Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3)

by Candace Knoebel

  Cassie laughs uncomfortably. Looks over at Gavin. “She’s lying.” She looks around the table now. “Don’t listen to her. She’s a liar. Look at how easily she abandoned her sons. We can’t trust her.”

  “Cass,” Gavin says, his voice scratchy and tender as he reaches for her hand.

  Seeing the pain passing between them makes me feel like I’m dying a thousand deaths. Makes me want to take Evangeline’s words and cram them back into her mouth.

  Cassie draws away from Gavin, still inching backward. “Excuse me,” she says before turning and practically running out the front door. Gavin’s already on his feet, heading out after her.

  I’ve never seen Jaxen so still before. Never seen his fists clenched so tight against the tabletop. He’s staring down at his fists like he’s contemplating banging them through the table. Banging them through the earth until he finds the answer to solving something so grim.

  Jezi sniffs. I look up, and tears are streaming down her face. She’s looking at me, wearing a mixture of gratitude and guilt on her face, and I feel like I should grab a hold of something before I slip away.

  “How do we stop it from happening?” Jaxen asks, his voice dark and hollow.

  “The same way you undo any curse,” Jezi says numbly, looking from Jaxen over to Evangeline. “You kill the one who placed the curse.”

  Evangeline looks at him, a thousand warriors dancing in her eyes. “You kill Mourdyn.”

  “EVERYTHING IS LINKED,” I SAY sadly, realizing that my future was never going to be easy.

  I feel them looking at me, faces scrunched.

  “Clara, Bael, the Exanimator, the curse… somehow it all leads back to Mourdyn. All points to one thing.”

  “And that is?” Jezi asks.

  “We have to kill Mourdyn,” I say.

  Chrissa’s eyes widen.

  “You can’t kill a Divine, Faye. Everyone knows that,” Jezi says, already rolling her eyes.

  “How do we know I can’t?” I say, trying not to notice that shocked look in Jaxen’s eyes. “I have to have these powers for a reason. Clara said it was called the Divine gene. Maybe I’m the only one who can. Maybe I can finally end this. All of this.”

  “Before we get ahead of ourselves,” Evangeline says, pushing off the arms of her chair to stand. “I should discuss this with the council first. I promised Mack there would be no secrets, and this is something they should know. I just wanted to have the chance to tell you all first, before anyone else found out.”

  “Thank you,” Jaxen says out of habit. He still looks lost. Still looks stuck in the moment when the curse finally became a certainty.

  “Tomorrow, we can discuss this with Mack and the others, and see if there is a solution we can work out,” Evangeline says.

  The back door opens and in walks Lukah, with the rest of the wolves following in behind him. “It’s late and we’re too tired to hunt. Can we please eat dinner now?”

  “Yes,” she says to them, and then she turns back to us. “I’m sorry our first sit-down had to be on such grim terms,” she says as she guides us to the front door and holds it open.

  “I’m just glad we finally know the truth,” Jaxen says, giving her a small hug.

  Chrissa follows us out.

  “And where are you going at this hour?” Evangeline says to her.

  Her shoulders slouch and her eyes roll. “Mom,” she says with a sigh, “I just want to say goodnight, okay? I’ll be right in.”

  “I’ve got her,” Jaxen says, smiling as he grips Chrissa’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure she heads back inside.”

  Evangeline smiles at him so lovingly that it temporarily erases the pain this night has brought.

  “I’m going to go talk to Cassie,” Jezi says to Jaxen and me when Evangeline shuts the door. “I’m sure she’s about ready to jump off a ledge, and Gavin is in no real condition to deal with it.”

  Jaxen’s ruffling the back of his hair. “Yeah, I need to talk to him. Help him through it, I guess.”

  Jezi smiles at him lightly. “That’s a good idea. Night.”

  “Good night,” we both say.

  When she walks away, we both turn back to Chrissa.

  “Hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry about all that,” she says, staring up at us with large, bright eyes.

  “Sorry about what?” Jaxen says with a small smile, head tilted to the side. “None of that was your doing.”

  “I know,” she says with a small shrug. “I just… it sucks is all.”

