Emerald Darkness

by Cannon, Sarra

  He nodded and both he and Illana shifted and flew down the dark hallway toward the room of cages.

  I turned and searched through the chaos for the emerald priestess. She wasn’t near the portal stone, and her daughter’s body was gone, too. I shifted and snaked through the bodies toward where I’d last seen her. I followed the trail of blood up the stairs, through the kitchen, and up to the second floor.

  How had she escaped through all the fighting? Had no one seen her leave?

  She must have cloaked herself in some kind of invisibility, so I moved carefully, my sword held out, mentally preparing to shift or attack if necessary.

  My feet crisscrossed on the grand staircase, every sense on high alert.

  The trail of blood stopped at the top of the stairs, and I turned in a circle, searching for any sign of where she went. I was sure she was heading for the Hall of Doorways to make her escape, but as I approached the secret entrance to the attic, a scream tore through the hall behind me.

  I shifted and turned, flying backward, a bolt of lightning barely missing me. Green flames erupted next to me, and I drew back my sword, aiming for her heart. If I had to, I would carve the master stone out of her chest.

  Priestess Evers disappeared, and I stopped just short of the grand staircase, spinning around. Where had she gone?

  I stepped forward carefully, listening for any sound of breath or movement. I passed the secret entrance to the attic again, but just as I took the next step, I felt a whisper of air brush across my left arm.

  I swung the sword out to the left and the priestess fell to her knees as the edge of the blade sliced through her side.

  She lowered her chin and lifted her eyes to me, pure rage burning inside.

  “You murdered my beloved daughter,” she said.

  “No, you did that,” I said.

  I rushed forward, sword first, but she was faster than I expected. She raised her right fist and threw something at me. I raised my hands to shield my eyes as shards of green jewels sliced into my skin from head to toe. Pain ripped through me, and my sword fell to the ground.

  I struggled to shift to my demon form, but the pain held onto me, dulling my concentration. I stumbled and blinked several times, my vision blurring.

  For a moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion. A green light glowed in Priestess Evers’s hands and she sent the force of it toward me. I tried to raise my arms, but just like when I’d been poisoned in the domed city, I felt like I could barely move my hands. Had the shards of glass poisoned me?

  Something pushed against my arm and before I realized what was happening, Zara screamed and jumped in front of me. She must have come up here to hide in her old bedroom until the fighting was over.

  The burst of green lightning crashed into her chest. She jerked and fell to the floor, a blackened gash across most of the front of her body.

  “Harper,” she said, terror blossoming in her eyes. Every inch of her grew rigid and then released, the light in her eyes dimming as her head fell to the side.

  A low, guttural sound vibrated my chest. My hands tightened into angry fists, my shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Overwhelming pain pulsed through the cuts in my skin, but all I could think about was my friend lying dead in front of me.

  Thunder rumbled and raindrops fell into my hair and down my cheeks. Wind howled through the hallway, blowing my hair across my face.

  I blinked again, trying desperately to clear my vision, but even with limited sight, I could see the priestess preparing her next attack.

  I shifted to smoke just as she cast her next bolt of lightning and reappeared behind her. Before she had time to turn, I pushed my sword straight through her spine.

  She made a strange gurgling sound as green blood bubbled from her mouth and poured from her chest. I lifted my foot to her back and pushed her body forward. My sword slid from the wound with a sucking sound, and she fell face-down on the floor.

  The sorrow for all I’d lost at the hands of this woman flooded through me, rain falling in sheets across my skin.

  I knelt beside the priestess and put my hands under her body, lifting hard to flip her over. Her eyes were open and she gasped for air. I aimed for her heart, the tip of the blade pushing straight through to the floor. With a sawing motion, I cut a jagged line down the left side of her chest where her heart should be.

  The priestess moaned and tried to stand. I raised my palm in the air and then pressed downward with my magic, forcing her back to the ground.

  I dropped my sword and dug my fingers into her bleeding chest, reaching through the cracks of the wound and searching for the slick, bloody surface of the emerald master stone.

  Beneath me, the priestess laughed and then coughed, green blood dripping from the side of her mouth. “You won’t find it,” she said, raising her hand to wipe the blood from her cheek. “Do you really think I’d be dumb enough to bring the master stone with me?”

  A wave of dizziness crashed over me and I shook my head, trying to focus. Whoozy, I lurched forward, leaning one hand against the floor near the priestess’s head to steady myself.

  “You surprised me, I’ll give you that,” she said, coughing again. “Not many people surprise me. But I also knew you were strong and had an army willing to fight at your side. Just in case things went wrong, I left my heart at home. You can do whatever you want to my body. Burn me, cut me into pieces, stab me through the chest a thousand times. None of it will kill me as long as I still maintain a connection to that stone.”

  “How?” I asked. I raised a hand to my forehead, feeling ill. I struggled to stay upright, my skin suddenly feverish and sweaty.

  “That’s one secret you’ll have to discover on your own,” she said. “My sister may have been older, but she was not smarter. Too bad that’s something you had to learn the hard way.”

