Waitresses tottered around the room—their movements jerky, just like the women I’d seen outside. The waitresses’ skin looked stretched over their bones, nearly translucent. They were the undead ones—corpses raised from the dead by the necromancer.
Unlike the waitresses, all the guests were alive. I stared at a woman climbing onto a tabletop and beckoning a man closer, her eyes half-lidded with lust.
I licked my lips, my body growing warm, swelling against my sodden dress. In here, the perfumed scent overwhelmed me, and my breath quickened.
A haze of sweet-smelling smoke filled the air. Why were we here, again? That’s right, we were here to enjoy ourselves.
A waitress lurched past us, and I plucked a glowing green drink from the tray. I took a sip, savoring the hint of anise, before Adonis snatched it from my hand. “Bad idea, Ruby.”
His sharp gray eyes brought me down to earth again.
“Right.” I blinked a few times, surveying the crowd. Although the guests were alive, everyone’s eyes held a glazed expression.
Adonis leaned down, whispering in my ear. “The longer we stay here, the harder it will be to leave.”
“I was starting to get that impression.” Whoever ruled this place seemed like he was into both necromancy and mind control. And … orgies. “Any idea where we are yet?”
Adonis furrowed his brow. “I’m beginning to get a sense. I think we may have wandered into the realm of a phantom king named Spring-Heeled Jack.”
“Who?”
“In the nineteenth century, women all over London reported being attacked by a winged creature who’d fly at them and grope their breasts.” Adonis linked his arm through mine, and we started walking. He leaned in, whispering in my ear as we moved deeper into the hall. “Sometimes he breathed out fire, blue and white flames. After a bit of groping, he’d bound away again. The rumors were that he was a hedonist who lived in almost total isolation. So, he built himself a small kingdom of revived corpses to keep him company and to indulge with him, only occasionally venturing out into London to claw at women’s breasts.”
Gods. “Oh, he sounds lovely. I hope we get to meet him.”
“Now,” added Adonis, “it seems he’s found himself some living playthings from among the desperate resistance. And they’re completely under his thrall.”
In all likelihood, the drinks played a role in the mind control…. In fact, I was having a harder time than ever thinking clearly. Warmth flooded my veins.
Adonis was talking to me, but I couldn’t focus on the content of what he was saying, just the rich timbre of his voice. It rumbled over my skin, caressing me. My back arched as I walked, hips swaying to the pulsing music.
Cool air whispered over my skin, and I realized I’d pulled up the hem of my dress. If I hadn’t been wearing the bow slung over my back, I’d have pulled it off completely.
Now, Adonis’s eyes looked as glazed as mine, and he stared at my body, fingers skimming my waist. Forget acting like angels. We were animals, and we might as well give into it.
I started to tug up the hem of his shirt, but he grabbed my wrists, leaning in to me, whispering in my ear.
Something about resist … resist….
Right. The resistance. That’s why we were here.
How could I clear this fucking fog from my mind? Adonis used physical pain, Kratos used mental pain. Right?
I closed my eyes, summoning my worst memories. The day Marcus had died. The fear in my mother’s eyes when I’d bitten her arm. Adonis lying dead after I’d killed him.
Pain tightened my chest, and my mind began to clear again. I breathed deeply, tears stinging my eyes.
I smoothed out my dress. “Okay. I’m with you now. What were you saying to me?”
“You met some of the members of the resistance. Do you see them here?”
“Give me a sec.” I grabbed Adonis by the hand, moving around in the crowd, until a spark of recognition ignited in my mind.
There, sipping from a glass of bright green cocktail, I found one of the leaders of the resistance. She now wore a lacy black dress, and her dark brown eyes held a glazed expression.
Bingo. At least I knew now we were in the right place, which meant all the reanimated corpses had been worth it.
“Lila!” I grabbed her arm, trying to catch her attention, but she just licked her lips.
