“Ah.” With a wave of her hand, Lilith beckoned one of the faceless demons from the depths of her cloak. It thrashed and gurgled. “There she is. Seems she thinks you’re still alive somewhere. Nothing but Aaron, Aaron, Aaron on the brain. Her whole essence quivers with your name. She’s looking for you right now, in fact.” A smile twisted across Lilith’s face, striking fear into his heart. “Using a spirit board, no less, and on the very shore where Kaemon thinks the box is buried. Looks like fate is on my side after all.”
The demon disappeared within the cloak. With one fluid motion, Lilith swirled it from the floor and back on her shoulders, fixing it with the silver serpent broach. “I can’t cross the veil into the human realm, not yet, so she will need to bring the box to me, and I know just the trick. She would do anything for you. Follow you to the ends of the Earth, to me, to her death. Is it her blood or her tears that will unleash my dark children back into the world and help me cross the veil into the human realm? Either way, I can arrange to make her cry and bleed. And you, my pet, will help me with both. Revenge on two for the price of one.”
“I’ll never help you,” Aaron growled.
Lilith smelled of a coming storm as she approached. Forcing his head up, he straightened his shoulders and met her cold gaze.
“You will.” Grinning, she cupped his cheek. “All she needs is one more small push in your direction. Her mind is open and vulnerable. Do you think Quinn inherited Eve’s proclivity for being manipulated?”
He jerked away and spit in her face.
She laughed as his saliva dripped down her cheek, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. Another twisted smile crept across her lips. She turned up her palm and began another chant.
Electric shocks rocked his body as silver threads of power leapt from her fingers and pierced his skin and into his heart. Every nerve was on fire as she wrapped her dark sorcery around his essence.
“All I need is a little bit of your essence. Just enough to make her think it’s you.” He felt a tug deep in his chest. Lilith’s chants grew louder, and Aaron balled his fists, determined not to give her what she wanted. He lunged for her, twisting his wrists to free himself, but his chains held him tight.
“Stop struggling. You won’t win.” Silver eyes found his, two pools cold as ice, freezing him in place. “Kavash,” she whispered to the control demon around Aaron’s neck. Another shot of fire entered his veins, the creature’s venom dulling his resistance.
“You won’t miss that little part of you.”
Aaron screamed and arched his back as she clawed a tiny piece of his essence from him and drew it from his heart. He slumped forward, head lolling to the side, his manacles the only thing keeping him from falling face first to the ground. A thin thread of gold, a part of his gift, his spirit, hung in the air between them, pulsing with brilliant light. Lilith covered her eyes, shying away from the brightness.
“Just enough of your essence to disguise my own.” Puckering in disgust, she opened her mouth and swallowed the bright piece of him. “You taste awful.” She gagged as her darkness absorbed the light, her skin pulsing with a golden glow. Within seconds, her black curls shortened around her ears. Eyes blinked silver to green, and her striking cold face morphed into that of a boy. Not any boy—Aaron stared into his own face. He smiled at himself, malice dripping from his lips.
“Do you think she will trust that I’m you?” Lilith turned, arms outstretched, showing off the completeness of the transformation, even down to a T-shirt and jeans.
“I will not be your bait.” Aaron rattled his chains, and she laughed.
“You have no choice. I already have what I need from you.” Lilith held up the likeness of his own finger, making a dramatic show of pricking it with the tip of the silver broach that had previously held the shadow cape around her body. Blood dripped from the tip, and she dragged it on the ground, enclosing them both in a circle of dark red.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be reunited with your precious Quinn soon enough. When she hears from your own lips that you’re in my clutches, she’ll find a way to come to the Underworld. And when she does, I might even kill her first and let you watch. I’m sure you’d like to watch, wouldn’t you? Consider it a gift, a thank you for all you’ve done.” Another command to the control collar, and fire ate through his blood.
“I will die before I let you touch her.” Instead of sounding strong and angry, his words came out slurred.
“I’m just giving her what she wants. Where’s the harm in that? I’ll be sure to say hello to your precious Quinn for you.” The mirror of his own Adam’s apple bobbed in her throat. Aaron wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands around it and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze. It was his last thought before another shock of electricity splintered what was left of his mind into a million tiny pieces.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Quinn watched, jaw to chest, as the guitar pick levitated six inches off the board, twisting and spinning as if caught in a whirlwind.
“Please tell me you see this, too.” Marcus didn’t answer. He sat frozen, eyes closed, full lips parted in a half-grin, and hands clasping the board. His usually rich brown skin looked pale and ashen against the cloud-laden sky.
Quinn jerked her hands away, but her body didn’t move with her. Instead, it mirrored Marcus’s, still as a statue, fingers still gripping the board, forehead creased in concentration.
Whoa! So that’s what an out of body experience was. Was she in some sort of trance? Her translucent spirit shimmered ghostlike, somehow connected to, yet separate from, her physical form. Quinn swallowed the panic rising from her stomach. Had she done this, or was it something else entirely? She took three deep, calming breaths and surveyed her surroundings.
