by Lynne Ewing
"I'll keep you safe," he went on. "I promise."
"I want to meet my father," she whispered hoarsely, her chest filling with an old longing. But her father was also her enemy, a powerful member of the Atrox's Inner Circle. She couldn't trust him, so how could she trust Kyle?
"Let's go, then." Kyle reached for her hand.
Catty hesitated. "Why doesn't he come here?"
"He doesn't like this world," Kyle explained. "I'm supposed to take you to his home in Nefandus."
"Nefandus? I've never heard of that," Catty said and began to tremble. "In Latin, nefandus means 'not to be spoken of.' "
Kyle nodded, then spoke in a low, rushed voice. "It's a parallel world created by the Atrox. Members of the Inner Circle and some Followers live there. We don't have much time if we're going to go."
Suddenly Catty felt dizzy and grabbed the edge of her desk. "How do you know about this place if you're not a Follower?"
"I lived there once," Kyle answered quietly. Catty stared at him, suddenly remembering Jimena's warning. Was this the dangerous journey she had seen in Catty's future?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HA L F A N H O U R L A T E R, Kyle and Catty ran down an empty street in Chinatown, the quick clicking of their steps the only sound disturbing the night. They hurried past the dark curio shops and herbal pharmacies displaying snake potions and ginseng. Rich, spicy fragrances still lingered in the air from the closed restaurants.
"Hurry," Kyle said as he stepped through the old Chinatown gateway. "The door between the two worlds only opens when Algol blinks."
"Algol?" Catty followed Kyle past the pagoda-style buildings to a small storefront with the words IT PUN FORTUNE READING written across the window.
"The demon star." Kyle pointed at the clear, black sky. "It's the eye of Medusa, in the constellation of Perseus. When it blinks, we go."
"Where?" Catty studied the plaza between the stores. "Do they beam us up or something?"
"You'll see," Kyle said, still looking up at the sky.
Gradually the brightness of the star dimmed as if the eye were closing.
"How does that happen?" Catty asked, surprised.
Kyle took her hand and walked forward. "Algol is actually two stars revolving around each other. It's called an eclipsing binary."
"Are we going to walk through the window?" Catty followed reluctantly.
"Hurry." Kyle increased his pace.
Catty gasped, certain Kyle was going to shatter the glass of the window.
But, instead, the red-painted storefront blurred, and a film covered Catty, clinging like a moist membrane. In the same moment, numbness swept through her as if a colossal shot of anesthetic had deadened her body. She froze, unable to move, but before she could panic, a dull throb awakened her senses, and she stumbled forward into an impossibly dense fog.
Sluggish mists rolled around her, the cold prickling over her, snooping and nuzzling as if it were trying to assess what kind of intruder she was.
"I do know this place," she whispered, her teeth chattering. "I was a prisoner here in these vapors once."
Even now, the memory terrified her. She and her friends had been fighting Lambert, a member of the Inner Circle, and when Catty had tried to save Vanessa from his attack, the force of his power had hit Catty instead, sending her into this world of nothingness. It had been a long time before the others had been able to rescue her.
When Kyle didn't answer, Catty whirled around. "Kyle?"
He wasn't there.
Clouds thickened, encircling her. "Where are you?" she cried.
Suddenly, the roar of gushing water surrounded her. Frantic, she thrashed in the milky air, searching for Kyle, and started to rise.
"I should have warned you about the passing." Kyle grabbed her hand, and his touch brought a different world into sharp focus. "It's frightening the first time."
Catty squinted, her feet hit the ground, and she tried to take in everything she saw. She stood on a street lined with tall, narrow houses. Overhead, water spouted from the mouths of gargoyles and splashed noisily onto the sidewalks.
The setting sun peeked through the black clouds on the horizon, and dazzling gold fire streaked across the wet, cobblestoned road.
Kyle looked amused. "It's impossible for outsiders to see in Nefandus. Without a talisman or a resident to guide them, they remain trapped in the vapors."
