Phantom Eyes (Witch Eyes) (28 page)

Trey turned on me. “I thought the plan was to get them to attack each other,” he said.

“It is,” I nodded, shooting Riley another glare. Why was she trying to make this as difficult as possible?

“And then?” he asked icily.

And then I rot for eternity next to the two of them, unless one of them gets frustrated and kills me first. But either way, the city is saved.

“It won’t work,” Riley said. “He won’t come back out. And then they’ll both be free.”

“It’s fine, Riley,” he said consolingly, patting her on the arm. But his eyes stayed on me. He knew she was telling the truth.

Trey might have been willing to stand around and spend the night wringing his hands about what had to happen, but I wasn’t. There was a war struggling across Jade’s face, competing feelings gaining and losing ground so fast it was hard to tell what she was thinking. She, too, seemed to be taking Riley at face value.

“There has to be a balance!” Riley shouted from behind me as I stalked away. “Why won’t anyone listen to me? You can’t just topple the scale! You’ll be the one that gets stuck, and they’ll be free!”

I hurried faster, like if I could just get far enough away, her premonitions of doom wouldn’t be able to catch up to me.

Lucien was waiting at Grace’s monument when I arrived, Trey hot on my heels. The demon looked up at my approach, his smirk already drawn tight against his face. “Cute,” he said, nodding towards the inscription.
Even a Pawn can topple a King.
“Is this supposed to be some kind of message? You’re going to hobble me the same way that bitch did?”

I had crossed the worlds twice before, stepped across the veil and entered the lighthouse. But neither time had I opened the portal myself. But I found it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected. The demon power in me knew how to bend time and space, and the magic made it all happen.

“Funny. I guess everyone’s got to be somebody else’s bitch.” I shrugged and gave Lucien a grin. “Don’t worry, it’ll be funnier in a moment.”

It took even less time to unlock the last wellspring. The first one had been hidden here, underneath Grace’s monument. The second had been hidden underneath the bay, just past the lighthouse. And the third was south of the city, in the heart of a forest that I’d never been to. But I didn’t need to be there to do this. Now that the power was inside of me, I could open the last wellspring at any time, from anywhere.

Lucien’s eyes widened. He could feel the power being stirred up from deep under the earth. He probably thought that I was going to summon it all and devour it right in front of him. He thought wrong.

A cascade of green and gold energy flowed out of the forest and high into the air, creating an aurora borealis effect over the city. As the power started to fall back to earth, it approached the cemetery with blazing speed.

But it swept past me. Swept past Lucien. It flowed right into the portal and into the lighthouse itself, just like I had planned.

Lucien looked at me in shock, and then he barked out a laugh. “And finally the boy falters. The lighthouse is
my
domain, you idiot. And with that part of my power restored, I’ll crush you easily.” And then
he
smiled. “But I won’t be quick about it. We have some things to settle between us still.” And then before he could see a reaction out of me he leapt into the power and vanished through to the other side.

Trey was at my side. “He still doesn’t know?”

“He will in about three seconds.” I turned to him. “You’re not going. You’re staying here and making sure your sister and everyone else is safe. I’ll close the portal from the other side. Then you’ll be safe.”

“Not going to happen,” Trey said, glaring down at me. “If you wanted them protected, you shouldn’t have voided my deal with Lucien. Besides, I’m not letting you go on your own.”

“Trey, I can’t protect you in there,” I insisted. “This isn’t part of the plan.”

“Yeah, well, Riley says your plan sucks. So we’re going with a new plan.” He eyed my forehead. “You’re sweating. It’s taking a lot out of you to open that portal, isn’t it? A
fter everything else you’ve already done tonight, are you really going to waste what you’ve got left keeping me back?”

“Fine,” I said, glaring at him. Riley’s words rang in my ears. Balance. How was I going to manage any of it? “But I swear to god if you die in there, I’m going to kill you.”

He leaned over and kissed me quickly. “For luck,” he whispered.

We entered the lighthouse. Together.

Trey and I emerged directly into the lantern room of the lighthouse.

“What in the fallen Hells is this?” Lucien asked from just in front of me. I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear the broken shock. What would it be like, to be a demon who had total purview over the future, and to yet be blindsided by something you’d never seen coming?