It was as if she’d stepped into a sepia-toned photograph. Everything was frozen in time, all but the spirit board. The once ordinary letters adorning the surface radiated a strange, iridescent, glow-stick green, the only color among the reddish-brown landscape.
“Is anyone there who wants to communicate?” She tried to sound confident, in control as she asked, but her voice squeaked.
Letters floated off the board and joined the plectrum in a swirling light show.
“Aaron?”
In answer, the letters mixed and spun until they arranged themselves into a single word.
Quinn.
Her heart became a thunder of hooves within her chest. “Aaron? Is that you?”
Quinn.
Characters flew in and out, pulsing and dimming.
“Where are you? Are you hurt?”
Instead of a direct answer, the letters morphed into strange runes like those on Azrael’s sword. She focused all her attention on them, trying to make sense of what they could mean. What kind of language was it anyway? Sanskrit? Sumerian? She was a teenager, not some expert in linguistics.
“Seriously, how am I supposed to read that? It could say anything for all I know,” Quinn huffed in frustration.
As if by magic, the symbols started to unravel, pulling apart and morphing back into letters she recognized, rearranging themselves into words, faster, a frantic cyclone of glowing green.
When the tears of Eve have turned to blood and her sins have turned to flesh, the key will fall. For love is bound by the power of the Trinity. Their destiny is written by chaos and betrayal and on the first eclipse on the eighteenth year, the voice of the sacrifice will break the lock, restoring darkness unto the light. By this promise, be compelled.
Be compelled.
Be compelled.
Be compelled.
“What does that mean?” Quinn asked.
Seize your destiny.
The letters arched above her head like a comet and dove into a small pool near the river’s edge. She hadn’t remembered seeing that pool before leaving her body. It only seemed to exist in this strange alternate universe. Quinn glanced at her corporeal form still sitting cross-legged with Mar
cus. What would happen if she strayed too far from her body? Surely walking a few yards away wouldn’t hurt anything. Both her body and Marcus would still be within sight. Giving up now wasn’t an option; she had to see this through.
Her heart hammered as she inched down the bank of the river and approached the place where the comet fell. She stood looking down into a hole about three feet in diameter and half as deep.
Myriads of gold, blue, and green shimmered beneath the murky puddle, reminding her of fireflies dancing in a darkened field. She rubbed her chest at the ache the memory evoked. At the bottom, the source of the mysterious light beckoned to her. A box, half-buried in silt, flared bright as the letters, once on the spirit board, now etched into runes along the sides and top. A sense of déjà vu brought a sick feeling in her stomach. A forgotten dream, and something more, something older. Visions of her handing the box to an angel with golden wings flashed before her then vanished just as quickly. This was her box.
Quinn shook her head to clear her mind. Impossible. Yet it wasn’t. She gritted her teeth and dipped a finger into the water. The colors of the runes shifted faster and faster, from green to gold and back to blue. Swallowing her fear, she lowered her hand into the cool water and wrapped her fingers around her destiny.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tingles of electricity coursed up her arm as she pulled the box free. The same runes that had flown through the air now adorned the wood. They blazed bright against her pale skin as she traced them with a finger. A bright flash made her blink, and then the symbols faded, leaving nothing but scorched marks along the sides and the top.
Six inches long and four inches deep, the box looked wooden but had the weight of stone. The sides and top were worn smooth except for the now darkened symbols engraved on the domed top and across the sides. Petrified black with bits of dark mossy green and light gray running with the grain, it looked old, an artifact that should have been displayed behind museum glass instead of at the bottom of the river.
A memory of a forgotten dream fluttered to the surface of her mind. Aaron handing her a box just like this one, an angel with wings the color of molten lava standing against a dark wasteland, a horde of demons at his back. Finding this box on the bank near where Aaron drowned had to be a sign.
“Aaron?” Rubbing her arms against the sudden electrical charge in the atmosphere, she straightened.
The air before her shimmered and thickened as every molecule around her prickled in anticipation. Before falling asleep each night, she imagined what she would say when she came face to face with him again, but as Aaron’s essence manifested into being, her heart held her words captive.
“Quinn. Thank God you’re here.” Two strides, and he closed the gap between them, standing so close she could see the rise and fall of his chest beneath his shirt. Ripped and soiled clothes clung to his pale, thin frame, and his hair hung in long black cords around his ears. Like Quinn, he was a soul outside a solid body, but his spirit took on his earthly form.
“Aaron? Is it really you? Are you okay? What happened to you?” All the questions Quinn had been holding in spilled out at once. “Are you hurt?” What she really wanted to know was, was he dead? The word choked her, and she didn’t dare ask for fear of the answer. A thousand apologies ran through her head, none of them right, none of them good enough. She wanted to pull him into a kiss, to wrap her fingers through his hair, to hold him and never let go, but all she could do was stare into his bright green eyes. “I thought I would never see you again,” she sobbed.
“Me neither.” The essence of Aaron’s hand brushed a tear from her cheek, and she flinched. Something about his touch felt off, wrong.
