I realised the only sound worse than a Divellion’s hiss was the vile screech of Reuben’s victory.
“How do you know Ness won’t bring him back?” I yelled.
Reuben chuckled lightly. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? Do you honestly think I wouldn’t have thought of that myself? Don’t you think I would have thought of everything? I destroyed all the phoenix tail. There are no more plants left in the holt. Or in the world, for that matter. And thanks to you, angel, I had a thorough search in Ms. Ballester’s apothecary room to be certain none was preserved.”
“You’re twisted! You’re jealous and pathetic—”
“I am a god!” Reuben roared. “You have no idea how powerful I am. My only sorrow is that I will not see the look on your face when I force your poison down Jaxon’s throat.”
I reached into my pocket and felt for the remaining vial. I supposed a blinding spell wouldn’t be much use in the pitch black mausoleum.
It was a good thing I gave it to Reuben.
A tiny flicker of triumph crossed over me. I’m only sorry I won’t see your face when you realise you’ve got a vial full of orchids, I told my opponent silently.
As for me… Well, I had the poison. But that was all I had. No sight, no strength, no backup. Take it all away and what was left?
Me.
Chapter Twenty
Food for Thought
I threw my shoulder into the solid iron door. It was no use—the door was jammed shut.
For a while, the Divellion had lingered at the back of the mausoleum. It had cowered from the scent of the phoenix. But, as Reuben’s scent diluted, all that remained was mine
A witch.
An essence to steal.
I wondered what power smelled like. Hopefully nothing like the rank stench of Divellion, which had begun polluting my lungs the instant the mausoleum door had slammed shut.
As I succumbed to the realisation that I wasn’t getting out of there anytime soon, I braced myself for the Divellion’s inevitable attack. I figured I should at least try to formulate a plan.
Any plan.
However, I quickly learned that it was difficult to construct rational thoughts when facing certain death. All I could think about were the things that I had not yet done. And they weren’t particularly profound things, either. Nothing momentous like climbing Mount Everest or saving the rainforest.
It was more like, I wish I’d had a chance to wear my peach dress. And, I wish I’d tried peanut butter. And, most regrettably of all, I wish I’d said goodbye to Jaxon. I also wished I’d told Sam that he needed to wash his best shirts on a delicate spin cycle. Oh, well; hopefully Ness would tell him.
Focus, I reminded myself. Come up with a plan. Think, think, think... I wish I could have one last portion of fish and chips. Mmm, from Chip Palace in Port Dalton. That would have been nice… What was the owner’s name again? Alex? Andrew?
I slapped myself on the arm. Stop thinking about food, I scolded myself. Think of a plan! Okay, I’ve got the poison. All I need to do is get the Divellion to swallow it… Andre! That was his name. Now, back to the plan…
Okay. Recap. I had the poison. I had the Divellion. I had me.
And the plan…
Could I throw the poison at it? No, that wouldn’t work. What about sneaking up on it? No, there’s more chance of it sneaking up on me…
I heard a scuffling from the other end of the crypt. It sounded like knives being sharpened. Or maybe clawed feet scratching along the stone floor.
I stared, wide eyed, into the blinding darkness. Was it coming for me? My heart began to pound faster.
I flattened against the door, willing myself to disappear.
The scraping sound grew closer.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no…
Why hadn’t I spent more time on the plan? Curses, Andre!
And then I felt, for the second time in a matter of days, the hot, rancid breath of a Divellion brush against my cheek and wind through my hair.
I couldn’t move. I had no escape. It was over.
With a trembling hand, I fished the vial of poison from my pocket and unscrewed the cork.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, I thought as I fumbled in the darkness for the grossness which was ‘Divellion mouth’.
Just as I was wondering how close I actually was to its dripping fangs, it struck me aside. Still clutching the vial upright, I staggered for my footing. My shoulder smarted from where its claw had swiped at me.
Before I could regain myself, the Divellion was upon me, seizing me from behind. With a grim understanding of what was happening, I felt sharp teeth pierce the skin on my throat.
Frantically I tried to force the poison into its mouth, but its jaws were impenetrable as it fed off me.
I began to lose consciousness, and I felt the life slipping away from me. But in my last breath, I knew I was going to do what I’d set out to do. I was going to save Todd.
I raised the vial to my mouth, and I drank.
If the beast wanted me, it was going to have to take the tainted version.
That’s one way of getting a Divellion to drink poison, I mused.
A sudden flash of light stung my eyes.
I blinked, and through my fuzzy vision I saw what could only be construed as heaven—Sam and Jaxon storming into the mausoleum. Sam’s link had found me. Or maybe it was Jaxon who had traced me here. I supposed I may never know.
In less than a second, the Divellion was torn away from me. It lay at Jaxon’s feet, its neck broken and purple poison frothing around its mouth.
I met Jaxon’s eye in rapture. He was there. And right at that moment, he looked like nothing less than an angel.
I wanted to speak, but no words passed my lips.
The last thing I remembered was my legs buckling beneath me, and Jaxon catching me in his arms.
And then, nothing.
