Chapter 38 Aurelie
Aurelie
Aurelie was about to attack Everard from behind with her bare hands, despite Des tugging at her waist to drag her from the
portal, until she saw the figure looming on the other side of the vortex.
It was small at first, though its silhouette was monstrous. Horrified but unable to look away, she watched as the shape grew
steadily larger.
No, not growing. Coming closer.
The portal was like a window to the other side of the veil, the demonic world that she’d relegated Mephisto and all its kind
to. She knew intrinsically that it was something no human was ever supposed to see. The portal was like a vulnerable pane
of glass in what should have been an impenetrable wall.
Everard had begun to whisper in a language she couldn’t understand, though she suspected it was related to Elder Vansion.
The runes pulsed, as though responding to his words, but the demon continued to move closer to the portal.
“Aurelie,” Des growled in her ear. “Let’s go, now, before it’s too late.” Behind him, several guards had already started backing
up the stairs.
She turned to face Des, truly seeing him for the first time today. “What did you do?” she asked, her eyes taking in the dead
female guard, the wound in Jasper’s side.
His gaze was full of something Aurelie had never expected to see there: defeat. “I thought by capturing Kobal, we could take Everard. I’m so sorry. Gareth’s research was wrong.”
“It wasn’t wrong,” Everard said, still watching the portal intently. “Thralls and their human counterparts are connected when
the human offers part of his soul to the demon in exchange for its powers.”
“Then Kobal isn’t your thrall,” Aurelie breathed.
“No. He was the gatekeeper of the first portal, and mine to control as part of the bargain I made.”
“And that?” Aurelie asked, turning to look at the demon and immediately recoiling in horror. It was twice the height of Everard
but far larger, its shape shrouded in swirling black shadows. Aurelie could make out its glowing red eyes and the razor-sharp
tips of two massive horns, but everything else was obscured, leaving her imagination to fill in all sorts of nightmares.
“Also under my control, should it enter this world.”
“Come on,” Jasper was urging behind them. “We need to get back to the Iron Fortress and warn the commander.”
“What is your plan?” Aurelie shouted at Everard, because this might be her final chance to know. She had no idea if her uncle
was alive or what came next for the Iron Guard, but she was bound for prison or death regardless.
Everard glanced over his shoulder at her. “To take back what is rightfully mine. To finally do what my father and brother
failed to do. To make Wisteria the most powerful kingdom in the world.”
“And the portal?” she spat. “It’s not the mirror image of the one you told me about, is it? It’s the original.”
“Clever girl. Yes, Revenin destroyed the portal when he realized what my plans were. I killed him, which was admittedly shortsighted on my part. Without him, it took me decades to re-create his original plans.”
“Des,” came Daisy’s urgent plea.
“Aurelie, please.” She felt his hand on her shoulder, and a part of her was desperate to go with him, to turn herself in to
the Iron Guard and allow someone else to clean up this horrible mess she’d made. But if the portal could be destroyed once,
then surely it could be destroyed again. She was no mage, and yet she’d managed to re-create what Revenin had done. That had
to count for something. Because otherwise, they were all done for.
Everard turned toward her then, as though reading her thoughts. He opened his mouth to speak and froze. Blood began to spill
from his parted lips, and Aurelie looked down to see something dark and pointed protruding from his abdomen.
The demon from the portal. Its claws curled around Everard’s torso, dragging him backward several feet. The damned creature
was on this side of the door, and it was immediately clear that Everard did not have control over it as he’d thought he did.
Screams erupted behind Aurelie. Everard twitched as the demon shook him free of its horns, crumpling to the ground like a
rag doll. Then the demon’s entire head was through the portal, its shoulders barely restrained by the frame. Between the swirling
shadows, Aurelie could make out mottled blue flesh straining against bulging muscles and a mouthful of fangs protruding from
the demon’s jaws like those of a lantern fish.
Everard looked up at her, and for the first time since Aurelie met him, he seemed afraid.
He mouthed a single word: Run.
Before she could comply, Des’s hand found hers and she was being dragged out of the basement up into the main floor of the
clock tower. They’d barely made it outside when they heard a roar behind them, one full of so much fury it made her blood
run cold. She stumbled as her feet hit the ice, but Des was steady next to her. All she had to do was pump her legs to keep
up with him.
But she faltered at the explosion of stone and rubble behind them. Aurelie turned to look over her shoulder and screamed.