The keen intelligence I’d seen in her expression before had disappeared. She sipped her cocktail, blinking at Adonis. “Yeah, so, like … I think I spilled something on my tits, but I don’t really care. Has that ever happened to you?”
Adonis’s magic thickened in the air. “No, as a matter of fact. But we need to get you out of here. You and the rest of the resistance.”
I reached for her cocktail glass. “You need to stop drinking this.”
Lila scrunched her nose. “I don’t know, because, like … it makes me feel good. I don’t really want to have to think, and this makes me not have to think. I kind of feel like I want a jam sandwich, but it might make my hands sticky.” She began swaying rhythmically to the music again.
I caught a glimpse of Brianna, who spun in a circle, sloshing her green cocktail over the dance floor. “I think I’m flying!”
And this was what was left of our army.
Chapter 24
I frowned at Adonis. “So, I think the entire resistance is here, shitfaced and boning each other under tables. Any ideas? Because my instinct is just to start slapping them all until they snap out of it.”
“It’s not the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
“It’s not, is it?” I bit my lip. “Pain can throw people out of ecstatic states. You know all about that.”
“Do you want me to stab them all in the heart? Because I think we might find our army at a disadvantage once they’ve all expired.”
I shook my head. “We can use mental pain. Just like Kratos does. What if I showed them visions that would shock them out of it? I can use my illusion powers, now, and show them exactly what will happen to them if they don’t get back to England and start fighting back.”
Adonis looked down at his bleeding palm. “Try it. We don’t have many other options, and we’re running out of time.”
I summoned my glamour—the one where I could project illusions—and conjured up images of what the future would hold if Metatron were allowed to carry out his plan.
On the stage, in front of the red curtain, I created an image of London, and one of Westminster Cathedral’s walls now stood before us on the stage. I littered the streets with bodies—piles of them, rotting before the Cathedral. I scanned the crowd around me, finding that they seemed completely unimpressed by the image. They pretty much kept swaying on the dance floor, tonguing each other.
“Wrong tactic,” I said to Adonis. “The dead are too faceless, and no one cares about faceless dead people. I need to show them the deaths of people they care about.”
I’d start with Lila first. She was both their leader, and absolutely adorable. I had no doubt that many of the people she led cared about her—particularly some of the men, given the way they were following her around right now.
I flicked my fingers, bringing up a new image—this one of Lila standing in a road. Aereus appeared on his red horse, galloping over the pavement. He drew his sword, and it burst into flames. Lila drew a gun, shooting at him, but the bullets didn’t stop him.
Aereus carved his blade through her neck, and her body fell to the earth.
A few screams echoed off the tall ceiling. Good, good. I was starting to get to them.
Adonis stroked his chin. “His sword doesn’t burn like that.”
“I was taking artistic license.”
“You made him cooler than he is.”
“Shhh … I’m concentrating.”
Now, I summoned an image of Brianna and Amber, running from Metatron. He raised his hands in the air, eyes blazing with flames, and he lit the two women on fire. They fell to the ground, their bodies
writhing with fiery torment.
More screams erupted over the hall.
Adonis cocked his head. “The fiery eyes were a nice touch. Also inaccurate.”
For my pièce de resistance, I plucked random members from the crowd, and envisioned them in the worst possible scenarios. Aereus breaking them on his torture wheel, pulling their bodies apart on the rack. Bodies being trampled, hanged, death in the streets. I conjured up the most disturbing images I could and displayed them over the hall. I nearly made myself sick with creative ways to maim and mutilate.
Screams erupted all over the hall, cutting through the miasma of euphoria.
When I’d finished, Adonis was staring at me with a mixture of horror and admiration. “I’m not sure if I want to kiss you or run away from you right now.”
One by one, each person in the crowd began snapping out of their trances. Their eyes became alert, and suddenly they were pulling up their pants and smoothing out their dresses, making mortified eye contact with the people around them. Nervous chatter broke out, and a sense of pure panic tinged the air. I let the images continue to play on the stage so they wouldn’t slip back into euphoria, keeping them focused on the real danger that lay ahead of them.
