“I’m not gonna-”
“Do it!” I yelled, cutting Andy off. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
I darted toward the soul, colliding with it and tangling up with it.
I felt the cold sting of its fingers diving into me, grappling at me and trying to ride me out to salvation.
It wouldn’t work. Even if I managed to get to the light, it wouldn’t let me pass with the soul entangled with me. The most it would do is trap us both here.
Of course, there was no telling that to the soul.
“You have to let me go!” I said, pulling at its elastic feeling grip. “You have to-”
“Don’t you…” it hissed. “Don’t you even recognize me?”
I balked, pulling back and staring at the thing. To my astonishment, it let go.
Who was this? Who did it used to be and how did they know me?
“Uncle C!” I heard Andy yell off in the distance.
I gave the soul one last look and turned.
Swimming as fast as I could, I watched Mimi, Clint, and Andy disappear into the light and dove in after them.
I landed hard on a plot of grass.
Pulling myself up, I saw them.
Andy was helping Mimi to her feet and Clint was surveying the setting.
“It didn’t work,” he said. “They’re not here. I must have been wrong.”
My eyes focused and I saw it; a stretch of empty land just like the one we just left.
Except it wasn’t the one we just left. It was different, and as I realized just what made it different, the blood chilled in my veins.
“They’re here,” I said.
“What?” Andy asked. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I recognize this place,” I answered, taking a deep breath and steeling myself. “It’s where I killed my brother.”
29
The field stretched out before me like some goddamn joke.
I hadn’t seen it in millennia, not since that day, not since Abel lay at my feet, head smashed open, eyes forever empty.
Technically, I had been banished from this place. In the same way Mother and Father had been tossed out of Eden on their apple eating asses. The Big Guy had made it very clear that I was never supposed to come here again.
I was to wander, to strut round the world aimlessly until (and apparently well after) I had given up hope on anything even close to a peaceful existence.
But here I was. After all these years, all the other curses the Big Guy leveled down on me were still in full force.
I was still alive, no one could say my name without catastrophic repercussions, and anybody who laid a finger on me would get it back times seven.
So, why had this one melted away like ice cream on a sunny day?
These witches were strong. That was for sure. But I had seen the Big Guy in action, and I refused to believe that these witches were more powerful than God himself.
“Cai-Callum,” Andy corrected himself. We had already punched our way into the Nexus. There was no reason in brandishing the bulldozer that was my given name anymore. “Where are we exactly?”
“I told you Andy,” I said, my eyes planted flat on the stones and grass underfoot. “This is where I killed him.”
Not so much as a blade of grass seemed to be different. It was all the same as it had been on that horrible day. It was like what I had done was so awful, so horrific, that time had frozen around it.
And the longer I thought about things, the more sense that made.
“I know that Uncle C,” he answered, his voice as soft as it was when he was a kid. “But where is that exactly? Are we in Europe? Asia? Africa? Where are we?”
“Not any of those places,” I answered, looking up at him. The world seemed to spin around me and I started to feel sick again.
Maybe the curse was still in effect. Maybe my body was reacting to being here the only way it could, by turning on me.
“During the Crusades, one of the Popes tried to find Eden. He thought it would give him the answers he was looking for.” I swallowed hard. “But they didn’t know what they were doing. They had no idea what would have happened to them if they’d have entered it, or even what it’s become in the time since man was banished from it. So I used magic to hide it. I shunted it off into another plane of existence and cut away all the pathways to it.”
I shook my head.
“And I sent this damn place with it; even being here shouldn’t be possible.”
“I’m beginning to rethink my definition of possible,” Andy muttered.
“Just now?” Mimi quipped. “Took you long enough.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Clint said, walking forward and settling next to me.
“I know that,” I said, balling my hands up into fists at my side. “And I can’t explain it, but it’s happening.”
“Not that,” he scoffed. “I just assume all the shit we can’t wrap our heads around is because of magic. Things seem simpler that way.” He walked out ever further, leaning forward. “She’s here. I can feel her. She’s supposed to be right here.”
“Merry?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he answered. “She’s right in front of me. Or it seems like she is.”
“Damn,” I muttered. “You’re right.”
“I am?” Clint asked.
“You are,” I said, tensing up. “It’s magic. It’s always magic.”
I turned to Mimi.
“You tell your grandmother to get her ass out here.”
“She’s not-”
“I don’t want to hear she’s not answering, because we both know that she can hear us.” I took a deep breath. “I get that you’re tired and I get that she doesn’t want you to get hurt. Hell, I don’t want you to get hurt either. It’s why I didn’t want you here. But you are here, and seeing as there isn’t a damn thing I can do about that now, I’m going to need you to make yourself useful. There’s an innocent woman who needs our help. Well, mostly innocent. But, your grandmother is the only one of us who-”
Mimi blinked and her eyes changed colors. “All right, all right,” Pearl said, speaking through our granddaughter’s lips. “There’s no need to be dramatic.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen a woman tie you up in knots like this.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I answered.
