by Pearl Love
The owl grabbed the creature up, but the ekimmu did not vanish. Instead it cast a baleful glare at Tyrell and Jeremy as it was carried off.
“Thisss is not the end, Sssingers. Our lord will reign and cleanssse the earth of you mortal filth! He will walk again!”
The owl plummeted toward the earth at meteoric speed, and the ground split open into a dark abyss that swallowed the bird and its prey. The echo of the ekimmu’s last words were all that remained once the ground closed behind them, leaving nothing but an undisturbed field of grass.
Jeremy’s face was ghostly white as he stared at their fallen teacher. “Mr. Crabtree. Is he…?”
Tyrell shook his head, trying to speak past the shock of what they’d just witnessed. “I don’t know, but what about your brother?”
“He’s gone.”
Jeremy’s voice ached with renewed loss, but he was right. The glow from his pendant had dispersed, and Chris was nowhere to be seen. Tyrell wanted to comfort him, but a pained groan from their teacher called his attention to more urgent concerns. He crawled over to Mr. Crabtree, Jeremy following close behind.
“Holy fuck.” Tyrell swallowed the bile that rose into his throat when he saw the mess the ekimmu had made of Mr. Crabtree’s gut. He was certain the grayish object he could see beneath the gaping flesh was the man’s intestines. Blood spilled from the wounds, soaking the grass.
“No,” Jeremy cried softly. “Oh no.”
“Don’t worry, Jeremy. We’ll take care of him.”
Tyrell looked up at the woman standing over them. She wore a white robe, and he realized she was one of the chanters. Her robe seemed even brighter against her light brown complexion, and a riotous froth of black curls appeared to float around her pretty face. Her hazel-green eyes were kind as she looked at them.
“Who are you?” Jeremy asked, gulping back a sob.
The woman’s smile was gentle as she knelt beside Mr. Crabtree. She placed a hand on his head and spoke softly for a moment. Suddenly Mr. Crabtree sighed, his body relaxing as though his pain was gone.
“We are priests and priestesses of Ereshkigal, goddess of the underworld.” She paused as the remaining robed figures surrounded them. “We are tasked with protecting this world from the evil that would destroy it. You are one of us, Jeremy, as are you, Tyrell.” Her smile broadened when they both gaped at her in silent amazement. “Indeed I speak the truth. You were born to your task, as were those in your bloodline before you. Now come. There is much you still need to learn if we are to be victorious.”
EPILOGUE
“WHERE ARE we going again?” Jeremy had been staring out the window of Mr. Crabtree’s car for the past hour, but nothing looked familiar.
Mr. Crabtree chuckled. “I told you. Wisconsin.”
Jeremy was sitting in the back driver’s side seat and met Mr. Crabtree’s amused gaze in the rearview mirror. “I didn’t think you were serious. Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” He had hardly forgotten that, only yesterday, their band director had been nearly eviscerated.
“Yes, Jeremy. Melinda is a wonderful healer.” Mr. Crabtree rubbed a hand over his stomach. “Other than a few scars, no one would even know I was hurt.”
“Did we have to do this today?” Tyrell asked testily.
When Melinda, the woman they’d met at the Little League game had suggested they gather at their secret meeting place, Tyrell had expressed only mild interest, clearly far more concerned about Kevin than he was in resolving the mystery they’d been caught up in. However, no sooner had the other members of what Jeremy had come to think of as the Ereshkigal cult—for lack of a better name—stopped chanting, the players and attendees had all woken up and gone on about their business as though nothing had happened. Kevin had asked why Tyrell was standing in the middle of the baseball diamond during a game, but had otherwise seemed incurious about how his brother and Jeremy had come to be there. Even the bloody wound from where the ekimmu’s talon had cut him was gone as though he’d never been hurt. As for the rest of the cult, including Mr. Crabtree, their presence had somehow remained undetected.
“Your brother will be fine, Tyrell.” Mr. Crabtree threw Tyrell a brief smile over his shoulder before turning to look back at the road. “My colleagues are good at what they do. No one who attended that game besides us will remember a thing out of the ordinary.”