  “It does,” he agrees with a chuckle.

  “Hey… do you want to like take a run or something?” she asks, looking at the both of us with her hands shoved in her jean pockets. “It always helps me deal.”

  “You like running?” Jaxen asks, sounding more pleased than shocked that they have something else in common.

  “Duh.”

  “How about hunting?”

  “Anything that lets me run, I’m game for,” she says, her excitement building.

  Jaxen reaches for her. Folds her into a loose headlock. “It’s like you’re in my head, kid. You know, I was the fastest in my school.”

  “Really?” she asks, giggling as she tries to squirm out of it.

  He nods. “I love running. The freedom it brings. The thoughtlessness. The trust in your body to keep moving forward. To keep pushing harder.”

  Her eyes grow wide, and she stops squirming. She turns her head so she can see him.

  “You want to race real quick? Before you have to head in?” he asks as he lets up on the headlock. “To the tree and back, maybe?”

  She smirks, and then she turns, taking off with dust on her heels.

  Jaxen winks at me, and then chases after his sister, their laughter echoing through the night. My heart tries to sing in my chest, but there’s a small chisel in the back of my brain, chipping away at the layers of denial I’ve built up.

  I make my way toward the pergola. Lean against the tall frame wrapped in wisteria, watching their figures disappear within the shadows, and inhale the cold night air. There’s a sulfuric taste to it… something that shouldn’t be there, and it feeds the restlessness in my limbs that won’t go away.

  The curse is real. So very real, and Cassie’s on her way to becoming another victim. A victim we have no chance of saving unless we succeed in waking the very person who nearly extinguished Hunters. Nearly ended the Primevals as we know it.

  And we have to kill him.

  How?

  If the Divine couldn’t do it… if the best they could do was lock him up in the Underground to keep him from hurting anyone else—something that hasn’t worked to this day—then how the hell are we supposed to kill him? How can we go against him?

  My heart rate picks up, and I have to grip the pergola to keep from falling. I suddenly feel so small. So cramped. Like I’m stuck inside a box nailed shut, and I can’t punch my way through.

  Calm down, I tell myself, inhaling and exhaling to steady my heart. You’ll figure it out. You always do.

  I force away all thoughts of Mourdyn and squint, searching for Jaxen and Chrissa’s forms. I hear a high-pitched giggle and look to the left, just where the sycamore they raced toward rests, when a small figure jets past me.

  “Chrissa!” I shout, calling her over to me. But then I realize the figure is way too small to be a wolf. The heat inside of me flicks on and rises like gas poured onto a flame.

  Something isn’t right. The air… it’s off… denser. The hair on my arms rises, and it’s then that I know trouble is near. But the thing is… I can’t sense it. I can’t distinguish what trouble is near, something that’s only ever happened once before—before we were ambushed by Bael and his Darkyns at Whiskey Hallow.

  Curiosity lifts my feet, one after the other, slowly moving me in the direction of the animal playfully scampering across the yard. It’s not until the figure stops and looks at me, its yellow, beady eyes glaring under the light of the moon, that I realize just what
kind of trouble we’re in.

  A chilling gust of wind spreads through my chest, freezing me in place.

  It’s Midnight. The same cat Katie found and gave to me when I was at the Academy. The same cat I watched transform into a man at Whiskey Hollow.

  Into Bael.

  ROCKS OF TERROR TUMBLE AROUND in my stomach.

  His tail flicks once, a smile in his yellow eyes, and then he sprints across the yard, heading for the forest.

  I don’t think… don’t even stop to contemplate what I should do. I just take off after him, knowing that I’m going to kill him. I have to. Right here and now.

  I’m a well-oiled machine finally able to operate.

  “Jaxen!” I shout out, both physically and mentally as I pass the shed. Weapons, I think to myself. I won’t go against him unprepared. Not again. But Bael can’t be taken down by a flux. Maybe not even by my magic.

  There has to be something, I think to myself.

  I focus in on what I’ve seen in the armory and feel a balloon of hope floating in my stomach. The shadowblade—the only weapon that can kill a demon without piercing their stigma—Jaxen has one. It has to work against him.

