“Let me guess,” Avery said, “it was Deio.”
Andrew nodded. I willed him to look at me, to give me some reassurance that everything would be all right, but he continued to stare at the snow-covered ground.
“The doctor said that I’d been hit by the car too. That I’d been delirious. The whole thing was written off as an accident, and I’d nearly started believing it when he turned up at the farm talking to Evelyn. And Evelyn told me about Boundary and the existence of magic and I realized…I realized I hadn’t been delirious. Beth hadn’t been going mad.”
“Is that why you came with me?” I asked, aghast. “Not because you wanted to help?”
“I wanted answers.”
Madon gave a little laugh. “You didn’t think that he accepted your story a little hastily, Evelyn?”
Andrew ignored him, and me, continuing, “Then we found that diary. They were killing people with powers—that’s why they got Beth. And all I could think of was Harriet.”
Piece by piece, everything fell into place. Ours was a story crowned by revenge cycles, and Andrew had simply become another Bella Whatley.
“That’s why you left the flat?” I asked Deio. “He threatened to expose you?”
“Yes,” Deio scorned. “Pearson, like so many others, threatened to kill us, too. We’d been recognized far too many times in the West Country already, so we decided to move northwards—after dealing with him first. As if he could kill us!”
“But you didn’t deal with him.” Andrew confronting them must have forced them to vacate the flat early. And of course they couldn’t disappear north without first finishing their goal getting Penny out of Boundary. What happened though between Deio, Demitra and Andrew I couldn’t work out.
Deio saw my frown and continued. “I went to the farm and waited for you in case you went straight there, Demitra stayed to ‘deal’ with Andrew as we knew he would come looking for you. Though she doesn’t appear to have done that very well.”
“She found me when you went after him,” said Andrew, glancing at Avery. “I knew then I’d made a mistake. She couldn’t be reasoned with, and she was going to…well, I probably wouldn’t have escaped in one piece. So I bargained. I remembered what you said about them tracking down gifted people, and I said I knew of someone who could Rip in London. A life for a life, right? I have relatives in London, and I thought if I could just get away, if I could lose her and I’d be able to lay low until…” He shook his head, looking somewhat dazed. “She took the bait. We went to the farm first to speak with Deio to tell him what we were doing. He agreed saying it wouldn’t hurt to have a someone else who could Rip. Then we went to London. But we only just arrived when the air raid sirens started going off.”
The little colour remaining in Deio’s skin vanished. A flash of something like grief passed over his face, and for a moment I thought he might cry. Then he darkened.
“You saved him, didn’t you?” Deio whispered to Madon. “You saved him, and you left her there to die.”
“She was already going to die.” Madon said each word with relish. “She got crushed by a beam when the building collapsed.”
“So it’s your fault.” Deio turned to Andrew.
My nails bit into the palms of my hands, the gravity of the situation becoming clearer and clearer. Demitra was dead. Numb from the speed of the events of these past few hours, I quite honestly didn’t know how to feel. Upset? Relieved? Nothing at all?
“Madon told me all about you,” Andrew said, “how you’ve never felt remorse for a single thing you’ve done. So you know what? Maybe I never had it in me to do the job myself, but I’m glad your sister died in that air raid. I’m glad you’re finally going to learn what it means to suffer.”
“You think we made you suffer?” Deio cocked his head. “Not even close.”
I saw Deio move out of the corner of my eye, too fast for me to register what he was doing until it was too late. Another Rip shattered the peacefulness of the woods, and after a second, Andrew began screaming. The pressure of the Others built up again.
“Stop!” I cried. “Deio, stop!”
Deio, of course, did nothing of the sort. He looked as if he was trying to maintain his characteristic coolness, but it was gradually being swallowed by a terror—terror, I supposed, of terror itself.
Andrew writhed in the snow, screams becoming silent. Madon watched and did nothing.
“You can’t Rip here!” Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed Deio’s arm. “There are too many Others already, you’ll ruin Boundary for good.”
