Chapter 26 #2
I called June next and asked her to feed Glinda and Manfred in the morning.
She’d grumbled and complained, but finally agreed, even though I knew she would never say no.
She just enjoyed being ornery too much to let me off easy.
To June, and those who came before her, it was an honor to serve the Matildas.
I didn’t say it, but this may be the last time she got to help me.
Was I still a Matilda? I wasn’t sure anymore, but I couldn’t allow myself to think about that now.
I quickly fed Glinda and Manny, and gave them a little extra, then kissed my sweet girl on her fuzzy head and promised Manny I’d give him an extra goat when I got back.
As I marched toward Fender, who was leaning against his bike, he straightened, his amber gaze taking me in from head to foot. He was already shaking his head before I reached him.
“No fucking way, Tempest,” he said, a growl in his voice.
He was the second person to use my full name to tell me what I could and couldn’t do, and I wasn’t having it. “I’m a powerful witch, Fender,” I said and added my own growl.
His brow rose. “I know that, but—”
“But nothing.” I placed my hand on his arm. “I’m coming,” I said, with all the newfound confidence Fender himself had instilled in me. Then I motioned to the bike. “Ready when you are.”
“Fuck,” he bit out, stood there for several seconds, cursed again, then got on his bike. He held out his hand and helped me up behind him.
“So where are we going?” I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist and hung on.
The gateway into Pan’s territory, it turned out, was at the blue cliffs.
Of course it was. The power that radiated from that place was immense.
I thought it was all from Brigid, but now that I knew the truth, it seemed almost obvious, and learning that it was a portal to another realm didn’t surprise me at all.
I had no way to confirm it, but I assumed Brigid had come into contact with Pan while she lived in the cliffs and they’d either made some kind of deal about the weapons, maybe for him to look after them—or maybe he’d taken them for himself after she’d died.
Either way, Fender and the other hellhounds couldn’t have entered Brigid’s territory without me, which I made sure to point out.
Our journey there wouldn’t take as long this time, we were traveling to the blue cliffs a faster way.
Hellhounds could open a gateway between Hell and the human realm, but they couldn’t move to different locations in the same realm like I could, which was why Fender and I were about to enter Hell.
Since Fender had been to the cliffs before, he could open a gateway exactly where we needed to go and save us the hike through Oldwood Forest.
Was I nervous about entering Hell? I was terrified. But if Fender sensed my terror, he was polite enough not to mention it, especially after my big show of courage demanding I come with him.
We were currently standing outside the clubhouse garage.
Fender stood to my right, my hand in his, while Roman took up the space on my left.
If he was annoyed about the way I’d propositioned him at the clubhouse gathering, he wasn’t showing it.
Though I suspected he was more worried about his pack right now than anything else.
Fender lifted a hand and pressed it to the wall, the thick concrete glowed beneath it a moment before it began to swirl as if it were liquifying before my eyes. Then I was staring at a gateway to Hell.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Roman walked through, vanishing from view.
“Ready?” Fender asked me.
No, not at all. I didn’t say that though. Instead, I straightened my spine and nodded. Fender walked through, leaving the hellhounds’ garage and taking me with him—into Hell.
Fender had warned me that Lucifer’s quadrant was the most “Hell-like” as far as what people imagine it to be, stone and caves, heat and hellfire, but assured me that there were many different environments down here, and not all of them were dark and fiery.
Someone whistled, and we all turned. A female strode toward us, petite but strong.
Her hair was golden blond with rich brown streaks, and flowed loose and wild around her shoulders.
Behind her walked a huge male. All the hounds were massive, close to seven feet, but this one was the biggest I’d ever seen.
He wore faded jeans, no shirt, revealing a wide muscled chest covered in a good deal of dark hair.
His gaze was trained down, and his lips were curled a little, revealing wickedly long, sharp canines.
They were almost as long as Fender’s when he was in his beast form.
It was as if this hound’s beast had refused to recede completely.
The female stopped in front of us, and it was only then I realized she was tense. Her gold-and-green gaze moved beyond us, as if she were expecting someone else.
“Jagger’s one of the sick, which is why he isn’t here,” Roman said.
“Will he be okay?” she asked.
“We have a potion that should work.”
Gods, I hoped he was right.
Roman growled low. “Now would be a good time for Kurgan to get over his anger toward him. What Jag did was for the best, and you know it.”