Pickup Styx (18 page)

“Forsaking Selene is not—nor will it ever be—an option.” Fury raged through me.

“Some things are bigger than just one person. Selene knows that,” Leslie said, but she too looked sick at the idea.

“There has to be another way,” Devin said. “Like can’t we find a way out of actually giving them the pole?”

“It would depend on the exact wording of the bargain and only Selene knows that. If they said all she had to do was get the pole, we wouldn’t have to turn it over. If they said she had to give them the pole, it’s trickier.”

“But possible?” Devin said.

I nodded. If we had time to talk to Selene and make arrangements when she returned, maybe we could prevent a bigger fiasco. Sy glanced at his watch, and his eyelid ticked.

“But what if we can’t find a loophole and she has to give it to them? What’s the plan then?” Sebastian asked.

“The plan is for you to shut your pie-hole,” Katrina snapped.

I bit my lower lip to keep from smiling. “I promise you, Katrina, no matter what happens, I will make sure Selene can get back.” I cracked my neck to one side then the other. “If she has to give them Charon’s pole, we’ll just find a way to ensure we can get it back.”

Sy also stood, speaking for the first time. “I need to get back to The Office, but I’ll be working on ideas. Selene isn’t staying in the Underworld”—he looked directly at Sebastian—“or I will take a great exception to that.” His words fell heavy in the room, all traces of his usual humor and charm absent.

Sy left. In all the years I had known him, I had never heard Sy threaten anyone. But out of all of us, Sy lived the most on the fringes. He knew and worked with people who could make the most hardened criminals weep with fear. Sy was probably speaking hypothetically, but now that he had planted the seed, if Selene didn’t come back. . . Well, Sebastian would have the mysterious half-elf to deal with. I didn’t envy him that.

“I’m not saying she shouldn’t come back. I’m just exploring options,” Sebastian said. “She’s my friend too.”

I shrugged, and an idea occurred to me. “It’s best not to talk about it further.”

“I’ll keep reading and see if I can find anything else,” Leslie said.

“I’ll make coffee,” Devin volunteered as they left the room.

“Now what?” Jessica asked.

“Now we see what a little luck can do,” I said.

“There he is,” Corbin said, pointing to Simon slowly climbing down the trail above us.

Simon landed next to us with a thud, looking frazzled, his brown hair sticking up at odd angles.

“Did you have a rough time out there, redshirt?” Corbin asked.

Simon grunted. “Damn wendigos. At least three of them.”

“Three? Really?” Corbin said.

“I’m glad you made it,” I said. There was no reason for Simon to make up stories, but I also didn’t care that he was trying to impress us. I’d had trouble with one. There was no way a human could handle three alone.

“Glad you made it too.” He looked ahead of us. “This doesn’t look too bad.”

I nodded and Corbin snorted, but we slowly continued down the trail. As we went, the wendigos sounded farther and farther away. My feet ached, but I kept on going without complaining. Simon led the way, and this time Corbin followed behind. Simon was telling me a story about his last climbing expedition that I was only half listening to. I was doing my best to keep my mind quiet, so I’d be alert for the next challenge. Simon glanced back and grinned at me as he stepped forward onto nothing.

I dropped my stick and my hands shot out. I clutched the collar of his shirt, but he weighed a lot more than me and his momentum yanked me with him. Corbin caught me before I got too far. Simon’s full weight snapped against my hand, almost making me lose my grip. My arm protested. Corbin reached around me and hefted Simon back up. There wasn’t a single part of the back of my body that wasn’t touching Corbin. The coldness radiating from his skin made me miss Cheney’s warmth. I missed everything about Cheney. The confusing feelings I’d had earlier were fading the closer we came to the next border. Maybe they were never real either. I stepped away from Corbin and the edge of the path beneath me crumbled away.

Corbin’s hand skimmed my arm, but I slipped through. Rocks jutted out here and there, and I tore off fingernails as I tried to catch hold of something. A small ledge broke my fall and possibly my ankle too. I clung to it, catching my breath, not caring about the pain. I could live with pain; I knew that now. I looked up. There was no way I could climb that high. I glanced over the edge. I couldn’t see the bottom. It was like this side of the mountain rose from nothing. I pushed myself to my feet, balancing on one leg.

“Selene!” Corbin called down.

“I’m okay,” I yelled.

He was quiet for a moment. “Are you planning on coming back up?”

I rolled my eyes. “Working on it.”

This would be so much easier with magic, but all of my spells kept backfiring.

I found a rock above me I could hold on to. I slowly pulled myself up, avoiding contact with the wall with my bad foot. My fingers left little trails of blood as I went. About twenty feet up, my muscles burned and felt ready to snap, but I kept going until my arms refused to lift me. My fingers strained to hold on. I wasn’t going to make it.

“Don’t stop.” Corbin’s voice came from above me.

I tried to pull myself up again, but halfway up, my arms gave out. “I can’t.” I glanced up, panting. “Tell Cheney I tried.”

“Don’t let go,” Corbin shouted. “Use your legs. A few more feet and I can reach you.”

“My ankle is broken.” My weight was becoming too much to hold and my fingers were cramped.

“It’s only pain. You aren’t going to let them win, are you? Do you really just want to lie down and die?”

I gritted my teeth and forced my swollen, painful ankle to help support me. Tears streamed down my face, but I managed until Corbin’s hand clutched my arm, and then I went limp. Letting him pull me the rest of the way, I lay on the ground, breathing hard, wiping dirt and tears from my face.