“Close your mouth, darling,” a cold voice cut in smoothly. Grace stood in front of us, the veil pulled away from her face for once. The wellspring magic had darkened her eyes until they were more black than red, but here and there were hints of fire. “And say hello to an old friend.”

“This isn’t possible.”

“You challenged my ideas about ‘possible’ a lifetime ago. It pleases me to return the favor.” Grace looked past the demon that started all of this and focused on me. “And if it isn’t my little Judas, all dressed up with nowhere to go. You should reconsider your scheme, boy.”

My contract with her was crumpled in her hands. She nodded behind me, and behind us the portal flared into activity again. Jade and Riley emerged from the other side, though neither of them looked too happy about it. It wasn’t until the figure behind them appeared that I realized what had happened. Just how screwed I was. At first I thought it was Elle, and maybe I could sweet-talk something out of her, but the shape emerging into the lantern room was too tall, too broad shouldered.

The man had a gun in his hands, and it was pointed at one of the girls. He smiled, dipped his head, and murmured “My lady” in respectful tones.

The man working for Grace was Matthias.

thirty-six

“Isn’t it interesting,” Matthias said, “a hundred years in Belle Dam and finally everyone’s paying attention to old Matthias. Bargains keep coming in from all sides. The Rider wants a parley, the Widow wants an ally, and the Witchling wants a mentor. But no one wonders about what Matthias wants.”

I kept my face schooled in indifference. Lucien took a step forward, and I grabbed the fabric of Trey’s shirt as I pulled him to the side. Putting distance between us and the others, and giving me a better shot at defending him.

I just hoped everyone would keep their heads for a few minutes more. The lantern room was crowded, seven bodies packed inside. Beyond the broken wall, the storms beyond in a jagged fury like I’d never seen before. Jade was looking out through the broken glass in curious horror. Riley was staring, too, but in her I saw the look of someone who knew what was out there. Who could see the shapes writhing behind the clouds.

They shouldn’t even be here. Were they supposed to be hostages? Trey would have already been enough leverage.
With Matthias closest to the portal, there would be no getting back to the other side without going through him.

There was too much power collected in the lighthouse,
I thought, biting down on my lip. Too many of us with power. Grace by herself was nothing, Lucien the same, but now each of us held the core of Lucien’s power. Matthias was nothing to sneeze at, though, and with the girls and Trey here … there was too much chance someone would get hurt.

The tension in the air only seemed to make the storms rage faster. Somewhere out there the Riders were doing whatever it is they did. Fighting. Killing. But they had to know we were here by now. The power lurching inside me hummed in resonance. Darkness churned in the distance.

“We can’t stay in here,” I said quietly to Trey.

“Oh, but finally all the players are gathered in a single room. The woman behind the curtain has been revealed, and the most glorious reunion in the history of Belle Dam is taking place,” Matthias said, with a showman’s swag. He extended an arm, pivoting to encompass both Grace and Lucien, who had not taken their horrific eyes off of one other. His lip curled with distaste as he had a look around the lighthouse. “It’s just too bad that such an epic moment had to happen … here.”

“I thought you’d like the lighthouse, Matthias. Isn’t it like demon catnip? Go ahead,” I nodded, “roll around on the floor a little bit. We won’t judge.”

Matthias scowled. He shoved the gun underneath Riley’s jaw, pointed up. “Has anyone ever told you that sarcasm truly is the lowest form of discourse?”

Having a gun shoved in her face didn’t affect Riley the way I thought it would. She blinked twice, then twisted back to look at the demon. “
Everyone
tells him that,” she said calmly.

Lucien was still struck dumb by Grace’s apparent resurrection. I could see his eyes darting left and right, tracing back lines of the future all the way back to the beginning. Trying to figure out what he’d missed. I smiled. It was easier than I thought it would be to break him down. Maybe Grace had the right idea after all. All her games, all her tricks, those were the appetizers. This was what she’d really been after.

She’d bested one of the Riders at the Gate. Outwitted him from the beginning.

“Got to say, I’m a little disappointed, Matthias,” I called. I wanted his attention on me, and not on Jade and Riley. “You know they’ve got help lines for people in abusive relationships. Just because Grace hurt you once doesn’t mean you have to go back. Or did she promise it would never happen again? That last time was an accident?”

“You think you’re so funny.” He shifted and pointed the gun towards me. “Does your little group of rejects know what you risk unleashing on the world?”

