by Leia Stone
“If you want money—”
The pressure on my arms released, then in a split second the black scaled creature was before me, hands on either of my shoulders. I was simultaneously relieved to have feeling in my arms again, and yet horrified to be face to face with this monster.
“Say. One. More. Word,” he snarled, and his nostrils flared. I swear I could see teeth inside of his giant nose holes. I pinched my eyes and mouth shut.
He chuckled, delighting in my fear, and hooked a clawed hand under my armpit, dragging me forward at a faster pace than before. When I popped my eyes open, I noticed that we were heading toward a building made out of black glass, black metal, and black stone. It was like the building itself was a dark hole, snuffing out any light that dare try to penetrate its shadowed walls.
“I better get promoted after this,” Trilok growled to himself. “I’ve been a level eight for two hundred cycles.”
Promoted? Like he kidnaps a Watcher and gets more demon powers? Or becomes a level nine?
Before I knew it, we’d reached the front of the building. Everything was so dark I had a hard time distinguishing a door from a window, from a sheet of black stone. The building was like a modern castle, six stories high with clean lines.
The two doors opened and a woman stepped out. Delilah perhaps? She was a beautiful woman, not like the demon I’d seen before. This one looked human but for the red tinge to her eyes. Demon-possessed human maybe? It was getting harder for me to tell.
Then it hit me.
Shade. Was she a Shade?
Her hair was half red on the right side and black on the left. She wore a black silk pantsuit and reminded me of a secretary for some reason. She had that know-it-all air about her.
“Is this her?” the woman asked.
He nodded. “Tatum Powers. Just as Master asked.”
She let her eyes rake over my body, stilling on my eyes.
“Good work, Trilok. You’ll get a promotion for this. Go see Accounting. I’ll take it from here.”
“Yes, Delilah,” the scaled demon said with a grin, and then backed away.
She snapped and black shadows flew from her fingertips and then formed an interlocked chain.
“What—” I started and then there was a bite at my ankles. I hissed, looking down to see two cuffs and a short length of smoke-like chain tethering them together.
“Can’t have you running off before Master gets home.” She smiled and my throat went dry.
Her teeth were black as oil.
I wanted out of this nightmare. I glanced behind me, but Trilok was long gone, off to reap his stupid promotion, and I was stuck here with Cruella, chained at the ankles.
“I can get money,” I whispered to her, and she tipped her head back and laughed.
“Oh, honey, there’s nothing you have that I want.” She grasped me by the upper arm and yanked me forward and into the building. I had to take small steps since the chain between my feet was so short. I stumbled forward as she corralled me toward an elevator and then all but shoved me inside. Stepping in behind me, she reached out with a pointed red fingernail and pushed the button for the sixth floor.
“It’s nice to finally meet you. Gave us quite the chase around here.” She gave me a side look and I just stared at her in confusion.
Was she really trying to be all chatty? The psycho just cuffed my ankles!
“Yeah, it’s great to meet you too. Highlight of my night really,” I said dryly.
She pinned me with a glare. The elevator dinged before opening. Red marble floors ran the expanse of the room as she stepped out, yanking me by the arm. There was a male demon sitting in a chair by the elevator. With his gray skin, squished nose, and leathery wings, he reminded me of a gargoyle. Two small white horns grew out of his head right above each of his pointed ears.
“Tell him she’s here,” the woman said, and he nodded, looking me up and down before he stood and got into the elevator. I really wished I’d worn a longer dress.
The entire room was made of heavily tinted glass. The city lights and volcano glowed in the distance. It was kind of beautiful, in a creepy way I never wanted to experience again. We walked along the marble floors, Delilah’s heels click-clacking as we went.
If she could manifest chains from her fingertips, what else could she do? I shivered to think about it as I racked my brain to try and remember if that was a Shade power. We came to a giant set of black onyx doors and she waved her hand and they swung open slowly as if by magic.
