by J. Kenner
"I take it back," she said. "Forget some stupid old rocks. This is amazing."
I silently agreed. And, since my arm had begun to burn again, I also figured we'd arrived at the appropriate place. "It's here," I said.
She looked at me. "You're sure?"
I held out my arm. "Major ouch. I'm sure."
"Well, where?" She turned in a circle, taking in the place, as did I. She was right. There really wasn't anything there that looked relic-y. "Maybe you should walk around some more? See if your arm really starts to hurt somewhere?"
Considering the size of the room, I wasn't thrilled with that plan, but since I didn't have another one, I did what she suggested—and realized right away what we'd missed at first glance.
"Kiera," I said. "Come here."
She hurried to my side. "Oh," she said, her voice filled with awe. "There we go."
I'd found a symbol carved into the floor. A geometric pattern that perfectly matched the design burned into the middle spot on my arm.
"Now what?" she asked.
"I don't know," I said truthfully. "But I can guess."
I moved to the center, then pulled out my knife. In one quick motion, I sliced through the symbol on my arm, wincing as I did, and then tilted my arm so that my blood dripped onto the floor, and onto the duplicate symbol carved into the ground.
For a moment, nothing happened, and I was afraid I'd been too quick to assume that once again my blood was the key. Then the floor started to shake, and the symbol started to rise. I jumped to the side, then stood by Kiera, our weapons out and ready, as the stone lifted like a dumbwaiter, revealing a staircase beneath. We looked at each other, then cautiously proceeded downward.
We found ourselves in a smaller chamber, also crystal.
And this time, we weren't alone.
An old man with a beard as long as his arm and rheumy eyes peered at us through a dancing flame. "You are not the one they said would come." He spoke not out loud but directly into my head. And, considering the way Kiera straightened, then eyed me, he must have been speaking directly into her head, too.
The words, though, were meant for me and not Kiera. Of that, I was certain. His focus on me was intent, and I was certain his words referred to the prophecy.
"The champion," he continued. "The champion turned from righteousness."
I glanced over at Kiera, who looked utterly confused.
As for me, I thought of the darkness I'd consumed. The darkness I couldn't keep boxed up inside me, that kept leaking out around the edges no matter how much I tried to shove it inside.
Yeah, I'd say the description fit better than I would have liked.
"That's me," I said.
Beside me, Kiera's eyes narrowed, and I wondered what she was thinking. More than that, I wondered about what Zane had told me. Then again, Zane hadn't said she was good. Only that she was a good partner for me.
Fuck.
I didn't even know who I was, much less who she was. All I knew was that if I went back to the beginning, I fit this guardian's description to a T.
"I'm the champion," I said. "And I once set out to kill a man only to find myself at the edge of hell. Does that satisfy you, old man?"
He blinked slowly. "You seal your own doom by the path you take."
"So I've been told. But I'm doing my damnedest to unseal it."
"Drink."
I realized then that a goblet had appeared in his outstretched hand. I took it and peered inside. It was filled with clear liquid, and at the bottom of the goblet was a crystal with a small metal loop on the end. A charm, I thought. Designed to fit on the chain around my neck.
"Drink," he repeated.
"Why can't I just reach inside?"
He inclined his head, as if offering to let me try. I did, and when my fingers reached the bottom of the cup, nothing was there.
"Drink."
"Yeah," I said, testily. "I get it. What is it?"
"It will either kill you or help you."
Beside me, Kiera shifted.
"And I won't know until I drink?"
"I shall give you reassurance," the guardian said. "What you seek—I do not wish it released. From that, extrapolate my nature and determine if I would kill to protect my treasure."
"Great. Logic." It's times like this—trapped in a cavern with a goblet full of possible poison—that I really regret dropping out of high school.
I looked to Kiera, but she just shrugged. Apparently, this one was up to me.
