The Light of the World, page 29
“Who are ‘they’?”
“The shadows.” Liv pointed, her finger tracing a glowing arc of pure, natural light. Eva watched it arc higher, the light dying out as it rose. It was as though Liv’s power wasn’t enough to hold back the surging seal, or she wasn’t truly trying to stop it just yet. “They’ve found your heart full of belief in the light of the world, and they’ve latched onto that belief because it’s your weakness.”
“The light of the world is real. Can’t you see that people need to know it exists?” Theo shook his head, his curly hair flying every which way as he tried to make his point clear. “People have to know this! This… this changes everything.”
“It changes nothing,” Liv replied. She took a step toward Theo, and then another. The light at her neck was glowing as it had that day in Eva’s apartment, warm like the sun and as bright. It drowned out all the darkness in the room, pulling even the farthest shadows into the light of a midsummer day. Theo reached forward and grabbed for the necklace, his eyes almost bulging from his head as it just eluded his grasp.
“Why can’t I touch it?” he demanded as Liv let her fingers close around his outstretched hand.
Eva could feel Al stiffen beside her. She could feel his breathing and she knew that he was scared. This was his father who was so clearly possessed by a force greater than himself, and there was nothing that Al could do to save him. All he could do was watch as Liv cradled Theo’s hand within her own, pure light pouring from her hand onto his palm.
Al was shaking against Eva as they watched the light continue to travel up Theo’s arm and shoulder. It arched high and he let out an almost inhuman shriek as it crossed his chest.
From the void behind Theo, a clawing, hand-like glob of pure darkness shot out and wrapped around Theo’s leg. Liv stumbled forward, her grip on Theo not strong enough to hold him as he was yanked onto his stomach and slowly dragged backward toward the wall.
Behind her, Al let out a scream that turned Eva’s blood to ice.
Chapter 26
The Great Seal
The seal wall mutated before their eyes. It was like something out of a horror movie, a great maw of darkness churning against an ever-changing rock face. Black tendrils of shadow roiled within the rock as they tried to tear free of their stony prison.
The inky tether holding Theo’s leg twisted tighter. It shredded his pant leg to ribbons and cut into his flesh. He let out a howl of pain. His fingers scrabbled in the mud and left long, raking trails as he was pulled backward.
Eva’s knees gave out under her. She fell forward, unable to keep her feet. Her heart hammered in her chest as she watched Theo’s slow progress toward the seal. She couldn’t move. It was as if she were rooted to the spot.
“Liv!” she shouted. “Liv, do something!”
Liv did not move. Her fingers clutched her necklace, the light barely showing through them in a warm red glow that pulsated slowly and steadily. She was a serene figure in a room that was devolving into chaos, her eyes squeezed shut in concentration.
“Damn it, Liv.” Al shoved Eva roughly aside. She tipped sideways, off balance as he wrenched his hand from her grasp.
“Dad, hang on, I’m coming!” Al was half-running, half stumbling toward Liv and his father, his hands outstretched in desperation. Eva had never seen someone move so clumsily, and yet so desperately. She twisted, trying to regain her footing and run after him. She was too small to tackle him to the ground, but he couldn’t go near Theo. Not now. He would get sucked in as well.
The shriek that escaped Eva’s lips was inhuman, the cry of a girl desperate to save everyone she could. She pushed forward, her flat-bottomed shoes sliding unsteadily as she took first one step, and then a stumbling second. She lunged to grab Al and hold him back from the wall and from Theo. “Don’t go any closer!” Her fingers tangled around the back of Al’s jacket. She could feel how hot and how sweaty he was. How terrified. “It’ll suck you in, it’ll—”
“I have to—” Al started to pull away. “I have to get my dad!” His larger frame twisted around Eva’s vice-like grip on his jacket. She held firm, digging her heels into the mud and refusing to let go.
“Al! No!” Eva felt her grip start to slip.
The necklace fell from Liv’s hands. The room was bathed in light. Eva raised a hand to cover her eyes and staring up at the high ceiling of the cavern.
What did you do? Eva’s thoughts were racing. Oh my god, Liv, what did you do? In her grip, Al fell still.
