Bridgette and Edward walked for what seemed like hours. The air around them grew warmer, becoming almost stifling as the path wound down. Sweat beaded on their foreheads. Edward was just beginning to wonder if they would ever find an opening at the end of the tunnel when the light around them began to grow brighter. Turning a corner, they saw an immense cavern in front of them. Two figures stood in front of an iron doorway. Flickering torches of green fire mounted in iron sconces on either side of the guards cast eerie shadows on their features. Edward knew immediately that they had reached the right place. Behind that door was the throne room, the place where the Jackal had imprisoned his mother.
But when Edward got a good look at the guards, his heart froze in his chest. He knew that seeing them should not come as a surprise. Of course the Jackal had chosen his fiercest henchmen to guard Edward’s mother. Edward had not seen the faces of his enemies since they had attacked him outside the village of Woodhaven. Edward had barely escaped the encounter with his life.
He hoped he would be so lucky this time.
The guards seemed as surprised as he was to see him there. The two exchanged startled looks.
“Why, what have we here?” the first guard drawled in a familiar voice that Edward knew all too well. “Well, I’ll be a snake’s granddaddy. We have a pair of unexpected visitors, Lilith!” Henry Asmoday ran a finger across his gray handlebar moustache as he glanced over at the frail-looking woman standing next to him. The woman, her eyes covered by dark glasses, lifted her head in Edward’s direction and sniffed.
Recognizing the scent, she bared her teeth in a sharp-toothed smile.
“Macleod’s come for dinner,” she whispered.
Chapter Seventeen
GUARDS
Before Edward could react, Henry and Lilith withdrew blazing Oroboruses. Edward dived out of the way as Henry’s whistled past his head, almost severing his ear. He heard a sharp TWANG! and knew without looking that Bridgette had loosed an arrow. Lilith, who had been injured by a centaur’s arrow while trying to catch Edward back on Earth, heard the sound of the bowstring and reacted immediately. She hurled her Oroborus at the arrow and split the well-aimed shot before it hit her face.
“You’ll be our dessert after we finish with him, dearie!” she shouted. In a flash, the Oroborus returned to her hand and she leveled a shot at Bridgette.
Cursing his slow reflexes, Edward jabbed a hand in his pocket, searching for his father’s ring. But before he could withdraw it, he felt a searing pain bite into his leg. Looking down, he saw Henry’s Oroborus lodged in the middle of his calf.
“Gotcha!” the Groundling shouted. The old man approached Edward, grinning wolfishly. “That’s a little ‘thank you’ for what happened back at Echo Park,” he said.
As Henry taunted Edward, Edward cautiously felt around his pocket. He had his father’s ring out a second later. “QADOS!” he shouted.
The ring burst into blue flame and Edward threw it as hard as he could straight at Henry’s head. Henry wasn’t prepared for Edward’s attack. He hadn’t seen Edward carrying anything and had mistakenly assumed he was unarmed. The Groundling, caught completely off guard, was struck by the weapon’s full force. He crashed to the floor with a sickening thud.
Lilith screamed. Edward barely noticed that he’d defeated one of the highest ranked commanders in the Jackal’s army. He was too preoccupied with the pain in his leg, which felt as if it were on fire. The Groundling’s Oroborus was still embedded there, scorching his skin with its red flames. He reached down and grabbed it, trying to ignore the sound of his sizzling skin. With a cry of pain, he wrenched the weapon from his leg and flung it away.
“You’ll pay for this, boy!” Lilith screeched. She was poised over the body of her fallen comrade, her fists clenched with rage. Suddenly, teeth bared, she dove at Edward. She was on top of him before he could do anything, knocking him to the ground. Edward felt her nails bite deep into his left arm. He flung his other arm upward, trying to keep Lilith’s razor-sharp teeth from sinking into his neck.
In spite of Lilith’s small size, she was incredibly strong! Edward had knocked her back with one of the Ten Words of Power once before, but he knew that he didn’t have the strength to use it again. His thin arm shook as he pushed against Lilith’s throat. He wouldn’t be able to hold her off much longer.
