Siren Rises (The Rise of Ares Book 3)

by Jade Frances

  While everyone had started busying themselves, I had been looking for Quinn. He was notably absent. I scanned the ridges a final time and just caught the tail end of him ducking into one of the caves. What is he up to? Rather than bother anyone else, I chose to slink off and follow him. I had been so angry with him for taking Athora’s life, that I hadn’t stopped to think that he was the only one who came out of it unscathed. I hadn’t noticed one scratch or bite mark on him. But then I hadn’t been looking at the time. I ducked through the opening he took; it was dark, and I couldn’t see further than my arm. Turn back, leave him, I thought to myself, but curiosity got the better of me.

  I made my way through slowly and tried to remain as quiet as possible. The cave took a turn and I rounded it without looking first. Glowing blue eyes made me stop in my tracks. A memory flashed through my mind. I was on the floor at the academy. The skin walkers were attacking. But the one that had me had blue eyes, human eyes. It didn’t try to kill me. Instead, it ran into the forest.

  My hand flew to my mouth, but a gasp still escaped.

  “It was you, you were there...” I stuttered. I felt him change, and the surge of energy it took. I started to back up. Part of me wanted to turn and run, but I couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t attack.

  “Evangeline, now hold on, I can explain...”

  “That’s exactly what Athora said, before you killed her,” I was shaking now, and it reflected in my voice.

  “No really, I mean you no harm. I haven’t lied to you about that.”

  I continued to step backward, each one getting me further away from him. In this darkness all I could see were his eyes, when he blinked, he disappeared. He’s got an advantage in here with his wolf vision. Did he lure me in?

  “Why did you come through here?”

  “I have to meet someone,” he replied, I could hear his footsteps edging toward me.

  “Who?”

  It wasn’t his voice that replied, it was someone else. Someone far more dangerous.

  “What kind of welcome is that, Evangeline.”

  Chapter 15

  “How are you and my treacherous son getting along? A happy family, so I am told...” his voice reached me clearly through the darkness.

  Sod it if you get attacked, run. I spun around fast and darted for the exit. Only to collide with an invisible barrier.

  “No,” I screamed and rammed my shoulder into it. I’m sick of these sodding barriers! I winced in pain as I pulled back, my shirt was shredded, and I had forgotten about the cuts and scrapes from the pixies.

  “No use doing that, I only wish to talk, just a moment of your time,” Aresollo was closer now. I looked up at Quinn, who I could see more clearly in the small slither of light that bled through from the exit.

  “You betrayed me,” I whispered.

  “No, no, I didn’t. Listen, he wants to help, The Veil is disbanded, he wants Ares gone as much as you. He only raised him for his power and that failed...” he leaned down and spoke in a hushed tone. When Aresollo’s footsteps reached us, he shuffled away from me and cast his eyes to the ground. I can’t believe he did this. He set me up. My pulse was racing, and my palms were getting sweaty. Keep it together Evangeline, you are strong, I told myself, even if in that moment I didn’t feel it.

  “Evangeline, you are the only one who can acquire the scythe from the waters it lives in. I cannot go in, I am tainted. You, however, have never taken an innocent life. All I wish is to help you unlock its powers, only then can you defeat Ares.”

  I held my hands over my ears. I was in a nightmare, I had to be. Maybe it was the aftereffects of that drink Miles had given me.

  “Just leave me alone, you don’t want to help. You’re evil and twisted,” I yelled. Why are the others not coming?

  “I prefer to think of myself as a self-preservationist. Nonetheless, you will need me, you will see...”

  His footsteps began to retreat back down the dark passage. The cave didn’t seem as dark with each step he took, the shadows less foreboding. Never once had he taken a step into the light where I could see him.

  “Stay with them, I will meet you at the falls...” I heard him whisper to someone else. How many of them are in here? Quinn had said The Veil had been disbanded.

  Energy vibrated behind me and the barrier dropped. Whoever it was, I wasn’t sticking around to find out. I made a run for it. When I reached the exit of the cave, I took a look back. They hadn’t followed me closely, but I could hear the oncoming footsteps of Quinn and whoever he was with.

