by Kim Liggett
“I’m not just a Mixed. I’m half Alonso’s blood, too. It will work.” He gazed down at me, lips parted.
“And then what?” I gasped. He didn’t understand what being a vessel really meant. He couldn’t.
“You and I can walk the corn together as immortals. We can fight her. I know we can.”
“No,” I whispered, thinking it would be just as wretched for him to be Alonso as it was for me to be Katia. “I can’t do that to you.”
“You can’t or you won’t?” Dane asked, his eyes welling up with tears.
A long moment of torturous silence stretched between us.
I watched him staring down at the still-gaping wound in my chest and I couldn’t help thinking of Coronado overpowering Katia. “You could take it, you know. I wouldn’t stop you.”
“I would never do that.” He looked shocked, like I’d just slapped him hard across the face. “It’s yours to give, not mine to take.”
The gash in my chest surged shut. Dane opened a flask of water from his pack and poured the tepid liquid over my chest, washing the blood from my skin.
“Ashlyn”—he gathered my hands in his—“I’ll take your brother and Beth to safety. All I ask in return is one more night with you. Just the two of us. At first light, if you still won’t bind to me, I’ll leave you in peace. I promise. At the very least, we can say good-bye.”
I watched the last tendril of blood disappear into the soil and I knew it wouldn’t be long until I disappeared forever.
And I didn’t want to be alone anymore.
42
ALONE TOGETHER
QUIET BUT PRESENT, Dane led me through the wooded pines on the eastern shore, until we reached the clearing—Heartbreak Tree.
I knew what it meant. Why he brought me here.
As he held the branches open for me, I brushed past him. A prickling rush of heat swept over my body. I leaned back against the gnarled gray trunk, hoping the cool bark would extinguish the wildfire running rampant across my skin, but when he leaned into me, kissing my neck, a euphoric wave washed over me. Blood bound or not, Dane was under my skin. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to walk away from him. Not now. Not ever.
“Please bind to me,” he whispered in my ear.
“Why would you want this?” I broke away from him before I burst into flames. “Why would you want to be blood bound?”
He caught my hand. The end of the ribbon tied around my wrist coiled around his.
“For you. I’d do it for you. Think about it, we’d live forever, walk the world together, walk through time. If I’m blood bound to you, nothing will be able to separate us. Not even death.”
“But we won’t be us anymore. You won’t be Dane and I won’t be Ash. We’ll be Katia and Alonso.”
“I don’t believe that.” He moved closer. “I’ve always been able to pull you back from Katia. Together, we have a chance. We can overpower her . . . and Alonso.”
“And what if you’re wrong?” I untangled his wrist from the ribbon.
“Do you feel this?” He pulled me close, running his fingers lightly down my spine. “How can a feeling like this disappear? There must be a way for us to hold on to each other, through our blood. I won’t lose you.”
It took every bit of willpower I had to pry myself away from him. “What about my brother and Beth and everyone else? If we fail, they’ll never get out.”
“I can get them through the corn and make it back in time for the ritual.” He brushed my hair from my shoulders.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t risk it. I can’t bring you down with me.” I thought about what it felt like being in Katia’s head as she nudged Marie’s body over the edge of the chasm and I shuddered. “If things go wrong, we won’t be able to take it back.”
He grabbed my arms, eyes blazing. “If this is some noble attempt at saving me, you’re too late. I haven’t had a chance since the moment I met you. Tomorrow, you’ll walk the corn with Brennon, and Katia will force you to bind to him. Is that what you really want?”
“I don’t want any of this!” I raised my voice, suddenly realizing why Katia had arranged for me to go through the wreathing ceremony with Brennon in the first place. She’d handpicked him as Alonso’s vessel.
Dane let go and I turned away from him. I didn’t want him to see how scared I was. How hopeless I felt.
