I created a storm in the small surgical room. A furious tornado circled the edge of the room with me standing in the eye, my feet hovering just above the ground.
The priestess stumbled, her body thrown by the wind. She threw her spell toward me, but it blew sideways and crashed into the wall. Cement blocks disintegrated and green ooze dripped down the white walls.
The gurney flew into the air and slammed against the brick, toppling sideways, its wheels spinning.
She pushed her palms flat against the side of the wall and walked forward into the wind, her laughter rising above the sound.
“You can’t kill me, Harper,” she said. “You tried that, remember?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, remembering that night in the halls of Winterhaven. I had plunged my hand into her chest to rip her heart out, only to find that she had no heart. She’d hidden it somewhere.
The priestess reached into her pockets and drew out a fist, gleaming shards of emerald glass peeking through her knuckles.
I lifted my hands and created a shield, but something tugged at me. Something important.
You have my heart.
Chills ran down my spine. I’d heard her say those words to her daughter. To Dr. Evers. Last night in the house across the street, I’d seen the priestess lay her palm flat against her daughter’s chest.
“You have my heart,” she’d said.
As the shards of glass pierced through my shield, I looked up and smiled at the priestess.
She thought she was invincible. Immortal. But without her stone heart, she was nothing more than a rotting pile of bones.
I turned my attention to the cabinets that blocked the door. I had to get to Dr. Evers before the priestess realized what I knew. The storm was making it difficult for her to cast, but she was making her way toward me. I had to hurry.
I reached one hand to the side and lifted the large cabinet off the floor. I threw it toward the priestess, the wood cracking as it hit the floor and flipped over, separating us.
I ran forward and yanked the door open. Smoke billowed through the hallway, and I coughed, nearly choking on it. Flames consumed the other end of the hallway, where boxes of books and gowns had been stacked against the walls. I lifted the front of my gown to cover my nose and mouth and stepped forward. The ice pick rolled across the floor, bumping against the edge of my bare foot. I bent down to retrieve it, gripping it tightly in my fist.
In the hallway, a group of girls in white nightgowns fought against the remaining nurses and the doctor. Two of the younger girls lay still on the floor, their eyes closed and blood dripping from various wounds.
Dr. Evers had Brooke by the throat. Her hand was covered in emerald ivy that grew rapidly, its vines wrapping all the way around Brooke’s body like a rope.
I gathered a new spell in my hands and rushed toward my friend, but a searing heat tore through my side as a green light flashed behind me.
I flew forward, falling face-first to the ground.
The pain blossomed, poison spreading like wildfire through my body. I pushed against it, holding it at bay as best I could. I crawled across the floor, my hands stretching toward the doctor’s ankles.
I grabbed onto her and pulled myself up, spinning her around and pressing the point of the ice pick into her chest just above her heart.
Priestess Evers stood in the doorway of the surgical room, her hair wild and her eyes glowing.
“No,” she said, finally understanding.
She stretched her arms out and stumbled toward us.
“I’ll give you anything you want,” she said. “Power. Money. Anything. Don’t do this.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Tell me where all of your sisters are hiding,” I said. “I want details. Names, locations, everything you know. And tell me where I can find the High Priestess. Help me kill them all, and I’ll let you live.”
She shook her head and grabbed her hair, pulling it hard and screaming. She fell to her knees, emerald-colored tears falling down her cheeks.
Everyone in the hallway stopped fighting and grew silent. The only sounds were the crackling of flames and the sobs of the witch on her knees at my feet.
“I can’t,” she said. Her face crumpled, and she beat her fists against the floor. “I’ll do anything else you want, but not that.”
“I didn’t think so,” I said. I pressed the ice pick deeper into Dr. Evers’s chest. I could feel the pounding of her human heart against my arm.
“Wait,” Priestess Evers screamed. She drew her lips into a snarl and gathered her skirts in her hand. She stood slowly, her eyes locked on mine. “If you kill me, you’ll never see him again. I swear it.”
“Jackson?” I shook my head. “You said it yourself. He’s on his way here now.”
“He won’t be able to get to you,” she said, laughing and sobbing at the same time. “Kill me and you’ll never find each other.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. “But then, how could I expect a woman with no heart to understand the power of true love?”
I pushed the ice pick deep into Dr. Evers’ heart until it hit something rock-hard just behind it. She slumped against me as her heart stopped beating, and I lowered her to the floor.
“No,” Priestess Evers screamed. She shook her head violently from side to side. She gathered a new spell into her hands, and poured all of her power into it. Her body lifted off the ground as the brilliant light traveled up her arms and around her body like a halo.
I only had one chance to get this right.
I placed my hand over the small hole in the doctor’s chest. I embraced my demon half, sending a rope of white smoke through the wound until I felt the energy press against the solid surface of the stone.
Each of the Order’s priestesses had kept themselves alive for centuries through the use of a master stone. It was a piece of the original portal stone that severed the veil between the human world and the Shadow World. Without it, she was nothing.