“But what if those creatures come after him again?”
Jeremy placed his hand over Tyrell’s, which he held next to his leg clenched in a fist.
“There are no more aluuku in our plane of existence right now,” Mr. Crabtree explained. “You two saw to that, and quite handily I might add.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Mr. Crabtree merely chuckled, and Jeremy squeezed his boyfriend’s hand to calm him before he could bodily attack their teacher out of frustration.
Nearly two hours after Mr. Crabtree had picked Jeremy up from his home, they finally exited I-90. He’d suggested they tell their respective parents they were going on a band outing. Joanne had been mildly annoyed to learn that Tyrell had ignored her advice not to engage in extracurriculars while studying for the PSATs, but Tyrell had apparently reassured her that colleges looked favorably on that sort of thing. They’d started out early in the morning, so Jeremy was mostly confident they would be back in time for dinner as Mr. Crabtree had promised.
“What’s out here?” Tyrell asked. His body language was still tense, but he’d relaxed enough that Jeremy figured Mr. Crabtree was safe for now.
“Ever heard of the Cave of the Mounds?”
Jeremy perked up. “Oh! I came here with my family a long time ago when I was in grade school.”
Mr. Crabtree nodded. “It’s a popular destination for tourists.”
“Then why are we going there?” Tyrell asked.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
Tyrell must have realized he wasn’t going to get anything more out of him just then because he merely exhaled sharply, obviously annoyed, and slouched back in his seat to stare out the window. Jeremy was pleased when Tyrell intertwined their fingers, silently communicating his appreciation of Jeremy’s presence.
The road they ended up on, US-18, was fairly uninteresting in terms of scenery. The conversation fell off, so Jeremy turned his thoughts toward what they might find at their destination. It was strange enough they had to travel so far away from the city, but if nothing else, Mr. Crabtree had shown they could trust him completely. Jeremy shuddered to imagine what might have happened yesterday had the teacher and the other cult members not arrived when they did. Neither he nor Tyrell would be there, that much was clear, let alone the players and spectators at the Little League game. Jeremy wondered what would have resulted from the carnage and hoped he’d get answers to that question and more when they arrived at the caves.
Finally, Mr. Crabtree turned right off US-18 onto a small road. Tyrell leaned forward to peer at the road marker.
“Cave of the Mounds Road? Really?”
“Hey, don’t blame me,” Mr. Crabtree said with a grin. “I didn’t come up with it. Anyway… ah yes. Here we are.”
Jeremy looked out the front window at the unassuming cottage-like building they were approaching. He hadn’t been out here since he was seven years old, but it looked vaguely familiar. There was a parking lot in front of the building, but Mr. Crabtree continued past it.
“We’re not tourists,” he said, crooking his lips in a half smile as he met Jeremy’s questioning gaze in the rearview mirror.
Beyond the cottage was a gazebo-type structure that boasted a sign identifying the building as the Visitor’s Center, and farther along the road was a red barn. Jeremy didn’t remember either, but it had been quite a while since he’d visited.
After driving another five minutes, Mr. Crabtree turned left onto what was essentially a dirt path. The car bounced along violently, making Jeremy worry for the car’s shocks. After approximately half a mile, he finally pulled off
the road into a small clearing where several other cars were parked.
“Looks like we’re the last to arrive,” Mr. Crabtree said. “Come on, boys. We walk from here.”
“Thank goodness,” Tyrell mumbled.
Jeremy was in full agreement, his backside aching from the rough ride.
They walked back in the direction of the tourist center, approaching the caves from the opposite side. Approximately two hundred yards from where they’d left the car, the ground opened up into a dark hole. Jeremy could see that the path continued underground, sloping down gently beyond the mouth of the cave.
Tyrell scowled as he examined the entrance. “Are you sure this is safe? I have no interest in being buried alive.”
