Mortal Kiss (32 page)

Lucas grabbed it from her hand, turning toward the mirror. He frowned in concentration, leaning back with his hand stretched far over his head. Then he threw himself forward and let go with every ounce of energy in his body.

The knife flew across the room, spinning over the heads of the gathered students. It soared in an arc through the air before striking the glass and clattering to the ground.

The mirror began to crack. It splintered silently, a slow ripple of fractures tracing up and out. They covered the mirror’s surface, disrupting the smooth glass like a miniature earthquake.

In the gym, time slowed. Liz felt as if her body had turned to jelly. She could hardly move. She wanted to ask Lucas what was happening, whether it was working, but she had no voice. She couldn’t hear anything, as though there was cotton stuffed in her ears. She turned her head to see Mercy frozen in the act of coming through the imploding door. The wolf at her feet was stuck in midleap, paws outstretched, fur wavering.

Then time started up again. There was the resounding noise of glass breaking, the harsh tinkle of shards crashing to the ground as the mirror’s surface disintegrated. Sound rushed in, and Liz was suddenly drowning in it as all the students in the hall snapped out of whatever trance they’d been in.

“Omigod!” Liz heard Candi scream as she spun around in a circle. “What’s happening? Is this the ball? I don’t—”

“Look at the mirror!” Hart Jesson shouted, drowning out Candi’s confusion. Everywhere students were in a state of panic. It was as if they’d all woken from a collective dream and had no idea what was real and what wasn’t.

Then Rachel Hogan saw the wolf and screamed. She pointed a shaking finger at the animal, still standing beside Liz. The screams spread, the fear catching, until the gym was full of piercing shrieks. On the stage, Finn and Faye, awakened by the noise, sprang apart. They looked out over the chaos in the gym. Liz saw Faye grab Finn’s arm and point at the mirror.

The glass was continuing to fall from the frame, a thousand tiny, shining reflections tumbling as the cracks continued to grow. But instead of a blank wall
behind the mirror, there was a dense, black pit of dark smoke and flame. It rose in oily puffs, bubbling up through the cracks as the glass disintegrated.

The terrified students stampeded. Liz and Lucas were shoved aside as they rushed for the exits, still screaming. Through the mêlée, Joe reached the stage and in a second was with Finn and Faye.

“Fools!” Liz heard Mercy scream over the noise. “What have you done? What have you
done
?”

The wolf dodged the running students, paws skidding on the polished wooden floor. Mercy’s aura sparked in the gloom as the terrified students streamed around her.

It took only a moment for the gym to empty. The screams echoed away with the sound of running feet. Mercy strode into the room toward Liz and Lucas, the wolf with her always.

“What have you done?” Mercy demanded again, grabbing at Lucas.

“We’ve stopped you!” he shouted defiantly. “We knew your ritual was a fake.”

Mercy pushed him backward, a sudden look of fear crossing her face. “I am still your mother, Lucas,” she hissed. “You must help me. We must—”

Liz saw Lucas shake his head. “I’ll never call you my mother again,” he said, his voice trembling with anger. “And I will never help you! How could you do the things you’ve done? How could you not tell me what you really are?”

Mercy shook her head. “When you were old enough, I would have,” she answered. “Lucas, I still can do it! You must help me, before it’s too late. Before we both die—”

“Never,” Lucas hissed. “I don’t care what happens to me. I will never help you.
Never.
”

Mercy spun on her heel to look up at Joe, still standing on the stage. Raising one arm, she pointed at the fractured mirror and its roiling sea of black mist.

“Don’t you understand?” she shrieked. The sound of Mercy’s terror chilled Liz to the core. “You interrupted the ritual! The mirror was enchanted, and now the path to Annwn is left open!”

Joe jumped from the stage, stalking toward her angrily. “Don’t talk in riddles, Mercy. I’ve had enough of your lies.”

Mercy began to laugh hysterically, a high-pitched, fearful sound that filled the empty gym. Then, from somewhere, a low rumble began beneath their feet.

“You always were a fool, Joe Crowley, and now you’ve killed us all. You’ve given them a way in. And not one of us can escape!”

The rumbling went on, growing louder and louder. Above them, the disco ball still spun slowly, casting weird, looping patterns of light against the gym’s darkened walls and ceiling.

“What’s happening?” Liz shouted, raising her voice over the noise.

