42. Adelaide

42

ADELAIDE

It's a world of nightmares. The ground beneath my feet is black, a charred wasteland that stretches as far as the eye can see. The sky above is a roiling mass of black and crimson, like a festering wound torn open across the heavens. Towering spires of obsidian rise from the blighted earth, their jagged surfaces reflecting the hellish light in a thousand fractured images.

The air is thick with the stench of death and decay, and wails and moans fill my ears, a desperate chorus of suffering that makes my skin crawl. I want to cover my ears, to block out the haunting sounds, but I can't seem to move my hands. They hang limply at my sides as I begin to stumble forward, taking in the destruction around me.

With growing horror, I see that the ground is a field of corpses, countless bodies piled upon one another, stretching in every direction. They all lie twisted and broken, their vacant eyes staring sightlessly at the roiling sky.

My stomach churns, bile rising in my throat. I want to scream, to run, to wake up from this nightmare, but I can't. My body continues its relentless march forward, and I'm forced to bear witness to the carnage around me.

As I walk, the corpses nearest to me start to twitch and shudder. An unseen force is pulling at them. Then, to my utter revulsion, inky black ghosts rise from the bodies. They're ripped from the corpses in a macabre sight, leaving the empty husks behind.

These shadows, formless at first, begin to take shape. They twist and writhe in the air, merging into familiar forms - the shadow pets. The realisation hits me like a physical blow. These aren't just constructs of darkness; they're the souls of the dead, torn from their remains and enslaved.

The shadow pets glide behind me, all around me, a growing procession of stolen souls. Their presence is unnerving, a constant reminder of the horrific nature of their existence. I want to tell them to leave, to find peace, but the words stick in my throat.

As I continue my grim march, more and more shadows join the crowd. They press in close, their ethereal forms brushing against me, sending skitters of revulsion across my skin. I can feel their pain, their anguish, their longing for release. It's overwhelming. They want to drown me in a sea of borrowed misery.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

The voice comes from behind me, silky smooth and terrifyingly familiar. I freeze, my heart pounding in my chest. Slowly, reluctantly, I turn to face her.

Crimson stands there, a mirror image of myself, yet fundamentally different. She's dressed as I am, in black leggings and a black tee, her dark hair flowing loose down her back. Her face is pale, but her eyes are deep and pulsing red, like twin pools of fresh blood.

She smiles at me, a predator's grin that sends chills racing down to my soul. "Hello, sister," she purrs. "Enjoying the view?"

I find my voice at last, anger cutting through my fear. "How could you?" I spit out, gesturing at the sea of corpses and the shadow pets hovering around us. "How can you torment these souls? Turn them into pets?"

Crimson laughs, the sound like broken glass. "Torment? Oh, Adelaide, you misunderstand. I've given them purpose. In life, they were nothing. In death, they serve a greater cause."

"A greater cause?" I echo incredulously. "You mean your insane quest for power? These were living creatures, Crimson!"

She waves a dismissive hand. "And now they have transcended all that. They are part of something greater than themselves. They should be grateful."

Her callousness, her utter disregard for the suffering she's caused, infuriates me, but it gives me drive, a reason to tear her down bit by bit with my bare hands if I have to. Nothing matters anymore except ridding the world of this heinous monster. If that means I don't make it back to MistHallow, to my guys, then, so be it. "I won't let you do this," I growl. "I'll stop you. Whatever it takes, I'll find a way to end you once and for all."

Crimson's smile doesn't waver. If anything, it grows wider, more amused. "Oh, Adelaide," she says, her tone patronising. "There is no fight. You have lost."

"What do you mean?" I demand, even as a cold dread settles in my stomach.

She takes a step closer, and I have to force myself not to back away. "This," she gestures at the nightmarish landscape around us, "is the future. Our future. You are in the NetherRealm now, and you cannot escape."

"What?" I croak and look at my hands and arms. They're not fully formed. Almost translucent. I'm not so much a ghost as the pets, but I'm fading with every breath.

