by MJ Fletcher
Chapter Fifty-two
Status: I’m still here, bitch.
My shoulder hurt and my back was screaming at me to sit the hell down. But if it’s one thing I didn’t know, it was how to quit. My dad had taught me that early in life.
I could hear his voice in my head. Masters don’t quit.
That was me, Chloe Masters, royal pain in the ass.
I could feel the Polymorph potion working its magic and quickly healing me, but the Gremlin attack had taken a toll. I had made it through the portal, leaving Nightshade behind to the fight the Gremlins, I didn’t have much choice. The pull of the Artifacts was like a siren’s song, a calling so intoxicating that I had to follow it. It was as if I felt more alive than ever being this close to powerful Artifacts.
The Bridge extended out over nothingness, existing in multiple dimensions at once. I could sense all of them around me shifting and changing at a moment’s notice. The closest I had ever experienced anything like that was at the Reliquary.
Mr. Tower stood on the very edge of the Bridge, his arms extended and power swirling around him like a vortex. On either side of him were Uncle Thomas and Erin, both bound by glowing silver manacles. They each stood atop a small raised dais with a half-circle railing in front of each.
Uncle Thomas was lit up like a Christmas tree, the tattoos on his forearms glowing crimson and encircling his arms. His eyes had lost their irises and were pure white now. His head was tilted back and his mouth open as the power flowed fully from him. If it kept up much longer; he wouldn’t survive.
Erin was rocking herself back and forth. He hadn’t activated the Doorknob Society Artifact yet, so I still had a chance to get her out unharmed.
I stooped down by the portal. Mr. Tower was in some type of trance as he called down the amount of power he needed to reopen the portal to Accadia. I hoped it would give me time to get my family away, and then I’d confront him and do what needed to be done... destroy him.
I snuck forward heading for Uncle Thomas first, hoping he could help me and my friends in the fight.
The portal warped behind me and I sensed a new power entering the dimension. I turned just in time to see Faith swinging a blade at me. I jumped into a backward roll and came up on my feet.
“Nowhere to go this time, Chloe.”
“Not planning on going anywhere.” I smiled and activated my Doorknob, letting my whip unfurl.
“Your friends are dead and your family is about to be.”
I didn’t take the bait, I kept moving back towards my Uncle. If I could get him loose, maybe he could help me stop this insanity.
“I trust in my friends, Faith, that’s a quality you always lacked.”
“Please, you and your friends are a joke and always have been.”
“I guess that’s why we keep kicking your ass.”
“Bitch!”
She snapped the whip and it missed me by mere inches as I sidestepped blow after blow, each step inching me closer to my goal.
“Without your little Impossible Engineer suit it’s not as easy to mess with my powers.” I grinned at her and her jaw muscles flexed.
“You were always a cheat. You should never have been the star of the Doorknob Society, I should have had that honor.” Her eyes flared with anger. “I was the best in my class. I was destined for great things. And now I’ll have it all with the First Kind.”
“You still believe that the First Kind will care about a pathetic Doorknob Society member when they have the powers of all the Societies? That’s what you’ve never understood, Faith, there is no place for DS among the First Kind.”
I pulled my Skeleton Key from my hoodie and activated it, dropping my crimson whip to the floor. I crossed the two snapping them in front of me.
Faith grumbled in anger and slashed her blade at me.
I deflected it with a one whip and jumped back and snapped my other whip out, cracking it against the bonds holding Uncle Thomas.
His head shot up and he turned and looked my way.
“Talia?” He spoke my mother’s name and shook his head as if clearing his thoughts .“Chloe?”
“I could use a little help.”
“Fools!” Mr. Tower’s voice boomed and he waved his arm toward us and a torrent of energy rushed out from him.
It hit me hard, tossing me around as if I was caught up in a tornado, until I finally got slammed down on the floor of the Bridge. I struggled to stand and saw Faith, a few feet away, trying to do the same.
“Chloe!” Erin called out to me, looking desperate to run but her chains kept her locked in place.
