I shook my head. “You were the one watching me,” I declared. “I sent Charles so much information. And he could track me like no one else, with his magic—and with the vial of blood I gave him years ago.” My mind raced; the more I thought about this whole damn mess, the more pieces of the puzzle tumbled into place like a terrifying cascade. “You were the one Juris made a deal with, the one that promised him revenge.”
Juris-Meladoquiel laughed, sending electric needles of pain along my nerves, leaving them raw. “More precisely, I offered him the chance at revenge. I even helped him out at the end…” The humor evaporated in an instant, replaced by an alien intensity as she met my eyes. I couldn’t look away. “But you still overcame.” Her voice was low, hungry, completely dominating Juris’ normal voice. “Not that I was rooting for him, mind you. Bor-ring. Just another mundane, one-dimensional mortal.” She waved her hand dismissively, playfully, never taking her eyes off of me.
Familiar energy, part death, part much more, saturated the air and soaked into me down to the very marrow of my bones. All around me, I could feel the vast, ominous presence barely held at bay, just Next Door.
A familiar presence. Meladoquiel’s presence.
“The ritual was never to bring Lord Nischever over,” I fit the final piece together. “It was to bring you over.”
This time she threw back Juris’ head and laughed; I winced at the sound. Her mirth was corrosive, eroding my will, enticing me to cast aside my morality and join her. I pushed the feeling aside, holding my ground and enduring until it subsided.
“Let’s just say that Juris and I…hijacked it a little,” she finally commented with a smirk. “You won’t believe me, but it’s actually better than the alternative.”
“So—all of this. The pointless sacrifices, hunting and hurting my friends.” I took a deep, unnecessary breath, gathering my will for what was to come. Now that I knew who was really behind this, I had to stop her. No matter the cost. “It’s obvious why Juris did it. But why you? Why does any of it matter to you?”
“Why not?” She shrugged, a very different gesture from Juris’. “It’s fun.”
“No,” I demanded, causing the Ur-demon to blink in surprise. “Don’t feed me that bullshit. Tell me why. Why me, why Charles?”
“Because you’re special.” She stared at me through ink-swollen, borrowed eyes.
I shook my head.
The Ur-demon’s eyes narrowed at my denial, her angry gaze burrowing into me. “Charles could have been the most powerful wizard in his age.” She drew herself up straight, seeming to tower over me despite being limited by Juris’ body. For an instant, I could see her giant, umbral, tentacled form again, an echo of the thing I’d barely escaped from once before. “With my help, he could have ruled the Magisterium, remade it as he liked, and from there reshaped the world.”
Inky lightning flickered between Juris’ eyes for a moment, then they refocused on me. “You could accomplish remarkable deeds as well,” she crooned, her voice slippery, intrusive, insidious. “You have the potential in you to be remembered for great things, too.”
I closed my eyes for a second, trying to shut out her gaze. Reassembling my fraying bits of self, refocusing on me, on my own desires instead of the demon’s. “The only great thing I’m going to be remembered for…” I opened my eyes again, meeting her ink-bleeding orbs. “Is kicking your ass, right here, right now.”
To my surprise, she simply laughed. Not mocking—amused. Delighted. “Oh, Ashley. You’re so cute.” Juris-Meladoquiel took a step forward, flexing her hands into fists. “How? You failed to cast me out before. Charles failed. Even that God of his failed.” The storm and the presence roiled; ink splattered the ground, running freely from stolen hazel eyes. “AND I…I AM STILL HERE.” Thunder boomed, the storm echoing her voice with its own, only quieter. “What makes you think this will go any differently now?” She glanced me over and sniffed. “You don’t even have two shoes.”
I popped my neck, eased my claws from my fingertips. “Well, you won’t be throwing fire around this time.” I managed a smile. “So there’s that. But most importantly? You’re not hiding in the body of one of my few friends. You’re in some asshole that deserves everything he gets.”
“You can’t hurt me. Only my host.”
“Maybe,” I replied. “But let’s see how much of it you feel anyway.”
