Stronger Together chapter 106 (Patreon)

The next morning found us all at the docks. Dalton had been able to  find a perfect ship for us, granted with the rush delivery it cost us a  cool quarter million dollars, but he was able to get it for us the next  morning. April was still early enough in the year to be chilly  especially this early and this close to the lake so we were all wearing  jackets. We had all unanimously decided that hitting the island first  thing was the best possible idea since we had no clue how long it would  take to complete the sanctum invocation.

As  per usual I was bright eyed and bushy tailed after my medicine bath but  everyone else seemed a bit out of it except Yang. Barb was her usual  bleary self, which was understandable since it was so early the sun  wasn't even up. The vampires weren't with us given the nature of the  island, we'd even had to leave Raven behind since we couldn't risk the  spirit of the island losing it when he felt her demonic blood and  dragging her down to the prison. Cinder was playing magic specialist  today and Kara was the muscle. Harry was the last member of our little  gang and he was quiet for his own reasons.

Raven  had been pretty much furious with being left behind, which for her  meant the silent treatment for Barb and I. Rae was more into frigid  anger than screaming and shouting. She'd been especially upset since she  and Cinder had crafted the negative energy talismans hanging around all  our necks, heavily enchanted talismans of protection against evil  basically that had taken them all day yesterday to make. Cinder had been  very excited about making them, the soulfire merging into her magic had  strengthened its creative properties making the amulets much more  effective than they had been, which meant hopefully they would actually  hold up to the nightmare factory we were about to visit.

I  saw a form in the morning fog and was relieved to see it was Dalton,  Brynn was right behind him giving us all a gentle smile that pretty much  immediately convinced me she could murder us all and sleep like a baby  the next night. The smuggler grinned at me as he approached. "Fine  morning isn't it Cameron? Though I suppose any morning is a fine morning  to make money." His tone was incredibly smug, which made sense since I  knew I was paying him a full hundred grand extra for overnight pickup.

I  rolled my eyes "Don't gloat. It's petty. Now I assume those are the  keys?" I nodded to a set he was holding in his right hand "Anything I  need to know about the boat? Does she pull to the left or something? If  the seller gave you any notes we need them because where we're going any  screw up could wreck us." Barb knew how to steer a boat (because of  course she did) but she was fairly worried about my description of the  rocks around the island so she wanted me to check up on the particulars  of the vessel to make sure she knew what she was getting into.

Dalton  snickered at my first comment but regained his seriousness when I asked  my question. He shook his head "Nothing was mentioned. She isn't  exactly a speed demon but she's sturdy as a tank. You should be fine.  Only thing is it takes three tries to start her. Previous owner said not  to worry though she's been like that since they got her. You need  anything else? Because my ass hasn't been to sleep yet and it's cold out  here. I want to go warm up." With a wink he put his arm around Brynn's  waist and pulled her against him but she just rolled her eyes and  slapped him upside the head, pushing him away.

Say  what you wanted about criminals but Dalton was a charming guy. I  chuckled lightly and told him I was good, getting the keys and sending  him off rubbing his head and apologizing to the very pretty witch he was  following back to his bar. I tilted my head a bit as she walked away in  her very tight Yoga pants. Nice butt. I felt a slap to the back of my  own head and turned to see Barb standing there with a raised eyebrow. I  cleared my throat "Right, well here you go. He says no trouble with the  boat other than needing to try three times to start. A bit slow but  sturdy we should be fine."

Her  raised eyebrow stayed up. She snatched the keys, sneering a bit at my  deflection and turning to stalk back to the ship. My head tilted again.  Very nice butt. I heard a chuckle behind me and turned to see Harry  towering over me. I gave him a raised eyebrow of my own. He smiled back  at me "Sorry, just seeing you two like that kind of reminds me of myself  when I was just a bit younger than you. My girlfriend at the time was  just as much of a ball buster as Barb. Even your magic styles are  similar in some ways." His face was softened with remembered pain for a  moment before it sobered. "Anyway just checking in. I admit I'm a bit  nervous."

My  own face was twisted in sympathy. This was a big deal. Harry doing this  was going to massively screw up the future but it was an opportunity in  more than a few ways. I reached into my pocked and pulled out a godsteel  ring. Not my old one but a much wider but a much wider band I'd had all  the girls help with. Even with all of us we had to make the band a bit  thinner to expand it enough to fit him. I pressed it into his hand "This  should help. We charged it up after it set, Raven enchanted it for you,  since your magic was involved in the original creation of it she was  able to work some symbolic magic to let you tap into the soulfire in it.  Having the soulfire in here might give you an edge during the ritual."

