The Awakening (57 page)

“You’re working directly for the Demon King? Have you lost your mind?” shouted Gabriella. “He is the worst kind of evil! You blame Chosen, but as we speak, Hades is killing hundreds of your kind!”

Rachel pressed the gun against her forehead for a moment, as if trying to squeeze out a bad thought. “Don’t you think I know that? It kills me to have to work for that sick son of a bitch. But I can’t allow myself to become concerned with any of that. I have to stick to my plan.”

The traitor turned to me, continuing her speech as if a robot returning to her original programming. I could tell that this was a confession. Her way of achieving absolution.

“Then Hades learned that one of the Elemental’s had spoken of a new Awakening, one that could bring about the Chosen to stand against him. So when he was delivered the news about Alex, he immediately ordered The Sorrow to start tracking him. He wanted to use my doorway to send it through to Earth straight away. But I knew the moment I unsealed the Veil, Faru would sense it, investigate and my cover would be blown. Everything I’d worked so hard to put in place would come undone because of one little boy.”

Rachel stopped moving, letting the gun linger on me. “You’d be dead, The Sorrow would return to Pandemonia and I’d have to go into hiding or on the offensive. I didn’t want that. But still, it was an opportunity for me to advance my own plans. What I needed was a way to distract Faru and keep my cover in place. After I found out about Faru’s plans to seal the Warren’s Veil, I came up with the idea of the fake siege.”

“Fake siege?” I said incredulously. “I was there. That siege was real. Midnight
died
in that siege.”

“The siege itself was real, but the
reason
for it was false. I also ensured that you found out about it.”

Something clicked in my brain. “The attack in the bar was a setup. You
wanted
me to follow Dakin.”

Rachel smiled. “Exactly. Poor Dakin genuinely believed he was there to recruit new followers. He also believed the siege was real. I couldn’t trust him with the full truth. You killed his maker - he was too volatile. I just had to take the chance that someone would notice him leave the bar.” She gestured towards me. “Which the perfect person did.”

“But what about those girls? They were real and so was what almost happened to them,” I countered.

“That was easy. All it took was a few attractive young Bloodlings to mention about a secret bar they were supposedly heading to. Malachi despises humans - seems to have forgotten he used to be one. Plus he’s a supporter of the SOS. There was no doubt in my mind that if we sent the drunkest, loudest girls in the area into his bar, he’d do the rest.”

For the first time I saw the real Rachel. A woman so consumed with revenge that she teetered on the edge of madness.

“But what about all of the other SOS who attacked me?” I asked. “Surely that’s going against your plans?”

Rachel shrugged. “Hades wants you dead. He didn’t care how it happened. The Sorrow was a failsafe. He gave orders for you to be killed. Sage Asmund sent in his own followers - including Rahuman - to take you out. Others did their own thing so they could fall into favour with Hades. Like Sylvia who faked a premonition without my knowledge and organised a group of Rogues to kill you, or Bargheist who acted without my say so and got himself caught.” She smiled. “Which is why they had to go.”

I thought about Sylvia. How she’d been found dumped in an alleyway with her throat opened.
It was Rachel.

Gabriella had one hand closed around the pendant on her necklace. The other was wrapped around the nape of her neck. At first I thought it was a position of grief. Then I noticed almost imperceptibly, that she attempting to undo the clasp with her fingers. It dawned on me.
The necklace has diamonds on it!

“But why let us know what was happening; why not just attack us unprepared?” I said in an effort to keep Rachel distracted. “If you’d done that, then the SOS might have won.”

Rachel shook her head as if I should understand her twisted logic.

“I already told you, the siege was a fake. I didn’t want the SOS to actually succeed in unsealing the Veil. Although, Dakin almost managed to get Faru to do it, which is why I had to stop him. In fact it was the perfect cover. He needed to be dealt with anyway; his hatred for Alex was making him a liability.” She nodded her head as if that justified her act. “I’d managed to convince Hades that opening the doorway and unleashing The Sorrow inside a Guardian base would be seen as an outright declaration of war against Earth. One that he wasn’t yet in a position to deal with. So he agreed for me to pretend to the rest of the SOS – apart from my own followers of course - that there would be a real siege on the base to force Faru to open his section of the Veil. All the while it was just misdirection to keep the HASEA and Faru distracted...whilst I opened mine.”

“No…” breathed Gabriella.

“You mean The Sorrow is here?” I choked.

A dark grin appeared on Rachel’s face. “Not just here Alex...
here
. And you don’t have the Crimson Twins.”

More loud bangs hit the roof. It was followed by the sound of dozens of feet scrambling about. Then I heard the unmistakable scream of The Sorrow’s demented Unicorn.

Rachel banged the gun against her head. “No, no no. You don’t understand! Hades is merely a means to an end.
My
end. I just needed him to trust me. I told him that if he gave me command of The Sorrow whilst it was on Earth, then not only would I get it to murder the boy Lafelei spoke of, I’d give it the hybrid baby that it missed the first time around.”

Gabriella’s jaw tightened. I could see she was trying not to lose her composure. She had also managed to get the clasp undone.

“So what’s the plan after we’re dead?”

Rachel turned to me. “That’s the beauty of it. I’m going to unleash The Sorrow on the Warren anyway. Then everyone will know it was me and that I was working directly for Hades.” She leaned forward with a huge smile on her face. “I’m going to start the war.”

“How could you?” shouted Gabriella. “People we care about died because of you! And you want to kill
more
? What about all the people who you’re betraying? Faru, Sophia...Delagio?”

