Rector and his demons don’t try to stop me as I head in the direction of the floating orb. Inside is the ball of light. With every step, my body yearns to be closer. Charlie’s soul is like a beacon, calling me to it. I stop when I’m an arm’s length away. My heart pounds against my rib cage, and my back arches involuntarily, pushing me forward. The way my body reacts, it’s like it’s greeting her soul, like they’re old friends. What’s more, her soul itself has pressed against the orb as if it, too, is eager to be reunited.
This time I don’t question things. I touch both palms to the ball, and it bursts like a bubble made of dish soap. As soon as the orb is gone, her soul shoots toward me. The moment it touches my chest, my arms fly open and my head falls back. A crushing sense of rightness consumes me. The demons are gone. Rector isn’t here. And Aspen is safe in her bed.
All that’s left is me and this bliss.
Gently, I touch a hand to my chest, and my knees nearly buckle. With Charlie Cooper’s soul inside me, I am fulfilled. I am whole again.
Before I lose this sense of resolution, I stride toward Aspen. I pull her into a hug. “I understand now that we must all make sacrifices,” I say. “But I will be back for you, Aspen. I’ll return and blow this entire place apart with the strength of God himself to save you.”
Aspen collapses against me and cries into my shoulder.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask her one last time.
“I’m sure,” she whispers. And then, “Come back for me.”
I hold her head in my hands and know this is it—this is where I do the thing I said I wouldn’t ever do. I have to leave Aspen. I put my mouth near her ear so that only she can hear what I say next. “Your father may never know how amazing his daughter is, but I do.”
Aspen covers her face. Then with one hand, she pushes me away. “Go, Dante. Go now.”
I do as she asks. I turn from her—from my friend, my sister—to leave. But not before socking Rector in the stomach one last time. He falls to one knee.
“One day, Rector, it’ll just be you and me,” I say.
Then I run.
As a token of good faith, Rector gives me a thirty-second head start before sending the demons after me.
43
Light
Thirty seconds is longer than I thought Rector would give me. He said he’d let me leave with Charlie’s soul, but Rector is nothing if not a liar. I bet as soon as he ushered Aspen from the room and she was out of earshot, he made the order.
I’m able to move through hell faster without Aspen. I know the ins and outs and which areas to avoid, like the ones leading to Lucille. Though everything in me screams to return to Aspen’s side, I also know I’m lucky that Rector is egotistical enough to want to handle this himself. Because if Lucille knew I was down here, I’d be a human Popsicle by now.
I run faster, but the whistling sounds increase. The demons are slow, but there are so many of them. And once they’re worked into a frenzy, they crawl out of invisible cracks, calling out to one another in their terrible language.
One appears in front of me in the Hall of Mirrors. I am able to spin around it and hurry past. No harm done.
As I near the end of the mirrored room, three demons reach for my legs. The entrance to the bear’s stomach is within sight but still too far away. I fall to the floor when one of the demons grabs ahold of my shin. My heel smashes into its teeth, forcing it to release me.
I’m up, racing toward the throat without looking back. I don’t want to go into the darkness, but I don’t have a choice. So I keep running. I keep running even when the slickness causes my feet to slip. My fingers dig into the fleshy tissue for support, and the bear doesn’t like this. His throat works, the clenched muscles making it hard for me to claw up.
Halfway to the top, a demon lunges on me. I tumble backward. At the last moment, I spot the bear’s tongue and latch on. I dangle over the open throat like a rock climber, the demon clutched onto my ankle. It outweighs me, and there’s no way I can hold on for long. I raise my free leg, and with all my strength, I ram my heel into the demon’s face.
The demon falls. I move toward the bear’s teeth. I zigzag through the spaces between them and almost pierce myself on the tip of his canine. When I land outside the bear’s mouth, the creature snaps at me. He wants his meal back. I roll to the right and spring back up. Then I race toward the stairway where protruding faces will watch my ass retreat to the earth’s surface.