  I sat up, dark green blood coating my hands. I took several deep breaths, trying to steady my heart. What was happening to me? The rain had stopped, and a voice deep inside told me to run. Find help. But when I tried to stand, my legs gave out and I dropped hard against the floor.

  I turned over and clawed at the shards of green stone stuck in my skin. I pulled a few out, but when I reached for the next one, my fingers suddenly stopped working. I couldn’t force enough strength in my grip to pull the shard out of my flesh. My fingers simply slipped off the surface over and over.

  Priestess Evers sat up. She looked like hell, maimed and bleeding, but she was smiling, her lips stretched over her teeth as she leaned her head back and laughed.

  “I bet you thought you had me, didn’t you?” she asked. She clucked her tongue three times, shaking her head. “You should know better than to think you could kill a second priestess so easily. Nothing went as planned for me, but maybe this will work out better.”

  She stood and put one foot on either side of my hips. The expression on her face as she looked down at me chilled me to the bone. I began to cry, praying that someone would come looking for me. I should never have followed her up here alone.

  “You’re so incredibly powerful,” she said, bending her knees and crouching just above my legs. “You’re going to be a great addition to my collection.”

  “Collection?” I asked, my voice a ghost of itself, barely more than a whisper.

  She simply laughed again and pushed her bloodied hair back from her face, leaving a streak of green across her forehead.

  “Don’t worry, Harper, this won’t last much longer,” she said. “Soon, you’ll forget all of it. Your friends. Your dead father. Your precious demon boyfriend. Everything. And then you’ll be mine to fill with whatever lies I choose. I can’t wait to mold you into the perfect new daughter.”

  I whimpered, tears cascading down my temples and into my hair. “Jackson,” I whispered.

  The priestess leaned forward and wrapped her fingers around my necklace. She yanked hard, the chain pressing into the flesh at the back of my neck before it snapped and released.

>   She stared at the golden locket and the blue sapphire pendant I kept together on my chain. Almost reverently, she ran her thumb across the top of the gemstone. “You won’t be needing these anymore,” she said.

  I closed my eyes, heartbreaking agony flowing through me like acid, and tried to connect to my power. If I could just shift one last time, I could make it down the stairs to where the others were fighting.

  But it was no use.

  Whatever poison ran through my veins had dulled any sense of power within me. I opened my eyes for a moment, watching as the priestess threw my necklace against the wall. She stood and moved around behind me, lifting my arms at the wrist.

  She dragged me across the floor, past Zara’s body and up the stairs toward the Hall of Doorways.

  My eyelids closed for the last time, all the fight gone from my body.

  I won’t forget you, I whispered to myself as sleep pulled me deep into a pit of darkness.

  Wrath

  The last of the witches surrendered, falling to her knees at my feet. I grabbed her by the wrists and lifted her, pushing her toward the others. Mordecai and Joost stood guard over them, ten in all. The rest were dead.

  “We did it,” I said to Andros, gripping his forearm.

  “What about the emerald priestess?” he asked. “Did she escape?”

  I looked around the room, unsure of what had happened to her. “She disappeared during the fight. I was hoping maybe someone in the Resistance or one of the vampires from Rend’s group had gone after her.”

  Andros cursed and ran a hand through his long, black hair. “None of my soldiers have seen her,” he said. “And Rend’s vampires are all here.”

  I put my hand on his shoulders. “The important thing is that we stopped the ritual and were able to save the witches from the emerald gates who’d been taken prisoner,” I said. “We’ll kill the emerald priestess another time.”

  He nodded, his jaw tense. “Did you find Eloise and the others?”

  I nodded. “The priestess had created a magical dungeon here in the basement to hold them all. They were here the whole time, but no one could see them unless they knew where to look. Eloise is talking to them now. As soon as we get things settled out here and have made sure the emerald priestess is really gone, we’ll start leading them home through the Hall of Doorways.”

  “The spell is broken,” Mary Anne said, running up to us. She smiled and took in a huge breath, letting it out as she slumped forward in relief. Essex put his arm around her shoulder, his face beaming. “The clocks in the house have all started up again. It’s over. The emerald priestess must be either dead or long gone.”

  “Where’s Harper?” I asked, stretching my neck to search through the crowded ritual room. I’d lost her in the chaos of the fight. With so many people packed into one small room, it had been impossible to tell what was going on there for a while.

  I couldn’t wait to pull her into my arms and take her home to the castle. All I wanted to do for the next week was hold her captive in our bed while our bodies and souls healed from the events of the past few days.

  There would be a lot of rebuilding to do. Brighton Manor was gone, and the dome around the castle would need to be restored to its full power, but that would all come in time. For now, the battle was over and everyone was safe.

  My heart soared. Harper had been amazing. When Sophie betrayed us and brought down Brighton Manor, it had felt like the end of the world. I knew Harper would come for me, but I had no idea how she would be able to save Zara’s life or prevent the ritual from happening.

  The dark hours I’d spent alone in that cage, waiting for the ritual to begin, were the longest of my life.

  But when she’d entered the room with Zara and Sophie, I’d realized all over again just how brilliant she could be.

  I could see through glamours, but that was a rare gift. The priestess hadn’t known what she was doing when she’d slit the throat of her own daughter. It was a risky move on Harper’s part, but she’d somehow managed to save us all.

