Demonglass (22 page)

I
could barely bring myself to look at her as she gestured for me to follow her up the stairs. I had never been her biggest fan, but I had trusted her. All I could think of was that night she and Cal had come for me after Alice, how she’d sat by my bed and held my hand. How she’d told me I had a destiny to serve the Council. Too bad she’d neglected to mention that they’d kill me if I didn’t live up to their expectations.

We made our way up the twisting stone steps. “Sophie, I know you feel betrayed.”

“Betrayed, pissed off, terrified…I have a lot of emotions going on right now, actually.”

She stopped, placing her hand on my arm. “There are very valid reasons for all of this.”

I threw her hand off. “Your sister already did the ‘villain explains it all’ speech. I don’t need another one.”

“But that’s just it,” she insisted. “We are not villains. We are doing what’s best for all Prodigium. Our numbers are getting smaller as factions like L’Occhio di Dio and the Brannicks increase. You and your father were meant to protect us, and yet you both seem to prefer the company of our enemies.”

“That’s not what’s—wait, what do you mean ‘both’? Since when is Dad all cozy with The Eye? Or the Brannicks, for that matter?”

She shook her head and continued walking upstairs. “It’s of no concern anymore.”

We’d reached the top of the stairs, but we were still underground. There were no windows in the long corridor. Suits of armor lined the walls, but these looked different from the ones I’d seen in other parts of Thorne. The dimensions were strange, and many of the suits were freakishly huge. Fear raced over me and through me, and once again, I felt my magic thump pitifully, uselessly, inside me.

“If you’ll follow me,” Mrs. Casnoff said, but before we got even three steps, a voice cried out, “Anastasia!”

It was Elizabeth, running down the corridor on her tiny grandma legs, her long skirt flapping around her.

Mrs. Casnoff looked annoyed. “What is it?”

Elizabeth reached us, panting, her round cheeks flushed. “Lara needs to see you immediately.”

Frowning, Mrs. Casnoff said, “I’m taking Sophie to the Removal chamber. Tell her I’ll be there shortly.”

“No!” Elizabeth shook her head. “She said to come now. It’s”—she glanced at me—“it’s about Nick.”

Even in the near-dark of the hallway, I could see the blood drain out of Mrs. Casnoff’s face. “Is it—”

“It’s like before,” Elizabeth said. “With his parents, but this time—” Her words dissolved into a strangled sob, and she pressed her hand to her mouth before saying, “Oh, God, Anastasia, it’s happened again.”

I had no idea what Elizabeth was talking about, but Mrs. Casnoff spit out a word I never thought I’d hear her say. She whirled on me. “Come with us, Sophie. And if you make any attempt to escape, so help me, I will kill you myself. Is that clear?”

I nodded dumbly, too relieved that I wasn’t being taken to the Removal chamber to feel scared. I followed Mrs. Casnoff and Elizabeth down the corridor, my brain whirring. If something bad had happened, maybe everyone would be distracted enough so I could formulate some plan for escape, Mrs. Casnoff’s death threats notwithstanding. First I’d need to find Jenna. It startled me to realize that I hadn’t even thought of her during all of this. Did she even know what had happened? Of course, if she’d heard about the Archer part, she might not want to leave with me anyway. I shook that thought away. Not helpful. And then there was Cal. I needed to find him and see what they’d done to him, if anything. Then maybe somehow, Cal, Jenna, and I could find a way to get Archer and Dad out of that cell, and we could make for the Itineris like the hounds of hell were at our heels.

Which they probably would be.

We finally reached the main foyer, and even from there, I could hear shouting coming from upstairs.

As Elizabeth and Mrs. Casnoff ran up the stairs, I thought about making a run for my room, hoping Jenna and Cal were in theirs. I’d barely made a quarter turn in that direction when a bolt of magic hit me squarely between the shoulder blades, sending me to my knees. I’d been hit by an attack spell before—Alice had done it as part of our training—but it hadn’t hurt like this one. I felt like I’d been electrocuted and slammed in the back with a bat all at the same time.

When I lifted my head, I saw Mrs. Casnoff standing on the landing, her hand held out toward me. “I warned you,” she said. “Now get up here.”

I did as I was told. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I could have done anything else; I could barely walk.

