Devoted

by Hilary Duff

  “She’d be setting them up for tomorrow,” Mother said with a smile. “The full moon comes out tonight.”

  twenty

  * * *

  I HAD BEEN STARING at my ceiling in a catatonic daze for several hours when Rayna pushed open the door.

  Her arrival didn’t stop me.

  “Clea, come on! Nico and I are kidnapping you. We know you’ve been working hard on stuff, but it’s a beautiful day and you deserve a break, so we’re dragging you out for a ride.”

  “There’s nothing to take a break from,” I said dully to the ceiling. “I’m done.”

  Rayna picked her way past the ream of photo printouts thrown everywhere across the floor. Nico stayed in the doorway. “You’re done cleaning, that’s for sure,” Rayna said. “Come on, let’s go.”

  “It’s over,” I said.

  “Clea?”

  I turned to face her and she got a good look in my eyes. Immediately she sat at the edge of my bed, her voice full of concern.

  “My God . . . Clea, what’s wrong?” She turned back to Nico. “Nico, I’m sorry, will you—”

  “No,” I said. “He can hear. He should know too.”

  Rayna looked confused but didn’t press me about why. She just listened, and I told her everything.

  She’s a good friend. By the time I was done, she looked as stricken as I felt.

  “Oh, Clea . . . But it can’t—”

  “He’s not in the pictures anymore. None of them.” I looked at Nico. “I’m sorry.”

  His head was bowed. Despite the complications, me leading the CV to Sage had been his best hope for a normal life.

  “Not your fault,” he said.

  Rayna looked back and forth between us.

  “I don’t understand. . . .”

  “Rayna,” Nico said. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  twenty-one

  * * *

  No, no, no, no, no, no!

  Tonight? The full moon was tonight?!

  I had until midnight. That’s it. But I couldn’t do anything on my own. Mother had acted loving and happy to see me, but she also turned up the second I said Clea’s name. I’d be a fool to think she wasn’t on high alert and watching me.

  If Clea and the CV were going to come, they had to come immediately. But after what Clea had seen, would she do it? Even if she would, how could I tell her where to go without Mother picking up on it?

  I could go right to the CV and tell them, but they had no idea who I was, and I couldn’t make it clear without being explicit enough to get Mother’s attention.

  My family was very busy that day, working with the Saviors to prepare and celebrate. I joined in wholeheartedly, but inwardly I racked my brains for something I could do.

  It came to me in the late afternoon.

  There was someone else in Clea’s story.

  I’d heard Mother talk about him. He’d been part of her plan, but she didn’t see him as anything but a peripheral player, a planet in orbit around their twin stars.

  He knew things though . . . enough that he could help. . . .

  If he wanted to.

  It was a big “if.”

  I couldn’t try him right away, though. I had to wait for just the right moment, when I had the best chance of not being discovered.

  It didn’t happen until seven in the evening. Five hours before midnight. We were in the living room of the inn. It was large and cozy, with several couches, chairs, and tables surrounding a large fireplace. A bearskin rug draped the floor. Most of the Saviors were present. Lila was not. She was let go after Sage broke his bond with Clea. Lila had earned both her exorbitant fee and an extra bonus for her silence, and was quite happily long gone. She had no idea that several Saviors considered her a threat because she knew too much, and planned to hunt her down once they were immortal and free from human consequences.

  The Saviors not in the living room were on security detail. Several had been dispatched to the roof with binoculars and guns. Several others were guarding Sage, waiting to drag him back to the rock altar and chain him up.

  In the living room, my family gave the remaining Saviors what they needed most: encouragement and reassurance that immortality was just around the corner. We appeared in physical form and answered their endless questions.

  When I saw that everyone—especially Mother—was deep in conversation and firmly tied to the spot, I finally split my consciousness.

  A moment after the splintered part of me arrived, I heard a wicked laugh behind me. “Going somewhere?”

  I spun around and smiled. “Mommy! You can do it now!”

  She had ached to be able to split her consciousness like I could. Apparently she’d been determined enough to make it happen.

  “Mm-hm,” she said darkly. “And just in time, too.”

  “You’re right. I’m so glad you’re here with me!”

  That’s when Mother looked around and realized we were in our safe house, with our glass-encased bodies.

  “I wanted to watch us,” I said. “I wanted to see that last second before we come back.”

  A shadow passed over Mother’s face. She was sure she’d catch me trying to stop the ceremony, but I was doing something completely innocent.

  “That’s a lovely idea, Amelia,” she said. “How about I stay here and watch with you?”

  “Will you?”

  I asked like it would make me the happiest girl in the world.

  It would.

  It gave me the chance to do something she had no idea I could do.

  Even as I stood in the living room of the inn and the secret room of the safe house . . . I split my consciousness a second time, and sent a part of myself to visit Clea’s friend Ben.

  I knew where he lived. The Saviors had a full dossier on Clea and everyone in her circle, and I’d helped myself to the information. I hoped he’d be home. If he wasn’t, I’d be in trouble.

  He was home. I found him wearing a towel, standing in front of his bedroom mirror. His hair was wet, and steam poured out of the bathroom from his just-finished shower.

