As the train departed from the maze, the landscape blurred into a slideshow of grotesque beauty. Rivers of lava carved through blackened plains. Skeletal trees clawed at a bruised sky, their leaves made of ash.
The train rumbled on, crossing a valley of withered flowers before plunging into a long tunnel. We emerged onto a bridge spanning a massive chasm. At the bottom stood a palace of black glass, eerie and spectacular all at once.
I wondered if it was the same place where Lilith had once hijacked my mind.
“Is that where we’re going?” Bea asked, her voice hushed.
We didn’t have to shout anymore. The roaring chaos of the maze had faded, but tension still gripped us, our shoulders tight, our breath held.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Not today.”
Logically, the queen would have hidden Heaven’s Arrow deep in her stronghold, but the train was obeyingmywill now, and I was following the pull of the arrow.
“They say no one can enter the Underworld without an invitation,” Bea murmured.
“We were invited, weren’t we?” I replied.
“More like forced,” she said, biting her lip. “I just never thought they’d drag usto the Underworld.”
“This isn’t my favorite place either,” I said. “But I’ll get us out in one piece.”
The pull sharpened, overwhelming, as a ring of black mountains rose ahead. A fountain of lava shot into the sky. Bea and I stared until the train lurched sharply around a curve, throwing her sideways.
My feet skidding on the roof, I grabbed her waist and hauled her back against me.
“Thank you,” she gasped, chest heaving.
I nodded, gaze already lifting.
“The arrow’s up there,” I said, pointing toward the volcano’s peak.
Shit!Sy hissed. She’d traced the pull to the volcano’s molten heart, too.
It was genius, hiding a heavenly weapon inside an active volcano—somewhere only the suicidal would dare go. I had to give Lilith credit, but not even an inferno would stop me from getting that arrow.
The train clung to a narrow trail carved into the volcano’s slope. Heat shimmered off the black rock. Sulfur stung my eyes and throat. Bea looked worse.
It burns my eyes too,Sy admitted.But we keep going.
High above, the mountain’s peak glowed an angry orange, spewing lava in violent arcs.
“Barbie, no.” Bea grabbed my arm, her face pale beneath the soot coating our skin. “That’s literally jumping into boiling lava. Even you can’t?—”
“I’ve survived worse.” The words came out flat, detached, as memories flashed: Ruin’s feeding chambers, being consumed again and again, only to be remade for more torment.
Let’s do this,Sy said, flooding me with raw courage.Together.
I gave her a virtual squeeze. She squeezed back so hard it made me wince.
Silently, I guided the train around to the far side of the volcano, away from the worst of the lava flows. “Stay here,” I told Bea. “I’ll be back.”
“Let me go with you,” she said, voice trembling with a courage she didn’t fully feel.
I offered a faint smile. “You know you can’t. You’ve always stood by me, but there are places even you can’t follow. Sometimes, no one can.”
She swallowed hard. “Promise me you’ll come back.”
I nodded, pulling her into a hug. She clung to me.
