by Kayla Krantz
It seemed as if one of them was always perched by the front door, and she didn’t ask, but knew she was a prisoner again. The thought made her sick, and when she went to the bathroom, she eyed the cracked mirror, and the empty spot where she had pried her shard free. She thought about taking another one and trying to slit her wrist before they could stop her.
But that was the thing. They would stop her.
Too much was on the line for them not to.
Deep in her despair, Luna went about her usual activity of wandering the cabin, waiting until it was time for bed. She was the first to fall asleep, Chance coming to rest beside her not too long after that. He petted her hair, and she could tell he thought she was asleep. She let him massage her shoulders for quite some time before she finally asked him the question on her mind.
“Why can’t you teach me whatever it is that Reese knows?” she asked.
Chance jumped, and she knew she had given him a scare. The thought caused the smallest smile to bud across her lips. “Jesus Christ, you scared the hell out of me.”
“I know,” she said, trying not to sound smug though she did anyway. “But really though…you know so much more than the others…why can’t you help me?”
“The only thing to combat dark is light, kitten,” he replied. “Although Reese isn’t a Keeper anymore, he still knows how to manipulate light energy. I don’t. I’ve never known.”
Luna pulled her lips aside, feeling him brush a lock of her hair behind her ear. “You don’t know why he lost his Keeper status?”
Chance shook his head. “No. He won’t tell me much about it other than the fact that he messed around with a memory amulet and did something he shouldn’t have done.”
“Like Max did to me?” she asked, her voice a quiet whisper. “How is he still a Keeper?”
“Different…different circumstances,” Chance said. “Max used his to save you, and I think Reese had malicious thoughts in mind when he used his.”
“It had something to do with Amanda, didn’t it?” Luna asked.
Chance nodded. “I think so too, but as I’ve said, he hasn’t told me one way or the other.”
Luna wiped her sweaty palm on her shorts. “He’s really the one we’re putting all our faith in?”
“We don’t have any other choice,” Chance said. “No Keeper will help us. Max made that much apparent.”
Luna bit her lip to keep herself from sounding her feelings on the subject.
“Get some sleep,” Chance said. “Tomorrow is going to be a big day.”
For once, Luna would not argue his instructions.
***
WHEN SHE WOKE in the morning, Chance was still asleep beside her. The second she sat up, his blue eyes snapped open, looking frenzied. When they focused on her, the deranged look dimmed, and he lifted a hand to slick back his hair.
“Morning already?” he asked.
Luna nodded and yawned. “Unfortunately. Where’s Reese?”
“Here,” he said from the doorway.
Now Chance sat bolt upright, glaring at him. “Jesus, Man. Don’t tell me you stood there all night.”
Reese scoffed, though his eyes dropped to the floor as he said, “Of course not.”
Luna didn’t believe him, but she didn’t want to argue the subject so she said, “Are we starting the training so soon?”
“Why wait?” Chance and Reese asked at the same time and looked at one another in surprise.
“Okay,” Luna said, patting the bed beside Chance.
He looked at her hand before looking at her. As Reese stepped into the room, Chance scooted closer so that his hip was to hers, and she recognized the possessiveness that was overtaking him. To Chance, Reese was an invader. This was Chance’s sanctuary, his girl, his bed, and Reese was alien to it all. A foreign obstruction that simply did not belong.
He curled his lip when Reese sat on the edge of the bed but said nothing.
“How does this work?” Luna asked.
“Hold your hands out,” Reese said, not bothering to answer her question.
Luna looked to Chance questioningly, but he bobbed his head in approval so she obeyed and held her hands out, palm first. Reese copied the gesture, and Luna narrowed her eyes. It was almost as if they were about to play a game of patty cake. He brought his palms closer to hers, and when they were less than an inch from touch, a spark of electricity lit up the air between their hands. Reese stared at Luna’s face so intensely that she looked back at him and they locked eyes, both glowing with a surreal light.
Both gasped at the same time before Reese pulled his hands away and stared at Luna as if he had just seen a ghost. “Y…you’re powerful, that’s for sure,” he wheezed and looked back at Chance who gave him a smug smile. One that said, I told you so.
“If I’m so powerful, why can’t I use it?” Luna asked.
“It’s almost as if there’s a plug in you somewhere, and the magic can’t get free. It can trickle, leak around the plug, but it can’t come out the way it needs to.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “What do I need to do?”
“Let go of your conscience.”
Easier said than done.
***
WHEN REESE TESTED Luna’s magic, Chance had the sickening feeling that things wouldn’t be over and done with as quickly as he had hoped. Her conscience. How could she lose her conscience? Even through the worst time of her life, she had always had it, it had just been suppressed.
This is an impossible goal, Chance realized.
He didn’t say it out loud though. Not to Luna, not to Reese, not even to Layanna when she happened to stop by that night.
“How’s it coming along?” she asked, sitting in the hard-wooden chair beside him.
He looked at her through wide blue eyes, for once feeling like a child. He didn’t like to not know things, and the fact that he was clueless about something so large, so important, made him sick.
