His face was troubled. “When the veil opens, many beings will want to break through. Not just the dead. All the gates between the levels of Hell and the various planes of existence will open. Demonolatry is a long-lost art, but some, like Marina, have been waiting for the chance to call out the ancient demons again.”
“From Hell?”
“No, Ava. True demons. Not from Hell. Lucifer’s creations are mere shadows in comparison.”
A blast of warmth hit my body, and I almost rolled over in the air from the force of it. Marina lifted a knife and cut her forearm. She let the blood drip into the black bowl. Next, she cut my wrist, and the blood pumped freely. She collected some then handed the bowl to Eddie.
He searched me for the dagger and used it to cut his hand, adding to the blood in the bowl. He said a few words under his breath and stirred the blood with my dagger. The knife lit up, and he took a deep breath before handing the bowl to Marina.
She tipped the bowl to her lips and drank deeply. The skin around her mouth bubbled when she finished, but she trembled, her eyes flashing with delirious joy.
“I feel it,” she said. “It’s running through me. It’s… I need more.”
“Take it,” Eddie said softly. “Take as much as you need.”
She fell to her knees next to me and took my wrist. I wanted to recoil from her, to fight back, but the invisible hand around my throat kept me frozen. Marina the human witch drank my blood like a vampire, strands of her hair turning fire-engine red before my eyes.
“There’s something special in your blood,” Eddie said. “I haven’t found anything else quite like it. I was lucky to find you. After Carl drank from you, I knew it was one of the missing pieces. Forever changed, he was, and she’ll need all she can get to withstand what’s coming.”
I stared at Marina in horror as she gulped, feeling less in control than I had when the vampires had tortured me or when people my grandmother had paid tried to beat the demons out of me. Before me was true evil, a true monster, prepared to wreak havoc on the world for a little more power.
I didn’t know what true demons were, and I didn’t want to find out. I pushed and pushed, trying to find the smallest chink, the tiniest weak spot, but I might as well have been encased in iron.
Eddie stepped behind Marina, his hands on her shoulders. “Good girl,” he said. “Drink your fill. It’ll all be over soon.”
She slurped greedily, her burn healing before my eyes.
Eddie caught my eye and smiled. “Not to worry, pet.”
Thank God we hadn’t brought everyone with us. But what hope did anybody have when Eddie was unleashing something terrible on the world?
“The book,” he whispered to Marina.
She kept hold of my wrist, pulling my arm over my head to keep drinking as she moved. She reached out for the book, and everything began for real.
The book beat its pages like wings, and energy flowed into Marina. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she dropped my arm to touch the book with both hands. Her fingers seemed to go inside the book then to pull something out. She moaned in ecstasy, never noticing that Eddie had crept up behind her.
He raised his hand, and I saw my dagger. He plunged the knife into Marina’s back. We were all traitors in the end.
A scream wrenched from her lips, and she let go of the book. She slumped to the ground, and when Eddie laid his hand on her forehead, whatever had linked them disappeared back into Eddie.
The barrier slowly lifted, and a voice screamed in my ear as I fell to the ground. Shouts filled the air. I rolled over slowly, weakened by the loss of blood, and watched Eddie pull Marina’s still bleeding body to the little altar he had set up for the book. The witches were dying, one by one, but Carl, Gabe, and Peter had been freed.
They ran toward us but couldn’t get through the souls that Eddie sent their way. The souls had become semi-solid, and they had twisted into demented beings after their years of torture. They clawed at my friends, keeping them away from us.
“Get Esther out of here!” I screamed.
I didn’t wait to see if they ran. I crawled over to Eddie, feeling light-headed. Marina had taken so much blood, and I had already been fatigued.
“What’s happening?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
The sky was darkening, turning black and red. The ground trembled, and some deep instinct urged me to run and hide.
“It’s all coming together. I let her take the power of many, and then I sacrificed her. She was an evil woman, Ava. I couldn’t suffer her to live after the lessons she learned from me.”
“The children—”
“Are fine. I’m channelling their power, that’s all. Maeve?” He glanced around. “Not yet. Soon, though.”
“This isn’t the way, Eddie. You warned me against revenge once. What the hell is this?”
“This is justice.”
“True demons are justice?”
“It was the only way. I needed the power of different worlds.” He dipped my dagger into Marina’s blood and flicked it in every direction as if anointing the earth. He spoke rapidly, calling for Maeve and chanting a spell.
“Eddie, please. We’re all going to die. I saw Lucia’s visions. Nothing good can come from this.”
He shook his head. “I’ll get to see her again. That’s worth any price, Ava.”
He threw blood at the book, and it soaked up the liquid hungrily. The book was truly alive, and it beat its pages as if to say, “More!” The energy had stopped pouring from it, but something bubbled upward from the pages, threatening to break free.
“Here it comes,” he whispered, but he looked unnerved.
I pressed my hand against my wrist, unwilling to give the earth or the book any more blood, but it was too late. The spell was already in motion. Eddie’s plans had already begun, and there was no way I could stop it.
