Magic - Chapter 65
The entrance of the castle was guarded by nothing but several empty suits of armor, as dusty and discarded as the rest of the castle. Black bones and skulls adorned the huge doors.
This is the second book in The Godsverse Chronicles, a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.
Ollie wasn't looking for trouble, but after she saved the Antichrist from being slaughtered, it came for her.
Ollie lived by one rule. Never get involved with anyone for any reason; humans, demons, fae folk, it didn't matter. They were all trouble. Keeping her distance was how she survived in the criminal underworld for so long.
Keep your head down and don't piss anyone off. That was her motto, especially since her clients all had access to powerful dark magic.
She thought she had a flawless system for keeping her nose clean, so how did she wind up in a stolen car, with a demon spawn in her back seat, driving away from her ex-lover and a gang of demons ready to skin her alive?
That's a good question.
And why did she agree to help save the demon's life so she didn't get sacrificed to open the gates of Hell?
An even better question.
She had one rule. One stupid rule. And tonight...it goes right down the toilet.
Now, the only way for Ollie to get her life back is to save the girl, prevent the Apocalypse, and track down the people who betrayed her.
They will pay. Oh yes, they will all pay.
“Are you here to bargain?” Lucifer asked. His gaze settled on the dagger at my hip. “Or have you come to kill me? My, my, my. This is very interesting indeed.”
“I’m not here to kill you,” I said, holding up my hands in submission. “I’m not here to fight anyone. I just want to destroy this knife, and I need your lake to do so.”
He stood. “Ah, I see. Well then, let me escort you to your final destination.”
I furrowed my brow. “Wait, there are no follow-up questions to that?”
Lucifer shook his head. “None that I can think of.” The skulls cracked, hissed, and popped as he walked down to me. “Do I have any reason to doubt your sincerity?”
“I guess not. I don’t know why you have any reason to trust me, either, though.”
He laughed. “Oh, I don’t trust you. I just…don’t care. I figure if you want to kill me, you will do so.” He looked down at the dagger. “After all, unless I am wrong, that is one of very few weapons in the universe that can do so.” He beckoned me forward. “Come now.”
The entrance of the castle was guarded by nothing but several empty suits of armor, as dusty and discarded as the rest of the castle. Black bones and skulls adorned the huge doors. The motif continued around the room, up its pillars, and around the ceiling.
“Cheery.”
Lucifer pushed open the door, and the bright light of Hell fell upon me once again. I had not noticed how little light came into the castle until that moment, but as I looked up at the ceilings, I noticed that all the windows were blacked out.
“I hope you’ll excuse the mess. I don’t entertain much.”
What seemed like a thousand steps separated us from the lake of lava below. “Where are all your guards?” I asked as we descended.
He chuckled. “Once, I had hundreds in my personal army. Those numbers have dwindled as the attempts on my life stopped.”
“Demons tried to kill you?”
“Oh yes. Every time I sought to do anything to better Hell, it was met with resistance, and eventually, one assassination attempt or another.”
“I don’t understand. Aren’t you the Devil? Can’t you just smite them?”
He rolled his eyes, looking exasperated. “I wish. It’s mostly a ceremonial position and filled with bureaucracy. Non-stop bureaucracy. You have never known boredom like a ten-hour meeting with the Dukes about resource allocation.” He looked at the dark stacks of souls teetering over Hell. “It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know how bad it was, but it’s pretty terrible out there.”
“I have asked for help, you know. So far, my requests have been unheeded.” He sighed. “It doesn’t have to be this way.” A sadness filled his eyes. “God has truly abandoned me.”
We walked in silence for a long time until we finally reached the dock, and he sat down upon it, his cloven hooves dangling over the edge. “You know, I haven’t been out of my castle in decades. I really hate it here.”
I sat down on the dock next to him. “You sound like your son.”
“Which one?” He laughed. “The one nice thing about being the Devil is the groupies.”
“Et’atal.” I looked over at him. “He’s trying to start an Apocalypse, you know.”
Lucifer nodded. “That sounds like him. He’s very proactive.” He sighed. “A few more centuries in Hell will break him, and he’ll realize the only true path is to do nothing and accept your fate.” He pointed to the dagger. “Are you sure you’re not here to kill me with that?”
I nodded. “Just want to destroy it.”
“Well, unfortunately, that’s impossible. Even if you leave it at the bottom of the lake, it will not be destroyed. This isn’t Mordor, and that is not the one ring, Frodo.” He laughed at the shocked look on my face. “I do love reading. That dagger was made from a material so ancient that—let’s just say that nothing can destroy it. All we can do is make it harder for people to find it.”
“So, I will always have to be on the lookout for it?”
He shrugged. “I have tried to destroy that dagger many times. So many times.” He looked over at me. “It really is the bane of my existence, and yet I fear I will never be rid of it.”
“That sucks.”
“I’m sure you are ready to leave, then, if there is nothing else.”
“I could stay here a little longer if you wanted.”
He nodded. “That would be nice. Charon won’t be here for a while yet.”
We sat on that pier until Charon came for me, which was the better part of a day.
“You made it,” Charon said, looking at a very not-dead Lucifer. “And the Devil is still very much alive. It looks like I was right to trust you.”
“Looks that way.” I stood up. “And Aimee?”
“I connected her with an old friend and am confident she will make it to the Old Hat to meet with you.”
“Then it looks like all of this worked out,” Lucifer said. “Are you satisfied?”
I shook my head. “Never.” I clutched the dagger. “You’re sure this lake won’t destroy it?”
Lucifer chuckled and looked at Charon. “What do you think, old friend?”
“Oh no,” the boatman said. “This lake is nowhere near powerful enough.”
I flung the dagger into the middle of the lake. “Well, I guess I’ll keep my eye out for it.”
“Give it about forty years Earth time,” Lucifer said. “Unfortunately, for immortals like you and I, that’s the blink of an eye.”
“It was…interesting to meet you, Satan.”
“Please,” Lucifer said with a crooked smile. “Call me Lou.”
I stepped onto Charon’s gondola and watched Lucifer from the boat as we disappeared into the smoke. In time, we arrived back in Dis. I said my goodbyes to Charon and stepped into the secret passage that would lead me back into the city. From there, it was a simple matter to find my way to the Old Hat. Aimee and the others were waiting for me at a table in the back.
“Thank god,” Aimee said. “I don’t think I could have drunk one more glass of this warm piss.”
“And in Hell,” I replied, “that might actually be piss.”
She pushed her glass away. “Gross.”
Drownt still had his map of the city, and we used it to find our way back to the sewers where we began our journey. Aimee closed her eyes and set fire to the barrier between our worlds, and then we fell back into the Gateway where the Commander was waiting for us.
“Back already?” she said.
“Already?” I said. “We’ve been gone for days.”
She tapped the watch on her wrist. “Not according to this. Were you successful?”
I looked back at my team. “As successful as we could hope to be, I think.”
“And the dagger?”
“You won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
It was true. Somebody would have to worry about it, but not her. She would be long retired by the time the dagger made its way back. I would have to be vigilant, though, because I would very much still be alive, and I was okay with that being my lot in life.
Until then, though, I would be taking a much-needed vacation.
This is the second book in The Godsverse Chronicles, a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.