Destroyer Rising (34 page)

“I always imagined Titans to be the size of
buildings.”

“Some were,” the innkeeper said. “Being of their
bloodlines didn’t guarantee any sort of size or power. They are
like us in that way, I suppose, inheriting traits from their
ancestors, but you can never be sure which traits they’ll be.”

I stood beside Gaia’s head. She looked peaceful,
covered in a fine layer of dirt as she was. I could hear her soft
voice in my head. “Do you think her offer is safe? Or do you think
it’s a trap of some kind?”

“It could be either. Depending on how enthralled she
was by the Mad King’s magics, it could be a trap and she’d never
know it. What a weapon against the dark-touched you could wield,
though, Damian.” She shook her head. “Well, I suppose we may never
know.”

Part of me hoped we wouldn’t, another part of me
wanted to climb back into Tessrian’s prison and find out how to
awaken the Titan and claim her gift. The lantern light swelled and
dimmed.

***

“What will you do now?” the innkeeper asked when we
returned to the kitchen.

I shook my head. “Head back to Saint Charles? Regroup
with everyone, I guess. I don’t know.” I looked down at the photo
album. “I need to call Hugh. Do you mind?”

“Not at all. If you need me, I’ll be in the bedroom
on this floor. It’s been a long week, and I must sleep while the
dark-touched do. Prepare yourself, Damian. They are like nothing
you’ve fought yet.”

“Thank you,” I said. “For the food, and for showing
me Gaia.”

The innkeeper nodded and disappeared into the
hallway.

With the backpack slung across my shoulder, I
wandered to the front room, pausing briefly to study the old curio.
Most of it was the same as last time, but now one of the pictures
of Zola and Philip was propped up against the back. They looked
happy, and it made me glad that Zola had gotten some measure of
happiness out of that bastard.

I called Hugh as I settled in by the old piano at the
front of Rivercene, staring at the faceless skinwalker’s photo.

“Yes?” Hugh answered. He sounded tired.

“Did I wake you up?” I asked. “I’m sorry.”

“No, cub. I have not yet slept.”

I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better, or worse.
I just launched into what I knew, so I could let Hugh do what he
needed to do. “The woodsman saw a skinwalker with the undines.”

“That is troubling,” Hugh said. “They have remained
hidden so long some of us hoped they’d died out.”

“Camazotz doesn’t know, but the innkeeper is sending
him a message.”

“You have returned to Rivercene?” Hugh asked.

“Yes.”

“Did she tell you of the gateway?”

I ran down everything the innkeeper and the woodsman
had told me, filling in as much detail as I could for Hugh. I
didn’t tell him about Gaia. The vision of her body frozen forever
in that shallow layer of dust and dirt wouldn’t leave my mind.

I ran my fingers around the page where the skinwalker
photo was embedded. “How did you get this picture of the
skinwalker, Hugh? Cameras back then weren’t exactly fast.”

“It was not me,” Hugh said. “It was left at the home
of a slaughtered pack. I kept it until there was a need to warn the
family at Rivercene. I suspect it was left as a warning to others
who walked their path.”

“You mean this guy posed with his face off long
enough for the picture to turn out?”

“Yes.”

I shivered. “Ugh.”

“Sharp Elbows concerns me, Damian.”

“Why?” I asked. “I would have thought the underwater
panthers were about ten times as scary as some guy with sharp
elbows.”

“You will change your mind.”

I waited, and he didn’t elaborate. “What should we
do?”

“Wait for Camazotz to investigate. He will be able to
tell us more about the attacks than the woodsmen. Camazotz has
fought a great deal of dark things in his long life. You
should—”

Happy’s voice boomed inside my head.
She is
awake.

I barely said goodbye to Hugh before I hung up and
grabbed my backpack. It was rude to leave the innkeeper like this,
but I thought she’d understand. “Thank you!” I shouted as I swung
the heavy front door open, slamming it behind me before I darted
down the stairs.

I laced my fingers between Gaia’s. One step I was
hurtling toward the river, and the next I was in the Abyss. I
didn’t wait for the golden motes of power to congeal.

“Vicky’s awake. Get me to Death’s Door,
now.”

We ran, or at least I ran. Gaia matched my pace with
an easy stride. It wasn’t more than a minute before she spoke.

“I can send you into the store from here, but the
landing will be unpleasant.”

“Do it.”

She released my hand, and I fell. The sensation was
wrong. I wasn’t falling down, I was falling in a forward arc like
I’d been fired out of a trebuchet. The darkness and stars of the
Abyss flickered around me before spinning violently to one side. My
face hit hard, and it took me a moment to realize it was carpet
singeing the stubble from my cheek.

The room tilted, and then spun. I slammed my palms
into the floor and took three heaving breaths.

“Damian?”