As if to prove what he was saying, he wrenched his hand away, and in the same instant the street vanished, replaced by swarming, gray mists.
"It's one last obstacle to protect the Atrox's world," he said, his voice reaching her from the dense fog. "In case an outsider accidentally stumbles through one of the portals."
Then he clasped Catty's hand again, and the towers, turrets, chimneys, and gables came back.
As the sun slid below the horizon, its last rays shot fire over the dwindling clouds. The embers fluttered in the black sky, becoming lurid, red stars.
"Why does the night look so different here?" Catty asked, awestruck.
"It's an artificial sky," Kyle explained. "The Atrox despises the moon and doesn't want to feel its glow."
They walked past a line of trees that stirred with frenetic energy, even though no breeze moved the air. Curious, Catty stepped under the branches, pulling Kyle with her, and gazed up.
Dark forms rippled through the leaves.
Instinct told her that the raven-black shapes slithering around each other were Followers, stuck in their own kind of traffic jam. Powerful Followers could dissolve into shadows and travel that way, like ghosts.
Kyle gently guided her back.
"How does Nefandus exist next to our world?" she asked, staring up at the murky apparitions that still slid sinuously over the treetops.
"Not next to," Kyle said. "This world is superimposed over the one you know."
"How can that be?" Catty stopped in front of a hedge of roses. The blossoms flooded the night with sweet vapor. As she touched a petal, the spindly branches squirmed toward her, and a thorn nicked her arm. She jerked back, surprised, and started walking again.
"Everything is made of atoms," Kyle explained. "But there are spaces between the atoms, and in those spaces are the atoms that create Nefandus."
Catty nodded. "So, the two realms are interlocked? "
"Yes."
Kyle started to say something more, but before he could, a disquieting heaviness fell over them, and a flurry of sparks burst into the air. "Regulators," Kyle whispered, fear in his eyes. "They police the Followers."
"I know what they are." Catty stepped away, grasping Kyle's hand tightly and hoping he didn't notice the way her fingers had begun trembling. "How could they have discovered us so soon?"
Kyle led her into a dark alley. "Maybe they're not looking for us, but just wondering who's walking on the street."
Two Regulators materialized, their long capes settling around their lumpish legs. Coronas of electrostatic bolts buzzed about their misshapen heads.
"When Regulators come into my world," Catty whispered, repelled by their brute ugliness, "they disguise their appearance."
"They don't need to, here." Kyle slipped deeper into the darkness, pulling her with him. "Come on."
They turned and ran down the twisting passageway, splashing through muddy puddles. Catty sensed eyes peering down at them from the windows in the buildings.
In the next street, which was larger, lanterns swayed from iron brackets set high in a wrought iron railing decorated with spikes and curlicues. The shimmering lights skipped around Catty and Kyle as they walked up a flagstone path to a large, austere house and crossed the veranda.
Jade dragons stood on either side of the door, and flames shot from their mouths like flicking tongues. The fire was reflected off stained-glass panels depicting devils. With each fluttering of the blaze, the demons seemed to bend and skid across the panes.
Catty felt sick with nervousness. Her expectations were rising, but so was her fear. She breathed thr
ough her mouth, trying to quell the nervousness in her stomach.
Kyle caught her look. "Are you feeling sick? The fires burn by magic, but sometimes the fumes make newcomers ill."
She nodded, not bothering to tell him the real reason she was overcome with dizziness. She had been stupid to come alone. She should have called Vanessa or Serena, but she was always impetuous. Now she wished she were more like Vanessa, serious and thoughtful.
Kyle tapped the silver ring hanging on the door, and the strange creatures imprisoned in the stained glass shifted position to see who was visiting.
The door opened.
"Please, come in."
