The Darkest Gateway

by Jeri Westerson

  I couldn’t stand it. Someone make a choice!

  Suddenly Erasmus reached down and clasped me to him. He was my choice. I chose him. “I love you,” I said urgently. “Why did you have to do this?”

  “Because I love you, you silly human.”

  “You’re human now too.”

  “Yes, and I’ve detested every moment of it.”

  I hugged him, pressing my face against his shoulder, getting tears all over his shirt. “It really doesn’t suit you.”

  “No, it doesn’t.” He hugged me back, brushing my hair away from my face. I must have looked a fright; face and hair dirty, with bits of creature stuck to the strands. But he’d never looked more handsome, more appealing…except when he was a demon. And darn it, he smelled all wrong. None of the smoke was there anymore. Humanity really didn’t suit him…

  A thought shot through me, like electricity sparking every synapse, every nerve ending. Humanity didn’t suit him at all. It was all wrong. He needed to be a demon again, but not just now. Only at the exact right time.

  “I’ve thought it over,” I said abruptly, pushing Erasmus away and facing Satan again. “And I think, all and all…you should take Erasmus’ soul.”

  Erasmus shot a look at me. “What?”

  “As long as you promise to first destroy the Booke. I mean, that’s the deal…or there’s…there’s no deal.”

  Satan curled his hand under his chin, resting his elbow on his knee. “You know, technically, I don’t have to give you anything in return. Because you’re the ones who walked into my lair.”

  “I know,” I said, giving Erasmus a determined look. He was staring back at me with astonishment. “But…it’s got to be one of the most interesting things to have happened to you in a long time.”

  “Oh, a very, very long time.” Satan cocked his head, measuring me. “So after all that professed love, you think it best to sacrifice your lover?”

  “It’s not that…” I gazed back at Erasmus, trying to let him know with only my eyes that it wasn’t that at all. “It’s just…I mean I’m never getting out of here, am I? The Netherworld is too dangerous for a human, and with the Booke destroyed—as it should be—I can’t get out. And he’s gone to the trouble to become human for me. It’s the last gift I can give him.”

  “Well, that is certainly very true. Demons are not, as a class, brave, you see. Or selfless. I’m certain it will be a tale told for thousands of years.”

  “Exactly. I can’t take that away from him. It’s…the noble thing to do.”

  Erasmus was still looking at me as if I’d lost my mind, eyes flicking toward Satan and then back to me. I squeezed his hand again in reassurance but really, I wasn’t sure either.

  “But…it only makes sense,” I said, “if you destroy the Booke first. Otherwise, it will just look like an afterthought.”

  “You think so?” said Satan.

  “I mean, I don’t know the Netherworld, but I’ve met a few of its denizens and…well…”

  “Yes, I know. Not the brightest demons in the ether.” His eye slid toward the demon with the feathered wings, trying to look like the wall. “Sometimes it’s a bit disappointing. That’s why they travel to other worlds, like yours, so often. They don’t know how to…care.”

  “You could change it, of course. This would be a great story to tell to encourage them.”

  “Hmm. Perhaps. But then I’d have to be inclined to change it and, well…I’m not.”

  I stepped forward. “But will you? Will you destroy the Booke?”

  “You drive a hard bargain, human. Well, let me see the thing.”

  The Booke had been hiding from me and Satan, but I called to it. It argued with me, but ultimately came floating forward from the shadows, trembling a bit. I grabbed it out of the air. This is it, I thought, looking over the worn leather cover, the tarnished brass at the corners, the strange lock that didn’t need a key. I held it once to my chest—because I was feeling what the Booke was feeling and didn’t want to surrender it. But all I had to do was look over at Erasmus—who was still staring at me with hurt bewilderment—and I was done.

  I walked it over to Satan and stood at the rocky edge of his pit. Holding the Booke one last time, I offered it to him. He was so large that he took that big Booke with two fingers and looked it over.

  I scrambled back to my place beside Erasmus. I knew I had to stay close. While Satan was busy examining the Booke, looking like someone studying a miniature from a dollhouse, I quickly kissed Erasmus’ cheek. I hoped I was right. It was a chance. If I wasn’t right and had made the ultimate mistake, I wouldn’t be alive long enough to worry about it.

