Forgotten Ghosts Read online

  The muscles of my jaw flexed, but I nodded.

  “Let me heal you,” Aideen said.

  Sam shook her head. “Stay away from the bars. I’m good.”

  Zola had been watching silently. She cracked her knobby old cane on the floor with a brutal strike. Everyone turned to look at her.

  “Ah don’t know what this game is, First Sergeant Park. You have earned our trust, and I hope we have earned yours. But this …” she said with a nod toward Sam. “This is cruel. If you tortured a human like this, you’d be held accountable in the highest courts. You’d be branded a traitor. And a very long time ago, in an age Ah sometimes do not care to remember, the only ones who sank this low ran slaves.”

  “Zola …” Park started, cringing under her gaze.

  Zola held up her hand. “No. If you intend to torture supernaturals, or enslave them, you’re no better than Nudd.”

  “It wasn’t my doing,” Park said through gritted teeth. “Some things are above my ability to control.”

  “I suppose you were only following orders,” Zola said, and her voice held a weight that spoke worlds.

  Vicky stepped closer to the old Cajun. “We can’t leave them here.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” Sam said.

  Vicky’s brow creased, and she shook her head.

  Aideen’s wings sagged a little. If I hadn’t known her so long, I might not have noticed. “Sam is right, little one. Our alliance is young, and while not everyone is on our side, Park and his people are. Give them a chance to resolve it promptly.” She eyed Park, who nodded once.

  “Go,” Sam said. “Frank is here. We have friends here.”

  Frank grunted.

  Vicky wrapped her right hand around one of the bars and leaned in toward Sam. “This is bullshit. You change your mind, these won’t stop me.”

  Sam smiled up at Vicky. “It’s good to see you, kid.”

  Aideen didn’t hesitate. “Now, make for Falias. We need to speak with our allies there and take stock of the situation. I doubt it was a coincidence Nudd held the press conference before the eastern gates.”

  I patted Frank on the shoulder and looked into Sam’s cell. “If the situation changes, you let me know.”

  She nodded and leaned back into the wall.

  I turned away from the cell, trying to wipe the vision of Sam and Foster behind bars from my mind, an exercise in futility. “Vicky, you’re coming with us. I’d feel safer knowing you’re not taking Jasper for another joyride.”

  “Next time, answer your phone,” Vicky said.

  Sam let out a weak chuckle from her cell. “Go. Tell me what you find. Get me out of here, Damian.”

  “I will.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  We returned to the entrance to the archives. Casper had rejoined Park as we exited the hallway with the cells. Seeing where they’d imprisoned Foster and Sam had fractured my confidence. I took two slow breaths to calm the rising rage.

  Casper eyed me, hesitating before she asked, “What next?”

  “Falias,” Aideen said, back in her smaller form and perched on Zola’s shoulder. “We have allies there. They may have information we desperately need.”

  “What do you need from us?”

  “Get our people out,” I said, “and make sure they aren’t tortured in the meantime.”

  Zola drummed her fingertips on the head of her cane. “Ah think what Ah’d recommend is using that seeing stone to ferret out any more spies among your ranks. You are clearly not so secure as you thought.”

  Park nodded. “That’s a good call. Casper, organize an inspection. You’ll either find more people who are possessed, or those who don’t show up will tell us as much.”

  “I could stay and help them,” Vicky said.

  I shook my head. “You’ll have more fun with us, kid. Unless you think Drake’s going to attack them again?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “How could I know that?” Vicky asked. “I don’t think he would, but fairies are weird.”

  Zola let out a slow laugh. “Not all fairies, girl.”

  “We’ll take the Warded Ways by the old church,” Aideen said. “It’ll take less power, and I’d like to conserve as much as I can for our arrival in Falias.”

  “Expecting trouble?” Casper asked.

  “Always.”

  Park frowned. “We have our mission, and you have yours. Best of luck to you all.” With that, he spun on his heel and returned to the stairs that would take him into the underground halls. He paused before vanishing down the steps. “I’m sorry.” His footsteps faded as he descended the stairs.

