Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,122

right, moving with eerie silence. It glided to a stop in front of us, on a track that had not been there a heartbeat ago—a track that faded and disappeared twenty feet in front of the rather sinister-looking locomotive.

The train appeared solid and made of matte-black metal, but the bottom swished and swayed in a way that reminded me, oddly, of the hem of a black robe. I couldn’t see any wheels, but there was a track, so maybe the wheels were hidden under the robe?

Or maybe I should stop trying to make things make sense.

“That,” Lucy said, nonplussed, “is a train.”

“Yes.” Ronan put his bag back on his shoulders. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he was fighting not to smile at Lucy’s bafflement. Did he want her to stab him? “I enjoy train travel, though I don’t get to indulge in it very often. Do you like the train, Alice?”

“I’ve never been on a train,” I admitted. I stashed the stone in my pocket and put on my backpack. Esme switched to my left shoulder and resumed her growly purring. “Are we taking a train to Edis?”

“Did you think we’d have to walk all the way there?” He raised an eyebrow. “This is the Underworld, not The Lord of the Rings.”

“Ass,” I muttered. “Lucy, can I borrow your sword?”

Ronan was saved from certain death when a door on the side of the train that hadn’t been visible a second before slid open soundlessly. The car’s interior was matte black as well. From where I stood, I couldn’t see anything inside but empty space.

I hadn’t seen her draw it, but Lucy had her sword raised. Nothing emerged from the train, however.

“All aboard for Edis.” Ronan bowed and gestured at the open door. “Ladies first.”

Lucy studied our otherworldly transportation, her blade at the ready. “Give me one good reason to step foot on this train.”

“I called in a favor, Lieutenant.” Ronan’s expression turned grim. “One I might need much more urgently in the future, so please don’t spit in my face and refuse to get aboard. I give you my word this conveyance will deliver us safely to Edis.”

After a hesitation, Lucy lowered her sword, but didn’t put it away. “Fine.” She got on the train.

Daisy and I followed her inside, with Esme purring on my shoulder and Ronan right behind us. The interior was as black as the exterior. The car was empty except for two rows of seats facing each other near the door. To my surprise, I could see outside the train, as if the walls and curved roof were glass, though from the outside it had all appeared to be solid metal.

Daisy prowled around the car as Ronan, Lucy, and I settled into the seats. He sat on one side and we sat on the other with our bags next to us. The door closed and the train accelerated smoothly. I heard no indication of an engine or the sound of wheels on the track, but we reached full speed in a matter of seconds. Given the surreal landscape and the vast distances between landmarks, I found it impossible to judge how fast we were moving, which was quite disconcerting.

As the train made its way along the mountains, away from the valley and toward a dark horizon, I asked, “Can I ask who’s providing our transportation? Purely out of curiosity.”

Ronan removed his jacket and sword, stretched out his legs, and relaxed. “He goes by many names. His true name is as old as the universe and isn’t pronounceable in any human language. The Greeks called him Charon, though he’s much more than just a ferryman. In some ways, he is the ferry.”

I knew the name Charon from Greek mythology and art. My mind conjured up a painting I’d seen somewhere of a terrifying robed skeleton, ferrying the souls of the dead in a boat on the river Styx.

I recalled the robe-like edges of the train, and Ronan’s words, and had a disturbing thought. “We aren’t actually, like, inside him now, right?”

He thought about it. “Define ‘inside,’” he said.

Ick.

I’d eaten several protein bars and the last of the snacks I’d bought at the way station near Oakdale before going through the doorway, but my stomach growled. That meant either I was burning through calories even faster, or we’d lost some time during our journey to the Underworld. Or both.

My bag contained two boxes of protein bars and two bottles of water—my Hawthorne’s bottle, plus another