This  was the best I could come up with. Harry had used soulfire in the  Sanctum Invocation in the books and I wasn't sure if that was a  requirement. Hopefully if it was the ring would let him fake it so we  could still pull this off. He nodded gratefully and slipped it on and  the two of us headed for the ship, ready to set sail on our next  adventure. The others were all waiting for us to board, though Barb was  still ignoring me. I could tell she wasn't really mad, just having a bit  of fun with me. I wouldn't have been shocked to know she was watching  Brynn's ass too.

Lake  Michigan was surprisingly smooth this early in the morning, though the  lack of rain or wind probably helped. But in some ways the predawn gloom  was even creepier for the absolute lack of any movement but our own  forward momentum.  Having been to the ocean a few times and a few lakes I  had expected maybe a few miles on one of the great lakes tops. The  sprawling nature of the water shocked me though. This wasn't a a lake,  this was a fucking sea. I headed into the cabin where Barb and Harry  were sitting to look at the map. We had a while to go before we got  there.

Harry  seemed to notice the look on my face and snickered "Let me guess, you  heard the word lake and figured it was a tiny island a mile across in a  body of water you could see the shore of on either side? Lake Michigan  is three hundred miles long and a hundred plus wide. Twenty two thousand  square miles of fresh water existing in four different states at the  same time." He seemed to genuinely enjoy talking about it, he clearly  loved his home in its entirety and was knowledgeable about the place as  many years here as a private eye.

It  also seemed to calm him down, which Barb and I both noticed and we  began slyly asking him questions related to the lake and Chicago in  general. Turns out being a detective in a city for more than a decade on  top of being a huge research nerd by necessity as a wizard meant Harry  had an even better understanding of the area than I expected. He could  have been a tour guide if he wanted and as we sailed the questions  became tougher trying to stump the wizard. What began as us trying to  distract him turned into a game we were genuinely enjoying. We stayed  away from super obscure stuff but in terms of general knowledge he knew a  shocking amount. I found myself planning to take him to a trivia night  some time.

Finally  though the water grew a bit choppier and the island drew near. Finding  Demonreach had been easier than expected. It wasn't on any maps  normally, but Harry had a leyline map around and finding the confluence  of all the darkest leylines landed us smack in the middle of Lake  Michigan. Knowing the trick to finding the place saved us ages someone  else would have wasted on combing the city for old maps. Stepping out  onto the deck Harry and I took in his island. It was...scary. Like  genuinely terrifying to look at. I felt like I was in a piece of gothic  art.

Harry  had said multiple times in the books that exposure to dark energy or  negative power can give a place a creepy aura, places where bad things  happen became slaughter houses or asylums or even graveyards. Like calls  to like and the worse the energy the worse things happen there, then  that caused even more dark energy and worse things happened there and so  on. To get a completely mortal government to remove an island from the  maps of a lake spanning four separate states whatever happened here must  have been awful. I knew some of it the settlers and the factory who  disappeared from the island, dying slowly as it took them apart. But I  had a feeling even if you removed Merlin's prison from the equation this  island had a much worse history than we knew.

Just  looking at this place I could feel a sense of horrible foreboding and  pure unrelenting hatred. The malice had soaked into this island and I  could feel that it wanted us to suffer. Barb was able to steer us in,  taking us around the rocks slowly and I felt unnervingly like we were  sailing between massive teeth right down the mouth of a hungry monster.  Like we would never come back once we stepped foot on this place. And  this was WITH the protective amulets. No wonder the settlers had all  gone insane. I thanked the gods that Barb's dad had thought teaching his  daughter to steer a police boat in Gotham harbor was a good thirteenth  birthday present.

We  had to pull up directly onto the beach. Harry hadn't built his whats up  dock yet of course and we had no idea if there was another one  somewhere or where it might be. I stepped up onto the railing as we  landed on the beach, looking warily down at the sand. Cinder stepped up  beside me and I could sense the hesitation coming off her. She looked  over at me and nodded "I feel it too. This place is evil. It reminds me a  bit of the Grimmlands, but this is...hungrier. More personal. The  Grimmlands were a waste full of hellish monsters but this place hates  us. Even the ground wants us to suffer." I heard sounds of agreement  from Yang and Barb. Kara remained silent as Harry stepped up next to me.  He looked over at me and with a nod, we both jumped down from the boat.