“And lately,” she prattled on, “I’ve been kind of… living out loud in there. But then, I guess it’s only fair I let you into my place after I went galivanting around in yours. There is one thing I don’t understand, though. Are you saying there are portals in and out of the Netherworld everywhere? Like, apparently, my apartment and the Lyndon McDonald’s?”
I gestured to the portal that waited for us. “The ones in the Netherworld are stationary and fixed, with one positioned at each of the four corners of this realm. When I’m in your world, however, I can access them at will from anywhere.”
“Sothat’show we got out of the McDonald’s,” she said.
“Outsiders are forbidden to enter the Netherworld,” I explained. “Transporting you here was… a last resort to keep you out of Cedric’s reach. I had every intention of reporting myself to The Few after informing you of the finer details of the situation. The only reason The Few have not automatically been alerted to your presence is because I… smuggled you in by shifting your soul into my grip. So they never received the alert that you were here. That’s why I have to repeat the process on the way out.”
“You camouflaged me,” she said, wringing the crossbody strap of her pumpkin purse with both hands. “Makes sense this place would be high security. No wonder you guys don’t get any tourism down here. Too bad.” She scanned our surroundings, shrugging. “There’s plenty of space for a resort. Lots of misty woods for Halloween hiking. And who wouldn’t want to visit the edge of death and meet Faust himself?”
I snapped my head her way. “Who told you about Johann?”
She frowned, confused, and blinked up at me. “No one. I… just thought it was obvious who he was. Wizened man in Renaissance robes named Johann with a German accent with the title of doctor?I’m familiar with the story, of course, and the legendwassaid to have been based off a real man.”
With her being a librarian, I could see how she’d know of the legend of Faust, the fifteenth-century German scholar and alchemist who sold his soul to the devil in return for riches, power, and knowledge. Johann’s story had endured through the ages, inspiring countless books, movies—a famed opera. But for Helena to have put two and two together with only the few clues she’d mentioned?
I’d known Helena was well read, but until now, I hadn’t realized just how perceptive she was.
“You didn’t call him by that name, did you?” I asked her.
“N-no,” she said. “And something tells me it’s a good thing I didn’t ask about his history?”
“He’s sensitive about his past,” I said. “He rarely talks of it.”
Something true for all of us.
“If Faust is real,” she ventured, glancing back down the way we’d come while lowering her voice, as if already taking my cautions to heart, fearful she might be heard even from a distance, “does that mean his, uh… nefarious, er…friendis, too?”
“You’re asking about the demon,” I said. “And it’s even wiser not to utterhisname. At least not anywhere other than here.”
“So… demons are real, too,” she murmured, now white-knuckling the strap of her purse.
Probably not the best time to admit vampires were as well. Right along with a few other… “mythological” beings.
“Have…youmet him?” she asked.
By “him,” she meant the infamous Mephistopheles—the demon Faust originally summoned. A devil charged with seeing to the fulfillment of the doctor’s every whim. But also, upon Johann’s death, to the procurement of the soul the old man had sold in exchange for the services of his diabolical manservant. A soul he has, through the ages, managed to keep by remaining here in the Netherworld, a realm that cannot be reached by that demon or any other.
If nothing else, Johannwasclever.
But so was Mephistopheles.
“I’ve had a run-in or two,” I admitted. “He’s always looking for Johann, and someone gave him a lead—acorrectlead—that I happened to know where he can be found.”
“Holy granola,” Helena said, her eyes popping.
“You could say I… put him off,” I said, “and he hasn’t bothered me since. Though he’ll still hassle Flora from time to time.”
“So he knows,” said Helena, “where Johann is?”
“It seems he heavily suspects,” I replied. “But he’d have to convince someone to try to bring him Johann’s soul since he can’t come here, and I think our last encounter taught him not to try that angle again.”
“Goodness,” she whispered. “Could Cedric have spilled the beans?”
“It’s not unthinkable he was the one who did,” I said. “But, while I wouldn’t put anything past Cedric, he doesn’t have any real power here. He’s more of a refugee than an official. For the time being, I also think it’s worth more to him to have Johann in the Halls. And even Cedric probably knows better than to strike a deal with a demon.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “If he’s such a troublemaker, couldn’t the three of you… kick him out?”
“Cedric, like the rest of us, is here by the benevolence of The Few,” I said. “He’d have to piss them off to get booted. I’m the only one who sees through his bullshit. Flora is tenderhearted—and misguided—enough to believe we can change him, while Johann sees too much of himself in Cedric.”
