Called by Darkness

by Sean Fletcher

  “Do you think I’m…scared of you, too?”

  He stared hard at me, as though examining my face for any trace of fear. “Are you?”

  “No, of course not. Why would I ever be scared of you?”

  Colson’s large hands crinkled the bag. His eyes flickered nervously back and forth. “I’m part giant.” He breathed the words out like they’d been fluttering in his chest, waiting to escape. “It’s just a small part—well, not small.” He gestured to himself. “And not a lot of people know, but still…they can…almost sense it, you know? I guess it’s kind of obvious. And that makes them scared.”

  His nervousness was like a palpable thing coming off him in waves, nearly making me anxious. It was strange, seeing him so insecure about something, when it seemed someone like him had nothing at all to be afraid of. “I think they’d be less scared of you if you told them what you were thinking more.”

  His forehead furrowed. “Why’s that?”

  “Hm…” I tapped my chin, pretending to think. “Maybe because I’ve had houseplants who are chattier than you?”

  “Not all of us have to announce our every thought, Skylar.”

  “True, but…” I reached over and put a gentle hand on his arm. “And this is coming from the girl who has zero clue what she’s talking about, but just be you. That’s what I want. I know that’s what Mia will want when we get her back. And also, thanks for being here so Asher and I don’t annoy each other to death.”

  Colson swallowed hard. I thought the bottom of his eyes were a bit wet, but he turned away with a slightly gruff, “Thanks. I’ll do that.” He lifted the deli bag. “We should go. I’ll get Asher up.”

  I let out a breath as he left the room, feeling like I’d just finished a therapy session. A good therapy session. Colson being part giant wasn’t a huge shock. The boy did not grow that big on Wheaties alone, but I understood why he kept it under wraps. My grandpa Brune, the half-giant who had practically raised my mom, still had to deal with Supes giving him a hard time, even when he was supposed to be accepted. Colson probably got that less, but I’m sure it was still there. But what I’d said was true, I was glad he was here. And I knew Mia would be too, when we got her back.

  I strapped Valkyrie’s hilt firmly to my belt as I heard Colson enter Asher’s room.

  “Is that bacon?” Asher mumbled sleepily.

  I smiled. It was go time.

  The end of the seven line was more packed than I would have liked. Though I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d expected in New York. On the subway. During midday.

  After the intercom called the end of the line, we stepped off and shuffled toward the far end of the platform. A few minutes later the train left, heading back the opposite direction. Before the platform could fill up again, each of us quickly cast our own basic concealment charms, leapt down onto the tracks and hurried around the barrier and into the rest of the tunnel.

  The moment the platform was out of sight, we dropped the charms and summoned lights that buzzed around our heads, illuminating our steps over chunks of concrete and twisted rebar.

  “When you think about it, this is kind of a perfect hideout for them,” Asher said, keeping his voice low. The curving, closed-in ceilings of the tunnel bounced any sound we made ten times over. “Most of these abandoned stops were never put into production, this one included. It’s an easy way to get off the beaten track and out of sight.”

  “Hopefully it’s not too hidden,” I said. “And not too close to the—”

  A sharp blast of air tore into us from the direction we were heading, carrying the smell of decaying leaves and dead things. I shivered, and not just from the cold. “…Necropolis.”

  “Feels like we’re going the right way,” Colson said.

  I’d never been to the Necropolis. It was one of the few original Supe boroughs that remained separate after the rest combined. Probably ‘cause it was here, far underground. And was home to the undead. Say what you will about peace and progress, but some people will always be uneasy hanging around dead things. Supes included.

  Like the completely sane people we were, we followed the bitter cold air and darkness farther down as the tunnel dipped and wound. A couple times, I saw signs that there’d been life down here: a discarded wrapper, graffiti on the wall, rats as big as my freaking face, whose red eyes gleamed at me as my light passed over them.

  I hurried to catch up with Asher and Colson.

  After what felt like hours, Asher held up his hand. “Lights out.”

