Going to Hell Read online

  Copyright © 2022 Melissa Haag

  * * *

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission from the author.

  * * *

  ISBN 978-1-63869-007-8 (eBook Edition)

  ISBN 978-1-63869-021-4 (Paperback Edition)

  * * *

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, are coincidental and not intended by the author.

  * * *

  Editing by Ulva Eldridge

  Cover art by Joy Author Design Studio

  Print Cover design by Shattered Glass Publishing

  © Depositphotos.com

  Version 2022.06.06

  CONTENTS

  A quick note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Author’s Note

  More Books In This World

  Other Series

  To everyone touched in some way by mental health illnesses,

  Sometimes love is messy.

  * * *

  Also, to all the times I was on a video chat and the other person had to say,

  “Melissa, you’re still muted.”

  A QUICK NOTE

  The In Fire and Ash series is the third trilogy in the world of Mantirum. It can be read independently of the previous trilogies. However, if you would prefer to enhance your reading experience for the sake of the crossover characters mentioned, start with the Of Fates and Furies trilogy.

  Happy reading!

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Five more minutes, Ashlyn,” I said to myself.

  It was a small space of time. Yet, each second seemed to crawl slower with my impatience, which pretty much summed up every morning of my life now. Me, awake far too early, and the clock grudgingly moving toward the moment I could finally escape my house.

  Pausing in the hall, I gently touched the picture of my uncle. It had been almost five weeks since his death, but time had done nothing to ease the ache of losing him. Or the loneliness.

  My listless gaze swept over the inside of the home I so resented. Once, it had been a refuge, a place of safety. Now, it was my prison of forced solitude.

  On weekends, I only ever left for my assigned shift at the Roost, the local teen hangout, a place I equally loved and despised. Listening to the music was nice. The degrading training sessions I had to endure so the academy students could complete their assignments, though? That I could have done without. But those students were the entire reason I was here. Not only here in this house but here in this little unknown Maine town. Uttira, a place filled with mythical creatures—the children of the old gods. A place where humans like me were a rarity. Or a delicacy, depending on who a person spoke to.

  I hated that the children of the gods used me to teach their young how to hunt or interact or whatever with humans. I was a tool, an inconvenience, an afterthought, nothing more. And I wanted out. Out of this house. Out of this town filled with dangerous creatures, and out of this life filled with rules and restrictions.

  I wanted freedom so badly it hurt, but I could never take the way out that my uncle had or the one Adira offered me. One was death, and the other was a complete memory wipe. The thought of leaving this place, ignorant of the creatures that existed in our world to prey on unsuspecting humanity, terrified me. I wasn’t ready to die. I was still waiting to live.

  So, here I was, existing alone, trapped in a warded house, and yearning for a freedom I would never have.

  However, this morning’s added tension made my itch to escape even stronger than usual. I didn’t want to be late for Eliana’s meeting.

  She was one of the few friends I’d managed to make in my almost eighteen years on this planet, and the thought of her meeting with three novice druids worried me. It didn’t matter that Eliana was a succubus and could handle herself around other mythical beings better than I, a lowly human, could. I didn’t want to lose her, too, through some stupid mistake. And when it came to druids, mistakes ran rampant.

  I worried that meeting the druids at the academy, the only other place I was allowed to go during the week, wouldn’t be safe enough for both Eliana and me. Though the wards ensured no one would die inside, I knew better than most that there were worse things than death.

  Which was why I needed to time my arrival perfectly.

  The inherent safety of the building only applied if I made it inside. Arriving too early would be as risky as arriving too late. I glanced at the picture of my smiling uncle, a reminder of what would happen if I risked too much.

  We all die at some time. Better to risk a little than to risk nothing and die alone in this damn house.

  Shaking away the thought, I checked the time and headed to the garage. Anticipation and dread sank into my stomach. As much as I wanted freedom, I feared it. However, I didn’t let that stop me from starting my car and backing out of the garage.

  A tingle danced over my skin, a sign I’d passed through the ward. My house didn’t look different from any other on my block, but I knew it was. None of the other homes had wards. Then again, none of the other houses were occupied by humans.

  Forcing that bitterness aside, I grounded myself in the positive. I had a measure of freedom for the next seven hours, which was infinitely better than sitting in my living room and adding to my journals. Maybe the dwarf I’d been tutoring in math would have a new book for me. The idea of something new to read made me positively giddy. Joy was a much safer emotion than fear.

  A few minutes later, Girderon Academy’s enormous gates came into view.

  The grand, sprawling building rose several stories high. Easily over two hundred years old, the elite institution solely educated Uttira’s youth, and if the gate and stone exterior didn’t scream old money, the cars in the lot sure did. The few already parked gleamed in their vivid, eye-catching colors.

