by Linsey Hall
Though he toppled to the ground, another knight replaced him. They circled me, ready to pounce. I panted and strained as I fought. It took all my skill and strength to hold them off. But there were too many. Twice, their blows landed, leaving deep cuts on my back and stomach. What I wouldn’t give for that Phantom dragon to show up and save the day.
But it didn’t show. So I forced the pain away as I fought, trying to keep my eye on the Ubilaz demon. He’d felled all but one of his own knights using only his massive strength and speed.
Pain flared at my shoulder as a knight’s blade sliced me, drawing me back to my own fight.
Instinctually, I turned into a Phantom and spun to face him. One well-placed blow sent him to his knees. There was only one knight left who sought my blood, but I was weakening.
I charged, stabbing the knight in the middle with my blade before tearing it away. The knight fell to his side.
Almost there!
I whirled to find my prey, only to see all his knights on the ground and the Ubilaz demon climbing onto Arthur’s platform.
“No!” I raced toward them in my Phantom form, but I was too late.
The Ubilaz demon grabbed the charm and threw the chain over his neck. My heart plummeted, but I hurled myself at the demon, catching him around the waist and throwing him to the ground.
He shrieked in pain, no doubt because of my Phantom ability to make those I touched live out their worst fears. While he thrashed beneath me, I turned corporeal and grabbed both of the charm necklaces, yanking as hard as I could. They tore away, and I flung them across the room.
The demon threw me off him. I skidded on the floor, then clambered to my feet. My injuries were slowing me down, so I took on my Phantom form. I charged the Ubilaz demon, who lashed out at me with his massive claws. They sailed right through my Phantom shoulder.
I turned corporeal and landed a blow to the demon’s neck. Blood spurted, spraying me in the face as he stumbled and fell. I leapt for him, delivering a killing blow into his back.
He shuddered as I pulled my blade out, but he did not fall.
Though he bled, he didn’t move like he was wounded. He spun as fast as a snake and swiped out with his claws. I returned to my Phantom form just in time. His claws sailed through my belly. Before he could swipe again, I turned corporeal and landed another blow to his chest, deep enough that it should’ve killed him.
Still, he stood.
He wouldn’t die. He couldn’t die.
But I couldn’t stop. If I stopped, he would run. So I turned corporeal to stab him again. This time, I was too weak and too slow. He slashed me on the arm, sending pain radiating through me, then plowed a massive fist into to my stomach.
I stumbled backward as the breath whooshed out of me, adopting my Phantom form once more. The demon lurched toward me. I danced away.
There had to be something I could do! I had unknown death powers. According to seers, I was death. That had to be good for something. My head spun. I was so weak from blood loss that I was about to go to my knees.
I willed the demon to die, knowing it was hopeless.
A shriek sounded from behind me. Familiar.
A half-second later, the Phantom dragon swept into the room on gossamer wings. A sense of recognition slammed into me. What had before been a slight sense of knowing was now overwhelming. As if repeated contact had forged a bond between us.
Or reminded me of a bond.
I didn’t know who or what the dragon was, but it was important to me.
The blue dragon whirled, its transparent blue wings carrying it toward the demon and myself. When the dragon’s claws sank into the demon’s back, instinct propelled me forward, a driving force I couldn’t ignore.
While in my Phantom form, I grabbed the demon’s shirt and yanked him toward me. At the same time, the dragon pulled backward, heaving its massive wings.
The demon’s body went with the dragon, but its soul stayed with me.
It was a wispy, pale thing that sent electric ice shooting up my arms. I threw it aside as hard as I could. It flew through the air as mist before disappearing entirely.
I stumbled back, horror carving a hole in my chest, then fell to my knees, no longer strong enough to stand.
What the hell had just happened?
On the other side of the cavern, the dragon dropped the demon’s body. When it crashed to the ground, it lay still.
Dead.
My gaze glued to the dragon as a thousand questions pinwheeled inside my head. The graceful beast whirled on the air, approaching me as a formless cloud.
