Page 17 of Guided by the Stars
I lower my head, letting my hair spill over my face, and let out a sniffle. I’m still in the stupid handcuffs, but I could probably act my way out of them. I hear crunching beneath his feet as he gets closer to me, and he places his hand on my shoulder. I keep my head down, unsure if I’m going to be able to conjure up tears in time. “Hey beautiful, don’t cry. I’ll help you.”
I hitch my breath. “It’s just that these handcuffs hurt my wrists so bad. I’m really scared.” I sniffle loudly for added effect. “Besides, look at that huge dog! What if I trip? I won’t be able to catch myself. You wouldn’t want to leave me completely defenseless, would you? Maybe you can at least loosen them a bit?” I say, needing him to get closer so that when he unlocks the cuffs, I can do what I need to do to run for my life.
Once I’m free, I’ll still have the lake and souls to contend with; but I’m willing to take my chances with whatever beings could be dwelling under the surface of the black water. Anything sounds better than being lead straight to Hades by these two assholes. Running is my only chance.
Jax takes my hand in his and touches the handcuffs. He is leaning over them and my heart races. It’s now or never. I raise my leg up, intending to knee him where the sun doesn’t shine, but he grabs me and throws me over his shoulder. “Beautiful, I am blessed with the gift ofsight, so nice try.” He laughs and starts walking. I punch his back with my fist. “I might havebelieved your crying bit, but come on, you already punched Kai in the face,” he says, handing me some yellow cake he pulls out of his pocket. It’s wrapped up and in perfect condition, but at this point nothing is too shocking. “It’s for Cerberus, if he gets too close, give it to him. He loves honey cakes.” I quickly unwrap it.
It smells so good. Wait, what did he say? He said a name. I got a name! A small step, but a step nonetheless.
“Oh, so his royal assholeness has a name? I mean, since introductions were not on the list before you two snatched me and some other freaks took Nora. What do you mean by the gift of sight? Obviously, you can see,” I say, rolling my eyes even though he can’t see me.
As we approach Cerberus, he is standing on four paws that are the size of boulders. All three of his heads stare at me. He lowers one of those house-sized heads and lets out a growl, slobber pooling from the second head’s mouth. His fiery breath is right in my face, my heart races and throat closes up. I don’t want to be puppy chow. Remembering the cake, I toss it to him and he snatches it out of the air, no longer concerned with me. I laugh to myself as I remember learning about all of this in English class in high school, but never in my wildest dreams, or hellish nightmares, did I ever think this was real.
As soon as Jax crosses the gates, they close behind him. Cerberus is back to his post, watching as more souls come to cross.
Jax sets me back on my feet. “Heads up Beautiful, Kai is next in line to run this place. It would be a good idea to get him on your side.”
“Stop calling me that, we’re not friends, nor are we close enough for you to give me a pet name,” I say, glaring at him. He winks at me with those brown eyes, so full of amusement.I try my hardest to not to slap him. I’ve always been a sucker for a guy with brown eyes and tattoos. “So, who are you?” I think back to English class, running through the gods in my head. None of them pop out at me with the name Kai.
“Name is Jax.” My attention snaps back. “Sorry about all of this, but you gave us no choice,” he says, as I peek over at Kai who has a scowl on his face. “Come on, we need to get going, we have a long walk ahead of us.” He touches the small of my back and Kai’s scowl deepens. “I promise he isn’t that bad once you get to know him.” I scoff at Jax’s words.
Yeah right, I mean he just adult-napped me. Yet I’m expected to believe he isn’t that bad. He must think I’m a fool.
“Not like I’m planning on sticking around long enough to get to know anybody,Jay,” I snarl. He fixes his gaze on me, his mouth spreading into a smile. What a dick. I roll my eyes, making sure he takes notice, and his smile pulls up even more. I hurry, putting some distance between us. The sooner I figure this place out, the better. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to get closer to Jax. I need one of these guys on my side so that I can get out of here and find Nora. To think, Nora’s graduation gift led to all this. My mind is still trying to process why they grabbed me, and who snatched Nora, and why.
Kai comes up to me and shoves me a little ahead of him and Jax. Goosebumps pepper my arms from the cold. The temperature here is different from where we started. The cold seeps right into your bones. There’s some color, but the more I glance around, I notice that the only vibrant one is red. Everything seems dull, like it is devoid of life.
Souls surround me, all heading toward a body of water. Giddy with relief, I bounce in place, excited to finally be able to quench my thirst. I rush forward and almost fall into the water. Scooping the water into my hands, I bring it to my lipsand take a drink. The more I drink, the more I notice that it doesn’t taste like normal water. But, at this point, I don’t even care. I keep drinking and drinking until I feel someone pull me back up to my feet.
“What’s your name?” Jax asks me frantically, and I give him a bewildered stare. “What is your name? Answer me!” His voice is hard, and I flip him off. What is with him? One second he is nice, and now he is acting like his memory has gone. Then, I remember something about the Lethe water in the Underworld. It erases memories. So, that was Kai’s plan. To have my memory wiped. I play into it and walk past Jax. I make my face go blank and get close to Kai.
“Sir, can you help me?” I say, and he gives me this weird look. I blink fast and make my lip tremble. “I’m lost, do you know where I am? What am I doing here? Who are you? Who am I?” I ask, not giving him the time to respond. I’ve got to sell this. Kai continues to stare at me, relaxing his eyes a bit. It must have worked.
“Don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” he says, flashing a genuine smile. A smile so gorgeous, it threatens to stop my heart.
He isn’t scowling at me anymore. I’ll take that as a small victory.
“Here, let me take those off of you.” He points to the handcuffs.
Yes! I did it! Freedom, here I come.
He grabs me by the shoulder and his hands are hot. They send a shiver right through me. Then he shakes me. “Sir, weren’t you going to help me?” I ask, my voice coming out softly and laced with fear. He laughs, then shoves me backwards, but Jax’s arms wrap around me, saving me from falling on my ass.
Kai rolls his eyes, “Always the nice guy, Jax, but I do like being the bad guy. I’d have let her fall, might help teach her alesson.” He’s glaring at me, his eyes narrowing in on Jax still holding me up. Kai gets in my face, just a lip’s distance away. “I’m Kai, Prince of the Underworld. I recognize how souls act after drinking from the Lethe water.” He pats my face twice. “Nice try, now let’s go.”
I glower at him, biting the inside of my cheek as hard as I can to keep myself quiet, I taste copper. Blood gathers in my mouth, I spit on the ground close to his shoes. The smile he gives me at the sight of the blood quickly makes me rethink holding my tongue.
“I would say go to Hell, but seeing as we are already here, you should try going to Heaven. I’m sure that would be more torturous for a Prince of the Underworld. Who knows? You might even learn some manners,” I say sweetly, throwing up my middle finger and blowing him a kiss.
His face darkens and black smoke gathers around him. “You would be wise to keep your mouth shut.” He turns away from me and the shadows follow him. I shrink further back into Jax’s arms, fear piercing my heart. How was that possible? It was as if he called all the shadows to him.
Jax stands me upright and shakes his head. “Well Beautiful, you sure do like to push buttons don’t you?” I shrug my shoulders, because it’s true. I’ve learned how to defend myself, having been in a few fights in my life. No matter what, this makes me more determined to get out of here or die trying. And the possibility of that is high.
“Where is Nora? Is she here too?” I ask Jax.
Instead of answering my question, he asks one of his own. “Is she your sister?”
I shake my head no, because even though I love her like one, she isn’t. Once they see that, they could let her go. They want me for something, and if we’re not related that can onlybe better for her. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that you avoided my question.”