The demon had burst free of the building, shaking off dust and rocks as it roared again.
“What do we do?” Aurelie asked.
“We have to get back to the fort. Let’s pray the iron gates are enough to hold this thing.”
“We can’t risk it! If iron isn’t enough to contain the other demons, I don’t see how this one can be controlled. And if it
gets free in the city . . .”
Des reached the gate first. On the other side, Aurelie saw a battalion of Iron Guards standing behind someone who could only
be Commander Yew.
And next to him, to her utter astonishment, was Uncle Leopold.
She shoved past everyone in her way to get to him, clutching the bars that separated them.
“You’re alive,” she sobbed. He was thin, so much frailer than when she’d last seen him.
“I’m all right,” he said, taking her hands through the bars. “Everything is going to be all right.”
“I’m so sorry,” she managed, her entire body shaking with her tears. “I did so many things wrong. I know I let you down in every possible way.”
“Aurelie, this isn’t your fault. I prom—”
His words were cut off by another thunderous roar. Aurelie turned to see the demon standing on the other side of the courtyard,
even more monstrous in the daylight. She pressed back against the gate, almost laughing at the absurdity of how she’d once
thought she could contain this on her own. Everard was nowhere to be seen. The Iron Guards had their swords and spears drawn,
Des among them. Aurelie’s iron blade was in her hand, though she didn’t remember reaching for it.
“Aurelie!” Uncle Leopold hissed from behind her. “Get through the gates, before it’s too late.”
“All injured guards and civilians are to get to the Iron Fortress immediately,” a man shouted. It must have been Commander
Yew, though Aurelie noticed none of the guards on this side of the gate obeyed his command.
Instead, one launched an iron-tipped arrow at the demon. It plinked uselessly off the monster’s thick skin. All along its
arms and back, its flesh glowed with strange symbols. Runes, Aurelie realized. Though the gates seemed to be holding it for
now, Aurelie sensed it wouldn’t be long before it discovered it could leap over them. They were not going to be able to kill
this demon the usual way. Their best bet was to send it back through the portal somehow, and then destroy it, assuming the
portal was even still standing.
“Come on, Aurelie,” Uncle Leo said, his voice so full of fear Aurelie found herself wanting to comfort him.
She needed to talk to Des, to help him formulate a plan. “Go with the guards,” she told her uncle.
“Not without you.”
Aurelie risked turning her back on the demon to face her uncle. “I’m going to be all right. Please, just trust me. One last
time.”
Before he could respond, she squeezed his hands and ran to Des, whose face darkened when he saw her. “What are you still doing
here? Commander Yew—”
They both turned at a commotion near the demon. One of the guards had foolishly approached it with an iron pike.
“NO!” Des roared, but it was too late. The pike was sharp enough to pierce the demon’s skin, but not nearly strong enough
to kill a demon this size. It seized the guard by his torso and latched its many teeth around his head, ripping it away before
anyone could react.
And then all hell broke loose.
Guards who had previously been bravely facing the monster quailed. Several made a break for the gates, nearly shoving Aurelie
off her feet in the process.
“Hold your ground!” Des commanded, but it was clear to Aurelie that he wasn’t in charge here. She wasn’t sure anyone was anymore.
“Come on,” Aurelie said, grabbing Des’s hand. “That demon is about to get even bigger. If we don’t get it back through the
portal now, we might never be able to.”
Des searched her face with a look of desperation she’d never seen there. “Back through the portal? What are you talking about?”
“There are runes on its skin. I think we can control it that way.”
Des shook his head in disbelief. “So you’re saying you want to go back in there.” It wasn’t a question. Des knew her well enough by now. “Commander Yew will kill me.”
Aurelie glanced back at the commander, who was busy yelling orders at his guards. “Then we’d better hurry,” she said, pulling
Des toward her laboratory while the demon continued to swat away guards like fleas.
“You said it yourself, if it eats anyone else . . .”
“Commander Yew knows how demons work, doesn’t he? And I’m sure he’s figured out by now that iron weapons aren’t going to be
enough.”
Sure enough, Yew was calling off his guards, who were streaming through the gates now. Aurelie looked back at the demon, which
had grown by at least another three feet since it fed.
“I can’t just abandon my post, Aurelie.”
“You won’t be. We’re going to help them.” She tugged again, and was grateful that he didn’t resist her this time. They began
to run. “We need chalk and salt.”