Torment

by Lauren Kate

Page 50

 

  "Do I need to kill your lover to get you to join me?" he asked, pointing his arrow now at Daniel. "Or do I need to kill them all?"

  Luce stared at the strange, at tip of the silver arrow, less than ten feet from Daniels chest. No chance Phil would miss from this range. Shed seen the arrows extinguish a dozen angels tonight with that paltry ash of light. But shed also seen an arrow glance o Callies skin, like it was nothing more than the dull stick it appeared to be.

  The silver arrows killed angels, she suddenly realized, not humans.

  She leaped in front of Daniel. "I wont let you hurt him. And your arrows cant hurt me. "

  A sound escaped from Daniel, a weird half-laugh, half-sob. She turned to him, wide-eyed. He looked afraid, but more than that, he looked guilty.

  She thought of the conversation theyd had under the gnarled peach tree at Sword & Cross, the rst time hed told her about her reincarnations. She remembered sitting with him on the beach in Mendocino when he talked of his place in Heaven before her. What a struggle it had been to get him to open up about those early days. She still felt like there was more. There had to be more.

  The creak of the bowstring snapped her attention back to the Outcast, who was pulling back the silver arrow. Now it was aimed at Miles. "Enough talk," he said. "Ill take your friends out one at a time until you surrender to me. "

  In her mind, Luce saw a bright blink of light, a swirl of color, and a whirling montage of her lives ashing before her eyes--her mom and dad and Andrew. The parents shed seen in Mount Shasta. Vera ice-skating on the frozen pond. The girl shed been, swimming under the waterfall in a yellow halter-top bathing suit. Other cities, homes, and times she couldnt recognize yet. Daniels face from a thousand di erent angles, under a thousand di erent lights. And blaze after blaze after blaze.

  Then she blinked and was back in the yard. The Outcasts were drawing closer, huddling together and whispering to Phil. He kept waving them back, agitated, trying to focus on Luce. Everyone was tense.

  She saw Miles staring at her. He must have been terri ed. But no, not terri ed. He was xating on her with so much intensity that his gaze seemed to vibrate her very core. Luce grew woozy and her vision clouded. What followed was an unfamiliar sensation of something being lifted o her. Like a casing being removed from her skin.

  And she heard her voice say, "Dont shoot. I surrender. "

  Only, it was echoing and disembodied, and Luce hadnt actually said the words. She followed the sound with her eyes, and her body grew rigid at what she saw.

  Another Luce standing behind the Outcast, tapping him on the shoulder.

  But this was no glimpse of a former life. This was her, in her skinny black jeans and plaid shirt with the missing button. With her black hair cropped and newly dyed. With her hazel eyes taunting the Outcast. With the burning of her same soul clearly visible to him. Clearly visible to all the other angels, too. This was a mirror image of her. This was--

  Miless doing.

  His gift. He had splintered Luce o into a second self, just as hed told her he could on her very rst day at Shoreline. They say its easy to do with the people you, like, love, hed said.

  He loved her.

  She couldnt think about that right now. While everyones eyes were drawn to the re ection, the real Luce retreated two steps and hid inside the shed.

  "Whats happening?" Cam barked at Daniel.

  "I dont know!" Daniel whispered hoarsely.

  Only Shelby seemed to understand. "He did it," she said under her breath.

  The Outcast swung his bow around to aim at this new Luce. Like he didnt quite trust the victory.

  "Lets do this," Luce heard her own voice saying in the middle of the yard. "I cant stay here with them. Too many secrets. Too many lies. "

  A part of her did feel that way. That she couldnt keep going on like this. That something had to change.

  "You will come with me, and join my brothers and my sisters?" the Outcast said, sounding hopeful. His eyes made her nauseated. He held out his ghostly white hand.

  "I will," Luces voice projected.

  "Luce, no. " Daniel sucked in his breath. "You cant. "

  Now the remaining Outcasts raised their bows at Daniel and Cam and the rest of them, lest they interfere.

  Luces mirror stepped forward. Slipped her hand inside Phils. "Yes, I can. "

  The monster Outcast cradled her in his sti white arms. There was a great ap of dirty wings. A stale cloud of dust stormed up from the ground. Inside the shed, Luce held her breath.

  She heard Daniel gasp as Luces mirror and the Outcast soared up and out of the backyard. The rest of them looked incredulous. Except for Shelby and Miles. Shelby and Miles.

  "What the hell just happened?" Arriane said. "Did she really--"

  "No!" Daniel cried. "No, no, no!"

  Luces heart ached as he tore at his hair, spun in a circle, and let his wings bloom out to their full size.

  Immediately, the eet of remaining Outcasts spread their own dingy brown wings and took ight. Their wings were so thin, they had to beat frantically just to stay in the air. They were closing in on Phil. Trying to form a shield around him so he could take Luce wherever he thought he was taking her.

  But Cam was faster. The Outcasts were probably twenty feet in the air when Luce heard one nal arrow loose from its bow.

  Cams arrow wasnt meant for Phil. It was meant for Luce.

  And his aim was perfect.

