by Kristie Cook
I’d forgotten all about the would-you-rather game the three of us used to play all the time. We’d never played it again after waking from the supposed coma. Now I knew why.
I still didn’t know how we ended up at Shadow Vault Citadel. The world beyond our gate was definitely not the Vault, but somehow it had led us to the supernatural prison. Which meant it had been my fault we landed there from the beginning.
Chapter 23
Because of me, Brielle and I had suffered the atrocities of Shadow Vault Citadel and the Pits within.
As though we watched a movie play out, Sadie, Saoirse, and I observed my experiences at the Vault. I didn’t shy away from these memories. In fact, I was a bit proud of them, handling a really messed up situation the best way I could, learning and growing my own powers while ensuring my sister remained safe. As safe as she could be in such a place, anyway. At least, until that final time in the Pits.
I was slightly drawn out of the memory when I felt a hard squeeze on my hand when the spear drove through Brielle and me . . . even tighter when we both went down in a pool of blood. I could feel Sadie’s grief coming through at the sight of my death.
I had good news for her there: Brielle and I couldn’t be so easily killed. The self-healing magic in our DNA possibly made us indestructible. Not that I wanted to test that theory.
While I hadn’t protected Brielle from the brutality entirely, I was still proud that I’d been able to get us out of there. Though I was paying for it now, I would make the deal with the Shadow king all over again.
“We have a deal,” he said, Tor’s shrouded form in the corner growling something in the black fog, but whatever he said didn’t change anything.
The room filled with the king’s shadowy presence so thoroughly black that I momentarily wondered if I’d ever be able to see again, then suddenly Brielle and I were standing in the center of Ravenbury. We were in the town square, surrounded by homes and businesses, but all I noticed at first was Brielle’s hair—no longer coppery brown but now bluish black. Was mine the same? People emerged from their homes and stared warily at us, having suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Hold on a minute,” someone said. “Are those the Knight twins?”
“Send someone for Alexis and Tristan!” barked Scout, the mayor, as she ran for us. Then my memory blanked out.
The vision returned with me waking in a small room with two twin beds, Brielle sitting up in the other. I sensed Scout nearby and heard my parents outside. Something was going on out there. Something not good, the charge of magic in the air.
This—this was what I’d been avoiding. Consciously anyway. My subconscious knew, had given me enough glimpses of it here and there to know how awful the next several minutes were. I braced myself, fighting the urge to pull out of the memory and stop it all from coming to light.
But I had to do it.
For myself. For the Shadow fae of the Court of Souls. For my family and the people I loved.
And so we watched.
Brielle and I looked at each other, and in an instant, we were outside, blinking against what at first seemed like the bright light of the outdoors. No, wait, it was night. Night in the outside world, with stars and a moon, so much more light than we’d had for all that time while we were in the Vault. But something blocked the moon. Not eclipsing it, though. Something much closer. A dark mist, swirling overhead and closing in on my sister and me before I could see what all the commotion had been with my parents. It sped toward us, then spun around Brielle and me, creating a black tornado, blocking out everything else. Wind raged in my ears, whipping my hair and lashing it against my face.
“No!” my younger self gasped. She didn’t know then that the deal she’d made was with the Shadow king. She didn’t know his name or where he was from. But she was certain now he hadn’t let them go after all. That this was his darkness surrounding them.
I knew better now.
Through breaks in the black fog came the rotting faces of zombies. Younger me blasted magic at them, killing them for good. Next came a pack of demons in their Hellish forms of wings, horns, and mottled skin. I fought them off, too, and I realized now I’d also killed them for good. At least—if they’d even existed. Because what came next . . .
The fog suddenly cleared as fast as it had come, and Brielle and I were in the middle of a deep crater.
We’re back in the Pits, my younger self thought, complete and utter desolation overcoming her. Overcoming me, as I felt it all over again. We didn’t get out! We didn’t fucking get out!
