Infernal Father of Mine Read online

  Serena smiled down at me. "Did you decide?"

  "I—I almost had it," I said. "But, no, not yet."

  "You can still help me." She waited as I stood. "I will show you."

  "You okay, son?" David asked, watching from a distance. A sentinel held him immobile by both arms.

  "I'm fine," I said. I still didn't trust Serena, despite her sudden interest in me.

  "This way," Serena said, and moved toward a large double door at the back of the room.

  I looked back and saw the sentinel remaining still with David. "Isn't he coming?"

  "There is no reason for him to see this," she said.

  "I'd feel more comfortable if he came along."

  She frowned, head tilting like a curious puppy. "If it will make you feel at ease, then of course." She took out her notepad and wrote something down, tapped the pen to her chin, and then added, Possible daddy issues.

  I groaned. "Everyone has to be so judgmental."

  She moved on, though I noticed the sentinel guiding David behind us. I followed her through the door. We emerged in a huge room with a domed roof. While the room itself was impressive, what nailed my guts to the floor was the huge Alabaster Arch in the center—or at least it closely resembled one. Instead of a black arch veined through with white, this one was white veined with black. Large granite pylons shaped like pyramids stood in a circle around the arch just outside a thick silver ring.

  "Did you build this?" I asked.

  She shook her head. "A research team recently discovered a cache of large stone cubes in Thunder Rock."

  My heart skipped at beat at the mention of the abandoned relic. When the rebellion against Daelissa and her minions had removed the Cyrinthian Rune from the Grand Nexus, the shockwave had gone throughout the Alabaster Arch network, draining the light from anyone caught in the blast. Thunder Rock had an Alabaster Arch. In that accursed place I'd encountered my first husked angel. I called the infantile little creeps cherubs.

  Serena continued. "At first, we thought the cubes were building blocks for another city like El Dorado. By accident, we discovered they were merely packaged arches."

  "Packaged?" David asked.

  She nodded. "Whoever constructed the arches built them elsewhere and shipped them here as stone cubes. A specific series of frequencies will activate a cube, causing it to grow into an arch. The arch roots itself in the ground, latching onto the largest available ley line. If there are no ley lines, it will stunt the growth of the arch and the structure will not function." She grimaced. "We wasted two cubes in such a manner."

  I was tempted to ask if she asked for a refund, but restrained myself. "So you brought one into the Gloom and grew it here?"

  "Yes." She motioned us closer to the arch. "As you can tell, it was supposed to be an Alabaster Arch—a gateway to other realms."

  "Would it even work with the Grand Nexus disabled?" I asked.

  "As you may or may not know, the Gloom Initiative was about discovering why and how the Gloom functions in relation to Eden." She motioned toward the arch. "As you can see, it has an interesting effect on arches."

  "Does the arch work?" I asked.

  "It does, but is rather erratic." She smiled again.

  I heard the sound of chains dragging on the stone floor, and looked around. A creature, humanoid, but walking on all fours appeared from behind a granite pylon. Chains hung from its neck, and manacles on its arms and legs. A mass of sharp crooked teeth jutted from its lower jaw and mangled gums while a single serrated tooth shaped almost like a saw blade protruded from beneath its upper lip.

  "Master," it hissed in a gurgling voice. "What will you have of me?"

  "I did not call you." Serena looked at the thing with disgust. "Return to your den."

  It bowed ever so slightly, though its solid red eyes burned with what looked like hate. "As you wish, master." It crawled away, the chains rasping on the floor.

  "What in the hell was that?" I asked.

  Her smiled returned. "The arch opens upon the plains of the Nazdal realm."

  "That thing was a Nazdal?"

  She nodded. "Justin, you were sent here for a reason."

  "I'm starting to realize that," I said, thinking she must be talking about the choice.

  Her hand rested on my shoulder. "I hope you will help us."

  I gave her an uneasy look. "How so?"

  "Alysea attuned the Cyrinthian Rune on the Grand Nexus." She pointed to a small sphere in a socket on the arch. "Inside you resides the ability to attune the rune on this new nexus—the Shadow Nexus. That is why she sent you to us."

