Descendant

by Giles, Nichole

  What happened to Eric?

  After the longest half hour of my life, the door scrapes open. Panicking, I knock a stapler off the desk with my toes, wondering how I can use it as a weapon while my hands are still tied.

  A hoarse voice says, “What were you going to do, staple me to death?”

  Shock steals my breath when I look up and meet the clear blue of the most perfect eyes I’ve ever seen. The eyes I love. “You’re alive.”

  Kye leans on the wall for support, clearly still weak. “For now, anyway.”

  “Can you untie me?” As he limps over, I’m able to see his energy, and it’s grayish. Not a good sign. The hand he drops on my shoulder is heavy, like he isn’t doing well holding the weight of his limbs.

  “I thought Boone shot you.” I whisper through more tears. “I thought—”

  “But he didn’t.” He crouches, takes me awkwardly in his good arm, and lets me cry. “Shh, babe, I’m here. That guy had terrible aim. Missed by inches. The bullet ricocheted—caught him square on the forehead.” He shudders. “Never saw it coming.” He pauses, glances around the room. “Where’s Juri?”

  I shake my head, on the verge of falling apart. “I don’t know, but he has my ring. He took it, Kye. He took my ring.”

  Kye kneels behind me, working on the knot with his good hand. “Don’t worry, he can’t open the door with only three Keys. As long as he doesn’t have the pendant ...”

  “He might.”

  “What?” His hand stills.

  “Juri might have the pendant. Eric and I had to use them to get through the portal, so Eric had the pendant in his pocket. He disappeared when I found you. We have to find him.” I hope he’s still alive.

  “Juri has all four Keys?”

  “No.” I shake my head, trying to convince myself. “No, he only has three. We’re not positive about the fourth one, remember? No one even knows what it really is. Right?”

  Kye works more vigorously at the tie until it’s loose enough for me to pull my arms free. “It’s a rock. A glowing stone that gives off enough power to supply lights to Las Vegas for the rest of eternity.”

  “But how?” I open a drawer, search for a flashlight, a weapon, anything we can use.

  Kye dumps the contents of another one on the desk and sifts through it. “That’s why he was working at the Luxor. Juri’s the guardian of the Arawn Sunstone.”

  The bottom drawer’s locked, so I kick the handle with my bare heel until it comes off and the front slides open. Kye sways again, then seems to reach into a reserve of energy, because he catches himself and continues to help look.

  “He used to be a good guy,” Kye says. “Anyway, I saw the Sunstone right after Boone brought me here. If they have the pendant, that’s all the Keys. We need to hurry.”

  “There’s nothing here.” He stands upright, and I notice a gun sticking out of his waistband.

  “Why do you have Boone’s gun?”

  “Better to take it with us than leave it here.” Kye leans on me as we hobble down the tunnel, the lights from the office illuminating our path enough so we’re not completely in the dark. After the light and warmth of the office, my eyes struggle to adjust, but now that I’ve seen the office, I notice little things. Like lamps mounted intermittently along the walls, and the smell of some kind of fuel.

  After leaving the poisonous room behind, some of Kye’s strength trickles back until he’s holding himself upright without support but still limping. We hear voices echoing off the stone before we see the faint light shining ominously from an inner chamber.

  “Why won’t it work? We have the Keys, what are we doing wrong?” Juri bellows.

  “You’re an incompetent, bumbling idiot. Tynan gives you way too much credit. I would have had her voluntarily if not for your interference. I swear, the two of you screw up more than you ever help.” The voice is familiar, and as I comprehend his words, my heart breaks all over again for things I don’t understand but know I have to do.

  Kye’s lips touch my ear as he whispers, “Is that ...?”

  I nod against his cheek. “Yes. It’s Eric.”

  FORTY

  The Tomb

  Wow. How stupid am I? “I thought they were torturing him.” My throat burns with anger. “He came with Akers to meet me at the airport. He helped me through the portal. I trusted him.”

  Kye’s whispered curses echo in the hollowness. If they didn’t know we were here, they do now.

  We turn around and come face to face with Juri, bone sword exposed, eyes wide and shocked. I can feel Kye’s pulse raging where our skin touches.