  “‘Body of a superhero,’ you say?” he said, flexing his pecs. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I mean, sure, I work out, but I can’t call myself a man of steel or anything.” He turned and flexed his back, twisting his head so he could see the full effect in the mirror. “Maybe a man of bronze . . .”

  “Hello,” I said in his ear. I didn’t want to say his name. Even split in two, Mother might have picked up on it and been pulled to me.

  Ben jumped and nearly lost his towel. I probably could have made things easier by manifesting physically, but I was already in two other places, one of them in human form. If I did that here as well, I’d risk losing strength, and I had so much more to do.

  “There’s not much time. My name’s Amelia. Someone—please don’t say her name because people might be listening—might have told you about me. I appeared in a field with my family. I’m seven in mortal years . . . and about twenty-five hundred in immortal ones.”

  Ben’s eyes grew wide and he sat on his bed, unable to keep his feet.

  “You know who I am?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “I mean, no . . . who are you?”

  There was no time to explain, but I could try another way. It was something I’d never done before, but like many of our psychic skills when they first evolved, I suddenly had the sense I could do it.

  I could tell Ben everything in an instant—at the speed of thought—“downloading” the relevant parts of my mind to his. I’d leave out the most sensitive information—anything that might be a beacon to Mother, in case she could tune in to this as well.

  Ben was already sitting. As he understood everything that was happening, he fell back onto the bed and pulled the pillow over his face, completely overwhelmed.

  I had chosen the wrong person. He couldn’t help, and now it was too late to go to someone else.

  Then he muttered, “You didn’t t
ell me where to find him.”

  “What?”

  “Him,” he said. “I’m not supposed to say the name with you around, in case she’s listening. I need to know where to find him.”

  “You are going to help!”

  “I have to.”

  Well, no, technically, he didn’t, but I didn’t think he was talking about being compelled against his will. He had to because the world would go to hell if he didn’t. Of course, that hadn’t stopped other people from doing the wrong thing. Like my family, for example.

  I also could tell there were deeper reasons he wanted to help. More personal. I had chosen wisely. Ben was a good person.

  “I can’t tell you where. For the same reason we can’t say the name. You know that now, right?”

  “Yes, but . . . if I can’t do anything in time, why tell me?”

  “You can. There’s a connection there. Not like the one that was severed—it won’t stop things—but if I strengthen it, it will lead you where you need to go.”

  “You can do that?”

  “I believe I can.”

  “But then . . . why wouldn’t you have done it before, with . . . her?”

  “I didn’t have the power. Or if I did, I didn’t know it. That’s how it works, being like this. We can’t do things, or there are things we don’t even consider possible . . . and then we get stronger and make more synaptic connections . . . and they’re there. I believe I can do this, but I’ll have to rest after, so you won’t hear me. Oh, and it might hurt.”

  “How badly?”

  “A pinch. Like getting a shot.”

  “I pass out when I get shots.”

  “Then maybe not like that. I’ve never had a shot, so it’s hard to say. I’ve also never had this done to me, so . . . maybe just stay lying down, just in case.”

  He did, and even more than when I downloaded my thoughts into his, I moved my consciousness into his mind. I tried not to make any sudden movements in there. I remembered the squeezing sensation my mother created in my brain, and how long it took me to recover. I tiptoed gently until I found the connection I needed to enhance. Then I concentrated . . . enlarging it and strengthening it until the whimpering moans from the bed told me I had done as much as Ben could take.

  It was just as well. I was exhausted. I needed to stay strong in my two other spots to keep my cover, and I had to be rested and ready for what would come later . . . if Ben could succeed.

  It was time to go.

  twenty-two

  * * *

  I LIKED NICO. I hoped he could avoid the curse long enough to find another way to end it.

  After our conversation, he told Rayna everything, although I think she mainly heard the part about him being completely in love with her. He’d been living under a cloud his whole life, he said, and loving her gave him a reason to want a future.

  It was tragic and beautiful. I felt happy for them. However long they had, they would make the most of it. Maybe even more than they would otherwise, because they knew there was a good shot it couldn’t last. Their love would stay as intense as it was right now, and they’d squeeze every bit of rapture out of each second together, because they wouldn’t take it for granted.

  It reminded me of what I’d had with Sage . . . before.

  Now he’d cut ties so he could be with Lila.

  How was it affecting him? Did he think of me? Did he remember everything the way I did? Did I even matter to him anymore? Or since he was the one to make the choice, was it over for him . . . like an old girlfriend he’d maybe friend on Facebook one day but didn’t matter in his new life?

  After their conversation, Rayna and Nico went away. They invited me to come with them, but I didn’t want to. Staying in bed seemed a much better option. Maybe forever. Rayna thought the occasion warranted the drama, so she left me to it . . . for a few hours. Around six thirty she and Nico came back with pizza, sodas, and a stack of DVDs. I might be taking to my bed, but I wouldn’t be doing it alone.

  About an hour into a perfectly absurd and blissfully not romantic comedy, my door opened.

