Phantom Eyes

by Scott Tracey

  “We can’t stay in here,” I said quietly to Trey.

  “Oh, but finally all the players are gathered in a single room. The woman behind the curtain has been revealed, and the most glorious reunion in the history of Belle Dam is taking place,” Matthias said, with a showman’s swag. He extended an arm, pivoting to encompass both Grace and Lucien, who had not taken their horrific eyes off of one other. His lip curled with distaste as he had a look around the lighthouse. “It’s just too bad that such an epic moment had to happen … here.”

  “I thought you’d like the lighthouse, Matthias. Isn’t it like demon catnip? Go ahead,” I nodded, “roll around on the floor a little bit. We won’t judge.”

  Matthias scowled. He shoved the gun underneath Riley’s jaw, pointed up. “Has anyone ever told you that sarcasm truly is the lowest form of discourse?”

  Having a gun shoved in her face didn’t affect Riley the way I thought it would. She blinked twice, then twisted back to look at the demon. “Everyone tells him that,” she said calmly.

  Lucien was still struck dumb by Grace’s apparent resurrection. I could see his eyes darting left and right, tracing back lines of the future all the way back to the beginning. Trying to figure out what he’d missed. I smiled. It was easier than I thought it would be to break him down. Maybe Grace had the right idea after all. All her games, all her tricks, those were the appetizers. This was what she’d really been after.

  She’d bested one of the Riders at the Gate. Outwitted him from the beginning.

  “Got to say, I’m a little disappointed, Matthias,” I called. I wanted his attention on me, and not on Jade and Riley. “You know they’ve got help lines for people in abusive relationships. Just because Grace hurt you once doesn’t mean you have to go back. Or did she promise it would never happen again? That last time was an accident?”

  “You think you’re so funny.” He shifted and pointed the gun towards me. “Does your little group of rejects know what you risk unleashing on the world?”

  I let some of the violet peek through my eyes, cracked my knuckles and rolled my neck. Stretches were important before a supernatural showdown. “Want to find out firsthand?” I offered, beckoning him forward.

  “Silence.” A purple lash of energy cut between the two of us, preceding the whip crack that echoed across the room. “Do you really think me stupid, boy? That even with a contract, I could trust in your loyalty?” Though Grace never looked away from Lucien, nor did she let the triumphant smirk waver, her words were addressed to me. “I know exactly why you came here, boy, and what you hope to accomplish. But the thing you need to realize is that I will not be the one trapped in this lighthouse for another hundred years.”

  “You’re not locking Braden up,” Trey snapped, stepping forward.

  Grace casually flicked her wrist like she was swatting a fly. Trey flew backwards and slammed into one of the stone walls. The air rushed out of him in a startled groan, and then he slumped. John’s eyes, right before the spell struck. Seeking me out. His body, falling to the ground. I couldn’t go through that again.

  I ran to him, wishing that just for once Trey would learn to keep his mouth shut. He grunted, which was good because it meant he was still conscious. I only had seconds to decide, and I did something I had been trained not to. Magic wasn’t supposed to be used for healing on account of it could make things horribly worse, but the normal rules didn’t really apply to me anymore. The warring powers inside of me complied with my need, and delved through bone and surface tissue without finding any serious complication.

  “You have a choice,” Grace went on like there’d never been an interruption. “You can give up this petty resistance and become my surrogate in this world. Or I will kill every last one of them where they stand.”

  “And what then, Grace?” I challenged. “What happens after you regain your freedom?”

  The darkness in her eyes was eclipsed by the red for just a moment, as the wellspring power in her was pushed down. The power was a part of Lucien, so he never had to fight against it, but Grace … surviving in the lighthouse for as long as she did suggested an iron will I didn’t have. She wouldn’t lose control the way I would. At least not at first.

  “Everything,” she whispered with a smile. “Everything happens.”

  Lucien wanted Trey dead because if Trey was gone, he thought the vision of me killing him would never come to pass. He feared what I would do to him. So did Matthias. But not Grace. With her, it had never been about fear of what I could do.

