Darkness Becomes Her (22 page)

A series of shudders went through me. I bit back tears and swallowed. “I didn’t?” I gasped. Because I sure as hell remembered screaming and crying and moaning.

And I sure as hell remembered my past. No, not
my
past. My ancestor’s cruel, heartbreaking past. My chest ballooned with the lingering despair I’d experienced as my ancestor. My head fell into my hands.

“You saw.”

I glanced up at Sebastian, hands falling limp into my lap. “Yeah,” I answered, voice ragged and small. “I saw.” He waited. And I couldn’t make the words come. “Do you mind if we get out of here?”

He eyed me for a long moment, and I saw worry and fear in his look, but that was all, just a brief glimpse before his head dipped and he began packing the contents of our ritual into his bag.

After shoving the heavy lid over the unnatural corpse of Alice Cromley, we left the tomb.

Long streaks of purple and orange leaked across the dark sky from the east, revealing the cemetery in all its creepy, broken glory. The high iron fence rose like battlefield spikes, keeping in the undefeated tombs, the ruins, and the mossy, exposed bones.

Still weak and numb, I made my way carefully down the two broken steps, my eyes coming to rest on the backs of the others. Odd. I thought they’d be facing me, waiting, curious to know what had happened.

Four in a line. Shoulder to shoulder. No one moved.

“Guys?” I said slowly, the hairs on my arms rising.

“Shh!” Henri’s head moved slightly, the only indication that the sound had come from him.

I exchanged a quick, confused glance with Sebastian before
stepping closer to see what had grabbed their attention.

A gasp lodged in my throat.

No.

Snakes. At least thirty of them. All on the edge of the swamp, where water met ground. Bobbing in the water. Gathered. Drawn there. Eyes on the tomb. On me.
Looking at me.

I stumbled back, falling against the steps. Pain lanced though my back and elbow as they cracked against marble. One look was all it took, one brief look that would be burned into my brain forever. And fear, the likes of which I’d never known before, swept me up and propelled me back. Scrambling, falling hard to my knees, my hands scraping across the jagged edges of a broken stone as I continued, turning and running.

Run.

My heart and lungs grew strained with the force of terror pushing the blood through my system, making me tingly and unsteady even as I darted around tombs and leaped over ruins, slowing only when the gate that led to freedom rose up before me.

I paused in front of the overgrown gate, my chest heaving, my arms going limp at my sides, the backpack slipping out of my hand and falling to the ground. Tears flowed down my cheeks and neck as I struggled to breathe and process what I’d just witnessed.

A nightmare. A horrible fucking nightmare.

The quick footsteps of the others approaching made me swipe hastily at the tears.

Crank was the first to reach me. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“You’re afraid of snakes.” Dub arrived next, sitting on a stone.

Sebastian tossed his backpack at Dub’s feet and joined him on the stone, drawing one leg up, his voice even and quiet. “Never seen them do that before.”

A small, ironic laugh stopped short of my mouth, turning into a harsh sound in my throat. Yeah. Neither had I. I placed my hands on my hips, wanting to toss my head back and scream, but instead I stayed silent, staring at the sky as it transitioned from dawn to day.

My body convulsed with a violent quake. I rubbed my face hard, trying to rub out the vision in my mind, and the horrifying realization that the snakes had come to see
me
. To pay homage to their queen. Medusa. Gorgon. The one who carried the curse of my family and would one day become a monster. A hideous creature so reviled one look would turn a person to stone. Stone as hard as the one Dub and Sebastian sat on.

That was my legacy.
That
was what awaited me.

And it was fucked up enough to scare even a goddess. It figured. I laughed.

“So?” Henri said, winded, having finally made it to the gate. “What’d you see in the tomb?”

“Nothing.” My voice was laced with horror and grief.

Violet came strolling up, Pascal under her arm once again. I couldn’t look at those reptilian eyes, so I turned back, coming face-to-face with Henri’s frown and Crank’s incredulous look.

“We just came all the way out here with you and you’re not going to tell us?”

“I didn’t ask you to come, Crank.” I winced, knowing I sounded like a first-rate asshole. “I’m sorry, it’s just … I can’t …” How could I tell them? How could I tell them and watch their faces turn into shock and disgust?

