Exalted (12 page)

Cayne had expected it to last longer. He had to measure
time in events, and he supposed he'd have to endure a thousand new hells before
he was able to even attempt his plan: controlling the power the Adversary was
trying to pummel into him.

Incredibly, the prideful Adversary gave him the keys to the
kingdom.

"This is boring," the devil complained after
delivering a particularly brutal beating. "Try to use my power."

Cayne's heart had skipped a beat, and he batted every
errant thought away. "What do you mean?" he'd asked, as evenly as he
could.

 
"I've given you
access to my power. I want to make sure you can use it."

Cayne had stared at him, and The Adversary laughed.
"Use it, boy."

Cayne didn’t hesitate. He could feel the line that
connected him to his father: a thread that had wrapped itself around his
stomach, extending outward, like an umbilical cord. In his mind, he'd reached
through his skin and tugged, and suddenly he was filled with a roaring fire.

He'd pushed all of it through his fingers, spraying The
Adversary. The devil had laughed, and with a wave of his hand he turned it back
on Cayne. It burned, more painful than anything he'd felt in Hell, and Cayne
had made a show of giving up.

He'd asked to see Julia one more time, and when he watched
her suffering, it was easy to shed tears, to convince his father that he just
wanted it all to end. Cayne was defeated; he had made himself think and feel
that he was.

The Adversary had smiled in triumph. "I knew you'd
come to your senses at some point. I want you to enjoy yourself, son. Pass the
time until I call on you by making merry."

The horrible room was gone, and Cayne had found himself in
a cave.

"My grotto," the Adversary had said with a touch
of pride. He'd shoved a beautiful woman at Cayne, and she'd offered to tie him,
whip him, and do a few other things that didn't interest him.

He'd sent her on her way and turned his attention to his
environment. He was on a distinctly man-made path that cut through dozens of
small, water-filled alcoves. He'd only taken a dozen steps when he ran into
Meredith—or an apparition that looked like her.

She wore a puffy emerald gown, her silky black hair was a
tangled mess, and she had on lots of makeup. Cayne cursed The Adversary's sense
of humor as the apparition ran at him, threw her arms and legs around him, and
buried her face in his neck.

“Cayne!” Her shoulders shook with what he soon realized was
crying. “I was so scared! Oh my God, I'm lost and I'm so scared of caves!”

He frowned down at the apparition's black hair and saw dirt
in it. Dirt, and a scrape on the temple. When he put his arms around her back,
she felt warm. Real...

She pulled away with a skeptical look that seemed uniquely
Meredith, and inspected his face, reaching out to rub her palm along his
stubble. “You are Cayne, aren't you? Same Cayne who loves my BFF?”

Would the Adversary know that expression? “BFF”?

“I am.” He pushed her off, and her face fell. Cayne ignored
it. “Why are you dressed like that?”

“ Edan said this was my personal Hell.” Meredith waved at
herself and her eyes welled. “I don’t understand what’s wrong, but please don’t
leave me. I can’t stand it here alone!”

Cayne shook his head. “I can’t be sure you’re not something
my father cooked up.”

“You met your dad?” Meredith shivered, then glanced around.
“He’s not here, too, is he?”

Cayne stared at her. “He’s The Adversary.”

Meredith’s eyes bulged. “He’s the
what
!”

He felt some relief. She certainly
seemed
to be
real. “Meredith?” He cocked his head, examining her big, brown eyes and pinkish
lips.

“I told you I'm me!” She grabbed his hand and squeezed.
“Now prove to me that you're really Cayne! The Adversary is your father? You're
not on the dark side, are you?”

“No. Hell no.”

Meredith cracked a smile, and he said, “No.”

“I'll believe you if you can tell me what Julia's new
favorite candy is!” Meredith said.

“The Aero bar,” Cayne said with a wink. “Mint flavor.”

“Whew!” She tugged on him, and he almost lost his footing
on the rocks. “Now come help me find everybody else!”

“Everybody else?”

Meredith nodded. “We’re all here. Julia too.”

Cayne, feeling dizzy, let Mer grab his hand.

***

For
Julia, time seemed warped. After Alexandria, everything seemed shorter. And
easier. Like having fireballs rain down on them in the middle of some wheat
field. It hardly even bothered her.

