Halcon pressed on my shoulders once we neared the throne, pushing me to my knees. I swallowed the lump rising in my throat, but then, the door behind the throne opened, and I fell into a black hole of fear as Gulakah, the Lord of Ghosts, strode out in all of his reptilian glory.

Chapter 18

Fuck. It was him, in the flesh. Knowing Shade was around was no longer the panacea I needed to keep it together. I began to back up, the panic rising. I’d been in Gulakah’s mind. I’d sensed him from the inside out, the anger and love of destruction and hunger for power…it was all there, wrapped up inside him.

Backing away, I bumped into Halcon, who was standing directly behind me. He laughed low, and now the charm was gone and a sadistic delight filled his voice. He caught hold of me and pushed me forward.

“I brought you another one,” he said in a loud voice as he grasped my hands behind me to keep me pinned.

I struggled and he shoved me hard, knocking me to the floor. Something shifted inside, and as I began to stand up, I realized that the dress was skintight and shorter on me. Fuck. Apparently getting knocked to the floor was enough of an attack to break the charm.

As I scrambled up, Halcon let out a gasp. Gulakah hissed, the snakes on his head waving like crazy. He turned to Halcon.

“You bring a spy into my lair? I have seen her before! She is the enemy.”

“No—no, I brought you…I thought she…” Halcon looked confused, but he didn’t have a chance to say anything else because right then Shade leaped into the room out of the shadows. The commotion was earsplitting as the women screamed. Gulakah was heading directly toward us, and Halcon was scrambling away, looking terrified.

“Now—do it, Camille. We’ll be right behind you.”

“The women—”

“Don’t worry, there are reinforcements upstairs, making their way down here right now.” And with that, Shade gave me a sharp nod.

Cringing, petrified, I held out my left arm, palm up, and as Gulakah came into reach, I clenched my teeth and slammed it against him. The world fell away in a flash of lightning and thunder.

The gate was faster than a portal and more abrupt. I cringed as the world spun, throwing me against the Lord of Ghosts. At least he seemed too surprised to do anything, and by the time he started to rouse himself, we were on the ground, in front of the gates to the Netherworld. The world was a mist of silver and gray, and spirits passed by, unaware of me, but whirling into a frenzy when they saw Gulakah. I gasped, choking on the stale air that filled the space. I didn’t even know if I had to breathe here, but I didn’t want to chance finding out.

Gulakah looked around, then swiveled to me and charged. I screamed, dodging. As I managed to evade him, there was a soft sound to my left, and Morio and Shade were standing there. Right behind them, Vanzir, Smoky, and Roz showed up.

Morio grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the side. “We have to prepare. We can do this. The Greater Asa Mordente spell.”

I’d brushed up on the spell while waiting to leave for the meeting.

The Greater Asa Mordente was a soul-zapping spell that stripped away life like a torturer flayed away skin. It was gruesome and dark and painful, and it forever changed the person who used it too much.

“You think we’re ready?”

“Never more so, babe, and we don’t have time to argue.” He nodded to Gulakah, who had engaged Shade, Smoky, Roz, and Vanzir. They were fighting him with their silver weapons, dancing just out of reach of the writhing snakes. Smoky looked pale and wan here, and I could see how being in the Netherworld didn’t agree with him.

“Eat it, dirtbag.” Vanzir let loose with his feelers, and the neon tentacles writhed toward Gulakah, seeking purchase. The Lord of Ghosts laughed and went to swat them away but then let out a snarl as one wrapped around his arm and dug in, slithering beneath the surface to suck at his energy.

Shivering, I turned back to take Morio’s hands. “Yes. We do this.”

As the others kept Gulakah occupied, Morio and I lowered ourselves into trance. The energy of the Netherworld was seductive, seeping through everything like the perpetual mists that filtered through the realm.

Deeper we went, deeper, seeking the purple fire that coiled through the Netherworld, the fire of death, the cleansing fire, the fire of destruction, the fire of the phoenix, the fire that charred to ashes but did not burn. My stomach lurched as the icy winds blew past. More and more often, the stronger our death magic, the winds would come and reverberate through me, chilling me to the core.

