by Pat Esden
“Exactly,” Devlin said. “I vote to have Matt escort her out of here. He was supposed to be taking care of security.”
Athena rubbed her choker. “I agree with you two, willingness and anonymity must always be a high priority. But I also agree with Chloe’s earlier point. We don’t have time to waste.” She held out her hand to Jessica. “Knife, please.”
Jessica grinned. “I sharpened it this morning. It has been getting quite the workout lately.”
Devlin snagged the knife before she could pass it. “I’ll do it. First we need to get her over to the nest.” The icy look on his face froze the breath in Chloe’s throat. She didn’t recognize this Devlin, but she also wasn’t sure if the look was real or a put-on. Either way, she couldn’t take a chance.
In one motion, she leapt to her feet and thrust her arm at him. “Cut me. I accept the punishment for Keshari’s crime. Use my blood to bring Merlin back.”
Anger flashed across Devlin’s face as if he were mad at her for offering, then every hint of emotion dropped away. “Are you sure about this?”
“A willing sacrifice is stronger than one that’s forcibly taken, right?”
Athena licked her lips. “Very true—”
She stopped talking as footsteps sounded from the darkness. A second later, Matt appeared. “Fuck,” he said. “I don’t know how she got past me.”
Athena waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. Just get her out of here.” Her gaze rounded on Chloe. “If you’re willing, then as high priestess, I accept your offer.”
Chloe nodded, barely paying attention to Athena’s words as Matt scooped Keshari up in his arms and started out of the circle. As they were about to vanish into the darkness, Keshari stirred and hooked her arms around Matt’s neck. Chloe let out a relieved breath. Thank goodness, Keshari was going to be okay. Matt would give her a ride home or call a taxi once the magic fully wore off. Everything would be all right. It had to be.
“Now let’s get back to work.” Athena glanced skyward as if checking the position of the stars. “We only have a few minutes.”
While Devlin had Chloe kneel and place her wrist on top of the crystal, Athena began the ritual in earnest, chanting until the air vibrated with her magic. Everyone joined in. Their voices echoed out between the standing stones, into the leafless trees and across the lake.
“Close your eyes,” Devlin said. His voice lowered to a whisper. “Hold still. I need to make this a clean cut.”
Chloe did as he asked, squeezing her eyes even tighter as he placed the cold edge of the blade against the inside of her wrist. She focused on the chanting, letting her voice and magic join the others, losing herself in the intoxicating sensation of the entwining energy. They were so close to what she wanted. Magic and medicine. They’d all be students of Merlin soon. No regrets. Not now.
Devlin pulled her arm out straight, a fast tug that brought her out of her trance. “Accept this offering, a sacrifice for disturbing the sanctity of the Circle.”
Athena’s voice spoke over top of his, dominating his cadence. “Take this blood, this token, take it. Open the doorway. Bring him to us, leave this sacrifice behind to balance his light. An offering to leave in his stead.”
The blade moved. Pain streaked across her wrist. She clenched her teeth, white-hot agony shooting up her arm. Devlin had cut her. Not hesitantly. Not superficially. He’d cut her swift and deep.
Chapter 22
Protect my heart from love not returned and trust misplaced. Guide me into the warmth of true friendship and kindness, and away from loneliness and sadness.
—Chloe Winslow, entreaty to the Goddess
Blood bubbled from her wrist, cascading down her palm and off her limp fingers. Devlin chanted, his voice thundering across the circle of stones. Athena took up a higher note. Everyone joined in, their voices melding into one.
Vertigo made Chloe’s head spin. She curled up on the ground, the hazy crescent of candles orbiting in front of her face like a miniature solar system. Devlin had cut her. She could bleed to death. She’d end up dead and in the ground. Maybe that’s where the journalist was.
Heat clamped her wrist.
Her pulse jolted and began to jackhammer. She twitched. She thrashed. Sweat soaked her skin. But the darkness retreated and the candles settled down and came into focus.
“Look,” Em gasped.
It took all the energy she had, but Chloe lifted her head.
