Darkness Watching (Darkworld #1) (32 page)

He laughed, and the sound echoed around the open space like a death toll.

“Doesn’t it
bore
you, having to pretend to be like them? To be normal?”

I didn’t answer.

“I tested you, you know. I wanted to see what you were capable of, but I didn’t believe it until I saw what you did to that shadow-beast, on the mountain. Only another demon could have left marks that distinct. I knew you must have another power source somewhere. And I was right.”

He waved the necklace, and its purple glint flashed in his eyes for an instant.

“So, I need you to do something for me. I can’t access all this power myself. I need you to unlock it. Contact the Darkworld.”

I shook my head. “No fucking way.”

“You don’t have a choice.” The words came out jaggedly, as if he was in pain. “Contact the Darkworld!”

The shadow flitted across his face again.

I felt the demon before I saw it. My spine prickled, and a familiar fear chilled my blood. Terrence grinned. His eyes glowed violet. The third eye shone out from the centre of his forehead, pure white in colour, with a red outline where it had pierced the skin.

“I know what you are.”

It wasn’t the human who spoke. I knew because the voice was inflectionless, emotionless, ageless. I heard it echo in my ears, and I knew it was too late, far too late, to save him.

“Come with me, Ashlyn.”

he demon watched me with unfathomable eyes. I looked away into the dark forest, clinging to the last remnant of hope that one of the others, Claudia or Leo or Howard, might miraculously appear to join me, that I wouldn’t have to face this battle alone.

No such luck.

I met the creature’s eyes again. In silence, we stared each other out.

I felt the snow turn to ice as it made contact with my skin, coating my hands in gloves solid as steel. The Darkworld responded to my call, giving me strength, preparing me for the blow.

The demon leapt.

Ice curled around my fingers, forming a set of icicle-like claws. I ran them across his face, tearing through skin with an ease that filled me with revulsion as Terrence’s blood splattered the snow. His grin remained in place. The demon was entirely unaffected.

What could I do? How could I beat a true demon? Even if I killed Terrence―and there was no way
I
could do that―the creature would make for the next available target. Me.

Veins pulsed all over his face. It looked as though Terrence was locked in a battle of wills with the demon, making a tremendous effort not to surrender complete control. But, from what Claudia had told me, the instant he’d let a demon into his mind, he was already dead.

He still held the amethyst pendant. I took a deep breath. This was my only chance. Maybe several generations’ worth of magic would be enough to beat the demon.

“Join me, Ashlyn. No one else need suffer.”

“Give that back!” I yelled as I threw myself at him. My hands scraped against his knuckles.

Terrence writhed on the ground, yelling in pain; there was an inhuman hissing sound, too. The demon. It wasn’t fully in control yet.

“This is mine!” Terrence roared, his face contorted in agony. “I need it. I need your power. Give it to me! Then all demons will obey me, and me alone!”

He’s mad,
I thought.
To think we used to joke about him being crazy, when all the time he was summoning shadow-beasts…

His hands locked around my throat, choking the breath from my lungs. It was like being in one of my nightmares once again.

“You’ll never control it,” I gasped, each word like glass in my throat. “He’s lying to you. Demons don’t share power with anyone.”

“What do you know about it? You might possess this power, but you’re weak. Gullible. Tricking you was too easy. Let me take your power, and I might ask the demon to spare you.”

His grip tightened. The world went blue around the edges, and I could hear a roaring in my ears.

“Your choice!” roared Terrence. Blood ran down his face in rivulets. “Contact the Darkworld―or die.”

“I won’t,” I whispered. His face flickered in and out of view as the darkness threatened to claim me. I sucked in a last breath of freezing air, knowing I was about to die.

Cold.

So very cold.

All I could see was a black void. The coldness of the Darkworld penetrated every inch of me. My skin buzzed with it.

If I was dying, then why did I feel so much more alive than ever before?

Terrence cried out. His grip loosened, and I gasped for air.

Another voice said, “
Give her the heart.
”

“No!” Terrence screamed. “I have control over you! Possess her! Take her power and give it to me!”

I was paralysed, outside and in, but something still buzzed through my veins. I felt a presence touch my mind, something vast, something powerful. My head began to throb. I felt a sharp pain behind my eyes, and for a second, the black void flashed purple.

I was looking through a demon’s eyes.

I heard the demon’s voice like a whisper in my ear.
“Set me free. I cannot possess you, any more than I could possess another of my kind. He does not know that. He is merely an ignorant human.”

