Walking Shadow (The Darkworld Series Book 2) (18 page)

Mr Melmoth’s house was deserted and even dustier than before, suggesting that no one had been there since we last visited. We made our way down to the cellar in silence, and Leo found the hidden trapdoor to the secret room.

Even though Leo had pretty much cleared it out last time, we still did another search of the study. I shone the light into every crevice, searching for more hidden doors and clues as to where this laboratory―if there was one―was hidden.

“I think we can assume there was,” said Leo. “There’s got to be something I haven’t thought of. That place is a labyrinth, and I don’t remember Melmoth ever being particularly good with directions. I think he must have marked it in some way so he could find it. Unless it disappeared when he died.”

He returned to searching the store of newspapers and articles. Melmoth had been quite the celebrity, by the look of things.

“He was pretty modest,” said Leo. “Like he wanted everyone to forget about him really. Can’t blame the guy. He was cursed. He even got hate mail from other
venators
.”

“Shit, really?” I said. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, especially the Righteous Cult. They died out a few years ago. His own brother was the leader.”

“Seriously?” I shook my head. “That’s messed-up.”

“Tell me about it. He and his brother never got along, but I don’t think even he thought his own sibling would head a cult that would commit mass suicide. They offered themselves up to defend humanity against the Darkworld.”

“How… how did they do that?”

“By giving themselves up as demon hosts. In other words, they were filthy hypocrites. It was around the time… twenty years or so ago, demon summonings were really common. So the Righteous had this bright idea of stealing a demon heart of their own―a piece of crystal, I guess, from some dodgy wannabe-magic-users who collect that kind of thing―and using it to draw all the demons into one place. What happened was that they succeeded, died, and other sorcerers had to clear up their mess.”

“Jesus.”

“Tell me about it. Melmoth didn’t really talk about his brother. Can’t say I blame him.”

He sighed. I followed his gaze to the hidden door in the corner.

“Want to go and look for that laboratory?” I said.

“You sure you wanna go into the tunnels again?”

“Um.”
Not really.
“That’s where we’re most likely to find answers, right?”

Maybe it was because I’d been dreading the moment when the sunlight cut off, but the tunnels seemed darker than I remembered. I conjured a small light and shifted it until it rested in the centre of my forehead, like a head torch. Leo showed me that I could adjust the brightness to my liking, so I experimented until it was at a level that showed every stone beneath my feet, yet not so bright it dazzled either of us. I was fully prepared to switch it off if need be.

“I came back the other night and marked the tunnels I’ve been down,” he said, as I followed him down the stone-walled passageway.

“Really? You came back alone?”

“For the funeral.”

I stopped.
Of course.
“I’m sorry. I forgot…”

“It’s fine, Ash. Don’t worry about it. The guy had a time-limit on his life anyway and he’d planned for it. It was a really quiet thing. He’s buried in the catacombs, and I got totally lost trying to find my way. They’re under the old graveyard.”

“Like, around here?”

“Yeah. I marked the tunnel. I’ll show you.”

We walked in a straight line until we reached a fork. He pointed to the ground, and I shifted the light so that it shone on a cross carved into the floor by the left path.

“That one’s a dead end,” he said.

We took the right path, which led us to a wider tunnel, almost a chamber. Multiple other tunnel entrances greeted us. At least half were marked with crosses.

“Which do you think?” said Leo. “I got about halfway down that side last time.”

I picked one at random, and held up my light, ready.

One long walk later and we were back where we started.

“Dammit!” said Leo, when he saw the familiar lines of tunnel entrances.

We moved onto another path. Most either ended in dead ends or led back towards Blackstone, which we wanted to avoid in case we accidentally stumbled into the Venantium’s headquarters. We might be several miles away from the town, but neither of us knew when we were walking on the Venantium’s ground. It wasn’t like they’d marked it.

The trouble was, it was all too easy to end up lost, and despite our best efforts to mark the paths, after one particularly winding passage, we found that we weren’t sure which way led back. I let Leo take the lead, trusting him to have a better memory than I did, but I felt the first fluttering of panic in my chest as we encountered one unmarked branching pathway after another.

“This one looks like it leads aboveground,” Leo said, scuffing the floor with his heel. “See? It’s earth, not stone. We can get our bearings.”