I let some of the violet peek through my eyes, cracked my knuckles and rolled my neck. Stretches were important before a supernatural showdown. “Want to find out firsthand?” I offered, beckoning him forward.

“Silence.” A purple lash of energy cut between the two of us, preceding the whip crack that echoed across the room. “Do you really think me stupid, boy? That even with a contract, I could trust in your loyalty?” Though Grace never looked away from Lucien, nor did she let the triumphant smirk waver, her words were addressed to me. “I know exactly why you came here, boy, and what you hope to accomplish. But the thing
you
need to realize is that I will not be the one trapped in this lighthouse for another hundred years.”

“You’re not locking Braden up,” Trey snapped, stepping forward.

Grace casually flicked her wrist like she was swatting a fly. Trey flew backwards and slammed into one of the stone walls. The air rushed out of him in a startled groan, and then he slumped.
John’s eyes, right before the spell struck. Seeking me out. His body, falling to the ground.
I couldn’t go through that again.

I ran to him, wishing that just for once Trey would learn to keep his mouth shut. He grunted, which was good because it meant he was still conscious. I only had seconds to decide, and I did something I had been trained not to. Magic wasn’t supposed to be used for healing on account of it could make things horribly worse, but the normal rules didn’t really apply to me anymore. The warring powers inside of me complied with my need, and delved through bone and surface tissue without finding any serious complication.

“You have a choice,” Grace went on like there’d never been an interruption. “You can give up this petty resistance and become my surrogate in this world. Or I will kill every last one of them where they stand.”

“And what then, Grace?” I challenged. “What happens after you regain your freedom?”

The darkness in her eyes was eclipsed by the red for just a moment, as the wellspring power in her was pushed down. The power was a part of Lucien, so he never had to fight against it, but Grace … surviving in the lighthouse for as long as she did suggested an iron will I didn’t have. She wouldn’t lose control the way I would. At least not at first.

“Everything,” she whispered with a smile. “Everything happens.”

Lucien wanted Trey dead because if Trey was gone, he thought the vision of me killing him would never come to pass. He feared what I would do to him. So did Matthias. But not Grace. With her, it had never been about fear of what I could do.

It was jealousy.

She
wanted to be the one with the power of the Rider.
She
wanted to become something more than human.

“What about Gentry and Jade?” I asked. Grace’s expression was blank. “Your grandchildren? Or your great to the power of fifteen grandkids, whatever. You’ll kill them?”

An absent roll of the shoulder. “What are they to me? Fruit from a rotted branch. What need do I have of any of them?”

“If you destroy the city, he goes free,” I motioned to Lucien. “Have you thought about that?”

At this, Grace gave me her first real smile. Full of teeth, and it might have been pretty if not for the insanity in her eyes, and the rictus grin of her facial muscles. Not a woman who wore smiles well. Or ever. “But I have you to thank for that, fledgling. You may have seen into my mind while I taught you, but I also saw into yours. I saw the competing visions, the different perceptions of what would happen. And I know how you unravel the Rider. So simple. I can’t believe I never thought of it before myself.”

Lucien’s finger twitched, and Grace seized on it, the darkening rubies that were her eyes throwing off more light than they had a moment ago. She bathed in it, so it looked as though she wore a gown of crimson. “How was it my broken little bird described it? I ‘tore the stuffing’ out of you?” Grace’s smile was a vicious blade. “Make even one move against me, Rider, and I will show you just how much I remember about that day.”

“I have had a hundred years to dream about what I would do to you,” Lucien said aloud in wonder. “I thought it would take my release from your curse and a trip through the Dead Worlds to track you down, true, but so what? Delay only makes the destruction sweeter. But here you are, waiting for me. Just as you always have been.”

“Do you truly think you are still my master, monster?” Grace delighted at the play on words, a cold twist on her lips. “Have you forgotten the knowledge the lighthouse holds? I’ve spent a century learning your secrets. All in anticipation of this moment.”

It was like all Lucien needed was a provocation, a reason to strike out against her. The darkness swirled around him, a distortion that blurred everything around it.

But the problem with having a battle royale in the lighthouse, as Lucien should have remembered, was that there was no advantage here. Each of us held a portion of the demon’s power, and I just prayed to God that the three of us were close to evenly matched.

“You can’t win this!” I shouted, lunging to the left as the black fire Lucien threw at Grace was deflected and hurtled my way. Trey had been working his way towards his sister and Riley, but Matthias had turned the gun on him, a cold, expectant look on his face.

