Page 33 of Can you take it?

Wrath—strong feelings of hatred or resentment with a desire for vengeance. It was the overwhelming feeling and desire for revenge that distinguished wrath from anger, which was balanced with reason and not sin. I felt even more confused as we stood alone in the forest, and I tried to tie the two together.

“This isn’t exactly what I thought Wrath would be like. I’d always pictured it to be some type of wild battle with giant monsters that made you do terrible things as punishment.” Walter swallowed hard. “Although Treachery was a surprise as well. I don’t know why, but with all of the warnings and tales, I assumed the tiers would be a little faster-paced and more heinous.”

“Where is everyone else?” It suddenly dawned on me. “Thousands of fae get sent here every day. We’ve seen none of them.”

“That’s the beauty of the tiers I suppose. What good would it be to send someone into a pit of fire if they were a pyromaniac? The tiers morph and adapt specifically to each individual, or in our case, each group. I did think that it would be much more dangerous than this, though Treachery made sense. The door only opened once we had all come clean and were honest with one another.”

“Huh, I hadn’t thought about that. Well, I wouldn’t rule out a bit of action quite yet,” I mumbled as I looked around the eerie forest. There was no possible way this tier would be as easy as the last.

“So what are we doing? I say we leave the drunk and try to hurry out of this tier before the girls break free. These levels don’t seem to be very complicated, at least so far, so maybe we can hurry through them and get you to the Elysian Fields in time for me to return to Eromreven so I can send Kaohs after his girls,” he said.

The dirt path ended and only a narrow, worn path could now be seen leading into the thick of the forest.

“Anna told me Kaohs can’t enter the tiers. She told me to come here after I killed her to get away from him and Eletha,” I admitted.

“Huh. I guess she would know better than me. Bet she’s regretting telling you to go to the tiers now though,” he laughed.

Memories of her soft hand resting in my palm entered my thoughts. “I hate to do it, but I think we might have to leave the guy. If he’s been here that long, he’s probably been through the tiers a hundred times before.”

Instantly our gazes snapped together as we both had the same thought: Bexley could be our ticket out of here. “Wait…” I said.

“Bexley!” Walter called out.

I quickly followed, cupping my hands around my mouth and calling for the man. “Bexley! Bexley, where are you?”

“Oh shit, look!” shouted Walter.

I turned to see in what direction he was looking, only to find the space where he had been empty.

“What the—” I spun in a circle, but Walter was nowhere in sight. Vanished into thin air.

“You’re welcome” came a tiny voice from the ground.

Low to the forest floor, standing only a foot tall if that high, stood a gnome. His sooty gray beard was coarse and wiry, where it lined the lower edge of his chin and jaw. A pointed crimson hat, nearly as tall as he was, sat on his head. His faded black, almost gray shirt was offset by overalls that matched the color of his hat.

“What did you do with my friend?” I asked harshly. Being no stranger to the garden gnomes of Seelie, I recognized immediately that this one was unusual. There was something menacing in his black eyes. Even with the smile on his face, it gave me enough reason to take a step back from him.

“He was going to murder you,” he said in a sort of singsong fashion with his unsettling smile still in place, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on edge.

“No, he wasn’t going to murder me. We were looking for someone from our group.” Immediately I regretted letting this forest abomination know there was a group of us. At least the girls were locked away safe.

“Oh, yes,” he stated. “Walter was going to kill you in the tiers and then go back to get the others. It’s only fair after what you’ve done to Mendax over the years and after what your mother did to Walter, don’t you think?” His smile widened, but now the malicious glint of his eyes overshadowed the grin in creepiness. I stiffened. How had he known all of that? He knew Walter’s name? I shook my head. “You are messing with me. You are simply a part of this level. Tell me, how do I get out of here?” My pulse quickened and I swear the forest began to darken as my fear grew. A few of the twisted black trees shivered, shaking off the last of their remaining dead leaves with a tremble. A warm breeze hit me in the face that smelled of decaying flesh so strongly I nearly gagged.

“The same way you will get passage from all of the tiers: an exit will only appear when it’s shown that whatever sin you are fighting is no longer strong enough to keep you. That’s why only the ones who don’t belong here can leave. You don’t strike me as a wrathful person, but I have the sense Envy or perhaps Fraud will be a different tale.” He smiled wide and tipped his head to the left. A shiver wracked my body.

“What happened to Walter?” I demanded.

“I told you, he’s away. He was trying to murder you,” the gnome repeated.

“Then you know where Bexley, the other man from our group, is?”

The gnome scowled angrily. “I don’t know a Bexley.”

I continued my slow retreat from the gnome until my feet tangled in the thick vines under a nearby tree. “This must be part of the deception. You’re trying to turn me against Walter,” I said, thinking out loud. “I suppose your job is to provoke me.” “I have no job, and I’m not provoking you. I saved your life,” he said proudly. “Walter was going to kill you, whether or not you choose to believe it.”

“Why would he want to kill me? That makes no sense.” Realization that I was in a heated debate with a twelve-inch murder gnome in the depths of Tartarus sank in. Still, his words were messing with my mind, and I couldn’t be sure if I believed him or not. Although I wanted to deny it, the hard truth remained that, had it not been for my mother, Walter would still be alive. The more I pondered it, the stranger it seemed that Walter had quickly befriended me when I arrived in Tartarus. Being Unseelie, forgiveness was not in his nature. My thoughts whirled with arguments and before the gnome could further sway me, I began to walk away.

“Where are you going?” he called, as I walked past.