Chapter Twenty-Three
Addie hesitated at the top of the stairs, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Her phone was there. She fingered it nervously, wondering if Rodney would be able to find her if she called him. And wondering if the government would find her first. And… wondering if she was even on the planet to find.
She hesitated a bit too long, obviously, because Nero stepped behind her and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You can take the steps yourself or I can drag you down them. The former will probably be less painful than the latter.”
Adelaide leaned away from him, going cold inside. How had this happened? How had things turned so terrifying so quickly?
This bite isn’t for you… Nero’s words echoed in her head. What had he meant by them? She suffered mounting unrest as she began to descend the long stone staircase. Had he meant that bite in particular, as in… some other bite might be for her? Or had he just been trying to put her at ease in general?
It was dark down below, and all was still. The air was cool and smelled like it had been undisturbed for centuries. The sounds of her footfalls were muffled by the thick walls on either side. She moved reluctantly, slowly lowering one foot after the other. She knew that the moment she reached the bottom, all bets were off. He’d said he needed her. He hadn’t said why or how. And there was something else he’d said: The strongest spells require sacrifice.
Yeah. That one didn’t sit well with her at all.
“How am I going to help you wake this woman up?” she asked, trying to buy time – and trying to get answers. Her voice was shaking, and hearing it aloud made her even more nervous. It made it all the more real.
“Oh, I think you already know, Adelaide.”
Addie’s eyes shut tight. A chill went through her. She reached her hands out to either side in an attempt to steady herself on the stairs. But her right hand passed right through the wall. She gasped and turned in time to see a square foot section of the wall waver as if it were water. In the reflections of the water, the wall was more worn, positively ancient. And then suddenly, it was solid again.
Behind her, Nero placed his hand quietly on the space that had shifted. Then he looked down the stairs, past Addie. She watched his gaze narrow and his green eyes glow.
“Continue,” he commanded softly.
“Are you going to kill me?” she heard herself ask. Her voice sounded far away.
Nero’s gaze moved from the darkness below to her. His expression was stony – except for the very slight curve to the corners of his lips. “We’re on a tight schedule,” he said. “Let’s not waste any more time.”
A small woman, a teenager, a normal man, maybe. Maybe I could fight them off without weapons, she thought. But this guy is hell and gone from normal. She knew if she fought, she would lose. But would it buy her more time? Time until what? she asked herself. No one knew she was here. Wherever the hell “here” was.
Nero sighed impatiently, but also in a resigned manner. Probably because she still had yet to move another inch down the stairwell. “I am not going to kill you, Adelaide. Is that what you need to hear? Does that make you feel better?”
Addie swallowed. She almost choked, her throat was so dry. Not really, she thought. Funny how a person could say something meant to be reassuring and only sound condescending instead.
“No?” he asked, as if he’d read her mind. “Then let me assure you. At the moment, the form you see before you is composed of two souls, not one. Two men.” He smiled, raising his right hand. “One man desperately wants his queen back.” He raised his other hand as if they were balances on a scale. “The other? Desperately wants someone else’s queen. And you, my dear, are that latter queen.” He lowered his hands and tilted his head a little as his gaze skirted over her face, her neck, and lower. “Killing you would defeat any number of purposes, not to mention fail to keep one end of a very important bargain. So again,” he said, moving down onto the single step that stood between them.
He towered over her, tall, indestructible, confusing as hell. “I am not going to kill you, Adelaide Lane.” His tone lowered, becoming intimate. “Far from it.”
The silence stretched. The moments of the clock went tick… tick…
And then Nero gestured to the darkness behind her once more. “Now please. We haven’t much time.”
I will survive this, she thought now. He isn’t going to kill me. She concentrated on that, because she really didn’t want to consider what he was going to do with her. She turned around and continued down the steps, being extra careful with each one since she could not depend on the walls to catch her or assist her balance. Something wonky was going on with them – the entire situation was wonky.
As she drew near the bottom, the stairwell became narrower, and if they hadn’t already been descending single-file, they would have had to now. Finally she reached the last stair and stepped down onto the sandy threshold. Nero followed after.
It was very dark. Vague shapes were all she could make out in the black. She was pretty sure there were walls over there… and some kind of box or something in the middle of the room. But she really had no –
The shadows moved. It was so fast, by the time she registered what she was seeing, there were strong hands on her, and she was being lifted. She cried out in surprise, but the dark was suddenly filled with the sounds of chaos, and her own voice was drowned beneath them.
As quickly as the chaos had begun, a light appeared around Addie. The strong arms that had her around the waist pulled her in close and held her tight. The light surrounded the two of them, for a brief moment highlighting the man with her.
It was Nicholas.
“NOOO!” A massive bellow of rage filled the burial room and sent painful chills across Addie’s skin. The ground beneath her feet shook.