  I was even more confused. "Are you saying my mother sent me here to help you?"

  "Of course not, young man." Another motherly smile. "You are here to help Daelissa."

  Chapter 22

  I already knew the answer, but hearing this woman speak the truth as if Daelissa were some wonderful woman who needed help getting her groceries out of the car, jolted me.

  "This is insanity," I said. "You want to help Daelissa rule the world?"

  Serena kept on smiling. "I have no interest in who rules, but Daelissa has offered me full access to all the realms I desire so I can advance the cause of magic."

  "Wait, I have a counteroffer," I said. "How about you help us against Daelissa, and I'll grant you the same thing. I'll make you the Minister of Magic. How's that for a snazzy title? I'll even throw in a new diamond-studded magic wand with a fine Corinthian leather carrying case."

  She sighed. "There is no way to prevail against the Seraphim. Whether you want to or not, you will be helping Daelissa's cause. You will help me calibrate this new Grand Nexus to allow us access to Seraphina."

  "First of all, you're bat-poo crazy woman. Second, I don't know the first thing about fixing arches."

  Her smile faded to a sad frown. "But you have the answer inside you. You're the son of Alysea, the Seraphim who attuned the Cyrinthian Rune on the Grand Nexus." She pointed to a small glowing orb set in the side of the arch. "You may not know how just yet, but you have the ability to attune this rune."

  I backed away and felt the hard bulk of a sentinel behind me. "Why don't you just take that rune and use it on the Grand Nexus in the real world?"

  "We cannot simply remove the rune without attuning it. To do so might cause another Desecration."

  I felt might eyebrows pinch. "Why did you build this arch here instead of Eden? You would have had another Grand Nexus."

  "Unfortunately, one of my former assistants took it upon himself to use the cube here," she said. "I was very distressed about his poor decision."

  "Lucky for the world," I muttered.

  Serena didn't seem to hear me. "Nevertheless, it functions as the Grand Nexus does." She touched my arm. "You are the key to a wonderful future full of discovery. Does that not appeal to you?"

  "Oh, I'm all for discovery," I said. "But not if it means helping a maniacal tyrant like Daelissa use it for her own gains."

  "You misunderstand her," she said, not seeming to take offense. "She will bring enlightenment to a world of chaos."

  "This woman is as crazy as Daelissa," Dad whispered.

  I agreed. "Boy and how."

  Serena moved toward the arch. The sentinel took me by the arm and dragged me after her until we stood closer to the rune. I'd never gotten a good look at the Cyrinthian Rune. We'd found it hidden inside an omniarch beneath the mansion in Queens Gate, but Jeremiah Conroy had plucked from beneath our noses. From what I remembered it was white with an intricate pattern of glowing lines in it. This one was black with glowing lines.

  Serena held out a hand toward the rune as if to reverently touch it, seemed to realize something, and jerked her hand back. "As I said, we have no safe way of removing this rune without possibly causing a backlash like the one during the Desecration."

  Maybe that's what needs to happen. Sure, it would husk all of us, but at least it would prevent Daelissa from achieving her goals.

  The Arca
ne seemed to sense my thoughts. "Let me give you a little more information about the Gloom before you decide on heroics."

  "I wasn't thinking about being a hero," I lied. More like a suicidal maniac.

  "The Gloom is a mirror of the real world, but it lacks true natives."

  "What about the minders?" David asked.

  A smile curled her lips. "As you've noticed, the Gloom is a realm where dreams and thoughts from Eden become something of a reality. Psychic emanations from the beings in that realm reach the minders. The minders enact the dreams."

  "Makes sense," I said. "They eat dreams."

  Another smile. "Every time a new life enters Eden, a version of itself appears in the Gloom."

  "Like ghosts?"

  "Nearly so." She raised an eyebrow. "We call these shades minders."

  I reeled back. "Wait, everyone in Eden has their own minder?"

  "Yes."

  "What happens when someone dies?"

  "Those minders will eventually fade and die unless given a live host to feed from." She tapped her pen against her chin. "Darkwater takes orphaned minders and repurposes them for guard duty in the mortal realm where they can feed on the living. The minders that comprise the brain feed from live subjects we bring from Eden."

