Chapter 115: Life Gem!
Emma looked at Eli, then at the room in general. "Great. Another one." She sighed and didn’t even bother reaching for her gun this time. ’This is becoming a thing isn’t it."
Cassandra turned towards him. "You’re early."
"On the contrary," Eli replied smoothly, stepping fully off the elevator, hands easy at his sides, "I’m right on time from the looks of things."
Riley held herself still, working at casual by trying to play it cool but her twitching ears betrayed her. "Eli."
One of Eli’s eyebrows went up. "What, no hug?"
She grinned and walked over, pulling him into a quick hug. He caught her properly, held it a beat, then let her go and his eyes moved past her shoulder.
His gaze landed on Zaza first, then Cassandra. Something in his expression shifted, quieter than amusement, older than it. "Will you look at that," he said. "Most of the lieutenants in one room."
"We don’t go by that anymore," Cassandra corrected with a flat tone. Zaza on the other hand, remained silent.
Kurt didn’t waste time on pleasantries. "What do you mean you can be of some assistance?"
Eli gave a small, knowing smile. Then he reached into the inner pocket of his vest and pulled out a necklace.
He held it up between two fingers, letting it turn slowly in the light. A single red gem hung from a delicate silver chain, pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.
Kurt stared with recognition. The gem was identical in shape and setting to Cassandra’s blue heirloom in every way, except this one burned crimson instead of ice-blue.
Cassandra’s eyes went wide as she asked. "How do you have that?"
"A life gem," Eli said, ignoring her question entirely. He looked between them. "You have no idea what this is, do you? You think these are just pretty, expensive heirlooms?"
"Great trinket," Kurt said dryly. "Really brings out your eyes. But how exactly does it help with a Hell Gate?"
Eli tucked the necklace back into his vest. "There are only ten of these in the world. Eight of them are in the hands of the Masquerades."
He let that sit for a second, then continued. "The only way into an active hell gate is being dead. The dungeon reads living signatures and locks them out. We Masquerades, practically living dead as we are, can walk straight through. That perk alone is most of why our status and fortune sits where it does."
"So what do you need the shiny rock for?" Emma asked, folding her arms.
"Some of us want to actually live, Emma." His smile sharpened as he answered. "Eat real food. Breathe actual air. Feel things."
He glanced across the room. "The life gem is a concentrated source of living energy. For my family, it’s what keeps that possible. But run it in reverse, push that energy outward into someone who’s already alive—"
Cassandra’s hand drifted unconsciously to her own necklace. Her fingers closed around it. "What do you mean, reverse?"
"I mean it can make a living person read as dead long enough to fool a hell gate and step through." He spread his hands. "I don’t need mine to enter. So that means I can lend one of you the means."
Lizzie leaned sideways in her chair, squinting at Eli. "So let me get this straight," she said. "That thing turns you into a walking corpse... temporarily?" She grinned. "Not gonna lie, kinda into it."
"So are you going to lend that?" Kurt asked Cassandra, pointing to her neck.
Cassandra’s hand moved instinctively to her necklace. "It’s been in my family for generations," she said flatly. "I’m not handing it over to someone else."
Kurt didn’t look away. "You’re right. I shouldn’t have..."
A heavy silence settled between them as her fingers tightened slightly around the necklace, betraying her resolve.
"We’ll need all the help we can get in a Hell Gate dungeon," Eli interjected. "Who knows what we’ll be stepping into."
That was precisely the problem.
Cassandra exhaled slowly, weighing her options.Then after a brief pause—
"Fine," she said at last. "I’m coming."
Eli pulled out his stopwatch and checked it. "That makes myself, Cassandra, and whoever uses my gem."
Kurt gave Cassandra a smile before turning to face the room. "If Eli’s walking in on his own, the gem goes to whoever’s coming with us." He looked across the faces. "Has to be Emma, Rook, Zaza, or Lizzie."
"Lizzie," Rook said, without hesitation. "You’ll need a healer in there. And we’ve got our own matter to handle out here."
Kurt looked at him. "What matter?"
Emma answered with a cheeky smile on her face. "Rook got an invitation. From the Underworld Kings."
"And you don’t decline one of those," Rook finished, his expression dark and in contrast to Emma’s.
"Oh?" Eli’s smile thinned, one brow lifting slightly. "Filling the gap Braun left, I’d imagine."
Across the room, Riley’s fist tightened at her side. She didn’t say anything, kept her face even, but her knuckle went white for a moment before she let it go.
"Let’s focus on bringing Sam and Jerry back," Rook said, steering the conversation. "Eli, Cassandra, Kurt, and Lizzie head to the Hell Gate. Emma, Zaza, and I answer the Kings’ call."
The plan took shape quickly after that. Four of them would go to rescue Sam. The rest would answer the Underworld Kings’ summons. Clean, if not simple.
Kurt stood there a moment, letting the plan settle, then caught Rook’s eye before anyone started moving. "I need a few minutes with our guest on sub-level five."
Rook held his gaze, then nodded once.
Kurt walked over to the elevator and pressed a button. As the doors began to open, he caught Eli drawing Cassandra a step aside, leaning in close enough that his voice wouldn’t carry.
Lizzie walked over to Kurt, also watching Eli and Cassandra from across the room, head tilted slightly. "Yeah..." she muttered under her breath. "That’s not suspicious at all."
"Keep an eye on that blood sucker. He’s definitely not doing this out of the goodness of his heart," Kurt said to Lizzie as he stepped into the elevator.
Eli pulled Cassandra aside as the others began to disperse. "He speaks as though he can simply join us on this extraction," he murmured. "A hell gate isn’t a prison blimp."
Cassandra looked at him for a moment. Then she turned her head and watched the elevator doors meet, her reflection splitting and then disappearing in the seam between them.
"No," she said quietly. "It isn’t."
She turned away. Whatever she was thinking stayed exactly where it was.
***
The elevator descended past the ground floor, past the sub-levels Kurt had come to know, and kept going until the display read five.
The doors opened onto a corridor where the ceiling flickered. One fluorescent tube buzzed at the far end, blinking in and out in a slow, irregular rhythm that did nothing useful for visibility.
The air was cooler down here, stale, carrying the particular stillness of a space where nothing moved and nothing changed.
At the centre of the room, inside a reinforced cage bolted into the concrete floor, Morra sat crossed-leg.
Kurt stepped out of the elevator and it closed behind him. His footsteps and buzzing lights were the only sound heard in the room.
Then Morra looked up like she’d been expecting him.
"Hey, Kurt." A slow smile curled her lips. "Long time no see."