Page 79 of The Deer and the Dragon
Yes. I was thirstier than I’d ever been in my life, though I suspected most of that was a result of nerves. I wanted to crawl into a hole, if she happened to have one available. I would have liked her to excuse herself from the room and leave us all alone. But instead, I just said, “No, I’m all right. How kind of you to ask.”
In front of us, Azrames wrapped his hands behind his back. To everyone else in the room, he would have been clasping his wrists with formal grace. For us and us alone, he flashed a single, very human thumbs-up.
“One moment,” said the blond, rising from her chair. She wore the loose, flowing gown I’d imagined on the banshees of Celtic lore. Her pale, ethereal curls hung to the middle of her back in perfect, glossy waves.
The moment she disappeared through two tall, thin doors, Fauna whispered into my ear, “She’s a Soul Eater.”
I swallowed against the title but didn’t ask her to elaborate. I didn’t need to know anything further. We were already in Hell. Anything that struck terror into demons was truly an entity I never wanted to see again.
No one moved a muscle as we waited.
The Soul Eater breezed back into the room a minute later with the same perfect smile. “The King will take an audience with Maribelle and her escort. Allow me to accompany the rest of you to our luxury room for refreshments while you wait.”
Her loose, icy curls disappeared through the swirl that may as well have been the Milky Way Galaxy, followed by the receptionist, then by Ianna.
“Good luck,” Azrames whispered before following them into the stars.
We turned to the doors that had been left ajar for only Fauna and me.
I’d expected to feel relief after the Soul Eater departed. Anxiety glued me to the floor instead at I stared at the sliver of white light that separated the atrium from whatever rested behind the heavy palace doors. If she had been the precursor, I wasn’t ready for the main event.
“I don’t want to go,” I said, allowing fear to speak for me. I was a child again, a leather belt, a Bible, a pastor, a crying mother punishing me with threats of Hell, of Satan, of souls. If the pretty phantom assistant had filled me with the worstfear of my life, I wasn’t ready to meet the King of Hell. I didn’t want to enter the room. I wanted to go home, to write the thirdPantheonnovel, to drink myself sick, to see a new psychiatrist, and to check myself into the sort of ward that could convince me through enough therapy and medication that I’d hallucinated this entire trip.
“You’re not going alone,” Fauna said.
I looked from where my fingernails had unintentionally been chewing into her skin and then up into her eyes. They so often gleamed with mockery, with taunts, with laughter and obscenities and chaos, that the soft, kind seriousness melted me.
“You’re going to have to lead the way,” I whispered, “because I don’t think I remember how to move my legs.”
Fauna took half a step, then stopped. She whispered an abbreviated form of my name, getting my attention as she asked, “Hey, Mar?”
As if I weren’t panicked enough, the concern on her face sent sickly fear through me. I recalled a film from my youth where a superhero had a painful, liquid metal injected into his veins. I didn’t recall the point of the film, but I remembered how he’d screamed. I felt the metal now as it hardened in each of my limbs, settling in my thumping, leaden heart. I was afraid enough that I was on the brink of tears as I asked, “What?”
“Az was right. Everything he said was right, but there’s more,” she said, each word scarcely above a whisper.
My eyes shot to the cracked door awaiting us, then back to Fauna.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said. “We can leave now. Or, we can go in there, hear what he has to say, and reject it. You’re a Norde,” she emphasized. “Az is right about a few things. I tease you, so I’m not sure that you take me seriously. Before we go into that meeting, I want you to know that I wasn’t kidding. You don’t have to choose this. If you don’t want Hell, if you don’t want any of this, I’ll do it. I wouldbond myself to you if it’s what you wanted. My philosophy has always been to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, after all.”
I tried to give her a grateful squeeze but was too numb to feel if my hand responded to my brain’s command.
“I have to see him,” I said.
She dipped her chin. “I know you do. But I needed you to know.”
“Hey, Fauna?” She cocked her head, copper and silver strands cascading over her shoulders and doe eyes looking at me with curious concern as I said, “Don’t make this weird, but I’m pretty sure I love you.”
“I love you too, loser,” she said.
With that, she led us forward to meet the King of Hell.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Maribelle!”
I didn’t even have time to identify the source of the voice. I was crushed in a hug that snatched me from Fauna and swept me off my feet. I felt like a startled kitten cuddled by an over-excited toddler. I lost my equilibrium as the unidentified speaker twirled me in a tight circle before setting me back down on my feet. The man held me at arm’s length to drink me in, but I’m sure all he saw was a mouth opened in shock.
I struggled to understand whose presence I was in.