  It was jealousy.

  She wanted to be the one with the power of the Rider. She wanted to become something more than human.

  “What about Gentry and Jade?” I asked. Grace’s expression was blank. “Your grandchildren? Or your great to the power of fifteen grandkids, whatever. You’ll kill them?”

  An absent roll of the shoulder. “What are they to me? Fruit from a rotted branch. What need do I have of any of them?”

  “If you destroy the city, he goes free,” I motioned to Lucien. “Have you thought about that?”

  At this, Grace gave me her first real smile. Full of teeth, and it might have been pretty if not for the insanity in her eyes, and the rictus grin of her facial muscles. Not a woman who wore smiles well. Or ever. “But I have you to thank for that, fledgling. You may have seen into my mind while I taught you, but I also saw into yours. I saw the competing visions, the different perceptions of what would happen. And I know how you unravel the Rider. So simple. I can’t believe I never thought of it before myself.”

  Lucien’s finger twitched, and Grace seized on it, the darkening rubies that were her eyes throwing off more light than they had a moment ago. She bathed in it, so it looked as though she wore a gown of crimson. “How was it my broken little bird described it? I ‘tore the stuffing’ out of you?” Grace’s smile was a vicious blade. “Make even one move against me, Rider, and I will show you just how much I remember about that day.”

  “I have had a hundred years to dream about what I would do to you,” Lucien said aloud in wonder. “I thought it would take my release from your curse and a trip through the Dead Worlds to track you down, true, but so what? Delay only makes the destruction sweeter. But here you are, waiting for me. Just as you always have been.”

  “Do you truly think you are still my master, monster?” Grace delighted at the play on words, a cold twist on her lips. “Have you forgotten the knowledge the lighthouse holds? I’ve spent a century learning your secrets. All in anticipation of this moment.”

  It was like all Lucien needed was a provocation, a reason to strike out against her. The darkness swirled around him, a distortion that blurred everything around it.

  But the problem with having a battle royale in the lighthouse, as Lucien should have remembered, was that there was no advantage here. Each of us held a portion of the demon’s power, and I just prayed to God that the three of us were close to evenly matched.

  “You can’t win this!” I shouted, lunging to the left as the black fire Lucien threw at Grace was deflected and hurtled my way. Trey had been working his way towards his sister and Riley, but Matthias had turned the gun on him, a cold, expectant look on his face.

  “Abominations should be killed and not heard,” Grace snarled, whipping scarlet spells in my direction. They were sharp and thin like razor wire, a version of the same spell that Catherine had summoned up against me once. But every time I stared into the heart of the spells, meaning to unspool them the same way all magic came unraveled under my gaze, they split in two, becoming a laser-red Hydra monster hurtling towards me.

  It became a three-way brawl after that, and if I’d thought us evenly matched, I was a stupid, stupid kid. The only thing saving me from being instantly incinerated was Grace and Lucien were flinging spells and demonic constructs at each other rather than being distracted by me. I leapt out of the way of a wayward blast, dropping into a roll and lunging free of a nearly unavoidable death.

  �
�A hundred years to lick your wounds, and still you pick the wrong fight,” Lucien sneered. “At least the boy was a worthwhile challenge. You were simply pathetic.”

  Grace screeched in fury, and the walls of the lighthouse started to shake. Dust and pebbles rained down from the ceiling. The sounds she made were a physical thing, an expression of magic.

  I know this. I’ve seen this before. The night Lucien killed John, my chest had been boiling over with emotions I couldn’t handle. I’d been drowning in something stronger than me, and it had struggled for escape. Only after I had opened my mouth, after I’d screamed, had the power flooded out.

  It had destroyed the chapel completely, an explosion of magic Grace had needed to first reach out and open the lighthouse to me.

  But if Grace unleashed that kind of power here, what would happen to us? In the distance, I could feel the Riders flowing closer, like bubbles of chaos rising to the surface.

