Chapter Nine
“If I would have known about you before I took over the First Underworld, I wouldn’t have had to employ an army,” said a female voice. “I have to commend you on your job here, and killing all of your…I guess they were your friends.” Her voice licked my ear like a flame.
I didn’t reply, didn’t scream, and didn’t care what happened to me. I could only stare at Will, Piper and Loki. It was like I was watching a horror movie, only I couldn’t turn away or shut it off.
“Don’t be worried about them poppet, they were holding you back,” she said standing behind me wrapping her lizard-like claws over my shoulders. “Come with me, and let me show you your true destiny.”
I numbly followed, letting her guide me through the short maze to a room filled with graceful fountains of fire, black walls that looked like cooled lava, and a ceiling with crystalized spikes pointing downward. I gazed up at them hoping she would kill me with one of them.
“I’m Eve, in case you haven’t figured that out, but I’m sure you did because you’re not a stupid little human, are you?” She folded her black wings behind her as her eyes with slits of fire for pupils, stared at me.
She had long black hair, pale skin, and a pointed tail just like Bea. She was beautiful and ugly at the same time. I couldn’t take my eyes from her.
“You, my little pet, are a gem,” Eve said sitting in a lava formed chair as her long coat curled around her black, scaled, lizard feet.
She then flicked her wrist, and a thin stick extended from her pointed claws. She held it out and from behind her a hand extended from the shadows. An orange flame hissed, lighting her stick. She pressed it to her lips, and a puff of blue-grey smoke filled the air. It rolled through the air towards me like fingers.
The smoke lingered around me as I coughed it out. Eve let out an amused chuckle.
“Most would kill just to have a breath of my smoke,” she said standing up. “You have a lot to learn here, don’t you?” Her voice was like hot ash to my insides.
“What do you want?” My voice was dry, and I wanted to get to the point.
Her red stained lips curled into a smile. “Why, I already have mostly of what I want, but there is one thing that I desire—the trident.” She walked around me in circles, and then stopped to face me. “You can get it for me.”
I shook my head. “I’ve lost everything…I don’t have to help you, and I don’t care what you do to me.” Eve gazed at me with a tilt of her head as if she was coming up with some horrible thing to do to me.
“I agree, you don’t care what I do to you because you’ve killed your friends, Rosie died in vain protecting you, and the trident is still on the table for us demons to squabble over.” She smiled, “but what about their souls, human?”
I gazed up at her. “Yes, they’re still here…waiting. Loki, Piper, and even Will…the one you care for.” Eve walked away with a smile, and her tail flicking in the air just like an angry cat’s tail. “There’s still a little more I can extract from you, if you don’t do as I ask.”
“Mother, stop!” Bea’s voice cut through the air.
She stood in the entrance that I came through earlier. Bea looked at me with her blue eyes as her slick black hair had been pulled up into a loose bun. She looked every inch of the human she’d always appeared to be. This seemed to upset Eve who glared at her with clenched teeth.
“You’ve played long enough, and you can’t have it. You can’t have the demon trident because I’ve hidden it.” Bea stood in front of her mother.
“You lie,” she walked away with a flip of her tail. “And why are you letting yourself appear that way? You’re a gorgon, not human!” Eve smacked her foot on the ground as the overhead spikes clanked together. “Somewhere in this world was an unexplained earthquake, one that those funny little scientist can’t explain, and never seen coming.” She laughed as she sat back in her chair.
“That’s the power you could have daughter.”
Bea shook her head. “I don’t want power, I want…”
“You can’t have her.” Eve leaned forward. “I raised you to take my spot, to rule with my power that I will leave behind one day. All of this that I worked for…and what do I get in return?” Her eyes flickered with flames. “My daughter who fell in love with a human, joined our enemies, and now says she hid the trident from me. The one thing that can destroy all that I create!”
Eve got up, walked to the center of the room, and with her hand, pulled in an upward motion as if she was tugging on an invisible rope.
“Here, this is what you want?” She pointed to the blonde haired girl dressed in jeans and several necklaces around her neck. It was unmistakably the girl at the clothing store—Ivy.
“Bea let out a growl, and turned immediately into the gorgon she was. She pounced towards her mother with tail lashing, teeth snapping, and fire flickering in her eyes. Eve let out a joyous laugh as her daughter circled around her.
“Now, that’s my daughter.” She nodded with approval.
“Let her go.” Bea demanded.
Eve’s lips curled into a smile. “Give me the trident.”
Bea gazed between Ivy and her mother.