The ground all around her shimmered with orbs, eerie and luminescent, colors as rich as stained glass. The orbs glided and shuffled, forming a runway in front of her. At the end of their path, a single standing stone wavered into focus, shadowy in the orbs’ strange light.
As though in slow motion, Chloe floated to her feet and drifted toward it. But Athena, Chandler, Em…none of them glanced her way to see where she was going. Instead, their gazes remained fixed on the ground in front of them.
Chloe glanced to see what they were looking at.
Her body lay curled on the grass. Devlin knelt beside it, his hands clamping her wrist, his eyes closed. She would have thought she was dead, except if she were a ghost, then Em would have seen her. Still, she wasn’t in her body.
Her intuition tugged at her, turning her around, drawing her down the orbs’ path toward the stone. More orbs floated up from the ground, glistening red ones, bumping against each other, merging into one larger sphere.
A hazy sense of relief spread through her. She knew this orb. This spirit might have been banished from the complex’s house and garden, but it wasn’t gone.
It glided to her and lit on her cupped hands, as cold as death and as red as sunrise.
Holding the orb, Chloe let herself be pulled to the standing stone. She passed through it, as if it were no more solid than cascading water.
On the other side, she came out into a cavern. Long stalagmites hung down from the low ceiling. Thick, cool mist filled the air, glistening red from the orb’s glow. All around her magic wailed an ancient ballad, words that hissed against her skin and whistled in her ears.
She crept forward. A salty-bitter taste of minerals coated her tongue. The ground under her feet grew slick with algae. The slow drip of water echoed in her ears.
Odd that a bodiless person could sense so much, she thought. But more than anything, it warned her to be cautious. Most likely other sensations such as pain were possible in this place, despite her out-of-body state.
Ahead, an opening to a second chamber arched. She tiptoed toward it, excitement and fear fluttering in her chest. Merlin had to be here somewhere.
The orb crackled in her hands, shooting out rays of light as she went under the archway and into the chamber. A few dozen yards ahead of her, a stone platform rose from the floor, carved with symbols and unfamiliar runes. On it the outline of a tall person lay, shrouded in a thin white veil. A robed man. Long white hair. White beard. He clutched a staff against his chest. Merlin. She was as certain of this as she was that he needed to be awoken.
A stench wafted in from the chamber she’d just left. Burning hair. Blood. Her ear caught the drone of the coven’s voices, a chanting chorus underneath the wail of the cavern’s magic.
Athena’s voice climbed above all the rest. “Take these tokens. Open the doorway. Bring him to us, leave this sacrifice behind. An offering to leave in his stead.”
The coven’s voices grew louder, battling the wail of the cavern’s magic. The burning stench stung her lungs and stole her breath. But she kept moving forward, slowly, closer to Merlin. He was why she was here. No matter how terrifying everything was, she wanted this. Medicine and magic.
The orb lifted from her fingertips. “Yin and yang. Yin and yang. Beware!”
She frowned at it. What was it warning her about in here? Outside there were people, some she trusted less than others. But in here there was only her and Merl
in.
The coven’s chant intensified. Its magic vibrating in every molecule of air, subjugating the wail. But beneath those noises her ears picked up on a much closer sound. A slight hiss. An exhale of air beneath the louder maelstrom.
Her gaze went to Merlin. Had the sound come from him?
Like a ghost arising, Merlin’s shroud drifted upwards, floating away into the mist and leaving his robed body exposed. Another hiss. Then something black, glossy, and the size of a paring knife poked its way out from inside Merlin’s chest. Four more protrusions joined the first, groping and clawing. A hand with long, black-tipped fingernails. The crown of a misshaped head appeared, veiled in a pus-green caul. Shoulders followed. The creature slithered and seeped the rest of the way out from Merlin’s chest, like a giant jaundiced eel creeping from a carcass.
Paralyzed by fear, Chloe watched the grotesque creature free itself from Merlin and wriggled off the platform. It hunched, writhed, and pulled itself upright into the shape of a lanky man, draped in a cloak of glistening black feathers. With a lazy rake of its hand, the creature tore the caul away from its face, strings of mucus trailing from its fingernails. Hollowed cheekbones. Bone-thin nose. Long white hair.