“Yeah.”

The tight sense of claustrophobia was doing nothing to ease my misgivings, so I quickened my pace. The tunnel did indeed slope upwards. We had to stoop our heads to avoid brushing the ceiling. A set of stone steps, like the ones that led into Mr Melmoth’s cellar, appeared before us.

“Are you sure we aren’t going in circles?” I asked.

“Hmm.” Leo studied them. “I’m positive I haven’t been here before… Let’s have a look.”

Our footsteps echoed sharply on the stone. Above was a trapdoor, which opened when Leo pushed on it. Our conjured lights threw eerie shadows on the walls of the small room we emerged into. It was definitely a cellar of some kind, although it wasn’t Mr Melmoth’s.

“I think we’re trespassing in someone’s house,” I said in a whisper. “Let’s head back.”

“One minute,” said Leo. “This doesn’t make sense… I thought I had my bearings right…”

He made for the wooden stairs in the centre of the room, leading to another trapdoor.

“Leo, wait!”

Heart beating fast, I followed him up the stairs. “Seriously! We could get into trouble―”

“Don’t you think most people would know if they had a tunnel in their cellar?” said Leo. “Trust me, we aren’t about to give anyone a shock here.”

All the same, I didn’t like it.

As he lifted the second trapdoor, a cloud of dust flew into the air and I sneezed violently. We were in a hallway, one that reeked of neglect. There was no carpet; several tatty, worn rugs concealed holes in the wooden floor. The wallpaper had once been white, but had faded to grey. A cracked mirror hung on the wall to the left. A rickety wooden staircase to the right led upstairs. There were several doors leading off the hallway. Leo pushed one of them open. It led into a living room which was just as derelict as the hall.

“Shit,” said Leo, peering out of the grimy window. “We’re inside that old house near Tombstone Hill.”

My heart gave an unpleasant lurch. He was right.

“We definitely don’t want to be here,” Leo said.

“Agreed,” I said.

Back in the hallway, Leo tried the front door. The bolts moved easily.

“You want to go out this way?” I said, surprised.

“Yeah, why?”

Because that way leads through a graveyard?
Not that it made much difference; the tunnels were just as bad.

Outside, the storm hadn’t yet broken, but the sky was a mass of cloud. Grey stones jutted from the ground between frosted clumps of grass. Twisted, leafless trees swayed in the breeze. I looked back at the cottage. It looked sad and lonely more than anything, but I wouldn’t go back in there by choice.

Leo swore, pulling me into the shadow of a tombstone. There was someone else here. A man walked past, a tall spindly man wearing the uniform of the Venantium. He didn’t glance in our direction, but the hairs rose on my arms.

“Mr Priestley?” said Leo, frowning. “The hell’s he doing here?”

“Investigating?” I said.

“I guess they must be taking this thing more seriously than I thought. That, or―”

Cold rushed through my whole body, like a shower of ice-water down my spine. Someone was contacting the Darkworld.

“Shit,” Leo whispered.

A figure stepped out from behind a grave, to stand directly in front of Mr Priestley. With the general gloom of the cemetery, I couldn’t make out anything other than her black coat―it was definitely a girl, but a tree stood between us and her.

“You again,” said Mr Priestley, to the girl.

“Hi,” said the girl. I shivered. Her voice was hard to pin down; it was both cold and playful, like a demon’s yet also like a child’s. An image flashed into my head of the night before, in Satan’s Pit. The girl who’d looked at me with demon eyes. The girl who’d looked like me.

No. Impossible.

“Why are you here? Why won’t you leave?” said Mr Priestley.

“I like it here.”

Strange
, thought the part of me that wasn’t paralysed with dread. Surely a senior member of the Venantium could easily banish a ghoul, or spirit, whatever she was.

“You can’t make me leave!”

A sudden strong breeze whipped through the trees, making the branches rattle. Mr Priestley took a step back. It didn’t seem worth risking being spotted to move closer, but something about that girl’s voice… sounded oddly familiar, in a way.

Holy hell. It was
my
voice. Like listening to my voice recorded, I hadn’t recognised it before. But there was no doubt. The fear bit deep, rooting me to the spot.

