As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Well, we can’t just stand around here and do nothing,” I pointed out.
Aaron nodded. “You’re right. That won’t get us anywhere.”
I waited for him to continue, to outline what we would do differently as we proceeded farther into Hades’s domain. Hell being dead wasn’t our problem, as far as I was concerned. Certainly not mine, at least. I wasn’t about to let it stop us from getting the Idol back. There was too much on the line for us to turn back now.
One by one, the heads of the group turned to look at me. First, it was Aaron. Then Fred. Finally, even Vir was looking at me, all of them waiting.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“What’s the plan?” Fred asked when neither of the other two spoke up.
I stared. Were they truly turning to me for orders? I wasn’t in charge of this group. Not when two immortals were with us. They had more experience than I would ever have when it came to this. Why weren’t they making the decisions?
But neither Vir nor Aaron volunteered any ideas. They stayed silent, letting me call the shots. It was almost too coordinated to be natural. What the hell were they up to? I made a mental note to revisit this subject when I had time. I was missing something here.
“We push on,” I growled, putting action to word and stepping past them, going farther down the trail and leading the way deeper into the depths of the Underworld.
I’d gotten about five steps when I clued in that it was only my footsteps I heard. Coming to a halt, I looked back to see that I was the only one who had moved.
“We came here for the Idol, people,” I said. “We’re not leaving without it. Empty Underworld or not. I’m not going to let my parents suffer any longer.”
Silence greeted me as I walked back to them.
“What would you do, then?” I asked the group, slowly swinging my eyes over them. “Would you turn around and go back, is that it?”
There was still no answer to my questions.
“We need to learn more, right? About what’s going on?”
Aaron nodded unhappily. Fred just looked on. I got the feeling he didn’t care what we did. He would just go along with whatever was said. Vir was still silent, but there was something in the way he gazed at me. Something different. I couldn’t place it, and frankly, we didn’t have time for me to puzzle out a god.
“Then, we push on,” I said. “Going back won’t teach us anything new, will it? All it will mean is this mystery will linger. Who knows, maybe we can even do some good by being here.”
“She’s right,” Vir said.
I smiled tightly at him, grateful for his support.
“Aaron,” I said as something came to me, “where did you and Hades exchange the Idol? Was it here? Was it like this when you last came here? If this is a recent change, that might help us figure it out.”
Like, a cynical side of me thought, whether or not this is a trap. Perhaps Hades knew we were coming and had just been preparing this for us all along…
“No,” Aaron said. “He came to my realm. It was easier that way.”
He declined to elaborate, and I didn’t press him on it. Right now, it didn’t matter.
“Okay. When was the last time either of you was here?” I asked.
Vir snorted. “You know that I’ve been trapped in the Direen for a thousand years. Sightseeing wasn’t really a priority when I had to defend my realm.”
I tried not to think of the fact that I’d accidentally pulled Vir back to Earth with me, leaving his realm undefended and vulnerable to the mysterious invaders who had been trying for centuries to conquer it. Now really wasn’t the time to consider all the bad things that might come about from that.
“It’s been a long time for me as well,” Aaron said quietly. “And it wasn’t like this.”
“Fine,” I told them. “Then we move forward. Fred, any objections?”
The final member of our party shook his head. “No, ma’am,” he said respectfully. “I’d like to know more about what happened here.”
I had already started to turn away when Fred added those last words. Something in them made me give him a double-take. He stared back at me, his face still relaxed. Not giving away a thing.
Just another mystery, then. He was coming with us, however, and that was all that mattered.
“Good,” I said, and this time when I started up again, the others all fell into step around me without hesitation.
Okay, you got them all moving, I thought to myself as we marched through the desolate reddish landscape. Now, what the fuck am I supposed to do?
I pondered that question over and over again until we rounded a corner in our little confined pathway and were abruptly dumped out at the top of a gentle slope. The land on either side of us was flat, and the rocky terrain smoothed down into what looked like sand. But that wasn’t what caught my attention.
At the base of the slope, a slow-moving morass of black liquid stretched from left to right, running as far as even my sharp eyes could see. The far side was shrouded in a bank of slate-gray mist that seemed to hover in place.
“A river,” I remarked. “In the land of the dead.”
“The River Styx,” Vir supplied as he stopped next to me, our arms nearly touching.
I didn’t move away this time. My Soulbond was relatively quiet here in the Underworld, but just then, I felt like moving closer to Vir. I was scared, despite the front I was putting on, and a part of me wanted to take solace in his presence. Oddly enough, I didn’t think it was my Soulbond that was pushing me in that direction either.
“Of course,” I muttered, staring at the river. “So then, where’s Charon the Ferryman, hmm? I don’t see any boats anywhere.”
“No boats needed if no Souls are crossing,” Aaron pointed out from on my left.
I didn’t have a good answer to that.
“Something is seriously wrong here,” Aaron continued when nobody else spoke.
“Maybe the Souls just go to he–to that other place, now?” I suggested. “Instead of coming here?”
Aaron had started to open his mouth to stop me from speaking that other name, but I caught myself in time.
“It doesn’t work like that,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Care to explain how it does work, then?”
“No,” he said, not rising to the bait. “But Tartarus is permanent, Dani. It’s always here. It will always be here. I can say that much. And therefore, so should the Souls. Or their Guardians. Where are the demons? We should have seen them by now. Seen something.”
Everyone was silent, contemplating how messed up things must be in the Underworld for it to be this empty.
“Think of it this way,” I said, deciding to try and keep the mood light. “There’s nobody to report that we’re coming to rob you-know-who.”
Aaron didn’t smile.
“I thought it was funny,” I muttered.
“Same,” Fred said quietly from behind me.
“Don’t encourage her,” Aaron grumbled, but there was no emphasis on his words.
“Alright, well,” I said, looking at Aaron, who stood a few feet off to the side, “where does he like to hang out? Where can we find him?”
“His palace,” Vir said, speaking first.
“Right,” I said, turning back to stare up at my god friend. Acquaintance. Guy who I knew. Whatever. “And where is that?”
“At the center of the Pits themselves,” Aaron said.
I turned back to him. Were they playing a game here? If Vir was the next one to speak…
Aaron was staring straight at the far misty bank of the river. “From there, he can look down on them.”
“You know, I’m really starting to like this guy,” I said. “He loves a good view. Smart.”
Fred snorted.
Unlike me, his humor didn’t sound forced. He actually seemed to find my joke funny. I was merely putting on a front, pretending like I was all nonchalant about everything, when inside, I was fucking terrified. But what were my other options? Turn around and leave my parents at Lars’s mercy?
Hell, no. I’d go it alone if I had to if it meant getting them back.
If we were meant to get into the Pits at the very heart of the Underworld itself, then the ferryman would come for us. I couldn’t control that. But I could control whether or not I gave him the chance to appear.
Fighting past my fear, I took a step forward. Then another.
The others followed. I didn’t know if they were scared as well, and I didn’t care. Not then. We approached the bank as a team.
Out of the mist, a boat appeared.