Just then, the evil Groundling’s glasses fell off. Edward stared at her horribly marred face. Where her eye should have been was a gaping hole, put there by the centaur’s arrow during their encounter in Echo Park. Edward could see white maggots wriggling inside the foul cavity. The Groundling’s teeth snapped as she pressed down upon him, trying to get at his neck and tear him to pieces.
Edward’s arm was trembling so violently, he knew that it would collapse at any second. Just as it gave out and Lilith’s teeth came rushing at his throat, there was a sharp TWANG! and the Groundling let out a horrible yell.
Lilith groaned and collapsed, her body falling on top of Edward. Edward pushed her off. The quivering shaft of Bridgette’s arrow was sticking out of the back of her skull. Edward glanced up and saw Bridgette, bow in hand, shaking violently.
Edward rose to his feet, wincing from the injury to his leg. He limped over to where Bridgette stood, but she hardly noticed him. Her eyes were locked on the spot where Lilith lay.
“Nice shot,” Edward grunted.
Bridgette didn’t reply. She continued to stare at the dead body, as if waiting for it to do something. Then, without warning, it happened. Henry and Lilith began to change. The human-looking skin that disguised their true Groundling forms melted away. Bridgette and Edward stared, horrified, at the disgusting apparitions that appeared in their place. Henry was a monstrous beast and Lilith something unmentionable, an abomination covered with tentacles and slime.
Seconds later, the hideous forms disappeared, leaving nothing behind. Only then did Bridgette relax and lower her bow.
They both knew that Henry and Lilith had been sent to Specter’s Hollow, the place one went if they died in the Afterlife. There, they would have to face their worst fears. Edward couldn’t even begin to guess what would scare monsters like Henry and Lilith, but he was sure it would be something truly horrible.
Edward shared a relieved glance with Bridgette, who looked pale and shaken. Then, with his heart pounding harder in his chest than it ever had before, he turned his attention to the big iron door.
He was finally here.
Behind this door was the one person he longed to see more than anyone else. But could it really be possible? After all that he’d gone through since he’d arrived in the Afterlife, could his mother really be this close, just behind this door?
Edward limped forward, all thoughts of his injured leg forgotten as he stretched his fingers toward the handle. Ignoring the poisonous voices of the Four, which screamed for him to stop and cursed him in voices so painfully loud that he couldn’t hear anything else, he stepped forward and slowly turned the handle.
Chapter Eighteen
CAGE
Nothing in the world could have prepared Edward for what he saw next. As the door swung open, his eyes took in the elegant, brightly lit chamber. Directly across from him was an empty, ornate throne sitting high on an elevated platform. On the wall behind the throne was a golden door surrounded by blasphemous paintings of Guardians obeying the Jackal’s every whim. Edward tried to ignore horror after horror as his dark brown eyes scanned the chamber, taking in every detail. He gazed past an endless array of severed Guardian wings that were mounted on the walls like trophies. Bubbling pits of sulfur steamed on either side of the throne, filling the air with an acrid stench. He was just about to give up, fearing that what he sought wasn’t there, when suddenly he spotted it.
A gilded cage, like something that would house an impossibly large songbird, was suspended from the ceiling in the far corner of the room. Edward’s breath caught as he saw it, and he half ran, half limped to where it hung, a sob escaping f
rom his throat.
His mother lay inside.
The world spun. Edward couldn’t breathe. His mind flashed to memories that still haunted him. His mother as she lay dying in their house back in Portland, Oregon. The doctors doing nothing but taking her butterfly pulse and listening to her heart wind down. Edward had watched it all, a small boy with his world collapsing around him, wishing he could do something. He’d watched as the person he loved most left him all alone without saying good-bye.
Tears streamed down Edward’s face. His vision was so blurred he could barely see her. But there she was. Her beautiful, gentle face looked just as he remembered it. She lay on the bottom of the cage, asleep, her long, beautiful blue gown spread around her like a blanket.