A boy, younger and shorter than Catty, invited them inside, his unblinking black eyes intense against his pallid skin. He turned and walked barefoot over the marble floors, his jeans rolled up to his ankles, the short sleeves of his T-shirt falling below his elbows. He looked as though he'd stolen his clothing from a much larger person.
Catty glanced at Kyle.
"Follow him," Kyle whispered. "He's one of your father's servi."
"A slave?" She watched the boy.
He picked up a red cloak from a long bench and handed it to Catty. Only then did she realize how she must look. Mud splattered her bare legs and skirt, and the designs she had so carefully drawn on her hands and stomach earlier had been smeared into dark blotches. She felt embarrassed that this was the way her father would see her after all these years.
Kyle flashed a smile. "I guess your father has certain rules about modesty."
Catty shot him a look in return and took the cloak. The boy stood on tiptoe to help wrap the silky material around her shoulders. Then he appraised her and, apparently satisfied, led them past a polished oak staircase with heavy balusters.
At the end of the hallway, he opened double doors. Brass hinges creaked, and Catty and Kyle entered an overly warm room.
A man with thinning dark hair stood in front of the fireplace, close to the whipping flames. Soot blackened the white marble, changing from one spectral form to another before vanishing into smoke.
"Father?" Catty asked, not sure how she felt.
Her pulse jittered, her heart unable to find the right rhythm.
The man turned slowly, his eyes gentle rather than menacing. She had never imagined that her father would look so pleasant.
"Catty." He called her name, his voice at once familiar and strange.
Before she was even aware of it, he seeped inside her mind and released his memories of her childhood. His love burst into her awareness with a suddenness that made her stagger.
Without thinking, she dropped Kyle's hand and ran to her father. The world turned back to buckling mists, but she ignored the fog and continued running. She lunged forward, and when she fell against her father, the room came back, and her lungs filled with the acrid smells from the fireplace.
She breathed deeply, trying to catch the scent of her father, her mind filled with vague memories of licorice and days spent outside. Or had he put that recollection into her mind?
He held her tightly, his heartbeat thudding in her ear, then pulled back and gazed down at her. She hadn't realized how tall he was until that moment. She came up only to his shoulder.
He smiled. "I love you so much, Catty."
"Why did you want to see me?" she asked holding her breath and hoping his answer would be the one she needed to hear. She had memories of her own stashed away, of days spent lying on her bed, thinking about her father and wondering where he was. Did he miss her and want to build a relationship with her before she turned seventeen? She desperately wanted him in her life, and she didn't care that they were enemies, sworn to destroy each other. More than anything, she needed to be able to trust him.
His smile fell away. His pale blue eyes looked pained. He was obviously searching for the right words.
Catty's shoulders slumped forward. It wasn't going to be the answer she wanted.
But before he could speak, a chill rushed up her spine, and she sensed another presence in the room. Without warning, the fire exploded. Red embers and wisps of smoke pulsated around her.
The air thrummed, and a Regulator formed from the falling cinders. Its contact with the Atrox's evil had warped its skull and distorted its spine. As it stared at her, a grotesque imitation of a smile crossed its rotting face.
She knew she shouldn't hesitate, but she paused for the briefest moment, unwilling to believe her father could betray her, and then fear broke her inertia, and she jerked away from her father.
But before she could escape into the unfurling vapors, the Regulator grabbed her and pulled her against his soft, warm flesh. His steamy breath condensed on her lips, the stench filling her lungs. "It was all a trap!" she cried, angry tears blinding her.
She tried to use her power to open the tunnel and escape, but her energy didn't build. She clutched her amulet, hoping it would give her strength. The charm felt like an ordinary stone against her palm.
"Your goddess powers don't work in Nefandus," her father said matter-of-factly.
She caught a look in his eyes. Was he trying to tell her something more?
Then she glanced at Kyle. He had said he wasn't a Follower, but something worse. If she hadn't been so anxious to meet her father she would have questioned him. She had let herself be deceived too easily.
