The Darker Lord by Jack Heckel

Author:Jack Heckel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-07-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Journey from the Center of Mysterium

We sat, staring at one another and catching our breaths. I did a head count and came up one short. “Where’s Harold?”

“We tried to bring him, but he wouldn’t come down from the statue,” Tanner said.

Trevor added, “He asked us to tell you that he would always be there when you needed him.”

“At least he’s safe,” I said. What I didn’t add was that if he was offering, I really could have used him back in hell.

We lapsed into silence until Susan pointed at me. “You should have seen your face when you pulled me out from under that cloak.”

She started laughing. It was a half-hysterical laugh, but it was contagious, and soon we were all laughing along with her. It was not until we were passing level Q1 that the laughter subsided. I pointed an accusing finger at the three students. “You broke my rules.”

“You’re right, we did,” Susan admitted.

“Thank you.” I turned and stared up at Gray. “All of you.”

“I don’t obey your rules, but I must confess to being a trifle disappointed in you when you didn’t get my reference at the desk.” The eerie light in his left eye socket flickered, and I realized he was winking. Gray was a Trifler. “However, you can blame me. I was the head of the operation.”

This earned another round of laughter, but the adrenaline was wearing off, and it ended in weary chuckles. We fell silent until Trevor asked, “What was that place anyway?”

“And why is it in the basement of the Student Records building?” Tanner asked.

I shrugged. “It was the Confidential Records Desk. We all knew it would be well protected.”

Susan shook her head. “I expected well protected, but I didn’t think that meant that the basement of Student Records would be run by a family of demented demons. Then again, Work Studies aren’t allowed below level 13.”

Tanner pointed at the floor. “You guys are taking this way too calmly. That place has nothing to do with students or records.”

Trevor nodded in agreement. “It’s a soul trap!”

Gray floated down from the ceiling. “You’re right, of course. Level 7734 is not a place the mages in charge of Mysterium want anyone to know about. Normally, none of you would have even been allowed to see the button to 7734, much less access it. But there are many secrets in the deep places under the university. The Administration was too greedy for space, and they dug too deeply. In their quest to store all the knowledge of the multiverse, they unleashed darker forces.”

“Demons?” Susan asked.

The skull shook. “Bureaucrats.”

Dawn sighed and rested her head against Eldrin’s shoulder. “Any place as steeped in magic as Mysterium will have these corners of darkness. The troubling thing is not that they exist, but that the Administration is using them to get rid of people they don’t like.”

“It must have been a mistake.” Eldrin wrapped his arm around her.

“Mistake? More like typical Administration corruption,” Susan spit with disgust.

I looked wearily at Eldrin.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.