But she didn’t have a crowbar. And there were no discernible levers or controls anywhere on the archway or around it. Just a plain, beveled archway of stone that rose up over her head and arced down the other side.
Crystal magic was supposed to open it. But how, exactly? There were no inscriptions, no circles, no altar. Nothing.
Undeterred, she held the galena crystal high and walked toward the archway. As she got closer, a piercing whine rang through her skull. Like the worst kind of microphone feedback, as if she had speakers clamped on either side of her head.
Her head pounded, making her gasp, sending black shadows pulsing in her vision. She stumbled back from the archway, and the whine faded to nothing.
The galena wouldn’t work, she realized. But that was the only crystal she had that related to demons. If the galena wouldn’t work, then what would?
A horrible sinking feeling overwhelmed her. Maybe she was wrong.
Maybe she had led them to a dead end, and they would all die here.
Except for Greyson, who would lose his soul and become the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse. And after that, quite possibly, the world would end.
Worse, it was all her fault.
Rane and Greyson ran up the ramp behind her, breathing hard.
“I could’ve taken them,” Rane snapped at Greyson.
He ignored her. “Dru?”
“I’ve got nothing,” she whispered. She didn’t bother to turn around. She couldn’t face the doom that was headed their way.
Behind her, tires slid in the dirt and stopped. Engines growled. Creatures snarled.
The Horsemen were here.
“Wait,” Dru realized out loud. “If I’m getting feedback, then it isn’t nothing after all. It’s interference.”
Two of her crystals had to be interfering with one another. There had to be something else working against the galena. She opened her purse and dug through it. When her fingers brushed against the vivianite crystal from the mansion, it flickered with a pale green light.
Holding up the vivianite, Dru stepped into the archway as car doors slammed and claws clattered on the rocks behind her. Rane grunted, and the sound was immediately followed by the unmistakable strike of her stone fist against flesh. Something roared in pain and anger.
Before Dru could pass through the archway, an invisible force pushed her back, like two magnets repelling each other. She planted her feet and leaned in, the glowing vivianite crystal outstretched in front of her, pushing as hard as she could.
It took all of her strength, but it still wasn’t enough. The muscles in her arms and legs strained, but she couldn’t budge. It wasn’t physical strength she needed. It was magical.
But she had no more to give. After everything that had happened, her energy was spent. She felt it ebbing away. The primal force inside the archway pushed back harder and harder, threatening to knock her off her feet.
In a heartbeat, Greyson was there behind her. Hands on her shoulders, holding her up. Steadying her.
She pried one hand loose from the vivianite and reached back. His grip on her hand was warm and strong. The moment he touched her, she felt his strength flowing into her.
The vivianite glowed brighter. Its unearthly green light transformed the archway into a shimmering window. The snarls of the demons turned into retreating squeals and faded to silence. A serene tranquility spread out in the brilliance of the light.
A tight grin spread across Dru’s face. She’d done it.
They’d done it. Together.
The thrill of victory quickly melted into fear as an ice-cold wind blew past, swirling around her. It nipped at her exposed skin like a wild animal, swirled her hair, plucked at her clothes. The air sizzled with an invisible electricity.
A rumble filled her ears, drowning out the rest of the world. She tried to turn and warn Greyson, but her body wouldn’t obey. Hot energy danced over her skin, crackled through her clothes like static.
The dry brown landscape on the other side of the archway brightened, the colors bleaching away until they became nothing but a blinding white light. Purer than sunlight. Painfully intense.
Against what felt like impossible weight, Dru raised her hand to shield her eyes. The light shone through her skin, piercing her flesh, silhouetting the long bones in her hand.
The ground lurched beneath her feet, and an irresistible force drew them into the light.
27
UNDER THE MILKY WAY TONIGHT
The assault of light and noise dwindled into dark silence. The icy wind dropped away to nothing, leaving them surrounded by cool, damp air that felt strangely sticky on Dru’s skin. It smelled like the brisk sharpness after a thunderstorm.
After the glare of the desert, Dru’s eyes had trouble adjusting to the sudden darkness. Above, a night sky blazed with falling stars and shimmering spiderwebs of ghostly, prismatic light.
The ruins of a stone fortress surrounded them. The unearthly starlight made it impossible to see much more than jutting silhouettes, as if they were trapped inside an enormous fossilized rib cage. Here and there, a few fragments of hideous statues peered back at them from the wet rocks, inhuman faces leering from the shadows.
Overhead, the sky rippled with twisting patterns of color. Pinpoints of light snaked into shimmering curtains. Burning lights, like stars but much bigger and closer, flared into brilliance as they slashed across the heavens, leaving smoky trails in their wake, until they burned out near the horizon, over undulating waves of mist that glowed in the hellish light from above.
A road paved with glistening cobblestones stretched downhill, out of the ruins. On one side of the road, a sheer cliff dropped away into an ocean of clouds. But Dru couldn’t see or hear any water. Nothing but a whispering sea of mist that slowly rose and fell in waves according to the wind, like a vast living, breathing creature.
