Covenant

by Sabrina Benulis

  “You were right,” Troy said. “We will have to turn around.”

  Nina shut her eyes, probably unable to imagine retracing that many steps only to get lost again.

  Wait! Master! Fury’s thoughts interrupted Troy’s with sudden force. The Vapor landed with a thud at Troy’s feet, dancing and flapping her large wings. There is an opening in the ceiling, high above. But it can only be reached by flying. The human . . .

  Troy glanced at Nina. The girl would have to be carried.

  “Tell me you’re not afraid of heights,” Troy said to her.

  Nina’s face lost the rest of its color. Perhaps she was remembering that night she’d fallen from one of Luz’s high towers, and Troy had dived to rescue her from plunging into Earth’s frigid sea. “We have to climb?” Nina managed to squeak out.

  Troy grunted. “You would never make it all the way. Especially in such a pitiful state. I will fly and carry you.”

  “But—”

  “Do you suggest that I leave you here?” Troy snapped. “Either way, make your decision. We don’t have much time.”

  Nina seemed to search the darkness for an invisible clock counting down their seconds. Then she nodded and approached Troy awkwardly. “Won’t I be kind of heavy?”

  “I’ve carried trophies twice your size back to the Warrens,” Troy said. “You are little more than air.”

  “Oh. Okay then . . .”

  Troy wrapped her arms around Nina’s chest and waist. With a commanding nod at Juno, she spread her wings and flapped them powerfully, bouncing thunderous echoes off the walls. In seconds they had lifted from the ground and begun to soar upward. It had been awhile since Troy felt the warm breeze whipping back her hair, the miraculous effect of the air buoying her aloft.

  Nina’s weight barely affected Troy. She ascended faster and faster, aware of Juno and Fury soaring close behind.

  They aimed for a pinhole in the ceiling that became larger and larger the closer they approached. Large script circled their exit to freedom. Snakes carved into the stone stared back at them with cruel glittering eyes.

  Nina spoke in Troy’s ears, her voice shaky with fear. She was reading the words that surrounded the porthole. “What you thought was Up is actually Down. In this room, a hundred Hells are found.”

  A scorching sense of danger shot through Troy. She spread her wings stiffly, trying to brake.

  She was too late. Eerie laughter echoed behind the noise of Troy’s wing beats. The stone snakes’ eyes glowed brightly.

  Troy’s own momentum pushed her through. The others followed a moment later.

  With a terrifying sound of metal on stone, the porthole closed like an eye blinking shut.

  Twenty-four

  The more I longed for home, the farther away it became. —TROY

  The world tilted and whirled.

  Troy smacked into what should have been a ceiling but was actually a floor.

  Nina dropped from her arms with a loud cry, and Troy accidentally bit the inside of her own cheek, smarting at the blood filling her mouth. The laughter had faded.

  Troy cursed herself anyway. She should have recognized the illusion at some point on her own. Recently, perhaps in the monotonous course of their journey, the landscape had actually twisted upside-down. The effect had been so subtle, even Troy hadn’t noticed as she should have.

  She pushed up from the floor, spitting out blood. Her injured ankle throbbed painfully.

  Juno huddled against her, even more wide-eyed than usual. Fury also seemed entranced as she stared out into the dimly lit room in utter silence. Nina groaned and rubbed at her head as she sat up.

  “What just happened?” she muttered, wincing as her leg brushed the floor. Most of the blood on her bandage had dried to an ugly black color, but the wound would continue to ooze for quite a while before decay set in.

  Troy slammed her fist against the floor and gasped for breath.

  She rounded on Fury. The bird broke from her spell just in time.

  Troy swiped at the crow angrily, and Fury skittered aside, screeching. Forgive me, Fury begged in her whispery little voice. You know I cannot read! I didn’t know—

  Forget it, Troy snapped. She stood and rubbed at her hand, stroking her nails. I will deal with you later.

  Fury shivered but wisely dropped the subject.

