The Underworld (The Atlas Series Book 3) (19 page)

The real Jack.

Kala focused all her strength into the palm of her hand and hit Jack square in the chest. His body flew into the air and landed a few hundred feet away. She needed him out of view. Kala couldn’t have him distract her from her target.

Hades.

Slowly, her eyes met his.

And Kala grabbed his arm, pulling Hades’s face down to hers.

“You’ll pay for making Jack say those things,” she threatened.

All the rage Kala felt at being manipulated and emotionally torn to threads, she poured into Hades.

And she fed.

Hades screamed in terror and pain.

Kala had never felt so much power, not even from Cronus. Hades was in his realm and being asleep for thousands of years hadn’t weakened him at all. He had lied. He wanted the world to end, but not to recharge his batteries. Kala didn’t have time to ponder any more questions. She would know soon enough after she devoured the Olympian whole.

Hades roared in horror, “STOP! PLEASE! I’ll take you to my brothers and sisters! I’ll send Jack to Elysium where he’ll rule for all of time! Please! Don’t kill me!”

Kala didn’t care what he had to say. She only wanted to feed. The god was intoxicating. All the zombies around them dropped to the ground, rotting instantly, until all that was left were piles of bones. Kala could see the color slowly come back to her skin.

Suddenly, she was yanked away.

Her connection to Hades dropped.

In a rage she turned to see who had pulled her from her meal.

Asmodeus stood there with a chastising expression. “I won’t let you swallow that asshole.”

Kala snapped back to herself at his words, instantly relieved. She had almost consumed Hades! It had felt so right at the moment, but now Kala wanted to vomit. But she regained enough of her composure to put on an angry face for Hades.

“Where are the Olympians?” she demanded.

Hades didn’t flinch. “They’re across the River Styx on the edge of the Underworld. You have to get across the river on Charon’s boat or you won’t be in the same dimension as the prisoners. The Demon knows where Charon is.”

Asmodeus nodded. “I can take us there.”

Hades straightened his suit, his hands shaking with nervousness. “I’ll just go return your boyfriend now.” Jack had made his way back to Hades, comatose once more. “He’ll have his own palace in the Fields of Elysium and will be treated like he was my own son.”

Before Kala could respond, Hades disappeared with Jack in tow.

Talan rested his hand on Kala’s shoulder supportively. “Are you okay?”

Kala nodded, but she was far from okay. At this point, though, all she wanted to do was leave the Underworld. “Let’s just get these idiots and get out of here.”

Talan turned to Asmodeus. “Lead the way, Demon.”

“At least one of us is useful,
Grigori
,” Asmodeus smirked. “Follow me.”

DAY THREE

Chapter Fourteen

It seemed to Kala as if they had been walking for months, but according to Talan it had only been a full day. That put her into Day Three on her Atlas timeline. It was frustrating not knowing the exact time, but she trusted Talan to know where she was in the countdown.

The two boys had said nothing to each other the entire time, and Kala found she had very little to say as well.

Fighting Hades hadn’t exactly been fun. Kala never wanted to fight dead things again as long as she lived.
If
she was ever going to live again. The more she learned about Hades the more she thought her vision might not be such a bad thing. The two main culprits in wanting the Atlas mission to fail and leave the world in chaos were Hades and Cronus. It made sense to lock those two down, otherwise Kala would be fighting them every four days until she could find an end to this curse.

It still rubbed her wrong though. Their blank stares reminded her of Jack’s. It would be easier to think Jack was just an empty shell, but knowing that his soul was still inside him was heartbreaking. And now, she’d be doing the same thing to Hades and Cronus: trapping them inside their own bodies.

Jack’s painful words echoed in her head. She knew Hades had put them in Jack’s mouth, but it still hurt to physically see Jack say all those hateful things. But it was still better than her last living memory of him. Kala would rather Jack scream obscenities and hateful words at her than have to remember blowing his brains out, any day of the week.

In a way it was almost cathartic, though. So many unresolved emotions rolling around inside her. Even hearing the worst of her fears somehow made her feel lighter in a sense. As if, for once, Kala might be able to move on someday. It gave her hope.

Talan tried to catch her eye, but she turned away.

Without her memories she had pretty much fallen all over the guy. It embarrassed her and she didn’t want to discuss it with him, especially in front of Asmodeus. But she couldn’t deny that when her brain was wiped, Talan had felt like he was… what? Talan threw the words soul mate around like it was going out of style, but Kala despised those words. If anything, she owed that sentiment to Jack, but he was gone now. Truly gone. Even so, Kala wasn’t ready to move on to someone new. She didn’t think she ever could.

Kala’s love life was the least of her problems, though. She was about to take on Rhea again, but before that the boat guy, Charon. Two things she was not looking forward to. She wished she could use that whole white-fire trick from her vision. Kala had zero clue as to how to activate that skill set, but she’d figure it out soon enough, she guessed.

In a little over 24 hours.

The thought churned her stomach. Kala wished she could teleport out of this place. She hadn’t realized how used to the whole teleportation she had become. Now, having to walk for miles and miles and being stuck in this drab, gray landscape, Kala remembered what it was like to be human.

The last hour the terrain had changed considerably, however, shifting from desert to soft grass, leafy bushes and an occasional outcropping of maple trees. Everything was still gray, but the change in scenery lifted Kala’s spirits somewhat.

After her fight with Hades, Kala noticed that she had a little more color to her skin, making it a grayish pink rather than stone cold corpse gray, which also made her feel little better. All-in-all, having a sense of purpose and destination kept her focused and sane.

Asmodeus’s voice cut through her thoughts and the silence of the Underworld. “Just past those trees,” he announced.

