CHAPTER 125

The doll shook her head.

"I'm glad I've got one person who believes in me." He patted her head and resumed his studies. In a couple of hours, he would go check on Tink, and then this afternoon was supposed to be his turn with Quetzalli. He rubbed his wrist, thinking of the nasty shock she had accidentally given him a couple days back. She had asked him to show her how to throw a ball, and in the process of teaching her, she had zapped him from five feet away. Apparently, the movement required for throwing was all it took for her to unleash a nasty discharge, and he was grateful that his sixth sense had him crouching on the ground to minimize the damage.

He was about ready to move on when he heard a knock on the door. When he looked up, he saw Yuki standing there.

"Hey," he said, then stopped.

She was holding a dark, ornate key in her left hand, and when she lifted it into the light, he could see thin, golden lines spread throughout the metal.

"Is that really it?" he asked. "The key? It's fixed?"

She nodded. "Finished it this morning and thought you'd be gung ho to go check things out, so she had me wait to give it to you until I was rested up. Wanna go see what's on the other side of that gate? I figure we can take a quick peek and be back by dinner."

"I'm in. Hold on."

He picked Jenny up and took her back to the front room, where her doll house was. After he set her inside, he ran to the front yard and gave the sundial a twist, then went back inside and opened the closet by the front door. Inside was a backpack full of emergency supplies that he had packed earlier in the week, in case something went wrong on the other side. He didn't want a repeat of the faerie realm incident.

Yuki waited for him by the back door, and they walked into the backyard together. A week spent waiting and researching was about to come to fruition, and It was hard to keep the spring out of his step. When Naia spotted him, she smiled.

"Is the key fixed?" she asked.

"It is." He looked around. "We're only planning on going in and looking around."

"Isn't that what happened with the wardrobe?" she asked, then crossed her arms. Yuki coughed and turned away.

Mike frowned. Naia had a point. "Should I wait for someone else to come with me, then?"

Naia shrugged. "It's your call, lover. But you know something nasty is waiting for you on the other side of that door. You should at least have a way to call for help if you need it."

"That should be doable," said Yuki. She summoned a tiny white light in her hands and sent it out. "That will find Daisy, and she will come. It's how I would summon her from the tower. I think taking the others might not be a good idea if we're trying to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. I can keep an eye on you, but not on everyone else. If we run into trouble, we can come running back."

Mike sighed. He could potentially take some of the others, but Yuki was right. If they were just popping in for a look, it wouldn't do to try and keep track of everyone else, especially if they had to run for it. If the Underworld gobbled him up, then at least the others would be around to protect the house until he returned.

Besides, he was going to have to step into the unknown at some point. Was there any way to truly be prepared?

"Yeah, let's head in once Daisy is here." He looked at Yuki. "Are you ready?"

She smirked and held up a handful of tarot cards. "Unless you want to give me a couple decades to prep the rest of these, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

The sundial was freshly turned, giving him twenty-four hours. Up on the roof, he could see Abella watching them. He waved and she gave him a thumbs up. He wondered if he should bring her, too, but thought again about what Yuki said.

"Let's do this, then." He cracked his knuckles and walked to the gate. He grabbed the padlock, the metal cold to the touch. He heard Yuki come up from behind him, and he held out his hand. Today would be one more step toward getting Cecilia back, and he felt like there should be far more fanfare involved with stepping into the Underworld itself.

Sadly, this was real life, not a movie. "Key?" he asked.

"Still waiting on Daisy," Yuki reminded him.

"Right." He let go of the padlock and tried not to look too sheepish. It was another ten minutes before the little ball of yellow light came around the corner of the house, and Daisy landed on Yuki's palm.

A quick sign language exchange between the two of them occurred, and then Daisy flew over to Mike and landed on his shoulder. The fairy gave him a playful kiss on the cheek, and he put his hand out for the key.

When Yuki put it in his hand, he felt a chill go through his body. He took the key and slid it into the lock, marveling at how it was such a tight fit. If not for the little lines of gold in the key, he wasn't able to tell where the key ended and the padlock began.

He twisted the key, and the lock opened with a click. He pulled off the padlock and hung it off of a nearby bar, and that's when he heard a loud thump from behind him.