Music Box (The Dollhouse Books, #4) (30 page)

She nodded, gazing at him questioningly. “Yes. But who are you?”

“My name is Seth McAllister. I am the grandfather of the boy you know well—Ethan—and I have been told of all the assistance you gave him, and I thank you for that. He means a great deal to me.”

She bowed her head. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that news about your own grandson, Seth.”

He exhaled a regretful sigh. “I’d thought I’d live to my last day without ever seeing him again. But his friends came, out of nowhere, and told me of his life over the past two years. That is more news of Ethan than I thought I’d ever hear.”

They both turned as Molly and I stepped up to them, shaking snow from our hoods and shoulders.

Nabaasa sighed in relief. “Molly, it’s good that you stopped her.”

“What happened here?” I cried.

“The Order made a deal with the castle,” said Nabaasa, her words strained and heavy. “They would give you and Ethan to the castle in exchange for the castle calling off the serpents. But of course, the castle had no intention of honoring such a deal. They took Ethan, and destroyed the museum looking for you. The rangers no longer have the protection of the serpents. We heard the serpents and their shadows converge on the ranger stronghold last night. We believe that they killed every last ranger. The shadows will be coming for us next, and I’m afraid that this is the end for us.”

I held my head in my hands. “Now that the Order has no more power, we need to get the families out of here—take them to the other world. The Order surely can’t stop any of you from leaving now?”

She shook her head. “Sister Bettina is refusing to let that happen. What’s left of the Order are still preventing anyone from leaving.”

I tried to think—Mr. McAllister and Lacey had shadows within them, but no experience with taking other people through a shadow tunnel to another universe. Anything could go wrong. We had to convince the Order to change their minds. A darker thought came to me—
or kill all members of the Order
.

From across the bay came a chilling, echoing baying.

Nabaasa’s expression deadened. “No,” she breathed, her eyes large. “That is their call—the same call they used last night to tell each other to join together and annihilate the rangers.”

A woman pulled herself to her feet, smoothing her tunic. Sister Bettina clasped her hands together. “The shadows fear the Order. They won't bother us. If they could have harmed us, don't you think they would have done so by now?"

Sophronia limped heavily across, holding Sister Bettina in a direct gaze. "That is true, Sister, the combined mind power of the Order kept the shadows away. They were afraid of what you might do to them. We know now how fragile the shadows are—we can control them. But there are far fewer of you now, and you are here hanging to life by a thread, your home destroyed. Do you think the Order will really be enough now to hold the shadows back?"

I stared from Sophronia to Sister Bettina. "I can't help but think that the serpents didn't want to hurt the people of the museum, because they knew you were keeping the castle out. I believe that they didn't want the castle to have the book. But now that you let the castle in, you're all of no use to the serpents anymore."

Derrick tilted his shaggy head at me. "How do you know that, Cassie?"

"I don't know. I mean... I just feel it." I couldn't explain something that I felt so deeply inside me. But something needled at me—
Derrick was right to ask that question —how did I understand that about the serpents?

Sister Bettina bowed her head. "Then we must join together in prayer, until our last moment on this earth.”

Savagely, I stormed toward her. “You can forget that, Sister! We can use every prayer you’ve got—but we are going to fight!”

Ben and Raif ran over to us, readying themselves.

All of the people moved nervously to their feet, parents holding their children close, guards looking down in mute despair at their guns—weapons were useless against the shadows.

“We don’t have much time,” I told them. “But we cannot stay in here and wait for their attack. As you know, the shadows can move anywhere they want. Until now, they’ve wanted you alive—for food. But the castle has given an order—kill whoever is left. You have to believe me when I tell you that the shadows are weak. They are weak! You are stronger. All you need to do is help us— stand against them as though you are not afraid.”

One of the scientists, Dr. Sharma, stepped over to me. “Tell us how you know this.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But there’s no time to explain.” I turned to the rest of the people. “You’re all going to have to trust us. Anyone with a family or who is a child must stay here in the basement. The rest of us will go and make a stand. My friends, and Ethan’s grandfather, will take on the shadows. The others should just stay with us and pretend that you can do what we can do.”

