Pickup Styx (13 page)

The majority of my knowledge on the subject came from a movie with Brad Pitt, which didn’t inspire a lot of confidence, but what did I have to lose? Pride was my sin. It had to be, given my surroundings. Reaching behind me with my good arm, I unzipped my dress and let it fall to the ground. I wrapped the dress around my uninjured arm and smashed it into the mirror in front of me. It cracked. I did it again and again until it exploded, shooting glass-like bullets at me. One grazed my cheek. My eyes watered. Blood dribbled down to my jaw and then dripped to the floor. The damage to my person was worse with each mirror I broke, but I kept trudging forward. My eyes were never hurt, so I could see the tatters of my former self looking back at me. My formerly flawless skin hung in red, swollen shreds. There wasn’t enough plastic surgery in the world to put me back together as I had been.

An ugly voice in my head said that no one would love me like this. I had nothing to go back for, so I should quit. I was ruined. Worthless without my looks.

I pushed forward.

The voice said that no one really liked me. They only tolerated me because I was pretty, but now that was gone. Cheney would leave me if I came home like this. Or worse, he would feel obligated to stay with me. I would be confined to the castle. I would make babies cry.

My hands were heavy, and the pain was almost too much to bear. “Don’t give up, my love. Fight until you come back to me.” Cheney’s voice sounded far away and small in my head.

I swallowed back my urge to cry and let his words fortify me. “I am more than my looks.” I broke the next mirror.

I continued talking out loud because it made me feel less lonely. “I will not repent the fact that I am pretty, but I don’t need it to succeed.”

Glass shattered around me. “I don’t care if I am one massive scar. I will never stop so long as my feet can carry me forward,”—I gritted my teeth as I broke another one—“and then I’ll crawl, but I will make it home.”

“Selene.” Corbin’s voice was faint.

Was I hallucinating? “Must keep going. Must keep going,” I repeated over and over again until my knees gave out and I fell to the ground. If I stopped, I would never leave this place. I knew that. I had to keep going.

“Selene.” He sounded closer now.

I climbed back to my feet and broke another mirror. It hit me with such a force I fell, but this time I never hit the ground. A pair of arms cradled me to his chest, and I lay limp, fluctuating between wishing I were dead and knowing I had to keep going. My eyes stayed squeezed shut. When I opened them, the next round would start and I needed a breather. “Selene, open your eyes.” It was Corbin’s voice. He eased me onto the ground. “You have to open your eyes. I don’t know how to help you.”

I looked up, and it was really him. “Corbin.” A tear slipped down my cheek, stinging all the way down.

Sadness filled his eyes. His hand hovered over me, as if he weren’t sure where he could touch.

“Pretty bad, huh?” Corbin looked no worse for wear. What did he have to do? “Cheney—” My voice broke and I couldn’t go on.

He smiled. “Would be a fool if he let any of this keep him away from you for a moment.”

“Help me up.” I held out my hand to him. “Where’s Simon?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Haven’t seen him since we stepped into the forest.”

My muscles were stiff and blood coated me. Corbin put his arm around me. We moved away from the mirror field and back into the dark forest.

“What happened to you in here?” I asked him.

“Arrogance isn’t really one of my demons.” He didn’t explain any further than that.

“So what is yours?”

He looked over at me. “Betrayal.”

I stopped. “Who have you betrayed?”

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Anyone who gave me the opportunity.”

Shaking my head slowly, I met his eyes. “You didn’t betray me on the bridge.”

“Give it time, Selene. I will. I always do.”

“Minos said you’d tried to free one of his souls before. Did you betray her?” I asked, assuming it had been a girl.

“Yes. Her and Minos, in the process.” He gave me a devilish smile. “I am probably the last person you should have brought with you.”

“Corbin, if a jinn and a guardi—” His hand shot out and covered my mouth.

“Do not utter their names or anything about them here. They have their own trouble and you, my pet, have more trouble than we can handle right now. I have sworn to help you and I intend to try very hard to do so. Now come along.”

When the end of the forest was in sight, my aching body struggled to move faster, needing to escape.

“Psst, get down,” Simon hissed from my left.

Corbin lifted me and ran. A moment later we were next to Simon, who looked a little dirty and beat up, but nowhere near as bad as me. How was that fair?

“What is it?” Corbin asked.

“That.” Simon pointed toward the perimeter.

Patrolling the edge was a huge beast with a face made of a round, corded material that looked an awful lot like intestines. It roared, fire spurting from his mouth, and each step it took shook the ground. Its head tilted upward. Slowly it turned toward us and a roar tore from it like thunder.

“It’s the blood. It smells the blood,” Simon said, looking at me like I was a dinner bell.

“With what nose?” Corbin asked.

It didn’t matter that the demon didn’t have a nose. It knew we were there. Heavy steps pounded toward us. There was no way I could run. Corbin grabbed me.

“Let’s hope he’s slow,” he said. “Simon, go that way. We’ll go the other.”

Corbin tossed me over his shoulder and ran so fast everything blurred.

He stopped and set me down. “We’re still in the woods,” I said.

“He’ll follow us out. We have to do something now that he has the scent of your blood.”

“How do we kill it?”

“We don’t.”

I peeked my head up and glanced around. I didn’t see the demon, but I could hear it in the distance. “Would a hexagram work?”