"Okay," I said, thinking it through. "The gemstone is part of the Oris Clef, and we know that it will lock hell wide-open. You're hiding it, so you're one of the good guys. Good doesn't kill. Except I don't believe that. I think good will kill to protect. I think good has. And I think good should."
"You are wise."
"But that means it's poison," I said, and waited for confirmation. I got none, so I continued. "Or you could be a demon who wants to keep the Oris Clef yourself. And you would kill to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."
"You are astute. Will you drink?"
"You just said that either scenario means poison," Kiera said.
"Yeah," I said, lifting the goblet to my lips and looking hard at Kiera, willing her to remember what she'd seen that night outside the dance club. "That's what I said."
"Ohhhh." I saw her slow smile as she remembered. "I really do have one hell of a cool partner."
But I didn't hear any more. Because I drank. And, once again, I died.
The first time I'd died and come back, I'd felt the serpents of hell twisting themselves around me as the EMTs worked me over. The last few times—and I did seem to be making a habit of dying—there was only blackness. A dark, lonely emptiness that seemed almost more frightening than hellfire because it truly meant what I suspected: I was tainted. And lost. And utterly alone in a cold, dark place. The kind of place where demons dwelled. The kind of place that had the demons inside me waking up and moaning, keening for release into the cold, dank dark.
Whether I would be ultimately redeemed or lost remained to be seen, but as the demons within writhed and clattered, I knew that at the very least, right then, the dark inside was winning.
And then, with a jerk, I was alive again, the dark vanquished, and the lights of the crystal cave so bright it was blinding.
I wanted to soak it up, to revel in it, but there wasn't time. Kiera had taken the gemstone from the goblet and was slapping my face, trying to hurry my revival.
"He disappeared," she said. "You drank, and he poofed. Man," she continued, rambling on. "That not-dying thing comes in pretty damn handy."
"It has its uses," I agreed, still a little freaked-out by the fact that I'd been dead, but conscious enough to think deep thoughts about the state of my soul. "Let's get out of here." In truth, the whole place was giving me the willies.
I slapped my hand over the symbol, hoping to call Clarence, but nothing happened.
"Maybe the portal's back on the other side?" Kiera suggested.
"Let's go." I hesitated only long enough to slip the gemstone onto the necklace and replace the whole thing over my head. Then I looked down at my arm, expecting to see and feel the third symbol lighting up.
"Weird," I said, as we squeezed out from the keyhole-shaped doorway and back into our original corridor.
"What?"
"Last time the second symbol lit up when we got the first piece. But now that we have the second, the third symbol's not doing a thing."
She peered at my outstretched arm and frowned. "Maybe because we're so deep underground?"
I shrugged, doubting that. I didn't think my arm operated on the same theory as cell phone service.
What I was really wondering was if Deacon hadn't already found the third relic. Because if he had—and if he'd hidden it in another dimension—then my arm wouldn't burn. I could only find things in this world, after all.
"Is that the portal?" she asked, peering at the stone wall.
; I looked but didn't see anything, and said so.
"No, I feel it," she said, pressing her hand to the stone wall. "Don't you?"
I stood still and realized that, yeah, I felt it, too. Like the rumble of an approaching train. The portal? Or something more sinister?
Like Deacon, come to collect the two relics he needed to complete his collection.
I should be so lucky . . .
Because it wasn't Deacon. It was Gabriel. And he exploded through the wall with such force that the tunnel began to collapse around us. "Run!" I shouted to Kiera, who really didn't need the encouragement.
Neither did I, for that matter, and we raced together toward the opposite end of the tunnel, with Gabriel coming up fast on our heels, the rock walls imploding as he moved, as if sucked in by the magnetic force of him.
"Through here," Kiera said, diving through a person-sized hole that had opened up in the wall.
I followed her, and I was almost through when the whole world seemed to shake.
I tried to shift away, but it was no use—the rocks came tumbling down, and I was trapped.
And somewhere behind me, a pissed-off archangel was fast approaching.
