Aurora’s Betrayal Page 8

  Ready to head back and find another way across, I turn and freeze. At the other end of the field, the creature paces at its edges.

  Okay, so, no turning back.

  I look back at the plants. Not only do I need to be nearly silent, I also have to try to avoid the barbs as much as possible. I nearly laugh. The dense plants stretch as far as I can see.

  It’s just pain; I’ve handled worse. Perses said nothing could hurt me here, right? What if he meant I can only feel pain while I’m here, but the pain can’t physically hurt my body?

  Enough stalling.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I slowly start walking again.

  Every plant that cuts me adds to the pain, and bloody lines cover my hand and arms. The plants slice through my jeans, the fabric tearing with every step. I bite my tongue to hold in the screams I want to let out.

  Pain turns my mind fuzzy, but I stumble on.

  When the plants thin, I throw myself across the last few. I fall to my knees on the earth, breathing through the pain. I don’t examine the cuts, knowing that will make it worse. Have you ever cut yourself and not felt it until you saw the blood? Yeah, well, I’m going to roll with that idea.

  Pushing myself up, I look at where I am. A broken stone path lays in front of me, more trees at its edges. I glance back, but fog obscures my vision of the field.

  This place gets creepier and creepier.

  I step lightly on the first stone, in case it stabs me or something crazy. When nothing happens, I walk forward. My magic rises again, the soothing warmth burning away some of the pain as it shows me the thread stretched into the distance.

  I don’t know what I expected for Purgatory, but this isn’t it. Every little noise has me nearly jumping out of my skin, so I sing in my head to keep myself calm.

  As I reach the chorus of TLC’s “No Scrubs”, a growl sounds behind me.

  Oh, for fuck’s sake, what now?

  I cut off mid-rap and turn to look. A couple of steps behind me sits a two-headed dog. I shit you not, this mother fucker has two heads. It’s all black with red eyes. I try to hold in my snort. Someone’s been really unimaginative. I must not hold my snort in because the dog steps closer and growls.

  Okay, not imaginative, but it sure as hell does the trick.

  “Nice, two-headed doggy,” I whisper, holding my hands up. “I’m passing through. Would you like me to throw you a bone? A branch? Maybe two?” A laugh bursts out of my chest at the images of its two heads fighting for a stick.

  The one on the left opens its mouth, and I yelp. Large, gleaming, white fangs are revealed, but it’s the noise it makes that stops me cold. A human scream comes out of its mouth.

  I am officially freaked out.

  It opens its mouth wider with human screams for help.

  Nope, not today, Satan.

  I begin to back away. It advances with every step I take, following me but not getting closer.

  “Help me!” it screams. The moans of pain carry on as it opens and closes its mouth.

  I nearly fall on a loose rock behind me and it uses this opportunity. It jumps at me, and I react immediately by throwing a fireball at the still screaming head.

  It yelps and drops to the floor, screaming as it catches on fire. The smell of burning flesh wafts to me.

  I watch as the two-headed dog burns, my violet flames licking over its nightmare body. The screams of the human only grow louder, and I feel blood trickle out of my ears. Yet, I watch.

  When it stops moving, I call my flame back and the body disintegrates. It lays on the path, a pile of unmoving ash. Huh, guess there’s no wind, after all.

  Ignoring the nauseous bubbles in me, I turn back to the stone path. I need at least ten showers to get rid of the smell of its burning flesh. With renewed determination, I stride down the path.

  I want this nightmare over with.

  24

  Aurora

  A freaking castle, like the ones from old films, stands before me. It stretches to the left and right as far as I can see. One lone path leads to its open door.

  I so don’t want to go in there, but I have to, don’t I? Why can’t it be like a nice little cottage? Well, I guess that didn’t work out too well for Hansel and Gretel.

  Darius owes me a lifetime of cookies for this.

  Walking through the large stone door sends a chill down my spine. The inside looks like something out of a horror movie set. Darkness casts shadows all around the room, making it difficult to see beyond the stone and the two curved staircases leading up from the foyer.

  Okay, so, where to now? I watch the thread, which of course leads upstairs.

  Grumbling to myself, I walk up the stairs, listening for any freaky ass monster waiting around the corner. All I hear is the creaking of the steps beneath my feet.

  When I reach the top, a corridor runs to the left and to the right.

  The thread leads down the one to the right. I follow it as the hallway darkens until, eventually, I walk in pitch black. Usually, I’m okay in the dark, but this one? It feels oppressive, like I can actually feel the weight of it pressing on me, closing in on all sides.

  The only sound is my breathing, and I can’t see anything. At this point, my eyes glow, the reflection from them barely lighting up the dark, but not even that breaks the void in front of me. My magic pulses in me as a reminder I have easy access to it now.

  I smile happily, which feels wrong in this place.

  “Light,” I whisper, gathering my power in my palm.

  I throw it gently in the air and a floating orb of violet light bobs near my head. I look back down the hallway and freeze as the light casts shadows across the thing in front of me.

  It stands mere inches away from my face. I don’t know how I didn’t feel it breathing, then realize its chest stays still. Oh, that’s because it’s not.