  We extinguished them, but instead of pitch black, a halo’s glow emanated from around the next bend. Asher put a finger to his lips.

  “Silence from now on.”

  I wanted to ask who’d died and made him team captain, but that would be breaking the rules of the quiet game.

  Silently as we could, we snuck until we could peek around the corner.

  Talk about a waste of money.

  The City Hall station looked finished and ready to go, like a train could be arriving at any moment. Olden-time lightbulbs illuminated colored mosaics inlaid in the wall, some of them chipped and crumbling. A cracked, grimy skylight overhead reached across vaulted ceilings.

  I looked around and shrugged at the others. No one’s home.

  Asher frowned.

  We re-cast our lights and snuck onto the platform. All the exits leading off were blocked by gates—probably to keep vandals out. But one gate had been ripped open, the lights smashed.

  Well if that wasn’t inviting…

  The tunnel we entered didn’t look like it was part of the original line; this seemed crudely bored into the rock, the walls lined with jagged edges and—

  I froze as my light fell across a grinning skull, followed by dozens more. Some were human, but others were more elongated, their teeth sharper. Ghouls.

  “I think we’re in part of the Necropolis,” I whispered.

  “Agreed,” Asher said.

  I saw Colson reaching toward one of the skulls.

  “Don’t!”

  He jumped, his hand snapping back. “What?”

  I pointed at the skull he’d been about touch. All of them, actually. “See that?”

  Colson squinted. Hovering over each skull was a thin shimmer of magic, like an oil slick. Usually the shimmer was neutral, a sort of yellowish glow. Sometimes, if it was dark magic, it showed up purple. This glow was an angry red.

  “Remember Master Dorrison’s class?” I said. “The spirits are still inside, hanging around their bodies.”

  “Or what’s left of them,” Asher said, brushing aside a leg bone with his foot.

  “Exactly. We touch the skulls and we’re going to have Casper the pissed-off ghost and his compadres on our butts.”

  Colson frowned, like he’d really wanted to touch the dead thing. “Noted.”

  Asher was smirking at me.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” He smirked again as he passed. “I’m just a little shocked to hear you paid attention to anything in anyone’s class.”

  I nearly threw a skull at his skull.

  We continued down the tunnel, being especially careful not to touch the walls in our own game of Operation: Ghost edition. After a hundred yards, the walls widened and we stepped into a wide, shallow cavern lit by a faint glow from some rocks in the walls. My spirits sank. There was no one here. Had the Duke lied to us? If he did, I was going to…

  “What’s that?” Colson said.

  He was pointing to a figure I hadn’t seen, splayed on the floor at the bottom of the cavern. The figure was tiny. Girl-shaped.

  “Mia!”

  Before I could stop to think if it was a good idea, I was skidding as fast as I could down some stairs to my left, nearly throwing myself forward in my mad dash to reach her. Mia was so still. She couldn’t be…if she was…I could never live with myself if we were too late.

  I hit the bottom of the cavern and rushed over to her, cradling her head in my hands.

 
; “Mia? Mia, talk to me, please!”

  Her face was scary white, like all the blood had been drained out. Her hands were as cold as an ice cube.

  “Mia, wake up!”

  I pressed my ear to her chest—and let out a huge breath. She had a heartbeat. An actual heartbeat. It was weak as an injured bird’s, but still there.

  “She’s alive,” I nearly sobbed in relief as Asher and Colson ran over to me.

  Colson easily scooped her up and held her close. “Go!” he said, voice frantic. “This is too easy—”

  “You’re right about that.”

  My body went rigid as the eyes from earlier cut into me, holding me immobile. I heard Asher cry out, but I was too focused on my piercing headache, on the darkness stirring deep inside me once again.

  A woman stepped out of the shadows, the man who’d kidnapped Mia at her side. On the lip of the cavern encircling us, a dozen men and women in dark clothing leered down, weapons pointing toward us.

  The woman smiled as she approached, but there was no kindness in it, just malicious joy that seemed to break me open, claw at my insides, bring to the forefront of my mind every ounce of fear I had.

