I couldn’t fail.
Mother had said my power, combined with Death and Morpheus, would be enough. We’d failed at finding Morpheus. We had to hope that Death and I would be enough.
“Henri, I’m scared.” I pressed my lips together. Dammit, I hadn’t meant to say that.
“So am I,” Henri said. “I can’t lose you, Kat.” He put his arm around me and tucked me to his side. “That’s why I’m coming with you.”
I looked up at his hard jaw. “You can’t.”
“Why not? Seems to me, all I need to do is sleep.”
“You don’t go to the same place when you sleep.”
“Then we get me to the same place. We have weavers and a daemon mage at our disposal.”
My pulse fluttered at the prospect of having my partner with me, but then reality closed in. If he came, if I failed, he would die. The shimmer man would find a way to end him, golem or not.
I couldn’t be selfish, not when it came to the people I loved. “No. You need to be here to fight. I need you to take my place here.”
“No, you don’t. You need me with you. Bres too. We discussed it, and we’re coming.”
Panic mingled with relief. I pushed him away. I needed to be strong. To think with my head and not let the fear take me. I couldn’t allow them to sacrifice themselves, and it hit me … I expected to fail.
For the first time in my life, there was no hope in my heart. For the first time, the optimistic voice was silent.
I was ready to fight. But I had no hope of winning.
“Kat?”
I held up my hand to cut him off. “Henri. I need … I need a minute, okay. Please.”
A dark cloud of despair swirled inside me. Come on. Where are you? Where was the positive, can-do feeling?
There was nothing but emptiness.
“Kat?”
“Not now, Henri.”
“Kat, I think Death is coming to.”
Shit, he was right. I fell into a crouch by the sofa where Death lay. My father groaned, one hand coming up to rub his forehead, and then he froze. His eyes snapped open, bright neon blue, and focused on his hand. He slowly pulled it back and then turned it over, examining it.
“Is this … is this real?” he asked.
“It’s real.”
His attention snapped to my face. “Kat … I don’t understand …”
“Neither do I.” I helped him to sit up.
He flexed his fingers and rolled his shoulders. “I’m back … I … You did this.” He lightly touched my hand. “I remember now. Your power did this. I felt it when you tethered to me. It must have accelerated the evolution.” He looked at me in awe. “You brought me back.”
“We’re just glad you’re okay,” Henri said.
Death frowned up at Henri. He stared at the golem for several long beats, and then his brow cleared, and a small smile played on his lips. “Morpheus, what the hell are you doing in that body?”
* * *
Henri stared at Death blankly, but Death still had that smile on his face, the kind of smile that said he expected Henri to join in on the joke at any moment. But Henri didn’t look like he’d be laughing any time soon. In fact, he looked like someone had hit freeze-frame on his ass.
Death turned his attention to me. “Kat, what’s wrong with Morpheus? What is he doing in that body, and why is he looking at me like he has no idea who I am?”
My heart was pounding way too hard in my chest to focus on him. “Probably because this is Henri, my golem.”
The door opened, and Max slipped into the shop. He faltered at the sight of Death on his feet but didn’t ask any questions. Thank goodness, because right now, my brain was busy wrapping itself around the concept that my golem might be the god of dreams.
“He may have the body of a golem,” Death said. “But this is Morpheus, my friend. I’d recognize his soul anywhere. I am Death, after all.” There was no smugness to his tone. He was merely stating a fact. “This is Morpheus.”
Mai and Kris abandoned their books and joined us.
“I’m not Morpheus,” Henri said. But he didn’t sound convinced. “I’m Henri.”
Vinod had made Henri from a soul he’d pulled from the Aether. There was every possibility … and if Death was saying it was so … “Henri, what if you are, though? What if you are Morpheus?”
“There is no if about it.” Death stood and placed his hands on Henri’s shoulders. Henri didn’t resist or try to pull away. “I see you, Morpheus. I see your energy inside this shell. I’d know it anywhere. What happened to you, old friend?”
Henri’s throat bobbed in an action so human it was easy to forget he wasn’t. He opened his mouth to speak, and for a moment, I thought he would argue, maybe pull away from Death’s grip.
“I don’t know,” he said.
I looked up at Henri, at his hard jaw and his eyes clouded with confusion. “Vinod, our head weaver, pulled a soul from the Aether to make Henri. That soul must have been Morpheus.”
“No,” Death said. “Morpheus is too powerful to be snagged in a net. If this Vinod person found him, then Morpheus wanted to be found.” Death’s face lit up as he turned back to Henri. “You promised me you’d protect them. You promised me, and this is how you did it. You abandoned your body, and you found your way into the waking world. You found a connection to Kat.”
It made sense. Everything he was saying fit what we knew. We’d wondered why Vinod had broken the rules with Henri, why the details of his conception had been buried so thoroughly. Henri was made specifically for me. To protect me just like Morpheus had promised to do. A golem that dreamed but never went to Somnium.
Henri was Morpheus, and just like that, the fires of hope blazed to life inside me.
I had what I needed. I had both Death and Morpheus. “We can do this. We can take on the shimmer man.”
