To Hell and Back Read Free Page A

what I was getting myself into. But having already made my bed, there was no turning back now. Am I still to meet you at the gates of the Underground City?
    Yes. He texted immediately. I will send a car to ensure you are unharmed by my employees.
    I found it somewhat ironically eerie that Alaire referred to his demons as his employees, but c’est la vie. Okay, I texted back before something occurred to me. One last request …
    And what request might that be? I realized he was flirting with me, a realization that made me sick to my stomach.
    Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will be stuck in the Dark Wood for a while, and as I’m sure you’re fully aware, it’s impossible to tell the day from the night. Well, as long as I was in the middle of the Dark Wood, anyway. The sun did shine where Tallis lived, on the periphery of the Dark Wood, but I wasn’t sure how much time I’d be spending there, if any time at all … Right now, I have no idea what day or time it is … I accidentally clicked the “send” button even though I wasn’t finished typing.
    It is Friday at midnight.
    Just as I started to type my response, the phone suddenly rang. I jumped in surprise as soon as the shrill ring met my ears. “Hello?” I answered in a dubious tone, having a good idea of who might be on the other end.
    “My fingers were beginning to cramp,” Alaire explained, although I was sure he was exaggerating. “As to your request,” he continued in his slight Scandinavian accent, “I imagine you would appreciate it if I alerted you when you are due to arrive at the gates of my city?”
    “Yes,” I answered immediately as I started walking again. I figured I shouldn’t loiter in the haunted forest where God-only-knew-what was probably preparing to ambush me. It was bad enough that my attention was now focused on a phone call. “Otherwise, I have no way of knowing when Tuesday at eight p.m. rolls around.” But then I remembered it would probably take me some time to make the trip to the gates of the Underground. “Maybe you should text me at the beginning of each new day because I’m not sure how long it will take me to reach the gates.”
    “Where, exactly, are you in the Dark Wood?” Alaire inquired, sounding bored. I could hear the tapping of his fingernails against his desk.
    “I don’t know,” I answered with a sigh as I glanced around myself. “The terrain here all looks the same.”
    Alaire tsked me a few times as if he were disappointed with my retort, which I found exasperating. “Not a very wise choice to be lost in the Dark Wood, now, is it?”
    “Well, it’s not as though I planned to get lost!” I railed back at him. I held my sword out before me and it pointed in an easterly direction. “And for your information, I’m not lost,” I snapped back, not wanting it to sound like I was ill prepared for the trip. “My sword is doing a great job of leading me wherever I have to go.”
    “And just where would that be?” he continued, his tone of voice now sounding amused.
    “To where I’m going,” I spat back, not wanting him to know that Tallis could be in trouble and I was trying to find him. I had a feeling that information wasn’t safe in Alaire’s hands. Even though Tallis and Alaire appeared to share a long history, well, as far as I could tell from the last time we were in Alaire’s office, anyway, it didn’t seem as if their history was a friendly one. And any non-friend of Tallis’s was a non-friend of mine.
    “Is your lover with you?” Alaire asked, going for disinterested, but not quite succeeding.
    “He isn’t my lover.”
    “Perhaps not yet, although I daresay he would quite like to try the role on for size?”
    I inhaled deeply, then exhaled just as long. “No comment.”
    Alaire was quiet for a few seconds until all I could hear was the even cadence of his breathing. “And the angel?”
    “What about him?”
    “Is he with you?”
    “No,” I answered, immediately thinking