Page 41 of Soul Bound (Cursed Descent (MistHallow Academy) #2)

41

MATILDA

The explosion’s aftermath leaves us scattered across the chamber floor, the fog still swirling all around us, but things are less chaotic in the magick department. My broken arm throbs as I try to push myself up, the world spinning dizzyingly around me. Through the settling dust and magickal residue, I see Laurent’s wings have turned grey, tainted by the corrupted energy we’ve released.

“The curse...” I gasp as Draven crawls over to me, looking like a chunk of ceiling fell on him. His nose is bleeding as he grasps my broken arm and heals it.

“It hasn’t broken. Not yet. There is one final step before it can be unbound,” Laurent says, her wings drooping as dark energy seeps into them.

“And what is that?” Vex asks, brushing off dirt and debris as he steps into view.

Laurent’s wings flutter weakly. “I was meant to prevent this. To keep the curse stable, to protect what was contained beneath it. But I failed. Just like I failed when Bronwen first cast it.”

“What’s really down here?” I demand. “What else is down there?”

Laurent’s divine glow flickers as she looks down at the ritual circle. “A gateway. One that should never be opened.”

A low rumble shakes the chamber as the ground beneath us shifts.

“A gateway to where?” I ask, my mouth dry.

Laurent’s gaze falls on Draven and she hisses as Luc appears, still in his Demonic form. He shifts when he sees me and drops to his knees next to me.

“Hell,” Laurent whispers.

“What?” I ask with a frown. “What do you mean?”

“The Praxian force was buried deep underground when it hit the earth during Lucifer’s fall,” Xanthos says, appearing through the mist at Laurent’s side. I glare at him. “Anu managed to grasp onto enough of the Praxian power to wield it freely. What we were trying to create was a being strong enough to stop her before…”

“Before what? Hell on Earth?” Vex snaps. “Your methods were sick and depraved.”

“Yes, I don’t deny that. We failed repeatedly to create a goddess powerful enough to stop Anu. Bronwen was the closest we got. We thought a child of her blood mixed with the blood of the ancient Druid Order would harness their power. We got closer with Eldora.”

“So you wanted to try again,” I spit out bitterly. “You disgust me.”

“Rightly so. I deeply regret our actions, but we were running out of time. Our survival was at stake. All of humanity, not just the Druids. Anu was ruthless, determined.”

“That makes no sense,” Vex says. “She was a goddess of the earth.”

“Power corrupts,” Laurent says.

“Where is she now?” I interrupt. “And what does the Harvester Order have to do with any of this?”

I see Luc and Draven exchanging a very concerned stare, and it brings back what Laurent said. A gateway to Hell. Like an actual way into Hell from Earth. And there it is… it’s a two-way door.

“Anu wanted to power up a Hell army,” I say coldly.

“Precisely,” Xanthos says. “She knew the gateway was there that the Praxian was effectively burying its way through dimensions to reach what it wanted. It was a mere pinprick. The veils between these dimensions exist for a reason. Even the Praxian needed time to make a hole big enough.”

“Let me guess,” I remark dryly. “The hole is now big enough.”

“Indeed. You cannot take the last step to breaking this curse.”

“Which is?”

“A sacrifice,” Xanthos says. “We have been corrupting the sacrifices made so far, but it’s all gone horribly wrong.”

“The zombies,” Draven snarls. “And Night? Chris? Where do they fit into this?”

“They were released from the curse when it weakened. Christos was the strongest of us. He fought and found a way through. He discovered that Anu had a daughter, one she passed to the Harvester Order to use, and decided to finish what we started. The one you call Night, Strykos, he broke free after Christos inadvertently bound himself back to the cursed ground. He was supposed to continue the course, but the timing was dreadfully off.”

“So he just abused Tilly instead of raping her to create a child that would what? Not work how you wanted?” Luc’s tone is bitter and dangerous.

“Something like that. He was attempting to keep her in line. Keep her weak, vulnerable until the time was right.”

“Forget all that!” I screech, shoving my hands into my hair as I rise in a fluid and graceful motion that is new. “The Harvesters weren’t just collecting my power for themselves, were they? They were feeding it to the gateway.”

Laurent’s wings darken further. “Yes. They were using your power to widen the breach. Every time they harvested from you, they were forcing your Praxian essence through that pinprick, making it larger.”

“Like a battering ram,” Vex says quietly. “They weren’t storing the power, they were weaponising it.”

Draven’s hand tightens on my arm, but he remains silent.

“The Harvester Order wasn’t founded to preserve power, it was created to shepherd this moment into being. Everything else was just a cover,” Xanthos explains.

The ground trembles again as something shifts deep below. I feel a pulling sensation, like my power is being drawn toward whatever lies beneath us.

“The ritual we just performed,” Luc says, his eyes widening. “The sexual energy, the blood sacrifice...”

“Was pushing the key into the lock,” Laurent confirms.

“But not turning it,” I murmur. “A sacrifice is the turn. Blood, death, human, goat? What?”

“The sacrifice,” Laurent says quietly, “has to be of a certain breed. Created during a blood moon eclipse from the essence of the darkest practitioners.”

“You’re saying that Blake Sterling was one of these?” Vex asks in disbelief. “He wouldn’t have said boo to a goose.”

My stomach turns. “So who is next?”

Laurent stares at me, and my blood runs cold.

“Me?” I croak.

“No, your sister.”