“This place has existed for centuries, Tyrell, years before the first European settlers arrived in this region. Those loyal to the goddess have been fighting this battle for a very long time.” Mr. Crabtree started down into the cave. “Come on. I don’t want to tell the entire story out here.”
The cave was dark, and within a few minutes, they had completely lost sight of the entrance. Mr. Crabtree had brought a powerful flashlight to illuminate their path, so Jeremy wasn’t too concerned he would step into a hole and break his leg. The slope was steep, leading them deep underground. He shivered as the air around them grew cold. Instinctively, he reached out for Tyrell, both with his hand and his power. Their resonance hummed between them, making him instantly feel warmer. The reassuring grip of Tyrell’s hand around his didn’t hurt either.
“Why in the hell did you people choose to house your secret bunker or whatever in a cave?”
Jeremy blinked as they suddenly stepped into a cavernous room illuminated with what had to be thousands of candles. Mounted on the far wall of the chamber, a golden stylized image of an owl gleamed in the reflected light. It was identical to the owl on his pendant, and he stared at it in confused wonder.
“Because, Tyrell, where better to be close to the goddess that rules the underworld?”
The woman who answered sounded familiar. Jeremy turned to watch as Melinda approached them with a smile, beautiful in her robe of pure white. He realized she looked somewhat familiar too, though he wasn’t sure why. They’d certainly never met before yesterday’s craziness.
“Sorry, we’re late.”
“Don’t worry, Frank,” she said, handing Mr. Crabtree a folded bundle of white cloth. “We just got here ourselves.”
“Who’s Frank?”
Mr. Crabtree quirked an eyebrow at Tyrell. “What, you thought I didn’t have a first name?” He snapped the cloth out with both hands, revealing it to be another robe identical to Melinda’s.
Melinda laughed, and Tyrell blushed at the pretty sound. Jeremy tried to ignore the spark of jealousy that shot through him. He felt somewhat better when Tyrell pulled him close and wrapped an arm around his waist.
“I understand now why these two are so powerful. Their bond is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
Jeremy looked past her to see an older woman walking toward them. She wore the same robe as Melinda and, now, Mr. Crabtree. Her black hair shone in the candlelight and cascaded down her back, reaching nearly to her waist. A few strands of gray peeked through here and there, but her face was smooth, belying the telltale sign of her age.
“Alejandra Martinez, this is Jeremy Michalak and Tyrell Hughes.”
Jeremy remembered the older woman from the game, but at the time, there had been no opportunity for formal introductions.
“I’m honored to meet you both. Come,” Alejandra said, gesturing with her hand toward the center of the cavern. “The others are anxious to see you again.”
“Do we have to wear one of those?” Tyrell was staring at her robe.
She chuckled. “No, not unless you wish to. We wear these as a sign of respect, but you are not yet a full member. You will both have to make that choice for yourselves. We won’t pressure you.”
“But I hope you will decide to join us,” Melinda said. “We have been waiting for you for a long time.”
“Very true.”
The speaker was one of the two figures standing in front of a large table that had been placed in the dead center of the room. The table was covered with candles and books and what looked like stone bowls and knives with black blades. There were several additional items Jeremy didn’t recognize but that made him shiver with foreboding and not a little excitement.
An elderly man walked up to Mr. Crabtree and engulfed him in a hug. “It’s good to see you still with us, Frank. I was afraid even Melinda wouldn’t be able to patch you up this time.”
Mr. Crabtree smiled fondly. “I still have work to do, Joseph.”
“As do we all,” the man said. His dark, almost black, skin contrasted dramatically against his robe, and his salt-and-pepper hair held on in a thin ring around the back of his head. As with Alejandra, his face was nearly free of wrinkles. “Now, are you going to introduce me?”
Jeremy noticed that the man’s gaze hadn’t strayed from Tyrell. Tyrell had apparently caught this as well, because he stared back at the man in a clear challenge.
“This is Joseph Roper,” Mr. Crabtree said.
“Oh, my.” Joseph gave a hearty laugh as he met Tyrell’s gaze. “You do remind me of her.”
“Remind you of who?” Tyrell asked.