As I stared through the shimmering branches into the night, Dane slipped behind me, easing his hands around my waist. “The choice will be made for you whether you want it or not,” Dane said softly. “I’m here. I love you,” he whispered into the back of my neck. “We were meant to be together.”
He traced his thumb against the slope of my hip bone—the same way he’d touched me when we first met. I placed my hands on top of his; the firm pressure of his grip deepening my desire. He kissed my shoulder . . . then my neck, my ear; I turned toward him to find his mouth, when he stepped back. A slow smile spread across his lips with that perfect dimple peeking out. “It’s your choice. I’ve already made mine.”
I wanted to refuse him, for his own good, but there was no escaping. The branches seemed to imprison his scent, trapping it there until I felt drunk with his essence.
Thanks to Katia’s memories, I knew how to perform the ritual, just as I knew Caddo like it was my native tongue.
“You’re sure this is what you want?” I stepped toward him, searching his eyes, but it was too dark to decipher his expression.
“Yes.” He pulled me close, his warm breath caressing my face. “I’ve never wanted anything more than this.” He whispered in my ear, “I want to be able to find you, to taste you, to feel you even when I can’t feel myself.”
The smell of his skin was indescribable, like every good memory mixed with the sweetest bitter sorrow that I would ever know.
He kneeled in front of me and presented me with a knife from his belt.
My blood seemed to ache for his. I took his hand, and dug the knife across the length of his left palm. He sucked in air, trying to hold in the pain.
“A kisctsa rauuir tiaticaa kaukuu’,” I chanted as I kneeled to face him, slashing a deep cut above my heart.
I pressed his palm against my chest. It stung at first, but we both held on tight. I could feel my blood slowly overpower his and then flow into him. I breathed in time with him and waited. We were meant to meet, meant to be in this moment. I loved him before I even knew him. It was written in our blood.
I felt both of our cuts heal simultaneously; a wave of raw emotion crashed over me. I was unable to distinguish one feeling from another. They were all intertwined—yearning, fear, lust, despair, but, above all, love.
A brilliant light moved across my skin, enveloping me in warmth. Even though it was like looking at the sun, I watched the light dance across my skin and spread to Dane, but the light never completely left me. I felt our lives surging as one—every cell, fiber, hope, fear, and dream merging with his. We were like a tangled mass of veins and arteries, all leading to one heart, beating for each other.
His body shuddered along with my own at the overwhelming sensation of having my blood pulse within him. He pulled me toward him and kissed me passionately; any resistance I once felt quickly faded with the rushing of blood through our hearts.
I felt like I couldn’t get close enough to him even if he swallowed me whole. Without breaking our kiss, he pulled me into his lap. I felt a surge of excitement pulse through him as I slipped his shirt over his shoulders, dragging my fingertips across the now-healed scar on his left shoulder.
“Sometimes I think about the day we met,” he whispered. “We would’ve talked all afternoon,” he said as he lowered his hands to the buttons on my shirt. “And when the sun set, we would’ve walked hand in hand to the sunflower field.”
Slowly, he unbuttoned my first button. I smiled into the dark.
“That’s where we would’ve had our first kiss.” He moved his hands down to my next button, slipping it from its home. “We would’ve gone to Windy Point, and never even noticed the stars.”
I gently bit down on his lower lip. The third button practically popped open by itself.
He placed his hands on the last button. “And then we would’ve gone to Crystal Pond and undressed each other in the glow of the rising sun.”
With the last button undone, he slipped his rough hands under the tattered cloth and eased my shirt from my shoulders.
We slipped out of our remaining clothes. The thought of finally being able to feel his bare skin against mine was so overpowering that I pushed him down against the cool ground and kissed him, letting my hair fall over him like a veil, my breasts brushing gently across his chest.
The sensation sent a shiver through both of us. He tried to lean forward for another kiss, but I held him back, entwining my fingers through his.
