Chapter 9

In Feathers, Tamsin raised her hand at an Angel who had just walked in.

The Angel smiled at her. Her silvery, almost transparent eyes shimmered, and her pale white short hair was as fluffy as a dove's feather.

"Long time no see, Tamsin," she greeted as she sat down at her table. "I'm actually surprised that you'd want to meet."

Tamsin shrugged.

"I take that you want a favor?" The other Angel asked before she ordered herself a drink.

"Yeah, remember that time when I pulled you out of the pile of corpses during the war, Lavina?"

"Vividly." The other Angel gave her a slight nod.

"Time to return the favor now."

Lavina frowned a little as she studied Tamsin closely. "Are you in some life-threatening danger? It doesn't look like you are to me."

Tamsin huffed out a snort. "You wish."

"Then…what can I possibly do to return that favor?"

Tamsin stirred her drink with the straw for a while. "I need you to pull a soul out of Hell for me."

Lavina frowned a little. "Now you've got me really curious. Whose soul is it?"

"It's nobody's, just some human."

"A friend of yours?"

"Do I look like I make friends with humans?" Tamsin rolled her eyes.

"Then who is it?"

Tamsin jabbed a piece of ice cube with her straw as she replied, "the less you know, the better. Get the soul out for me, I'll consider your debt paid."

"Alright, fair enough. Can you describe this soul for me?"

"Well…let's see," Tamsin tried to recall the things that Bo had told her. "The name is Kenzi. She died a few years ago, in Silver Froth lake."

"Silver Froth lake?" Lavina repeated, narrowing her light eyes. "Is she one of the-"

"I don't think so," Tamsin said. "The…Silver Froth lake thing ended when I left, right?"

The other Angel just shrugged at her.

"They didn't eliminate that Kelpie in the lake."

"They didn't?" Lavina asked in surprise.

"Nope," Tamsin shook her head, "but I think it's dead now. Anyway, that's all I know about the soul. Just get that soul out of Hell, and then you owe me nothing."

"Deal."

Lavina enjoyed her drink. Then she gave Tamsin a prying look. "I heard that you got stabbed by a Demon blade the other day."

"Gee, how many spies have they sent to the human world now?"

"Many. They just observe."

"Spying, observing, splitting hairs," Tamsin sighed. "I'd really appreciate that the Silver City would just leave me the fuck alone."

"You may have left Heaven, but you are still an Angel. We wish nothing more than your safety."

"Safety my ass. The higher management just doesn't want me to spill their little secret. Tell them to just fucking relax. Their secrets are safe with me."

"Zuriel told me that you are working for the daughter of the Dark Lord."

"So?"

"Oh, I just find it interesting. What could she possibly want from you that she couldn't get from her father, or the army of Hell?"

"I don't know. My awesome personality?" Tamsin gave her a fake smile.

The other Angel laughed. "Tread carefully, Tamsin. She might be harmless but her father is quite a tyrant."

"You don't think I know that? It'll be over soon anyway," Tamsin waved her fingers at Lavina lazily. "When can you get that soul out?"

"Whenever the Dark Lord blinks," Lavina winked at her before she got up and left the bar.

After meeting with her father briefly, Bo went back to her suite. She thought she'd spend some time discussing the Dark Temple and the Book of the Dead with Bilith.

Her little feline friend wasn't there, but he left her a couple of empty chocolate boxes and a pile of candy wrappers in the trash bin.

Bo sat down beside the desk as she flipped through all the things she and Bilith had checked out from the library. As she was doing that, she discovered a small notebook that was buried under a pile of scrolls.

Did I check this out from the library? Bo frowned as she examined it. The notebook wasn't much larger than her hand. The leather cover was slightly worn. It wasn't embossed or painted. The only decoration it had was a pea-sized sapphire inlay in the middle. The cover had a slip that folded over in the middle, and it was fastened shut with a brass latch lock.

Or maybe Bilith checked this out from the library? She wondered as she removed the latch from the lock and opened the notebook.

Rather than a bound book, the inside were pages of loose, tattered parchment. Every page is filled with notes, writings and hand drawn illustrations. Much to Bo's surprise, most of the things were written in English.

Bo started reading. It didn't take her long to realize that they were notes about the Dark Temple. Whoever wrote in the notebook seemed to be searching for it as well. Listed in the notebook were quotes and references from various sources, including ancient manuscripts, bards' tales, poems with unnamed authors and inscriptions inside items buried in old, nameless graves.

The person that had written down the notes had come to the same conclusion as Bilith: the Dark Temple existed somewhere in the underworld outside the bounds of Hell. The author also indicated that they had found the exact location of the Dark Temple.

Please have a location. Please have an exact location. Bo prayed as she checked the last page.

The last page did not have any writings. It only had a drawing, where four snakes loosely formed the shape of a four-leaf clover. One snake had tiny flames drawn along its body. One of them was dotted in gray. One was drawn with purple waves. The last one was solid blue.

Drawn in the center of the clover was a small crown.

Bo frowned hard at the drawing. Somehow the entire layout of the drawing was awfully familiar to her.

Where have I seen this? Bo wondered as she stared at the tiny crown. Crown, King, the castle!