  “This little thing,” said Satan, tutting to himself. “It means nothing to me. But I have enjoyed how the Powers That Be have squirmed over it, pretending that they had any power. They lorded it over you, didn’t they little Erasmus? Of course, they created you and so have some power, but not much. Only enough to keep track of this thing. But you say, little human, that it has caused chaos. That is the purpose of demons. It is our joy. Except the two of you have found a different joy. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t like that. I don’t like my demons going off on their own.”

  “But my world isn’t your world…”

  It was a mistake. I knew it the moment I said it. His eyes narrowed. “No, little human, it isn’t. But it is my joy in creating havoc wherever I wish, on whatever world I wish.”

  “I apologize,” I said, lowering my face. “I didn’t mean to imply that you couldn’t do whatever you want. You could—”

  Erasmus urgently hissed, “Stop talking!”

  I did. I shut my lips tight and I clutched his hand.

  Satan eyed the two of us, then his gaze traveled up over the walls to the creatures above. I hadn’t really noticed them much, but now I followed his gaze. They looked like gargoyles but alive. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. If he quirked a brow, they’d be on us. We couldn’t hope to run fast enough.

  “I think of them as my children,” he said, sensing my sudden terror. “They consider themselves my guardians. But I don’t need guardians. Do I, Erasmus?”

  He bowed. “No, my lord.”

  “No. I have them here because it pleases me to do so. I do what I like when it pleases me. And…it pleases me now to agree to your bargain.”

  I swallowed my sob of relief. Tears flowed down my dirty cheeks. “Thank you, thank you.”

  He looked at the Booke, still trapped between his fingers.

  The Booke was in a panic. It had never been in this state before and it sent out waves and waves of terror. Back home, it was probably releasing more monsters than it ever had before. And I was torn between dread that I had left my friends in danger of the Booke, and dread because I felt what the Booke felt and I wanted to help it, too.

  Satan stared hard at it. “You are nothing,” he said to it, breath like smoke.

  Suddenly, a bright light burst forth from the Booke. Satan didn’t seem bothered, didn’t squint, merely looked at it curiously. I, however, couldn’t look at it and was suddenly gripped by the searing pain and torment that the Booke experienced. I fell to my knees, gasping. That light shot beams as far as the eye could see, maybe as far as to my own world. The monsters and creatures that had used the Booke as a gateway screamed in one long wail in my head. I felt as if I were being ripped apart and I writhed on the ground, clutching my head, holding the bone and blood together with my hands and will alone. Vaguely, I sensed that Erasmus knelt over me, cradling me, but I could feel nothing but the Booke’s agony as it slowly died.

  Some pages suddenly flew out of it, soaring in all directions. The cavern rumbled, but it might only have been in my head and my twisting body. The roar of thousands of years and hundreds of Chosen Hosts swelled in my brain. And I screamed and screamed with them as their shadows passed over my eyes, hundreds of them, thousands, along with dark wings, curled claws, sharp teeth, black scales—all roiling in a mass like a fevered tornado,
swirling skyward. The Booke flung open, the rest of its pages flipping madly and it screamed for itself with its own voice—so old a voice—until it all died away in a long, lingering echo, until even that was gone and the echoes faded to nothing.

  More than nothing. Absence of nothing.

  Satan let the book slip from between his fingers with only a raised brow. It slammed to the ground with a whoosh of dust, a hollow, empty shell.

  The pain was gone. The screaming and roaring in my head were gone. Slowly, I rose. I felt nauseated, empty, and pretty wobbly. I swallowed down the taste of bile and gingerly shuffled toward the book, barely believing this was happening. Falling to my knees, I reached out and touched it. Nothing. I felt nothing. I used the tip of my finger to lift the cover, but it was just a leather cover and blank pages of parchment. And in my head, it was no longer a capital B-o-o-k-e…but a plain and ordinary book.

  “You did it,” I whispered hoarsely, my own throat torn from screaming. “You did it.”