  Troy stretched her wings and folded them inward again as she glanced at their surroundings. There were embers and the soft blue-green luminescence covering some of the ceiling that Troy recognized from her own home in the Underworld. But everywhere, obsidian as smooth and reflective as glass jutted from the floor in a new maze of mirrors. Juno had fixated on one of her hundreds of reflections and began to approach it cautiously. She tapped at it and retreated back to Troy’s side, whimpering.

  “What is this?” Nina said, wincing again as she tried to stand. Beads of sweat dotted her dirty forehead.

  Troy looked to her right and left but found nothing besides more mirrors.

  Somehow, there was probably a way out. But finding it in this mess of illusions would be dangerously time consuming.

  She sniffed. Sariel’s scent was now completely gone, though they were actually deeper in Hell, which would be better for finding Angela.

  Troy examined herself in the mirror. The bluish tinge to her lips looked faded and dull in the equally bluish light. Far from looking intimidating, Troy appeared as ravaged as she felt. Her hair was more knotted than usual, and her wings had only started to grow back the missing fourth of her feathers. Old scars somehow looked more prominent and monstrous. There seemed to be little left of the High Assassin who brought so much terror to the Underworld.

  “There will be an exit,” Troy said, turning away from her pathetic reflection. “The demon would be bored otherwise. So we must find the way out. Now.”

  Their little group was alone and terribly vulnerable. Troy dropped onto her hands and feet and prowled cautiously around their perimeter.

  The room was smaller than the mirrors made it look.

  Troy found the first corner to turn easily enough. There were even more mirrors here. The others followed and cautiously fanned out, their footsteps slower and more tentative the more they walked away from one another. Troy licked away at the blood inside of her mouth, her stomach growling pathetically. Nina wobbled and leaned against one of the obsidian mirrors.

  “Are you all right?” Troy said, examining her keenly.

  Nina straightened, but the tired look in her face didn’t change. “Would you mind if I just stayed here until you found the exit? I don’t think I’ll be much help as I am anyway . . .”

  That was reasonable enough.

  Troy nodded. “Juno, come.”

  “But, Auntie, I think—”

  “NOW,” Troy said.

  Juno scampered to Troy with Fury hopping behind at a safe distance.

  “She will be fine,” Troy muttered to Juno as they rounded another reflective corner. “The more you haunt her with your presence, the less she will heal. She needs to become stronger, and without relying on the fickle compassion of a Jinn chick.”

  Juno’s ears flattened, but she said nothing. Silently, she watched as Troy untied bones from her hair and dropped them at key areas to use as a path back to their starting point. The silence continued as they wandered in relative circles. Yet the more they wandered, the more Troy’s impatience grew, and an evil sense of being watched oppressed her.

  She stopped abruptly next to a bone on the floor that she didn’t recognize. Juno smacked into her legs and plopped onto the ground, shaking her wings.

  “Auntie?” Juno whispered.

  Troy ignored her, trying to think, staring at the bone. Her mind had been working on a faint memory. Now it came back to her with crushing force. A rumor had been passed down among the Jinn that the demons had chambers like this one sprinkled throughout Hell, especially their city of Babylon, and that they used them not only as a way to punish transgressors and e
nemies, but as a battleground for two equally matched opponents.

  Amid these mirrors, they would drop two Jinn and starve them before forcing them to battle each other to the death.

  There was no reason to think this demon would ignore tradition. But he hadn’t even bothered to have an opponent attack Troy or Juno.

  That left Nina.

  Troy broke away from the bone of her ancestor in revulsion. “Hurry. We must return!”

  Without any further explanation, she galloped as swiftly as she could. Her feet slid across the stone floor, its chill leeching upward through her palms and spreading throughout her body.

  The demon couldn’t kill the girl. Angela would never forgive Troy for letting Nina die so easily, and besides, it was now a matter of pride for Troy to keep her alive.

  At least that was what Troy told herself. Why else would she be acting so foolishly?

  This time, the laughter that followed her sounded loud and clear.

