The Gateway Through Which They Came (36 page)

“You don’t think I’d send a Dark One on a mission like that without seeing for myself, do you? I had to know if your transition was possible, and you proved me right.”

I step forward, ready to unleash the anger building inside me. Koren blocks my way, her face inches from mine, threatening. Whether she’s only playing her role, or I’ve lost her to the darkness completely, I can’t be sure.

The urge to hold her, to bring her back to me is so strong. I fight to hide the emotion on my face. This can’t go on any longer. She’s running out of time.

Raimi claps his hands together like a proud father and says, “There’s my girl.”

It puts a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Using me to call upon the shadows isn’t right. I never asked for this.”

“Didn’t you?” His tone roars with impatience. “You want to believe in something. Believe in me, Aiden. Believe in the Order.”

As if those two words were the signal, the shadows hiss with excitement beside him, their faces melting back like black tar, exposing fresh faces of men. Their hisses turn to devilish laughter. Even Koren smiles at the sound.

The shadows aren’t just shadows, or followers, they
are
the Order, or some of them at least. I can tell by the way they carry themselves, the power emanating off them and absorbing into me.

I look at my hands. The heat is beginning to overpower me. The energy embeds itself into my souls, urging to push the other one out; the only one keeping my humanity intact. My muscles clench as I call upon the Light that I’ve taken for granted until now.

“We need you,” Raimi says, watching as I struggle. “Together we can gather our brothers. Free them from their prison. There’s so much we can do together, so much we can learn. Do you not feel it? Can’t you feel the thirst inside of you?”

My heart races, pumping viciously in my chest with the need to consume. I can feel myself giving in, wanting to absorb the darkness surrounding me. But the Light within bursts through the cracks, just as eager to take control. The words in my head scream to be released. The only words that can end this.

My will teeters along the edge of insanity. Like a frayed strand of thread ready to snap. I want to leap, I want to concede, but all I can hear in my mind is:
With the Light I send thee, forever into the depths of darkness.

Speak these words
, I demand myself.

I bite down, fighting against myself as I speak. “With the Light I send thee—”

Something wraps around my neck, tightening without give. Koren is behind me, her hand around my throat, preventing me from chanting the only thing that could save us. Whatever hold this room has on me, it has its hold on her too. We’re trapped.

Raimi blinks, towering over me in Koren’s grasp. “You dare to bind me?”

Each attempt to gasp for air comes up short. Her strength is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. She could easily crush my windpipe, but she holds back, waiting for Raimi to give the word.

“Koren,” I choke out. “Please.”

But she doesn’t give.

“If you’re not going to do this the easy way, I guess I’m left with no choice.” With a quick nod to Koren, the pressure on my throat enhances, and before I know it, everything goes black.

he first things I notice when I come to are the restraints. No, not restraints. It’s the others holding me down against the altar. I search for Koren’s face, desperate to see her relinquished from the Dark Priest’s hold. She keeps herself at a distance, eyes pitch black. Whatever was left of her is long gone now. I shouldn’t have let her come here.

There’s no contact against my skin where their hands clasp around my limbs. Only the sensation of being stuck in place, adhered with some invisible glue to the marble beneath me. They watch me with eyes so dark, I can practically see the pit of Hell through them. The crackle of the torches is the only thing I can hear, as the flames flicker and spit into the depths of the tunnel.

“Did you honestly think I wouldn’t know what you two were planning?” His voice booms inside my head, his body somewhere out of reach. “I have to say, I was really hoping Koren would make it through you before this time had come. But her ignorance kept her from saving herself. Or perhaps…”

Raimi stands over me, no longer speaking through my mind. “Could it be her feelings for you that kept her here?”

With every ounce of strength I have, I tug and pull to free myself. It’s no use. I can’t even budge, and I give in with exasperation.

“You turned her parents against her,” I spit.

“Is that what she told you?” A loud cackle rips into the air. “You really are gullible when it comes to love, aren’t you?”

He’s lying. He’s trying to turn me against her. I can’t listen, can’t believe the lies.

“If it’s any consolation,” he says, “she really did have good intentions when she brought you here, though that was not her goal at the beginning. She was very much on my side then, trust in that.”

“You lie!”

“Do I? I may have allowed you to believe certain things about me, but have I ever actually lied to you, Aiden?”

As if he deserves the confirmation, everything he’s said to me runs through my head. He’s done nothing but lead me away from the Brethren, only to have me come right back. It was a test, that I know, but a test I failed on all accounts. He warned me about the
Brethren of Shadows
, though it didn’t stop me from consuming its pages.

