Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (35 page)

A shock shot through Dino’s system.
Vera kept a diary?
 

“So it does exist.” Oscar eyed the book with wide, glimmering eyes. “How’d you find it?”

“A few years ago when my poltergeists were clearing a collapse in Peddler’s Pit. It was the first in a long line of clues that revealed the archduke’s true intentions and why he obsessed so greatly over the Deep’s relics.”

Dino frowned, drifting closer to the desk. He peered over the general’s shoulder and tried reading the pages, but the words were too small and messy for his eyes.

“What does it say?” Oscar asked.

“It speaks of a necklace worn by the Mother of Curses, a gift given to her by her husband. It says that this necklace would call the dark serpent, and through mortal blood the buried bride would reawaken.” He cleared his throat and leaned onto the desk. “Vera seemed to think the bride will rejoin her husband, and together, they would raise a Second Eden.”

“But it sounds so preposterous, Ian!”

“It does, but do you deny it has a ring of truth? This Second Eden could be the end of not just Afterlife, but the mortal world, too. The diary speaks of the great burning, of some kind of sacrifice of souls. There can be no Second Eden unless it is built upon the ashes of the first. It may sound crazy, my friend, but I believe the archduke and his bride mean to erase all that’s come since they left Eden and start again with children who do not know their sins.”

Oscar paled. He swallowed and scooted to the edge of his seat. “You truly believe this is what the archduke plans? Destroy two worlds to make another?”

“Afterlife was never his true goal. He needed a base of power to build his army and search for the relics that would raise his bride. The necklace marked her vessel. The relic in the box transferred her soul into the girl’s body, and with each day it grows stronger. If what Vera wrote is true, the serpent will devour this girl from the inside, and on that day, Eve will be reborn.”

“Is there any way to stop it?”

“Not that I can tell. If there is, the Deep holds the answer. The necklace, the box, it all came from there. The city’s expansion must not slow down, now more than ever. If we’re to stop the archduke, we must extend our reach as far as possible into the dust and find the key to destroying him. Two relics have been uncovered so far, but two is not a good number. Three is the number of the way of things.”

Dino gawked at the two generals. The archduke wanted not only to destroy Afterlife, but the mortal world? And Amber was in danger. Not just from the outside, but from within. The curse was consuming her, and Dino had to warn her.

General Kelly leaned back, folding his arms over his chest. “I never believed it to be true. To think, the archduke may truly be Adam resurrected. I’m a rational man, Ian. When I heard him ramble on about his rule and reign, I just assumed he was some Deep-touched soul who happened upon a particularly powerful relic. But to think he might be Adam? His power may be far greater than we thought.”

“Which means we must tread even more carefully than before. We should continue our current act at the Council as necessary. Together, our blackjackets will expand the city’s borders and search for anything that might give us a weapon to use against him. I think Fabiana may be receptive to our message, but I would never trust Hans or ambitious Kamlai. Those two will stay loyal to the archduke even if he leads them to annihilation.”

“Then what are our next steps?” Oscar asked.

“Faye’s resistance is weakening throughout all the districts. We must capture the girl and keep her hidden from the archduke and his disgusting hound. Have the Spider help us. We have the funds to pay her off and make her ours.”

Oscar smirked. “True. The Spider can hold her fangs if she sees gold glittering in your hand. And once we have this mortal girl? What then?”

“We go to the Deep. The answers lie there. The archduke cannot raise Second Eden without the mortal, so keeping her hidden and alive will buy us time.”

“A solid plan. You’ve always been the most rational general on the Council.” General Kelly rose to his feet, his body thinning into trails of thin mist. “I’ll not disturb you any longer. Good evening, Ian.”

“Good evening, Oscar, and stay safe.”

As General Kelly faded away, he bowed, his glittering gaze flicking to the corner where Dino hid. “You as well, old friend.”

What haze remained of Oscar Kelly whisked through the open balcony door and vanished into Afterlife. Dino clenched his dagger. His body floated from the corner, drifting inch by inch toward the general’s chair.
 

