Shadow Magic (36 page)

She had to get away. Otherwise she was dead.

The Mantle of Sorrows rippled, as if sensing her fear, her confusion. It rolled over her, back and forth like waves upon the night’s shore. Pinpricks of power dug into her skin.

Lily forced her mind to be calm. She concentrated on the darkness. It was Pan’s weapon, but it could also be her salvation. And escape.

She didn’t know the way. She could be lost forever, but she had to risk it.

Lily clutched Gabriel’s hand. “Hold on. Do not let go.”

The darkness thickened until there was nothing else. It entered her; she entered it. They merged into one.

And Lily slipped into the Twilight.

S
omething was wrong with Hades.

Instead of sailing the winds, he was fighting for every yard, gasping for each breath. Foam was dripping from his mouth.

“What is it, boy?” The bat was drifting left—south—his right wing working harder than the left. Then Thorn saw the blood.

“Down, boy, let’s have a look. There, by that pond.”

Hades hissed, as if reluctant to admit his weakness, but in the end, he relented and swerved downward.

Boy and bat landed. Hades tripped and skidded out awkwardly as his wings failed to reduce his speed. Thorn was almost thrown over his head, but he grabbed Hades’s big ear and managed to hang on.

Hades screeched with annoyance.

“If you’re going to crash, then what do you expect me to do?” Thorn soothed the irate bat and ran his hand over his chest. “Let’s see what’s wrong.”

Blood matted the fur.

Suddenly anxious, Thorn examined the beast’s chest more softly. His fingers touched a stump, almost buried into Hades’s left shoulder. Hades growled but let him continue inspecting.

The blood was thickest here, and he probed as gently as he could.

One of the crossbow quarrels was wedged deep in the shoulder. It had snapped, so only a few inches of the shaft still stuck out. The flying must have made it worse, the rolling action actually pushing the quarrel in deeper.

“You stupid bat! Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” Thorn looked closer. He tried to get a decent grip but could only get two fingers to the stump. It wasn’t enough. The quarrel was too far in and too slippery with blood. He needed a knife to cut the wound open and pliers to ease out the broken shaft.

Hades coughed. His whole body shook violently, and blood sprayed out of his nostrils. Thorn hugged him and through his thick fur felt the heart struggling, not steady and heavy, but fluttering. “Stupid, stupid animal…”

Hades licked his face, smearing it with slime and blood. Thorn didn’t care. The bat and boy rested head against head, and Thorn felt each breath weakening and the gaps between them getting longer.

They were miles from anywhere. It was too far to fly back to his dad, and Castle Gloom was nowhere in sight.

He’d never reach Lily, not now, and not even on the fastest horse in the world. Thorn’s chest trembled with a held-back sob. He wasn’t going to save her, or Hades.

Thorn washed the wound and padded it with leaves. He tore off his shirtsleeve to make a bandage, but as soon as he finished wrapping it around, the cloth was soaked with blood.

Hades nudged him. Thorn rubbed the big monster’s chin. “I won’t leave you, don’t worry.”

Hades pushed him harder. He struggled to beat his wings.

“Stop it! You’re only making it worse!”

Hades glared at him. The beast rose up straight until he was higher than Thorn, and he spread out his wings. The moonlight shone down on the giant bat, and the blood glistened like Lily’s black diamonds. Hades gazed up at the moon and opened his mouth, his fangs shining silver bright in the cold ghost light.

“You won’t make it,” Thorn said, his voice catching in his throat.

Hades roared his defiance. The trees shook as birds and bats fled in terror, and a deer bolted from the undergrowth. Far out, in the deepest of the woods, a wolf howled.

Hades peered down at Thorn, his eyes blazing with a terrible fire, a fire that would burn like an inferno before it went out.

Thorn kissed the bat’s bloody cheek.

He climbed back on, and they rose into the night sky one last time.

I
t was as simple as walking through a door. One moment, Lily was in the courtyard, the next she stood…

Elsewhere.

“Where are we?” asked Gabriel, his fingers achingly tight around hers.

“The Twilight. The place of restless spirits.” Lily looked around. No one living had visited it in a hundred years. “It was the only way we could escape.”

Gabriel gasped. “You used magic?”

“Jealous?”

A black sun shone in cracked sky. Its rays fell not on stone or rock, but on dreams and nightmares.

“The sky’s broken.” Gabriel stared into it, awestruck. In the brittle gaps cold, sparkling lights stirred and blinked. “What are they?”

Lily pulled him along. “We don’t want to find out.”

Walls of twisted misery stood beside streets of sighing wishes. Lily trod on pebbles cast by unhappiness and felt the farewell kisses upon her soles.

“How do we get out of here?” said Gabriel.

“Hush. I’m trying to think.”

“We’re lost.”

There was a mournful wind. But she thought she could hear something else. “Shh.”

Gabriel jerked his head up. “I hear it, too.”

Something moved among the stones of sadness on the uneven, rubble-strewn ground. Something small and bouncing. And yapping.

“Custard?”

The puppy barked as he bounded toward them. One more spring and he was in Lily’s arms, licking her face. In the living world, he’d appeared as insubstantial as smoke when Lily had conjured him. But here, in the Twilight, he was as solid as any living creature.