  Casper hung back for a moment. “He didn’t know what they were going to do. You need to believe that. None of us did. If I had …” The muscles in her jaw flexed.

  “Someone did,” I said. “But I believe you. Find out who orchestrated it.” I let my gaze trail back to where Park had vanished. “He may not have known ahead of time, but he knows now.”

  Casper nodded. She looked down at Vicky and said, “Keep them out of trouble, yeah?”

  Vicky bit her lip. “I’m probably not the best person to ask for that.”

  Casper blinked at the girl and then followed in Park’s footsteps.

  “I’ll go with Gaia,” I said. I wanted to walk with the Titan, but I also wanted to avoid the nausea-inducing thrill ride of the Warded Ways. “Where will you exit the Ways?”

  Aideen glanced down as if she was studying the weave of Zola’s cloak in order to determine just where they would come out of the Warded Ways. “I believe we can reach the guard room from the old church. That shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Good,” I said. “So, no randomly appearing in front of a wandering dullahan today, right?”

  “Probably not?” Aideen said, her voice rising.

  I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t instill much confidence.”

  “Just be ready for anything. If Nudd’s press conference was a lure, gods only know what we’re walking into.”

  “Would they not have contacted you?” Zola asked.

  “They should have,” Aideen said. “But today has been an odd day.”

  “You have a gift for understatement,” Zola said. She turned and started toward the main entrance of the archives. “Enough talk. We move.”

  “See you there,” I said, fishing around in my backpack. My fingers brushed the cold dead flesh of Gaia’s hand. I laced her fingers between my own and stepped into the Abyss.

  * * *

  “It is not usual for me to see you so many times in one day,” Gaia said as she materialized beside me. The motes of her golden light outshone the stars of the Abyss in the distance.

  “And we’re probably not done,” I said. “I need to get to Falias. Just outside the Obsidian Inn. Preferably by the guard room, if you can do that.”

  Gaia frowned. “I know the room of which you speak, but it is warded against many magicks.” Her musical voice was both soothing and a stark reminder of where we were. “While I may be able to get you into that room, I do not know if you would survive the experience.”

  I groaned. “What about the old courtyard? With the basilisk skeleton? That’s close enough to the entrance that I probably won’t die.”

  “Your standards for travel have decreased somewhat of late.”

  “Was that a joke? I’m not sure how to take that, Gaia.”

  “I can bring you to the courtyard of which you speak. There are many more beings gathered near the eastern edge of the city. Would you not prefer to go there?”

  I shook my head. “We need to talk to the Inn. Nudd is making a move, but we’re not entirely sure what it is.”

  Gaia pondered those words, her gaze trailing off toward the dim horizon before returning to me. “I have sensed the fear in the humans. A panic rose like I have not felt since Falias, and for nearly a century before that, the last time one of the great wars scoured their world.”

  “You can sense that from here?” I asked.
<
br />   “Of course,” Gaia said. “My body still rests upon the earth. It is only my consciousness that roams this place, and a segment of my power.”

  “And your hand.”

  Gaia gave me a flat look.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I thought we were making jokes.”

  “Indeed.”

  A far-off sound rose, the deathly silence of the Abyss fractured by a basso roar like that of a rising earthquake.

  Gaia stared into the distance and frowned. “Some of the old ones have been stirring.”

  “Why? It’s not like they can escape this place.”

  “Perhaps not,” Gaia said. “But that does not mean they cannot be released. We are here.”

  “Thank you. You’ll probably see me again shortly. I don’t think this meeting will take long.”

  “Ready yourself, Damian Vesik, for you are not alone.”

  I had a split second to wonder what in the hell Gaia was talking about before the Abyss tilted into a violent spiral and I fell.

  * * *

  The disorienting blur of my trip back to earth was blissfully smooth. Sunlight nearly blinded me as the darkness of the Abyss vanished, and I was left stumbling beside the massive skull of the long-dead basilisk. It was a good thing Gaia’s aim had been good, or I might have been impaled on one of its massive fangs.