The rest of the Council was gathered in the hallway outside Dad’s office. A couple of palms were overturned, spilling black soil on the red carpet. On the floor, I noticed small bits of broken glass and two dark stains. Lara and Roderick stood in the middle of the lobby, shouting at each other.

“You assured us this wouldn’t happen. You swore that he was completely under your control.”

Lara’s hands were clenched into fists at her sides as she glared up at Roderick. “He is. Clearly this is some sort of aberration. We can fix this.”

“No,” Elizabeth cried, “we can’t! Lara, he killed nearly twenty people tonight.
Twenty
, in just a few minutes.”

My stomach lurched. So that was the emergency. Their pet demon had gone rabid. I felt a fierce dark joy at that. Serves you right, I thought. This is what you get for turning kids into monsters. But then I remembered Nick, and how sweet he’d been with Daisy, how his smile had reminded me of Archer, and any satisfaction I felt withered immediately.

“And The Eye knows we have Cross,” Elizabeth continued, her voice shrill. “They’re coming to Thorne. Oh God, it will be just like before!”

“No,” Lara barked, her face manic. “Not this time. We still have Daisy. We can fix this.”

Kristopher appeared under the marble arch, his blue eyes bright with anger. “It’s too late for that. Elizabeth is right. They’re coming, Lara. I can feel it. I know you can, too.”

But Lara stood there, her dark blond hair falling out of its bun. There was a wild look in her eyes. “Let them come, then. Anastasia, let Daisy out of her cell.”

But Mrs. Casnoff stayed where she was. “If we unleash Daisy on them…Lara, what if we can’t control her?”

I felt invisible standing there, watching. In a weird way, I felt almost sorry for them. They’d done a stupid and dangerous thing because they were scared, and now they were paying the consequence. But that consequence was a war that was going to kill a lot of Prodigium, and probably a lot of humans, too.

It was stupid, but I tried one last time to summon up my powers. I don’t know what I would have done with them if they’d worked, but once again, there was nothing. Just that helpless sense that my magic was right there, within reach but untouchable. Still, there had to be some way to get to it. If there weren’t, why would the Removal exist? Maybe the binding spell wasn’t permanent.

In the silence, I glanced down at the carpet, and something shiny caught my eye. Those broken bits of glass. But no, it wasn’t glass that was sparkling in the light. It was a thin golden chain.

A choking sound, somewhere between a sob and a shout, forced its way out of my throat as I knelt down and realized what I was looking at.

A shattered bloodstone.

“W
here is she?” I asked Mrs. Casnoff. “This is Jenna’s.” I held up the chain. “What did you do to her?” My voice rose to a scream on the last few words, and I was shaking. If they had destroyed Jenna’s bloodstone in the daylight, she would have died. Worse than died, she would have burned alive, screaming. I thought of the premonitions I’d had, that Cal, Jenna, and I would never go back to Hecate together.

The smell of smoke.

My fingers tightened on the chain until I was digging my nails into my palm. Lara looked at me with disdain and said, “It was time to clean house in more ways than one.”

I gave a cry of rage and leaped to my feet. I might not have had any powers left, but that wouldn’t stop me from killing her with my bare hands if she’d hurt Jenna. I don’t know what would have happened if a loud crash hadn’t reverberated through the house at that exact moment. But as soon as it did, all eyes swung away from me and toward the marble arch.

Another crash, then another, and then the horrible, screaming sound of cracking wood.

Without a word, Lara vanished in a faint rushing of air that told me she’d just teleported. Probably down to the cells to release Daisy. Mrs. Casnoff was murmuring something over and over in a language I didn’t understand, and as I watched, Elizabeth’s grandmotherly attire rippled and flowed until she was covered in gray fur, her face stretching into a muzzle. Her glasses fell off, revealing yellow eyes.

I think they were expecting someone to walk in through the arch, maybe offer “parlay” or whatever. That was the weird thing: they somehow expected this to go down in a formal, civilized manner. So they were caught by surprise when a silver dagger flew through the archway, hitting Kristopher squarely in the chest. He fell back soundlessly, his eyes staring at nothing.

What happened next was like something out of a nightmare.

The werewolf that had been Elizabeth howled and launched itself out of the lobby, headed for the stairs, Mrs.

