Dark Descent - [Nyx Fortuna 02] (6 page)

“Thanks for everything. Let’s get out of here,” I said. “Now.” I was barely hanging on. I didn’t want to lose it in public.

Elizabeth hadn’t even said good-bye. I didn’t blame her. I went back to my apartment and wallowed. She had helped to fill up that hungry, hollow feeling inside me, but now she was gone, and I was alone.

It had been three long days since Alex and Elizabeth had stolen away like thieves in the night.

“I need a drink,” I said to Talbot. Which was convenient, since we were sitting on stools at the Red Dragon.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” he replied.

“Elizabeth is gone, her face is permanently scarred, and it’s all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Tell that to Elizabeth,” I said. “She never wants to see me again.”

“Maybe the time apart will do you both good,” Talbot said. “You need to think about things.”

“Like what?”

“Your feelings. You said yourself that Elizabeth is the spitting image of Amalie.”

My dead ex, killed by the Fates.

“You think what I feel for Elizabeth is
nostalgia
?”

“I think you don’t really know how you feel,” Talbot said. “And I don’t blame you. It’s not like you and Elizabeth have a normal relationship.”

“Yeah, thanks to my aunts,” I replied. I shifted in my seat and took a chug of my beer. “Deci warned me, but I never thought she’d do something this loathsome.”

“Your aunt Deci?” Talbot said. “I thought there was a cease-fire going on.”

“Not anymore,” I said grimly. “But that goes both ways.”

“Naomi isn’t involved in any of this,” Talbot said.

“I would never hurt Naomi,” I said. “But the Fates are up into their necks in it.”

Talbot had given up on me after the bartender had cracked the second bottle of absinthe. The last thing I remembered was closing down the Red Dragon.

My first conscious thought was that someone staring at me. I was right. When I opened my eyes, I was lying in a naiad’s lair with a naked Willow beside me. She was leaning on one elbow as she watched me.

“This is becoming a habit, son of Fortuna,” she said softly.

“What is?” I asked. My mind was still blurry with sleep and alcohol.

“You, using me for sexual comfort when you are drunk and in pain,” she said bluntly.

Then I remembered. Elizabeth’s singed flesh, her reluctance to look in the mirror, and how she had to flee Minneapolis.

I pushed away the thought and reached for Willow. “I’m sober now.”

She avoided my grasp. “But still in pain.”

“Yes,” I said. “Still in pain. But this helps.” I kissed her and she didn’t avoid me this time.

A naiad’s magic was as heavy and sweet as honey and the taste of her kiss lingered on my lips.

I drew her down until she lay across my body, but I could tell she wasn’t into it. “What’s wrong?”

She moved away from me. “A naiad was found murdered.”

“May she return to Poseidon on gentle waves.” I said the traditional words of mourning automatically. It was a naiad equivalent of “I’m sorry for your loss.” I was quickly running out of platitudes.

“Thank you.”

“You said ‘murdered.’ Are you sure?”

“She was torn apart from the inside,” she replied. “Like a bomb had gone off inside her.”

“Like the others,” I said.

“Yes, like the others.” Willow’s voice trembled.

“Talbot said there have been others from the House of Poseidon. We think it might be someone attempting to possess a naiad, but we don’t know why.”

“Possession?” she repeated. “But that has been outlawed.”

“I know,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean someone isn’t breaking the rules. The question is why?”

She threw my clothes at me. “You must go now. I have something I must do.”

“But…” It wasn’t the first time I’d been shown the door after a night of passion, but I had to admit, this ranked up there with the hastiest.

“We’ll talk more later,” she replied. “Leave now.”

“Promise me you’ll be careful,” I said.

“I promise!” she said. “Now go.”

I threw on my clothes and did the walk of shame with my Docs in hand.

I spent the next few days trying to drink away my feelings. I missed shifts at Eternity Road, argued with Naomi, and took a swing at Talbot. It didn’t change anything.

But finally, when I’d puked out the hurt and self-pity, I realized it was time to sober up or spend the rest of my days swimming in a bottle of absinthe. I needed to get the Fates out of my life, which meant finding Claire.

I spent two miserable days purging the alcohol from my system. I finally took a shower and got up the nerve to head to Eternity Road to see if I still had a job. And a best friend.

When I walked in, Ambrose looked up from the cash register. I paused in the doorway, uncertain of the welcome I’d receive, but he walked over, clapped me on the back and said, “What are you waiting for? My office needs dusting.”

I had to pass by Talbot several times, but he pretended to ignore me.

