by Helen Scott
Emmett had gone upstairs and gripped the top of the carpet while I gripped the bottom. Between the two of us, we had the whole thing off in a matter of a few minutes. Getting it started had been a challenge, but after that, it was like tearing a piece of paper.
As I began moving from step to step, I noticed that the wood panels underneath were stained and in pretty good condition. None of them were broken enough to be hiding a ring. I wasn’t sure what to do. If I couldn’t find it, she’d be trapped here until her spirit basically disintegrated. And wasn’t that a warm and fuzzy thought?
“Is there any way to get under the stairs?” I asked Emmett, who had been watching me with laughter dancing in his eyes the whole time.
“Sure.” He grinned, and I knew he was up to something.
Emmett bounced up onto his feet and was down the stairs and around to the side before I could catch up with him. I expected a latch or hidden panel or something that I had missed. What I didn’t expect was for him to pull back and kick the wood paneling that covered the space under the stairs. His foot went straight through the wall and into the cavity behind.
The fact that it was completely hollow surprised me. I waited and watched as he kicked again and again, widening the hole until it was big enough for me to slip through.
“What the hell is going on down here?” I heard Knox’s voice from where I was under the stairs, but I couldn’t see him.
“Poppy needed to see under the stairs,” Emmett said, as though it should make total sense.
“And that meant you had to destroy the paneling?”
“Yep. Besides, I’ve always said this would make a good storage place. Since we have to fix it now, we can just make it a door.” The smug tone in Emmett’s voice made me smile. There was more to him destroying this wall than just helping me.
I used the flashlight app on my phone to look at the bottom of the stairs, hoping to see that precious piece of metal while simultaneously avoiding the cobwebs and spiders. Who knew how they even got under there, much less how they survived.
When my search yielded nothing, I moved to the floor. The old hardwood floor panels looked dirty and worn from lack of attention due to being locked away for the past however many years. I kept searching, crawling on my hands and knees, hoping to find the ring. When something glinted in the corner, I held my breath until I could confirm it was the ring. As I moved closer, I found the smooth band of gold that had been winking at me. The metal was clearly worn, and when I picked it up, I could almost see an inscription on the back.
“I found it!” I called out before squeezing my way back through the hole in the wall.
“Well, at least it wasn’t a complete waste of time,” Knox said, grumpier than I had expected at the destruction of the wall.
I rubbed the old gold with my T-shirt, getting some of the dirt off before trying to read the inscription. “What does that look like to you? Mabel?”
The ghost appeared next to me, stronger than ever before. The guys startled slightly, although they tried to hide it.
“You found it!” Mabel smiled.
“Mable and Bernard forever,” I said, reading the inscription aloud. “That’s sweet.”
“My Bernard was my treasure,” she said, a trail of ghostly tears running down her face.
“Why don’t you come with us, and we will see if we can reunite the two of you?” I asked.
“Can you do that?”
I looked over at Knox and Emmett. “We can do that, right?”
“I’m sure the judges keep records. Once we get down there and claim your throne, then we can figure it out,” Emmett said.
“It won’t be fast or easy, but yes, we can contact the other realms that are for the dead and see if they can find him, provided he’s not already in the Underworld.”
“Then yes, I will gladly come with you,” Mabel said as she took off the apron she was wearing and hung it on a hook just inside the kitchen. The garment faded from sight, and I wondered if that was permanent or if she’d be able to wear it when we got down to the Underworld. My brain rebelled for a second as I realized I was actually debating how a ghost’s clothing worked. When did that become normal?
“Come on, we need to get on the road. We don’t know if Alpha will have made it to the Underworld before us, and while I doubt Charon would give them a free ride, I don’t want to risk it,” Knox said.
I nodded. The reminder of the threat we faced sobered me, and the joy at finding the one precious possession of my new ghost friend was short-lived. “Just give me a minute to grab some clothes,” I said as I turned down the hall.
“No need. The guys packed as much as they could, which turned out to be a lot,” Knox said.
“Maybe she should just double-check what we are leaving behind?” Emmett asked.
“No, it’s okay. I trust all of you.” I grinned up at him and tucked the ring in my pocket. I knew that was all I needed to bring Mabel along with us, just as I knew that once we were in the Underworld, she wouldn’t have to work so hard to remain visible. Some of the knowledge I needed seemed to be slowly bubbling up from the depths of my ancestry.
We were all back in the car, which we had restocked with snacks, and on the road in no time. The countryside flew by, flat fields covered in corn and soy beans, towns that punctuated the empty expanses, and even a forest preserve or two on the way.