“I don’t know!” Lucas shouted back.

Joe jumped from the stage, Finn and Faye close behind. Liz looked around. “Hey!” she shouted, shaking Lucas’s arm. “Where’s Jimmy?”

She saw the hesitation on Lucas’s face, and a new kind of fear seeped into her veins. “Where is he, Lucas? Tell me!”

“I’m here,” came a voice, calling from behind her. “I’m here, Liz.”

She spun around to see Jimmy limping slowly across the trembling floor. He was doubled over, obviously in pain. Liz ran to him. “What happened to you?”

He tried to shrug but grimaced in pain instead. “Kind of a battle getting in. What happened to the mirror?”

Liz looked up at it to see the roiling darkness that had been contained behind the glass moving like a living thing. It surged and rolled inside the frame, testing its boundaries, trying to find a way out.

“The creatures of Annwn are rising!” Mercy cried, reaching down to grip her great wolf’s collar. The animal, afraid, tried to twist from her grasp.

“How do we stop it?” Faye shouted over the din. “Mercy, tell us how to stop it!”

“We can’t!” Mercy screamed. “They will come for all of us! They’re coming now—
look!
”

Amid the smoke were faces, fleeting among the waves of black flame. They rose to the surface, twisted, demented, skeletal, baring evil teeth and staring with blank eyes before sinking once more out of sight.

“They’re looking for a way in!” Mercy cried. “And they’ll find it. They can feel us, feel our fear …”

Joe grabbed her by the forearms, shaking her violently. “There must be something we can do!”

Mercy shook her head hopelessly. “There’s nothing—nothing! There’s no way to seal the mirror again now. Before, I could control it. It was … it was mine.…”

“It was never yours, Mercy!” Joe shouted back. “Don’t you see that? Don’t you understand?”

“It could have been!” Mercy raged. “This is your fault, Joe Crowley! We should have been completing this together, side by side—you never should have left me!”

Joe shook his head. “I never had your cruelty, Mercy,” he said. “And I’d rather die than see it drag another single soul into Annwn.”

There was a loud crack, and Liz turned. The frame of the mirror was smoking as it burned. The black maelstrom began to seep out like bubbles rising to the surface of a boiling pot. It surged out of the mirror and up the wall to the ceiling. It crept onward, a malevolent dark fire, eating everything in its path.

#

Faye tugged at Finn’s hand. “The ritual!” she shouted over the ever-growing noise. “Your dad said that when he escaped Mercy before, he twisted it. Can’t we do that again?”

Finn shook his head. “It won’t work—Annwn has already been awakened to what’s here. They’re expecting the bargain they agreed to.”

“Then what?” Faye asked, looking at Joe. “Come on—there must be some way we can stop this!”

“They’ll want something of equal value,” Joe told her. “We have to give them that, nothing less.”

Finn looked at his father. “Dad?”

Faye saw the look that passed between father and son—sadness and understanding.

“I’ll do it,” said Joe. “I’ll sacrifice myself to Annwn.”

Faye felt Finn’s hand tighten over hers. “You can’t!” he shouted. “Dad, it’s not—”

“It’s the only way!” Joe shouted back. “An Immortal life, given willingly. I have to, Finn. Or everything we’ve worked for is lost, and so is this town. Quickly—you have to help me. We must do this now, before it’s too late.”

“But there’s no mirror,” Finn pointed out. “It’s smashed, gone. There’s nothing to perform the ritual with.”

Faye raised her head to stare at the ceiling, watching the writhing blackness spread, imagining it devouring the world completely. They were lost, surely. With no mirror to complete the ritual, everyone in Winter Mill would be engulfed by Annwn, lost to the horrors of the underworld forever.

Something shone on the surface of the darkness, a pinprick of light. It was there for a second before dancing away across the room. Faye blinked, seeing more and more, a halo of stars.

“The disco ball!” she shouted. It still hung above them, turning, casting tiny fractured lights to the four corners of the room.

Liz looked up, confused. “What?”

“The disco ball! We can use the disco ball!”

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asked.

Jimmy pointed up, frantic. “Faye’s right! Look at it! Mirrors! It’s made of mirrors!”

They all looked up at the turning orb. “Omigod,” said Liz. “You’re right! Can we use it?”

“We have to mark it with the symbols,” said Finn. “Can we lower it?”

“I know where the controls are!” Liz said, pulling out of Jimmy’s arms. She ran toward a box on one of the walls.