Okay,
that wasn't quite true. She'd caught a big piece of burning ash stuff in the
side of her head, and her scalp was aching now, and she smelled like burned
hair. And okay, maybe that had been a little alarming, but it still didn't
compare to Alexandria.

Carlin's
dress had caught on fire, and she had a burn on her thigh, so Drew had had to
carry her on his back until Julia got a fireball-free moment to heal her. And,
of course, they still hadn't found Meredith, Nathan, or Cayne. But overall, the
fireballs hadn't been so bad. They were all still alive, and they had made it
to some kind of cave.

Julia
wondered if adrenaline had kicked one of their imaginations into overdrive and
they'd simply conjured it, because it seemed to appear out of nowhere. Suddenly
they were at a rock formation, and right there on the side of it, partially
hidden behind some tall grass, was the mouth of a cave.

They'd
been standing by the entrance for a while, first with Julia healing Drew and
Carlin, then with Carlin levitating to check things out from above. Then with
them all discussing whether to go inside.

Julia
voted against.

Caves,
tunnels, hallways...not her thing these days. But Drew thought it was worth a
shot. He pointed out that, like the mountain in St. Mortiz, it was a rock, so
maybe the way in and out of Hell was via rock.

“I
think it's worth a try,” he said.

Julia
wrapped her arms around herself and tried to keep her mind from returning to
where it wanted to go: to flashbacks of the bad stuff. Instead of thinking
seriously about the topic at hand, her brain kept taking her back to the end of
her experience in the pyramid, when she'd finally gotten desperate enough to
fight back. When Edan had saved her.

Why
had he done it?

He
seemed a little tamer as a Shade, but still, she wasn't stupid enough to think
his intentions were actually honorable. She played with the brittle, burned
ends of her hair, nodding along with Drew and Carlin's list of Cave Pros and
Cons while trying to think about what Edan might gain from bringing all of them
to Hell. Was he trying to win back his demonhood by delivering them to the
devil? How would them being in Hell work to Methuselah and/or The Adversary’s
advantage anyway? She was one-hundred percent sure that Methuselah, at least,
wanted her in Alexandria.

Carlin
snapped her fingers. “Earth to Julia. Are you with us?”

She
blinked and nodded. “Sorry.”

Carlin
waved her arms around, gesturing at the rocky arch above them. “What do you
think about the cave? Does it look familiar? It looks familiar to me.”

“Maybe
it’s being made from your memory,” Drew said. “If so, thanks for coming up with
it. Great way to escape falling fireballs. Which are gone now,” he said,
looking out over the wheat field. “Wonder why that is.”

“Who
can know the mysteries of Hell,” Carlin said.

Julia
squinted into the cave. There was an obvious path made of neatly arranged
stones. She could see maybe twenty or thirty feet of it before the path
disappeared into a black abyss that made Julia feel nauseated.

“Who
wants to see the inside?” Carlin asked, as if they had any real choice.

Drew
held up his hand. He cast his concerned gaze on Julia, and she nodded her
agreement. If she wanted to find Cayne, they had to go poking around—even if
they did risk more horrors.

The
cave's entrance wasn’t actually that big. Maybe the size of an average two-car
garage, though with higher, arching ceilings, which were home to frightening
stalactites.

“Are
you okay?” Carlin asked, finally catching on to Julia's panted breaths and
bloodless face.

She
nodded, because really, what else could she do?

“Julia.”
Drew put his hand on her arm. “If you and Carlin want to wait in the entryway—”
he pointed behind them, to the mouth of the cave and the field beyond “—I can
look around inside and come right back.”

And
split up? Julia shook her head. “Let’s do it.”

They
followed the path through a series of smaller, more intimate caves, all of
which were partially submerged. The water was crystal clear and glowing. It
took Julia a second to realize it was lit by spotlights built into the rock.

“This
is not a real cave,” Carlin said. “But you know...it does feel familiar.”

Julia
gritted her teeth, longing to turn and run back to the field.

Their
smooth, rock path was damp, but not too slick. Why would something like this be
in Hell, Julia wondered. What was the point of it? Surely The Adversary didn't
care if they found shelter from the fireballs. Was it really just random?
Whatever The Adversary felt like creating at the moment?

