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Chapter 6
Within an hour, I felt well enough to travel alone back to Earth. I had told Mrak I’d be fine, and I was sure I would be. But now, while looking at the churning crimson portal behind me with Kithonia beyond, the prospect of being apart from him—literally worlds apart now—for any length of time was unsettling. My chest grew tight as I watched the portal close behind me.
I’d lived most of my life without Mrak by my side, but I had spent the vast majority of those years as a captive to a mad vampire with a love for blood, power, and nightsteel. One who might just have had the right idea about shadow demons making their way to Earth.
Mrak was the reason for my freedom. So having it on Earth without him here felt hollow and strange.
I shook off the feeling and squared my shoulders. The portal had let me out a block from Cassius’s manor because it was the last place Mrak had seen before leaving with me for Kithonia. Even from here, I could see the smoke still rising from the fires. The authorities and witches working with them must not have entirely gotten the flames under control yet, or maybe they still magically burned low as embers. Worse still was the slight scent of burning flesh still lingering in the air.
Mrak had said he’d resurrected Cassius’s innocent feeders. I wasn’t sure that was true for the demon hunters who’d tried to also take him down.
I crossed my arms and breathed deeply—just nottoodeeply, given the aroma in the air. This entire city felt like another world now that I’d been freed from it for a little while. It was all the more reason Willa might want to come with me back to Kithonia.
Forcing my gaze away from the direction where Cassius’s feeder community once stood, I began heading closer to the downtown area. I’d only been to Willa’s apartment once before. Usually when we’d gotten together in the year since our freedom from Cassius, it’d been in my shop—
I paused, sparing a single moment to mourn Dark Iron and the attached studio apartment that had burned to the grown when Cassius’s friends had paid me a visit.
Willa aside, my life here really was gone. There was precious little left of who I used to be before Kithonia. And I’d beenthereso short a time, I had to wonder if I belonged there, either—with or without Mrak.
The city blocks passed in a blur as I continued toward Willa’s apartment. Eventually, the scents of burning flesh and smoke disappeared, and I could breathe easier again. After being in the crimson landscape of Kithonia, everything in this city looked dark and almost foggy in a way I couldn’t put my finger on. It was justless.
I wondered if there were other reasons Sylas might’ve wanted to come here besides the nightsteel. He could, theoretically, expand his empire here if Mrak didn’t first succeed in taking over. Humans and the supernaturals here would put up a fight, but I wasn’t sure it was one we could win against an army of shadow demons.
That wasn’t tonight’s issue, though, and itwasnighttime. Or maybe not yet morning. I glanced up at the sky as I walked, tucked away though it was between skyscrapers and business buildings. Sure enough, pink hues danced along behind the tall roofs.
So Kithonia and Earth weren’t quite in sync time-wise. Interesting.
I made quick work of the distance to Willa’s apartment, ducking through the early morning crowds and keeping my eyes down the entire way. I wasn’t really afraid of the Lunar League, but I certainly didn’t want to get into a confrontation with them today. At least, not before finding Willa.
A short time later, I stood before the tall apartment building where Willa lived. I climbed up the front stairs and hurried into the building, waiting to take an elevator alone before getting into one. Only when I was on her floor, knocking on her apartment door, did I finally let nerves take over.
No one was answering.
I pounded on the door again. “Willa, it’s me, Aisling.”
Something is wrong.I couldn’t shake the thought. Maybe Willa rarely answered to unexpected guests, but after saying it was me, she’d open the door for me. Wouldn’t she?
“Willa?” I knocked again. And again. Still no answer.
Panic swelled in my chest. What were the chances she was gone? I knew she was friends with other local witches, and overall, although we both had issues with public spaces after Lazarus, Willa was doing better than me. She could just be out for the day.
And yet my panic didn’t dissipate. No amount of logic soothed my gut instinct that something was wrong.
That was, of course, when I noticed drops of blood peeking through the bottom of the door. And on the handle. And on her welcome mat.
Fury burned within me as I grabbed the handle and summoned my fire magic. Its flames now had dark shadows amongst them as my magic melted the doorknob. Melted metal slid down the door and dripped to the ground.
I shoved open the door as neighbors began poking their heads outside. A particularly short, older woman lifted a hand, her lips open in question, but I waved my hand at her and walked inside.
“You’re her!” she shouted, her voice weak with fear. “Help! Shadow Fire is here!”
My brow twisted, confusion sinking in as someone else used Mrak’s nickname for me. Especially strange was her using it infear.
I spun on her. “What are you going on about?”
“You burned this city!” She pressed herself against her doorway for support as if I was some terrifying monster. “Entire streets.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Entire streets” was an exaggeration. Cassius’s manor had extended far underground, but not whole city blocks. The areaaroundthe manor, though, had already been damaged from when Mrak and I had burned down Lazarus’s whole community.
