Chapter 122

The portal wasn’t quite what Jo McReynolds expected it to be. The tunnel was dark, and the material beneath her feet was some sort of a cross between hardened volcanic ash and marble. It had the color and consistency of the first on top, but down below, it was so hard, it felt like they were standing on the core of the Earth.
Even though they weren’t even on the planet anymore.
Jo had traveled to quite a few places in her twenty-five years, some of them stranger than others, but this was her first time leaving the planet.
Christian Henry was leading the way, carrying a bright flashlight. It wasn’t necessary for the Hunters and Guardians in the group who could see through the dark just fine. Her concern wasn’t for Christian, her Aunt Cassidy Keen, her sort-of boyfriend Zane O'Braonain, or the healer, Scott Joplin. It was for the human that had managed to sneak in when none of them were looking--Ryker, who apparently only had one name--who was probably about to be dead.
She still hadn’t had a chance to talk to the man. Part of her wanted to grab him and shake him the second that she saw that he was there, but the rest of her knew she shouldn’t be the one to kill the fragile creature, so she was waiting until she calmed down. Chances were, she would calm down the day after never.
“Do you know where we are going, Christian?” Cassidy asked. “Or are we just taking a stroll?”
“I know where we’re going, bitch,” he said without even turning his head. “Don’t pretend to tell me what you think we ought to do because I don’t give a damn.”
“Well, I see you’re just as delightful as ever,” Cassidy said, clearly annoyed. Jo was aware that Christian and Cassidy had never gotten along. She was just hoping they could manage to make nice for however long it took them to find Jo’s mom, Cadence, who she knew was in this portal somewhere. If they didn’t find her soon, these two were liable to kill one another.
The group was quiet for a few more minutes as they walked along before Cassidy said, “It just seems like we are walking incredibly slow for no particular reason.”
Christian’s head went up to the ceiling as he huffed, stopping in his tracks. He turned around and glared at Cassidy. “Shut your trap, bitch. I’m in charge here.”
“Hey, no, you’re not,” Jo said, remembering that even though Christian had been through the Blue Moon Portal, he could die in the Blood Moon Portal. That theory had been proven when a friend of Cassidy’s had been killed in here before Jo was born. Which meant she could kill him, theoretically, if she wanted to. “I’m still in charge, Christian.”
“The hell you are,” he replied. “You wanna lead the way?”
“No, I want you to stop being an asshole and just take us where we need to go, and Aunt Cass, please just let him do what he needs to do.”
“Fine,” Cassidy said. “But we’re going to be in here for a couple of decades if he doesn't get his ass in gear.”
Christian began to walk again but didn’t make it more than a few steps before a glowing white brightness materialized right in front of him, and Jo realized at the last second that she was looking at a set of teeth--razor-sharp teeth, flying right at his face.
With a quick snap of his trigger, Christian dispatched whatever the hell that thing was, and it fell to the ground with a heavy thunk right in front of them. Whatever it was, it had to have been huge for it to shake the tunnel and knock small rocks free from the ceiling and walls the way that it did.
“What the hell was that?” Scott asked, his voice wavering. He was standing behind Jo, so she couldn’t see his face.
“Tunnel snake,” Christian said. “Reason I was walking so slowly. I knew it was here somewhere, but until I saw it and killed it, I didn’t want to walk right into its maul.”
Jo turned and looked at her aunt. It seemed like Cassidy was trying not to show that she was shook up, but it was clear that the snake appearing so quickly that it had rattled her, too.
“What’s to keep one of them from sneaking up on us?” Zane asked. He was also behind her, but Jo got the impression he was turning around backward as he asked, looking behind them.
“Nothing,” Christian confirmed. “I can usually hear them coming, but not always.”
She heard Ryker mumble, “Shit,” and then he was in front of her, right behind Christian.
Jo didn’t know if she should laugh or roll her eyes. It was pretty clear that he didn’t want to be eaten by the snake, but then, Jo had to wonder what he thought was going to happen now that he was in the portal with them. What had made him want to come with them to begin with?
“What other kinds of monsters should we be looking out for?” Scott asked.
“All kinds,” Christian replied. “Anything you can imagine, we’ve seen it in here. Some things you would’ve never imagined could possibly exist.”
Thinking of her dad walking around in here, often by himself, for all of those years, made Jo’s heart feel heavy.
“I thought Heather said there was usually some sort of a warning, like howling or something, before they attacked.” Cassidy sounded curious, not argumentative, for once.
“They used to give us the courtesy squeaks,” Christian said with a nod. “But then they stopped. So now… it’s just a feeling we’ve developed in our guts to let us know they’re nearby. Or we hear them or see them, but usually, they’re just here. I say we. Me, I guess. I’m the only one left.”
They all ignored Christian’s reference to Aaron’s death since their potential impending doom was more important to focus on at the moment. “Have you ever been bitten by one of these monsters?” Scott asked.
“Hundreds of times,” Christian said. Up ahead of him, Jo could see the tunnel emptying into what looked like a large center area with more tunnels going off in every direction.
“But you didn’t die,” Scott pointed out.
“No, but sometimes it hurt so bad, I thought maybe it would be better if I did.”
That had to be pretty painful for Christian to admit that. Again, she had to wonder how many times her father was injured in here. Probably not as many times as Christian, but probably more than none. Aaron was faster than Christian and more skilled. He wasn’t as likely to get hurt. But clearly, he wasn’t unbreakable.
They walked out into the open area. “This is the hub,” Christian said, checking the bullets in his weapons, apparently to make sure they were loaded. Jo was tempted to do the same thing, but she didn’t want to look paranoid, and she’d checked them several times before she walked into the portal. It wasn’t as if the portal could suddenly make her weapons not be loaded--could it?
“All of these tunnels go to a different portal opening?” Cassidy asked, looking around them at all of the tunnels leading off into the darkness.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Christian said. “There are thirty-seven of them. That one over there actually goes to hell, not a portal, but if you don’t believe me and wanna try it out for yourself, go ahead.”
“Hell?” Scott asked for all of them. “Like… an actual pit of fire or--”
“No, dumbass,” Christian said, finally finished with his last weapon, which he kept in his hand. “Hell is not a fiery pit any more than heaven is floaty clouds and little naked babies hopping around on rainbows. It’s just another dimension where everything sucks.”
Jo had lots of questions about that, not the least of which was how in the world did he know that, but she didn’t want to ask him. She hoped no one else did either.
They didn’t. Apparently, the rest of the group also didn’t want to hear what Christian had to say about the devil’s lair. Or the devil himself. If he existed. Maybe Christian Henry knew about hell because he was the devil.
“Which of these tunnels leads to the one that goes beneath this place, to the tunnel where my mother is?” Jo asked.
“None of them,” Christian said, tugging on his beard.
“Wh-what do you mean?” Jo was confused. Her dad had said there was another layer of tunnels beneath where they were standing now, and that’s where he thought her mom was.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Christian said.