It (Previously) Followed
I’m not a fan of crossing dimensions. I don’t think anyone is, but I puked nearly every time. Teleporting was one thing—and I had to admit, Ashur was far better at minimizing the aftereffects than my father or Dev were—but dimensional tears are a whole other thing.
So my stomach was twisted up at the thought and I was suddenly grateful I hadn’t had anything to eat, hunger swiftly fleeing me. Ashur refused to let me know where the apartment we’d been in was—no walking out the front door like normal folks, he whisked us away in a heartbeat.
We ended up in total darkness.
Melinoë and I clutched one another’s arms and held still while we stood in complete blackness. It was different from the dark of the forest—the air was stale and musty, and when I shuffled my feet a little, it felt like solid ground indoors. The movement offered enough of an echo that we must’ve been a vast room.
I hoped like hell he hadn’t sent us back to the Brethren in some kind of fucked-up joke.
My head was throbbing with being in his presence this long, my magic quivering across my skin in a futile attempt to soothe. “Ashur?” My voice held more of a command than I felt.
“A moment, little witch.”
A few seconds later, light flared in the space.
It was a vast chamber somewhere underground, round with a high domed ceiling supported by columns. There were old torches now lit, both circling the outer edges of the room and on the nearby columns.
There had been damage at some point, one pillar cracked and stone crumbled on the ground. In fact, something had gone down here once upon a time—blood stained black deep in the grout of the intricate tile floor.
Plus there was a dusty skeletal hand just lying a few feet away.
Fear prickled my skin though I couldn’t say why.
“How will we know who we’re looking for?” I asked at last, because Ashur had been surprisingly mum on that topic.
“He is the only human being in this dimension,” he replied. “Not difficult to find. It’s a...pocket universe, of a sort. I cannot open a doorway there myself, and it is the antithesis of my kind—I cannot step foot there, even the air would kill me.”
We should bottle that up. Honestly, though, I wasn’t sure I believed him—he would not admit a weakness so easily to a human. Unless, of course, he thought me too small a threat to be worth the concern, though given his lengthy interest in me, I wondered. And how fucked up was this little “pocket universe” if it was even more foreign to him than the earthly realm?
“But it won’t kill us?” Melinoë said. “Humans are fine? Or...mostly human?”
“Yes. The dimension shares many of the same properties as this one, however it looks...different.” He shifted his attention back to me, his wings quivering restlessly. “More malleable. This will not be easy. He has survived this long because he has magic at his disposal.”
“Wait—you’re sending me after another witch?”
A nod.
Fuck, I should’ve told my dad. Of course he would’ve then gotten into some kind of battle with Ashur and most certainly lost.
“You’ll need to gain his trust,” Ashur continued. “Or he will kill you outright. If he suspects deception, it will...stagnate your progress.”
Great, that sounded promising.
“Are you sufficiently prepared?”
“Fuck no.”
He gave me a pained look.
“We might be operating with entirely different contexts here, Ashur. You say it’s a ‘pocket’ universe and he won’t be hard to find—are we talking miles I have to cover? The size of a city? A province?”
He considered this, his expression critical as he regarded me. Probably like he was attempting to explain something complex to cockroach if the narrowing of his eerie eyes was any indication of his thoughts. “A small city, perhaps. I can feel the size and shape of it, but it fluctuates. I suspect he’ll sense you and be curious so you should not need to search for long. What else can I tell you to assist with your preparation, little witch?”
“Can we eat anything over there? Is there a risk of dying of dehydration?”
His feather-fine hair fluttered around his temples as he shook his head. “Your bodies will...process differently. Magic sustains it. Instead of food for calories, you will pull from the energy there. This is how your target is still living despite the isolation.”
I chewed on this, trying to wrap my brain around it and come up with another clever question to cover our asses, but my stomach twisted and grew more and more unsettled the longer I thought about it.
“I would not send you to your death, Elis O’Connor.” The tone of Ashur’s voice was firm and deep, shuddering the air with more force than he probably intended to use. “You alone are capable of this task, and you can complete it and return safely.”
“And if I wasn’t capable?”
A loose shrug so casual he almost looked human. “I would wait until you were ready. I am patient.”