Death nodded, standing tall. “Yes. I believe we can.”
Henri looked down at me. “I don’t feel powerful. I don’t feel like a god, but if it means I can come to Somnium with you, then I don’t care.”
“Not like that, you can’t,” Luther said.
When had he entered the room?
“Thank you for offering my services to the golems, by the way,” he said dryly to Henri.
“My pleasure,” Henri replied.
“A daemon mage,” Death said. “I can see your power.”
“And do you see Morpheus’s power?”
Death blinked in surprise, his gaze shooting back to Henri, and then he cursed softly under his breath. “No. I don’t see the power. It’s him, but his power is muted.”
Luther sauntered over to one of the lone armchairs we’d pulled into the room and sat down. “I’ve been doing some research of my own,” he said. “Human souls are like batteries that can be harnessed, channeled, and used if you know how. A supernatural’s power is tied to his physical form, abundant in its blood and cells.”
Kris snapped his fingers. “Which is why the Custodians are able to use demon blood to make themselves stronger.”
“And why the shimmer man was able to use Lark’s body to manipulate the weave.”
“Yes,” Luther said. “Primal entities are the only entities whose mystical power is housed in their souls, in the essence that drives them, which is why your shimmer man is able to utilize his power even when his physical form is trapped in the Abyss. But.” He paused and held up an index finger. “Morpheus isn’t a primal god.”
What was he trying to … Oh, shit. “Morpheus needs his body to be able to access his full potential.”
Luther inclined his head. “I believe it is more than that. I believe that Morpheus’s ability to travel between Somnium and the waking world is tied to his soul.”
“Which is why the shimmer man is stuck in Somnium,” Death said. “He took over Morpheus’s body, hoping to use it to be free of the dreaming, but Morpheus vacated it, leaving the shimmer man trapped.”
It was all coming toge
ther in my mind now. “But Morpheus’s form still holds power over Somnium and its inhabitants, and the shimmer man has used that to his advantage.”
Luther nodded. “Precisely. Morpheus must reclaim his body to access his full power and possibly his memories. It’s highly likely that his memories faded once he was placed in golem form.”
“Very well,” Death said. “We find a way to reclaim Morpheus’s body.”
“There is another fact to consider,” Luther said. “A golem does not belong in Somnium. If Henri has been dreaming, it has been in a construct of his own mind. To take Morpheus with you, you will need to separate his soul from this body and tether it to either yourself or to Death. Only then can you take him with you.”
“Can you do that?” Mai asked. “Can you take his soul out of the golem body?”
Luther nodded. “I believe I can.”
“Then we do it,” Henri said without hesitation.
“I have to warn you, though,” Luther said. “Once I remove your soul from the golem form, there is no going back.”
No going back? Wait, what did that mean? “If we fail to get his body … What then?”
Luther shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“We won’t fail,” Henri said.
“No, we won’t,” Death agreed. His jaw clenched. “I’ve been waiting a long time to face that bastard again. It’s time for him to pay for every life he’s taken and everyone he’s hurt.”
But we needed more than that. We needed a sure-fire way to end him and stop the breach. Something we didn’t have. Our plan right now was to blast the shimmer man with shit loads of power and hope he exploded. At least that’s the image I had in my head, and then something the wanker had said popped into my head and made shit even worse.
“He said something to me in the dark place. He said only his power could stop the horrors. If we kill him, then how do we stop the horrors?”
“You can’t kill him,” Max said.
He’d been quiet all this time, listening but remaining in the background, so I’d almost forgotten he was in the room.
“What are you?” Death said. “Your soul is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
“Max is a primordial,” Kris explained. “But his power has diminished over time.”
“What is it, Max?” Mai asked. “Why can’t we kill the shimmer man?”
“He can only be killed by another primordial, and there are none of us left to rival him.”
What the fuck? “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
He didn’t even have the grace to look guilty. “And kill all hope? No. Honestly, I never thought we’d get to this point.”
He thought we’d fail and just die? “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Max said. “This is good. This is very good.”
Huh? I was so confused right now.
“You now have the power you need to do the only thing that can be done,” Max said. “You strip him of Morpheus’s body, and then the three of you can use your power to force him back into the Abyss, back into his prison. Once you succeed in that, the horrors will be drawn back to the Abyss. They are connected to him, and if they are finding their way here now, it’s because he has one foot in this realm. You weaken him, you put him back, and the breach will shrink because that is the natural order of things.”
“But will it close?” Mai asked.
Max smiled, but it was a tired smile. A sad smile. “Every living thing, every dimension has rules. These rules are what allowed you to trap Tartarus in Somnium. The rules would have closed the tear Death made in the Abyss if Tartarus hadn’t pushed his way through immediately. Right now, the breach is being held open by Tartarus, who’s acting like a cork in the neck of a bottle, an obstruction. It’s caused an infection that has distorted the breach, so a part of it opens into Somnium, where Tartarus is trapped, and the other part is spilling into this world. Once Tartarus is back where he belongs, the breach will shrink and try to heal itself. It wants to heal itself. It wants to revert back to its natural state. And once it closes, I will seal it permanently.” He sighed. “I have enough power for that.”
