Chapter Six
Remy said something in front of the elevator that made the air become heavy and cold. It was hard to take in the breaths I could now see with each plumed exhale. Then that icy tension shattered, and the doors opened.
Mandal rushed out and hugged Remy. “You’re alive!” He noticed me over Remy’s shoulder. “Why did you let it out?”
It?
I was about to comment on that when Remy’s laugh scraped me like thorns dragging down my arms. “I didn’t. She broke free of the trap on her own.”
Mandal’s gaze widened. “Impossible.”
Remy laughed again. This time, it was nothing more than a darkly pleasant sound instead of something I could feel.
“Earlier, I would have agreed with you. Now I know better. Give Raine your jacket, please.”
Mandal shrugged out of his jacket. I gladly put it on. Now I was covered from my shoulders to my upper thighs.
“Thanks,” I said, both to Mandal and to Remy. If Mandal wore underwear, Remy should ask to borrow Mandal’s pants next. Not that Remy seemed to care that he was only clad in bloodstains and a few scraps of fabric hanging from his belt.
Then again, with his body, Remy could wear this same ripped, bloody look for Halloween, and people would just think he was going as “sexy barbarian.”
I glanced up to see Remy’s faint smile.
Ugh, caught staring at him again! Hey, it wasn’t my fault.
Aside from his looks, I was probably distracting myself from the fact that soon I’d be staring at the monster that had haunted my nightmares.
Any therapist would agree that searching for something else to focus on was normal deflection behavior.
“Is it safe to take it with us?” Mandal asked, low.
“Again with the ‘it’ stuff?” I muttered.
“Yes, she’s safe,” Remy replied.
I held up three fingers in the “Scout’s honor” signal. “If I feel the slightest bit Beasty, I’ll let you know.”
Mandal still didn’t look convinced, but he punched in some codes on the keypad, and the elevator was soon zooming up.
It opened on the same floor I remembered seeing when I was coming out of Remy’s library a few days ago. This time, we were on the other side of that long hallway. Thankfully, it was empty.
We passed several doors before Remy stopped in front of a wide, iron-framed one.
He placed his hand over the old-fashioned door knockers and whispered something.
I heard a series of clicks and caught a whiff of that unique scent again.
It wasn’t Remy’s cologne, but it definitely came from him.
I inhaled deeper. Like liquefied darkness mixed with spices and chocolate.
Wait, I’d caught a whiff of this right before the Beast came out, too. Did Remy’s magic actually have its own scent?
The double doors clicked open.
“Was that magic? Or do you have a palm-scan plus auditory-based security system?” I asked while trying to figure this out.
“Both,” Remy said with a note of amusement.
“Letting it in here is a mistake,” Mandal hissed.
“Enough with the ‘it’ shit!” I snapped.
Remy gave Mandal a hard look. “Stop calling her that, and you’ll understand why I’m doing this shortly.”
I was glad for the backup, but the rest sounded ominous.
“Is this another trap?” I asked with sudden suspicion. “Wait, is this room rigged with a spell that’ll activate as soon as I cross the threshold?”
Remy let out a sound that might have been a sigh. “No. After today, I realize no magic can trap what’s inside you.”
If I thought Mandal looked shocked before, now he looked like he was about to faint. “But the prophecy!”
“Was misunderstood,” Remy said in a flintlike tone. “Now, before you question my judgment further, come.”
I didn’t like how any of this sounded, especially the word “prophecy.” No one ever said that before something good was about to happen. Still, doing nothing wasn’t an option.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said.
“Yes,” Remy said, holding open one of the doors. “Let’s.”
The sight that greeted me made me think someone had slipped me a hallucinogen. It wasn’t possible that the “room” suddenly stretched until it was wider than the entire hotel. It also contained a sprawling garden split by a stone path illuminated by what looked like flame-lit sky lanterns.
“Give it a moment.” The amusement was back in Remy’s tone. “It can be quite jarring seeing this for the first time.”
I kept staring. “Is this real? Or more Warden stuff?”
“Both,” he said again. “It’s real, but the distortion of space and physics required to have a long bridge within a small space is indeed ‘Warden stuff.’”
Later tonight, I’d break my brain wondering how any of this was possible. Right now, I had a video to watch.
“Okay, lead on.”
Remy took my arm. We walked down that stony path as if we were strolling through any other garden.
The air was thick and sweet, and a faint mist coated the incredible floral blooms. Sky lanterns also floated around us before disappearing into a ceiling that was so dark I couldn’t tell where it ended.
Then the stone path ended at an entryway to … something. I couldn’t see what. All I saw were white marble walls, about five feet high, with two large stone gargoyles flanking a single opening between them. Dark gloom hovered over everything else, reaching up to a fathomless night sky.
I grabbed Remy when those gargoyles suddenly leapt down and blocked our path. “Oh shit!”
Remy said an unfamiliar word. The gargoyles jumped back up with surprising grace, resuming their stances on the walls.
“Don’t mind them,” Remy said in an infuriatingly light tone. “They only attack intruders.”
I forced my fingers to uncurl from Remy’s arm. He might be blasé about seeing stone figures come to life, but this was a first for me. Oddly, the Beast wasn’t taking the gargoyles as a threat, although it had stirred when they first moved.
I glanced at Mandal. He gave me more wary looks than the hulking stone creatures looming over the entryway. Obviously, he wasn’t concerned by them, either.
With a confidence I didn’t feel, I followed Remy through the opening.
As soon as I did, the gloom vanished, revealing a rooftop seating area with white couches, white chairs, and iron-and-glass tables.
Three crushed-glass fire pits provided welcome warmth in the chillier temperature, not to mention a soft golden glow.
I went to one of the marble walls and tried to look over its side, but I couldn’t see past that impenetrable gloom. Still, it felt like we were high up, so I didn’t lean over it.
“Where are we?”
Remy gave me an unfathomable look. “Technically, we’re only a couple hundred yards from the hotel we just left.”
So. We were still in Fells Point, but this hotel had to be mystically hidden. I might not visit this area often, but I knew no hotels in it had sky bridges attaching one to another.
“Have a seat,” Remy said, gesturing to one of the couches.
I did.
Mandal remained standing. Remy sat on the other side of my couch and took a remote off the table. He pressed it, and the marble panels on the wall parted, revealing a large TV.
Remy pressed another button and the screen lit up. The empty dirt-and-steel room appeared on the screen. From the bloodstains on the ground and familiar steel columns, this must be a live feed from the area beneath the hotel.
Remy began to rewind. The images ran together, too fast for me to decipher. I glanced around the roof. The gargoyles remained where they were, looking deceptively harmless.
Magic. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it.
Then again, I could get on board with a magical minibar suddenly appearing. I could murder a drink right now.
Remy finally stopped rewinding. On screen, I saw Mandal and me in the elevator. I tensed as I watched Earlier Me smooth my hands down my jeans before giving Remy an arch look.
“Like you’d do your own digging.”
“Probably not,” Remy replied on the screen.
My pulse sped up and my palms felt sweaty. Any second, I’d see the Beast bursting out of me. I thought I was ready for that, but maybe not. The last time I’d seen the Beast …
… blood bubbled past Gran’s lips as she sighted down her rifle at the thing advancing toward me. “Fuck you,” she gasped, pulling the trigger.…
“Whatareyoudoing?” Earlier Me screamed from the TV.
I barely heard Remy’s reply, or my warning for him to run. I was too focused on the rents appearing on my skin as the Beast began to claw its way out. I had a moment to see the anguished look on my face before darkness obliterated it.
One second. That’s all it took for me to disappear in a burst of ripped clothing. Then there was only the Beast.