Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
brANDON
“ T his is not what I expected to see in the underworld,” Bianca tells me while staring off into the view.
After we explained to Mel why we needed the souls, he suggested we go to his home in the underworld. The fact that Gabriel accompanies us might be the only reason I agreed. I don’t completely trust the angel, but I have far more faith in his moral compass than the demon. Yet, his obsession with his brother proves he can be troublesome. However, I am fairly confident in my abilities to keep Bianca and myself safe.
Bianca isn’t the only one to be surprised at what we find once we cross the gates to the underworld. My brain fails to understand how green fields of flowers and valleys of mountains, as far as the eye can see, can exist here. A trick of the eyes, if I have ever seen one.
The walk from the gates to Mel’s residence is only about twenty minutes. It took longer to fly down the stairs. Gabriel and Mel flew down quickly with their wings and waited for us at the landing. Once the fog had dispersed, Bianca was so taken by looking at everything around us that I took our sweet time in going down.
Mel’s home is a decent size. The outside looks like a modern cabin. The inside is simple and clean, with no personal touches littering the space.
Gabriel walks behind his brother, straight to the fridge, and takes out a juice carton. Perfectly at home, the angel moves around the kitchen like he’s been here a million times. He probably has. Even once a year adds up over the centuries.
“Will you two have to stay close to us for this work?” The angel asks between gulps.
Announcing that we know little about the limitations of Bianca’s gift is out of the question. I need to be careful with my words. We might have made a deal with Mel, but I’m not fooled into thinking that any misstep won’t be used to his advantage.
“We’ve never had to add a demon or an angel. We can test how far you can go. As long as you’re in her sight, it should stand.” I move my gaze between the two.
“You could have simply said you didn’t know. No need for so many words,” Mel snaps.
Gabriel pats his brother on the back with a good humor smirk. “Don’t be rude. Be grateful.”
Mel scrunches his nose like the word grateful somehow brought a stinky smell. “I’m not rude. I’m also not stupid. This isn’t a favor. It’s a service I’m paying a lot for.” His eyes narrow on Bianca. I don’t like it, but before I say anything, he adds, “I don’t want you listening to my private conversations with my brother. That’s not what I agree to.”
“Tough shit. You get what you get.” She crosses her arms and scowls at the demon with a lot more confidence than I would give her credit for.
I wish I could kiss her. I love how she doesn’t cower n to him. Anyone would, and who could blame them? I’ve trained since childhood to level with predators like Mel and never show weakness. Bianca is doing amazing.
“I don’t care to listen to your conversations,” Bianca says. “We can test the length of my gift. After you do your part.”
On that note, I pull out of my bag the cursed book. Careful not to touch it directly, I hand it to Mel wrapped in a cloth. The demon takes it and leads the way to his office. The small room is full of books and dark wood furniture. Only one window in the room allows little to no light inside.
“Good old friend,” Mel greets the book. He drops the cloth and gives it a closer inspection. Like the book somehow can hear him, he whispers, “No soul here for you to steal.”
I pocket that piece of information.
“You’ve seen this book before?” I ask him.
The demon shakes his head but doesn’t meet my eyes. He carefully traces the words carved on the book’s cover with his index finger.
“The book isn’t familiar, but the magic used to create it is.” He finally looks at me and asks, “The young boy with the silly voice is who you wish to spare?”
“You can hear him?” Bianca steps forward, but I stop her with a hand on her arm. “Is he okay? What’s he saying?”
Mel gives her a grimace. “I'd rather not say.” His expression only prompts Bianca to want to know. He knows what he is doing.
“Mel,” I say in warning.
His voice then echoes in my head. “What would you have me do, Prince? Shall I tell the girl of his suffering?” His smirk is devious. Out loud, he answers, “Do not worry, princess, he will not remember his time there.” Using the title sounds like a mock coming from his lips .
“Here.” I hand him an emerald stone. Mel takes it without a word, knowing exactly what to do with it.
Black smoke envelops him and the book. The emerald stone glows a deep green. It gets so bright I almost have to shield my eyes, but then it all stops.
“Here.” He presses the stone to my chest.
I take it and examine it. Bianca moves closer to me, and I know what she’s asking with one look. I can sense the soul swimming in the jewel safely. I give her a reassuring smile I do not feel. Part of me senses she feels it, too. The extent of damage he received will remain unknown. We won’t know what Matias feels or knows until we speak to him.