“This is your ‘safe road’?” Rane said, throwing anxious glances over both shoulders. “Where the hell are we? What happened to the desert?”
Dru shook her head. “I was kind of expecting another secret door or something.”
The three of them stood at the foot of a looming archway that didn’t look at all like the smooth, modern arch in the desert. This one seemed squat and primitive by comparison, built of individual weathered stones stacked one on top of another, two curved pillars tilting toward each other until they met at a distinct point at the top.
Dru stared back through this crude archway. Where there should have been desert, there was nothing but haunted darkness. Angry bolts of light flared across the sky, reflecting on the wet rocks of the ruined fortress.
“Why would the Harbingers build a portal to come here?” The night seemed to swallow Dru’s voice. “Is this really the netherworld?”
“More important question,” Rane said. “Where are the demons? They were right behind me.” Fists raised, Rane watched the portal intently, as if expecting the demons to come lunging through at any moment. “We don’t know how long we have until they follow us.”
She had a good point. “Can we fight them?” Dru said.
Rane hesitated. Which told Dru that they couldn’t.
That left them only two choices: run or hide.
The still-glowing vivianite crystal in her hand reflected up into Greyson’s face. “Can you take us back to the desert?” he said.
“I don’t know,” Dru admitted after thinking it through. “But if the demons are waiting there for us? That would be suicide.”
“Maybe we can find a good spot to ambush them,” Greyson said. “Fight them one at a time.”
Rane looked from him to Dru in disbelief. “You’re not seriously thinking about sticking around here.”
Dru got out her cell phone, switched on the light, and played it across the ruins around them. It didn’t shine far. The light glistened off high walls and crumbling doorways built of black polygonal rocks. She had no idea what might lurk in the darkness. Each potential hiding spot looked scar
ier than the last.
Dru took a long look at the primitive archway. Could the demons follow them here? She had no idea. But if they were coming through, they could arrive at any moment.
“We need to get as far away from here as we can,” Dru said. “Fast.”
Rane brushed past her. “Follow me.” She jogged downhill, following the wet cobblestone road out of the ruins and along the edge of the cliff.
They ran in silence, staying close together. The cool, clammy air seemed to absorb the sound of their footsteps on the hexagonal stones, leaving only the disconcerting whistle of wind through the ruins. Above, the alien skies continued their torturous duel of lightning and shooting stars.
The shaky light from Dru’s phone illuminated only a meager wedge of glistening cobblestones in front of them. As the road stretched on, her legs began to burn, and her lungs ached. She didn’t know how long she could keep up this pace.
Just when she thought she’d have to stop, Greyson halted at a curve in the road and closed a hand over her phone’s light, making his fingers glow red. “Turn it off,” he said urgently.
Alarmed, she did as he asked, plunging them into darkness broken only by the haunted, ever-changing lights from the sky. Wordlessly, Greyson raised one arm and pointed into the distance.
Up ahead, she could barely make out the black ribbon of the road as it led straight to the edge of the cliff. Past that, an ocean of mist stretched to the horizon, broken only by the long, straight line of some kind of bridge.
A causeway.
“If the legends are true,” Dru whispered, “that causeway was built by ancient sorcerers to connect between portals. It might lead us to another way out of here.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Rane said.
Dru glanced back at the black stone ruins. “Then we’ll have to take our chances with the demons.”
28
THE LONGEST FALL
The causeway was held together by magic, no doubt about that. Assembled from polygonal black stone blocks, the same kind as the demolished fortress at the top of the hill. The mortar holding the blocks together was sheer enchantment, glowing softly like molten steel poured straight from the forge. But Dru didn’t need to know how it was made. She just had to know that every pounding step carried them farther from the demons in the desert.
They ran for another mile, possibly two, before Dru’s legs finally gave out. Her breath burned in her lungs. A stabbing pain lanced up her side. She stumbled to a halt, hands braced on her knees, gasping for breath.
Greyson stopped beside her, his face creased with worry. “Dru?”
“Just . . .” She coughed and gasped, face hot with more than exertion. “Just need a sec.”
Rane, who had overshot them, came jogging back. “Dude, she’s not a runner. And she doesn’t have your demon strength. This could be bad.” She looked anxiously down the length of the causeway, then back the way they’d come.
Breathing hard, Dru followed her gaze to the ruins of the fortress, which stood in the distance like dark fingers against the sky.
Rane paced. “If those demons drive their cars through the portal and come down the road after us? That’s it. We’re done.”
Greyson turned to Dru. “They can drive down here?”
“I dunno.” Dru gulped, feeling nauseous. “Think I’m going to throw up.”
There were no guardrails along the edges of the stone causeway, just a sharp drop-off on both sides. Below, eerie billows of mist roiled and reflected the ever-changing lights in the mad sky, only making her feel more seasick. She had to close her eyes to blot it out.
“Come on.” Rane grabbed her arm and pulled her along. “Don’t stop now, or you’ll make it worse. Need to walk it off.”
“Walk it off?” Dru complained as Rane’s viselike grip led her onward. “Has that ever worked for anybody?” But after a few minutes, the nausea did pass, although the sharp pain in her feet persisted. She tried to run again, but the torture was too much.
