn’t sound like a good idea. Besides, it wouldn’t make any difference. The damage was already done. All that was left to do was trust Guy and believe Nate knew what he was doing.
“Okay,” I said, looking around. “Where are we?”
“I thought you knew. Death is sort of your area?”
“Doesn’t mean I have a map of the various underworld kingdoms memorized.” I looked up and down the riverbank, trying to recall if I’d been there before. My memory of my first trip through the seven hells was fuzzy at best, and full of holes at worst. It played through my head like a highlight reel, illustrating mostly the worst parts of the journey. I knew there was the Styx, but Josiah had mentioned a couple of other rivers while we were in the underworld last. It wasn’t like there were street signs either.
But I did know that Charon rowed his boat up and down the rivers, ferrying souls from place to place. If we walked up and down the river banks long enough, he’d show up. We just had to be careful not to go within reach of the water. I didn’t know what it’d do to either of us, but I had a bad feeling about it.
“Come on.” I waved for Guy to follow.
“Where are we going?”
“Walking up the riverbank until we run into Charon. He’ll have to give us a ride.”
“It can’t be that simple.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and strolled after me.
It probably wouldn’t be, but I didn’t know what else to do. If Charon didn’t find us, maybe my presence would attract Hades’ attention – or Persephone’s. It was still her season to be in the Greek underworld, after all, and she had been my Reaper once upon a time.
We walked for what felt like miles on the muddy shore, dark shadows following us in the water. If I looked hard enough, I could swear I saw thin faces staring back at me with hollow, hungry eyes. I tried not to think about it too hard.
The further up the bank we went, the more I thought I recognized the place. A big, empty field stretched out to one side. If I turned on my Vision, I knew I’d see blank-faced spirits wandering around, dead eyes staring straight ahead. This was where all the good people wound up in Hades’ domain. The best they could hope for was a pointless existence, trapped in an empty field. Talk about a bleak outlook.
We came to a branch in the river after a long time walking. Guy and I were just discussing which way to go when a dust cloud rose on the horizon. At the head of it was a chariot pulled by black horses, speeding toward us at an impossible rate.
I squinted and put a hand over my eyes to get a better look at who was driving the chariot and smiled. “Looks like the cavalry’s arrived.”
“Cavalry? I only see one guy.”
“One god with the strength of many,” I corrected and started walking toward him.
Hades pulled his chariot to a stop just before the horses barreled over me, jumped out of the back, and ran to grab me in a spine-crushing hug. “Lazarus! It’s good to see you!”
“Hades,” I squeaked out, “you’re breaking something.”
“I am?”
“Yeah…me!”
Hades released me and took a step back. “So sorry, Lazarus. But if you’re here, does that mean…?”
I nodded and adjusted my rumpled clothing.
“My condolences. Was it at the party? You disappeared. I thought the worst. And now that you’re here…”
Oh, shit. Poor Hades thought his party had killed me. “No,” I said, waving my hands. “That’s not it at all. I did this on purpose.”
“On…purpose?” He frowned and looked at Guy. “Are you certain?”
“Actually, I could use your help. Why don’t you take me back to your place, and I can explain everything?”
Guy cleared his throat.
“And him too.” I jerked a thumb at Guy. “We need to talk, Hades. It’s serious.”
Hades nodded gravely and swept his arm toward his chariot. “Very well. It’s safer in the palace anyway, now that I’ve gotten all the water out and repaired the damage from the Kraken.”
“Kraken?” Guy’s face lit up. “Now, that’s a story I’m dying to hear.”
Hades’ palace was a huge, imposing structure at the center of his domain. Standing several stories tall and built of sandy brick, it loomed over the surrounding valley with its ivory columns and large domed roofs. Walking up the front stairs made me feel like a cockroach crawling into a giant’s kitchen.
The palace was staffed with more souls who waited on Hades and his wife, serving their every whim. From opening doors to placing food on their huge table, they were everywhere. Without them, the palace would seem empty. Suddenly what I’d come there to ask of him seemed rude. Without surrounding himself with souls, he’d be practically alone whenever Persephone was called to the upper world for spring and summer. Being alone in a big place like that would drive a guy mad.
Maybe he doesn’t have to give up all his souls, I thought as Hades ushered me to a long table. How much he’d have to give up and when would be part of the coming negotiation, and only Ereshkegal and Nergal really knew how many souls needed to go back into rotation.
“Can I get you something to eat or drink?” Hades asked, sinking into the seat next to me, his face eager.