  “That would’ve sucked,” I muttered, trying to orient myself.

  Something crunched beside me, and I frowned as I turned toward the noise, backpedaling as I gazed at the hooded form. A helmet beneath the cloth hid flesh that would burn in the daylight. I fumbled in my backpack cursing at myself for not drawing the focus before stepping into the Abyss.

  “Vesik,” the gravelly voice boomed.

  My fingers wrapped around the butt of the pepperbox and I drew the gun while my other hand fumbled awkwardly for the focus. It was only then that I realized what had snapped. The dark-touched held an Utukku in his claws, her neck snapping and crunching as his red right hand crushed it into a pulp.

  “Vesik is here!” The dark-touched vampire screamed in his gravelly voice.

  “You can talk?” I said, a split second before I started pulling the trigger on the pepperbox. Bullets whined and ricocheted as they cracked against the dark-touched’s helmet. More of my light blindness faded, and I began to understand just how not alone I was. A few piles of clothes were tangled up in Faerie armor, and the corpse of more than one dark-touched lay amid the wreckage of three Utukku bodies.

  “Goddammit,” I snarled, holstered the pepperbox, and held my hand out as the dark-touched who had spoken charged.

  “Tyranno Eversiotto!” I screamed the incantation. The ley lines snapped through me as the hairs on my arms stood at attention before electric blue lightning scoured the earth in front of me. The bolt cut through the stone beneath my feet and ripped its way to the vampire. What had been an uncomfortable distance of 30 feet had closed to half that in the blink of an eye. The lightning met him about ten feet out, the explosion rocking me back on my heels. I dropped the incantation when I realized I’d singed the hair on my forearms.

  Movement caught my eye. Distant, but not for long. Cloaked figures flew across the rooftops and slid down the slender spires of Falias. Far more vampires than I could hope to fend off by myself. And what patrol had been here—the usual ten-member mixture of Utukku and Fae—were either dead or broken and running. They had the right idea.

  I didn’t hesitate as the dark-touched at my feet groaned. I ran. Slipping into the shadows of the nearest alleyway, I cringed as the visceral cries of the dark-touched followed me down out of the light. I’d only been here once before, when Ward—or was it the Old Man—had shown us the basilisk. There wasn’t much doubt I was moving in the general direction of the Obsidian Inn, but I didn’t know if the alley would lead me to a haven, or a trap.

  I sprinted toward what looked to be a dead-end, and my heart hammered as something scrambled over the brick above me. To my left was an archway, and I dove through it. I turned as I fell and shouted, “Modus Ignatto!” A torrent of fire, unrefined but massive, belched from my hand and splattered out into the alley. I didn’t stop to see what it had done. I scrambled back to my feet and sprinted through the rest of the arched alley. As soon as I broke into the daylight, I jaunted to the right and ran hard until the burning of my lungs threatened to send me to the ground.

  “Here,” a female voice hissed.

  It was either a trap, or help. But in my escape, I’d managed to grasp the focus. If it was a trap, I had a much better chance of surviving it. The golden stone of a half-collapsed building revealed only a sliver of shadow, but again the voice said, “Here.”

  The dark-touched bellowed above me. I risked a glimpse backward, and I saw nothing above me or behind me. I slipped into the shadowed space and squinted at a distant light.

  “What happened here?” I asked.

  “Nudd happened,” a whisper said. “Too many of us went to the gate. Fools.”

  “Morrigan?” I said, fairly certain I recognized the snide tone in the word “fools.”

  “Yes. Now, come. We must return to the Inn.” She started through the hall toward the light. It only took a moment before I realized we were headed down a gradual slope.

  “Where are Foster and the others?” Morrigan asked.

  “Foster’s in jail, along with my sister, but Aideen’s on her way. She has Zola and Vicky with her.”

  “The Destroyer?” Morrigan asked.

  “She’s not the Destroyer anymore.”