I ignored him right back. By lunch, he was giving me sideways glances like someone waiting to be asked to the prom.

“What?” I stopped dusting long enough to stare back.

“You look like shit.”

I nodded. “I have a hangover.”

He snorted angrily and turned away. He fussed with the fedora on Harvey, the enormous stuffed bear that never seemed to sell.

“You don’t get it,” I said. “I have a hangover. Which means…” I waited for him to fill in the blanks.

“You stopped drinking?”

“The incredulity in your voice is not reassuring,” I told him. “But, yes, I stopped drinking. At least for now.”

“What do you want?” he asked. “A parade?” There were equal parts anger and relief in his voice.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m a crappy friend.”

“Yes, you are,” he replied. “But I can count on you. Can’t I?”

I nodded.

Talbot tried to get me to talk, to tell him about my feelings, but I was so full of pent-up rage that I was afraid if I said another word, I’d explode.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I finally said. “She never wants to see me again. She’s gone. Left Minneapolis. Can you blame her?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Talbot protested.

“A fire of dark magic that injured my
mortal
ex-girlfriend? Yeah, that doesn’t sound like my fault at all.”

I tossed the lighter on the table. “Besides, I found this at the theater.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” he said. “Naomi was there. Her aunt would never—”

“Never put her niece in danger to exact revenge?” I replied. “She’s a Fate, Talbot. Get with the program. They killed their own sister.”

He stared at the lighter like he’d never seen one before.

Naomi walked into Eternity Road and I quickly pocketed the lighter. She kissed Talbot and then gave me a long measuring look. I met her eyes, but it took effort. Whatever she saw there seemed to satisfy her.

“You don’t reek of alcohol,” she said. “It’s an improvement.” Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears and I felt like an ass for making her worry.

Talbot, Naomi, and I were holed up in the office at Eternity Road, searching a map of Minneapolis for clues to the location of Hecate’s gate to the underworld.

“You can find Hecate’s gate at a three-way crossroad,” he said.

“Where can I find a three-way crossroad in Minneapolis?” I wasn’t a native, but my question stumped my friends, too.

We studied the map.

“I can’t tell anything from this tiny map,” I said.

Talbot got out a magnifying glass, and we took turns staring at the roads of a miniature city.

“Hell’s Belles is near a three-way crossroad,” Talbot said. “And we were attacked by a wraith there not that long ago.”

“You think Hecate sent a wraith after me?” I asked. “I thought the prophecy was supposed to work in her favor?”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Talbot replied. “She might not have the motive, but she definitely had the opportunity.”

He was right. You couldn’t walk in the underworld without tripping over a dead person. Or so I’d been told.

“Bernie knows something,” I said. “I just don’t know what.”

“She’s a demon,” Talbot reminded me needlessly. “She’ll never talk.”

“We’re going to have to find a way to make her talk,” I said.

“The location seems too obvious,” Naomi said. “Right in plain sight.”

“It’s not like anyone can stroll into Hecate’s domain,” I pointed out. “She’ll have some nasty surprises for the unwary or uninvited.”

“Talbot’s not going with you,” Naomi said.

His face darkened. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he said and then he pulled her aside, while I tried to stare at anything besides them. I tried to look busy, but my gaze returned to their angry faces. Talbot’s eyes had turned to silverlight, which was never a good sign.

I’d never seen my best friend and my cousin argue, not once, since they’d started dating, but it was clear they were fighting now.

I felt more awkward by the moment, and even worse, I was wasting valuable time. I cleared my throat. “Uh, I’m taking off,” I said. “See you later.”

I walked away, but Talbot caught up with me down the block. “You were gonna just bail on me?” he asked.

“I recognized that look in Naomi’s eyes,” I said. “And I didn’t have time to watch your lovers’ quarrel.”

“She’s stubborn,” he said. “But I’m worse.”

“She’s a Fate,” I said, suddenly serious. “Don’t ever forget it.”

“Naomi would never do anything to hurt me,” he replied. “Or you.”

I wished I were as certain of that as he seemed to be. “The supper rush should be over by now,” I said. “The restaurant will be emptying out. Maybe Bernie will want to talk.”

Talbot snorted, but didn’t say anything, We were almost to the café when he put a hand on my arm. “Someone’s tailing us,” he whispered.

“Are you sure?” I looked back in time to see a shadowy figure dart into a doorway.

He nodded and then increased his pace. “We need to bail on this idea.”

“No way,” I replied. “What are they going to do? Beat us to death with a pie?”

The figure moved again and a streetlight illuminated his features.

“It’s just Doc,” Talbot said. “He’s harmless.”