Creatures came from all directions, attacking Brielle and me. Again, my twin fought only enough to keep them at bay, refusing to kill them if she didn’t have to.
“We have to kill them! It’s the only way we live!” I shouted. “I have to!”
And then we were one—my younger self and I as my current observer fell into her body, mind, and soul. We pulled on that dark power, releasing the beast within us who had kept us alive throughout our time at the Vault. She charged outward, exploding from us in a dark fog just as impenetrable as that of the Shadow king’s. Magic burst from me in uncontrollable waves, obliterating everything in its path but my sister and me.
Then there were screams in the distance. The crowd cheering? No, it didn’t quite sound like shouts of encouragement and victory. More like agony and grief.
“Elliana!” a voice called through the darkness still surrounding us but thinning. A familiar voice I’d been longing to hear since that day in the woods. Since she’d left us in that other, shiny world. My mother’s voice. “Brielle! Stop!”
The black fog cleared.
We were not in the Pits. We were not at the Vault at all.
Brielle and I stood side by side, still in the middle of the street in Ravenbury. What remained of it anyway.
The building closest to us was demolished. Another vomited black smoke into the air, flames licking out its windows. People . . . people were everywhere. Many of them prone . . . still . . . lifeless?
“Elli,” Dad called out, a strange edge to his voice. My dad wasn’t afraid of anything, but I swore I heard a tinge of fear as he said my name.
I spun in their direction. But demons surrounded them—hovering over their heads, coming up from behind them. So. Many. Demons.
“No!” I shouted, and I lifted my hand toward them, about to blast them with that demon-ending power.
“NO!” my mother screamed, and I paused, turning to see where she looked next to me. Where my brother suddenly stood, holding Brielle by the head. I watched as he twisted his wrists, then dropped her to the ground, her neck at an unnatural angle. My mouth opened in a scream as he flew at me . . . slammed his hands against the sides of my head . . . and then everything went black once again.
The memory shifted, and we were at the Loft, in the room Brie and I shared. I bolted upright, gasping for air, my eyes wild as my gaze bounced around, taking it all in. My sister still slept, but she’d awake soon, too. This memory I knew well. It was one I hadn’t forgotten. One that hadn’t been taken from me.
“It’s okay,” my mom said, sitting on the floor between our beds. Her warm brown eyes filled with tears before she lunged in and wrapped her arms around me in a hug only a mother could give. “You’re okay now. You’re okay.”
I thought she said it just as much for herself as she did me.
“What do you mean? What happened?” I asked, pulling back with concern. “Aren’t you supposed to be at Amadis Island?”
“You were hit by a powerful curse,” Mom said quietly, studying my face as she pushed a lock of hair out of my eyes. “All three of you. Charleigh wasn’t hit as bad as you and Brielle.”
“What? While we were sleeping?” My eyes squinted with confusion. Who at the Loft would do such a thing? my younger self had wondered. At that time, all I could remember was Brielle convincing Dad to let us go foraging with Charleigh the next day while he and Mom went to Amadis Island for a meeting with thei
r greater council. Then we’d gone to bed to wake up to this.
Mom shook her head. “You two have been in a magically induced coma for a couple of months.”
“What?”
“It seems you and your sister have come into some of your powers, but, unfortunately, most have been repressed. Blossom, Owen, and the other mages did everything they could to . . . to ensure you have some magic to work with. When you’re ready, you can start learning to use it.” She smiled, and at the time, I thought it had been one of pride and love. Now I knew the love was there and perhaps some pride, but I also saw the strain of fear—fear of her own daughter.
As we pulled out of the memory, I couldn’t blame her. She’d seen what I’d done. The town I’d nearly destroyed. The human lives I had taken.
Her own daughter was a monster.
“You’re not a monster,” Sadie said a few minutes later, when I voiced it aloud once our minds had returned to the sitting room.
