by Chloe Adler
When he finally allowed me my release, the sounds I made were otherworldly, inhuman. My body bucked and writhed as the warmth and pleasure bubbled up from my core, extending outwards to pulse along my extremities. My orgasm broke the bonds. My arms and legs were free.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Will you help me save Ryder?” I whispered into Jared’s ear.
“I want to,” he whispered back. “But maybe the best way for me to help is to distract Aurelia.”
The voice of reason, not reacting from emotion. “I can’t do it on my own.”
“You don’t have to. Get Chrys, Iphi and your dad to help.”
“I don’t see why any of them would volunteer to go back there for Ryder after they’re finally free.” I shook my head. “Especially not Taylor.”
“I think you’re wrong.” Jared gently pushed a wayward strand of hair from my eyes. “He’s still your dad, Sadie. He’s the man who raised you. You risked your life to save him. And the most compelling reason would be that he wants to see the Scrim vanquished.”
I suspected he was right. From what I knew of my father, he had a strong moral compass. Strong enough to want to save the town from evil and ruin, as well as to protect his family. All of which would be more important to him than vindication.
“Okay,” I said with what sounded like resignation but really was determination.
“I’ll go distract Aurelia, pretend I still think she’s Burgundy, and you slip out.”
“Thank you.” I sat up and threw my arms around him to kiss him. “What happens when she figures it out?”
“By then, hopefully you’ll be far enough away and I’ll have found a way to detain her.”
He winked at me and my stomach churned.
“Are you going to sleep with her? As my mother?”
“I’d need a stiff drink or five to go there, but I’ll do whatever I need to in order to free Ryder and end this madness. If I’m able to, I’ll join you.”
“This is crazy.”
“Maybe, but how is this any crazier than the rest of our lives?”
“Because we could all die.”
“If we let the Scrim stay in power, we’re all going to die anyway, and a lot more people will die too.”
“I know.” I cupped his cheek. It was warm and stubbly. My palm scrubbed against the roughness.
“I love you, Sadie,” he said. My heart squeezed. “You and Burgundy are my family.”
“I love you too, Jared. You’ll always be my male BFF, even after we bring Ryder back.”
He laughed and kissed my cheek. “I’d better be or I’ll fly him into another world and leave him there.”
I hesitantly knocked on the door of the house I’d grown up in. My dad answered and stepped outside. Armageddon snuck out behind him.
“Sadie.” He embraced me, pulling me close.
“Taylor,” I said, blinking to hold back the tears.
He pushed me away, still holding onto my shoulders, and held eye contact. “So we both know now.”
“You didn’t know either?” I looked up at him.
His hands dropped, the look in his eyes sad and distant. He visibly hunched up, his body turning in on itself.
“How did it make you feel?” I asked him.
“Sad. Hurt.” He cupped one hand in the other and brought them both up to his mouth. “I didn’t know she thought so little of me, of what we had. She’s tried to explain that it didn’t have anything to do with me. It was her long lost love. But . . .” His eyes grew dark. “It doesn’t even matter now, not really. She assured me it was a one-time thing and since it produced you . . .” His gaze caught mine. He reached out to touch my face. Softly. So tenderly.
He had been my rock, this man. Someone who had loved me unconditionally when I couldn’t love myself. When my mother had treated me like a virus. But I couldn’t get Chrys’s words out of my head. She’d said them to me so often I had begun to believe them.
“You didn’t leave because I was a horrible child, like Chrys always said, did you? She told me that’s why you left our family. Because of me.”
“Did I ever give you reason to believe that? Treat you unkindly?”
“No, Daddy, never.”
“You may not be my biological child, but you’ll always be my daughter. We’ve always had a bond that ran deeper than . . .”
“The others?” I finished for him and he nodded solemnly.
“I love you so much,” he murmured. “Everything I’ve done has been out of love, to help our family. I told you before, it was me or . . . all of you. What father wouldn’t sacrifice himself for his family?”
Tears pricked my eyes like they were full of open wounds, the salt stinging my already tender flesh. “Thank you, Daddy. I didn’t get to say that before.”
“My thanks is seeing all of you safe. Even your mother. I still love her, despite . . . everything.”
Reaching for his hand, I clasped onto him. “I need your help again. Hopefully for the last time.”
“You want me to help you get your boyfriend back.” He didn’t ask.
I nodded, twisting my hands together. “I was hoping that the four of us—“
“No.” He shook his head. “I won’t let you or the girls go back there.”
“Then what?”
“I’ll go.” He puffed out his chest. The look of determination in his eyes was unmistakable.
“I’ll go and bring your boyfriend . . .?”
“Ryder.”
“I’ll go and bring Ryder back.”
“How can you do that, Dad? You’re not a Signum.”
“You remember the staff I was holding?”
“Yes. What is it?”
“A conductor and amplification tool. Whatever Signum is near, it can pull their powers and amplify them.”
“But how will that help defeat the Scrim? There are no Signum in the cave with him.”
“He is Signum,” my dad said. I looked at him quizzically. “Not the same as ours here in this world but believe me, he qualifies. And Sadie? After this is over . . .”
