Page 57

56

EVANGELINE

I might have been screaming as I clung to Riordan, hurled through time and space.

I'd experienced the disorienting effects of dematerialization before, but never like this. This was like being unmade. Every atom pulled apart and scattered across an impossible distance. I focused on the pressure of Riordan’s arms around me, gripping me tight. Without him, I would be lost in the void between places.

We paused, cold, the kind I’d never experienced before, searing my lungs, turning my throat raw, tears streaming down my cheeks, even with my eyes scrunched shut.

I managed one pained breath. Two. Three .

We disappeared, then, suddenly, we existed again.

Crisp mountain air slapped my face when we materialized on a forested ridge. Above us, shrouded in evening mist, stood the ruins of Chateau des Ombres éternelles. Even from this distance, I could feel a sense of wrongness emanating from those crumbled stones. This was a place where great evil had once existed…and existed again today.

Ravok was somewhere inside, and so was Malachi.

“Spread out. Secure the perimeter,” Nash ordered in a hushed voice, sending his Knightsguard moving silently into the trees.

Fiona stepped forward, her eyes glowing faintly in the darkness as she studied the steep mountainside leading up to where the castle was perched precariously on a jutting sliver of rock. “There,” she murmured, pointing to a section of crumbling outer wall. “That's your entry point. The wards are weakest there.”

“And Malachi?” Riordan turned to me.

“He's inside already. Underground.” My eyes flew open. “He's not alone.”

Blake swore colorfully. “Of course, he had to play the hero. Couldn't wait for backup.”

I didn’t bother telling him Malachi hadn’t wanted backup on his nobler-than-thou mission, nor did he expect any. But here we were, whether he liked it or not.

“We need to move.” Eldric’s gaze was pinned on the castle. “We’re being watched. Fiona, how long to breach the wards?”

The witch frowned in concentration. “Two minutes. Like I suspected, the magic is old, powerful but simple enough to break. I could rip straight through them, but that would raise an alarm.”

“A minute is all we need,” Riordan said, checking his weapons like everyone else, one last time. Silver blades, iron spikes to neutralize magic, Rutger 40 mils, because why stab when you could shoot? Of course, every bullet contained silver nitrate, turning them into little missiles of death.

“Evangeline stays with me,” Riordan said, in a tone that invited no argument. “She can track Malachi, which makes her our most valuable asset and the most likely target if Ravok senses our presence.”

I wanted to protest—I hadn't come all this way to be protected—but his logic was sound.

Our magic was back to full strength, but to finish him off, Blake had suggested, it would take all three of us, our magicks united, honed into a singular weapon. Too bad we hadn’t had time for a test run, but the theory was sound.

Fiona approached the ward, a barely visible net of light that had protected this place for centuries. Impressive, really, given it looked frailer than a spider’s web. She dragged her finger down the barrier, leaving a trail of fire in its wake, the shadows around us twisting unnaturally.

“When I say move,” she whispered, “you move . Don't stop until you're through.”

I felt the exact moment she pierced the wards—the air before us rippled, revealing a tear in the spiderweb, tattered edges floating like ghosts—but past that opening appeared to be nothing but empty space.

“ Now ,” Fiona hissed.

We moved as one, covering the ten feet between us and that gaping nothingness in seconds. Nash's soldiers were already in position around the perimeter, blending into the rocky terrain. Fiona held the tear open, which was growing worrisomely smaller with each passing second.

“Hurry,” she urged. “I can’t hold this open forever.”

Blake went through first, then Riordan, gripping my elbow. Eldric practically crashed into me, shoving me through as the opening snapped shut behind us, Fiona remaining on the other side. The sensation of crossing over was odd, but not painful, moment of resistance, biting cold, then sudden release.

“Well, that was close,” Eldric hissed in my ear. “I thought you were going to leave me behind.”

“Of course, we weren’t,” I whispered back, even though Blake slanted him a look that might as well have said, yes we were, asshole.

We found ourselves in what must once have been a courtyard, now overgrown with vegetation that seemed wrong somehow—too dark, too grotesque, as if rooted in some invisible evil. The castle's keep loomed above us, a broken tooth against the night sky.

I scrubbed my frozen arms. “Why can’t magic ever be warm and fuzzy?” I complained. “Why does it always have to be mean and bitey?”

“Mine likes to play nice.” Blake’s lips brushed my ear. “And even when it’s mean and bitey, you never complain.”

