“Wrong,” Logan replied. His elbow thrust upward, and I heard the grating sound of metal on concrete as Logan skewered the demon, the point of his sword scraping the pillar as Logan’s sword found an exit through the demon’s back.
Withdrawing his sword, Logan stepped back as Aiden held his hand to his stomach, purple seeping through his fingers. The portal expanded again, a forgiving burst of dazzling light that seemed to leach the color from the macabre scene, making it appear in black and white.
A slow smile spread across Aiden’s face before he began choking out blood.
“I still win,” he whispered hoarsely before collapsing to the ground. Taking no chances, Logan raised his sword and in one quick move brought it down on Aiden’s neck, beheading him.
And just like that, Aiden was gone—the demon who had terrorized me was now a nonthreatening collection of pieces on the ground.
“I’m so sorry.” I heard Logan though my foggy brain, his fingers gently touching my skin.
“I found Pepper. She was in bad shape but she—she managed to tell me what she did.” Logan’s voice was more pitying than angry at her foolish actions. “I found you as fast as I could. I’m so sorry he hurt you.”
“You’re here now,” I told him, and he pressed his forehead to mine. The portal flashed again—sending me into convulsions as it sucked the life out of me to grow even bigger. All I felt was pain. Pain—and the feeling that I was slipping away.
“Why—why isn’t it closing?” My voice sounded very small, and I realized Logan had his arms around me, supporting me.
“It should have closed when I killed Aiden,” he said, turning his head to stare warily at the portal, which was about three feet wide at this point. I could clearly see the world beyond ours. It looked similar enough—pale gray walls that were decorated with jagged marks, much like the looping graffiti that colored the walls of this tunnel.
And then I heard a roar as something moved in the portal—something that reminded us we needed to close it immediately. A pair of skeletal legs, all white bone and stringy beige tendon, tall and strong and terrifying, slowly ambled by.
“Why isn’t it closing?” I asked, my fingers gripping Logan’s shirt.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, his eyes wide with fright. “Did he do something differently to open it?”
The portal flashed again, and I felt my consciousness slip away for a moment. When my eyes opened, Logan was kneeling before me, his hands brushing my hair away from my face.
“Paige, please, remember. How did Aiden open the portal?” Logan’s voice was calm and soothing, but his eyes were frantic.
“He did a spell, like last time. Except, he put down those gold pyramids first,” I said, pointing to the three glimmering points. “He was really careful about their placement. And then they gave off this gold mist that he used to open the portal.”
Logan stood quickly, rushing over to the pyramids and kicking them out of formation. The gold triangles glimmered brightly in protest before fading to a dull gold, but the portal continued to swell.
“Paige, what else?” Logan returned to crouch before me, panic beginning to creep into his voice.
“He cut his arm,” I remembered, taking my index finger and tracing a line down the inside of my forearm. “It was like the mist was alive, and Aiden fed it his blood.”
Logan leaned back on his heels, the color draining from his face.
“No wonder he said we needed him,” he muttered.
“What does that mean?” I asked, frantic.
Logan stood, pacing a few steps before the portal shuddered again—reminding him that we were out of time. He quickly knelt in front of me, pressing one hand against my cheek.
“Paige, he opened a blood portal. Aiden used his blood to open it. He thought he was the only one who could close it,” he explained gravely.
“So, throw his head through the damn thing!” I cried. “I wanted it on my bookshelf, but do this instead!”
Logan laughed—but this time, it was tinged with sadness.
“You have made me smile more in the past few months than I have in my entire life, Paige Dawn Kelly. Never forget that,” he said, his thumb brushing my cheek.
With those words—coupled with the adoring but heartbroken expression on his face—cold panic began seizing me.
“Why do I feel like you’re saying goodbye?” I asked in a trembling voice.
“Paige, the portal is going to keep opening. It’s going to destroy both worlds. It’s going to destroy you as it grows,” he said, his other hand finding its way into my hair.
“So throw Aiden’s head—”
“It has to be living blood, Paige. Living Regent blood will close the portal.” Logan paused, taking a deep breath. And I felt that sickening chill—the one where you realize your life is about to change, and you desperately wish you could freeze time in that moment, to preserve your life as it was Before. Before whatever was about to annihilate and crush your heart hadn’t happened yet.
“Don’t say it,” I begged him.
“I have Regent blood.” His voice was hoarse, as if it were painful to say the words. It should have been painful, because those razor-sharp words cut me worse than any of Aiden’s torture devices.
“Don’t say that.”
“I can close the portal.”
“No.”
“I have to, Paige.”
“No!” I screamed, trying to hold him close and cursing my weak limbs when they slid uselessly against my side.
“I have to,” he insisted. “This portal is going to kill you if it stays open much longer.”
“And it will kill you if you go through it,” I sobbed, grabbing his hand.
“Someday, you can tell the world about the demon who saved it.” He gave me a rakish smile.
“Don’t do that. Don’t you dare do that! Don’t you dare joke with me and tease me in the same breath that you tell me this is my last moment with you,” I sobbed again, fresh tears pouring down my face as I realized the truth of what I said.
