CHAPTER 20

MARI

Vince and Dave led the way to the lighthouse with Jace and I following close behind. "It had to be the lighthouse," I said quietly to Jace. It was always the lighthouse. From what I had heard in people's heads and in the stories people had told me since I'd arrived in Haven, everything about this town somehow involved the lighthouse. I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of it sooner as being the 'Heart of Haven'. "Well you know what they say," Jace said next to me. "It's always the one place staring you in the face." I made a face. "So what do you think will be in there?" he asked me. I made a sound in the back of my throat. "I have no idea, but somehow I doubt there will be an actual door that says 'Heart of Haven; Door to other Worlds' on it." I said. "Although," I added after a minute, "In this town, you never know." We reached the lighthouse and Dave opened the door, peering in. "Well," he said, "there are no stairs, but Vince, you could give me a boost up to that ledge." I peered in around them and noticed a trap door on the floor. "Or," I said, "We could just go through that door." Both Vince and Dave looked at me. "What door?" they said in unison. I looked sideways at each of them and found that they were both staring at me perplexed. "That door," I said pointing to the floor where I could clearly see a brown wooden hatch in the floor. "You can't see that door?" I asked looking at them. I felt Jace looking over my shoulder and everyone shook their heads. "Yeah, we are definitely supposed to go through that door," I said, knowing that it must have been like the book. I walked over to the door and squatted down. "Wait Mari," Jace said coming over to me. "What?" I asked him. He looked nervous. "You know, usually it's a bad idea to go through invisible doors no one else can see. Even in my world." I sighed, and tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Really, I'd been in much worse situations than this. This was just a trapdoor, in the floor of what appeared to be a magickal lighthouse. What could possibly go wrong. I winced a little as I thought about that. In this town, there could be a dragon behind door number one for all I knew, but that wasn't going to stop me. "It'll be fine," I said. I put my hand out and pulled up on the metal lever that was bolted to the top of the door. As I did, I saw the door materialize in each man's head. I pulled the door open and started to go down the steps. Jace followed close behind and Vince and Dave followed him.

We got to the bottom of the steps to find lanterns hanging on the walls. I grabbed one and turned to Jace. "Gotta light?" I asked him. He looked at me annoyed. "No," he said reaching into his pocket. "But I've got this." As he spoke I saw him squeeze something in his hand and a bright light suddenly blazed up. I shielded my eyes quickly, but was still blinking and seeing spots when I turned back to him. "What the hell is that?" I asked. It was brighter and smaller than any flashlight I'd ever seen. "Witchlight," he said simply. "They're like a shadowhunter's version of a flashlight, only much brighter." "Clearly," I said still letting my eyes adjust. I started to walk down the tunnel that we had climbed down into and Jace caught my arm. "Let me go first," he said with a determined look in his eyes. "Ok," I said giving in. If there was a dragon at the end of this tunnel, at least Jace had a sword. I turned to Vince and Dave. "Any idea what's down here?" I asked them. "No, we never even knew this place existed." Vince said. Great, the two people in town who know absolutely everything, know nothing, the one time I need them to know something! We all walked cautiously down the corridor until we came to an opening. Jace walked forward slowly, clearly assessing the situation. I looked around. It was a cave, clearly underneath the town. The walls were solid rock and if you screamed, no one would ever hear you. As I continued scanning I noticed the floor. On it was carved a huge version of the Guard symbol. "Oh yeah," I said as Vince and Dave came up behind me. "I think we found the 'Heart of Haven'". Vince and Dave both stared at the floor in amazement. Jace was walking around it, studying it to see if it said anything.

"What do you think we do now?" Vince asked me. I wasn't sure how I knew, but I found myself answering, "Four people stand on each of the figures. We need two guys and two girls." I grabbed the book from my back pocket and opened it up, hoping there would be more instructions inside. To my relief I found more writing. "We need four people that come from the other side of the door," I said as I paraphrased what was written on the inside of the book. I thought about that for a moment and could hear Jace thinking the same thing. Who would that be? Audrey is from the other side of the door, William, but who else? We need one more guy and girl. Rose maybe? I shook my head. I needed to think. Jace saw the frustration clearly written on my face. "Well, we know Audrey and William fit that bill, so that's two down." He looked at Vince and Dave as he walked over to me, putting his arm around my waist to try and sooth me. "Any idea who the other two are?" he asked the brothers. They looked at each other and shook their heads, but I heard something in Dave's head that shocked me. "Wait," I said, looking at Dave. "What do you mean it's you?" I asked, annoyance coloring my voice. Dave looked at me in shock. I raised my eyebrow. "I can read minds Dave," I said in annoyance. "Oh, right," Dave said slowly. "What do you mean it's you?" I asked again pointedly. I was going to get the answer from him one way or the other. He was old, but that didn't mean I was against using force if I had too. We needed the answer. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Dave began fidgeting and I saw everything run through his mind. "You're adopted?" I asked in surprise. "Yes," he said slowly. "Ok but what does that have to do with this?" I asked trying to wade my way through his mind. I saw the name and picture of a man on a form of some kind.

