Page 51 of Midlife Demigod Unexpected

Chapter 36

We approached the side gate of the cemetery.

The wards were all down on the cemetery. It was a strange thing. Anybody could walk into it at the moment. Based on the sirens I was starting to hear in town, it was obvious the zombies were not going unnoticed in the small town of Cougar Creek.

I couldn’t think about it. I couldn’t think of all my friends down in the town facing the zombies. Jag was down there with the others. My mom. My heart clenched. I had to join them. Even if we rescued the rest of the coven, we weren’t going to be able to stop all the zombies, not with the few people we had sent out there to help.

“We’ve got to be quick,” I said to Chloe.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Chloe said. “The town’s going to need the entire coven working to stop the zombies.”

“We don’t even have a solution yet,” I pointed out. “The idea right now is to save the coven and hope six of us can come up with some idea of how to stop this catastrophe.”

“It’s a step closer than anything else we’ve had so far,” Chloe said.

The second we stepped into the cemetery; we could tell it was different. There was a chaos inside where the grass was ripped, and the trees were torn. The zombies hadn’t been milling around inside the cemetery; they had been destroying it one leaf at a time. Even some of the headstones were turned over.

They were violent.

“Come on,” I said, breaking into a run as I headed toward the lion crypt.

Chloe easily kept up with me and within minutes we were standing in front of the lion’s statue, the tablet door closed against its feet.

“How are we supposed to get it open? We don’t have the key anymore,” Chloe said.

“We have magic,” I said, holding my hand up over the lock. “If the golden egg could open it, I just need to make that shape out of energy to do the same job.”

I reached my hand up and twisted it focusing all of my energy on opening the door. I didn’t know all the spells of my mother yet. This one I did, because I had tried very hard to use the unlocking spell. It was the one that had taught me I had no magic powers, because every time I’d tried to use it on my mother’s grimoire or on someplace, I wasn’t supposed to be, it had never ever worked.

“Adomine tourlots.”

I spoke the words loud and clear, sure they were going to have results. I was right.

The lock turned and the tablet twisted aside.

“Come on,” I said. “We’re going straight in the front door, so I don’t know if there’s any need to be quiet. We know it’s a trap.”

“Let’s walk into it and see what happens.” Chloe agreed.

I moved in front of Chloe so I would be the first one in the passageway. A spiral staircase led down. As we got lower, the walls became dripping wet, until soon the stairs themselves were slick with water.

“Be careful,” Chloe said. “This is dangerous.”

“I got it,” I muttered, carefully watching where my feet landed. We carefully walked in circles for what seemed like forever until we were deep into the bowels of the earth.

The stairs brought us into a cavern, the stench of which was overwhelming. The River Styx was there. I’d heard about it, and I’d read about it when I was in school, but I didn’t have any idea what it actually looked like. It wasn’t healthy. I knew it was a river with the souls of the dead moving through it, but it shouldn’t be white and clogged. Inside the room was a stagnant pool full of dead souls.

“I think I’m going to barf,” Chloe said.

“Please don’t.” I swallowed hard. “It’ll only make it worse in here.”

Chloe chuckled. “Not sure anything could make it worse in here.”

We had to find them. There must be some channels under the cemetery that share the River Styx.

“OK, but why this gate? Why did she need the key to get in this gate? There’s something in here. we have to find,” I said.

“She wants to open the portal,” Chloe said. “There must be access to the river and the portal through here. This thing was made a hundred and fifty years ago and I don’t think it’s been updated since, so the portal’s got to have a manual open and close.”

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