But when I get to the foot of the stairs, I stop cold. On every single step, blocking any possible escape, is a demon. Together, the snapping jaws and warped bodies look like an army. It’s such a devastating sight that I nearly return to the bear and ask him to swallow me back down and keep me in his gut this time. The faces protruding from the walls yell greetings to me, chattering about the demons on their stairs, but I barely hear them.
I’m so close.
Only a few hundred steps stand between remaining in hell and returning Charlie’s soul.
There are too many demons, though. Too many to attempt any kind of plan. Too many to dream of living through this.
As the demons slink toward me, I cover my chest with my palm and close my eyes.
I breathe in.
I breathe out.
I savor the feeling of my lungs expanding, of my heart beating. Every nerve in my body demands an answer to this problem. But I don’t have one. It’s over. When Lucille finds out I’m here, he’ll remove my cuff. And if I’m lucky, I’ll slip into an eternity of nothingness quickly.
It’s sad, really. The end. I’ve fought so hard for life, whether it’s as a human or a collector or a liberator. I just wanted more time. But even I know when the clock is about to stop ticking.
And this is it.
I wish I could kiss Charlie one more time. I wish I could bring her to a nice restaurant for the world’s best crab cakes. I wish I could take her on a Ferris wheel ride just to hear her laugh. I wish I could buy her a Valentine’s Day card and a vase of sunflowers and a beagle puppy she picked out herself.
I wish I could slip an emerald ring onto her beautiful hand.
I wish I could lift the veil from her smiling face and kiss her soft lips and tell the whole world that she is my wife.
I wish I could feel the kick of a child in her stomach and know it is ours.
As the demons slither closer…and closer…I know I will never have these things. But I will settle for this—I will settle for giving my life for Charlie Cooper.
I open my mouth as wide as it will go and release the most bone-rattling battle cry I can summon. Then I call to my wings. They rise from my back like a black sun, the pain filling me up. With Charlie’s name on my tongue, I charge toward the demons.
I am hit and bitten and clawed so many times I lose count. The pain wraps me in a cocoon until it is everything. I hold my own for as long as I can, picking demons at random and taking them to the ground. My wings are a more powerful weapon than I anticipated, but in this closed space it’s difficult to use them.
Still, I fight like a champion. Like someone who might just defeat a horde of devils to save the girl he loves. It’s the worst part—hope. Even when I realize that I’m drowning in demons, that they are crawling over me like fire ants, I still hang onto the idea that I could make it out. I know it’s untrue. I acknowledged as much before I ever launched my attack. But it’s still there, hanging on like a loose tooth.
When a demon bites down on my shoulder, and I feel the joint separate, I know it’s over. A warm current seeps from my chest and into my limbs. It enters my mind and whispers words of reassurance. I will die a final death or suffer for eternity, but either way, it is okay. It is okay because she was mine for a little while.
Inside my head, I send her a message. One I know she’ll never hear. I love you, Charlie. I would have fought a thousand hells for any part of you. My angel.
When I open my eyes, all I see is a swirl of black and yellow, of teet
h and saliva. And I know I’m losing my grip on reality, because between the demons’ bodies, I spot the ghost of the girl I love.
Her shirt is stained with red and her face is shadowed with rage and she doesn’t look like the person I remember.
She looks like an assassin.
Clenched in her palm is a knife. She tosses it to her right hand. “You want me?” she screams.
The demons turn their gruesome heads toward her.
“Come and get me!”
Charlie rushes down the stairs like a militia of angels are at her side. She slices the throat of the first demon she sees and cries out as the red-black blood washes down her hands.
It’s her. It’s truly her.
The sight of Charlie Copper, of my only love, lifts me from my agony. And even though many of my bones are broken and I can hardly see out of my left eye, I climb to my feet. I don’t understand how this is happening, how she’s really here. But I can’t question it for long because the demons are moving toward her too quickly for me to hesitate.
My pulse races as I push past one demon after another. They don’t try and stop me. They’re too curious about this small girl and her glittering knife.