“Ashlyn,” he whispered. I released his hands, letting him take command of my body. He traced every curve of me before lacing his fingers through my hair, and in one swift force, he was on top of me. The feeling of the cold hard earth beneath me with his hot skin pressing into me was sheer bliss. I coiled myself around him like a serpent. I wanted to meld into him and never return. It felt as if I were stepping into the sunlight after a lifetime of cold night. It felt all-consuming, electric, destructive, forever, and never.
It was blood and salt.
It was everything.
43
BETH + RHYS
JUST BEFORE DAWN, Dane and I walked hand in hand through the western woods to the old stables to meet Rhys and Beth. I knew last night wasn’t a dream, because my body ached in a way I’d never experienced—a good way. My connection to Dane was something deeper than blood. Deeper than fate. It felt as if nothing could separate us . . . not even Katia.
As we got closer to the west side of Quivira, the scent of blood and lilacs seeped inside of me. I took another step toward the heady scent and I knew something was off.
“Ashlyn, what is it?” Dane slipped his hand around my waist to steady me.
“Lilacs. Where are there lilacs?”
“There are lilac bushes by the old stables, but we’re still half a mile away. Why?”
I took off running, following my senses, and Dane stayed close behind. My lungs burned with the caustic scent, my skin was drenched in cold sweat, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something horrible had happened.
We broke through the forest in front of a decrepit barn engulfed in lilac blooms. The smell of blood hit me with such force, I could hardly breathe.
I ducked under one of the rotting beams blocking the entrance, to find Rhys crouched over Beth’s body. He glanced back at me, a look of pure fear in his eyes. Blood was seeping through a bandage on his cheek.
“All I did was kiss her,” Rhys said in a panic.
“Beth.” My voice quaked as I ran to cradle her in my arms. Her lips were blue, but she still wore her unreadable smile. The ends of a bright yellow ribbon that she’d tied around her neck hung next to her sallow cheek. Her skin was dotted with tiny beads of blood, like she was sweating it from her pores. She felt light in my arms, like a hollowed-out doll, but I saw the slight rise and fall of her chest.
She reached out to touch me, as if to comfort me. “I remember,” she murmured. “I remember everything.”
“We have to get her to a doctor.” Rhys paced the sawdust floor behind me. “I think she has the same thing as the others.”
“I can give her my blood,” I whispered, remembering how Katia had healed Alonso.
“Ash, thanks for being my best friend.” Beth smiled. “But you don’t have to do this. Your blood is sacred and you need your strength. You can overcome her, I’ve seen it.”
“You know what I am, don’t you?” I asked, unable to stop the tears from flowing. “You’ve known all this time.”
“There will be a path to lead us from darkness.” She gave me one last smile before her eyes rolled back in her head.
“You don’t need to keep my secret anymore,” I said. “Let me protect you now.”
“Dane, give me your knife.” He handed it to me and I slit my wrist, holding it up to her mouth. She choked and gagged at first, but I held my arm firmly in place, forcing my blood down her throat.
Rhys raced toward me. “What are you doing?”
Dane held him back. “Saving Beth’s life.”
I felt my life force surging into her, and in return I felt traces of her own flowing into me. Her gentle spirit, her wounded heart: They brimmed over like a waterfall.
My brother stood there, stunned, as the beads of blood retreated back into Beth’s pores and the color returned to her lips.
Dane ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it around my wrist like a tourniquet.
“I remember everything,” Beth whispered fervently as she motioned for me to come closer. The way she spoke, the look in her eyes, the intensity reminded me of my mother on the day she left. Beth clutched my arm. “Spencer . . . he’s the one who hurt me,” she said as she reached up and felt the scar running across her skull. “I found out he made a deal with Coronado—he was giving Spencer his blood. They used Teresa to bring the Larkins through the corn. Men, women, children . . . they’re all dead.” Dane sank to his knees beside Beth. I felt despair and shame wash over him.
“Someone needs to tell me what the hell’s going on!” Rhys said.
