Fall (Hero Society Book 6)

by Jessica Florence

  “Thank you, Joslyn.” The witch-ghost smiled at my guide, who closed the door as she turned to walk down the dimmed hall.

  “We don’t have a lot of time, but before anything else is discussed, I must tell you how proud I am of you.” She floated over to me, her hands cradled my face tenderly.

  “Thanks.” I didn’t know what she was proud of me for, but it was nice to hear.

  “You rose without hope in your thoughts, against all odds, and are fighting for those you love. I could not have wished for a better match for my Jude than you, Selene.” She hugged me, and even though my power urged me to take her onward, I gritted my teeth and embraced her.

  “That boy has a wicked plan for you two. I’ve seen it, but if you keep that faith that’s burning in your heart, you have a chance.” She cupped my cheeks once more, then released me. She floated to the painting, her fingers caressing the canvas of her and her husband, Jude’s great-great-grandfather.

  “I wished I could have stopped him, but we can only control ourselves in the end. He was so consumed by the lavish life, a selfish life that he didn’t give in to what nature demanded,” she said remorsefully. The poor woman watched as her husband took a dark path that doomed everyone.

  “I was young then. So caught up in the luxury and the parties. My coven pulled me away for a few weeks, trying to connect me back to my roots, and by the time I returned, it was too late. I’ve watched everyone I cared about die and remain in this limbo, drowning in pain.

  “But that all changes tonight.” She forced a smile on her lips, then twisted the knob of the closet beside her. She disappeared for a moment, then appeared again with a garment bag in her hands. She gently laid it on the bed, and I walked over, curiously.

  “You need something borrowed, and it’ll fit. We were the same size once upon a time.” She winked and worked on opening the bag for me to see Madam Tully’s wedding dress from the painting.

  “Oh, no. He wouldn’t.” I wanted to weep from the notion that this dress would be needed. It was cruel for Rudy to make Jude and I marry tonight. I shook my head as sadness caught in my throat. Tears formed even as I tried to hold them back.

  “He would, and he is. At the end of the show, Rudy will have you and Jude say your vows with a noose around Jude’s neck.” The grim line to her lips confirmed the truth. To think of this, to force this, only a monster would be so cruel.

  But then a little voice inside my mind pushed past the dark hissing of failure and anger. I knew what I had to do. I found my ultimate truth, now that all the puzzle pieces in my head connected. The curse wasn’t a promise to the ghosts that would break it but a promise made in death. One that binds a soul to another. Marriage!

  “I’m gonna need help getting in this thing.” With a smile on my lips, my fingers grasped onto the hanger of the dress.

  “I never had a daughter to help get ready on her wedding day. I’d be honored to assist the future Mrs. Mallory.” Madam Tully’s devious smile solidified my thoughts, and now I knew what I had to do. She’d been telling us all along that we were the cure to our problem. It was inside us all along!

  First, I needed to get ready for my wedding.

  Chapter Thirty- Five

  Jude

  “Don’t forget to meet me at the tower before the show ends.” Rudy slapped me on the back in a brotherly gesture, which earned him a shrug from me.

  “So sensitive. All right Mr. Ringleader. Do your stuff.” He pointed toward the open area of the ballroom where I’d begin my last show. It felt bittersweet in a way. All I’d wanted before was this, to go out with a bang, but now all I wanted was Selene and her friends safe.

  The crowd had been moved back, giving us enough space for the performances. I glanced at the large clock over the far wall to my right and remembered my orders. When there were five minutes remaining in the show, I was to head up to the tower, which could be seen from here and hang myself as the final act. Poetic, if the people below knew that it wasn’t a magic trick and that I wouldn’t be showing up somewhere else with a dove flying out of my hat.

  My main performance partner, Rey the crow, flew onto my shoulder as I walked into the darkroom with a spotlight on my steps. He lived wild on the property but always came when he was needed. I’d rescued him when I was younger, and crows had a sense of justice that could never be forgotten. He used to leave me gifts by the door, so I’d leave it open for him every morning for a few hours. But he wasn’t a house bird despite how amazing that would have been.