“Yes?”
“Promise me you’ll go back to school. You’ll study what you’re interested in. Flowers or plants or whatever.”
“Horticulture. Maybe landscaping,” I smiled up at him.
“Yes, that, and also . . . study Latin. Study magic. Don’t let anyone ever try and convince you that you’re not worthy.” He reached out to touch the side of my face. “Or smart. Or strong. Or important.”
“But you’ll be there for all that, Dad.” He looked away as a car pulled up to the house and parked. Katharine and Ryder’s sister emerged.
Taylor walked toward them, hand extended. “Katharine, Octavia.” They each shook his hand in turn and then walked up the drive to where I was standing. “This is Sadie. I don’t think you’ve properly met.”
I put out my hand but they both pulled me in for a group hug.
“Thank you for saving us,” the younger one said. “I’m Ryder’s sister, Octavia.”
She was lovely. Dark skinned like Ryder but not African-American. She looked American Indian and so did Katharine. Octavia’s hair was long and thick, black as ink. It flowed down her back like vines climbing down the broad wall of a tropical forest.
“Thank you for truly caring about him and for your willingness to go back there,” Katharine said, offering a dazzling smile that radiated love.
“We know how much you mean to him,” said Octavia, “and he’s everything to us.”
It seemed surreal, the four of us standing there in front of the house. Armageddon picked that moment to start weaving in and out of the women’s legs, rubbing and purring. Octavia bent down to pet him. He arched his tail up.
“Will you help us?” I asked them.
“We’ll do better,” said Katharine. She pulled the ring off her finger. I cocked my head at her. Why weren’t we using it to teleport us there?
She handed it to Taylor, who glanced at me and then
quickly palmed it.
“What’s that going to do? Why are you giving it to my dad?”
“Your father knows what needs to be done and he’s willing to do it.”
“What does that mean?” My chest constricted.
Octavia put her hand on my shoulder. “It’s the only way,” she said.
“What’s the only way?” I looked between the three of them but I had no idea what they were hiding. My intuition told me that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. I ran to my dad and threw myself on him.
“No, I’m going,” I said into his ear.
He patted me on the back, holding tightly. Then his hand moved to the back of my neck and wrapped around the chain holding my amulet.
“I’m sorry, Sadie,” he whispered as he yanked the chain until it broke.
“Dad, what are you talking about? What are you doing?”
He had let go of me, palming my amulet, and quickly got into the vehicle that Katharine and Octavia had arrived in.
I looked at them, my hands and arms held out in front of me in supplication. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”
They exchanged glances but said nothing. My dad held his hand up and Katharine threw him the keys.
I tried to run to him but he slammed the car door and drove away without looking back.
I turned from one woman to the other. “What just happened? Where is he going?”
“He needs your amulet and either your ring or mine to send the Scrim back to his realm. To banish him. But . . .”
“But what?” I shouted.
The women exchanged looks again.
I put my hands on my hips. “Tell me.”
Octavia sighed. Katharine said nothing.
“Please,” I said looking between them, “I just got him back after twelve years. He’s going to save your son, your brother. I deserve to know.”
“He either has to go with the Scrim or . . .” Octavia paused and wiped her lip. “He may die.”
“What? You just sent my father to his death? What kind of people are you? I thought you cared about us.”
“We do, dear.” Katharine placed her hand on my shoulder but I shrugged it off. “It was his choice,” she said. “He asked us to meet him here so he could do this.”
“I don’t think he was expecting it to happen at this exact moment,” added Octavia, “but . . .”
“It was too perfect of a setup,” I finished.
Katharine winced.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I didn’t know what I was doing exactly but I couldn’t wait at home while my father walked into the lair of a mad beast from another world.
The cave, Octavia finally told me, was located on the hill next to the one the mansion resided on, rising above an apartment complex named the Courtyard. Ryder’s mother and sister had been hesitant to tell me the location because my dad had asked them not to, I later learned. After I pointed out that I could find it with my crystal ball and thus they were just wasting precious time, Octavia had relented. Katharine had stood by because she wanted to see Ryder safe as much as I did.
I parked my scooter among the shrubs, dismounting to look for the entrance. Before me jutted a large stone wall; the only thing missing was a doorway. The sagebrush at my feet was thick and dense, bringing with it a tart fragrance that clung to the air. My fingers traced the stones, following the contours of dark brown crags. Nothing was there that I could see, no entrance. Should I drive back to Ryder’s house and demand that Octavia come here with me? I didn’t have that kind of time.
After a few minutes of searching, I grew desperate.
“Apertus,” I called, throwing my hands toward the rock. Nothing. I tried a few more times, throwing other Latin words and spells at it, but absolutely nothing happened.
I got down on my hands and knees, feeling around the ground. Good thing I had put on jeans. Was there a secret button? A panel? Mugwort was sprouting, tall and majestic. Could it be covering something?
Another few minutes passed. I couldn’t stand aside and do nothing. I felt useless. Going through the mansion entrance would take close to an hour to reach the caves. By Octavia’s estimation, the cave entrance took a mere ten minutes. What choice did I have? As I turned to get back on my scooter, a deep rumbling emanated from inside the mountain, but it was unlike any California quake I’d ever felt. I backed away a safe distance as a hole opened up in the side of the rock.
