Chapter 86
Belle
“I can hear your breaths,” Locke laughed, his footsteps deathly close. “I can taste the sweet honey of your despair.”
I was done being invisible and powerless. Done with letting the demon win.
Please, I begged, reaching for the river of misery. Let me in.
It vibrated around me—in the neglected tapestries and forgotten furniture, in the paintings and statues that had witnessed centuries of his cruelty. It was right there, but just beyond my grasp.
The footsteps stopped. “Found you.”
Wake up, please gods, wake up. I slapped my hands against the stones. “WAKE UP!”
Power surged through me, and with it, an unending torrent of pain. I gasped as a thousand connections opened, as every object in the castle released the misery and sadness they’d absorbed through the centuries.
A shockwave rolled through the room, throwing me to the ground and shaking the doors and every object inside. I landed against the balustrade, trembling with cold and exhaustion.
“Is that all you have, little rabbit?” Locke tsked. “A tremor? I’d hoped for so much more.”
My gaze drifted upward to the man standing over me. His eyes were as black as midnight, an inhuman grin upon his lips.
A hollow groan echoed through the room, as if the castle itself was sighing. Something creaked, followed by a metallic crack.
Locke’s eyes flicked to the side, then back to me with a smile. “Or perhaps we’re not done playing?”
“I am.” My head slumped back against the balustrade; my limbs numb from the cold and the exhaustion of my magic. “He’s all yours now.”
Locke’s expression twisted with annoyance. “Who are you talking to?”
A suit of armor climbed off its pedestal and lumbered forward, steel singing as it drew its blade.
Locke laughed. “A knight in shining armor to save you? You must be jok—”
A dangling tapestry whipped out and cracked across his face. He staggered against the balustrade, clutching his eye. “You—”
The tapestry wrapped around his neck and yanked him against the wall, lifting him up off his feet. Kicking and struggling, he clawed at it with his hands.
My hand curled around the rail, and I slowly pulled myself to my feet, legs shaking. “Kill him.”
The suit of armor lunged forward and rammed its sword into Locke’s chest. He released an earsplitting scream.
Plumes of magic boiled around him, then exploded outward. Shards of wood and molten armor ripped across my skin, and the blast hurled me back against the balustrade, then over.
The ceiling fell away and my arms flailed. A tapestry wound around my ankle, slowing my fall, then slipped free.
Pain burst through my skull and spine as I hit the floor, the breath driven from my lungs. Agony echoed through me, but I rolled to my side and onto my knees, blood oozing from a dozen shrapnel cuts.
A shadow rose above me as Locke stepped to the edge of the gallery, the mask of his human form discarded, and in its place a looming demon with long saffron robes and antlers jutting from his brow.
“You think you can kill me with a sword?” he snarled, voice ringing with an inhuman echo. “I’m no longer a man. I’m a demon.”
The stones beneath his feet gave way, and he crashed to the floor in a rain of crumbling stone.
I forced myself to my feet and wiped the blood from my lips. “I’m not the one you should be worried about.”
The castle’s fury flowed through me, rising as an unquenchable torrent of power. It burned away the pain and banished my exhaustion. I felt strength like never before—and with it, something ancient and furious.
“You created this place,” I said as the horned demon rose from the rubble. “You filled it with the misery of your magic, and now I’ve woken it.”
The demon extended his long bony hand toward me. “We’ll see about that.”
Crackling green energy flashed from his finger, a bolt of lightning at my heart.
The marble tiles between us burst upward from the floor, shattering as they absorbed the searing magic. The castle was in command of itself.
I pointed at the monster before me. “Kill him!”
Vases and urns pelted him from all corners of the room, and the second suit of armor leapt to the gallery floor. It advanced, swinging its great sword in lethal arcs. The marble floor swelled beneath Locke’s feet, knocking him to the ground before his attacker.
The knight lunged, but magic flashed, and it detonated in a thousand fragments. Locke rolled and smacked his palm against the floor. “Become stone.”
A wave of energy rippled across the ground toward me, and I froze—I’d meet my end the same way Emma had.
A rope whipped around my waist and yanked me upward, my feet clearing the wave of power. I swung through the air, gasping for breath as the chandelier crashed down on Locke in an explosion of shimmering crystal.
The rope loosened, and I tumbled onto the stairs with a sharp groan. That was too close.
The demon rose from the shattered remains of the chandelier, magic swirling around him. “Perhaps this will be interesting after all.”
My chest heaved with each breath, the anger of every object in the castle vibrating beneath my skin, waiting for my command, begging me for what it had so long desired: vengeance.
I leveled the demon with an unwavering gaze. “Tear him apart.”
The gilded mirrors on either side of the room shattered. Fragments soared through the air, ripping into him from every direction like a swarm of bees.
I raised my hands, and the doors flew open. “Punish him!”
Objects slammed into the bastard like cannonballs, pummeling him from every direction. Vases, tables, and chairs. A harpsichord crashed into him, shattering in a discordant cacophony as it drove him to his knees.
The demon snarled, and a web of lightning ripped through the room. The connections I’d forged snuffed out as the objects around him exploded. So, I opened more—hundreds, thousands. The castle’s magic was unlimited, and with it, my anger.
I could barely see the monster beneath the smoke and flying debris. His yellow robes were shredded, and blood covered his skin. For a second, he looked up, a bloody hollow where one of his eyes had been. He shielded his face with his gnarled hands and staggered toward the castle doors.
“Stop him,” I ordered, my vision flickering.
The doors locked, but his magic blew them off their hinges. He hurled himself through the opening and into the open courtyard beyond.
A pulsing thunder filled the air, and hundreds of books flew through the hall pursuing the demon like a flock of crows.