Casnoff and Roderick right behind her. I stood, frozen. What the heck was I supposed to do in the middle of a giant magical battle with no freaking magic?

All I could hear from downstairs were screams and howls and things breaking. Dad and Archer were still trapped in their cell, and God only knew where Jenna was. Or Cal, for that matter. I couldn’t stay here, waiting for more of those killing flashes of light to snake their way to me. And if any of The Eye downstairs found me, something told me they wouldn’t care that I could no longer do magic, or that I was in love with one of their members.

I was going to have to make a run for it, and the only way out of Council Headquarters was out that marble archway and into an epic monster battle.

I took a deep breath and slid Jenna’s chain into my pocket. If I wanted to find out what had happened to her, if I wanted to save my Dad and Archer, if I wanted to find Cal, then I had to get out of this alive, magic or no. “Elodie, if you’re around and can offer any ghostly assistance, that would be great,” I said. I was half joking, but before I even had time to blink, she was floating in front of me, a vaguely irritated expression on her face.

“Whoa,” I murmured. “So…what they said, about me binding you to me. That’s true?”

She crossed her arms and nodded, scowling.

“Okay. Well, sorry about that. But I promise, if you help get me out of this, I’ll do whatever it takes to, uh, unbind us.”

She studied me and then her lips moved. I’m not sure what she said, but it looked like, “You better.”

She drifted over to one of the portraits. Her fingers moved around the edges of the frame like smoke, and after a moment, it swung open, revealing a passageway. She nodded toward it, and I could swear she looked smug.

“Thank you,” I said, but she’d already vanished. I hesitated at the entrance until a deafening crack sounded from downstairs. I had no idea what it could be, but it sounded like the whole floor had split open. There was another rush of magic, and even if I didn’t have my powers anymore, I still knew what it was. Lara had freed Daisy. I didn’t know what she’d done, but the screams that followed were inhuman.

Dad,
I thought.
Archer. Jenna. Cal. Get out so that you can help them.

The tunnel was small enough that I had to hunch over, and once I’d moved a few feet down, it twisted so I could no longer see the opening into Council Headquarters. That meant everything was pitch-black. Instinctively, I lifted my hand to summon an orb before remembering that I couldn’t anymore.

As I walked, moving as quickly as I could, I heard sounds of the battle raging inside the house. There were distant thumps and crashes like thunder, and once I thought I heard screams. I made myself keep moving even as I desperately wondered what was happening behind me.
Dad, Archer, Jenna, Cal,
I kept repeating.
You can’t help them if you’re dead.

The roof got lower as the tunnel twisted upward, and I had to drop to my knees and crawl the rest of the way up. Finally, my head thunked against something solid. I felt around with my fingers. A door.

I pushed up on it, and a shower of gravel and dirt rained down on me as it opened. I could see the tall hedges of the garden maze towering over me, so apparently I’d crawled right out the back of the house.

Pulling myself out, I squinted. The light outside was so bright that for a disorienting moment, I thought the sun must be up. But no, it had been dark when I’d rushed through the house with Elizabeth and Mrs. Casnoff. Surely not enough time had passed for it to be sunrise. And the light wasn’t the soft lemon yellow glow of sunlight, but the harsh orange glare of fire.

I rose to my feet and turned to face the house.

It was burning.

As I watched, tongues of flame broke out windows on the upper stories, licking at the building. An acre of roof, Lara had told us that first day, and now it seemed that the whole acre was on fire. Heat blasted my skin, and the smoke nearly choked me. Smoke.

Well, at least now I knew.

One of the massive wooden front doors crashed off its hinges. The house where Alice had been made a demon. The place where my father had lived his whole life. Council Headquarters.

It was gone.

And Dad and Archer were still inside.

I wanted to drop to my knees right there in the grass and sob, but a hand grabbed my arm. I screamed, swinging with everything I was worth. For the first time, I realized how vulnerable I was with no magic. My blows felt weak and ineffectual, and my powers screamed inside me.

“Sophie, it’s me. It’s me!”

Cal.

“It’s okay,” he was saying, pulling me closer to him. “It’s okay.”

I collapsed against his chest, too weak with fear and worry to cry. “Where have you been?”

“After my testimony, the Council sent me back to Hecate. But I…I don’t know, I just felt like something was wrong here, so I used the Itineris to come back. What the hell happened?” he asked.