  “Enough,” I shouted. Power lanced out of me, bathing the room in sharp light. It sliced through every spell and trick, ripped Grace’s voice from her mouth, and struck down every projectile. For a moment, the room was still, but even as the blue light started to blush and redden, and the winter voices in my head started calling for more, the battle started anew.

  Matthias stood calmly in front of the girls, one hand on either shoulder, tugging them up or down, left or right as the situation dictated. He made it into a dance, a smooth pirouette and turn as they avoided everything that came towards them. Once he lifted Jade several feet off the ground as a low flying blast of indigo razor wire spun across the floor.

  I did my best to not only shield myself, but to protect Trey, who was still trying to get to his sister. And while Trey usually had moments of almost inhuman movement, where he would unconsciously tap into the magic that burned within him, none of that was evident tonight. More than once he almost walked face first into an incoming blast. I wasn’t nearly as graceful as Matthias was with the dodging, but Trey and I still had all our limbs.

  Up until now, I’d played more defense than offense, but after a gout of flame almost caught my shirt on fire, I started changing it up. I turned both my palms towards each other, and channeled energy through my fingertips. Lightning began to arc from one hand to the other, compressing down into a basketball-sized coil of lightning.

  I waited until Grace was distracted with Lucien’s latest attack. Even occupied with the shadowy sand attack the demon threw at her, she still deflected the balled lightning strike.

  It careened towards the broken wall. Stone tumbled down into the gap between the lighthouse and the Widow’s walk. Though there was nothing there but open air, the moment the stone crossed the barrier from lighthouse to storm, it incinerated itself into a puff of smoke, immediately swept up into the windstorm.

  “Stupid boy,” the witch snarled.

  Lucien must have realized he wasn’t the dominant force he expected to be. “You can’t let her escape here, Braden. Help me stop her. You know she’s the real danger.”

  Lucien, asking me for help. Lucien underneath my boot, begging for mercy. The flash came fast, and ice grew in my veins. Crush them both. All. Everything. Destruction is glory. The warmest fires burn from bones.

  Blood rushed to my head and I stumbled, and if Trey hadn’t grabbed me in that moment Grace’s next attack might have severed my head from my body. The two of us tumbled to the ground in a sprawl, only the voices in my head wouldn’t shut up. They were so loud it was all I could hear.

  Blue light surrounded me, then flashed to purple. The darker it got, the more I slipped. The winter voices surged to the surface, and I fell back, down into a chasm somewhere deep inside myself where I would never find the way out again.

  Something struck me across the face, and just like that I was the one looking out my eyes again. My mouth tasted funny, there was blood smeared on Trey’s lips, and my face burned. He still had his hand out, and now I could feel the imprint against my skin. He’d slapped me. But something else.

  My chest hurt. Burned. It felt like someone had punched me right in the heart. Only then did I see the lightning trickling across Trey’s knuckles, remnants of his magic. Magic Trey shouldn’t have been able to access on his own.

  Or maybe he could—if the need was great enough.

  I touched my lips, feeling the blood there. The same blood smeared on Trey.

  Grace and Lucien had forgotten me entirely. Matthias stood, patiently waiting for instructions, still manhandling Riley and Jade into safety. There was a clear shot to the portal. I tried to push Trey towards it, telling him to go, run away, now while he still could. Before it was too late.

  Wind circled the lantern room, a cyclone. It swallowed sound and replaced it with a dark howl, low and roaring in my ears. I didn’t know which one of them was responsible for it, but it was only a matter of time before the wind was enough to tear us all from the floor. And sooner or later, all of us would spill out into the storm. A feast for the Riders.

  I climbed to my feet. “As soon as you get the signal, you get them out of here,” I shouted at Trey.

  “What signal?”

  “Just do it!”

  Once I had my balance, I counted to three. Took a deep breath. Braced myself. “Now!” I screamed.

