Mortal Kiss

by Alice Moss

  “The creatures of Annwn are rising!” Mercy cried, reaching down to grip her great wolf’s collar. The animal, afraid, tried to twist from her grasp.

  “How do we stop it?” Faye shouted over the din. “Mercy, tell us how to stop it!”

  “We can’t!” Mercy screamed. “They will come for all of us! They’re coming now—look!”

  Amid the smoke were faces, fleeting among the waves of black flame. They rose to the surface, twisted, demented, skeletal, baring evil teeth and staring with blank eyes before sinking once more out of sight.

  “They’re looking for a way in!” Mercy cried. “And they’ll find it. They can feel us, feel our fear …”

  Joe grabbed her by the forearms, shaking her violently. “There must be something we can do!”

  Mercy shook her head hopelessly. “There’s nothing—nothing! There’s no way to seal the mirror again now. Before, I could control it. It was … it was mine.…”

  “It was never yours, Mercy!” Joe shouted back. “Don’t you see that? Don’t you understand?”

  “It could have been!” Mercy raged. “This is your fault, Joe Crowley! We should have been completing this together, side by side—you never should have left me!”

  Joe shook his head. “I never had your cruelty, Mercy,” he said. “And I’d rather die than see it drag another single soul into Annwn.”

  There was a loud crack, and Liz turned. The frame of the mirror was smoking as it burned. The black maelstrom began to seep out like bubbles rising to the surface of a boiling pot. It surged out of the mirror and up the wall to the ceiling. It crept onward, a malevolent dark fire, eating everything in its path.

  #

  Faye tugged at Finn’s hand. “The ritual!” she shouted over the ever-growing noise. “Your dad said that when he escaped Mercy before, he twisted it. Can’t we do that again?”

  Finn shook his head. “It won’t work—Annwn has already been awakened to what’s here. They’re expecting the bargain they agreed to.”

  “Then what?” Faye asked, looking at Joe. “Come on—there must be some way we can stop this!”

  “They’ll want something of equal value,” Joe told her. “We have to give them that, nothing less.”

  Finn looked at his father. “Dad?”

  Faye saw the look that passed between father and son—sadness and understanding.

  “I’ll do it,” said Joe. “I’ll sacrifice myself to Annwn.”

  Faye felt Finn’s hand tighten over hers. “You can’t!” he shouted. “Dad, it’s not—”

  “It’s the only way!” Joe shouted back. “An Immortal life, given willingly. I have to, Finn. Or everything we’ve worked for is lost, and so is this town. Quickly—you have to help me. We must do this now, before it’s too late.”

  “But there’s no mirror,” Finn pointed out. “It’s smashed, gone. There’s nothing to perform the ritual with.”

  Faye raised her head to stare at the ceiling, watching the writhing blackness spread, imagining it devouring the world completely. They were lost, surely. With no mirror to complete the ritual, everyone in Winter Mill would be engulfed by Annwn, lost to the horrors of the underworld forever.

  Something shone on the surface of the darkness, a pinprick of light. It was there for a second before dancing away across the room. Faye blinked, seeing more and more, a halo of stars.

  “The disco ball!” she shouted. It still hung above them, turning, casting tiny fractured lights to the four corners of the room.

  Liz looked up, confused. “What?”

  “The disco ball! We can use the disco ball!”

  “What are you talking about?” Lucas asked.

  Jimmy pointed up, frantic. “Faye’s right! Look at it! Mirrors! It’s made of mirrors!”

  They all looked up at the turning orb. “Omigod,” said Liz. “You’re right! Can we use it?”

  “We have to mark it with the symbols,” said Finn. “Can we lower it?”

  “I know where the controls are!” Liz said, pulling out of Jimmy’s arms. She ran toward a box on one of the walls.

  “Liz!” Faye shouted after her. “Look out!”

  Faye heard Liz scream as one of the twisted black figures made a grab for her out of the smoke. It lunged at Liz, ghostly fingers scraping sharply along her spine. She ducked, grabbing the lever on the wall and wrenching it hard.

  The disco ball began to descend, even as the blackness threatened to hide it completely.

