Mortal Kiss (33 page)

“Not you,” it whispered, in a voice like a thousand dull knives sliding against each other. “Neither of you. My masters will not take these souls. They are not enough.”

Panic sped through Finn’s veins. If this didn’t work, they had no other option. “No!” he shouted as the figure began to sink into the smoke once more. “Wait! Please, wait—”

The lost soul turned away. Finn thought it was going to disappear, but instead, it shot toward Mercy Morrow. The enchantress shrank back, but the figure wove through the air, riding the tide of smoke until they were nose to nose.

“This one,” it hissed, its ghostly voice echoing clearly through the hall. “This one has fear enough to feed us. This one.”

“No!” Mercy screamed. “No, you can’t!” She scrambled backward. “Without me, who will bargain with you?”

The figure smiled, and in its spectral face, Finn could see a line of sharp, terrifying fangs. “My masters will find a way,” it whispered. “They always do.”

Mercy turned, trying to flee, but suddenly the great gray wolf was there, blocking her way, snarling and snapping.

“What are you doing?” Mercy screamed at the creature. “You’re mine!
Mine!
”

The wolf drove her back toward the ball of mirrors, yellow eyes consumed with rage. It didn’t stop until she was pressed against the shining orb.

Finn felt something cold spark under his hand, and suddenly he and Faye were flung backward. Finn threw his arm out, trying to protect Faye’s head as they both crashed to the floor. Finn looked around for Joe, but his father was still standing, hand fused with the disco ball. The air shimmered black around him and Mercy.

“Dad?” Finn shouted. “What—”

At that moment, more electricity burst out of the mirrored orb, silhouetting both Immortals against the darkness. A loud crack sounded above them as the disco ball came free of its moorings, crashing to the floor. Its mirrors shivered, a thousand reflections of Joe and Mercy shuddering on its surface. Around them, the writhing smoke descended, snaking toward the ball in one smooth stream. It engulfed the two Immortals, swallowing them whole.

The rumbling grew louder still. The floor of the gym shook, the wooden planks shearing underfoot as they were torn to pieces. Finn saw Lucas, Liz and Jimmy fall to the floor. The blackness poured into the huge disco ball, filling the tiny mirrors one by one. It blew past them all, faster and faster, like a storm rushing through a valley. The last ghostly black flame fled into it, and for a brief second the reflections of Joe’s and Mercy’s faces were repeated over and over as they sank into the darkness within.

The disco ball exploded. It splintered into tiny shards too small to count, sending showers of glass into the air to tinkle to the ground like tiny bells.

And then the rumbling stopped.

#

They all lay still for a while, catching their breath. Lucas was the first to get up, looking at the place where his mother had been standing before the hordes of Annwn had claimed her. There was no sign that she’d been there at all. He felt a gentle hand on his arm and turned to see Faye looking at him sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, Lucas,” she said.

He shrugged, trying to smile, trying not to think of the only parent he’d ever known, lost somewhere in the underworld, suffering at the mercy of those monsters. “I guess that was karma in action, huh?”

He looked around the gym. The room was a wreck, the floor torn up, the ceiling tainted with what looked like oil. On the wall, all that was left of the mirror was its smoking frame. The darkness had gone, leaving only singed brick where once had been the path into Annwn.

“Well,” he said wryly. “Looking on the bright side, I guess this means—”

He stopped midsentence, spying something in the corner of the room. It was a man, lying on his side, clad in rags and apparently unconscious.

“Hey,” Lucas said. “Who’s that?”

Finn took Faye’s hand, looking where Lucas pointed. “Anyone see where the wolf went?”

Lucas shook his head. “No … it just kind of vanished.”

Finn nodded. “With Mercy’s magic broken, the wolves that were under her control will be wolves no longer.”

“Faye,” Liz said suddenly, in a voice that made Lucas look at her immediately. “Doesn’t that look like … Isn’t that—?”

Lucas heard Faye’s sharp intake of breath as she looked at the crumpled man. “Oh God! Oh God … It’s my dad! That’s my dad!” Faye ran to the slumped figure. She crouched beside him, shaking him. “Dad! Can you hear me?”

Liz knelt down next to Faye. “Mercy called him Peter … but I thought she was just being clever,” she said. “You know, Peter and the wolf … I never thought … Oh my God, and the wolf tried to help me! With breaking the mirror—and when Mercy tried to get away! I should have known! Mr. McCarron!”

“Dad,” Faye said again. “Daddy, please wake up!”

Peter McCarron opened his eyes slowly, blinking as he looked up at his daughter. Lucas could see how alike their eyes were. “Faye?” her father asked hoarsely. “Faye, is that really you?”

“Wait …,” said Liz, looking up at Finn as realization dawned. “Wait a minute—does this mean my dad’s going to be OK too? If the magic’s gone—will he be back to normal? Oh, Finn, please say he will!”