  A sick feeling came over me. "You're feeding Wax to those things? You've got serious issues. Why bother keeping the minders alive? Is that your perverted notion of fun?"

  She waved a hand at the room. "The minders who comprise the brain are the ones who maintain the dreamcasted parts of this fortress. They control the sentinels. I'm sure you noticed the bubble of clear air around this fortress. They are the ones keeping the aether fog at bay."

  "Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

  "If you risk another desecration, the aether fog may carry the blast wave like magical conductor to all corners of the world." Her eyes lit with horror. "You might husk every minder in the Gloom."

  My chest tightened. "What happens to the people in the real world if their minders are husked?"

  She shrugged. "I have no idea, but I imagine it would be catastrophic."

  "No doubt."

  She nodded. "Well, please keep that in mind should you think of causing a Desecration here."

  I've got to kill this woman.

  "Come along, dear," she said, and started back the way we'd entered. The sentinels pulled me and David along behind her. We took a right through Serena's laboratory and walked down a long corridor before exiting the fortress through twelve-foot-tall double doors in the rear of the facility. The granite quarry curved around the back of the fortress. The part of the pit to our left touched the far corner of the fortress. The large circular structure of the domed arch chamber ran from the center of the fortress up to the very lip of the quarry.

  The ledge we stood on was nice and wide. It led down a slope, presumably into the quarry depths. A quick scan of the far side revealed a rugged cliff face without any obvious trails or ways out without rock climbing gear. I had to hand it to Jarvis—this place was a tough nut to crack.

  Serena led us down the slope and onto a winding path about five feet wide which led to the bottom of the gaping hole. I figured out immediately this must be the pit Jarvis had referred to. Murky water filled one corner of the quarry. The rest was filled with rubble, granite, and something else—Nazdal. The chained creatures occupied nearly every square inch from what I could tell, even though part of the quarry disappeared around the bend, presumably curving toward the other side of the fortress.

  I grimaced. Hopelessness wrapped a cold hand around my stomach as I considered the army lurking in these depths. Serena stopped on a ledge about fifty feet from the bottom and I saw the horrors close up. Some of the Nazdal had no chains while others wore even more than the first one we'd seen. They varied in size, from toddler, all the way to a couple boasting the bulk of small bears.

  I recoiled at the sight of a bipedal form shambling into view. A band of metal plating covered its eyes. Green drool hung from purple lips and liver spots covered its pale skin. One of the smaller Nazdal bumped against the walker's leg. The thing roared, spraying green spittle and grabbed the crawling creature, savagely chomping into it. The Nazdal screamed and wriggled, but was unable to break free.

  Blood spurted from bite wounds. The Nazdal cried out again and again with the most horrific screams I'd ever heard while its people watched, red eyes glowing with unholy light. None of the chained beings lifted a claw to stop the slaughter. Some of them moaned in ecstasy as if drawing strength from the agony and gore.

  "Is that thing from the same realm as the chained people?" I asked, referring to the walker.

  Serena gave me a sad look. "The creature eating the Nazdal was formerly a human, an Arcane if I recall. This is what they become after the minders are done feeding from them."

  "You're sick!" I said. I wanted to break the Arcane's neck, or push her into the pit to see how much she liked it when one of her monsters tore into her throat. The sentinel gripped my other arm, as if sensing I might try something stupid.

  "The ghouls are a rather interesting side effect, I must say." Serena jotted something on her notepad, and then waved an arm at the vast quarry. "We have hundreds of them here."

  "And they eat the Nazdal?" I asked.

  "Sometimes."

  "How do you keep all these monsters fed?"

  "The Nazdal steal life force from the weaker ones among them, whether by inflicting harm, or killing them." The woman spoke as if it were a sad fact of life. "We also bring supplies from the Gloom. Whatever exists in the mortal realm eventually appears here."

  "And it doesn't vanish?"

  "No. The Gloom mirrors the real world. Despite the destruction occurring here during nighttime in Eden, when the sun rises, the Gloom rebuilds itself. Anything out of sync is replaced."

