by Linsey Hall
“What’s coming?” Roarke asked.
I studied the wall. “I don’t know.”
“I feel it.” Nix shuddered hard next to me. “Miserable.”
The icy fortress wall glowed blue right before a dozen figures stepped forward.
Phantoms!
Strange joy leapt in my heart, snuffing into ashes when I noticed the black, soulless pits that were their eyes. These Phantoms weren’t like me. They weren’t my kin—not people who I could talk to and learn about my past.
No, they were monsters. Full-blooded Phantoms who existed off the misery of others.
I was half Phantom. And that made all the difference.
“Run!” I stepped toward the monsters and raised my blade.
Roarke stepped up beside me. “Hell no.”
Slowly, they walked toward us. As if they had us trapped and had all the time in the world to enjoy the kill.
“You better do as she says, Roarke,” Nix muttered as she backed away from the Phantoms who approached. “She’s fought off more than this on her own. You can’t fight them. One touch and you’ll be crippled by the pain. There’s nothing you can do against them.”
Nix was right. We’d tried fighting them off together this summer. My friends’ weapons had done nothing to the Phantoms. Only my blade could touch them.
“Go!” I waved her toward the building we’d been heading for. “If the Phantoms get ahold of you guys, we’re screwed.”
“See ya!” Cass said. “You’ve got this.”
I so did. I’d fought off twice this many that past summer. But Roarke wasn’t following the others toward the building.
“Seriously, Roarke,” I said. “You’re a liability. Only a Phantom can hurt another Phantom. They’re full blooded Phantoms. If they touch you, it’ll be agony.”
They were almost on us. Only a dozen feet away.
“I’ll be fine.” The gray tornado of mist surrounded him as he shifted to his demon form. His magic filled the air with the scent of sandalwood that was rich against the cold, crisp breeze.
My gaze darted between him and the approaching Phantoms. They were dressed in clothes from all periods, so it was impossible to tell what era they’d come from. But every single one had that same ravenous black gaze.
It shouldn’t surprise me that my home was full of these things, but it made a prickle of fear race down my spine.
What other miseries did this place hide?
“Please, Roarke, go!” I stepped toward the Phantoms, my blade raised.
He said nothing. Just stepped up beside me. I spared him one last anguished glance, praying I could kill the Phantoms before they got to him, then raced toward my prey.
They crowded around me, drawn by…something. I didn’t know why they went for me and not Roarke, but I was grateful.
I lunged at the nearest one, a middle-aged man dressed like a farmer, and swiped out with my sword. It cut through his neck as if his blue flesh were made of butter, separating his head from his body. The thing tumbled off and bounced. I leapt aside and thrust my blade into the gut of a woman who reached for me with clawed hands.
For a moment, I almost hesitated.
Because being around them felt good. Just like it had last time.
I shuddered, hating that, and spun to face the next Phantom, removing its arm in an easy strike. Its black gaze darted to mine and guilt flared.
Was I killing my own kind?
What kind of monster was I?
From the corner of my eye, I saw three of the Phantoms split off, heading for my friends, who were nearly to the main entrance of the fortress. The evil hunger in the Phantoms’ gazes hardened my heart.
I’d chosen my family. Cass, Nix, and now Aidan. Maybe Roarke.
Either way, I wouldn’t let these monsters have them.
I fought with everything I had, taking out two more Phantoms, desperate to reach the ones who were heading for my friends.
But Roarke cut them off, reaching for them with his massive, clawed hands. Before I could scream at him not to touch them, he grabbed one and broke its neck.
I did a double take, my jaw slack.
How the hell had he gotten ahold of one? His touch should have sailed right through them. A phantom slammed into me from behind, locking its arms around me.
Shit!
I thrashed, trying to break free. To anyone else, it would seem like the Phantom was hugging me. But Phantoms fought by embracing their victims. Their touch ignited the magic that sent their prey into a mental tailspin of misery and pain, which the Phantoms fed off of. I could do it with my own touch, though I didn’t feed off another’s pain like the Phantoms did.