Chapter Twenty-One
Every Door Has a Silver Doorknob
I awoke in a room. And not an especially nice room, either. It was bland, with four white walls and one white chair—a chair that I appeared to be sitting on. Directly in front of me were two doors, both white with silver doorknobs.
A voice came from behind me. “Of all people, I don’t know why you chose me,” came the heavy Russian accent.
I spun around in my chair. I know that voice, I thought.
“You!” I exclaimed, staring at the ice-blue eyes that peered out at me from behind a red headdress. “Pandora! What are you doing here?”
It was the fortune teller whom I’d met on the train during my journey to Phoenix Holt.
“Don’t ask me,” she replied. “I’m a figment of your imagination. Usually people choose a family member, or a friend… You chose me.”
I gripped my seat. “Am I dead?”
“That’s up to you,” she said cryptically.
“Then I pick no, not dead.”
Pandora pulled a chair alongside mine and lowered her weary frame onto it. We sat together, facing the doors.
“No offence,” I said to her, “but why would I imagine you? I didn’t even like you. Again, no offence,” I added.
“Perhaps you thought I was wise.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t think so—”
“I am wise!” she snapped, wagging her long, crooked finger at me. “Very wise indeed.”
I folded my arms. “If you’re in my imagination, shouldn’t you agree with everything I say?”
“Noh,” she said in her broad accent.
“Okay.” I rolled my eyes. “Can you tell me why I’m here? And how I can leave?”
Pandora flattened the creases in her skirt. A hem of gold coins skimmed the white tiled floor.
“Do you remember what I told you on the train?” she asked. “What the cards foresaw for you, young brass-eyed Ballester?”
I cast my mind back. After everything that had gone on, the train journey seemed like a million years ago.
“Some o
f it,” I answered. “You said I’d been through changes.”
“Great changes,” she drawled.
“Um, yeah. And then there was the bird. I had to free a bird?”
“Noh,” she barked. “Destiny. Your actions were destined to free another. And free yourself, also.”
“Was Jaxon the bird?”
“There was no bird,” she sniped irritably. “The bird is symbolic.”
“So, did the prediction come true?”
“Did it?” she returned the question.
“I don’t know. Did it?” I gazed curiously at her.
“Did it?”
Oh no, not this again.
“You tell me,” I said, rewording for variation’s sake.
“I only know what you know. After all, I exist only in your mind.”
“Oh, right. Okay.”
Pandora waited impatiently for me to reach my epiphany. When the breakthrough never came, she stepped in.
“Yes,” she said in a husky tone. “Your actions freed Jesse Jaxon from his self-imposed purgatory. And by allowing yourself to care about him—and indeed, love him—not only did you free his heart, but you freed your own as well.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “I learned all that?”
“Apparently.”
“What else have I learned?”
“You came to understand that, although you would forever love your grandfather, you could go on to live a happy and fulfilled life.”
“Yeah, until I died, like, a week later,” I remarked dryly.
“And the third card?” my imaginary fortune teller pressed.
I envisioned the card with the illustration of a man drinking from a chalice and a beautiful angel standing behind him.
“The sacrifice,” I murmured.
“Correct,” she applauded me, with what appeared to be a touch of sarcasm.
“You said I would sacrifice myself to save someone I loved.” Of course, I hadn’t expected that love to be my brother Todd, but... “It came true!”
Pandora placed her hand on my shoulder. “You did a brave thing. A stupid thing, but a brave thing nonetheless. And you fulfilled your destiny.”
“But I’m not ready to have fulfilled my destiny yet. I’m only fifteen!” I protested. “Didn’t you say it would be my choice?”
“Yes. Ultimately the decision will be yours.”
“So, I’m not dead?” I asked hopefully.
“Not yet.”
“What about the Divellion? And Todd?”
“Shortly before the Divellion attacked you, the transition to draw a Ballester essence was complete. Todd Ballester died.”
“No!” I cried.
“However,” Pandora went on without missing a beat, “the Divellion that possessed Todd Ballester’s essence was killed instantly by the phoenix Jesse Jaxon. In a strange twist of fate, the poison that the Divellion drank from your blood preserved Todd’s essence—meaning that it is gradually being restored to its rightful owner.” She tapped her amber shoe on the floor and the tiles instantly dissolved into a rippling pool of water.
I tucked my legs up onto my seat.
“Look down,” Pandora told me.
I peered into the glassy water below me. Beneath its surface I could see my bedroom at the Academy. Todd lay on his camp bed, his eyes fluttering open and his limbs reawakening from a deep slumber.
“Todd!” I called. “You’re alive!”
“He cannot hear you,” said my companion. “Just watch.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“He will recover.”
“He’s alone,” I realised. I wanted to dive into the water to get to him, but I couldn’t seem to move from my chair. “Where’s Sam? Sam should be with him.”
“Sam is with Ness,” Pandora explained. She tapped her toe on the water’s surface, and Todd and the bedchamber disappeared. A new scene unfolded below my chair: Ness, Sam, and Mr. Garret, frantically dashing about the apothecary room.
“Hurry!” Sam was yelling. “This is taking too long!”
“Please, Sam,” Ness implored him. “The antidote must be made accurately.”
