by Lucy Auburn
I paused, looking over at him with my eyebrows raised. “It is?”
“The Knights Ignus swear an oath,” he said, voice very serious and reverent. “Our God demands that any threat to the veils between our worlds and the Underworld be taken out immediately. If the Key is on the other side of this door, I’ll burn it with my flame.”
“That makes two of us,” I said, pulling out one of my shorter throwing knives and tipping it towards him. “My people have an oath as well. But I suggest you keep that, and your own oath, to yourself; from what they told me, we’re supposed to take the Key and keep it somewhere safe to be studied, not destroy it.”
“Foolish,” Elah muttered, and I agreed. When something threatened the very future of survival itself, the last thing you did with it was put it somewhere to keep it safe. Total destruction was the only option.
At least now I knew that I had an ally in that aim. “Ready?” I asked, hand on the walk-in freezer door.
“Ready,” he said, tiny flickers of flame beginning to dance between his gloved fingers.
I pulled, unsure what to expect on the other side. What I found was something neither of us were prepared for. Most of the freezer was dark, its shelves cleared of any food or boxes, a stale wet odor emanating from inside. In the dim corner of the empty, windowless room, a tiny figure shone with a slight inner glow. It was a little girl, her knees drawn up to her chest, arms wrapped around them tight, her brown skin giving off supernatural light that chased away the shadows around her. Seeing her, I felt every hair on my entire body stand on end, and I motioned for Elah to hold back and stay cautious.
Small sounds caught my attention, barely audible: sniffles and hiccups, little clenched-back sobs. The spirit was crying, her face hidden from us, the sound of her voice meant to entrance us.
“Naomi...” Elah’s voice was choked, distressed. “I don’t think I can use my fire against a little girl.”
As little as I knew the knight, that fit in with my estimation of him; he thought of himself as a protector of the defenseless, not a destroyer of tiny girls’ ghosts. “Hold the door open,” I said, taking a cautious step forward. “Minor spirits can be banished by simply talking to them sometimes, if all they’re looking for is peace. Maybe I can take care of this one without any fire.”
“Thank you,” he said, clearly relieved. “Did Leon give you any salt?”
“No,” I muttered, irritated. “But my knives should do the job if it comes to it. Just... don’t let the door close behind me.”
Locked in a freezer with a ghost wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time.
The floor of the walk-in was slightly damp, despite all the time it’d spent here abandoned. I walked towards the ghost girl carefully, the thick tread of my boots helping my steps find traction.
“Hello?” My voice sounded weak and tremulous in the thin air; I had to glance back over my shoulder to make sure Elah was still keeping the door open. Everything about being near the ghost, and the supernatural energy she was pulling to herself, had my senses going on red alert. “Are you okay?”
The girl peered up from beneath her lashes, blinking tears away from her eyes. Despite myself, it was a struggle to think of her as the enemy. Though I’d stepped in to spare Elah, I wasn’t exactly excited to treat a kid like a monster either. Usually when I stabbed things they were very adult and most definitely evil.
Looking into the little spirit’s eyes, I couldn’t imagine that she was evil or stab-worthy at all. So I found myself sheathing the knife I’d drawn, and holding up my empty hands.
“Look.” Kneeling a couple of feet in front of her, I tried to show her that I was now unarmed. “I just want to talk to you. Maybe even help you.”
When she raised her head to speak, her voice was soft and high-pitched, her mouth red as a bowl of cherries. “You can’t help me. No one can.”
That was when, out of nowhere, the temperature in the freezer dropped at least thirty or forty degrees. The spirit unfolded to her full height, malevolence written on her face. Her grim smile wasn’t the smile of a child at all.
“Shit.” I shot to my feet, quickly drawing two knives. “Elah!”
But when I looked over my shoulder towards him, I saw that he was struggling with the door. A great invisible force was trying to slam it closed—and even the knight’s incredible strength wasn’t enough to keep it open. It came near to closing more than once as I watched, backing up step by step.
“Keep that door open as much as possible!” I shouted to him. I threw the knives, one after another, and they skimmed through the spirit. She disappeared briefly—but I could feel her presence in the freezer still, and knew my knives wouldn’t be enough to keep her at bay. “Here I come!”
Turning, I sprinted towards the door in large steps, pushing against it with my shoulder. My strength, joined to Elah’s, was enough to force it open for a few precious seconds. I used those seconds to dash around to the other side, and this time we heaved the door closed together. As soon as I heard the handle of it lock, I sighed in relief.
“That wasn’t the Key,” I said.
“Definitely agree with you there. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.” He held up his palms. “By the time I realized what she was up to, I was too busy keeping the door open to throw any fire her way.”
“It’s okay. I handled it.” Pushing up off the door, I decided I was done with the kitchen. “There’s nothing worthwhile in here that we’ve seen or felt. Let’s move on.”
“Got it.”
As we headed out, I found myself hoping that things were going better for the other team. After everything Selena told me she’d been through, she deserved a break from fighting and making tough choices. I still couldn’t reconcile the girl I’d met just a few months ago with the one she’d told me she was last night—but it explained who the woman was on the other side of the closing gate, and why she looked familiar.
