The next morning, I woke up refreshed, grateful to be blessed with no dreams for the first time in a while. I let my eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, deeply missing the light from Earth's early morning sun and the predictability of phone flashlights.
Although I was starving, I was excited for the day of travel ahead. I could hear some movement outside the tent and unzipped the tent door to see what was happening. Alek stood shirtless with his back to me and was lifting Calista's saddle onto her. I grabbed at the tent frame to stop me from tumbling out of it. His jeans hung low on his hips, showcasing taut muscles that contracted under the saddle's weight.
After doing up the buckles under Calista's stomach, he patted down her neck, each glide of his hand moving along her softly. She seemed to enjoy it too; when he stopped, she snorted and nudged his hand. The wisps of shadow emanating from where her tail should have been stilled in her frustration.
What a strange, creepy horse.
"Are we going to get a move on, or are you going to keep staring at me?" Alek asked abruptly, turning his head ever so slightly in my direction. "Because if you're going to do the latter, I'd much rather be seated – you could take a while."
I blushed and looked away. "I wasn't staring at you," I blurted. "I was staring at the horse's ass. Although I guess there's not much of a difference, anyway."
I ducked back into the tent, a satisfied smirk on my face, and started packing away the sleeping bag. My clothes stuck to me with the overnight heat and I wished more than anything I had some deodorant or, even better, enough water for a shower.
I flung all of my belongings out the tent, and then got to work on dismantling it. Thankfully, it was a lot easier to take apart than put together, and I was done within a few minutes. Alek grabbed the tent's bag and hung it off of Calista's saddle.
When I moved to stand next to him, he shoved a compact black bag into my arms.
"What's this?" I asked in curiosity.
"Your first lesson of the day. This bag is our lifeline," he said. "It has all of our basic necessities for survival – food, water, small weapons. Listen to me closely when I say that that bag is the most important thing you need to focus on keeping safe. If you lose that bag when we're away from a city, we'll die."
The black bag in my grasp turned into a one hundred kilo weight, and my stomach became squeamish.
"Are you sure I should be in charge of this?" I asked.
"Normally I'd wear it when I ride, but since there are two of us..."
The image of trying to ride Calista while Alek's bag whacked into my face popped into my mind.
"Got it," I said quickly. "I'll wear the bag." I slid my arms through the straps, tightening them enough so the bag wouldn't slip off.
Alek nodded in approval and then eased himself onto the saddle.
"We need to get a move on," he said, holding a hand towards me. "Now that it's light, the guards will be making a move to try to find you."
I looked over my shoulder anxiously, but all I could see was the endless expanse of cracked ground. No guards in sight. Yet. I grabbed his hand and, with the aid of his strength and the stirrup, I pushed myself up and onto the saddle.
Alek clicked his tongue and Calista started off in a trot.
"How far exactly does it take to travel across the wastelands?" I asked nervously, peering at Alek over his shoulder.
"A couple of days," he said. "After that, we'll have to pass through the volcanoes to get to Greed City, where we can recoup and freshen up. Then it's onto Lust City."
"They don't sound very good," I commented, my concern brewing after having witnessed the horrors of Sloth City. The idea of more obscurity in the cities of Greed and Lust certainly was not appetising, nor the thought of volcanoes. "Do we have to go through those cities to get to the North Gate?" I asked. "Isn't there a...better option?"
He shook his head. "Unfortunately, not. It's safer to bypass cities rather than travel through abandoned areas where cannibals, wraiths and demons live."
As Alek spoke, my fear spiked and breathing intensified.
"Where do those creatures even come from?" I asked, licking my dry lips.
Alek shot me a concerned look over his shoulder. "Are you sure you want to know?"
"Just tell me," I added. "Better to get a good idea of them in case we encounter any."
He shrugged. "Have it your way. Wraiths themselves are responsible for their own species. They traverse the driest areas of the Underworld, looking for souls to consume. If they find anyone – which they always do – they disconnect your soul from your body, essentially turning you into one of them." His voice turned bitter, "Wraiths were the original handiwork of the Goddess Lyssa of Wrath City."
My jaw dropped. "Gods and goddess' make the creatures?"
He scoffed. "You shouldn't be so surprised. We are in the Underworld, after all. Technically, they see it as their responsibility to create as much havoc as possible. And they enjoy it, too..."
The insinuation made me want to crawl under the ground, never to be seen again.