“Your Majesty, watch out!” came another cry. Addie thought she recognized the voice of Minnaea, Nicholas’s preceptor. The man holding her turned sharply. He jerked a little, and she caught the sound of fleshy impact and a grunt of pain, followed by the zap-flash of what she could only imagine to be some kind of science fiction weapon – or magic.
Then she was falling.
She tried to scream. But it was just like the one time she’d ridden The Tower of Terror in Disney World. No sound came out. Her stomach was in her throat, and her teeth were clenched together, and there was nothing but cold, hard fear lodged in the space behind her eyes.
She fell – and fell – and then she slowed. She slowed so much, it felt as if the air were holding her aloft. “I’ve got you,” someone whispered in her ear.
She landed, but the impact was cushioned. For the briefest moment, there was a solid surface against her, before it evaporated and swirled, and it was like falling into a vat of dry ice mist. There was no pain, no death. She was floating in a cool, black bath of swirling fog. It rose and curled around her in wispy tentacles as her descent inexorably slowed. She was reminded of that scene in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, where Sarah jumps from the stairs and begins to slowly fall. The world floats by her – until her shoe touches down.
As did Addie’s. She felt the hard support of stone beneath one boot, and then the other. The mist around her continued to swirl for a few seconds before coalescing. She watched it draw together and re-form. The eyes were visible first, red pinpoints of blazing light. They grew and changed color, darkening into purple and then into gray until they finally swirled just like the mist, silver and shiny as mercury. She recognized those eyes.
In the next few moments, Nicholas’s entire form re-emerged, becoming solid and real once more.
Addie was at a complete loss for words over what had happened. Or so she thought. “You changed clothes,” she said.
Nicholas smiled. It was disarming, and slightly frightening. A truly dangerous smile. “I’m touched you noticed,” he said. Then he stepped to the side and turned, gesturing to the world beyond them.
They stood on a black rock overlooking a vast valley of lights. Some of the lights were turning; they were carousels and an enormous Ferris wheel. The faint notes of distant music climbed the cliffside to tease her eardrums. Laughter was carried to her on the wind. The air smelled of salt, cotton candy, caramel popcorn, and the sea. The lights stretched far into the distance, a carpet of rainbow colors and magic that manifested in an amusement park more grand than anything Adelaide could ever have imagined.
“This is the one place in any dimension where I know we will be safe from the Challenger,” said Nicholas. “Welcome to my childhood stomping grounds… The Carnival of Night.”
*****
Rodney Stokes listened quietly from the fifth floor of the parking garage, where he stood at the opening and looked out over an entire city block of Seattle. His view included the front entrance to the Four Seasons, where men and women in telltale government suits moved in and out of the hotel. They were looking for Adelaide.
He touched the head piece at his ear and nodded to himself. “That’s what I thought. Thanks Nate. Let me know the moment you get any kind of hit.” He disconnected the call and narrowed his gaze on the hotel entrance.
Addie had disappeared.
Twice, now. First, from an airplane mid-flight. And now from a hotel room on the seventh floor. Hastings, the dog had vanished as well. At least, that’s what the chatter indicated.
“What the hell did you get us into, Addie?” he whispered, shaking his head. He hadn’t called her phone, guessing that any calls to her number would be traced so the caller could be tracked down for questioning. He needed to remain freed-up enough to do what he could on his end to find her.
He had a feeling he knew where he was going to have to look for answers. And it had nothing to do with the men and women milling around the hotel with their cheap shoes, hand-held radios, and digital watches. It had nothing to do with the United States government.
Rodney stepped back from the parking garage’s opening and turned around to face the parking spaces. They were all empty. The garage was still under construction, and this level was not yet finished.
Once he was certain he was alone, he took off his own head set and switched it off. Then he left it on the ledge and moved to the center of the cement platform, where he began the incantation of a spell. As he spoke his words, his brown eyes began to glow an amber gold. His arms were at his sides, but his right hand was palm down, beckoning toward the ground. He raised it slowly, and wisps of green and gold smoke rose from the cement as if in answer to his call.
They swirled and grew, spreading in circumference around him. As the mist moved, it carved its way into the human-made stone, leaving behind glowing yellow shapes and symbols. By the time Rodney was finished with the spell, most of the garage was covered with them, and the air was filled with the fine, colorful mists of magic.
He closed his right fist, and the light went from his eyes. Rodney turned a slow circle where he stood at the center of a magical map. Only Rodney could read it. For all intents and purposes, it was a map in shorthand, outlining the Thirteen Kingdoms – and beyond.
Rodney studied it in silence, his shoes creating a slow, hollow sound as he moved across the map to the location where the yellow symbol pulsed like the beat of a heart.
It was Adelaide’s heart, beating rapidly in the Nightmare Realm.