  “Pearce, Adam,” I screamed and gripped the sides of the opening. I pushed myself out of it and into the open. They were with me in seconds, right in time to see Quinn and Ava step into the light. Adam growled and changed into his wolf form. I felt Pearce’s energy shake the stone around us.

  “I wouldn’t bother with any of that nonsense,” Ava said and swished her hand in the air. She had changed. She looked cleaner for a start. But there was something else... something about her that was different. She seemed older, wiser even. She took a step toward me. I stood still, rooted to the spot. Seeing her in the other realm had been one thing, but having her stand before me, flesh and bone, I hated her. Some part of me felt responsible for the way she had turned out, but the guilt didn’t over-weigh my anger.

  “Leave us,” I told the guys. When they didn’t move, I shouted it again. Both Adam and Pearce moved away, but only a little. Quinn retreated back into the shadows of the cave where I hoped he would stay and never appear again. “What are you doing here?” I snarled at Ava.

  “We are here to help, that’s all,” she reached out a hand to touch my arm. I batted it away, hard.

  “Don’t you dare touch me!”

  Her bravado faltered, and she looked hurt. She looked like the young girl that I had loved and cared for.

  “We were friends, Evvy. I wouldn’t hurt you. We really are here to help,” she glanced behind me and her eyebrows creased. “You and your gang have welcomed Cole more than you ever did me. Why is he so special?” Her voice turned whiny and juvenile. She hadn’t changed that much.

  “He never betrayed me!” I shouted, which was only going to give her the reaction she wanted. The only feasible option here was to walk away. Ava had chosen her path, and it wasn’t by my side. No amount of words was going to change that. Her actions, I couldn’t forgive. But then there was Aresollo... they wouldn’t leave us alone. I turned my back to her. I needed to talk to the others, I needed to get away from her. I had taken a couple of steps away when she whispered.

  “I didn’t betray you, Evvy, I just saw a different future...”

  A haze of red crossed my vision. Before I knew it, I had spun back around and leaped toward her. I grabbed her by the throat and pinned her to the wall of the cave.

  “A future where Taylor died,” I growled. Her eyes widened and fear took precedence in them. Good. “You let those creatures into the academy, you gave them the chance to attack us, you left us fighting for our lives. And now he’s gone. You did that. And you expect me to believe that you and Aresollo are here to help? Do you think I’m that naïve?”

  She gulped and gasped for air. Her face was turning a deep shade of purple. She’s just a child, I reminded myself. Conflict raged inside me; she might be a child, but she made an adult decision when she betrayed me. I flung her to the side and let go of her. She crumpled and folded in on herself. “Do not come near me. Do not talk to me. Do not look at me. Run along back to your master,” I snapped and stalked away, leaving her sobbing on the floor. I felt no guilt for attacking her that way, she had cost us a life, and I would never let it happen again.

  “Leave her,” I snapped when I heard Quinn make his way from the cave. I didn’t need to turn around to know that he would have listened to me, partly. I walked over to Sandra and Rosemary, who were both glaring past me.

  “What in God’s name is she doing here?” Sandra had a hint of hysteria in her voice.

  “S
tay calm, you need to heal,” Rose told her and pushed her back down to a laying position. She huffed in response, but let Rose guide her. I watched as she shuffled and stared up, not meeting our eyes.

  “It’s her fault he isn’t here anymore,” she whispered as a single tear dropped down her cheek. I gripped her hand tight and said nothing for a moment. I could only hope that this wouldn’t set her back in her grieving process.

  “She won’t be here for long,” I assured her. I looked around at the guardians, who were standing in the corner whispering among themselves. “I’ll be right back,” I told Rose.

  “You’re not going after him,” I said to the three of them as I approached. They each turned to look at me, their expressions were stony.

  “We have to,” Pearce said and reached for my hand. I pulled away.

  “No, you don’t. I know where he is going, and it’s where we will be headed. You can deal with him there,” I stared each of them down, daring them to argue with me. One by one, they averted their eyes to the ground.

  “Can you give us a minute?” Pearce asked his brothers. They nodded and walked away, I watched them head straight for the girls. “We can’t just let him roam free Evangeline, we need to act first before anyone else gets hurt, or worse,” he said. I sighed and looked into his grey eyes.