“It’s already ruined,” Deio snarled.
But as the pressure increased, a nearby tree fell with an ear-splitting creak and Deio let the Rip dissipate. Avery rushed over to Andrew’s side.
“He’s all right. He just—”
Andrew grabbed at something and stumbled to his feet. He’d taken the pistol from Avery’s pocket.
“I should shoot you. I’d probably be saving lives by doing it.”
Remarkably calmly, Avery shifted position so that he stood directly in the pistol’s line of fire. “Can’t let you do that yet, my friend. We’ve got some unfinished business.”
Andrew stared. “Who the hell even are you?”
“Someone who really, really doesn’t have time for this vendetta rubbish at the moment. Tomorrow? Blow his heart out for all I care. Right now? Back off.”
How surreal it all was. Andrew pointing a lethal weapon at Avery, who was trying to protect Deio, who looked lost in his own mind, while Madon and I hung back trying to decide whether or not to intervene. The Others continued to circle, and behind me I still felt the strange presence of Boundary—I refused to believe it had collapsed. Not entirely.
“Get out of my way,” Andrew ordered quietly. “Or I swear to God I’ll shoot you too.”
“You’re not like this, Andrew,” I said, chilled by the resignation in his tone. “Please put the gun down.”
For the first time, Andrew raised his eyes and looked at me. “I wanted to help your friends, you know. Even if they blinded you from seeing anything else properly. Don’t you care about Harriet? About me?”
“Harriet Pearson is no threat.” Deio gave a single, sharp shake of his head. “If you’d done your research, you’d know that only people who can Rip are targets, since—”
“Shut up!” Andrew shoved Avery out of the way and levelled the pistol at the centre of Deio’s chest. “You stole Beth, you stole my chance to serve with my brothers—you stole my life.”
“What, you didn’t think I spared you that night out of mercy?” Deio scorned. “It’s the far crueller punishment to be left the survivor in those situations. If I’d wanted you to have a good life, I’d—”
“Shut up!”
A shot rang out. Birds took to the skies, shrieking their surprise. Deio’s hand flew to his shoulder where the bullet grazed him, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.
“No, damn it!” Avery barrelled into Andrew just as he fired again, sending the second bullet racing into the leafless canopy. Andrew turned and hit Avery over the head with the barrel of the pistol, almost causing him to lose his footing, but Avery wasn’t the type to back down from a fight easily. Though Andrew was both physically larger and armed, Avery had got into enough scraps within Boundary to know how the game was played. His fist made contact with Andrew’s jaw and the pistol clattered to the ground.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” I spun around to face Deio.
Deio’s fingers flickered over the graze. “It’s too late. Just make sure you tell Pearson that I’ll be coming for him.”
He took off running, and without thinking twice, I ran after him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Evelyn.” Madon stepped out in front of me, blocking my way.
“Let me through!”
“He couldn’t save Boundary if he wanted to, not in his state. After the shock has worn off, well—” Madon’s lips twitched into a cold smi
le—“he won’t have the focus to Rip for a while.”
“What’s it to you?” I hissed, biting down a rising panic.
Madon flicked a careless glance across the woods, where Avery had Andrew in a headlock and was shouting obscenities at him. Then his black eyes focussed on me again. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Though I suppose I’ve distracted you long enough now—you won’t catch Deio. It’s over.”
It’s over.
Something inside me buckled.
Madon tipped his hat and melted away into the copse of trees, heading in the opposite direction to Deio.
“Wait,” Andrew called. “You promised me…protection…”
“You failed,” Madon shouted, as he passed out of view. “I really thought you might’ve been strong enough to finish both of them off.”
Then he was gone.
Avery dropped Andrew, cursing even more colourfully. “That’s it? They’re both running away?”
I stared at the empty expanse of woodland surrounding us, willing Deio to reappear. Or Demitra, with her mad little laugh, insisting the whole charade had been an elaborate joke. It wasn’t over. It couldn’t be over.