I just hoped that for the sake of harmony, being the daughter of the Queen of the Underworld didn’t turn out to be a bad portent for Selena’s future. After what happened to Iva, I had more than enough of fate screwing things up for people I cared about.
As far as I was concerned, destiny could fuck off and go to Hell.
Selena
The stairs at the top of the staircase seemed to creak more than was normal. I told myself that it was just my overactive imagination, but I could almost swear as we stepped out onto the second floor that the air went chilly for a moment and my breath fogged in front of me. The hairs on my arms even stood on end, and I got this sick sense of foreboding, as my body told me something was coming and it would be best if I got out of the way.
“Leon,” I murmured, looking ahead of us towards the very normal hallway with the very normal doors in its walls. “I think there’s something up ahead.”
He glanced back at me. “You think or you feel?”
“Both?” I was confused by the question.
“Are you afraid? Or...” He paused, a significant look in his eyes. “Are you sensing danger with, say, maybe an extra bit of powers that you drained from someone we both know?”
I flushed, embarrassed at how easy I was to read, at least by the detective. “I wouldn’t know the difference. I just have this bad feeling.”
“Well, bad feeling or not, we’ve got to check it out. Just warn me if you start to feel like stabbing things. Or making fun of me.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, just barely. “I don’t think I drain personalities, Leon, just powers.”
“Can’t blame me for being cautious.”
He led the way into the wide hallway in front of us, heavy boots stepping on the thick plush carpet. Despite the dust and disrepair, I got the sense that this hotel was far too fancy for me to have been able to afford it while it was still open and taking in guests. The rooms were spaced far apart, the carpet felt expensive if in need of a vacuum, and the gold placards next to each door designating the room number seemed to sugge
st a certain amount of luxury. There were even balconies curving outside some of the rooms, from what I’d seen before we walked in; maybe the ghosts haunting the place just didn’t want to give up their cushy digs in exchange for a life in the Underworld. If so, I couldn’t blame them.
“Which room should we start with?”
“I’m not sure.” I reached up to warm my arms, which were distinctly cold. Looking around, I got the strange and sure sense that the third door on our right was the source of it. “Room 212.”
Leon headed that way. As he did so, one of his steps seemed to elongate until there were two sets of legs, and his double Leo stepped out of him and took up position behind him. I followed them, trying to ignore the strange flutter in my chest when Leo looked over at me and smirked. “Good to see you’re doing well. Thought about our possible arrangement? I’ve heard you’re down with sharing.”
“Shut up,” Leon muttered, reaching down to draw his sidearm and keep it ready. Leo did the same thing, the two of them like a pair of twins save the near-creepy identical face they wore. “I’ll go in first. Leo, get the salt and be prepared to throw it. Selena, you ready?”
“I’m ready,” I said, drawing my knife and gathering what power I could in my palms—not that it would be very useful against a ghost. “Be careful.”
Reaching out, Leon opened up the door with the unlocked knob, then pushed it the rest of the way open with his toe. He brought his gun up and sighted along the barrel as he entered the room, keeping his back to the wall. As he made his way through, he checked every nook and cranny, even the closet and bathroom—then sighed and holstered his gun.
“Clear.” Glancing back, he grimaced at me. “Selena, are you sure those borrowed senses of yours are working?”
“I swear I feel like there’s something in here.” Carefully, I stepped in after Leon, his double at my back. Each step seemed to set my teeth on edge, until every hair on my body was standing up straight, every inch of skin prickled in goosebumps. I took a look at the room: normal bed, dusty lamp and light fixtures, no signs of any recent inhabitants. It all felt normal, if a bit creepily unused.
Flashing a grin at me, Leo said, “Y’know, the bed is—”
With a growl, Leon advanced on him, grabbed his shoulder, and pulled his double towards him so they could become one again. The last words I heard Leo say were, “This dry spell is bullsh—”
I raised my eyebrows at Leon as he brushed himself off, back to being one person again. “You and Leo seem to be... going through something.”
“When aren’t we?” he said, snorting contemptuously. “He acts like a teenager sometimes. I guess I can’t really blame him—we look the same, but technically he’s got less real life experience than me.” Walking around to the other side of the bed, he opened the nightstand and took out the Bible kept there, frowning. “Do you sense anything in here? Something related to the Key?”
“I’m not sure.” I decided to walk around some more to see if anything triggered my borrowed senses. “I still don’t entirely get how the Elders can know that the Key is here but not tell us what it looks like.”
“The seers can sense an area that is a portent of something,” Leon explained. “But they can’t actually narrow it down—there’s a blank space where paranormal energy gathers in large amounts.”
“Some help they are,” I muttered, running my hands along the coat rack in the closet like it’d tell me something. “Sounds like we’d be better off without the seers at all.”
“You should thank them,” Leon said, as he lifted up the skirt of the bed to look beneath it. “I was on the fence about taking you out on another mission so soon, but they insisted that this wouldn’t be successful without you here. ‘The Key will reveal itself only if she comes.’ They saw that, apparently.”