The corners of Rachel’s mouth turned down. “I don’t want any of you to suffer, but this is the only way to get my revenge. You think I don’t care but I do.” She stared at us. “I care about all of you, but this is the
only way
.”

With a movement so quick it was barely perceptible; Gabriella threw the necklace at Rachel. It sliced across the Pixie’s cheek with a loud hiss.

“Bitch!” she screeched, clutching the side of her burning face. Sprinting forwards, we both dived for her at the same time. Connecting hard, we all slammed to the ground together. Gabriella pinned Rachel down and I prised the gun from her grip, throwing it to the other side of the room.

“NO!” Rachel screamed like a demented beast. She bucked, catching Gabriella unprepared and throwing her off. The frenzied Pixie kicked upwards with her leg, landing a crushing blow to the side of my head. Dazed, I collapsed to the floor. Through blurry vision I watched as Rachel sprang into a predatory crouch. She slipped the blood soaked dagger from its sheath. Behind her, Gabriella was still scrambling to her feet.

“I’m not going to let a Chosen kill me like you did my family,” she hissed.

“I’m not trying to kill you!” I insisted, but she wasn’t listening. I recoiled as she raised the blade above her head. The glow of the storm outside caught the edge and for a moment it winked red, like the eye of some demonic creature.

Bang!

The deafening sound made my ears ring. It was followed by a scream of agony. Rachel’s face became a contorted O of pain and shock. A little puff of smoke slipped out of a hole in her arm. Gabriella was standing next to a shocked looking Tim, who was holding the smoking gun. He dropped it as if it were on fire and looked at me with wide eyes.

“I-I shot her,” he stammered.

“You
shot
me!” Rachel hissed. “You little bastard!”

Before I had a chance to react, she threw the blade at my best friend.

It whirled through the air, heading straight for his jugular. It stopped a fraction from his throat, suspended in mid-air, as if hanging from invisible strings.

“I can’t believe I ever loved you.”

We all spun around to see Delagio appear in the doorway, his arm outstretched and wearing a sad expression. “All this time I thought you cared about us.”

Rachel gave Delagio a pleading look. “Del, I love you. Please don’t-”

Delagio closed his eyes and jerked his arm to the right. The blade sliced through the air and buried itself into Rachel’s throat. Her eyes went wide and she closed her fingers around the handle. I winced as with a rough movement, she pulled the blade out and stared at it. A jet of blood squirted from the wound. Rachel gave a simple nod of her head as if everything finally made sense, then crumbled to the floor and fell still.

Delagio was silent. He seemed stunned by his actions, like he couldn’t work out whether he’d done it or not.

I was about to speak, but a sudden thump on the outside wall stopped me. It was followed by another and another. Dozens of thuds, which made the walls shake. A sound similar to hundreds of crickets started up, but louder and harsher.

“Depraved,” breathed Gabriella, “We need to go
now
.”

Something crawled over the fire escape door. The windows were blocked out by mottled pink flesh. A stench of decay pervaded the room. I gagged.

My heart stalled from the sheer horror of what I was witnessing. The Sorrow was far, far worse than I’d been able to capture in my nightmares. The soul-eater towered over ten feet in height; arching horns that jutted from its head grazed the ceiling. Amour the shade of dried blood and marked with unknowable symbols encased the creature. Long urchin like spines poked out from in-between each joint. A gruesome iron mask covered its face. The edges were studded and deep vertical slits filled the mouth plate. There were no eyes behind the mask, just hollow pits of pure darkness. The decaying mask was kept in place only by a set of fraying straps that locked around The Sorrow’s head.

When it saw us it lifted a hand and pointed. Its joints squealed like a tortured animal. Then it reached the same arm behind its back and unsheathed a sword which was easily as big as Sophia. It smashed into the floor, spraying up splintered tiles. The Sorrow started to walk forwards, the blade edge squealing and sparking as it trailed behind.

Gabriella had curled into a ball on the floor, hands covering her eyes. The confident, strong woman had disappeared, replaced by the terrified little girl from all those years ago.

Tim’s face had gone chalk white. He looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

“Help me get them back into the gym!” I screamed at Delagio.

Together we dragged the weeping Gabriella and dazed Tim away from the advancing Sorrow, back into the Gymnasium. I pulled her arms away from her face. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her teeth clenched together. She must have bitten her tongue, because blood dribbled from between her lips.

I leaned in close and pressed my mouth against her ear. “
Please
Gabriella, If you don’t snap out of this, The Sorrow is going to kill us both. I need you.”

Something seemed to register. Her eyelids fluttered and opened. It only took one look for me to know that Gabriella was back with me.

“Come on,” I said dragging her to her feet.

Slap!

I turned to see Delagio backhand Tim across the face. A trickle of blood ran from his nose. My friend seemed in a fair amount of pain, but appeared to have come to his senses. Gabriella gathered up her dress and together we all sprinted for the fire exit. I ran straight at it, barging with all my strength. The door burst open, sending the creature on it flying. It landed on its back with an indignant squeal. I fell to the ground, soaking my suit. It was Gabriella’s turn to pick me up. I chanced a look around and saw with a wave of disgust that the entire gym was covered in Depraved. They all breathed in unison, which made it seem as if the building itself had come alive. One by one, they turned and saw us, thick black eyes widening. They let out excited shrieks and dropped off the building, landing with wet splashes on the ground.

Delagio and I grabbed Tim and hoisted him between us. We all ran as fast as we could. The swarm of Depraved chased after us, scuttling along the walls and leaping like demented frogs.