Shadow Realms

by M K Mancos

  But what did they gain by dragging the average person into a well? Yes, they fed off emotions, and fear was a meaty one at that, but the beings gained nothing else in the exchange.

  Unless they were making allies of them. Like the landlady Kells had told me of, or the bank teller Dora. One or two was expected but the amount was growing exponentially. No telling how many beings had infiltrated the population.

  “Come on.” I jumped out of the car and grabbed my gear from the backseat. The pack was loaded with weapons. Instruments that could kill shadow beings. Send them to ash and cinders before our eyes and that of onlookers. I didn’t like it. Exposing the frantic New Yorkers to a war that had been silently waged for centuries, but they had called our hand and we had to play.

  I handed another backpack to Kells. This one laden down with charms, traps, wards, spells, and anything else that might be used to send the shadow beings back to their own dimension. Truthfully, I’d rather use those means than the weapons. A sense of doom told me that this time wouldn’t be as simple. This wasn’t the old mine in Cooper’s Mill, or a shadow being sent to plague Maddie. This conflict had been brewing for a long damn time and they’d pulled out all the stops.

  And we had to be prepared.

  Besides, the shadow realms had the other lost grimoires of Jane Porter.

  Unless someone brought them back.

  Twenty-Four

  Kells

  I strapped the pack on my back and headed down the stairs to the PATH station. I’ll admit that I was nervous about traveling this way into the city. Being trapped under ground, in a tunnel, under the Hudson River as we trundled our way to the city wasn’t helping the deep well of anxiety around my heart.

  My arms had started to go numb and fingers tingled. Anyone seeing me as I flapped my hands to try and get feeling back into them would either think I was having a seizure or a nervous tic. I looked and felt ridiculous. Even worse, I was scared.

  None of my powers were going to change the world. The only thing I could do was tell Malachi where and when the wells opened and hope like hell he had enough charms and spells to keep them closed.

  I had to admit I had my doubts that the entirety of the Convention would be able to stop whatever the shadow realms had planned. And what did we know about them anyways? Not enough as far as I was concerned. The nebulous names they were called didn’t even quite classify or describe the beings. But then, giving things names gave them power. Perhaps no names and only a lumped rather nondescript tag took some of their power away and redirected it into the hands of the Convention. I hoped that was so.

  Malachi turned and looked at me. If he asked me one more time if I was all right, I was going to throat punch him.

  The answer to the question was a decided no. I was anything but all right. As a matter of fact, I was far from it. The opposite end, to be precise. Yet, I wouldn’t have been anywhere but sitting next to him on the hard, plastic seat of the PATH train heading into Manhattan from Hoboken.

  “Do you want to get off at Christopher Street or Ninth?” Both of those stops were within easy walking distance to his sisters’. I figured I’d let him decide if he was going to check in on them first.

  “Astrid will send the coordinates.” His explanation did little to reassure.

  If she wanted him in a particular location, she should have already let him know. Unless she was in the thick of battle. Somehow, I imagined Astrid as standing in the background and letting her operatives carry the burden of war while she moved the pieces of her magical chess game around on the board. Maybe that was unfair of me. Commanders in a time of war generally led the troops from a remote location, while the grunts did all the hard work. Or so I’d been led to believe. Why should it be any different in the magical community? Protect those in charge, and the war would go on. Kill off the highest ranking, and there was chaos.

  I glanced around the car as we clacked around bends and shook along straightaways. A few of the other passengers stared at me as if they were contemplating my existence. Cold dark eyes rent me to my core, and I shivered.

  I sneaked the hand closest to Malachi along the edge of the seat until I was able to tug on his jacket. He turned to me at the same time. Then his gaze slid past me, and the world slowed to a near stop.

  Next thing I knew he rose and pushed me behind him at the same time he reached under his jacket and pulled out a large brass gun that looked like a prop from a steampunk cosplay.

  Those black-eyed beings rose and shimmered on the air in the same manner the time wells came into existence. Other passengers sat in fear, some screamed and dived for cover.

  A whine that pierced the hearing filled the car, blocking out the sounds of the rails. Blue light shot from the gun and created a barrier of energy across the car.

  “We only have a short time before the effect wears off.” Malachi grabbed my arm and moved me toward the back of the car and the door. “Go. Move.”

  The dark beings tore at the energy field, but none were able to break through. Passengers had already taken Malachi’s words to heart and flooded the door, trying to press through to the next car.

  Stupid people were going to get themselves killed in a stampede rather than exit the car safely. Nothing I could do about them. They were unlikely to listen to me when I told them to behave and stop pushing.

  Malachi pressed something into my palm. I looked down at a small brass sphere, with a notch at each end.

  “Throw it into the doorway.”

  I frowned at the instructions. Surely not. Wouldn’t throwing something magical at them cause a greater panic? But what did I know? I didn’t carry magical instruments or weapons of any kind. As a matter of fact, my life had been devoid of such objects since I’d first recognized my powers.

  Aunt Rallie was a peaceful, earth-loving individual. Her spirit was kind and heart full of love for others. She’d never allow magical weapons into the house.