I tensed as if to leap at her, then stepped through the shadows behind her. Juris-Meladoquiel caught me effortlessly by the throat and slammed me to the ground; as she raised a boot to stomp on my ribs, I drove a knee into the back of her leg, buckling it. The possessed Moroi fell on top of me, dripping ink onto my face, grinning as we struggled. Slowly, she pushed my hands aside, grasping the sides of my skull as if to gradually crush it, while her thumbs searched for my vulnerable eyes. I twisted my head away and grabbed her wrists in return, trying to stem the crushing pressure, drawing liberally from the deathly energy seeping over from Next Door. But it seemed like no matter how much power I drew, she was always slightly stronger.
That was okay though. I already had her where I wanted her.
Tightening my grip, I fixed my eyes on the depths of the park’s treeline and concentrated, drawing at the shadows bridging here and there, then yanking myself sideways toward them.
But nothing happened.
Juris-Meladoquiel blinked down at me, inky eyes amused. I felt bones in my skull creak like the first cracks of a calving glacier as the relentless pressure continued unabated. “Uh-oh, Ashley. I hope this wasn’t a big part of your plan.”
I tried again, and again, but trying to drag Meladoquiel’s stolen body through the shadows was like trying to drag a ship anchor through dirt. She just wouldn’t budge. I gritted my teeth, powering through a twinge of pain in my skull, at the same place Fright had batted me into a parking deck pillar.
Actually, this had been a big part of my plan, and I was starting to get more than a little worried.
“I mean, it’s sweet, I suppose,” the Ur-demon sighed, bearing down on my skull, pinning my legs with her knees and superior strength. “You’re trying to drag me away from your friends so I won’t hurt them or take them over.” I focused my eyes on the distant shadows. I couldn’t shut out her voice, but I shut out everything else: the pain, the ominous creaking of my own skull, the tingles of static in the air, even my fears and my worry over my friends.
I shut it all out and pulled with all my will, grinding my fangs, dragging at Meladoquiel’s heavy anchor as hard as I could.
“To be fair, you’re not a wizard. You’re barely more than a child,” the Ur-demon continued. “How were you to know how stupid this idea was?” Ink sizzled at it hit my face. It stank, like burning acid. I didn’t look up. “Then again, life isn’t fair.” I could hear the overtones of glee in her voice as she bore down, increasing the crushing pressure by drawing more power from Next Door. “I just find it so sad that it won’t—”
I heaved.
“— work.”
For an instant, two shadows became one, and we were elsewhere.
Meladoquiel’s grip slacked as I dragged her sideways into the edge of the trees. I surged to my feet while she was distracted and slung her bodily into the trunk of a pine, showering us with needles as her stolen body rebounded off of it.
And when she bounced back toward me, I skewered her on my claws as I rose, ramming them all the way through Juris’ torso in a bloody burst.
I yanked them out, and she staggered; I stepped to the side and slashed my other claws across her throat, opening it to the pale white of the spine in a robust shower of crimson.
And then I had to stop, my body completely drained.
I fought against the feral hunger pushing away my consciousness, the all-consuming urge to flee and feed as rational thought grew fuzzy and distant. I’d used up too much of my energy dragging Meladoquiel’s body through the shadows, and now the payment was due.
Not here; not now.
>
I drank deep of the nearly endless energy in the air; it wasn’t blood, but it would keep the lights on for the moment. My head cleared, and I refocused on a choking Juris-Meladoquiel, on her knees, shaking, with her neck still gushing blood.
Then I realized; she wasn’t choking.
She was laughing.
“I didn’t think…” Juris’ voice burbled, distorted by the possession and the blood clogging his windpipe. “Sorry; I’m just so very impressed right now.”
With a roar that shook a deluge of pine needles from overhead, I skewered her on my claws again, breaking ribs as I pinned her to the nearest sturdy pine.
She grinned through bloody teeth, her eyes smoky and brimming with ink.
I tore my claws free and kicked her into the tree; with a creak and crack, the upper part of the tree broke and toppled forward, leaving her impaled on the splintered wooden shards of the stump.
Empowered by the energy saturating the air, I snatched the top half of the pine out of the air and hit her with it.