  “Yes, yes, you humans and your semantics. Is she still bonded to the reaper?”

  “Jasper?” I asked as we reached the torch that I’d seen from the start of the passageway. “Yes, I asked him to guard her. To keep her safe.”

  Morrigan slid the torch off the wall and led the way to a staircase that vanished into shadows as dark as the Abyss.

  “Good,” Morrigan said. “We may need a reaper of our own before this day is done.”

  “Who else is here?”

  “Some of the Utukku. At least those that are left alive. Hess remained at the armory with a few of her most loyal soldiers. This is my fault. I never should’ve sent that family to infiltrate Nudd’s ranks.”

  “I doubt you forced them into it,” I said, remembering the fear on Liam, Lachlan, and Enda’s faces when we’d met them in the catacombs. “They’re fed up with Nudd.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Morrigan said. “Aren’t we all.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  We continued farther down the darkened halls, Morrigan in her crone form. I could have mistaken her silhouette for Zola in the shadows and the wavering torchlight. It felt like we had been walking for an hour, but I knew that couldn’t be right. Time hadn’t truly slowed. Quiet scratches and distant thumps echoed around us in the musty air. My gaze shot toward every shadow that moved or shifted in the distance.

  It was impossible to lock down my senses in their entirety when I was this stressed. Impossible to ignore the floating gray orbs of long-forgotten guardians in this place. Morrigan glanced back at me and hesitated.

  “You sense more than I expected.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  She gestured at a cluster of the gray orbs that seem to flit through her hand and out of my field of vision. “The old ones. Those who once lived, but do no more, whose purpose is not forgotten.” Morrigan studied me for a moment before glancing at the ceiling as something thundered overhead.

  “Are we close?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Morrigan focused on corridor ahead of us. A rumble built in volume, and I didn’t think it was outside the tunnel this time. Morrigan exhaled. “I’d hoped to avoid this.”

  She hurried forward, and I followed.

  I lowered my voice. “Avoid what?”

  “Nudd has sent all manner of Unseelie Fae into the tunnels, hunting for the Obsidian Inn.”

  “Why doesn’t he just send the dark-touched down here? This
is practically their natural habitat.”

  “He tried. They perished. The dullahan has called more than one name in these corridors, and the dangers that lurk here are powerful protections for the Inn. I have known Nudd ten times longer than Zola has been alive. He will not stop so easily. It is only a matter of time before he sends less … stable things down here.”

  We turned the corner, and I frowned at the hallway. I thought I recognized it, the place where I’d once appeared below Falias. A place of cells and violence, and the charred brick on the walls told me I was right. But Morrigan had been right, too. We weren’t alone.

  In the distance, two blue orbs floated together as if they were weightless fire.

  “Dullahan,” I said, my hand reaching for the focus at my belt.

  “It’s not the dullahan you should be worried about, boy,” Morrigan snapped. “We make for the stairs. Don’t hesitate to kill anything between us and our goal. Go now!”

  Morrigan broke into a sprint. My focus was still on the distant floating eyes of the dullahan, as I remembered what a monster that creature could be on the battlefield.

  I finally saw it about the time the intersection appeared, the crossroads with the stairs to the Obsidian Inn. At first, the mass appeared to be a wall of snakes, surging out from one of the cells and splattering against the far wall. But instead of a wet thump, the shadowy forms cracked into the very stone. Among the undulating mass of slithering things, I heard the fall of rock and metal clattering across the floor.

  I tried to concentrate on my footing, careful not to twist an ankle, as we attempted to outrun the massive shadows. A moment later, the dullahan’s eyes disappeared in the distance, and those snakelike forms broke into a halo of light. As they crossed through, I could see they were caked in mud, blood, and other viscera I couldn’t identify. One thing I was sure of: they weren’t snakes.

  “What the fuck is that?” I shouted.

  Morrigan glowed. Between one step and the next, the crone became the raven, and she rocketed forward on oily black wings. “Burn them!” the bird squawked.