She pulled off one shoe and sucked in a breath when she saw her heel, the skin nearly rubbed off. “Definitely not the right footwear for today’s activities.”
Rane pointed down the causeway. “Cowgirl up. We’re sitting ducks. No time to mess around.”
Just as Dru started to protest that she needed to bandage her feet somehow, Greyson scooped her up in his arms. She let out a little yelp of surprise, her heart beating faster, and clasped her arms around his shoulders.
“Let’s go,” he said to Rane.
She gave him a wary look, wordlessly checked with Dru, and set off again at a brisk run. “Try to keep up.”
He didn’t seem to have much trouble. His glowing red eyes burned in the half-light, and his chest swelled with each breath. He ran without any seeming effort, his strides long and sure.
If there was a bright side to his demon problem, Dru realized, it was the remarkable endurance it gave him.
As she pondered that, Greyson said, “You okay?”
Dru nodded. “You don’t have to carry me,” she said into his ear.
He gave her a sidelong look. “Just watch my back, in case anything comes up behind us.”
She nodded. But there was no sign of movement from the fortress. Dru’s gaze gradually strayed to the distant horizon on one side, past the occasional flickering colors in the depths of the mist. In the dark distance, something glittered. She took off her glasses, rubbed them on her shirt, put them back on again, and squinted.
Cleaning her glasses didn’t help. And neither did the constant running motion. But she could just barely make out vertical rows or towers that glittered in the shifting lights of the sky. From so many miles away, it almost looked like a city skyline gone dark.
She nudged Greyson. “You see that? Way out there? What is that?”
He blinked softly glowing eyes. “High-rise buildings, maybe.”
“Can’t be.” But she wondered if it was possible. Could there be an entire city out there, beyond the sea of flickering mist?
If so, did anyone—or anything—live there in the netherworld city?
As Greyson carried her along, she kept searching the horizon, straining to pick up any details. “There’s so much we don’t know. I need to get back to the shop and research the causeways. I never took those old myths seriously before, but if I was wrong about them, I could have been wrong about any number of other things, too.”
He ran onward several long strides before he looked down at her again, the angles in his face softening. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
That wasn’t what she meant, but the compliment was still irresistible. She blushed, thankful that the light was probably too dim for it to show.
She tightened her arms around him. He smiled at her, making her feel as if a warm glow surrounded them.
But the moment was broken as Greyson came to a sudden stop. Rane stood stock-still in front of him, blocking the way. “Put her down,” Rane ordered. “From here, we walk.”
Past Rane, in the distance, the yardstick-straight line of the causeway arrowed into a dark mass that dominated the horizon. An island of black rock rose above the ocean of mist and blotted out part of the eerie lights in the sky.
Greyson gently set Dru down. She winced when her feet touched the ground, drawing a concerned look from him. “I’m okay,” she reassured Greyson, although she wasn’t.
Greyson started walking, and Dru moved to follow him, but Rane held her back.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Rane flashed a carnivorous-looking smile. “Just you and me?”
“We need to keep moving,” Dru said.
But Rane didn’t seem to hear her. Instead, she said to Greyson, “Go ahead. We’ll catch up.”
He shot Rane a long, unreadable look, then turned to Dru. She nodded, not altogether willingly.
“Five minutes,” Greyson said, tapping his wrist. “Then I’m turning around and coming back.” Grudgingly, he walked away down the bridge.
/> Dru watched him go, fuming. She was fed up with Rane’s oxlike blundering. She drew in a breath to say something, but Rane beat her to it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rane asked in a fierce whisper, throwing off Dru’s train of thought.
“What?” Dru whispered back.
“Don’t ‘what’ me. You’re going all googly eyes at each other. Five more minutes and you two would’ve been locking lips.”
“No. Absolutely not.” Dru yanked her arm free of Rane’s grip. She held up her empty hands before her, defensively. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“Oh no?” Rane moved her head side to side, as if she were sparring in the ring. “You don’t think you’re playing with fire here?”
“If you’re talking about me and Nate breaking up, if you’re worried about some sort of rebound—”
“Oh, I freaking wish that was it.” Rane gave her a hard look. “While you’re spending all that time gazing into his dreamy eyes, you notice anything funny? Like, I don’t know, the evil red glow of a demon from the fiery pits of hell?”
“Well, yes, of course. His symptoms are still present.”
Rane paced in a tight circle, fists working the air in front of her. “It’s not like he has a cold, Dru. He doesn’t need NyQuil. He has a demon inside him. Just like the ones back there.” She pointed in the direction of the fortress, now too far away to see.
Dru folded her arms. “And I’m going to get the demon out of him. Somehow.”
“Maybe you can’t see this with total clarity.” Rane stopped pacing and faced her head-on. “I’ve spent my life protecting people. Protecting my friends. From being hurt by monsters, creeps, and freaky-ass demons. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he hasn’t been getting any better. He’s getting worse.”
“Once we make it back to the shop, I can—”
It Happened One Doomsday Page 17