  “What do you say, Rey? One last show?” I smiled and lifted my hand for him to step onto.

  “Welcome to Mystical’s final performance. Enjoy your last moments in this time as we surround your mind with the fantastical.”

  “Prepare to imagine.” Rey spoke, a trick I never worked on with him. A part of me always thought he was a person trapped as a bird, but I could never prove my theory.

  Lights came on from the chandeliers above, the opening to the tower revealed between them, and the performers were in full exhibition. The trapeze artist swung from the bars to the hanging crystal lights, then back to each other, flipping as they flew through the air. Lucy walked a tightrope while jumping up and back down, doing a cartwheel while the tiger pretended to lunge for her.

  I raced around the room, disappearing with the help of Joslyn, and emerging onto the chandelier like we’d practiced. Without looking and without fear, I jumped. The wind from the wall rattled my clothes and skin, but then I wasn’t falling anymore. I stood on the tightrope with Lucy holding my hand. Everyone was putting on the show of our lives, and I was sad it had to end.

  With the clock nearing my final performance, I snuck from the room and walked up the creaky stairs toward the balcony of the tower. Every step closer to my death came with memories of how I had lived my life, the choices I’d made thinking I was doing the right thing at the time. I remembered when my mother and I made cookies before Christmas when I was five. We laughed and got flour everywhere. I pretended I was a ghost covered in the white baking ingredient with the dust following me around everywhere.

  From childhood to adulthood, memories flashed through my head like a movie. As soon as I walked past the door to the balcony, I dropped to my knees from the cruel scene before me.

  Tears fell onto the dust-covered wood with a splash. My hands instantly went to my lips in disbelief as Selene stood in front of me wearing Madam Tully’s old wedding dress, looking like a Victorian princess with her hair piled on top her head. She was a vision from my deepest dream and horrifying nightmare at the same time.

  “I thought you’d be happy, man. You get what you always wanted before the end.” Rudy smiled from the corner of the space, and I had no fight to give him. Sobs ruined me in a way I’d never experienced before. Agony and bliss swirled inside me, fighting to be the dominating emotions.

  I didn’t know what to do or what to say.

  “I don’t wanna die.” I shook my head, tears streaming down my cheeks as Selene collapsed to her knees before me. I didn’t want to have her like this, only to leave her so soon. It wasn’t enough time. I needed more time. I needed to turn back the clock to spend every hour of every day with her.

  “Jude, I know this is a ploy designed by a hateful spirit to make you feel unimaginable pain. But I, Selene, want you for my husband. To love you and spend the rest of my days being your wife. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?” Her hands cradled my face. Her eyes shown bright with love in them. Love and hope. I shook my head but my words were the opposite of my movements.

  “Yeah.”

  Her smile grew as she released my face to stand. Her hand stayed before me like a lifeline waiting to pull me from drowning. All I had to do was take her hand to enjoy the last bit of my life with her as mine. Even if that meant it was only for a few more minutes.

  “How touching. Let’s get this moving along so we can have our final deathly act, shall we?”

  I glared at Rudy, promising agonizin
g pain, ghost or no. Somehow, someway, I would deal out justice for this.

  My hand grasped onto Selene’s, taking hold of the only feeling in the world that deserved my heart beating for. Love.

  Madam Tully appeared next to a long rope with a noose tied at the end. I got where this was going and while I had my plan, I was also making peace with the fact that I would likely be dying no matter what tonight. Rudy had told me what he wanted from me in detail, and while I wanted to fight him, there were lives at stake. As if sensing my thoughts, he lifted a screen with the trapped Hero Society to prove a point.

  “Your friends will die if you fight me, along with every innocent life in this mansion. You’re out of options. Oh, and I wouldn’t expect Lucy to help you with any of your plots to defeat me. I had her taken care of.”

  Of course he had. I knew she couldn’t be injured because she was a ghost, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t detain her or make her part in our plan a struggle. Hopefully she would still be there to cut the rope as I fell to my death.