The seal quivered. The tendrils of shadow seemed to retreat with fear. They withdrew back into themselves as the rock face into which the seal was carved gave a great shudder. The roar that had filled the room died, leaving behind only the sounds from before—the city high above and the constant plink, plink, plink of water all around them.
Liv hurried forward and offered Theo her hand, squatting before him. “I can save you.” She sounded desperate. It was an odd emotion on her. Liv was a proud person. She would never allow herself to be seen as desperate unless it was the only option left.
The light was glowing at her neck and it made her skin and hair look almost orange. Liv’s entire body was radiating. “Please, Theo, let me save you.”
The light was almost blinding. Eva could barely see anything at all. She was still holding onto Al. Eva knew that if he got too close, it would be his doom. Her eyes started to adjust to the sudden brightness and she was able, finally, to get a good look at Liv.
Eva’s breath left her in a hushed gasp. It wasn’t the light that was making Liv appear orange; her body glowed with a light that emanated from deep within her skin. What was happening to Liv? Why was she glowing?
The spiny tendrils of blackness had started to move once more, and eerie shadows danced across the great seal.
Liv was breathing heavily from the effort to keep the darkness at bay. “Please, Theo, let me save you,” she said again.
The wall was pulsing faster and faster. The shadows were mutating now, licking at the corners of the light and pushing back against Liv, draining her. A trickle of sweat ran down Liv’s nose and beaded before dripping to the floor. This was going to kill her.
“Liv!” Eva shouted. “Liv, look at the seal!”
Liv turned unseeing eyes upward and Eva let out a low, frightened breath. She looked like something out of Eva’s nightmares. Her eyes were blank and light was pouring from her very skin. Eva struggled to stop Al from getting any closer. The wall was moving now, changing. Al couldn’t go near it. He’d already proven himself susceptible to the void. Liv had better make her move quickly, or else all would be lost.
When Liv had told her of the nature of the evil behind the seal, Eva hadn’t really believed her. All the evil of Pandora’s Box, trapped behind a seal created out of pure light that came from a fallen star—it seemed farfetched, impossible. Liv told Eva how the shadows had sought out those with good hearts and pure intent and preyed on them. They fed on the hearts that they took. Hearts that possessed a pure wish were the easiest to corrupt. With every true wish came a needle of doubt. It was the doubt more than anything else that the shadows preyed upon. Doubt fueled all fear, and fear was what the shadows needed to survive.
Theo was plagued by doubt. He doubted the light of the world his entire life and so had set out to prove its existence. Doubt was all Theo really had. He was a seeker. His soul was corrupted. But could Liv save him?
“What’s happening?” Al shouted. Eva focused her attention on Theo and his desperate attempts to reach forward and grab Liv’s hand. He lost his grip and went sliding back toward the seal once more. “Why isn’t he taking her hand?”
“I don’t know!” Eva’s voice was barely above a whisper; it felt as though it had been stolen from her. She gasped in the moist, acrid-smelling air and tried again. This time her voice was strong. “She’s trying, Al,” she insisted, her voice rising in pitch. “She’s doing all she can.” Eva wanted to say that Theo was trying too, but she couldn’t make that distinction. She wasn’t sure that he could try. His hands were shaking and he was sliding backward even faster than before.
Al let out a strangled cry, and Eva had to wrap her arms around his waist to keep him from running forward. Her feet sank deeper in to the mud and she knew she could not hold Al back for long.
They slid forward as one.
From the necklace, half-buried in the mud where it had fallen, Liv had drawn what looked like a sword. Her face was a picture of grim determination. She was watching the wall and still trying to get to Theo, although she was careful not to go any closer than was necessary.
Eva and Al slipped forward again. Eva tried to hang on tighter. “Al, we can’t go any closer!” she shouted. “It’ll suck us in, too!”
Al didn’t seem to hear her. Eva braced herself and hung on for dear life, her eyes latched on Liv. Please. Please fix this.