  “What’s wrong?” Jaxen asks a second later, fully alert as the shadowblade manifests in my hand.

  “Bael. He’s here. He got past our wards somehow. Gather whoever. We have to stop him.”

  His voice echoes loudly through my brain as he shouts, “Faye, stop! If it’s him, it could be a trap!”

  I blink once. Inhale in a rhythm that keeps me steady as I grip the hilt of the blade tightly. “If it’s him, then we’re all in danger. He knows where we are. You have to warn everyone. I’ll be fine.”

  “This isn’t a part of the plan, Faye.”

  I don’t even falter… even though he’s right.

  “I’m making a new plan,” I say firmly. I close myself off from him. I can’t argue my point right now. Not when Bael’s cat form disappears in and out of the night shadows, making it hard to keep my eye on him.

  But Jaxen doesn’t care. He shoves his way back into my mind. “Be stubborn, but don’t you dare close yourself off from me. Got it?” he says in a scarily calm, angered tone.

  “I’m not stopping,” I force out evenly, trying to keep my eyes on the zigzagging cat. I know he isn’t going to forgive me easily for this, but I have no intention of stopping. No intention of letting Bael get away now that he knows our whereabouts.

  I’m going to put on a brave face, just like my mother and father would do, and finish what I started. Once and for all.

  “Faye! Please! Just listen to me! I see you. I’m a couple of yards away. Let me at least catch up.”

  “He’s getting away, Jaxen! And you have to warn the others. They listen to you the best, and you know what needs to be done. You have to trust me on this. I know you want to protect me, but you have to realize I don’t need protection. Not anymore.”

  Realization steals the words from our mouths. Steals seconds between us as he absorbs my truth.

  “Damn it,” he curses. I feel his pain, his hesitancy, his need to discard what I’ve suggested so he can do what he believes is best, but he doesn’t. I feel him turn, heading back for the house. Feel his resolve as he fully digests that I am strong… maybe even stronger, than he ever truly gave me credit for.

  I’m feet away from Bael, on his tail as he leaps over a small tree root and disappears within the brush of the forest. I’m pulling on energy, anything and everything around me, absorbing as much as I can… as much as I’m going to need if I’m going to have a fighting chance against the king of hell, and cross into the forest.

  Someone’s behind me.

  Ice claws through my veins. The hair on the back of my neck rises. I slow to a stop. Turn, ready to kill whatever or whoever Bael has in store for me, and nearly topple over from a leaping white wolf.

  Evangeline.

  “Keep moving. It’s him. I smelled him,” she says hurriedly, running past me. Taking the lead. Her wolves fall in line behind her and, together, we chase after the small blur of a cat bobbing and weaving through the forest.

  We run a good pace, almost on his heels, when Bael starts throwing obstacles in our way. First, it’s another werewolf who barrels out at us from the left, down a slope of trees. Evangeline’s in our heads and, without words, orders are sent out. Darien is the first to fall out of line, meeting the other werewolf with just as much force. There’s no time to look back. No time to make sure he’s okay as the rest of us push forward.

  “Pierce his heart with that blade. It’s the only way to subdue him,” Evangeline tells me through the link.

  “Okay.”

  Two trees tip over just ahead of us as Bael runs underneath. Lukah and Arianna howl out in pain from behind us. I don’t want to stop, but I can’t ignore their cries of pain. When I turn, I realize they’ve run into a spellhive of some sort. Spells are flying everywhere, only this isn’t like the one I experienced in the enchanted forest behind the Academy during the night of my trial. This was strung up by dark magic and filled with spells meant to torture and kill.

  This is Darkyn work. Preplanned. Already plotted.

  This is a trap.

  “We’re not going to make it,” Evangeline says to me, sending her warning out to the pack. She turns back for Arianna and Lukah, shifting back to her human form so she can work healing magic on their flailing bodies. “I have to get them back. I don’t have enough magic for both.”

  I make a choice.

  I’m not going to lose him.

  “Be careful, Faye.” It’s Weldon. I feel him coming. Feel him moving in close behind me.

  I push forward, picking up my pace just as the trees hit the ground, and use my magic to propel me up into the air, clearing the chaos. It’s just me now. The way it should have always been.