  “Let’s get this over with, shall we?” Madam Tully rolled her eyes at Rudy, then held her hands out for Selene and I to take.

  “Jude, my sweet boy. Do you take Selene to be your wife in life and death? To help her rise when there is too much on her shoulders? To love her and cherish her?” Madam Tully smiled at me without sadness on her face.

  “I do.” I looked at my Selene while Rudy lifted the noose and tightened it around my neck.

  “Selene, my brave girl. Do you take Jude to be your husband in life and death? To show him that life is worth living and not just existing in it? To love him and cherish him?”

  Selene looked up at me with waiting tears of happiness for this moment. Despite what appeared to be an ending, this act was transformed into a beautiful beginning for us both.

  “I do.” Her words trembled slightly as the emotions she’d been holding were released.

  “I love you, Jude, come what may.”

  “I love you, Selene, in life and death. My heart beats for you no matter what the coroner’s say.” I smiled at the sad attempt I’d given to make her laugh. It worked, and all I wanted was to kiss her just like that.

  “I now bind you together in holy matrimony as husband and wife. You may kiss and seal the promise made on this sacred ground.” Madam Tully clapped her hands together in prayer.

  I distinctly heard the music begin to build. Every note brought my life closer and closer to the cue of death. Only I wasn’t done living just yet. I had a wife to kiss.

  Her hand reached up to touch my jaw, as my fingers laid over hers gently. Holding her touch against me if that’s what it would take to stay with her like this forever. Our gaze never wavered as our lips were drawn to each other for this last gift.

  Her lips were soft and tasted like tears and sweet cherry with every press against mine. My wife. My reason for living.

  “Great. Enjoy hell, Jude.”

  Pain sliced into the hand holding Selene’s as Rudy’s strong hands pushed me away from her beckoning lips and I tumbled off the balcony toward a short fall and a snapped neck.

  Chapter Thirty- Six

  Selene

  “Now!” I screamed and Trixie appeared behind Rudy with a murderous score to settle. He was her only unfinished business. When I asked for her help to take Rudy down, she came to the mansion with me and hid in the shadows until this moment. She wrapped her hands around him, trapping his spirit within her grip with the magical symbols we’d drawn on her shimmering skin. Now that he was contained for the moment, Madam Tully could work her spell that I’d found in the articles of my research from yesterday. Bind him from hurting anyone else until he could be dealt with.

  There was no time to waste. Jude wouldn’t have much time left if I didn’t hurry. I had a plan, and even though it was crazy to leap after him and cut the rope, it was the only one I had.

  Without thinking another thought, I gripped the small knife I’d hidden in my hand and trusted my crazy plan. On swift feet, I ran for the balcony’s edge, then jumped off with my arms wide. Hands caught me with a jerk of my body slamming against the sudden hold on my hands. My focus shifted from the cut rope hanging from the tower above with no Jude attached to the face of Lilith who’d caught me before I could fall to my death.

  “I’ve always wanted to do trapeze and swing from a chandelier with ghosts. Very exciting party.” She giggled and released me into the air with a scream ripping from my lungs.

  “I’ve got you, wife.” Jude’s grip latched onto me as he swung upside down with only his legs holding him on the trapeze bar. It appeared that his plan had worked, since he wasn’t hanging from the rope. Instead, I wished we had a moment earlier to discuss everything before we tried to do the same thing a different way. Jude looked around and then shifted his gaze back to me.

  “Jude, we need to get to the gates, like now,” I urged him and he nodded.

  “Trust me, OK? I need you to turn reaper now.” He paused and I nodded. Seconds later we fell with terrified screams from the crowd watching us plummet to the polished marble floors below. I closed my eyes without hesitation, my hands in Jude’s as I became one with my powers. A lightness lifted my soul as I separated from my body into that realm of the afterlife. Yet, I still felt Jude with me, tethering me between two worlds. I vaguely felt my physical form being caught by someone, which was a relief that I wouldn’t be stuck as a soul after today.

