Atticus' POV:

I'd had it up to somewhere above my head with this rubbish.

It was utter tosh, the way Antioch just took off without a single bloody word, throwing me for loops and expecting me to follow without question. Not to mention the way he teased me at every opportunity like the evil older step-brother I never wanted. I'd go to spares if this kept up...

"Can you at least tell me why we're going to Munich?" I pleaded as I followed the offending Demon into the noisy airport. He cast a quick glance down at me out of the corner of his eye.

"That'll have to wait, kid. You ask too many questions for me to be able to explain things to you and multitask," he said, without the slightest hint of a smirk or grin. He seemed more absent, more serious than usual, as if something was troubling him. I let it drop, thinking it best not to pry.

The sea of people parted smoothly around Antioch as he lead me through the crowded facility. I simply chalked that up to his intimidating presence until we cut through the queue for the TSA, walking straight through the metal detectors without them making a sound. Now that was dodgey.

Confused, I slowed down for a second to examine my surroundings. No one was looking at us or making eye contact, even as they moved to avoid the invisible forcefield that seemed to follow Antioch and I to keep them at a distance.

"Erm...What...?" I started to ask.

"It's a diversion ward with a energy signature sensor," Antioch said over his shoulder, stopping briefly to let me catch up.

"A diversion ward is a type of spell that not only renders any person or place under its power undetectable by any means, but also diverts beings of lesser magic away from the borders of the ward," Anti explained as we began walking again at a more moderate pace. "The reason I didn't have to cast one before we got in here is because this whole airport is one of fifty airports in the states that's under a permanent ward that's choosy about who it serves. It works on me because I'm friendly with the caster and the ward itself has my magical fingerprint memorized."

I nodded, satisfied with the explanation; it seemed simple enough. I would have to see about a magic book or guide or something of the like so that all of this would be easier to follow. Despite my age, I prided myself on knowing my onions for whatever I was dabbling in. I wondered briefly if I had any sort of magical ability. Did my power extend beyond visions and auras?

I was once again thrown for a loop when the Demon cut right past the ticket queues without any indication that he intended to board a plane. I followed him as he continued past the lines, slipping by the attendants and behind the ticket counter to stop in front of...

A wall. All there was behind the counter was an unremarkable plain white wall that matched every other wall in the facility. I shot my guide a perplexed look, but stayed silent, deciding to watch instead of ask.

Antioch lifted a hand and pressed it to the wall palm-down, fingers spread. A strange yellow circle of light about a half a meter in diameter bloomed out from beneath his hand and began spinning slowly as he muttered some words under his breath in a language that sounded more foreign than anything I'd ever come across. My jaw went slack as a portion of the wall ceased to exist, melting away with an echoing hiss to reveal a simple arched entryway about the size of an average door.

Antioch jerked his head towards the newly made opening, stepping away from it.

"You first, kid; we wouldn't want the door slamming behind me and separating us. Or separating your back from your front," he added as an after thought. I shuddered.

I slowly approached the proverbial rabbit hole as the ignorant crowd passed us by, completely unaware of the miracle I was witnessing. Actually, 'miracle' may have been too generous a term.

All I could make out as I peered nervously into the entrance to God-knows-what was a chilling, hellish blackness. It was the type of darkness that could swallow you whole. I began to shake my head as Antioch sighed in exhasperation and began nudging me forward by pushing my shoulders and lightly kicking my calves when that didn't work, grumbling all the while. After a couple seconds, he sighed again.

"Oh, to hell with it," he muttered. I yelped as he abruptly picked me up by the back of my collar and one of the belt loops on my pants, carrying me the last remaining steps to the opening like a terrified tote bag.

And then, ignoring my scream, he threw me bodily into the darkness.