Chapter 34

Thirty-Four

Mason Diaboli and his wife stood in front of us, barring our only way out of the vault. As long as the portal remained open, the amulet was useless to any of us, and while we were in here, we couldn't get out. The vault existed in a space outside of space. It was a pocket realm, a dead end, a cul-de-sac, and we were trapped.

I should've known.

We had escaped too easily.

"Hand it over," Mason said, "I won't ask again."

"I can't do that," Lucien said.

"I see…" Mason nodded. "I suppose you think you're being noble, or brave. I suppose you think, by standing up to me, you're going to win points with your little girlfriend." Lucien's father widened his eyes and feigned shock. "Oh, you thought I didn't know? That I wouldn't notice the sneaking around, the voids in the security streams, the magic cast in my own house?! Thought I hadn't already figured out you were fucking the Ethera bitch?"

Max made a squeak.

Mason pounced. "Looks like her brother is the only one of us who didn't know about his sister spread?—"

"—enough!" Lucien snarled.

Mason grinned. "There," he said, "There's a slice of that strength I taught you, but it's only a shadow, isn't it? That's all that's left after she got done with you."

"You don't know me."

"Oh, but I do. You used to be my son, but no son of mine could be as weak or pathetic as you've been. You've disgraced yourself, Lucien. You've disgraced yourself and our family, and while we're on the cusp of restoring greatness, no less! And for what? For her?"

"I did this because you've gone insane, and I won't stand by and let you get away with what you did to the Ethera."

"The Ethera are our enemies," Mason snapped, putting emphasis on the word.

"If they're our enemies, it's because we were on the wrong side of history."

"What do you know of history?"

"I know that mom's death wasn't an accident," Lucien spat.

"Watch your tone," Mason snarled.

"And now that I've seen who you really are, I think you had something to do with it."

"Your mother died out of her own foolishness. She thought she could control the demons without the engine, and she failed. She was weak, just like you are."

"Weak?" Lucien took a step closer to his father. "Mom was twice the mage you'll ever be, and it made you sick to your stomach. That's why you want this engine. That's why you had her killed!"

Mason shook his head, grimly. "Delusions," he said, allowing the word to linger a moment. "The Ethera poisoned your mind, didn't she? She fed you some lies, and you believed them all, because you couldn't help yourself."

"For the first time in my life, I see everything clearly, and I stand against you."

"You lack the strength to stand against me. You have no vision, no discipline… you are no son of mine."

"Then I have no reason to give you this, do I?"

"You're going to hand it over… otherwise you, the bitch, and her little brother are all going to die in this room."

Lucien shook his head. "I don't think so."

"And why's that?"

"Because we're in the Ether," I said, stepping up beside Lucien. "And this is my world."

With my hands by my side, my palms splayed, I sent ripples of my own power coursing through me. The Ether itself shuddered, the air shimmering and shaking around my hands. Mason's eyes lowered, then flashed red. Carla opened the box she held in her hands and removed the crown from where it was sitting. I hadn't seen it before now, and I had to admit, it gave me pause.

It was silver and black, and at first glance, it looked like it was made of thorny vines. But they weren't vines, they were snakes with spindly backs, and these metallic snakes were moving. Carla was about to hand the crown over to Mason, when Lucien made his move. He held the Infernal Engine up above his head and stared at his father.

"Put that thing on," he said, "And I'll smash this."

"Do you really think you can destroy the engine by hurling it into the ground?" He laughed, and he took the crown from Carla's hands and placed it on his head. "Stronger men than you have tried to destroy the engine, all of them have failed. Why do you think the dead Ethera decided to keep it in this vault?"

"You're lying."

"Go ahead," Mason said, cracking his neck. His eyes suddenly burned red, and when he spoke again, his voice was deep, and guttural—not at all the voice of a man, but something worse. Something foul. Something ancient. "Try."

Lucien had lost some of his conviction. I could feel it in his hesitation. I shot a look over to Max. "Hide!" I yelled.

Carla took that moment to shoot her hands toward me and fire off a blast of crimson light; the same crimson light she had used the night of my parents' murder. I brought one of my hands up and conjured a shield of ephemeral energy, surrounding myself with the stuff of the Ether. When Carla's magic struck me, it was immediately absorbed by my shield.

"Hide!" I screamed at Max again.

Max didn't question me. He turned around and moved behind the largest cabinet, the one containing the Codex Magica. Lucien lowered the infernal engine and stared at his father. With a thought, he willed an ethereal crimson cloak into being, a cloak that looked like it was made of pure magic.

"I'm going to give you one chance to back down," Lucien said. "Turn around, leave us alone, and no one needs to get hurt."

"You must not know me very well. Even if you somehow managed to get past us and leave, there is no stone on this earth I won't turn over until I've found you and that engine. And when I find you, I'm going to use it to summon a whole host of demons to pick the flesh from your bones while she watches."

Lucien nodded. "I had a feeling you'd say something like that," he said. "You'll have to come and take it," he added, summoning a glowing red dagger into his hand.

Mason grinned. I could tell he was enjoying this. At his command, a crimson cloak of his own draped itself across Mason's shoulders. When he moved toward his son, the cloak billowed around him until it fell into place at his back. In his hand was a sword, also made of crimson smoke.

"Lucien!" I yelled.

"Keep her busy," he said, "I've got this."

"The hell you do," Mason snarled, and he hurled a bolt of crimson light at his son.

Lucien pulled his dagger up to block the bolt, absorbing the power instead of deflecting it. The two of them looked like they were about to get into a fight, but I couldn't worry about him. I had to worry about Carla, who was making a run toward me with what looked like a whip in one hand.