  I swallow and look around it. It leans with me, and I stop. Okay, then.

  Not going to freak out. When it steps closer, I stop myself from stepping back.

  It looks like it was once a woman. Long, bedraggled, greasy hair hangs in clumps on its head. Clouds film its eyes, its skin gray and mottled. As its skeleton-like body moves, and I can see the bones moving, too.

  The more it stares at me, the more hated and desperation crash through me in waves. Unwilling to close my eyes with this creature so near, I concentrate on the negative feelings while watching it. With a start, I realize they come from the creature. Its mouth opens slightly, showing sharp, pointed teeth. As it does, all happiness is sucked from me, and all my fears doubled.

  I take a deep breath, then blow it out, moving the thing’s hair, and push the bone-deep fear back.

  When it stands there not attacking me, I try something.

  I step to the left, and it mirrors me. I step to the right, and it mirrors me again. I put my back to the wall, and it copies on the other side. Slowly, I step away, so I stand in the spot it previously stood, and it moves to my abandoned place. I walk backward, my light bobbing along with me. The creature copies, and soon, all I see are its eyes, then eventually nothing.

  Turning, I slowly make my way down the corridor.

  A shuffling noise comes from up ahead, and I freeze again. To my left, I see a doorway, and when the shuffling grows louder, I dart behind the door, leaving it open a crack.

  A man, similar to the skeleton lady, shuffles down the corridor. His head leans to the left and when he passes, I see why. His head hangs on by only inches.

  “What are you doing here?” The soft growl brings me spinning to face the room, the door at my back.

  My light only penetrates so far into the room, and I can’t see anything. I step in farther, the light following, until I see who spoke. His stands with his back to the wall, as far away from me as he can get.

  I recognize him. “Darius?”

  He tilts his head like an animal and stares at me.

  When he doesn’t speak, I step closer. “You’re Darius?”


  He nods slowly, his voice disjoined. “You are?”

  I stop and study at him. His clothes lay in tatters, and he’s skinny—a lot more than in his memories. Not as bad as the skeletons, but getting there. If I leave him longer, will he become like them?

  “Aurora. I came here for you,” I whisper softly.

  “Then, you’re dead.” His face loses his humanity, and for a minute, a distinctive, animalistic quality taking its edge.

  I’m aware he can step forward and attack me at any minute. Remembering the advice I received once about what to do when facing a wild animal, I try it now.

  Eyes downcast, I stay still, my hands out to the side of me, my palms facing inward. I don’t let my fear show. I watch as he seems to struggle against whatever’s taken over him. Eventually, the snarl recedes, and humanity slowly ebbs back into his eyes.

  I decide to carry on the conversation like nothing happened. “I’m not dead. I’m a witch. Well, a hybrid, actually. I came here to bring you back.”

  As I step closer, he growls like a feral dog.

  I stop instantly.

  His growl dies down. “How are you here?”

  I watch his eyes carefully. “I’m bound to your brothers, which somehow bound me to you.”

  A flash of something lights up his eyes, but I don’t have time to consider what. “You’re the one.”

  It’s my turn to look confused. I stay where I am, not risking him sliding back into his primal state. “The one?”

  A noise comes from the door, and before I can move, Darius grabs me.

  I start to struggle, power filling my hands, when I realize he’s not hurting me. I stop and let my body go pliant.

  He slams my back against the wall where he previously stood, shifts in front of me, and lifts a finger to his lips, which are full and plump. Probably not the best time to notice that.

  I nod to tell him I understand.

  The door slowly opens, and we stay silent. He stares into my eyes, and I stare back. I know something came into the room, but it’s like we’re in our own little bubble, assessing each other.

  I spot something out of the corner of my eye and freeze.

  When the thing comes to stand behind Darius, I nearly scream. It looks like the skeletons I passed in the hallway but so much worse. The thing twitches from side to side and growls. I can’t tell if it used to be a man or a woman. It has no hair and its eyes are cloudy.

  As it begins sniffing around the room, I swallow nervously.

  I stare into Darius’s dark-brown eyes, unable to hide the fear in my wide ones.

  He lowers his finger from his lips and cups my cheek before he lays his forehead on mine, blocking my view of the creature.

  I still hear the thing sniffing, but my world now exists of the darkest brown eyes I’ve ever seen. I would describe them as soulful. There’s something about his emotions and the way he moves. He might be human, but there’s a wild quality to it like he can slide back into that feral primal state at any given minute.

  I should be terrified, but a shiver of excitement slides through me at all that power and wildness gazing at me like I’m his savior. I hope he mistakes my shiver for fear.

  Something peeks out in his eyes, and they dully light up with his power, but I can tell it’s not as strong as it should be.

  We stare at each other as the thing sniffs around us, now next to our faces. I don’t even breath as it growls and twitches against me. Its bones scrape as they slide underneath its paper-thin skin. As it hunches over, something hits my feet.

  I still don’t move, and neither does Darius.

  Slowly, it walks away. As I let my breath out, it mixes with Darius’s.

  Only when we hear the door shut do I allow myself a deep breath. “What was that thing?”

  Darius doesn’t move, and I become aware we’re pressed up against each other tightly.

