(Skeleton Key) Princess of the Damned (14 page)

And then Eiress was going to kill them both.

"Eiress," he said, slapping his hand against the mirror. "Eiress, you can't do this. We'll find another way. Eiress!"

As if she heard his every word, she looked up at him, eyes shining with tears. "I wish we could, Landon." She pushed her hair away from her face and paced the ballroom. "I thought I could come to your side of the mirror and help you find her and—and stop her. But three little girls have called for her now, and every time, I couldn't do it. I couldn't pull them in. I can't…I can't do it, Landon. You're on your own."

"Landon?" His dad's voice, tight with stress, echoed through the bathroom and Landon prayed no one had heard him pounding on the mirror. He pressed his palm again to the mirror, hoping she could feel his goodbye.

"Yeah, Dad?" He left the mirror and Eiress and went back into his room.

"Are you trying to leave? The doctors haven't even figured out what was wrong with you."

"Just exhaustion, Dad. I'm fine."

"No, they said your white blood cell count was elevated and your blood pressure is elevated and several other things are elevated—"

Landon sucked in a breath, gathering courage. "Dad, I know you don't believe me about any of this, but my friend is still in trouble and I can't save her from here. I have to go, and I have to leave Mom even though she tried to save me, and I have to defy you and I know—"

"Landon, I know you think you're invincible because you're young, but there's a reason the doctor hasn't signed you out yet. Your body needs to recover, you need to rest. Whatever you've been out doing, your body has to recover. Just because you can't see an injury doesn't mean it isn't there."

Landon dropped his head. "You're right, Dad." Without arguing, he climbed back into his bed and hoped his dad didn't notice he had his shoes on.

"Good boy. I'll see if I can find out what's going on. You just rest." His dad tucked the blankets around him and patted him awkwardly on top of his head.

"Yeah. Thanks, Dad."

As soon as his dad had disappeared, Landon shoved the blankets off him and slid out of bed. His legs were still wobbly, so running didn't seem like the best option, but he did it anyway, skidding out of the room and down the hall, making sure it was the opposite direction his dad had gone.

L
ANDON STARTED CALLING THE
number on the little card the police officer had given him as soon as he hit the elevator. He barely waited for the man to answer before he started talking. "I think I know what the lady looks like."

"What? Who is this?"

Landon ground his teeth, searching for patience. He did not have time for this, but he had no idea how else to go about finding a centuries-old demon woman running loose in his city. "Landon Heritage. I talked to you at the hospital a few hours ago. My mom was attacked. I think I know what the woman looks like."

"Woman? Why do you think it's a woman?"

"Because it is. She's super pale, short frizzy hair, dead, evil eyes. She—she walks like royalty—you can't miss her."

Yeah. That didn't sound weird at all.

"Could you describe her to a sketch artist?"

"No. I don't have time. Do you have any idea where she is?"

"Look, Landon, I know you're very upset about your mom, but let us handle this. It's our job."

The man was very nice, but Landon just wanted to throw his phone.

Not. Helping.

"Yeah, but I know things about her that can help—"

"Is she a friend of yours?" The man's voice had changed, imperceptibly.

"No. Definitely not. She's been torturing my—" he suddenly froze. What did he say here? "—my friend for years. I can help you!"

"Son, your mother was just attacked," the man said, not unkindly. "I know how much you want to avenge her or whatever, but this is our job. This is what we do for a living, every day. We're trained for this—"

"You're not trained for
her.
Please, you have to listen—"

The man cut him off. "How do you know her, Landon? Who is this friend she's been torturing?"

"I don't know her—I mean, I know her, but I—"

"Did you have a fight? And she came after your family?"

"No." Landon was getting nowhere. "No, it's not like that. She's just a very, very bad woman, and she's not…" How to explain that without sounding crazy?

He'd been sounding crazy his entire life. No reason to stop now.

"She's ancient. And more powerful than you can realize—"

"Ancient? You're telling me an old woman is behind these attacks?"

"No. No, she just doesn't…"

"What Landon? And how do you know her?"

Landon couldn't answer his questions. If he did, the man would only think he was crazy and have him committed or something. At the very least, he'd laugh in Landon's face and ignore his words, anyway.

Landon hung up.

"I will lead you."

Eiress's mother. Landon recognized her voice despite how faint it was.

"Okay. Okay, I've just gotta get home. I need my truck."

E
IRESS HADN'T FELT
L
ANDON'S PRESENCE IN
hours. Maybe days. She'd lacked the courage to pull three separate groups of children through the mirror. Now, she didn't even respond. Just waited in the empty throne room.

Waited to die.

What else was there to look forward to? And if she died in this place and was sent to hell, at least she could make sure that no one else ever had to share her fate.

She'd tried to get Kaida to leave her, to seek his own kind and safety. He refused and had even nipped at her hand when she'd tried to urge him away from her. Now he dangled over the backrest and randomly blew smoke rings into the air.

So when the room chilled, she assumed at first that Kaida had just run out of steam. It was Kaida himself that alerted her when he started hissing angrily, smoke surrounding them both.

Even the smoke didn't dispel the cold by then.

Eiress rose slowly to her feet, looking from Kaida to the direction he was hissing, and back again.

The gates. He was hissing at the gates.