She pulled her whip back and cracked it toward me. It slammed against my shield, making it shimmer and stutter. Another hit like that, and I would lose it… but I had just told them this was my world, and I had meant it.

I felt a connection to this place; I was stronger in here, my magic more potent.

As Carla reared up for another strike, I let my magic bleed out into the world around me. I sensed my connection to the Ether bloom and strengthen. I'd seen my father do this once, many years ago, but I'd never thought I would one day be strong enough to attempt it myself.

With barely more than a thought, three ethereal figures came into being. They looked like ancient knights clad in full-plate armor, wielding a sword and shield each. They quickly swooped in front of me, placing themselves between Carla and myself.

"Cute trick," she hissed, "But illusions won't help."

Carla cracked her whip again, but one of the knights charged toward her, his sword raised. Mid-strike, she decided to switch target, cracking her whip across the knight's plated head. Instead of going through the knight, the whip struck solid matter with a hard, metallic thunk. When the knight reached her, it bull-rushed her with its shoulder, knocking her onto her ass.

Carla scrambled away from the ghostly knight, crab-walking backwards until she could pick herself up. By that point, another knight was heading toward her, its sword drawn. She wasn't sure which one of them to strike, or if her whip even had any effect on them.

While she was distracted, I pulled the Ether in closely around me and lashed out at Carla with all of my might. A wave of magic that distorted the air as it raced toward her, blasting past the two knights closing in on her. Carla's eyes widened, and as the wave hit her chest, it picked her up and hurled her several feet through the air.

She landed on her shoulders and rolled, coming to a complete stop, face down, her whip vanished.

Seeing her downed like that, defeated, vulnerable… I couldn't help entertaining the intrusive thoughts that entered my mind. I could've sent those knights to finish the job, to run their swords through her and make her pay for her hand in all this.

But I couldn't go through with it because I wasn't like her.

I wasn't like them.

And neither was Lucien.

Lucien.

I turned to look at him just in time to catch him crossing blades with his father. Both men were entwined in a fight at close quarters, their phantom blades cracking as they met each other, their cloaks billowing. All it took was one look, though, to know that Mason was winning.

His sword was more powerful, he had quicker reflexes, and whatever damage Lucien was doing to him was healing almost instantly. I couldn't tell whether Mason was simply that strong, or if the crown was empowering his abilities. Either way, Lucien didn't look like he was going to last another few moments in this fight, and Mason had just knocked him on his ass.

I did the only thing I could do—I turned my knights on Mason.

The three ethereal creatures charged. When Mason spotted the first one coming toward him, he turned, bringing his sword down in a lethal arc that sliced through the knight as if it was made of smoke. The knight instantly evaporated.

The second knight didn't fare much better, meeting the same fate only a few short moments later. I only had one left, and Mason was making short work of them.

"This is your best, Ethera?" he asked. "This is all you have to throw at me? You're even more pathetic than your parents were."

"My parents weren't pathetic!" I screamed. "You murdered them in cold blood because they were better than you, and so are we."

"You and Lucien? Look at him—he can barely get himself off the floor."

"You're forgetting about me," said Max, and with a groan, he shoved the large display cabinet housing the Codex Magica.

The treaty itself was written on parchment paper, but it was sitting inside of a protective casing that wasn't just solid in here, it was also magical. Mason turned around just as the cabinet fell, striking him on the shoulder and making him stagger and stumble toward me.

Seeing that he hadn't quite fallen, I took a few steps back, trying to keep distance between us. Somehow, he managed to find some kind of footing, and he used his momentum to come speeding toward me, his sword aimed directly at me.

The red glow in Mason's eyes was murderous, the shimmer of his blade empowered by the crown on his head, but just before he reached me, Lucien stepped between us. I heard the blade go through him, saw Lucien's cape flutter, and then there was silence.

"Lucien!" I screamed, but my voice became instantly drowned out by the demonic shrieking that issued out from in front of me.

I had to cover my ears again, to shield them from the sound. It was discordant, painful to listen to, as if the sound itself were trying to dig into my brain through my skull. This time, I didn't close my eyes, and what I saw happening in front of made me lose my breath.

Shadows were spilling out Lucien, wisps of dark smoke billowing up and away from him and encircling the room. Mason backed up, his sword by his side, his eyes wide. He was watching the dark figures as they swirled around and around the place like huge, black snakes.

Lucien then tossed the Infernal Engine aside. When it landed on the ground, I saw the hole Mason's sword had made in the puzzle box when he had run it through. That was where the demons were coming from.

"What is this?!" Mason yelled.

"You've destroyed it," Lucien said.

"How could I have destroyed it? That's impossible!"

"You wanted power. You wanted that crown. This is what your power got you."

Mason's eyes darkened. "Control them, then," he yelled. "Do it, now!"

Lucien shook his head. "No," he said, "They want what you have, and I'm going to let them take it."

The shadows moved closer to Mason, who raised his sword and aimed it at his son. "Stop them, or I'll kill you where you stand, boy."

"No," Lucien said, a finality to his voice.

Mason went to swing the sword, but a demon swooped down and ran through him, the shadow pushing through Mason's body making him grimace as if he had been shot. His eyes widened, and all the blood drained from his face. More demons swooped down, some of them pushed through him as the first had, but others tried to snatch the crown from his head.

And Mason was powerless.

Lucien took my hand and called out to Max. "Let's go," he said.

Max came out of hiding and joined us.

"Are you going to help him?" I asked.

Lucien shook his head. "Let the demons have them both."

He tugged my hand, and moved me toward the portal, out of my family's vault. Max followed, and the three of us stepped outside.

Once there, the portal sealed itself, and my aunt Persephone's amulet settled into the palm of my hand. What was going to happen to Mason and Carla Diaboli now, I didn't know.

But they deserved it.