“Do it. These demons aren’t going to hold back, they’re not all loyal to you,” I reminded him. Loyal demons didn’t get cast back to Hel. “Or do I need to recap my week in Vane’s secret wing? Not to mention you saw them flee after us in the courtyard, even you couldn’t have missed that.” Monty let out a low growl before going to the door we entered and closing it, carving a large sigil into the back of the door. He did the same on a door upstairs before coming back to stand in front of me. He leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine before turning to Drake.
“Keep her safe.” He gave us all one last look and disappeared. If he wasn’t facing bigger issues, he never would have followed Drake’s demands, even if it was to help me. That alone had me worried.
“You just summoned a demon,” Layne said. I nodded and grimaced, waiting for more but she laughed. “Of course you did.”
“So what now?” Crew asked as he started pacing, his footsteps were the only clean spots on the dust-covered floor. The man was barely holding onto his sanity by a thread at this point and I hated that he was swept into this world. They didn’t deserve it.
No one bothered to answer. Hell, I didn’t even think Drake knew what to do, and he was likely the safest out of all of us since he was half demon.
We all wandered the library for a moment, my mind mulling over everything that had happened in the few short months I’d been here.
The library was likely once very beautiful. The windows cast rays of bright light into the room, illuminating the large shelves clad with hundreds upon hundreds of books. A staircase wound up to a loft filled with more books, but I couldn’t see much beyond that from where I stood.
The earthquakes had dislodged books from the shelves, creating a mess of ripped pages and broken spines.
Couches, chairs, and dingy tables filled the space between the shelves. It would definitely work to keep us safe, but there was no food here. Hell, all we had was furniture and books, not anything to keep us alive.
“Enough. We need a plan. Layne and Crew, find the records and see if you can find building plans. There has to be ways we can get around unseen. Roman and Harlow, check out the room, find anything we can use as weapons. I’ll be back.” Drake was back to barking out orders.
“Wait, where are you going?” I demanded as I turned to face him. “You can’t go out there.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said without looking back, walking out of the room. My heart stopped as the door shut behind him.
“He will be, he is the only one of us who can still make it around the halls. We need supplies and he’s not the type to back down from a challenge.” Roman’s reassurance was nice, but it did little to help calm my nerves.
“We need wea—” I started to say but my words were cut off as the library faded around me. A throne room in its place and the woman I recognized as Hel sitting on the throne. Her human face was tipped up in a smile, the skeletal side indifferent. “Well, this is certainly a way to say hello.”
She chuckled. “Well, I was strong enough to manipulate your world this time, so I didn’t have to appear to you, instead I brought you to me.” She paused, her face hardening. “Something’s wrong with the gargoyles. You need to wake them. They’re the ones who can stop this madness.” My eyebrows rose at her insane expectations of me. Not only did I know nothing about her gargoyles, other than the strange vision of one coming to life on the roof, but I also didn’t know how to wake them.
“You didn’t know they were trying to open the portal?” I asked. She glared at my suspicion, but I had more than a little right to be.
“Of course not,” she dismissed. “Just do as you’re told.”
I couldn’t tell the Queen of Helheim to fuck off, but in that moment, I sure as fuck wanted to. Instead, I stuck with facts. Like how I was not fit for this role.
“I don’t know how to wake a gargoyle, I don’t even know how to save my friends from your demons,” I countered.
“With this. For both counts,” she said as she snapped her fingers. A dagger appeared in front of me. It looked as if it was carved from stone and embers, a soft blue glow sparkling on the surface. It was carved to a thin point and the base was polished to a shine.
“Thank you?” I said. “What does this have to do with the gar—” my words cut out as the throne room faded back to the library “—goyles. Dammit. She has to stop doing that.”
“What happened?” Crew asked, all three of them in front of me. Layne looked ready to cry or yell at me and Roman’s panic hadn’t faded yet.
“Hel gave me this.” They all jumped back and gasped at the dagger. “She said this is the answer to the demons and supposedly it will allow me to wake the gargoyles. No big deal, right?” I laughed humorlessly.
“You were just standing there, not saying a word, it was weird,” Crew explained as he stepped back and shook his head. “This is all too much.”
“We also found something,” Layne said as she turned and ran off, coming back with files, handing one to each of us. “Found our files.”
“Did you look?” I asked as I stared down at the thick file now in my hands.
“Of course not,” she scoffed. “I’m shameless but even I have standards. It’s all for you to browse. They never tell us what’s in these. I’m going to find out the mysteries of Layne.”
“Be careful,” Roman warned her. “It’s not always good news. Don’t let it make you vulnerable.”
“I won’t,” she promised. Her and Crew took a couch near the records, and I noticed Roman sat his down next to mine before dropping onto the couch nearby.
“I’m not sure I want to look,” I admitted as I put my dagger by our folders and sat down with him. “None of the things said in there are likely true.”