I charged after. Sunlight flooded over me as I descended the stairs, and I squinted against the blinding light. He was halfway to the gate, chased by my horde of objects, just as Valen’s beast had once chased me.
Then a vast shadow swept over the stones.
I ducked for cover beside the stables as fire engulfed the courtyard, immolating everything it touched. Ash and burning pages rained down on the smoldering remains of my army.
The demon stopped his retreat as Valen circled on heavy wingbeats, lining up another attack—this time with me in his sights.
My shoulders rose and fell. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
He dove, swooping low over the courtyard, a stream of fire billowing from his mouth. I watched, paralyzed, as he cut a burning path toward me. Tears clouded my vision, and a stabbing pain spread through my chest.
I’d lost him.
No.
I refused to give in.
I threw my hands in the air, and the flagstones rose, forming a towering shield against the dragon fire. Heat and smoke consumed the air around me, and Valen’s words rumbled in my mind: Don’t give up, princess.
I gritted my teeth against the scalding heat. Never. I would never give up. I’d die fighting, for Valen, for my sister, for Loreli and Gregoire and everyone in the castle.
The heat faded, and the dragon soared past. My eyes swept from the glowing red stones of my shield to the demon at the far end of the courtyard. He would pay for everything.
The castle’s magic roared through me, and my skin iced with power I could barely control. My body shook. Something sharp snapped inside me, but it didn’t matter. I pointed at the demon. “End him.”
The glowing stones hurtled forward like comets, exploding against the ground one after another. The edges of my vision darkened, and I stifled a cry as an invisible vise squeezed my insides.
I had to hold on. Just a little bit longer.
Saffron robes flapping, the demon bolted toward the castle gates as the last stones shattered at his heels, driving him exactly where I wanted. I raised my hand, waiting. Giving him one last moment of hope.
He sprinted through the gatehouse, away from my possessed castle and to freedom.
I closed my fist.
Then the portcullis slammed down, a wolf’s jaw snapping shut. Iron spikes ripped through the demon’s shoulders, crushing him to the ground and pinning him there. An unearthly scream split the air, and he twitched and writhed, nearly cut in two.
“You think you’ve won?” he laughed, choking on blood. “I’m a demon. Immortal. You cannot kill me.”
“Almost a demon,” I said. “Almost immortal.”
The ground shook as Valen landed on the other side of the gatehouse. The demon twisted his head to face him, a bloody grin on his face. “Burn her.”
Valen writhed against the command, roaring in pain. His talons dug into the ground as the command slowly forced his jaws open.
“What are you waiting for?” the demon asked. “Incinerate the bitch!”
Blood ran from the corners of Valen’s eyes, and his wings bent in agony. He would die trying to resist.
Suddenly, I saw it all before me—the demon between us, pinned to the ground.
“Burn me,” I screamed. “Obey him.”
The demon twisted to look back, his features contorting with what looked like confusion.
Valen snarled in defiance, the muscles of his neck straining and his eyes almost as black as his scales.
We had seconds.
“If you’re still in there, please trust me,” I sobbed. “Burn me now!”
For one breath, those obsidian eyes were his again.
And he saw.
His throat rumbled, and he dropped low, snapping his jaws open wide.
The demon shoved against the portcullis, screaming as a torrent of fire jetted straight for me, consuming him and cutting off the sound.
I slammed my magic into the inner gates, and they crashed shut, trapping the billowing flames inside. The wood darkened, and the iron bands flared red, as dragon fire consumed everything within.
“Die,” I snarled as waves of heat rushed over me. The ground rumbled and the towers of the gatehouse groaned.
Then the roar of dragon fire abated, the silence left behind almost deafening.
I shielded my eyes as the remains of the heavy wooden doors collapsed into ash, revealing crimson embers and charred stonework. The fragments of the portcullis hung down like jagged red teeth glowing in a gaping mouth.
There was no demon, only ash and cinder and melted iron.
He couldn’t have escaped. He had to be dead. Please, Fates, let him be dead.
Teeth chattering, I dropped to one knee, meeting the eyes of the obsidian dragon across from me. Were they his eyes again?
Green light sparked amongst the glowing coals, then emerald lightning crackled across the remains of the portcullis.
Valen bellowed a warning, and I scrambled backward as lightning bolts split the air, leaping between the walls of the gatehouse.
Thunder struck, and a blast of green magic exploded outward, corruption rolling over the courtyard in an undulating wave. The force ripped me off my feet and sent me tumbling backward across the stones. My body slammed against a statue, and I screamed in agony.
The shockwave crashed over the castle, shaking the stones, then dissipated into the air.
Gasping, I crawled to my knees, my ears ringing, head pounding, and every fiber of me screaming. Blood slicked my skin, but from where I wasn’t sure.
I grasped the statue’s arm and pulled myself to my feet, sucking in short, labored breaths. Was the demon truly gone? Had we destroyed him?
The arm beneath my hand gave way, and I stumbled forward and turned. Ripples of magic flowed across the statue as gray stone transformed into crimson fabric and pale flesh.
I stared as the statue’s features took on life, and the man’s eyes widened. He dropped to his knees, touching his face. “What happened? Where am I? There was a wave of magic—” He looked up from his hands to me.
My mouth opened, but my voice was strangled. They’d come back. Not only was the demon dead, but we’d broken his curse.
An agonized roar shook the stones beneath my feet, and I twisted around.
Valen’s neck arched into the sky, then slammed against the ramparts as he writhed in pain. Lines of magic crackled over his body, black shadows rising like smoke where it touched. His head crashed against the gatehouse, and then he was consumed in crumbling stone.