by Lily Webb
My heart dropped into my stomach and the balloon of panic in my chest popped simultaneously. “What happened to them when the gargoyles arrested you?”
Heath turned to Mueller, who I’d completely forgotten was standing there. “That’s a good question. Chief Mueller, do you know what became of the necklace and bracelet you took from me upon my check-in at your lovely establishment?”
“They’re upstairs in the evidence room, along with your wand and all the rest of your belongings. You can have them back when and if all this gets sorted out by the Court.”
His words echoed in my ears, terrifying and torturous. Two of Merlin’s artifacts, some of the most powerful objects known to the entire magical universe, sat unprotected in the MGPD’s evidence room while Heath’s murderous, possibly undead brother wandered the streets in search of them for reasons none of us fully understood.
“Hendrik knows the artifacts are here, doesn’t he?”
Heath opened his mouth to answer, but a thunderous sound interrupted him as it rumbled through the walls, shaking dirt and debris from the ceiling. The candles hanging overhead flickered, and a frigid gust of air billowed down the stairs, lifting my robes and chilling me to the bone.
Heath’s gaze locked on mine, and for the first time in my life, I saw pure fear swirling in his blue eyes like a storm brewing off the coast. “He does, and he’s coming for them.”
Chapter Thirteen
I whirled on Mueller. “Let Heath out. Right now.”
Mueller burst out laughing, a sound like a mocking bark. “You’re joking, right? I know you’re the Head Witch, Zoe, but I can’t do that. Not even for you.”
“It’s not for me. It’s for everyone in Moon Grove. If you don’t let him out, we’re all in serious trouble. I’m not exaggerating, Mueller.”
He glanced from Heath to me, and I saw the panic and confusion playing out in his expression.
“She’s telling the truth, Mueller. Like it or not, my brother is coming for me and the artifacts. Unless you want to die here, I suggest you open that door.”
Though he looked like he would’ve rather run, Mueller fumbled for the overloaded ring attached to his belt loop and nearly dropped it while trying to insert the key. A series of clicks followed as each of the two dozen or more magical locks opened.
The door hitched and Mueller darted inside to unlock the restraints around Heath’s wrists with me hot on his heels. When he was free, Heath massaged the red, raw skin the cuffs had left behind and winced as Mueller forced himself under Heath’s arm to help him stand.
I tried to do the same, but Heath stopped me. “No, you shouldn’t be lifting dead weight like me right now. Besides, we might need your magical skills in a moment, so I want your hands free.”
The thought of facing Hendrik — or whatever his dark magic had turned him into — made my heart flit around in my chest like a caged, panicked bird, but Heath was right.
I pulled my wand from my robes. “We have to get Heath to his wand and the artifacts.” Mueller nodded, and with a great heave, he hoisted Heath to his feet while I headed for the stairs in front of them.
“Zoe, ma chérie, I can smell the fear on you,” Valentine called from the slit in his cell door as I passed. “As intoxicating as it is, it’s also contagious. Surely you don’t mean to leave the rest of us here to face our fates, do you?”
I’d forgotten there were other prisoners, but I couldn’t worry about them right now. “You’ll be fine right where you are no matter what happens, Valentine,” I shouted back and powered on to the first of the many steps between us and the artifacts — but as soon as my foot touched stone, the magically suspended candles lining the ceiling guttered, and darkness swallowed us.
“Are you sure about that? Having the help of someone who could see in such darkness would be useful in a situation like this, don’t you think?” Valentine asked, and though I couldn’t see him thanks to the darkness, I felt him smirking as he spoke.
“He’s not wrong,” Heath whispered.
“No way! I’m not about to let a murderous vampire out in the dark with us right now.”
“He’s in full silver chains, Zoe, and he’s muzzled. He couldn’t hurt us even if he wanted, and something tells me we’ll need all the help we can muster momentarily.”
“Ah, merci, Monsieur Highmore. You’ve always had such a forgiving heart,” Valentine cooed. When his bloody eyes appeared like rubies in the darkness, I couldn’t suppress the shudder that ripped through me.
