The Wicked Awakening of Anne Merchant

by Joanna Wiebe

  It can only be him, too-beautiful him.

  Dorian Gray is none other than Ben Zin.

  thirty

  IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTY

  VILLICUS FLINGS OPEN THE DOOR TO HIS OFFICE, DIA’S former office. He pushes me in. I stagger in—and stop dead. I can’t believe my eyes.

  Teddy is standing, quivering, trying to look brave on the opposite side of the room. Pilot is next to him. I fix my glare on that little puke of a punk—no, he’s a demon now. Whatever this is, I know Pilot’s behind it. I look for Ben, waiting to see him step out of the shadows. Could he really be Dorian Gray? All this time? But why would he play me? Why me? What could Ben—or Dorian—get out of this?

  If Ben is Dorian, I don’t know how I’ll go on. I pray I’m wrong.

  “Teddy?” I say in disbelief. “Did he catch you?”

  “Shut up,” Villicus commands me as he slams the door. He turns to me and slaps me hard with the back of his hand. I flinch and step back, but I don’t scream. “You ungrateful bitch.”

  He hits me across the face again.

  I hear Teddy gasp.

  Pilot rams his elbow hard into Teddy’s side. “Shut up, you lying bastard.”

  “Pilot!” Villicus warns him to keep it down.

  I could kill Pilot. Did he sell me out again?

  “I gave you everything,” Villicus hollers at me. “I gave you this life. I supported you. And now you repay me by doing this? By taking sides with a vile creature that would have you destroy Dia Voletto?”

  Villicus knows about Teddy. He knows we set out to destroy him. And he knows I’ve already completed half of our mission. Does he know he’s the other half?

  “I ran from Hell to escape you,” I yell at Villicus. My lip is bleeding into my mouth. “And I gave you my followers. I gave you the Seven Sinning Sisters! We were even when I left.”

  “Like hell we were!”

  He shoves me to the ground. I bang my head and wince.

  “Come on, Gia!” he growls, pinning me. “Aren’t you gonna come out and fight me?”

  Holding me in place, Villicus lures Teddy to him. I shake my head, telling Teddy not to do anything Villicus says.

  “And you,” he says to Teddy, “what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “Let her go,” Teddy stammers as he shakes his head. “Please.

  ” He bravely tries to swing his fists at Villicus, but he’s not powerful enough. Villicus thrusts him to the floor like he’s swatting a fly.

  “Anne, I’m so sorry,” Teddy says.

  “I’m going to kill you!” Pilot shouts at Teddy. He’s still halfway across the room. Strangely, he hasn’t moved from his spot.

  “No,” Villicus says, “I think I shall kill her. But first? Teddy.”

  “No!” I cry out.

  I can’t let Teddy die! How many good people will die on my watch? No, this can’t happen. Teddy has sacrificed so many years for the greater good. If I’ve done anything, as myself or Saligia, it’s been for me. I manage to shift Villicus’s face so he’s looking at me again.

  “If anyone should die, Mephisto, it should be me,” I declare.

  I killed Dia Voletto when he only tried to love and protect me. I believed in Ben when he was secretly Dorian all along. I’ve enslaved demons and humans alike, all for Ben, for a lie, a lie I was too blind to see. I’ve left a trail of dead people—people who loved me—in my wake. I should have realized this long ago. It’s all anyone’s ever told me: I don’t belong here. Now I know it’s true.

  “I’m the bad one,” I say.

  Teddy swings his gaze my way and weakly shakes his head. But I’ve already decided. Villicus can kill me instead. With Ben’s secret identity and the betrayal it must be hiding—a betrayal I can’t understand yet, but something bad enough to make Dia and Superbia try to keep me from him—I have little reason to go on anyway.

  “Let me up,” I tell Villicus, “and we can come to an agreement. Just—just don’t kill Teddy. He’s the only good thing in this world.”

  “Anne!” Pilot screams.

  Villicus turns to Pilot and silences him with a look. Literally takes his voice away. I watch Pilot’s mouth move madly, but not a peep comes out.

