Cursed (Demon Kissed #2) (13 page)

I spoke before anyone else could, “I’m
damned. It doesn’t matter what I am. Or what I’m not. I was sent
here. Kreturus wants me and this is the entrance I chose. Tell me
the price. I’m passing this way no matter what it cost.”

She slid her fingers along the edge of
her black blade, and tilted her head back. “Well, good luck with
that. Only the living can pass this way. They must cast their
spirit into the Pool of Lost Souls. Admission here isn’t cheap. It
isn’t some amusement park filled with cheap thrills. The damned are
enslaved here for eternity. Do you really want to cast off your
soul? Or whatever you have? I’m still wondering why I can’t catch
your scent.” She sniffed at me, looking perplexed.

“
Never mind that,” I said.
“The Pool of Lost Souls, what is it? How do we do it and does it
require a soul for passage or just a piece of a soul?”

A smile slid across her face, “So,
you’ve dealt with Valefar before, huh? The Pool of Lost Souls is
what binds your body to the Underworld. Once it contains your soul,
you belong to Kreturus. But you’re right. It doesn’t require an
entire soul for passage. If you can bear the agony, it will take a
severed soul and allow you to pass.”

I turned to Eric and Shannon. “It’s a
Demon Kiss, isn’t it?”

Eric nodded, “That’s what it sounds
like. And there is no way around it. The Underworld entrances
require payment. I just had no idea what it was. If you want to
keep going, you don’t even have to ask me, Ivy. I’m
coming.”

I turned to Shannon, “You should go
back and hide. They won’t find you. And besides, it’s me and Eric
that they really want. I can’t ask you to come with me.”

Her green eyes were serious for once,
“Who said you had to ask? Ivy, I’ll pay the price. I’m not letting
you go down there alone.”

Turning back to Apryl, I reluctantly
looked her in the eye. She didn’t remember me. I couldn’t touch
her. I couldn’t hug her and tell her everything would be all right.
For all I knew, it wouldn’t. Suppressing the thoughts, I said,
“Take us to the Pool of Lost Souls.” I never thought I’d volunteer
for a Demon Kiss, but as it turned out, that wasn’t exactly what it
was.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

I followed my sister relieved that I
didn’t have to fight her. That was one thing that I wouldn’t have
been able to do. Shannon and Eric remained silent as we walked.
Panicked thoughts brushed my mind. I had no idea if I could bear
another demon kiss, or if my soul would survive the encounter. I’d
already been attacked by a Valefar a few months ago, and lost all
but a small piece of my soul. And that piece I severed willingly to
bring Collin back to life. I was playing a deadly game and I knew
it. At some point, the amount of spirit left in my body would not
be enough to sustain the angel blood that flowed through my veins.
When that time came, the demon blood would overtake me, and I’d
become a full-fledged Valefar.

My nails bit into my palms, making me
realize exactly how much that scared me. Being enslaved was the
worst thing I could possibly imagine. As weeks slid into months, I
had started to see that my fate was simply foretold. The only
person to blame for casting that dark destiny in stone was me. It
was completely my fault. It was my fault because I couldn’t abandon
Collin, and I couldn’t watch a sword slice Eric in two. And now, I
couldn’t deny the price of passage into the Underworld, even though
it was more than I could pay.

We followed Apryl along the cavern
pathways. The stone glowed a faint reddish brown like it was
illuminated from within. Water was forever dripping from somewhere,
but I never saw the source. Periodically the sound of beating wings
filled the air, but I never saw what made that noise either. The
Underworld wasn’t like anything I’d expected.

A chill ran through me when I first
saw the Caribbean blue waters. They looked so out of place, lapping
at the jagged dark stone that stretched from floor to higher than
the eye could see. The light blue water stood out against the
dismal backdrop like an oasis of hope in the midst of despair. Its
false promise of peace was part of what made the Pool of Lost Souls
so deadly. The second part I would soon learn.

Eric, Shannon, and I stopped a few
feet from the water’s edge. As I watched the crystal blue liquid
move, I realized it wasn’t made of water at all. Instead it was
thick like gel, swirling and lapping at the shore. Streaks of pale
green, laced with sea foam, swirled suspended in its depths. The
Pool stretched on forever, and despite the crystal clarity, the
bottom was not visible. I swallowed hard, not liking this
mutant-water one bit.