“You were a young girl who was traumatized,” Saoirse added. “And I wouldn’t doubt the king was messing with your mind when you returned. You only did what anyone else would do in the same circumstance—tried to protect yourself and your loved ones.”
“I killed them,” I whispered as I stared at the flickering candles. “I killed innocent souls.”
Sadie’s hand landed on my knee, squeezing gently. “It’s not like you were trying to.”
“Wasn’t I?”
“I saw a young, fear-filled girl with a deadly power stronger than she knew,” Saoirse said. “A girl who’d experienced things nobody ever should. Of course, you lost control.”
“So badly that my parents felt the need to suppress our magic because I was such a danger to everyone around me.” I understood that now. There had been a spell, all right, that had knocked Brielle and me into a coma and suppressed our powers. But our own parents had been the ones to cast it. Well, not them—they’d had Dorian’s warlock do it—but they’d given the order. I was sure of it now. “Except it didn’t hold.”
Before I could change my mind, I grabbed their hands and dove us into another memory.
We appeared in Misery’s Edge, against the wall of tight living quarters, the single room feeling even smaller because of all the bodies filling it. Dani and I shared an oversized, threadbare chair, and Brielle sat with Mom and Dad on the couch, while Dad and Papa Miguel shared stories in Portuguese. The fragrance of Papa Miguel’s delicious stew filled the air, making my mouth water even now, and music from outside filtered through the flimsy walls. This night—at least, this hour—might have been one of my favorite memories ever.
Until it became my worst.
I’d never found out how the meeting with the mayor had gone. I supposed it didn’t matter now. Maybe if I’d known more then, I could have insisted we leave immediately. Instead, I’d insisted we stay.
Now I could see what I hadn’t then—the strain in Mom’s eyes when she and Dad exchanged a look, probably holding a telepathic conversation at the same time. I could now hear the activity outside, feel a dark energy growing in the center of the market, sense Uncle Owen and Aunt Vanessa and other Amadis guards rushing toward us.
We watched as Mom and Dad flew out the door, ordering Brielle and me to stay put. Of course, I never listened. Papa Miguel’s residence was right across the street from the edge of Market Square, so I only had to step outside to see all the commotion, Brielle right behind me despite her protest. We watched in horror as the mayor grew and transformed into her true major demon self.
“You should not have rejected our offer, Alexis.” Her deep voice boomed, purplish black smoke spewing with each word.
“Did you really think I didn’t know, Shamara?” Mom asked before she launched into the air. “You cannot have my daughters!”
Chaos erupted as Mom shot her power at the enormous demon and Shamara fought back. People screamed and ran for cover from falling debris. Others—Mom’s people—ran the opposite way, straight toward the center of the action.
“We didn’t come alone,” Mom said.
“And I have my own army,” Shamara replied. “Half of this town is possessed by my followers.”
Then came the dark purple fog that filled the spaces between buildings, surrounding the demon and our parents until we couldn’t see them anymore. People ran through the streets and alleys, calling for help and shrieking with pain as their possessed loved ones, friends, and neighbors attacked them, trying to devour their souls.
I recalled now the clashing power of light and dark colliding within me, my beast trying to escape her cage, the demon’s energy calling to her, while my angelic powers built, supporting my mother to strengthen her own.
Then I remembered the undulating shape on the roof of the building next to us. The words that filled my mind . . . “Remember me, little shade? We had a deal.”
Dark energy engulfed me, overpowering the light. Then, I thought it had been the demon’s power. Shamara letting it loose. Now I knew differently.
The Shadow king had been there that night.
“You. Cannot. Have. Them!” Mom shouted.
Shamara swung her bus-sized hoof through the flimsy buildings around the market and swiped a claw at my mother who soared to the side, and I could feel her gathering her power. Drawing on the Amadis who’d come with us—Dad, Uncle Owen, Aunt Vanessa, Aunt Sheree, and many others who’d remained outside the walls until now—strengthening her own and preparing to unleash it.