I looked up at him, his hazel eyes reflecting the inferno in front of us. “It’s the Council. They’re raising demons. They raised Nick and Daisy, and now Nick has killed a bunch of people. They sentenced Archer to death, and—” I broke off on a sob. “L’Occhio di Dio attacked the house because of it, and Lara is using Daisy against them. And…and my dad is still in there. And Archer. And they did something to Jenna, but I don’t know what,” I finished, just as one of Thorne’s many chimneys crumbled in a plume of fire and smoke. It sounds strange, but until I said all of that out loud, the full magnitude of what I’d lost hadn’t really hit me. No more magic. Jenna missing, maybe dead. Archer and Dad trapped inside a burning building.

“Okay,” Cal said softly. Then, more firmly, “Get to the Itineris. I used that chain Cross had to get to Hecate and back, so it’s still there. Use it and get out of here.”

“How?” I asked, trying to focus. “I don’t have my powers anymore.”

Cal shook his head. “You don’t need them. The Itineris has its own magic. It doesn’t need yours.”

“Where am I supposed to go? I have no idea where my mom is.” My throat tightened to the point of pain. Dad had said he was going to call her. What if she was on her way here right now? What if she walked into the middle of this? “You were at Hecate. Is she there?”

Cal shook his head. “No.” There was another crash from inside, and Cal’s eyes darted back to Thorne. “Go to the Itineris and tell it you want to go to Aislinn Brannick. That should be enough to get you there, or at least close enough.”

If he had told me to climb around the back of the mill and go to Narnia, I’m not sure I could have been more shocked. “What?” I shouted over the roar of the flames. “Why would I go there?”

“Because that’s where your mother is,” he said, his gaze boring into mine.

My hands clenched the front of his shirt. “Oh my God, did they capture her or something?”

He shook his head. “No, but I don’t have time to explain. Just trust me. She won’t hurt you, and it’s the only place I can think of where you’d be safe. I’ll see what I can do for your dad. And Cross.”

I clutched his arm. “Cal, that’s suicide,” I said. God knows I wanted Dad and Archer safe, but the thought of Cal plunging back into that madness made my chest constrict with fear.

He gently pried my hand off his arm. “I have to,” he said softly. He went to turn away, and then stopped, like maybe he was reconsidering. But instead of agreeing to come back to the Itineris with me, he reached out, cupped my face, and brought his lips to mine.

I was so shocked that I literally froze in place, one hand hovering in the air next to Cal’s shoulder. The kiss was brief—just a little too long to be considered chaste—but when he pulled away, all I could do was stare at him, my mouth slightly agape. He ran his thumb over my lower lip, sending a tiny flurry of sparks through me. “Good-bye, Sophie.”

Then he jogged toward Thorne, disappearing into the blazing house. One more name I could add to my list of the lost.

I’ve heard people say that when you go through a lot of trauma, your brain just shuts off, goes right into survival mode. That must have been what happened to me, because I felt like I’d been dosed with a giant shot of mind-Novocain.

I turned away from Thorne Abbey and began walking toward the mill. Not running, not sprinting. Just walking. One foot in front of the other.
Go to Aislinn Brannick,
he’d said.
Your mother is there.
Okay, then. I’d go to Aislinn Brannick.

Once I reached the mill, I found the chain pretty quickly. Lying just a few feet from it was Archer’s sword. That’s right; he’d left it here that horrible night.

My fingers were as numb as the rest of me when I reached down and picked it up, its weight heavy and solid in my hand. I would take it with me, just in case I ever saw Archer again.

And just then, that feeling washed over me again, the strange psychic impulse I’d been feeling since I left Graymalkin. But this time, it wasn’t dread that washed over me, or fear.

It was happiness. Hope.

I
would
see him again. I can’t tell you how I knew it. I just did.

My magic flared inside me, futile but still there, and I felt the numbness slide away from me, steely determination taking its place. If Archer could live through this night, maybe that meant Dad and Cal could, too. And Jenna, wherever she was.

And together, maybe we had a chance of stopping all this. I clutched the sword tighter with one hand, and used the other to slip the chain around my neck.

“Aislinn Brannick,” I muttered under my breath. “Wherever you are, I really hope Cal is right about you.”

Then I stepped through the doorway.