  I knew from experience that the drivers of those pretty cars were likely as beautiful.

  Beauty was one of many ways to lure in prey and the primary reason to exclude the handful of human residents from attending. But Megan, the new local fury, who was close to my age and raised in the human world, hadn’t liked the segregation. Seeing the flimsy excuse for what it was, she’d fought for my right to go to school there, something my uncle would have never allowed.

  He would have said the academy was too dangerous, and he would have been right. But I was beyond caring that the majority of the student body would try to lure me to my death. I was more than willing to risk anything to get out of my isolated hell.

  Parking in my reserved spot near the door, I scanned the lot.

  I’d perfected the art of looking without looking years ago. The range of my peripheral vision enabled me to see the wisp of strawberry blonde hair teasing my temple, and the troll who lingered by his truck. He watched me hungrily, but he didn’t worry me. Trolls weren’t fast or smart.

  Before he even realized I’d left my car, I pulled open the door to Girderon’s hallowed halls. A tingle ran through me, letting me know when I was inside the ward. I knew better than to let my guard down, though. The ward didn’t guarantee safety. The rules my uncle had drilled
into me were the only way to ensure I’d still be free to return to my prison at the end of the day.

  Keeping my gaze lowered, I hurried down the hall toward the pool room while popping in my earbuds. The familiar sound of my uncle’s voice filled my ears.

  “Rule number one: Never make direct eye contact. That’s how half of them gain control of your will. And once they have control, they can make you do anything. Hurt the people you love. Hurt yourself. Anything. You’ll feel like you’re trapped in your own body. There is no worse hell. Always keep your gaze averted.

  “Rule number two: Never let your guard down. You can’t trust any of them. They’ll do anything and everything to lure you in close enough to make the kill. Those two rules apply to every creature.

  “I’ll go through additional, species-specific rules, starting with the most common creatures. Mermaids. Found on land and in water. Their claws are poisonous if they break the skin, and...”

  I opened the door to the pool room and, from the corner of my eye, saw the mermaids splashing and playing. Thanks to my uncle’s voice, though, I couldn’t hear them or their siren friends. With one seductive note, any of those creatures could lure me to my watery grave.

  Ignoring the mad gestures they were employing in an attempt to get me to glance their way, I skirted the tiled space and let myself into the bathroom, the designated location for our meeting.

  Three girls glanced up from their places around the partial drawing on the floor. They looked completely normal. Human, like me. But I knew better than to believe appearances and didn’t stop to stare at what they were doing. My lessons were too ingrained.

  Moving to the sinks, I held my hazel gaze in the mirror, observing what the druids were doing from my peripheral. One of them gestured at her ears and shook her head. Despite her mimed request, I didn’t take out my earbuds.

  Druids were a different level of lethal compared to the other creatures in Uttira. While these girls wouldn’t eat my heart from my chest or grind my bones for a substitute parmesan pizza topping, they would still use me in a second if it helped a spell. Or worse, use me as a Guinea pig to test a spell. And, since they were here to cast one to get rid of Eliana’s mom, I wasn’t sure which role the druids might unexpectedly decide I could fill.

  Hopefully, Eliana would show before I found out.

  The girl who’d gestured got up and plucked one of the earbuds from my ears.

  “We’re siren proof in here,” she said, tossing it at me. “You can put that back in and keep staring at the mirror, but it’s not necessary. It’s not like we can hurt you here.”

  That was laughable. The ward would prevent my death, but there were still many ways I could be hurt. If she had suffered a day in her life, she would know that.

  However, she was right about not needing the earbuds. I couldn’t hear the sirens, and blocking the sound of the druids wasn’t necessary. Technically, neither was avoiding eye contact with them. But since most of the creatures didn’t wear species indicators, it always paid to follow the no eye contact rule.

  “Focus, Anne. What the human does or doesn’t do isn’t our concern as long as she stays out of the way,” one of the other two said.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” the third said with a level of excitement. “It’ll get the Council’s attention for sure. If this doesn’t earn us our marks, I don’t know what will.”

  I struggled not to roll my eyes at the mention of the infamous Mark of Mantirum and removed my other earbud.

  “Tone down your optimism, Meg. We’ll probably need to wait another year, just like most druids before us.”

  “We have a lot more experience, and Adira knows it.”

  Adira, the sole “counselor” for Girderon Academy, cared about far more than experience. Maturity, the ability to follow simple rules, and how all the cogs fit into her power-machine seemed to be at the top of her list. Likely, the three cogs before me didn’t have their marks because Adira hadn’t yet decided how they could best contribute to Mantirum society.

  However, the speaker was right about one thing. They would eventually get their ticket to freedom. With their marks, they would be able to come and go from Uttira as they pleased. Something I would never be able to do.

