For the next few days I carried on the routine of putting the Ansuz on my eyes. I had no more startling revelations, but I did keep seeing those runes occasionally flare up around Henry when she got angry or annoyed. By Thursday, I made the resolution to confront her about it.

Thursday itself went without a hitch – there was a slight incident between Leila and one of the sheep that I had to sort out, but that was nothing new. Obviously being a demigod held more swing than it used to. After school I made my excuses to Laura and followed Henry. I put all of my stealth training into action: I had no idea what I was dealing with and so had to stay on guard.

I followed her left out of the school gates down Park road, another left down Rossmore road and left again down Lisson Grove. She then turned right down Marylebone Road and disappeared into Edgware Road tube station. That struck me as odd because of two things: there was a far quicker way to that station (right out of the gates down Park Road onto Bakers Street, then right again onto Marylebone Road), and she doesn't get the Hammersmith and City, Circle or District Lines home. She gets the Metropolitan Line usually at Bakers Street north. Why was she going in here?
As not to loose her, I picked up my pace. Just as I entered the station, I saw her dart around a corner. I ran a little to get close. It was approaching rush hour and there were lots of people frequenting the station. Slowing a little, I opened me senses. They stretched out in front of me, seeking out magic in the area. I picked up a great flash of dark magic coming from the direction I'd seen Henry go in. I followed that.

When I got to the platform, however, Henry was no where to be seen. The trail she was leaving behind ended, too. There were too many people on the platform for her to have gotten on a train, plus if she had I'd have been able to follow the trail down the tunnel. She'd just… vanished.

Sighing, I decided to go home. I got on the next train to Kings Cross/St Pancras, switched to the Victoria line south and got off at Green Park. I'd just gotten to the top of the stairs when I picked up the trail again. It was so potent, I could actually see it. Then again, that could have been the Ansuz… Regardless of what it was, I followed the trail once more.

I made a quick check of what weapons I had on me, just in case it got ugly. I had my mother's dagger strapped to one ankle, one of my other ones on the opposite ankle. Even though I did have a lot of practice with daggers and could quite happily fight with them, I would have felt better with my sword. Still, if I went home to get it, I had the feeling I'd loose her.

I followed the trail into Green Park itself. It went through the trees until there was a shimmer across the path. With the Ansuz I could see that what was on the other side of the shimmer was not Green Park. I could see a vast body of ocean, too big to be a lake but couldn't be the vast ocean because there was land on the far side. The trail of magic went straight through the shimmer, which I assumed was some kind of portal, and down the beach. Taking a deep breath, I went through.

Looking around, I saw a seemingly endless expanse of white sand. Where ever I was, it was very pretty. There was greenery to my left and a body of water to my right. I could see the land over the water, but I still wasn't entirely sure where I was. Up ahead, where the trail lead, I could see what looked like a pier or port, with a cluster of buildings beyond that. I had the feeling something big was going to happen.

Suddenly, the trail behind me disappeared. I spun around to see the other end of the beach. No shimmer with Green Park beyond it. Nothing. I guess there was no turning back now.

I carried on walking down the beach. After a few moments, I cam across a large brown looking boat. Well, I say boat; it was a ship, probably used for hauling things. Or it was, when it wasn't covered in rust and had various bits of greenery sprouting from it. It went a far distance into the sea, but didn't look like it had moved in years. Possibly a ship wreck? The trail went around the ship, so I did too.

On the other side of the shop was another bit of beach, which I crossed to arrive at a harbour. The trail carried on around the corner, past different warehouses and haulage trucks. The buildings had things like 'Ryba' or 'Prosto z Helski' written on the side of them. There seemed to be a lot of trucks with 'Przewozy Helski' on the side, too.

The trail got thicker and more potent the further I went along, so I gathered I was getting closer to the source. To Henry. Following it I went left down the harbour and then right into an abandoned warehouse with a blue room and battered fence around it. The door seemed to be in pretty bad shape, a Henry shaped hole where the missing part of the door should have been. I climbed through the fence and inspected the door closer. It literally was disintegrated, rust coloured dust on the floor. I took out my daggers and headed inside.

It truly was an abandoned warehouse. The windows were boarded up with rotting wood; the roof had holes in it letting in small beams of sunshine. It was dark, dank and grey, not to mention seriously depressing. I heard the scuttle of a rat at the far end of the room. Hat about did my nerves in. Every moment I was there, I was seriously regretting this decision.

Slowly, I edged into the centre of the room, carefully avoiding standing underneath any precarious looking equipment hanging from the ceiling. I'd seen far too many suspense movies to know what happened to the heroine stood under on of those. Taking a closer look around the room, I noticed runes drawn all over the walls. I had no idea what they were for, but I saw many Hagalaz dotted around the room. That couldn't be a good sign.

Just as I realised I may have walked straight into a trap, my foot brushed something on the floor. Glancing down, I saw a rune flash red on the floor under my foot. Simultaneously, the runes all over the walls snapped into life, growing in size and power. I threw up a flash of sunlight in a hope to disrupt the casting. Thankfully, it worked. I surrounded myself in several bands of rotating sunlight as a precaution.

"You gonna come out and face me, Henry?" I called. "Or just hide over there thinking I can't see you?"

When she emerged from the shadows, it took a lot for me not to gasp in horror. She was dressed in a black shift that hung of her. I hadn't noticed how dangerously thin she'd gotten. Half of her face was the Henry that I knew and loved, but half was a skeleton. A moving skeleton. There was no shimmer to indicate it was an illusion, so she actually had transformed into a half skeleton.

"Oh, Eden," she said. "Call me Hel."