  It was Ben.

  I wanted to pull the covers over my face and disappear, but that wouldn’t be fair. I’d messed up horribly, and I had to face him.

  “Clea . . .”

  That’s when I noticed how pale he was.

  “Ben?”

  “It’s Sage. I know where he is.”

  twenty-three

  * * *

  It was just about time.

  The déjà vu was overwhelming.

  There had been no grand celebration this time, just the group of us in the living room. Mother and I were also with our bodies at the safe house, but only the two of us knew that.

  At exactly eleven thirty, the Saviors rose and trooped outside. We followed.

  It was just like before. The large Stonehenge-like boulders. The tiki torches. The ceremonial fire. The display of tokens from the human world. The pure silver bowl.

  Sage, shirtless, chained to the altar. Five men with Tasers flanked him now, not just two. This time he didn’t struggle.

  Mother told me that once the bond with Clea was broken, they stopped giving Sage the drugs that kept him open to suggestion. He was allowed to understand the enormity of the choice he had made, what would happen next, and how he had been fooled. Losing Clea didn’t have the emotional impact it might have once had, but the knowledge that he’d been used and defeated by his own weakness . . . that shut him down.

  I was so tired. Tired from separating into three, tired from enhancing Ben’s mind, tired from keeping my truest thoughts tucked away from Mother.

  I hoped Ben was on his way . . . and that I’d have some strength left to help him if he needed me.

  twenty-four

  * * *

  BEN DROVE THE CAR.

  I sat in the passenger seat. Nico rode in back.

  Rayna had wanted to come, but Nico wouldn’t let her. He said he’d rather die than see her in danger. No matter what happened, he said, he wanted any time he had left to be spent with her, and he couldn’t guarantee that unless she waited for him at home.

  Then he kissed her as if it were the last moment in both their lives.

  Pretty powerful stuff. She agreed to stay behind.

  Nico had invited another woman to come along, though. The minute we left, he called Sloane with an update. After my and Ben’s visit, she and a battalion of around twenty CV members had apparently relocated from Cincinnati to a base closer to my house. That way they’d be ready to fall in and give chase at a moment’s notice . . . which is what they were doing now.

  They had to follow us, rather than just join us wherever we were going, because Ben didn’t know what our destination was. The tweak that Amelia had made to his brain allowed him to lock in on Sage’s location and be drawn there like a magnet, but he couldn’t say where that location might be. He was running on pure instinct, but he was positive he was beelining us toward Sage.

  Sage.

  How had I gotten everything so wrong?

  Time is short . . . , the message on my computer had said, and apparently it was shorter now than ever. Ben hadn’t explained anything back at the house. He just said a young friend of mine had come and told him everything, nothing was what we’d thought it had been, and we had to leave immediately. He was surprised when Nico jumped up to come with us, but all I had to say was “Charlie Victor” and he understood.

  After hours in the car, Ben had told me the whole story. About Amelia and her family. About the Saviors’ quest for immortality and the terrible things they’d do once they had it.

  And about Sage: tortured, drugged, his mind altered by suggestions he couldn’t fight off, seduced by an actress playing a role. Yet he fought back . . . until he saw me with Ben.

  I had been Sage’s key to staying alive. The Saviors’ plan couldn’t have worked if he stayed tied to humanity.

  I’d had the power to save him . . . and I threw it away. The b
ond between us had already paid the price. Now he’d pay with his life and his soul. He wouldn’t be alone. The whole world would suffer because of my lack of faith.

  The clock on the dashboard read 11:35. Twenty-five minutes until midnight, and not even Ben knew exactly how close or far we were from our destination.

  I couldn’t live with myself if we failed.

  twenty-five

  * * *

  Ben was close.

  I could feel it. It was a mortal feeling—not like the way it usually felt when I used my enhanced mental powers. This felt like intuition . . . which I suppose is the mortal form of what we do.

  It had been several hours since I’d worked with Ben’s mind. I’d had time to recover. I was still holding on to consciousness in two different places—the safe house with Mother and the ceremony site with everyone—but I was feeling stronger. Strong enough to go to the roof and do something about the guards. I needed them out of the way so Ben and whoever was with him would have safe passage.

  I split off a third piece of my consciousness and sent it there.

  Immediately I knew I’d made a huge mistake.

  “So. I was right about you.”

  It was a voice I’d once loved more than life itself, but it now both sickened and terrified me.

  Mother was there on the roof.

  “Very clever, keeping me busy in the safe house so you could sneak up here. I’m sure you didn’t imagine I could be in three places. You probably thought two was a stretch for me.”

  “Of course not, Mommy. I—”

  “Don’t even try it, Amelia. It’s over. I’ve been waiting on this roof from the minute these guards were posted, knowing you’d try something like this.

  I tried to give off waves of “terrified.” It’s what she’d expect and want. The truth, however, is I was relieved. If she’d been up here that long, she was already split in three when I went to see Ben. She might have more skills than I’d imagined, but there was no way she could have split in fourths. She caught me coming to check out the guards, yes, but she didn’t know about Ben. He might have a chance.