Chapter Six
Going to the Underworld was not something I’d ever read about. Tage never mentioned how to get there, so I was going into this completely blind. The one thing I did have was Tage’s book. Incantations, spells, divinations...
I waved my hand, his golden tent appearing in the pines. “I have to get something,” I said suddenly.
Mom and Dad followed me.
Jogging to get the book from its hiding place beneath the statue of a cheetah, I pulled it from its box. The book’s pages were falling apart, so I gently eased each delicate paper over until I found something that looked promising.
“I don’t want you to do this alone,” Mom said, worrying her hands, wringing them like a dish rag.
The more I read, the more I realized I couldn’t do it alone.
She would have to take this journey with me if we wanted to find him fast. The text stated that the heart of the dead called to the heart of the living.
‘Departed’ didn’t mean that the tether between hearts was broken; most of the time, the tether was only strengthened by the loss.
I looked up at Mom. “I need you to go with me.”
“What?” Dad said, crossing his arms. “Absolutely not. She isn’t dead, and Tage isn’t worth her death!”
“This won’t kill her, Dad. I would never hurt Mom, or do anything to put her in danger. But I need her to find Tage.”
“Why her?” Dad bit out.
“Because he loves her.”
“He loves you, too,” he argued.
I shook my head and quietly told him, “Not in the same way.”
I knew this was difficult for him to hear.
Mom loved Dad, but at one time, she and Tage had loved one another, too.
Tage’s love for Mom never waned. No amount of time or distance managed to dull the pain he felt from knowing she was alive, married to another man, and was happy without him.
He never spoke of it, but there was evidence of things unspoken. You only had to look for it.
“What about Sekhmet?” Mom asked.
“There is nothing anyone can do to stop her unless Tage helps us first. The quicker we find him, the quicker we can fight her. We can either bind her back into the Underworld or end her permanently, but she’s stronger than ever now and we have to do something.”
Dad wasn’t happy, but he nodded to Mom.
“I’ll be here when you get back.”
Mom looked to me. “Can you get us there?”
“I think so,” I said, tucking the book beneath my arm. “I have to protect you first. It’s a spell to keep you from being bound to the Underworld. I wouldn’t put it past Sekhmet to try to trap you there.”
She nodded. “I trust you, Seth.”
Somehow, she always had. The powers I had were inherited, but she never freaked out or treated me like I was a danger. She encouraged me to learn with Tage, to control the gifts I was given.
I spelled her, watching the protective cloak of magic fall over her, and then I reached for her hand, hoping she would be able to lead us to Tage quickly.
Suddenly, the sand at our feet began to fall away into an abyss and we fell fluidly with it.
Our screams were eaten by the void and we landed in a heap of sand, surrounded by darkness.
The book had fallen away, so I scooped it up and illuminated the space, only to show nothingness as far as the eye could see, save the small mound of sand at our feet.
Nothing above. Nothing in any direction. Just darkness.
But the darkness felt alive.
It felt thick and dangerous.
I helped Mom to her feet.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“You and Tage are tethered. He bound himself to you while you were both vampires, but that bond was never broken. Even death isn’t strong enough to break it. I need you to find it and tug on the tether. It will show us where to find him.”
“How do I find it?” she asked with a trembling voice.
“I don’t know. You just have to look within and dig deep.”
She swallowed and closed her eyes. “It’s the feeling in my gut, isn’t it?”
I nodded. “Probably.”
“I’ve always felt it.” She turned her head, ashamed to admit to the bond.
“I know you love Dad, but I also know you loved Tage. It’s okay, Mom.”
“He’s that way.” She pointed to the left. “But how do we get there?”
I whispered a few words, asking for the feeling in her gut, the tether, to become real. Soon, a rope, white as snow, appeared around her stomach and stretched into the darkness in the direction she’d indicated.
“I’m going to hold onto you, and you have to pull us to him. Think you can do that?” I tried to smile.
“I can.”
She grabbed the rope and stepped off the tiny sand pile into the darkness as if there was a solid floor beneath her feet. Soon, it didn’t matter. Her feet and mine flew out behind us and we were pulled into the inky darkness.
“Hold on to me!” she yelled, her hair whipping my face.
“I’ve got you.”
“Hold on to the book, too!”
It was tucked into my pants. “I’ve got it!”
All of a sudden, a light appeared as if at the end of a long tunnel. It grew larger as we got closer. Palm trees. A pond of clear water. A building made of stone. Mom shielded her eyes from the brightness, blinking away the tears and pain. I did the same.
She stared at the building in front of us, standing several stories high. There were no windows or doors, just solid, thousand pound blocks forming a cube that was too large to bust through and obviously spelled. I could feel the magic pulsing around the structure.
“How do we get in?” Mom asked, staring up at the impossible.
I took the book out and began gently flipping the pages. “Let me see if I can find something to help us.”
“He’s in there. I can feel him,” she said softly.
“I know.”
The rope around her waist was still taut, leading right into the center of one of the stones.
Somehow, it never went slack. With the sun beating down on us, it seemed like it took forever to get from the front cover to the back, but there was nothing in Tage’s book about how to break through an impenetrable building or wall.
Mom walked to the stone, placing her hands on the facade. “Tage?” She didn’t yell, she simply spoke his name.
I couldn’t hear an answer, but a tug on her waist confirmed that he’d heard her. “We need your help,” she said softly. “We can’t get in.”
Another tug on her waist and she was jerked against the stone. Her cheek lay flat against the surface as she braced her hands against the rock.
“Are you sure it’s him, Mom?” I was beginning to think coming here was a bad idea.
“I’m positive. Can you try to use your power to make a door?” she asked.
Magic pulsing from the other side of the stone told me he was trying to escape. “Stand back,” I warned, and she nodded and backed away from the wall.
I flattened my palms against the warm stone and let my power flow; scraping, sliding.
Losing track of time, I felt Mom pull me backward.
“There’s an opening,” she said quietly, trying not to startle me.
She had once, and I’d zapped her so hard she flew across the room and landed on the floor on her back.
I pulled my power back, my vision clearing. When I concentrated on my magic, everything remained unfocused but the object in my mind. I realized one of the large blocks had backed out of its space. I looked inside, using my fingers to illuminate the inside of the building. Tage was on the floor.
“Are you okay?” I climbed inside to help him up.
He chuckled. “Yeah. I guess I pushed too hard. I’ve been trying to find the door out of here since Sekhmet sent me here.”
I realized the walls inside the building weren’t walls at all. Every inch was lined with doors of all different shapes and colors; some with bent handles, round ones, or ones that you pushed and pulled.
“Where do they all lead?”
“To the center of this room. It was maddening. I’d step through one door just to end up where I started, but I thought it was a puzzle. If I just found the right door, I’d find the way out, but now I think she was trying to make me lose my mind. There was no way out.”
Mom climbed into the room, marveling at the floor to ceiling doors.
Tage was in front of her in an instant, holding her face in his hands. “Why did you come here?” he demanded.
“I had to help find you,” she replied, gently removing his hands from her skin. “Tage, Sekhmet is out. She left The Sand. She bit Seth and escaped.”
Tage’s face darkened. “She bit him?”
“She said I was stronger than she imagined,” I added. “And then she went after Mom.”
“It’s going to take both of us working together to end her for good, but that’s what has to happen,” Tage said in a low, menacing voice.