  Leaning against the sink, I boldly watched the three work. They placed a few bowls in their circle and had barely finished the last chalk rune on the floor when the door opened.

  The blonde hair and petite form were easily recognizable from the corner of my eye, and I lifted my gaze to give Eliana a friendly wave. She was one of the creatures I’d been warned never to look at, but the young succubus wasn’t like everyone else in this town. She truly didn’t want to hurt me and was an honest friend. That was why I was happy to see her and why I supported her, even though I was against this whole setup. I didn’t want these druids doing something that would cause Eliana more trouble than she already had in her life.

  Eliana returned my wave before the Debbie-downer of the druid group spoke up.

  “Perfect timing,” she said. “We just finished setting everything up.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Eliana asked.

  “You and the human should stand off to the side.”

  “Ashlyn,” Eliana said, letting her annoyance show. “Her name is Ashlyn.”

  Her defense of me almost made me smile. To her, I was a person. To everyone else, I was simply fair game.

  “Great. This is Meg,” the leader pointed to a girl with thick hair, “Anne,” she indicated the one with glitter makeup, “and I’m Lauv. We’ll do the spell, and when I point to you, you’ll need to speak your mother’s name. That’s it. Nothing to it.”

  “How many times have you successfully performed this spell?” I asked.

  “More than a dozen times inside the barrier. Finding volunteers with a mark to travel outside the barrier is a little harder.”

  “So never?” I pressed.

  “The spell is the same. It’s just the location that’s different.” Lauv’s gaze shifted to Eliana. “Are you changing your mind?”

  I looked at Eliana, too, hoping she’d say yes. Spells weren’t something to mess with. Ever. She met my gaze for a moment and looked sad.

  “No,” she said softly. “I’m not changing my mind.”

  “Good. Ashlyn, you’re heavier than Eliana. Go stand against the door, so no one interrupts.”

  I didn’t take offense at the heavier comment. Eliana was petite and undernourished. I was taller and lean but with enough muscle, hopefully, to fight my way free in an emergency…if I had the free will to do so.

  Biting back my need to reiterate that this wasn’t a smart idea, I moved past Eliana with a warning look. She gave me a weak smile but took my spot by the paper towel dispenser.

  The trio of druids positioned themselves so they were cross-legged and knee to knee within the circle. Lauv took a larger, empty metal bowl and set it in the center. Anne grabbed a handful of small twigs from outside the circle and placed it inside the empty bowl, starting a fire with a single word.

  They began chanting and speaking in their nonsensical spell language. As they spoke, they added objects to the flames, and the color changed from orange to red to purple then blue.

  The chanting stopped, and Lauv nodded at Eliana.

  “Wait, put the ash in,” Meg said.

  A tingle lit under my skin, and I straightened away from the door to tell them to stop.

  “The hell? Shut up,” Anne hissed.

  Meg grabbed a handful of ash and tossed it into the flames before I could say a word.

  The ingredients exploded in a burst of light.

  My middle gave an immediate gut-wrenching twist, and pressure squeezed my head to the point that my ears popped. I stumbled forward in slow motion. It felt like I was falling.

  Then my foot came down, and the pain, pressure, and blinding light disappeared.

  Staggering upright, I hugged my arms around my middle and took a few calmin
g breaths while waiting for my vision to clear. However, even after several blinks, I saw nothing but complete darkness behind the lingering blue spots.

  This was what I’d feared. There were so many fates worse than death. Blind in a world filled with monsters was one of them.

  Gods, I hated druids.

  Given the complete silence around me, they probably already knew they’d screwed up.

  I opened my mouth to tell Eliana what had happened, but no sound emerged. Not a whisper of noise. I inhaled to try again. Nothing.

  Not good. I reached for the door behind me, intending to knock on it and get their attention, but my hand merely brushed through air. Then I noticed the fishy stink of the pool was missing, too.

  I swallowed hard and started putting together the pieces.

  No vision. An inability to speak. And a missing door. All immediately after the druids completed a relocation spell.

  Fighting not to panic, I continued to reach out, needing to be sure things weren’t as bad as I suspected. However, my hands found nothing in the immediate vicinity. No tiled bathroom wall or door. No friendly succubus or stupid druids.

  I started to shake at the confirmation of what I’d suspected. Something had gone wrong with the druids’ spell, and rather than relocating Eliana’s mom outside of the barrier that warded Uttira, the three idiots had relocated me.

  Since I couldn’t leave Uttira without the Mark of Mantirum, I doubted I was outside the barrier, though. The mark and the barrier were safety features to ensure that the humans who knew of Uttira’s secrets couldn’t escape. Plus, if I were outside, I would be freezing.