The library had been overtaken by fungal growth. Mushrooms sprouted from the book spines, even bursting through the wooden floors. The silence around us was eerie as I opened the vault, greeted by a wafting smell of decay. Dust drifted through the meager light as I cast out my hand and lit the candles, illuminating the room. But the firelight was muted, the darkness was too heavy for it.
“This isn’t a good sign,” Callum said. He was staring at a weblike substance covering the books, desks, and chairs. “It’s growing fast.”
“Then we’re in the right place,” I said, spotting a puddle of water slowly seeping across the floor.
The hatch leading down to the tunnels creaked as Callum pulled it open. He went first, leaping down before I climbed onto the ladder. My feet squelched in mud as I reached the bottom, greeted by the stench of mold and rotting fish.
Sybil’s laboratory was in complete disarray. More pale webbing had grown over the tables, the specimen jars cracked open, wafting the smell of ammonia into the air. The ground was soaked, mud swiftly caking my boots as Callum and I approached the tunnels.
The air was cold and stale. Distantly, I could hear dripping water. Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, but Callum grabbed my arm.
“You should let me go first,” he said.
But I shook my head. “You’re the guardian of this house, but I am its Mistress. An invasion like this is a challenge to me, directly. It’s me the Deep One is hoping to get to, so it’s me that will face It.” He didn’t look pleased, and I reached up to cup his face. “Trust me, Callum. You know what I’m capable of.”
For a moment, it looked like he wanted to keep arguing. But he pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded once, releasing his grip on my arm.
He stayed close behind me as I made my way through the tunnels. He had explored them far more than I had, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out which way to go. I only had to follow the mud and puddles of stagnant water.
“Shit —!” Stumbling forward as my boot hit something in the muddy soil, I would have fallen flat on my face if Callum hadn’t grabbed the back of my jacket. Tugging my boot free with a wet squelching sound, I cast several balls of light ahead of us down the tunnel, illuminating what lay ahead.
Broken planks of wood jutted out of the mud like jagged teeth. The tunnel was completely flooded, wood and debris floating on the surface. The water was murky and still. Impossible to tell what lay beneath.
“There was a boundary here,” Callum said. Although he kept his voice low, it still sounded so loud in the strange stillness. “It’s been broken.”
Daring to take another step forward, I focused my magic on my shoes. Light as a feather, unburdened by thick soil, resistant to the water flooding over them…
The spell work was far from perfect, and every few steps, I would sink into the mud again. But it was better than nothing, and the longer I clung to the spell, the stronger it became. The water came up to my ankles, but my magic prevented it from slowing me too much.
All the while, I kept the light moving steadily ahead of us, my mind open but guarded as I tentatively searched for any unusual magic nearby.
But everything felt so cold.
My light could barely penetrate the darkness ahead. Despite trying my hardest to maintain them, one by one, the orbs of light winked out.
Then, from the dark, a voice called to me.
“Everlyyy…Oh, Eeeverlyyy…”
The voice was familiar. Realization snatched the air from my lungs and left me cold, eyes wide as I stopped moving.
“Why won’t you talk to your sister, Everly?”
The voice was distant and dissolved into laughter that left me feeling nauseous. It was Victoria’s voice, but it was wrong. She sounded unnaturally high-pitched. Her words echoed through the tunnels in a lilting singsong. “I’ve missed yooouuu! Everlyyy!”
“Do not be afraid,” Callum said. “You are strong. You know the power you possess. This is your house. Remember that.”
The water was deeper here, coming nearly up to my knees. Every few steps, the sensation of something brushing against my legs would make me flinch, but I couldn’t see anything below me in the tenebrous water. There was a distant dripping sound, and when I stopped to listen…
I could hear someone’s harsh, gurgling breath.
Conjuring a flame in my palm, I grew its strength until the illumination reached deep into the tunnel ahead. There, standing hunched and swaying within the flickering light, was Victoria.
She was drenched in mud. It was soaked into her clothes, leaving them hanging wet and heavy from her limbs. Her head hung down, her wet dirty hair dangling in her face. Her feet were bare, and there was a strange scent emanating from her: slightly metallic and strangely fleshy. Like raw meat that had just started to turn.
“You’re not welcome here,” I said. It looked like my sister in every way, but that was impossible. Victoria wouldn’t come seeking me in these tunnels. Victoria would never, ever claim to miss me.
She despised me. She always had and always would. And because I knew that, I knew it was impossible this was truly my sister.
This was only what was left of her.
“Not welcome?” A laugh, choked and thick, burst out of her. She still hadn’t lifted her head. “Don’t be so cruel, sister. Why, oh whyyy wouldn’t you welcome me?”
Callum’s hand clamped down on my shoulder as I stepped toward her. “We don’t know what she is. The Deep One’s stench is everywhere. It isn’t safe.”