I leap in front of Charlie, wanting so bad to touch her, to make sure she’s flesh and blood. Instead, I launch a new attack. I fight as best I can with my right arm, since my left swings uselessly at my side. With the motivation of keeping Charlie safe behind me, I’m able to hold them back. My girlfriend slashes at demons’ outstretched arms with her blade, and I’m impressed by how viciously she does so.
Despite the odds, Charlie and I are able to take a step toward the surface. And then another. And another. Once again, hope dances in my peripheral vision, just out of reach. But it’s there, and that’s all I care about.
“Charlie, keep moving toward the top.” They’re the first words I’ve been able to speak. I don’t know if she responds; the whistling sound is too loud. I step back and collide into her. A moment later, she moves away. We do this a step at a time, back-to-back. Charlie whips her blade across the few demons farther up the stairs, and I fight the ones below us. We don’t take any out, but we hold them back. And that’s enough.
The faces in the walls watch us retreat. Some seem happy to see our progress, others appear infuriated. We ignore them and keep battling. After what feels like hours, we near the top. Only a few dozen steps remain between us and the world above. It’s then that I realize only one of us is getting out of here—that one of us will have to hold them off while the other flees.
My heart plunges to my feet.
Charlie came here for nothing. I was never going to make it out alive. But seeing her one last time, watching her fight to save me, it reminds me who I’m dying for. It reminds me that this is the way it should be.
“Charlie,” I yell. “When I say ‘go,’ I need you to run past the demons. Don’t stop until you’ve reached the top.”
“I won’t leave you,” she cries, her back still pressed to mine.
Her words make me want to spin around and press my mouth to hers. “You’re not leaving me. I’ll go when you go.”
Charlie doesn’t respond, and I pray she’ll do as I ask.
I grab the closest demon to free the path in front of her. “Run!”
She runs.
She runs for several seconds without looking back. Just as I’d hoped, the demons don’t chase her. Instead, they turn their attention to me.
Good-bye, angel.
Charlie turns. Our eyes meet, and unadulterated sorrow crosses her face.
Then her expression changes. Her eyes widen so that she almost looks crazy, like she’s lost her mind to fear. I shove the demon in front of me aside so I can see her face one last time.
She races toward me.
“No!” I holler. “Keep going!”
But she doesn’t stop. She flies down the stairs like she has wings of her own.
My heart hammers in my chest because I feel it—I feel that something big is about to happen.
Charlie Cooper reaches the demon closest to me and lays her hands on it. She screams so loud, I’m sure my eardrums must burst.
An electric white light forms beneath her palms. “Get back!” she roars.
The demon soars through the air.
It lands a hundred feet below and doesn’t move. The other demons study Charlie for a moment. Then they retreat. They click down the stairs to get away from whatever power just came out of her hands. The faces in the walls pull back one by one and disappear from view. Pop-pop-pop!
I watch the demons’ flight for a split second, my head spinning, then grab Charlie’s hand and scramble upward, out of hell and into the afternoon sky. She gasps when my black wings spread out against the snowy backdrop, a storm of feathers arching over our bodies.
Her eyes roll back in her head.
I catch her when she falls.
44
Kiss You in the Dark
As Charlie sleeps and the Quiet Ones dress my wounds, Valery explains again what happened. Charlie had eavesdropped on Red’s and Max’s discussion about what he needed to get to hell’s entrance. Then she jacked Valery’s credit card and went after me.
I guess there’s a loophole when the men you hire to transport you to hell don’t ask questions.
But I’m still pissed at Max. I don’t believe Charlie was as “crazy in the face” as he describes. Apparently, she jumped off her snowmobile, found the knife, and threatened to kill herself if he didn’t tell her how to find me. Once Charlie descended, he says he called Valery for reinforcements.
Max is my best friend, and he cares about Charlie, but I guess I don’t blame him for not wanting to be tortured for eternity because my girlfriend wanted a joyride in hell.