“Your grandmother,” the last woman said. Her pale skin seemed to glow beneath the candlelight. She looked to be around his mother’s age, Jeremy guessed, except her blonde hair was free of any hint of white. Her smile was reflected in her gray eyes, but her expression softened with melancholy. “And you must be Christopher’s brother.”
Jeremy stared at her in shock. “You knew my brother?”
The woman nodded. “Very well. He always said you were special. Somehow he must have known.”
“Known what?”
“That you would replace him,” Mr. Crabtree said. “This is Susan Falls.”
The blonde woman bowed her head in acknowledgment of the introduction. She reached out slowly with a hand and placed it gently over Jeremy’s pendant for a brief moment, a wistful smile on her face. “I still remember the day I gave this to your brother to help him focus his powers.”
Tyrell exhaled sharply. “What the hell is going on? How did you know Christopher, and how in the hell do you know my grandmother?”
“Because Lucille and Christopher were our last Singers before you,” Alejandra said, her gaze intent as though willing them to understand.
Jeremy gaped at her. He didn’t quite know how to feel, torn between shock and hurt that Chris had kept such a huge secret from him. But he couldn’t fault his brother. It wasn’t like he would have believed Chris if he’d told him something so incredible.
“My grandmother was a bank teller,” Tyrell growled. “She wasn’t part of some cult.”
Susan laughed. “We are not a cult, Tyrell.”
“And Lucille was certainly one of us,” Joseph added. “As was your brother, Jeremy. Knowing what you know now, do you still think his untimely death was a coincidence?”
“My God,” Jeremy breathed. “He really was killed by an aluuku?”
Melinda’s face was grim as she nodded. “I’m afraid so. A group of them caught him alone and….” Her eyes flashed with a spark of profound pain. “And I wasn’t there to save him.”
Susan wrapped her arms around Melinda as the younger woman fought back tears. Jeremy suddenly wondered if there had been more between her and Chris than a common cause.
“What about my grandmother?”
Joseph placed a hand on Tyrell’s shoulder and squeezed. “The doctors diagnosed her with dementia two years ago, right? Hmmm,” he breathed when Tyrell nodded. “They’re wrong. She tried to save Chris when he was attacked, but she found him too late. Though she was able to fight them off for a while until we arrived to intervene, she wasn’t strong enough to withstand the damage they inflicted. There were simply too many of them, and there was
nothing we could do for Christopher.” Joseph’s brow furrowed sharply in a deep frown. “Though I know we had no choice, leaving him behind like that will always be one of my greatest regrets.”
“Unfortunately, they weren’t nearly as powerful as you and Jeremy,” Susan added as she patted Joseph’s arm comfortingly.
“They left poor Lucille a shell of her former self, but she always knew you would be the one to take her place, Tyrell,” Joseph said before turning to look at Jeremy. “Just as Christopher was aware of your potential.”
“So what are you saying?” Jeremy asked.
Alejandra folded her hands in front of her and fixed them with her dark gaze. “In every generation there are Singers destined to fight the aluuku, but some are more powerful than others. While Singers always arise from certain bloodlines, compatibility matters. Christopher and Lucille grew quite close in the three years they worked together, but their connection didn’t begin to match what I sense from the two of you.”
“You are the Singers we have been awaiting for millennia,” Mr. Crabtree said. “The Singers foretold in the prophesies. The weapons of the goddess. And now that we have found you, we hope to at last gather the others. The Seekers and the Saviors.”
Jeremy blinked at Melinda when she walked up to him and Tyrell and took one of their hands in each of hers.
“There is still much for you to learn about both the danger we face and your powers, but with you, we may finally be able to end the threat of the evil god Nergal once and for all. Will you help us?” Her pretty eyes shimmered with tears. “Will you join us?”
Jeremy glanced at Tyrell, who looked back at him with an expression that clearly bespoke his uncertainty. However, behind Tyrell’s eyes, he could see the same answer that was in his own heart. Together, they turned toward their new allies. Tyrell spoke for both of them.