Page 33 of Hell Bent

“A little revenge can be good for the soul, Darlington.”

“Not a word to bandy about casually, Stern.”

She didn’t think he meant revenge.

“Alex?” Dawes’s voice floated up from the bottom floor.

“It’s best if she doesn’t find you here.”

“What is this, Darlington?” Alex whispered. “How do we help you? How do we get you out?”

“Find the Gauntlet.”

“Believe me, we’re trying. You don’t have any idea where it is?”

“Would that I did,” he said, and there was desperation in his voice, even as he released a laugh that raised the hair on Alex’s arms. “But I am just a man, heir to nothing. Find the Gauntlet, make the descent. I can’t exist between two worlds for long. Eventually the tether will snap.”

“And you’ll be trapped in hell forever?”

Again his expression seem to flicker. Hopelessness. Anticipation. “Or whatever I am will be unleashed upon the world.” He was close to the edge of the circle now. Alex hadn’t seen him move, hadn’t even seen him stand. “I have appetites, Stern. They are not entirely … wholesome.”

His clawed fingertips pierced the golden circle, and Alex stumbled backward, a high-pitched yelp emerging from her lips.

Darlington seemed to shift. He was taller, broader; his horns looked sharper. He had fangs. I feel a little less human.

Then he seemed to yank himself back to the center of the circle. He was sitting once more, hands on knees, as if he’d never moved. Maybe he really was meditating, trying to keep his demon self in check.

“Find the Gauntlet, make the descent. Come get me, Stern.” He paused then, and his golden eyes flashed open. “Please.”

That word, raw and human, was all she could bear. Alex ran, down the hall, down the steps. She slammed into Dawes at the foot of the stairs.

“Alex!” Dawes cried as they fought to keep their balance.

“Come on,” Alex said, dragging Dawes back through the house.

“What happened?” Dawes was saying as she let herself be pulled along. “You shouldn’t have gone up there—”

“I know.”

“We can’t be sure what we’re dealing—”

“I know, Dawes. Just get me out of here and I’ll explain everything.”

Alex threw open the kitchen door, grateful for the clean burst of cold air. She could hear Belbalm’s voice: All worlds are open to us. If we are bold enough to enter. Did that mean the underworld too? She had passed through the boundary unscathed, just like in the dream. What would happen if she entered the circle?

Alex grunted and stumbled when her feet hit the gravel.

Dawes caught her by the elbow.

“Alex, slow down. Here.” She held up soft white tube socks and a pair of Tevas. “I brought these for you. They’re too big, but better than going barefoot.”

Alex sat down on the doormat to pull on the socks and shoes. She wasn’t going back inside. Her head was buzzing. Her body felt alien.

“What were you doing up there?” Dawes asked.

Alex could hear the accusation in her voice and she didn’t quite know how to reply. She thought about lying, but there was too much to explain. Like how she’d ended up at Black Elm in her pajamas.

“I woke up here,” she said, trembling in the cold now that her panic had eased. “I dreamed … I dreamed I was here and then I was.”