I closed my demon fist around the stone and pulled it from the dead woman’s chest just as Priestess Evers unleashed the full force of her power.
It Was Never Just Me
Priestess Evers screamed, but the sound was muffled by the explosion that rocked the entire building.
I acted on instinct, tapping into the raw power of the stone in my hand. I stretched a powerful shield of dark energy down the hallway as far as I could, protecting everyone from the blast.
I could feel the depth of her evil heart inside that final spell. It burned my throat, and I fell to my knees.
Pieces of the ceiling caved in around us, and emerald flames consumed the basement. I forced myself to my feet. I lifted debris and created a pathway toward the stairwell.
“Run,” I shouted, my voice hoarse. “The flames are spreading.”
Girls screamed and ran, stepping over pieces of brick and ceiling that littered the floor. Two of them paused to lift the injured girls into their arms.
I collapsed, the source of my power exhausted.
A hand reached down to me, and I looked up.
Brooke smiled. “You did it,” she said.
“Not without you,” I said with a smile. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
She helped me to my feet, and I threw an arm around her shoulder. We pushed toward the stairwell as the flames grew higher and hotter around us.
I glanced back once, just in time to see Hazel Evers’s flesh turn to dust and her ancient bones scatter among the flames.
“We have to get everyone out of the building,” I said. “They’re all still locked in their rooms.”
“Spread out,” Brooke said when we reached the top of the stairs. A cluster of girls in nightgowns stood in the dark hallway, their hands clasped tightly to one another. “Anyone who can open locks, get as many as you can.”
I wanted to help, but I was exhausted and injured, the priestess’s poison still coursing through my veins.
Together, we ran down each of the hallways,
unlocking doors and shouting at the sleeping girls to wake up and get out of the building.
No sprinklers came on, and no fire alarm sounded. We had to get to everyone before it was too late.
The floor grew hot beneath my feet as the flames consumed the basement level of the building. “We have to hurry,” I said. “Is that everyone?”
“That’s everyone,” Brooke said.
Mary Ellen took my hand. Tears shimmered in her eyes.
“Let’s go,” she said, and I nodded.
“Follow me,” I shouted to the mass of more than seventy or eighty girls huddled together in the semi-darkness. Those in wheelchairs were being pushed by those who could walk, and everyone who could was holding the hand of the person next to them.
I led them through the maze of corridors and out through the front door of the Evers Institute for Troubled Girls. We emerged as an army, victors against an evil that had no rightful place in this world. The night air was clean and warm, and I breathed in the smell of freedom and ash.
We stood as a group on the lawn of the asylum, nearly a hundred girls and women in thin nightgowns and awed expressions. We watched as the flames grew higher, burning through the sides and roof of the building.
“Look,” someone said.
I turned and saw that a young girl at the edge of the group was pointing to the house across the street.
Sobs of relief shook my body as more than a dozen girls in bonnets and frilly dresses walked out of the old Victorian home and into the streets. I let go of Mary Ellen’s hand and ran toward the girl who led them.
“Robin,” I said, taking her hand in mine.
She pulled me into a hug, her body trembling with relief. “Was this you?” she asked.
“Not just me,” I said. “It was never just me. It was all of us.”
Along the street, the doors to several houses opened and people stepped onto their porches, pointing toward the fire.
I limped to the nearest one and an elderly woman in a robe, her hair in curlers, stepped forward to offer me her hand.
“My goodness, dear, are you alright?” she asked. “What happened in there?”
“I need to call for help,” I said, making my way up the steps. “Do you have a cell phone?”
Her forehead wrinkled and she shared a curious look with the man standing beside her. “A what, dear?”
“A phone,” I said, holding my hand out.
She stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Come inside, sweetheart,” she said. “Ralph can call the fire department, though I suspect someone already has. What a fright you must have had.”
“I’m fine,” I said. I winced at the pain in my side. At least I hoped I was fine. I needed to find Jackson. My sister Angela. They could help me heal quickly, and hopefully they were already on their way.
I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around Jackson and feel his lips on mine. God, I’d missed him.
I followed the couple into their home, noticing the antique car in the driveway before I stepped across the threshold. It had been perfectly restored, the paint reflecting the emerald flames that burned through the asylum across the street.
“Come on, let me get you a glass of milk,” the woman said.
Stepping into their home was like stepping back in time. The velvet couch. The ceramic painted dog on the side table. Even the lamp shade was retro.
The old man sat down on the couch and picked up the receiver on an old black phone with a rotary dial. He flipped through a phone book, licking his fingers between each page turn before he finally found the one he’d been looking for. He slowly dialed the number, placing a finger in the hole of each number and spinning the little plastic wheel around.
Of course I’d ended up at the weirdest house on the block.
I wrapped my arms around my body, shivering. I still couldn’t believe she was dead.
“Sit down,” the woman said, placing a glass of milk on the table. Everything in the kitchen, from the cabinets to the refrigerator, was a bright teal color, like something out of a retro design catalog.
I shook my head. Something isn’t right here.
