Unholy Spirit (The Necromancer's Daughter Book 3)

by Genevra Black

  When Edie looked back at the edge of the roof, Adam was already gone.

  The Coveter diverged from its path, searching far to the left, but they made a beeline for the tower ahead. They crossed the distance as quickly as they could, but as the minutes turned into what felt like hours, the Seat of the Master only seemed a little closer. Edie realized just how massive the structure must be. Big enough that the Coveters pacing near it looked like normal-sized people next to a normal-sized tower.

  The thought made her head spin. She tried to focus on the shadows instead.

  By the time they were close enough to see the base of the Seat, it was filling their vision, stretching on forever either way, more like a wall than a building. Edie's eyes adjusted, tuning out the pulsing shadows, and she noticed that the wall wasn't black as she'd assumed but a very dark, very deep, shimmering blue.

  Around the tower’s perimeter was a low wall made of white stone, though as the group cautiously approached, Edie realized it wasn’t stone but bones—not any identifiable as human, warped and sharp and locked around each other, but bones nonetheless.

  She glanced from side to side. The only Coveters she could see were far in the distance. No one guarded the enormous open archway leading into the tower, so she signaled the others before shadow jumping to the other side of the bone wall.

  They joined her moments later, peering through the archway. A long hall of the same dark material as the outside of the building greeted them, looming and completely unornamented.

  At first, it seemed as though they would be able to enter without any problems. Then, as Edie stepped over the threshold, a peculiar energy hummed through the structure. A deep, echoing sound like a whale's call reverberated around them, and the wall rippled.

  A ghostly feeling, rather than an actual voice, skimmed over her soul: Intruders.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Intruders.

  Adam shook as the voice whispered through his body, his ears clutching though it wasn't a sound he could hear. Two words came to mind: Fuck. That.

  With a faint wet sound, a figure emerged from the tower wall, clawing its way into the open air. It was vaguely humanoid, though its bottom half was engulfed in smoke, and its body was the same shimmering dark blue as the building. It wheeled around in a daze for a moment, getting its bearings.

  Then it threw its head back and shrieked, its featureless face tearing open to form a sharp-toothed, dripping mouth.

  A few feet in front of him, Edie had already summoned blue magic in her hands, and she fired a blast at the creature. It didn't have much effect beyond partially dissolving the creature’s right arm, and before their eyes, five more of those things spilled out of the wall after the first one.

  That almost-voice whispered across Adam's soul again: Bring them to me.

  Nope. Whatever was waiting for them, he didn't want to meet it. Another azure spell roared up Edie's arm, her dark gray eyes tinting the same color; beside her, Satara raised her shield just in time for one of the creatures to glance off it and run into her spear.

  Adam looked down at himself, armed only with the Genesis. This was bound to go well.

  Without warning, Mikey winked into existence behind him, scared for the first time since they'd found him. "Don't let those things get near me!"

  There was no time for Adam to react before one was rushing their way. He was paralyzed as it charged. No time to summon a shadow copy to pull it back, Edie and Satara too occupied to help, hands full—

  It was upon them the next second, shrieking, its long, dark claws raised to maul him. No time—

  Reflexively, Adam gripped the Genesis by the neck, flipping it. Then, with a shout, he swung like a batter going for a homerun, cracking the creature across the face with the body of the guitar.

  As the thing crumpled to the ground, relief surged through him, followed quickly by panic when he realized he'd just full-force beamed something with his thousand-dollar Ibanez.

  Quickly, he gathered the Genesis to his chest again, expecting it to fall apart in his hands. But when he looked, it was perfectly intact—not even a scuff where it had made contact. A quick strum confirmed that it was working as intended, too.

  How could that even be possible?

  Before he could think too deeply about it, Edie’s voice came: "Adam!" Blue magic coiled around her as she summoned more death to fight the multiplying creatures.