Edward’s hand shook as he reached his long, thin fingers through the bars and stroked the back of her hand. On her third finger she wore a golden band, a match to the ring his father had given him. It was proof that, in spite of everything that had happened, she loved Melchior still.
Edward wiped his eyes with his forearm and pressed his face against the bars.
“Mom?” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. Sarah Macleod didn’t respond. Edward tried again, raising his voice a little.
“Mom, it’s me. I-I’ve come to get you out of here.”
But she still didn’t move. Edward searched the bars of the cage, looking for a lock, but he couldn’t find one anywhere. There was no way inside. Frustrated, he pulled at the bars, trying to separate them. He was so close! So close and he couldn’t get her out!
Suddenly, from behind him, there was a terrible shriek. Edward wheeled around like he’d been shot.
Standing in the entrance to the room, filling the doorway, was the towering form of Whiplash Scruggs. One set of his fat, powerful fingers was tangled in Bridgette’s hair, holding the girl suspended in the air. The other hand clutched a pair of deadly silver shears.
Edward could only stare, fear stealing every ounce of strength from his body. “Don’t hurt her,” he whispered.
Edward felt a surge of desperation. In that moment, he would have done absolutely anything Scruggs told him to if he just let Bridgette go. This can’t be happening!he thought. First my mother and now Bridgette!
The voices of the Four, quiet since he had found his mother, suddenly burst into peals of loud, mocking laughter, and he knew with terrible certainty that it was because the Four had him right where they wanted him.
Scruggs noticed Edward’s terrified expression and smiled. Relishing the moment, he shouted, “I’ve finally got you, Edward Macleod, and now there’s nowhere you can hide!”
Chapter Nineteen
CHOICE
“Leave her alone!” Edward shouted, finding his voice at last.
Scruggs merely chuckled and held the razor-sharp edges of the scissors against Bridgette’s exposed throat. “I could do that, Macleod, but I won’t just yet. Not until you hear my proposal,” he said in his Kentucky drawl.
Edward’s fists were balled so tightly that his knuckles showed white. “What is it?” he growled.
Scruggs glanced over at the suspended cage and smiled. “I see you’ve found your mother. You’ll find that she’s in a special kind of slumber; one that can’t be awoken by any power but the Jackal’s.”
Scruggs turned his gaze back to Edward. “Your father is also, how shall I put it . . . beyond your reach. He died in his cell a few minutes ago. So, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that this girl is all you have left in the world.”
Scruggs pressed the blades of the scissors firmly against Bridgette’s neck, causing her to whimper.
“Let her go!” Edward roared. The news that his father and mother were out of his reach filled him with despair. His hand mechanically reached into his pocket, searching for his father’s ring. He wouldn’t let the Jackal steal any more of his loved ones. He already had Edward’s parents. He couldn’t have Bridgette, too!
“None of that, Macleod!” Scruggs hissed, jerking hard on Bridgette’s hair. Tears flowed down the girl’s cheeks, but Edward could tell that she was doing everything she could not to let Scruggs see her weaken.
Edward removed his hand from his pocket. He’d never felt so helpless. “Just tell me what you want!”
“To your left, you’ll see a large, stone table. Upon it is a contract that states that you’ll give yourself to the Jackal’s service.”
Edward looked over and saw the ornate table with the roll of parchment on it.
Scruggs continued, “The Jackal has big plans for you, Macleod. He’s decided to make you a captain. You’ll have legions of Groundlings under your command. All you have to do is sign your name to that piece of paper and it’s done.”
Edward glanced up sharply. Scruggs wore an expression of greedy anticipation on his face. Edward didn’t know what to do. If he didn’t sign the paper, Scruggs might kill Bridgette.
“You have no choice, Edward. Sign the paper,” Scruggs said.
Bridgette saw Edward’s hesitation and shouted, “Don’t do it, Edward!” But she was quickly silenced by Scruggs’s hard jerk on the back of her head.
“And if I do this, I have your word that you won’t hurt her?” Edward demanded.
“Of course,” Scruggs replied.