“
Step to the water’s edge,
but do not step into the Pool. If you do, the lost souls will pull
you in. Your feet must stay on dry ground,” Apryl
warned.

I looked at her, and asked, “Why are
you helping us? Aren’t you the Guardian?”

She looked at me with that expression
of hers. The one that said she liked you, but she thought you were
a total idiot. It was a glimpse of the old Apryl. “I’m helping you
because…” she shrugged, “I’m not sure. It’s like I know you or
something.”

Shannon’s green eyes were wide as she
looked from me back to the Pool. “It’s going to be deceptive, isn’t
it?” She swallowed hard. “There is no way to just cast some soul in
and walk away, is there?”

Apryl didn’t answer. Instead she
turned her dark eyes to me and said, “Nothing down here is as it
seems. Don’t embrace the waters or anything that comes from them.”
Embrace the waters? I had no idea what she meant, but nodded at her
anyway. It dawned on me that she may not be helping us, as I’d
thought. She wasn’t my sister anymore. She was a Valefar. I
wondered if I should believe her, but why would she lie? I’d
already volunteered for a demon kiss. How much worse could it be?
As I looked harder at the Pool, I could see the green streaks
moving more rhythmically, as if they were waiting for us to join in
and dance. “Step to the edge and do what you must.” Apryl extended
her arm, and stepped away from us.

Swallowing hard, I turned toward Eric
and then Shannon, “Ready?” The nodded in unison. My chest felt like
it was going to tear open as I took those few short steps. The blue
swirled in thick slow circles, as the pale green shapes rose and
fell below the surface. As I got closer, I saw that the shapes were
people. Their forms swam in the Pool, suspended, and trapped for
eternity. Eyes wide, I turned in panic to look at Eric. I had no
idea there were people in there, but he didn’t see me.

His face paled as his eyes widened,
fixated on the Pool in front of him. His body was shaking as he
stood staring transfixed on her face. A whisper of a word slid out
of his throat, “Lydia.”

The terror in his eyes made me turn
back to the water. I didn’t understand what was happening until I
turned. A familiar face strode towards me across the Pool’s
surface. His skin glowed with a pale shimmer, but his eyes were
still sapphire blue. My chest heaved as a sharp pain tore through
me, stealing my breath. Collin. It was Collin walking towards me. I
was no longer aware of the others. My only thoughts were of
Collin—the scent of his skin, the feel of his touch on my cheek,
the taste of his lips on mine.

My foot lifted to take a step towards
him when a voice snapped me back to reality, “Stay where you are
little sister, or you’ll never survive.” Apryl’s voice made my neck
snap towards her. She held my gaze and repeated the warning. “It’s
not really him. This creature has come to take your soul. It’ll
pull you into the Pool if you let it.”

My voice caught in my
throat as I looked back at him. I was mesmerized. It didn’t even
dawn on me until later that she said,
little sister
. She remembered me,
but I was so transfixed on Collin walking towards me that I didn’t
notice. “No, it can’t be true. That’s him. It’s the good part that
was stolen. He wouldn’t hurt me. I know it.” Reassurance flooded my
body every time I looked at the figure on the water. I hadn’t seen
him since the night he saved me. And now he was right in front of
me, only steps away. If I just stepped closer, I could wrap my arms
around him again.

“
It’s not him. That’s the
Guardian. It’s pulled every single person who tried to pass into
this Pool. I can’t stop you from trying to pass it. I’m bound to
the Pool. I can’t go past this point. But, you can if you remember
that this isn’t who you think it is. If you remember not to touch
it and pay passage.” She folded her arms and leaned back against
the cave wall.

I turned back to the water’s edge. My
breath caught in my throat as Collin’s form stood right in front of
me with his ankles submerged in the lapping waters. I wanted to
throw my arms around him and feel his warm body against mine, but I
hesitated. Looking into his eyes, I waited for him to speak, but he
said nothing. His face slowly showcased my favorite expressions—the
one that made it impossible to deny him anything.