Mel picks up a jar off his bookshelf. Inside swims five blackfish. They don’t look like normal fish found in the ocean, they look sinister. If the water imps looked creepy, these share a similar air.
“Are those the souls?” Bianca takes a step closer to see the fish.
Instantly, Mel moves the jar further away and gives her an annoyed look.
“I would have thought you had more than five at your disposal.” She crosses her arms, annoyed at his lack of partnership.
“He does,” Gabriel answers, completely undisturbed about the topic. Being brothers with a psychopath must mean he’s used to these topics. “Those are special.” He gestures to the jar. The lack of remorse tells me he knows exactly what these souls have done.
“You know them?” I eye him curiously.
For an angel, he seems to not have any problems with the use of black magic. I have no doubt he’s seen it happen in the hundreds of years he’s existed.
“Oh yeah,” he admits, but adds nothing else .
I don’t think he is willing to share more, so I don’t ask.
“Wait, what about the other three souls in the book?” Bianca points out. “Do they deserve to be stuck there forever?”
Mel ignores her as he proceeds until his brother nudges him. Reluctantly, the demon turns to Bianca. “There’s nothing left to save there. They’ve been inside the book for too long. That is how I easily knew your friend from the rest. He has humanity left inside his soul.”
He keeps quiet about the fact that the humanity in a soul dies over time when the soul is trapped. He doesn’t have to. It makes sense. What a horrible way to go.
“Okay.” She steps back to my side.
Mel places the book on his desk and plucks one fish out of the jar. He dangles it above the book for a second before letting it drop. A quiet, yet clear scream echoes in the room. It takes me a second to realize it’s coming from the fish. I shake my head. It’s not an actual fish, it’s a person’s soul.
“Don’t take your eyes off it.”
Mel’s words register as background noise as my eyes zeroed down on the second fish. His fingers are holding the tail of the thing, shaking above the book. His finger releases it like the first, and a scream echoes once again. The fish disappears into the markings on the book. It was as if the marking absorbed it into its ink. The markings glow for half a second before they disappear before our eyes.
“Is that it?”
The question comes from Bianca. While this entire thing happened, I didn’t notice her taking a few steps back.
I take the journal in my hands and examine the pages. Written like a diary, journal entries stare back at me with thoughts and opinions. I trace the lettering and signature at the end of each page. The research Lexi Blue and I had done regarding this book made it sound like we would find more spells and research than this. In reality, we found nothing concrete. Only observations and guesses from other sources, and the main reason opening the book was our last choice.
“It took five souls to open a fucking diary from god knows who?” I ask no one in particular.
Mel’s expression sobers as he looks over my shoulder at the journal. I hand it to him and try to read his expression. There is a glimpse of his eyes and slight tilt of his mouth.
“You know who that is?” I ask him.
Based on how old the book has to be, Mel might be one of the few creatures still walking the earth that could have known this person.
“The handwriting of Klause is unmistakable.” He taps the page like he finds something amusing written there.
“Friend of yours?” Bianca inquires.
Mel gives her a genuine smile. “In my line of work, there isn’t such a thing as friends, but there are respectable acquaintances.” He looks once more at the book. “Last I heard from Klause, he was helping eradicate the Red Book.”
His blunt statement freezes me in place. The missing puzzle piece finally sets into place. This makes the entire situation a lot more dire than I dreamed. Whoever’s been looking for this journal is seeking to know what this Klause person discovered regarding the state of the Red Book. But why, and at what cost?
“He failed,” I say. I’m fishing, and Mel knows it. Obviously, Klause failed because the book is still firmly in place, but I can’t flat-out ask him to tell me more. Can I?
“Klause doesn’t fail,” Mel informs me as he reads through the journal’s pages.
It would impress me with the speed at which he seems to move through the book if it wasn’t because part of me is still in shock. No, not shocked. I’m gradually grasping the extent of the situation.
“The Red Book is very much still in place, so he failed,” I say again.
I need more. Come on, Mel.
Mel stops to look at me. “If you wish to live in delusion, be my guest. If you wish to sort this out, please refrain from adding useless commentary.” He keeps moving from page to page.
“I need a minute,” I say, unable to take much more. I think I forgot to breathe; my breaths are becoming shorter and shorter.