“Liz!” Faye shouted after her. “Look out!”

Faye heard Liz scream as one of the twisted black figures made a grab for her out of the smoke. It lunged at Liz, ghostly fingers scraping sharply along her spine. She ducked, grabbing the lever on the wall and wrenching it hard.

The disco ball began to descend, even as the blackness threatened to hide it completely.

“Quickly!” Joe shouted. “We’re running out of time! I need something to write with!”

Faye thrust her lipstick toward him, the one she’d fatefully used to enchant the now-destroyed gym mirror.

#

Finn watched as his father placed the lipstick against the mirror. Above, the darkness swirled around them like a live thing. The dark figures were stronger now, creeping out of the mirror on all fours, crawling jerkily along the walls, watching the drama unfold below them.

“This won’t be enough!” Mercy screamed. “Don’t you understand? What Annwn wants—what it demands—one Immortal life won’t be enough to sate that!”

Joe turned to look at her. “Then what about two, Mercy?”

She stepped backward. “No. No, I won’t.”

“But would it work?” Finn shouted at his mother. “Would two work?” Mercy didn’t answer, and Finn turned to Joe. “What about two?” he asked. “Two Immortal lives, given willingly, out of love. That has to be enough, doesn’t it?”

He felt Faye tugging at his hand but forced himself not to look at her. Finn’s gaze was locked with his father’s, and he saw the answer there.

Finn nodded. “I’ll give myself, Dad. I’ll come with you.”

“Finn, no!” Faye cried, clutching his arm and trying to get him to turn toward her. “You can’t! Please, please don’t!”

Joe nodded back at Finn, a sad look on his face. Then he turned toward the disco ball and reached out to paint the first of the symbols on its mirrored surface. His voice rose as he began to chant, ancient words that immediately added to the electricity in the room.

Finn faced Faye, seeing the tears in her eyes. All he wanted to do was wrap her up in his arms and hold her there forever, but there was no time for them. If he didn’t do this now, they’d all be lost. He pulled her close, feeling her head come to rest against his chest.

“I have to,” he told her as gently as he could over the roaring maelstrom around them and the sound of his father’s incantations.

Faye looked up at him, the despair in her eyes suddenly replaced with steely determination. “Then I’m coming with you.”

“What? No, Faye, you can’t—”

“I can and I will. Annwn wants as much emotion as it can get, right? Well, I’d say that I’ve got quite a lot for it right now.”

“You don’t understand,” Finn said, pleading. “It’ll be worse than you can imagine. I can’t let you go through that. I won’t.”

“So you expect me to live here, without you, knowing that you’re there, in pain?” Faye asked. “You think that won’t be torture for me?” She shook her head, standing on tiptoe to place her hands on either side of his face. “Finn, I love you. Where you go, I go. I won’t leave you.”

Finn stared into her eyes, so fiery, so determined, so beautiful. He wanted to kiss her and realized that this might be his final chance. His father’s chant was rising, reaching its conclusion. Finn leaned in, but before their lips could meet, he was wrenched away. It was Joe, pulling him toward the disco ball.

“There’s no time!” Joe shouted. “Touch the glass, now!”

Finn did as he was told, reaching out to press his palm to the mosaic of glass. Faye moved with him, and before Finn could stop her, she’d placed her hand beside his. Joe stood beside them, his huge hand joining theirs on the disco ball. He shouted one final incantation, his voice echoing away into the storm around them.

There was a long, low shriek from somewhere. It sounded more animal than human. Inside the mirrored surface of the disco ball, a column of black smoke grew and grew, until it was too big to be contained. It shot out of the shining globe, pluming above them. Inside it were more creatures, writhing, their skeletal faces looking down at the humans below them.

Faye screamed as the column descended, ready to swallow them up, and Finn held her close. He shut his eyes, expecting to feel the grip of Annwn taking hold at any minute. But then there was a pause.

Finn opened his eyes and saw that Faye was staring up into the billowing column of oily black. One single figure had emerged from the tangled mass of lost souls. It was a woman, gaunt and skeletal, but still recognizably sad. She stared down at them.

“I know her!” Faye shouted. “I’ve seen her before. In the mirror, at the mall …”

The figure swooped toward them, and Finn saw Faye flinch. But the creature did not attack. It hovered in front of them for a moment. And then it spoke.