Facing her swaying, shivering body, I said, “No one may enter here without my admission. You. Are. Not. Welcome.”
Victoria went very, very still.
Shrugging off Callum’s hand, I spread my arms, holding a flickering flame in each palm as I stepped toward her. The closer I came, the more of her I illuminated. That was when I saw the blood; a torrent of crimson leaking down from her slashed-open throat.
Jeremiah had gotten what he always desired. He’d killed our sister, murdered her and thrown her body to the Deep One. Its essence was burrowed into her flesh like a parasite, using her body like a puppet. The deep, mind-numbing thrum of Its power vibrated in the air.
About ten feet away from her, I stopped. Close enough to see her bulging bloodshot eyes and the blackened rot that seeped from between her teeth as she bared them at me.
“So heartless, sister,” she said, but her voice had changed. It was no longer high-pitched and taunting. It wasn’t Victoria’s at all. It echoed with an impossible timbre. “Turning me away when I am so desperately in need. Betrayal comes naturally to you, doesn’t it?”
She lifted her head, and it lolled unnaturally to the side as a wide grin spread over her face. Whatever emotions she stirred in me — the disgust, the horror, and yes, the sadness — were quickly tamped down. I could mourn my sister when my house was safe once more.
“You betrayed your whole family,” she said. “You betrayed your faith, your God —”
“How dare you speak of faith!” My flames burst forth with a shower of furious sparks that reflected in Victoria’s dull eyes. “I have known good people with great faith in their God, but you…you are a trickster. A deceiver. A parasite.” She twitched, as if my words needled her. “Without the people you deceive, you are nothing.”
Her wide smile was still fixed in place. A slimy feeling ran up my back, but I bolstered the defenses around my mind, and it vanished. Victoria chuckled.
“Oh, but you see, I only need you pitiful humans for just a little while longer,” she said. “One more sacrifice. Only one. Already my power is swelling. You can feel the difference, witch. I know you can. This rotten body may not serve me for very long, but I don’t need it.” Her eyes combed slowly over me. “How foolish you are to believe that you’re brave, that you are beyond fear. You will always be afraid, Everly. Always. After all, you invited me into your head. I never left, you know.”
“It’s lying,” Callum said, and Victoria’s head jerked toward him.
“Silence, you vile feral waste,” she hissed. “You demons are only good when you’re dead.”
“As are your kind,” he responded, his teeth snapping together.
“My kind…” She laughed. “Oh yes. My kind. Creators and destroyers of worlds. Consumers of souls. Beings far greater than any others in this dimension.”
“Creators…” I shook my head. “No. You haven’t created anything. But you’d love for the people you deceive to believe that you did. You need us to believe in your power. Your stolen power.” I strode closer, my flames growing. “Hundreds of thousands of souls fed you, their power fused into you. You aren’t powerful. You are weak. You are nothing. And you are in my house!”
A massive burst of flames sent her stumbling back. When the fire died down, her eyes were wide, darting side to side.
My smile grew.
“Oh? You weren’t expecting this? Did you think you would come here and find a frightened little girl hiding away in the woods? Where is your Godly knowledge now? I thought you lived in my head?”
Victoria was swiftly retreating as I advanced. Stumbling, then crawling backward through the mud, It snarled at me as Its body contorted, bulging and twisting as if something inside was trying to escape.
“If you lived in my head, then you would intimately know the power I wield. But you don’t. You don’t have the slightest fucking clue as to what I’m capable of!” With every word, I sent another burst of flame toward It. But with the last attack, I sent forth lightning. Sharp, crackling, blue pulses within the bright orange flames.
It struck her, rending her open like the body of a whale gone rancid. Thick black blood spilled out of her, tainting the water around her like ink. The smell was horrendous, cloying in my throat. But I kept striking, even as her bones cracked, her joints popping out of place as her body swelled, a ground-shaking roar coming from her gaping mouth.
“You can’t kill me, witch!” The walls shook, dirt and pebbles shaken loose by the force of the God’s voice. With every sweep and flick of my hands, fire and lightning swirled toward It, charring its flesh. “You’re already too late! Raelynn Lawson is mine!”
I couldn’t allow Its words to shake me. I couldn’t allow the sight of my sister’s deformed face to make me hesitate, not even for a moment. Callum was close behind me, but he didn’t interfere as I fought, pushing Victoria further and further into the tunnels.
“They’ve brought her to me.” It cackled, body writhing, unable to crawl any further. It kept talking, even as I unleashed a firestorm that swirled around it, stripping flesh from bone. “Her precious demon will die, just like yours. You’re too late, witch. YOU’RE TOO FUCKING LATE! I have her…and her suffering…is so…sweet…”
When my flames finally died, I stood there gasping, swaying on my feet. All that remained of Victoria was a few blackened bones protruding from the water.
