Authors: Melanie Matthews
“How long?” she asked in almost a whisper.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but not long. Don’t worry my pet. You’ll see your friends again and…your lover boy.” He nodded to Devin who kept shouting, unheard, beating his fists against the barrier, with his wounded face distorted by the red sheen. “However,”—Cormac leaned down, brushing his lips against her ear, sensuous—“I know you can do better.” He pulled back, smiling sweetly, blushing.
For a second, she saw Devin, safe with a boyish charm. But he wasn’t Devin. He was the King of Hell. And she was drawn to him like a moth to a flame.
“Well, let’s go! Chop-chop!” He held out his arm, impatient.
She hesitated, but then took it, and looped her arm around his, confused by a mixture of reluctance and willingness.
She scanned the room. Meg was crying, holding onto a distraught Finn. It was the same for Corrine and Liam. Bree looked surprisingly worried, but Eva didn’t know if it was from her sudden departure with Cormac, or the barrier that kept the students back. Maybe both. Headmaster Quinn’s eyes were wide with shock. Colin was beating against the barrier too, shouting unheard, his lips forming her name.
Finally, she turned to Devin. He had given up his assault against the barrier. Now instead of shouting her name, he was crying, on his knees, sliding his hands up and down the barrier, attempting to find a way through. She wanted to wrench the cane from Cormac’s hand, undo whatever he did, but even when he turned it away from everyone, the barrier still remained.
Cormac, the King of the Underworld, was dangerous, cunning, and powerful. Eva had no doubt as to his dark designs—his dark plan—for
her
.
She wondered if Muirgen and Aghamora were nearby, watching all of this drama unfold. Eva wanted them to swoop in and save the day, save her. But they were silent, like everyone else in the room, their cries suppressed by the mystical red barrier.
She turned from Devin, from her friends, from everyone, and held back her tears, her sorrow, as Cormac took her away.
21
No Rest for the Wicked
It was dark outside, and so very, very cold.
“You’re shivering,” said Cormac. He took off his coat and placed it around her shoulders.
She shook it off, letting it fall to the ground. “I’d rather freeze to death.”
She knew that she was on dangerous ground. Cormac was not to be trifled with—yet she couldn’t help biting back when the opportunity arose.
Cormac clicked his tongue and shook his head. “My dear,” he said.
Magically—for Cormac was a warlock, after all—a new coat appeared, and fitted him well—very well. The coat that had been on the ground had vanished. She was still shivering. He reclaimed her arm and pushed her forward, and away from Green Clover.
“Where are we going?”
“Near and far.”
“Huh?”
“The Underworld doesn’t operate within the same set of rules as above.”
“Oh…what-what are you going to do with me?”
He halted, and she had to stop with him, unable to pull free and flee.
His lips lifted in a half smile, devious thoughts running through his mind. “Okay, I’ll divulge.”
Surprisingly, he let her go. Eva assumed that he knew she wouldn’t flee, or else if she tried, he’d catch her before she even took her first step. And then, she’d be in a shitload of trouble.
He tapped his cane against the ground; chips of earth were disturbed. His magical cane provided illumination as the split in the earth started to get bigger and bigger. Soon, a nice round hole was formed. Eva dared to take a look. All she saw was blackness. The not seeing scared her more than if she’d seen anything at all.
“I’m going to resurrect my mother.”
Eva gasped. “What?”
Cormac nodded. “Saoirse, yes.” Eva noticed a tender look on his face, as if he loved and dearly missed his mother.
“But…but…she’s evil.”
Eva’s heart constricted. She couldn’t believe that she’d called his mother “evil” even though it was the truth. She feared Cormac’s retribution for her slip of the tongue.
But it didn’t come.
He simply said, “It’s not evil to avenge the death of a loved one.”
“Why? Why do you want to bring her back?”
“Because I miss her. Because she never got to live the life she should have. My…father…he killed my mother, did you know that?”
Eva shook her head, but was unable to offer any condolences—or praise.
“No, I should think you wouldn’t,” he said thoughtfully. “Cianan found out about me, all those centuries ago. He wanted to raise me to be like him, to rule without consequences, to mold me into someone like him, and to keep me by his side, forever, in the Underworld, where we’d never age, never die.
“My mother, Saoirse, kept me away from him, hidden, but it was only a matter of time before he discovered me. There was a great battle, I remember, from long ago. My mother and father, fighting, over me.” Cormac seemed more human in this moment, recalling to Eva about his life, but she had to remember who he was, and what sort of dark designs he had for her. “As you can guess, my father won. He killed my mother before my very eyes, and left her there to rot. I was unable to return to give her a proper burial. Years and years, I dwelled with my father below”—he tapped his cane at the black hole in the ground—“biding my time, waiting to make my move.”
“Why now?” Eva interrupted.
Cormac stared into her eyes. “I had discovered his secret. He didn’t leave my mother’s body to rot away. He had been keeping it, below, all this time.”
Eva was shocked. “Why?”
“I thought, at first that he’d regretted what he’d done, but that was not the case. My father never regretted any of his actions. He kept my mother’s bones because they were powerful—powerful enough to even be used against him. And so, once I discovered this, I awakened my mother’s spirit, and in so doing, she helped me kill my father, revenge for what he’d done.”
“And an added bonus of your ascension to the throne,” Eva said, piercing his eyes with her own.
Cormac’s lips lifted into that half smile that he favored. “Yes, an added bonus.”
Eva was trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. “So, you’ve awakened her spirit, but her spirit needs a body, correct?”
