With a blink, Father Raimi stands beside the podium, hands clasped behind his back. The silent shadows appear next to him, following his every move.
“Funny,” I scoff. “You talk about me having control over my choices, but you’re the one who’s done this to me. You led me here.”
“Ah. Did I? Or is it that I gave you the push you needed? It was up to you how far you would take it.” His kind face is no longer that, but a mask I see right through. I watch as he paces near the front of the altar, the shadows close on his heel like obedient dogs. “You were a ticking time bomb ready to blow. Alexa, the girl you so viciously disintegrated, was your trigger. You welcomed her into your body. You fed off her energy.”
Redhead, I think to myself.
Beside me, Koren’s face flinches with anger. Her fingers curl at her sides, digging deep into her legs. She’s losing it. With each word, Father Raimi drives her more over the edge. She could turn at any minute. I have to let her in before it’s too late.
“Tell me, Aiden. How did it feel when you killed her?” He stops at the center of the altar and faces me.
“How do you know about that?” My jaw clenches.
“You don’t think I’d send a Dark One on a mission like that without seeing for myself, do you? I had to know if your transition was possible, and you proved me right.”
I step forward, ready to unleash the anger building inside me. Koren blocks my way, her face inches from mine, threatening. Whether she’s only playing her role, or I’ve lost her to the darkness completely, I can’t be sure.
The urge to hold her, to bring her back to me is so strong. I fight to hide the emotion on my face. This can’t go on any longer. She’s running out of time.
Raimi claps his hands together like a proud father and says, “There’s my girl.”
It puts a bitter taste in my mouth.
“Using me to call upon the shadows isn’t right. I never asked for this.”
“Didn’t you?” His tone roars with impatience. “You want to believe in something. Believe in me, Aiden. Believe in the Order.”
As if those two words were the signal, the shadows hiss with excitement beside him, their faces melting back like black tar, exposing fresh faces of men. Their hisses turn to devilish laughter. Even Koren smiles at the sound.
The shadows aren’t just shadows, or followers, they are the Order, or some of them at least. I can tell by the way they carry themselves, the power emanating off them and absorbing into me.
I look at my hands. The heat is beginning to overpower me. The energy embeds itself into my souls, urging to push the other one out; the only one keeping my humanity intact. My muscles clench as I call upon the Light that I’ve taken for granted until now.
“We need you,” Raimi says, watching as I struggle. “Together we can gather our brothers. Free them from their prison. There’s so much we can do together, so much we can learn. Do you not feel it? Can’t you feel the thirst inside of you?”
My heart races, pumping viciously in my chest with the need to consume. I can feel myself giving in, wanting to absorb the darkness surrounding me. But the Light within bursts through the cracks, just as eager to take control. The words in my head scream to be released. The only words that can end this.
My will teeters along the edge of insanity. Like a frayed strand of thread ready to snap. I want to leap, I want to concede, but all I can hear in my mind is: With the Light I send thee, forever into the depths of darkness.
Speak these words, I demand myself.
I bite down, fighting against myself as I speak. “With the Light I send thee—”
Something wraps around my neck, tightening without give. Koren is behind me, her hand around my throat, preventing me from chanting the only thing that could save us. Whatever hold this room has on me, it has its hold on her too. We’re trapped.
Raimi blinks, towering over me in Koren’s grasp. “You dare to bind me?”
Each attempt to gasp for air comes up short. Her strength is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. She could easily crush my windpipe, but she holds back, waiting for Raimi to give the word.
“Koren,” I choke out. “Please.”
But she doesn’t give.
“If you’re not going to do this the easy way, I guess I’m left with no choice.” With a quick nod to Koren, the pressure on my throat enhances, and before I know it, everything goes black.
he first things I notice when I come to are the restraints. No, not restraints. It’s the others holding me down against the altar. I search for Koren’s face, desperate to see her relinquished from the Dark Priest’s hold. She keeps herself at a distance, eyes pitch black. Whatever was left of her is long gone now. I shouldn’t have let her come here.
There’s no contact against my skin where their hands clasp around my limbs. Only the sensation of being stuck in place, adhered with some invisible glue to the marble beneath me. They watch me with eyes so dark, I can practically see the pit of Hell through them. The crackle of the torches is the only thing I can hear, as the flames flicker and spit into the depths of the tunnel.
“Did you honestly think I wouldn’t know what you two were planning?” His voice booms inside my head, his body somewhere out of reach. “I have to say, I was really hoping Koren would make it through you before this time had come. But her ignorance kept her from saving herself. Or perhaps…”
Raimi stands over me, no longer speaking through my mind. “Could it be her feelings for you that kept her here?”
With every ounce of strength I have, I tug and pull to free myself. It’s no use. I can’t even budge, and I give in with exasperation.
“You turned her parents against her,” I spit.
“Is that what she told you?” A loud cackle rips into the air. “You really are gullible when it comes to love, aren’t you?”
He’s lying. He’s trying to turn me against her. I can’t listen, can’t believe the lies.
“If it’s any consolation,” he says, “she really did have good intentions when she brought you here, though that was not her goal at the beginning. She was very much on my side then, trust in that.”
