Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (44 page)

Amber finally wrenched her gaze from the floor to him. She placed her hand over her mouth and stare at her poor baby brother. “I’m so sorry, Toby.” She peeled away from the hearth. “You found a way to me. Even after all the archduke did, you still found me.”

“When my body slept, the mask lost control. I would be free for a few hours, but the mask eventually would wake up and take control. I tried … I tried to dust myself, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.” He straightened and managed something of a smile beneath his swollen, puffy cheeks. “Then I heard you. You called to me through the mirror, and I knew it was my sister’s voice. Amber, I see and hear everything Bone Man does.” His look darkened. “
Everything
. The archduke told me what the relic was. I couldn’t let him keep it. I tried to destroy it, but I couldn’t, and you—”

“Were the only one you remembered,” she finished.

He nodded. Amber dropped her hand and ran to him. She embraced Toby, squeezing him with all the pent up emotion bottled over the decade that passed since she lost him. “They told me you were dust,” she blubbered. She leaned back and laughed, cupping his jaw. “I knew you weren’t. I knew it!”

“You never gave up. I knew you wouldn’t.” Toby’s eyes widened. He pulled away from her and looked to the window. “He’s coming, Amber. This place is a deathtrap if you stay. He knows how to give control to Eve, and he thinks I’m going to bring you to him.”

“We’ve got to get Jason and Dino and get out,” she said, heading for the door.

Toby grabbed her hand and jerked her to a stop. “I can’t go with you, Amber.”

A chill hit her core. She whipped around and scowled, suddenly furious. “What do you mean you can’t go with me? I didn’t just risk everything to come rescue you only to lose you at the very end. You’re coming with me, Toby. It’s not up for debate.”

“You don’t understand. Bone Man killed Dino’s wife. Remember that?”

“That was the mask. It was a relic, not you!”

“You think he’ll believe that? You think he’ll listen to reason?”

Amber wanted to argue, but she knew Toby was right. Dino would never let her brother live, not after all he’d done as Bone Man. Amber swallowed and searched the floor for a solution that wouldn’t come. She looked up and found her brother scanning the world beyond his window.
 

“What about the mirror, Toby? Go through the mirror and run away. Get as far away as you can from Afterlife!”

“Souls can’t survive in the mortal world for long without going completely insane. Besides, if I stepped through the mirror, where would I go? I don’t know or remember anyone.”

“Then what are you suggesting?”

Toby motioned for his sword, and it flew into his hand. He squeezed the grip and straightened. “The archduke knows you’re here, and he’s coming for you. I’ve got to do what I can to make things right. You’ve saved two worlds by being stronger than Eve, and you’ve saved me by never giving up when everyone else did. I might not be able to make up for what I’ve done as Bone Man, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.”

“What? No.” She stepped toward him, hands balled into fists. “Absolutely not. You’re coming with me. You have to come with me.”

“No.”

“
Yes
, Toby.”
 

Her poltergeist curse flared, and so did his. The two invisible forces met and clashed, cracking the floor.

“Amber, what’re you going to do, make me your prisoner? This is the only way to keep you safe, and you know it. You freed me. Now let me free you.”

She slumped, and the tears came again. “But I’ll lose you for the second time. Is this it? This is how it ends?”

He leaned into the open window and took a deep breath, a wide smile on his face. “Look at all this! Do you think it ever really ends?” He pulled back and faced her. A few specks of dust dotted his hair. “The curse in you isn’t what you think it is. You need to learn to control Eve, or she will control you. If you want answers, find the dust devils. No one knows the relics like they do. They can help.”

“Toby, don’t go,” she murmured.
 

“I wish I didn’t have to, but I do.”

“I’ll come back for you.”

He smiled. “I know. This isn’t goodbye, Amber. It never really is.” He stepped onto the windowsill and prepared to jump. Before he did, he glanced back. “I’ll keep him busy as long as I can. Take the door opposite mine. It leads back to the black garden. You should be able to use the phantom curse there.”

“Toby!”
 

He paused.
 

