“You don’t want to do that, Jem. Touching death is the fastest way to unravel all of its mysteries.”
“Death? Mom, what’s happening?”
“You’ve crossed the veil, Jem.”
Her words were pleasant, but her eyes were hooded with sadness. I recognized the expression as the one she had always had when she was watching Nai and I together and she thought we weren’t paying attention.
“Is this… am I?”
“This is the Summerland, Jem,” she explained. “This is the afterlife for my kind. You can’t stay here though.”
“Summerland…” I dug deep into my brain. “So you were a witch. A mystic too, weren’t you?”
“A solitary, yes. Gia was my mentor.”
“You knew,” I said. It came out as more of an accusation than I’d meant.
“I did,” she admitted with a sad smile. “Jem, you need to understand. That thing wasn’t your father.”
“I know,” I said, tensing. “He… wait a minute. Where is dad?”
“His soul has passed through. He was a non-believer.”
“Passed through? But…” I was confused. “I saw Heaven… I saw you and dad and even Rufus…”
“You saw only what would have been, Jem. Your soul would have recovered in a Heaven of your creation. Each soul has its own path and destiny.”
“And now…” I choked. “Now that I’m dead…”
“You’re not dead, Jem,” my mom assured me, placing her hand near, but not on, my shoulder. It felt as if an icy cold breeze was blowing on a blazing hot summer day. “You’ve only been brought to the brink of death so that your soul can be severed clean, leaving your body a preserved gateway to the Discordant realm.”
“Um… Is that supposed to be better?” My voice was little more than a panicked squeak. That mom remained calm and serene as she described the horrors was not at all helping the situation.
“Do you remember what I’d told you? Do you remember what you have to do?”
“I…” I thought back on the words that had haunted me for the last few weeks. “Nai… I’m to forgive Nai.”
Mom smiled. “You did hear me. Forgiveness is crucial, Jem.”
“But Nai…” I began to panic again. “She’s not… it’s not her. The wraith, the one who got dad…”
“Hush,” she said and put a finger to her lips. “I do not need to hear the particulars. Your father is in a better place. His torment has ended. Your sister’s, however, has just begun.”
I wanted to ask what that meant, but I felt as if I was being dragged away. Mom receded, taking the sunlight and the field of flowers with her, leaving me insubstantial in an empty void. One by one, my senses began to return. I felt the hard surface of the stone at my back and the heavy weight of the chains pinning me down. I began to hear frantic yelling and several voices, some familiar, some not. The sharp sting of smoke hit my nostrils and I realized that I was once again in the clearing by the river. Alive, apparently, but for how much longer I didn’t want to think about. I opened my eyes, but was met by darkness and momentarily panicked until I remembered the blindfold.
I let out a winded “oof!” as something fell onto my chest, crushing the air from me. A low, growling, and unfamiliar voice issued from somewhere just overhead.
“Within my power…”
With a sharp tug, the blindfold was ripped from my head. As my eyes adjusted, I wished it had been left on.
“N-Nai?”
“I command the guardians of the realm…”
Instead of Mr. Marsden, my own sister was kneeling on my chest, staring down at me with a deranged look in her eye and a silver dagger raised high above her head.
“To stand aside…”
“Nai? What are you doing?”
For a moment, I thought I saw clarity and the dagger slumped slightly, but just for a moment.
“Nai, it’s not your fault! Nai!” I cried, remembering my mother’s warning.
I held my breath, waiting for some sort of miracle or sign that it had worked. Nothing happened. I began to panic. Did I really forgive Nai or was I just saying the words that I thought she needed to hear?
“Dammit, Jem! I don’t want to kill you!” she hissed as she convulsed, her head thrown backward. Perhaps I was getting through after all.
“I forgive you!”
“You what?” Nai’s own voice was back, but she still held the blade over me.
“I forgive you!” I repeated, louder this time, with more conviction, squelching down every little bit of doubt. I believed! I really did! It wasn’t Nai. I knew this. Still, nothing happened. But then her eyes rolled and her rigid arms went slack, dropping the dagger a little more.
