“God, I hope not.” Jayce’s voice wavered. “What could have done this?”
“Could be a lot of things. A herd of elephants. An army of cyclops. The second is more likely around here.” Xero surveyed the damage grimly as we made it to the top of the staircase.
Michael’s house had been utterly demolished, along with the garden he had probably tended with devotion. It did look like a stampede had come through.
I swiveled my head back and forth, realizing that as far as I could see in two directions, a wide strip of wilderness had been trampled to dust, as if an army had marched through here.
Michael had been targeted. I was certain of it.
The beaten path bent out of its way to attack this place and returned to its original direction on the other side.
Guilt brought me to my knees. Hot tears prickled the corners of my eyes, and I brushed them away with the back of my hand.
“He didn’t deserve this,” I gritted out, voice shaking with fury. An overwhelming sadness sat in my gut like cold oatmeal. “This happened because of me.”
“This happened because of Gavriel.” Kai’s voice was fierce. “All we did was ask for help, and all Michael did was give it to us. We did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong. You understand me? Put the blame where it belongs. Be sad. Get angry. But don’t you dare take this guilt. It doesn’t belong to you.”
The words meant more coming from him. I knew he wasn’t the type to forgive himself easily, and that he carried his own guilt for things in his past. So if he was telling me not to carry this weight, that meant something.
Besides, guilt was useless without action. We needed to do something.
I wiped my face and rose to my feet. “You’re right. This is Gavriel’s fault. If we’re stuck in the underworld anyway, then let’s get that sick bastard. I’m not just letting Michael’s death go. I say we follow these tracks and figure out what the fuck Gavriel is doing.”
“Which way?” Kingston asked, not even hesitating.
Jayce jogged away from the rubble of the small home to the soft earth around it and peered at the tracks.
“That way,” he said, pointing. “They were traveling that way. And you were right, Xero. Cyclops. Unless there’s something else around here with feet as big as my whole body.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing the sulfur-scented air to blow the stray feelings out of my head. I met Jayce’s eyes. He was waiting for direction from me, even though he knew what I was going to say. Knew that I was going to drag us all into danger again.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t dragging if they all came with me willingly. If, like Hannah had, they insisted on coming with me and staying by my side no matter what.
I still didn’t know what I’d done to deserve him. To deserve any of these men, or a friend like Hannah.
But I had them. And they had me.
And together, we would take on the lord of the underworld himself.
I nodded. “Then that’s the way we go.”
Chapter Thirteen
I kept expecting one of my companions to come to their senses over the next few days, as we tracked whatever it was that was sweeping a broad path over the underworld, leaving a trampled swath of land behind.
Surely one of them would suggest we just hunker down like Michael and Vee had, that we try to stay off Gavriel’s radar and live as quietly and peacefully as we could in this hellhole.
But none of them did.
I guessed hiding wasn’t really in any of our natures—not even Kai’s anymore.
“Man, I’m not looking forward to catching up with whatever this is,” Jayce commented on the morning of our fourth day back in the underworld.
He was examining the tracks again, the way he’d done every morning for the last three days. I stretched the kinks out of my spine, wishing I hadn’t taken my bed for granted while I’d had it.
“How far behind do you think we are?” I asked him.
“At least a few days.” He shrugged. “Maybe more. I don’t know, do cyclops sleep?”