"Do all of the gods and goddesses have that power?" I asked. "Aergia could control how I behaved, but she didn't mention anything about creating demons."
Despite the heat, I shivered. In hindsight, I was grateful that Aergia didn't appear to have that power. If I'd seen a demon upon my arrival, I probably wouldn't have made it out of her castle alive.
Alek shook his head. "No, only some of them can. Eros, the God of Lust, creates sirens. Adephagia, the Goddess of Gluttony, loves to create cannibals–" he scowled, "–and Lyssa, Goddess of Wrath, is perhaps the worst of them all. She can create almost anything since her powers allow her to combine death and disease with witchcraft." He stilled for a moment. "Are you still with me?"
"Yep," I answered, although my voice was high-pitched and stressed. Possibly because I was stressed.
He continued, "Hades, however, is responsible for creating creatures that can't be killed, like hellhounds and this horse. All other creatures can be brought to an end in one way or another."
"This horse belongs to Hades?" I squeaked, looking down at my seat in horror. I started to swing my leg over and jump to the ground. Alek wrapped an arm around me and pushed me closer to him so that I couldn't move.
"There is no way I'm sitting on this horse," I growled, failing to push myself away from him. I scowled at the fact that even my few days' worth of mining had not built enough strength to push myself away from him.
"I'm not letting you off," he swore, voice low.
Oh yeah?
My heart was beating in overdrive, my panic rising even further. I knew that no matter what, I had to get off this horse. For a moment I stayed still and evened my breathing, giving Alek the impression I'd given up on wiggling my way from his prison. Finally, after Alek peeked behind him and saw my stillness, he retracted his arms and I took that moment as my advantage to escape.
Alek was fast, I knew that. But I bet he didn't think I was stupid.
And in situations like this, I totally was.
If I tried to jump off the horse's side, Alek's hand would just lock on me within a second, so there was only one logical thing to do: to fall off the back of the horse
Well, not exactly fall.
I pushed myself backwards using the force as I could and tumbled ungracefully towards the ground, hitting my inner thighs painfully on Calista's strong behind. My right foot was the first to touch the ground, except I landed in one of the surface's cracks and my ankle twisted, making me yelp.
Alek felt me push off from the horse but was too slow to catch me. When he saw me sprawled across the ground, he swore under his breath. The shock of the fall meant that I couldn't feel too much pain, but as soon as I had this thought, fresh agony ricocheted up my calf and down my foot, making me clench my jaw and close my eyes.
"Serena!" he yelled, jumping down from Calista and crouching in front of me. His eyes were wide as he stared at my ankle. He released another swear word.
Uh oh. Not good.
I forced myself into a sitting position to see exactly how much damage I'd done, and immediately wished I hadn't. My ankle was swelled by half its normal size and was made worse by the strange deformity on the inner side of my ankle.
I closed my eyes tightly, trying to take a few deep breaths to focus on pushing through the pain.
"I think I've broken my ankle," I said through gritted teeth, screaming at myself internally.
Alek's eyes pierced mine. "Can I try touching it?"
I bit my lip and nodded, preparing myself for the worst. Alek slowly reached out with one hand and gently touched the injury. I sucked in a sharp breath at first contact, the pain loud and clear. Instinctively, I moved my ankle away from Alek's touch, which only worsened the pain. My foot was still stuck in the ground; but now it was twisted at an even crueller angle. I yelped.
"Don't move," Alek said firmly. "You've fractured your ankle. The good news is that it's not completely broken."
"That's the good news?" I fired back, fighting an oncoming wave of nausea.
He sighed, leaning back from my ankle. "You're lucky it's not worse. That was a stupid stunt you pulled."
I didn't have the energy to argue back; I was too focused on my breathing and trying not to pass out.
"Lay back and close your eyes," he ordered, making me snap to attention.
"What? Why?" I asked, frantic.
"Just trust me."
I shot him a glare, letting him know as best I could that I would kill him if he worsened the pain. Alek didn't relent in his steady gaze, and eventually, I sighed and gently lowered my upper body to the ground.
"Okay," I said, fisting my hands. "Do what you have to."
I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed I wouldn't pass out in front of Alek. His rough hands lightly held my calf and foot. Tears sprung to my eyes as he slowly guided my foot up and out of the crack in the ground. I had to bite my lip to keep myself from screaming at the pain. When I felt my heel touch solid ground again, I opened my eyes to find the world spinning like a merry-go-round.
