Page 18 of Midnight Kingdom

“We must leave,” I say as I face Cambion.

“Now,” Dragan adds.

“Yes,” Morrigan agrees. “We are all living on borrowed time.”

“We’ll have to fight our way back to the throne room if the spell has worn off,” I say as I face the others. “Then we open the portal and return to the Veil.”

“And how do we do that?” Morrigan asks.

I pull theOlurifrom within my jacket pocket. “With the help of Pyre,” I answer.

“Cambion mentioned this Pyre. I’m not familiar with him,” Morrigan says.

“He’s a necromancer, the Guardian of The Veil,” I respond as her eyes go wide. “He protects the spirit world from the corruption of the realms and he is veryverypowerful. I’ve never seen anyone who can match his abilities.”

The Midnight Queen jumps back, staring down at the orb in obvious horror. “Forbidden magic,” she hisses. “You ally yourselves with a necromancer and you expect me to follow you?” She glances back at Cambion. “You failed to mention just what this Pyre is!”

I tuck theOluriinto my pocket and move towards the Midnight Queen. “You will come with us and stop stalling. Pyre didn’t risk his life for us to give up and return to him empty handed. You either come willingly or I’ll drag you out of here, kicking and screaming.”

The rest of them appear surprised by my surly tone but I can’t say I care. I was charged with a task and that task was returning the Midnight Queen to Pyre and that’s what I intend to do. I’d rather die fighting Variant’s soldiers than to return to the Veil without her.

We promised the necromancer that his pain would not be in vain and I intend to keep that promise. In the short time I’ve known Pyre, he’s proven himself to be a loyal friend and ally, something of which we’ve been in short supply.

Of course, I know about the tryst between Pyre and Eilish. The necromancer was man enough to tell me himself rather than attempting to keep it a secret. I respect him for that. It’s the sneaking and the lies that rub me raw, which is why I can’t fully respect Dragan and Cambion. They lie to one another almost as much as they lie to themselves.

***

EILISH

The Veil

We run down the staircase to Morrigan’s room and Baron holds his arms out on either side of him to keep us from going through the door. That’s when I remember the door and threshold are barricaded with his magic, still glowing with a faint greenish light.

Baron rifles through the poisons around his waist and produces a vial of a dark blue and cloudy liquid. He pulls the cork from the tincture and the liquid turns to gas as it makes contact with the air. The gas takes the form of a purple cloud and moves toward the glowing green of the door, blending with it instantly until both colors eventually fade into nothing.

Baron then reaches forward and pulls open the door. Strangely, there didn’t appear to be wards in any place around Morrigan’s room or on the stairs, but the lock on the door seems to have some sort of effect on her. Her steps slow significantly once we pass through the archway.

“What’s wrong?” Dragan asks her.

She shakes her head and then bends over, trying to catch her breath. “The power of the magic surrounding this room is… too much for me,” she says.

Dragan curses under his breath and lifts her into his arms. Already we hear the sound of boots coming down the corridor. I stand beside Baron and Cambion, ready to fight our way toward the throne room.

The demon blood from the two soldiers Dragan slew continues to bubble up on the marble floor, beside their bodies. The scent of the blood and flesh stings my nose with its pungent aroma, but I push on with the others. Four orcs appear from the far end of the hall and begin bellowing their anger. I guess it’s safe to say that the hour shelf-time of Pyre’s enchantment is now up.

Flumph immediately flies ahead of me, carrying his strange crossbow apparatus and shoots his arrows at the orcs, knocking two of them unconscious, but he quickly runs out of ammunition. Cambion creates a ball of light between his hands which he unloads on the orcs. The ball of light seems to keep them occupied as Baron leads us down the same path we took to get to the tower.

Suddenly Baron stops short and I nearly run headlong into his back. Baron nods toward the left where two more gargoyles block our path, but they’re both facing the opposite direction and haven’t yet noticed us.

Baron draws one of the dual daggers from his belt and I watch in awe as the vampire creeps up behind the gargoyles and in one split second, plunges his blade through one of the soldier’s ears, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, Baron douses the other with a silver, translucent powder. The gargoyle pulls a face as though he’s in excruciating pain, but no sound comes from his opened mouth. Instead, his skin begins to bubble as though it’s burning and his muscles and bones appear to melt into the rest of him. Fairly soon, he’s reduced to nothing more than a pile of steaming clothing.

The smell is atrocious.

Cambion moves to flank Dragan as the bigger man carries the Midnight Queen through the hallway toward the rear of the castle. I protect the other side of Dragan, as I look for any sign of trouble. Baron kicks open the door to the throne room. A dozen pairs of eyes or more look back at us. I’m not sure who is more shocked—us or them. Baron curses loudly but rushes the crowd. Truly, his courage knows no limits.

Quickly, my attention moves past the soldiers who swarm us, and I find myself focusing on Variant, where he sits on his throne in the middle of the room with an unsettling smile on his face. He’s surrounded by so many soldiers, there’s no way we could cut through them to reach him.

He doesn’t seem to even notice Dragan, Cambion or Baron. And his attention never focuses on Morrigan once. Instead, he stares at me and I find myself returning the insistence in his gaze. Maybe because I don’t understand it. His expression isn’t what I expect. Instead of anger or rage, he smiles.

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