"Dave!" Vince pushed. Dave began to back away slowly and I felt fear rolling off of him. Earlier I thought his fear had just been a general fear of the unknown, but this seemed clear. He was afraid of something in particular. And whatever it was, he was really scared. "A man named Howard arranged my adoption." he said as if that was enough of an explanation. "And?" Vince and I both said together. Dave continued to walk backwards slowly. "I...I've been there! To the other side of the door! And I'm NOT going back!" He turned and started to run, but Jace got in front of him. "What do you mean?" I asked him. He turned back to me and Vince. "The last time the door was opened, something pulled me through! And it was horrible! Worse than you can imagine!" I could feel the fear coming from him and I had to keep reminding myself to not let it overtake me. I took a calming breath and walked over to him. "We won't let that happen Dave. I promise. But we need to know who the other person is! And we need your help! If you don't help us, William will stay here and wreak havoc on Haven until there's nothing left! Please!" I almost begged him. He stared at me and finally I saw it all click together in his head. "Ok," he said, "But I don't know who the other peron is! I swear!" I could tell he was telling the truth.

"Maybe," Vince's voice came from behind me, "maybe the other person was adopted, like you. Ma ybe we'll find them in the adoption records." I had to hand it to him, that was actually a brilliant idea. I nodded. "Right," I said and looked at them all. "Well I guess we get to go wade throughtons of files now! I'll call Duke. We are going to need all the help we can get." I reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone. I dialed Dukes number as we all headed back up the tunnel.

As Vince went to get the adoption files from the county clerk, Jace, Dave and I went back to the newspaper. "So you have NO idea who the fourth person is?" I asked Dave again, not quite willing to believe him. "I swear, I have no idea." He said as he walked through the front door of the office. We all helped clear off the desks and by the time we were done, Dave had returned with four boxes of files. "That's it?" I asked. "Wow, I'd thought we'd be going through tons of files. It's a good thing I told Duke to stay put." Dave looked at me incredulesley. "This is Haven. We don't have a lot of adoptions in this town." That was a good point. He set the boxes down and we all took one and started going through the files inside.

After about 30 minutes we still had nothing. As I set aside my 15th file I stopped with the file still hovering above the pile. Jace noticed me. "What's up Mar?" he asked. I looked at him. "Read the name in your file again," I said a bit too forcefully. "David Henderson…?" Jace read slowly, confused. I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. My face must have shown my shock because Jace was suddenly by my side, his arm around my shoulders. "What's up? Are you ok?" he asked me concerned. "Does that name mean something to you?" Vince asked me setting aside his file. I suddenly realized I was breathing shallowly and that my mouth was dry. I nodded slowly. "Who?" Jace asked. "My...dad…" I was barely able to get out. Dave blanched. "Your father was from Haven?" he asked me. "Why didn't you say something?" I shook my head slowly. "I didn't know. I...I don't think he knew. Was his adoption arranged by the guy who arranged yours Dave?" I looked at Dave as he looked at my dad's file. A million thoughts were going through my mind. Why hadn't my father told me he was adopted? Did he even know? I knew he didn't know that he was troubled, but this was crazy! "Yes," Dave said as he read the file. "The same man arranged both our adoptions. But didn't you say your father is dead?" "Yes, he died in a car crash when I was 16," I said quietly. "So he can't help us," Vince said, sitting back in his chair defeated and disappointed. Suddenly it all clicked into place, like someone had turned a light on in my brain. "No," I said slowly, still trying to process everything. "But I think I can." Jace, Dave, and Vince, all looked at me confused. "What?" They all said in unison. "But you weren't born in another world Mari, you were born here." Vince said, sounding like he was talking to a crazy person. "I know, and I can't explain how I know this, but I can help. I think maybe 'cause I am his daughter? Maybe…" I tried to explain this the best way I could, but I was still trying to understand it. "I mean I am the only one who can see the stuff in the book, the trap door, if I wasn't supposed to be on that symbol under the lighthouse, why would I be able to see those things? Maybe my dad passed down more to me than just my emotion trouble? He didn't even know he had that, so it's possible." I realized I was just throwing out anything that could possibly explain this whole thing, but I hoped it would work because I knew I was supposed to be on the symbol...somehow. "I'm calling Duke. We all need to go down to the lighthouse and send William through it. Vince, call Audrey and Nathan and tell them to bring William," I said and got up to go call Duke. As I left I turned to Jace. "Don't let Dave leave," I told him. He stood up and walked over to Dave's chair, standing so that Dave couldn't make a quick escape.