The man sighed and poured himself another glass of wine. He stared into the burgundy and took a deep breath, then tipped the delicate crystal to his lips.

Dino’s knife glinted silver as it solidified. The razor edge raked across General West’s neck, a spray of dust arcing from the wound. The man managed little more than a pitiful, garbled groan as the glass shattered on the floor, his hands clutching at the wound pouring dust over his knees.
 

“I’m sorry,” Dino said, backing away. “For what it’s worth, anyway.”

Ian latched onto Dino’s wrist. The floor trembled as crashed to his knees. He gasped, his lips forming words that couldn’t come. General West’s eyes darkened. Cracks spread along his face. He shuddered, and his body burst to ash and collapsed into a heap at Dino’s feet.

Dino looked at the blade of his weapon. He blew the dust from it and saw the reflection staring back. Something seemed so wrong about what he’d just done. Ian West was a general on the Iron Council, a man who committed one crime after another, suppressed freedom, murdered countless souls, and yet, dusting the man felt so wrong at such a core level he was suddenly disgusted with himself over it.

A knock sounded on the general’s door. “Sir? Are you okay?”

Dino pocketed his blade and swiped Vera’s journal. He bolted to the balcony and leapt over the railing, his body swirling into a writhing mass of murk as he took ethereal form.
 

He found a nice, tall clock tower and perched atop the pointed roof. He sat cross-legged, flipping through the pages of nonsensical ramblings of someone who had succumbed to the Deep’s call.

Words caught his eye. He slapped his hand down on the page and leaned closer to it. Alarm bells blared all around him as lights blazed at General West’s palace. For now, he ignored them and squinted instead at the diary, reading the words Vera scribbled on the page.

With her he will raise his Second Eden, and through the sacrifice of souls, death shall come to living lands. Oh, the serpent of my heart, she has bitten me. I heard her call and thought it you, but it was false. It was a siren song, a pretty poison, and now I have become the herald of oblivion. What have I done?
 

The sacrifice of souls approaches. Second Eden will rise, a garden that blooms from a bed of endless dust, the graves of immortals, the destruction of all souls.

“Well doesn’t this just suck.” Dino slapped the book closed and sighed. He leaned against the flagpole and listened to the angry screech of sirens ripping through the night.
 

Dino stared into the sky. Wilhelmina played a good game. Dropping that hint to Amber about the Black Palace would send her sprinting for it. And Dino knew the only tiny, miniscule chance she had to survive that labyrinth of shadows and dust would be with a map and a friend.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out the half of the key Faye had given him so long ago. Once united with its other half, it would unlock the box that contained the very map they now so desperately needed. If only Faye didn’t keep the other half of that key tucked snuggly between her breasts.
 

Even if he did find Faye, she would probably already know about the assassination, and she probably would correctly surmise that her wayward assassin Dino Cardona did the deed. Maybe she would have shown mercy had he come when she summoned him. Maybe she would have been kind if he hadn’t fled the Errand. Now, her short fuse would ignite, and there would be pain.

If he and Amber were to survive this mess, he would have to bring Faye to him, and on his terms. Luckily, Dino knew exactly how to do that.

Amber spent hours in Dino’s hidden crawl space in La Couronne, that thin hall of lights ending in the glass gateway to the mortal world. She sat before the tall, polished mirror and stared at the creepy reflection watching her with her own eyes.
 

Approach it, and it would take her home.
Home
.
 

“Is it my home?” she wondered.
 

So many days had passed since she left Portsmouth. Maybe by now her mother had probably returned from Borneo with pictures of a colorful frog that she hoped would bring some meaning to her life. Perhaps Chris finally wondered why he couldn’t reach his sister and called someone for help. If Bone Man hadn’t killed Ms. Flannery, no doubt the old woman would have raised some kind of alarm by now. If not her, surely Jason.

She smiled thinking of her best friend. “If you could only see this place, Jason! You’d freak. Totally freak.”

Amber tipped her head back and sighed, staring at the dark ceiling. At times, she doubted Afterlife even existed and this was all some terrible dream. She half-expected the city to come crashing down like some gothic
Wizard of Oz
concocted by a delusional girl desperately seeking attention.