“Reese thinks her magic is blocked because she has this need to do the right thing. Part of her knows that bad people want her magic, and because of that, she’s got this protective seal so it can’t be used.”
“If she can’t use it, she can’t heal the Elder though, right?” Layanna asked.
“Right,” Chance said with a sigh. “And we both know what happens then.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
MAX GROANED AS he got up off the couch, grateful to feel both legs pop. He could still remember—all too well—when one of his legs had been artificial from mid-thigh down. The crying sounded from the down the hall, and he sighed, lumbering his way toward it. One of his hands rested on the wall at the entrance as he shook himself the rest of the way awake and moved onward. The crying was the loudest just before he opened the door then it stopped altogether.
Max put his hand on the knob and pushed the door open. The baby was awake, standing in a swathe of blankets with a wet spot on his clothes. Sighing, Max went to work cleaning the baby, and when he was fed and satisfied, Max just held him close. He had taken it for granted when Amy had watched him, how much work she had put into her new responsibilities without complaining.
Days had passed since she had left, and the fact that she hadn’t come back worried him. Had something happened in Cairo? Or was she still there searching?
Only one way to know for sure, he thought.
Holding the baby close, he threw together a bag of supplies and creaked open the shack door. Peering into the woods beyond, he considered his chances and began to move. In no time at all, he found himself at the front of her old home and went up to the door. He didn’t bother to knock, throwing the door open with such ferocity that it clanged against the wall.
Amy looked up from the place she had been sitting on the couch, hair a mess and dark half circles under her eyes.
"What happened?” Max asked instantly, lugging the bag of supplies inside before he closed the door behind him.
“I-I found her,” Amy said.
“
Cassandra?”
Amy swallowed so hard her eyes narrowed in pain. “She’s not right, Max.”
“Not right…how?”
“She’s dangerous. You need to get Asher out of here.”
Max’s heart started to pound in anticipation. “Why?” Then realization washed over him. “Wait. Is she here?”
Amy nodded, looking tired.
“Why would you do that knowing what we’re responsible for?”
“She knows how to navigate this world, Max. Not well, but enough that she’s a threat.”
“So, what’s your plan? Hold her hostage until…what?”
“Until Morpheus tells us what to do with her.”
“I can’t just stand by and do nothing,” Max protested.
She shrugged. “Well, until you come up with a plan, that’s really all we can do.”
“No, it’s not,” he said and crossed the room to put Asher in her arms.
“Where are you going?” Amy’s voice called after him when he pushed open the door.
He didn’t want to explain himself, didn’t want to give anyone the chance to cut down his idea and stop him, he wanted to go while the motivation was strong in his gut and the anger fierce in his brain. Max walked all the way out of the house, listening to the door clang shut behind him as he stormed across the clearing.
Amy had said Amanda’s body was in a cave. For Max, it was easy enough to find, even easier to find the poor girl’s remains inside. Unlike Amy, he took the time to crouch beside her, studying her for what had killed her. In the darkness, it was hard to tell since her blood was black, but he could see a slash across her abdomen and guessed that was to blame.
When he made it out of the cave, he screamed at the top of his lungs, not caring who heard him. His fingers dipped into his pocket, pulling out his Keeper mask, and he stared at it with all the hatred he could muster. He let it drop to the ground and stomped on it, again and again and again, until it was smudged, dirty, and broken.
“How could you let this happen?” he demanded to no one as he continued to stomp on the mask.
A crack splintered it in half, right between the eyes. Max lifted his foot, ready to stomp on it once again when a great rumbling sounded overhead, and he paused mid-way into what he was doing and looked up.
“You will regret doing what you’re doing,” Morpheus warned him.
“Will I?” Max asked, but he placed his foot down beside the remains of the mask rather than on top of it.
“Yes. Things are confusing to you right now, I am sure, but you must have faith in me always. I have a plan.”
“Really? You do? That plan involved Amanda’s death? It involved Cody getting back in touch with Chance? It involved Luna’s sister being equally as powerful but insane?”
Morpheus was silent, but the grumbling in the sky increased, and Max wondered if he would summon a lightning bolt to strike him just so he would have to be quiet. “She is finding her way,” Morpheus said at last.
“Luna? This whole convoluted thing is over her?”
“She is being trained into a warrior, one who will help us win once and for all. Trouble is coming, trouble we have yet to see. You must believe in me, in the cause, if we are to overcome.”
“But she’s on the other side,” Max said, curling his fingers so hard into fists that his nails cut into his palms. “How can you look the other way while Keeper after Keeper falls because of her and her family? If you’re doing this on purpose, then what of her infant? Who’s to watch him?”
“He’s in good hands now,” Morpheus said.
“What are we supposed to do then? Just sit back and wait?” Max demanded.
“Have faith,” Morpheus replied, and then the rumbling disappeared, leaving Max in the quiet of his own frustrated sobs.
Chapter Forty-Nine
THE NEXT DAY, none of them were ready to try and test Luna’s magic again, but they did anyway, going through the same routine that they had the previous day. Reese sat on the edge of the bed, Chance nestled against Luna’s hip as Reese and Luna held their palms together. This time, instead of gasping for air, Reese passed out completely, slumping across the bed like a sack of potatoes. Wide-eyed, Luna turned to Chance.