“Don’t thank me too soon, Valentine. You’re going right back in there when this is all over. Let him out, Mueller.”
“Heath, I really don’t think that’s such a good idea. What if—”
“Give him some light, Zoe,” Heath interrupted.
I knew better than to argue further, so I pointed my wand at Valentine’s cell door. “Lumino,” I muttered, and light spilled from its tip, making me wince at its sudden brightness.
Mueller shot one last resentful glare at Heath. “You’d better not make me regret this,” he said and moved to the cell door and unlocked the two doors separating Valentine from us.
When both swung away, I saw Valentine standing with his hands chained. Locked, silver contraptions covered both his hands to keep him from slashing anyone with his claws, and a grated mask covered his face and mouth, which allowed him to breathe while rendering his fangs useless. They’d even chained his legs together with silver; clearly, whoever had put Valentine in prison didn’t want him to leave.
While I still recognized him as the vampire who’d tried to kill me in Moon Grove’s graveyard nearly a year ago, he looked much worse for the wear — and judging from his withered figure, I didn’t understand how he’d be able to help us at all, but I had to trust Heath. He knew Hendrik better than anyone.
“Kill your wand’s light, Zoe. We don’t want to give ourselves away,” Heath said.
“Right. Obscuro,” I whispered and strained my eyes to see as darkness consumed us again.
“To the front of the line, Valentine,” Heath ordered, and Valentine shuffled out of his cell in a chorus of clinking chains.
“Monsieur Highmore, in case we’re attacked, I’d feel much more comfortable if I had use of my hands.”
Heath sighed. “I don’t like it, but it’s probably not the worst idea. Uncuff him, Mueller.”
“You’ve really lost your mind down here, haven’t you?” Mueller hissed.
“Now’s not the time for arguing. Do it,” Heath ordered, and I listened with bated breath as Mueller fumbled in the dark to remove Valentine’s cuffs.
The cuffs clattered to the ground and Valentine sighed. “Ah, merci. That’s much better,” he said and shuffled past me to the foot of the stairs. Clinking chains suggested he’d crouched down, probably to see further up the staircase.
“What do you see?” I whispered from a safe distance away.
“Nothing, but someone or something is definitely here. I smell them,” he answered, and my breath flooded out of my lungs.
“Then you’d better lead the way,” I said and reached for the wall to keep myself steady while we climbed. The darkness seemed to stretch on forever, with nothing to keep us company but the clinking of Valentine’s chains.
Finally, we reached the door at the top of the stairs. Despite the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that lined the MGPD and the moon I knew had to be shining outside, the room was so dark I couldn’t see my hand held out in front of me.
“This way,” Mueller said as he carefully maneuvered Heath past me and Valentine. I knew from my time in the station earlier in the week that the evidence room was directly across from the stairway to the cells, so I followed them blindly and hoped my memories of the layout were correct.
“Wait!” Valentine hissed over the sound of Mueller’s keys jangling as Mueller reached for the door handle. “Something’s in that room.”
I froze, my entire body on high alert, and strained to listen. A rustling s
ound, not unlike the one I’d heard in Wesley’s office, slithered out from the crack in the open door to the evidence room, causing my heart to rocket up into my throat.
I tightened my grip on my wand and hoped to Lilith that the sweat collecting on my palms wouldn’t be the thing to get us all killed.
“I know you’re out there. Please, come on in. I swear I won’t bite,” a voice I recognized but couldn’t place called from inside the evidence room. The silent darkness surrounding us seemed to crackle with a surge of fresh electricity at the words, and I worried I might have a panic attack.
The twins did flips in my stomach like they were trying desperately to get away from the threat on the other side of the door, and I couldn’t blame them. Given the choice, I would’ve run as far and fast from the MGPD as my sore, swollen legs could carry me — but I didn’t have a choice.
I swallowed my heart back into place and shoved the door all the way open. It clattered against the wall behind it, and I scanned the darkness inside with all my senses on edge. A pair of hellfire-red eyes blinked in the center of the darkness, and dread crashed into me in a crushing wave like I’d been tossed overboard at sea.