“Come daughter,” she said widening her eyes. “Give me the trident and your girlfriend lives—the choice is yours.”
Bea took in a ragged breath as she looked back at her mother with spite.
“Why do you make me choose?” Her words were soft as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Eve stiffened and glared at her daughter.
“Because you’re weak,” Eve said as if her words were tiny scalpels slicing the dry air. “And weakness will kill you faster than any enemy possibly could.” Eve delicately twirled a few hanging strands of her daughter’s hair through her pointed fingers. She gazed tenderly then with a sudden jerk, she pulled out some of Bea’s hair. “Now choose because I don’t mind killing another human. They’re like bugs to me!”
Bea trembled as she knelt to the floor sobbing. Eve shook her head and raised her hand over Ivy.
“No!” I yelled. “If you want the trident I know where it’s at. Bea’s lying, she doesn’t have it.”
Bea’s eyes darted to me with flames burning behind them. Eve’s expression turned placid as she walked towards me.
“Now it seems we have an issue here, and I’m sorry darling,” Eve said turning to Bea and then back at me with a slap across my face with her sharp claws. “You lie!”
I fell to the ground with blood trickling down my cheek. My skin flamed with heat as I touched it with my hand. I could feel the gash as a bubble of anger shook inside of me—just like a tremor before a major earthquake. I wanted to kill Eve, it was simple. Everything faded around me, and I could feel my insides melt into something dark and unruly, almost demon-like. But even though my insides felt strong, I was still a human against a gorgon. Like a bolt of electricity, I then remembered I had the Fae sword still in my pocket.
“You don’t know where it is, but I do.” She gazed at me with her wild eyes as she picked me up by my hair. “The only bad thing for me is that I can’t retrieve it, but you can.”
She threw me through the air, and I landed against the hard wall with a crack. Stars filled my eyes as I tried to focus on Eve.
“The dwarf was to bring me the trident, and you have no idea how long I had to pretend to be his friend. He was an easy little thing to trick. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can acquire such a nice present again.”
I pushed myself up as she smiled at me. “The trident went to the landmerrows. They have many little fingers that like to latch onto things like that.” She then flipped her long cape through the air as she walked.
It flowed through the air like black ink, and when it curled back around her legs, a large crystal globe stood on a pedestal. It glowed in pastel colors, and looked out of place among all of the charred blackness that su
rrounded us.
“It’s hard to say where it’s at now, but these are the landmerrows major routes.” She ran her hands over it as I stepped closer.
Bea gazed into it shaking her head. “You’ll never find it there.”
Eve grabbed her daughter’s chin, and looked into her eyes. “You will find it darling because I’m giving you a time limit.” She flicked her hands and from the ground came an hourglass. It was large with black sand pouring through grain by grain, and piling up on the bottom. “As you can guess, when the sands have fallen through, so will your lover,” she said gazing back at Ivy. “She will descend into darkness.”
Bea gritted her teeth, and Eve deepened her smile.
“Don’t worry over this daughter—I usually don’t give my children a chance like this.”
Bea’s eyes were steady on her mother as she fumbled with something inside her coat. She then flicked her eyes to me as her lips parted and eyes filled with black tears as Bea looked at Ivy. She ran her hand over her image.
I looked at Ivy. I couldn’t help but to feel the weight of everything fall upon my shoulders. It was my fault Ivy was dead, and now in Eve’s prison, my fault that Rosie had to die protecting me when it was supposed to be a trained guardian instead of some shoplifter that was supposed to live at The Blue Moon Hotel. It was my fault I had unintentionally killed the ones who tried to protect me. And now, I was supposed to bring Eve back the demon trident.
Instead of fear, anger began to fill me. I could feel my skin tingle, especially where my tattoo was. It felt like it had grown roots into my very being. I glared at Eve who laughed at me with delight.
“Take your pet, and go. Bring me…” Before she could finish I reached in my pocket, extended the Fae sword, and pierced her through her heart.
She looked down in horror as her flesh began to turn grey that took over her body like frost. She had turned to stone that quickly cracked with orange flames seeping through.
I stood in horror as the stone crumbled revealing the red-orange fire of Eve’s body. She let out a deep growl as Bea charged towards me shoving me to the ground.
My head smacked the ground and a quick blackness covered my eyes for only a second. I opened my eyes to darkness and also to the sounds of voices—human voices.
I felt something wet slide across my eyes, and I tried to wipe it away as two hands grabbed mine, pushing them beside me. “Don’t, otherwise you won’t be able to see.” I could hear Bea’s voice as I blinked my eyes until they focused.