“Now, someone needs to tell them what’s going on,” said Adonis. “But I don’t think it should come from me.”
I reached out, grabbing Lila’s arm. If they were going to listen to anyone right now, it would be one of their leaders.
She stared at me, her eyes wide, body trembling. “How did I end up here?”
“You’ve been mind-controlled by a phantom king and everyone has been fucking in a music hall. Easy mistake; it could happen to anyone.”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”
“Look, you jumped into a sketchy realm, here. And the truth is, we don’t have a lot of time left. Metatron is going to destroy the rest of the earth in just a few days, and we need to fight back. Now.” I pointed at the stage. “Or everything you saw up there will come true.”
“Not the flaming sword,” added Adonis. “But the rest of it.”
Lila bit her lip. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“Look at this situation.” I waved at the crowd. “It’s not a good one. And I’m the one getting you out of here.”
Around us, the members of the resistance were panicking.
Lila grabbed my arm. “I’ll have to find our mages to get us out of here. If we can find the portal—”
“I’ll get us out of here faster,” Adonis interrupted. “We just need you to tell your people what’s going on so they’ll follow.”
“Right.” Lila glanced at the balconies above us. “Some of my memories are starting to come back, now. There’s a man with claw-like fingers, flames shooting out of his mouth. He swoops in and … I can’t quite remember.” Her body had gone rigid with tension. “We need to get out of here before he comes. I can’t quite remember who he is, or what he does, but—”
“Spring-Heeled Jack,” Adonis cut in. “Necromancer phantom-king pervert with claws. Now we’re up to speed. I’m going outside to create a portal just on the other side of the undead, re-dead corpse pile. Lead everyone out there as soon as you can.” And with that, Adonis took off, slipping through the crowd.
Lila began clambering to the top of a table, then cupped her hands around her mouth. “Members of the resistance!” Her voice echoed off the hall.
The panicked murmurs in the hall began to simmer down.
“We’ve made a terrible mistake,” Lila shouted. “We never should have come here. We need to get back to London, now. We may only have a few days left before—” She pointed at the stage. “Before all that shite happens for real. One of our allies is creating a portal for us right now, just outside—”
A shriek cut through the air, and all heads turned to the ceiling. A blur of black and white swooped above us, zooming between the chandeliers.
Spring-Heeled Jack, I presumed.
That’s when all hell broke loose.
An undead waitress next to me dropped her tray, and glass smashed on the floor. Her expression grew furious, and she pulled a knife from her garter belt.
Oh, balls. The phantom king was turning his undead servants on us.
From the darkest corners of the music hall, towering monsters—like the ones we’d seen outside—tottered into the crowd. I stared as one of them picked up a bespectacled member of the resistance, bashing him against the wall.
Some of the monsters brandished torches at the crowd members, bellowing about their tormented souls.
The monsters were turning on us.
“Out! Now!” I shrieked at the resistance. But no one could hear me above the din.
“My life is an accumulation of anguish!” One of the monsters boomed. “Since I cannot be loved, I will be feared!”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“Start leading them outside,” I shouted to Lila. She followed my command, already elbowing her way to the hall exit.
My pulse raced. Pandemonium had erupted, and I considered readying an arrow. But in close quarters like this, it wasn’t the best weapon.
Unless…. If all the monsters and undead waitresses were following the phantom king’s command, maybe I could just take him out. Would they all simply collapse?
I pulled an arrow from my quiver, then whirled to find the nearest torch-wielding monster. I lit the tip of the arrow in his flames, then nocked it. I scanned the ceiling, watching the phantom zoom between the chandeliers. He moved so quickly I could hardly track him, but I locked my gaze on him as he leapt down into the crowd. He wore a black cape and pointed velvet cap, and his eyes flashed with flames.