When it stopped in front of me, it coalesced into the shape of a woman wearing a long, simple dress. She knelt in front of me as I struggled to stay upright on my knees.
She was a Phantom like me, though she looked ageless and strange. Her magic felt ancient, though she didn’t look it. And though her face was familiar, I couldn’t place it. I wanted to say she was my mother, but I was certain she was not. She was like nothing I’d ever seen before.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I am Draka.” Her voice sounded like the dull roar of waves. Her words were stilted, as if language—any language other than shrieks and roars—was unfamiliar to her. “I followed you from the Underworld.”
“What—?” I asked.
I started to ask what she was when she spoke.
“They call you the Demise,” she said. “But they are wrong. You must make them wrong. You are the Guardian.”
No way. “Of what?”
“Life and Death. That”—she gestured to the body of the demon behind her—“was no coincidence. It has begun. When you entered the Underworld, it all began. The demon was your first task.”
“Task?” I had a hundred questions, but shock made them come out one word at a time. I swayed.
Draka appeared to search for words, as if they were just out of reach. Finally, her mouth opened. “Protecting. Guarding. You must use your gifts. When they come, learn them. Use them. It is your inheritance. Your legacy.”
“What legacy? Tell me more!”
“You have a role to play. Some want you to play it, others do not. But you must all the same.” Her form wavered, turning blurry at the edges. As if she couldn’t hold her human form. “I must go.”
“No!” Frustration roared within me. “You can’t.”
But she shimmered and turned to blue smoke, then into a dragon once more. With a swoosh of air, she took off, gracefully swooping for the exit. Woozy from blood loss, I fell to my butt, turning to watch her fly out of the cavern.
Through darkened vision, I caught sight of Roarke, staring at me while I was in my Phantom form. My head spun and I collapsed. Maybe from blood loss, maybe from the shock of seeing him. I tilted my head so I could see him clearly.
Blood flowed from wounds dotting his chest and arms. His wings hung a little lower.
Behind him, Cass and Nix staggered in, supporting each other. Aidan prowled in as a griffin, playing guard at the rear.
Roarke said something to Cass and Nix, but my hearing was fuzzy. He pointed to the fallen Ubilaz demon, and Nix and Cass hurried over. To get its blood?
Roarke approached me quickly, his gaze indecipherable in his demon form. What happened now? Did he drag me back to the Underworld?
The Ubilaz demon was gone, and that fight was over.
But I’d bet the next one was about to begin.
Chapter Fourteen
Guinevere’s tomb was quieter without the demons.
All I remembered from the end of the battle at Richmond Castle was Roarke picking me up and carrying me out of there. I’d woken in my own bed, Cass and Nix at my side. They’d gotten the blood to Connor, who’d made the antidote.
So, yay! I wasn’t going to turn into a demon. In all seriousness, though, I was pretty thrilled about that.
Nix had handed me a letter from Roarke that had said only, “When you’re better, come to me. Or I will come to you.”
Well, that had been pretty clear.
At least he was giving me a chance to recover, which was good. I was going over to his place soon, but I had something to do before I faced the music. I didn’t know what Roarke thought about what he’d seen, but he seemed to be on slow burn mode and that made me nervous. I hoped helping him catch the Ubilaz demon was enough to get me off the hook, but I wasn’t sure.
So I’d come to Guinevere’s tomb to clean it up since I wasn’t sure if I’d have another chance. I didn’t like the idea of it being disturbed. Of any archaeological site being disturbed.
“What do you say we get started?” Cass asked from where she stood beside me.
I stared down into the pit that held Guinevere’s sarcophagus. The top was still shoved off, and her skeleton lay in its big stone box.
“Yeah.” As much as I’d wanted to talk to her before, I really didn’t want her to come back to life right now. I needed a break from the whole death-magic thing. Fortunately, the cathedral above hadn’t come to life, but it still might.
I set my backpack on the ground, then jumped down into the pit beside Nix and Cass. I pulled Guinevere’s charm out of my pocket and put it around her skeletal neck.