The Regulator started to dissolve. In seconds, he would take her to the Atrox. She needed to break free, but even if she did, how could she escape Nefandus?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"GO!" K Y L E S H O U T E D,his eyes darting around as he looked for a way out.
"How?" Catty screamed back, her hands becoming fuzzy as her molecules stretched out, melding with those of the Regulator. Her mouth filled with his rancid odor, the taste gagging her. She was powerless against his pull, and her cells continued to loosen.
She elbowed the Regulator's stomach, but her arm only sank into his warm, wet flesh. She winced and pulled back, a scream building in her lungs. Before it could burst into the air, she closed her eyes and pictured the moon. Her lips formed the prayer that had always helped her in the past. "O Mater Luna, Regina nocis, adiuvo me nunc."
Hope surged through her, and she broke free, but without the Regulator touching her, the room dissolved into the surreal landscape of gray clouds.
The Regulator shrieked in defeat and anger, his churlish scream striking Catty like a shock wave.
Catty sprinted blindly forward with nothing to guide her and tripped, twisting her ankle. Pain shot up her leg. Then a small hand clamped on to her wrist and the dark hallway came into sudden focus. She stared into the unblinking eyes of her father's young slave.
He tossed her an impish grin, and, still holding on to her, began running down a paneled corridor, his bare feet slapping against the marble floor. Abruptly he stopped and leaned against a portion of the wall, his heel kicking at the baseboard molding.
The panel swung open and the boy led her into a secret passageway. The wall closed against her back, nudging her forward and plunging her into complete darkness. A sputtering sound surrounded her, and then spiraling flames ignited in wall brackets.
"Come."The boy led her down steep, creaking stairs, his tiny fingers digging into her skin.
"Do you know how to get out of Nefandus?" she asked.
He nodded, and, at the bottom of the steps, he opened a door that led to the street.
Catty stepped out onto the cobblestoned pavement, relief flooding through her. She turned, waiting for the boy to join her outside, but he jerked his hand back and slammed the door.
Immediately the sharp clarity of the Nefandus night dissolved into veils of fog. Mists whispered around her, caressing her face.
"Let me back in!" She lurched forward, trying to find the door. But what had been there only moments before, solid and palpable, was now gone.
Muffled footsteps and voices surrounded her. She cried out and sprinted into the dream scape, pain flaring in her leg.
Catty continued walking until her legs ached and blisters formed on her toes and heels. She was certain she had been climbing steadily upward for the last few minutes, and now she was afraid to go farther, for fear of plummeting over the edge of a cliff.
The temperature continued to drop as blue ice crystals formed in the clouds and gathered on her skin and in her hair.
She sensed something watching her and tensed, turning slowly, hating the helpless feeling that overwhelmed her now. Maybe Regulators had found her and were lurking in the mists, watching with amusement as she panicked.
She moved her hand slowly through the haze, trying to see anything that might guide her, but the air only rippled, ice flakes floating around her like diamond dust, and then she knew with sudden clarity that she would never find her way back to her own world.
Tears froze on her cheeks. The air leached life from her. She was going to die alone, far from her friends and her mother. She thought of Kendra now, remembering something Kendra had told her after her pet canary had died, years ago. "We're only spirits, visiting earth in our bodies," Catty whispered as she sat down on the cold ground. She wrapped the red cloak tightly around her and tried to accept her own death. "Our spirits live on."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A H A N D C O V E R E D Catty's lips, locking a startled scream inside her throat. The unexpected touch brought Nefandus back in striking detail, and the sweet, pungent fumes from the magic fires curled into her lungs.
"Don't move." Kyle whispered against her temple. "It's me.
She nodded, then glanced down, shocked, seeing pinnacles and spires below her. She was sitting high above the houses, balanced precariously on the outer edge of a flight of iron stairs that led to a bell tower, her bare legs dangling in the cold air. She tried to swing onto the steps, but her feet felt like dead weights.