The Phantom’s grip slackened—he was probably surprised that I liked his touch. I used the chance to break free of his grip and spun around. My gaze caught my enemy’s right before I plunged my blade into his gut.
Guilt flared within me as I yanked the sword free. I thought I saw shock in his eyes, but that wasn’t possible. They were just dark holes.
“Behind you, Del!” Nix cried from the other side of the courtyard.
I clearly didn’t have time for an existential crisis.
I spun to face the two Phantoms who closed in on me. With a swipe of my sword, I took the head from one. The other got a grip on my arm, but I shoved my blade deep into his gut. He doubled over, and I yanked the steel free, gagging slightly.
Fighting normally didn’t bother me, but something about hurting the Phantoms—even though I knew they were evil—was making me queasy.
The transparent blue bodies were scattered around me and slowly disappearing. All were fallen. Roarke had taken out five.
“How the hell did you manage that?” I demanded.
His gray wings were flared wide at his back, and he glanced up, his gaze dark. “I’m the Warden of the Underworld. Phantoms are in my wheelhouse.”
“Did you know that before right now?”
He grinned, his teeth stark white in his dark face. “No.”
“Never turned away from a fight, huh?”
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
Not ever, I’d bet. “Let’s go.”
I turned and started toward the main house. My friends stood in the doorway. The white wolves followed me, but stopped about ten feet from the door.
“You leaving?” I asked them.
They gave me one last look, then turned and walked back toward the entrance to the compound.
I turned toward my friends. Cass nodded at the disappearing blue bodies of the Phantoms and asked, “Who the heck were they?”
“I don’t know. Weird relatives?” I said. Everyone else got to have an aunt who pinched their cheeks or an uncle who liked his rifles too much. Me? I got soul-sucking Phantoms.
“Well, your parents were loaded.” Nix stepped back and swept her arm into the main part of the house.
The breath whooshed out of me. It was the fanciest, most beautiful foyer I’d ever seen. The grim exterior of the fortress gave way to a mansion of incredible proportions. The interior was done entirely in shades of white, gray, and black, but somehow it didn’t feel as cold as it should. It was still chilly, but not terrible.
The main hall was the size of a football field, with glittering chandeliers hanging from the ceiling at regular intervals. Ice dripped from the crystals, making them sparkle even more in the dim sunlight that filtered in through the broken windows. The floor was a mosaic of beautiful stone tiles, and the walls were covered with artwork. Enchantments must’ve protected the paintings, because they were the only color in the room and the only things that hadn’t been coated by ice.
“This place is nuts,” I muttered.
“Recognize anything?” Nix asked.
“Nope.” My chest tightened with loss. I hadn’t thought about it much, but what I’d wanted to do was walk in and feel at home.
But of course I felt nothing. My only memories were of being locked in a tower with just Draka for company. So y
eah, fun childhood memories were probably not going to come crashing at me.
When my eyes started to prickle with tears, I looked immediately at Cass and Nix.
The tears dried right up.
I had family now. The best friends a girl could ask for. An amazing job and even a hot boyfriend-like dude in my life.
Whatever miserable memories this mausoleum held for me didn’t matter. They were gone, and that was in the past. My future was bright.
My gaze caught on one of the bright paintings on the wall.
Heck, maybe I could fence the art. Sell this place to make a creepy Haunted Mansion-themed ski resort.
There were positives here, damn it, and I was going to find them.
“You okay?” Cass murmured with a knowing gaze. She’d been through this, too, though it’d been different.
I smiled at her. “Yeah. We’re close to Draka. I can feel it.”
I hadn’t been sure if she’d be here, but this was good.
“Then let’s go.”
We made our way silently across the foyer, following my dragon sense. Aidan and Roarke flanked our little group, and while I appreciated the protective instincts, I wasn’t sure it was necessary. Not only could we three handle whatever came at us, this place felt empty and cold as the grave.