  “Of course I did. It was nothing to me.”

  I looked up at him, so huge in his pit of flames. I swallowed. My throat felt like it was on fire. My body felt the residual pain of having something ripped away. As if the book had had a soul that had inhabited me and had been pulled out like a dagger ripping through my flesh. So vivid was this image that I put a hand to my chest, surprised to find no hole there.

  I felt lost. Alone. I hadn’t realized how much a part of me the book had become. I ran a hand over my ruined face, wet with tears and fear. I swallowed again and looked back at Erasmus. He was looking at me with terror. All he had ever known was the Booke of the Hidden, and it was now gone. How must he have felt?

  I staggered toward him and he caught me in his arms. He held me fast but he was trembling. When he looked at me, he seemed as lost as I was.

  “We must finish the bargain,” said Satan, his mouth curling into a demon’s smile, too wide with too many teeth.

  I clutched desperately at Erasmus. Had I figured it wrong? Was I making a mistake? If I was wrong, then I’d lose him for good.

  We locked gazes and he looked at me with such tenderness that it wrenched a sob from me. He leaned forward and kissed me gently. “Don’t weep for me,” he said, his own eyes glossy. His hand gently moved my hair from my face and gazed at me with his human eyes. “Remember that I loved you. Remember that I still do.” He bent to kiss me again and I returned the kiss desperately.

  “I love you,” I whispered, and he smiled. But then he suddenly stiffened and threw back his head, mouth opening in a silent scream.

  I gripped him and looked back at Satan. “No!” I cried. I almost told him to take me instead. How I wanted to! But if this were to work, if it were, I had to keep my head. I held Erasmus tight and kept my gaze on him. He was in agony. Maybe I had only felt a small portion of what it would be like to have my soul ripped out when the book left me, because this looked far worse. I tried not to think about how many souls he had eaten and that he had once planned—like he had for every other Chosen Host—to take mine. Instead, I clutched at him, looking into his eyes. Would I be able to tell from his eyes? I couldn’t be too soon, but God help me, I couldn’t be too late either.

  Carefully, I reached into my pocket. My fingers closed on the amulet that had belonged to Erasmus. It was cold where it was supposed to be warm, the eyes dead where they were supposed to glitter with the shine of gemstones. I grasped it in my hand and waited.

  His eyes, so wide open, were almost the same as they were before, but softer, more human. But the light in them was fading. Just a little longer, I told myself, terrified I’d get it wrong. Just a little bit longer. He was weakening. His soul was leaving, almost all of it. His eyes…his eyes were becoming as dead as the amulet’s eyes.

  I couldn’t stand to wait a moment more. I reached up and slammed the amulet to his neck. Immediately it glowed with life. “I release you!” I cried. I didn’t even know if I needed to say the words, but it couldn’t hurt.

  The broken chain snaked around his neck on its own and mended, fastening tight. And the amulet’s eyes! The eyes glowed bright and hot with the demon light, as if a switch had been turned on. I watched as Erasmus’ face, so dull and ashen before, warmed not with human life, but with demon life. His skin was no longer pale, but tanned and firmed with a light touch of sun. His soft angular features sharpened again. His hair seemed suddenly more luxurious. And when he looked at me with those dark and bright demon eyes I knew he no longer doubted me. He understood what I had done. He knew that I had waited for Satan to take his human soul, as much of it as he could, and when it was mostly gone, to give him back his amulet—a part of his demon essence—to restore him back to his immortal state. I’d had to choose carefully. I couldn’t risk that it would be too late and he would be dead, but I also couldn’t choose too early because too much of his soul would remain.

  He was mine again, and with a glisten of love in his eyes, I could tell that he forgave me because he knew exactly what I had done.

  But so did Satan. And he wasn’t happy.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Aren’t you the clever little human?” said Satan, politeness dripping from his words. He gritted his pointy teeth and his eye twitched. “Aren’t you so amazingly clever?”

  “You got your soul fair and square,” I said, pushing Erasmus behind me, as if that would do any good.

  “Did I? Did I get it ‘fair and square’? Did I get every last drop of it?”

