I forced my heavy eyelids to open, dusky slits of vision widening as I blinked, trying to focus on the scene before me.
I was curled up at the base of a tall, graffiti-splashed pillar in an alcove adjacent to what appeared to be a train tunnel. The recessed room was lined with industrial-looking pipes, and dust danced in the slots of light beaming down from an overhead grate.
“She’s awake!” The peppy cheer—and burst of solo applause that followed—reverberated dully in the cavernous tunnel. I looked up to see Aiden skipping over the tracks to meet me, his shiny boots scattering the rocks that covered the floor of the tunnel.
“You have given me quite a lot of trouble,” he said, wagging a finger at me. Over his thin black shirt, he wore that shiny armor, which I could now see was comprised of several overlapping circular plates that started at his wrist, covering his arm and shoulder and spreading out like a fan over his right pectoral.
“Cute accessory,” I grunted, and Aiden’s impish grin faded, his eyes growing dark and menacing.
“Your little boyfriend did a lot of damage to my shoulder. Do you want to repay the favor?” he growled. He braced his right fist at his side, those fiery sparks shooting out of his knuckles until they solidified into his weapon of choice—that long gold spike. He rushed forward, sliding to his knees and grabbing a fistful of my hair. Yanking my head back, he forced me to look at him, pressing the tip of the spike into my shoulder.
“Do you want to know what it felt like when his blade sliced through bone and tendon and muscle?” he seethed. Aiden pushed the spike into my shoulder more forcefully, the tip easily penetrating my sweater and shirt—and only after I cried in pain as the tip pierced my skin did he drop his hold, withdrawing his spike with a satisfied smile.
“That’s what I thought. Keep your smart little comments to yourself, if you have any sense of self-preservation. I need you alive—but they never said you couldn’t be writhing in pain.”
He pressed his index finger into my forehead. “Just ask your little friend Pepper,” he sneered, pushing hard and making my head jerk back. “She’s a bleeder, that one.”
Her scream—the last thing I’d heard before waking up here—echoed in my head.
“Is she dead?”
“I stabbed her in the stomach, so by now, probably.” Aiden just shrugged, casually and carelessly dismissing another life.
I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep the tears filling my eyes at bay. I didn’t want to give Aiden the satisfaction of seeing me cry. It was the one thing I had left.
He stood up again, folding his arms as he studied the narrow space between the tunnel wall and the train tracks. He bent down, setting three gold pyramids in the shape of a triangle on the rocky floor. Aiden moved with precision, taking care to adjust each pyramid until the gilded tips all appeared to aim toward the same focal point somewhere above the center of the triangle.
“This might make you a teensy bit tired.” His voice dripped with false concern as he gave me an exaggerated pout, leaning down to adjust one of the pyramids again. “This is a special kind of portal, you see.”
He strode over to me, his steps graceful in spite of the uneven, rocky ground. With an evil grin, Aiden squatted in front of me, grabbing my chin tightly with the hand not covered by a lethal spike.
“Let’s see your little protector try to stop me now.”
“He’ll stop you—and then he’ll kill you,” I vowed, but Aiden merely laughed as he stood up before me, shaking his head in amusement. Reaching down, he grabbed my wrists where they were bound by a thin gold wire, and I cried out as it sliced into my skin. He yanked me to my feet, and I stumbled forward, falling onto my knees on the rocks, which tore through my tights and cut into my legs.
Aiden hauled me forward, the tips of my shoes scraping across the jagged rocks as he dragged me in front of the triangle he’d set up before dropping me onto the ground.
“I don’t know how much you know about crossing over, little girl, but it’s too much energy for one body. Crossing over alone is suicide. It would turn you inside out.” As he spoke, he casually hooked the tip of the spike into the sleeve covering his other arm, pushing the fabric up over his elbow.
“It’s preferable to travel with more than just one person, spread the energy around, you know,” he added matter-of-factly, as if he were explaining something mundane like fractions and not interdimensional travel. “I’m telling you this now because I don’t want a lot of screaming when we come out on the other side. I’m going to be tired and you’re going to be in a lot of pain. It’s harder for humans than it is for my kind to cross, and I really don’t want to hear your whiny mouth.”
Aiden gently traced my jaw with his spike. “I don’t even need you to speak for this spell. So keep your mouth shut or I’ll start breaking bones.” I kicked at his legs, and he merely laughed, dodging my feet and stepping around me to grab me around the waist. He pulled me up, holding me in a viselike grip with my back against his chest.
I struggled against Aiden’s clutches, thrashing in his arms and screaming, my desperate cries dying as echoes in the tunnel. Only hours before, Logan had held me like this in the library. And now his warm arms were replaced with Aiden’s, whose breath hissed sharply in my ear as he began to chant in the demonic language. The pyramids began to glow, bathing the entire tunnel in a honey-colored light.
Immediately, I felt weak. The brighter the glow, the more faint I felt. My knees began to buckle, but Aiden held me tightly, clutching me against him as my life began to drain from me. I flailed in his arms, fighting for consciousness, but it was like holding water in my fist—it all dripped away.
Pictures flitted in front of my mind as I fought to stay awake. My dad teaching me to ride a bike...my first Yankees game with my mom...Logan’s eyes as he told me he loved me. I held on to these images as I forced my eyes to keep open. Was this my life flashing before my eyes?
A gold mist curled out of the pyramids, meeting in the center of the triangle. The mist dipped and swirled, a serpentine fog that undulated to the tune of Aiden’s chants.
“Mekus cruor, mekus de cruor!” Aiden wildly repeated the phrase, his voice morphing into a savage, beastly growl.
Aiden dropped his hold on me, and I collapsed to the ground, pushing myself onto my side to see him stand at the base of the triangle, holding out his arm. He dragged the top of the spike along the inside of his forearm, gritting his teeth as he tore a thin line in the pale skin. His hand dropped, deep purple blood streaming down his arm and pooling in his closed fist.
He thrust his dripping fist into the mist, which hungrily curled around it, as if it were consuming the blood. Purple veins branched out from his hand into the fog, wrapping around the mist and feeding it. Aiden’s face contorted in agony as he shut his eyes, his mouth open in a quiet wail, as the mist pulsated before bursting open. A blast of wind knocked both of us back, sending rocks scattering as we sprawled on the ground, gaping at the small, ripped-open hole above the triangle.
It looked like someone had violently torn open a painting, leaving rough, tattered edges hanging around the hole that uncovered another painting underneath it. The edges of the canvas glowed, flashing white before it got bigger—a gaping wound that offered a peek into the world on the other side.
I rolled over onto my stomach with a grunt, trying to push myself up with my bound hands and falling down. My bones felt like chalk—like they’d snap with the simple act of pushing my body off this bed of rocks. My vision blurred, and I wondered if this was what Travis had endured before Blaise turned him into ash. Logan had saved me that time. But this time...