  “If you want me to kill you instead of killing your precious Teddy, I can’t,” Villicus says, releasing me and standing. “You’re alive in the true world. And, as much as I’d love to kill a mortal with my bare hands, I am forbidden.”

  “I know. But if I were to,” I look around for an idea, “if I could surrender my soul in place of his.”

  “Your soul.”

  “Just let him go. You must want my soul, don’t you? I’ve got a lot of Dia’s followers. They’ll be yours. I’ll be yours. Like…like old times.”

  Villicus holds out his hands to help me up. “You would do that?”

  Pilot waves his arms wildly at me. He’s shaking his head.

  Why doesn’t he budge from that spot?

  Why did Villicus take his voice away?

  “Tell me exactly what exchange you have in mind,” Villicus says as I straighten what little is left of my uniform. My heart’s racing. “I need to hear the words.”

  I can’t stop looking at Pilot.

  Something’s not right about this.

  Voices in my head whisper, Look closer.

  “Miss Merchant?” Villicus urges. “You were saying you would surrender your soul to save Teddy’s life. Can I take that as a promise?”

  I watch Pilot. He’s freaking out.

  “What’s Pilot doing here?” I ask Villicus.

  Relief seems to wash over Pilot’s face. He nods at me.

  “Anne,” Teddy says, “please focus. Don’t let that terrible boy distract you. I—I can’t die. What would happen to your mother’s plan?”

  “Simply say the word, Miss Merchant, and I will take your soul and release Teddy’s.”

  Pilot’s trying to tell me something. He’s been vocal about hating Teddy, but he’s never said why. So why?

  My stare shifts to Teddy. He knows so much about Saligia. He told me everything—who she was, how she longed to destroy Dia, how she once loved Mephisto and only escaped the underworld to escape Dia, not her mentor Mephisto. He told me she wanted to work with him, to help him. He said Gia was his good friend in the underworld.

  But when he read my soul last September, I was completely creeped out by him. If he was reading Gia and they were friends, shouldn’t Gia have, even then, responded well to Teddy? Shouldn’t it have been like my soul was connecting with a soul mate?

  And then Teddy was there in the hospital room. Bringing me back here. As Mephisto wanted. Under the guise that my mom wanted me here. Knowing I couldn’t confirm that story. Knowing he could turn me any which way with the mention of my mom.

  But when I made Scout connect me with him on Battleship Island, he must have known that I could just as easily ask Lance Crenmost to connect me with my mom, and if that had worked, I could have asked her about him, and if he’d been lying, he would have been found out. So he couldn’t have been lying about working with my mom. Which means he’s telling the truth. He must be. Except I didn’t end up connecting with my mom. I couldn’t. Why couldn’t I?

  “Miss Merchant, Teddy’s existence hangs in the balance.”

  What do I absolutely know about Teddy? I trusted him because he mentioned my mom. But could he have simply been saying that to get me back here? For Mephisto? Or—or to kill Dia? Or to offer my soul to free his now? Why would he want that?

  I’ve had so few interactions with Teddy. I can count them almost on one hand. The memories come at me in flashes. Teddy in his tuxedo, looking back at me as we marched up to the dance. He quoted Mephistopheles then. And when we were in the woods after the Scrutiny and he was telling me about my past as Saligia, he said the line, “To define is to limit”—I’m sure of it. That’s a line pulled straight from The Picture of Dorian Gray; I know because Superbia discussed it in class. In fact, during our ta
lk in the woods, Teddy seemed to be quoting someone else several times. Didn’t Superbia teach us that Dorian rarely said anything interesting on his own but rather quoted others? Dorian had no original thought. She then told me…

  “Any artist would be wise to steer clear of Dorian,” I whisper, repeating her warning.

  “Sorry?” Teddy asks.

  Villicus staggers backward. He’s even smiling a little.

  That’s when I know I’m on to something.

  Because I’ve seen that smile before. I saw it when I outsmarted Pilot in Valedictorian Hall. It’s the smile of a proud parent, or someone who considers himself my real father.

  “The truth is written plainly on your face,” I say, turning to Teddy as I recite Superbia’s words, spoken just this morning. “Dorian Gray was beautiful at first, but his true self was miserably ugly. The gruesomeness of his soul was written on every line of his hideous face.”

