chants under her breath. I shut my eyes because I don’t want to watch. I want to save Gemma from going to the Fey Realm. I start to panic thinking about it and suddenly I don’t care if I get killed.
I open my eyes, ready to fight, but the foul odor of rotting banana peels and musty socks surrounds me. I’m standing in an alleyway between tall metal buildings that are lined by large metal dumpsters which are overflowing with stale food, rotting wood, old clothes, trash bags, and more trash bags leaking out onto the asphalt. I’ve been here before, when I originally met Draven, when I made the stupid deal.
Marissa is standing next to me, clutching onto the Crystal and staring at Draven with a silent begging in her eyes.
“You can go,” Draven orders and relief washes over her face.
Letting out a noisy breath, she snaps her fingers and vanishes in a cloud of smoke that snakes over to me and stings my eyes.
Draven steps back and I fan the smoke from my face, coughing. He crooks his finger at me, stepping backward down the alley. “You, come with me.”
I glare at the back of his head when he turns around. As I follow him, I calculate everything; from the garbage on the ground to how many steps we take until we stop—ninety-eight.
He stops in front of a dumpster, barely grabbing onto it, he wheels it to the side, revealing a door hidden behind it. Then, he pulls out a silver key, shoves it into the lock, and pulls the door open. He steps aside, motioning me to go first, and I obey because I have to; otherwise, I’ll die.
As soon as we’re in, he shuts the door and darkness suffocates our surroundings. Part of me wishes that’s how things would stay because then I would never have to find out what I have to do. I hear the sound of a key scraping in a lock and then some squeaking, like a rusty latch being slid over and locked.
“This way,” he says and brushes past me.
I can barely make out his silhouette as he walks down a dark, cement tunnel and I follow with my eyes locked on him, forcing myself not to try and stab him in the back. He can’t die. The air is musty and smells like decaying corpses. There’s a light up ahead and we head towards it. When we step out of the tunnel, we’re in the room where I first met Draven. Lanterns hang from the red walls by metal loops and an oval table circles the center. There’s a cage in the corner, but it’s empty.
Draven pulls a chair out and takes a seat at the end of the table, then gestures for me to sit in the empty chair next to him. I obey, but only because I have to. It’s a rule now that I’m paying my debt. Do whatever he says, or I’ll drop dead.
“Why did you bring me here?” I ask. “I know I owe you, but there has to be a reason why you’re collecting now.”
He thrums his fingers on top of the table, deliberating. “There’s been a fight going on between Helena and me for quite a while… Even though I’m Lord of the Afterlife, she has it so I can’t enter the Afterlife.” He waves his arm around at the room. “I have to live here, in this filthy place, with a bunch of rodents and garbage, but I’m still able to keep up with what’s going on in the Afterlife.”
Well, this is news to me. “I’ve never heard any of this before,” I say. “From what I understood, you’re pretty much out of the loop.”
He leans over the table, reaching for a wooden cigar box. “You will never repeat what I just told you. To anyone.” He opens the lid to the cigar box and takes out a cigar. “You know the rules about your debt.” He pops the cigar in his mouth and reaches for a silver lighter next to the box. “If you don’t obey, you die.” He lights the end, puffing smoke while he turns the cigar. “Or, if I really want to be cruel…” He lets out a breath of smoke as he leans back and crosses his leg over his knee. “…I’ll send you to the Afterlife.”
“I know the rules,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Good.” He puffs on the end of the cigar, then takes it out