  His head is tilted down to meet mine. He must be over a head and a half taller than me. “Souls that are trapped here. If you’re here too long, that’s what you descend to.”

  So the man and the woman I saw outside, I’m guessing, haven’t been here as long as the one who came into the room. Fun place.

  “The castle is full of them,” he whispers.

  “How come you aren’t one?” I whisper back.

  His eyes shutter, and I miss their depth. “You.”

  I snap my head back away from him as far as the wall at my back will allow. “What do you mean?” I ask, no longer whispering.

  “I don’t know how you did it, or how long ago it was. Time moves differently here. I was trying to exist, but my emotions and humanity had nearly left me when this light surrounded me. It made me human again.”

  My voice gentles. “What does that have to do with me?”

  “It’s the same power calling to me from you now. If you stretched out, you’d feel it,” he says, still so soft.

  Doing as he instructs, I gasp when I feel him. My power is deep in him, almost animating him.

  “They hunt your light, your humanity. Your liveliness.”

  I look at him again. “What do you mean?”

  “When I came back to myself, all the creatures and lost souls were drawn to me like a beacon. I keep moving, yet they always find me. Now they’ll be drawn to you.”

  Great. So that’s why I’ve had so many encounters. “We need to get out of here.”

  “No shit, angel face. So, you’re here to save me?” His question holds a growl at the end.

  I nod again.

  “So, you can get us back?” he asks, his voice even.

  “I think so.”

  He moves away finally, and I’ll admit, I miss his heat.

  “Then, we need to get somewhere safe for now, so you can try.” He flicks his head at me. “Come on, angel face. We don’t want to be here when the rest of the lost ones in the castle realize we’re here.”

  I step forward with a frown. “Why were you here, then?”

  “I felt something pulling me across the lands. I’m guessing that was you. I didn’t know where, so I came to check here.”

  I follow him to the door.

  He sticks his head out, then waits a moment before he opens the door fully and heads into the hallway.

  I follow him, my light still above me. Silently, I walk by his side, on alert for another lost one, as he calls them. We make it to the front door of the castle without any more run-ins, and once we’re outside, I wordlessly follow him through the trees.

  We walk for a while before I decide to speak. I didn’t want to risk anything overhearing us in the castle, but I figure we’re far enough away now.

  “Where are we headed?” I look through the trees for any other creatures this place has to offer.

  “Somewhere deep in the lands. It will give you a place to get us out of here without your magic drawing everything in a five-mile radius.” He looks over at me and I nod.

  As we continue forward, I study him out of the corner of my eye. He’s not what I expected. I knew being in this place would change him, but there’s nothing of the teasing, laughing man I saw in the mirror. Will he change back once we’re back home?

  “So, you’re bound to my brothers?” His quiet voice moves through the trees like a magic of its own.

  “Sort of. It’s not completed yet. You don’t sound like you’re questioning it?” I carry on my search of the trees as we walk and talk.

  “Dying and living here changes the way you see things,” he mutters.

  Yeah, I can imagine.

  “So, they’re okay?” His question is so quiet I almost don’t hear him.

  “Yes. The last time I saw them, they were.”

  We fall silent for some time. I don’t know what to say to this man. I know the him from the past, not this one who appears half dead and animalistic.

  He stops at the edge of the tree line. I peek around him and see a lake of some sort. He scans the edge of the land before it.

  “Is thi
s safe?” I whisper.

  He flashes me a smile that stops me cold. It’s bitter and nothing like the one I’m used to seeing on his handsome face. “Nothing here is. Come on, angel face.”

  As he walks over to the water, I follow. “My name is Aurora.”

  He turns with a flourish, revealing a little boat that’s seen better days. He bows mockingly to me. “Well then, angel Aurora, your chariot awaits.”

  At the challenge in his eyes, I grit my teeth and clamber onto the rickety wooden boat, sitting on one of the slats. After pushing us off, he jumps in and sits opposite me.

  “I didn’t expect it to look like this.” I don’t realize I spoke out loud until he responds.

  “It’s a reflection of the world. Just a distorted one.”

  I tilt my head in consideration. “I’ve never seen a place like this.”

  With a growl, his face closes down. “I have.”

  I stare at him. “Where?”

  “My home,” he grunts.

  I look out across the water. Where did he grow up? I thought the boys knew each other since they were little? I lean over the water and watch as it gently laps against the boat.

  “Don’t fall in, angel face.” He’s back to mocking again, making the word angel sound dirty.

  I bite my tongue from reminding him of my name again and don’t even look at him.

  “Why?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

  He sticks his hand in, and I watch as he brings it out again. Red, thick liquid covers his hand.

  “Blood,” I whisper in shock.

  “Blood, angel face,” he confirms.

  I sit back in disgust, trying to get as far away from the water as I can.

  He laughs mockingly at me, and I scowl at him. What the hell is this problem?

  “Welcome to Purgatory, Angel Aurora.”

  25

  Aurora

  He rowed until a small island appears, made out of sharp rock, then led us to a cave inside the island where we sit now.

  “Are we safe here—as much as we can be?” I look around like the walls might jump out and attack me.