“It’s been a long time, Heath, but I’m glad to see you’ve brought some friends to our big family reunion,” the disembodied voice said.
“Hendrik…” Heath whispered, confirming my worst fear. “You could at least have the courage to show us your face — assuming you still have one.”
Hendrik’s evil eyes closed, and he laughed, deep and throaty, sending chills across every inch of my body. “I doubt you’ll like what you see, but if you insist.” He snapped his fingers, and the room flashed to light, revealing a horrific sight.
The mutated body of Tate Kane stood before us, but had it not been for his salt-and-pepper hair and crisp suit, he would’ve been unrecognizable. Large, purple and blue boils covered his exposed skin like he’d caught the plague, and his eyes flamed like coals excavated from the very fires of hell.
“As you can see, my host isn’t holding up as well as I would’ve liked, despite its incredible magical power,” Tate — or Hendrik, I wasn’t sure which — said as he held out a grotesque, pox-covered hand to examine it.
To my horror, the bracelet Heath had fashioned to hold the gem of Merlin’s Mind sparkled on Tate’s wrist, and the immortality-granting necklace of Merlin’s Heart dangled from his neck.
Heath stumbled forward, and I stayed close to him with my wand held tight. “What happened to you, brother?” Heath muttered. “Where have you been, and what have you done?”
Hendrik scoffed and jabbed a bloated, corrupted finger at Heath. “Save your pity, Heath. I neither need nor want it. My time in this body is limited, and I’d prefer not to waste what I have left on something so meaningless. Now, where is the third artifact? I know you have it.”
The third artifact? As far as I knew, Heath only had two — both of which Hendrik had already stolen.
“Let me help you, Hendrik. Things don’t have to end this way,” Heath said.
Hendrik chuckled. “Even if I wanted your help, I’m far past that point. The only thing that can save me now is Merlin’s Wand. I’d prefer not to kill you for it, but if you’re going to make me, I will.”
Tate’s body lunged at Heath, and I instinctively moved to intercept the attack — but a whooshing blur beat me to the punch. Hendrik and Valentine slammed to the floor and crashed into one of the many shelves lining the room, sending dangerous objects raining down on us all.
Mueller stood in front of Heath and I, blocking us from danger as Valentine and Hendrik continued fighting. Valentine moved so quickly I only caught brief glimpses of his hands slashing through the air at Tate’s body and face — and despite my experience on the receiving end of the vampire’s assault, gratitude for his abilities flooded me. If he lived through this, I vowed to make sure his sentence got reduced; it would be the least we could do to repay him for saving Heath.
But my relief twisted into a knot of dread when I saw Tate desperately reaching for a wooden stake that’d fallen from a shelf. “No! Valentine, watch out!” I screamed, and without thinking, thrust my wand in the stake's direction. “Devoco!”
The sharpened piece of wood soared through the air into my free hand, and I whirled on my heel to hurl the stake across the hall and down the stairs to the cells.
I spun back to Mueller. “Where’s Heath’s wand? He needs it, now!”
“More than you know,” Heath agreed. “It’s the only thing that can end this.”
“It’s locked up in a safe with the other wands we’ve confiscated.”
The knot of dread in my stomach unfurled, spreading out through the rest of my body like tentacles. “Which is where?”
Mueller’s face crumpled, and he pointed beyond the blur that was Tate and Valentine.
“Great, just great. Get Heath over there, fast! I’ll cover you!” I shouted, and though Mueller looked like I’d just sentenced him to death, he hoisted Heath up on his shoulder and charged forward as quickly as he could.
The blurred ball of motion that was Tate and Valentine rocketed through the air in the opposite direction, and I seized the opportunity to usher Mueller and Heath through the mess of things that’d fallen, stepping carefully over everything to keep from falling myself.
Mueller limped along toward the back of the room with Heath dangling from his shoulder and me right behind them. We took a sharp left turn and entered a long, narrow walkway between rows of shelves holding confiscated items and evidence. Though it was difficult to tell from as far as we stood, I could’ve sworn I spotted a small safe at the very end of the row.
