Following the River Styx

Chapter Eight

Before them, the mundane, gray scene shivered away into pixels. The fire vanished, leaving only a stench of smoke and flesh, and the street underfoot crunched into brown grass and pebbles. Everything had a singed, blackened appeal, and the atmosphere warmed so that beads of sweat rolled down Cordelia's temples and softened the back of her neck. "You will all accompany me to my lair," purred Papa Legba, extending one arm to them; his smile could have seemed inviting, but the glint within in his scarlet eyes indicated every underlying malevolent intention.

Embers smoldered at the base of each tall stone wall that surrounded the witches; they could see no sky. "Please." Cordelia found her voice first, quivering and weak as a butterfly's gossamer wing. "This isn't their fault. Take me and let them go."

"Bullshit," Queenie spat. "Zoe and I came here first. You can't take the credit for everything." She jerked several times against the cyclops, but the blank-faced giant did not yield. Without their powers, none of the witches could resist the sheer brute strength of the beasts that now held them captive. The black witch screwed her up face as she glowered at Papa Legba, and then she deliberately stomped her own foot.

The deity didn't flinch, and she cursed under her breath. "You foolish girl. It is the duty of your Supreme to protect you—something that Cordelia knows quite well." He regarded the Supreme with an incline of his head. "But even you should know that the souls here are not your wards any longer. I have no mercy and no sympathy for a greedy witch who forgets her place. You belong in the land of the living to rule the living."

Misty's tight voice surprised the coven. She had turned white as a sheet, and her tone wavered as she squeaked, "Then let her go. The coven needs her." She didn't make eye contact with Cordelia, who stared desperately at the side of Misty's face, pleading for a single glance. "I—I'm sure she won't come back," she choked out. Several glistening tears rolled down her cheeks, and her lips trembled.

Approaching her in long-legged strides, Papa Legba appraised Misty for a moment. "I gave you quite a gift, child," he uttered, "and you made good use of it. But I can see your intentions, and your lover shall share your fate. Perhaps it was in my plan all along." He tilted his head into a sickening smirk.

Lifting her head, Misty's narrow eyes made contact with the crimson depths of Papa Legba's. "I don't give a shit about your plan," she hissed. "I believe in God." Fiona opened her mouth to protest, but before anyone could manage a word, Papa Legba slapped Misty hard across the face. Zoe winced; everyone turned their eyes to the floor of the tunnel except Cordelia, who couldn't rip her gaze off of the blooming red mark on Misty's cheek.

"I would smite you on the spot if I were not so certain of the enjoyment I will gather when I burn your Supreme in front of you." One of the girls whimpered; Cordelia wasn't sure which one. "I will make you watch all of them disappear into a world where you can never revive them, and then I will make you follow them. Consider it penance for your misbehavior, my sweet Misty." With an index finger, he trailed a tear off of Misty's cheek. She leaned away from his touch, breath bated and lips twisted downward into a sneer. He tilted his face into hers with his lips slightly parted, as if he intended to kiss her, and Cordelia's stomach clenched. "I can taste the disgust on your breath," he whispered.

Pulling away from the blonde witch, he scanned a glance over the rest of the coven. "Follow me," he ordered his guards. They gave no verbal response, but they apparently understood, as they followed when the deity strode away from the group. Cordelia's cyclops dragged her along with too long strides so that she stumbled; Misty's, likewise, had no mercy, and several times, she swooned as if to faint only to loll back onto her feet. "Believe in God." Papa Legba snorted. "God can't help you here. You'll find no aid but the darkness of your own heart in my world."