“I’m strong enough to contain the power now,” he said as if to himself. He placed his hand on the book. Streams of light and darkness ran through his fingers and up his arm.
Eddie shrieked, his back arching. He threw out his arms, dagger still in hand. “Maeve! Maeve!”
A path burned its way toward us along the grass. A blank space became a shadow; a shadow became a woman. She reminded me of the painting, but there was a madness in the eyes.
“Maeve?” Eddie spluttered and dropped the dagger.
I kept moving, desperate to do something, anything at all.
They met, and his hands touched the swell of her stomach. “You came back to me,” he said.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she said. “Those who return will never be the same.”
“It’ll be okay,” he said. “It’ll be fine. The baby will—”
“Not a baby any longer,” she said sadly. “That was the price you paid.” The bump twisted as if something fought to get out. Maeve winced. “Our baby is long gone.”
“No,” Eddie said. “It’s our baby. You were right. We should have moved on. I should never have said no. I should have given up on the gods for you. When you died, it was too late, but it’ll be different this time. We can go anywhere, be happy, and—”
“I loved you once,” Maeve said, and she wrapped him in her embrace. Her gaze fell upon the dagger, and she nodded at me.
I clutched it between my fingers and held it up to her, unable to do anything else. I couldn’t stand, and I was still bleeding. I was sure I would die there.
Maeve took the dagger and kissed Eddie once. She looked so young, but she was determined. When she drove the dagger into her stomach, a scream wrenched the air, but it didn’t come from Maeve. Eddie sank to his knees along with her.
“No,” he whispered. “Not this time.”
“Not this time,” she repeated then stabbed him in the heart.
He choked out a sound, his hands shaking. She helped him to lie down in the grass. Blood poured from both of their wounds, feeding the book, somehow giving it strength, even as the scre
ams of a dying power came from Eddie’s body. Wrapped in her arms, Eddie died with the woman he had loved and obsessed over, and Maeve was given peace at last.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Relief ran through me, but … the book. That stupid, living, evil book was rising into the air. Things began to shoot out of it. Spirits, shadows, a whirlwind of power spun around me, malevolent energies that didn’t belong in our world.
“Ava!” Carl yelled. He and Gabe ran toward me.
The chained souls vanished one by one.
“Get out of here,” I cried. “True demons are being freed. The spell was already started. I don’t know how to stop it!”
“It’s the book,” Gabe shouted as deafening winds raged around us. “It’s emptying itself. Something else needs to contain the power to stop it from releasing everything into the atmosphere.”
“Eddie took it after Marina died,” I said. “That means somebody else can take it now, right?”
The wind blew Carl to his knees.
Gabe stumbled backward with the force of the gale. “They were prepared. It’ll kill anyone else. It’s too much!”
I sank my fingers into the dirt to pull myself closer to the book. The force threatened to propel me backward, but I kept going. Whatever was in that book could unleash the worst things on the world. But maybe I could stop it before it destroyed everything.
“You’ll die first,” Gabe warned.
“Ava, no!” Carl yelled.
The wind flung me onto my back. I could barely catch a breath. I struggled to crawl forward. “What’s in that book could kill us all anyway! We can’t let it out!”
I reached the book and touched the pages. I immediately experienced what Marina and Eddie had felt, but I didn’t have a clue how it had been so easy for them.
My eyes saw flames, my skin felt heat, and my brain couldn’t keep up.
I saw worlds I hadn’t known existed. I saw creatures and truths that shouldn’t have been real. I saw and I felt… and I burned. The power was too much, but it was in me, and when I died, it would be lost. I had to last as long as I could to drain as much power out of the book as possible, to stop whatever would come out. Worse things were waiting, deep within the pages. We had seen the lesser demons breaking free; what lurked beneath could never be released.
My face was wet with blood, and my skin turned a smoky colour. I felt words and magic and malice run under the surface, and they squirmed and struggled to find their own space. There was no room for all of it.
I choked on poison and drowned on evil, deafened by voices screaming for escape. Life existed in the book, was trapped in the book. And what had been trapped was running through me for freedom.
Every breath I took felt like fire. I swallowed lava, dying in a hell-like prison. The pain crippled me, and the human shell I was in couldn’t take the power. It burned me away, threatening to stop my heart, and I knew I couldn’t survive.
The power flooded into me without stopping, the book as alive as ever. It would never end. I would die, and the darkness would still hit the world. If I had accepted the terms of Mrs. Yaga’s will, none of this would have happened. Fionnuala would likely be still alive, still in charge, but my friends might have been safe because of my new protection. There was always a price to pay, and it was time for me to pay in full.
I closed my eyes and waited to find out what would happen at the end. A hand held mine, and at first I thought I imagined it. Then, I felt a squeeze, and I knew who it was.
I opened my eyes to see Carl reaching for the book. I tried to pull it away, but the power held, chaining us together. I told Carl to stop, but I couldn’t hear my own voice over the uproar.
Carl looked at me knowingly, his face contorting with pain. Blood spurted from his nose as his eyes turned red. His grip on my hand weakened, and his eyes closed.