The mirror coaxed her toward it. It would pull her through if she came any closer to the glass. And why shouldn’t she? Wilhelmina hadn’t lied when she told Amber the archduke dusted Toby in some mad experiment to create his own relic. Toby was the only thing that anchored Amber to this city. Without him, the reasons to stay dwindled to nothing.

She stared at her reflection. Her black corset dress kept her shoulders bare, but a lace shawl to match covered them and kept them warm. The violet threads of her skirt cascaded in shimmering folds over her knees and pooled at her ankles. She pressed her hands into the bloom of her skirt, and the fabric rustled as it flattened.
 

When she first arrived in Afterlife, the clothes looked magical, vintage yet spiced with a modern flair. They didn’t even feel real. They were costumes, and she was a little girl playing dress up. Now, she couldn’t imagine herself in anything else.

Amber lifted her gaze to the mirror. “I have to go to the palace, don’t I?” she asked it.

The mirror didn’t reply. She stood, smoothing her dress and tugging at her corset. “I’m not leaving you, Toby. Not yet. Even if dust is all you are, I have to know for sure.”

Using her curse, she floated the drape over the mirror and turned her back to it. She would return to her family soon enough, but not before she knew exactly what happened to her brother first.
 

Amber marched down the hall, her poltergeist curse clicking the lights off as she passed. She reached the crack in the wall and spun into a thin trail of mist, slipping into the hotel’s stairwell beyond.
 

Up the stairs she glided, whisper-quiet and invisible to the world around her. She entered the hall, still nothing more than a phantom floating just above the carpet.
 

It was quiet here. Dust glittered in trails where the gold lamps cast their warm light onto the plush floors. She held out a hand and felt the wall’s texture as she passed, thinking how she used to love the touch and feel of things when she was younger.

Amber reached for the door and began to solidify. Her fingertips touched the handle. Voices filtered through the wall, low and coming from her room.
 

She burst back into into a phantom and spun aside, eyes wide and body still as stone.
Maybe Dino brought a friend
, she thought, but Amber knew better.

The muffled sounds coming from her room formed no words, but she could hear the tension in them, the anxiety, and the anger. Slowly, she twisted to the door, pressing her ear against its cool face.

The door flung wide. Amber gasped, reeling back, her ethereal body splashing against the wall behind her. Liam’s sweaty, wide-eyed face appeared in the doorway. He stood, frozen in the frame, panting, glistening in the bright light coming from her room.
 

“Please,” he rasped.

Amber watched in horror as he flew backwards and another figure appeared. It was a thin man, a tall man, a man wearing a neatly-pressed suit, shiny black oxfords, and a pale mask shaped like a skull that framed his unblinking, icy blue eyes.

Bone Man’s attention fixed on Liam. The man writhed on the floor like a great weight pressed on his chest. The crows in the room cawed from their perches, flapping their great wings and clacking their sharp beaks.
 

She watched as Bone Man unsheathed the blade hidden in his cane. Liam sobbed, clutching at his throat. “She … She lives here! I swear! I saw her on this very balcony!
Please
. I serve the archduke! It wasn’t a lie!”

With a flick of his wrist, Bone Man’s blade slashed across Liam’s throat. A spray of dust hit the ceiling. The crows cried out and flew through the open balcony door.
 

As Liam’s limp body cracked and turned to ash, Bone Man slipped his sword into its sheath and stepped over the disintegrating form. He smoothed his tie and padded to the hall. He reached the doorway, and he paused.

Amber trembled against the wall. He stared straight at her, two unblinking eyes cold and blue as glacial ice. She bit her lip, turning her head from his stare, holding her breath until her chest ached.

Bone Man reached into the hall. His gloved hand, his leather fingers passed into her swirling mists and clutched at the air. She squeezed her eyes shut. A moment passed. And then, another. Her heart throbbed. Her lungs screamed for air.

Amber opened her eyes to an empty doorway. She looked left. She looked right. No one occupied the silent space. Only Amber remained with trails of dust swirling in the light.