  Teddy’s jaw tightens.

  He told me once that he’d been beautiful in a previous life. I just didn’t listen.

  “Dia sent you away,” I say to him. “That was how he tried to separate us. I thought Superbia was talking about Ben. I thought he was the beautiful one—” Ben hasn’t betrayed me. I wish I had time to celebrate. “But it was you they were separating me from. My Guardian. The person with absolute influence over my life. My thoughts. My actions. Dia sent you away almost instantly. He loved me enough to do that. He did—he came here to protect me. From you, Teddy. And from someone more powerful than you, more powerful than any of us.”

  I look at Villicus.

  “From you. You and Teddy. Superbia tried to warn me.”

  Villicus scoffs.

  “Why did you silence Pilot?” I ask him.

  But I know why. Pilot called Teddy a lying bastard. Pilot knows. Maybe he’s known all along. He’s hated Teddy. If what Dia said is true—if Pilot couldn’t reveal the plot of a superior demon—then Pilot couldn’t have told me what he knew of Teddy and Mephisto, both of whom rank far higher than he does.

  “Anne,” Teddy says softly, “Superbia filled your head with lies. I told you not to listen to her.”

  “You’re Dorian Gray.”

  “You outrank him, Gia,” Villicus says. “Force him to tell you.”

  But I just stare at Teddy. He doesn’t deny it.

  “What the hell do you want with me?” I ask—just as the door to the office flies open, and Molly tears in.

  thirty-one

  REVELATIONS

  “MISS WATSO!” VILLICUS EXCLAIMS. “LEAVE US!”

  “No,” she utters coldly, securing her glare on him and charging toward us. “You leave her.”

  “Mol—” I begin.

  She slashes through the air, and Villicus drops to his knees. Again, she slashes, and he swings the other way. Teddy dives for the open door, but she holds up her hand, and he stops on the spot.

  “Oh my gosh,” I whisper. Molly’s got some kind of power. “Molly?”

  She throws me a little smile and a shrug. As if that’s that. I’m speechless. I can only stand idiotically and watch while my petite friend, who’s always seemed too bold for one small body, pulls Villicus up to his feet with little more than a glare.

  He growls at her. “Whatever you are, you are unwelcome here. I have dominion over this land.”

  Molly stands, in her uniform, hands on her hips, and stares back at him. “This is not your land,” she says. Her voice is the sound of power. “You traded the Seven Sinning Sisters to Dia Voletto for this island.”

  “I earned it fairly in an exchange. It’s mine, you moronic child.”

  Molly smirks. Before our eyes, she blossoms until she is at least ten feet tall. Her dark hair rolls in waves like the sea down her back. Stunned, I drop to my knees.

  “But, as you can see,” she says, “Dia’s original exchange to secure the island is, contractually, null and void. He failed to properly vivify Molly Watso. The soul that inhabits her body is not hers.”

  “Who are you?” Villicus demands.

  “I took possession of Miss Watso’s physical form.” She throws me a sideways smile. “Don’t worry, Annie. She let me.”

  For a moment, Molly’s glow softens, and I see the face of her spirit. Unless I’m hallucinating, I now know why Lance Crenmost couldn’t connect me with my mom.

  “You should remember me, Mephistopheles,” she says. “I once asked you for a child.”

  All this time, I thought I was talking to Molly.

  But it was my mom.

  Now all of those little lapses in Molly’s memory make sense. Why she didn’t want to fill in her page. Or even talk about what Villicus did to her. It was because she wasn’t there when they happened!

  “Ah, you! Nicolette Merchant,” Villicus scoffs. “Your precious daughter condemned you to die, you realize.”

  Her expression turns stony. “Don’t ever speak of my child.”

  “Mom?” I stammer.

  “I’ll deal with you in a second,” she says to me. I haven’t been in trouble from my mom in so long, I don’t even mind hearing that tone. I’d give anything to hear it again and again for the rest of my life. “Mephistopheles, because Dia Voletto failed to vivify Molly Watso—”

  “A technicality!”

  “—your contract is null and void, and this island returns to the ownership of the Abenaki people.” She uses his own words on him: “A technicality, yes. And a good one. Good-bye.”