Okay, maybe she wasn’t just a Shade.
Could she be a demon? If so, she had to be a level ten right? According to the poster Drea had given me, only level ten demons looked this human.
The doors opened into a grand room with twenty-foot ceilings and black iridescent flooring that felt like walking on an oil spill. The sconces on the wall were black as well, and the paint was black. I was sensing a theme here.
At the back of the room were two high thrones that were, surprise, black—one of them more opulent than the other with gold accents and giant clawed armrests. The smaller of the two had touches of red ruby and—
I gasped when I noticed a small figure crumpled on the ground in front of the less imposing throne. The black cloak she wore almost completely camouflaged her in the monotone room, but when I looked closely I could tell it was a woman by the delicate hand that peeked out of the covering.
Her face was almost entirely shaded by her hood; only a few strands of pale hair were visible. A peek of creamy white skin drew my eye, and I noticed her ankles were bound, same as mine.
“Sit,” Delilah ordered, and then suddenly a chair materialized behind me, knocking into the back of my knees, forcing me to obey.
Delilah walked over to the woman, who sat up now, but still shielded her face and hair with the hood of her cloak.
“You’re going to be good, right?” Delilah purred.
The woman nodded, the hood of the cloak bobbing up and down vigorously.
“Because remember what happened last time?” Delilah asked.
The woman whimpered and nodded again.
“Good.” Delilah walked away from the throne and approached me.
“Now, Tatum—”
“Tatum?” The woman’s voice was raspy, like she hadn’t used it in a long time, but it held a note of wonder. She said my name as if it were familiar to her.
Delilah looked annoyed. She didn’t bother turning when she addressed the woman. “Do I need to medicate you again? Because we can go back to that if you keep talking.”
The woman pushed to her feet, her once timid and shrunken form went rigid and grew to its full height. Delilah didn’t see it though, since she was facing me.
I watched as the woman reached up and pulled the hood slowly from her face.
Time stopped. Literally. Delilah froze mid-action as I stared into the eyes of…
My mother.
“You’re dead,” I croaked.
Unable to form a coherent thought as I peered at the blond hair, glassy blue eyes, and broken soul of the woman before me. Her face was streaked with dirt and red marks, and her eyes barely had any life in them, but I recognized her from the pictures I’d seen. That woman was my mother.
She stood, looking at Delilah with a wicked snarl. “We don’t have time. I can’t hold her for long.”
Sweat beaded her brow as she stepped toward me, the chains at her ankles skimming on the hard floor as she scampered over to where I sat.
“Mom!” I sobbed. My heart catching up with my brain as I stood and rushed forward, crashing into her.
She whimpered and I froze, realizing she must be injured.
“Listen to me, Tatum.” She pulled me back and grasped the sides of my face, her eyes getting bluer and more full of life by the minute. “You need to make a portal home. Now. You have the gift. Do it before he comes back and it’s too late.”
I shook my head, trying to focus on her words but failing, because Holy freaking crap my mom is
still alive!
“Mom. Gran… she’s—”
“Listen to me, child! He wants you, and once you choose Shade he’ll have you forever. Siphon the power from the Netherworld and make a portal to go home. Choose Lumen. I’ve made so many mistakes in my life, but you were not one of them.” Her eyes filled with tears.
My throat pinched with emotion. “A portal? How can I?”
A memory flashed in my mind then, of the level seven demon in front of the cemetery. It had gotten sucked into that rift in the air that had suddenly appeared. Had I done that? It had felt like it at the time, but Gage dismissed it. By the looks of it, my mom had spent the last seventeen years here as a slave of some sort, but if I could make a portal back to Earth, we would be going home.
“Okay. I’ll try,” I told her. I had no idea how to siphon power from anything or create a portal, but I was going to do my best to get us out of here.
My mom grabbed her temples and a thin trail of blood trickled down her nose.
“Mom!”