“You are a spirit who does not belong in this world. I can send you back to the Darkworld, but I would rather you chose to return of your own will.”

“I don’t belong in this world?” she said, her voice―
my
voice―now distorted, an inhuman snarl. “And you saw to that. You
venators
all saw to that. But I have power none of you could guess at. Now I can kill you. And I will.”

She stepped forwards, the wind kicking up leaves around her. I instinctively moved closer to Leo, my heart beating fast in my ears, the amethyst pendant burning against my chest from where it hung around my neck. I felt the unbearable urge to hold onto it, but I couldn’t do that, not with Leo here.

Mr Priestley stepped back. The girl raised both arms, and moved out of the shadow of the tree to advance on the old
venator.

“You weren’t there that night, were you?” she whispered. “You chickened out and sent your understudies in your place. But I know you were behind it,
venator
scum.”

Mr Priestley started to speak, but the wind snatched his voice away. Leaves danced around him, the trees creaking and swaying.

“What’s that?” said the girl. “You think I’m powerless? I’m more than a spirit,
venator.
I know all your secrets.”

He stepped away, and even from here, I saw his face convulse. Whatever he saw scared the living daylights out of him.

I clapped a hand to my mouth as his body began to shake. Instinct pulled at me, screaming at me to run away before I saw something I really didn’t want to see.

Mr Priestley screamed. He shook all over, and a wrenching crack split the air. The trees in the cemetery began to fall, each split into two neat halves. And Mr Priestley…

Leo pulled me back, turning me away from the sight of the
venator’s
body falling into two halves. But the sight was burned into my eyes. I’d never forget it. My legs gave out from underneath me, and I dropped to the ground.
Oh, God. That didn’t happen. I didn’t just watch that happen.

And Leo was shaking me, saying something, but I couldn’t hear a word.

“Ash. Ash! We have to go!”

I didn’t even have it in me to protest as he pulled me back towards the house. I trembled and held onto Leo’s arm for support as we made our way down to the cellar, then lifted the second trapdoor and let the darkness of the tunnels close over us once more.

“Okay. Ash, it’s okay. Breathe.”

Wasn’t I breathing? I sucked in stale tunnel air. It helped my light-headedness a bit. A bit. I’d just seen a man split in two. The sight was etched on the back of my eyes. I let out a whimper.

“Ash. You’re not going to pass out on me.” Leo. Leo held onto my hand, firmly. Warm. Secure. I looked into his eyes. His face was grey-white, but no longer swimming before my vision.

I breathed in and out, in and out. My head refused to clear.

“Ash. I’m going to take you back to my house and you’re going to sit down, okay?”

I nodded, or I thought I did. It took every ounce of willpower to make my legs move. I concentrated on Leo’s presence beside me, leading me through the endless darkness.

Back in Mr Melmoth’s study, he pushed open the secret door. The room was just as we’d left it, a mess. He held onto my hand as we made our way out of the cellar and into the hallway. Leo steered me into a living room and sat me down on a sofa. I instantly fell back into the seat as my legs gave way. My breath came out in short gasps. I hadn’t had a panic attack in
ages.

“Ash. Breathe. Drink this.”

“What is it?” I asked, taking the glass in a trembling hand.

“Just water. Calm down. You’re in shock.”

“No shit.” The glass trembled in my hand. “I think I’m going to faint.”

“You’re sitting down. It’s okay. Fuck.” He pressed his hand to his forehead. “I think I’m in shock, too.”

“Leo,” I said, dizzily. “Talk to me.”

“Huh?”

“It’ll stop me passing out. Just talk. About… something. Anything.”

“Like what?” Leo stood, and started pacing the room. “Crap. You know, it’s kind of hard to think about anything else right now.” He walked over to a dusty oak bookcase on the other side of the room. “I could read to you? Or is that weird?”

“Sounds perfect,” I said, sipping water. The fog in my head had begun to clear, but my mind kept threatening to send me down a path I didn’t want to face yet. I didn’t
ever
want to face it.

The girl with my voice, my face. My demon heart. The murderer.

“You like Milton, right?”

“You’re going to read me
Paradise Lost
?”

“If you like. Or Shakespeare. Melmoth doesn’t have much besides the classics here.”