Cormac kept smiling.
Eva was confused—until everything became crystal clear. “No! NO! I won’t let you!”
“You don’t have a choice, my sweet.”
“But you said that I could go back to my friends, back to Devin.”
Cormac spread out his hands. “You can. Your appearance won’t change. You’ll still be Eva Nolan.”
“But with your dead mother’s spirit inside of me!”
Cormac nodded. “Correct.”
“But-but she’ll control me.”
“Oh, I’m hoping,” he said, smiling.
“Then it won’t be
me
!” Eva argued. “I’ll be lost—forever.”
Eva was trembling and it wasn’t just from the cold. She’d never been more scared in her entire life as she was in this moment.
“You won’t be harmed,” Cormac said, sounding sympathetic.
Eva shook her head. “I don’t understand. If I’m going to play host to your mother what about the attraction between us?”
She gasped at what she’d just said—her thoughts out in the open.
“I’m not attracted to you,” she said quickly. “You-you look like Devin, that’s all.”
Cormac smiled. “Oedipus,” he said, and only that one word. Then he continued, “I know what I’m doing, Eva. And I know what I want. I want my mother back.”
“But why me?”
“She’s chosen you,” he said simply.
“She knows about me?” Eva looked around in the dark. “Is she…here?”
“No, below, but she felt your presence. We waited until you arrived here, at the school.”
“Why?”
Cormac did that smile of his again. “Well, for one, taking you away from this school, and making that grand entrance as I did, wouldn’t have been very exciting if I’d done it at that hospital you were at—and two, you needed to accept who you are, and what your destiny is.”
“Which is?”
“To rule by my side, of course,” he said, as if she should’ve known that.
“How does your resurrected mother fit in to this?”
Cormac laughed. “Well, you wouldn’t have done it on
your own
, Eva.”
Eva shook her head. “If you want me to rule below, with you, then why would you want me above, here, with my friends and family?”
“Because, my dear, we’re going to rule above
and
below. We’re going to rule the
world
.”
He advanced and held her against him. She struggled to get away, not caring if she died in the process. She’d rather die than have his dead witch mother’s spirit writhing around inside her. Could Eva overpower her, or would Eva Nolan as everyone knew her, cease to exist?
Cormac pressed his lips against hers, and said, “I’m not a monster, Eva. I just miss my mother.” Then he kissed her, slowly, excruciatingly slowly.
Eva closed her eyes and kissed him back while deftly reaching for his cane, hoping that if in her possession, she could fight him off, and free the school from the barrier that he’d erected.
Cormac trailed his lips to her ear, and then bit down, hard. Eva screamed in pain.
He spoke in her ear. “Nice try, Eva, but your kisses won’t fool me. I can see into your mind, remember?”
She failed to find his cane in time before he gripped her throat, applying pressure. She could breathe, but just barely.
“I-I thought that was only when I was having a vision?”
Cormac shook his head and tightened his grip. “I can see into your mind all the time. I can manipulate it.” He squeezed harder. “I can
break
it.”
“Why did you use Lucas?” she managed to say, as he loosed his grip—just a little.
“He was easy to use,” Cormac said simply.
“Is he going to die?”
“Yes. They are all going to die, one day, Eva, except for you and me.”
Cormac released Eva’s throat and she took a deep breath, in and out. He didn’t let her go, though, keeping an iron grip on her arm.
“Why am I so special?” she asked, her voice strained.
“My mother chose you,” he said.
“But why? Out of all the Banshees, out of all the girls in the world, why me?”
Cormac was silent. He didn’t know, Eva realized.
“Your mother has an agenda. She can’t be trusted.”
Cormac shook Eva, angry. “You shut your mouth! Only when my mother has possessed your body, will you speak, and
not before
!”
“She’s going to destroy me!” Eva shouted.
“I said
shut your mouth
!” Cormac shouted back.
He yanked her arm and pulled her to the hole in the earth, the entrance, Eva supposed, to the Underworld.
“No!” she screamed. “NO! Help me! Someone help me!”
Cormac had her positioned over the hole. Once he let go, she would fall.
“No one can save you now!”
“Eva!” a voice shouted.
Eva looked up and smiled. Her ancestors, Muirgen and Aghamora were here.
“No, it can’t be!” Cormac said, and almost lost his grip on her, but reclaimed it before she fell.
It was Aghamora who’d shouted her name. “Take my hand!” She extended her ghostly hand, as she floated on the other side of the hole in the earth.
Eva shook her head. “I can’t!”
“Take my hand!”
A scream erupted from down below.
Cormac gripped Eva tighter. “Mother’s waiting.”
“Take mine!” Muirgen then shouted from across the void.
Eva was scared, but extended her hand to Muirgen, just in time for Cormac to push her into the hole. But Eva didn’t fall. Muirgen, above, held her tight. Eva breathed a sigh of relief—until another hand, below, gripped her ankle, pulling her down.
“No!” Eva shouted. “Pull me up!” she pleaded to Muirgen.
Saoirse held Eva’s ankle in her grip. One more tug and Eva would fall—and be claimed by Saoirse’s spirit.
Muirgen’s hand was cold and transparent, yet Eva’s doppelganger ghost ancestor held her securely. Then something happened that Eva didn’t expect. Muirgen vanished. Eva was surprised to find that she was
floating
above the hole in the earth. Saoirse had screamed and let Eva’s ankle go when Muirgen, spirit as she was, traveled into Eva’s body. Eva felt as if she’d grown wings. Her body was lighter than a feather.