I shivered at the thought that somewhere, ancient fae who could see into the future were requesting me by name. “I didn’t know that.” Pausing, I reached up to the high shelf in the closet, and was disappointed when I found nothing there. “Would you have kept me on the bench?”
“I would bench you forever if I knew you’d be safe,” he said, and there was a tone in his voice that made me stop and turn around, meeting his startling blue eyes. “We just barely got you back, Selena. I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I know.”
He continued, “If I wasn’t sure that this mission was safe—as safe as any—I wouldn’t have brought you along, seers be damned. But the only danger here is already dead.”
As I walked towards the far wall, where three run-of-the-mill picture frames were hung, I felt a strange prickling run up my spine. “I’m not so sure about that,” I said, reaching out to touch the photo of sunflowers in the middle. “I think there’s at least one living danger in here that I’m sensing.”
“What is it?” Leon rushed over to my side, frowning at me. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know.”
Reaching out, I took the picture from the wall and felt that prickling sensation multiply. It felt heavy—far heavier than a simple printed canvas with a wood frame. On instinct, I threw the picture on the bed and reached out to tear at the canvas. It ripped apart easily, cheap and half-rate. Beneath I saw a sliver of my reflection.
“A mirror.” Leon frowned, reaching down to help me tear at the canvas until the entire thing was revealed, my face framed in it. “I don’t understand. What’s so dangerous about this?”
As I stared at it, blinking, a message appeared across the too-perfect surface. Scrawled in calligraphy, it simply read: “I am the Key.”
Leon and I exchanged glances, befuddled and confused. I asked him, “Could it really be that easy?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly, “but I feel like we need to get it back to Tae Min’s lab either way, and figure out if it really is what I think it is.” He paused, brows drawn together. “We should probably search the rest of the hotel just in case, but first I want you to get Elah. You two should take this and put it somewhere safe—Naomi and I can finish the job.”
Heart thrumming in my chest, I nodded and pulled the amulet out from my shirt. As I held it in my hand and said, “Elah, Elah, Elah,” I felt it warm to the touch. Soon his voice was calling out to me in the air, “What is it? Everything okay?”
“We found it.” The mirror reflected the confused expression on my face, its words still written on the surface. “Or something that might be it. Come up to room 212 and you’ll see.”
If the seers somehow managed to lead us to the Key this quickly, then I supposed that I needed to take back my earlier words. Still, I couldn’t help the prickling feeling between my shoulderblades, like I was being watched or led about by the nose.
Nothing this important was meant to be this easy—right?
30
Selena
Sitting next to Elah in the back of a cab, I cradled the mirror in my jacket and stared down into the sliver of my reflection in the perfect glass.
The thing hadn’t announced that it was the Key a second time. I wasn’t sure what that meant. It felt too-warm and somehow important in my hands, heavy with magic.
“How would a mirror even open a lock?” I mused aloud, glancing over at Elah. “What would you do, hit the hell gate with it until it opens up?”
Elah stared at me, something swimming in the depths of his amber eyes. “I still don’t understand why I can’t ride Fira back and forth to our missions.” Sensing that I wasn’t kidding, he came back to the present. “Sorry, I just hate these hired cars. As far as the mirror goes—I have no idea. The Elders don’t exactly tell me the important things. ‘Go here, go there.’ When I had my matching ceremony and they couldn’t find someone for me right away, I was told to just wait. It took almost three years before they found you.”
I imagined Elah in the Realm of Light, slaying demons on horseback and waiting for me to show up, and wondered if I’d lived up to his imagination. But my mind returned to the missio
n, worrying on it like a dog gnawing a bone. “I guess I just feel like something is… missing. Or wrong.”
“You just got back into the swing of things,” he pointed out, gently. “Maybe you’re still adjusting. Being in the Underworld had to have been hard on you. And now that you’re back on Earth, you’ll need time to get used to it. Not everything has to be… hard. Sometimes we get the right information at the right time, or luck is in our favor.”
“I guess.”
Staring down at the mirror, I considered his words. The Underworld had been hard, in ways I wasn’t sure anyone who hadn’t been there could understand. Damen was still in the back of my mind—I would have to see him again, and I didn’t know what I would say if he still didn’t remember me. He was the only other person who knew what it was like down there for me.
I said, “I guess I was just expecting something more significant. Other than the words on it, this is just a hand mirror.”
“Let me see.”
He held out his hand, and I passed the mirror over. I’d wrapped it in my jacket out of an abundance of caution, afraid that it would somehow shatter.
“You said you found this hidden inside a painting?” I nodded. “Nothing unimportant is hidden.”
Unwrapping the jacket, he stared at his own reflection in the surface of the mirror. I couldn’t see what he saw, but I saw an emotion pass over his face, so fast that I couldn’t figure out what it was. Silently, carefully, he re-wrapped the mirror and handed it back over.
I cocked my head at him, biting my lower lip. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Elah frowned. “Nothing. It didn’t say anything when I looked at it, the way it said something to you. I guess it just reveals itself to the person who finds it.”
Although I accepted his explanation, I felt like something was wrong and he just wasn’t telling me. Staring at the road ahead, I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that the threat of my mother, and the Godspring to come, had only just begun.