And all I could think, as I saw hundreds of black-eyed humans flooding the area and then Papa Miguel about to attack his own daughter, the girl I thought I could love with all my heart and soul—was that it wasn’t enough. Mom needed to send these evil creatures back to where they belonged, and I didn’t know if she had the power to do it. Not this many.
A new energy grew within me, traveling through my veins and into every cell—I’d thought at the time that had been Mom pulling on my Amadis power, but I knew differently now. It was foreign yet familiar. Dark and powerful and lovely at the same time. Exactly what she needed, I’d thought then. Gathering it within me, I formed a ball of the intense energy and grew it until I couldn’t hold it any longer.
“Do it now or your sister, your family, everyone you love is mine,” that voice—all too familiar now—ordered.
I thought then that I had pushed my power to my mother, feeding her everything that I could. Just wanting, like her, to rid this town of their demon infestation. To keep my sister and me and all of the humans here safe.
But that wasn’t the case. I’d blacked out then, but now I knew better. Now I knew that crossing dimensions hadn’t been what broke the spell repressing my and Brielle’s powers.
Now I knew it had been the Shadow king all along.
And when that bright light burst from my mother, turning her form into an angelic silhouette, my own beast exploded from me.
The blast thundered through the air and the town, shaking the buildings and even the ground.
The demon souls didn’t just disappear to Hell only to revitalize themselves. They were truly ended—for good.
Except the purple demon-bitch, who exploded into thousands of ravens and took to the sky, disappearing somewhere among the stars. Saving herself.
And all around us, bodies dropped. Dozens of them. Hundreds. I would never forget the sight.
Screams came from every which way, echoing each other into a dreadful song of angst and sorrow.
Directly behind me, though, came the loudest. I would never forget the sound:
Dani’s sobs as Papa Miguel fell in her arms, dead.
Chapter 24
“I killed Papa Miguel,” I whispered.
As we came out of the memory and returned to the sitting room in the Court of Souls, I swiped at my face and was surprised to find it wet with tears. I’d had it all wrong. I’d been solely blaming my mother for the death of Dani’s father all this time.
“How do you figure?” Saoirse asked.
“That was my power, not my mother’s. I didn’t know it then. I didn’t even know I had that kind of power.”
“Still, the demon killed her father when it possessed him. There was nothing of him left. You know that, Elliana,” Saoirse said.
My brows scrunched together, and my lips turned down. I did know that, in my brain. But the image of Papa Miguel’s body in Dani’s arms. The scream that had echoed in my ears all this time . . .
“Are you sure it was even your power?” Sadie asked. “I thought it was suppressed.”
I nodded. “My mom is powerful, but she can’t destroy demons. She can only return them to Hell. I can destroy them completely. According to Tor, anyway. But yeah, Brie and I thought crossing dimensions had released our powers, but apparently not.”
Saoirse rose to her feet and crossed over to the bar to pour three glasses of faerie wine. “Seeing it for myself now, it is obvious King Caellach broke that spell. Having your powers suppressed doesn’t serve his purposes all that well, now does it?”
“I thought he never went to the Earthly realm,” I said, watching her from the floor, no energy to move myself.
She came back over and handed each of us a glass. “For you, Elliana, it appears he will do whatever it takes. It seems your people stripped you right out of his grimy hands when they took you away. And if it makes you feel any better, Tor said it took the king quite a while to recover. You’d almost taken him out, too.”
“Too bad I failed,” I said bitterly before sipping on the wine. I hadn’t realized how chilled I’d been until its warmth slid down my throat and spread over my skin. “He did say he’d been looking for me.”
Saoirse sat back down, and I realized she’d completely disregarded my circle of protection, breaking it not once but twice. I sighed, silently opening it anyway, because I could hear Aunt Blossom and Charleigh both yelling at me if I didn’t.
“So you can stop now with the guilt,” Sadie said, almost as a command.