The world pulsed black. Then it came back into focus.

“You are one of us. You must understand.”

“I’m not,” I croaked. “I’m not one of you! I’m human.”

The demon’s cold laughter pierced the night. Terrence’s grip loosened even more. Now I could see his face. He looked terrified, and his eyes had gone back to their normal grey. But beside him was a maelstrom of black smoke, from which a dark shape grinned.

“You may have the blood of a human, but your heart belongs to demonkind. Take it from him. Take your heritage.”

The pendant. It hung loose in Terrence’s grip, as though he had forgotten he held it.

“You have power. Use it. I cannot claim the power of one of my own. It is yours. I am not your enemy.”

I made my decision and reached for the pendant. As my hand closed around it, I felt a surge of coldness so strong it burned my palm. It jolted me back to full awareness with a gasp.

The demon still grinned at me.

I hovered on the brink, indecisive. Terrence, not the demon, was my enemy. But I knew the demon wouldn’t hesitate to kill any other human it encountered. I couldn’t let it stay free.

I’d never done this before, but I knew the theory. I reached out to the Darkworld and felt the vast stores of magic flow through me, bringing icy fire to my fingertips. I shaped it with my thoughts, guiding the ice into the form I wanted.

I raised the dagger, a weapon of pure frozen fire, and stabbed the glittering white stone in the centre of Terrence’s forehead.

The demon heart.

A piercing cry rent the air. The smoke dissipated, and for a second, all I could see was the endless black hole of the Darkworld. Then the blackness was gone. Even the dark space was gone.

I dropped back to my knees, still clutching the pendant. Someone was on the ground beside me. Terrence.

He lay face-down in the snow. I ran to him and turned him over, my heart suddenly beating loudly in my ears.

There was no pulse, no whisper of life. The demon had killed him.
Like a light switch… it can switch off your life.
A sob rose in my chest.

I don’t know how long I knelt there, numb, but I eventually became aware of another sound. Hurried footsteps.

I looked up. The fortune-teller ran toward me, gasping as though she’d run for miles.

“Ashlyn,” she whispered. “Thank God! I felt a demon here, and I thought I was too late.”

“How―how―?” I couldn’t get the words out.

“Come with me. In here.”

I stood up, shakily, and saw she pointed to the run-down cottage at the edge of the clearing.

“Come on. Tell me everything.”

So, huddled in front of a fire she rekindled using magic, I told her everything―including what I was. I told her how it had been Terrence who’d been practising demon magic, that he’d sent all the shadow-beasts after me, intending to test me, and finally stolen my demon heart. Then I told her what had transpired between the two of us―and the demon.

When I finished, the fortune-teller shook her head. “I expected to have more time to prepare you for this. I was almost too late.”

“Prepare me?” I echoed. “What do you have to do with it?”

“Everything.” She sighed again. “I’ve not been straight with you, but there’s a reason for it. Every second we spend in each other’s company puts the both of us in unimaginable danger. You see…” She took a deep breath. “I sent you the pendant. I knew the time had come for it to pass on to you.”

“
You
? But I thought my Aunt Eve―”

She shook her head and regarded me with eyes full of a deep sadness. “I’m sorry, Ashlyn. I’m sorry for lying to you.”

And her outline blurred before my eyes. I half-leapt to my feet, expecting to see another demon―but instead found myself looking at my Aunt Eve.

“I learnt long ago how to change my appearance at will using magic. It’s something very few people can do. It wouldn’t surprise me if I was the last remaining person with the skill.”

I gaped at her. Words failed. This was too much.

“So…” I said, slowly, “you’re not my aunt?”

She shook her head. “Your Aunt Eve is just one of the identities I have constructed over the years.”

“I―what?” My mind span. It made no sense. “You disguised yourself as my aunt?”

She nodded, sadly. “It was necessary. I had to be close to you.”

I thought about Aunt Eve,
really
thought about her. It was as though a veil lifted from my mind, like when my memories came back.

“You told me stories,” I said. “You told me about how you travelled around the world. But Mum and Dad never talked about you at all, even when I asked. It was like you existed only when you rang us or when we came to visit you. Was that a subliminal mind trick?”

“It was necessary.”

“You lied to us!” I was barely aware that I was shouting, like a child in a tantrum. The words poured out in a rush. “What gives you the right to mess with our heads? How do I know you’re not doing it right now?”