“You sound disappointed,” I said. “My cousin isn’t enough excitement for you anymore?”

“None of your business,” Talbot replied. There was an odd note in his voice, but my attention was focused on the homeless guy.

“Who’s Doc?” I asked.

“The guy who helped us with Elizabeth.”

Now I recognized the mutilated face of the guy tailing us. “Hey, wait a minute.”

I owed him money and he owed me an explanation. I wanted to know why he’d given me my mother’s emerald frog. I wanted to know why he had magical powers, powers that people would pay for, but instead, he was homeless. I wanted to know who he was, really.

He took off running. Fast for an old guy.

“Stop!” I said. I took off after him. “I just want to give you some money. I’m not going to hurt you.”

If anything, that made him run faster.

I chased him for three blocks, but he gave me the slip.

“Why are you chasing him?” Talbot asked, panting as he came up behind me. “I told you he was skittish.”

“I just wanted to ask him some questions,” I said.

“You probably scared him,” Talbot said.

“He knows something,” I said.

“Freaking him out isn’t going to get you answers,” he said.

He was probably right. “What do you know about him?”

“He’s been coming around the store since I was little. Dad feeds him, tries to get him to stay, but he always slips away.”

I was unconvinced. “I need to find him.”

“Another time,” Talbot urged. “I’ll let you know next time he’s in the store. We have things to do, remember? Finding the gate? Claire?”

I reluctantly let him point me toward Hell’s Belles. We walked for a block or so in silence.

“So what was the argument with Naomi about?” I asked.

He hesitated. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“Hard to believe, but the aunts don’t think I’m good enough for her.” Underneath the joking tone, there was a hint of hurt.

“Why do you care?”

“Because I’m in love with her,” Talbot said quietly.

“You couldn’t have picked a worse future mother-in-law,” I said.

“I thought you liked Nona,” he objected.

“She’s the best of the worst,” I admitted. “They probably disapprove of you because we’re friends.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “But it’s more than that.”

The restaurant was dark, which was strange, since Hell’s Belles was a twenty-four-hour diner.

Talbot checked his watch. “Now what? Hell’s Belles is closed.”

“This is our only chance,” I said.

“We picked the one night Bernie closes,” Talbot said.

“Even better,” I said. “She won’t be there.”

When we checked, the main part of the restaurant was dark, but I could still see a light in the kitchen.

The front door, though, was locked.

“Let’s check the back,” I said.

We went around to the rear of the building. There was a smelly Dumpster and the area by the door was littered with cigarettes.

Talbot put his hand on the knob and turned it slowly. “Door’s unlocked,” Talbot said.

The back kitchen was in darkness.

“What now?”

“I doubt the gate is out in the open. It’s probably somewhere in the kitchen or—”

“The basement,” Talbot interrupted. He pointed to an interior door.

From down below, someone was chanting. We followed the sound down stairs lit by rows of lit candles.

We tried to be as quiet as possible, but the stairs squeaked as I reached the bottom.

Talbot and I froze, but the guttural chanting continued.

We hid behind a stack of restaurant supply boxes. Bernie stood before an elaborate wooden altar carved with Tria Prima symbols.

As we watched, she drew a blade across her hand and spilled drops of blood into a golden goblet.

“Don’t breathe it in,” I whispered to Talbot. “And whatever you do, don’t get any on your skin.” Demons’ blood wasn’t like ours. It scalded the skin, and if it got into the bloodstream, it did much worse.

When I turned back again, Bernie was no longer standing there.

“Did you see where she went?” I asked Talbot.

He ignored the question and moved closer to the altar. “Look familiar?” he asked. He motioned to the wall. Hanging on a hook by a silken thread was a key, twin to the one I’d found at Gaston’s.

Talbot went up to the altar, careful to avoid the goblet full of demon blood. “Do you hear that?” he said. “I hear a dog.”

He pressed his ear to the wall and stayed like that for a long minute. “Definitely a dog.”

There was only one goddess who came to mind when I thought of dogs. Hecate.

We went back to our hiding place. “Now what?” Talbot whispered.

“We wait.”

I had almost dozed off when Talbot nudged me. “We’ve got company.”

Hooded figures filled the room.

We watched as the disciples slowly approached the altar one by one, and then, just as Bernie had, each one disappeared until the room was empty except for Talbot and me.

“Should we follow them?”

“We’d be outnumbered,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Back in the Caddy, Talbot turned to me. “Now what?”

“Now I check back with the Fates to see what they say.” I wasn’t looking forward to telling Morta that her mortal enemy had her daughter.