“What happened? Where’s Eve?” I was frantic as I got up with my head spinning.
“Eliza,” Will said as he stepped towards me.
I dropped to my knees as he lifted me up. “I killed you,” I said rubbing my eyes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. “You’re here, right?” I hesitated at first as I touched his silver strands of hair. “It’s you, and you’re alright?”
He smiled as I continued to run his silver-white strands through my fingers making sure it wasn’t a dream.
Will gently took my hand. “Yes, Bea told us what happened, and we weren’t dead as you thought. We were injured, but not by your doing. It was Eve who played a little trick on you.”
“Little trick? More like a big trick.” I couldn’t get my knees to stop shaking as Bea stepped beside me.
I looked at her for an explanation. “Mommy dearest doesn’t know about how I can alter time. I used it to push us back to when the hell hounds greeted you guys and stop what happened.” She raised her eyebrows, and then stepped away like a fading shadow. “Now, I suppose she knows of my talent, and will be watching.”
“I…I didn’t know what I was doing…it was horrible…I thought I killed you, all of you.” I looked over at Piper and Loki.
“Oh, don’t worry, I probably deserved to be slightly killed,” Loki joked.
“No! It isn’t alright.” I could feel tears swell in my eyes.
“Eliza, it didn’t happen.” Will pronounced his words slowly as I gazed into his eyes. “Eve twisted your thoughts making you believe what she wanted you to believe.”
“It was so real,” I whispered as he pulled me close and hugged me.
I curled into his arms and, even though I didn’t have intentions, I began to cry.
The cold wind slapped across my face as we stood in front of the cloud sculpture in Millennium Park. Bea made a passage and found the spot where we had entered. It was like water rippling in a pool, she said, and easy for her to find. I intermittently gazed at Bea. She was pale and the color looked drained from her eyes. I didn’t know much about magic yet, but I could tell it was taking its toll on her. Piper tried to give her something to eat from her coat that seemed to carry everything, but she pushed it away and curled her arms around her stomach.
Will had tried several times to make contact with Iethia, but failed.
“There’s something blocking it,” he said walking away in defeat.
“Well, we’ve better come up with something fast. The glamour will be fading and not to mention…it’s blasting cold out here!” Piper jumped up and down with glitter falling from her wings. “My wings are even frosting over.”
“If we’re going to Iethia, then we’d better hurry.” Loki stood beside Will. “Eve and Angus are still after us.’
“But I killed Eve,” I said, “with the sword.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small disk.
“You didn’t kill her.” Bea’s voice chuckled. “You stuck her with that, and it only pissed her off.” She stepped closer to me. “She can’t be killed by anything else but the trident. It isn’t from this world or any other world she has touched.”
“She turned to stone,” I said.
“Yeah, she did, but not for long. Magical implements have some power over her, but like I said, not for long. And when she regains her strength, she’ll be after you. Your best chance jinxed girl, is to get the trident.” Bea again messed with something inside her coat.
I looked at Will. “Eve said the landmerrows have…”
“That’s what she said,” Bea stepped in front of me, blocking me and my words from the rest of the group, “but Eve doesn’t see everything that she thinks she does. We don’t know that for sure.” She gazed over her shoulder at Will.
“There was a map…with routes on them.” I moved myself in front of her. I felt like a tiny rabbit among tall trees in a mysterious forest. “What else would’ve taken it? It was there, and then it disappeared. If we don’t have it, then, I think the landmerrows have it. Eve said she can’t get it herself, so why would she give us false information?”
Bea slowly stepped towards me with a cocky expression on her face. She stood close to me, and her blue eyes sparkled. “Did you ever think she was misinformed? How does she know where and who has it when she can’t even peek into this world? Eve has allies, but how faithful are they?” She asked rhetorically. “The landmerrows don’t have the demon trident.”
Everyone gazed at Bea.
“Bea,” Will said as her eyes darted to him. “What do you know about the trident?”
She gazed at all of us as her blue eyes flickered. They looked like a world of fire and ice caught between two worlds.
“I know what I have to do with it,” her voice was soft.
Bea flipped open her coat as if a gust of wind had caught it. Her eyes glowed as she reached inside her coat and pulled something out. In her clutched hand was the trident. She held it above her head, and before anyone could reach her, she was gone, melting into the ground with a puff of silver ash. Bea was in the Underworld, alone, and with the trident. She was going to kill Eve—her mother.