Page 55

ELI

TIER SEVEN: ACEDIA

Anna let out a grunt as I landed on top of her, catching my balance only for us both to be shoved down to the ground when Walter came crashing into my back.

I felt a sharp sting on my pinky, where Anna had stabbed me earlier.

Without my powers, it was healing slowly and had only scabbed up with a golden line of dried blood.

The heavily ridged wooden planks beneath us were riddled with sharp splinters that had caught the scab, tearing it open again.

I rolled to my side to get off Anna. Being that close to her only made me want more things that could never happen.

“Shit! Are you okay? You’re bleeding,” she said as she grabbed my hand.

“I just hit my pinky on the landing; I’m fine,” I muttered, trying not to focus on the worry that made her pretty eyes widen.

The heavy sound of crows above stole my attention, thankfully.

“What the…?” I trailed off as I took in the scenery of this tier.

“What tier is this?” I asked in disbelief.

The five of us were on a creaky and worn wooden dock surrounded by a sea as red and thick as human blood.

The water—for lack of a better term—bobbed against the large beams that held up the do ck, staining them.

Crests and peaks sparkled and danced like glitter under a setting sun.

It reminded me of the golden sea in Seelie, except that everything was grotesque and awful instead of bright and cheery.

A breeze moved the hair across my forehead as I stood up, and I immediately stopped breathing and shut my eyes.

“What is that smell?” I asked as I got hit with the cloying scent of decay.

Just as I was about to ask how Anna knew this was the next tier and not some death trap set by our masked rabbit friend, she pointed to the mirror we had come through.

It had fallen from the dock’s pillar and shattered, leaving small shards of silver glass in a pile.

Behind where the mirror had been was now a picture of Bexley with scarlet water at his back and the words TIER SIX: ACEDIA in gold letters.

We all looked to Bexley to see him standing exactly as he was in the painting with the black crows flying overhead in the distance and the peaks of red water dipping and swaying in the sea over his shoulder.

Along this journey, Bexley had been somewhat of a fly caught in the breeze, remaining under the radar of what seemed to be the bigger picture that was happening in the tiers.

This signaled a change in the flow of things.

I was relieved it wasn’t my picture either way, because he was clearly being singled out.

“What does it mean?” I asked Anna. After she shrugged, I turned to Bexley.

The drinks from the other tiers had worn off and back was his depressing countenance, though I still preferred it to the unpredictable persona he took on when he indulged himself with drink or dust. I hadn’t seen him look quite so dejected.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. His face turned red under the sober scrutiny of the rest of the group. “It’s targeting me. Last time through, this tier kept me for two years,” he muttered as he dragged the scuffed toe of his boot against the splintered wood of the swaying dock.

Shit. Two years. I couldn’t stay for two years. I began to panic. Walter and I exchanged a worried look .

“That was before, when you came through on your own,” Anna told him calmly. “We can help you this time.”

“So it’s his photo in the frame and not ours because…?” Eletha asked.

Anna let out a heavy sigh. “As you know, Acedia is the tier of indecision, when you lack any care for yourself or the progression of your life. Bexley seems to be the only one struggling with idleness and neglect of one’s self, I guess,” she said to all of us.

“How can we help you?” I asked Bexley.

“Find me a tolkien of dust. We’re going to be here for a while,” he grumbled.

“Maybe that’s a part of your problem,” I snapped, irritated by his lack of worry.

I felt Anna’s hand on my arm. I knew it was hers by the soft, familiar smell of flowers that mingled with the scent of rotting bodies.

I pulled away to walk to the opposite end of the dock.

Just as I approached the rocking ledge, two polished sail- boats with dark wood and thick black sails appeared, stopping at the ledge.

Another much smaller boat with no sail, hardly big enough for a child to sit in, appeared.

It was obvious that the small boat was for Bexley.

“I think we are supposed to get into the boats,” I said, breaking the group’s silence.

Accepting our fate, we began to climb in the boats with Walter and Eletha going first, climbing into a sailboat and taking extra precautions so they didn’t accidentally touch the thick red water when the sides swayed to take on their weight.

“After you,” I said to Anna, gesturing for her to get on our boat.

“I’m not getting in a boat with you,” she said as she made a move to get into the small sailless boat.

