Chapter 3
A jaunt in the . . . Cotswolds?
They’d been walking for what felt like hours. The dark purple sky above them was turning blacker by the minute, and the light was fading fast. Drew couldn’t help but search once again for the source of the light. There was no sun in the sky, only a weird twinkling light here and there. Were they stars? Did Hell even have stars? Was that even the sky up there? Was there an atmosphere? Hell was underground, wasn’t it?
He had no clue. He really didn’t know anything about this place.
He walked in silence for a while longer, mulling it all over. It was clear that even by taking the shortcut the demon had told them about, they weren’t reaching the borderlands anytime soon. He supposed he may as well pass the time by getting some answers to his questions. “Where is the light coming from?” he asked Zach, reaching up absently to pet Leila. She had squirmed out of his arms some time ago and was now perched on his shoulder. Every now and then she would fly down to the ground, peck around for a bit, poop, then fly back up and get comfortable once more. “Is there a sun here?”
“Oh yes,” Zach replied, glancing over to him. “The atmosphere is very thick, so you don’t really see it, but the glow of it through the gases is enough to provide a daylight of sorts.”
“Huh.” Drew looked up again. “So, there’s no like,roofup there?”
Zach gave him a quizzical look. “I beg your pardon?”
Drew could feel himself flush. “Aren’t we underground? Like, Hell is underground, isn’t it?”
Zach snorted. “Oh, you’re precious. No, Drew. Hell isn’t at the centre of the Earth. If it was, those drills in the Arctic Circle would have provided some pretty funky results.”
No one liked being laughed at, and Drew wasn’t exactly having the best day. “Well,excuse mefor not knowing how it all works.” He folded his arms and tried not to pout, but he was sure he had an epic one on his face right now.
“Sorry,” Zach apologized immediately. “It’s just a really big misconception that everyone gets wrong.”
“Can you blame us?” Drew demanded. “When Oberon’s goons summoned those demons last year, they crawled their way out of the dirt. That’s pretty strong evidence that they came from under the fucking ground.”
Zach managed to look abashed at that. “Okay, fair point, but it’s still incorrect. Hell isn’t on Earth—it’s an entirely different dimension. The portals the demons were called through just happened to be hidden underground, probably so we wouldn’t know they were being summoned until the last minute.”
“So why does everyone refer to Hell as ‘down there?’” Drew pressed.
Zach shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just the way it’s always been. They always called it that in Heaven, long before my time.”
He frowned, annoyed at not having a clear answer. “That’s just stupid.”
He could tell Zach was trying not to laugh. “I suppose it is.”
“Okay, so it’s an entirely different dimension.” He looked around. “I guess that explains why we’ve been here for at least four hours now and it looks like it’s just turning to evening, but we were only an hour off sunset back home?”
Zach nodded. “Yes. The days are the same length of time as on Earth, but demons measure time differently. Their hours are longer than a normal hour, and there’s only eighteen of them in a day. The atmosphere at ground level is very similar to Earth’s, with a slightly lower oxygen level, but it’s very toxic at higher altitudes, so we need to make sure we don’t ascend too far.”
Drew nodded. He had been finding it a little difficult to get a full breath. “Noted. No mountain climbing for me while we’re here.”
Zach paused and gazed around at the landscape. “Hmm,” he said.
Drew waited, but there was nothing else forthcoming. “Hmm, what?”
“Oh, it’s just I think I recognise this place.”
“You do? Does that mean we’re close to where we need to be?”
Zach grimaced. “Sadly, no. In fact, if we’re close to the settlement that I think we’re close to, it’ll probably take us another day to make it to the borderlands.”
Drew’s mouth dropped open in horror. “You’re kidding!”
“I wish I was,” Zach said in true regret. He lifted a hand and cupped Drew’s cheek. “I’m so sorry. This wasnotwhat I had planned for our anniversary.”
“Why are you apologizing?” Drew asked. “It was me and my stupid magic getting away from me again while I was cooking that landed us here.”
“I think it was the baking that was the issue, not so much the cooking.”