Not that that meant anything in the Kingdom of the Dead.
Because if I was Death in the Triumvirate and this place was full of Phantoms, I couldn’t think of anything else to call my home.
On the other side of the foyer, a pair of massive wooden doors stood closed. They gleamed dark and beautiful in the dim gray light.
Roarke stopped in front of them and turned to me. “Do you want me to open them?”
“No, but thank you. I have to do this.” Even though I didn’t think I wanted to, because the whole place gave me the creeps. How he’d sensed that, I had no idea.
He stepped aside and I approached, pressing my hands to the cold wood. I could feel everyone’s gazes as I pushed the doors open.
A whoosh of cold air rushed up from below, blowing me back a step. I coughed and blinked.
“Whoa.” Nix leaned through the doorway and peered down the stairs.
I looked too. A massive spiral staircase led down far, far into the ground. The thing had to be at least twenty feet across. A regimen of soldiers could troop up and down. The fact that they went down was weird, though. I wouldn’t have thought we were on the top floor.
“Some dungeon,” Cass muttered.
“I don’t think it is a dungeon.” I had no memories of this place, but it was far too nice to be a dungeon. “There are no stairs leading up and no other doors off this room, so the rest of the”—I had no idea what to call this place—“fortress must be downstairs.”
No one would ever call this place a house. It was a fortress, through and through.
I stepped down onto the first stair, then made my way silently into the chill below. My friends followed, Roarke at my side. I kept my blade gripped in my hand as we walked and maintained my Phantom form.
“Long way down,” Nix whispered.
“Yeah.” We had to have gone at least three stories, but I couldn’t say for sure. My skin prickled with awareness as we trod silently downward. “But we’re closer to Draka.”
Another large room spread out at the base of the stairs. It was high ceilinged and empty, with gray stone vaults above. Large doors broke up the wall on the far side. There were rugs on the floor where furniture may have been grouped once, but it was long gone. Though we were underground and there were no windows, the stone itself glowed with a pale light, enough to illuminate the large space.
“Enchanted stone?” Cass asked.
Aidan walked to the nearest wall and laid his hand on the faintly glowing stone. “No. Not enchanted by a supernatural, at least. I think the stone itself is magic.”
“Catalight,” Roarke said. “We have it in the Underworld.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” I said. Of course my Phantom father would have something like this. I didn’t know what exactly our relationship to the Underworld was, but it was weird.
“It should,” Roarke said. “This stuff shouldn’t be able to glow like this on Earth. I don’t know how it does.”
Unease prickled across my skin.
A crash sounded from another room. I stiffened, glancing at my friends. They were still as statues, listening, but we didn’t hear anything else.
Let’s go, I mouthed.
We crept across the stone floor silently. When I reached the door on the other end, I took a deep breath and eased it open. Again, the room within was large.
But there was a throne on the other side. A freaking throne made of silver and thorns. Beside it, Draka sat in her human form, bound with a heavy iron chain. The room was otherwise empty.
I gasped, then raced inside, hurrying toward her.
Her gaze darted up, meeting mine. Panic flared in her eyes. She threw out a hand as if to stop me. “No! Go back!”
Confusion ricocheted through me, but I raced ahead, desperate to get to her. She was alone. I could free her, and we could run for it.
In the middle of the room, electricity zapped through me, but I kept going, barely noticing that the light changed a bit on this side of the room. A half second later, demons spilled out from the walls. Dozens of them, coming right out of the stone. I skidded to a halt, raising my blade in front of me.
Where the hell had they been hiding?
Magic vibrated in the air. Concealment charm. But no one had felt it when we’d first stepped in the door—and we would’ve definitely felt something like this. There were demons of all species armed with all manner of weapons.
Cass and Nix screamed from behind me, rage and frustration sharp in their voices. Why weren’t they at my side?