  “Skylar Rivest,” she said. “We meet face-to-face at last.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Shut your eyes!” Asher yelled.

  I slammed mine closed right as a starburst of light went off like a camera flash. I heard screams and angry shouts, but I could suddenly move again. I scrambled to my feet, scraping my shins on rocks, fumbling toward where I hoped the exit was.

  “No!” the woman yelled. “Deal with the others. She’s mine!”

  I ran, not caring which direction, just as long as we were all okay and getting as far away from danger as possible.

  “Asher, the moment we get above, I can buy us some—”

  I blinked, my vision finally clearing. Asher and Colson weren’t with me.

  I spun around, panicked. Across the cavern came snaps and explosions of magic as the rest of the Society went after them. I cried out as a spell barely missed Asher’s head and blew up the wall behind him. Asher fired back an incineration spell that failed to catch before he vanished with the others into the tunnel.

  “You’ve given me a lot of trouble, you know that?” The woman walked toward me, limping slightly. I made a move to follow my friends, but quicker than I thought possible she stepped in front of me, cutting off my escape and giving me my first good look at her.

  The bangs of her blond hair were cut in a jagged line, making it drape like an iron curtain across her face, partially obscuring her right eye. Her eyes were the blackest I’d ever seen, like bottomless pits, like the deepest depths of space. A wicked scar ran up one side of her mouth, cocking her lips in a permanent half grin.

  She reached out a pale hand, almost as if warmly gesturing me into a hug, and smiled. It pulled on her crooked face even more, tilting it up. It was as though she were trying too hard to convince me she wasn’t completely, utterly insane.

  I took a step back, nearly tripping over a rock. I couldn’t pull my gaze away from her, not even for a moment. The fear inside me was rising like flood waters again. This woman…this woman was dangerous. This woman was death.

  “Why’d you take Mia?” I asked, trying desperately to think of a way around her. “Why’d you take my friend?”

  The woman’s smile fell along with her hand. She looked almost…disappointed?

  “Come on, Skylar. You didn’t really think she was the one I wanted, did you?”

  The eyes were back—I could feel them burrowing under my skin, sliding into my bones and breaking me apart. You, they seemed to say, their voices scritch-scratching on the inside of my skull. We wanted you.

  “No!”

  I shook myself free from their grasp before running toward the nearest tunnel behind me, hands scrabbling on slick rock, lungs seizing with great heaving gasps of ice-cold air.

  Me, she wanted me. I was too good a trophy to pass up. A prize worthy enough to draw my parents out into the open. Big enough to hurt them. And I’d been stupid enough to fall right into her trap.

  Well, not just yet. She could have me if she could catch me. And I’d run as long as I could, leading her away from the others.

  “Is the daughter of the great Aspen Rivest running away?” The woman’s mocking voice carried to me as I rounded another corner. “I’m surprised. You seemed so full of bravado earlier. What happened to that Skylar I was so eager to meet?”

  “It’s called a strategic retreat,” I mumbled.

  But the more I ran, the more I realized I was dooming myself. These passages could go on for miles. If crazytown back there didn’t catch me then I might wind up wandering around until I starved. Or became a snack for something else.

  No. I skidded to a halt, the grinding rocks echoing in the massive new chamber I’d just entered. I would face her. No more running. I would face her and demand answers. I wouldn’t be chased like a hunted animal. I’d make her pay for taking Mia.

  I crouched behind a rusted-out car—how that had made its way down here I had no clue—and waited. I breathed through my nose, trying to psych myself up. Sweat dripped down my face. I squeezed my fingers around Valkyrie as footsteps approached.

  “You’re probably still wondering how I know you,” the woman said. “Or perhaps not. After all, everybody knows Aspen Rivest, hero of New York. And most know she has a daughter.”

  I peered through the car’s busted out window as the woman appeared through it. She didn’t look concerned, like she had me exactly where she wanted. My anger grew. So this was fun for her, was it? Just a game?

