Chapter 38 #3
Katerina had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what it was.
She had seen it before, when Sammael had given her the runestone to guide her way on the Shadow Path.
That one had been different, tucked between the roots of a gnarled oak and flecked with Darkness, but its otherworldly quality was the same.
“It’s a portal,” she said, swallowing hard. “To who knows where.”
It was Ana’s turn to gasp. Everyone knew portals existed, of course; before the Darkness had gone so terribly awry, they’d provided demons’ only access to the world aboveground.
Iriska had been built around them; there was one outside of each of the Seven Villages.
Few people other than Katerina, as far as she knew, had seen an open one—unless you counted the gaping holes to the Void that everyone in Satvala and Drezna had been unfortunate enough to witness before the Darkness gobbled them whole.
Next to Katerina, Niko gave a low, dissentient growl.
She wondered whether he was thinking of the portal to the Void that the Darkness had torn in the clearing, the night Elena had sunk a blade into his heart.
The one Katerina had cast the Vila and the two demons into, taking her Shadow with them. How could he not be?
She wanted to comfort him. To reassure him. But one look at his arms, crossed so tightly over his chest they appeared to be holding him together, and she knew it would be a terrible idea.
“So this is what they were guarding.” Sofi took a step closer to it, then another, and Damien’s hand came down on her shoulder, stilling her. “All this time, there’s been a portal hidden in the Magiya. Why did we not know of this?”
“It’s dangerous.” Niko cleared his throat. “Obviously.”
“But…where does it lead?” Katerina squinted, as if that might help unravel the portal’s mysteries.
It hung, silent and ominous, its appearance morphing as she watched: a rippling veil, its edges fraying into silver sparks; a vertical pool, its center dark as pitch, with faint stars churning inside it; a slow-turning vortex of mist, lit from within by shifting hues.
“What if,” Damien said, his voice soft, “it goes straight into the heart of Gadreel or Sammael’s kingdom?
What if it’s where most of these demons came from, and not from across the bridge, after all?
What if an advance party destroyed those runes, opening the portal and letting the rest of the bastards in—and then they sealed the wall behind them? ”
The concept was too terrible to contemplate.
Because if that were the case, the portal was likely still open.
And at any point, more demons could boil out of it.
If the rest still hid somewhere in the Magiya, then perhaps they’d been watching every move Katerina and her friends had made since they entered the fortress.
Perhaps the Grigori were closing in, intending to corner the six of them between the demons already within and the ones that were amassing on the other side of the portal even now, braced for attack.
“You think this is a trap,” she said, the words squeezing themselves from her throat, which seemed to have narrowed to the circumference of one of the Rozhanitsy’s delicate threads.
Damien didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. His silence was eloquent enough.
As if the revelation had summoned them, faint footsteps echoed in the distance. Was it possible they belonged to survivors—that some of the scribes still lived, and sought their help?
Wiping her clammy hands on her pants, she turned to Niko. With his far-more-sensitive hearing and sense of smell, he would be able to detect what she could not. A foolish note of hope rose in her heart as she lifted her eyes to his face.
Her Shadow sniffed the air as, beside him, Alexei and Damien did the same. Then he frowned and, in unison, the three of them shook their heads.
“Demons,” Niko said.
They could flee down the twisting corridors, away from the pound of footsteps, toward gods knew what threat lay in wait.
Perhaps that was their best option of survival.
But that meant leaving the portal undefended, and what if Damien had been wrong?
What if it led not to the Underworld, but rather to somewhere else within Iriska—somewhere the demons had been trying desperately to reach?
What if the wall of runes hadn’t opened the portal, but had been the last bastion that had kept it sealed, its burnout its final line of defense?
And why, after all that, had it opened to Katerina’s touch?
“We can’t abandon the portal,” she said. “Not if there’s the slightest chance it leads somewhere the Guard laid down their lives to save.”
Her companions exchanged glances. One by one, they nodded their agreement.
“All right, then,” Sofi signed. “We stand and we fight.”
Setting his shoulders, Niko closed ranks with his fellow Shadows.
