Crossroads (45 page)

His eyes widened in understanding but he was unable to say anything.

‘That’s right’ she smiled, as she gestured absently and the air behind her began to ripple, throbbing with a strange purple light. ‘We’re going back to the night you murdered her mother.’

Cora stepped back frowning.

‘What’s wrong?’ Charles asked in concern.

‘I can’t pull them back from the Otherworld’ she replied, ‘because they are not there.’

‘What? Where the hell are they then?’

‘Shush,’ she gestured at him absently as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

He dropped down on his haunches, watching her as she sat cross legged on the floor amidst all the scattered herbs and candles, waiting patiently. Minutes passed and he grew anxious. When she opened her eyes and looked at him directly the feeling only intensified.

‘They are in the Underworld.’

‘No,’ he shook his head in denial, ‘it’s not possible, there’s no way.’

She frowned again as she focused on them. ‘It’s difficult to tell what’s happening but they are in Tartarus, the lowest most dangerous pit of the Underworld.’

‘Tartarus?’ he breathed heavily as full blown panic began to set in. It was the feeling only a parent could know, the feeling of utter helplessness when your child is in danger. ‘That’s where Zeus cast down the Titans.’

‘I know’ she mused. ‘It’s weird, I can’t focus on them. It’s like they keep phasing in and out of sync with everything else, like they’re someplace separate and yet not. I can’t really describe it.’

‘You have to pull them out.’

‘I can’t,’ she stood abruptly and dusted the herbs from her dress.

‘What do you mean you can’t?’ he scowled. ‘We had a deal.’

‘We had a deal for a ride out of the Otherworld,’ she told him bluntly. ‘Tartarus is Hades’ domain and no offense but you’ve paid nowhere near enough. One favor is not enough for me to go up against a God.’

‘Then how much is enough.’

‘Cher, can you hear yourself? Some things should not be messed with. If they are in Tartarus, then there’s probably a good reason why they’re there.’

‘There is no good reason to be in Tartarus,’ he disagreed. ‘I want her back, I don’t care if I have to sell my soul to Lucifer himself.’

‘Lucifer has no authority in Tartarus,’ she replied dryly.

‘Stop being deliberately obtuse,’ he growled, ‘can you bring them back or not?’

‘It’s a lot more difficult,’ she scowled back at him. ‘At best I could only bring one of them back, not two.’

Charles closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. If he only brought Olivia back and left Theo in the Underworld there was a good chance his daughter would never speak to him again. She’d certainly never forgive him. But really, what choice did he have? He had to get her back. Okay, so she probably wouldn’t speak to him ever again but at least she would be alive and back in the real world where she belonged. His heart ached at such an impossible choice. If he brought her back, he’d still lose her anyway. He slowly opened his eyes and fixed them on Cora.

‘Name the terms.’

‘Cher, I urge you to reconsider.’

‘Name the terms,’ he repeated slowly.

‘Fine,’ she replied coolly. ‘I want your ability to plant suggestions in people’s minds.’

‘What?’

‘You think this is a walk in the park for me? You’re asking me to spring someone from the Underworld, to go up against a God? The price has to be worth the risk and mind control is a very rare gift indeed.’

He didn’t even want to think about why she wanted his ability to plant thoughts in people’s minds, his conscience could only take so much in one day.

‘Fine,’ he whispered, ‘just bring her back.’

‘Damn, Cher’ she shook her head as she retrieved a small glass ampule from a nearby shelf, ‘she must really mean a lot to you.’

‘You have no idea,’ he muttered.

She removed the glass stopper and stood in front of him. ‘Are you absolutely certain about this Cher? There are no refunds.’

He nodded silently.

Sighing in resignation she began to speak in a low tongue he couldn’t understand, something ancient with a strange guttural quality to it. A tickle began at the back of his throat and he coughed. She continued to mutter and the tickle got worse and suddenly he was coughing uncontrollably, trying to suck air into his oxygen starved lungs, but something felt as if it were trying to force its way up and out of his throat. He gave a final cough and heaved, as a pale amber colored mist smoked out from between his lips. Cora scooped it up in the ampule and replaced the stopper. Charles dragged a deep lungful of air into his chest, blinking rapidly to clear his watery eyes, his gaze fixed on the swirling amber smoke in the ampule.