  Twenty-five

  Only the strongest souls escape becoming my marionettes. —PYTHON

  Nina wasn’t sure if it was her tiredness or her hunger causing her to hallucinate. She felt like a zombie staring at her reflection, trying to wish away her weakness and pain. Angela needed her, and Nina was stuck so far away. It actually hurt her inside, and the questions within her echoed that pain. Why had she been brought back from death? Who brought her back? Worse still, how could she prove she still had a reason to live?

  Perhaps it was those thoughts that summoned Stephanie Walsh’s image in one of the obsidian mirrors.

  Stephanie was uncomfortably different from the person Nina feared so much before she’d died. Her red hair was much shorter and more ragged. Stephanie also looked older, as if she’d aged ten years in the span of one, with a weariness look pulling down all her features. She wore a white jumpsuit instead of the Pentacle Sorority uniform, and her characteristic smug smile had vanished. But her green eyes burned with a fiercer fire than ever.

  “Hello, Nina,” Stephanie’s reflection whispered. “I must admit, you’re the last person who deserves Hell. Was it me who put you here?”

  Nina stared. That was one thing she couldn’t remember. This was all so dreamlike and surreal.

  A warm breeze brushed at her hair.

  “I am sorry about that,” Stephanie said. “If it was my fault.” Stephanie managed to smile. “I know. I look different, right? My bloodshot eyes. My ridiculous hair. I guess I do deserve that. I made fun of you for all those years. You said you saw dead people in your dreams and no one cared or believed you. The people who did believe you tortured you for it. Now, I see people in my dreams. And I hear voices in my head.”

  Stephanie shivered.

  “And her voice is the worst one of all . . .”

  Nina shivered with her.

  “One of those voices called me here, Nina. I didn’t want to go through the door. I cried and begged not to. But this demon told me that if I did, I had a second chance. Angela is down here, isn’t she?” Stephanie’s voice hardened. “There’s still a lot I need to say to her. Where is she, Nina? Do you know?”

  Nina shook her head. Her heart raced and her limbs chilled. For some indefinable reason, she felt rooted to the spot.

  Stephanie appeared to step closer. Instantly, her reflection multiplied with her shift in position, gleaming from countless other obsidian mirrors. She smiled again and flexed her hands.

  “Nina, I know we haven’t gotten along in the past. But I want you to think hard about something. What has Angela really done for you? What kind of positive influence has she been in your life?”

  “She’s my friend,” Nina whispered.

  Stephanie shook her head. “That’s not an answer.” She sighed. “Nina, I could help you. You deserve that, I think. I came here through a door too. I can lead you back to that same door. I can get you out of this place and back to Luz where you can live a normal, humdrum, happy life . . .”

  “I can’t go right now,” Nina said. Her mind flashed to Troy, Juno, and Fury.

  “Are you talking about that bloodthirsty Jinn? You can’t leave a monster like her behind? Don’t you think she’d do the same in a heartbeat if she had the chance?”

  Nina thought of Troy harder and suddenly found herself unable to answer. She thought of how and why Troy might be staying by her side, and the more she questioned it, the more the kindness behind the reasons grew doubtful.

  She swallowed nervously.

  “Come on,” Stephanie whispered. She walked closer, her reflections shuddering across the mirrors, twisting their positions. “I can see you want to get out of this Hell. Once we find Angela, we can leave together, you and me. Think of it as an apology for my part in getting you into this mess . . .”

  Nina’s mouth dried like a desert. Her heart hammered beneath her chest. “Can’t I have a moment to think—”

  “I don’t have time,” Stephanie snapped, some of her old nastiness returning. “It’s not that difficult a choice, Nina. Angela doesn’t care about you, or you wouldn’t be here. That ratty Jinn who wants Kim dead doesn’t care either. Do you really think an angel, demon, or anything like them can feel real compassion for a human being? I know better than anyone that they think differently than us.”

  A flash of anguish crossed Stephanie’s face. She came closer, her many reflections looming larger.

  Now Nina saw she held something shiny in her hands.

  Nina’s mind turned in every direction. She didn’t want to believe what Stephanie was saying. But the more Nina considered, the more it seemed impossible for Troy to really care if she lived or died. To Troy, Juno, and Fury, Nina was a burden, an inconvenience. Nothing more. And Angela—what had her presence in Nina’s life done? Nina had died once and she was about to die again. Angela was nowhere to be found right now.