Crimson's laughter rings out again, echoing across the field of corpses. "Oh, Adelaide. You still don't understand, do you? You don't have a choice. This isn't just my destiny - it's ours. We are two halves of a whole, light and dark, creation and destruction. You can't fight what you are any more than I can."

I shake my head vehemently, refusing to accept her words. "No. I'm nothing like you. I would never willingly cause this much suffering."

"Wouldn't you?" Crimson asks, her head tilting to one side. "Think about it, sister. How many times when you were younger did you want to punish those who've wronged you?"

Her words hit too close to home, and my breath hitches. I have felt those things, in moments of anger or frustration. "But I've never acted on them. I've never wanted to cause real-world harm to my bullies."

"You, my dear, are cruelly beautiful, just as I am."

"No! That's different," I insist, but my voice lacks conviction.

Crimson's smile turns knowing. "Is it? Or is it just that you've never had the power to act on those impulses?" She raises her hands, and the shadows around us respond. They swirl around her, and then she…eats them.

Her mouth opens up like a monstrous hippo, her jaws extending wildly, and she sucks the souls into her.

"Stop!" I cry, but it's useless. Crimson gorges herself on hundreds of souls while I just stand there and watch.

When her mouth closes, she shakes her shoulders back and preens like a peacock. She is hideously radiant.

I stare at her and form the thought, whispered into the dead world around us. "The souls give her power."

"This is our birthright," Crimson says, her voice low and intense. "This is what you were born for, Adelaide. You were born to give me a chance to live."

"So now what?" I ask bitterly. "You intend to suck my soul up too?"

She gives me a curious stare. "No. You are no good to me dead, sister. You are tied to me now. You cannot escape the reign of darkness that is coming. You are needed."

I want to deny it, to reject everything she's saying. But a small, traitorous part of me wants to know more. "No," I say, but it comes out weak, uncertain. "This isn't right. It isn't just. I would rather die than help you cause so much torment and suffering."

Crimson laughs again, but this time, there's a hint of genuine amusement in it. "Oh, Adelaide," Crimson says, shaking her head. "You don't have the luxury of dying. Not anymore. We're bound together now, you and me. Two sides of the same coin. Randall made sure of it."

I feel sick. The implications of what she's saying are too horrific to contemplate. "Randall." It all comes back to our father, the arsehole who stabbed me in the heart. "I thought he tried to kill you?"

She smiles. It's sinister, and I gulp back the na?vety that I bought her lies. "No, he tried to make me live. But I needed you to be on my side, Adelaide. We bonded over a common enemy."

"Bonded? You are more deluded than you look."

Crimson's eyes flash with anger at my words. "You ungrateful little bitch," she snarls. "I've given you power beyond your wildest dreams, and this is how you repay me?"

I stand my ground, even as fear courses through me. "I never asked for this power. I never wanted any of this."

She takes a step closer, her presence overwhelming. "It doesn't matter what you want. This is who you are, Adelaide. The sooner you accept that, the easier it will be."

I shake my head vehemently. "No. I refuse to believe that."

Crimson's laugh is cold and cruel. "There is no other way. This is our destiny, written in blood and darkness. You can't fight it any more than you can stop the sun from rising."

"Enough!" I shout, putting my hands over my ears. "You can't keep me here. The guys will move worlds to get me back!"

She snorts, and time stands still. "Who, these guys?" She gestures to the ground, and I see a vision of them standing over my comatose form. Their expressions are blank. "They only wanted you because of my power, girl. You don't have fuck all. You are a nobody, a nothing. A half-arsed Vesper who can't even do that right."

Tears well up, and I choke on them. "No, that isn't true. They love me."

"No, they love me . They love what I gave you. Do you think the Dark Fae Prince was thinking about you when he had his cock inside you? No, he was thinking about me, about my power, about how I would make such a good princess for him. You have no power, Adelaide."

"I do," I bleat, dropping to my knees as her cruelty crashes over me. "I do. I know I do… Please!" I implore the guys to say something, to prove to Crimson that she's wrong, but they stand and stare at me before sighing.

