Page 17 of Wicked Ties
“You can find Apollo at a hospital in the suburbs of New Jersey. It’s in central Jersey, very nice and state of the art. Princeton or something like that.”
“How do we get there?” Tilly vibrated with the need to leave. She looked like she had all she could take and I was right there with her.
Nova opened her hand, and purple sparks smacked into the ground, and a bright, glowing purple line gleamed from where we stood and moved toward the horizon. “Follow that and it’ll take you where you need to go.”
Tilly pulled her in for a quick hug. “Thank you.”
Nova awkwardly held her hands away from Tilly. “No problem. For as long as I’m stuck down here, I’ll keep trying to help any way that I can.”
“Thank you.” I opened my pocket and pulled the chariot card once more.
It whispered in my mind. I am The Chariot, driven to victory . . .
I threw it on the ground, and the horses and Roman-looking chariot exploded from within it once more. Bright green magic covered them in translucent ghostly magic, and though they were silent, the horses moved and pranced like they couldn’t wait to run. Tilly stepped up onto the chariot, and I moved in behind her. I surrounded her small body, making sure she was secured in. Her back leaned against my chest and strands of her wild hair tickled my neck.
Go. Follow the purple.
It was all I had to think, and we were gone in a flash, moving through the underworld at clipped speed. It should’ve been fun and exciting, but all I could think was . . . I hope this works.
CHAPTER 7
TILLY
The chariot charged forward until there was nothing but deserted land in the underworld. Here it was quiet. Here it was creepy. Here we were food. When the sparkling purple line headed straight for a solid wall, the chariot didn’t stop or slow. I would survive the impact, but would he? I glanced up at him.
“We’re good.” He pressed his lips together and kept his eyes on the rocky wall.
The horses with their ghostly selves began to go through the wall. We were heading closer and closer. I wanted to make myself bigger so I could take the impact of the hit for him. At the last second, a hole opened in the wall, and we shot into it. The chariot ran upward, following the tunnel on a steep incline. It was dark and twisting, and I waited for a steep drop at any second. What goes up . . . must come down. Rocks rolled down the walls of the tunnel, and dust fell around us. It was so dark I couldn’t see where we were going.
The tunnel suddenly opened up, and bright light blinded me. I squeezed my eyes shut for barely a second and the chariot careened out of the opening. It arched up then slammed back down to the ground, rocking us both from side to side. When it jolted to a halt, my body slammed forward into the side of the chariot. Maze wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back against him. Strands of my hair fell into my face, and I stood there frozen for a second.
“Come on. We’re good.” He gave me a small tug and I let him guide me off the chariot.
When I straightened against him, he didn’t let me go. He kept his arm around my shoulders and held me closer to his body. I didn’t know what it was about Maze, but sometimes when we were this close to each other, I didn’t feel like there were pieces of me missing. Or at least not so many.
When he opened his pocket, the chariot card flew out and onto the ground, sucking the green glowing chariot back into the card. The card flipped up off the ground and back into his pocket.
“We’re good.” He scanned the area.
When I peeked up, we were at the back of the parking lot next to a small gathering of trees. Just on the other side of the lot stood a towering, modern-looking building with tall steel poles running around the outside of it. Signs for the emergency room were scattered throughout the parking lot with arrows pointing in one direction. A big sign that read “EAST WING” sat on the outside of the building. Farther down, there was a huge “WEST WING” sign. It was one of the biggest hospitals I’d ever seen. The outside was clean and gleaming like a sterile square. The sky was reflected in the gleaming windows.
Maze waved me forward. “Come on. He’s in there.”
“How do you know?”
His eyes went that vacant milky white. “He’s on the fifth floor.”
Without another word, we began weaving our way through the parking lot to the entrance. Two glass double doors slid open automatically as we approached, and the girl at the front desk stared at us as we began to pass.
“Hello? Can I help you?”
Maze didn’t even bother looking at her. “No.”
We walked through the crowded waiting room and headed toward the elevators. The people occupying the waiting room all stared as the receptionist rose to her feet and called after us.
“Excuse me, you have to check in.”
Maze glanced at her over his shoulder. “No.”