She then realized that the four snakes were the four rivers that were surrounding the City of Damned.

Beyond the four snakes, there were forests, plains, lakes….

But where is the Dark Temple? Bo asked herself in frustration as she examined the drawing as closely as she possibly could. She was expecting to find a small structure, or at least something that would remotely resemble a gate of some kind, but she didn't find any.

Or maybe this person has not really found it? She furrowed her eyebrows as she went through the previous pages. Everything in there seemed to imply that the drawing on the last page was a map to the Dark Temple.

She examined the map again, and this time, she noticed something. What she had thought to be a drop of ink initially was actually a tiny symbol drawn in haste: an star inside a circle with two small curves, one on each side of the circle.

It reminded her of the conversation she had with Bilith. He had told her that he had found a symbol that represented the Dark Temple: an asterisk inside a winged circle.

Bo's heart raced as she moved her index finger to that symbol. It was drawn right beside the tail of the flame snake.

"This must be it! It at the end of the-"

She studied the four snakes again. The icy blue snake would be the River of Ice. The one with purple waves would be the River of Venom. The gray dotted one would be the River of Mist. That would make the one with flames the River of Flames, which ironically had no flames in it at all.

She quickly took out her phone and called Tamsin, but the Angel didn't pick up. She was about to leave her a message but then she thought, well I'll tell her after I've confirmed that the Dark Temple is actually there.

She looked for Bilith the next, but the little panther was nowhere to be found.

"The one time I need him and he's not here!" Bo grunted in frustration.

She knew she should wait for Bilith. She had promised him not to go look for the Dark Temple on her own. But, knowing that she might have found the location of it, she just couldn't sit around and wait.

I'm just gonna go check it out and make sure it's there. Then, I'll come back and tell them. Bo told herself.

She took out her backpack, and stuffed some water and snacks inside. Then, she put in an emergency survival kit. She strapped her dagger to her right thigh and tied her hair into a ponytail.

Before she left, she wrote a note to Bilith telling him that she was going to follow the River of Flames and find the Dark Temple.

The excitement of discovering the possible location of the Dark Temple slowly faded as Bo realized how tedious and exhausting the hike along the River of Flames was.

It wasn't just the hike itself. Bo found everything around her an eyesore: the dry, cracked river bed, the empty rocky banks, the cliffs that extended out to both sides that grew nothing….

Besides those, there were also wandering souls. They would approach her and cling to her. The souls would follow her. They would gather around, as if she could provide them some sort of comfort. The closer those souls got, the more chills Bo had down her spine. She could feel their pain and their suffering.

She tried not to look at them directly as she marched on. They trailed her, whispering, whimpering, calling for help, breathing in pain, begging for relief.

The river creeped into the darkness, leading her into the bowel of the unknown.

When the land in front of Bo suddenly narrowed into a tunnel, she almost cheered for finally having some change in her journey. The flat ground on either side of the river was now too narrow for her to walk on, so she decided to climb down into the river bed instead. What could possibly go wrong in a river that had been dry for ages? She thought.

Slowly she walked through the tunnel. It was so dark that even her flashlight seemed to have dimmed. The light it cast had been reduced to a ray of pale weakness.

She noticed that the number of souls around her had decreased. All the souls that had followed her, they seemed to be disappearing one after another.

The darkness was so thick that she could barely breathe.

She stopped briefly, wondering how far she had to go, or if she should turn back. Just as she put her hands to her mouth and breathed some warm air onto them, she heard a sigh.

"Bobo…" a whisper came to her, and she flinched hard.

She stood still as she listened. She heard nothing but her own racing heart.

She shook her head and started walking again. After a few steps, another whisper came from behind her.

"Bobo, is that you…?"

Bo froze there. Her heart was pounding violently against her ribcage. Immobilized by fear and guilt, she was unable to turn back.

"I…I thought you'd never come," that voice came closer and got louder. Bo felt something cold pressing on her shoulder. It must be a hand.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head. She fisted her hands beside her thighs and clenched her jaw.

"Why did you leave me there, Bo?" the voice accused in anger. "I was so cold in the lake. I was so lonely."

The voice weeped. The weep was low but somehow it rang in Bo's head like it was about to claw her brain out.

"Why, Bo? Why didn't you come sooner? You could have saved me! I could have lived!" The voice shrieked. "Do you know how long I've been stuck here? Do you know that they have been torturing me the whole time? It hurt, Bo. It hurt so much!"

Bo had to force herself to breathe in now, for her throat was clenching and her chest was in pain.

"Everyday, I prayed that you could come and save me, Bobo. Every. Single. Day. You never came, Bo. You never came! I died because of you!"

Bo took a deep breath as she opened her teary eyes. "Kenz, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" she apologized in whimpers.

She had finally gathered enough strength to face Kenzi's soul. However, when she turned back, there was no one behind her.

It was just the darkness, and then…suddenly a strong flare.

The river was no longer dry. Pale flames, pale flames that had come from nowhere flooded and roared. The tempestuous river of flames engulfed her, tossing her into one blazing maelstrom after another.