“You never would’ve figured this out without our help,” Henri pointed out. “We deserve to know what you’re up against. If Athena goes on the warpath, it affects us all.”

“It doesn’t if I’m not here.”

Crank’s eyes widened in disbelief, and her hands curled into two small fists. “So, what are you saying? You’re going to leave us?”

I tossed my hands up, staring hard at a point beyond Crank’s shoulder. I didn’t know what the hell I was saying anymore. Just that I couldn’t tell them what I was, what I would become. I couldn’t watch them run away, turn their backs on me—the biggest misfit of them all, forsaken even by those in New 2. And if
that
happened, then where was I supposed to go? Where the hell would anyone accept me?

No, this secret would go with me to the grave if it had to. Whether it meant hurting my friends or not, no matter if it meant leaving New 2 and never looking back.

A squawk interrupted my thoughts, reverberating through the thin morning air.

A raven landed on the peak of a nearby tomb, its wings fluttering for a moment before folding behind its back.

“Ari,” Sebastian said, “whatever it is, you can tell us.”

The raven cawed again, the sound echoing Sebastian’s last two words.
Tell us! Tell us!
Almost as though it laughed at me. God, I was losing it.

But then, the others were staring strangely at the bird too.

I wasn’t the only one who heard.

Tell us! Tell us!

Dread swept beneath my skin as the raven transformed into a black-clad woman perched on her haunches on the peak of the tomb, her hands curling over the edge, fingernails long and vicious, a wicked grin on her lips. “Yes, tell us, Ari. Tell us what you have seen.”

Athena.

Dead flowers and flashing emerald beads threaded through her tangled, upswept hair.

A hard swallow went down my throat, followed by a tightening of every muscle I possessed. All the emotions of my vision
boiled over, as fresh and furious as they’d been a few moments ago. “You should know, you petty piece of shit.”

I blinked, surprised by the venom and the words that came out of my mouth. But I knew where they came from. From seeing Medusa, and the horror she had gone through. And for what? For being beautiful? For being raped by some ass-wipe of a god in Athena’s perfect temple?

Fuck Athena.

Athena’s eyes narrowed to fine points. She cocked her head. But the rise in her chest as she breathed told me that the words had cut. Good.

“Well, then,” the goddess said, her perfect lips twitching, “if you won’t tell them, perhaps I should.”

“N
O
!” I
SHOUTED AS
A
THENA EASED HER LEGS DOWN SO THAT
she straddled the roofline of the tomb, her feet dangling over the edge and swinging like a child’s. Her smug smile chilled me to the bone. “Please,” I whispered, hating myself for begging. “Don’t.”

“Ooh!” She clapped her hands together. “I know. How about we just show them instead? A little taste of what’s to come. Just a vision, not enough to hurt them. And just enough to show
you
, dear Ari, that you don’t belong here.”

Oh God.

I sank to my knees. “No,” my voice choked. “Please. Don’t do this.”

One corner of her mouth twisted up smugly. I knew it was
too late. I saw it in the brutal glint and the incredible arrogance lighting the depths of her eyes.

Athena’s hands shot out, and from them came two shafts of crackling, green-tinged bolts. I didn’t even have time to stand, just stayed frozen on my knees as her power swirled around me, ruffling my clothing and lifting the wisps of my hair. The knot at the back of my head broke free. My hair lifted and spread out in white waves. My stomach clenched as I tried to double over, to curl into myself and hide, but an invisible force held me still, held my chin high and my shoulders straight. I fought against it, sweat breaking out on the small of my back.

I screamed, trying to lift my hands, to hold my hair down, to stop what was happening, but they wouldn’t cooperate. My knees lifted off the ground and I spun, facing the pale, stunned faces of my friends. Arms wide, completely open. No way to hide.

And Sebastian—Sebastian, who had one foot in front of him, was pressing forward but unable to move, unable to help. None of them able to move.

The only action I could make was with my eyes. They connected with Sebastian’s and grew glassy. My throat closed. My heart pumped at a frantic, painful pace. Then my hair began to separate into several twisted and swaying strands. My scalp burned fire.