  “Glad you’re here,” Juri says. “We’re having a terrible time figuring out how to make that ring work. Your assistance may be required.” He presses the tip of his sword to Kye’s side, seizing the gun and tucking it in his own waistband. Then he shoves Kye toward Eric, who appears slightly less surprised. There is no missing the guilt written on the face of the betrayer I considered a friend.

  “Go to hell.” I tell him. “I will never help you again. Ever.”

  “I told you she was feisty.” Eric’s voice is raspy, different, and he avoids my accusing gaze. “You’ll help us, Abigail. It’s the only reason I let you get this far.” To prove his point, he removes the crystal dagger from a sheath strapped to his thigh, jabbing Kye in the back until the sharp point pokes through his shirt.

  “How could you do this to me?” I croak. “We were friends. I wanted to help you. I even tried to Heal you.”

  Eric’s smile is cruel. “But you didn’t. If I’d let you in that far, you’d have figured me out, and Tynan’s work over the past thirty years would have been wasted.” He shrugs off the suffering I endured all because of him. “Good call on my part, especially now that I know you’re not merely a Healer.”

  My head fills with indignant confusion. “What do you mean? I am a Healer.”

  “You haven’t figured it out yet?” Eric nudges Kye with the dagger, urging us into the cavern. “You don’t have two Gifts, you have one. Witch light.”

  My mind whirls as I try to piece everything together. Witch light?

  Kye’s face contorts with pain when Eric shoves him. Dark mist hovers a foot above the ground, filling the air with a soupy texture and stifling, cold humidity that steals my breath, like walking through fever chills.

  “Light.” Kye’s posture sags and he leans on me again, murmuring. “Heart Light. Witch Light. Like Isleen. I should have seen it. Val would’ve seen it for me if we’d gone to him in the first place.”

  I clutch his side, alarmed at the rapid decline in his energy field as his face goes deathly pale. “What are you talking about?”

  “He’s talking about you.” Eric’s tone changes—almost as if his determination is wavering. Like he’s hesitant to push forward with whatever he has planned. “It’s a rare Gift, even in the ancient world of Elen. It was originally known as Heart Light, but most called it Witch Light because only women could possess it, and those who did were all encompassing energy manipulators. Isleen had it, and according to rumor, Raina had it as well.”

  Juri claps—hand against sword—and the sound echoes, repeating a hundred more times like applause before the sound waves disappear into the black abyss. “Enough history.” He pins Eric with a look. “Master grows tired of waiting.”

  For the first time, I notice a faint red glow outlining gaps in the walls. The lines create a perfect square on which is carved a number of glowing red symbols. The door to the tomb.

  As Eric spins away, a crystal around his neck catches my eye. White with streaks of black. Juri has one too, on a brown leather strap. How did I miss those before? Kye droops, fighting a losing battle with consciousness, and I tighten my hold around his waist. My eyes are drawn to the walls, then to the floor and ceiling. Glowing veins of red shoot through the black, like blood veins in tired eyes. “Is that ...?” I lean closer, not daring to touch.

  Juri’s grin is wicked, gleeful. “Cinnabar. H
ighly poisonous and terribly potent in such a small space. You know, because of all the mercury. Worse for you than copper is for us.” He pinches the leather strap off his collarbone and taunts me with the stone. “Howlite, for detoxification. Want one?” He lets it drop against his chest. “Oops, that was rude. I’m afraid I don’t have a spare.”

  Eric smacks the back of Juri’s head. “Let’s get to it.” His eyes narrow at my arm around Kye’s waist, then, finally, he looks at me. Something flickers between us, though I’m not sure what it is. “Let go of him, Abby. That ring is no good to us without your power. You’re going to have to help us.”

  “No.”

  Juri’s sword pokes the small of my back, stinging as it threatens to break the skin. “You’ll help us or I’ll run you through.”

  Kye’s head lolls, but he whispers, “Don’t do it, Abby.”

  Eric shakes his head, disgusted at Juri. “I have to do everything around here. You were instructed not to hurt her. Let me show you how she works.” He digs the point of the crystal dagger into Kye’s chest, over his heart, until the tip pierces his skin and a line of blood runs down the front of his shirt. “Open the door, Abby.”