Chloe slapped her hands over her mouth, silencing a gasp. For all the world this creature looked just like the still-sleeping Merlin, unchanged despite the beast’s emergence.
The creature grinned down at Merlin and whispered coldly, “Enjoy your slumber. I shall not be returning any time soon.”
The orb brushed Chloe’s ear. Yin and yang. Tell Devlin. Protect the Circle.
Dear Goddess. Save them all. Yin and yang. Black and white. A creature and Merlin. She now knew what the orb meant. How could she have missed it? She’d known the legend since she was a child. This wasn’t totally about her or the coven taking a dark or light path. It wasn’t even about the human psyche. Merlin’s mother was human. His father was a demon. He literally had a dark and light half. The ritual hadn’t awoken Merlin. They’d summoned his shade!
She scuffled backwards, away from the Shade and closer to the stone. “Hecate, guardian of the gateways, get me out of here. Now!”
The Shade yanked the staff from Merlin’s hands and swirled to face her. “While the weak sleep, the powerful shall claim mankind.”
She pivoted and raced toward the archway and the other chamber, the orb fleeing ahead of her, the Shade only a step behind. She had to get back. Warn everyone. A shade. Merlin’s Shade. Loose in the world. Even if he helped the coven discover lost cures, there’d be costs to pay. Horrible costs to the coven and all of humanity.
He seized her arm, knife-like fingernails shredding her ethereal form in an attempt to hold her back. “Why do you flee?” Merlin’s Shade cooed. “I heard your voice with the others. Your blood roused me. You are a blessed one who shall stand beside my throne.”
“No!” she shrieked, running for the stone she’d come through. Shoulder to shoulder, they passed through it and into fresh air.
Chloe dropped to the ground, her ethereal form reentering her body. She blinked her eyes open. Next to the crescent of candles, the Shade crouched, the lantern light flickering off his very solid and Merlinesque form. He shuddered, then languidly pulled himself up to his full height, lifted the staff skyward and bellowed, “Tonight is the most glorious of dawns!”
Dear Goddess, what had they done?
Chapter 23
Take me, sweet slumber. Give my flesh to the Shade. Give my breath to the sky. I have no use for either. I crave neither thorns nor rose.
—Note found on a self-mutilated body
Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont
Chloe woke up. She was laying on her back in a bed with her head propped up on a pillow. She felt woozy and her left arm was cold and numb from the fingertips to her shoulder. Her gaze darted to her wrist. A wide, white bandage wrapped it. There was a line of stain where blood had oozed out from the cut, yellow-brown and fresh-red.
She glanced around. She was in Devlin’s apartment. Alone in his bed. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that or him right now—he’d cut her wrist, fast and hard with no hesitation. Still, at least she was somewhere familiar rather than in an unknown spot.
Her gaze went to the windows. Judging by the slant of the light, it was early morning. Seven, maybe eight o’clock. She was shaky and weak, but that didn’t matter. She had to get out of here. Quick.
The murmur of voices came from Devlin’s kitchen: Athena and the Shade.
She clenched her teeth, anger seething. She might not have remembered much of what had happened after she returned to her body, but she’d never forget the ritual and watching the creature crawl out of Merlin. Goddess help them, they’d summoned a shade.
Their voices moved closer. Chloe clamped her eyes shut and held perfectly still, pretending she hadn’t woken up. However, when they stopped in the living room, she glanced out through the veil of her lashes. The two of them stood next to the couch. The Shade looked the same as when she’d last seen him. Tall. White haired. Like anyone might picture an ancient wizard or sorcerer, except he was now dressed in all black from his shirt down to his pants and boots. Only his brocade vest glistened with a hint of blood-red. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have assumed he was a vampire-goth version of the Merlin they’d planned to awaken—at least the Merlin she’d intended to awaken. She wasn’t so sure about Athena’s intentions anymore. For that matter, she wasn’t sure who she could trust—or if anyone would believe her if she claimed he wasn’t Merlin.
