the slight rent in the veil, making sure that I could go back as easily as I’d come through. At once, Ian took my hand. Neither of us had fleshly bodies anymore, but somehow, I could still feel him. He laced his fingers with mine, his grip just as strong and real as ever.
“I’ve got you,” Ian said, voice sounding farther away even though we were mere centimeters apart. “If you want me to pull you back in, just say so.”
Phanes let out an exasperated noise. I ignored him. So did Ian. He continued to hold my hand, the veil shimmering and rippling between us.
I didn’t want him to pull me back in. Incredibly, after all my arguing about him staying behind, I wanted to pull him in here with me instead. This entire place vibrated with so much power. I wanted Ian to feel it the way I did.
“No,” I said. “I’m doing this.”
Ian’s mouth curled. “That’s my demigod.”
Then, he released my hand and turned around to face Phanes.
“After you, mate.”
Phanes gave Ian a sour look. “Don’t you trust me to go through after you?”
“No, I don’t,” Ian replied with a brilliant smile. “Besides that, I also wouldn’t leave you alone with our helpless, mostly-dead bodies even for a second. So, again I say, after you.”
Phanes muttered something I didn’t catch, but then moved in front of the faint seam in the veil. I moved back, allowing him room. He hesitated for a second, and then went through the seam.
He seemed to have more difficulty than I did, but I also didn’t have a large pair of wings to contend with. Once on the other side, he shuddered before visibly steeling himself.
“Well?” he said in a challenging way to Ian. “Your turn. Unless you’ve changed your mind?”
Ian snorted. “No. Just need to do one last thing.”
He turned his back. I saw the muscles in his shoulders working, but due to the angle of his body, I couldn’t see anything else. After a full minute, Ian turned around and slid through the crack in the veil as if he’d been sneaking into the netherworld his entire life.
“Christian fundamentalists will be so disappointed about the lack of fire,” were his first words.
A smile hovered over my lips. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
“They were right about the darkness, though,” Ian continued. “Can hardly see a meter in front of me.”
“I can see,” I said simply.
Ian grunted. “No surprise that your abilities are still active. Ah, well, let’s see if I can give my vision a jolt.”
His fingers worked, forming a complex spell. Tactile magic had always been Ian’s strong suit. But when he was finished, nothing happened. He frowned and tried again.
Phanes laughed. “Magic doesn’t work in the netherworld.”
Interesting . . . and how would Phanes know that? By spying? If so, what a macabre hobby, staring into this section of the netherworld through his little personal peephole.
Or was it something else?
Maybe. I still knew so little about Phanes. At least here, I had the upper hand. If Phanes tried anything, I could leave him behind and seal up the veil after Ian and I.
But for now, I’d give Phanes the benefit of the doubt.
“Which way?” I asked him.
Phanes moved ahead of me. From the sureness of his steps, his vision was better than Ian’s.
“Follow me.”
Chapter 16
The ground sloped, taking us down as well as deeper into the solitary-confinement part of the netherworld. Soon, the walls around the tunnel changed to jagged rocks. They looked like a mix of metamorphic and igneous stone, but streaks glowed through them when I touched them, as if something bioluminescent in the rock responded to me.
Ian glanced at the streaks before looking back at me. Then, he gave a barely perceptible nod.
I nodded back, and kept running my hands over the rocks every several meters, leaving gleaming patches behind us. Having a metaphysical trail of bread crumbs meant we wouldn’t be wholly dependent on Phanes for our location. Even if he didn’t have nefarious intentions, men were known to get lost even if they insisted that they knew where they were going.
Phanes glanced at them with a sardonic curl to his mouth. “Don’t you trust me to see us back safely?”
“What if you’re incapacitated?” I countered. “Anything could happen down here.”
“That it could,” Phanes said in an easygoing tone.
Ian gave him a sharp look, but Phanes didn’t elaborate.
Nothing dangerous had occurred so far, beyond the ground becoming scattered with rubble, making our steps uneven. How