by Joshua Khan
Hades nudged him. Thorn rubbed the big monster’s chin. “I won’t leave you, don’t worry.”
Hades pushed him harder. He struggled to beat his wings.
“Stop it! You’re only making it worse!”
Hades glared at him. The beast rose up straight until he was higher than Thorn, and he spread out his wings. The moonlight shone down on the giant bat, and the blood glistened like Lily’s black diamonds. Hades gazed up at the moon and opened his mouth, his fangs shining silver bright in the cold ghost light.
“You won’t make it,” Thorn said, his voice catching in his throat.
Hades roared his defiance. The trees shook as birds and bats fled in terror, and a deer bolted from the undergrowth. Far out, in the deepest of the woods, a wolf howled.
Hades peered down at Thorn, his eyes blazing with a terrible fire, a fire that would burn like an inferno before it went out.
Thorn kissed the bat’s bloody cheek.
He climbed back on, and they rose into the night sky one last time.
It was as simple as walking through a door. One moment, Lily was in the courtyard, the next she stood…
Elsewhere.
“Where are we?” asked Gabriel, his fingers achingly tight around hers.
“The Twilight. The place of restless spirits.” Lily looked around. No one living had visited it in a hundred years. “It was the only way we could escape.”
Gabriel gasped. “You used magic?”
“Jealous?”
A black sun shone in cracked sky. Its rays fell not on stone or rock, but on dreams and nightmares.
“The sky’s broken.” Gabriel stared into it, awestruck. In the brittle gaps cold, sparkling lights stirred and blinked. “What are they?”
Lily pulled him along. “We don’t want to find out.”
Walls of twisted misery stood beside streets of sighing wishes. Lily trod on pebbles cast by unhappiness and felt the farewell kisses upon her soles.
“How do we get out of here?” said Gabriel.
“Hush. I’m trying to think.”
“We’re lost.”
There was a mournful wind. But she thought she could hear something else. “Shh.”
Gabriel jerked his head up. “I hear it, too.”
Something moved among the stones of sadness on the uneven, rubble-strewn ground. Something small and bouncing. And yapping.
“Custard?”
The puppy barked as he bounded toward them. One more spring and he was in Lily’s arms, licking her face. In the living world, he’d appeared as insubstantial as smoke when Lily had conjured him. But here, in the Twilight, he was as solid as any living creature.
“Good boy, good boy.” She laughed and gave him a huge squeeze.
“Is that your dog?” said Gabriel. “But he…died.”
Custard noticed Gabriel and growled.
“I know, Custard. I had to bring him along,” said Lily. “But I need you to be nice.”
Custard looked at her, his big eyes shining. He yapped a question.
“I said, be nice. Gabriel needs our help.” She put him down. “Do you know the way out?”
Custard chased his tail.
“No. The way out.”
He darted back and forth, wanting her to play.
“Another time, Custard. The way out.”
“This is so useless,” snapped Gabriel. “Here, let me do it.”
“You touch my dog, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”
Gabriel scowled. “Fine. You deal with the mangy mutt.”
Custard flattened his ears and growled.
“Yes, Custard. He’s a very, very naughty boy.” Lily held the puppy’s face. “Now, pay attention. Show us how to get out of here. Right now.”
Custard barked and set off.
“Follow him,” said Lily.
“Are you serious?”
“Got any better ideas?”
Gabriel didn’t say anything more. His eyes widened as he stared ahead of them.
They were faint, but Lily spied the uncertain outlines of figures moving in the distance.
Who were they? She wanted to shout out, but something constricted her throat. Fear.
They came closer. Dozens of them.
Gabriel stifled a scream.
“Specters,” she whispered.
The bitterest of spirits. Specters were the remnants of all misery, despair, and sorrow. They’d coalesced out of every foul memory of those who’d died unhappy and every dream of those with lives unfulfilled. There were plenty.