“Anna, stop it. That boat is obviously for Bexley,” Eletha called to her sister. Sure enough, as soon as Anna tried to step into the boat, it moved out of her reach. When Bexley stepped forward to help Anna, it glided right to him .

“Sorry, Bex,” Anna said as she reluctantly got in our boat.

He looked after her, confused by her words. “Bex,” he repeated and I saw the corner of his mouth lift.

Anna and I looked at each other, confused. Before we could say anything, he was in the small wooden boat.

The instant he was seated, all of our boats began to glide over the water and away from the dock in separate directions. “Wait, I don’t like this,” Eletha said as the boats began to part off. She grabbed ahold of Walter, making their boat wobble.

The obnoxious crows shouted above. One dropped down on the ledge of our boat and started squawking at Anna as if delivering a message.

“Tell it to bring us some food. I think we’re going to be here for a while,” I said.

“Then perhaps I should ask them to bring me a new boat partner, or perhaps a weapon of some kind,” she returned.

We sat on opposite sides of the small boat; the tops of both of our knees touched, knocking into one another with the rhythmic sway of the sea.

I nodded behind her. The water had parted into three rushing streams, and each of our boats began to steer into one, off in a different direction from the others.

Anna closed her eyes and took a few breaths. I wanted to take away everything that was causing her pain. Instead, I simply asked if she was okay.

“You don’t care about me,” she said as she looked out at the orange sky where her crow friend had flown off to.

The perfect hero would have wanted nothing more than to convince her that I did in fact care about her. But me? All I wanted to do right now was to tie her up against one of these boat poles and make her blush.

“I care about you,” I stated.

“Then give me the pendant,” she said, catching me off guard.

“You should have kept it when you had it.”

She glowered. “What if I can trade you something?” My eyes took their time touching every curve of her body. “Not that kind of trade,” she said with a blush. “Like, ‘after I have all of my powers, I will build you an artificial sun’ kind of trade.” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

“What is it with you guys and your artificial suns?” I said, genuinely trying with all of my strength to push away the light glitter of humor that danced inside of me whenever I seemed to be near her.

She snorted. “Apparently eons ago, the Fates offered Dad his own weather god for Tartarus, you know, so that he could decide on the weather and atmosphere to his liking, but he turned it down because he didn’t want another god in his space.” She shook her head and chuckled.

“You really do love him,” I stated, realizing for the first time how much Kaohs had done for her. She loved him.

“Kaohs? Of course. You think I’d be doing all of this if I didn’t feel like I owed him the world?” She gestured between the two of us.

Suddenly, pain seared through my head so forcefully that it took me to my knees. Screaming was coming from somewhere.

‘Eli! Please help me!’

Cal. ‘Cal, hon, what’s wrong?’ She was in so much pain.

‘Oh my suns, what was wrong?’

‘I can’t find Mendax,’ she said, panicking.

‘Fuck. What happened to you? Cal? Are you still there? I can feel you fading. Oh my suns, Cal, you are fading. Fuck, Cal!’ I screamed both inside and out.

“What’s happening?” Anna asked, moving to my side on the floor of the boat.

“Cal—she’s dying,” I said as I struggled to sit back up with the searing pain in my head.

She gasped. “What happened?”

“I need to find Mendax. He needs to get to her.” Every extra ounce of energy I had went into pounding down the door to Mendax’s bond.

‘I know! I’m here!’ Mendax screamed .

‘What’s happening?’ I questioned. ‘She’s dying, Mendax; what did you do? Why didn’t you protect her!’ I shouted.

‘She’s having the child, and because it’s half Shadow Slayer and half SunTamer, they are running into complications.’

Oh my suns. “Cal is having the baby,” I told Anna.

‘Apparently the wretched little thing is giving her a real battle, but she will pull through—she has to. I forbid her from leaving me alone with this…this thing!’

My watering eyes sought Anna’s, and without a word, she wrapped me in a tight hug. Food would have been less welcome to a starving man in that moment because I realized how much I needed Anna.

She helped me to the side, where we sat in the darkening air in the middle of a crimson sea. We had a decent view of the others, but for some reason, our boat had stopped and the others hadn’t.