“Still alive, you annoying child you!”
Tower stared at me, at least I think he did. With his eyes all milky white and glowing, I suppose he could have been looking elsewhere, though I doubted it.
”What does it take to kill a Masters these days?”
“I’ll do it, sir.” Faith stood on wobbly legs, her Doorknob in her hand.
“Shut up, girl, you’re nearly as bad as she is.”
Faith blinked in shock at the comment
“I can’t stand your incessant chatter. Do something useful and guard the portal.” He waved at her dismissively and she lowered her head and walked toward the other end of the portal. “I’ve had enough Old Kind to last many lifetimes. This is my moment of triumph. Finally, the true First Kind will return and we will set the dimensions right once again. My brethren and I will wipe the Old Kind from memory and start fresh.”
I shook my head and of course I had to open my mouth. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
“It certainly is, you foolish girl, and you can have a front row seat for the grand event. After all, it’s only appropriate since it was your cursed families that locked us away. Masters and Grimm. How I have followed you down through the generations, tracking, hunting and hounding you all. Ichibod was not the first, but you my dear, will be the last. You will pay for your ancestor’s betrayal of us.”
“Leave her alone.” Uncle Thomas ordered. He twisted his fingers and the remaining manacles on his arms unsnapped and dropped to the floor vanishing.
“I see you’ve finally given into the Artifact,” Mr. Tower snickered.
“You need to pay for what you’ve done.” Thomas stepped off the dais.
I felt a rush of power as he came closer. It called to me whispering my name.
“Is that so?” Mr. Tower moved with the grace of a cat stalking its prey. His eyes locked on Uncle Thomas while his fingers manipulated the air around him. Glowing red and then shifting to blue, he cycled through his abilities with such speed and precision that I could barely follow along.
“It certainly is,” Uncle Thomas said.
He was the polar opposite of Tower, instead of speed and skill, he was a charging bull. He pinned his elbows at his sides and turned his palms outward. A torrent of crimson energy poured from his body like a spewing fountain.
Mr. Tower reacted quickly, creating a barrier to block the attack. It sizzled and cracked underneath the onslaught. The level of energy Uncle Thomas was using was mind numbing, my skin felt as if I had ten thousand tiny needles racing across its surface. Ultimate power surrounded me, Uncle Thomas and Mr. Tower the controlling forces. I’d used Artifacts before, but never to the extent that Uncle Thomas was now. This was true power.
Mr. Tower grimaced, his jaw clenching as he tried to maintain the shield. It buckled under the energy cracking and snapping in half. Tower threw himself backwards and rolled away from the remaining attack.
“Aren’t we an angry man?” Mr. Tower smiled and formed a long staff of blue energy in his hands.
“That was just the beginning.” Uncle Thomas ran across the distance between them and launched himself into the air, his arms outstretched above his head and clasped together forming a crimson spear.
Ghostly trails of red flowed behind him as he swung the spear down at Mr. Tower. He brought up the staff he had created and blocked the attack. It drove him to h
is knees, but he held out against the power surrounding him.
“You thought yourself cursed... what a fool.” Mr. Tower shook his head. “With this power you could have ruled the Guild and the Old Kind. But no, your family chose to hide it away. Fools, just like all the rest.”
Mr. Tower spun his staff, smacking it against Thomas’s legs and knocking him off his feet. Uncle Thomas scrambled back trying to put some distance between them.
While they were busy fighting, I ran to Erin. She was yanking at the chains that held her, trying to free herself. Faith watched from her spot by the portal, but made no move to stop me, too afraid to anger Mr. Tower once again.
“I can’t get loose,” Erin pleaded with me.
“I’ll handle it.” I pulled out my Skeleton Key and activated it reaching out with my abilities and attempting to unlock the shackles.
“I’m so sorry, Chloe.” Erin whispered her eyes down cast.
“I know you are.”
“No, I should have never helped them. I should have listened to you and Mom. I was stupid.”
