Chapter Twenty-Five
Twenty-Five
Mom was really smart about setting up the protections on the house.
Even if you know it’s here, you can’t get through the wards if you mean any harm to the occupants.
And that doesn’t just apply to physical violence.
If you want to steal from us, destroy our property, or even hurt our feelings, the wards aren’t letting you in.
Which means Rook doesn’t have any of those intentions.
But just because he doesn’t intend to hurt us doesn’t mean it won’t come about naturally from his actions. So I’m assuming his role is to funnel information to the Cult of Hades and let them do the harming and the stealing.
No matter Rook’s involvement, I’m not giving up this job. I just need to get everyone else on board for Part Two.
The living room is a mess from our translation marathon, and there’s a sour smell that places get when too many people have gone too long without showering, but I can’t give the others too much time to think.
The victory of translating the grimoire will only bolster morale until they remember that the second part of the job involves a descent into hell.
I clap my hands, too bright. “So. Part Two planning session? No time like the present.”
CJ and Poppy groan. Tolliver is back to tapping his prosthetic. Ezra looks between all of us, confused. At some point, Crowlene left to go hunting or whatever it is that she does when she disappears.
Rook tugs at his cuffs, leaning against the fireplace like he’s posing for a painting. “I know you all must be tired, but I am eager to save my sister.”
“So it’s his sister you’re trying to resurrect?” Ezra asks.
I nod.
“Okay, so why do you need a planning session?” He gestures to the codex laying open on the coffee table, translations now scribbled in the margins. “The instructions are right there.”
Poppy fixes me with a glare. “Because the resurrection is the easy part. We’ll have to get the soul out of Tartarus first.”
I know she’s saying this as a jab—look at this impossible situation Elle thinks she’s dragging us into—but she’s talking about it in the future tense, so actually I see this as a win.
“Tartarus?” Ezra asks, eyes wide. “Like Greek hell?”
“Exactly,” CJ says.
“Not exactly,” I say.
“Oh, sorry, you’re right,” they deadpan. “It’s much worse.”
I grab a trash bag and start shoving it full of greasy napkins and discarded candy wrappers. “Technically, we don’t know that. All we know about Tartarus are secondhand accounts.”
“That doesn’t help your case, Elle,” Poppy mutters.
“Well, okay, I hear your point. But why don’t we just listen to what intel Rook has first.” I wave a browning apple core in his direction.
CJ opens their mouth, ready to argue, but I cut them off with a jab of the apple.
“Ah! Rook has the floor right now.”
He blinks in surprise. “I suppose…I know what cell she’s in.”
“See?” I drop the apple into the bag. “Now we know she’s in a cell.”
“Tartarus is a pit full of bone cells and hellhounds,” CJ argues.
Tolliver frowns, tapping against the table. “It’d be like breaking into a prison, but the prison is on fire and also hell.”
I try to sweep a pizza box full of cans into the trash, but they rattle off in every direction. “Plenty of people have gotten into Tartarus.”
CJ scowls. “Not on purpose. And no one’s ever escaped.”
“That we know of.” I tie off the bag with a flourish and toss it toward the kitchen, where it misses the can entirely.
“And screw escaping,” CJ presses. “How would we even get in?”
I shrug. “We know exactly how to get in. Either by being a syndicate member…or a prisoner.”
“No,” CJ and Tolliver say at the same time.
I start to pace, the idea taking shape. “The syndicates are already mad at me. I know too much. I won’t do what they want. And what do they do to people who don’t do their bidding? They put them in Tartarus.”
“After they kill them,” Tolliver adds flatly.
I wave that off. “Minor detail.”
CJ starts ticking things off on their fingers. “No schematics, no inside man, no timetables, no disguises—”
“Once I’m inside, I can get all the intel we need.”
“And how will you get it to us?” they snap.
I throw up both hands. “We can figure all that out later, but you have to admit the idea has merit.”
“It doesn’t, actually,” Poppy cuts in.
I put a hand over my heart. “Et tu, Poppé?”
She leans back into the sofa, crossing her arms. “No, for real. How are you going to give us all this intel?”
“Maybe…” I purse my lips, thinking. “If I can’t bring the intel to you, I can bring you to the intel.”
Ezra squints. “Are you having a stroke?”
I feel a surge of adrenaline, my thoughts coalescing, the plan just out of reach. I’m just missing a few pieces and everything will lock into place. “What if you somehow came to me? Is there some kind of tracker you can put on me? And then you can follow it?”
Poppy’s already shaking her head. “We just established that the only ways in are as a syndicate member or a prisoner. How are we getting to you?”
Ezra perks up. “Ooh, what about teleportation? Can my magic be teleportation?”
“That’s not really how it works, my dude,” Tolliver says.