  “I…I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure it would work. I tried to give you enough.”

  Erasmus grabbed my arm. “What do you mean you weren’t sure it was going to work?”

  “I only guessed. I didn’t know giving you back your amulet would do it. I only just thought of it.”

  “Beelze’s tail! You were betting with my life!”

  “Well…yes. You were going to sacrifice yourself anyway. And it worked!”

  “If the two of you are done?” said Satan, his voice growing louder and tighter.

  “Oh.” I lowered my face, keeping hold of Erasmus’ hand, which was hot now like it was supposed to be. “I’m sorry. But…the deal is done. You destroyed the book—thank you for that—and in return you got a soul. Most of a soul.” I tried to smile.

  “I tell you what I’ll do,” said the demon of demons. “Pick that up…” He gestured toward the now dead book. “It was intriguing, the whole thing. Your strange little love story. This quaint book. And for that reason alone, I’ll be generous…and give you a head start…of five minutes.”

  “H-head start? What—”

  Erasmus tugged on my hand. “He means run.”

  “Run? Oh shit.”

  I lurched forward, grabbed the book, and let Erasmus pull me up the path. When I looked back—why did I look back?—the gargoyles were fluttering down from their ledges. They were slowly trailing after us. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I clutched the book under one arm.

  I hadn’t quite thought that through. What had I expected? You trick the demon of demons and he’s gonna be pissed. If we could just get out of the Netherworld…

  “Focalor!” cried Erasmus, running past the weird lizard-faced demon trying to be the wall. He peeled himself away and ran with us.

  When we got to the cavern entrance, Shabiri spun and stared, taking in Focalor and then Erasmus. “I’ll be damned,” she muttered. “You did it. You stupid, frail, little human. You did it.”

  “What is she doing here?” Erasmus growled.

  “She helped me get here. She protected me, helped me find my way.”

  He stared at me with amazement as we ran and looked back at Shabiri running with us. “Why would you do that?” he said to her.

  She shrugged as she ran. “She convinced Dougie to give back my amulet. I see you got yours back.”

  He reached for it with his other hand and then turned toward me. “You’re a marvel, do you know that?”

  “And…I’m…running…out of steam.
” I had already traveled for days in the Netherworld on nothing but fear, adrenalin, and a little water, and it was catching up to me.

  Before I knew what was happening, Erasmus swept me up in his arms and doubled his running speed. Focalor, the winged guy, zoomed passed us, scouting ahead. “The way is clear so far, Erasmus. But Satan is still angered. He will send his minions.”

  “I don’t doubt it.”

  “We’ll face whatever he’s got,” I said with more bravado than I felt.

  Focalor looked back at me with admiration. “Oh, Erasmus! This is going to be a great tale! I’ll be very popular.”

  “If we get out of it alive,” I said.

  Focalor looked at me with confusion. “It doesn’t matter to the story whether you are alive or not. Farewell, Erasmus! I hope you live. But if you don’t, I enjoyed this. Part of it, anyway.”

  “Wait!” I said. “Is he just flying off? Isn’t he going to help us?”

  Erasmus watched Focalor wing away but he didn’t seem concerned. “He fulfilled our agreement. He owes us nothing more.”

  “Demons.” I shook my head. “You guys are the damnedest.”

  “Aren’t we just?” said Shabiri. “But it might behoove us to change shape. We’d move faster. I suggest something like a dragon raptor.”

  Without missing a step, Erasmus grew and stretched, all the while holding on to me. His jacket became wings. He looked more like a stingray than a flying beast, but he managed to fly just fine.

  “That’s a really neat trick,” I mumbled, crossing my arms over his neck, pressing the book between us, and nuzzling into him. I hoped we could get out of this too, but for now, I had him back and my heart was full.

  He shook his head slowly. “You had no idea it would work,” he said.

  “I didn’t. But I hoped.”

  His voice roughened when he said, “You came for me.”

  “Of course, I did.”

  He was still smiling when he looked down at me. “Without a plan. You are the most remarkable human I have ever encountered.”

  “And the only one you’ll ever be in love with, mister.”