“Erin, don’t worry about it. If my life is any indication, then doing stupid things is in our DNA.”
“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” She reached out her hand, sliding it over mine and squeezing it.
I patted her hand and kept working on the shackles. I was annoyed with the choices she’d made, but I was telling the truth. I wasn’t one to judge someone for poor decisions. I had a litany of them in my past. Besides this battle with Tower was a long time coming and would have happened no matter what she did. Right now, I only wanted to get her somewhere safe. Then I could help Uncle Thomas deal with Mr. Tower.
My control over my Skeleton Key abilities was startling, I’d never felt this comfortable using them before. The mere proximity to Uncle Thomas and the Artifact made me feel as if I could do anything with my powers. I worked quickly finding and unlocking every trick that had been used to bind Erin to the dais. When I heard the snap of the last lock unhinge, I yanked the shackles off her wrists and pulled her to me, hugging her tightly.
She wrapped her arms around me and her body shook as she cried on my shoulder. I wanted to talk to her, let her know I was going to take care of her, but there wasn’t time for that. I grabbed her hand and rushed toward the portal I’d entered through. The only thing in my way was Faith. If I could reach the other side, Nightshade could protect Erin while I handled Mr. Tower.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Mr. Tower’s voice boomed all around me.
I spun on my heel yanking Erin behind me as I lifted my Skeleton Key in a defensive position. Mr. Tower was standing over Uncle Thomas. He was on his knees his head hanging low and his chest heaving as he took deep gasps of air. I could still sense his power, but it was no longer focused or controlled.
“I’m getting the hell away from you, old man,” I replied digging my grave a little bit deeper.
“No, Ms. Masters, I think it is time you finally died.”
Chapter Fifty-three
Status: Oh crap!
“No matter what happens stay behind me,” I whispered over my shoulder to Erin. I activated a crimson shield and widened my stance waiting for the attack.
“After all of this you still think you have a chance? How pathetic.” Mr. Tower chuckled as he waved his hand and a burst of energy slammed into Uncle Thomas, knocking him to the floor of the Bridge.
“You’ve been trying to defeat my family for generations and all you have to show for it is one failure after another. Who’s pathetic?” I lifted my chin challenging him.
“Maybe making him mad isn’t the best plan?” Erin said quietly from behind me.
“I’m handling this.”
“Girl, finish this and bring me one of them, I don’t care which.”
He waved past me and I cursed myself for forgetting about Faith. I was stuck between them both now and that was not where I wanted to be.
“Yes sir,” Faith replied.
“Finally getting your shot.” I angled myself to the side, keeping Erin behind me as I turned to keep Faith on one side of me and Mr. Tower on the other.
“Shut up, Chloe,” Faith said creeping toward me.
Mr. Tower walked back, reaching down to grab hold of Uncle Thomas. A blast of crimson energy shot upwards slamming into Mr. Tower and flipping him backwards. Uncle Thomas was up and on his feet, his hands super charged with power. He ran across the distance between the two and swung his fist down punching into Mr. Tower with a boom that reverberated around the room.
“It looks to me like this is going to be one on one after all.” I smiled at Faith and pulled my Doorknob from my other pocket and activated it alongside my Skeleton Key.
A vibration tore through the Bridge nearly knocking me off my feet. The portal behind Faith shimmered and swayed as it began to lose its hold on this dimension. The amount of power and energy flowing around it was making it unstable. If it lost its hold, we all could be in for a bad situation.
Faith hesitated, creating her own energy whip, though keeping her distance. She kept glancing from Mr. Tower back to the portal. She knew as well as I did that if the Bridge lost its hold we could be sent spinning out into the In Between and be lost forever.
“Enough!” Mr. Tower bellowed and launched himself up, a glimmering spear in his hand. He battered relentlessly at Uncle Thomas knocking him back. He kept up the assault, thrusting the blade at him time and again. Uncle Thomas parried the movements but Mr. Tower was insatiable, he moved with speed and guile that was unfathomable.