I stood outside, not wanting an audience for this phone call. I dialed Duke's number and waited for him to pick up. "Hello?" Duke asked as he picked up. "Hey, it's me. We found the fourth person…" I started. "Great!" Duke said. "Who is it?" Oh how to explain this? "Me…" I said and paused letting it sink in. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. "Hang on I'm putting you on speaker, Rose and Dwight need to hear this," Duke said covering his emotions. "Ok, now repeat that please?" I sighed and said, "I'm the fourth person who needs to stand on the symbol under the lighthouse." "But," came Rose's voice quietly. I could tell she was exhausted. "You were born in this world Mari. Shouldn't it be Magnus? Or me?" I shook my head, knowing that she couldn't actually see me. "No Rose, I know I was born in this world, but my father apparently wasn't. He was adopted and apparently the same man who arranged Vince's adoption arranged my dad's and is the same man who was Audrey's boss." "But then it would be your dad hon, not you," Rose said. "I know it sounds crazy Rose, but...I can't explain it, but I know it's got to be me!" There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long while and I thought that maybe they'd hung up on me. I checked my phone to make sure the connection was still good. It was. I waited. Finally Duke spoke. "Ok, so what do you need from us?" he asked seriously. "Rose, are you up for helping if William get's ugly? I know you've been through hell today, but we might need you." I said. "Yeah I can do that," she said. "Rose, are you sure? Mari's right, you've been through hell. You need to rest!" Dwight said urgently. "Dwight I can do this. William won't require much magick," Rose reassured him. "Ok, then we are all going," Duke said. I suddenly got the feeling that I wasn't part of the conversation anymore. "Thanks guys. Meet us at the lighthouse." I clicked my phone off and walked back into the office to tell Jace and the brothers what the plan was.

20 minutes later, Dave, being closely followed by Jace, Vince, Nathan carrying an unconscious William, Duke carrying an unconscious Audrey, Rose, Dwight, and I all met up at the entrance to the lighthouse. "You ready?" I asked Audrey when she finally came to. "Are you kidding? I want this creep gone yesterday!" "Ok good, cause apparently whatever's on the other side of that door is scary as hell. It's got Dave scared out of his skin." As we walked down the corridor to the symbol, Duke pulled me aside. "Hey, I don't want you to do this," he said holding me back from the group. "What are you talking about?" I asked him confused. "We need to get rid of William, and I'm the only one that can do that. Apparently." "I know, but I was talking to Dave and...what if you get pulled through? I don't want to lose you. Not after...everything." I stared at him, suddenly feeling the concern and genuine fear he was feeling. I put my hand in his and gave it a reasurring squeeze. "That won't happen. I'm strong. I can resist it. And besides, I think I'm actually beginning to like it here," I said smiling. "I don't have any plans of going anywhere. Not anymore." He pulled me in for a hug. When he let me go I turned and walked to the cave.

When I got there I noticed William doubled over. I looked at Audrey and she showed me what had happened in her head. William had egged Nathan on, reminding him that there was nothing Nathan could do to hurt William without also hurting Audrey, due to their connection. Nathan had found a way; kneeing William in the groin. I flinched but had to admit, that was genious! Rose was leaning heavily against Dwight and looked exhausted. You okay? I questioned mentally and she just looked up at me and nodded. I could see the determination in her eyes. She wasn't going anywhere. "Ok, so what do we do Mari?" Nathan asked me. I looked at the book, but there was nothing new in it. I looked at Jace, panic clear on my face. He put his hands on my shoulders. "What do you think we should do? You can do this." I took a breath and closed my eyes. "We need to stand on the points, one person on each," I said and moved to stand on the closest one. Nathan moved William onto one and, with Dwight's help, held him there, Audrey stepped onto the one opposite me, and Jace pushed Dave onto the one to my right and Duke moved to stand behind me with his hands on my shoulder. Dave struggled to get free, but Jace kept a hold on him. Nathan moved to help Jace as Dave began to struggle even harder, leaving Audrey to hold onto William. Just as Nathan got to him Dave elbowed Jace in the stomach and as Nathan knelt to help the younger man up, Dave grabbed the gun that was tucked into Nathan's waist band. "DAVE! What are you doing?!" Vince yelled in panic and confusion as he moved to stand between Dave and the door. "I'm not going back. I won't be here when you open that door! You've always been my brother Vince, but I won't hesitate to shoot!" he shouted as he pointed the gun. No one moved for a long moment, but I noticed Dwight moving so that he was directly behind Dave. There was a loud shot as Dave fired the gun at Vince and we all watched in horror and then amazement as the bullet left the gun, made a u-turn, went through Dave's shoulder and straight into Dwight's bulletproof vest. "DWIGHT!" both Rose and Duke yelled in panic as he stumbled back at the impact, but remained standing. Duke's hands tightened on my shoulder and I winced. "If you're going to get shot you've got to make it count!" he quipped as he picked Dave up from the ground. "He'll be fine Vince, it's just a small wound." Rose moved to quickly stand with Dwight, examining him for any injuries. "I'm fine sweetheart," he murmured, kissing her forehead gently. Once she was certain she heaved a sigh of relief and I felt Duke's hand on my shoulder relax.