  “He’s weak Pearce, he has always been weak. That’s why he hid behind The Veil for so long. He needed all of those followers and the elders. He can be beaten Pearce, but without bloodshed this time. No one else dies.”

  Pearce nodded slowly; he was having a hard time digesting my words. Act first, think later. That, I had observed, had been more Pearce’s style, and usually mine. More often than not, I had thrown myself into situations before taking a step back to look at the bigger picture, or the consequences. But this time, we had to think, to pause, no one else could lose their life for a war we didn’t even want to be a part of. My mind wandered back to the academy, and the explosion that had happened before we left. Innocent people were dying in a war that had little meaning other than power and control. “We won’t survive this, Pearce, if we go into battle with every enemy that stands in the way. We have the strength and numbers to contain them, we can call others to help.” Even as I said it, I glanced around at our scattered group and knew different. With Sandra injured, and everyone’s fatigue setting in, it felt like our days were numbered. Spirits were low, and I wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t start changing their mind about the journey.

  “Ok. I know that look Evangeline, you’re not doing this alone,” Pearce gripped my chin. “We are with you, all the way to the end.”

  A tear slid down my cheek.

  “I’m scared Pearce, he’s here somewhere, and we are going to have to face him, again. They can’t be trusted. I can’t lose anyone else, none of us can.”

  Pearce pulled me into his arms and held me there while I silently sobbed. When I eventually pulled back, I wiped my face down and looked up at him.

  “You are so strong Evangeline, you are the glue that holds us all together. Don’t forget that you need to feel too, lean on us sometimes,” his eyes glistened with admiration that I didn’t feel I deserved.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled, and gave him a kiss. It was sweet and chaste. “I have to talk to Cole, I can only imagine how he would be feeling.”

  “Want me to come with you?”

  I shook my head and gave him a weak smile.

  Cole wasn’t easy to find. Adam said he had slipped away after Ava had appeared. It took me ages to find him, hunkered down in a gap between ridges. I stood for a moment and just looked at him. He had such a big build and was a lot taller than me, but his face showed his youth. I knelt down and shuffled in closer to him.

  “How are you holding up?”

  He looked at me, a mixture of emotions was splayed across his face.

  “He’s here, isn’t he?” He laid his head on his knees, but his eyes never left mine. I nodded.

  “I’ll protect you,” I told him and placed my hand on his shoulder. The action was awkward in the tight space.

  “It’s yourself you need to protect. He isn’t interested in me, he never had been... until he wanted to try my blood.”

  “Do you want to talk about it? We haven’t really spoken about anything,” I asked quietly. I didn’t want to push, but it was hard to form a bond with someone you didn’t know at all. He shook his head in response.

  We sat there for a while, in silence. I could see the others handing out food and whispering to each other. Ava and Quinn had remained near the cave entrance. They were both nervously glancing at the others and made no move to join them.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t help you in the world between worlds... I was scared,” Cole whispered. “I ran, I didn’t know what to do. Aresollo didn’t know that I had, when he found me after... he was furious. He dragged me back there to look at the damage that had been done. Time and time again he dragged me back to look at the fallen bodies. ‘You need to harden yourself, son, to see the future that is ours to take,’ he would say...” Cole paused, lost in the memories. I stayed silent, eager to hear what he wanted to tell me. “The last time we went, he hit me so hard that blood sprayed from my mouth into water. It started bubbling. That’s when he knew that my blood, mixed with yours and his, might have been enough to rise Ares.”

  I shuddered at the thought of what he went through. When he had fallen through the portal at Taylor’s funeral, he had been covered in lacerations. Far more and far worse than what I had endured.

  “This has never been about me. Everything rests on you, and he knows it. He won’t hurt you. Can you promise me one thing?”

  “That depends on what you ask, and whether you will give the others a chance to get to know you. Adam wasn’t as integrated before; he was an outsider. Just try to get to know them?”

  “It’s not exactly the time to get to know people Evangeline… but yes, I’ll try.” He stopped speaking and took my hands in his, I could see so much of myself in him. We had missed so much of each other’s lives, I couldn’t help but think of what our lives would have been like, had we been raised in a normal family.