  Luce froze as her mirror image disappeared in a great bloom of white light. In the sky, Phils tattered wings shuddered open. Empty. A horrible roar escaped his mouth. He started to swoop back toward Cam, followed by his army of Outcasts. But then he stopped midway. As if hed realized there was no more reason to go back.

  "So it begins again," he called down to Cam. To all of them. "It could have ended peacefully. But tonight youve made a new sect of immortal enemies. Next time we will not negotiate. "

  Then the Outcasts disappeared into the night.

  Back in the yard, Daniel barreled into Cam, throwing him to the ground. "Whats wrong with you?" he yelled, his sts wailing down on Cams face. "How could you?"

  Cam strained to stop him. They rolled over each other on the grass. "It was a better end for her, Daniel. "

  Daniel was seething, tackling Cam, slamming his head into the dirt. Daniels eyes blazed. "Ill kill you!"

  "You know Im right!" Cam shouted, not ghting back at all.

  Daniel froze. He closed his eyes. "I dont know anything now. " His voice was ragged. Hed been gripping Cam by the lapel, but now he just slumped to the ground, burying his face in the grass.

  Luce wanted to go to him. To fall on him and tell him everything was going to be okay.

  Except it wasnt.

  What shed seen tonight was too much. She felt sick from watching herself--Miless mirror image of her--die from the starshot.

  Miles had saved her life. She couldnt get over it.

  And the rest of them thought Cam had ended it.

  Her head swam as she stepped forward from the shadows of the shed, planning to tell the others not to worry, that she was still alive. But then she sensed the presence of something else.

  An Announcer was quivering in the doorway. Luce stepped out of the shed and approached it.

  Slowly, it broke free of a shadow cast by the moon. It slithered along the grass toward her for a few feet, picking up a dirty coat of dust left by the battle. When it reached Luce, it shuddered up and rose along her body, until it hovered blackly over her head.

  She closed her eyes and felt herself raising her hand to meet it. The darkness fell to rest in her palm. It made a cold sizzling sound.

  "What is that?" Daniels head snapped around at the noise. He raised himself from the ground. "Luce!"

  She stayed put as the others gasped at the sight of her standing in front of the shed. She didnt want to glimpse an Announcer. Shed seen enough for one night. She didnt even
know why she was doing this--

  Until she did. She wasnt looking for a vision, she was looking for a way out. Something far away enough to step through to. It had been too long since shed had a moment to think on her own. What she needed was a break. From everything.

  "Time to go," she said to herself.

  The shadow door that presented itself in front of her wasnt perfect--it was jagged around the edges and it stank of sewage. But Luce parted its surface anyway.

  "You dont know what youre doing, Luce!" Rolands voice reached her at the edge of the doorway. "It could take you anywhere!"

  Daniel was on his feet, jogging toward her. "What are you doing?" She could hear the profound relief in his voice that she was still alive, and the sheer panic that she could manipulate the Announcer. His anxiety only spurred her on.

  She wanted to look back to apologize to Callie, to thank Miles for what hed done, to tell Arriane and Gabbe not to worry the way she knew they were going to anyway, to leave word for her parents. To tell Daniel not to follow her, that she needed to do this for herself. But her chance to break free was closing. So she stepped forward and called over her shoulder to Roland, "Guess Ill just have to gure it out. "

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daniel rushing toward her. Like he hadnt believed until now that she would do it.

  She felt the words rising up in her throat. I love you. She did. She did forever. But if she and Daniel had forever, their love could wait until she

  gured out a few important things about herself. About her lives and the life she had ahead of her. Tonight there was only time to wave goodbye, take a deep breath, and leap into the dismal shadow.

  Into darkness.

  Into her past.

  Epilogue

  PANDEMONIUM

  "What just happened?"

  "Whered she go?"

  "Who taught her how to do that?"

  The frantic voices in the backyard sounded wobbly and distant to Daniel. He knew the other fallen angels were arguing, looking for Announcers in the shadows of the yard. Daniel was an island, closed o to everything but his own agony.

  He had failed her. He had failed.

  How could it be? For weeks hed run himself ragged, his only goal to keep her safe until the moment when he could no longer o er her protection. Now that moment had come and gone--and so had Luce.

  Anything could happen to her. And she could be anywhere. He had never felt so hollow and ashamed.

  "Why cant we just nd the Announcer she stepped through, put it back together, and go after her?"

  The Nephilim boy. Miles. He was on his knees, combing the grass with his ngers. Like a moron.

  "They dont work that way," Daniel snarled at him. "When you step into time, you take the Announcer with you. Thats why you never do it unless . . . "

  Cam looked at Miles, almost pityingly. "Please tell me Luce knows more about Announcer travel than you do. "

  "Shut up," Shelby said, standing over Miles protectively. "If he hadnt thrown Luces re ection, Phil would have taken her. "

  Shelby looked guarded and afraid, out of place among the fallen angels. Years ago, shed had a crush on Daniel--one hed never requited, of course. But until tonight, hed always thought well of the girl. Now she was just in the way.

  "You said yourself Luce would be better o dead than with the Outcasts," she said, still defending Miles.