My fingers touched his, and a crackle sparked between us.

And then, one beat…two…and we were spiraling up together, my soul rising out of my body to merge with his. We were twin flames, two sides of the same coin, partners who made each other stronger. The flames danced around us, circling in a wheel of sparks, and we were the hub, around which the circle became a wheel, turning ever faster.

“There,” Morio whispered, and his words shook the winds.

I looked in the direction he nodded and saw the tail end of the phoenix—the spirit of death. The spirit of rebirth. The cleansing force of the world. I cooed to it, coaxing it to join us, and it slowly moved in our direction.

“Come here, we have need of one of your feathers. Please, if you would find us worthy.” I sang to it, charming it, enchanting it, bewitching it, supplicating myself. Morio buoyed me up with his strength, and together we wooed the creature.

It flew over us, then circled the entire scene. Bilocating, both in my body and outside myself, I could see that the guys were in a desperate fight with the Lord of Ghosts. Smoky was heaving his grandfather’s sword, slashing at the snakes atop Gulakah’s head. Roz was darting in with a serrated short sword. His face was bloody, and I caught sight of a gash along one cheek. Cripes, he’d been hurt.

Vanzir had managed to latch onto him with several of the feelers that spread out from his hands, and he was feeding—siphoning off the energy in massive waves. He threw back his head, laughing, and his eyes spun wildly.

Smoky landed another blow to the top of Gulakah’s head, and the Lord of Ghosts let out a scream of anger and slapped my dragon, sending him sprawling across the ground, into the mists. But the moment Gulakah’s back was turned, Shade came in, also carrying a silver sword, and stabbed at him from the back.

“We have to hurry. They can’t hold him much longer.” I turned back to the phoenix. “Please, we so need your help. We must right an imbalance. In the name of Pentangle, the Mistress of Magic, may we please have one of your feathers?”

The bird paused, hovered over us, and then zoomed off, but as it flew away, it shook its tail and one of the feathers drifted down to land on my shoulder. I whispered a Thank you as Morio grabbed it.

He let go of my hands and pulled a bottle out of his bag. Opening it, he dropped the feather inside and shook it up, then handed it to me. I hesitated, but only a second, before taking a good-sized swig of the potion. I handed the bottle back to him and he capped it, putting it away before resting his hands on my shoulders as I stood in front of him.

“I’m ready, my love.”

“So am I. We must do this. You understand?”

“Yes, I do.” I raised my arms, so that my palms were facing front, as we matched our breathing to a pace. Once again, our energies merged, and there was no beginning, no end to where his fingers touched my shoulders.

Spirits of the soul, spirits of the night,

Spirits of the dark, spirits of the light.

Spirits of the mad, spirits of the sane,

Spirits who were good, spirits of the bane.

Spirits long ascended, spirits who long fell,

Spirits who are fleeting, spirits who do dwell.

The fight picked up as Gulakah once again slashed Roz on one of his passes. Roz let out a shout as a bloodstain blossomed across the back of his coat. Smoky echoed a thundering call and the Lord of Ghosts answered, rearing around to engage him.

Smoky’s sword cut through one of the snakes on Gulakah’s head and the serpent fell, slithering and hissing toward Vanzir, who stomped on its head. Shade darted in, landing another blow, but the god was just too strong for them to bring down with weapons, and none of them had the magic to entangle with him.

Shade drew back and began to transform into his natural form—the skeletal dragon, with darkened bones that creaked and moaned every time he moved. Gulakah let out another hiss and stumbled as Shade swept his wings toward the Lord of Ghosts, knocking him off balance.

Morio and I continued, building the energy, driving the spell forward, focusing on Gulakah as we wove the words, and the words wove the power flowing from Morio into me. A lattice of energy, a skeleton of power, rose into the air in the shape of a flaming violet arrow.

Spirits of forever, spirits who are no more,

Spirits of the world, we call you to death’s door.

The flames, they whirl ’round you,

The dreams, they haunt your thoughts,

Our summoning to abyss’s edge,

You will ignore it not.