I batted him away. “That’s because…” I rolled my eyes. “Now is not the time,” I scolded. “We need to get serious here.”

“The stakes are high,” Blake agreed with a wicked grin and another long nuzzle at my throat, “but with you, it’s always the time, Evie.”

“Stop fucking around, Blake. Give us a report, Silver,” Riordan instructed. “Where are we going?”

I reached out and out and…Malachi was deep inside the mountain itself, but…there was no apparent way inside.

“He’s right in front of us, but there’s no way to just…go get him, is there?” I waved my hands, incapable of explaining. “I mean, can’t you just…fly us inside the mountain?”

Riordan started up the steep incline. “Not unless you want to end up encased in stone while you slowly suffocate and die.”

“Well, that’s not specifically horrible or anything,” Eldric grumbled. “I think I’ll pass on that option, thank you.”

“Why the fuck are you even here?” Blake hissed, clearly deciding not to be a team player today. “You should be at Crimson House, poring over your history books.”

“There will come a day when you’ll be grateful I was poring over those books, because I’ll save your backwards caveman ass with logical, clear reasoning and information only I possess.”

Eldric’s here because he’s in love with Angel and he wants to protect her.

Blake’s gaze narrowed. More like wants to impress her.

Protect, impress, it’s the same outcome. So play nice, because you two might be related someday. Truthfully, I only said that to distract him, but Blake looked thoughtful.

I suppose I could do worse for a brother-in-law. His expression brightened . Can I give him shit about Angel? Because I really want to give him shit. That would take the edge off.

You can give him moderate shit. And don’t be mean. I like Eldric.

Eldric, completely ignorant to the fact we were over here planning out the rest of his life, was still glaring at Blake, the air around him glowing, like he’d just been pulled out of the forge.

“If anything comes charging out of the shadows, maybe you can beat it back with your books, and save us all,” Blake snarked, inspecting one of his knives.

I rolled my eyes. I told you to be nice.

That was nice. And you still don’t get male humor, because it was also funny.

Stop fucking around and get your asses up here. Riordan’s glare was apocalyptic. “We’ll dematerialize straight to the Keep.” As if none of us knew why we were even here, he pointed at the castle.

“Malachi’s already in the tunnels,” I whispered. “No telling how long he’s been here.”

“Chances are, the opening to the lower levels is up there.” Annoyance still flickered in Riordan’s eyes. “We don’t have a clear line of sight. So when we land, be on high alert and ready to fight.”

“Does that fighting include me?” Eldric muttered. “Because I’m far better with magic than I am with a blade.”

“Use whatever the fuck you want, dickhead. Books, knives, your fucking logical, clear reasoning,” Blake grumbled, in a very non-future-brother-in-law-way. “So long as you get the job done.”

“Excellent. Taking a result driven approach. I like it.”

“Is he seriously going to talk this much the entire time?” Blake asked out of the corner of his mouth as I gripped his hand tighter, shadows gathering around us as he prepared to dematerialize us up to the Keep.

“Probably,” Eldric and I said together. “Jinx. Double jinx .” We high fived each other as Blake rolled his eyes.

Then cold swept across my face, the world turned into a big, long smear, and we were flying.

* * *

The odd smell hit me as soon as my boots met the ground, a cloying sweetness mixed with the rancid reek of rot.

“Stick close, Evangeline.” Blake's warm breath feathered my ear, his arm banded across my stomach. “Do you still sense him?”

I reached for the bond again, panicking when I realized how faint Malachi’s presence had become. “Yes, but something's wrong. He's…” I broke off as Riordan, Blake and Eldric froze in place.

“ Fuuuck ,” Rohr hissed, turning toward the far end of the ruins.

Five hulking shapes emerged from the misty gloom, moving with an unnatural gait. The revenants kept their heads low to the ground, mouths gaping wide to show off their double rows of needle-sharp teeth, long tongues tasting the air, nose flaps slapping open and closed as they crept toward us like a host of spiders on spindly legs.

Their thick hides were battle scarred, long, deadly claws dug grooves into the ancient stone with every slow, creeping step. Their eyes were white, opaque, and as I watched, the lead creature lifted its head, tested the air, changed direction, moving straight toward Riordan.

Then, when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the wind shifted and the stench hit me full in the face.

Black bog water and putrefying flesh, rolled into one gag-inducing combination.

“Bet you wish you had one of those books now, don’t you, library-boy?’ Blake muttered, yanking out his knives.

“But hey, maybe you can talk them to death when they get close enough.”