  “Your mother wouldn’t remember me, Skylar. To her, Kasia Armani is just another casualty of her great legacy. I am what she created. And as for her daughter…”

  I felt the eyes again, prickling at the corner of my consciousness. They hadn’t found me yet, but they were hungrily searching.

  “You’ll be a great asset. Her own flesh and blood will bring about her destruction.”

  “Dramatic much!” I said loudly, my voice bouncing around the cave. “Do you only talk in movie trailer quotes?”

  The scarred side of her face quirked up, though there was no humor in her smile.

  “You don’t see it. Not yet. But you will.”

  Her back was to me. I bounced where I crouched, eager. Now. I had to do it—

  Now!

  I pushed off, vaulting the car hood in a single move. Valkyrie blazed to life. The point of the blade aimed between her shoulders as I sprinted to her, as I drew close and drove the sword down…

  Kasia turned, smiling, and the eyes hit me. “Let me help you see it.”

  I was sucked into darkness.

  I was once again floating in the cool black. My body didn’t feel real, more like a puppet I was controlling from somewhere else.

  I wasn’t dead. At least, I was pretty sure I wasn’t. I didn’t exactly have much experience in deadness other than meeting the occasional Vamp or zombie.

  So yeah. Not dead. Hopefully.

  I floated, not really going anywhere. I was actually getting kind of bored. Even though I knew this was some kind of unexplained magical phenomenon, the lack of scenery got old fast.

  “If anything’s going to happen, better make it soon,” I said to the void.

  Then I saw the door. I was sure it was the one I’d nearly opened earlier. This time I was going to make sure I went through.

  I swam toward it in a jerky breast stroke that would have made Michael Phelps cry. My fingers reached out, wrapping around the doorknob.

  I turned it—

  And tumbled headfirst inside, landing hard on my back.

  “Ouch.”

  “Intelligent as well as graceful. Lucky me.”

  That voice…I knew that voice.

  I flipped over and stood, before nearly falling down again when I saw where I was.

  I’d ended up in some great hall, immaculately decked out as
though the royal-est of royals lived there. A blood red carpet covered the cold stone floor. The wooden rafters and stone columns were cast in contrasting light and shadows thanks to an immense fire roaring in the fireplace at the far end. Tapestries with crests I couldn’t make out hung on either side of the walls.

  I stood gaping like an idiot for a moment.

  “I was being sarcastic, if you couldn’t tell.”

  My eyes jerked to the great iron throne in front of the fire. A boy peeled himself out of it and walked toward me. I was pretty sure I felt my eyes bulge in my skull.

  If all the gorgeous boys on earth had combined into one, this guy was the result. Everything about him was too perfect. Angelic, even. Cheekbones seemingly carved from marble, fine onyx-black hair that cut across his sharply defined face. He sauntered like he’d invented it, every move accentuating his muscles fit into a suit that was tight in all the right places. Every glance was almost sensuous, every flicker of movement power.

  “Skylar Rivest, we meet at last.” His golden eyes held mine as he took my hand and kissed it.

  I think I might have gurgled something before managing to squeak out, “It’s weird, but I’m hearing that a lot lately.”

  “I’ve been waiting a while, a long while, to meet you.”

  My brain had short circuited and I couldn’t seem to jump start it. He frowned—every expression he made was worthy to be on the cover of a magazine—and took a step closer. “Have I broken your min—”

  “Why’re you wearing a suit?” I blurted. It was the first thought that escaped my mouth. Sue me.

  The boy frowned deeper, though his eyes danced with amusement. “Interesting,” he murmured. He took a step back. With a sweep of his hand his suit became flowing black robes. A kilt. Beach bum shorts, before returning to a suit.

  “I can be whatever I want to be. We can be wherever we want to be.”

  He waved his hand again. The hall vanished and we were suddenly in a cozy room. Another roaring fire warmed the air, blood-red settees placed before it. Across from me was a wall full of weaponry. A harp softly plucked an unknown melody in one corner beside a dining table with two chairs overlooking bay windows that showed only darkness.