At the memory, I look down at my waist, realizing that the book is no longer hidden along the waistline of my jeans.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” He waves it off. “It’s in safe hands. I thank you for returning it to me.”

My clothes are drenched in sweat from my efforts to free myself from their hold. Koren stays unblinking at their side. She wouldn’t do this to me. Despite what he says, I know her better than that.

“What did you do to her?” I snarl through gritted teeth.

Raimi circles the altar, a pleasant expression on his face. “You’re so quick to accuse me. Of course she’d be willing to sacrifice herself for the cause. It was all too easy to persuade her. She didn’t put up a fight. Like you, she wanted this, to be something worthy of her parents’ love.”

My head shakes, preventing the information from burrowing into my ears. I don’t want to hear it. They’re lies. Just lies.

“Don’t be angry,” he says, a strange comfort in his tone. “The pact you made outside this place was real. You changed her, Aiden. But, unfortunately, she lost herself the minute she walked through that door.”

Everything he’s saying melts into me. I can feel my sanity beginning to break.

“Her parents,” I say, “you never intended to bring them back.”

Raimi smiles.

“You bastard.”

“We all must make sacrifices,” he explains. “But now we must move forward.”

Raimi lifts the book into view. He closes his eyes, allowing the sensation I once felt from those very pages vibrate through him. I can hear the voices, and feel their energy as it passes into him. Pages flip one by one on their own, stopping when they’ve reached their mark.

Raimi beams with delight as he says, “It’s time to summon the rest of our brothers.”

My panic triples at his announcement. “You can’t! The Gateway’s not open. I won’t do this.”

“Hush now, dear boy,” he says like a father calming his son. “This book holds many secrets. Even you know that.”

I tug and pull, but the binds on my limbs won’t relent. Koren’s emotionless gaze gives no comfort, no evidence that this can be stopped. Deep in my chest, I strain every muscle, demanding that the Gateway remain closed.

In what sounds like a language similar to Latin, Raimi recites his passage. Though this language is unfamiliar to me, the words somehow translate in my mind, as if whatever evil inside of me interprets it on its own.

“I call upon thee, my brothers,” he chants. “By the darkness, may the light cower in fear, and surrender to the call of the shadows. Let thee come forward and press upon the gate, and behold the power to unleash thy presence upon the living. Join me once again at my side and follow me into darkness. For I grant the Order of Shadows life and eternity. Through this Gateway, I give you release.”

The flames of each candle surrounding me flicker out as a biting wind circles the room with unbearable force. Like a thousand hot daggers stabbing from inside my chest, an excruciating pain surges through my entire body. It’s as if my skin is covered in boiling blisters that burst open simultaneously, though whether they are real, or just the pain scorching through me, it’s impossible to tell. A tortured scream bursts from my throat, the sound so ragged and raw, I could swear it wasn’t coming from me at all.

The pressure in my chest grows stronger each second, and with each scream I fight to hold back the creatures inside me, pounding their way out. I bite down, tight and fierce, screaming for myself to hold on. Help will come before they break their way through. It has to.

Raimi watches, wide eyes filled with madness. “Release them!” he demands. “You don’t have what it takes to fight this, Aiden. Give in to your instincts. Give in!”

My back arches off the altar, as if the things scraping at the gate are growing restless. Everything aches and my body is on the verge of exploding. Tremors shake me to the core, to the point that I can’t hold on any longer. With each rip and tear inside me, my will begins to falter, to let go and be done with it.

I can’t possibly survive this.

They’ve won.

The barrier begins to crumble. I look back at Koren, wishing she could see me. As if somewhere inside of her she could hear my thoughts, a shift of her head answers back. Her black eyes take in the sight of me, broken and defeated. A crease in her brow is her only emotion. For a moment I think she’s still trapped inside of herself, until a simple blink of her lashes softens her expression, and the blackness of her eyes melts away into the bluest of blue.

“Aiden,” she says, her voice so sweet and comforting to my ears.

With that simple word, that simple sound of hope, I clench my teeth tight and use what little energy I have to push the darkness back into the depths of my soul. The claws from the wicked inside of me press on, fighting back ferociously with undying hunger, but this time I refuse to give in. Not now. Not ever.

The muscles throughout my body ache from holding back for so long. I urge myself to scream out the only words that can end this nightmare. The Light comes alive as if readying itself to obey, and I can feel it rising through me as I scream.

“WITH THE LIGHT I SEND THEE, FOREVER INTO THE DEPTHS OF DARKNESS!”

When the words ring out, pure and true, the sound of them is so powerful an echo follows.

“NO!” Raimi cries, reaching as if he could stop the world from exploding around him.

But it’s already begun.