  In true Mephistophelian form, Villicus, furious, shoves his heel into the floor, making a long crack. He is about to leap into it when he pauses, looks at me, and opens his mouth to speak. But Molly won’t stand for it; she shoves him, and with a deep cry he disappears.

  Only Teddy and Pilot remain with us.

  Teddy looks mortified.

  Pilot doesn’t look that surprised, actually. With Mephisto gone, Pilot’s voice returns. He’s coughing and trying to catch his breath.

  “Explain yourself,” she commands Teddy.

  “I’m so sorry!”

  “Explain. Your. Actions.”

  “Mephisto wanted the soul of Saligia back,” Teddy says quickly. “That’s your daughter, you know! The girl you think is so perfect she has to be protected. She doesn’t! She’s bad to the core.”

  Molly blinks, and Teddy cowers.

  “I know the truth!” Pilot shouts. He staggers toward us. “I knew all along. We all knew.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask him.

  “I couldn’t, Anne. It involved Mephisto. His rank protected him and kept our lips sealed. But I did try to steer you away from Teddy. You know I did.”

  Pilot explains that the plot to hobble Saligia—to take her legions from her and the love of her life from her—all started before she even left the underworld.

  “Mephisto wanted to knock Gia down to size,” Pilot says. “She was becoming too powerful in the underworld. When she asked to become your daughter, Mrs. Merchant, because she wanted to experience real love—the kind of love that doesn’t exist Downstairs—she gave him her followers. But that wasn’t enough for him.” He glances at me. “He wanted her soul. He wanted her to serve him, which is something she would never have done, not even for her mentor.”

  “You and Mephisto struck a deal,” I spit at Teddy.

  “He’s the deal-maker,” Teddy says, as if that makes everything okay. “When you became a student here, he brought me in. Said if I could get you to surrender your soul to him—so you’d be his again— he’d give me a new life.”

  “Disgusting,” I grumble.

  “Anne, that’s enough,” Molly says.

  “What did Dia have to do with any of this?” I ask Teddy.

  He looks at Molly. “Give me life, and I’ll tell you.”

  She narrows her gaze just a little, and he twists in agony. He begs for mercy. But he refuses to spill the truth without getting something for it.

  That’s when Pilot recites an incantation. At once we
are standing in Valedictorian Hall as it was the night I battled Villicus, the night everything changed for me. Villicus and Teddy—or the memories of them—are standing near the very duct I climbed out of that night, as if they’re real. We can hear them speaking quietly. I glance at Pilot and realize, as I do, that he never told me his power. Now it’s clear: Pilot, the demon now known as Sammie M. Firestone, is gifted with the ability to manifest memories.

  “Miss Merchant knows the truth of her existence,” Teddy says to Villicus.

  “Of her coma? Or of Saligia?”

  “Just her coma.”

  Villicus nods. “It’s only a matter of time.”

  “But what if…”

  “If?”

  “What if we could use this moment to our benefit?”

  “Our benefit? There is no our, Dorian. You are my servant.”

  “Your willing servant, Master. But I’m speaking now of growing your power as never before. Saligia once challenged your power with her legions, but you managed to shift her out of the underworld. Now only one devil compares to you.”

  “Dia Voletto.”

  “Her ex-lover.”

  “Your proposition?”

  “An exchange.”

  “Naturally.”

  “Miss Merchant is on her way here even now,” Teddy says. “I told you I would get her soul for you. But what if I could get you even more?”

  “I’m listening.”

  “What if you were to…let her win tonight? Let yourself be publicly humiliated by her. Let her escape—for a moment. And let Dia Voletto come here to take this school from you. He would rush at the chance to see his beloved Saligia again.”

  “He was the one who encouraged her to leave the underworld. He’d rush to protect her, if anything.”

  “So be it, Master! Bring Dia here. I’ll keep Miss Merchant here with a story that will tug at the very heartstrings that made her so unsuitable for the underworld. I’ll convince her that her purpose here is to destroy Dia. She’ll end his life—he won’t see it coming, not from his great love. You’ll reap the benefits.”