Chapter 15

 

I gripped Beli, my soul blade, by the hilt as I cut a gate into the fabric of space and time. It was my fourth attempt.

“Dammit,” I said, gazing into the luscious green groves for the third time straight. Normally this is exactly where I’d want to go, but I’d opened up enough gates into Samhuinn by accident to know it was a matter of time. “The one time I actually want to go there, it isn’t what’s coming up.”

“Keep trying,” Mercy insisted, squeezing my shoulder.

I glanced over toward Ashley’s bunk—ever since we’d arrived, she and Ellie had been practically inseparable. A part of me hoped she’d show up just in time to join me. Adventures like this—I didn’t do these things without my sister involved somehow. Now, I was preparing to dive into the realm of the dead with a vampire who had mind-control abilities. Not exactly a risk-free endeavor. But what good would Shaman wards and an unwieldy love magic be able to accomplish in Samhuinn? Bringing her with me would be selfish. Not to mention, Mercy wouldn’t likely allow it.

“Look, we can go through into the groves. We’ll just hitch a ride with Beli. He likes going into Samhuinn anyway. Says the heat feels good against his scales.”

Mercy shook her head. “I’m a vampire. And there’s no night in the groves.”

“There’s no sun there, either. Just light… from who knows where. And the one time I briefly flew into Samhuinn, the sun, or whatever emanated light there, was scorching.”

“We aren’t going to the illuminated part of Samhuinn. We’re going to the land of the dead, deep in the heart of the place. It’s a place of darkness.”

“Well that’s fantastic. I’ve never opened a gate there. Not once.”

I think it’s my energy. My magic comes straight from the Tree of Life. To take me with you into the realm of the dead…

“Isabelle thinks her energy might have something to do with it.”

Mercy nodded. “Then look at me.”

“Wait, no… you can’t…”

“Open a gate into the land of darkness, in the realm of the dead,” Mercy commanded.

She can’t control me…

Isabelle was right—she couldn’t. But I couldn’t let Mercy know that. And I didn’t have a choice. I gripped my blade tightly. A deep wave of… sadness… flooded over me. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. I wanted to cry, but I wouldn’t. Mercy’s compulsion made sure of it. I had a single focus, a resolve that I couldn’t control. As I swung Beli, I felt that same wave of sadness, that depression lift, as a red energy illuminated my blade. In a fury I cut a giant semicircle into the fabric of space and time. A thousand screams struck my ears as a black hole opened in front of me.

Mercy grabbed my free hand and pulled me inside the gate.

No! Isabelle screamed. It hurts!

“Hold on!” I shouted into the darkness, hoping Isabelle would hear.

My feet struck something that must’ve been the ground—it was sticky like tar. I could hear the suction pop as I lifted one foot, and then another. Sobbing and screams echoed all around me—but Isabelle’s own shrieks and cries drowned most of them out.

“She’s in pain,” I said. “Isabelle… I don’t know if we can do this…”

Mercy touched the back of my neck—a sensation that would have sent shivers down my spine if I’d been anywhere else. But here, the air itself smelled of sulfur, and whatever shred of humanity that might persist in Mercy, even if it was only the souls of those she’d fed upon… those she’d murdered… it made her seem alive by comparison. Her touch was oddly warm.

“Fight against the pain, Isabelle,” Mercy said. “Whatever you do, do not use your magic. This place will descend on us in an instant if your power is exposed.”

I don’t know if I can help it. My magic floods over pain. I can’t control…

“You have to resist, Isabelle!” I said, then turned to Mercy. “Look, we need to get Ramon and then get the hell out of here. No pun intended. Isabelle’s power, her magic… it’s like an instinct. Too much pain, too much suffering. She can’t hold it back forever.”

Mercy nodded—a look I could barely discern except for the fact that her red eyes glowed even brighter here than they did in darkness back on earth.

“It’s dark,” I said. “I can’t see a thing.”

“I can see perfectly,” Mercy said. “It’s probably a good thing you can’t see. I usually thrive on the gruesome. But this is a lot to take in, even for me. So much suffering, so much pain…”

“Whatever happened to ‘death is a mystery to revere’? ‘A part of life’?”

