Chapter 33

Thirty-Three

Irealized too late the error I had made. In my rush to end this ordeal for the three of us, I hadn't realized until we materialized inside of my family home, that we were returning to my family home. Back to the scene of the crime. Back to the place where my mother and father were murdered in front of me.

The first time I had taken Max for a ride through the Ether, he had been the one to throw up. This time, I was the one who almost wretched from the sudden nausea that overcame me. My hand flew up to my mouth, and I clasped it shut. My stomach gurgled. My chest tightened.

I was home, only I wasn't ready for the emotions that came with my return.

Lucien placed a hand on my shoulder. "Are you alright?" he asked.

I couldn't speak. I could barely think. I needed a minute to compose myself, to center myself. To my surprise, though, Max was alright. He looked stoic, and steely-eyed. I supposed he had been preparing himself for this moment for a long time, while I had been preoccupied running errands for the Diaboli.

It was his presence that helped calm me down. Without looking at me, he took one of my hands and squeezed it. "It's alright," he said, "We can handle this."

"I'm glad you think so," I managed.

"We've got this."

We were standing in our foyer. The lights were off, and I could barely see, but I knew my way around this place intimately. I had been sequestered here for most of my life, after all. There wasn't an inch of this house I didn't know how to get to or get from, besides the vault. I headed for the nearest light switch and flicked it.

The foyer lit up instantly, the light fixtures in the walls springing to life. I took a deep breath. It smelled fresh, and clean… but not like home. There was a noticeable chemical tinge in the air, a subtle stink that hadn't yet dissipated. The remnants of a clean-up job, I thought, grimly.

Memories of that night, memories I thought I had buried, or at least suppressed, came rushing up. Not images, exactly, but sounds. Lights. Feelings. I remembered the shriek Carla had made as she fell. The sound of her magic as she… I shut my eyes and fought it all down like bile.

"I'm alright," I said, finding my composure once more. "Let's do what we came here to do before we run out of time."

"Which way is it to the vault?" Lucien asked.

I nodded down the hall. "This way."

Lucien followed Max and I as we made our way to the basement stairs, skirting past and not even looking into the dining room where my parents were killed. I knew their bodies weren't there. I didn't know where they were, but I knew they weren't in the house. I still didn't want to look, and neither did Max.

Though their bodies were gone, the ghost of that night still haunted this house. I doubted if I would ever be able to come back here after today. I didn't think I would ever want to. I had spent my whole life here. The thought of spending another minute more than I had to made me sick to my stomach.

We headed downstairs, into the dark and damp of the basement. I had been here a hundred times, but I had never noticed the ring of sigils etched into the wall toward the back of the basement area. I found it strange that there was no glow, no eerie lights, no magical humming. To anyone who walked past it, if they didn't know to stop and look for the markings on the stone wall itself, they would've overlooked it every time.

Just as I had.

"This is it?" Lucien asked, staring at the ring of faint sigils against the stone wall.

Max pulled a couple of boxes out of the way so that we could see it more clearly. "This is it," I said.

"And how does it open?"

"It doesn't," I said, opening my palm and displaying my aunt's amulet. "Not without this, anyway."

Responding to the amulet's presence, the markings in the wall gently shimmered, as if a light had shone across them.

"What is that, really?" Lucien asked.

"A key that unlocks this door." I approached the wall, and the markings began to glow. They formed a large ring, big enough for a person to move through. It didn't look like a doorway, but more like a circle that only just touched the floor at its lowest point.

That was because this wasn't a door at all, but a portal.

Mason Diaboli had threatened to blow a hole in this wall so that he could get to the other side of it and enter the vault. I hadn't been lying when I told him he would never make it to the vault if he did that. He would've ended up destroying the only way in.

The sigils around the edge of the portal began to move, to rotate in a clockwise direction. The closer I got, the more this motion sped up. Right at the center point, a small opening appeared. It was shallow, and circular, matching the amulet's dimensions perfectly.

Giving one more glance at Max, I placed the amulet in the center of the wall. As if drawn to it by a magnet, the amulet pulled itself into the little indentation. When it was flush against the wall, the sigils spinning around the edge of the circle began to spin faster, and glow more brightly. The wall swallowed the amulet, and then something incredible happened.

The wall began to shimmer and fade, becoming transparent right in front of our eyes. Before long, all that remained was the impression of a stone wall; even the amulet looked translucent. This ghostly visage then shifted further, the image in front of us swirling as if it was being pulled around by the rapidly circulating sigils.