  I opened my eyes as an arm wrapped around Jude and he turned a shimmering blue color.

  “No!” He could not become a ghost. I wouldn’t take him onward. That would be the end of me.

  “Trust me,” he whispered as our scenery turned black, then light, then dark, then we landed in a room I’d hoped I would never see again.

  “Go, Lucy. Get out of here.” Jude pushed his ghostly friend away from the gates to the afterlife that called to her with sweet words of peace.

  It took a few seconds for me to catch up, but once I realized she had helped Jude and me float through the house like ghosts do, we were now in a room that threatened her soul. She did this for Jude, for us, and for everyone up there.

  She took a step with an outreached hand toward the gates. Disappearing tears flew past her as a burst of wind pushed Jude and me back from the gates.

  We did everything that was needed to seal the broken part where the souls had been able to slip out. Now the only part of the curse left was the blood paid. Our blood.

  “We need to touch the gates together!” I yelled at Jude as the voices in my head tried to tell me to give up and accept my hopeless life. Only I knew those voices were lies, and I wouldn’t give up. This awful room wanted me to fail, to walk into the afterlife like they had the first time Jude had shown it to me.

  “After you, wife.” Jude held his still bleeding hand toward my matching one. I’d felt a hint of remorse for cutting his hand before, but I didn’t know if I’d get another chance to do so. Part of me had hoped that just droplets of his blood on the ground mixed with mine would do the deed, but that wasn’t the case. I gripped him, our blood mingling together, truly binding us in this life and the next. No matter what happened in this life, we’d find each other in the next.

  We walked together, past a stalled Lucy who was torn between choices for her to follow in her head. She could walk to the gates and burn or run. It seemed like a simple choice but those blasphemous gates were like sirens luring her to her true death.

  “One, two . . .” Jude counted and together we pressed our bleeding hands against the gates.

  Pain, sorrow, and joy filled my blood as the gates sucked power from me. Exhausted, I could barely stand.

  “Love always wins, right?” I laughed with a shaky voice toward Jude and he gave me no answer.

  A bright light blinded me, filling my soul with peace and love. One minute we were in a frightful nightmare with a curse and the gates to the afterlife. Then the next moment we lay on the ballroom floor, confused as to what ha
ppened and where we landed.

  “What the—?” I blinked over and over, hoping to understand what my eyes saw. Dorian stood before me with my physical body in his arms.

  “I caught you.” I swooned from his words and relief sagged against my chest. I closed my eyes and went back into one of both spirit and body. I’d never used my gifts like I had tonight, so I felt woozy as Dorian lowered my legs to the ground.

  “You’re all here. You made it.” I smiled at all of my friends.

  “What is super speed and changing into an animal against ghosts? Not shit. But put an empath and a boy genius in the room with one and you have one hell of an escape and therapy session.” Phillip’s arms wrapped around me with a shit-eating grin on his face. I wanted to smack him on the arm for this whole thing. Of course he knew all of this would happen.

  “It could have gone many different ways, but I gambled on love, and love always wins.” He released his hold and winked. He had bet that Jude and I would fall in love and break the curse.

  “Glad everyone is all right. Now I’ve got a bunch of dead to send to the afterlife. I’ll talk later.” Jude had interrupted, the deathly darkness billowing from his body in waves toward every ghost in the room. The crowd that was still watching us like this was part of the show cheered, while some gasped when they realized this wasn’t a trick.

  My power hummed alongside his. He was my match calling me to join in this feast of death. This I could do.

  Angry ghosts who Rudy had convinced to join his team rushed us with weapons but Jude’s power wrapped around their throats.

  “If you would do the honors, wife.” I nodded. There were at least ten ghosts within Jude’s hold. And while I knew he could send them away to the afterlife himself, he was letting me have a little fun . . . payback for what had been done the past few days.

  Every soul I touched became black and red. A horrible aura of hell grabbed them before they disappeared. Not one of the ten carried a heart of light to find peace beyond this life. A shame, but they had made their choices.