Page 32 of Inferno (Chronicles of Nick 4)
“I’m Southern.”
The deepened scowl on his face said that he had no idea what Nick was talking about. Which meant he’d been trapped here for a minimum of several hundred years.
“You don’t get out much, do you?”
That went right over the wolf’s head. Without a word, he dragged himself over to the wall and licked at the ice.
Yuck. Nick shuddered. “What are you doing?”
He licked for a few more seconds before he wiped his hand over his mouth. “I’m thirsty.”
“Dude, really? Couldn’t you have just waited until they brought us water?”
“They don’t bring water to us in here. You get what you scrounge for.”
Nick’s jaw went slack. “They don’t bring us food?”
He shook his head.
Uh-uh. No way … He refused to believe what the wolf was telling him. “Dude? Seriously?”
“We are immortal. We don’t have to eat.” The wolf’s rumbling stomach denied that. It was so loud, Nick could hear it from across the room.
It made his own stomach cramp for food. “Oh no, no, no, no. This ain’t gonna work. I have to have three squares a day. Comprends?”
“I don’t know that language.”
Nick frowned. It’d been English but for one word. “Food. I’m talking about food. What do we do when we’re hungry?”
“Sometimes animals wander in. If they get close enough, we have food.”
Nasty …
“Dude, why you live there, then? Tell you what … You get me out of here and I’ll buy you the best meal you’ve ever had. We’re talking etouffee, andouille, and gumbo so good you’ll slap ya mama for it.”
“Do you think I’d be here if I had a choice?” the wolf snarled viciously.
That baffled him. The wolf had been free in New Orleans and no one had been holding his chain when he came in here earlier. “You were out of here and free, why on earth would you come back?”
He scowled at Nick as if he didn’t understand the question.
But his confusion enlightened Nick, who finally understood. “Oh … you’re like Caleb. You’re enslaved.”
“No. Not enslaved. I made a bargain. I am here so that my sister is not.”
“Then get up and leave, and take my butt with you.… Please.”
The wolf shook his head. “My sister would have to serve in my stead, and she is not as strong. She wouldn’t last a week here.”
“While I admire your devotion, that is whacked, and it makes me really glad I’m an only child. But since you love her so much, then you’ll understand that I have to get out of here and find my mother, okay? I’m pretty sure she’s in bad danger.”
The look on his face said that he had no idea what Nick was talking about. It was like the concept of a mother was completely alien to him.
“Beast!”
A deep, frightening level of ferocity came over him at the male shout that cut through their cavern and rebounded off the walls. He immediately transformed back into the wolf. Crouching low, he backed up against the wall, ready to pounce on whatever was coming toward them.
“Where is he?” another male voice demanded.
Nick frowned as a giant man came storming into their corner. He drew up short the instant he saw Nick. “Who are you?”
“Nick. You?”
“Not Nick.”
“Balder? What’s taking so long? I have a wager to win.”
“Coming.” Balder went to the chain that held the wolf captive and jerked it from the wall.
The wolf went crazy, snarling and fighting against him as Balder jerked and dragged him toward the entrance. “Save your energy for the ring, dog.”
Nick wasn’t sure what they were about to do with him, but he had a pretty good idea. And judging from the way the wolf did everything he could not to be dragged out of here, he knew exactly what was waiting for him.
Poor guy. It had to be terrible.
But the one thing that event rammed home with vicious clarity was what would be done to Nick if Noir ever got ahold of him, and what Caleb’s fate could be in the hands of another master.
It was a sobering thought. And it spurred Nick to renew his fight to get out of this cage as fast as possible. These people were nuts and the last thing he wanted was to be a part of their sick, twisted world.
“I’ve got to get home…” Nick glanced around, then decided to go for broke. “Ambrose!” he shouted, trying to summon his future self. “Boy … answer me! I don’t care how crazy you are. I need your help and I need it now!”
Always in the past, Ambrose had come when he called. If not physically, he’d talked to Nick in his head. But Nick hadn’t heard from him in days.
What the heck was going on?
CHAPTER 18
Mount Olympus
The distant future
Terrified and shaking, Artemis hid in the same crevice she’d once used to play hide-and-seek with her brother Apollo, countless centuries ago, when they’d been young and naive.… Back when theirs had been the most powerful pantheon that ruled. Never in those long-ago days had she dreamed that she’d be hiding here to save her own life.
Her precious Nick was completely lost now. There was no part of him or Ambrose left. After all this time of his fighting his true nature, only the monster Malachai inhabited his beautiful body.
Tears streamed down her face as she fought for self-control. She couldn’t make a sound or he’d find her and kill her, just as he’d done the rest of her family.
Pressing her trembling hand to her lips to keep herself silent, she wanted to scream in horror and grief as her guilt mounted. She was a goddess. Why hadn’t she been able to help him maintain his control?
“Artemis?”
She gasped at the low whisper of someone she’d thought was long dead. She glanced behind her to see an ancient god of Order. “What are you doing here?”
“Trying to save the world.”
“You’re too late.”
“In the most hopeless of hells, there is always one thing that remains. One thing that cannot be killed unless it decides to die on its own and is surrendered by the one who possesses it.”
The indomitable human spirit. Mankind’s greatest gift and its worst curse.
It was the only thing that not even the gods could defeat.…
Order offered her a smile. “So long as one human has it, we can stop any evil. No matter how strong and powerful we think it is.”