I take my leave without looking back, returning to the kitchen and making my way outside. Mel’s backyard has a huge pond with crystal-clear water. I walk toward it and take a couple of deep breaths. The sunshine of what can only be a fake sun heats my skin. The illusion is so good I can’t tell.
Once my breathing is under control, I rub my eyes and apply some pressure. This whole day has been crazy. I’m in the underworld of all places. I finally got my hands to the inside of the cursed book. Now, I’ve discovered that there is a person or group of people with the motive to destroy the world as we see it—dismantle the status quo from its base foundation. The unanswered question is: why? Do they know how the world looked before the Red Book?
“Do you want to talk it out?” Bianca asks behind me.
I shake my head but eventually ask, “Why?”
“Power.” Her answer is so simple, yet real. Isn’t that why there are four ruling realms to begin with? “I’ll be honest. I know little about the Red Book, but I assume it contains all the magical rules and laws.”
“You got it just about right. The book doesn’t just contain it, it bends it. ”
This makes me realize I also don’t know enough about the book. I know the laws and rules inside it, but if there’s anything else, I’m unaware. It’s not like I’ve ever touched it. No one has. It sits in that cave alone.
“Are you sure it does nothing else?” She taps her chin. “Perhaps there’s something we aren’t thinking of. We know they want to destroy the Red Book for power. Let’s determine what type of power can be gained from its destruction.”
Her words cleared my mind. She is right. I create a path in my head with a new mission. At that moment, Gabriel sticks his head out of the kitchen window and waves us down.
“Mel found something,” he tells us once we’re close enough. He looks behind us to the pond. “You see that yellow duck?” He points over our heads.
We turn, and sure enough, a line of about ten ducks in all colors are swimming closer to the house. I hadn’t noticed them before in my current mood.
“The yellow one is called Melly. We named her after her father, Mel.” Gabriel chuckles to himself. “He acts like he hates them all, especially her, but he secretly loves her.”
“He can he feel love?” Bianca asks without thinking. At the confused expression on Gabriel’s face, she back paddles. “I mean, he’s a demon. If he says he hates her, how do you know?”
“I know my brother.” That’s all the angel says before heading inside.
Inside, we find Mel in the kitchen eating a sandwich. He doesn’t look at us as he lazily chews on his meal. The journal is nowhere in sight, probably abandoned in his office.
“Did you make me one?” Gabriel asks him.
Mel gives him a look and then gestures to the other four sandwiches on a plate in front of him. Gabriel says nothing else as he sits opposite and begins to munch on the rest of the sandwiches.
A white note sits on the same counter. I lean closer and confirm it’s the same one from the Human Resources Office. The note has only five words written on it. “Melly’s request to relocate.” The fifth word is written on top with different colored ink. “Denied.”
After a while, I realize Mel won’t offer the information.
“Did you find something?” I ask him.
His dark eyes move to me, but his chewing continues painfully slow.
“The longer you take, the less time you’ll have with your brother,” Bianca reminds him.
He doesn’t answer us, just gets up and moves back to his office. The journal is open to one of the last journal entries. He points at it. I take the book in my hand and read. Klause’s handwriting is messy but legible. It only takes me a few lines before I recognize each letter’s unique penmanship.
Klause begins his entry by stating he has come to understand many things in the past few days.
My efforts to free those ruled under the Red Book have been misguided. The Fates have done them a favor, not a disservice. It has saved them from themselves. Capping their magic to the safest amount they can handle is for the best.
I continue to read. He doesn’t explain who was looking to undo the establishment of the Red Book, but they were bad people. Klause refers to them as coals. The Red Book didn’t affect people like him who possessed his type of magic, which he soon realized made them stronger. Their strength also made them a target. He soon found himself having to flee to survive.
The last entry states that disappearing from the enemy is the best way to save the world from war. The story doesn’t end there. He simply runs out of space in this book. He most likely sealed this one and moved on to another one.
I trace over his words with my finger, but pause at a specific line. “What does he mean by his kind?”
“Raw magic,” Mel clarifies. “Klause is not like you. He’s an immortal with dark, endless magic. His kind are born here in the underworld.”
“What kind of being?” I ask. It doesn’t make any sense. “How is his magic not affected by the Red Book?” I know the book rules over all magic creatures, not just witches and wizards.