“But what...” said another of the scientists, Dr. Blakeney, “
can
you do, exactly? We need to know, don’t you think?”

Ethan’s grandfather looked Dr. Blakeney squarely in the eye. “We’re going to take the shadows inside us, and turn the force of those shadows for our own purposes.”

Dr. Blakeney stumbled backward a step, rubbing an eye beneath his glasses. “You’re going to
what
?”

“Exactly what I said, young man,” said Ethan’s grandfather.

“I trust you,” Nabaasa told Ethan’s grandfather, “and I’m with you.”

He nodded an acknowledgement at her.

Derrick and Zoe stepped forward. “We’re ready,” said Derrick. “Tell us what you want us to do and we’re there.”

Terrifying sounds scudded through the air outside.

“Go!” I yelled.

The families bundled themselves into the back wall, their eyes wide with horror. Sister Bettina and the members of the Order stood in the center of the room with their heads bowed. Dr. Blakeney hung back by himself. Molly gave Frances a last hug before leaving her with the children and joining us. Three of the men left their families behind and ran out with us—I hoped they’d return to their wives and children.

Sophronia closed the door behind her—not that doors were any barrier to the shadows, but it was a psychological barrier for those of us now on the other side of it. We’d formed a hurried resistance group and our group would soon be facing the shadows.

The sound of our boots was deafening as we rushed up the stairs and gathered in the meeting area, below the emptied overhead aquarium. Blasts of ice-laden wind blew through the dark museum. We were exposed to the night—the torn-open museum had a gaping hole three stories high. 

In the distance, we watched hundreds of serpents rising from holes in the frozen lake. Leaping through the air, they twisted themselves onto land. The serpents themselves couldn’t reach us—but they were so close we could see their massive bodies and the moonlight reflecting from their silver eyes and scales.

Fear rasped through my every breath and coiled in the depths of my stomach.

Molly, Aisha, Lacey, Ben, Raif, Mr. McAllister and I edged to the outside of the circle of our small band of resistance fighters.

The serpents sent forth their shadows—the shadows drifting across the lake like black, deadly spirits. Their demon calls and incessant whispering were already maddening my mind. The first of the shadows advanced inside the building, twisting itself through the wreckage.

One of the guards stepped forward, taking a shot at the shadow with his rifle.

“No!” Sophronia yelled.

The shadow leapt on the guard. His face contorted as he crashed to the floor—terror flashing through his eyes. The shadow wasted no time. Enveloping the man, it crushed him to black dust. The wind picked up his remains, blowing them out into the ice.

Shrieking, a woman ran from the group, trying to make it back to the basement. The shadow pulled itself from the ashes of the dead guard and pounced on the woman. She cried out as the shadow pierced her with its barbs. As she collapsed to the ground, her skin turned ashen, flakes of ash starting to fly away from her dead body.

Two men fled from the group, racing away toward the back of the museum.

This was not how it should have begun. Fear and terror were palpable in our group. Sensing that fear, the shadows moved in by the dozen.

Molly shouted out, running at them—her expression wild. I feared for her, for us. But when she stopped, her stance was firm. She wasn’t breaking apart—she was drawing from deep inside herself. The first of the shadows descended on her. Her head bowed as the blackness closed in on her. Her body jolted. I knew what she was feeling—the sting of thousands of barbs penetrating her skin. It was toying with her before it killed her for daring to try to attack it.

But Molly pulled the shadow inside her.
She did it
. She clutched her middle, vomiting. When she lifted her head, black smoke poured from her eyes. She had the shadow trapped inside her. She dropped to her knees, but she held tight, refusing to allow the darkness free from her.

The shadows that surrounded us stopped midair—screeching and furious.

A shadow hurtled down, aiming itself at Lacey. Ben rushed to her, taking the brunt of the shadow’s force. “I take you!” he screamed at the shadow. “I take you!” The shadow writhed as Ben held his arms out wide—the shadow vanishing.

Ben’s eyes turned black and I knew then that he had the shadow inside him.