  “You have to promise, that you will work on merging the darkness inside you. Evangeline, without doing it, you will die if you try to use the scythe.”

  Chapter 16

  After mine and Cole's talk, we had set up camp for the night. Not one of us had gotten a decent sleep, though. All through the night, you could hear the shuffles and groans of people trying to get comfortable or frustrated that they couldn’t. We set off early morning, trekking through the mountain with no real sense of direction. I was walking with Adam; the others were close behind. Quinn and Ava had held back a fair bit, not daring to join the group. I wished they would just leave us, go their own way. When we had been packing up, I caught Quinn looking at me a few times, he looked remorseful. Ava just looked like she wanted to get out of there.

  “We can’t just keep walking without knowing where to go,” Adam paused and grabbed my arm, pulling me from my thoughts. I sighed and stopped; he was right.

  “I don’t know how to find what we are looking for, when no one knows where it is,” I told him. “Wait… Aresollo told Ava to meet him at the falls…” I stormed back without waiting for him to respond. I passed the group who hastily moved out of my way and stopped right in front of Ava.

  “Where do we go from here?” I snapped.

  “Oh, am I allowed to speak to you now?” she replied back. I was not in the mood for her schoolgirl attitude. I growled and turned to walk away. Back to the drawing board it was. “Ok, wait… I know how to get to the falls. Just follow me,” she whispered and made her way to the front of the group. She didn’t look at anyone as she passed them, she kept her head low and her eyes to the ground. Quinn opened his mouth to speak.

  “Don’t bother,” I told him, and made my way through the group again. Rose grabbed me on the way past.

  “Are you sure it’s a
good idea to follow her Evvy? Who knows what she could be leading us into?”

  “We don’t really have any other option, Rose. If Aresollo knows where the scythe is, he will get their first anyway, especially with us wandering around like headless chickens.” She released my arm and went back to support Sandra. She was healing, but not fast, and I was starting to think we shouldn’t have her with us. God only knew what we were going to come up against. “Rose,” I called her back, “do you think… maybe it’s a good idea to get Sandra out of here? I’m sure Egan would take her back to the small town and protect her.”

  “Not a chance Evvy, and don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Sandra shouted causing everyone to turn and stare, “I am in this until the bitter end, now let’s go.” I watched, in awe of her fearless demeanour, as she hobbled forward after Ava. Rose took off after her, ducking under one of her arms and taking the majority of her weight. It surprised me to see Sandra comply. Pearce held back to wait for me, a small smile on his face at Sandra’s remarks.

  “It was a good idea, but you didn’t really think she would be ok with that, did you?” he asked, his eyes alight with amusement. It was the most normal we had felt in days. I cracked a smile back and shrugged.

  “Was worth a shot,” I said and took his hand in mine. I laid my head on his shoulders as we walked in silence. Sandra and Dakota were laughing at something between them, leaving poor Rose to look around as if she wasn’t there. Adam, Barak, and Egan had pulled back to walk behind Quinn, there was no reason to trust him now. I stared at the back of Ava’s head, who confidently walked through the passages and took each turn with firm resolution. For ages we walked, and I allowed my mind to wander to a vision of a peaceful future.

  We were back at Moorway House, all of us together. The sun shone brightly on the vast grounds that stretched around it. Even the wooded areas didn’t seem so dark anymore. The place was hustling with people and music. Pearce was on the barbecue; children ran around his feet and I could see the slight irritation it was causing him. Rose and Barak were arm and arm, wandering near the forest edge. Sandra was sitting at a table bench with Darryl, laughing. She had her glow back; her hair was shiny, and she bore no signs of injury. Dakota and Adam were bringing out dish after dish of delicious food. I could smell it wafting through the air. Peace. Family. I stood on the side lines and watched on in contentment. Pearce turned to look at me, his eyes met mine and my heart swelled. He looked relaxed; his smile only made him more handsome. He motioned for me to go to him. I ran and launched myself into his arms, nearly knocking him into the barbecue. He laughed and set me back down on the ground. I wrapped my arms around him and laid my head on his chest.