Her voice. Vicky. I raised my eyes and found the girl
curled up on the floor beside Bubbles. Shiawase stood to the side,
his sword raised almost as high as his eyebrows.

“What was that?” Shiawase asked. “It was like
thunder, and the room shook. I feared an attack.”

“You said she was awake.” I slowly brought myself up
to a knee. “I told Gaia to hurry.”

Vicky hit me like a cu sith, wrapping her arms around
my neck. “Is it really over?”

“I think so, kiddo. You’re safe.” I couldn’t lie to
her. I couldn’t tell her I knew with one hundred percent certainty
that it was done, but for now, she was safe. I squeezed her tight,
but when I tried to let go, I found her arms locked around me.

“I felt them go,” Vicky said. “They all said goodbye.
Did you know that? Could you hear them? They all said goodbye to me
before they killed the devil.” She shook in my arms. Bubbles
bounded up beside me and nosed at Vicky’s arm.

“I’ll miss them and Cara,” I said, and the words
caught in my throat. We’d lost so much, but here, back at Death’s
Door, Vicky was finally safe.

“I just want to go home,” Vicky whispered into my
ear.

I nodded, but I couldn’t form the words to say
yes.

***

“I got you a present,” Vicky said.

I leaned against the bookshelf beside her.
“Really?”

She nodded and pulled a folded piece of black fabric
out of her Hello Kitty backpack, handing it to me.

I laughed when the T-shirt fell open and the vampire
skull stared back at me. “It’s like you knew I’d burned the other
one by accident.”

“Other two,” she said. “Sam got extras. She said
you’re why she can’t have nice things.”

I tried to think of a rebuttal, but I drew a blank.
“Thank you.”

She hugged me and said, “I’m tired.”

“Get some sleep, okay? When you wake up, you can see
your folks. How about that?”

“I’d like that.” She nestled up against Bubbles, and
Jasper rolled out from behind the chair, tucking himself under her
arms. By the time I got back to my feet and sat down on one of the
chairs, she was well on her way to sleep.

“I will miss her,” Shiawase said when Vicky’s
breathing changed.

“We’ll still see her,” I said. “Somehow.” I couldn’t
imagine not talking to the kid again, but how did you explain that
to her parents? Oh hi, I was friends with your murdered daughter
while she was a ghost, but hey look I brought her back! Cue awkward
police conversation.

“It will be different, now,” Shiawase said. “Change
reveals itself to be the only absolute.”

I crossed my arms and took a deep breath. “You going
to stay in Forest Park? It sounds like Aeros will be moving into
the neighborhood soon. You’re welcome to stay here.”

“Thank you, Damian, but I am rather fond of my home.
I do not know how the red pandas would entertain themselves in my
absence.”

I smiled at the samurai. Vicki snored, and it was
time to go.

I stood outside the house with the sleeping child
curled up in my arms, wondering if this was really the right thing
to do. I laid her on the porch and tucked the edge of her blanket
around her before ringing the doorbell and sprinting away like some
idiot kid on Halloween.

The bushes made a fairly crappy hiding place, but I
didn’t think I’d need a very good one. “You watch over her, yeah?”
I told the pile of gray fluff on my shoulder. Jasper vibrated, his
black eyes staring into the night.

The door creaked open.

“Hello?” a small voice said from the doorway. The man
sounded broken, like life had taken one too many things from him
and left nothing to fill the void.

He finally glanced down. His hand shot out and
slammed into the door frame, supporting his trembling body.
“Elizabeth? Elizabeth!
Oh my god!”

A second shadow appeared at his side, and Elizabeth’s
mother screamed as she collapsed over her lost child. Sometimes
there are no words. You can only cry out as the world tears your
entire being into pieces and smashes it back together again.

“Mom?” a groggy Vicky said. “Mommy!”

I stared at that frantic reunion, an outsider who
wanted nothing but the best for that poor child. Their cries and
love made me think Carter and Maggie had known exactly what they
were doing. What wouldn’t I sacrifice to bring that kind of love
into the world? What wouldn’t I sacrifice to
keep
that kind
of love in the world?

I’d battle the dark-touched, and the Old Gods, and
I’d see Gwynn Ap Nudd cast down from his throne and buried by his
own people. For Cara, for the Ghost Pack, for my family.

I hoped I’d never see Vicky again, but part of me
hoped I’d see her in the morning. I watched the tuft of gray dust
flow into the house behind the family.

When the door clicked closed, I wiped the tears from
my eyes and whispered, “Love you, kid.”

Eric is a former bookseller, guitarist, and comic
seller currently living in Saint Louis, Missouri. A lifelong
enthusiast of books, music, toys, and games, he discovered a love
for the written word after being dragged to the library by his
parents at a young age. When he is not writing, you can usually
find him reading, gaming, or buried beneath a small avalanche of
Transformers. For more about Eric, see
www.daysgonebad.com
.

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