“What does this mean?” she asked, wondering if she should try to give Reese CPR or let whatever would happen, happen.
Chance shrugged, trying to not let his lips curve in amusement. “I think it means you won.”
Luna pursed her lips, glancing back down at the unmoving figure on the bed. Everyone had told her for years that she had power, but she had never seen it for herself. She certainly didn’t feel powerful, she didn’t feel special, but Reese’s reaction wasn’t something that could be faked like words. He was really unconscious from whatever she had done.
There was no ignoring that.
Chance reached out, perhaps sensing the tension in her head, and wrapped his fingers around her hand, squeezing it slightly. Luna didn’t bother to pull away, she let him hold her hand, taking what little bit of comfort she could from the gesture. They were silent as they waited for Reese to come back to consciousness, and when he did, he lifted a hand to the back of his head and stared at her. “Your magic is unblocked.”
Luna squinted her eyebrows. “Wait what?”
“Just like that?” Chance asked.
Both him and Luna stared at Reese with matching expressions of confusion. It didn’t make sense. How could they be blocked beyond use one day and ready for takeoff the next?
“How is this possible?” Chance demanded, staring Reese directly in the eyes in a way that showed he wouldn’t accept just any answer.
Reese shrugged and looked away, skin crawling from the intensity of Chance’s stare. “Luck of the draw?”
Chance opened his mouth but didn’t speak. None them did—it was as if they had forgotten how to. They all knew luck wasn’t the right answer, that it couldn’t be right, because none of them had any luck. That was why they were on the path that they were.
“My powers can’t just come like that…can they?” Luna asked, holding up a hand to stare at the lines in her palm.
“I didn’t think so, but seeing is believing,” Reese said.
“Should we go back?” Luna asked Chance.
He looked like he was about to argue, about to say how ridiculous it all was, when a voice cut him off.
“How’s it going?” Cody asked as he stepped into the room, hood pulled over his head.
Chance casted him a sideways glance. “Ever heard of knocking?”
“Come on, we’re all friends here,” Cody said and smiled a haunting smile full of glistening white teeth. None of them said a word as they looked back at him so Cody said, “How’s the training coming along? We don’t have much time, you know.”
“I’m ready to try again,” Luna said before Reese or Chance could intervene.
“Is that right?” Cody asked, seeming both pleased and surprised by the lack of a fight.
“Mm-hmm,” Luna said, pushing her way past Chance and Reese to get off of the bed.
It wasn’t so much that she was eager or excited for whatever it was that lie before her as it was that she was ready to get it over and done with. If she healed the man Cody put so much stock into, her favor would be repaid—logically he couldn’t ask her for anything else. Now that she knew better, she would never let herself be in his graces again.
“Don’t you want to clean yourself up first?” Chance asked, narrowing his eyes at her.
She looked at him over his shoulder, knowing what he was doing. He was stalling for time, trying to pull her away from Cody so he could talk to her, so he could question her most likely, but she wasn’t in the mood for it.
“I’m sure Cody has something for me to wear,” she said with a shrug and turned away.
Cody looked even more smug for how easily Luna had brushed away Chance’s concerns. As Luna followed Cody out into the hall, Chance and Reese stayed behind on the bed. Fear caused
her heart to pound, and she locked eyes with Chance for a fleeting second before the doorframe hid him from sight.
He’s not coming with us, she realized and hated herself for the mistake she had just made.
Now that it was just her and Cody, she felt more alone than she had in a while.
Don’t think about it, she scolded herself. You’re going to be fine. This is going to be fine.
Cody’s large hand rested on her back, and she tensed under the touch. Her mind flashed back to when she had been pregnant, when Cody had wanted to kill her before she had ever said a word to him. It was funny how in the span of a couple of weeks, everything could change—though she wouldn’t necessarily say this was for the better.
When it’s over and done with it will be, Luna thought and watched as Cody pulled the familiar crystal from his pocket.
They transported to the Compound in the blink of an eye. Before they went inside, Cody turned to look at her. There was something unnerving about his eyes when they searched hers, and Luna hugged herself closer, forcing herself to stare back.
“Now that we’re alone, I will ask you one question before we go inside. What is that ring?” Cody wondered, voice cold, and Luna tensed at his words.
How to answer?
“It’s not a real engagement ring,” Cody cut in before she could say a word. “I know that. It’s a tracker, right? Chance’s way of keeping an eye on you without seeming like he was?”
Luna stayed silent because she didn’t know what she could say that Cody hadn’t already.
“I can take it off for you, if you want.”
Luna resisted the urge to look at him, finding it more comforting to stare off into the distance of the creepy woods instead. After all her failed attempts to take it off herself, she had believed Chance when he said he was the only one who could remove it.
“You could do that?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady, firm.
“Yes,” he said, voice just as emotionless.
“At the cost of another favor, right?” Luna asked, slightly irritated. The first favor was hard enough to work off, not to mention the feeling in her gut that Cody hadn’t been completely honest about the Rosebone.