  His body tensed, and he secured the guitar's strap over his shoulder again. With a glance to the side and the briefest of thoughts—Could use some help, now—a shadow fluttered from him, dashing to take shape behind one of the creatures just as it had behind Brian. With a quick movement, the silhouette caught it in a headlock, but the creature was flexible, almost liquid, and slid from its grasp.

  With a curse, Adam held out a hand, trying to summon the blue magic that burst from Edie, but he stopped short. The explosion he’d inflicted on Scarlet had been brutal. If he let loose now, he might kill everyone in a ten-foot radius, not just his enemies.

  "Adam!" came Edie’s exasperated voice again. She and Satara were cutting through the creatures quickly, but more kept coming, pouring from the wall. Fifteen, now, instead of six.

  "I'm— I can’t!” he snapped.

  "Use the Genesis!" she snapped back as she dodged swinging blue claws. With a grunt, she overtook the creature, dissolving its head with a blast of magic. "I don’t particularly feel like dying today!”

  The Genesis. What had Cal called it? A focus. Adam had wielded magical foci in more video games than he could count; he might have been able to fumble his way through on instinct alone. But a guitar was no wizard's staff.

  Unless...

  He'd always thought the feeling he got when he played was universal. That deep rhythm, like a dark river, flowing just beneath his fingertips. That electricity that built up and needed release, needed a driving melody, aggressive lyrics. He had thought that was just the feeling of music.

  But it was something more, wasn't it? Somewhere deep down, he already knew. When he'd played on the roof, looking for Elle, it had become obvious.

  And anyway, what was an adventuring party without a Bard?

  He slid his pick across the strings, drawing a metallic growl from them just as though the guitar was plugged into an amp. A few of the Seat's creatures had become interested in him and Mikey and were beginning to breach Satara and Edie's defenses. As they snarled and slipped through, lurching forward, Adam positioned his fingers and began to play.

  The riff was quick and complicated, something from one of DB’s earlier albums. He wasn't sure why it had come to mind first, but as he hit each note, he could feel the buzzing power leaving him and flowing into the Genesis. He could almost see it pooling in the center of the body, racing up and down his strings, a seething purple against the black of the guitar.

  A few shadows fluttered from him, slipping into the center of the fight before springing into full-sized silhouettes. The Seat's creatures glided toward him, teeth and claws ready, and the power peaked in his hands. With a solid stroke down the middle, that power finally took form, arcing in a sideways slash of glittering black and violet magic.

  The magic hit the creatures like a blade, slicing them cleanly in half. They dropped to the ground, but there was no time for Adam to stop and celebrate—he found he could only carry the melody, almost entranced, unable to keep his fingers from dancing along the neck of the Genesis.

  Before him, his silhouettes had grown more solid, and they lashed out with fists and whips of darkness, assailing the creatures without Adam even having to think about it. The damage they did was trivial, but they provided a good distraction, and Satara and Edie began plowing through the opposition.

  To his side, Adam heard a ghostly shriek and turned to see that more creatures had formed from the wall behind him. A second later, one lashed out, and he was knocked on his ass with a grunt.

  He pushed through the daze to drag himself to his feet, s
taggering as he caught hold of the Genesis again. With a keening note, a wave of smoke knocked his assailant back, putting distance between them again.

  He had to keep playing. As long as he had his flow, he could call on the magic without losing control and hurting his friends.

  So the melody continued, slower now but no less intense; shadows wavered from the pickups, the guitar barely able to hold the chaotic ocean of magic raging inside. The power buzzed like amp feedback. With a few hard, decisive chords, he released it, and blasts of darkness hit the creatures, stopping them mid-charge.

  And then his fingers stilled. The creatures were all dead, but Mikey was nowhere to be seen. As Adam turned to look for him, he spotted something in the distance.

  A tinny whine resounded, ringing in his ears. The same second he registered what he was seeing, the earth beneath them began to shake, and he cried out.

  A Coveter was sprinting toward them, the white light in its skull blazing. Another almost-voice, this time more of a punch than a whisper: Intruders!