Rook clears his throat. “I have a solution.” He shifts his weight, not meeting our eyes. “I have…come into possession of…a pair of limen stones.”
The room goes silent. Everyone stares at him in shock.
Limen stones are basically myths. And I know we’re dealing with a lot of things that are myths here, but honestly, I thought the stones were just a plot device in old folklore.
The stories vary, but they all basically follow a couple in love who use the stones to always be connected. When the man dies tragically young, he’s buried with one of the stones and uses it to call his love into the Afterlife. They’re supposed to bridge any distance, even death.
If Rook has a pair of limen stones, he isn’t just dealing in antiques, he’s dealing in ancient mythical artifacts. I quickly revise my hypothesis for how Rook is tied to the Cult of Hades.
“That’s impossible,” Poppy says, expression carefully neutral. “That rune was lost centuries ago.”
Rook nods, considering. “They are quite old. They’ve been in the family for…innumerable generations.”
Poppy’s eyes narrow. “So, you’ve had limen stones just chilling in your attic and didn’t think to share with the world?”
Rook blinks. “Well, it’s not the type of spell I think the general public should use.”
Poppy stands slowly, and though she’s quite a bit shorter than Rook, she looms. “It’s not about using the spell, it’s about sharing knowledge.”
“To be fair,” I cut in, “I imagine most of Rook’s collection has been passed down to him, and while we can argue the morals of inherited wealth and privately owned antiquities, I think the more important thing to take away from this is that we have a way into Tartarus.
I smuggle one of the stones in with me, and I’ll summon one of you when I get there. ”
“One of us,” CJ points out.
It’s Poppy’s turn to pace. “So your plan is basically to get yourself thrown into hell, and then figure it out once you get there? Dante would never have approved of that.”
I drop onto the couch. “No, he wouldn’t have. But he’s not here.”
Poppy presses on. “Not to mention, no syndicate member, Dead or alive, is going to believe you’re actually Dead unless we literally kill you, which I’m sure you would have some objections to.
In good light, you’re basically transparent with Miracle Max, and that is the closest we can get to mimicking death. ”
Tolliver taps his knee, then stills. “That’s not actually true.”
“No,” I say, pointing in his direction, and I notice a slight tremor.
He gives me an apologetic look. “It would make your plan work.”
We stare at each other, gazes hard. It’s the closest we’ve gotten to talking about what happened, and I’m not ready. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready.
Ezra clears his throat. “Care to share with the class?”
Tolliver and I are still having our silent conversation, and I know what he’s telling me. That this, ironically enough, might be the only way to save my brother. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? I’d do anything to bring Dante back.
I swallow. “Rook, would you mind giving us some time as a crew tonight?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see his hurt expression.
“I guess I’m back to just a client, then?” he says under his breath.
Part of me wants to correct him, but the fact is he is just a client. And a client that might be betraying us as we speak at that. I can’t have any softness in my heart for him right now.
I keep my eye trained on the codex as he gathers his things. He shuts the door behind him a little too forcefully. Nobody speaks until we hear his car leave the driveway. Then Tolliver turns to Ezra, his eyes briefly flicking toward me.
“Miracle Max gets people to the Afterlife, but they’re, like, only kinda there. Like a reverse ghost. That’s what draws the hellhounds to them.”
Ezra nods. “With you so far.”
“But…” Tolliver gives me another quick glance. “There is a mist that gets you as close to death as you can get without actually dying. It puts you firmly, truly in the Afterlife.”
CJ’s head jerks up. “You finished Juliet?”
Tolliver nods. “No one can tell you’re not Dead.”
Poppy looks between Tolliver and me, confused. “This is incredible. This would change everything. Tolliver, why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you tell…everybody? You could be sipping cantaloupe coolers on a beach in Sausalito.”
Tolliver grimaces. “What?”
Poppy gestures broadly. “I’m just saying, you could have financed this job yourself on the money you would have made off Juliet.”
“Poppy’s right,” CJ says flatly, glaring in my direction. “Tolliver should have told us. Why didn’t he?”
Tolliver hesitates. “It’s…complicated.”
“When did you finish it?” Poppy asks.
CJ’s eyes narrow. “Last year,” they guess.
They can feel my panic, Tolliver’s guilt.
“So why didn’t you say anything?” Poppy asks.
Tolliver looks at me one last time, an apology in his eyes. Panic wells up in me and tears the words from my throat.
“Tolliver gave it to Dante, and that’s why he’s dead!”
The room goes silent.
Ezra clears his throat, shifting uncomfortably. Tolliver’s eyes are rimmed red, and the fact that he’s not correcting me breaks something in me.
“But I took it first,” I confess in a strained whisper. “It’s my fault Dante’s dead.”