Page 50 of Wicked Ties
“Maze. Come on.” Tilly’s voice rose with urgency, and she shook me even harder. My visions cleared and I was ready for this. Ready to face her. The Crone lay at our feet, fighting against the vines around her, and we only had moments until she was free to resolve everything. I shoved my hands into my pockets and yanked the bottles out. I thrust them into Beckett’s chest. “Take these.”
“What?” He wrapped his hands around them, holding them there.
“Take them back to Evermore. She wouldn’t dare cross into Fallen territory.” I glanced down at the Crone. “Protect them with your life, and don’t let them out of your sight.”
“I can’t just leave.” He hesitated.
“You can and you must.” I glared. “Go now. And take them.” I pointed toward Kylian, Soto, and Logan. “They’ll help protect them.”
Astrid pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I’ll be back soon.”
“No dying.” He met her eye, and they held that look for a moment.
“No dying.” She agreed and then stepped back from him. She spread her hands behind her, and the air shimmered, opening a portal right into the courtyard of Evermore Academy. Beckett marched by her and straight into the portal.
Kylian gave me a mock solute. “Yeah, it’d suck if you died, too.”
“Um, thanks?” I flipped him off as he went through with Soto hot on his heels.
Logan pressed his lips into a tight line. He’d been through so much over the past few weeks. And yet when he gave me a single look, I knew he was concerned, I knew he wanted to help, and I knew he wanted to stay. His power rolled from him and over me. “Win, brother.”
It was a hit of powerful magic. Like drinking an energy drink, I felt the driving need to never relent, never give up, and to end this once and for all. When they were gone, and the portal closed behind them, relief washed over me. Those bottles were equal to Tilly’s spirit, the one thing she asked me for, and I would give it to her . . . if we lived through the next part.
“Come on.” I reached into my pocket and threw the card down to the ground in front of me. The words of the chariot echoed through my mind, and it sprang forth once more. “Everyone on.”
“Where are we going?” Tilly climbed up first, and Astrid hopped on next to her.
“I can’t say.”
Move. I pictured the gates of Tartarus in my mind, and the chariot jerked forward. Wind whipped by us, and when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that the Crone had broken free from those vines and was running after us. We were way faster, but it would only be moments until she caught up to us and Liesin. If she got her hands on those contracts I was as good as dead.
“Tartarus.”
“What?” Tilly looked back at me,
“We’re going to Tartarus. Liesin told me.” I didn’t know how else to explain it, but when Liesin pointed to his temple, I saw him and exactly where to go, as though he implanted the vision in my mind. Or was I getting better at controlling my power? I didn’t know. But I did know we would find him there at the gates of Tartarus, waiting.
They didn’t question me further or try to understand how I knew. I just did. This was it. Either we would die, or she would. There were no more choices or options. We sped by the rivers Styx and Phlegethon, then headed toward the most dangerous part of the underworld. The ride from the Elysian fields to Tartarus was like going from complete beauty to desolation. We wound our way into a dark stone maze. The walls seemed to touch the dark gray sky. It amazed me that we could be basking in the warm sunlight of the fields one minute and driving through desolate grayness the next. Ash rained down on us, and yet I knew we weren’t near Tartarus just yet.
The chariot banked and turned to the side, driving faster and harder. We careened around another corner. It tipped up on one wheel, and I thought at any moment we all might tumble out, but it smacked back down on the ground and kept on going. At the end of the long path, the chariot shot out in front of a huge mountain. We screeched to a stop, and I jumped off.
Before us was a huge metal gate with no beginning and no end. There was no top, and the bottom seemed embedded deep into the earth. A set of ornate double doors was planted squarely in the middle. The thick metal seemed to wound around itself in intricate patterns that my mind couldn’t comprehend. Gears, wheels, and cranks filled the entire door like a lock that held anything and everything.
Above the door, the gate was made of a million jagged sets of teeth that would snap shut and rip off my arm at any moment. They varied in size from big to small, one more terrifying than the next. Random bursts of fire exploded from between the teeth gates. Screams and groans of pain came from behind that wall, and I didn’t want to go near it or see in. Sweat ran down the sides of my face and covered my body.
Liesin stood there waiting with the book of contracts in his hand like this place wasn’t terrifying. “Took you long enough.”
“Shut up.”
“Don’t forget I’m helping you.”
Tilly pointed at the book. “And getting something in return for it.”
Astrid climbed down from the chariot and swiped her hair out of her face. “Why are we here?”
“There’s a reason why the Greeks can’t take on the Crone and why no one messes with her. She’s nearly unkillable.” He pointed to the gates. “Where do you trap the unkillable?”
“You want us to trap her in Tartarus? We don’t even know how to get in.” The gate rattled and shuddered just then, and my own body mirrored the movement.