  “Quickly!” Joe shouted. “We’re running out of time! I need something to write with!”

  Faye thrust her lipstick toward him, the one she’d fatefully used to enchant the now-destroyed gym mirror.

  #

  Finn watched as his father placed the lipstick against the mirror. Above, the darkness swirled around them like a live thing. The dark figures were stronger now, creeping out of the mirror on all fours, crawling jerkily along the walls, watching the drama unfold below them.

  “This won’t be enough!” Mercy screamed. “Don’t you understand? What Annwn wants—what it demands—one Immortal life won’t be enough to sate that!”

  Joe turned to look at her. “Then what about two, Mercy?”

  She stepped backward. “No. No, I won’t.”

  “But would it work?” Finn shouted at his mother. “Would two work?” Mercy didn’t answer, and Finn turned to Joe. “What about two?” he asked. “Two Immortal lives, given willingly, out of love. That has to be enough, doesn’t it?”

  He felt Faye tugging at his hand but forced himself not to look at her. Finn’s gaze was locked with his father’s, and he saw the answer there.

  Finn nodded. “I’ll give myself, Dad. I’ll come with you.”

  “Finn, no!” Faye cried, clutching his arm and trying to get him to turn toward her. “You can’t! Please, please don’t!”

  Joe nodded back at Finn, a sad look on his face. Then he turned toward the disco ball and reached out to paint the first of the symbols on its mirrored surface. His voice rose as he began to chant, ancient words that immediately added to the electricity in the room.

  Finn faced Faye, seeing the tears in her eyes. All he wanted to do was wrap her up in his arms and hold her there forever, but there was no time for them. If he didn’t do this now, they’d all be lost. He pulled her close, feeling her head come to rest against his chest.

  “I have to,” he told her as gently as he could over the roaring maelstrom around them and the sound of his father’s incantations.

  Faye looked up at him, the despair in her eyes suddenly replaced with steely determination. “Then I’m coming with you.”

  “What? No, Faye, you can’t—”

  “I can and I will. Annwn wants as much emotion as it can get, right? Well, I’d say that I’ve got quite a lot for it right now.”

  “You don’t understand,” Finn said, pleading. “It’ll be worse than you can imagine. I can’t let you go through that. I won’t.”

  “So you expect me to live here, without you, knowing that you’re there, in pain?” Faye asked. “You think that won’t be torture for me?” She shook her head, standing on tiptoe to place her hands on either side of his face. “Finn, I love you. Where you go, I go. I won’t leave you.”

  Finn stared into her eyes, so fiery, so determined, so beautiful. He wanted to kiss her and realized that this might be his final chance. His father’s chant was rising, reaching its conclusion. Finn leaned in, but before their lips could meet, he was wrenched away. It was Joe, pulling him toward the disco ball.

  “There’s no time!” Joe shouted. “Touch the glass, now!”

  Finn did as he was told, reaching out to press his palm to the mosaic of glass. Faye moved with him, and before Finn could stop her, she’d placed her hand beside his. Joe stood beside them, his huge hand joining theirs on the disco ball. He shouted one final incantation, his voice echoing away into the storm around them.

  There was a long, low shriek from somewhere. It sounded more animal
than human. Inside the mirrored surface of the disco ball, a column of black smoke grew and grew, until it was too big to be contained. It shot out of the shining globe, pluming above them. Inside it were more creatures, writhing, their skeletal faces looking down at the humans below them.

  Faye screamed as the column descended, ready to swallow them up, and Finn held her close. He shut his eyes, expecting to feel the grip of Annwn taking hold at any minute. But then there was a pause.

  Finn opened his eyes and saw that Faye was staring up into the billowing column of oily black. One single figure had emerged from the tangled mass of lost souls. It was a woman, gaunt and skeletal, but still recognizably sad. She stared down at them.

  “I know her!” Faye shouted. “I’ve seen her before. In the mirror, at the mall …”

  The figure swooped toward them, and Finn saw Faye flinch. But the creature did not attack. It hovered in front of them for a moment. And then it spoke.

  “Not you,” it whispered, in a voice like a thousand dull knives sliding against each other. “Neither of you. My masters will not take these souls. They are not enough.”