"We need to make a splint," he said, standing up and rummaging through one of the bags, like I could pay any attention to what he was doing. He withdrew a plain black shirt - almost identical to the one he was currently wearing - and after a bit more digging, brought out a bandana. Just when I thought he was done, he opened the tent pole bag, and with a quick flick of his wrists broke one of the poles in half.
"What are you doing?" I squealed.
"Your ankle is more important than the tent. Besides, the tent will still work, it may just be a bit wonky on one side. Your ankle, on the other hand, won't work."
He set down all of the supplies he'd collected at my feet, and then set to work at making a splint. My ankle was very rapidly bruising, but I forced myself to watch.
First, he grabbed the bandana and laced it underneath my calf, raising my leg softly so he could wrap it around the fractured bone. Then, he easily snapped the tent pole into two once again and held them on either side of my injury.
"Can you hold these for a moment?"
I did as he asked and took the tent poles from him, although I had no idea what its purpose was. Next, he grabbed his shirt, wrapping it firmly around my ankle multiple times before tucking the ends into the splint.
Alek leaned back to analyse his handiwork. "This will hopefully keep your bones aligned until we can get medical attention." He glanced up at me, looking concerned. "I don't have anything to help with the pain, though."
"That's okay," I lied, trying to keep my voice steady and put on a brave front. "I can survive."
Not.
The only noise was that of my heavy breathing passing between us as Alek removed the pack from my back and passed me a water bottle. After I took a sip, he snatched it back and returned it to its bag. His actions were rushed, impatient. Before I knew it, he was pacing in front of me, a frown on his face.
"That was stupid. Why did you do that?" he exclaimed, running a hand through his hair and giving him a frenzied look. "Do you have a death wish?"
I looked downcast, embarrassed. Was it reasonable to freak out upon learning Calista was essentially Hades' child? Yes. Was it worth risking a broken bone for? No – at least not from how Calista had acted.
But what made matters worse, was that the woman spying on us through Calista was probably laughing at my fall. Calista's eyes pierced into mine, doubling the scrutinization Alek was giving me.
"I was stupid," I admitted quietly, catching Alek off guard. "I freaked out about Calista because I've been having dreams about a woman in the Underworld who can see through Calista's eyes and watch us. Learning about Hades' powers just tipped me over the edge."
Alek froze on the spot, turning his head so quickly to look at me that I was surprised it didn't crack. "You're having dreams about a woman?"
I was taken aback by his alarm. "That's what I said. What's wrong?"
He started pacing again, completing circles around me. When he was directly behind me, he stilled. I half expected him to speak, but he remained silent.
"Do you think the dreams mean anything?" I asked, relieved I wasn't as crazy as I thought. "I've been having them for a couple of weeks, since before I came to the Underworld. At first I thought it was just an unusual dream, but I actually think it's a lot more than that–"
"–Serena–"
"–I think that it could be real, but I don't know how much to trust her considering she won't tell me who she is–"
"–Serena!" he exclaimed.
"What?"
"Look!"
A wave of terror rolled through me, and I shuffled in my seat so I could turn to face Alek. He was staring out across the wasteland, the pack now on his back and his hands fisted at his sides. The sky was starting to brighten, making it easier to see across the open plain. I followed Alek's line of sight, and saw some movement in the far-off distance, squinting to try to see more clearly. To my horror, there were small figures astride horses, riding towards us.
"Is that...?" My mouth went dry.
"The Guard," Alek confirmed, his voice hard.
I felt the colour drain from my face. "My ankle–"
Before I knew what was happening, Alek lifted me from the ground, holding me close to his chest. He lifted me up onto the front of Calista's saddle in a side seated position. Ignoring Calista's stinky side-eye, I grappled for a tight hold on her reins and didn't dare try to lift my injured foot onto the other side. My ankle already screamed out in pain from being lifted into the air so quickly.
Alek pushed himself up and onto the horse without even using the stirrup, and leaned past me to take hold of the reins. He signalled for Calista to run and she took off with lightning speed. She pushed off so fast, in fact, that my body weight fell into Alek's chest, making me grateful he was behind me to act as a barricade.
He stared forwards in determination, his jaw locked. I peered over his shoulder, discomforted by the significant distance the Guard had gained in such a small lapse of time.