Page 77 of As Darkness Fall
Aaron was staring straight at the far misty bank of the river. “From there, he can look down on them.”
“You know, I’m really starting to like this guy,” I said. “He loves a good view. Smart.”
Fred snorted.
Unlike me, his humor didn’t sound forced. He actually seemed to find my joke funny. I was merely putting on a front, pretending like I was all nonchalant about everything, when inside, I was fucking terrified. But what were my other options? Turn around and leave my parents at Lars’s mercy?
Hell, no. I’d go it alone if I had to if it meant getting them back.
If we were meant to get into the Pits at the very heart of the Underworld itself, then the ferryman would come for us. I couldn’t control that. But Icouldcontrol whether or not I gave him the chance to appear.
Fighting past my fear, I took a step forward. Then another.
The others followed. I didn’t know if they were scared as well, and I didn’t care. Not then. We approached the bank as a team.
Out of the mist, a boat appeared.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
“That’s not ominous at all,” I remarked as the rear of the boat emerged from the bank of mist to reveal a solitary hooded figure, slowly working a pole that guided the boat to where we waited.
“I think that’s the point, actually,” Vir supplied helpfully.
I glared up at him, wondering where the suddenly chipper mood had come from. “Thank you for that insight,” I said dryly, doing my best not to sigh.
“My pleasure.”
Lor–someone, give me strength,I thought, once more correcting myself.
It was unlikely that my thoughts could be read, but it probably was best not to tempt fate over this. If Hadeswastouchy about that other place where the dead went, then maybe I should just try and not think or say anything about it. Just in case.
The boat came to us with unerring accuracy. The ferryman didn’t seem to notice the current. Slow as it was, the boat had to be thirty feet long. A keel that long would gather up lots of current in the real world and would easily be swept downstream. Not so in the Underworld. In a few minutes, the prow beached itself.
I waited, but nothing more happened.
“So, we just get on now, is that it?” I asked uncomfortably, looking around for some advice.
I was, after all, the newbie here. All of the others had been here before. Fred hadn’t come out and said so, but I got the impression that of my trio of traveling companions, he was the most at ease here. Yet, he wasn’t interested in having any say in things. Fred was just here to follow orders.
Orders which I was apparently supposed to be giving.
How am I supposed to order these men to go deeper into the center of Hades’s realm, just to help me out?
I didn’t like it. Never in my life had I been the one in command. I’d always looked to others to tell me what to do, and for the most part, I’d been okay with that. Not everyone wanted to be in charge, and that wasn’t something I was going to let myself be ashamed of. The pressure to be agoodleader was immense, and I was only twenty-one. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have enough experience to be a good leader. Yet.
But right now, with Charon’s Ferry staring me in the face, I wasn’t being given a choice. The others were waiting for me to order them onto the boat. Order them. Because they didn’t want to go willingly.
Could I do it? Did I have the strength to tell them to get in the boat, even though I knew, without them saying anything, that they didn’t want to?
I forced myself to remember why we were here. To gather the thing we needed to rescue my parents. Not just any random people, but Thomas and Alexandra Wetter. They might be my adopted parents, true, but they had loved and cared for me more than many biological parents out there had for their kids. I wasluckyto have been raised by them, and I was fully aware of that.
It still bothered me that all this time I’d been searching for them, thinking they had left me for some reason, they’d been held captive at the hands of one of the most despicable men I’d ever met. Nearly ten months now since they’d gone missing. Ten months for Lars Aldridge to torture them.
Fury burned brightly in me. I missed my dad’s booming laugh and his nerdy love for history that we both shared. I missed my mom’s cooking, her love for tea, and her willingness to help anyone who needed it. They weregoodpeople and did not deserve what had happened to them.
“Get in the boat,” I growled. If I had to order these men forward in order to rescue my parents, then that’s what I would do.
And I would lead the way. I strode forward, grabbed the edge of the gunwale, and hauled myself up into the longboat with as much grace as I could muster.