"Now what?" Rose asked. I looked around, trying to figure it out, but got nothing. I looked at Jace again and he nodded. I took another breath and focused. I held the book out to the center of the symbol and suddenly the ground started to shake. A square in the middle suddenly started to move down through the floor, opening up a hole in the floor. Nathan started to push William in, and he struggled, trying to get away. "Ok!" he screamed. "I'm willing to negotiate!" he pleaded, suddenly realizing how serious Audrey and Nathan had been all along. "Yeah well we aren't!" Audrey said. Just as she was about to push him in, Vince screamed at Dave, "Dave! What are you doing?!" I looked to see Dave being pulled by some invisible force toward the hole. I watched in horror as he suddenly fell into it. Vince grabbed his arm, trying to pull him back up. Nathan ran to help Vince, with Dwight close behind and Audrey watched William. Jace grabbed Dwight's arm and all four men managed to pull Dave back out of the door. As he came out, he flung himself at the wall, hoping to get as far away from the door as possible. Rose stepped forward, holding the box that Lillith was imprisoned in and whispered, "Deo i bpríosún, riamh a thabhairt ar ais, anois leat a bhaint as na hiarmhairtí a bhaineann le do chuid gníomhaíochtaí. (Forever imprisoned, never to return, now you reap the consequences of your actions.)" Then she tossed the box through the door, there was a faint scream that was heard as the box fell, but then it was gone.

Audrey began to push William towards the hole and he begged her not too. "No! Please! Don't do this!" As he was about to fall through, he grabbed her wrist, holding tightly. I could see the electricity pass between them, but then he fell. As he did, I felt something hit me, completely knocking the breath out of me and I suddenly saw something in my head. Something evil and dark. Something even worse than Lillith. "Get that door closed Mari! Now!" Nathan yelled as he pulled Audrey back from the edge of the door. I quickly held the book out, silently commanding the door to close. Once it was closed fully, I collapsed against the wall. "Mari!" I heard Duke and Rose shout. Duke got to me first and put a hand behind my head, propping me up. "Dave was right," I said, barely breathing. "There was something way worse than anything we've faced that we should have been afraid of." My head was pounding and I could barely draw breath. The last thing I heard before the world went black was someone saying my name.

ROSE

the door closed I felt something I had noticed before. There was a feeling of power. Dark, horrible power. I looked around for the source and my focus landed on Audrey who had a smirk on her face. I was distracted by Mari collapsing against the wall and I moved towards her quickly, keeping my senses trained on Audrey. "Mari," I whispered softly as I knelt next to her. "She's not breathing!" Duke cried in horror and I quickly checked for a pulse. "She's barely got a pulse!" I screamed and, quickly charging my energy, I shocked her heart. She jolted and then fell still again. I tried again with the same result. "No!" I said as I felt tears begin to fall down my face. "No, you can't do this to me Mari. Please!" I screamed as I shocked her once again. This time she jolted and began to breath again. I nearly collapsed with relief, but that relief was cut short as I heard a chuckle from behind me.

"Well, well, well. A witch like me…" Audrey-No this wasn't Audrey, whoever it was, said softly. "Who are you?" I said softly as I moved to stand protectively in front of Mari and Duke. Everyone else in the room was frozen in shock. "My name is Mara. Now who is going to help me get William back?" she said pleasantly, a small smirk on her face. She looked just like Audrey, but her eyes. Her eyes were that of a killer, but they were also familiar. I stared at her for a long moment. "Mara?" I said in confusion. "Mara what?" I asked, hoping to every deity I could think of I was wrong. "Mara Hunter," she replied cheerfully and I nearly collapsed. This woman was my great-great grandmother.