“Go, run!” I shouted and shoved Mueller’s back to encourage him. We moved as quickly as we could, and I kept my wand pointed over my shoulder, ready to let loose with whatever spell I needed. With every snarl or crash from the continuing fight between Valentine and Tate, I jolted and begged my legs to carry me faster to the safe.
When Mueller skidded to a sudden halt, I crashed into him and would’ve fallen right on my backside if I hadn’t used a nearby shelf to break the fall. “What’s wrong? Why’d you stop?”
Mueller said nothing, just stared straight ahead, so I maneuvered through the narrow space between him and the shelving and came face-to-face with a hissing, fire-eyed shadow curled up like a snake in front of the safe — proving that Hendrik really could be in more than one place at a time.
As the shadow snake uncoiled and began slithering forward, the light in the room extinguished as suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch, blinding me. Without thinking twice, I stabbed my wand through the air in the shadow's direction.
“Obstupefacio!” I shouted and my eyes closed themselves when the spell’s brightness rocketed from my wand’s tip like an emergency flare at sea. I re-opened my eyes, expecting to see the shadow paralyzed on the ground between me and the safe, but found its evil, burning eyes zigzagging faster through the darkness toward us.
“It missed! Move, don’t let it touch you!” Heath shouted and jumped off Mueller’s shoulder just as the shadow lunged. I ducked and screamed as it zipped overhead, and Heath tumbled into a shelf, sending it crashing to the ground. Mueller fell against the shelf on the opposite side, and the sound of more shelves falling like dominos boomed throughout the room.
“Get to the safe, don’t worry about anything else! I’ll stop the snake, just get to the safe!” I screamed and stood to find the shadow’s haunting pair of eyes — but I didn’t see them anywhere.
“Lumino!” I shouted desperately and caught my breath when a narrow beam of light shot from the tip of my wand and sliced through the suffocating darkness. I waved it in front of me, frantically searching for any sign of the shadow snake, but it seemed to have vanished, so I started backing slowly down the row toward Mueller, Heath, and the safe.
An otherworldly shriek tore through the air, nearly rupturing my eardrums as I stumbled blindly backward, and though I couldn’
t see what caused the scream, I knew it was Valentine I’d heard.
“Valentine!” I shouted but got no response.
“We need light, Zoe!” Mueller called, pulling me back into the horror of the reality we’d found ourselves in, and though I worried I’d leave myself exposed, I turned and hobbled the rest of the way down the row to where Mueller and Heath kneeled in front of the safe.
“Make it quick,” I said and held my wand tip over the safe’s face so Mueller could see enough to unlock it. He fumbled with the dial as he tried to turn it to the correct combination. “Are you done yet? Hurry!”
“Just another second,” Mueller begged as he spun the dial one last time and the safe breathed a sigh as it popped open. Heath reached inside and pulled out a wand that sparked at his touch.
Relieved, I turned to cast my wand’s light — and screamed when I saw Tate’s diseased face staring back at me with Hendrik’s evil, burning eyes.
Chapter Fourteen
“Merlin’s Wand,” Hendrik breathed in awe, and against my better judgment I followed his gaze to the unremarkable strip of wood Heath clutched in his right hand. Did that mean Heath had had the third artifact all along? He’d said the safest place to keep them was on himself.
If that was true, I couldn’t let Hendrik anywhere near it. On a whim, I thrust my wand in his face, hoping the light would blind him. A hellish shriek erupted from Tate and he convulsed, and I watched in horror as a ball of shadows swirled at the back of his mouth.
“Run!” I shouted, but there wasn’t anywhere for us to go. Tate blocked the only way out of the aisle, and I realized with dread that two more pairs of burning eyes had appeared on the floor beside him.
Frozen to the spot, I watched the shadow in Tate’s mouth continue growing. It spilled over the sides and rolled down his front like a cursed, toxic fog. The two shadow snakes slithered into it as if it’d called them, and it swallowed them whole, making itself swell larger — then rushed up at me from the floor. I opened my mouth to scream, but a force stole it from my lungs as someone shoved me from behind out of the shadow storm’s way.