Transfixed, they both watched as Liv twisted and the blade of light in her hand sliced through the dark strands that wrapped around Theo’s foot. Free of the arresting darkness, Theo’s body sprang forward as if propelled out of a slingshot by the effort he was exerting to keep himself from being dragged into the void. He landed face down in the muck with a great “oof” and was still.
Liv stood over him protectively. Theo clambered to his feet and hurried away, glancing over his shoulder as Liv stood before the seal with determination etched in every line of her body. When she spoke, it was not in a tongue that Eva recognized. She saw the surprise clearly written on Theo’s face.
Al pushed Eva off and hurried to help Theo to safety.
Eva was more cautious. She could see his hurt leg, and knew that she had to help him, but she could see the same blackness that had overtaken Al in the corridor settle over Theo, even as Al wrapped his arms around his father. She didn’t like it; it felt like a trap. She slipped her way over to them and reached out to touch Theo’s shoulder tentatively.
His eyes were wide and unfocused as he turned to stare at her. “You’re just like her…” he whispered. His voice was hoarse and choked off in the darkness that surrounded them. “Just like Mary.”
Of course, Eva thought bitterly. “Why couldn’t you just leave it alone, Theo?” she asked.
“Because the world must know.”
Al stiffened beside Eva. He loosened his grip on his father and took half a step back, concern clearly written across his face.
“I don’t think anyone should know about this place, Dad,” Al said quietly.
Liv’s voice rose clear and true through the murky, moist air as she held the sword of light steady before her. “No one can know of this. This place was meant to be forgotten.” She drew the sword of light downward and then upward at an angle that Eva soon recognized to be the first two lines of a pentagram starting at the earth point.
Her grandmother hadn’t been religious, but she’d believed in something. When Eva looked at this wall and its monument to the power of darkness, it was testament enough that her grandmother was correct in many of her assumptions. Eva wondered if her grandmother had ever seen the wall light up like this—or if Wren had ever had the chance to tell her.
Theo’s fingers wrapped tightly around Eva’s shoulder and she let out a yelp. Liv’s sword of light paused in its motion, somewhere between the line of air and the line of fire. Theo’s sharp, dirty nails cut into the skin at her shoulder and forced Eva down to her knees, writhing in pain.
It hurts, oh god it hurts. Eva tried to pull away, her fingers wrenching at his arm. He wasn’t letting go. His grip was an unrelenting manacle, and no matter how Eva turned, she could not escape. He was trying to get Liv’s attention, Eva realized, as a haze of searing pain radiated down her arm and up across the back of her skull. He was trying to make her stop what she was doing. Since when had Eva become someone that a madman could hurt to get his way?
Al seemed frozen. His dull eyes were fixed forward and Eva’s shouts for help fell on deaf ears. What had happened to him? Eva’s breathing was coming in shorter and shorter gasps. Theo’s laugh, usually so warm and full of life, sounded high and cold and unrelentingly cruel. Eva felt blood seep from where his nails cut clear through to the bone of her shoulder.
“Don’t you see?” he demanded. His voice was thick with a malice that Eva did not understand. Was this the shadow talking? Or did Theo truly feel this way? “You will always repeat this cycle. You will never be happy, guardian.”
Liv’s shoulders stiffened, and through the blood and mud and slime, Eva could see that she was shaking. What had Theo said that had shaken her so? Eva wasn’t entirely sure. All she could think of was the pain.
“She was not meant to know,” Liv replied tersely. She drew the blade back through the pentagram of light that she’d drawn and held it steady. At the middle, a black pit of nothingness opened beneath her blade’s touch. Eva couldn’t see anything beyond the void. It was pulling them in, a great vacuum of darkness.
“Then you are an even greater fool than before, guardian! You were given a chance to start anew and you did nothing! There is one soul for you, guardian, and I am going to take her into the void with me!” Theo’s laugh was almost caustic this time, burning through the ache that had settled over Eva’s mind and lingered there. It made it impossible for Eva to focus on anything at all, and she hated it.
Liv turned then, her very eyes glowing with the power of the light of the world, and Eva’s heart skipped a beat. She was a woman and a man, so many faces all at once over and over again. Every guardian across all of time stood before Eva. She could see the past, the present, and the future reaching out to do battle with the shadows.