“Tatum, focus on your power. It’s been inside of you all along. Just open yourself up to it,” she said.
Delilah started to move, slowly like she was walking through molasses.
Crap. Okay.
I closed my eyes, settling my breathing and trying not to focus on the frantic beating of my heart. I felt for something, anything, and if I was being honest there had been something there in the cemetery that day with Gage. There was a buzzing of something just under my skin that I couldn’t explain, but it had left me on edge since the cemetery incident.
Instead of pushing it away, I ran to it, and we crashed together, me and this power inside of me. My skin tightened as pure magic flooded my system. Goose bumps broke out over my arms, and I swear I started to glow a little.
What was this? How was this happening before my birthday?
I didn’t have time to find out. Instead, I was motivated to get me and my mom out of here alive. Before the super demon, Apollyon, showed up.
Going on instinct, I lifted a hand in front of me and imagined New York City. A silver fissure cut a vertical line in the air before me. Reaching forward, I pulled the rift apart like I was parting curtains and the space in front of me changed. No longer could I see the black room in the demon world, now I was looking at the emergency exit of my apartment building. There was Chinese takeout sitting by the front door of the apartment to my right.
I burst into relieved laughter. I did it!
“Come on! Let’s go!” I yelled at my mom as I looked over my shoulder at her. Pure grief crossed her face as she reached out and planted two hands on my back.
“I love you so much,” she said and then pushed me.
“No!” I shouted, falling forward back into Earth and onto the carpeted hallway of Gran’s and my apartment building. Reaching out to break my fall, I panicked and lost hold of that feeling inside that connected me to my powers. In an instant, that scary yet powerful magic fled my system.
“Mom!” I yelled, rolling onto my back immediately. I was just in time to see Delilah spring to life and smack my mom across the face before the sliver of the portal snapped shut.
“No, no, no!” I sobbed as my chest tightened. My entire body went numb with shock as I tried to open a portal back, but nothing happened. Fatigue pulled at my limbs, but I tried over and over again as I screamed in frustration.
The door next to me opened suddenly and an older woman peeked her head out. Mrs. Baker.
“I called the cops, druggie!” she yelled, grabbing her Chinese food and slamming the door.
Reeling from the fact that I wasn’t going to be opening the portal again anytime soon, I swayed on my feet, soul crushing exhaustion settling into my bones. It was like I’d run a marathon.
I sniffled, wiping my nose with the back of my hand, and stumbled into the emergency exit, shuffling down the stairs with my feet still restricted by the shadow chain. My legs grew weaker and weaker with every step.
What was happening to me?
I’d done something to my body by opening that portal. Depleted some sort of energy that I couldn’t replenish. Either that, or I was too emotionally destroyed from leaving my mother behind in the Netherworld that I couldn’t even stay awake. It wasn’t until I hit the bottom floor that my brain caught up with me and I remembered I had a phone.
I pulled it out and dialed.
I should call Drea or the Lumen hotline. I should call people who cared enough about me, people who didn’t make out with another girl in front of me.
But instead I ran to the guy with the tiny minuscule ember of goodness who could help free Gran, because at this point I couldn’t bear losing both my mother and grandmother.
Gage picked up on the first ring.
“Tatum, where are you?” he shouted, voice filled with panic.
I peered at the cross streets, momentarily forgetting where I was. “Eleventh Ave and Prospect Park. I went to the Netherworld and made a portal to get back. I feel sick and sleepy. Something’s wrong.” My voice slurred and the street spun around me. “I know you hate me, but I need my gran. I need that talisman, I—” My brain shut off, and I started to fall backward. The only comforting sound before everything went black was the flapping of wings and the whisper of my name on Gage’s lips.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
My head was killing me, and my stomach was trying to eat itself. I cracked my eyelids open, taking in an unfamiliar room with soft gray-blue walls. There was a simple wooden dresser at the foot of the white wrought iron bed I lay in. On it was a framed photograph of a woman holding a laughing black-haired, green-eyed child.