“Oh for fuck sake, Jem! I don’t know if you’re fully aware of this or not, but there’s a friggin’ demon inside of me who is trying to make me kill you. This may not be the best time to- ugh!” There was a blur and I felt the weight of Nai lift off of me. I lifted my head to see what had happened and felt a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down, banging my head on the rock in the process.
“Ow!”
“Dammit, son, hold still!”
“Harry?” I stopped fighting against the unseen force. Harry tugged at the chains and let out a frustrated noise when they didn’t budge.
“We’re going to get you out of here, but first I need to make sure Desmond doesn’t kill your sister before we have the demon trapped.”
“Desmond?”
I lifted my head again and saw Nai on the ground and Desmond holding her down. The blade in his hand shone with an unnatural light that radiated power. It was also dangerously close to her chest.
“Desmond, no! Not yet!” Harry called out as he rushed off.
I heard a metallic noise by my head and a second later, the chains slipped off of me. I sat up and immediately got dizzy. When the world stopped spinning, I saw Seth kneeling next to me with the chains in his hands.
“Keys,” he said, noting my bewildered expression. “The girl had them,” he added, indicating the slumped form of Emma behind me.
“Is… is she dead?” I asked, bile rising up as I noticed Gordon and a few others were also lying in the clearing.
“No, just unconscious,” Seth assured me. “The spell will make them all think they suffered a massive hangover. No one will remember much of what happened here tonight. Though to be fair, they’ll have forgotten anyway once Nai is gone.”
“Oh. I guess that’s… Wait a minute!” I sat up, sputtering. “When Nai’s gone where?”
“Calm down, Jem.” Seth put his hand on my shoulder. “She’s taken the wraith into her and we don’t have a corpus vessel.”
“No…” I sank to the ground. “No… I can’t let that happen. I…”
“Save your strength, Jem. There’s nothing you can do,” he said, holding me in a surprisingly firm grip. “She made the decision. She spared you and will die a martyr for her sacrifice.”
“What? No!” The fog in my head cleared at Seth’s words and I yanked myself from his grip. Toppling off the altar with clumsy limbs, I scrambled to my feet and stumbled forward.
“Nai! Wait! You don’t have to do this!”
“Jem! Stay back!”
Desmond tried to grab me, but I twisted away, pushing Harry out of the way to kneel on the ground next to my sister, who was grinning like a crazy person and untying her shoes.
“Nai, please. Don’t do this.”
She looked up at me in bewilderment.
“Don’t be an idiot, Jem,” she chided and tossed aside her boot. “I’m not killing myself for anyone, not even you, dear brother.”
She tugged off her sock and extended her bare foot upwards, into Harry’s face.
“Well, what are you waiting for? There it is! There's the source of my conflict. And hurry because I don’t know how long I can keep him there.”
For a moment, Harry’s bewildered expression matched my own, but then he saw what I had missed. A small nub of flesh that di
dn’t belong. Nai’s sixth toe. It had been a source of conflict for her entire life. I know other kids had made fun of her for it. She’d begged our mother to have it removed, but mom insisted that it wasn’t a medical necessity. Mom was against most medical procedures. I had to wonder if she hadn’t somehow known. She had to have known. After all, she had begged me to forgive my sister for hurting me and in the end, that had saved both of our lives, even if it wasn’t in some magical way like I’d expected.
“Well if that don’t beat all,” Harry muttered in fascination as he accepted the glowing ethereal blade that Desmond offered. “This is going to hurt, but there shouldn’t be much blood.”
“Just do it fast,” Nai gasped through gritted teeth.
But Harry had other ideas. There was a whole ritual involved in preparing the corpus vessel. I would have found the whole thing fascinating if it weren’t for the fact that it was kind of gross and to be honest, Nai’s toes had always kind of freaked me out. As Harry chanted, Desmond walked a circle around us, pouring holy water and some kind of silvery-pink dust around. When Harry stopped chanting, he looked at Desmond, who nodded.