The air around Damien and Alexei shimmered; their clothes fell to the floor.
An instant later, they stood on all fours, dark fur bristling and teeth bared, their growls filling the narrow corridor as they braced themselves in front of Sofi and Ana.
But Niko kept his human form. And with a sinking heart, Katerina knew why: he didn’t trust himself to control his shades in the form of his black dog. Whatever was coming, he thought he’d have to use the Darkness against it.
One moment, the corridor that led to the portal was empty. The next, a horde of Grigori filled it, charging headlong toward them, Gadreel at their helm.
Katerina contemplated using her witchfire.
But no: they would burn to death with the demons, as the library’s remaining tomes caught ablaze.
Her earthmagic would bury them all; wind would do nothing but create a maelstrom; and calling the lake to rise would do little, safe as they were within Volshetska’s stone fortress.
From the grim expressions on Ana and Sofi’s faces, she knew they’d reached the same conclusion.
There were too many of the demons. They kept coming and coming, choking the corridor, Gadreel’s face alight with avarice and victory.
“Little Firebird!” he called. “You’ve led me a merry chase.
For that I will punish you, but first I will use you, for the Darkness rises, and you must stand at my side. ”
They were outnumbered. Outmatched, if she and her fellow Dimis couldn’t use their magic. Beyond the teeth of their black dogs and their Shadows’ blades, only one weapon lay at their disposal, and it was the one she’d do anything not to use.
Katerina tried to close the wall the same way she’d opened it, pressing her hands to the burned runes, but this time, nothing happened.
The plaster was still and silent, unresponsive beneath her touch, and her heart sank.
She leapt back just in time as the Grigori barreled into the room, fanning out in a phalanx of venom-soaked blades and snapping teeth.
Some held human form; some boasted claws the length of Katerina’s arms; some had massive racks of antlers or forked black tongues.
They hissed in anticipation, venom dripping from their razor-toothed mouths and sizzling as it hit the marble.
“Katerina,” Niko said, his shades seething at his fingertips, and in that single word, she heard a world of resignation.
“No,” she begged, reaching out to grasp his arm.
He pulled away. “I can do it. I can take their Darkness into me, and then you can put a blade through my heart. I won’t fight you. I swear it on my oath as a Shadow.”
“No!” she said again. “Niko, please…”
“You saw what happened with Damien.” He swallowed hard, his gaze laced with grief and guilt. “Piece by piece, I’m losing myself. Soon, I’ll be irredeemable. Let me make this choice while I still can. While there’s enough of me left to do the right thing.”
It was only what she’d thought before, but hearing it aloud, in her Shadow’s beloved voice, carried a finality that nearly shattered her. “We can find another way.” This couldn’t be the end, not after all they’d endured together. “I won’t let you do this.”
“You can’t stop me.” One side of his mouth lifted in a rueful facsimile of a smile. “I ask you only to stand by me and honor our vows, one last time.”
Katerina shook her head, so hard her hair flew everywhere.
All the while, the Grigori crept closer.
A single tear broke free, and her witchfire roiled inside her, threatening to escape.
“I won’t agree to this. I would follow you anywhere, my Shadow.
But you can’t ask me to end your life. I’d sooner take my own. ”
Niko lifted his hand, his touch warm and gentle, and swept the tear away.
Know that I love you more than I thought possible.
The words drifted down their bond, open for this single, desperate moment.
Know that you are my Light and the beat of my heart.
I regret nothing, my Katya, for serving at your side has been the honor of my life, and loving you with all that I am has been the salvation of my soul.
Tears poured down Katerina’s cheeks as Niko raised his hands, the Darkness writhing in the air before him, awaiting his command. Beside her, Alexei and Damien were growling, their hackles raised, and Ana was demanding to know what was going on, and Sofi was signing so fast her hands were a blur—
The Grigori charged, and Niko set his shades free. The two forces met in the middle of the room, Darkness curling around the demons’ bodies. They screamed, that awful, familiar screech of metal-on-metal, and began to wither, just as the villagers’ bodies had done in Kalach.