Gulakah must have sensed what we were doing, because he turned in our direction and for the first time seemed to hesitate. He wavered, and during that moment, Vanzir took the opportunity to latch onto him with another set of the neon tentacles that writhed out from the palms of his hands. Startled, Gulakah turned back to him, slashing through several of the waving fronds.

Vanzir stumbled back. “Motherfucker!” He darted out of the way as Shade swept in, again, disrupting the Lord of Ghosts to give Vanzir time to retreat. The dream-chaser demon’s hands were bleeding profusely.

We turned back to our work, and I focused as the energy was beginning to reverberate in my palms. I knew what I had to do, and it scared the fuck out of me, but there was no other way.

Of all the spirits round us, one alone shall fall,

Of all the spirits walking, one alone we call.

We place this hex, we curse this spell,

We send you to the gates of Hel,

We seal your passage, never to break,

We bid the earth to shift and quake,

We bid the air to shake the trees,

We bid the flames to swallow thee,

We bid the ocean to open wide,

To take you down with cresting tide.

There were other creatures gathered round, but none attempted to interfere. They all seemed too afraid, and whispers ran rife through the area. Smoky was beginning to tire. Roz was bleeding and out of the picture, as was Vanzir. Shade kept distracting Gulakah so we could finish.

We began to move forward, toward the Lord of Ghosts, Morio’s hands sure on my shoulders. He believes we can do it…he trusts me to not screw this up. I can do this…My thoughts were racing, but I corralled them and brought them back to the spell’s end point.

We name you once, we name you twice.

We name you here, we name you thrice.

Hear our spell, answer our call,

You who are about to fall.

As I reached the end point, Morio’s fingers began to lift off my shoulders as he propelled me forward. It was now or never. As I let out the last three lines of the spell, I rushed forward toward the Lord of Ghosts and planted my hands on his side. He didn’t see me coming.

Gulakah…Gulakah…Gulakah…

In the name of the Hags of Fate and the Harvestmen,

Be you dead to these realms forever!

The energy lashed through me like a fiery whip, whistling out of my hands, surrounding him with a purple nimbus of jagged bolts that forced their way through him, spiraling in through every pore, soaking in like water into a sponge.

I couldn’t let go; my hands were fastened to his side, and I could feel the disruption starting in his body—all the way from his tail through his feet. A river of pain worked its way up his legs, into his thighs…great torturous cramps that spread through his stomach, up into his torso, racking his chest, washing through his arms and neck, up to his head, where the snakes began to writhe, their agonized death throes a graceful mockery of dance.

I wanted to pull away, but I couldn’t, and as he dragged me along with him, trying to shake off the pain, I began to see a field of empty space—a few dark stars glimmering against the backdrop. The field was growing bigger as it blotted out the mist and the gates of the Netherworld, and I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but it wouldn’t go away. The darkness began to eat up the light, eat away at every thing that seemed familiar. I shuddered, trying to remember my name, trying to remember who I was, but the words would not come, and then there was no sense of what I was.

All I knew was that I existed—I had no clue of who or what I was. I couldn’t sense anything except the blackness around me and the dark sparkling stars that stood out faintly from the void in which I was standing.

“You are here with me.” The voice echoed through my thoughts, but I had no sense of who it belonged to. “You did this to me, and now you are here with me, bound to my side for eternity.”

I had a vague sense that I should fear the voice, but the feeling passed through; I held it for a moment, and then let it go. “Who are you?”

“Who do you think I am? I cannot be killed. I’m a god.”

“Even the gods can die.”

“But if I die, who will guard over the night, and the dead?”

I felt myself turning. For all I knew, I could have been spinning and not realized it. The question made sense, and yet it did not. “There are many who guard the paths of the dead. No one is indispensable.” I didn’t know how I knew that, but it was truth, and truth reverberated through me like a shining thread. I clung to the sensation, and it warmed me up just a little in the bitter chill.

“They tried to tell me that, before they cast me out. But I know my worth, I know my power, and I kept hold of my roots.”