Custard barked. He darted in among them, snarling and biting. One lashed out and swept the puppy away.
“Custard!” Lily shouted.
The specters surrounded them on all sides.
She tried to back away, but it was too late.
They caressed her with icy fingers. The chill sank through Lily’s skin and into her bones, deep into her soul.
Her world was cold and brittle. As it had always been.
The unwanted daughter.
The unwanted ruler.
The unwanted.
It was all the coldness of her childhood. Every loneliness. Every unloved moment.
“What do you want from me?” Lily screamed at them. Tears froze on her cheeks as she felt their dreadful despair.
Gabriel sank to his knees.
She could leave him behind. They’d take what they wanted from him and maybe she could escape.
No. She wouldn’t abandon the living in this place. Not even Gabriel.
The thought cleared her head. She put her hands under his arms and lifted him, and they pushed their way through the wall of phantoms.
A hill rose up before them, and at its summit stood a shimmering doorway.
The way out. It was a simple matter of putting one foot in front of the other for another hundred paces. Custard joined her and wagged his tail with excitement.
A sea of specters followed right behind. She could tell they sensed her plan and were angry. Their anger seemed to renew their strength.
Hands grabbed her sleeves. One after another held on to Gabriel. The boy stared at her, terrified, suddenly aware of what was happening.
“Let him go!” Lily screamed. The doorway waited just yards ahead. Through it the night sky, shining with stars. She could feel a breeze.
They were almost out!
The specters doubled their attacks. They piled onto Gabriel’s back, dragging him to his knees. They clutched at Lily’s arms and legs and tore at her face.
There are too many!
Inch by inch, they wore her down.
Custard pulled at the Mantle of Sorrows, trying to drag her along.
“Get back,” Lily muttered, barely able to speak. She tried to fend them off, but she was too weak; she couldn’t even raise her arm. She knelt down beside Gabriel.
She wanted to close her eyes and sleep. Just drift off. It wouldn’t matter. Nothing mattered now.
Yes, just close my eyes.
Her eyelids drooped.
All strength fell away.
“Please,” she whispered as her life faded. “I never said good-bye.”
To Mary, Old Colm, Wade, and others. It was hard to remember the names. K’leef…Thorn.
And three most of all.
Dante.
Mother.
Father.
“I never said good-bye.”
Fingers wrapped around hers. They were firm, strong, and steady. “Stand up, Lily.”
It was a gentle command, but Lily obeyed. She stood.
The specters cringed. They retreated.
Lily couldn’t see through her icy tears, but someone had taken hold of her hand.
“I…I need to get Gabriel,” she said, grasping the Solar heir roughly by his collar.
Lily willed her leaden legs to move, just another few more feet, dragging Gabriel along.
The specters howled and her ears were flooded by the most hideous, evil screams—and that
gave Lily the strength for a last surge. She dove toward the starlit doorway.
The darkness ripped with the sound of tearing steel as Lily and Gabriel broke through. They both collapsed face-first into the grass, Gabriel unconscious, and Lily sobbing. Her fingers raked the earth.
She’d done it. She’d walked out of the Twilight and back into the real, living world.
They lay among tombs. To Lily’s right was a statue of a skeleton in court robes. Custard—more ephemeral now—bounded in and out among the gravestones, his little voice howling.
They were in the City of Silence.
Thank the Six.
“Lily…”
She looked up and saw a man before her.
It can’t be.
His face was elegant, his eyes as gray as hers. His clothes were black, but he was no living thing. He smiled. “Lily. I’ve missed you.”
Lily choked. She stared at him, her heart thundering. “Father?”
“We don’t have long,” said Iblis Shadow.
“Father, please don’t leave me.”
He smiled. “Never.”
Lily tried to hug him, but there was nothing there. Her arms went through him and he disappeared to re-form a few feet away. It wasn’t fair, to see him but not be able to hold him.
“I’m sorry, Father,” said Lily. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I should have been with you.”