When the blade came down, I don’t know who screamed louder, Nai or me because Nai’s nails sunk into my bare arm with enough strength to draw blood.
“To the fire! Quick!” Harry called out and rushed to where the bonfire still burned.
I helped Nai to her good foot, noting at least that she wasn’t bleeding. The blade must have cauterized the wound. I let her lean on me as we hobbled to the fire just in time to see it flare with a golden light as Desmond threw a few pieces of wood of the cross onto the embers.
There was more chanting. Latin this time, at least, that’s what it sounded like to me. Their voices seemed to coax the flame higher and hotter. Once it was a towering pillar of pure white flame, Harry threw the corpus vessel, now wrapped in a plain white strip of muslin, into the fire. As he did, the flames grew black and an anguished cry echoed through the clearing. When it died away, so did the black flame, leaving only the golden flame from before.
“It is done,” Harry said quietly.
There was a soft rustle in the underbrush and I turned to see Donna. Her hair was disheveled and her face and arms had small cuts. In her hands, a smoke filled orb glowed with a murky, yet sinister aura.
“Is that…” Desmond’s question hung unanswered, but Donna nodded. I noticed then that she was shaking and looked as if she was going to be sick. She turned to Harry.
“Please,” she whispered. “I can’t hold it for much longer.”
I gasped when I realized that I knew what it was. She was holding a memory. Not just any memory, but the forbidden knowledge of the Ultimate Truth. The longer Donna held it, the more her curiosity would grow until she couldn’t hold back any longer. Being human, or at least part human and not an agent of Order, Donna would be driven as mad as Mr. Marsden had been.
With a dramatic huff, Harry turned his back to her. I couldn’t believe it! After everything Donna had done to help, Harry was going to let his religious prejudice get in the way of helping her.
“No!” I shouted, but Seth put a hand on my arm and told me to wait. Desmond joined Harry and they began their chant again. When the flame was once again a pillar of white, Seth took the memory from Donna and threw it into the fire.
“Oh thank the god- er… the powers that be!” Donna said as she sank to the ground.
“You can thank whoever you want,” Harry said, turning away from the fire and hunching down to where Donna had fallen. “I reckon you seen things I’d rather not think about.”
“I caught a glimpse,” she said, nodding.
“How is he?” Harry asked, tilting his head toward the area where the body of Mr. Marsden had been left.
“He won’t remember much,” she said with a wince. “He’s going to need some rehabilitation and it isn’t likely that he’s headed back to his job any time in the near future, but that might not be such a bad thing. I can’t believe they let him back without a full exam anyway.”
“That was… rather brave…” Harry seemed to have a hard time offering Donna the small compliment.
“Thanks,” Donna said, looking grateful. “We’re going to go take Gary to the hospital. The story is that we found him wandering along the highway and suspect his amnesia is back.”
Harry got up as well and began the ritual for putting out the fire.
“You have a really dopey smile right now,” Nai said, but I noticed her tone was lighter than usual.
“The wraith’s gone, pagans and Christians worked together for the greater good, you saved my life, and no one died. It’s a bit like a happy ending, don’t you think?”
“You’re such a sap,” she said, throwing a light punch at my shoulder.
With the fire out and the area secured, Harry left.
“I’m going to slip back to the bar and make sure Chaos isn’t reigning on Bogie’s watch,” Desmond said before slipping away into the darkness.
“Well, come on then,” Seth said holding Nai’s boot out to her. “I’ll walk you both home before heading back to the bar.”
“Wait, I’ll be right there,” Nai said, swinging her backpack off of her back and rummaging through until she found a marker.
“Nai, where are you going?” I called out, but she disappeared through the thicket. I really didn’t want to go back in there, but a moment later, she returned with a devious smile on her face. “Oh no…” I said as I remembered the students who were still suspended in a magical slumber.