“I’m sorry, Evelyn.” Andrew didn’t try to get up, his face buried in his hands. “I didn’t mean for things to end up like this.”
“You need to get out of here,” I said to Andrew through a growing lump in my throat. “You need to go somewhere far away and you need to hide. You don’t have any abilities for him to track, so you have a chance.”
Andrew jerked his head. “He’ll find me. I-I…I never meant…”
I wondered if perhaps I should comfort him, but in all honesty, he hadn’t told me the whole truth. He’d hidden things from me. As Madon pointed out, he’d believed my story a little too quickly and I should have guessed. Besides, it wasn’t as if Andrew had murdered Demitra, not like she’d murdered Beth and Beatrix and all those others, and I couldn’t fault him for wanting revenge, for wanting his family to be safe again.
But I’d lost Boundary because of him.
I turned my back on Andrew, feeling cold inside.
Avery, a bruise swelling underneath his right eye, followed me with a similar deadened expression. “We can still try. Maybe we’re better off without Deio anyway.”
“Neither of us know what we’re doing.” I stared out over the creek, remembering how vivid Fred’s form had been—almost as if I could have touched him. “Besides, it takes three, remember? And after that Rip, there are far too many Others around for—”
I broke off, an idea dawning.
Others. Plural.
“Evelyn?” Avery nudged my arm.
What had been the last command I gave?
Don’t let it collapse.
It was so simple, all this time, all this worrying about finding a team of three, and I’d had access to hundreds the entire time. Demitra and Deio had told me to keep the Others at bay to hide the alternative—the Others themselves could be used to stop Boundary from falling apart. All we needed was someone to control the Others and someone to open the barrier, meaning Avery and I were enough without them.
“Do you see the Rip Deio made between the barriers?” I asked, whirling on Avery. “Is it still there?”
Avery gave me a look, but squinted at the empty air above the creek just the same. His eyebrows flew up.
“Right there.” He pointed at something I couldn’t see. “It’s faint, practically invisible. But why didn’t it close? Neither of us were maintaining it.”
I didn’t answer, my head reeling. If Avery forced it open again, opened the barrier enough for our friends to run through, could the Others continue to stop Boundary from collapsing? Or would they grow destructive again as soon as I tried switching commands? What about the Others drawn here by Deio and Madon’s Rips? Could I control two groups at once?
Did we have another choice?
“Open it.”
“What?” He blinked. It was satisfying to see him genuinely confused. “That won’t do anything but make more of a mess.”
“Trust me,” I said, wishing I felt as confident as I sounded. Although, it wasn’t as if we had anything to lose.
Avery seemed to reach the same conclusion. He glanced at Andrew—even now, he wouldn’t miss an opportunity to show off—and, a heartbeat later, the woods were once again filled with the humming pressure of the Others.
Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse.
Over and over and over again. More memories and visions kept flashing through my mind, but this time, even they couldn’t distract me. The Farthings and Madon weren’t going to lose me my friends again.
Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse.
Whether it was working or not, I couldn’t tell. Vaguely, I heard Avery speaking. But all my concentration was used up, all my energy devoted to a single chant.
Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse.
“Evelyn, stop! You’ve got to stop!”
I scrunched my eyes closed as blackness threatened to swallow my vision.
“Evelyn! Listen to me!”
I couldn’t listen. I couldn’t break concentration. I couldn’t lose them.
Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse. Don’t let it collapse.
I felt Avery tugging at my arm, but I shook him off.
“Evelyn!”
My eyes flew open. For a moment, all I saw was a kaleidoscope of dancing stars.
Then I saw her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Penny?” I gasped.
She didn’t answer, but threw her arms around my shoulders in a typically suffocating hug. She’d grown taller, her red hair now below her chin in a way that reminded me far too much of her sister. Still, when she broke away, she was grinning in a contagious manner that I’d never seen Demitra mirror, and the flicker of apprehension passed.