  Where was she?

  “Excuse me,” I said to Andros, pushing through the crowd.

  My sister Illana placed a hand on my arm, and I stopped. I hugged her close, hardly able to believe she was really here with me now.

  “You were the one showing me those visions?” I asked. “And Harper’s dreams? I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “I wanted to come here to find you,” she said. “When I’d discovered the truth about Aerden being set free after all this time, I begged Mother to convince the king to let us leave the city and search for you. I wanted to bring you home to us.”

  “He let you go?” I asked.

  She shook her head, glancing toward the floor. “No. He refused. I kept trying to convince them, but after a while, I grew impatient to see you. It’s been too long, my brother,” she said, throwing her arms around me again. “I missed you both so much. I hired guards to escort me through a secret tunnel that led beyond the wall. I’d planned to go to the castle in the Southern Kingdom to look for you. The rumors were that you’d joined an alliance with the future Queen of the South, so I knew if I could find her, I would find you as well. But we were ambushed by a group of hunters before we’d even reached the borderlands. The guards fled, and I was captured.”

  “I’m so sorry, Illana,” I said. “We didn’t know, or we would have come for you sooner.”

  “That’s why I tried to reach out to you,” she said. “I couldn’t come to you directly, but my powers of telepathy have become stronger over time. I reached out to you first, trying to warn you of their plans, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t show you my true self. My powers were weakened inside the cage. So through you, I tried to reach inside Harper’s mind, but it was too difficult.”

  “I’m just glad you’re safe now,” I said.

  “Where’s Aerden?” She glanced around the room. “I’m dying to see him.”

  “He and Lea went to the Northern Kingdom to track down one of the hunters who attacked the castle in the south,” I said. “We haven’t been able to reach them.”

  Worry wrinkled her face. “Do you think they’re alright?”

  “I’m sure they’re fine,” I said.

  I didn’t want to scare her, but I was worried about them, too. They should have at least checked in by now. They were both strong warriors, but even the strongest could be taken down in battle. If they didn’t contact us in the next day or two, maybe Harper and I would go looking for them.

  I searched the room again, waiting for her deep brown eyes to meet mine. I was anxious to hold her in my arms and feel her lips against mine. We’d been through hell, but we were finally beginning to see the light.

  “Have you seen Harper?” I asked as Angela passed by.

  She shook her head, her eyes darkening. “You can’t find her?”

  Worry knotted in my stomach. “I haven’t seen her,” I said. “Maybe she went to find Zara. My magic couldn’t remove the curse, but Andros called for his mystic as soon as he heard what was happening. She should be here by now. Maybe they’re all together.”

  Zara had looked so frail and dark, her body deteriorating quickly. I wasn’t sure what they’d been able to find out about a cure, but it made sense that Harper would have gone to look for her. Zara had run up the stairs after the glamours dropped, so I quickly pushed my way through the crowd of vampire demons standing near the staircase.

  I made my way through the first floor and up the grand staircase, but as soon as I stepped into the second-floor hallway, my heart stopped beating.

  What the hell had happened up here?

  Blood and water coated the hardwood floors. A woman in a long, flowing dress, her hair braided with beads, crouched above the body of my friend. I recognized her from our time in the Underground. She was a friend of Andros and Ourelia’s, and was trained as a mystical shaman.

  I walked to her, my heart breaking as I stared down at the wound across
Zara’s chest.

  “What happened here?” I asked, kneeling beside them.

  The shaman priestess shook her head. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I got here as quickly as I could, but this is exactly how I found her, poor child.”

  “Is she dead?”

  The shaman reached into a worn leather bag at her side and took out a small bottle of purple liquid. She uncorked the top and closed her eyes, moving the bottle in a circle above Zara’s wound. Soft words flowed from her lips and she brought her hands back to her own chest, holding them in a prayer position as the bottle floated in the air.

  I’d seen her perform a similar ritual when she’d healed Mary Anne several months ago in the Shadow World. I waited, praying she would be able to help Zara, too.

  Steam rose from the potion, and the priestess leaned forward, cupping her hands and wafting the smoke toward her in a repeating pattern. Her eyes opened, their blue color changed to a dimly glowing lilac.

  She began to sing, the notes low in her chest. With her left hand, she gripped the potion and turned the bottle upside down, the steaming liquid falling toward Zara’s body.

  I held my breath, watching and praying for any kind of reaction. A scream. A twitch. Anything to prove Zara was still alive.

  But she didn’t move at all. Her body lay still and lifeless, her delicate beauty marred by the darkness that had taken over in the past few days. I closed my eyes, a tear falling down my cheek as I reached out to take Zara’s hand in mine.

  It wasn’t fair. Had the emerald priestess done this to her?

  Movement nudged against my hand, and I sat up, startled.

  I backed away as silvery threads sprouted like thin vines from her chest. They stretched out toward her feet and head, wrapping around her until she was completely encased in them. I swiped a hand across my face to clear the tears from my eyes.

  What was happening?

  I looked at the shaman for answers. A peaceful smile had settled on her face. “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “She’s a butterfly, yes?”