“You lie!”
“Do I? I may have allowed you to believe certain things about me, but have I ever actually lied to you, Aiden?”
As if he deserves the confirmation, everything he’s said to me runs through my head. He’s done nothing but lead me away from the Brethren, only to have me come right back. It was a test, that I know, but a test I failed on all accounts. He warned me about the Brethren of Shadows, though it didn’t stop me from consuming its pages.
At the memory, I look down at my waist, realizing that the book is no longer hidden along the waistline of my jeans.
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” He waves it off. “It’s in safe hands. I thank you for returning it to me.”
My clothes are drenched in sweat from my efforts to free myself from their hold. Koren stays unblinking at their side. She wouldn’t do this to me. Despite what he says, I know her better than that.
“What did you do to her?” I snarl through gritted teeth.
Raimi circles the altar, a pleasant expression on his face. “You’re so quick to accuse me. Of course she’d be willing to sacrifice herself for the cause. It was all too easy to persuade her. She didn’t put up a fight. Like you, she wanted this, to be something worthy of her parents’ love.”
My head shakes, preventing the information from burrowing into my ears. I don’t want to hear it. They’re lies. Just lies.
“Don’t be angry,” he says, a strange comfort in his tone. “The pact you made outside this place was real. You changed her, Aiden. But, unfortunately, she lost herself the minute she walked through that door.”
Everything he’s saying melts into me. I can feel my sanity beginning to break.
“Her parents,” I say, “you never intended to bring them back.”
Raimi smiles.
“You bastard.”
<
br /> “We all must make sacrifices,” he explains. “But now we must move forward.”
Raimi lifts the book into view. He closes his eyes, allowing the sensation I once felt from those very pages vibrate through him. I can hear the voices, and feel their energy as it passes into him. Pages flip one by one on their own, stopping when they’ve reached their mark.
Raimi beams with delight as he says, “It’s time to summon the rest of our brothers.”
My panic triples at his announcement. “You can’t! The Gateway’s not open. I won’t do this.”
“Hush now, dear boy,” he says like a father calming his son. “This book holds many secrets. Even you know that.”
I tug and pull, but the binds on my limbs won’t relent. Koren’s emotionless gaze gives no comfort, no evidence that this can be stopped. Deep in my chest, I strain every muscle, demanding that the Gateway remain closed.
In what sounds like a language similar to Latin, Raimi recites his passage. Though this language is unfamiliar to me, the words somehow translate in my mind, as if whatever evil inside of me interprets it on its own.
“I call upon thee, my brothers,” he chants. “By the darkness, may the light cower in fear, and surrender to the call of the shadows. Let thee come forward and press upon the gate, and behold the power to unleash thy presence upon the living. Join me once again at my side and follow me into darkness. For I grant the Order of Shadows life and eternity. Through this Gateway, I give you release.”
The flames of each candle surrounding me flicker out as a biting wind circles the room with unbearable force. Like a thousand hot daggers stabbing from inside my chest, an excruciating pain surges through my entire body. It’s as if my skin is covered in boiling blisters that burst open simultaneously, though whether they are real, or just the pain scorching through me, it’s impossible to tell. A tortured scream bursts from my throat, the sound so ragged and raw, I could swear it wasn’t coming from me at all.
The pressure in my chest grows stronger each second, and with each scream I fight to hold back the creatures inside me, pounding their way out. I bite down, tight and fierce, screaming for myself to hold on. Help will come before they break their way through. It has to.
Raimi watches, wide eyes filled with madness. “Release them!” he demands. “You don’t have what it takes to fight this, Aiden. Give in to your instincts. Give in!”
My back arches off the altar, as if the things scraping at the gate are growing restless. Everything aches and my body is on the verge of exploding. Tremors shake me to the core, to the point that I can’t hold on any longer. With each rip and tear inside me, my will begins to falter, to let go and be done with it.
I can’t possibly survive this.
They’ve won.
The barrier begins to crumble. I look back at Koren, wishing she could see me. As if somewhere inside of her she could hear my thoughts, a shift of her head answers back. Her black eyes take in the sight of me, broken and defeated. A crease in her brow is her only emotion. For a moment I think she’s still trapped inside of herself, until a simple blink of her lashes softens her expression, and the blackness of her eyes melts away into the bluest of blue.
“Aiden,” she says, her voice so sweet and comforting to my ears.
With that simple word, that simple sound of hope, I clench my teeth tight and use what little energy I have to push the darkness back into the depths of my soul. The claws from the wicked inside of me press on, fighting back ferociously with undying hunger, but this time I refuse to give in. Not now. Not ever.
The muscles throughout my body ache from holding back for so long. I urge myself to scream out the only words that can end this nightmare. The Light comes alive as if readying itself to obey, and I can feel it rising through me as I scream.
“WITH THE LIGHT I SEND THEE, FOREVER INTO THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS!”
When the words ring out, pure and true, the sound of them is so powerful an echo follows.
“NO!” Raimi cries, reaching as if he could stop the world from exploding around him.