“Paige, I have to do this,” he said, tucking his fingers underneath my chin and urging my eyes upward as he had countless times before. This can’t be the last time I feel his touch.
“The portal is killing you, and fast. So, listen to me, I want you to do something for me, okay? I want you to live and be happy and have a life that’s full and rich and everything you showed me life should be,” Logan told me, his eyes glistening above that endearing, sweet smile that he showed only to me. My trembling fingers reached up to touch his lips, and he pursed them softly, placing one last kiss on them before my weak hand fell limply into my lap.
“Logan, please. I love you. Don’t leave me,” I begged. Logan took my hand and wrapped it around the back of his neck, holding it there before kissing my lips softly.
“If I don’t do this, there will be nothing left.”
And if you do, there will be nothing left of me.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I wept, my eyes scouring his face, every beloved line and curve. “I don’t know how to say goodbye to you and tell you everything you are to me.”
“Don’t worry. Don’t regret anything you did or didn’t say,” he said, absolving me of all my future remorse. “I already know. Because you are everything to me.”
His brave facade began crumbing, and Logan pressed his lips to mine for a kiss—our final kiss—and I tried to memorize his every soft touch, every whispered word and every breath.
The portal flashed again—sending a quake rippling through our world. Metal creaked, bursts of dirt and concrete were dislodged from the tremor, raining down in the tunnel and on our heads. In the distance, I heard car alarms blaring overhead, and the nightmarish bone monster roared from inside the portal.
“Don’t go,” I pleaded. “I can’t be without you. I can’t not know you.”
“You’re the only one who ever really did know me. And I’ll always be with you. I promise you,” he said, his voice strong with conviction as he stood up, still holding my hand. As his first tear fell, Logan stepped away from me, his hand slowly slipping out of mine until it was just our fingertips that were touching. And then his touch was gone, sending a bolt of pain through my arm and into my heart, which truly and finally shattered.
Logan stood in front of the portal before turning and giving me that smile that melted me every time.
“I love you.”
And with that, Logan began running into the portal, sacrificing himself for me and for our world.
Chapter 16
THEY SAY LOVE gives you strength. Before that day, I always thought that was a platitude, meant to be embroidered on a pillow or stitched onto an embarrassing sweatshirt worn by some weirdo aunt.
But when I saw my love about to take a leap into certain, agonizing death to save the world, whatever reserves of energy I had left pooled together, giving me strength.
It wasn’t a lot of strength. It was just enough to launch myself from my collapsed position on the rocky floor. I stumbled forward—my fatigued feet tripping on the rocks as I wildly reached out for his hand. They also say the course of true love never runs smooth. Well, in my case, it runs like an uncoordinated, broken-down shell of a person.
But it didn’t matter. Because as Logan jumped through the portal, I was there—my hand wrapped around his, his face turning to register in surprise and grief before we were sucked into the doorway.
And then pain. Pain that I’d always associated with a time before medicine, pain that came with scary medieval words like disembowelment. Somehow I kept Logan’s hand in mine as our bodies were being ripped apart and soldered back together with fire, only to be shredded into pieces again. And then it was over—my body shaking with the aftershocks of the brief, but immeasurable pain—as I was sprawled, facedown, on a bed of rocks.
My fingers flexed, searching for Logan—and the movement sent another tremor of pain through my body. But before I slipped into blissful unconsciousness, I felt his warm hand twitch in mine.
Dimly, I became aware of movement—my body shifting, although not of my own accord. The burden of my weight fell to my back as something held me, rocking me gently.
“Why did you do that? Why?” I heard his pleading voice as he cradled me in his arms, soothing me with his touch before I faded back into the blackness.
“Wake up. Please, wake up. Paige, you can’t be gone. You can’t be gone and I’m still here. Please come back to me.” His whispered voice was frantic, grief-stricken, pulling me again from my euphorically numb state. I felt my hair being brushed off my forehead as Logan’s hands pressed against my neck and inside my wrist.
“Come back to me, please,” he begged, repeating that mantra, and I felt his lips touch my skin as he continued pleading with me. I fought the lure of unconsciousness, forcing myself to face my pain to end his.
“Logan?” I whispered, and he pulled me into a tight hug, exhaling in relief as he stroked my hair.
“Are...we...alive?” I asked, and Logan pressed a kiss against my temple before answering.
“For now,” he replied.
“Where are we?” My voice sounded foreign to my own ears. I opened my eyes to see that we were tucked behind a pillar, hidden in an alcove similar to the one we had been in minutes before. Had it only been a few minutes?
Chalky white rocks lined the ground underneath us, and I struggled to sit up in Logan’s arms. Relief briefly flashed across his face as I came out of the pain-induced fog, before pure grief took over. He gently brushed my hair over my shoulder as he cradled me close.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, covering my face with gentle kisses before pulling back to stare at me mournfully. “You would have finally been safe. Why didn’t you let me go?”
“I couldn’t let you die.” My answer was simple, but it was the truth.
“But—”
“You would have done it for me. Like you said, life-altering relationships don’t come around all that often.”
