Walking Shadow (The Darkworld Series Book 2) (27 page)

“Tough break,” said the guy.

I glared at him, even though I knew he wouldn’t be able to see me.

“Say,” he said. “Do you know anything about this Death Child? They say they’re bringing her in soon. She’s supposed to be a shape-shifting demon child.”

I said nothing. A horrible thought had crossed my mind―I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me before.

“Do you? Wait a minute…” He paused. “Are you her?”

“No,” I said.

I conjured a light, unable to stand not being able to see. The cell was only a few metres wide, and the ceiling barely cleared six feet. This couldn’t be made for permanent accommodation; there was nothing in the cell, not even a bed.

With the light, I could also see my neighbour. He was a skinny guy who looked to be in his early twenties, with pale blond hair. He didn’t look dangerous, but you could never be sure.

He saw me looking at him. “You better not delay them,” he said. “I’ve been here for hours. I want out of here.”

“What did you do?” I said, curious despite myself.

“Broke the law, same as you, right?”

“I guess,” I said. “But I didn’t do what they think I did.”

“Doesn’t mean a thing. Nothing changes their minds.”

This wasn’t helping. I needed to get out. I had to make sure Leo was okay―to say nothing of everyone in Blackstone, the thousand ordinary people who were probably running terrified from the Skele-Ghouls. And my friends were going to a haunted house.

I rested my head on the bars, momentarily overwhelmed. There had to be a way out of this.

“I can help you.”

My blood turned to ice. I jumped back from the bars as though they were electrically charged and spun on the spot, my eyes roving all over the cell. No one was there. Human or otherwise.

“You can’t see me, Ashlyn.”

“What’s up?” said the guy.

I shook my head. Either I was cracking up―or something really bad was going to happen.

Ice formed on my palms, and I had no control over it. The pendant burned against my neck, and my hands moved by themselves, gripping the bars of the cell. Ice pinned them into place, and smoke began to seep out between the cracks.

I was
melting
the bars.

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t kn―” I choked, the demon rising within me, cutting off my voice. My vision flashed purple, and a rush of searing anger overwhelmed me.

The guy yelled, “Demon!”

Everything happened very fast. Several shouts echoed down the corridor, and people came running. The ice disappeared and I let go of the bars―which had dissolved into shapelessness―just as the doors burst open. Several people ran in and seized me. A suffocating feeling descended on me, even worse than the sensation of falling through the earth. It was like intense air pressure, and pain, sharp pain grasping me all over like knives.

Then… nothing.

“Don’t try using magic, demon. It’s blocked.” The speaker was a man with a face that looked like it was carved out of granite. He wore a badge which read,
Senior Supervisor
.

Blocked.
Is that what this is?
It felt like something fundamental was missing, like a vital piece of me was gone.

“I’m not a demon,” I said.

“You were spotted using demonic magic on no fewer than
seven
occasions, as our various witnesses will confirm―and now you’re being held responsible for the disappearances of several Venantium members in the tunnels. I think it’s high time for you to be questioned.”

And, a short, but tense walk later, I was back in the large, spacious chamber with the metal walls. The clinical smell in the air and the staring
venators
in sharp suits made me even more aware that I was covered in dirt. My jeans were soaked to the knees from the water I’d waded through.

This time, several people waited for me at the end of the room. I recognised only one of the faces: Jude. He wore a look of gloating triumph tempered by piousness.

“Doctor Philips will be your interrogator,” he said, barely concealing a laugh, as the other man handed me over. My fists clenched, but there was no rush of cold from the Darkworld. They really had blocked my connection.

A hard-faced woman stepped forwards. She had a stern look that reminded me of the strictest teachers at school, the expression of one who rarely smiled.

“Come with me, Miss Temple.”

Back through the metal door into the room where the Angel Box waited, glowing with that eerie, alien light. Fear rushed through me, and the only thing that made me follow her into the room and sit down was the desperate thought that they had to believe my story―I was innocent; I’d never hurt anyone.

She was direct and impersonal as though she questioned someone as robotic as herself. I answered her questions truthfully, admitting that Leo and I had been walking in the forest by campus when we’d run into the ghouls. I told her all about the doppelganger, as well as the connection to the grave robberies and that someone was summoning dark spirits to possess corpses. There were some things I kept quiet, such as my suspicions about the doppelganger being linked to my being human-demon, and anything that might give away what I was, but it was hard to think clearly, knowing that Leo was still out there somewhere, and that the world outside was in chaos. Her sceptical expression made the panic fluttering in my chest threaten to spill over, but I kept talking. Her expression never wavered.

“Please believe me,” I finished. “I don’t know who summoned it, but it’s the ghoul you’re after. She’s the one you want.”

“She?” said the woman. “You’re talking about the demon as an individual? Were
you
the summoner?”