Apryl’s voice broke the silence, “Ivy,
I’m in there too.” Shocked, I turned to look at her. Sadness
weighed on her soft features, deeply carving lines into her face
that hadn’t been there before. “I’ve stood on the water’s edge
seeing the one thing that I desire most, but cannot have—myself. I
watch her come to the edge, but I’m unable to do anything about it.
She’s like an image trapped in a reflection. There is no way to
undo what was done to me. Or him. Only the ruler of the Underworld
has that power.” Apryl’s words sunk into me. She’d tried to get her
soul back. She’d stood here and been unable to reclaim her life,
even though it was right in front of her. I closed my eyes hard,
and looked away. Demons were cruel. They never let you forget your
place, and every action was doused with pain.

Just then Eric snapped. His foot
lifted forward and then the other.

“
No!” I screamed, but it
was too late. He had stepped into the crystal blue liquid. The
waters surrounded the single foot that touched the water, as Eric
cried out in pain.

His scream awoke Shannon from her
dazed trance, no doubt seeing someone she loved manifested in front
of her. Someone she wanted, but couldn’t have. She shook her head
and ran toward Eric, careful not to touch the water. “What do we
do?” she asked as she went to pull him back.

“
No! Don’t touch him! It
might be able to pull you in too!” Panic was flooding me. Eric’s
back arched as he let out a raw scream, frozen by the waters that
trapped him. His face contorted with pain as his body
shook.

I recognized that scream. It was the
sound Martis made when they were being demon kissed. The Guardian
was sucking his soul into the Pool. There was no time. If I waited
another second we would lose him. I wasn’t certain if we could
touch him or not, but there was no other choice. I threw myself
between the Guardian and Eric. Lydia’s pale likeness melted down
into the water and Collin was the only figure remaining. His blue
eyes pierced me, making me think I couldn’t possibly do this, but
there was no other choice.

Reaching behind me, I
touched my fingertips to Eric’s chest. A pulsing pale purple light
came from my fingers and sent a shock through him. I pushed him
back onto the shore, where he collapsed. It was completely silent.
My heart thundered in my chest as I strode further into the lake
and up to Collin’s form. With each step I took forward, he took one
back. But I kept walking towards him. The thing was, with each
passing step, it looked more and more like him. I kept telling
myself,
This isn’t him. It’s not
him
. But, his eyes made me doubt myself.
These waters made me uncertain. They held power that I didn’t
understand and made me question everything I knew. If I was closer
to Collin, I could tell if it was truly him.

Contact with the Pool didn’t make me
writhe as I stepped into the waters. I felt the cold snares trying
to snake through my legs, searching for my soul, but I had very
little soul left to steal. I hoped they wouldn’t find it before I
reached the Guardian—the perfect image of Collin. My pulse pumped
the blood through my body so fast that it felt like I’d run miles.
Anticipation and dread pooled together violently in my stomach as I
neared him. His cool eyes rested on me, watching me approach. He
ignored Shannon, as she dragged Eric out of sight.

Apryl sat watching, eyes wide and
mouth hanging open.

This is an
illusion
, I told myself.
It’s not him
. Certainty
washed over me as he stood inches from my body. I could reach out
and touch him. So, I did. I threw my arms around his neck and
pressed my lips against his. A cold blast was created as soon as
our lips joined. It collided with the shadows I called to shroud my
scent. Combined, they tore through me in a wave of sharp, cold
pain. The familiar feeling of flesh ripping from bone consumed me.
As the piece of soul I had remaining, broke free, I shivered. If he
took that piece, if it was large enough, I would be Valefar. And
yet, this was the only way to pass into the Underworld without
Kreturus being aware of my presence. I felt the golden warmth of my
spirit traveling rapidly towards my lips. I hoped I knew what I was
doing. There was nothing to base my decision on, but a hunch. When
my soul passed my heart, the coldness clamped down harder. It felt
like I was being crushed under a massive block of ice. My body was
resisting, but I could feel it wouldn’t be mine to command much
longer if I finished this kiss. The Pool was already doing
something to me. I felt the demon blood coursing through my veins
like shards of glass. I wanted to scream out unable to endure the
pain.