  I took a breath, hitched a shoulder and did a really bad overhand throw in an imitation of the weakest kid on a softball team. Hell, I didn’t want to hit anyone with it. No telling what it might do to them.

  The little brass sphere sailed over their heads and hit the doors. The partition spread wide and reality expanded, pulling the doors the width of the cars. It also expanded the crossing platform.

  People rushed out the now open entrance and the log jam cleared. I followed after them as Malachi brought up the rear.

  Snarls and shouts came from behind the bubble of light. A quick look back and my heart sank as the veil began to dissolve the farther away Malachi moved.

  “It’s not permanent.” I shouldn’t have said that, but it was true. So damn true, I hurt with it. They’d keep coming after us until we put them down. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones out for us. I knew this because when I turned to run, I saw some coming from the opposite direction.

  We were trapped.

  Commuters stood like zombies, with glazed eyes and slack jaws. They parted in something out of an eighties high school movie. A path formed between us and the shadow beings. Malachi put his back to mine to ward off the ones at our rear.

  What he thought I could do, I can’t imagine. We were alone in this fight—he more so than me. I wish I had better skills. All of them deserted me, but the want to take a baseball bat to these fuckers and go at them hard. Truly, it would make me feel as if I was contributing more than simply letting Malachi hand me shit out of his magic bag of tricks.

  Tingles started up my arms as the beings grew closer. The train continued down the tracks. We had to be close to the first station by this point. I rubbed my chest as my heart knocked around as if it had come loose of its moorings.

  Sound grew faint and distant. Darkness coalesced in front of me. Then nothing.

  Cold.

  Fuck! A time well had sneaked up on me so fast I only had the precursor of one in the area before we ran into it.

  All motion stopped. I was no longer on the train. T
he only thing I was in was darkness.

  Movement came from all around me, yet I didn’t hear it. Air stirred along my arms and pant legs.

  “Malachi?”

  Nothing. Not so much as an echo sounded in the place I’d been shuttled. Or was it shuttered?

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone. Illumination from the screen was enough for me to see to turn on the flashlight function.

  I held it up to peer into the darkness. Nothing. No walls. No end. No beginning. Only the endless black of eternity.

  Pull your shit together, Kells. He will find you. He found you once. He’ll do so again.

  I raised the charm to my mouth and kissed it. Part for good luck, the other born of years of superstition.

  Even if he did come and find me, I had no intension of staying put forever and waiting. I had to do something to save myself in the interim.

  I turned and walked in the opposite direction as the well opened, hoping I might find the portal and be able to step through. Anything was better than standing in the middle of a shadowy purgatory waiting for the drop.

  Growls, snarls, and snotty snuffles came out of the endless void. The touches to my face and hair came more frequent, less gentle. I started walking backward, away from the sounds, but they started to surround me. I couldn’t stand still and let shadow beings circle me. Fear, real and profound, soured my stomach and made my breath catch. Even with the use of my flashlight app, I couldn’t see anything out there in the dark.

  Then something flew at my head. A wisp of a being, lacy as a rotted burial shroud, reared up into my face, blowing its fettered breath at me.

  I must have fallen and passed out from the toxic fumes. When my eyelids lifted, I was tied to the wall in a cave, but not alone. A slightly blue illumination lit the chamber enough to see by. I looked around, trying to evaluate my surroundings.

  Other people—mortals—were strung up like animals waiting for sacrifice. The stench of unwashed bodies and despair filled my nose and coated the back of my tongue. I coughed and gagged.

  “You’re awake,” a rough voice came from beside me.

  I turned my head and a man, who dressed as if he came from a different point in history than myself, sat beside me. His clothes were simple, homespun, and handmade. At least I figured they were. He had that homegrown way about him that screamed farmer.

  I gave him a nod. “I fell through on the PATH train. What about you?”

  “Upstate New York. Outside a town called Fox Run. You heard of it?”

  Had I heard of it? Even the voice in my head dripped sarcasm.

  I glanced at him a bit annoyed that all the woes in my recent life came back to that town. “I know it. What is it about that place that makes it a nexus for the shadow realms?”

  He shook his head. “Beats the hell out of me. I didn’t even know about them until my sweetheart stumbled into one…” His voice trailed off and a bleak expression filled his eyes. “I don’t even know if she’s dead or alive.”

  I swallowed. His despair hit me straight in the heart and mirrored my own. I had the same concerns for Malachi. “Does your sweetheart make unusual things happen? Things you can’t explain?”

  He turned to me. “You know about it?”

  “I have a feeling most of us down here do.” I said down, but I really didn’t know where we were located. The assumption was made due to the train moving through the tunnel. “We need to try and get out of here. I only got a glimpse of the shadow beings before I passed out. I have no idea when they’ll return.”

  “I’ve lost track of time.” He gazed at the others in the cavern. “I’m not even sure if the others are still alive.”

  That was the last thing I wanted to hear. Being down in a hole with a dozen or so dead bodies wasn’t my idea of a good time. Not to mention, we had no way to protect ourselves, or understand how to get out. Oh, I could approximate a spell, but that really wasn’t my forte as illustrated before this point.