“It looks just like me!” I said. I didn’t seem to have any control over my own mouth. It babbled all by itself. “I don’t know who has something against me, but someone summoned it and made it look like me. Why would I want to create a double of myself?”

“I don’t doubt that you young people have all kinds of schemes in mind. Magical ability in youngsters is a danger. I am in favour of it being eradicated. Even with our close monitoring, this can happen.” Her cold stare was as penetrating as a demon’s. “Would you like to tell me how you gained the knowledge to transgress our Barriers and bring the demon right here?”

“I didn’t,” I said. “I’d never been in the tunnels before the last time I came here. I didn’t even know this place existed until a few months ago. It’s the truth.”

“This will test your truthfulness,” she said, her mouth set in a grim line. “Get into the Angel Box.”

“I thought my magic was blocked,” I said, swallowing.

“So it is, but merely temporarily―for now. Even if the Box finds you to be truthful, you still used magic to attack our harpies, and for that, you must be disciplined as a caution. You are not a child; you are an adult and must take responsibility for your actions. We have therefore decreed that your connection to the Darkworld must be permanently blocked.”

Her words rang in my ears as I stepped into the box, which again, muted all sound. White light flared around me, and I felt as though I floated in a dream. This couldn’t be happening.

They’ll find out what I really am,
I thought.
If the Angel Box reveals the truth, I’m not safe. There’s no way. They’ll have me locked up for good, or worse.

The box shuddered around me, bringing me out of my dark thoughts. I looked down; I’d been positive I felt a trembling beneath my feet.

I glanced back up at the woman, but she was no longer looking at me. Several people ran into the room, shouting, although I couldn’t hear anything. I watched Dr Philips argue with the intruders, all of whom wore expressions ranging from desperation to stark terror. These must be lower-level
venators
―those fighting on the surface. The Skele-Ghouls had come to town.

I shifted position, and no one noticed when I pressed my hands against the glass, trying to find a way to open the door. But there didn’t seem to be one. I ran my hands over the edges and found only smooth corners, no door hinges. Horror rose within me as I saw everyone leaving the room, seemingly forgetting I was even there.

“Let me out!” I screamed, as the ground shook again. I banged frantically on the glass, but it was in vain. I was alone.

The ground continued to shake, and the glass vibrated beneath my hands and feet. I searched over and over again, turning to each corner of the glass, trying to break past the block in my mind. I could sense it, the cold of the Darkworld, like it was on the other side of the glass wall, but as with the real thing, no matter how hard I knocked, it didn’t budge an inch. My hands felt bruised, and I lost the fear that the glass would shatter and cut my hands. Instead, I had to face the real possibility that there was no way to break the glass at all.
Oh, God. No.

“Need help, Ash?”

I looked up and saw my own reflection staring out of the glass. But it wasn’t really my reflection, of course. We looked at each other, hazel eyes into violet, and I waited for her to smirk, come out with a snarky comment, taunt me.

“Come to laugh at me?” I said. My voice echoed strangely, caught within the glass.

The glass door fell open.
“Aren’t you going to get out?”

“Why are you helping me?” I asked.

Instead of answering, she faded away. I stepped gingerly out of the case, panting hard from the exertion of banging on the glass.
I have to get out of here.

“Ashlyn?” Someone appeared in the doorway. Jude.

“What’s going on?” I said, wary in case he came at me and shoved me into the case again.

“We’re being attacked,” he said. “You’d better come with me. I’ll take you back to the surface.”

Attacked?
Who by, the Skele-Ghouls? Or…
Leo and the others wouldn’t do anything stupid to rescue me, would they? They didn’t even know I was down here, I reminded myself, as Jude led me down another tunnel.

We walked for a long time, yet I was so preoccupied that it wasn’t until I recognised several of the tunnels Leo had marked that I realised we’d long-missed the turning to the way to the surface.

“Where are we going?” I asked him, feeling the prickling of a suspicion. He didn’t answer.

I stopped. “Hold it,” I said.

He turned back to face me. “What?”

“This way doesn’t lead to the surface.”

“It’s an alternative way. The main exit’s blocked.”

All the same, my feeling of foreboding didn’t diminish. I was about to protest again, when without warning, something crashed into the back of my head and all went black.

awoke in an open grave.

There was earth all around me, forming solid walls either side, the top open to the heavens―or at least, that was what I first thought. But then I realised that what I supposed was sunlight was the combined light of torches forming a ring around the wide chamber I was in, and the ceiling was lost in shadows black as the night sky.

I sat up, breathing fast. I had a sudden mental image of earth falling onto me and stood, looking for a way to climb out. It was shallow, and I could just about get a grip on the sides―

It was only when I saw a face staring down at me that I remembered what happened.