This was the moment I’d been dreading. I unwrapped the cloth from my wrist and stood to show my brother my already- healed skin. “I’m the vessel.”
“That’s impossible.” Rhys studied my arm. “It’s Mom. It was supposed to be Mom.”
“Katia wanted everyone to believe that, but she was just a diversion for Coronado. I was never a conduit. I was the vessel all along. Mom scars, I heal. Remember the deer on the back of the hunters’ truck?”
“So, you’re telling me it’s true?” Rhys dragged his hands through his hair. “All of it?” He staggered back, accidentally kicking an old horseshoe into the side of the barn. He stood in front of the collapsed doorway, sunlight streaming through the gaps in the wood. “Then where is she? Where’s Mom . . . and our dad?”
“Thomas never made it out of the corn,” I said, staring out over the fields. “And I don’t even know if Mom is alive anymore.” It killed me to say it out loud. “Katia let Mom live because I was inside of her. She let her raise us away from Quivira to keep me safe from Coronado, but Katia doesn’t need her anymore.”
Rhys had a wild look in his eyes. “Then we have to get you out of here before Katia comes back.” He glanced back at Beth, who was starting to come around. Dane was helping her into a sitting position, giving her his flask of water. “I’ll carry Beth if I have to.”
“I can’t leave.” I swallowed hard. “My blood . . . Katia’s blood won’t allow it. You need to go with Dane. He’ll get you and Beth out and then you need to run and—”
“Wait . . . what?” he sputtered. “Just leave you here?”
“I’ll be coming back,” Dane said as he joined us, taking my hand. “To help her fight.”
Rhys narrowed his eyes. “How could you possibly help her with this?” He glanced down at our intertwined hands and a look of disgust washed over his face, then shock. “Of course!” Rhys began pacing again. “That’s what this is all about. You want to be Alonso’s vessel, don’t you?”
“I’ve already made that decision.” I squeezed Dane’s hand.
“He’s a Mixed, Ash. That’s never going to happen.”
I took a deep breath. I was trying to figure out how to tell him the truth when Dane spoke up. “Ashlyn and I are already blood bound.”
“What?” Rhys turned to face me, hands bal
led up into fists at his side. “You’re blood bound . . . to him?” He bit the inside of his cheek as he walked toward me. I couldn’t tell if he was going to laugh or cry. “So, I was right. He was using you. I thought you were smarter than that, Ash.” Blood started seeping from the bandage on Rhys’s temple.
“Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” I said as I tried to reach for him, but Dane held me back. “What are you doing?”
“There’s something you need to know.” Dane’s voice was low and tense. “I had my suspicions, but this . . . what happened with Beth confirms it.”
“Confirms what?” Rhys snapped.
“Your blood,” Dane said softly. “You are the one responsible for all the recent deaths in Quivira.”
“Me?” My brother began to laugh.
“Betsy Grimsby,” Dane said, eyes downcast. “She changed the bandage on your knee before the ceremony.”
Rhys crossed his arms in front of him like he was amused by the whole thing. “Okay?”
“Tommy Mendoza,” Dane added. “You spit bloody water in his face at the shinny game.”
Rhys continued to smile, but the color began to leach from his face.
“But his lip,” I argued, “it healed right up at the field. He can heal . . . like me.”
Dane shook his head. “You healed him. You held the bandage from your knee against his lip. “Look . . .” He pointed to the raw wounds on my brother’s neck and face.
“No.” I shook my head rapidly. “Those are coincidences.”
“The crows,” Dane asserted. “They dropped dead all around him. And Henry—”
Rhys hunched over like he was going to be sick. “Henry treated my wounds. He was my friend. And Beth . . .” He looked over at her in despair. “All I did was kiss her—my bandage must’ve touched her cheek.”
“Rhys, slow down,” I said. “This is crazy.”
“Is it?” Rhys raised his voice. “My blood can’t touch anyone without hurting them.”