“I suspect this will please you.” Athena bowed her head submissively, then handed the Shade what appeared to be a jewelry box.
He touched her chin, lifting her face. “My dear, I’m quite certain it shall—as long as you followed my instructions. I trust he was in his twenties. Physically fit? Attractive? Healthy? A pleasing sacrifice.”
“Yes. Very much.” Athena giggled, a childish sound that seemed totally wrong coming from her mouth.
“Then let me examine your artistry.” The Shade slowly opened the box. He looked at the contents for long moment, then poked it. He scowled, the air filling with a hiss of his magic, a skin-crawling sound like a nest of angry vipers.
Athena paled. “Did I do something wrong?”
Chloe swallowed dryly. What the heck was in the box?
The Shade plucked out a leather bracelet. “I would have preferred if it were more supple,” he said. “But how it works is more important. Would you do me the favor of securing it?”
He held out his wrist. As Athena fastened the bracelet on, the air around him rippled with energy, vibrating so violently that it obscured him for a second. When it settled, the white-haired Merlin was gone, replaced by a tall, twenty-something guy with long, straight black hair. A guy Chloe instantly recognized.
Terrified, she bolted upright and scrunched back against the headboard, trembling. A leather bracelet. A transformation. “I trust he was young, like you. Physically fit? Attractive? Healthy?” No. It couldn’t be. Human skin.
The Shade swiveled to face her, his intensely blue eyes pinpointing her, eyes she’d only seen once. Eyes of the clairvoyant goth at the bus stop.
“That’s—You killed him,” she stuttered.
He smiled. “You’ve been spying on us, haven’t you?”
Ice cold sweat drenched her back. Maybe the real Merlin could shape shift, but what the Shade had done had nothing to do with an inborn ability to shift. Necromancy. Dark magic, that’s what this was. The Shade even sounded different, a voice that reminded her of the lines of poetry the goth had spoken.
The Shade flicked his fingers dismissively. “Technically, I didn’t kill the boy, though I will admit to being party to the death and skinning—as a conductor is to a fine orchestra.” His smiled broadened. “Quite an effective spell, wouldn’t you say?”
Chloe clutched
her numb-cold arm against her chest and stuttered the first thing that came to mind, “I—I—Where’s Devlin?”
“Doing something useful, I would assume.” The Shade’s attention returned to his bracelet. He gave it a stroke. “Yes. This will do nicely.”
As if to answer her question, the front door swished open and Devin loped into sight with Henry at his side. Chloe started to let out a relieved breath, but sucked it back in. As much as she was glad to see him and her heart screamed for her to trust him, she couldn’t afford to. Not anymore. Not anyone. At least not until she was sure.
Devlin glanced at the Shade. His brow wrinkled. “You’re—Merlin, right?”
“Perceptive, boy. I believe you will prove to be quite trainable.” He waved at Henry. “However, that slobbering beast must go. This is a surgery, not a kennel.”
Devlin’s jaw tightened. “Actually, this place is neither of those things. This is my home and the dog lives here.”
“Devlin,” Athena said warningly. “These rooms are whatever Merlin wishes them to be. For all practical purposes, he’s the coven’s high priest now.”
The Shade smiled, a slow, dangerous smile. “On second thought—” He crouched down and held his hand out to Henry. “Come here, boy.”
Devlin’s face paled, as Henry bounded over to the Shade and obediently sat in front of him, tail happily pounding the floor.
The Shade scratched him behind the ear. “He is rather sweet, innocent…malleable, especially his brain.” He glanced meaningfully toward Chloe. “Brains interest you, don’t they?”
A chill swept Chloe’s arms, but she held perfectly still, her mouth tight shut, afraid if she said or did the wrong thing that something horrible might happen to Henry.
“Cat got your tongue?” The Shade snickered.
“Ah”—she wet her lips—“Brains are fine. But I prefer them right where they belong, inside his head.”
“Why, of course. But you miss my point.” The Shade clamped his hand hard on the top of Henry’s skull, his black-tipped fingernails digging in.
