Page 5 of The Fifth Gate

No problem. Easy peasy.

I’m still debating with myself on whether I should laugh or cry when the bronze pendant hanging from my necklace shivers with power.

Rhiannon slips free, materializing beside me on the top of the crag. She looks strange in the scarlet half-light of the Fifth Gate, her long blond hair tinged with blood. She’s still in the same pale shift I found her in, lost in the ice maze. But then, Rhiannon has been dead for a long, long time. Stuff like bitter cold and scorching heat don’t mean much to her anymore.

The look of devastation etched across her pretty features is new, though.

“My sister is in the castle,” I tell her, looking down the side of the crag for any kind of hand holds. While falling back down would be faster, I’d really rather not. It would be like the slow version of having all my skin sandblasted off.

Rhiannon grabs my wrist before I can take more than a step. Her pale fingers are cool, even in the scorching wind. “Wait.”

“I don’t have time to wait.” It takes everything in me not to rip my wrist out of her hand. The need to hurry, tomoveis already pounding like a second pulse inside my skull.

“We need to find Arawn,” she says over top of me. Her eyes are dark and weirdly intense.

I stare. “What? Why?”

“Because, unlike the other Death Gods of the Underworld, Arawn was not overthrown. He vanished.” Rhiannon shakes my arm, like she’s willing me to understand. “It was Arawn’s disappearance that allowed Aphrodite to trap Ares in the Underworld. The Fifth Gate latched on to Ares, because a realm like this must have a ruler. But Arawn is the rightful Lord.”

“Okay,” I say slowly. “So, you think if we find Arawn, he’ll duke it out with Ares for us?”

She blinks at me, confused. Pop culture again. It’s a real tripping hazard when dealing with people who remember a time when Rome was a slightly wide spot in a dirt road.

“You think he’ll fight Ares,” I clarify, frowning because… come on, get with the times and all that.

She shakes her head, frustrated. Her long braid whips back and forth like the tail of an angry cat. “No. I am saying, if you find Arawn and restore him to his throne, then the Fifth Garden will release Ares.”

“Just like that?” I sound less than convinced.

She nods. “It won’t need him anymore. Ares will be free, and no one needs to die.”

I freeze for a second. Could it really work? That would be the best outcome for everyone involved. I get Janie back and we go home. Ares gets free of the Underworld, and the Fifth Garden gets restored to its former glory. Well, Aphrodite won’t be happy, but who gives a shit? She’s not my favorite person at the moment. Or the century.

One problem, though.

“Rhiannon, it’s pretty likely that Arawn took off.” I shake my head. “If he were still here, then there wouldn’t have been a vacuum of power to suck Ares in in the first place, right? And I don’t have the time or the ability to go on a wild god hunt.”

But Rhiannon shakes her head. Her jaw juts at a stubborn angle. “Arawn would not abandon his realm,” she says with certainty. “He takes his duties to the dead very seriously. He would not simply walk away.”

Okay, that was weirdly specific. In fact, for someone who’s been trapped for several millennia in the fourth level, she sure seems to have a lot of information on the ruler of the fifth. She’d even been dead since before the fallen took over. Or at least, that’s what she told me.

I finally shake my head. “I’m sorry, but no. Even if you’re right, and Arawn is still here, somewhere, I don’t have any way of finding him. I can’t use magic, or I might as well just set off a flare right under Ares’s nose.”

Her mouth turns down, face going pinched like she’s trying not to cry, but I harden my heart. Even if she does remind me a bit of Janie. It isn’t fair, her tugging on my big sister heartstrings. She’s older than I am, for shit’s sake!

“The best plan is still to sneak in while Ares is off chasing decoy me, grab Janie, and run like hell.” I turn my wrist so I can squeeze her hand. “I’m sorry. Really.”

She draws in a shuddering breath and nods, once, before vanishing back into the relic.

Great. Now I feel like an asshole.

I hate disappointing her, but my hands are tied. Plus, I got the glaring feeling that she was hiding something from me, and while I appreciate all her help, I’m way too close to get screwed over now.

I stick to my plan. In. Out. Get back home.

I cross to the side of the crag and start picking my careful way down the side of the cliff, keeping a wary eye out, just in case.

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