  Another drop of deep red rolls onto the blade, and the jeweled handle lights up. Kye jerks and fights to stay standing, but I let go of him. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Good girl. You see, Juri? You just have to give her the right motivation.” Eric twists a handful of Kye’s shirt in his fist to keep him standing, and the blade digs deeper. “Your ring is in place, there, in the center position. Go make it glow. Make it do whatever it does so I can let my master out of prison.”

  The pendant is pressed into a cutout near the top, and an iridescent stone near the bottom. There’s no place for the dagger, and I wonder why. I’m halfway across the room when Eric’s words sink in, stopping me midstride. “Your master? You’ve been working for Tynan all along?”

  “What else was I to do when you turned me away?”

  I pull my ring out of the door and put it on, watch the diamonds light up. “What are you talking about?”

  Eric’s knife digs deeper and Kye’s face contorts. “You broke my heart into a million pieces, Raina. Tynan was the only person who cared. He helped me see light again and gave me new, stronger powers until I stopped needing you. Stopped missing you. He treated me as if I was his flesh and blood son, and I’ll repay the debt by setting him free. Now, open the door!” He shrieks his last words, sounding desperate.

  Kye gasps, trying not to scream as Eric plunges the dagger deeper and his blood flows more freely. Desperate, I turn back to the door and pray for forgiveness. How will I ever fix this mess? My fist shakes when I take off the ring and press it into the poisonous stone, fitting the diamonds into the center.

  Thunder rumbles from the earth’s core, shaking the walls until dust and chunks of poisonous mineral rain on our heads. The cinnabar glows brighter as the lines around the door explode in a flash of red light. The ground quakes, tossing me around until I end up on the floor next to Kye and Eric. Blood pours from Kye’s wound, but Eric has dropped the dagger.

  I crawl to the passage and press my back against the stone, trying to hold it closed. Black shadows seep around the edges, accompanied by a horrid screech. Large chunks of cinnabar roll away, leaving a hole in the center. I duck to avoid a falling rock and close my eyes against the dust. The door inches forward, my body weight doing nothing to hold it. A sulfuric odor burns the inside of my nose and stings my throat until I cough and cough and cough.

  A few feet away, Eric sits up, his face a mask of both rage and panic. “What is that?”

  I turn and brace my palms against the stone. “Your master’s demon army. What did you expect? A rosy homecoming parade?” The door keeps moving, so I yank my ring out. Nothing happens. On the far side of the cavern, Juri cowers in a corner, his arms over his head as a waterfall of debris rains on him until a blow from an exceptionally large chunk renders him unconscious. Eric gapes in horror as shadow demons slip one by one through the cracks.

  My eyes find Kye. He’s lost his battle against the cinnabar and is lying unconscious where Eric dropped him.

  I’m it.

  The temperature skyrockets and the ground shakes harder as a voice thunders through the cavern. “King Tynan lives!”

  A shadowy form quivers to life in front of Eric, the same person I saw in New York, twice. “Son of my heart,” he says. “You’ve almost completed the task. One more step and we’re free.”

  “Father of my soul.” Eric steps forward to embrace Tynan, but his arms glide through the thick, flickering air.

  Tynan laughs, almost mocking. “Not yet. I’m not free yet.”

  Eric nearly falls forward but rights himself. “How are you here if you aren’t free?”

  “Sacrifice, my son. We must all make sacrifices if we hope to ever be free of our bondage.”

  I move away from the door, hoping—needing—to see Eric’s face when Tynan tells him that the next thing he has to do is kill Kye and me. “What kind of sacrifice?”

  Tynan whirls around, narrowing his eyes into slits. “We meet again, Raina. Ironic and, I suppose, fitting that the woman who sealed the tomb should also be the one who re-opens it.”

  The floor is still tossing and I brace my hand on the wall for balance. “I’m not here to free you.”

  His brittle laugh tinkles around the room like bits of broken glass. Thousands of echoes escalate into a chorus of laughter. “Aren’t you?” He turns back to Eric. “In answer to your question—and for your future knowledge—my powers have increased by three parts out of four. That is, three of the four original guardians have been sacrificed to strengthen my power. Their Gifts now belong to me for as long as I possess their hearts.” He rips open his shirt and reveals a chest that crawls like something living is trapped inside it. Bright red scars crisscross his skin, radiating a purple glow. Power flows in his voice when he says, “Finish this, my servant, my son. Raina is here now. The time is right. Spill her blood and permit her heart to become the final Key.”