“Too bad the magic isn’t more decayed,” Cass said.
“Yeah.” I nodded. It would’ve been a nice addition to our shop. But it wasn’t decayed enough yet. Magic was like milk—it expired eventually. Once it went bad, it went bad. But instead of a foul smell, you got explosions and the like. So that was the magic that we took for our shop.
But Guinevere’s charm contained such strong magic that it still had a lot of life left in it. That meant we had to return it to her sarcophagus.
I took one last look at her, then turned to Cass and Nix. “Want to do this thing?”
Nix cracked her knuckles. “Can’t wait.”
It took some huffing and puffing, but we got the lid of the sarcophagus back onto the base.
“Now for the last bit.” I climbed out of the pit, followed by Cass and Nix.
We grabbed the shovels we’d brought and heaved the dirt back into the pit.
“Weird that she’s been buried down in the crypt. All the other sarcophagi are just sitting out,” Nix said.
“Extra protection, maybe,” I said. “And there might be more bodies down below.”
We sweated in silence as we filled the pit, then stomped the dirt down tight.
“Well, it’s not perfect,” Cass said. “But it’s pretty good.”
“Yep.” I put down my shovel and grabbed my backpack, then pulled out the mini box of wine and three coffee mugs. “Now time for a toast.”
“For real?” Cass asked.
“Hey, I didn’t see you bring any of that swill you drink,” I said. Cass preferred Pabst Blue Ribbon, the beer of hipsters and hillbillies, as she called it. “And anyway, red wine doesn’t need refrigeration. And the box is portable.”
I sat on the ground and pinched the little spout, pouring some into each coffee mug. Cass and Nix joined me, and I handed them each a half-full mug.
In unison, we raised our glasses and glanced at each other, then said, “To Guinevere.”
“The woman who changed her fate,” I added.
We drank, staring at the place where Guinevere’s body lay.
“Do you think we can change our fate?” I asked.
Cass looked at me. “Do we want to?”
“I don’t know.” I frowned. “It’s been quite a year though.”
“Yeah,” Nix said. “Defeating the Monster who kept us prisoner as kids, then you coming back from the dead. And I don’t think it’s over yet.”
“No, it’s not. Draka said more is coming.” Earlier, I’d told them about the Phantom dragon and what it had said. “But I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“You will be,” Cass said.
“You think?” Even as I asked, my chest felt empty and helpless. Draka had said someone called me the Demise. Wasn’t I just as likely to be that as to be the Guardian? “How could I be called something as important as the Guardian?”
“Of life and death,” Nix repeated Draka’s words, which I’d told her. They just made the task ahead of me seem more impossible.
“Exactly!” I cried. “How can I live up to that?”
I wasn’t half as good a FireSoul as Cass or Nix. I was just a book loving, boxed wine drinking mercenary, prophecy or no prophecy. I wasn’t ready for this. Maybe I never would be.
“You can do it,” Cass said.
“Seconded,” Nix added. “You’ve got some crazy powers that’ll help. I mean, you tore the soul out of that demon. Pretty scary.”
“Yeah.” It made me vaguely sick just to remember. I could always count on Nix for the truth, though. Between bringing back the dead, if only for a short time, and tearing souls from demons—I had some scary freaking powers. Someone with powers like that would be called the Demise.
“You’re going to have to learn to control your powers,” Cass said. “This newest power, the soul-snatching one—it’s important. You’re going to need it, I think. But no way you can let the Order discover that you have it.”
“I know.” She sounded like a broken record, repeating it all the time, but she was right. So right. My new power was the scariest one I’d ever heard of. No way the Order would let me live if they knew I could do that. “If Roarke lets me stay out of the Underworld and keeps my secret.”
“We’ll take care of him if he doesn’t,” Nix said.
Could we? Probably, between the three of us and Aidan. But I didn’t want to risk Cass or Nix getting hurt. And I didn’t want to hurt Roarke.