  Stephanie stretched out her hand, smiling.

  Nina reached out for it, her mind still in a fog.

  Then with a sudden flash sparked from the depths of her soul, she relived, in mere moments, countless happy, peaceful, and sad but meaningful memories. They ended with Angela’s stricken face and her sorrowful voice, asking Nina a question that must have been tormenting. There’s more to me than being the Archon, isn’t there?

  Once again, Nina felt Angela’s warm hands holding hers; she heard Angela promising in her firm way to answer all Nina’s questions if they exited Hell alive. Then Angela’s hug held them together, and her hot tears hit Nina’s shoulder. Those tears in Nina’s memories felt almost as warm as in reality. It was true that Angela had been awkward with expressing her emotions in the past, almost cold. But Nina had learned that was just Angela’s way of keeping her feelings safe. She distanced herself from others to protect her heart.

  Now, Angela’s soul was changing, and Nina’s had changed with it.

  She withdrew her hand from Stephanie’s. “I can’t go with you.”

  Stephanie blinked at her.

  “Stephanie,” Nina said, “what you said is somewhat true. Maybe Troy doesn’t care about me at all. Maybe Angela wasn’t really my friend at the beginning. But she is now. And Troy could have left me for dead at any time while she and I were here. She chose not to. Besides, if I return to Earth, what kind of life can I live when most people remember me dead? I’d be nothing but a freak, just like I used to be. So my answer is no. I can’t go back. I won’t leave. I made a promise too—even if I didn’t say it aloud.”

  Stephanie’s sorrowful look returned. “You’re a step ahead of me, Nina. No matter how many friends surround me, they’re typically friends in name only. I guess you’re making the right choice.” She shook her head. “But that doesn’t mean it’s the smart one. Oh, well . . . I tried.”

  A lethal light appeared behind Stephanie’s green eyes again, but this time Nina caught the briefest flash of reptilian pupils.

  Nina should have known something about this was too perfect. Stephanie wasn’t completely herself. Someone else was
manipulating her thoughts, maybe even controlling her.

  Nina shuffled backward.

  Stephanie took another step closer, and her reflections disappeared. Now she stood in the flesh directly to Nina’s right, staring at her while she clasped a long, sharp piece of obsidian in her hands. Stephanie’s face blanked over oddly, and a pathetic fear replaced the hardness in her eyes. “That demon said if I killed you, he’d lead me right to Angela,” she whispered fearfully. “I told him no, Nina. But then the demon told me—I didn’t really have a choice. Run while you can. Run—”

  Stephanie’s voice cut off. Her face reverted back to a cold mask, and now the words that came out of her mouth were clearly someone else’s.

  “What a timely interruption,” the voice hissed through Stephanie’s lips. “Isn’t it just my luck that the insane tend to be strong-willed. Well, why fight it? If you want to watch yourself kill Nina Willis, Stephanie my dear, be my guest.”

  Stephanie’s face sapped to the whiteness of pure fear. “No. No,” she begged, but an invisible force jerked her arms up so that she raised the knife high.

  Nina dodged just in time.

  The obsidian whistled through the air.

  Nina pitched hard against the ground, shrieking in pain as her injured leg touched the stone. She rolled, dodging again. Obsidian clanged against the stone floor. There was a harsh cracking sound, and it broke into four smaller fragments. Stephanie jerkily knelt down to pick one of them up. She was desperately trying to fight whatever control her captor still had over her, but it wasn’t working.

  Another fragment skittered close to Nina. She grabbed it, hot with fear.

  Nina wobbled to her feet as soon as possible, took her chance, and ran.

  Her running was more like hobbling. Every step felt maddeningly slow. She escaped into part of the mirror maze, turning corners like mad, trying to hide. But though Stephanie was slower to follow her, the laughter resounding in the air was not. Nina turned another corner, her heart pounding frightfully, her breath catching in her throat.