“It’s just up ahead here on the left,” Emmett said quietly.
The car was packed to the brim. There was no relaxing, no cuddling. Everyone was just trying not to get in anyone else’s way, so at the mention of possibly almost being there, an excited buzz formed in my chest. When I realized that that also meant we were going to be opening a portal to the Underworld and leaving this one behind, the excitement quickly turned to gut-churning anxiety.
I still had no idea what it would actually be like, or what we would find when we got there. This could all go horribly wrong, and I could be leading these seven men to their deaths. I also knew what would happen if I didn’t go. If I stayed in the mortal realm, then Alpha could claim the Underworld for themselves, or worse, Hel could claim it so she could have an even bigger army for Ragnarok. Either way, the human realm, the earth, would become the breeding ground for slaughter and terror.
We pulled up in a forest preserve parking lot, the green-and-brown wooden sign announcing that we were at a scenic spot for the Illinois River. Big logs marked parking spots, and when the SUV stopped, we were all anxious to get out, stretch our legs, and breathe fresh air.
Trees towered over us, the line of the forest beginning just a short walk from the car. I could hear the river rushing nearby, and I couldn’t wait to see it. I had always loved water—swimming, beaches, everything. One of the things I’d always wanted once I had a place big enough was a huge fish tank.
When Knox and Emmett started unloading the car, I grew concerned. I’d thought we were driving to the Underworld. “So, what’s next?” I asked as I walked around to the pile of suitcases in the back.
“We get on the boats and head out onto the river,” Knox said. He was always so stingy with words. I wasn’t sure how he was able to get his point across most of the time.
“Okay, then what?”
“Then we open a portal to the Underworld and sail through to the river Styx, where you get to meet Charon, the ferryman,” Emmett said.
“But we don’t have a boat,” Derek added, coming up beside me.
I smiled at him, thankful that someone else was concerned about the flaws in their plan.
“Sure we do, it’s just in the water,” Emmett responded with a grin. “Follow that path through the trees and it will lead you down to the shore.”
“Here, take this,” Knox added as he handed me a backpack and a carry-on suitcase.
I took the luggage, still unsure of the plan, but I followed the path they had directed me to. Derek and Shadow were close on my heels as we wound through trees and eventually found our way to a stony
shore. Two small canoes were tied to a stake that had been stabbed into the ground who knew how many years ago.
“They can’t be serious,” I muttered under my breath.
“Oh, they are,” said Cass as he strode up next to me.
“If we all pack into those with all this luggage, then they are just going to sink.”
“They won’t sink, and they are bigger than they look,” Knox said as he and the rest of the hellhounds came up beside us. I looked at the canoe again. The almond shape with three bars going across it didn’t even have enough sitting space for all of us, even with two of them.
Hunter appeared out of the trees a moment later. “Are we ready?” His voice was always so controlled that I noticed a little excitement edging his tone as he spoke.
“As I’ll ever be.” I smiled over at him.
“One more hurdle, and then it’s all over,” he said quietly as he came up and wrapped me in a hug. I felt a faint peck of a kiss on my cheek and was so startled, I didn’t know how to react. He was gone before it mattered, though, as he walked over to the canoes.
“How are we all going to fit?” I asked.
“Because these were made by Charon himself. Magic pulses through every plank of wood and every joint.” He looked me squarely in the eyes, and I knew what he was saying was true. “Let’s put the luggage in this one, and then we can just tie it to the back of the one we will use.”
I could hear the judges around me start to speak up, to express their concerns that we weren’t all going to fit.
“Trust us,” Knox said, turning to the sounds of half-muttered thoughts.
We made quick work of loading the first canoe up with all our stuff, not that I had any idea how much of it we would need. Knox and Emmett tied it to the back of the other canoe and pushed it out into the river. It all just about fit, although some of it was piled high enough that it made me worry that we would lose it. My hounds didn’t seem worried, though, so I pushed the thought from my mind.
“Ladies first, angel. We need you to sit at the front,” Knox said as he extended his hand to me, helping me clamber into the wooden boat.
“Judges next, and then Nolan and Hunt,” Emmett said.
The guys climbed in behind me, and I heard the wood creaking under our weight. My skepticism reared its ugly head, and I had to wonder how we were going to get this thing to float, let alone move once the rest of them got in. The creaking got louder then, and I turned to look.
The whole canoe was stretching out behind the judges, adding another two rows of seats.
Nolan and Hunt climbed on, with Hunter coming to sit next to me. He pulled a knife from his boot and handed it to me. “We’re going to need some blood, I’m afraid.”