The voices of the Four were exultant. Edward knew that he couldn’t trust Whiplash Scruggs, but he had no choice.
As if in a dream, he felt himself walk over to the table and pick up the long black plume. He recognized it immediately.
It was one of his own feathers.
Feeling sick to his stomach, Edward picked up the pen. Bridgette writhed in Whiplash Scruggs’s grip and shouted desperately for Edward to stop. But Edward was cornered. He couldn’t stand to lose anyone else he cared about. His mother was under a spell that he had no hope of breaking. His father was dead. This was his only option; a last, desperate move to save Bridgette.
Looking down at the ancient contract, he saw the names of other Guardians who had signed it before him. Row upon countless row of doomed Guardian signatures decorated the contract, each one dated at the time of their “Fall.” He scanned the long list, wondering what had brought each of the Guardians to the terrible choice to join the Jackal’s army.
Just then his eyes fell on a signature near the end of the list. The hair on his arms and scalp stood on end as he realized that he was looking at the very same contract that had shaped his life so long ago. He read the ornate signature several times, hardly believing what he was seeing.
Melchior.
It was his father’s name. And there was a blank space just below it, an area that seemed as if it had been purposely left that way. Had the Jackal always known that someday Edward would add his name to the very same contract that had doomed his father?
With a sinking feeling, Edward realized the truth. For all his thinking that he could somehow become the legendary hero who would defeat the Jackal, in the end, fate had decided his destiny for him. He didn’t have a choice.
Edward’s eyes slowly began to change, growing paler as he dipped the quill in an ebony bottle filled with crimson ink. The poisonous voices of the Four gibbered wildly, shouting in triumph.
He’s one of us! He’s one of us! He’s one of us!
And for the first time, Edward didn’t resist their taunts. As he placed the tip of the quill against the parchment, he realized for the first time that the Four weren’t just taunting him, making his worst fears seem real.
This time what they were saying was true.
Chapter Twenty
GIFT
Scruggs watched as Edward added his name to the long list of fallen Guardians. He shoved the girl away, fulfilling his end of the bargain. He would deal with her later. Right now there was only one thought in his mind.
Edward is the Jackal’s servant!
He’d finally done it! After all the failed attempts, Scruggs had finally fulfilled his mission. He had turned Edward to the Jackal’s side. His master wou
ld be pleased! The relief he felt was incredible. He glanced across the room at the golden door, the one that led to the Jackal’s inner sanctum. He knew that his horrifying master was in there at this very moment, aware of all that was happening. Scruggs pictured the single yellow eye, the only part of the Jackal that wasn’t a machine, rolling with pleasure. Edward Macleod was no longer a threat. There would be no Bridge Builder. And the Jackal would emerge the victor in his age-old war against the Higher Places. Scruggs was so entranced by his wonderful vision that he never heard the crumpled form sneak up behind him. The figure pulled an iron torch from the wall and threw it toward Scruggs. It flew through the air, colliding with Scruggs’s precious shears and sending them to the ground in a shower of sparks. Years of throwing rings had given the attacker incredible accuracy.
A voice Scruggs knew too well, one that he had thought was gone forever, rang out from behind him.
“It’s not over, Edward! You still have a choice!”
Edward glanced up sharply. He didn’t recognize the man calling to him. Edward’s eyes had turned pale blue and he could see nothing but shadows and death. The Four celebrated wildly in his head, telling him that he’d finally fulfilled his destiny. But Edward barely heard them now. Something deep inside made him pause. What the little man had said confused him. He stared at him, watching as he approached Whiplash Scruggs with a determined look on his face . . .
The man gathered his strength. His body tensed, anticipating what he was about to do. He knew it would be the last great act he would ever accomplish.
He gave Edward a last look. And as Edward stared back at him, the clouds of confusion disappeared and a look of dawning realization came over his face.
Contentment flooded Mr. Spines. He knew beyond a doubt that his son would be okay. He turned back to Whiplash Scruggs and, gathering all of his strength, shouted one of the Ten ancient Words of Power.
Song Page 7