Chapter 54
54
KATERINA
I t was dim on the other side of the portal, the earthen ceiling of the tunnel low. Roots dangled from it, brushing Katerina’s face with eerie caresses. She slid the stone back into her pocket, where it rested, heavy as a warning.
“Lux,” she whispered, afraid to speak too loudly lest she summon who-knew-what. Her voice echoed off the walls of the tunnel, resounding back to her as a hiss: Luxxxxx luxxxxx luxxxxx. And though the light came, hovering over the palm of her hand, it was with an effort, as if the roots that drooped from the ceiling had found their way inside her and were holding her magic fast.
Well, she’d known her gift would be affected. As disturbing as the feeling was, it was no excuse to turn back.
Sammael had told her that as long as she possessed his charm, the tunnel would lead her to his realm. It would fork and turn, but she would always know which way to go. The tiny light cupped in her hand, she crept through the narrow passage, which grew colder and damper as it descended into the earth. The light in her hand flickered, though there was no wind, and Katerina suppressed a shudder. What would she do if it went out entirely, leaving her alone in the dark?
The ground was uneven beneath her feet, the small roots trembling with an energy that threatened to break through the soil. Her back throbbed from the hunched position the low ceiling forced her to maintain. More than once, she felt a small, wicked hand caress her feet, but when she looked down, nothing stirred.
Her magic shifted restlessly, and Katerina reached for it, seeking to soothe. But it slipped through her grasp, seeping away. Shivering, she glanced at the light above her palm. Was it her imagination, or had it grown weaker? She drew a deep breath, trying to steady herself, but it didn’t help: the air was dank, redolent of rot.
The stone in her pocket flared cold, and she blinked at the dim corridor. A fork lay ahead, as the demon had told her. She prowled into the left-hand tunnel, and the stone flared colder still, as if in confirmation of her choice. Excellent; one step closer to escaping this dismal place.
This tunnel was larger, the ceiling higher. Katerina straightened, but before she could take another step, a whisper echoed in her ears.
“Katerina.” Her name drifted on the still air of the tunnel. “I tried to ride to the Magiya. To get the answers you needed. But the Darkness took me and Oriel both. It devoured us and spit us out and left us here. We’ve been waiting so long…finally you’ve come…”
Katerina froze, peering into the depths of the tunnel. “Nadia? Is that you?”
“I know what they’ve said of you.” Oriel’s voice floated toward her, from the same direction as Nadia’s. “Prove you are no Shadow-killer. You never meant for me to die, Katerina. This is no place for my soul. For Nadia’s. Bring us back to the Light.”
Katerina held up her palm, where the tiny light winked. But try as she might, she could see nothing in the gloom. She called her witchfire, and it came reluctantly, as if dragged forth from the depths. Drawing back her arm, she hurled the ball of flames down the tunnel. For an instant, she could have sworn Nadia and Oriel’s silhouettes flickered there. But then her fireball dissolved into blackness, and the figures vanished.
Could Nadia and Oriel really be trapped here? Or were these the voices of demons who walked the Shadow Path, hungry to bind their souls to Katerina’s?
“Nadia?” she called again, but no one answered. The shades of Nadia and Oriel had disappeared into the gloam, if they had ever been here at all.
An icy finger traced its way down Katerina’s spine. She walked faster, taking one fork, then another, guided by the stone in her pocket. But the faster she walked, the more voices filled her ears, an unearthly clamor that reverberated inside her skull.
I died because of you, Baba Volkova’s voice whispered, rising above the rest. We all died, because you could not stand against the Dark.
“No.” The word trembled in Katerina’s throat. “No…I would have saved you if I could…”
The voices rose until they filled the air. Drezna and Satvala fell because of you, because you weren’t strong enough. Because of you, we are dead, lost to the Light. You rose, and the Darkness followed. Save us. You owe us that. You owe us everything.
“It’s not my fault,” Katerina cried, turning in a circle, peering into the darkness. But no one was there. Just the voices, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once. “I never meant to hurt any of you. Stop it. Stop!”
Flame burst from her, along with a gust of wind. It drove the voices back, like they were indeed a physical thing. The tunnel flared brightly, and the faces of the friends she had lost in Drezna and Satvala emerged from the gloom. Then her witchfire faded, extinguished as if doused by a giant hand. The ghostly figures that surrounded her sank back into the dark.
Girding herself, she began to walk again. In the distance gleamed the outline of a door.
Almost there, she told herself. Just a little more.
And then yet another whisper came from the shadows.
“Katerina.” It was her mother’s voice, gentle, shaping each syllable of her name.
Katerina sucked in a sharp breath. “Mama?”
“Don’t leave us here,” her mother begged. “We’re so lonely. Take us with you, so we may fight at your back.”
That is not your mother, Katerina told herself grimly. Any more than those voices belonged to Nadia or Oriel or Baba Volkova. That is a demon, and demons lie.
