Charade (Heven and Hell #2)(87)
Author: Cambria Hebert

We walked for what seemed like hours, but was really only minutes before we came to a wide river running through the ground without purpose or cause.

The thick black water was disgusting. The thought that Sam had to swim in that mess made me break out in a film of cold sweat. We all stared down at the slow-moving sludge as it went lazily down the river.

“Pretty gross,” Cole observed.

“Smells too,” Logan said.

Sam pulled off his shirt and handed it to me, then kicked off his shoes. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Wait!” I cried. How could he just dive in there? Just like that? But there was no other choice.

He bent so that we were at eye level and looked me straight in the eyes. “I will come back.”

“There are those crocodile demons in there,” I whispered, trying to sound confident.

He nodded.

Then his body shifted as he dove into the water.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sam

The water was thick, sludge-like and coated my fur, pulling and yanking, almost like it was trying to claim me. For a mere second, I was tempted to give up the fight, to surrender. It would be easy. Simple.

I am better than that.

Even as I thought the words, the hound in me stretched out arrogantly and my limbs pushed through the sludge like it was butter.

This is what I was made for. I could do this.

All I had to do was reclaim the scroll, save the Map and then go to Airis. She would get that thing out of Logan once she saw all that I had been through. Then everything would be okay.

Except that you lied, a voice whispered in my head. I had lied. I lied to Heven. And it haunted me.

After Logan confessed what he did to her mother, after I figured out what was going on with him, I made him swear not to tell anyone. Including Heven. It wasn’t that I wanted to lie to her, but I didn’t know how to tell her. I was torn between my brother and my heart. Heven was rightfully upset about her mother—I was upset about her mother, but I couldn’t undo what happened. I could protect my brother and protect Heven from more pain. And it was going to kill her when she found out who put her mother in the hospital.

I was going to tell her. But first, I wanted to get that thing out of my brother. I wanted to prove to her that he hadn’t been himself. And truthfully, I wanted to prove to myself that I was right. I didn’t want to believe the truth, but I had no choice. I’d buried my head in the sand for too long and I couldn’t anymore. I loved my brother and so I had to do this.

A demon materialized beside me. It was completely adept at swimming in this thick, nasty “water” and it reached for me. I bit its hand off. It shrieked, but I couldn’t hear a thing. Its mouth moved, but no sound reached my ears. In fact, it was utterly, eerily, silent here. There was no sound at all—the only things I could hear were my own thoughts.

With the loss of its hand, the demon shrank away, disappearing into the black void of sludge. I kept pushing downward, toward the bottom, wondering how deep this was, but not once stopping. I also took a moment to marvel at the fact I could see down here. It was pitch-black, almost suffocating in darkness. Combine the vast nothingness with the absence of sound and this place was like a void. Which, actually, was more frightening than anything I had seen on land in Hell so far.

My paw hit something solid and I kind of slid-dropped to the solid surface of the bottom. The “water” moved so lazily, so heavily, that I was able to stand on the bottom without difficulty. I began pawing the floor, looking for anything that felt round and hard.

The floor here was not sandy or rocky like other bodies of water. It was rock. Solid rock that didn’t give way to my insistent paws. I moved off to another area and began searching again. Finally, I felt something roll beneath my front left paw. I hadn’t given much thought to how I would pick it up and I stopped, pondering the thought briefly when my back paw rolled over what felt like two more balls. Taking advantage of my flexibility, I rolled the balls beneath my back paw up toward the front one. Then, with impatience, I bent down and took a huge mouthful of sludge. I swished (as good as you can swish sludge) around and confirmed that there were marbles in my mouth.

I pushed off the bottom and headed up. There was no light to guide me to the surface so I just kept going up, not once panicking that I wouldn’t find the surface. I would. Eventually.

When my heart started racing and fear slammed through my chest, I knew it wasn’t my own. Heven. I began rushing toward the surface, scrambling, fighting the urge to open my mouth and call out. Something was wrong.

I tried to calm myself with the realization that Cole was with Heven. So was Gemma. But I wasn’t sure if even they would be a match for Logan if he decided that he wanted to harm Heven. So that left her, essentially, alone.

The girl I loved more than life itself was standing in Hell with my brother, my brother who, when he lost control, left chaos in his wake.

My paw broke the surface and then the other. I pushed myself out of the water with a great leap and landed on the unforgiving ground. Black goop coated my eyes and I stood there wondering what kind of view it was concealing.

Heven

Even as a hellhound I could see that Sam’s strong limbs had to work for a moment before finding their way through the thick, black sludge. Soon he had disappeared beneath the surface and I was left to pace the riverbank. Cole knew he could offer no comfort so he took up position near the water and stared down as if willing Sam to hurry. Gemma didn’t seem that worried, but I knew she was good at hiding her true feelings.

Logan was also staring down at the water, except it looked like he was waiting for something bad to happen. Like he hoped it might. I scolded myself for thinking such bad thoughts about Sam’s brother. He was probably scared and worried for Sam right now.

I went to his side and rested a hand on my shoulder. “He’ll be okay, Logan.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged my hand off him and walked a few steps away. I guess he didn’t feel like talking.

Come to me…

The voice called to me and only me. One swift look at Cole, Gemma and Logan and I was sure. I knew what that meant. The Dream Walker knew I was here. I guess he somehow sensed me. From the minute I came through the portal, a familiar ache at the base of my skull asserted itself. Up until this point, I denied what it could possibly mean, but it was hard to ignore someone when they spoke to you.

I am waiting, little one…

My skin crawled. I hurried over to Cole’s side, knowing that his presence wouldn’t scare away the Dream Walker because I wasn’t asleep, but still hoping his presence would make it easier on me.