“I’m willing to try anything at this point.” He glanced back. “Better make it fast, pet.”

I moved out to the biggest clearing, ignoring Simon waving at me to hide, and unwound the ruined dress from my arm. I stuck my fingers deep into the wound on my arm. I groaned with pain, but my fingers came back drenched in blood. I knelt to the ground and drew a six-pointed star surrounded by a circle. Between each point I drew a rune for trapping and binding a demon. I stood back, inspecting my work. None of my magic had worked as I’d planned, but this would. It had to.

“Toss your dress into the center,” Corbin said. “Something to entice it in.”

I threw the soiled garment in before closing the circle. “Nothing like going through Hell in my underwear,” I said as I sat next to Corbin.

He chuckled. “What happened to your shoes?” The thudding footsteps got closer.

“So impractical. I threw them out.” I readied myself to pour energy into the circle as soon as the demon stepped a foot inside.

The demon’s horrific face came into view. It threw its head back and rumbled again. Its eyes focused on the dress. Slowly, it walked toward the circle but it didn’t seem fooled by the garment. “Wish me luck.” I came out of hiding and stood just on the other side of the circling, praying this spell would work.

The beast bounded at me. Corbin started toward me too. I waved him off and braced myself for impact. When the demon was over the circle, I released all the energy I could muster. The demon paused midair. The blood I’d used to draw the circle sizzled and popped, turning a glistening shade of ruby.

I made a face at Corbin. I couldn’t believe it had actually worked. The circle began to spark, and I backed away, grabbing Corbin as I went.

“What’s happening?”

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know. Something was definitely not quite right. The demon fought against the spell but was still suspended.

“Is that going to hold him?” he asked.

I looked at him. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Can you run?”

I nodded, though I wasn’t certain I could. Focusing on getting one foot in front of the other, I did something much closer to a hobble and jog mixed together. We headed for the perimeter. An explosion shook the ground beneath my feet and the circle vanished from my mind. The demon was either dead or free. I pushed my legs faster. Corbin stayed with me though he could have been much farther ahead by now.

We broke through the forest into blinding sunlight. I shielded my eyes as they adjusted.

“Damn,” Simon said then whistled between his teeth.

Adan’s home was simple. High elves lived as one with the land. They didn’t seek to change or disturb it. The space was no more than two rooms, but it brought ease and comfort, much like Adan.

“Erlking, this is a pleasant surprise. Is Selene with you? I missed her at the last meeting.”

“No. She couldn’t make it.” I cleared my throat. I didn’t want to lie to Adan, but I also had no intention of telling him everything. Adan, like everyone else, was on a need-to-know basis.

“Ah, well, she will be missed. How is she doing? Adjusting to being the Erlking’s wife?” He sat and gestured for me to do the same.

What adjustment? Nothing had changed. Selene and I were the same as we had always been. “She’s fine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Have you asked her? It’s an adjustment to go from relative obscurity to being in the public eye. I know the protest must be bothering her as well. I hope she isn’t keeping to her room.”

No, I hadn’t asked her. Since I’d taken the throne, it had been one disaster after another. Who had time to worry about how anyone was feeling? As for the protest, what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. “She doesn’t keep to her room.”

“Does she know about the protests?”

I scowled. “No.”

“I see.” He didn’t look disapproving, but I knew the emotion was there.

“And she isn’t going to know until the time is right.”

“You’re protecting her?”

“I am doing what I can.” There was too much I couldn’t protect her from to not step up when I had the chance.

“Is that the best decision?”

“As much as I value your advice, this isn’t why I am here.”

“Ah, well, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit then?”

“My father has disappeared.” I leaned forward, resting my arms on my knees. “So have the Smaragdine elves.”

Adan leaned back. “Any idea what happened?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. It’s like everyone vanished, but there are no magical remnants.”

“Hmmm, what does Selene think? She may have good insight.”

Why was he obsessed with Selene? “Also, Gemini twins and a water nymph were found dead in Southbend.”

Adan’s eyebrows rose. “That is unusual indeed.”

“There’s more.” I met his wise eyes. “You have known my father for a long time.”

He nodded.

“Do you know . . .if he had . . .”—I searched for a word that wasn’t crass—“indiscretions?”

Understanding lit his eyes. “It isn’t unusual. Your mother has been dead for a very long time. Your father . . .”

I nodded. The meaning was clear enough. He had needs. “I don’t care if he took a lover, but the fae who have died . . . Well, it appears I’m related to them.”

His eyes widened. “I see.”

“I’m at a loss as to who or what is behind all of this. I don’t think my father could singlehandedly kill an entire village and track down my siblings without someone seeing him. But who else would know where to find these people?”

“Elverpige,” he whispered more to himself than to me.

The word sounded vaguely familiar from stories my mother used to tell me, but it was too long ago to perfectly recollect. As far as I remembered an elverpige was the spirit of an elf who was wronged and exacted revenge from those who harmed him or her. “I’m not sure I know what that is.”

“An elverpige is an angry spirit used to curse bloodlines. They have been known to wipe out entire families, but they cannot be raised without a price. It would take a great sacrifice to call one forth.”

“A sacrifice like my mother’s people?” He nodded. “If the bloodline was cursed, then perhaps my father didn’t do it. He wouldn’t want to kill himself.”