“Oh yes,” Nai said and showed me a picture she had taken with her phone. She had used the marker to draw a crude picture of a penis on Emma’s forehead. “Just because I don’t have to be the evil twin doesn’t mean that I can’t be the evil twin.”
“I guess… I guess she deserved that,” I said, earning me a high five from Nai and a frown of disapproval from Seth.
* * *
“What are you doing?”
“Going to bed?”
After Seth left, I planned to get a good night’s sleep and not think about Discordant or possessed teachers until the morning. Nai, apparently had other plans.
“It’s not even midnight,” she scoffed as she followed me up the stairs.
“Okay, sure, but you weren’t the one who almost got turned into a portal and I’m pretty sure my nose is broken.”
“Yeah, it might be a little crooked,” she said as I inspected it in the mirror. “But whatever. Just clean it up and put on a new shirt.”
“Nai,” I sighed. “If you even think I want to go chasing Discordant after what happened tonight…”
“I’m not!” she argued. “I just thought we might go down to Louie’s. You know, in case Seth needs to send a lost soul our way. I mean, it’s going to be a lot easier to be Guardians now, right?”
Her shrug was casual, but almost too casual and I smirked.
“Seth said we had the night off,” I reminded her. “But if you want to go flirt with a certain waiter, why do you want me to go along?”
“I… what are you…?” she sputtered.
“Oh wow!” I exclaimed. My jaw dropped as a red flush crept over my sister’s cheeks. “You’re blushing, Nai! You’re actually blushing!”
“I am not! Just… shut up!”
“Oh come on! This is good,” I taunted. “First you save my life, and then you get embarrassed over a crush. Nai, there’s hope for you yet!”
I might have pushed my taunting too far because the next thing I knew, Nai lunged at me, grabbing my collar as she pushed me into the wall.
“Jem, I swear on the Cycle that if you tell anyone that I saved your life, I’m going to kill you my-”
There was a crash and the sound of glass breaking as Nai shoved me into the bookshelf.
“Um…”
From the pile of broken glass that used to be the blue mystery bottle that I got from the antique mall, a pillar of smoke began to form, twisting into a mini
tornado that spun about the room. With a pop, the smoke dissipated and a tall, thin man with black hair, pointy ears, and purple skin bowed low before us.
“What is your heart’s desire, master?”
“Uh, Nai?” I looked over at my sister in a silent plea for help, but as she turned from the purple man to me, her face twisted from surprise to amusement and she backed out of the room. “Where are you going, Nai?”
“Oh me? I’m just going out to get the popcorn,” she said, shaking her head.
“Popcorn?”
“That’s right. Because eventually, Desmond will come home and you will have to explain why there’s a genie in your room.”
“Um… On second thought, maybe I do want to go to Louie’s.”
Is Jem headed for a whole new world of problems?
Find out in You Wish, Rise of the Discordant Book #3
Coming Summer 2015!
About the Author
Christina McMullen is a science fiction and fantasy author who prefers to put a nontraditional spin on these two beloved genres. All of her books are available in digital format worldwide through Amazon’s markets. Paperback copies of select titles are also available through most retailers.
Christina also maintains a blog called Vampires & Robots, which offers book reviews, amusing looks at both the past and future of technology, and insights on social issues as they pertain to science fiction. She currently resides in Texas with her husband and three dogs.
For more information on new releases, upcoming projects, contests, monthly free book giveaways, or discounted book promotions, please consider following Christina on Facebook, Twitter, or you may also send her an email at [email protected].
Acknowledgments
Thank you for reading Splitsville, the second book in the Rise of the Discordant series. If you are inclined, please consider leaving a review. I appreciate and welcome all feedback.
Once again, I have to thank my supportive core team of readers; thank you, Jacqui Lewis and Amy Newman Hendrickson. Your feedback has been and continues to be an invaluable resource. This time around, I would also like to thank fellow fantasy author K. Caffee for taking an early look and providing additional perspective on what needed to be done to offer a solid body of work.
Splitsville (Rise of the Discordant Book 2) Page 19