by Nicole Grane
Chapter 19
“Oh please! Only you two would be kissing at a time like this. How high school!”
We spun around, our staffs at the ready and pointing right at… Havoc?
“I thought you were mad at us?” My eyes narrowed. I didn’t trust the little hellion farther than I could throw her. Damn. I owed her an apology.
“I am.” She crossed her arms turning her back to me. “But I promised Iris that I’d help you and I never break a promise.”
“You mean you can’t.” Antonio smirked. “Not when you make a trade for it.”
Havoc stomped her foot. “Whatever the reason, I’m back.”
“Havoc,” I took a step toward her. “I’m sorry for accusing you of lying. I shouldn’t have tried to . . . kill you.” The apology hurt more than it should.
She nodded, lifting her chin slightly. “I’ll show you where your father is, and Roland,” she added reluctantly. “They’re not far.”
Roland! I’d forgotten about Roland. What was I going to do with him? Was he still my, sort of boyfriend? And why did I have to think so loudly? I could feel the instant tension emanating from Antonio.
“We will help Roland, and then find your father. The sooner you leave this place the better.” He picked up his gear and followed Havoc without another word.
Okay . . . what’s with him? Was he jealous? No, not jealous of Roland? No way. Antonio was way too confident to be jealous of anyone! He’d break Aubree’s hot-o-meter in a second. He couldn’t think for one minute I’d possibly want Roland Vandenberg over him. Could he? They weren’t even in the same league for crap sake! And Roland hadn’t kissed me the way Antonio had, melting every bone in my body. At least I hoped it was Roland.
“Evie!” My honey called.
“Coming!” I hurried along, making my way in between the stone Ragno’s, their petrified bodies giving me a severe case of the heebie-jeebies.
We followed Havoc through a dark tunnel and over a bridge made of— I could almost taste the vomit in my mouth. “Why are there bones everywhere?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer. On second thought, I knew I didn’t.
“Oh, they’re left over from the Mageian’s.” Havoc shouted over her shoulder casually as she hurried along, kicking a femur bone to the side.
I held my stomach, silently praying for forgiveness to these souls for having to use their remains as a path. I could say I’d go to Hell for this, but since I was already here . . .
I stopped behind Antonio. He was standing at the edge of a . . . river? “What is it?” I hadn’t realized I’d whispered the question.
“It’s the River of Souls.” Antonio sighed. “These are the souls of the dammed, and the tortured.”
I gulped. I could hear the distant cries from the river, the pained screams from the souls passing by. “Are we supposed to swim across it?” Please say no, please say no.
“Only if you want to stay there,” Havoc teased.
“No. Do not touch the water or you will forever be a part of the river, your soul, lost, to him.”
He never said who “him” was. He didn’t have to. I could guess. I shivered.
“We must find another way across it.” Antonio spoke to Havoc now.
“There isn’t. Unless you’re me,” she grinned and disappeared again. “Hey! Over here!” She shouted from the other side of the river, her arms waving wildly.
“That’s great for you, but what about us?” I shouted back. As if Antonio and I could simply beam across like she did. Someone’s been watching a little too much Sci-Fi on the “tele”.
“Sorry! I only wish I could teach it. It’s a gift.” She sat down on a rock and relaxed while Antonio and I racked our brains trying to find some way we might cross without getting wet.
Turn the water to ice.
I glanced at Antonio. He was busy sizing up some boulders. Debating whether or not we could use them to somehow leapfrog our way across the river—as if!
“What if I . . . I don’t know, freeze the water?” I glanced his way.
He spun around. “You can do that?” He looked at me like I was a gold metal champion.
“I don’t know, maybe?” It was true, I didn’t know. I only suggested it because the “voice” told me to do it. It had been right before. So maybe . . .
“Try! But do not touch the water,” Antonio warned again.
I stepped to the water’s edge and knelt down, placing my hands just above it. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the faces that passed along the current.
Pagos! The voice commanded.
“Pagos.” The light shot from my palms again, the blisters bursting from the heat. I cried out this time, the pain excruciating.
“Evie stop!” Antonio gripped my shoulders, trying to pull me away. But the force of the spell held me.
“No, look!” Havoc cried from across the river.
The river was slowing . . . the water . . . crystallizing before our eyes. It was icing over!
“You’re doing it Child of Light!” Havoc was jumping up and down excitedly.
The light from my hands had dissipated. A path of ice, big enough for the two of us to walk across had formed. It stretched from one side of the riverbank to the other, a good fifty feet or so.
I stood; my knees shakier than before. I felt drained now, mentally and physically. “I hope it’s not much further.”
“You need to rest. Your—” I couldn’t read the expression on Antonio’s face. His image was all wrong. He looked red to me, like I was staring at him through 3-D glasses.
“What is it?” I panicked.
“Nothing, it’s nothing.” He put his arm around me, and carefully escorted me across the ice.
It creaked under the weight of us, but it held. We made our way slowly, careful not to put too much pressure on any one spot. We both sighed when we finally stepped onto the bank beside Havoc.
“That was clever. I’ve never seen—” Havoc stopped talking. Her mouth gaped open and for the first time, she was speechless. She looked at me with the same uneasy expression Antonio had.
“What? Why do the two of you keep staring at me like that?” They looked at me like I had bugs crawling in my hair. “Oh my God, do I have bugs in my hair? I started flicking my hair nervously.
“Your eyes, they’re red!” Havoc finally spoke.
“What?” I stopped dancing. I looked to Antonio. He nodded in agreement—with Havoc?
“They’re red?” I asked him. Antonio did have a reddish hue to his skin. So did Havoc for that matter.
He nodded again.
“I must have burst a blood vessel or something.” Those weren’t easy spells. To say they sucked a lot of energy from me would be an understatement.
A loud scream echoed from a nearby tunnel.
Havoc groaned. “That would be boyfriend number one.”
“Roland?” I gasped.
Antonio frowned. Either from being indirectly referred to as boyfriend number two, or the fact that I’d acknowledged Roland as boyfriend number one. Either way, I was in the doghouse.
“Yes,” Havoc answered. “He’s been rather a nuisance. I think the pixies will actually be glad to get rid of him.”
“So they’ll just let him go?” I asked excitedly. Finally, something sounding like it was going to be easy.
Antonio scoffed. “No. They’ll fight us.”
“Duh! Of course they’ll fight you. They won’t let you just waltz in there and take what is theirs. Pixies never turn down a fight,” she boasted.
“Great.” More Havocs! “I suppose you’ll help them?”
“Well, I can’t side with you.” She looked aghast. “They’ll call me a traitor!”
“You’re going to fight against us?” Antonio snapped. He looked like he might strangle her himself.
She huffed as if we were putting her out. “I suppose I could just kick you in the ankle a few times. You know, just to appear like I’m trying to stop you.”
> “Thanks,” Antonio replied dryly.
“No problem,” Havoc gushed totally unaware, or simply not caring that Antonio was glowering at her.
“So, how do we fight the pixies? Without killing them,” I added quickly.
Havoc smiled in appreciation. Damn! I was growing soft.