"Well, I guess that's that," Zephyr says. "She was a fun time while it lasted."

"Now we will wait for Crimson to return, and we can have a creature with real power, instead of this pathetic half-human."

Corvus's words cut deep, and I let out a sob.

"So glad we don't have to pretend anymore," Ignatius says.

"Yeah, that was rough. Bonding with her made me feel sick," Zaiah adds.

Then they turn and walk away from me, leaving me alone, cold and alone.

My sobs wrack my body as I place my hands on the vision. It dissipates, and I fall forward, pressing my forehead to the scorched earth.

"You see, dear girl? You have nothing. No magick, no power, no guys. Nothing."

I crumple to the ground, Crimson's words echoing in my head. Despair washes over me in waves, threatening to drown me. She's right. I am nothing without her power. The guys never really cared about me at all.

Crimson stands over me. "Pathetic. You are pathetic. A girl would rather cut herself than be powerful. You are a disgrace."

I close my eyes, scrunching them shut against the brutality of her words.

The metallic scent of blood fills my nostrils, making my hunger rise up.

I open my eyes to see things have shifted. I'm whole again, for a start. The sky is still a roiling mass of black and red, but now the ground beneath me is a vast, endless ocean of blood that is lapping over me, soaking me, staining me.

Crimson bends down next to me. "You see, sister?" she says, gesturing at the hellish vista before us. "This is the price of your resistance. The longer you fight, the more this world will suffer."

"No," I say firmly. "This is your doing, not mine. You're the one causing all this suffering."

She sighs, shaking her head as if I'm a particularly slow child. "Adelaide, Adelaide. When will you understand?"

I shake my head, disgust and anger warring with the pity and sorrow coursing through me. "You're insane. This is annihilation." I want to give in. It will be easier, but something stops me.

My mother's face swims into view. A golden light shining all around her. "Don't let her tell you what you aren't, Addy. You know yourself better than anyone."

Her words spark something profound in me. A flicker of defiance, an ignition of hope. I push myself up, standing on shaky legs in the sea of blood.

"No," I say, my voice growing stronger. "You're wrong, Crimson. About everything."

She raises an eyebrow, amusement dancing in her blood-red eyes. "Oh? Do enlighten me, sister."

I take a deep breath, steeling myself. "I am not nothing without you. I am Adelaide Légère. I am a vampire. More than a vampire; our father saw to that, didn't he. I am loved. Not for your power, but for who I am."

"There's that spark, but you're channelling it the wrong way, Adelai?—"

"Shut up," I snap, cutting her off. "You don't know those guys. You don't know me. And you sure as hell don't get to define who I am or what I'm capable of."

I feel something spring up inside me, a warmth that spreads through my body. It's not Crimson's dark power, but something else. Something that's been there all along, waiting to be awakened. It's my power. My fucking power as this ridiculous Vesper-come-vampire whatever the fuck. It was squashed under her darkness, but oh, now it is pissed. It is swirling with whatever the hell—or should that be heaven—my mother passed down by blood.

"I don't need your power," I continue, my voice growing stronger with each word. "I have my own, and I'm going to use it to stop you."

Crimson seems almost impressed. "You can't stop me. You can't stop this. You might have your own little power brewing inside you, Adelaide, but it is nothing compared to mine. You are going to help me open that fucking portal once and for all, and we are going to do it, fucking right now." She grips my hand tightly, crunching my bones together.

"Portal?" I squeak in pain. "I thought you said this was the NetherRealm!"

"Nope, this is the buffer. I needed to torment you for long enough to get that flicker of celestial light that your bitch mother gave you to light up. I see it now. You are growing up fast, little sis. I'm almost impressed."

"Let go!" I shriek as her nails dig into my skin, drawing blood, which drops down into the sea, swirling around our ankles.

"I can't do that, Adelaide. You and I are nothing where we are. We are doing this, and we are going to unleash all fucking hell on this plane!" She cackles wildly as her claws dig even deeper into my palm.

"Stop! Crimson! This is?—"

She slaps her other hand over my mouth and stares into my eyes. "This is inevitable."