  Eric’s breath hitches and his eyes flick toward me. “Kill her?”

  “Take the dagger,” Tynan says. “Cut out her heart and place it in the opening. When her powerful blood has pooled at the base and her heart beats in my chest, the seal will be forever broken.”

  Hearing Tynan’s words, my muscles contract and I shrink back, my fingers flexing against the hard rock. Eric staggers toward me, clutching the dagger in one hand and holding his stomach with the other. It might be the lighting, but his skin has a greenish hue. “Father, Tynan, I—”

  “DON’T!” Tynan roars. “Don’t tell me you can’t do it. Do not tell me you love her, or that you did love her, or that you wished to love her. She doesn’t love you. She never did. Raina married Theron. She bore Theron’s child, not yours. Remember how she broke your heart into pieces? For that alone she deserves to die. Kill her, my son. Mete out your justice now, even as you did then. Use your anger to free the only person who ever truly loved you—I, who have become your soul father.”

  Expressions race over Eric’s face as he crosses the room and grabs my arm. Rage, hate, love, heartbreak, and then terrible, aching sorrow. His chest heaves and his Adam’s apple bobs as he clears his throat and attempts to speak. When he finally does, it isn’t the youthful voice I know as Eric’s, but instead a weary, aged one.

  “I never understood why you sealed them in, Raina, any more than I understood how you turned away from me, your childhood love, to marry Theron. I loved you outrageously, obsessively. And you knew. We could’ve been happy together. So happy.” His voice breaks. “Why couldn’t you love me back? What does he have that I don’t?”

  Centuries of memories flood my mind, and suddenly I understand. Eric—whose name in that time was Erim, servant of Tynan—loved me. In that time when I was Raina, an orphan who worked at the palace of a tyrant. As Erim and Raina, we shared a special friendship, and I
did love him in the way a sister loves a brother. I did. But he loved me so much deeper, and I knew. Erim was there, hiding in the bushes near the pathway between worlds the day of the hunt. The day I—Raina—met Theron and the whole world changed.

  I swallow fresh tears, pouring emotion into my voice, into my eyes for him to see. “I’m sorry, so sorry I hurt you, Eric. I did love you, just not the way you wanted.”

  With a sound I can’t identify, he grabs a handful of my hair and pulls my head back, the dagger poised against my throat. I won’t close my eyes. I intend to make him look at me, to see what he’s doing when he slices the knife through my neck. So I stare at him, into him, and wait for him to kill me and be done.

  Instead, his eyes fill with longing as his face hovers inches from mine. The dagger slips lower, and before I know it, we’re so close I can feel his breath on my cheek. His free arm slips around my waist. “Just once,” he whispers, pulling me close. “I’ve loved you for an eternity. I can’t ... I need ... just one taste.” He crushes his lips against mine. I don’t return the kiss, won’t return it while he’s holding a knife to my throat, so I stay still, wide-eyed, and stare at Kye—still unconscious—praying for strength and shaking as Eric’s lips assault mine. A tear rolls down my cheek, threading to my lips where Eric laps it up and jerks away like I’ve slapped him.

  His fingers clench more tightly in my hair and he stares, horrified. My eyes fill with more tears. The look on his face is the most frightening thing I’ve seen all day. “Please,” I plead. “Eric, please don’t. Don’t do this. I did love you. I still do.”

  He blinks away the shock of my rejection, weary all over again. “Not enough. Not the way you love him.”

  “I’m sorry,” I breathe. My voice shakes when I tell him, “My gram used to say ‘the head cannot choose what the heart will feel.’ I loved you in that life. You were my best friend. My heart bled for the pain I caused you.”

  “And now, it will bleed for the pain you’ve caused me.” Tynan moves closer. Bits of onyx and cinnabar rain on our heads and in my eyes as the walls tremble. “It’s time, Erim. I’ve allowed you to have your goodbye moment. Now, set me free and you’ll have your choice of women to love.”