  Panic sped through Finn’s veins. If this didn’t work, they had no other option. “No!” he shouted as the figure began to sink into the smoke once more. “Wait! Please, wait—”

  The lost soul turned away. Finn thought it was going to disappear, but instead, it shot toward Mercy Morrow. The enchantress shrank back, but the figure wove through the air, riding the tide of smoke until they were nose to nose.

  “This one,” it hissed, its ghostly voice echoing clearly through the hall. “This one has fear enough to feed us. This one.”

  “No!” Mercy screamed. “No, you can’t!” She scrambled backward. “Without me, who will bargain with you?”

  The figure smiled, and in its spectral face, Finn could see a line of sharp, terrifying fangs. “My masters will find a way,” it whispered. “They always do.”

  Mercy turned, trying to flee, but suddenly the great gray wolf was there, blocking her way, snarling and snapping.

  “What are you doing?” Mercy screamed at the creature. “You’re mine! Mine!”

  The wolf drove her back toward the ball of mirrors, yellow eyes consumed with rage. It didn’t stop until she was pressed against the shining orb.

  Finn felt something cold spark under his hand, and suddenly he and Faye were flung backward. Finn threw his arm out, trying to protect Faye’s head as they both crashed to the floor. Finn looked around for Joe, but his father was still standing, hand fused with the disco ball. The air shimmered black around him and Mercy.

  “Dad?” Finn shouted. “What—”

  At that moment, more electricity burst out of the mirrored orb, silhouetting both Immortals against the darkness. A loud crack sounded above them as the disco ball came free of its moorings, crashing to the floor. Its mirrors shivered, a thousand reflections of Joe and Mercy shuddering on its surface. Around them, the writhing smoke descended, snaking toward the ball in one smooth stream. It engulfed the two Immortals, swallowing them whole.

  The rumbling grew louder still. The floor of the gym shook, the wooden planks shearing underfoot as they were torn to pieces. Finn saw Lucas, Liz and Jimmy fall to the floor. The blackness poured into the huge disco ball, filling the tiny mirrors one by one. It blew past them all, faster and faster, like a storm rushing through a valley. The last ghostly black flame fled into it, and for a brief second the reflections of Joe’s and Mercy’s faces were repeated over and over as they sank into the darkness within.

  The disco ball exploded. It splintered into tiny shards too small to count, sending showers of glass into the air to tinkle to the ground like tiny bells.

  And then the rumbling stopped.

  #

  They all lay still for a while, catching their breath. Lucas was the first to get up, looking at the place where his mother had been standing before the hordes of Annwn had claimed her. There was no sign that she’d been there at all. He felt a gentle hand on his arm and turned to see Faye looking at him sympathetically.

  “I’m sorry, Lucas,” she said.

  He shrugged, trying to smile, trying not to think of the only parent he’d ever known, lost somewhere in the underworld, suffering at the mercy of those monsters. “I guess that was karma in action, huh?”

  He looked around the gym. The room was a wreck, the floor torn up, the ceiling tainted with what looked like oil. On the wall, all that was left of the mirror was its smoking frame. The darkness had gone, leaving only singed brick where once had been the path into Annwn.

  “Well,” he said wryly. “Looking on the bright side, I guess this means—”

  He stopped midsentence, spying something in the corner of the room. It was a man, lying on his side, clad in rags and apparently unconscious.

  “Hey,” Lucas said. “Who’s that?”

  Finn took Faye’s hand, looking where Lucas pointed. “Anyone see where the wolf went?”

  Lucas shook his head. “No … it just kind of vanished.”

  Finn nodded. “With Mercy’s magic broken, the wolves that were under her control will be wolves no longer.”

  “Faye,” Liz said suddenly, in a voice that made Lucas look at her immediately. “Doesn’t that look like … Isn’t that—?”

  Lucas heard Faye’s sharp intake of breath as she looked at the crumpled man. “Oh God! Oh God … It’s my dad! That’s my dad!” Faye ran to the slumped figure. She crouched beside him, shaking him. “Dad! Can you hear me?”