  “What’s your name?” If I was going to band with this guy to find a way out for us, I was going to damn well get his name.

  “Ellis Lake. You?”

  “Kells Holland. Nice to meet you, but I wish it was under much different circumstances.”

  “You can say that again.” He rubbed his chin against his arm. “The shadow beings as you call them haven’t been around since they brought you here. I’ll tell you, what I saw of them, they looked pretty damn human to me.”

  Interesting. “The shadows can infect human hosts who do their bidding. I’m not sure for how long, but enough to get a task accomplished.”

  “Like possession? Are we talking demons here?” The idea of that seemed to frighten him more than the nebulous one of shadow beings.

  “Very much like it, though I don’t know what they call themselves, or if they even have a name or culture.” I narrowed my eyes and looked at him for a moment. “Tell me more about your sweetheart. You said she knew about the time wells.”

  “I saw her inspecting one. Discovered she’s a witch, though I had a hard time believing that nonsense at first. She has this ability to make these little birds out of paper. Then she’ll whisper to them and they’ll fly. It’s the most…” Ellis broke off again and looked down. “I’m never going to see her again, am I?”

  And just like that, the name Paper Bird Lane made sense. I redirected my thoughts.

  “Try not to worry. We don’t know that. The problem is about the fact those time wells, are just that. It was 2018 when I fell through. What about you?”

  His eyes grew wide and he shook his head. “Impossible. That’s over a hundred years in the future.”

  “Not impossible, just improbable for humans.” I moved my head to indicate myself. “Not even in my time can the average person move through time. Only those of us unlucky enough to fall into a time well or have the magical ability that allows for it.”

  One of the others stirred and moaned. “Where am I?”

  “We haven’t the slightest idea.” I tried to get a good look at the woman who woke. She couldn’t have been more than a teenager. Damn, this was going to damage her for life. “Are you hurt?”

  She wiggled around a bit, testing her arms and legs. “No. I don’t think so.”

  “What’s your name and where are you from?”

  “Samantha Daniels. I’m from the Village. I was going to Hoboken to see my boyfriend.” She moved again and made a gasp. “Ow. What the hell?”

  Beings came out of the walls. Long pointed pikes were held at our waists.

  “Do not speak. Do not move. You are ours now and forever.”

  “The fuck you say?” Samantha twisted to look up. Her face registered horror at the beings as more melted out of the rocks around us.

  When I mention melted, I meant it in a literal sense. Their faces and bodies looked as if they had once been made of wax and had undergone extreme heat. In the low light it was hard to see the color of their skin, but it was an unnatural grayish blue, as a corpse would look when deprived of oxygen before death.

  They also seemed to glow a bit, which I appreciated in the dimness, but found infinitely disconcerting.

  The closer they got to me, the brighter my necklace lit in kind. Luckily, I had it inside my shirt and they didn't see it.

  One of them was a big ol' sucker that seemed out of place with the others. Where his comrades were reedy and thin, this one was thick and muscled. His lopsided face had a crueler twist than his cohorts’. His eyes missed nothing, and they had zeroed in on me.

  Against my better judgement, I stared him down. I wasn't going to be the one to turn away first. Not me. Nope. Nada. I'd been looked at as less by better. I'd be damned before I'd let some inter-dimensional hired muscle do that to me.

  "You." He pointed at me, stopping all the activity of the other beings. "Come with us."

  "Sorry, I'm kind of tied up at the moment." I wiggled my fingers suspended over my head.

  The being wasn't havin
g it. He yanked my bonds from the wall and jerked me to my feet.

  I nearly stumbled over some rocks, but the big brute swung me up by my armpit and kept me moving. We walked down another dark tunnel, where the only light was that given off by his skin.

  I counted my steps, since the glow from my unlikely companion wasn't enough to see where we were going. Each time we turned a corner, I started counting again. I extended a finger at my side for every new restart with hope that I would remember the number of steps in each sequence.

  If I got a chance to get out, I wasn't going to go without those being held in that dank room. But what the beings thought I could do to help them, I had no idea.

  He dragged me into another chamber where a large frame was pushed up against a wall. I had the odd feeling it was a prop from the movie and television series Stargate, save for the symbols were arcane and magical in nature. Not alien, but earthbound.

  I didn't really know what it was, but I knew it needed to be destroyed.

  Twenty-Five

  Malachi

  I stopped breathing.

  One moment Kells was in front of me and the next she was pulled through another time well.

  "Kells!" I screamed her name until my throat was raw and burning. The portal had slammed shut as soon as she'd gone through and I came out on the other side, standing on a platform surrounded by a group of men who all looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

  Not to mention where I'd come from.

  God almighty, I'd been transported, but to where and when?

  I looked around and realized I remained in the PATH tunnel, only it hadn't quite been dug yet. Was Kells even in the same time as me? Had to be. We were both on the train at the same time. Almost the same point. I worried about what happened to the others on the train, but my chief concern was with Kells.

  I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out what to do to save her. I set my pack on the ground and started digging through it to find the well disks. If I used them to seal one, there was a chance I might be able to reverse engineer them enough to reopen it without using a spell.