Terror clawed at Eiress's throat. No. It couldn't be. She'd blown the gates open and everyone had been pulled down to hell. They couldn't come back up.

Could they?

It was Elizabeth. Or what was left of her. She materialized through the darkness, her soul roiling with maggot-like darkness. "You little bitch," she hissed.

She moved with a limp, sliding to the left with every step. "I had everything. The world bowed at my feet. I was
beautiful
. I was more
beautiful
than you will ever be and Mary said 'don't touch her. She'll be the end of us. I see her in my nightmares,' and then she
leaves me here to die with you!"
She screamed, throwing her fisted hands in the air.

Eiress stumbled backward in the face of Elizabeth's anger. "How did you get out?" Fear nearly paralyzed her.

"I clawed my way back like vermin. You've reduced me to vermin!" Her screams echoed through the rounded room, attacking Eiress from all angles.

Blow her up. Blow her up. Blow her up.

But fear stood in the way and Eiress couldn't seem to find her strength or will or whatever it was that had served her before. Instead, she crept backward, stumbling on the torn edges of her gown. She fell to the floor and scrambled on hands and feet until she smashed against the mirrored wall. Elizabeth loomed over her.

"I'm going to drain you of your blood slowly, and watch you die. I'm going to watch them drag you to hell and this time, you'll have nothing to fight back with, and then I'm going to bathe in your blood and toast Mary, who left me to rule alone." Her eyes were black, black pits with no spark of mercy.

"I love you, Landon," Eiress whispered as Elizabeth's clawed hand reached for her throat.

Fire billowed from behind her.

Elizabeth screamed as her soul lit, flames enveloping her, and she whirled and dove.

At Kaida.

Elizabeth moved much too quickly for a roiling black soul. She had Kaida around the throat, her claws digging into his scales, before he could escape.

And in this, Eiress found her courage. "No!" she screamed, and her screams rivaled Elizabeth's. The room shook, columns crumbled, and Elizabeth fell to her knees. "You will never hurt anyone ever again!" Eiress shrieked, raising her hands.

Elizabeth's grip on Kaida relaxed, and the little dragon slithered free and ran for the safety of Eiress's feet. Eiress thrust her hands forward, flames burst from her palms, and Elizabeth's soul shattered into a thousand pieces, scattering across the room and past the broken gates. The mouth of hell roared, consuming her.

Elizabeth was gone.

Suddenly exhausted, Eiress fell to her knees and scooped Kaida into her lap. Her little dragon was bleeding, but not the black tar that everything else in this horrid place bled. It was red blood, staining Eiress's hands and skirts. Cradling him to her chest, she rose to her feet and ran for her rooms, her soft slippers pounding against the tile and echoing through the empty halls. "You'll be okay. You'll be okay. You'll be okay."

She crashed through the door, sending it smashing into the wall, and Eiress sprinted to her bed. Kaida made pained little mewling noises and clamped his weak claws into her hand, holding her close.

Eiress sobbed, but there wasn't time for tears to blur her vision, so she brushed them away and tore her sheets into strips. "You'll be okay. You'll be okay."

It was in between sobs that she heard the moans and wails coming from the halls. She didn't have to look to know more souls had fought their way through the broken gates and were in her castle, trying to find her. Clearly, she'd made a horrible mistake, blowing up the gates. Now, it seemed she would have to fight every soul she'd ever sent to hell, but she'd lost Landon when she'd given in to blood lust, and she refused to leave Kaida.

Let them come.

She wouldn't abandon him.

Instead, she focused on binding Kaida's wounds and trying her very best to stop the blood flow. So much blood. The fact that it was the same color as Eiress's hair had been wasn't lost on her, but there was no time to marvel on it. "You'll be okay. You'll be okay."

Her hands shook and her cries wracked her body. Kaida puffed smoke weakly, unable to even raise his head. "You'll be okay. You'll be okay."

In that darkest of dark moments, when angry souls were wandering the halls and Kaida struggled to breathe, she felt Landon's light. She could almost hear him whisper her name, and it gave her strength. The shaking stopped, the cries quieted. "You'll be okay."

The bleeding slowed, and Kaida's breathing evened, his eyes drifting closed. Cradling him to her chest again, she turned to the mirror. "Thank you, Landon."

She could feel his panic, but couldn't tell if it was because of her situation, or something on his side of the mirror. "Elizabeth came back. She—she escaped somehow, and now there are others…but she attacked me, and Kaida tried to save me, and she hurt him, but I—I found my strength and I blew her up." Biting her lip, she stared down at her little dragon. "I'm trying to save him."

She felt Landon's pain, pain at seeing her hurting and being unable to do anything about it. "It's okay. He'll be okay. He's sleeping and the bleeding has stopped."

And then, for the first time ever, she felt another presence with Landon. Eiress froze. It was, at once completely unknown and yet…

So familiar.

"Mama?"

Eiress didn't realize the word had slipped from her lips until she felt the second presence light with joy. Her mother. She was there, on the other side of the mirror. Eiress raised her hand, pushed her fingers against the cool glass as if she could reach through it and hold her mother's hand. She raised Kaida so her mother could see him more clearly and said, "I kept him safe, Mama. As safe as I could."

And she felt love. Never ending, all consuming love.