I spun around, taking in each of the pieces as a whole, dread filling my heart. The restored antique car. The decor. The funny look on her face when I’d mentioned the word cell phone.
I stumbled forward, the pain in my side throbbing with heat.
“Oh, my,” the old man said. He dropped the phone and rushed to catch me. “Here, please. Sit down.”
He ushered me to an olive green plastic chair. I sat down and took a deep breath. Everything was fine. Jackson was on his way, and this whole nightmare was almost over.
I still had the emerald stone clutched in my fist, and I held it in my lap. As long as I had this stone, everything was going to be okay.
But when I looked up, my lips parted in surprise.
The couple’s television sat on a plain box of a stand, the volume turned down. Black and white images moved silently across the screen. I shook my head, my hands trembling as I stared at the antique box. I didn’t care how old they were, no one still had a TV like that these days, with its boxy shape and round dials.
I struggled to stand, waving the man’s hand away when he tried to help me.
“What on earth is wrong?” the woman asked, rushing to the living room.
“She’s not right in the head,” the man said. “I told you it was a mistake to buy this place with that crazy-house next door.”
“Ralph, hush,” she said. “She’s scared. Anyone can see that, plain as day.”
I slowly turned back toward the door, understanding for the first time.
“All those poor girls,” the woman said with a sigh. “I hope they got everyone out in time. What will they do with them, Ralph?”
I stepped out into the night, my body trembling despite the warm spring air.
I sat down on the top step and watched as the fire trucks parked across the street and men raced to extinguish the flames.
I stared down at the large emerald stone in my hand.
No wonder she’d brought us here. No wonder no one protested the shock therapies and the lobotomies going on at Evers.
Tears streamed down my face. She’d said that if I killed her, Jackson wouldn’t be able to get to me. I didn’t believe her.
I’d just killed the one person who knew how to get me back home.
Set Them Free
We used the closest doorway we could find, breaking into a Prima’s house in a small town in Tennessee and waking her up. She shouted at us, but as soon as she saw our sheer numbers—more than fifty demons and witches in total—she backed away and let us pass.
My heart was light, and a smile played on my lips as we climbed the stairs to the third floor and stepped into the Hall of Doorways. We still had a fight in front of us, but I was closer to Harper than I’d been in months.
We searched for the familiar door of the emerald priestess with its green scarab beetle etched into the wood.
Rend carried the priestess’s daughter in his arms. She was still alive for now. I wasn’t sure the key would work otherwise. But as soon as we opened the door, she was fair game to any of the thirsty vampires in our group.
The moment the door appeared, my heart began to race.
The past few months had been torture without Harper, but she was just on the other side of that door somewhere. I had no idea what state I’d find her in, but the witch had said Harper had refused to let go of her memories of me. They’d been unable to break her.
My heart pounded against my ribs. I couldn’t wait to see her.
My life was nothing without her at my side. These past few months had been devastating, and I longed to hold her in my arms for hours and kiss every inch of her body. I wanted to marry her.
We had decided to wait until the war was over, but I didn’t want to wait. I was going to marry the woman I loved, and I was never going to let her go.
Rend stepped toward the door
and nodded. I took the witch’s hand and placed it against the wood. Something deep inside clicked, and the door fell open.
I raced inside and ran through the five-sided room to the staircase that led down to the main part of the house.
“Slow down,” Mary Anne shouted. “You don’t want to have to fight the emerald priestess alone, do you?”
But I’d stopped at the bottom of the stairs. She nearly ran into me.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“This isn’t right,” I said, fear taking hold. “Look at this.”
I stepped forward and picked a broken mirror off the floor. The place was in shambles. Furniture was toppled over. Dust covered every surface. A roach crawled across the floor at my feet.
“Does this look like the house of a priestess to you?”
“It’s disgusting in here,” she said.
“It is looking a bit rough around the surfaces,” Essex said.
“Edges,” Mary Anne corrected, bumping him with her elbow.
He shrugged and they laughed, but I couldn’t find any laughter inside my heart.
Something was wrong. No priestess would let her home fall into ruin like this.
“Harper,” I shouted, panic creeping through my veins.
I shifted and flew down the grand staircase. The first floor was in even worse condition than the second. The roof was leaking in the entryway and the hardwood floors were warped and covered in mold. Graffiti covered the walls.
Fear drowned me, and I could hardly breathe. Please say we hadn’t just walked into another trap. Or worse. The wrong house. Where was she? Where was her creepy doll collection?
What kind of trick was the emerald priestess pulling on us, anyway?
I opened the front door and stepped out into a quiet neighborhood. The porch creaked beneath my feet, and I stepped carefully around broken boards and shards of glass. Harper was being kept in an asylum near here, I was sure of it.
But when I saw the large building across the street, my heart broke all over again. The roof had caved in and black scars marred the brick. Ivy clung to the outside of the building, and a tree grew through a hole in the roof. A wrought-iron fence surrounded the front of the property, and the grass on the lawn was overgrown.
Forgotten Darkness Page 27