Chapter 35
Prism
One might expect that the moments after selling your soul would be met with more fanfare.
No, sadly, I must report that it is quite lackluster.
The next moments were slow and steady as if I were watching them play out from someplace outside of my body.
I’d sold my soul to the Underworld. I’d joined the greatest evil in the realm.
Now, I found myself a part of the Asunder Coven.
Every rapture, every death, every spike of fear that innocent people felt every day. The lives lost, the loved ones taken, blue fog and screams… They’d all be my doing now. It’s what I traded in exchange for my claimed.
My mothers would have been so disappointed.
Or would they? Would they have the nerve to be upset with me when they themselves sat around this very table. Not only that, but they hid this part of themselves from their children for so long. I feared I didn’t know my parents at all.
The witches in my now coven were correct in their initial assessment of me.
I was selfish. All I wanted was Vore. I wanted Vore to the point of ruin.
To the means of destruction to myself and others.
That was a selfish kind of love, wasn’t it?
I didn’t really care what virtue was assigned to it.
It was true, and I’d already done what I’d done—and I didn’t regret it.
Not yet, at least.
Boline motioned for me to stand as the contract rolled itself back up into a scroll and levitated away.
The witch helped me to my feet and extended her arms, pulling me into a forced hug.
I patted her back stiffly, smelling ash in her hair.
“Now that you have what you want,” I said lowly, “I’d like what I want. ”
Boline’s mouth tightened. “Very well, follow me.”
“Is it really that simple?” I asked skeptically. “I get to bring back my mate now?”
“Nothing is ever simple, dear child. Not even for a coven as powerful as ours. What you’ve asked for is very precise and complicated magic. It is possible, what you seek; however the path there… oh, I should hush. You’ll see.”
Following the witch around the table, the other witches went back to their tea and biscuits like nothing had ever transpired. Just another wicked day in the Asunder Coven, I surmised.
Wraith was soon at my side. Boline looked up at him with something like a mix of disgust and annoyance across her face. “You will not be needing your… guard.”
“Not my guard,” I corrected, meeting Wraith’s gaze. “His name is Wraith, and he is my friend. He goes where I go.”
The witch shook her head and let out a sigh. “Very well.”
Boline led us past the table and back onto the multi-colored path. We walked for a while, passing dead grass and gray trees.
Finally, and to my surprise, the bricks ran out. The pathway simply… faded into the dirt. “The brick path ends?” I asked.
Boline nodded. “That it does.” She gestured to what lay at the end of the path. A simple red door with black hardware stood out of place and ominous at the end of the road.
“Make haste, there is much for you to learn here,” Boline said plainly. “Here is the door to where you need to go.”
Standing outside the red door, I looked over my shoulder and up at Wraith. “For Vore?”
The crimson wither inclined his head and rested a hand on my shoulder. I wasn’t even sure if Wraith would fit through the narrow wooden frame. Resting my hand on the black doorknob, my heart beat in my chest. It was finally time.
I was finally here.
Vore would be waiting for me on the other side.
Whatever hell I found his soul in, I was confident I could bring him back to his body. I would have my mate back, my claimed, and we would be whole again. “After this,” I said softly to Wraith, “we’ll all go home together, back to Nisse. All will be right in the world again, won’t it?”
Wraith smiled gently and nodded, giving my head one last pat.
“I’m ready,” I said, twisting the knob. When I opened the door, no scene of dead grass and gray trees greeted me on the other side. Only empty, shimmering vastness. Holding my breath, I stepped inside.
Everything went dark.
Suddenly, I was falling.
Falling fast through time, space, or a portal of some sort. I reached to my shoulder, looking for Wraith’s hand, but came up empty. I searched frantically around me, around the expanse of nothingness, not seeing the crimson wither anywhere.
I’d always been alone, I suppose, but now I truly felt it. Fear threatened to drown me. What if the witch had been lying? What if this were some cruel trick?
Suddenly, I landed on the ground with a thud.
I gasped for breath, struggling to stop the dizzying of my mind.
My fingers gripped soft, green grass. I hadn’t imagined Vore’s portion of the Underworld to have grass.
Next to me, something flickered. I knew its smell, the earthy tartness of it—a big orange pumpkin.
Only somehow it had been hollowed out and carved to resemble a face with two triangles for eyes and a toothy mouth.
Within it, a candle flickered. When I glanced up, I noticed a whole line of similar pumpkins on either side of a pathway through the woods.
“How strange,” I whispered, before remembering why I’d come. “Vore!” I called out, struggling to stand on wobbly knees. I rested against a tree trunk. “Vore!”
A hand landed on my shoulder.
I spun around to find two men.
One tall with dark hair and bright green eyes. The other crossed his arms. He was broader, with longer chestnut hair and a gruff face. That wouldn’t have been so bad; however, both of their faces were painted. Painted like skulls.
With a small gasp, I pressed my back into the tree. “Please don’t hurt me,” I said pathetically, not knowing who these men or beings were. They certainly did not seem wholly human.
The man with green eyes lifted his palms, speaking as smooth as silk. “We’re not going to hurt you. We saw you take a tumble… are you alright?” I noted the man’s pointed incisors as he spoke, and my chest clenched.
The broader man inhaled. “She’s not from here. Doesn’t smell like it, at least.” He assessed me with canine-like copper eyes.
Trembling, I asked, “Wh-where is here? Who are you?”
The man with green eyes tilted his head and spoke gently. “It’s Hallowsfest in Ash Grove. We are… we’re The Halloween Boys.”