  The massive skeleton was still a ways away, but with such a large stride, it'd be on them in seconds, and if they ran through the open archway yawning before them, it would only follow them in. Adam slung the Genesis over his shoulder and searched frantically for somewhere to run.

  "Hey, over here!"

  He turned toward Mikey's voice and saw that the specter was hovering just over the ground, beginning to crawl into the Seat of the Master. For a moment, he thought he was melding with it—but Edie and Satara soon followed his lead, and Adam realized they had found a passage.

  He booked it over, the ground shaking so hard he almost lost his footing. A roar split his ears as he dove into the passage and clawed deeper into the darkness.

  When he looked back, his eyes were blasted with what felt like a searchlight. It took him a moment to realize the Coveter had reached them and was peeking through the small hole, watching their retreat.

  His stomach leapt. After a few moments, the thing gave up with a mournful roar, and the earth began to tremble again, quickly. He could only hope it wasn't running to find backup. But with their luck…

  As Adam reached forward to pull himself deeper, he caught something—an ankle—and he heard Satara yelp a few feet in front of him. Relief filled his chest. Even though it was dark as the void in here, they were still physical. They all still existed.

  It was a cramped shaft, though. And it felt like an hour passed before they finally saw a hazy, cold light at the end of it. Ahead, Adam could finally make out the shuffling forms his friends.

  "A light might've been nice, Mike," he called ahead.

  "Sorry, I quit smoking!" the ghost called back.

  "I meant from your body, you..." Adam trailed off, wincing from the ache in his knees. How long had they been crawling like this? He was getting a little too old for it.

  The light got brighter and brighter until they finally reached the end of the shaft, and he watched as the backlit forms of Edie and Satara straightened into a larger room. With some effort, he straightened, too, thankful to be on his feet again.

  When he took in the chamber before him, however, he almost wanted to dive back in.

  The room was large, cavernous, packed with what looked like gibbets made of rough-hewn, sharp stone. Ashen figures filled most of them. In the center, an impossibly large spiral ramp extended for miles upward. It was wide enough that the Coveters would have been able to ascend it comfortably, and it looped around what looked like a ... he wasn't sure what the hell to call it. A cylindrical tower of glass, filled with blazing blue-purple light, a dense white glow in the center.

  It hummed evenly, loudly, like an engine. Some kind of power source?

  Adam realized his jaw had dropped, and he quickly closed his mouth, looking to the others. There must be millions of cages. If Elle wasn't in one of them, where else could she be? "What now?"

  The air around Edie shimmered, and that asshole priest's voice came from her circlet: "Elle's spirit probably left residual energy in your guitar, like I said, when she passed through it. Try tuning into the signal now."

  It wouldn't be a problem if you had been more careful in the first fucking place, Adam thought, though he said nothing, simply sliding the Genesis across his chest.

  When Elle had been inside of it, holding it had felt different than usual. It had honestly felt like holding her, like he had done when she was a kid, like he sometimes still did when she needed her dad. The thought made his eyes heat with sorrow, but he suppressed the feeling, concentrating on the Genesis. Elle's energy was still there, vaguely: a breath of a memory, a faint mark left by her transition.

  If he let it, it seemed to tug him: a stronger vibration high to his left. He glanced upward, then back at the others. "She's here."

  As they took to the ramp, shadow jumping or flying where they could, Adam didn't take his eyes off where the energy was tugging him. The sound of the engine in the center of the room, the feeling of his hairs standing on end, the adrenaline screaming at him that the Coveters were coming—he tuned it all out, focusing only on Elle. He was convinced he could almost hear her now.

  The light in the engine flared slightly brighter, enough that he noticed and almost looked. Intruders. It was the same almost-voice from earlier.

  "How far is it?" Edie called from behind him. "I don't think we're gonna be alone for long."