“I’m so sorry. I tried to swim for you,” she said. “I tried. It was so deep. I was scared.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Amber. I knew you would try. That’s why I swam so far away.” Toby leapt out the window, sailing in a long arc that careened into one of the palace’s many courtyards.

Amber could only stare at the empty square of a window where her brother had stood seconds before. She’d finally found him—finally—only to have him leave her again because of the archduke.

The archduke
, she thought bitterly.
Adam
.

Amber clasped her fists against her chest and glared at the window. She hated Adam. The level of animosity she felt toward the tyrant couldn’t be quantified. It blackened her blood and sent it boiling. It twisted her heart and sent it thrashing against her chest. She would make the archduke pay for turning her brother into a murderous monster, and she would make him pay dearly.

The dull thudding against the door tore her from her thoughts. It took a few seconds longer to rip her gaze from the empty window, but once she did, her senses finally started coming to her.
 

Amber ran to the door and unlocked the bolt, throwing the door wide. Dino and Jason spilled inside in a mess of frantic shouting and bravado. Dino shoved past her, fists balled and scanning the room. His gaze settled on the broken mask and lingered there for an instant before he whipped around and pulled her to him. He ran his hand through her hair. She felt his hot breath, saw the worry and fear in his eyes. “What happened to you? I thought … I thought he got you.”
 

He smiled and pulled her close. So close. She could have have rested in his embrace forever. It felt like the home she’d always wanted, and she never wanted to leave it.

“You did it, Amber,” he murmured. “You finally killed Bone Man.”

Amber blinked. She pulled back, glancing at him and Jason. “I killed Bone Man?”

“That’s his mask, isn’t?” Dino asked.

Jason picked up a shard, eyeing it curiously. “It looks like that psycho’s mask.”

“Put it down. We don’t know what kind of power might be left in it,” Amber said.
 

Jason grimaced and tossed the piece to the floor. He wiped his hands on his pants and turned to them. “So we won? That’s it?”

Amber looked to Dino. He smiled at her again, and the warmth and joy she saw within his eyes tore her to shreds. “I’ve waited so long for him to die. He’s dust now, Amber, and Afterlife’s that much safer because of you. We’re all safer because of you.”

He leaned in for a kiss with his perfect lips. She ached to taste them, to feel them softly press against hers, but harder as they fell into their passion. But at the last instant she pulled away, her guilt throwing a bucket of ice over her heart. “Dino, the archduke’s coming. I … I felt him. We have to go. We have to go
now
.”

His brows pinched together. He ran his fingers through her hair one last time and nodded. Amber turned around and ran into the dark room, the guilt of her lie twisting her stomach into knots.
Just tell him
, she thought.
He’ll understand. He was your brother, Amber. He’ll understand!

She turned around in the dark room. Dust glittered in the moonlight filtering through the windows, and Amber wondered darkly if any of it might be Zoe Cardona’s. And just like that, her courage to tell the truth died on the thought.

“What about Toby?” Jason asked.

The question was utterly innocent, but she could have slapped him for asking it. Dino added his agreement to the question with a quick nod. Amber swallowed and glanced into Bone Man’s room where the picture of her and her brothers as children still lay. “I went inside Bone Man’s mind,” Amber said. “Toby’s gone. Dust.”

Dino’s shoulders slumped. “Oh, Amber, I’m so—”

A roar shook the palace. It wasn’t any normal roar, like a lion proudly claiming its territory. This was a roar from a deep place, a dark place. The roar filled every inch of the room. It vibrated through Amber’s chest and buried in her core. It poisoned the air with a kind of vicious, savage rage that woke the deepest animal fear within her.
 

Amber and Dino looked at each other. “The archduke,” they said.

She spun toward one door while Dino headed back the way they came. “Over here!” she yelled. “That door’s a trap!”

Dino skidded to a halt. He looked like he might argue, but Amber didn’t wait to find out. She sprinted for the door Toby had told her to take and flung it wide. A whoosh of cold air swelled over her. She blinked the dust from her eyes and ran into the hall. Dino and Jason pounded at her heels. All around them, the palace’s sirens began shrieking into the night sky. Screams and shouts perforated the air. Behind them, she heard a thunderous explosion that shook the floor so hard she nearly fell.