Part of me wanted to be pissed that he held back this information, that he hadn’t believed we could actually stop Tartarus, that he’d effectively been humoring us, but what was the point in being mad now?
Waste of energy. Better to channel that into action. “Henri, are you sure about this?”
He smiled down at me. “Positive.”
I kept my gaze locked with Henri. “You can tether his soul to mine. How long will it take?”
“The process requires a potion,” Luther said. “I have all the ingredients, but it will take an hour to—”
The door slammed open, and Bres rushed in. “It’s happening,” he said. “It’s happening right now.”
My feet dragged me to the window where the crimson sky was filling with huge black shapes. I caught a glimpse of tentacles, whip-like appendages. They floated down toward us, growing larger and larger until the world grew dark.
The horrors were here.
Chapter Seventeen
“I can create a barrier around the store,” Luther said.
“Or we could just move the store,” Petunia suggested. “We could exit somewhere else.”
“Running won’t help,” Max said. “I doubt anywhere is safe now.”
“The barrier it is,” Luther said. “Once it’s up, it will take power to lower and raise it again. Best to decide who stays and who goes out now.”
I clipped on my weapons belt and shrugged on my jacket. “Fine. Henri, Death, stay here with Luther while he makes the potion. Everybody else, move!” I grabbed my daggers and headed for the door.
Max made to follow, but I stopped him with a palm to his chest. “You need to stay too. We can’t risk losing you.”
“And what about you?” Mai adjusted the blanket around a sleeping Lark and stood. “You’re essential to this plan too. We can’t risk your life out there.”
Fuck.
Bres steered me away from the door, away from the sight of the horde of golems pouring into the square. Jay was visible, barking orders, slipping easily back into shadow knight mode, and every iota of me wanted to run outside and fight.
“We’ve got this, Kat,” Bres said.
My stomach flipped in terror at the thought of him being out there without me at his back. Ridiculous because he was perfectly capable, he was a fomorian warrior, but still … There were no guarantees. This was war. This was death. What if he didn’t make it? What if I didn’t make it? What if this was our last moment together?
My eyes welled. “Bres, I—”
He kissed me hard on the mouth, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me tight. I wound my arms around his neck, latching on to him, breathing him in, memorizing the feel of him, the taste of him, while our hearts slammed together through our ribcages.
He broke the kiss, but remained close, his nose brushing mine. “You better come back to me, Kat.”
“I’ll come back, but you better not be dead.”
He let out a soft, breathy laugh. “I fucking love you, raspberry girl.”
“I love you too, big guy. So much it hurts.”
He exhaled sharply. “Truth.”
He took a shuddering breath and released me. His expression hardened, and the warmth bled from his eyes as he donned his battle mask. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go kick some horror ass.”
And then he was gone, taking Mai and Kris with him. Luther pressed his hand to the glass, and a shimmering veil swept across it.
“We’ll be safe in here as long as the seal isn’t broken,” Luther said. “Don’t open the door. I need to get to work. Henri, come with me.”
I felt them retreat but was unable to tear my gaze from the scene outside the window. The horrors were almost upon us, moving faster as gravity caught hold of them. Mammoth monsters, mini leviathans, they’d cover Scorc
hwood and beyond.
The golems split into troops to cover the town. Bres remained with the troops in the square, but Jay left with the other troop.
The world darkened as the belly of the beast covered the square, and then barbed tentacles shot out of its body, lashing and whipping at the golems. With a battle cry muted by the magical shield, Bres and the golems attacked.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him, tracking him, my heart in my mouth as he evaded the barbs, slashing and cutting. But the fucking appendages grew back, like a stubborn fungus.
The hilt of my dagger dug into my palm as I squeezed it reflexively every time Bres swiped or slashed. I was with him in spirit, fighting by his side.
“Kat?” Death joined me at the window. “Luther’s almost done.”
What? I looked across at him. “He said an hour.”
“It’s been that,” Death said.
No … Had I been standing here for an hour? I looked back out, searching for Bres. There. He’d just leaped to avoid a barb. He ducked and rolled, coming up, ready to defend, chest heaving. He was tired and bloody, but he was alive. He didn’t see the barb whipping toward him, behind him.
He wasn’t going to see it. He wasn’t—
I blurred through the window, barely feeling the slash of glass or the abrasive sting of magic. Then the world cut into snapshots.
Cold air slapping me in the face.
My hands on Bres’s body, shoving him out of the way.
Then pain tearing into my side.
The world tilted. I was flying. Flying, and then I was falling. My torso was on fire, and then it was icy and numb. The ground hit me hard. Move. I had to move.
“Kat!”
Bres?
He was too far away. Too many tentacles between us. His sword flashed as he tried to cut a swathe through to me.
I needed to get up, to move, but I was pinned to the ground by agony. Blood … so much blood. Mine.
Above me, the leviathan’s underbelly suckers puckered at me as if blowing me kisses. Fucking ugly fucker.
Lay the Ghost: Nightwatch Series book 4 Page 12