Juris-Meladoquiel bounced off another, thicker pine, stripping a chunk of bark and wood away and leaving it splattered with blood. I heard the sound of bones breaking with each impact as I dropped the unwieldy tree trunk and followed her tumbling flight path.
Only to find the Ur-demon spitting pine needles and rising to her feet.
“Not…bad,” she said, straightening. “Not great, but not bad.” As I watched, Juris’ wounds healed again, accelerated Moroi regeneration sealing them shut, burning away excess blood, resetting bones and repairing ruptured organs.
“How…” I could only stare, transfixed by the agony in the hidden depths of Juris’ eyes as the demoness forced his body back together, not allowing him to die. “You’re supposed to be cast out when—”
“When my host is killed?” She shrugged. “Whatever. You think there are limits to what I can do?” Her borrowed eyes lit up as she grinned, a vicious, inhuman expression stretching Juris’ pale face. “To what I can possess? Unconscious, dead, it doesn't matter.”
“What matters is will.” She locked eyes with me again, and I flinched, but once again I couldn’t look away. “Now, let’s play.”
I stumbled as the world twisted and ran like an oil painting, like it was melting away around me. In its place rose a smoky, stormy realm, a spire of black marble shot through with pulsing bloody veins. A palace of stone and bone, with barbed iron cages and meat hooks, a tortuous garden filled with her screaming prisoners—
Across the terrace, I looked up, finding Juris’ hazel eyes pleading at me from one of the jagged, razor-edged cages, and recoiled.
“No!” I pushed Meladoquiel’s realm away; it flowed sluggishly, reluctantly, clinging to me with oily tentacles as the trees and distant statue reappeared. “I told you—”
“Don’t deny me a third time,” she purred, Juris’ face suddenly inches from mine. “Instead, join me. Listen and obey.” Stolen Moroi power hit me and rolled over me, a tidal wave enhanced by Meladoquiel’s will. And this time, there was no Charles or Rhongomyniad to protect me. The pressure was suffocating; bit by bit Meladoquiel’s Next Door realm crept back in, eating away at my vision and replacing my Home with chunks of hers.
“Do not resist me. You cannot prevail.” It…was hard to argue with her. Who was I, thinking that I could overcome an ancient demon? Even Charles was simply her plaything. She’d used us all like puppets to stage the ritual, and she’d succeeded. But still…
“Submit! Fight me and suffer; join with me…and be REWARDED.” The trees twisted into agonized shapes and faded into the background; between one blink and the next, my familiar smoggy, stormy sky was replaced with an alien one. The notion of a reward sent a surge of strange delight through my veins; I pushed it away though I couldn’t remember why. Something in Her tone called to me, filled me with longing, with the promise of relief…but She repulsed me at the same time. Her words hurt in some inexplicable way, as if they were drilling into something deeper than my mere heart or mind, and leaving raw, torn flesh in their wake.
I squirmed against the barbed chains around my arms, tried to writhe away from Her gaze. She grabbed my chin, digging gentle fingers into the torn flesh along my jawline and forcing me to meet the sea of ink in Her eyes. Juris’ face fell away—who was Juris, again?—and I could finally see Her visage, that outline of an inhumanly feminine face, those overlarge lips and eyes, the damp midnight skin…separated from me by only a thin, umbral veil for my own sanity…
“SURRENDER,” She demanded.
“No,” some part of me whispered. Ink ran, revealing pines and buildings and pathways, but a stubborn film clung to the edges of my vision, a fisheye reflection of her horrifying domain.
I remembered who I was.
Ashley Currigan. A battered dead girl.
A battered, stubborn dead girl, who loved and lived and struggled as best she could. Who’d give anything she could for the few friends she had, and who would let the supernatural assholes that went bump in the night hurt innocent people over her goddamn undead body, because it was the right thing to do, and the only way to live with herself.
And Ca-Lethe Meladoquiel was definitely one of those assholes.
The Ur-demon’s grip tightened on my jaw, threatening to dislocate it. “And things were going so well!” She sighed, a soft breath of wispy acid in my face. I struggled, but it felt almost like I was physically restrained by the ink and visions clinging to my sight. “But if you won’t give in,” I cringed away from the demand in her voice, “then I guess there’s always this thing I found.”