‘Okay then,’ Cora shook her head, slipping the ampule into her pocket as she began to remove various other containers from the shelves, emptying them out and arranging things on the ground, adding to the symbols and sigils. She stood slightly off center and raised her arms, her voice once again beginning to murmur in the strange guttural language.

‘I truly hope she forgives you for this Cher,’ she murmured as the candles suddenly flared up, the flames burning with a bright green fire.

Sam leapt forward as the demons began spilling out of the tunnel, desperately trying to reach Olivia. Theo also rushed forward running one of them through, as Sam swung his sword and decapitated another.

‘OLIVIA OPEN THE DOOR!’ Theo yelled.

She scrambled towards the entrance to the Crossroad and grasped onto the metal handle, turning it and swinging the door open.

Both of them began edging back towards the open gateway.

‘Theo go!’ Sam swung in front of him, blocking another demon.

‘Not without you,’ Theo ducked under Sam’s arm and slid his blade easily through the demon in front of him.

They looked at each other and then both dived through the gateway as Olivia moved to shut the door. Several demons rushed forward to stop them, but the second their skin touched the door it began to blacken and smoke, causing them to howl in pain and release their grip. The door swung shut with a resounding crack. Breathing heavily Olivia turned towards the center of the Crossroad, where ahead of her she could see a strange purple glow. In front of it was her mother and Nathaniel.

‘NO!’ she shouted and took off. Pulling out her bow while on the run, she took aim and let loose a black bolt.

Isabel turned at the sound of her daughter’s voice. She saw her rushing towards them with a blazing bow made of pure blue flame and letting loose a bolt. She smiled as the bolt hit her shield and exploded in a shower of black sparks and when they had cleared, both she and Nathaniel were gone.

‘NO!’ Olivia screamed in frustration.

‘I could help you, you know,’ a crackly voice spoke from the shadows.

Olivia jumped and turned her bow in the direction of the voice. ‘Step into the light,’ she replied, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

An old woman hobbled out onto the Crossroad. Olivia could see she had been sitting in an old fashioned wooden rocking chair, and her bleak shapeless knitting was in a basket sitting beside it. The woman herself had iron grey hair underneath a strange looking knitted hat. Her face was old and lined, with a wicked long hair poking out of her chin. She wore an old fashioned dress with a shabby moth-eaten shawl around her hunched shoulders which crossed over her chest and was tied up at the small of her back. In fact, the woman wouldn’t have looked out of place during the French Revolution, sitting at the bottom of the steps of Madame la Guillotine watching the Aristos being led to their deaths. She looked like the kind who would sit there cackling in delight as heads rolled.

‘You’re the keeper?’ Olivia asked suspiciously.

‘Yes’ she nodded, eying Olivia’s bow with interest, before her gaze flickered to the two large dragonflies hovering over her shoulder.

‘What’s your name?’ Olivia lowered her bow slowly.

The old woman looked at Olivia slightly puzzled, as if no one had ever bothered to ask before.

‘Marguerite,’ she replied after a moment, ambling slightly closer to Olivia and looking over in curiosity as Sam and Theo appeared by her side.

‘The woman who was just here...’

‘Yes’ Marguerite replied, ‘you’re her daughter aren’t you?’

‘Unfortunately.’

‘You look like her,’ her eyes narrowed as she studied Olivia intently.

‘So I’m told,’ she answered coolly. ‘Did she make a deal?’

‘She did.’

‘And what was it? What did she ask for?’

‘Sorry,’ Marguerite grinned, revealing dirty rotting teeth. ‘Don’t ask, can’t tell.’

‘Where did you send her then?’

‘I didn’t send her nowhere,’ she shook her head.

‘You must’ve,’ she murmured thoughtfully, ‘she doesn’t have the magical ability to open a portal herself. That takes a lot of power.’

Suddenly understanding, she turned back to the old woman. ‘That’s what she asked for, wasn’t it? She asked for power?’

‘I have to admit you West women are a lot smarter than people give you credit for,’ Marguerite replied.

‘Damn it,’ Olivia turned to Theo, ‘they could be anywhere.’

‘I can tell you where they’ve gone.’

Olivia turned back to her suspiciously, ‘in return for…?’

She clapped her hands together in delight at the prospect of another deal and stepped closer to Olivia.

‘I have to admit,’ she pursed her wrinkled old lips, ‘you’re not my usual class of customer.’

‘What’s your usual class?’