Lucas saw his brother nod wearily. “He should be fine,” Finn said. “All the men under Mercy’s thrall should be back to normal.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Does that go for the bikers, too?”

Finn frowned. “I don’t think so. We left her influence centuries ago.”

Liz jumped up, grabbing Jimmy’s hand. “Jimmy, we have to find my mom and dad! And yours! Please? Right now?”

Jimmy smiled. “Let’s go.”

Lucas watched the pair head for the exit. Then he looked at Finn. “I’m sorry. You know—about your father. He was a good guy.”

Finn nodded grimly. “Yeah.”

Lucas shrugged unhappily, staring at his feet. “I guess you and I are kind of in the same boat now, right? With the no parents thing, I mean.”

He felt Finn’s eyes on him and looked up to meet his brother’s gaze. “That’s a pretty big house you’ve got up there in the woods,” Finn said quietly.

Lucas nodded. “It is.”

“Too big for one person, I mean.”

Lucas stared at Finn, then smiled. “Yeah. I could probably take in a few lodgers. The sort who’ve spent a lot of time on the road, maybe?”

Finn smiled back. “You know, Joe told me once that Mercy used to keep diaries.”

“Diaries?” Lucas repeated, confused.

Finn nodded. “Accounts of where she’d been, the people she’d met …” He looked Lucas in the eye. “Her conquests. Might be worth looking up the one that involved your dad. Don’t you think?”

#

“Did you find my locket?” Peter McCarron asked as Faye helped him stand. “You know, the one that was your mom’s?”

Faye slipped her arm through her dad’s as they walked slowly outside. “Yeah, Dad. We found it. Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

“Oh,” he said, relieved. “I thought it might be gone forever. Mercy ordered one of her wolves to take it from me. I tried to hold on to it. I tried to fight them off, too, you know. That was such a chase through the woods. Lost my little silver letter opener in the process. I really thought I’d nicked one of the wolves in the struggle, but maybe not.”

“Don’t worry about anything right now,” Faye told him as they reached the school steps. “Everything’s fine.”

Overhead, the heavy snow clouds were slowly slipping away. A late-fall sun filtered down over Winter Mill. Faye shut her eyes, lifting her face to the warmth. She felt her father squeeze her arm and smiled.

“Looks like the thaw has begun,” said Peter McCarron weakly as Faye gazed at him. His face was shadowed with hunger, but the smile Faye remembered so well was there. “Mercy’s influence is fading already.”

“Yes,” sighed Faye. “Well, it’s about time.”

Her father nodded. “I think I’d better go and see Pam,” he said, heading down the school steps. “She’s going to want to know where I’ve been.”

“I’ll be right there,” Faye said, hanging back. She watched as her father nodded and waved. In another minute he’d blended into the groups of students who were still milling around, confused.

“You don’t want to go with him?”

It was Finn’s voice that spoke behind her softly. Faye turned. He was watching her in that quiet, intense way he had, as if trying to tell what was in her heart.

“I will. In a minute.”

Finn nodded, moving nearer. “It’s funny,” he said slowly. “I don’t know about you, but I kind of feel as if … I don’t know … as if there’s something missing.”

“Missing?”

He took another step closer, right into her space. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Like … there’s some unfinished business somehow.”

Faye looked up into his dark eyes. “Unfinished business?”

Finn shrugged. “But maybe that’s just me.”

Faye smiled, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck. “No,” she whispered. “It’s not just you.”

Finn’s lips met hers in a gentle kiss that turned Faye’s legs to jelly. She wanted it to go on and on, this kiss that she’d been wanting for so long. But Finn pulled back, his hands on her hips. She opened her eyes to see him looking down at her.

“What?”

He grinned, looking up at the sky. “Just waiting to see if the world is going to end.”

Faye laughed. “It hasn’t.”

“No,” he said softly. “It hasn’t.”

Finn scooped her up. He held her close as he kissed her again, and this kiss lasted for a long, long time.

Wind whistled through the mansion. Somewhere, a door banged on its hinges. No one had set foot here for days; they were too busy clearing up the mess at the school and the slush of old snow from the streets.

In the living room, ice crusted the mirror despite the warm sun outside. Cold gusts of air eddied against the reflective glass. Frost danced on the surface, creating its own rhythm.

The sound of running feet echoed from somewhere. Not human, this creature was on all fours. It was fast, stealthy. Inside the mirror, something trembled. In its depths, darkness grew. It flowered, suddenly, blooming against the inside of the glass as frost danced at its edges.

Eyes peered out of the deep gloom. It was a wolf, running, running. The creature leaped toward the glass, exploding out of the center of the mirror, shattering the ice that blocked its path. It entered the world in a flurry of cold, pausing to look around.

Its eyes were the bluest blue. It shook the frost from its fur once and then trotted out of the open door, disappearing into the dense forest outside.