I wanted to scream out my anger. I was helpless once again. Unable to move, I squeezed my eyes shut and searched for the light I knew existed within me. Gabe had drawn it out to help Carl once, and I tried to use it again to protect my best friend.
I found our bond strong and unbreakable, but that invisible link kept us together whether we liked it or not. I pushed the last of my strength to Carl, hoping he would let go, but his hands held fast.
The book was suddenly pulled away, and the power stopped flowing. I thought I had done something, and I felt only joyous relief as the sensations eased. I opened my eyes, but Carl wasn’t awake. And the storm still raged.
I looked up to see Gabe standing over me with the book against his chest. I mouthed, “No.”
He smiled at me. “Ars moriendi! Chapter One. Death is nothing to fear.” He winced as the power lashed into him. “I thought I would be your mentor, but I learned the most. Close the veil if you can. Give your life in that way or find somebody else who can do it in your place, but never give this a chance to happen again.”
I tried to nod, but my head barely moved. Gabe took one last look around before closing his eyes. I watched as the power ate him up, burned him to dust. It was slow at first, then quicker as if the power knew he was dying, knew it didn’t have far to go.
The book burned with him. Even the wind seemed to be sucked inward until there was nothing left but scorched grass and a blackened sky.
It was over. The stray power was gone. The book was gone. The spell was done without it, and the tumult in the sky eased, but a huge black cloud hung over the world.
The earth had changed. I could feel it, but the worst was over. The gates had closed again. The veil still needed to be pulled over them.
I tried to move closer to Carl, but my body refused to do what it was told. I reached out for him, tried to feel his presence, but there was nothing. I was empty. Yet the screams of the dying still roared in my ears. I stared up at that black cloud until I saw no more.
***
My eyes flickered open. At first, I saw darkness. I tried to lick my lips, but my tongue was too dry. A face came into my field of vision, and I frowned, confused.
“This one’s awake!”
More voices. Murmurs I couldn’t make out.
“Get out of the way, idiot.” The face was replaced with another. A boy pushed hair out of his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re right. Keep checking on the other one.”
“He won’t make it,” a childish voice said. “Don’t waste your time on him.”
“Just do it,” Noah snapped. “And tell him to hurry.” He gestured for someone to approach.
I closed my eyes, wearier than ever. All I felt was pain, burning pain.
Something cool touched my forehead, and a voice whispered in my ear, “Help’s on its way. Hang on, okay?”
“Hurry up!”
“Don’t shout at him, Noah. He can’t do it if you shout at him.”
“I’ll do more than shout at him. I’ll knock his teeth out. We can’t let everyone die. We’ll get the blame.”
I shook my head. It hurt.
“I can’t!” a young voice whined. “It’s too late.”
“No,” I tried to say.
“What did she say?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Okay, okay. I’m ready. Hold her down. Hold—”
I screamed, and everything turned black again.
***
“Wake up. Ava, wake up, quickly.”
My body was shaking, and the world felt as if it were flying away. I was moving. I was in something that was moving. I opened my eyes, but a pink mist shrouded everything.
Peter’s face came into view. “Wake up,” he urged. “Stop blocking them. They can’t help you otherwise.”
I stared at him blankly. He slapped my cheek then yanked his hand away as if it burned.
I tried to tell him I didn’t understand, but fire flew between us instead. Then I really didn’t understand.
***
I flexed my fingers. The sheet felt cool under my hands. Everything felt cool. That was good.
I had been burning for days. Every time I opened my eyes, I saw fire and felt flames.
I licked my lips, feeling cracked, dry skin.
“Ava?”
I expected to see Peter at my bedside, but Phoenix loomed over me instead. He picked up a cup of water and pressed it to my lips. I drank willingly.
“You’re in the hospital,” he said.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I know.”
“Do you remember?”
“Some.” I closed my eyes, seeing whirlwinds and black skies and a man being burned into nothing.
“Do you want to forget?”
My eyes flew open. I shook my head a little. I couldn’t afford to forget.
“Is Gabe…?”
“Saved the world,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Phoenix said.
“Carl? Es… Esther?”
“No news. Both in serious condition.” He looked grave. “It could go either way.”
“Not fair.”
“Did you kill the witches? And Brogan?”
“No.” I drank more water and felt a little better. “She killed the coven, he killed her, and his wife killed him.”
He looked confused.
“I pitied him. Even at the end, I pitied him.” I choked out a sob.
Phoenix took my hand. His cool skin was somehow calming, dousing the fire still under mine.
“I did nothing,” I said. “I was just there.”
“You lost a lot of blood.”
“She… drank.”
He looked as disgusted as I felt.
“The children saved you,” he said after a moment. “You were dying. All three of you were dying, and they helped.”
“Are the kids okay?”
“Doing well,” he said. “Leah’s been helping me, actually. We won’t find all of their families, but we can help them fit in. The world has changed in a matter of days. The fae want me to take my seat on the Council, to go on as always.”
“And will you?”
He hesitated, staring at my hand in his. “No. I’m here to ask for your help. The newspapers have made you into a hero. The real people’s champion.”