Tamsin came home after the meeting with Lavina. She noticed a missed call from Bo, and she immediately called back, but the brunette didn't answer.

She shrugged it off and got herself two hot pockets. She brought them to the couch with a beer and inhaled her food.

Between work and fun, she rarely had time to herself. Usually she'd use her alone time to unwind, but today she seemed too restless for that. She kept thinking about Bo, about the kiss, about how their bodies pressed together….

Fucking sex demons. She thought, shaking her head, though with a smile.

She called Bo again after a few hours, yet the brunette still didn't answer.

Tamsin tossed her phone aside and went to take a shower. Then, she went to bed. Just as she was about to fall asleep, a rustling sound from her living room made her flinch.

She frowned a little as she grabbed a short dagger that she had always kept right beside her bed. Then she pulled a loaded revolver out from under her pillow.

Throwing a shirt on, she walked out of her bedroom with her revolver raised.

To her surprise, the "intruder" was a little black panther. The panther peeked out from her walk-in pantry while still munching on something.

"What the-" Tamsin cursed loudly as she put down her weapon. "Bilith?"

The panther gave her a quick nod before he went back raiding her pantry.

"You fucking stop that," Tamsin commanded as she grabbed him on the back of his neck and yanked the Demon out.

Bilith stared back at her, still chewing on a candy bar. His whiskers were coated in chocolate crumbs.

"What the fuck are you doing here, hmm? You ran out of candy in Hell and thought my place might be a good place to find some?"

Bilith kicked Tamsin's hand with his hind legs and freed himself. He hopped on the dining table and sat there licking his paws. "I'm looking for Bo."

"And have you found her in my pantry yet? Maybe check the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box?"

"Well, I thought she might be here with you. Have you not seen her?"

"Not since yesterday. Why?"

"Do you know where she might be, or what she's up to?"

"How the hell would I know? Shouldn't she be in Hell banging some random hotties from a bar or something at this time of the night?" Tamsin replied impatiently. The thought of Bo having hot, steamy sex with some strangers seemed quite irritating.

Bilith narrowed his copper eyes. He studied Tamsin for a while, before he asked, "have you given her a map, by any chance?"

Tamsin frowned hard. "A map? What map?"

The little panther tilted his head a little and pondered, before he jumped into the pantry again. This time, instead of any snacks, he came out carrying a sheet of parchment in his mouth. He laid it in front of Tamsin and said, "I found this in her room. I thought it was from you."

Tamsin took a look and realized it was a map of the underworld, where the rivers were drawn as snakes. "No, it's definitely not from me."

She took a whiff of it, before she turned on the table lamp beside the couch. She put the parchment paper under the bright light and examined it closely.

"The paper has been distressed on purpose to make it look a lot older than it actually is," she concluded. Then, she took her dagger out. Using the very tip of the blade, she carefully scraped the red ink with which the flames had been drawn. She rubbed her thumb on the tip of the blade a few times, before she examined it under the light.

"This red ink…it has added pigments made from a specific iron oxide mineral."

"Right, very popular during the war," Bilith nodded.

"Exactly, but…if this had been drawn at the time of the war, the pigment color would have had a darker tint because of the oxidation. This one looks too…fresh. It's too new to be from war time. It's well made, but it's a fake."

The little panther let out a furious and frustrated growl. "This is not good," he murmured.

"Care to tell me what exactly is going on here?"

"Bo left me a note saying that she was going to find the Dark Temple. I don't know where she had gotten this map but…I think it had convinced her that the Dark Temple was at the end of the River of Flames."

"The River of Flames?!" Tamsin exclaimed. Knowing what the River of Flames was and what it would do to souls, her heart raced in panic. "Oh for fuck's sake, please tell me that she knows what that river would do to her soul?"

She paced frantically, before she added, "does she even know that the river is also called the River of Guilt? Does she even know why? With the amount of guilt she has, she's gonna-"

"I know," Bilith cut her off.

"Are you sure she's gone to the River of Flames?"

"With the note and this map, I could only assume. I can't find her anywhere and I am really worried. I hope that she's just following the river, instead of going in, but…we need to find her before it's too late."

"Yeah, sure, how the hell are we going to find her, though? If she sets foot in the damn river, she's gonna get washed away by the flames because of her human soul and her guilt. If you and I go into the river, it's just gonna be a dry river bed for us. We'll never be able to see a single flame, and the river won't carry us to its end, because neither of us have a soul, and you don't even have guilt."

"What if we get a guilty soul to go into the river and then you track the soul with your…Angel magic?"

"Souls will be destroyed by the flame long before they reach the end. That was the whole purpose of the river."

"Then what would happen to Bo if she-"

Tamsin clenched her fingers tightly. "We need to find her fast."

The little panther growled again. "I…I'm gonna go talk to someone."

"Who? Your King?"

Bilith sighed. "No," he replied. "He's the last person I'd talk to."

Too distracted to comment on that statement, Tamsin combed her hair with great frustration. "Alright, I guess I'll go talk to a few people that I know. Fuck, if still had my wings-"

She cut herself off as she let out a heavy sigh. She had to fist her hands to stop herself from shaking, for she was consumed by great anger and paralyzing fear.