“I won’t if you don’t,” she chimed back at me.
“Do you want me to tell you I’m into her? Will that convince you to help? Because, if it will, I’ll have it tattooed on my forehead.”
“I’m not sure you have enough room on your face for another marking,” she answered. “And, of course not. I’ll do what’s right because it’s right. And because I want those new age hippie witches to know just how outclassed they are today.”
Pearl looked up at the moon and balked.
“Tying it to moon? So typical.”
She lifted her hands and began to whistle.
“Is that — is that, ‘Wheels on the Bus’?” Andy asked, recognizing the tune.
“It’s her go to spell song,” I answered, remembering more than a few sticky situations from back in the day. “It means this is a doozy.”
“Child’s play,” Pearl answered, taking a momentary respite from the whistling before starting it again.
She twisted her hands as beads of sweat began to form at her forehead.
My throat tightened. Maybe Pearl had been right. Maybe this was too much for Mimi’s body to take.
I had left the girl as a child, and now I was going to get her killed.
‘Murderer’ sounded about right after all.
I opened my mouth to speak, but before the word ‘stop’ could pass my lips, the world around me began to shimmer.
I hated the look of magic. Always had. It was like an abomination of everything this planet was supposed to be, set to colorful, vibrant lights.
But right now, I couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful sight.
As Pearl’s spell began to undo the cloaking spell the lunar coven had put into place, I saw stone and shrubbery.
It was a castle, it seemed. A huge castle with massive stone walls.
Only it wasn’t.
As the landscape in front of us became clearer and clearer with each twist of Pearl’s hands, I began to see something much more elaborate than a castle.
The walls were structural. They were oppositional.
And they twisted and turned in what seemed to be a million different ways.
Stretching out as far as the eye could see was a massive and ridiculously ornate maze.
And, something told me Merry was somewhere in the middle of it.
“Seriously?!” I asked. Looking up at the sky, where the Big Guy was meant to reside, I repeated, “Seriously?”
30
The maze called to me, laughing at me with its twists and turns. Somewhere, Merry was lost in that thing. She was probably bound and gagged, maybe even hurt. And that was if she was alive at all.
I grunted, calling to mind everything that had come before.
“Somebody’s playing a game with us,” Andy said, settling beside me, his hand on his pistol.
Of all the things I had just grunted over, the sight of him lying dead on the ground was by far the worst.
I had already watched so many people die, and before it was over, I’d watch Andy die too. I knew that without the slightest shadow of a doubt. But, that didn’t mean that had to be tonight.
“No,” I answered. “Not us. Whoever is backing this coven has been playing a very long game. She’s been after my curse for at least twenty-five years now, which means that she’s given roughly a third of her life expectancy to get this done.”
“So?” he asked.
“So,” I answered, eying the ins and outs of the maze that I could spy from where I was standing. “This isn’t just about the curse. Immortality is tempting, at least from the outside. I get that. But you don’t give your life away for the promise of it. If that was the case, the Big Guy would never have any defectors. No, this is personal. Whoever this sneaky bitch is, she hates me. This is as much about making me suffer as it is anything else.”
“My youngest daughter used to come home all messed up,” Andy said, clearing his throat. “It was when she was in second grade, I think. Her clothes would be all torn up, her face would be all red and puffed up from crying. Turned out that there were these fourth graders who had decided they didn’t like her for whatever reason. We went to the principal, even went to the girls’ parents, but none of that seemed to work. Everyday, like clockwork, she’d come home all tattered ass up. Until one day, she didn’t.”
“She finally had enough and fought back?” I asked, my eyes darting over to him.
“God no. Those girls would have kicked her scrawny little ass. But when I saw my older daughter coming in, smiling like the cat that ate the canary, I knew what was up.” He shook his head. “When I asked her why she did it, seeing as how the girls didn’t get along when they were that age. She just looked at me and said that she knew her sister wouldn’t be able to do it by herself.” He pulled out his pistol and cocked it. “And that you always, always, stand up for family. Now let’s go kick some witchy ass.”
I didn’t bother with the requisite, ‘you guys don’t have to do this’ rant with the others. They had all made their stances clear. And besides, after that little speech, I doubted anybody was going to turn tail and run anytime soon.
“There are a couple of things you guys need to keep in mind,” I said as the four of us settled outside the mouth of the great maze. “These are powerful witches, and they wield some damn tricky magic. So, don’t believe your eyes. Nothing is as-”
“We’re not pups,” Clint barked out, looking straight ahead. “We’ve all dealt with witches before, and we don’t need a guidebook laid out at our feet. Let’s find this gypsy girl and end this.”
“She herself isn’t a gypsy,” Mimi said, shaking her head. “Her kid is half-”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Clint said, his voice turning into something deep and guttural. The wolf was right there, simmering under the surface. And Clint wasn’t going to keep him at bay much longer.