  I threw my hand to the left and tore it down, like splitting a zipper. Only this time, I was tearing open a portal. Even on a good day, creating a portal took a lot of energy and time. But this wasn’t a portal to something, it was a portal between somethings. I shredded through dimensions in an instant and the incredible stores of power at my disposal were hacked out of me to fuel the spell.

  Trey threw himself towards his sister, and managed to get a hold of both her and Riley and pull them to the ground with him. Matthias, who threw his hands up as though in surrender, is back against the broken, crumbled wall of the lighthouse, framed by leviathan storms raging just beyond.

  My strength torn out of me in a single moment, I went from being on top of the world to barely keeping my head up. The portal opened like a stage curtain parting, but then it spilled up from the sides, a circle being drawn against the fabric of reality. But it wasn’t the portal itself that was important.

  It was what came through the portal.

  The body stumbled out and onto the stone floor of the lighthouse, collapsing onto hands and knees. Silver mercury dripped from somewhere in its middle, only losing its shine and pooling into blood as it struck the granite beneath it.

  And then Drew Armstrong lifted his head and snarled in fury.

  thirty-seven

  It’s called a game-changer. Something that alters the way the game is played, makes the old rules obsolete and causes everything to be called into question.

  For a second time, everything in the lighthouse stopped. Time itself needed a moment to catch its breath. Grace’s fury once again became a tidal wave of dark power as her sacrifice was stolen from her. Right out from under her. But even she held her breath.

  Drew looked up slowly, and to his credit he surveyed the room before speaking. He turned to each of the demons in turn before looking towards me. “This…was your brilliant plan? Letting them bitch each other to death?”

  “Hey, anyone that wants to go back to bleeding out in the empty spaces between dimensions is more than welcome to jump back inside,” I snapped back, without any heat. God, I’d missed Drew’s mouth.

  “That fucking hurt, y’know.”

  “In a minute,” I said frantically, my eyes wide with nerves. “Drew!” That panicked, high-pitched plea wasn’t really mine, was it?

  Drew didn’t waste another second. His hands slipped into the satchel and he pulled out a pair of black stones. Bricks. In a fluid motion, he slammed them into the ground and they splattered into dust.

  “She wants me to kill him?”

  “No,” Matthias said gravely. “She doesn’t want him dead. Dead won’t do her any good. To keep the portals open, he must be alive.” He steepled
his fingers together and regarded me from across the room. “Now tell me again how much you want your revenge upon them.”

  “She won’t like you helping me,” I added. “She likes to know that she controls everything.”

  “There’s a way you can fix that,” Matthias offered with a sly wink.

  As the stones exploded into gravel, brittle beyond their years, they released a pulse of white light. The light traveled upwards, taking the form of a complex geometric design, filled with inscriptions in languages I couldn’t even identify. All of it wrapped inside a circle inscribed with pointed stars.

  Grace’s head whipped towards Matthias, her accomplice, just in time to catch his fingers wagging a goodbye as he evaporated into thin air. Next she whirled around to find Drew, but the bleeding boy wasn’t where she’d left him. I caught the rat scurrying along across the floor just as it disappeared into a flash of silver and was replaced by a garden snake. Then a raccoon. Then, just as he reached Jade and Riley, returning to his human, Drew-sized shape. Through the tear in his shirt, I could see the still-reddened memory of the knife wound, the way it cut across the scar he already had, shaping an X across his skin.

  “You think you can betray me?” Grace’s fury continued to grow. “I will violate everything you’ve ever touched. You will leave the world the plague you always were, wiping out everything in your wake.”

  “Oops,” I asked, full of a sudden, maddening calm. “Did I forget the part where I yelled out ‘surprise’?” I summoned up every scrap of magic I could think of—everything John had taught me. Everything Jason and Catherine and Grace had ever used against me. Even the darkness I’d seen come from Lucien and Matthias. I used everything at my disposal, fire or ice, good or evil, me or the monster. Spells like steel, spells of thorn and bones, constructs shaped like walls and fortresses and magic like I’d never known.