“But you’re in the Dark World now.” The words had barely left his mouth when a roar echoed in the tunnel, as if to drive his point home. Logan held one finger over my mouth, and we cowered behind the pillar. Something solid—and heavy—scuffled through the tunnel behind us, weighty footfalls hitting the rocks with a thud that reverberated with a dull echo. I could feel Logan’s heartbeat matching mine as I buried my head in his chest, his arms wrapped around mine, relaxing only when the creature had moved past us.
“When we know those...things...aren’t nearby, just use me to open up another portal,” I said, looking up at him.
“Paige, I don’t think you could open a book right now, let alone a doorway to another dimension. It’ll take days before you’re strong enough.”
“But I’m already feeling stronger,” I insisted, sitting up straighter to illustrate my point.
“You’ve also been unconscious for hours,” he revealed.
“Hours?” I repeated, panicking as I reached into my pocket, automatically looking for my cell phone among the spare change. “I have to call my dad. They’re gonna...”
My voice trailed off as I realized what I was saying.
“I promise I’ll find a way to get you home, Paige. I just don’t know how to do it right now,” he said, quickly pulling me into his arms, muffling my cries as the weight of what we’d done settled over me, crushing me.
“Can’t we at least try to open a portal?” I begged, looking up at Logan with a tearstained face.
“I don’t know how to do it,” he admitted, shame reddening his cheeks. “I’m not a full-blooded Regent, and I’m not a full-blooded warlock. I only know basic spells—most of my training has been physical. Swords, weapons, hand-to-hand.”
“So that’s it? We’re both going to be trapped here forever? I’ll never see my parents again?” I asked, my voice very small.
Every bratty retort, every temper tantrum, every snide, ungrateful remark flashed through my mind, countered by my parents’ desperate attempts to keep me safe and healthy, and it unleashed a fresh round of tears.
When was the last time I’d told my parents that I loved them? Would they know? Would they think I ran away, abandoning them?
Logan studied me, his eyes darkening with resolve.
“No. You’re not going to lose your family,” he said, his jaw set in determination. He gently unwound my arms from around him before standing up, unbuttoning his oxford and letting it fall into a puddle around his feet. Logan’s forehead wrinkled in concentration as the subtle transformation took place—the enhanced definition of his muscles, his eyes paling from cocoa to violet, and those large black wings, which unfurled behind him in the dusky light of the tunnel.
Logan crouched before me, slipping his arms underneath me as he picked me up, curling me against his chest.
“What are we doing?” I asked, sliding my arm across his shoulders.
“We’re going to fly to Rego.”
“Fly?” I gasped. “You really can fly?”
Logan looked slightly offended.
“They’re not just decorative,” he replied, giving them a quick flap. “It’ll be the fastest, and probably the safest, way to get to him. But I’m really out of practice, so hold on tight.”
“But Rego—will he even want to help us?” I asked, panicked. “After what you told him—”
“What I told him won’t matter. You’re—” Logan paused, as his Adam’s apple bobbed slightly when he swallowed back whatever it was he was going to say.
“What?”
“Over here, you’re a thre
at to him. Just like you could be used to assassinate the Queen, now you could be used to kill him. It’s in his best interest to get you home.”
He tilted his chin up, his eyes steely with resolve.
“And I’ll give him whatever he wants to make sure that you get home,” he vowed, holding me tightly. “Now hold on.”
Logan’s footsteps crunched faintly as he stepped out of the alcove, making a sharp turn right as he walked along the tunnel, hugging the dingy walls, which were coated in faded but colorful markings, scrawled in a sharp handwriting.
“Graffiti?” I whispered, and Logan shook his head, his jaw tense.
“Warnings,” he replied, and I gripped his neck more tightly as he picked up his pace. Red-tinged light beamed down through crevices overhead, dotting the tunnel with eerie spotlights which appeared as crimson splashes as they settled on the stark white rocks.
The only sounds I could hear were our raspy breaths and the crunching of rocks underneath Logan’s feet as he steadily but swiftly carried me through the tunnel. His breathing grew heavier, and I realized we were on an incline, until finally, the ground leveled out, with a faint blush of light appearing ahead.
That’s when we heard the first roar, the savage sound reverberating in the tunnel and making it even louder.
Logan began running, forgetting about trying to stay quiet in a race to escape the tunnel—and the bone monster that was somewhere behind us, patrolling the depths of the dark, cavernous space.
The second roar was a deafening, feral sound, a shriek layered on top of a primitive growl, and Logan began sprinting in earnest toward the light.
We could feel that second roar—our skin heated by the blast of hot breath that came out of the bone monster’s mouth.
“Hold on,” Logan ordered, his fingers clutching me tightly as he tilted forward, his wings beating rapidly—and I realized he was trying to gain enough momentum to take flight. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. And I should have left it there.
Because when I glanced behind him, I got a good look at what was following us. The immense skeletal face was a long white oval, punctured with gaping, empty eye sockets. Sinewy beige tendons held an underbite of spikelike teeth, which stayed low to the ground, snapping and snarling as the bone monster galloped in our wake, its gait almost canine.