“You will do no such thing,” Liv hissed. She shifted forward and the sword of light flew past Eva and whipped back around like a boomerang, cutting through Theo’s back and pulling with it a shadow creature that fought and clawed and desperately pushed back against the light. Its inky black fingers clawed at the beam of light. As it slammed into the wall, it reached out and wrapped itself around Theo’s leg once more, tugging his feet out from under him and whipping him forward into the mud.
Eva fell forward, her hands landing in the slime and her shoulder a bloom of pain.
“Theo!” she shouted. Her right arm was practically useless, but she had to help him. She had to save him! She struggled to her feet. Her whole body was shaking. The exertion of the magic was taking its toll. She took a deep breath and lunged forward. She wrapped her hands around Theo’s wrist and pulled against the blackness, desperate to keep Theo grounded here. She didn’t care that he’d hurt her, or that her shoulder felt as though a hot iron had scrambled the muscles. She wasn’t going to let anyone die. She couldn’t.
Whatever spell had come over Al seemed to dissipate and he threw himself down beside Eva with his fingers wrapping around hers. Together they pulled as hard as they could.
Theo let out a pitiful cry. The shadow rose like a great wave, threatening to crash over them. It stared down at them, its face ever-changing. Through the inky film, Eva could see the wall mutating once again.
“The protection isn’t going to hold,” Liv shouted. The pentagram flickered. The shadows surged forward, but the protection held. The cavern filled with an inhuman cackle.
Eva looked at Al. “We have to do something.”
“Let me have this man,” the shadow hissed. “I want him. He is a worthy sacrifice to save yourself. Sacrifice him and let your soul roam free.”
That could not happen. They had to close the seal and not allow it to consume another innocent. Far too many had already paid that ultimate price. Al’s jaw was set and he nodded. There was no argument from him, and the silent conversation ended as they turned, almost as one, to stare at Liv. This was her call.
Eva’s fingers slipped on Theo’s wrist and she twisted, grabbing a handful of his jacket sleeve and tugging with all of her might. Her shoulder was screaming in protest, and she could feel the warm stickiness of blood. The light of the world had gone out for her grandmother so long ago. Was she prepared to lose it, too?
Theo looked up then, his eyes wide with fright. His fingers closed around Eva’s wrist. Eva clasped her free hand over his and looked into the void behind them. The thread of a shadow that was still holding onto Theo suddenly let go.
All three tumbled backward and landed in a heap. Al hurriedly pulled them farther away from the void. The shadow crested over them once more, hissing menacingly at Liv before diving into the void. Liv’s blade slammed through the rock of the seal. It cut into the very wall with a crash that reverberated through the cavern. The wall trembled, the sword embedded deep within it. It let out an unearthly shriek. Eva clapped her hands over her ears but that did little to drown out the wail.
The shadow slipped, inky and defeated, toward the sword at the center of the seal. It scrabbled at the edges of the light, unable to arrest its motion as it hurtled into the sword’s path. It was like watching water go down a drain; the darkness was sucked in a spiral and away into nothingness. All the while, the shadow screamed.
Eva tried not to listen to the screams, but it was not just the shadow crying at its defeat. Sound bubbled out of her mouth, out of Al’s mouth. Screaming, screaming for it all to end. Then, just as suddenly as the screams began, they stopped.
With a great gurgle, the last of the shadow slipped into the seal and the sword winked out of existence. Liv collapsed to her knees, her hair half falling into her face, panting heavily. She scooped the necklace from the mud. It hung by its chain from her clenched fist, glowing weakly. It pulsed once, twice, before it flickered out like a candle snuffed.
Light came streaming down from the grated gaps in the ceiling far above. The faint sounds of the city gave a feeling of normalcy to the eeriness around them. Eva was helping Theo to his feet when the light seemed to shift. It hit the wall and the seal exploded in an arch of red and white light. Black tendrils reached out and wrapped bodily around Theo. Eva tried to grab him but the force pulling him away was too sudden and too strong. He was slammed hard against the wall and slumped down to the foot of it, a thin trickle of blood seeping from his hairline.