  I try to grab a hold of Bael’s energy, wanting to slow him down, but it’s like trying to touch fire. Every reach feels like my insides are being tossed into an inferno. I throw a spell to freeze him in place, but the magic dissipates as soon as it touches him, so I spell a tree to fall on him. He stops, staring up at it. With one blink, it catches fire before it has a chance to hit the ground. The fire spreads out in front of me and, immediately, my leg begins to sear.

  Demon fire.

  “Faye!” Jaxen screams in my mind as I topple over, unable to move as the pain forms thick hands and grabs a hold of my brain, squeezing with all their might.

  Within a swirling plume of gray smoke, Bael transforms into his human form on the other side of the flames, smiling wide enough to bare his perfect, white teeth. His black hair is oiled back, skin still porcelain. He’s wearing a dark gray pinstripe suit with a red bowtie, and the way he’s looking at me right now, like I’m a piece of meat he can’t wait to sink his teeth into, shakes every one of my nerves from their cage. It’s like he can see right through me, see the way my heart dances awkwardly behind my chest like it can’t find the beat.

  I swallow thickly.

  After he takes his time wiping down his suit, he runs his hands through his slick hair and cracks his neck. “You actually thought you could catch me?” he asks, clicking his tongue against his teeth.

  Anger, hatred, and rage jump-start the motor in my brain that controls my tongue.

  “I’m not trying to catch you,” I push through clenched teeth as I claw my way back up until I’m standing again. I steel myself. Force my cemented feet to move forward, determined to end this. “I’m going to kill you.”

  EVERYTHING IS SPINNING INSIDE THIS vortex of pain, swimming in an inky darkness, but I swallow it down and put it into the magic I use to compel the shadowblade forward.

  He isn’t expecting it. The blade pierces through his chest, the force propelling him backwards until he slams into a tree. His black eyes are wide, but only for a moment. A cold, cruel smile climbs across his face as he looks down at the blade impaling him to the tree. Tar-like blood trickles down from his no
se and the corner of his mouth.

  “A shadowblade?” he says, amusement dancing circles in his voice. He tries to grab the hilt of the blade, but every time he touches it, his skin sears and the smell of rotting flesh permeates the air.

  Doubt prickles at the back of my neck. It didn’t kill him. Only wounded.

  That’s good enough for me.

  “Be careful, Faye,” Jaxen says, watching through my eyes. “Weldon’s almost there.”

  “I’m not sure how long this will hold,” I say back.

  I see him and the others rushing from the armory, heading for the woods, and release a pent-up breath I didn’t know I was holding. They’re coming. This is going to work. We’ll have not only Clara, but Bael too.

  I walk over to him, stopping just at the wall of demon fire I can’t cross with confidence lining my lips. “You shouldn’t have come here,” I say venomously.

  His lips pout. “Why? Was I interrupting something? Something like your silly training with the defected wolves? Or maybe it was your plots and schemes against Clara and the Coven? Or your childish daydreams that you could actual destroy a machine such as the Exanimator? Or the touch-and-go relationship between the irrational Gramm brothers and their heretic mother who took my gift and spat on it.”

  My stomach rolls in on itself as I realize this isn’t the first night he’s been here. He’s been watching. Gathering information.

  Plotting.

  The symbols that formed from the spell Katie, Jezi, and I performed to protect the house, the dark spell that came from Katie’s Grimoire, they flash in front of my eyes, controlled by Bael. A reminder of why dark magic is always a bad idea. Evidence that Cassie was right about everything. We led him here.

  I… led him here.

  He bares his teeth with a smile. “Yes,” he says, watching my every horrified expression as the truth unravels itself. “Those symbols you girls used in that spell... that’s my language. You called, and I came. I’m always watching. Waiting. Always close by, Faye.”

  I shake my head.

  “And I must admit, I did enjoy watching you flourish. You’ve come a long way since we last met, wouldn’t you agree?” He locks eyes with me, all signs of amusement disappearing. Grabs hold of the hilt as the magic in the blade sears his skin, and then pulls it out. “But, still, not far enough.”