I blinked, opening my eyes fully. I recognized those green eyes.
“You’re awake.”
Gage’s voice was a shock to my system, and I was instantly alert. Craning my neck to the side, I found him sitting in a tweed wingback chair. His hair was tousled and there were dark smudges beneath his eyes. It looked like he hadn’t slept in a month.
“Wh—?” I tried to talk, but my voice cracked.
Pushing out of his chair, Gage stood and grabbed a glass of water on the nightstand next to me. I shimmied myself into a sitting position and then accepted the cup, taking greedy gulps to soothe my parched and raw throat.
“What happened?” I managed to ask after I’d had my fill.
Gage looked down at me, his face an unreadable mask. “You don’t remember?”
Concentrating, I flipped through my recent memories like I was swiping through pictures. I was at the club with Indigo, the demon showed up, someone tried to choke me to death—which explained the sore throat—and, oh crap, the demon took me to the Netherworld, where I found out that my mom was still alive.
Worst of all, I’d left her there!
Throwing off the covers, I tried to jump out of bed, but my feet didn’t cooperate, and I pitched forward, my face on a collision course with the hardwood floors. Gage’s arms wrapped around me, and he hauled me up. We stood pressed against each other, chest to chest, for an elongated pause, before he guided me to sit on the bed and then stepped back. The butterflies that I couldn’t seem to control around Gage started to flutter, but then I remembered what happened between him and Claire at the club and they disappeared instantly.
I cleared my throat. “Gage, I have to get back to the Netherworld. Right now.”
Pressing his lips together, he folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I wasn’t asking permission.”
Gage pointed downward and I dropped my gaze to the ground, where I could clearly see the black manacles cuffing my ankles and the short length of smoke-line chain tethering them together.
Crap.
Rubbing my face, I groaned. I’d forgotten about those. At least it wasn’t clumsiness that had me falling out of bed.
“How do you figure you’re going to be able to get back there?” he asked.
“A
ctually, I have a way.”
Closing my eyes, I centered myself and tried to make another portal. There was a slight stirring inside, but it wasn’t very strong. I couldn’t seem to meld with my magic like I’d done before. Despite the disconnect, I raised my hands and tried to part the air to create a portal back to the Netherworld. After a fruitless five minutes, I heaved a frustrated sigh.
Gage stared at me like I’d grown an extra head. “What was that?”
“That was me trying, and failing, to open a portal.” I glanced down at the shackles. “Maybe these things are draining my power or something? I feel like I need to recharge.” Or siphon energy from something again. I kept that last thought to myself. Taking energy from anything sounded uber creepy, but stealing power from the Netherworld—as my mom suggested I could do—was just downright wrong.
He shook his head. “A portal? We’ve already been over this. Neither Shade nor Lumen can open portals. Not to mention that your powers haven’t even been bestowed on you yet, which will only happen on your birthday once you choose a side. You can’t create a portal.”
“I did, Gage!” I slashed an impatient hand through the air. “How do you think I got home?” I didn’t really know the ins and outs of portals, I only knew I’d somehow gotten myself from the Netherworld back to Earth, so I was determined to go back the other way and save my mom. “The important thing is that I can get from one dimension to the other. That’s how I got out of the Netherworld. My mom showed me how.”
Gage’s brows drew together when I mentioned my mom, but he didn’t interrupt.
“And remember when the rift opened in front of the demon chasing us through New York? I think I did it then too. I opened a portal that day right in front of you and that bull demon was sucked into it. I felt it happen, I just hadn’t realized what I’d done at the time. Think about it, why would something that took the demon away appear so suddenly like that? The timing alone was too perfect.”
Gage rubbed a hand over his mouth while my words sunk in. After what felt like an eternity, he finally nodded. “All right, then.”
“You believe me?” I needed confirmation before I started to breathe easy.