“Abominations should be killed and not heard,” Grace snarled, whipping scarlet spells in my direction. They were sharp and thin like razor wire, a version of the same spell that Catherine had summoned up against me once. But every time I stared into the heart of the spells, meaning to unspool them the same way all magic came unraveled under my gaze, they split in two, becoming a laser-red Hydra monster hurtling towards me.

It became a three-way brawl after that, and if I’d thought us evenly matched, I was a stupid, stupid kid. The only thing saving me from being instantly incinerated was Grace and Lucien were flinging spells and demonic constructs at
each other
rather than being distracted by me. I leapt out of the way of a wayward blast, dropping into a roll and lunging free of a nearly unavoidable death.

“A hundred years to lick your wounds, and still you pick the wrong fight,” Lucien sneered. “At least the boy was a worthwhile challenge. You were simply pathetic.”

Grace screeched in fury, and the walls of the lighthouse started to shake. Dust and pebbles rained down from the ceiling. The sounds she made were a physical thing, an expression of magic.

I know this. I’ve seen this before.
The night Lucien killed John, my chest had been boiling over with emotions I couldn’t handle. I’d been drowning in something stronger than me, and it had struggled for escape. Only after I had opened my mouth, after I’d
screamed,
had the power flooded out.

It had destroyed the chapel completely, an explosion of magic Grace had needed to first reach out and open the lighthouse to me.

But if Grace unleashed that kind of power here, what would happen to us? In the distance, I could feel the Riders flowing closer, like bubbles of chaos rising to the surface.

“Enough,” I shouted. Power lanced out of me, bathing the room in sharp light. It sliced through every spell and trick, ripped Grace’s voice from her mouth, and struck down every projectile. For a moment, the room was still, but even as the blue light started to blush and redden, and the winter voices in my head started calling for more, the battle started anew.

Matthias stood calmly in front of the girls, one hand on either shoulder, tugging them up or down, left or right as the situation dictated. He made it into a dance, a smooth pirouette and turn as they avoided everything that came towards them. Once he lifted Jade several feet off the ground as a low flying blast of indigo razor wire spun across the floor.

I did my best to not only shield myself, but to protect Trey, who was still trying to get to his sister. And while Trey usually had moments of almost inhuman movement, where he would unconsciously tap into the magic that burned within him, none of that was evident tonight. More than once he almost walked face first into an incoming blast. I wasn’t nearly as graceful as Matthias was with the dodging, but Trey and I still had all our limbs.

Up until now, I’d played more defense than offense, but after a gout of flame almost caught my shirt on fire, I started changing it up. I turned both my palms towards each other, and channeled energy through my fingertips. Lightning began to arc from one hand to the other, compressing down into a basketball-sized coil of lightning.

I waited until Grace was distracted with Lucien’s latest attack. Even occupied with the shadowy sand attack the demon threw at her, she still deflected the balled lightning strike.

It careened towards the broken wall. Stone tumbled down into the gap between the lighthouse and the Widow’s walk. Though there was nothing there but open air, the moment the stone crossed the barrier from lighthouse to storm, it incinerated itself into a puff of smoke, immediately swept up into the windstorm.

“Stupid boy,” the witch snarled.

Lucien must have realized he wasn’t the dominant force he expected to be. “You can’t let her escape here, Braden. Help me stop her. You know she’s the real danger.”

Lucien, asking me for help.
Lucien underneath my boot, begging for mercy.
The flash came fast, and ice grew in my veins.
Crush them both. All. Everything. Destruction is glory. The warmest fires burn from bones.

Blood rushed to my head and I stumbled, and if Trey hadn’t grabbed me in that moment Grace’s next attack might have severed my head from my body. The two of us tumbled to the ground in a sprawl, only the voices in my head wouldn’t shut up. They were so loud it was all I could hear.

Blue light surrounded me, then flashed to purple. The darker it got, the more I slipped. The winter voices surged to the surface, and I fell back, down into a chasm somewhere deep inside myself where I would never find the way out again.

Something struck me across the face, and just like that I was the one looking out my eyes again. My mouth tasted funny, there was blood smeared on Trey’s lips, and my face burned. He still had his hand out, and now I could feel the imprint against my skin. He’d slapped me. But something else.