He collapsed, his huge bulk melting into goo and revealing a car racing toward us.
I, however, was in no position to worry about what the locals might think. I was too busy doubling over in the street, unable to move because of the force of the essence of a demon like Clarvek.
It was there. All of it. And now I could see it. Now I could use it.
“Get in!” The car screeched to a halt, and I looked up to see Deacon looking out from the driver’s-side window.
Kiera’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head. “No. No way. What the fuck are you doing with him?”
But I had no time to explain. Deacon was already accelerating away, and I yanked open the passenger door and leaped in, barely dodging the knife that Kiera whipped through the air toward my head.
“Where the hell are Rachel and Rose?”
“My home.” He turned to me, his expression fierce. “You didn’t think I’d leave you alone with him?”
I hadn’t thought at all, but now the idea that he’d come to protect me felt nice.
“Did it work?” he asked.
I nodded. “I think so.”
“Then do it.”
I licked my lips, sliding into my head, searching for Clarvek, for his skill, for his essence. It was there, a knowledge. A trait, and I knew that he’d been given the skill when the prophecy was forged. He’d been made to train the warriors and to bring the champion into the fold. And now I’d screwed all of that up.
I couldn’t have been happier.
“Got it,” I said, my head overflowing with the strange words. I sliced my palm, then muttered the incantation that was in my head. A series of words I didn’t understand but which seemed to be doing the trick, because as I smeared the blood down my arm, a new pattern arose, one I hadn’t seen before. One that, if all went well, would lead to the Vessel of the Keeper.
The rising pattern burned, and I drew another swath of blood to soothe it, then turned to look at Deacon, who had pulled into an alley near the entrance to Zane’s basement.
“Go ahead,” he said. “We need to know for certain that we’re right.”
I drew in a breath, then let it out slowly. “Cross your fingers,” I said. “And hold on to me.” I pressed my other palm down on the mark and immediately felt that hard tug.
The journey was fast and wild, and I landed hard in what appeared to be a strange, glass temple with one wall of water. Behind the waterfall I could see the distorted image of some sort of clay pot, about the size of a coffee can. Other than the glass and the water, it was the only thing in the room.
Having already had some experience with water in these strange temple like places, I pulled a quarter from my pocket and tossed it into the flow. Nothing happened, other than me losing twenty-five cents. Everything seemed safe enough, and I thrust my hand into the flow.
“Do you give your life willingly?”
The disembodied voice filled the chamber.
“I’m sorry?”
“Do you give your life willingly?”
I turned, trying to find who I was talking to, but there was nobody. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”
“The vessel may be removed only by one who gives his life willingly. Do you do so?”
“If I take the vessel, I die?”
“That is so.”
“Oh.” I considered that for only a moment, because, like the water, I’d faced death in these challenges before as well. “I can do that.”
“Agree only if you speak true,” the voice said. “For death is the condition to retrieve the Vessel of the Keeper. Even you, Lily Carlyle, with the blood of eternity flowing in your veins. If you draw forth the vessel, your life will end.”
TWENTY-FIVE
“It’s a goddamned suicide mission,” I said to Deacon, as soon as I was back in his car. I was breathing hard, exhausted, and frustrated.
And, yeah, I was scared of what I had to do, but I knew I had no choice.
I had to go back.
I had to keep my promise to take care of my sister. And right now, getting the vessel was the only way I saw to do that.
“Are you insane?” Deacon asked, after I’d explained all of that to him. “You can’t die. I need you. The world needs you.” He reached over and grabbed my arm. “We need you to lock the gate and stop the fucking Apocalypse.”
“Dammit, Deacon, don’t you get it? There is no lock. There is no key. I screwed up big-time. I screwed up the whole goddamned world, but I am not going to screw up my sister.”
“No lock?” he repeated. “How the hell do you know? Have you tried, Lily? Have you tried looking for it?”
I hadn’t, of course. And I realized then that I could. I was the one person in all the world who could find out if the lock existed.