With an adroit flourish, she produced one of the silver stakes from out of Juris’ bloodstained, tattered suit.
I strained, feeling the inky tendrils around my body giving way, but too slowly. With her vise-like grip, she turned my face upward, toward her own, and hoisted the stake. “Now give up,” her voice demanded, “or stay still.” At the words, my body grew heavier than lead as she lined the gleaming spike up with my eye socket. “You don’t want me to miss, do you?”
Tendrils of ink slid away. Juris-Meladoquiel raised the stake in one fist—and paused.
After a second, my eyes followed hers, up and to the side.
To where Fright perched in the lower branches of a nearby pine.
Well shit, I thought.
“How dare you interrupt, creature,” the Ur-demon’s voice was contemptuous. “Can’t you see we were making progress?”
The small Fae tilted his head, studying Juris, his lantern eyes gleaming from the shadows of the tree. “You’re not Juris at all,” he stated, his voice trembling with a note of icy anger. “I see now, I see clearly. You orchestrated this. You deceived me. You used us, used me. Used Lan and let him die.” He rose, still balanced on the branch, claws and sharp teeth bared. “You would have forced us to kill innocents! You have tainted my honor, and the honor of my father and mother.”
“Go away, Faeling.” The ink in Meladoquiel’s eyes boiled, trailing acrid smoke. “Find another place to play.”
Fright winced at her demand, then shrugged it off with a snarl. “I cannot leave now that I have seen the truth concealed amid the lies.”
I ripped free of the ethereal bindings, throwing myself away from the possessed Moroi, the last of the ink streaming reluctantly away as I blinked it from my eyes and vigorously shook my head. “Fright!” I called out to him in desperation. “Run! Get out of here! If you don’t,” I swallowed, “she’ll possess you, like she did Juris.”
The Fae blinked at me, but didn’t move.
I braced myself. It was too late; there was no way Fright could escape Meladoquiel before she possessed him now.
And the thought of a possessed, greatly empowered Fright, with Meladoquiel’s growing supernatural might behind him? That thought truly was a nightmare.
“See what you’ve done?” Juris sighed in the Ur-demon’s silky, caustic voice as the silver stake tumbled from long, pale fingers. “Now she�
�s free, and I’ll have to start all over.” The inky eyes focused on Fright and narrowed. “Now I have a debt to repay you, Faeling.”
They locked eyes for a long moment, and I went completely still, waiting for Juris to collapse like the puppet he was as she took over Fright instead and proceeded to beat me stupid.
Instead, Fright leapt lightly to the path at my side, took my elbow, and helped me to my feet.
“What the fuck,” I croaked.
“I’m helping you,” he explained slowly, blinking those huge pale eyes.
“But how…” I stared between him and Juris’ body. Juris-Meladoquiel rolled his eyes.
“Oh!” Fright smiled, showing way too many teeth for a friendly expression. “She cannot control me and mine.” He puffed out his chest proudly. “The likes of the Eldest Fae are beyond her power; my kind cannot be possessed, even by the greatest of daemons.”
“That’s because ‘your kind’ don’t have souls,” Meladoquiel drawled, waving at him dismissively. “You’re just nature and emotion with a degree of sentience, lacking in free will and self-determination.”
“And you are the cause of my embarrassment and deception and of all of this suffering,” Fright snapped, baring his teeth threateningly. “So allow me to show you my determination.” He moved to surge toward Juris—
—and I grabbed his arm, dragging him to a halt before he could get started.
“Don’t,” I rasped. “She’s trying to bait you. Don’t underestimate her; we’ll have to work together if we want to walk away from this.”
“Oh, Ashley,” Meladoquiel purred, Juris’ face distorted by her alien grin. “I’ll let you walk away any time you want.” She narrowed her inky eyes at Fright. “Not that one, though. That one, I’m going to kill.”
I exchanged a long look with Fright; finally, he nodded. I looked back at Meladoquiel and met her stolen eyes, squared my shoulders, and fell into a fighting stance.
“Then let’s play,” I said.
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