“You’re important,” Nix said. “The Guardian, whatever that means. Roarke will understand that we need your gifts. I don’t know for what—but for something.”
“But I don’t understand my gifts! I don’t know why I sometimes trigger historical sites, and why I don’t. I have no control!” There was no way I could handle this responsibility.
“You will,” Cass said. “You can handle this.”
It was like she read my mind. “As long as it doesn’t handle me. I mean, I could be evil. I liked the Phantoms when they turned me. It felt great. And I tear out souls. That’s scary shit. I’m scary. And what if I can’t harness my power?” That felt impossible.
“I have faith in you,” Nix said. “Even if you’re scary.”
“Me too,” Cass added. “And I think you can handle this. You’re strong enough. Whatever is coming at you—you’re strong enough.”
Warmth filled my chest, though doubt still tugged. “Thanks, guys.”
We clinked our plastic coffee mugs together. I hoped this wouldn’t be the last time I hung out with them. But I couldn’t say it wouldn’t be, not for sure. Because break time was over, and the reckoning with Roarke was about to begin.
I pulled Scooter onto the narrow road that led to Roarke’s house, my heart lodged somewhere in my throat.
He must have heard the roar of Scooter’s engine, because when I pulled up to the house, he was waiting for me on the porch. He looked better, though it was impossible to really tell without being able to see beneath the dark green sweater he wore. Some of his wounds had been deep, and his wings and back had been a mess.
I got off and removed my helmet, then climbed the steps, trying to subtly knock on my head. For good measure, I touched the lucky pendant I wore around my neck.
“How are your wings?” I asked as I approached.
“Fine.” His gaze was indecipherable. “How are you? All symptoms gone?”
“Yeah.” I held out my arms. “Human again.” Mostly. “I guess you have some questions.”
“Some.” He gestured to a porch swing to the right of the door. “Sit?”
“Yeah.”
The autumn air was crisp and orange leaves tumbled off branches as we sat on the gently rocking swing, exactly like two old people would after a life of fifty years together. Somehow, I didn’t see that in o
ur future.
“You going to take me back to the Underworld?” I asked.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Yeah, those questions. Right.” My fingers drummed uncontrollably on my leg. I was an absolute wreck about this. If he insisted on taking me back, I didn’t know what I’d do.
“It’s no coincidence that those places came alive,” he said. “That the dead came back, even for a short time. You’re a Phantom, but that is impossible.”
“Apparently not.”
He grinned, as if unable to help himself, and my heart sped up.
I hurried to explain what I knew about the prophecy and what Aethelred had told me, putting emphasis on how I was necessary. “And believe me, I wouldn’t make this up. I don’t exactly like having some big prophecy sitting on my shoulders. I’m not even qualified to be the Guardian, whatever that is. Honestly, I’ve got some serious doubts I can even do whatever I’m supposed to do.”
I was pouring out my guts to him, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe I could tell him that I was a FireSoul as well. Get it all out on the table. But it wasn’t only my secret. It was Cass and Nix’s. I couldn’t put them at risk.
“I believe you.” He turned so that his gaze met mine. “Though I do think you’re qualified.”
That made one of us, at least.
“But you’ve put me in a tough situation.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “The rules are clear. Your magic is dangerous. Forbidden.”
“So how is this a tough situation for you? Mr. Rule Follower should know what he needs to do.” Even though I hated it.
“Because I like you, Del. A lot.”
“Yeah?”
“Worse, I think you’re special.”
“Special?”
“Yeah. I know you’re special. I’ve known it from the beginning. I didn’t track you by your blood when you escaped. Or by that bracelet I put on you.” He gestured to the metal band around my wrist. “I could sense that you were special as soon as you arrived in the Underworld and I could track you. I can’t do that with anyone else, but I could do it with you.”
I had no idea what to say, so I kept my mouth shut, staring out at the brilliant fall foliage of the forest around his house and occasionally peeking at him. The rushing river roared in my ears, or maybe it was my heartbeat.