  Liz knelt down next to Faye. “Mercy called him Peter … but I thought she was just being clever,” she said. “You know, Peter and the wolf … I never thought … Oh my God, and the wolf tried to help me! With breaking the mirror—and when Mercy tried to get away! I should have known! Mr. McCarron!”

  “Dad,” Faye said again. “Daddy, please wake up!”

  Peter McCarron opened his eyes slowly, blinking as he looked up at his daughter. Lucas could see how alike their eyes were. “Faye?” her father asked hoarsely. “Faye, is that really you?”

  “Wait …,” said Liz, looking up at Finn as realization dawned. “Wait a minute—does this mean my dad’s going to be OK too? If the magic’s gone—will he be back to normal? Oh, Finn, please say he will!”

  Lucas saw his brother nod wearily. “He should be fine,” Finn said. “All the men under Mercy’s thrall should be back to normal.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Does that go for the bikers, too?”

  Finn frowned. “I don’t think so. We left her influence centuries ago.”

  Liz jumped up, grabbing Jimmy’s hand. “Jimmy, we have to find my mom and dad! And yours! Please? Right now?”

  Jimmy smiled. “Let’s go.”

  Lucas watched the pair head for the exit. Then he looked at Finn. “I’m sorry. You know—about your father. He was a good guy.”

  Finn nodded grimly. “Yeah.”

  Lucas shrugged unhappily, staring at his feet. “I guess you and I are kind of in the same boat now, right? With the no parents thing, I mean.”

  He felt Finn’s eyes on him and looked up to meet his brother’s gaze. “That’s a pretty big house you’ve got up there in the woods,” Finn said quietly.

  Lucas nodded. “It is.”

  “Too big for one person, I mean.”

  Lucas stared at Finn, then smiled. “Yeah. I could probably take in a few lodgers. The sort who’ve spent a lot of time on the road, maybe?”

  Finn smiled back. “You know, Joe told me once that Mercy used to keep diaries.”

  “Diaries?” Lucas repeated, confused.

  Finn nodded. “Accounts of where she’d been, the people she’d met …” He looked Lucas in the eye. “Her conquests. Might be worth looking up the one that involved your dad. Don’t you think?”

  #

  “Did you find my locket?” Peter McCarron asked as Faye helped him stand. “You know, the one that was your mom’s?”

  Faye slipped her arm th
rough her dad’s as they walked slowly outside. “Yeah, Dad. We found it. Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

  “Oh,” he said, relieved. “I thought it might be gone forever. Mercy ordered one of her wolves to take it from me. I tried to hold on to it. I tried to fight them off, too, you know. That was such a chase through the woods. Lost my little silver letter opener in the process. I really thought I’d nicked one of the wolves in the struggle, but maybe not.”

  “Don’t worry about anything right now,” Faye told him as they reached the school steps. “Everything’s fine.”

  Overhead, the heavy snow clouds were slowly slipping away. A late-fall sun filtered down over Winter Mill. Faye shut her eyes, lifting her face to the warmth. She felt her father squeeze her arm and smiled.

  “Looks like the thaw has begun,” said Peter McCarron weakly as Faye gazed at him. His face was shadowed with hunger, but the smile Faye remembered so well was there. “Mercy’s influence is fading already.”

  “Yes,” sighed Faye. “Well, it’s about time.”

  Her father nodded. “I think I’d better go and see Pam,” he said, heading down the school steps. “She’s going to want to know where I’ve been.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Faye said, hanging back. She watched as her father nodded and waved. In another minute he’d blended into the groups of students who were still milling around, confused.

  “You don’t want to go with him?”

  It was Finn’s voice that spoke behind her softly. Faye turned. He was watching her in that quiet, intense way he had, as if trying to tell what was in her heart.

  “I will. In a minute.”

  Finn nodded, moving nearer. “It’s funny,” he said slowly. “I don’t know about you, but I kind of feel as if … I don’t know … as if there’s something missing.”

  “Missing?”

  He took another step closer, right into her space. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Like … there’s some unfinished business somehow.”

  Faye looked up into his dark eyes. “Unfinished business?”

  Finn shrugged. “But maybe that’s just me.”

  Faye smiled, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck. “No,” she whispered. “It’s not just you.”