Hundreds of human zombies poured out. Stumbling, I turned to run. A hand caught my leg and I fell.
“We’re not going to hurt you,” a female voice said.
I scrabbled to get up, a hand on my arm. She was helping me stand.
The other humans flowing out of the gap appeared to be coherent, just scrawny and filthy.
Many were speaking at once. Mostly asking questions. “Where are we?” “What happened?”
The woman who had tripped me and then helped me to stand offered me a wan smile.
“Ms. Bretscher?” I recognized her, though she looked completely different from the neighbor that had lived next door to Aurelia. But familiar mischievous eyes shone through her gaunt face.
“Sadie,” her thin lips twisted into a smile, “call me Sabrina.”
“Sabrina, yes of course. What happened?” I asked her.
“Your father saved us, all of us.” She motioned to the people around her and to those still pouring out of the wall. Wounded. Broken. Bleeding. But alive. “We have to move away from the cave.”
“I’m not leaving him,” I said, making my way toward the outpouring.
She didn’t try to stop me, and in a minute, I lost sight of her. I didn’t care. I cared about my dad and Ryder. They were still in there.
It was almost impossible to get to the opening with so many people in the way, stumbling and running toward me. Finally reaching the spot, I tried to push between the people still surging through the exit, but they kept pushing me back. I fought, screaming and hitting them. I got nowhere. There were too many and the throng was too thick. It took another few minutes before the flow of people thinned and slowed. That’s when I made my break and rushed ahead.
Entering the tunnel without adequate lighting was not ideal. There was dust everywhere, and tiny rocks were being dislodged from the ceiling, tumbling down and hitting me in the head. I ducked low, proceeding forward, one hand on the wall to guide me. People were still escaping, but there was enough room if I stayed close, hugging the wall.
“Ryder!” I called out. “Dad!”
“Quiet,” a familiar young man hissed at me as he passed.
It was Tom, the dark-haired creeper from Chrys’s art class. He raced by without sparing me a second glance, lost in the debris.
A minute later, I was peeking out into the main body of the cave, the area where the Scrim had imprisoned everyone. Dust swirled and choked, clogging the air.
A voice floated up, slightly muffled. “Let him go, you have me.” It was my father. Following the sounds, I turned left and followed a small twisting passage.
“I have you and I have the boy.” The voice of the Scrim rose, higher and louder than that of my father’s.
“You don’t need him.” My father was arguing with the thing? And who was he talking about? Ryder?
“He is my way back. A sacrifice must be made.”
“Then take me,” my father countered.
“You will come back and serve me in Brae. As you have.”
“No, I won’t go back there. I will stay here with my family where I belong.”
A sick, hideous laugh reverberated off the walls of the cavern. I followed that laughter as it shook the earth, and pebbles rained down on me. Ahead was an opening; without thinking, I rushed into it.
“Sadie, no!” my father yelled. They were standing in front of a spinning vortex. The size of four large humans and full of colors, it sparked and glowed. Hauntingly beautiful. I could get lost in it. Reds gave way to magentas, which spun like pinwheels into
purples and then into colors that I had never seen before. Growing up, I’d been told stories of passing from one world to the next through portals. But having never seen one before, I had chalked it up to tall tales.
The Scrim faced me. “Sadie.” Pain seared through my skull as he said my name.
He was holding his staff, the metal symbol burning red and hot. My father’s eyes darted between. He grabbed the staff from the monster, pounded it on the ground three times and called out, “Apertus!” But he had no powers. . .
Then I remembered. That staff. It could borrow the powers of other Signum.
Me.
He’d filched my powers without asking. Then he pushed the monster through the gate. At the last possible second, the Scrim lashed out an arm and snagged my father, pulling him in too.
“I love you. . .” His voice trailed. Eerily haunted.
The look on his face was calm. Acceptance. He let go of the staff part way through the portal and it closed, splintering the wood. No longer glowing red, the metal symbol clattered loudly to the ground.
I ran to the wall they’d disappeared through, pressing my hands to it, then pounding on it. “Apertus!” I screamed at it. The broken staff. I kicked it with the toe of my shoe before bending to touch it. It wasn’t hot, so I picked it up and pounded it against the wall. “Open. Apertus!” I yelled over and over again, trying every configuration with the words and the symbol. I tried for a long time before finally realizing I was powerless to change what happened.
Tucking the symbol into the front of my dress, I hung my head. I wanted to sit down. To rest for a moment. To mourn my father. Process what had happened. But now was not the time, so I retreated, following the passageway back.
As I wound my way back to the main cavern again, Ryder called my name, almost too quietly.
“Ryder?” I recognized his voice in its anguish. I entered the main room. He was lying on a slab in the moat, bound and bleeding.
“What’s going on?” I ran to him and tugged on the ropes but they held fast.
“I’m the sacrifice,” he said wryly. “Must have been his plan all along.”
“What plan? What sacrifice? What are you talking about?”