  I wrinkled my forehead. "So if I eat a loaf of Gloom bread, if that bread still exists in the real world, it's recreated at sunrise?"

  "Precisely. The food doesn't taste nearly as good as what we import from Eden, but it supplies the required nutrients." She regarded the blood-spattered rocks as the ghoul crunched the bones of the dead Nazdal.

  I gagged at the noises from the gorging ghoul. "You realize you're a bad guy, right? You're a traitor to the human race." I motioned my head toward the army of monsters. "Have you ever been to the movies, or read an epic fantasy novel? These are the kinds of creatures the bad guys use!"

  "I'm afraid this is not fantasy, dear." She gave me a sad look. "This is cold hard reality." Serena headed back up the path. The sentinels pushed us after her. "You must accept that defeating Daelissa is also fantasy."

  We entered the fortress. The sentinel with David took him down a corridor leading away from us. "Where is it taking him?" I asked, unable to stop thanks to the faceless mannequin pushing me along.

  "A holding cell." Serena headed left from the door. "You will remain at the arch to help us."

  "I don't know how to attune the rune," I said.

  "Then you must learn. Time is of the essence." She entered the laboratory. About a quarter of the way across the room the minder brain swirled around Wax.

  I couldn't help but look at the man. The poor Arcane looked pallid. I couldn't imagine what sort of tortures the minders were putting him through. If the minders were truly shades of people in the real world, what was happening to Wax's minder right now? I wondered if Daelissa had a minder in this crazy shadow dimension, or if Seraphina had its own mirror universe complete with their version of minders. I wondered if a floating jellyfish with my name on it was drifting around aimlessly at this very moment.

  So many other pieces didn't fit in this bizarre puzzle. If the Gloom was a mirror or shadow version of Eden, could the reversed Alabaster Arch really open to Seraphina? I'd always expected a mirror universe to be filled with evil people sporting goatees. Yet again, the universe had no problems disappointing Justin Slade.

  Serena took me back to the caverno
us arch chamber. A sentinel appeared bearing a tray of food. "Please eat," the Arcane said. "A full stomach will help you determine how to attune the rune so it will open in different realms."

  "How am I supposed to do that?" I had absolutely no clue.

  A minder drifted into the room and stopped next to the sentinel. Serena produced a blank notepad and pen for me. "The minders can often help someone discover hidden secrets in their minds. This one will assist you."

  I wondered if it was the same one who'd probed me and my father earlier. My stomach grumbled at the sight of the food. I decided I might as well stall for time by eating first, and tore into a hunk of bread. "Do you seriously think I'll be able to crack this thing?" I asked.

  "I have faith in you." Serena regarded the arch almost reverently. "I hope to someday meet the true creators of this marvel. They are the ones who can answer all my questions."

  "I used to think the same thing about the Seraphim," I said. "I used to think that about the demons." I brushed the crumbs from my hands. "None of them have all the answers. I have a feeling even the beings who made the arches will disappoint you."

  She shook her head. "No, they won't. Think about it, young man. Every realm is a step closer to the truth."

  Or a step closer to nightmare. The Nazdal came to mind, not to mention the siren people who created the arches.

  "I have others duties to attend," Serena said. "Please do your work, and I will ask Daelissa to reward you."

  "Yeah, with negative karma out the wazoo," I grumbled.

  I finished eating and stared blankly at the rune and arch for a long while. No epiphanies struck, so I took a walk around the room. A sentinel followed me at a short distance while the minder remained floating in place.

  As I walked around one of the tall gray pylons, I nearly tripped over a chain in my path. I glanced to the left and almost screamed like the lead singer of a boy band. The Nazdal I'd seen in here earlier regarded me, its grotesque mouth gaping open, red beady eyes looking me up and down. The creature bore a human resemblance, but stood on all fours. Slight deformations in the spine made its posture seem almost natural. Aside from chains, it wore little else in the way of clothes except, thankfully, rough leather pants. Its bony spine bulged unevenly beneath its pink skin. Though its hands and feet had as many digits as a human's, they bore claws instead of fingernails.