Amber reached the far door. She flung it wide, and her heart soared at the sight of the small plaza before her and the field of stars crowning it. She raced into the courtyard. She spun around, already feeling the curse awaken within her.
 

Dino looked down at his fists. He squeezed them, and tendrils of grey mist sprouted from his arms and shoulders. He flashed a toothy smile. “Alright, here we go!”

Amber grabbed Jason’s hand. “We’ve got to go. You ready?”

Blackjackets exploded from a door across the plaza. Before Jason could answer, she jerked him close, and as the bullets started flying, their bodies collapsed into a smoky vortex.
 

Amber kicked off the ground and went sailing into the sky. The Black Palace shrank beneath them while the dome of stars swelled ahead. Jason kept a death grip on her while he looked down at the receding citadel, the wind whipping through his hair.
 

They flew so high Afterlife became little more than an endless blanket of twinkling gems. She slowed their ascent and hovered there, letting the wind caress her sweaty cheeks.
 

Dino took up position beside them. He folded his arms over his chest as he gazed down at the city. “The Errand is finished. There’s no one in the city who will take us in now.” He unfolded his arms and looked to her. “I’m sorry about your brother, Amber.”

She swallowed the painful lump in her throat and kept her gaze from meeting his. “I am too.”

“Where do we go now?” Jason asked. “Back to Portsmouth?”

Amber thought for a moment. “There was a mirror in the Black Palace.”

“If there is one, then that’s the only one I know of,” Dino said.

“Well, we can’t go back there, then.”

“Then where?” Jason asked.

Amber finally met Dino’s stare. “She’s still inside me,” she told him.

“I know,” Dino replied.

“We have to find the dust devils. If anyone knows how to stop this, it’s them.”

“The dust devils are dangerous, Amber. There’s a reason they aren’t in the city. They weren’t even allowed in before the Revolution. They’re not just Deep-touched. They’re … dark. Unpredictable. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I am.”

He smirked. “Then I guess we’ve got some dust devils to find. They’re not easy to catch, but then again, they may not be too keen on hiding if it’s you who’s doing the looking.”

She swept her arm in a wide arc. “Then lead the way, Dino Cardona.”

“It’d be my pleasure, Amber Blackwood.”

Dino glided into the distance. Amber powered after him, Jason awkwardly in her arms. “I’m gonna need a power too,” her friend finally said.

“You really don’t want one. The curses aren’t as fun as you think.”

“Are you kidding me? Where do I sign up? Who are these dust devils, and are there any brooding vampires with emotional issues I can hit up? I’ve been told I have a
very
charming neck.”

“You’re ridiculous, you know that?”

They laughed, and as the distance between them and the palace grew, the weight on her heart lifted. She lied to Dino, and the lie hurt, but Dino never would have left if he’d known Bone Man still lived. And in a way, Bone Man had died in that room. When Amber broke the mask, the monster that was Bone Man vanished. Her brother would never do anything close to what that creature did, and she knew in her heart she would find him again. Once she could control this curse, control Eve, she would return to Afterlife and end Adam once and for all. For Toby. For Dino. For every soul down there.

One day, though, she would need to tell Dino the truth about Bone Man and her brother, and knowing that slowly gnawed at her. She buried the thought. She buried it deep, where the gnawing was little more than the barest nibble in the darkest recesses of her mind, and there she hoped she would eventually forget it.

Toby winced at the roar blasting from within the archduke’s chambers. As the sound faded, the once quiet palace exploded into chaos. Blackjackets poured from rooms, pounding through the halls with swords and rifles drawn. The palace’s interior alarms began to wail, their piercing screeches rolling in undulating waves around him.

He grimaced at the alarms but powered on. He reached the doors to the archduke’s room, two massive, fifty-foot panels of black oak. A skull etched in iron plastered them, the pattern cut neatly in half where the doors pulled apart.
 

A great force thudded against them. Toby tensed and squeezed his sword grip. A ripple of power rolled toward him, radiating a thin wave of dust along the ground. The doors shook. With a long, deep groan, they slowly glided apart.