“Sam!” I called.
“He can’t hear you,” Pandora pointed out.
“We’re running out of time!” Sam shouted. “She’s going to die!” He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes.
“What’s going on?” I asked Pandora.
“They are trying to make an antidote for the poison.” Her voice was softer now. “You see, your essence is preserved, but your body is fading.”
“How long have I got?”
“It’s hard to say. The way you are being sustained has never been attempted before. In fact, they were not even aware that it was possible, until now.” She chuckled.
“How?” I murmured. “How am I alive?”
Pandora tapped her shoe on the water. The apothecary scene melted away, and what took its place was a picture much more recent to me.
It was me, lying on the floor in the dark mausoleum. Jaxon was bowed over me, his lips so close to my own that, for a second, I thought he was kissing me. And I would have believed that to be true if it wasn’t for the fact that he was perfectly still, holding himself over me with his arms locked on either side of me.
“Jaxon!” I cried.
“He can’t hear you,” Pandora reminded me.
“Yes, I know that,” I groused.
“Then why do you continue to call to them?” she muttered under her breath.
I glared at her. “I wish I’d imagined Andre from Chip Palace instead of you.”
“Andre is not as wise as Pandora,” Pandora said.
“Andre is not as annoying as Pandora,” I retorted. “Andre would have let me call down to the people.”
“Andre would not have the wisdom of a thousand lifetimes—”
I groaned loudly. “Okay, I get it. You’re wise. Now could you please explain to me what Jaxon’s doing?”
“He is giving you his breath—another power of the phoenix that the elders were unaware of. So long as Jaxon breathes life into you, you will survive through him.”
“So, I’m going to live?”
“Jaxon’s breath cannot be a permanent means of survival,” she advised.
“But they’re making the antidote to the poison. That’ll bring me back, won’t it?”
“Whether your body responds to the antidote or not is up to you.”
I stared down at the scene below. Jaxon was breathing steadily into my parted lips. It was almost inaudible, but I heard him gently speaking to me.
“I’ll do this forever if I need to,” he told me. “It’s no trouble. Really, it isn’t.”
My eyes were closed and my skin was pale.
“I don’t mind doing it at all,” Jaxon went on. “But I know you’re in there, somewhere. And I know you can hear me. I need you to fight. Come back.”
“Jaxon!” I called to him again.
Pandora muttered something incoherent.
I ignored her.
“Jaxon!” I tried again.
To my surprise, Jaxon paused and glanced up. It was only for a second, but I swore he looked right at me.
“He can hear me,” I gasped.
“No, he cannot,” Pandora argued.
“Jaxon!” I yelled. “I’m here!”
But Jaxon didn’t look up again. He stayed motionless, breathing his life into me.
“Come on,” he whispered. “You can do this.”
“Jaxon!” My heart ached. “I want to wake up,” I told Pandora. “How do I go back?”
Pandora stared at the two doors ahead of us.
“One door leads back,” she explained. “One leads… somewhere else.”
“Which one’s which?”
“There’s something you must see first,” she went on. Her amber shoe tapped the water once again. The scene that materialised below was quite different from the others.
It was Port Dalton.
&n
bsp; I was around eleven years old, walking along the pier with Wilber. We carried ice cream cones and, even though the sun was shining, the pier was empty. Frothing waves danced around the sides of the mint green jetty and a seagull cawed overhead.
Wilber and I strolled along the planked boardwalk all the way to the end. As my grandfather pointed out the sailboats bobbing on the horizon, I gazed up at him with unfathomable love and admiration.
Then, a young boy came pelting down the pier, almost diving on top of us as he swiped the ice cream cone from my hand.
My brother, Sam.
Ambling behind him was Todd, who shuffled towards us with his shoulders hunched and his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets.
Ah, the gawky years, I remembered fondly. Oddly enough, Sam was the only one of us to skip straight over those awkward years. He went from cute kid to good-looking boy in an overnight phenomenon.
Sam leap-frogged onto Wilber’s back.
“Heck, Sam!” Wilber laughed in his jolly, Wilber way. “You’ll break an old man’s back!”
Sam ruffled our grandfather’s thinning white hair. “Don’t give me that,” he teased. “You’re as tough as old boots, and you know it!”
My eyes welled as I looked down upon the scene. It was perfect. It was us. Our little family.
Pandora tapped her foot and it all vanished.
A tear rolled down my cheek. “No,” I choked, “I want to see more.” I stared emptily into the rippling blue. Wilber was gone.
“One more,” Pandora told me. The amber shoe made its final command, and I was met with an image that was completely unfamiliar to me.
A man and a woman, cooing over a baby. Two identical, copper-haired toddlers played on the floor at their feet.
“My parents,” I breathed. “She’s beautiful. My mother is beautiful.”
“Look at the baby,” Pandora said. “That’s you—”
“Shh!” I hushed her. “I want to hear their voices!” I listened to the indistinct mumble of dulcet tones.
My parents!
I couldn’t take my eyes off them. My mother had long, flowing blonde hair and light eyes. My father was a mirror image of Sam, but older and more subdued. I loved them. From the moment I saw them, I loved them.
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