“You’re here,” I managed to say, knees buckling. “You’re really here.”
“Present and accounted for. But cripes, Evelyn, you look…well, awful. What are you wearing?”
“You two sound as if you’ve swapped places,” Lucas noted wryly. He hadn’t changed a bit, his limbs still too long for the rest of his body, his eyes still their piercing violet-blue. “Although she has a point. What are you wearing?”
The curiosity with which he’d spoken hadn’t changed either, then.
Bit by bit, my exhaustion seeped away and I saw them properly. One, two, three, four—all of them. They were all here.
I’d done it.
Penny, bouncing on her heels with her uncontainable energy; Lucas, continuing to frown at my clothes; Tressa, sharp features pulled into an uncharacteristic grin, white blonde hair seeming to blend with the snow; and there, next to her, was Fred.
A muffled sob escaped me. Before I’d registered anything else, the five of us were piled together in a tight embrace, and if only for a heartbeat, it felt as if nothing had changed at all since I’d seen them last. Even though we’d been worlds apart, in that moment, none of it mattered.
“Avery,” I said, realizing he was missing. I twisted around and saw him hovering a few steps away.
I felt Penny tense.
Avery raised his palms to the air. “I swear, I only—”
“We were going to take the Boundary down ourselves,” she said, her smile dropping into a scowl. “We could’ve done it. You abandoned us, Avery.”
“Abandoned? That’s a little harsh.”
“Why, what would you call it?”
“Without him,” I interjected, “you wouldn’t be here right now. He actually…he…” Another bought of dizziness overtook me and I wobbled to the ground. My heart drowned out the feelings of sickness, singing, They’re here! They’re here! with a happiness I hadn’t experienced in far, far too long. We hadn’t even needed Deio in the end. We were, all of us, free.
“You’ve got no idea how lo
ng we’ve been waiting for this,” Tressa said, bending down and squeezing my hand.
“Nearly as long as I have?”
“You need to tell us everything.” Penny paced around the woods, eyes dancing, running her fingers over the bark and snow and icicles like she’d been dropped into Wonderland. “Everything?” I said. Your sister is dead. You unleashed demonic forces trying to escape Boundary. If this war keeps going, we’ll lose the boys. Madon didn’t kill Beatrix. I’m far more powerful than you think I am. Your brother is a murderer. And Boundary was created—we were trapped—because of you. I cracked a smile. “Definitely.”
“Start with telling me who that is, maybe.”
Penny pointed at Andrew, who’d flattened himself in the shadows of a large tree. I realized that he’d seen the full extent of mine and Avery’s abilities, and wondered if he thought I was a monster now too. His cheekbone sported a colourful bruise from Avery’s punch, and his mouth hung open.
“This is Andrew,” I said. Then, to Andrew, “I thought I told you to run?”
“I…”
“Run from what?” Lucas asked.
“Not what,” Avery corrected, flashing Andrew a cold grin.
“Who.”
“All right, who then?”
“Nobody.” I glared at Avery, jerking my head in Penny’s direction. I didn’t want to ruin the moment by explaining every dark truth we’d uncovered about Boundary. Not here. Not until we’d figured out where we were going to stay, or how we were going to explain four—five, if we counted Avery—teenagers in old-fashioned clothing and no official past to the authorities. We couldn’t go to Julia, not without Andrew, and I had no doubt that Deio would try to contact Penny eventually…
“Don’t I get a personal hello?” Fred nudged me, tone only half-joking. “I mean, it has been a while, but—”
I cut him off with a hug, burying my face in his shoulder. Everything about him felt like home and I never wanted to let go, never, ever again…
“You’re crying,” he said, gently.
“I always cry.” I wiped my eyes, pulling away and drinking him in. “You know that.”
“Over torn hems and petty insults,” he teased. “You just…you seem to be properly crying this time.”
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