As the horde of demons closed in on me, I glanced quickly behind to see my deirfiúr. They’d only made it halfway across the room and were beating their fists against an invisible barrier. Aidan had transformed into a griffon, but was trapped on that side, too. Roarke was drawing back his fist to try to slam through the barrier.
Shit.
Somehow, I’d gone through a portal.
“Run!” Draka screamed. “It’s a trap!”
Shit.
I turned back. There were at least two dozen demons, with more still coming. They headed straight for me. I called upon my ice magic, letting it fill me with its chill. I hurled a spear of ice at the nearest demon with enough force that it sailed straight through his abdomen and pierced the chest of another demon. They both dropped hard to the floor.
I created the icicles as fast as I could and threw them at any demon who neared.
A demon with transparent blue skin—one who looked almost like a Phantom except for his horns—threw a flaming ball of fire toward me. It sailed at my legs.
Instinctually, I lunged out of the way, even though it shouldn’t have been able to hurt me while I was in my Phantom form. Before I could conjure an icicle, the demon hurled another ball of blue flame at me.
I wasn’t quick enough this time. The fiery ball slammed into my upper thigh. Burning pain flared through me.
What the hell?!
It should have sailed right through me. But whatever species this demon was, its magic could affect me. Was it some kind of Phantom demon?
It maintained its distance as the other demons charged me. A tall demon neared, and I went corporeal long enough to plunge my blade into its huge stomach. As I was drawing the steel free, the Phantom demon hurled another fire bomb.
I wasn’t fast enough to dodge this one either. The flame hit my left knee. I stumbled, but righted myself just as a great crash sounded. Magic rippled through the air. A moment later, Roarke swept through the air beside me, picking up a demon who had jumped for me and hurling it against the wall.
Half the demons in the room stopped dead still at the sight of Roarke, now on their side of the barrier. I heard fearful wh
ispers of ‘the Warden’ before a dozen of them turned tail and ran, disappearing through the door on the far side of the room, behind Draka.
But there were still so many. And my burns were making me slow.
“Your friends can’t make it through the barrier!” Roarke yelled. “We’re outnumbered!”
He’d made it through because he was Warden of the Underworld, but they couldn’t cross. I stole a glance at them.
“Retreat!” Cass screamed, gesturing wildly. “There are too many!”
“No!” I couldn’t. Draka was still chained.
A big hand grabbed my shoulder and I spun. Before I could turn corporeal and thrust my blade, my demon attacker slammed his hand against my chest and delivered an electric shock that threw me through the air.
I crashed to my back, stunned.
Adrenaline kicked into high gear, and I blinked frantically to regain my vision. Before I could rise, the demon who’d attacked me leapt upon me. I threw him off me and charged up my ice power.
He fell to his side, and I leapt on him, sending a bolt of ice straight into his chest. I had a split second’s thought that I should steal his power, but I shoved it away and leapt back.
It might have been stupid to let that deadly power go to waste when I could have made it my own, but I couldn’t risk it. What side effects would come with it? What if I couldn’t control those?
Fear made me back off, unwilling to take the power.
“Get out of there!” Cass screamed.
I spun to face my next attacker, but my burned legs made me awkward and slow. In the air, Roarke tore the head off a demon, then met my gaze.
More demons were appearing. We were holding off the ones nearest to us, but there were so many. Nearly forty now.
“We can’t fight them all,” Roarke yelled. He grabbed a demon by one massive horn and threw him away from me.
“Go!” Draka screamed.
We were so outnumbered.
I gave her one last agonized glance. “We’ll come back!”
Before I could turn, a massive demon grabbed me around the waist and heaved me over his shoulder. An enraged shriek escaped me as I stabbed him in the lower back.
Before he could collapse and take me to the ground with him, Roarke grabbed me, sweeping me up in his arms. He hurtled toward the barrier, powerful wings keeping us above the heads of the demons, who roared their rage and followed.