Before long, the wall pulled itself apart like a curtain to reveal a room on the other side of it. Already I could tell there was something about this room that was different. It was vast, and deep, and as we watched, flaming sconces lining the walls lit themselves up, only the fires weren't orange—they were pale green.

"Woah…" Max said.

"What is this?" Lucien asked.

"The Ether," I said. "My father's creation."

Lucien looked over at me. "Your father's?"

"He wanted the vault to be inside the Ether, but he also didn't want it to be accessed by the creatures that live there, or other mages who could've had power in the Ether. So, he created a kind of pocket realm out of Ether stuff. This place is totally cut off from anywhere else in all of existence."

Lucien nodded. "That's… badass."

"My father was pretty cool," I said, a soft smile gracing my lips. "Anyway, the engine is in there."

I was the first to step toward the edge of the portal. It was cold, and the air around it smelled faintly sweet; a scent I couldn't quite put my finger on. I walked through it, feeling the sudden rush of magic as my body crossed the threshold. It was what I imagined walking through a waterfall must have felt like, only the water wasn't falling, it was entirely still.

Max followed me, and Lucien came in after. None of us felt queasy this time, but it became clear pretty quickly that we weren't in the material world anymore. The walls around the edges of the vault shuddered and shifted as if they were live paintings. Everything in here looked a little greener than it should've. There were also the green flames lighting up the edges of the room.

Inside the vault there were all kinds of items placed in glass cabinets. In one cabinet there was a book made of what looked like sewn up flesh. In another, a scepter glowing with bright white light. Another cabinet further into the vault held a long scroll that was kept stretched out. Though it was written in the most beautiful, cursive script, I could clearly read the words inscribed along the top.

The Codex Magica.

The piece of paper that ended centuries of bloodshed and war between mages. I had read it a couple of times, but I had never seen the original. It made sense that my father had stored it down here, where no one could manipulate it or destroy it.

Lucien placed his hand on my shoulder. "Over there," he said, his voice dark, and low.

I hadn't seen it until now, but once I saw it, I couldn't take my eyes off it. There, sitting in its own display cabinet, was a kind of strange looking box. It was gold and ornate, covered in sigils and symbols, but it also looked mechanical. There were slides, and slots, and pieces that seemed to protrude from it.

I didn't need Lucien to tell me, that was what we were here for.

The Infernal Engine.

I couldn't feel its power, perhaps because the cabinet it was in had magic seals around it. In fact, I would've bet my bottom dollar that it did. That made it all the easier for me to approach it without feeling like I was going to hurl.

Again.

"It looks like… a puzzle box," I said.

"I recognize the sigils," Lucien said, "But they're all out of place."

"Maybe it works by rearranging these bits here. But I couldn't even begin to figure out how exactly it all goes together."

"I probably could… this is a summoning sigil. That's the first piece of a demon's name… yeah, I could figure it out."

"Can you figure out how to destroy it?"

"I can give it a shot."

I looked up at him. "Do you think you could handle this thing if I took it out of its case?"

Lucien nodded, but only after a moment of consideration. I didn't doubt his abilities, but he did—or, at least, he had in that moment. "I can handle it," he said.

"Alright. This is a pretty simple seal. My dad taught me how to make them, should be pretty easy to unmake them."

"And if that thing jumps out at us?" Max asked.

"I don't think it's going to do that," I said.

"Uh, could I get that in writing?"

I shook my head. "Stand back," I said, and I placed my hand against the weird, ethereal glass, and sent a pulse of my own power through it. All I needed was the right intention, and for the seals to recognize me. I didn't doubt that they would, and as soon as I touched it, the magic seals broke, and the glass cabinet evaporated.

That was when the infernal engine started to shriek.

The noise was so sudden, so loud, and so painful to listen to, I had to clasp my hands around my ears just to keep it out. Glancing around me, I realized Max was doing the same. Lucien, however, had a puzzled look on his face. Whatever Max and I were both reacting to wasn't affecting him at all.

He realized we were in distress, though, and was quick to act, grabbing the infernal engine and pulling it off its platform. The noise stopped instantly.

"What was that?!" I yelled.

"What was what?" Lucien asked.

"You didn't hear that noise?"

"Clearly I didn't." He looked down at the puzzle box in his hands. "To me, it sounds like it's whispering."

"What's it saying?"

"It's thanking you," came a voice that made my blood run cold. "Thanking you for doing such a splendid job, freeing it from its prison."

My insides froze. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood on their ends. Slowly, I turned around, and there was Mason Diaboli, standing at the entrance to the vault. At his side was Carla, and she had a box in her hand that I recognized.

The crown.

"Hand it over," Mason said, his voice dark, and stern. "Now."