Artemis wanted to believe that … she wanted to have hope again, but she knew better. “There are no humans left.”
“Never underestimate the survival of man or his capacity to sacrifice himself for what he loves most.” Order held a hand out to her. “We still have one small chance to stop the Malachai. Are you with me, little sister?”
Artemis hesitated. The one thing Acheron had taught her … Even the most minuscule of chances could be turned into a great victory. All you needed was to find the courage inside to try for it.
But she was so scared. What if she failed? Right now, she was alive. If she stuck her head out of this hole, she could die.
She could lose everything.
No, she’d already lost everything. What she had in this hole wasn’t living. And while survival had its place, sooner or later every creature deserved to have more than just meager, fearful survival.
They deserved to live.
If only it was as easy as it sounded, but life took courage. And I am not courageous. She’d never been such. Acheron had been right about that. She had always put her own well-being over those she loved. And what had it gotten her?
Misery. Solitude.
You are alive.
Yes, she had her life, but at what cost? She couldn’t even face herself in mirrors anymore, because every time she met her own gaze, she knew what she’d done, and she couldn’t hide from her conscience.
You can’t change the past. But she could change the future. And she could change the present.
For the first time in her existence she found the one thing she’d never known she had.
Bravery.
Taking Order’s hand, she nodded. “Let us undo what has been done.”
* * *
Nick growled as he tried again to break free. “I won’t be held by you!” he screamed out, hoping Hel could hear him. And he meant every word.
Gautiers didn’t back down. They didn’t give in.
And no one would ever defeat him. Not even a goddess.
He kicked the bars even though it bruised his feet and legs and jarred every inch of him.
It’s hopeless.
“Shut up,” he snarled at himself. “I don’t want your negative crap! If you can’t help, get out of my head.”
All of a sudden, he heard someone approaching. Crouching low, he prepared himself to fight who or whatever it was.
“Bring it, punk.”
A huge dark something lumbered slowly into his jail, casting a massive shadow on the wall. That was enough to make a half-grown demon wet his pants.
Nick backed up, tense and alert.
As quickly as it’d grown to the size of the Empire State Building, the shadow shrank down to show it was the wolf returning. Nick expected him to head for his post. Instead, he limped on three legs, dragging his forward left one, toward Nick’s cage.
Panting hard and covered in foamy white sweat, blood, and scratches, the wolf paused outside the door to stare at Nick. There was a gash above his left eye and the pain in his gaze was searing. It held Nick spellbound. And as they continued to stare at each other, the wolf turned back into his human form. Nick grimaced at the depth of the cut that ran along his brow. He needed stitches. Badly. The entire left side of his face was horrifically bruised, and his nose and lips were bleeding like crazy. His left arm was broken and twisted. He appeared so worn-out and defeated that Nick couldn’t understand how he kept from collapsing on the floor again.
Before Nick could recover from his shock at seeing him like that, the wolf opened the door.
“Go,” he whispered, gesturing toward the back side of the cave. “There’s a small, narrow path that will lead you through the mist of shrills. They cannot hurt you unless you listen to them. Ignore whatever it is they say and stay on course. Move as quickly as you can. At the end of the path, you will emerge into a room that contains several doors. There you’ll have to choose your way home. But beware, the easiest is the hardest and the hardest isn’t as bad as you think.… And one of those doors will lead you to your death.”
“How will I know which is death?”
The wolf winced as if a wave of pain went through him. “The paths are different for each of us. And you won’t know if you’ve picked the right one until it’s too late. But only you can decide which one takes you home.” He stepped back and fell to the floor.
Nick went to him, but the wolf shoved him away with a snarl.
“Why are you helping me?” he asked, trying to understand the wolf’s sudden turnaround.
“I have no idea. I guess Hel and the others are right. I am stupid.”
No, he was a hero. “C’mon,” Nick reached for his right arm, “we can get out of here together.”
He shook his head. “You have to travel alone. It’s the only way you’ll make it. Besides, if I go with you, I can’t hold Hel and her hounds back from your trail.”
“Bud, no offense, but you don’t look like you could hold a caterpillar back in your current condition.”
He met Nick’s gaze and the fire in those purple eyes belied the pain that also burned there. “I’m stronger than I look. Now go before it’s too late.”
“What will happen to you when she finds out you’ve freed me?”
He laughed bitterly. “Look at me, kid. What more can she do?”
Kill him. Torture him. With the gods, there was no telling.
Guilt reared up and bit Nick hard. “I can’t leave, knowing you’re going to be punished for helping me. What kind of dickhead do you think I am?”
“Sometimes we have to make hard choices, and I am nothing to you.”
“You’re not nothing. You’re a hero to me. The man who saved my life.”
The wolf scoffed. “Definitely not a man. I’m just a stranger and you have family who needs you. Go save your mother, and remember, so long as you follow your true heart, you will never make a bad choice.”
Just as the wolf stayed here to save his sister. He understood family the same way Nick did. “Thank you.”
The wolf didn’t respond.
Reluctantly, Nick headed for the small opening. Just as he reached it, the wolf called out, “Nick?”
He paused to look back to see the wolf lying on top of the blanket. “Yeah?”
“Thank you for your gifts.”
“Anytime.” Inclining his head to the wolf, Nick wedged his body through the narrow slit.
As he stepped onto the path, he considered their last exchange. The wolf was right. He was a complete stranger. Nick knew almost nothing about him.