22
“My leg!" I cried. "It's stuck. Dammit." With my free foot, I smashed hard against the boulder, trying to shift it. Even with my Über-girl strength, however, I couldn't manage it.
"On three," Kiera said, positioning herself beside me. Behind the wall of boulders, I could hear Gabriel coming, picking the rocks up and tossing them away as easily as if they were cotton balls. "One, two, three.”
She shoved, and I pushed, and it took our combined hyped-up strength to move the damn thing, but we managed, getting it to shift just enough for me to pull my leg free. "Can you walk?"
"I damn well better be able to run," I said. "Where's the portal? Where's the damn portal?"
"I don't know," she said, hooking an arm around my waist. "Clarence!" she called, uselessly. "Where's our damned portal?"
"I don't think it works that way," I said, wincing as I tried to run. I might heal faster now, but not instantaneously, and I was pretty sure some bone was seriously crushed.
"Shit," Kiera said, turning back to look behind us. "He's coming through."
Sure enough, I could see a bright light shining through a small hole in the wall of boulders. Then fingers in the hole, and then he was pushing the boulders aside, and the hole was growing bigger and bigger and—
"There!" Kiera said, and I turned and saw the portal opening up on the stone floor in front of us.
She had my hand, and she raced forward, pulling me along with her. I was slower, but still managing to eat up the distance. Even so, I wasn't fast enough, and I could hear Gabriel behind me. Could feel the tug of his energy on my back. "Kiera," I called. "Your hand."
She slowed, her fingers outstretched, and I latched on. "Jump!" I said, and she did. We hung in space for a moment, trapped between the whirlpool-like suction of the portal and the magnetic pull of Gabriel's fingers. And then I heard a schlurp, and we were in the portal, and the tug from the angel was gone, and we were sliding down, down, down into the sweet abyss.
Never have I enjoyed nothingness so much, and when we emerged with a thump onto Zane's training mat, I just lay there, my arms akimbo, reveling in the fact that we got away.
"Qu'est que c'est?" Zane asked, hurrying to us. "What is it, mes fleurs?”
"Demon," Kiera said, though she looked at me when she spoke, her expression queer. "Really powerful."
"Did you get the relic?" Clarence asked.
"Got it," I said. "And we're fine, thanks for asking. Kiera saved us."
"She died," Kiera said. "All in a day's work for Lily."
"Let me see the relic," Clarence said, completely uninterested in jokes.
"That's what she died for," Kiera said. "It was like a test. I don't think he expected she'd pass it."
"It's just a jewel," I said, pulling it out of my collar and holding it for him to see. "Hard to believe it has such power."
"And the third piece?” he asked. "Has your arm lit up now?"
I shook my head, then pulled up my sleeve. "Nothing."
He grabbed my arm and peered close, then muttered the incantation over it again.
"Jeez, Clarence, get a grip. It'll pop when it's ready." In truth, though, I was thrilled the damn thing hadn't popped. I needed to get Clarence alone. Because I realized now that we were getting so close to the end that there was no time to waste. As much as the prospect terrified me, I needed to kill him and take his essence so that I could figure out how to find the Vessel of the Keeper. And I needed to do that before my arm popped again.
And, of course, there was that other issue about the third piece. The issue that focused on Deacon and the fact that I didn't trust him and feared he was playing both sides against the middle, looking for the relic as well so that he could wield the Oris Clef.
Antsy, I shifted my weight. "So I keep it, right? I mean, we know it won't pop if I'm not wearing it . . ."
"You keep it," he said reluctantly. "Do not take it off your neck." He pointed to each of us in turn. “Tomorrow. Training. Time is drawing short."
"Sure. No problem."
As Clarence slouched out of there, I glanced down and wiggled my toes, intending only to hide my victorious smile, but at the same time pleased to find that they were all functioning again. This superhealing thing really was cool.
"You are well?" Zane asked.