“Good boy, good boy.” She laughed and gave him a huge squeeze.

“Is that your dog?” said Gabriel. “But he…died.”

Custard noticed Gabriel and growled.

“I know, Custard. I had to bring him along,” said Lily. “But I need you to be nice.”

Custard looked at her, his big eyes shining. He yapped a question.

“I said, be
nice
. Gabriel needs our help.” She put him down. “Do you know the way out?”

Custard chased his tail.

“No. The way
out
.”

He darted back and forth, wanting her to play.

“Another time, Custard. The way
out
.”

“This is so useless,” snapped Gabriel. “Here, let me do it.”

“You touch my dog, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

Gabriel scowled. “Fine. You deal with the mangy mutt.”

Custard flattened his ears and growled.

“Yes, Custard. He’s a very, very naughty boy.” Lily held the puppy’s face. “Now, pay attention. Show us how to get out of here. Right now.”

Custard barked and set off.

“Follow him,” said Lily.

“Are you serious?”

“Got any better ideas?”

Gabriel didn’t say anything more. His eyes widened as he stared ahead of them.

They were faint, but Lily spied the uncertain outlines of figures moving in the distance.

Who were they? She wanted to shout out, but something constricted her throat. Fear.

They came closer. Dozens of them.

Gabriel stifled a scream.

“Specters,” she whispered.

The bitterest of spirits. Specters were the remnants of all misery, despair, and sorrow. They’d coalesced out of every foul memory of those who’d died unhappy and every dream of those with lives unfulfilled. There were plenty.

Custard barked. He darted in among them, snarling and biting. One lashed out and swept the puppy away.

“Custard!” Lily shouted.

The specters surrounded them on all sides.

She tried to back away, but it was too late.

They caressed her with icy fingers. The chill sank through Lily’s skin and into her bones, deep into her soul.

Her world was cold and brittle. As it had always been.

The unwanted daughter.

The unwanted ruler.

The unwanted.

It was all the coldness of her childhood. Every loneliness. Every unloved moment.

“What do you want from me?” Lily screamed at them. Tears froze on her cheeks as she felt their dreadful despair.

Gabriel sank to his knees.

She could leave him behind. They’d take what they wanted from him and maybe she could escape.

No. She wouldn’t abandon the living in this place. Not even Gabriel.

The thought cleared her head. She put her hands under his arms and lifted him, and they pushed their way through the wall of phantoms.

A hill rose up before them, and at its summit stood a shimmering doorway.

The way out. It was a simple matter of putting one foot in front of the other for another hundred paces. Custard joined her and wagged his tail with excitement.

A sea of specters followed right behind. She could tell they sensed her plan and were angry. Their anger seemed to renew their strength.

Hands grabbed her sleeves. One after another held on to Gabriel. The boy stared at her, terrified, suddenly aware of what was happening.

“Let him go!” Lily screamed. The doorway waited just yards ahead. Through it the night sky, shining with stars. She could feel a breeze.

They were almost out!

The specters doubled their attacks. They piled onto Gabriel’s back, dragging him to his knees. They clutched at Lily’s arms and legs and tore at her face.

There are too many!

Inch by inch, they wore her down.

Custard pulled at the Mantle of Sorrows, trying to drag her along.

“Get back,” Lily muttered, barely able to speak. She tried to fend them off, but she was too weak; she couldn’t even raise her arm. She knelt down beside Gabriel.

She wanted to close her eyes and sleep. Just drift off. It wouldn’t matter. Nothing mattered now.

Yes, just close my eyes.

Her eyelids drooped.

All strength fell away.

“Please,” she whispered as her life faded. “I never said good-bye.”

To Mary, Old Colm, Wade, and others. It was hard to remember the names. K’leef…Thorn.

And three most of all.

Dante.

Mother.

Father.

“I never said good-bye.”

Fingers wrapped around hers. They were firm, strong, and steady. “Stand up, Lily.”

It was a gentle command, but Lily obeyed. She stood.

The specters cringed. They retreated.

Lily couldn’t see through her icy tears, but someone had taken hold of her hand.

“I…I need to get Gabriel,” she said, grasping the Solar heir roughly by his collar.

Lily willed her leaden legs to move, just another few more feet, dragging Gabriel along.

The specters howled and her ears were flooded by the most hideous, evil screams—and that gave Lily the strength for a last surge. She dove toward the starlit doorway.

The darkness ripped with the sound of tearing steel as Lily and Gabriel broke through. They both collapsed face-first into the grass, Gabriel unconscious, and Lily sobbing. Her fingers raked the earth.

She’d done it. She’d walked out of the Twilight and back into the real, living world.

They lay among tombs. To Lily’s right was a statue of a skeleton in court robes. Custard—more ephemeral now—bounded in and out among the gravestones, his little voice howling.

They were in the City of Silence.

Thank the Six.

“Lily…”

She looked up and saw a man before her.

It can’t be.

His face was elegant, his eyes as gray as hers. His clothes were black, but he was no living thing. He smiled. “Lily. I’ve missed you.”

Lily choked. She stared at him, her heart thundering. “Father?”