I averted my gaze from the chilly inhuman stare of his and looked at Melinoë. “Any questions?”
She shook her head.
“Yeah, I guess we’re good. So...” I gestured vaguely at the space in front of us. “Do your thing.”
“There is one issue with that.”
Of course there fucking was. I didn’t even dignify it with a question, just waited.
“It takes blood magic to open the doorway—and for that, I need you to make a...donation.”
It was never ending with this motherfucker.
I didn’t know, or do, blood magic. Wasn’t my forte. Wasn’t Dev’s either, and Dad...well, Dad had a lot of years to study a lot of things, and he dabbled in a bit of everything. But blood magic was the precursor to sacrifice, and that was a path he generally did not encourage.
“I cannot perform your witch magic exactly,” he continued. “Which is why we are in this space. Your blood should be sufficient to open the doorway to enter, and again to exit.”
At least he was requesting and not just bleeding me dry himself. “Fine. Where?”
“You can’t feel the dimensional tear?”
“Oh my goddess why are you even here if I have to do everything myself?”
He gave me a predatory grin I did not like one bit.
I threw on as much bravery as possible and stalked past him, hands outstretched to feel with my magic around the space, sensing any tears, anything that shouldn’t be there—any weakness in the atmosphere to be pushed.
A vibration of energy thrummed against my left fingertips suddenly.
I paused my walking and pressed again, gently, moving my right hand over to feel the space as well. A thin rope of energy ran in an oblong circle in the air—that had to be the doorway.
I dropped my hands again and stared at the empty air as if that would let me see it. “Reassure me again, Ashur, that you are not sending me to my death for some game I’ve yet to figure out.”
“Would my reassurances do you any good, little witch?”
I sighed. “Nope. Got a knife?”
A thin blade appeared over my shoulder.
It was more of a stiletto than dagger, its needle-tip razor sharp. I gingerly accepted the obsidian-black blade and pushed my sleeve up...and hesitated.
I could back out. Maybe. I would probably pay for it, though, and while I might struggle sometimes to come up with a list of things to live for, I knew I couldn’t leave my dad like that. Knew that I would spite this angel motherfucker at my back and survive as long as I could.
“I did almost forget...”
I looked back at him. “Seriously?”
“The man you seek is not alone. You will have a weapon there against him, a creature that cannot be killed, but only if you have my mark to control it.”
“I’m not getting any more tattoos.”
“It is temporary—”
“You’re not marking me again—”
“I’ll do it,” Melinoë spoke up. There was a defiant lift to her chin even if her bottom lip trembled. She pushed up the sleeve of her leather coat and offered the underside of her forearm.
Ashur didn’t argue; he extended his hand, wrapped extra-jointed fingers around her arm, and pressed his palm tight to her flesh.
She screamed—at first a sharp, painful shriek that died to a whimper as she tried to tamp down on it. Her eyes watered and skin smoked as he released her arm.
Pressed into her light brown skin was an Enochian mark. Almost a brand, but not a typical burn—it was fading to a red mark before our eyes, the raised and blistered skin healing.
“Within a few weeks it will be gone entirely and has no use beyond giving you command over my underling.”
Melinoë winced and cradled her arm to her chest. “Great.”
“Such a thoughtful gift—I’m almost jealous.” I turned back toward the portal I was about to open, my arm raised with the stiletto in hand, when sudden pressure on my shoulders startled me. I clamped down on a yelp as a cloak fell on either side of me to brush the floor, Ashur’s hands still on my shoulders.
The closer he came, the more I could hear the scream of reality his presence tore at, and I cringed as he leaned down and spoke in my ear. “It is cold where you’re going, Elis. You’re welcome.”
Fuuuuuck off and die you creepy motherfucker.
No more talking—I dragged the tip of the stiletto up my forearm, not deep enough to hit anything vital but enough that blood collected on the blade. I flicked my wrist, spraying droplets ahead of me.
The air sparked as the blood hit an invisible barrier, and the liquid spun and twisted into a rope, falling along a channel I couldn’t see. As the two ends connected, a void opened within and bitter cold blasted us.
If this is a trick, I will find a way to murder him.
I grasped Melinoë’s fingers in one hand, the stiletto in the other, and stepped through.