Dear God, I’m on fire!

I shrieked—a horrible sound. I squeezed my eyes closed, forcing it to stop.
Please! Just stop!

And then I felt them stirring beneath my scalp. My mouth fell open as I gasped for air that would not come. Revulsion shuddered through me, making my nerves electric with fear. Tears leaked hot from my eyes.
No! No! No!

My scalp split, and it felt like smooth, round smoke slid up and out of my skin, turning and twisting around strands of my hair and becoming vague shadows of living things. Terrifying, living things. Smoky visions of what was to come. Writhing, twining together, a halo of sickening, milky white, yellow, and orange apparitions.

My eyes rolled back into my head. My heart thudded hard, one last time, unable to support the panic-driven adrenaline coursing through my veins. My eyes popped open against my will, Athena forcing me to watch. To see my friends.

My friends.

Backing up. Reaching out to one another for support. Horror whitening their stricken faces and dragging their mouths open.

No,
I wanted to beg.
Please don’t go.

But I couldn’t speak.

And Sebastian. Sebastian who had that one foot out, trying to break the invisible barrier and help me, stepped back.

He stepped back.

My chest deflated, sinking in, collapsing as the truth and the cold realization gripped the last remnants of hope I had and smashed them into smithereens. It shouldn’t have surprised me, really. Don’t get your hopes up and you don’t get hurt. Don’t trust or love and you don’t get hurt. I’d broken my own rules. And what sane or even slightly sane person wouldn’t run, or shit themselves, or become shell-shocked? I couldn’t blame them.

Crank held on to Henri’s arm, her face pressed against it, eyes as round as Frisbees. They all backed away. All but Violet, who stood amazed, slowly pushing up her Mardi Gras mask to reveal an expression of childlike wonder.

Henri rushed forward and grabbed Violet, jerking her back. She whipped around and bared her tiny fangs at him. He dropped her as though burned.

They were through the gate now, fingers wrapping around the bars and yelling at Violet to come, the voices muted and drowning in the chaos that swirled through my brain, mixing with the pain and the heartbreak.

In an act of defiance, Violet sat cross-legged on the ground. They finally gave up. Henri pulled Crank and Dub away from the bars and ran down the street. Sebastian hesitated, giving one last unfathomable look at me, hovering inside the cemetery, and then he hurried after the others.

Athena released me. A breath whooshed from my lungs as
the weight of my body hit the ground, sinking into the softness. The side of my face slapped against the wet earth, and it felt good, that chill.

I stayed unmoving, too weak and too hurt to care.

Athena’s feet hit the ground and sauntered the few short steps to where I lay. Her booted toe shoved my shoulder, pushing me onto my back.

I gazed up at the face of the goddess, the cruel bitch who had a special place in hell, if such a place existed. She dropped down on her haunches and tenderly wiped the single stream of tears from the left side of my face, then rested her elbows on her knees. “You don’t belong here, child.
They
don’t want you.
He
doesn’t want you. Even the misfits have rejected you. There is no place for you in New 2, no place anywhere in this world that will accept you for what you are. Your home is with me.”

My chest tightened with the most intense despair and loneliness. Athena was right. The Bitch was right.

“You have until dusk to decide. Come home with me, daughter of Medusa. I will give you shelter, riches, your heart’s desire. You have but to submit to my rule, that is all.” She reached out and lifted a strand of my hair, rubbing it through her fingers, a flash of envy and bitterness passing through her eyes. “What will you do when you turn? Where will you go? Perhaps … perhaps after a time I shall lift this curse from your
body and give you your life back. Be a good girl, Aristanae, a good little minion, and I just might.”

Another trail of tears followed in the same wet path as Athena stood and disappeared.

I let my eyes close, rolled my body so that it was curled onto one side, pulled my legs and arms in, and cried silently into the wet grass.

Everything hurt. The outside. The inside. And I finally understood what it felt like to be broken. I let the anguish consume me and take me into a world of numb desolation.

After a long moment, Violet sat down behind me and snuggled against my back. The small act hurt so badly, fresh tears flowed. Violet. Little Violet had accepted me, had shown mercy and kindness and loyalty.