“This isn’t death,” Mercy said. “This is something like purgatory. Millions of souls caught here, unwilling to accept their deaths, stuck instead in perpetual torture. Maybe that’s why Isabelle is in such pain. She is dead, after all. This place, it’s like torture to the dead.”

“Aren’t you dead?” I asked. “Do you feel the pain?”

“Not really. I don’t have my own soul.”

“But you do have the souls of others, the souls you’ve stolen in your… meals.”

“But they are incomplete. Just slivers of a thousand different souls all mixed together.”

“You’ve murdered a thousand people?” I asked.

“I’m a vampire. It’s hunting. It’s survival. Not murder.”

I just shook my head. Based on the agony I sensed in Isabelle’s cries, we didn’t have time to engage in a debate over semantics or vampire ethics. “Are you sure you can find Ramon here? She isn’t going to last much longer, not without healing the pain.”

“Follow me,” Mercy said.

My eyes gradually adjusted enough that, aided by the light that came from Mercy’s eyes, I could see a few feet in front of us. I felt something, a presence, brush against my shoulder. I gasped.

Mercy laughed. “Your death mask… the wraiths think you are one of them.”

“The wraiths?”

“Ramon told me it’s the form that human souls who linger here take. A wraith is like a lost soul. No longer human, but not a ghost. So accustomed to their tortures that they’ve forgotten who they once were. They’ve become addicted to pain, unable to move on to the afterlife. They can’t let it go.”

“That’s a fucked up way to spend eternity,” I said.

“And when you stake one of us, this is where we go. Haunted by wraiths, lost human souls. Vampires are damned to wander here until the stake is pulled from their hearts. And those you stake—with your soul blade or whatever the hell you call it—there’s no corpse left on earth. There’s no hope.”

“So all those neophytes that Nico sent to my house… all those I killed…”

“I’m sure they’d be delighted for a chance at revenge. Better keep the ghost in your head under control.”

Just leave her here. Call on Beli. I can’t last much longer…

“Mercy, we have to go. Now.”

Mercy grabbed my arm. “You will not go, you will not summon your dragon until we find Ramon. And you will not leave without both of us. Say yes to your goddess.”

“Yes, goddess,” I said, hating myself for calling her that. “I mean, bitch,” I said as soon as the compulsion was complete.

Mercy laughed. “I can be both.”

Annabelle! I’m losing it… I can’t…

My heart began to race. I wanted to summon Beli. I wanted to get the fuck out of here. But Mercy’s compulsion seized my mind.

A wraith struck my shoulder. My body turned to run away. My foot didn’t. It was stuck in tar. I heard it snap. An intense pain shot up my leg, seizing my body. I screamed in agony.

The pain… the injury… that was all it took.

In an instant Isabelle’s magic flooded into my leg. It tingled as my bones mended. My heart fluttered and my stomach sank at the same time.

Even as my screams subsided, screams all around me swelled into a chorus of anger, of rage.

I tried to shout “Beli!” I needed my blade if not the dragon to bail us out of this situation… but again, I couldn’t spit it out. My tongue was bound to Mercy’s command.

Give me control! Isabelle shouted in my mind. It’s our only chance!

As I released the reins and Isabelle took over, Mercy attempted to grab my hand but was immediately repelled as if touching a live wire. The magic of life filled every inch of my body. Isabelle did what I couldn’t do—she shouted, “Beli!” which, based on my experience, would bring the dragon our way at some point over the next five minutes. But she also gave away the secret… I could see it in Mercy’s eyes. It was the ace in our back pocket, the one thing we had over Mercy, and now she knew. Her compulsions didn’t affect Isabelle.

I felt myself pulled from my body. It was a force like no other. An undeniable force—like gravity. I tried to scream—but no one heard me. Not even Isabelle, whose glowing green eyes gave us a better view of the room around us. Some wraiths, black shadows of what were once human, huddled in the corner, shivering and sobbing. I looked at myself, my arms, black as night. My legs, too.

Fuck, I thought. I’ve become a wraith…