The Bridge shook from the force of the blows and the portal rumbled releasing waves of energy. It needed to be stabilized, but the only way to do that was from the In Between that rested between the Bridge and the Badlands.
“You know what’s happening,” I called out to Faith pointing to the portal. I doubted she would be willing to help me, but would she be willing to be lost between dimensions?
“Shut up,” Faith snapped, shaking her head as she watched the battle between Uncle Thomas and Mr. Tower.
“We’ll all die if someone doesn’t stabilize the Bridge.”
“I said shut up,” Faith called out again.
The portal shimmered once again, but this time from someone accessing it. The surface changed as Jess and Nightshade stepped through.
“Get her,” I called out to them.
Jess was directly next to Faith and moved quickly. She swung a right hook that connected with Faith, knocking her to the ground.
“Dad?” Jess said as she noticed the fight between Uncle Thomas and Mr. Tower.
Mr. Tower was gaining the upper hand as Uncle Thomas’s control over his powers was minimal at best. The spear inched in closer with each blow and soon Uncle Thomas wouldn’t be able to stop it.
Uncle Thomas looked across the Bridge and smiled at the sight of Jess and I running to each other. We hugged and Nightshade wrapped his arms around the both of us.
“Nightshade,” —I grabbed Erin’s arm and pushed her toward him— “get her out of here now.”
“You sure?” He took hold of her wrist.
“Go!” He pulled me close and kissed me. I wanted to linger in it, but I had a job to do. I placed my hand on his chest and pushed him away. “Go now before the Bridge collapses.” I pushed him toward the portal.
“Chloe, no I don’t want to leave without you,” Erin yelled her eyes brimming with tears. She tried to pull away from Nightshade, but he just wrapped his arm around her waist and hoisted her into the air.
“We’re leaving.” He gave me one last look with those damn beautiful different colored eyes and winked. “Don’t be a hero, Masters, I love you.”
“Back at you, take care of her.” I smiled and turned away, fighting the urge to join them when I knew damn well it was time to finish this thing once and for all.
Energy washed over me as Nightshade left through the portal. My senses could feel the mooring of the Bridge beginning to lose its ho
ld on the Badlands. We needed to end this now and get the hell out of there before the Bridge completely disappeared into the void.
Uncle Thomas leapt forward no longer able to fend off Mr. Tower’s attacks. He bear hugged him, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing tightly.
“You want my curse, take it!” he yelled and threw his head back. Power roiled off Uncle Thomas just as it had my mother when I had seen her under the control of an Artifact, but this time there was no holding back. It hit like a nuclear blast slamming into us. Jess was thrown away from me and I lost my footing under the volley of power. Faith flipped backwards through the portal. I couldn’t think or act, the uncontrolled force overwhelmed me like a barrage of broadcast signals all at high volume. I stumbled back, my head swimming, and fell through the portal into the In Between.
Energy swirled around me and for a moment I forgot where I was, but then the vortex shimmered and I realized I had fallen through the portal. There on either side of me stood access to the Bridge and the Badlands. The ground underneath me vibrated as if it were alive and cracks and divisions creased the ground like villains waiting for their moment to strike.
If I didn’t stabilize the Bridge, not only would it rip loose from its hold on dimensions, it could very well rip a hole in the universe large enough to destroy everything. Mr. Tower was releasing a level of power that I could barely comprehend.
I struggled to my hands amd knees, unsteady from the energy. I’d lost my Doorknob and saw it as it rolled away from me. I moved for it, but my side exploded in pain. Faith kicked at me, knocking me over. She’d lost her Doorknob as well, but wasn’t letting that stop her from attacking.
She moved in and stomped her foot toward my face. I rolled to the side avoiding it and shot my leg out, catching her in the knee and tripping her.
I scrambled to my feet and didn’t bother running for my Doorknob. Faith stood and we faced off, our hands raised, ready to fight.
“It’s time the great Chloe Masters learned a lesson,” she said and took a swing at me.