I nodded, then reached over and squeezed Kiera's fingers. "You really earned your keep this time."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just doing the job." She climbed to her feet. "And now I'm ravenous. Zane, we're gonna grab a bite. With us?"
His eyes cut to mine, and he shook his head. "No, thank you, cherie. I am content to stay here."
“Tomorrow," I said, my heart twisting a little. I stood, then brushed my fingertips along his jaw, catching the stubble of his chin, and offered him a small smile.
"Indeed, ma Cherie."
"So we can eat, right?" Kiera asked, as the elevator climbed. "I'm totally starving."
"I need to check on Rose," I said. More specifically, I needed to make sure that Lucas hadn't decided to peek out at Rachel. "I'll just grab something at the pub. You want to go there?"
She shook her head. "And have Rachel put me to work? Nope. I'll find something. So who is that guy?" Kiera asked after a moment. "The one who keeps trying to kill us?"
I looked at her sideways. "I thought you said he was a demon."
"Nope. Got a whiff of him this time. No demon there."
"Really?" I hoped I looked astounded. "Well, he's not human—that's for sure." She was eyeing me suspiciously, and I didn't much like it. "He was pretty impressive. Maybe he's so high up on the demon hierarchy that he doesn't register for you."
She shook her head. "I don't think so."
"What do you think?"
"I don't know."
"Well, when you figure it out, tell me."
"Don't worry," she said. "I will."
Fortunately, she let the matter drop, though she was still looking disturbed when she pulled up in the alley.
Since I wasn't keen on working either, I had her drop me at the back door. My vague plan was to signal to Rose, have her tell Rachel I was there, tired, and was heading home, then ease back into the alley and onto the bike.
It didn't work that way. Primarily because I didn't even get the back door open before I was jumped by a demon who'd been hiding out in the Dumpster. And not only did he smell disgusting, he looked it, too.
In other words, this wasn't a human-looking demon. This was a beast of the straight-from-hell variety, and he was coming toward me full speed. Wings flapping, claws slashing.
And as if that weren't the worst of it, five other demons raced into the alley only moments after Kiera's car pulled out.
Wasn't that just lovely?
I pulled out my knife and prepared to get int
o it again, though I have to admit I didn't much like the odds.
As the winged demon swooped in for an attack, the other demons lurched toward me, blocking my exit
I was trapped. And that, frankly, sucked.
Figuring I had no choice but to blow through, I climbed onto my bike, and only then realized that I'd managed to lose my key somewhere. I was debating whether it would be better to search for the key or run for it when I saw Deacon on the fire escape of the opposite building.
At first, a wall of anger rose within me as I remembered the thoughts I'd snatched from my demonic opponent. Had Deacon come to betray me? Had he set up this ambush so he could get the first two relics of the Oris Clef from me?
I didn't know, and I didn't want to hang around to find out.
About that, though, I appeared to have little choice.
And every second, the demons got closer. Soon, I was going to have to dismount and fight.
"Lily!" Deacon called.
Something small and silver rose up from the ground and floated toward him. He snatched it out of the air, then turned it around and winged it back at me. I caught it, then opened my hand.
My key.
I glanced up at Deacon, more than a little astounded by this levitation thing. "Go," he said. "Just go."
I didn't hesitate. I fired the engine, kicked the bike into gear, and took off down the alley.
The demons rushed in, but so did Deacon, and he was enough of a badass that he cleared a path for me.
I gunned it forward and realized that Kiera was racing toward me in her car.
"Get out," I yelled to her, waving my arms to signal her to reverse the hell out of there. "Just back off, now!"
She did, her eyes going wide with surprise. I raced past her, squeezing the bike in between the wall and her car, then careening around the corner and racing on toward freedom.
Rose, I figured, could stay with Rachel just a little while longer.
23
I circled the block, tempting fate and speeding tickets, then parked in front of the pub. I didn't think the demons would go inside. For one, I didn't think Deacon would let them. For another, I was pretty certain Lucas Johnson would defend his turf.