“Quinn. It’s me.” Aaron frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Quinn tried to smile, but she couldn’t suppress the dread rising in the back of her throat. “This place, it’s just unnerving.” She forced herself to stay still as he came closer, his eyes wandering from her face to the box in her hand.
“Where did you get that?” Aaron cocked his head, and a deep hunger pushed against Quinn’s essence. She clutched the box to her chest and took a step back.
“Here, between the realms. It was buried over there in the riverbed. The storms must have washed it in from the Gulf.”
“Can I see it?” Aaron grabbed for the box, and she pivoted just out of reach. Something about the way he smiled, the left side of his mouth slightly twisted, forced, frightened her. Afraid of Aaron? Ridiculous. Aaron would never hurt her.
“Don’t you trust me?” Aaron asked. The pained look on his face broke her heart. Of course, he could sense her distrust, as she sensed his hurt at her betrayal, through this strange link they had.
“Of course I trust you.” Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to relax and held the box out to him. Before he could touch it, a spark of lightning leapt from it to his essence, and he drew away his hand.
“Damn thing bites,” Aaron hissed and rubbed the place where he’d been shocked.
“Never mind the box.” Quinn tucked it into the pocket of her hoodie and out of sight. “Where are you? What happened?”
Aaron looked into the woods behind them and ran a hand across the back of his neck. “The Underworld. I don’t know how I got here, Quinn. I’m scared. She’s holding me prisoner.” He hunched his shoulders and lowered his voice. “I think she’s going to kill me. I can’t take any more of her torture.”
“Who?”
“Lilith,” he whispered. “The demons call her The Dark Mother.” His voice, ragged and full of fear, pierced her to the very core.
“Demons?” Cold dread prickled at the base of her spine.
He nodded, and she sensed his fear and pain.
“You don’t know what it’s cost me to get to you. She’s powerful, more powerful than me. Every time I try to make contact with you, she … ” he swallowed, “ … stops me.” The way he said “stops me” froze Quinn’s blood. “Something distracted her, and I managed to sneak away. I wasn’t sure you would hear me. I tried so many times before.” He shivered.
“How do I get you out? There must be away.”
“I think there is. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. We’re connected. I felt it that day I fell into your nightmare. I didn’t understand it then, but I know now.” Aaron’s eyes flicked to either side. The ground rumbled beneath them. “Oh, God. She’s found me. It’s not safe. You have to go. She knows.”
“No. I’m not leaving you.” Heat spread through Quinn as lightning crackled through her, filling her with dread. Another quake opened up small cracks around them, and the tether binding them started to unravel.
“Those demons you saw, they’re nothing compared to what’s down here. Please, Quinn. You have to help me. I’m scared. I want to come home. To you.” Aaron’s green eyes filled with tears, and Quinn swiped at her own cheek. “You don’t know what she’s capable of. You have to get me out of here, please. You’re the only one who can.”
Panic clamped Quinn’s stomach at the thought of losing him again, but she was powerless against the forces bent on ripping them apart. Not now, not yet. There were so many missing pieces she needed him to fill in, but the thread that bound them grew thinner and thinner with each passing second.
“Please, Quinn. Promise you’ll come for me,” he begged. His fear, cold and hard, sliced against her essence, and she wrapped her arms around him, as if that could anchor him to her forever. The tremors were getting stronger, making it hard to stay on their feet. “I don’t know how much longer I can last.”
“You have to hang on until I find a way.” She touched her forehead to his. “I’ll come for you. I swear.”
Another quake ripped a gash beneath his feet, and he screamed.
“Aaron!” Quinn grasped for him, but she wasn’t fast enough. Her fingers found nothing but dust as his face, twisted in fear, disappeared into the gaping darkness below, and the hole snapped shut.
The world around her growled and shook, violent and angry. Dark gashes, like thick fissures of ink, scarred the entire sepia landscape. Shadows swarmed from the cracks and crawled out from the abyss. Their essences pushed against hers, agitated, excited. She was a fly, the encroaching darkness like two hands converging to trap her inside. No time to think, she had to get back to her body, but ever-widening fissures ate away the land between her essence and her flesh.
Muscles tense, she ran. A tendril of fog exploded next to her. Dodge to the left, roll to the right. Instinct took over fear. Her body sat less than six feet away now. A crack opened in front of her and her essence leapt, landing an inch from the edge. Three feet. Almost there.
She glanced over her shoulder. A dozen or more demons, different from the ones she’d seen before, were closing in. She’d never seen anything so frightening. All the demons she’d met up until now looked like sweet kittens compared to these. With their approach, the box shivered and knocked against her, making it impossible to hold, and it tumbled from her pocket and across the ground. Quinn scrambled after it, catching it with the tips of her fingers, and she shoved it back into the pocket of her hoodie.
Another burst of speed, and she slid into home, but coming out of her body was much easier than going back in. Knee to knee, finger to finger, nose to nose, no matter what she did, her essence would not merge back into her flesh.
Pretty Dark Sacrifice Page 14