I cringed. “If I eat food from the underworld, won’t I be stuck here?”
“Ah, true.” He waved off the approaching servant.
Guy cleared his throat. “I don’t think those rules apply to me. If you’ve got any bourbon, I’d love to wet my whistle.”
Hades sat up a little straighter. “No bourbon, I’m afraid. But I can get you some wine if you so desire.”
Guy wrinkled his nose at the suggestion but eventually shrugged. “Guess that’s better than nothing. I wouldn’t put it in your best glassware, though.”
Hades nodded and gestured to the servant with two fingers. The servant rushed off.
“Now,” said Hades turning back to me, “what can I do for the Pale Horseman?”
I fidgeted with my hands, wishing I could’ve had a drink to calm my nerves. It wasn’t that I thought Hades would hurt me—although he’d be well within his rights to do so after what I’d done to him in the past. We were friends now, and that meant overlooking past sins. Still, asking a guy to give up his fortune for the good of the universe was a lot. I had to approach the subject with caution.
“Do you remember how I told you there’s a piece of Mask in my soul?” I started.
Hades nodded.
“I need to get to the Nightlands to fix it. Guy is going to help once I get there, but getting in will require me to go to Irkalla and speak to Ereshkegal and Nergal.”
Hades popped up out of his seat. “Say no more! I’m happy to give you an escort and provide introductions if need be, although you already seem to know them by name.”
“Introductions ain’t the problem,” Guy said.
Hades frowned. “What do you mean?”
I sighed. “The last time I was in Irkalla, Ereshkegal and Nergal brought a problem to my attention. Their job in the underworld is to process souls and send them upriver, where they’ll be recycled, only that work is getting more difficult. Fewer and fewer souls flow down the river, and it’s not because fewer people are dying and being processed. They say it’s because other underworld deities are holding onto those souls, refusing to allow them to be processed.”
The room was silent for a long moment until the door hinges creaked and the servant returned with two glasses of wine. He placed one in front of Guy, the other in front of Hades, eyed me, and then retreated to disappear in the shadows.
“That’s true,” Hades said at length. “There has been an arms race of sorts going on for an eternity. Morningstar had quite the stockpile. With his defeat, many underworld gods believed they would have a chance to raid his stores and add more souls to their collection, increasing their power. Unfortunately, She’ol has been in a state of civil war. No one has been able to enter, not until recen
tly.”
I sat up straighter. The war in She’ol was connected to Josiah and Khaleda, who was vying for leadership of that kingdom in Hell. I hadn’t heard from either of them lately. If things had calmed down there, and they’d gone off the grid, that didn’t sound good. “What do you mean? What’s going on with the war?”
“I’m afraid the war hasn’t gone well.” He picked up his glass and downed half the contents in a single gulp. “There were four factions: Beelzebub and Leviathan, Morningstar’s generals, Remiel, Lucifer’s formal rival, and his daughter, Khaleda. The two generals had been fighting for quite some time while the other two barely made a show of strength. Then, there were whispers of a peace summit. Everyone went. Only Remiel returned.”
I swallowed. “What about Khaleda? And the guy that was with her?”
Hades shook his head. “No news. But as far as the rest of us are concerned, that means the war is over. The worst has happened, and Remiel has won. The rest of us are stockpiling what we can, expecting all-out war. My advisors predict an impending genocide of the demons in She’ol and that Remiel will soon wage war against Heaven. He’ll need more troops to do that than he has currently. Soon, he will begin courting the kingdoms here in search of allies.”
“Will he find them here?” Guy asked, his tone measured.
“Not in my kingdom,” Hades said firmly. “And not with Osiris. The others have been silent.”
This was going to be harder than I thought. Getting gods to give up their stockpiling of souls wasn’t going to be easy to begin with, but asking them to do it with war on the horizon was impossible. I couldn’t stop Remiel, especially not if Josiah and Khaleda had failed. But maybe I could do something to cool the rising tensions between the underworld kingdoms.
I cleared my throat again. “I came here to ask you to help me gather all the underworld leaders for a summit. The soul crisis is a problem, and not just because it’s standing between me and getting rid of Mask. Eventually, it’s going to cause problems on Earth. We need to get ahead of that. I need to get ahead of that. It’s not something I want to pass on to the next Horseman, and it’s the last problem I have left to deal with. Hades, I need to ask you and all the other underworld deities to release the souls you’ve been stockpiling, at least a large portion of them.”