Her father shook his head, smiling faintly. “I thank the Six you weren’t.”
“I could have done something. I could have saved you, somehow.”
“You must look to saving yourself. That is what matters now.”
“I want to see you all,” said Lily. “Where is Dante?”
“They are here, too, Lily. Your mother and brother. They always will be. This is our home.”
“Why can’t I see them?”
“You don’t need to. Can’t you feel them, in your heart?”
“My heart aches, Father.”
“Because it is so full. That is no bad thing, Lily.”
Lily couldn’t stop her tears.
Just then, the shadows began to shake. The deep blackness in the doorways of the tombs trembled.
“Pan has entered the Twilight,” said Father. “He is searching for you. He’ll be here soon.”
“Can’t you stop him?”
“He wears the Mask of Astaroth, lord of the undead. I am bound to do his bidding now. It’ll be up to you.”
“Me? I don’t have that power.”
“You entered the Twilight. You communicated with the spirit of Rose. You called me from the lands of the dead. Your blood is blackest of all, Lily.”
“I…I don’t even know where to start,” she said.
“You start now, daughter.”
“Begone, foul spirit!” someone shouted from behind her. “By the Prince of Light I command you!”
Er…what?
Gabriel stood facing her father, his right palm up. “I said, begone! Return to that pit that spawned you!”
Gabriel’s hand glowed—a little. Sweat dripped off his face.
“Will you stop that?” Lily knocked his hand down. “And who are you calling ‘foul spirit’? That’s my father you’re talking about!”
“But he’s a fiend from the outer darkness!” Gabriel extended his hand again. “Begone! By the power of the Prince of Light, begone!”
“Stop it, Gabriel! I’m really starting to regret saving you!”
The darkness within the broken doorway of a mausoleum pulsed and a desperate, hideous keening erupted forth. A chill wind, the wind of death and horror, blasted out.
Lily’s Mantle of Sorrows fluttered.
“Prepare yourself,” said her father. “Pan comes.”
Specters spewed out of every dark hole.
They crept from the empty doorways of the tombs. They crawled through the moon shadows of the gravestones and slithered out from under the moss-stained statues.
Here in the living world, the specters struggled to maintain their solid forms and instead were a seething, oily mass of limbs and snarling faces. A bone-chilling wind surrounded them, and the grass shriveled beneath their feet.
“It’s hero time, Gabriel. Banish them.” Lily backed away.
“I want my daddy,” said Gabriel. He crawled behind the nearest tombstone.
Yes, now would be the perfect moment for a last-minute rescue. Duke Solar at the head of his paladins. Or Tyburn. Or faithful Baron Sable and his sons. She’d settle for Old Colm and his big stick.
But there was no one but them.
A loud, metallic shriek rose over the hissing crowd of specters. A hole tore open in the air.
Pan stepped out of the Twilight.
Smoky darkness surrounded him. The mask seemed to suck in all light, making the eye holes darker and deeper than anything Lily had ever seen. It was as if she was staring into the night sky at the end of time, when the last star had burned out.
“Sweet niece,” hissed Pan. “Waiting for me in the City of Silence. How considerate.”
Lily’s father moved between her and Pan’s mob of spirits. “Brother, what has happened to you?”
“Step aside, Iblis. My business with you is over.”
“Aren’t your hands bloody enough? Leave her be, Pan. Find some pity in your heart. Lily has done nothing to you.”
“She is in my way, just as you were. It is my destiny to make Gehenna great again,” said Pan. “Now step aside. Or do you think I cannot hurt you any further?”
Pan held out his hand, then twisted it into a fist.
Iblis cried out. He sank to his knees and started to fade.
“Father!” She couldn’t lose him again! “Stop! You’re hurting him!”
An evil laugh fell from Pan’s lips. “Look to your own pain, Lily.”
Lily felt a wave of heat and leaped aside. Black flames ripped across the ground and smashed against the tombstone right behind her. The stone melted like wax, revealing a cowering Gabriel.