Kala viewed the aforementioned trees to see another river in the distance. The River Styx. The river that could be used as a weapon by forcing the victim of its waters to make an oath. Kala wished she had a bottle to store some of it for later. Aside from the brief River lesson Asmodeus gave her upon entering the Underworld, even Kala had heard stories about the River Styx before her personal involvement in the supernatural world. She hadn’t heard much, just that some guy had a boat or raft or something and took the dead to the Underworld. If the spirits were anything like coma-Jack, then Charon had a relatively easy job. She wondered how difficult it was going to be to either convince him to take them across
the other way
or commandeer his boat. A breakout of the Underworld. Surely people had tried. Then, thinking of Jack’s condition once more, maybe they hadn’t.

Talan stayed quiet as the trio approached the river. Though Kala appreciated the Grigori not bringing up her previous behavior, now his silence was beginning to drive her mad. He was hurt, she could see it in his demeanor, but she had no way to console him. She knew in his mind that Talan believed Asmodeus had saved Kala and not him. Which wasn’t true. It was a combination of both their words that had snapped Kala out of her Hades-torture-stupor.

Since there was nothing she could really say to make him feel better, Kala opted for keeping her mouth shut. In hindsight, it was probably making things worse, but what else could she do?

“There he is.” Asmodeus pointed. “Charon.”

A couple hundred feet down river was a flat square of wood floating in the water with what looked like a man steering it with a large pole.

Finally Talan spoke, “I’ve heard things about Charon. Do you know him, Asmodeus?”

“Like
personally
?” Asmodeus nodded. “On a few occasions, I guess. Not much of a talker.” He raised an eyebrow in thought. “Charon picked this gig for himself. It’s not a punishment or anything. He
wants
to spend all eternity going back and forth and back and forth and back and… you get the idea.”

The way Asmodeus conveyed his point showed his disdain for even considering that kind of life. And Kala had to agree. What type of supernatural being would opt into motoring dead souls back and forth forever? She just hoped Charon was reasonable.

Talan seemed to be on the same wavelength as he asked, “Do you think he’ll let us cross on his boat?”

It was annoying that they needed Charon’s raft, otherwise they would have crossed the river miles back without the guy ever knowing. It made sense though. Cronus always tried to have several back up plans.

“Do I think he’ll
let
us use his boat? No, of course not. But between the three of us I’d be embarrassed if we couldn’t get by Charon.” Asmodeus headed towards Charon without waiting for a response.

Kala and Talan made brief eye contact before following the Demon. She wasn’t sure what she read in Talan’s expression, but this was no time to try and figure it out.

As they approached Charon, Kala had a better view of the… creature? He didn’t look quite human, which was a bit of a shock for her. So far in her brief encounters with the supernatural they had all been human-ish. But this guy? He was exactly what she’d expect the Angel of Death to look like. His face was grotesque as if he had been clawed evenly down each side, then sewn back together with a staple gun. He had solid black eyes and his skin was the dark brownish-gray a corpse would have that had been rotting for a long time. Wearing only a long black robe, Kala could see his taloned feet planted on the raft. His veined hands were all that poked out of his draping sleeves and they clutched a long wooden pole that he was using to control the boat.

The river at this point was about a hundred feet wide; Charon was halfway across the water, heading straight towards them.

“Well, at least he’s alone,” Kala said to no one in particular. She didn’t really know if that was indeed a benefit, it just seemed like the right thing to say.

“Charon is half-Demon, half water-nymph. He’s no match for us, but if he won’t let us on his little ship there, it will definitely be a good fight,” Asmodeus informed them. “Let me talk to him first.”

Kala and Talan didn’t argue. If Asmodeus had
any
kind of relationship with Charon, then they had to try the simplest form of getting across: asking.

After an agonizing wait, Charon’s raft met the shore in front of them. He eyed them over carefully, as if trying to figure out why they were there.

Asmodeus didn’t make Charon wait long. “Hey, Charon. Long time, no see.”

That was casual.

Charon couldn’t hide his disdain. “Yes. I was hoping for a few hundred more years before your next visit.”

“So cold.” Asmodeus acted offended, but Kala knew the Demon could care less what Charon thought of him. “Listen, we need to get across using your boat.”

“Right to the point, as always.” Charon rolled his black eyes. From what Kala could surmise, Charon knew Asmodeus pretty well, which was a big
uh-oh
in their current predicament. “The answer is
no
, Asmodeus. You know how to leave the Underworld, just take your friends out that way.” Charon lifted the pole. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

“You still think you’re better than everyone else, don’t you?” Asmodeus grabbed the end of the raft with his foot, preventing Charon from moving it.

Charon hissed at the Demon. It made him look like a human lizard and it was a little intimidating. “Let go of my vessel!” he roared.

“Your
vessel?”
Asmodeus laughed. “It’s a flimsy raft!”

This wasn’t going well at all. Before it could escalate further, Kala stepped forward. “Please. We just need to use your
vessel
. Those are the rules. How you wish us to accomplish that is entirely up to you.” Kala wished she could have said that nicer, but years of military interrogation techniques had kicked in instead.

“Who are you to threaten me?” Charon straightened his chest in defiance.

Kala had to admit: the guy was one scary looking individual. But, having just fought an army of rotting zombies, one Demon-nymph or whatever he was, didn’t scare her half as much as it probably should have. “I’m Kala Hicks slash Atlas slash some kind of Gaia mojo in me, this is Talan. He’s a Grigori angel, so you might not want to mess with him, and of course you know Asmodeus, king of the Demons, which aren’t
you
half Demon or something? Shouldn’t you be doing what he says?”