But it’s already begun.
blinding light encases the room. The pain inside my chest retreats and I regain a little strength, enough to push myself forward. Screams and hisses surround me as I shove myself off the altar and reach for Koren. Her fingertips touch mine, grasping for me to take hold. I pull her into me, crouching behind the marble altar. With her in my arms, I protect her from the monstrous sounds swarming around us. A powerful force like that of a tornado barrels into the room, ripping the evil from the atmosphere.
It seems as if it’ll never end. We press against each other tight, all our weight sinking to the floor. The power of the chaos rips the candles from the walls, taking with it every object in its wake. And in those last moments, I fear Koren and I will be taken along with it, sucked into the very thing powerful enough to banish the Dark Priest. When I start to believe this will be our fate, all goes silent.
The storm fades out, slipping into the crevices along the walls and retreating back to wherever it came from. When the last of it is gone, only our heavy breaths can be heard. I refuse to let go, to open my eyes, afraid that when they open, she will be gone. But the shaking body in my arms tells me this isn’t so.
I open my eyes to find her bewildered gaze staring back at me.
“What was that?” she says.
“I wish I knew.”
“You can come out now.” A strange voice beckons from behind the altar.
We look to each other as if silently asking if it’s safe.
Sensing our hesitation, another voice says, “It’s okay, Aiden.”
Now that voice I know. I nod my head to assure her, standing first to offer my hand. Koren pauses for a second before accepting. On our feet, we face the two figures that await us.
Father Martin looks relieved, but it doesn’t take long for confusion to set in. He peers down at my hand holding Koren’s, a blank stare crossing his face.
“What is it?” I ask, looking from Koren and back to him.
“He can’t see her,” the man standing beside him says.
“You can’t?”
I turn to her to be sure she’s there. That she’s not my imagination. She’s there alright. The same Koren I knew before she became a Bleeder. Her appearance is renewed somehow, like the hold Raimi held over her disappeared along with him. If only that meant she was alive again, but she and I both know he never intended to bring her back, or her parents.
“She’s safe, for now,” the man says. His grin softens the roughness of his battle-worn face. With his hand, he wipes away the sweat along his brow, drawing me to the appearance of his grayish-blue eyes. His eyes exactly like mine.
We follow the men up the steps in silence, each of us drained and uneasy about the events of the night. A sense of relief seems to linger in the air, faint and restless.
There’s no way of knowing how many Mortal Gateways were used to resurrect the Order. I can’t be certain that many of us exist. But I do know of Julie. I hope she hasn’t fallen victim to the Dark Priest’s scheme. If Father Martin hasn’t noticed anything strange about her yet, then perhaps she’s safe from this madness. At least for now.
Koren holds my hand, one step ahead of me. No pulse greets me from the base of her wrist. No warmth graces my skin as her fingers entangle themselves with mine. I wish so badly that the lifeless hand in mine was anything but; holding onto her in this moment means everything.
Father Martin’s study is different somehow as we enter. The church walls vibrate with a lightness, as if they too are relieved to be free, released from the energy poisoning it all this time. Each of us takes a second to let it sink in, shuffling tightly into the room as this stranger with gray eyes shuts the secret door with finality, the lock slamming into place.
He gives Father Martin a nod and then glances back at Koren and me, eyeing our embrace. Father Martin shuffles about behind me, opening the door to the chamber.
“We’ll leave you two to speak… alone,” Father Martin says, speaking on behalf of Koren, who doesn’t exactly look too pleased.
He must realize she’s still here. My hand wrapped in her invisible grip makes that obvious enough. Her hand crushes tighter on mine, as if afraid that the moment she walks out that door, she’ll never see me again.
“It’s okay,” I assure her. “I won’t be long.”
Sheepishly, she nods, looking from me to the stranger in front of us. The man smiles, just barely. Koren nods again in Father Martin’s direction, despite knowing he can’t see her. She leaves a slight pressure against my fingers as she squeezes them, before following his lead toward the hall.
With a low squeak of the hinges, the door shuts behind me.
I’m left alone, standing with a man I’ve only seen in pictures. He looks the same but different all at once, the images of his face taken long before I could even speak. Seeing him now ruffles the smallest of memories—memories covered with dust that have faded with time. They’re snippets that flash too quick for me to fully process, but they’re evidence, nonetheless, of a man who held me only a handful of times and spoke simple words I could never understand.
His face softens, though behind it I can still see the strength and power that comes with the truth of his identity. He’s my father, yes. But he’s a Man of Light through and through. Possibly one of the most powerful people I will ever encounter in my life, as far as Light is concerned. There are evils in this world, I know that now. How long will it be before I meet them again? Will he be there when the time comes?
I clear my throat, unsure of what to say first. At one time, I could have thought of a million things to say, but now… nothing.
He runs his fingers through his thick, wavy hair. It’s as if I’m watching myself, a reflection in a mirror, only older. His gray eyes search the room, killing time. I’m almost sure he’ll never break the uncomfortable silence.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” he says.
Nothing follows after, as if that were a sufficient thing to say after all these years.
The Gateway Through Which They Came Page 22