  He grumbled an affirmative, heart lifting as they reached a bridge connecting the ramp to a block of cages. The bridge wasn't any different from the dozens they had already passed, but somehow, he knew this was the one. He broke into a sprint across it, jumping over the massive chains that crisscrossed the floor.

  His feet led him onward, eyes scanning the ashen figures in the cages until they finally fell on a familiar one.

  Practically throwing himself against the bars of the cage, he shouted, "Ellie!"

  Her form—sitting, curled up—was desaturated much like Mikey's, the vibrant pink of her sweater barely tinted, but when she looked up, there was no mistaking that sweet face. His girl. His baby.

  "Dad?" She almost never called him that. Her voice broke his heart. Parched, hopeless, dead.

  "It's me. I'm here." He went to close his fists around the bars but drew back quickly with a hiss. When he looked down, blood dripped from his palms. Apparently, they were as sharp as they looked.

  Elle’s spirit stood and glided to the cage door, dark eyes touching each of the forms beside him. "You came!”

  “Of course I did.”

  “But … how? How did you get here? How did you know where I was?" She shook her head. "Never mind, just get me out!"

  She didn't have to ask twice. But how they would get her out was another problem altogether. As he searched the cage, careful not to cut himself this time, he couldn't seem to find a lock.

  "Here, try this." Satara stepped forward with her spear and slid the silver shaft behind one of the rough stone bars, motioning for Adam to hold the other end.

  Together, they pried it forward, trying to crack the stone open, but after a few seconds, it became clear that the spear would give before the cage did. Despite its sharpness, the stone wasn't thin or brittle.

  With a huff, Satara pulled it out and instead wedged the head between the door and the frame, trying to pry it open.

  As she worked, Elle kept close to the door, her face filled with worry. "Where am I, anyway? I thought I was in the city, but everything looked weird, and then there was this huge skeleton guy..."

  "You're in the Wending," Edie said over Adam's shoulder.

  Elle's eyes opened wider. "I died and went to Wendy's?"

  Mikey gaped, his face lighting up. "Oh, man, I've been here for ten years and I didn't know there was a Wendy's!"

  Adam loosed a half-mad laugh. Maybe Elle and Cal would get along.

  Satara only pried for a few moments before it became obvious there was no way to break the door. She lowered her spear, brows drawn together, a
nd looked at Elle. "Is there any key to open this? Have you seen them open?"

  "Sometimes the skeletons come and take people or whatever, but I've never seen what they do. I—"

  Without warning, a surge of energy cut her off. The engine behind them hummed, and blue power skated across the floor in a grid, slithering into each of the cells with lightning quickness. It curled around her, shocking her with something like electricity. Her body shook, and a million cries rose with hers as she fell to her knees.

  "Elle!" Adam bent down, reaching for her only to cut his hands again. He pulled back with a growl—a noise he could hardly believe had come from him—and glared over his shoulder at the others.

  Satara and Mikey were watching Elle with concern, but Edie had turned. Her hair blew around her head in a light breeze as she stared at the power source in the center of the room.

  Whatever that thing was, it had shocked not just Elle but every spirit trapped in this place. It had had access to every cell.

  Given everything they had learned so far, Adam suspected that connection went both ways. It could administer a shock, and it could take their energy to keep itself running. It wasn't a huge leap to assume it could lock and unlock cells, too.

  Somewhere far away but not nearly far enough, he could hear the whines of several Coveters echoing. They were inside the building, coming closer. Adam rose and took the Genesis into his hands, gliding forward almost without realizing what he was doing.

  Basile's voice shimmered into existence: "You better not be doing what I think you are, Frankenstein! You have no idea what that thing is or what it controls. You could bring the whole damn place down around you."

  The priest was right. But it was draining these souls. Millions of people. It had hurt Elle.

  If the only way to end this and get her home was to destroy it, he'd take the risk. Would they?

  He looked back at Edie and Satara. Their eyes practically glowed with apprehension. He could see Edie's jaw working as she ground her teeth. But neither of them reached out to stop him.