“That’s why you shouldn’t try to save people,” Corbin said, though his eyes were filled with relief. Simon stood awkwardly to the side, peering down at me.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Corbin took my ankle in his hands. I tried to pull away, hissing.

“Give me your belt,” he told Simon.

Simon handed Corbin the belt without question. Corbin folded it in half and handed it to me. “Bite down.”

I didn’t take it from him. “Why? What are you doing?”

“Setting the bone. Bite down, pet.” He forced it into my hand.

I clenched the leather between my teeth and looked up at the gray sky. The less I knew about what he was doing, the better. With a jerk and a stabbing pain that crashed through me until I wanted to throw up, the bone was set. I whimpered, biting harder as he continued to do something to my leg. When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I dropped the belt and screamed.

Finally, the wave of nausea passed. My foot was wrapped tightly in Simon’s shirt with the belt firmly around it. “The less pressure you put on it, the better,” he said, helping me up and handing me my walking stick.

I nodded, limping forward. Ahead, where Simon had almost plummeted to a certain death, a six-foot section of trail was missing. I covered my face with my hands and laughed. I just couldn’t win. Corbin hefted me onto his back and made the leap without much trouble. Simon walked about fifteen feet and took a running jump, nearly missing but managing to scramble up. The next river was ahead. It appeared to be moving, but it was too dark to be water.

Focused on the river, I nearly missed the naked, red-haired woman who stepped out in front of me. Her ribs stuck out, and one arm was lobbed off and continuously bleeding, but she seemed unconcerned by it. Her eyes were frosted over, making me suspect she couldn’t see anything. I took a step forward and she smiled, her mouth stretching from one ear to the other as if her face had been split, displaying small, pointed teeth. She sprinted toward me, teeth gnashing. I sidestepped, whacking her with my walking stick even as my leg almost gave out beneath me. She fell to the ground but immediately scrambled up and came at me again. Once again, I knocked her down. I didn’t want to hurt the woman any more than she’d already been hurt by failing to pass the area’s test, but she wasn’t going to stand in my way either. I glanced over at Corbin and Simon. They were fighting against an invisible wall. An all too familiar energy filled the air. I looked at the woman again with a new appreciation. A witch, but how was she casting? I had yet to do anything that worked the way it should.

The next time I knocked her down, I cast a quick binding spell to hold her down, but instead she flew back fifteen feet. This time, when she got up, she didn’t come at me. A wave of energy did, knocking me off of my feet. I returned the attack with everything I had just as she was about to pounce on me. The crazed witch stopped, suspended in midair. I smiled and brushed myself off while standing on one foot. Why didn’t I think of it sooner? Opposite. Everything was opposite here.

It took over an hour to figure out how to undo the spell that had been restraining Corbin and Simon, but eventually I did.

“Why haven’t you killed her?” Corbin asked.

I glanced at the woman. I would release her when we were far enough away that she couldn’t hurt us. “Because she deserves a chance to move on from here.”

Standing on the bank of the next river, I groaned. “Snakes? Really? Damn this sucks.” I hated snakes. Just looking at them slithering made my skin crawl.

“Did you think the Underworld was going to be angry kittens?” Corbin asked and Simon chuckled.

I looked at them seriously. “You’re right. Snakes are better. I mean, those claws and sharp little teeth. . .” I whistled.

“How do we get across?” Simon asked.

Large, flaming spikes jutted up from the ground on the other side as he spoke. Interesting. Corbin definitely wasn’t tossing us over this time. “I assume the snakes are poisonous.”

“At the very least.” Corbin pointed out a leg detached from some poor body that was devoured in a matter of seconds.

“I don’t suppose there’s a bridge,” I said weakly.

“Doesn’t matter if there is. We can’t leave the path, remember?”

“Right. Magic it is.”

I stretched my arms over my head and cracked my fingers. I needed a simple spell that would get us across but not impale us on the spikes. What I really needed was a broom. I glanced at my walking stick and licked my lips. That might work. I sat on the ground, instructed the guys to watch my back, and enchanted the stick. It wasn’t easy to work through how to do the enchantment opposite of what I would normally do, but finally the stick hummed with energy. Straddling the branch, I leaned forward and gripped the end. Slowly it lifted me off the ground. I grinned at the guys.

“Anyone need a ride?”

Simon looked shocked. “That’s awesome. How did you do that?”

I shrugged. “Hop up.”

He climbed on behind me and I took him across the river, only a little wobbly. I went back for Corbin.

“I thought you couldn’t do magic here.”

“I figured out the trick.”

He brushed a hair from my cheek with a half smile. “Not bad, pet. Not bad at all.”

We started across, but halfway there, the stick jerked to a stop, almost knocking Corbin off. I leaned forward, dumping as much energy as I could into it to urge it forward. We crept ahead a couple more feet like we were moving through Jell-o. The stick shook beneath us and stopped again.

“Corbin, you need to jump.”

“I don’t believe I heard you correctly.”

“The walking stick is going to fall. You need to jump to the other side,” I told him calmly, though I felt anything but calm on the inside.

“Not without you.”

“I’ll be right behind you. I promise.”

He pushed himself up until his toes were balancing on the stick. It was a good thing this happened with Corbin riding behind me and not Simon. The human wouldn’t have had the balance or been able to make the jump. Corbin pushed off, sending me and the branch spinning. When I got control again, he was safely on the other side.