Page 49 of Commanding Chaos

“I am.” Ember shrugged one shoulder, and Chaos flashed a help me out here look, which was funny coming from a demon. I didn’t imagine he needed help with very much when he was allowed to be his fiendish self.

Good thing I was keeping him on a tight leash. “He’s right, Em. Nothing about this is certain. We need to check.”

She let out a long, irritated sigh, but she relented, pulling over and handing me her phone. “Punch in the coordinates again. I’m sure I’ll be saying ‘I told you so,’ but my little sister is nothing if not thorough. I admire that about you.”

“As do I,” Chaos chimed in, and Ember glared at him in the rearview mirror.

“Stop it.” I rolled my eyes and brought up the directions. “You’re making me blush.”

An hour and a half later, we found ourselves in a crowded parking lot in the middle of downtown Worcester. It looked like we’d be invading someone’s basement to find the next hidey-hole. We did our usual routine, Ember strapping on weapons, Chaos and I opening our senses, trying to detect the location.

A tug formed in my stomach, pulling me toward the street. “It’s this way. Do you feel it?”

“I do not,” Chaos said grimly. If he didn’t sense Mayhem, his brother most likely wasn’t here either. Still, I felt something, so we couldn’t leave without checking it out.

We hung a right, following the magical pull until it drew me into the middle of the road. A car horn blared, and Chaos grabbed my arm, yanking me back onto the sidewalk.

“Don’t lose your other senses while focusing on the one.”

“Good advice.” I crossed my arms and stared at the pavement.

“Where to now?” Ember asked.

“It’s below ground.”

“Obviously, but where? Can you tell which building it’s beneath?” She pulled her hair back in a band, but the part the imps cut off swung forward into her face. “Damn gremlins.”

I drummed my fingers against my arm. “It’s not beneath a building. It’s under the road.”

Her lip curled. “Under the road is the sewer. Surely Isabel wouldn’t have…”

“The sewer didn’t exist then,” Chaos said. “She either dug or found a cave.”

Ember yanked the band from her hair and wrapped it around her wrist. “Well, shit.”

“Literally.” I paced up the sidewalk until I spotted a manhole cover in the road. “We can get down through there.”

“Or we can not. Chaos doesn’t sense him. Why expose ourselves to the rats and feces if we don’t have to?” She shuddered. “I hate rats.”

I dug a shadow spell out of my bag. “You know we have to do this.”

“You know there’s nothing down there, and when I’m proven right, I’ll expect you to do all the cooking for the next month.”

“I do all the cooking anyway.” I uncorked the spell and recited the words, and gray fog engulfed us. “Chaos, you remove the cover. We’ll go down first, and you put it back in place when you join us. We can’t be wrecking any cars in the process.”

We waited for a garbage truck to roll by, and when the coast was clear, we darted into the street. Chaos lifted the cover as if it were made of Styrofoam, and Ember climbed down first. I followed, and we all met at the bottom.

The sewer looked exactly like all the sewers in every movie or television show I’d ever seen. The arched tunnel had raised walks on both sides, and a stream of liquid and sludge flowed down the middle.

Rats squeaked and chittered somewhere in the darkness, and a splash sounded a few yards away. Was it a giant alligator? A Ninja Turtle? I didn’t plan on staying down there long enough to find out.

“Good goddess, it stinks.” Ember pulled her shirt over her nose to mask the sulfurous stench.

Chaos inhaled deeply. “It reminds me of home.”

“Any thought I ever had about visiting you in the Underworld just flew out the window. Gross.” I turned on my phone’s flashlight and followed the tug.

“You’ve thought about visiting me?” Surprise lifted Chaos’s voice, but I didn’t turn around to see his face.

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