“No.” Mel shakes his head like the answer is simple, but I’m not getting it.
“I forgot about them.” Gabriel scratches his head. He’s standing in the doorway. I’m not sure how long he’s been there. “It has been so long since they walked this earth.”
Mel gives his brother a knowing look. “They never cease to exist, but they ceased to bring attention to themselves.”
Bianca holds her hands up. The brothers stop talking to look at her.
“Are you saying that around the time the Red Book was created, another type of magic used to exist?”
They nod in unison.
“Raw magic isn’t a type of magic a person practices, it’s the magic a person is. People born with raw magic aren’t like you. At one point, they were viewed as gods because of their immortality and a never-ending source of power.” Mel sits behind his desk and threads his fingers together. “ Don’t worry, they did not procreate like your kind. There have only ever been a handful of them at any given time.”
“Okay.” Bianca’s voice sounds more confused than ever. “So, Klause and his people went into hiding after the Red Book was created?”
“The creation of the Red Book did nothing to those with raw magic. The Red Book only caps your magic.” He taps the desk with his index finger.
“I’m sorry, what?” I shake my head.
Mel shares a look with his brother. “You mean to tell me you will soon inherit a crown, yet don’t know the history of your own people?”
“What my brother means to say,” Gabriel interjects, “is that it surprises us you are unaware of the variety of reasons behind the creation of the Red Book. We were alive to see it, so we have a different view of the situation. An unbiased one.”
“Because we don’t care.” Mel crosses his arms.
“For you to prosper is for all of us to prosper.” Gabriel shoots his brother a side eye.
“If I’m going to teach you your history, I want an extra day.” Mel’s finger is pointing at Bianca expectantly.
She nods, and I’m sure she must be more confused than anyone.
“Your magic can be linked to the elements. Some houses have a higher power over one element than another,” Gabriel starts. He walks into the room and takes a seat.
I know this already. I don’t need him to explain how magic works in Puerto Quinn. What I need is to know what the Red Book changes. I raise my hand to stop him.
“The Red Book is the rules and bylaws of magic in the world,” I state. My words come out confident, but I don’t feel it. Something tells me I’m about to find out what I have been wondering for so long, but I’m not ready for the answer. “What am I missing?”
Mel knows exactly what I am seeking. “The Red Book caps the maximum amount of magic a person can do. Before its creation, a person could train and gain more access to as much as they wanted.”
“That’s great,” Bianca jumps in. “Why would anyone stop that?”
“The Oscuro house has always ruled because they tend to have high control over all.” Mel rolls his eyes at the statement before his eyes focus back on me. “The Fates allow your superiority complex to prosper because you answer to them, and your family tree never went rogue.”
“Rogue,” Bianca echoes.
“Not everyone is built to carry so much power. Some people would turn rogue after a time. The chaos and devastation their power would rain on innocents was catastrophic,” Gabriel explains. His gaze looks troubled at the memory. “Their minds weren’t built for it. Good people would snap and commit heinous crimes.”
“Very few didn’t have those problems,” Mel points out.
“The Oscuros.” I nod in understanding.
“Not only the Oscuros.” Mel snaps his fingers, trying to recall something. “What was the word for those who got paired?” He asks his brother.
“Anchors,” Gabriel supplies.
“Those who found their anchors and bonded were also safe from turning rogue.” Mel looks up at the ceiling then adds, “I believe they are now called soul bonds. Nauseating.”
“The book seems to cap everyone at the maximum amount they can reach before turning rogue. That is why each of you has a different level of magic abilities. It's what nature intended you to have,” Gabriel finishes.
A million ideas circulate around my brain like puzzle pieces finding their place in my picture, I begin to see clearer. There’s only one thing to do. If they wish to destroy the Red Book, we must do everything possible to stop it.
“Did Klause ever figure out what could destroy the Red Book?” I ask.
“The deal was two souls. I helped you enough and satisfied my curiosity for an extra day. The outcome of this is now on your lap.” Mel walks to me and pushes the journal into my chest. “Looks like you have homework. I have the remainder of the day with my brother.”
He leads the way out, and Gabriel follows, not before giving Bianca and me a sympathetic smile. He might be a good person who hopes to keep the peace all around, but this isn’t his battle. It’s mine. It’s my people who need me.