‘Desperate and very selfish,’ she replied, ‘but you,’ she shook a finger at her thoughtfully, ‘you’re something different. You are human there’s no doubting that, but there’s something else.’ She leaned in close and inhaled deeply, sniffing at her. ‘Godfire,’ she smiled widely, ‘you hold the secret of Godfire.’

‘What?’ Olivia frowned in confusion.

Marguerite stroked her chin thoughtfully, tugging at that stray nasty hair as if she were seeing Olivia for the first time.

‘I have a deal for you,’ she told Olivia after a moment. ‘I’ll tell you where they went and in return…’

‘In return…’ she prompted her to finish.

‘You must return to the Crossroad and free me.’

‘I’m sorry, what?’ she replied frowning as if she’d misheard her. ‘I think you’re a bit confused, I don’t have that kind of power.’

‘Not yet,’ she answered vaguely as if she knew something Olivia had not yet figured out. ‘When you come into your gift fully you must return and free me from the Crossroad.’

She looked up at Olivia, giving her best sad eyes and stooping a little lower.

‘I’m so old now’ she told her weakly. ‘I’m so tired, all I want is to be at peace.’

Olivia rolled her eyes, ‘you do know you’re not fooling anyone with that little old lady act. You could probably throw us off the Crossroad and halfway across the Universe without even breaking a sweat, so let’s cut the shit here. No deal.’

She straightened up pouting and sighing.

‘No deal?’ she repeated. ‘Now who’s fooling who? There’s no way you’re leaving here without your mother’s location.’

‘I didn’t say I was,’ Olivia shrugged, ‘but let’s be realistic here. A location, in return for freeing you from an eternity of servitude on the only remaining Crossroad? Hardly seems like an even trade, you need to sweeten the pot.’

She blew out a breath. ‘Fine, what do you want, more power?’

‘No thanks,’ Olivia replied casually. ‘I’m quite happy the way I am.’

‘What about your friend over there?’ she nodded in Sam’s direction. ‘That patch job Hades gave him isn’t going to last long. I could send him out of the Underworld where he’d be safe.’

‘No thanks,’ Sam answered, ‘wherever these two go, I go.’

She turned to Theo and her eyes narrowed as she studied him.

‘What about you?’ she asked.

‘What about me?’

‘I could give you back your sister.’

‘What?’ he whispered.

‘Sweet little Temperance. Wouldn’t you give anything to have the little one back again, to have a second chance to give her the life she deserved?’

For a second Theo’s heart thudded painfully, before finally shaking his head.

‘No.’

‘Theo’ Olivia whispered, ‘this is your one chance, you could have her back.’

‘It’s not right Olivia,’ he told her quietly, ‘everything has a natural order. She died a long time ago, even if it feels like only yesterday to me. It wouldn’t be a kindness to pull her back from wherever she has moved on to. If being here with you has taught me anything, it’s that anything is possible. I can only hope she’s in a good place, that she’s with our mother and that she is happy and free from pain.’

Olivia smiled softly, stepping close to him as she grazed his cheek with her fingers and brushed his lips tenderly with hers. ‘You’re a good man Theo.’

He looked up at Marguerite, ‘No deal.’

She growled softly in frustration, ‘there must be something you want?’

‘Sorry Marguerite, if you want out of the Crossroad you’re going to have to up your game.’

‘Alright,’ she answered after a moment, ‘not only will I tell you where your mother and Nathaniel are, I’ll send you after them.’

‘Now you’re talking’ Olivia replied, ‘we have a deal.’

Marguerite held out her hand. Olivia looked at her dirty cracked nails and filthy skin and took her hand, reluctantly shaking it and trying not to cringe.

‘The deal is done,’ she let go of Olivia. ‘Your mother and Nathaniel have gone after your ancestor, Hester West.’

‘Well she’s nothing if not consistent,’ Olivia muttered.

‘When have they gone back to?’

‘They are going back to when she is still a child, still vulnerable. She said something about the night the demon killed the child’s mother.’

‘Damn it,’ Theo swore, ‘he’s going back to the night the girls were brought to my family’s farm, the night Sam pulled me out of the fire and brought me to Mercy.’

‘If they interfere in that event’ Olivia shook her head in fear, ‘not only will you have never been brought forward to Mercy, but the girls won’t escape. And if Hester doesn’t survive, I’ll never be born.’