“He’s right,” I said. “Once we get inside, they’re going to separate us.”
“How do you know that?” Andy asked.
“Because that’s what I would do,” I said. “It’s a good battle tactic, and trust me, I’ve been in more battles than anybody any of you have ever met.” I turned to Andy and let my eyes flicker back and forth between him and Mimi. “I need the two of you to try and stay together. Hold hands or something as we walk through. Physical contact can sometimes screw with the separation incantation enough to invalidate it.”
“Why don’t we all just hold hands then?” Andy asked, looking over at me. “We can walk into this thing singing like the Partridge Family, if that’ll make us safer.”
“Because, I don’t want to be safer,” I answered quickly, shaking my head. “At least, not for myself anyway. Whoever is running this coven is going after me without reserve. I’m going to get hit with the big guns tonight. There’s no way around that for me. The further away all of you are, the better.”
“You could die tonight,” Mimi answered, her face growing wide and pale as though the idea had only now really just taken hold in her. “I mean, if the spell goes through, and whoever’s doing this takes your curse, you could really die.”
Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I thought I saw a little concern drape itself across her eyes.
“I know that, Mimi,” I said flatly, looking at her and hoping that my expression — remorseful and solid — would be enough to make up for just a little bit of all the things that would have to remain unsaid between us. “But, I guarantee you that’s not going to happen.”
It was a lie, and one she and the others very likely saw right through. Still, we were at the edge of the cliff, so to speak. There wasn’t room for anything that might give any of us pause. Not if any of us wanted to make it out of this.
So they forgave the lie and kept silent.
“Once we’re in there, I’m going to need something from each of you. Mimi,” I started, looking at her. “I need you to find the safest place you can, while getting as close to the center of the maze as possible.”
“Okay,” she answered. “Why the center?”
“Because I know a thing or two about magic, and a spell this size needs an anchor to hold it. Given the fact that this monstrosity looks to be a perfect square, the most logical place for that anchor will be smack dab in the middle. But you won’t be able to get right to it. It’s a Goddamn maze, for one. And secondly, it’ll be guarded.”
“What do you want me to do when I get there?” she asked, eyeing me wearily.
“Take a backseat,” I answered simply. “You’ve done so much for me, and I couldn’t have made it this far without you. But, this is a job for me and your grandmother. You pull her back out here and you tell her that I except her to do whatever she has to in order to take that anchor down. Tell her I’m counting on her. I might not deserve to be able to say that, given everything I’ve done, but I’m saying it anyway. And it’s the right thing.”
“Okay,” Mimi answered, blinking hard and looking away from me.
“And you,” I said, turning to Andy.
“I’m not giving you some big goodbye, or some tearful nonsense about how much you mean to me,” Andy answered flatly, his gun still in his hand.
“Good,” I said. “I don’t want you to. Take Mimi’s hand, go with her and get her as close to the anchor as possible, and shoot any motherfucker who comes near her.”
“Now that I can do,” he answered, grabbing Mimi’s hand and smiling.
“What about me?” Clint asked, his body nearly shaking from the effort it took to keep the wolf at bay.
“You’re a pissed off monster with fangs,” I said flippantly, marching toward the mouth of
the great maze. “Stop holding back.”
I looked back at the three of them one last time. They were a ragtag band if I’d ever seen one, but two-thirds of them meant more to me than I could ever properly put into words. And like I said, the other had fangs.
“Quick and clean. In and out. As soon as the anchor comes down the maze will start imploding. The instant you feel that happening, you get the hell out of there.”
I nodded and turned away before they had a chance to respond. They had come this far. I knew what they would say.
Taking a deep breath, I took one last look around. This field, a field of blood, had been the sight of so many of my nightmares. These witches might want to take me down, but they had inadvertently given me something along the way.
I had a chance to make it right. I couldn’t bring Abe back, but I could help balance the scales a little. I was going to save a life here, in the same place where I took one all those centuries ago. And maybe, somehow, that would make it all worth it.
Or, maybe I’d get myself killed.
Guess we were going to find out.
I stepped through the mouth of the maze, and like an unstoppable wave, a torrent of magic washed over me.
It took my vision away, blinding me with a light so bright that it reminded me of all those heavenly accounts you hear from people who have near death experiences. Not that I’d know anything about that.
When the light subsided, I found myself standing back out in the field…outside of the maze.
“Well, that was unexpected,” I muttered to myself.
Were they trying to keep me out? Was the magic meant to keep me at bay until it was too late?
No. That didn’t make any sense. They constructed this trap for me in this place for a reason. They needed me here, close by. So why was I outside again?
“You’re not,” a familiar voice said, reading my mind.
I didn’t need to look or turn to know that I was talking to Abe.
“This is bad, Abel,” I said, deciding to use his given name, the one Mother chose for him.
“I know, Brother,” he answered, settling beside me.
Mark of Cain (Immortal Mercenary Book 1) Page 20