Lily scrambled to her feet. “Run!”
Gabriel pushed his way ahead of her.
Pan laughed. “Find her, my slaves. Find her and kill her!”
A thousand spectral voices roared across the City of Silence.
“I’m going to die,” Gabriel sobbed. His face was wet with tears, and his nose dripped with trails of snot.
“I’ll kill you myself if you don’t shut up,” said Lily as they huddled behind a tall mausoleum. “Now wipe your nose and get on with the task at hand.”
He took the corner of the Mantle of Sorrows and blew.
Lily gritted her teeth. But she had bigger problems. She tried to take control of her own rising panic, and think.
Could she reenter the Twilight and sneak back into Castle Gloom?
No. That’s exactly what Pan would expect her to do. He’d have specters waiting for her there, too.
Endless walls of black fire surrounded them. Smoke covered the City. Pan was burning everything. It didn’t stop his ghostly minions, of course.
Think, Lily. Think!
“I can’t stand it anymore!” said Gabriel. He jumped out into the open. “Help! Help!”
“Shut up!” Lily hissed. “They’ll find us!”
“Help! Help! Someone please help me!” He waved his arms frantically. “Help!”
Specters bounded toward him through the flames. They scuttled over the roofs of mausoleums like spiders, all jagged limbs and skull-bare faces. They grabbed Gabriel in their claws, hoisted him aloft, and dragged him away.
The flames thickened and drew closer. Lily glared at the figure on the other side of the wall of fire. Pan.
“Coward!” Lily screamed. “Coward! Why don’t you come here and finish me yourself?”
The flames vanished, leaving the City of Silence wreathed in smoke.
“Well said, Niece,” said Pan. “You deserve a better death than your father’s.”
“Dante and my mother, too. Or were they too unimporta
nt to count?” Her Mantle of Sorrows shimmered. It fluttered and the black stirred like oil on water. Lily blinked her tears away. “They loved you, Uncle. I loved you. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“How many times have I told you, Lily? A ruler can have no friends. No favorites. You must be willing to sacrifice anything, anyone, if you want to rule.”
Ash filled the air. That was Pan’s kingdom. Just ash.
“Can you feel it, Lily?” Pan held out his hand, fingers gently caressing the space between them.
Lily gasped. The pain in her chest was crippling. Her blood pounded in her head.
The specters crept closer. Their chill coated the ground with frost and Lily’s feeble breath came out as a white cloud.
The spirits touched her, and the ice of their emptiness sank into her again, turning Lily so cold she felt her blood begin to freeze. Her skin turned blue.
How could she beat them? There were too many.
Send them back into the darkness.
She was a Shadow; what else was that but pure darkness?
Lily reached out and dragged patches of shadow and dark spots into the folds of the Mantle of Sorrow. It was hard, and the effort burned her fingers, not from the heat, but from the cold. Still she pulled.
The specters snarled. They hesitated.
Pan urged the spirits forward. “What are you waiting for? Finish her!”
Lily drew her cloak around her. To her amazement, it dripped darkness that crept along the ground. The shadows searched, trapping any specter they came across. Lily was like a fisherman; her shadows were her nets.
The folds of the mantle drew in the ensnared specters and they were consumed. Their howls of pain echoed in her cloak as if it were a gateway to some unfathomable eternity.
“Finish her!” ordered Pan again.
Lily stood up. The darkness surrounded her, but she wasn’t afraid. She’d never been afraid of the dark.
The spirits screamed. Some turned and fled, scuttling over the smoldering ruins on their hands and feet. But wherever they trod, the mantle’s shadows took them, dragging them, flailing, howling, into the forever.
Pan thrust his finger at her. “Finish her!”
The remaining specters, knowing they could not escape, turned to face her. There were dozens, all foul and deadly, and they started toward her, slowly at first, then faster and faster as they charged.