“Figures,” I said, nudging him with my shoulder. “Anyone would think you guys are vampires with how much all of this depends on blood.”
He shuddered and said, “Thank the gods we’re not.”
I felt the canoe shift then, and when I looked back, I saw that Emmett and Knox were both pushing it into the water. Once they were up to their thighs in the river, they hopped in, and suddenly, we were floating along with the current, which was moving a lot faster than it looked from the shore.
“Are you ready?” Hunter asked.
I gulped in some air and nodded.
“All you have to do is cut your hand and drip your blood into the river while mentally calling to Charon.”
“How will he hear me?”
“Darling, if you don’t believe in magic by now, then there’s no hope for you.” Hunter chuckled, and I relished the sound.
I looked over at him for a moment and watched as his auburn hair glowed in the sun. His green eyes were radiant as they shimmered in the light reflected off the water. For the first time, I really noticed the pattern that his freckles formed across his nose and cheeks. They almost looked like different constellations, even when they were dusted with the strawberry-blond hairs of his five o’clock shadow.
“Now is not the time to lose focus, Poppy,” he scolded me with a grin.
It wasn’t that I was losing focus. It was more that he was acting so weird. Then it hit me. I was officially further than Katherine had been, and he was starting to let himself believe that I was going to survive this crazy thing. The thought made my heart glow with warmth. I knew I was going to survive, or at least I hoped I would, but it was nice for him to start to believe it as well.
I sighed, happy with the new behavior from Hunter, and sliced the blade across my hand, trying not to hiss in pain.
“You’ll have to go deeper than that,” he said as we watched my hand close up immediately after I pulled the knife away.
The thought of doing it again made my stomach churn, but I didn’t have a choice. This time, I looked away, focusing instead on the farmlands we were passing as I dug the blade into my flesh. I couldn’t stop the whimper from escaping me as I drew it across.
Before I even had a chance to think about it or look at my hand, Hunter had taken the knife and moved my hand over the side of the canoe. “Call to him and ask him for safe passage for the queen and the royal court.”
I did as he asked, pushing my energy out into the space around us, asking for help, asking to be allowed to cross into the Underworld so I could claim my throne. When nothing happened right away, I thought I had done something wrong, or that Charon didn’t like me, but then as I continued to bleed into the river, everything started to shimmer.
A little way down, it looked as if the river were on fire, not just any fire, though, the fire that I saw within myself, the one tinted with all the colors of my judges and hellhounds. As the flames spread out over the river, I was expecting something to happen, but instead, it just looked like an oil spill that was on fire, only without the billowing black smoke.
When the canoes approached, I realized that the portal wasn’t sitting on top of the river like I’d expected, but was instead in the river itself. The water was flowing around the flames. A gaping black hole had taken up its place, and we were heading straight for it.
As the canoe began to tip, I couldn’t stop the scream that escaped me. I hated roller coasters. Something about the lack of control turned me off, which was exactly what I felt as we headed toward the portal. Hunter’s arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me into him. I tucked my head against his chest, praying that he knew what he was doing. It felt as if we were all about to fall, and I had no idea where we would land. Before any of us could protest, the darkness surrounded us, and we were going over the edge.
Thank you for reading!
Want to find out what happens with Poppy and the hellhounds next?
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Don’t forget to check out Helen’s other series.
The Siren Legacy
The Oracle (A Siren Legacy Novella)
The Siren’s Son
The Siren’s Eyes
The Siren’s Code
The Siren’s Heart
The Banshee (A Siren Legacy Novella)
The Siren’s Bride
Fury’s Fire
Fury’s Valentine
Wardens of Midnight
Woman of Midnight (A Wardens of Midnight Novella)
Sanctuary at Midnight
Cerberus
Daughter
of Persephone
Daughter of Hades
Queen of the Underworld
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank you most of all, as the reader, for giving me a chance to entertain you and invite you into my world. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you to Amanda Munson for suggesting the awesome band name of Forsaking Midnight!
A big thank you to my cover designer, Natasha Snow, for helping me bring these books to life, and to my editor, Courtney Umphress, for making sure that the readers get the best possible version of the book.
Thank you to my family for helping me pursue my dream and putting up with my wandering mind.
Last, but not least, thank you to my husband for pushing me to share my stories with the world. Thanks for putting up with me every day, babe. You’re amazing!
About the Author
Helen Scott lives in the Chicago area with her wonderful husband and furry four-legged kids. She spends way too much time with her nose in a book and isn’t sorry about it. When not reading or writing, Helen can be found absorbed in one video game or another or crocheting her heart out.