He plunged to the ground, grabbing for a woman’s breasts with his clawed hands. She tried to land a punch, but he leapt toward the ceiling again before she could make contact.
Weird prick.
With my gaze trained on him, I loosed the flaming arrow. It grazed his cape, igniting. He shrieked, his eyes blazing, then set his sights on me.
I nocked another arrow, but he was already zooming toward me. With his cape flaming, he flew faster—too fast for me to track. He slammed into me and knocked me into the ground. The speed of his flight had already extinguished the flames.
I tried to shove him off me, but he slammed a fist into my skull. My thoughts went a bit woozy.
Quick as a flash, his clawed fingers were around my throat. He started to spit fire, but I kneed him hard in the balls.
He howled, and tears sprang from his eyes. As I looked into his face, my mind began to fog once more, clouded with a vision of a euphoric cabaret, women dancing in short skirts.
“Why did you have to ruin this for me?” Spittle flew from his mouth. “I lived here alone for far too long. The corpses were my friends.” His lip curled, a faraway look in his eyes. “When the Great Nightmare began, I had so many corpses to choose from. All these beautiful dead women, here to serve my needs. Their flesh ready for the groping, no arguments from them.” He clawed at my breasts. “But then I thought, why limit myself to the dead, when I could use my scientific knowledge to control the living? A whole army here to keep me company….”
I gritted my teeth, trying to focus. I needed to shove the cabaret visions out of my mind. Blood on the pavement. Adonis’s dead body….
With images of death in my mind clearing my thoughts, I brought my knee up into his balls once more. The phantom’s eyes widened, and I slammed my fist hard into his face. Then, I tugged on his cape, pulling him off me. Lightning-fast, I leapt up. I snatched an arrow from my quiver, then fired it into his chest.
As I stood over him, his body simply disappeared, leaving behind only a wisp of smoke. The floral scent intensified in the air.
When I looked around me, I found the crowd streaming out of the hall, fighting back against the monsters. I ran with them, struggling to keep my thoughts focused.
At last, we burst free into the open air. Rain hammered down and lighting cracked the sk
y. Adonis had created a portal—an enormous, black whirlpool. One by one, the humans plunged into it, not knowing exactly where they were going, or if we could be trusted, but only that they had to get the fuck away from the torch-wielding monsters.
Just after the last of the humans plunged into the portal, I grabbed Adonis’s hand and jumped in with him.
Chapter 25
We climbed out of the freezing river, dripping with sludgy water. By the time Adonis and I got out, Lila was already mid-speech, the entire resistance milling around the river’s edge. Lila stood on a tree stump, shouting through her cupped hands.
It didn’t seem like she was getting through to anyone, considering the entire crowd was jabbering over her. She needed help.
I crossed to her. “Lila.”
She turned to me, fear shining in her eyes. “They don’t understand what’s happening. And I’m not sure I do, either. Can you explain it to them?”
I stepped onto the tree stump. “Members of the resistance!” I shouted, waiting for the crowd to fall into a reverent hush.
That did not happen.
“Shut the fuck up, everyone!” I shouted.
And that also did not work. I stared out at the crowd of resistance members, their colorful frocks soaked with river water, makeup streaking the women’s faces. Just like Lila, I had no control over the panicked crowd. Maybe another visual would get their attention.
I took a deep breath, channeling my glamour magic. It tingled over my body as I summoned an image of a field of corpses—some of them with recognizable faces from the crowd before me. Aereus appeared from nowhere, his golden wings swooping behind him, flaming sword raised.
After he trampled the corpses, I envisioned them blackening and decomposing into the earth.
I could feel the mood dampen around me, turning from panic into complete despair. I swallowed hard. Perhaps I was hitting the mortality note a bit too hard. I had to lighten the mood with a bit of hope.
From the rotting corpse pile, I summoned the image of a golden flower—then another, and another. A field of golden flowers grew—then buildings, houses, a thriving city.
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