Julia,
Drew, and Carlin moved like a pack of snails, and Julia assumed her friends
were also wondering what new horror awaited them. But the deeper they went, the
more it looked like nothing scary would be found here. They saw a beach ball
floating in one of the lagoons. A few steps later, Julia heard the faint bass
boom of what sounded like a hip-hop song. A breeze drifted through the caves,
and Julia noticed cool mist flowing from the ceilings.

“Oh
my God,” Carlin said, and Julia froze in terror.

“Oh
no Julia. I'm so sorry,” Carlin exclaimed, clutching her arm. “I think this is
The Grotto! The one in California!”

“What’s
The Gr—” Drew began.

But
Julia held up her hand, squinting as she strained her ears. “Does anyone else
hear someone screaming?”

Chapter Eighteen

Cayne
followed Meredith through the caves. Well, she had him by the hand, so he was being
dragged. Over the slick rock path that rose between the glowing, clear blue
pools. Past kissing couples submerged from the waist-down; every girl, with her
arms wrapped around a muscular back that wasn't his, had Julia's wrists, her
hands, her dark brown hair spilled over her narrow shoulders. Just when he
wasn't sure if he could keep putting one foot in front of the other without
grabbing one of the Julias for himself, a tortured scream tore the humid air.

Meredith
turned to him with wide brown eyes. “Oh my
God
! I think that's
Nathan
!”

“Is
that a good thing?”

Last
time Cayne had seen the two together, Captain Chosen had been lying in a pool
of his own blood at the resort, whose many residents had been displaced or
killed because of him. Meredith had left him there, flying away in Cayne's arms
so she could meet back up with Julia.

The
deep voice screamed again, and Meredith whirled back around, dropping Cayne's
hand as she flew down the damp stone path, her footsteps smacking in the
echoing space.

“Meredith!
Wait!”

“I
can't!”

Groaning,
Cayne ran after her. “This could be a trap!”

“It’s
not!”

He
wanted to scream that Julia was the priority, that Nathan was a distraction at
best. He wanted to pull his hair out in frustration that came from not knowing
if Meredith was real. From not having been able to really talk to her before
she bolted.

He
lengthened his strides, so as she turned a corner, he was snapping at her
heels—and he heard it as loudly as she did, the wrenching scream that
ricocheted through the caves.

Cayne's
bouncing gaze snapped to a form in a corner, curled up in a ball with his arms
around his legs. It did appear to be Nathan, from what Cayne could see of him.
His face was buried in his up-drawn knees, and he was screaming: the hitching,
plaintive wails of a child.

Cayne
knew that sound. He recognized it from his memory. And he knew what Nathan's
Hell was.

Cayne
turned away, but the screams still echoed in his ears. Nathan's cries, and over
them, Meredith's frantic shouts. “Nathan! Nathan, NATHAN...it's okay! Nathan!
I'm here! It's Meredith!”

Cayne
sank to his knees and shut his eyes, curling into himself as his shame
manifested in a rush of heat.

“Nathan,
Nathan, Nathan... Shhh.
Nathan
. It's okay. I won't let anyone hurt you.”

Flames
bloomed around Cayne, The Adversary's hellfire setting his skin alight. As it
crackled and burned, he couldn't resist a glance over his shoulder.

Nathan
was heaped in Meredith's arms, and her pretty face was inches from his pale,
stark one. Something about the sight made Cayne's chest feel crushed. As
Meredith hugged Nathan closer to her, he recognized the painful sensation as
want
.

He
wanted Julia. Of course he did. But he was surprised at the strength of his
desire to have her arms around him. He'd gone most of his life, decades upon
decades after his mother's death and the exorcism, without the touch of any
other being—and he hadn't longed for it. He hadn't even thought about it.

Now
was different. Julia had made him forget how to live that kind of lonely life.

As
he watched Meredith and Nathan through the blistering orange and red, he
wondered what he would do if The Adversary was right about the future. Cayne
felt certain he'd die before hurting Julia, but what if the lie he'd told his
father in order to avoid being “hollowed out”—that he
would
kill her, no
problem—ended up coming to pass? What if somehow...something changed?