Dr. Sharma stared with huge eyes at Ben. Derrick and Zoe hung together, their expressions frozen—but they didn’t turn and run away like the others had. Nabaasa stood like an immovable object, her staunch gaze not leaving the shadows.

Leaning on his walking stick, Ethan’s grandfather walked out to face the onslaught of shadows that rushed toward us—hundreds of them. A dense blackness filled the air. They were going to blanket us, smother us until we couldn’t see—kill us all.

With a hoarse shout, Ethan’s grandfather cast out the shadow from inside him, sending it streaming toward the blanket of shadows above us.

With echoing cries, the shadows separated. They hung back for a moment, then gathered into a circle around us. Their filmy dark bodies rose up like the serpents themselves, jaws opening wide. The twisting serpent-shadows struck from all sides. A guard cried out as a shadow plunged its fangs into her. The shadow cast her aside as she turned to ash.

Aisha, Lacey, Ben, Raif and I held our heads up—waiting. The shadows struck with a lightning force. Pain bit into my limbs.
Still your mind. Still your mind. No fear. Nothing
. I was back in that strange land where there was nothing except for me and a shadow. It formed the shape of a snake and struck at me repeatedly. I stood firm. It couldn’t hurt me. I felt it contort as it entered my body, felt its poison in my stomach and its rage.

I looked around at everyone. I saw the darkness in my friends—I now knew what Mr. McAllister meant when he said that if you have the shadow in you, you can see it in others. It was like a shroud hanging over their eyes.

It was time.

Together, my friends and I sent our shadows reeling from us—making them whirl around our whole group, protecting us. My body shook violently, but I felt nothing—not even the cold or the wind. The howling fury of the serpents out in the ice chorused in my ears—a terrifying, explosive cacophony of sounds.

The shadows fled—back to their serpents.

We called our captive shadows back, absorbing them within us. We couldn’t allow them to leave. They were our security against the serpents—the serpents wouldn’t know whether every single one of us who were left at the museum were capable of taking them inside us.

With a crashing of water and ice, the serpents dove back into the depths.

Only then did I allow myself to breathe fully, deeply. We stared around at each other, gasping.

We had survived—most of us—but only just.

C
ASSIE

Blood-chilling echoes scattered through the air, growing distant as the serpents retreated.

The sight and the sound of so many shadows remained etched in my mind like malevolent demons. The shadow within me had finally quieted, but I felt it darkening my mind. Lacey had lived with that darkness inside her for years, and I came to the realization of how strong she was not to completely lose her mind.

“The shadows will rage and roar inside you over the next few hours,” Ethan’s grandfather told us. “But do not give into their will. You won’t sleep tonight, but you’ll learn to subdue it.”

We lingered for a moment, bowing our heads and saying a prayer for the dead. The chill soon drove us back, and we retreated to the basement. The two people who’d run away from our little group followed us in, their heads bowed and shamed—I couldn’t feel anger toward them. I had barely held out through that onslaught, and I had lived in close quarters with the shadow of the serpent’s empress.

The people inside the basement room gazed at us in shock as we opened the door. Relief flooded their faces.

My legs gave out, and I crouched to the floor. My mind felt wrong, like there was another being in there. There
was
another being in there—the shadow. And also another being—back in the deep pool of the empress’s cave, I’d touched another version of me and had taken her inside me. Sometimes I could sense her. But she was
me
, whereas the shadow was alien, unknown.

I was given water, soup, a place to lie down. As I closed my eyes, I saw Sister Bettina’s cold gaze from across the room.

~.~

I woke in a cold sweat, shadowy demons swooping at me. I’d been dreaming. Moving heavily to a sitting position, I oriented myself. I was here, in the basement. We’d defeated the shadows—at least, for now.

“How are you?” Molly eyed me with concern, crossing the room toward me.

“I’m okay.”

“Sure?”

Nodding, I rose to my feet. Inside me, the shadow writhed. “How long did I sleep?”

Nabaasa smiled tightly at me. “Just an hour. Not long enough. Seth said you kids need to rest up. What you all did last night—that’s the last thing I ever expected to see.”