Valery hasn’t left Max’s side since we’ve been back at the Hive. Though they still aren’t allowed to be married, the way she looks at him says she’s happy that he didn’t enter hell with me or even Charlie, and word on the street is that Big Guy is pleased with the potential Max has shown. This doesn’t resolve Valery’s and Max’s relationship issues, because those two won’t be pleased until they’re allowed to be together entirely. But it’s a start.
Blue hasn’t said a single word to me since I returned, but he did punch me in the face. After Valery told him what Aspen chose to do, and that I left her behind, I expected nothing less. To be honest, I savored the feel of his fist. It felt deserved.
Annabelle has stayed by Charlie’s bed for the two days she’s been asleep. The two of us have grown closer, and she’s been the one to comfort me when I think about Aspen, which is always.
When the Quiet Ones finally inform us that Charlie is waking up, we all rush in to see her—Max, Valery, Kraven, Blue, Annabelle, and me. As soon as her eyes open, I reach for her hand.
She smiles.
My heart splits open.
“They promised me you were okay,” I say, swallowing a lump in my throat.
Charlie glances around, taking in each of our faces. “Where’s Aspen?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, and Blue glares at me. Valery fills her in as Kraven stands in the doorway watching. When Charlie has heard everything, tears stream down her face. It reminds of when we mourned Blue’s death. I can only hope Aspen’s story ends as well.
“It’s my fault she went down there,” Charlie says. “It’s my fault she’s still there.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” Kraven retorts. Then he raises the question no one else dares ask. “Charlie, what happened down there? What happened with your hands?”
She studies them. When her eyes widen, I know she remembers. “I don’t know,” she whispers. “It was like…instinct.”
Kraven nods. But I know he’s just as clueless as the rest of us.
I lean over and kiss Charlie, and even though everyone is watching, it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone in the room but her. When finally our mouths part, I say, “I have something for you.”
Kraven has already explained to me that Charlie’s soul can’t be returned to her body. But it can be turned into heaven. Kraven and I stand close together, and I tell Charlie, “Watch.”
We press our chests together.
Kraven’s face strains.
Nothing happens.
When he hasn’t pulled away after several seconds, I say, “Can we move this along, buddy? I know you like being this close and all, but it’s starting to make me uncomfortable.” Kraven releases me and shakes his head. A chill explodes inside my chest and the floor seems to drop out from beneath me. I know what he’s saying by giving up, but I don’t want to know. “Why are you shaking your head? Take her soul. Take it!”
The liberator glances at Valery, then back at me. “Are you sure you collected her soul?”
“Of course I am,” I say, my tone stiff with panic. “I recognized it right away. It’s like my body knew—” I stop talking and the room spins. Everything suddenly makes sense.
Charlie’s soul isn’t inside of me.
It’s my own.
That’s why Rector let me walk out of there. Now that I work for the other side, Lucille doesn’t really care about keeping my soul. In fact, I bet my soul just lingering down there disgusted him. Maybe he would have kept it out of spite, but once Rector saw an opportunity to get my hopes up and crush them, he took it.
Anger shoots through my limbs. I feel like a ticking time bomb, like I will detonate if I ever hear Rector’s name again. Squeezing my eyes shut, I whisper, “I stole back my own soul. I only thought it was Charlie’s.” My hands clench at my sides. “I’ve ruined it all. Everything. I never should have left Aspen down there.”
“It’s okay, Dante.” Charlie reaches for me. The tilt of her head says she’s devastated about Aspen, but that she’s also relieved that I’m safe.
That makes one of us.
Valery steps forward. “Maybe it was Aspen’s destiny, Dante,” she whispers. “Maybe that’s why she was so important. No other collector or liberator harbors their soul. With your soul back in place, there’s no telling what you can do.” She reaches out to me. “Perhaps you’ll be able to protect Charlie better this way, and that…that’s important.”
The Liberator (A Dante Walker Novel) (Entangled Teen) Page 28