She stuffed her fingers in her ears, but it didn’t matter; now the voices emanated from inside her head. “My little Firebird,” her father crooned. “Even here, you shine so brightly. If you bear us with you down the Shadow Path, then we’ll fight by your side. Only invite us in, so we need not linger here in the Dark.”
“No,” Katerina said, shaking her head as if to shake the voices out of it. “You’re not real. Not here. You’ve passed on into the Light.”
“I died defending you.” There were tears in her mother’s voice now. “The demon took me, Katerina. Dragged my soul weeping and shrieking into the Dark. And here I stay, on the Shadow Path. All this time, I’ve been waiting for you. Now my prayers have been answered. My girl, you’ve come for me at last.”
As if summoned, the image of the last time she’d seen her mother alive sprang into Katerina’s mind, clarified in every detail. She saw a demon charging toward her small self, saw her mother throw herself between them. Witchfire exploded from her mother’s fingertips, a ball of flame barreling inexorably through the air. It found its target, but as it did, another demon lunged for Katerina’s mother.
She hadn’t relived this moment in years, had deliberately shoved it down into the deepest recesses of herself. Whenever it had come to her, usually in nightmares, the demon who attacked her mother had been a blur. She could have sworn she had never seen its face. But now she watched her memory unspool as the demon reared back and sank its teeth into the juncture between her mother’s neck and shoulder, each detail of the image crystal-clear. With a shock, Katerina recognized the diamond-sharp angle of the jaw, the lithe build and dark fall of hair.
Gadreel.
Her mother’s Shadow roared, breaking away from his own battle and charging toward Gadreel, but it was too late. Blood sprayed from Katerina’s mother’s torn throat. The fire at her fingertips flickered and went out.
“No,” small Katerina shrieked as she watched her mother fall. “Mama! Mama!”
“No,” Katerina whispered now, dropping to her knees before the door that led out of the tunnels. Tiny roots bit into her knees, digging in. She could feel the hot blood splatter her cheeks as it had when she was a child, fighting to reach her fallen mother. The howl of Tima, her mother’s Shadow, reverberated in her bones once more as she fought to escape the Vila who held her fast. She tried to call her own magic, to vanquish the demon, but she was too small and her fear too great and nothing came.
“Katerina,” her mother whispered, the word rasping from her torn throat, just as it had that day. “Run…”
The Vila lifted small Katerina, still kicking and fighting, and fled. Over the woman’s shoulder, Katerina saw Tima fall beneath the onslaught of another Grigori’s blade. Gadreel stood there, head tipped back toward the darkened sky, her mother’s blood pouring from his mouth as he gave an inhuman howl of triumph.
“He took my life,” said her mother’s voice inside her head. “And left me here. Don’t you want to avenge me, Katerina? Together, we will have such strength. Let me in…let me in…let me in…”
There on her knees, she could swear her mother’s hands held her tight. She had longed to feel her touch again. Had Gadreel really murdered her mother, then left her soul in this purgatory rather than using it to power the Dark? Had she been here all this time, waiting for Katerina to find her?
Guilt consumed Katerina, just as it had the day she had tried to save her mother, to destroy the demon that had taken her life. Every time she faced the Grigori, every time she vanquished one to the Void, it was a victory over what she had failed to do before, a drop of water in a bucket that could never be filled. And all this time, Gadreel had been the faceless enemy she’d sought to defeat.
We meet again, little Dimi, he’d said to her in the woods. Finally, she understood.
If that part of the memory were true—if the demon that coveted her was the same one who had killed her mother—then what about the rest of it?
“Please, Katerina,” her mother coaxed, her fingers encircling Katerina’s upper arms. “Your father and I miss you so much. All we want is to be with you. We can be together again. Only open your heart.”
Katerina tried to summon the Light, but it flickered weakly, refusing to flare into a flame. In desperation, she thrust her hand into her pocket. Her fingers closed around the charm. It was icy as ever, the engraved snakes slithering against her palm. But as her grip tightened around it, her head cleared.
Her mother’s touch turned cold and grasping. She blinked, and found the roots had burst through the tunnel’s earthen walls and floor, twining around her, seeking to bind her. They held her fast, not her mother’s shade.
With her free hand, she scrabbled for the knife in her thigh sheath as a root wrapped around her fingers. Blessed or no, the blade was still sharp, and she sliced at it, freeing her arms first, then her legs.
The invisible demon impersonating her mother shrieked, the sound piercing. It echoed off the tunnel’s walls and floor and arrowed through Katerina’s head, nearly making her lose her grip on the knife. “Why would you hurt me, my Firebird?” it wept. “Stay with me…if you loved me, you would stay…”
“You lie!” With the last bit of her strength, Katerina wrenched her way free. The door loomed in front of her, arched and shimmering with the same flecks of Darkness that had marked the portal outside Kalach. She grasped the handle and shoved with all her might, and it gave easily, hungrily, beneath her touch. Fear metallic in her mouth, heart thrashing in her chest, she fell across the threshold and into the unknown world beyond.