She was still improving from training. She was able to suggest things to multiple people in the group, and they listened and obeyed longer and more difficult commands without realizing she was pulling their strings. At the moment, though, she couldn’t figure out how to do anything but keep it raining.
“Keep your core tight.” Leland pressed his palm into Alexia’s abdomen.
She blushed and pulled away. She nodded without looking him in the eyes. The rain stopped completely. She backed away. He stepped closer and she backed away again, watching his feet. She looked up and saw hurt clear in his eyes.
“I’ve been thinking about all this stuff,” she finally said. “You say there’s no fate, no destiny, but we are always together in all our past lives. But this thing between…if it’s that powerful, how is it not destiny?” she asked in a rush before she lost her nerve.
“There is no destiny.” He reached for her. She stepped away, widening the gap between them. “You and I are always together because we have always been in love. It was slow in the beginning.”
“I know. I remember. Why did we fall in love? There were so many more people you would have been better suited with.”
“Why does anyone fall in love?” Leland smiled. “There is something between us. It keeps happening over and over, so we must fit well together.”
“So, I really love you? Even when I don’t have to.”
“You never have to.”
“I guess. But maybe there really is destiny.” Alexia was watching the grass blow in the breeze. “Maybe we were destined to meet, to fall in love.” She looked at him and held his gaze. She couldn’t shake the feeling that after the battle, she and Leland would be parted. “To lose each other.”
“I can’t believe that,” Leland said. “I won’t. I love you, Alexia. As long as I exist, I exist for you.”
“Why weren’t you reborn with me in this life? Or, I mean, my life as Alexia. Why didn’t you come back with me?”
“What?”
“Tell me.” Alexia locked eyes with him.
“I…” He screwed up his face. “I don’t remember.”
“What?”
Leland gaped at her. “I don’t know why.”
Alexia opened her mouth to argue when she realized the truth.
Blaine.
A flash in Leland’s eyes told her he realized it at the same time. “He’s good,” Leland said. “I didn’t even realize.”
“What do you remember?”
He blew out a deep breath. “Being angry.”
Alexia wrapped her hands around his wrists. “Fight through it.”
Looking down at her hands, he turned his wrists and slid them until his hands were in hers. He closed his eyes.
“I was with Dustin and Cali,” he started.
The ground rocked and her surroundings flashed, moved, and reformed. She was in the Cetteri and her mind was in Alice’s head again. Tall trees waved in the light breeze.
As she passed the two trees with the stairs that bound them together, Blaine staggered down. A lump formed in her throat and she tried to swallow. She fought the urge to hide. Alice didn’t understand the emotions bubbling inside her. They had no place in the Cetteri.
“Alice.” His eyes lit up. “I love seeing you.” He swayed toward her like a drunk human.
“Are you okay?”
He stumbled, knocking them both to the ground. Pinned, she looked up at his clear blue eyes. A shade lighter than Leland’s. Still beautiful. He rubbed his cheek against hers. She pushed against him but he didn’t budge.
“Let me up, please,” she pleaded.
“I don’t want to do this alone.”
There was something familiar about his words.
“Do what?” Alice asked.
Alexia already knew what he was talking about.
“Does any part of you want to be with me?”
“Blaine, let me go.”
“Still no, then?” The dream-like quality faded from his voice. “You’re sure?”
He propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at her. He searched her face and she wasn’t sure what he found there. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips to hers.
She turned her head away and felt him pull away.
“Get off of me!” She pushed against him.
“Alice?”
Levi stood with Daniel and Celia. Alexia recognized they were Leland, Dustin, and Cali instantly.
Blaine looked to Levi, and Alice was able to wiggle away. Rubbing her lips, she ran to Levi.
“Did he…attack you?” Celia asked.
“Was he holding you down?” Daniel asked at the same time.
Alice nodded, unable to speak. Blaine watched her.
“He kissed you?” Levi asked. His voice shook.
Blaine stood and faced them. “Girls, why don’t you head up the stairs? I need to talk to the men.”
“We have nothing to talk about,” Daniel said.
Blaine turned to him. “You know what? You’re right. Go with your women. I’ll talk to Levi.”
“Blaine, I don’t—”
“Stay,” Blaine interrupted Leland. He turned over his shoulder. “You go.”
Alexia recognized the look in Leland’s eyes. She understood the numbness in Alice’s mind. Blaine had used his powers on them. They didn’t know what was happening.
The memories were dripping away and they stumbled up the stairs.
Then, she wasn’t Alice anymore. The world shifted and she was, again, in her Ether. She looked around the yard. Whatever Gregory, Cali, and Dustin were doing had their entire focus. She looked back to Leland and saw anger set in his jaws.
“I remember. I saw you with him. How could you?”
“He was—”
“I got a pretty good idea of what he was doing. Thanks.”
She grabbed his hand and put it on her cheek. She looked into his eyes. Something flickered there. His expression softened.
“Fight it. Blaine did that to you. The anger, the lie, it’s from him. It’s not real.”
The cold hardness left his eyes. He looked from her eyes to his hand, still on her cheek. “He told me you two were together. But he didn’t let me remember anything. Just that I was angry. He said you wanted to be reborn together and I should stay out of the way.” He wiped his hand over his mouth and let out a deep breath. “Why did he let you go?”
Alexia shook her head. “I don’t think he meant to. He told us to go, so we did. When we got to the portal, we went through to be reborn. I don’t think he meant for us to do that. Why would he?”
“I stormed off but didn’t get far. I think his lie started wearing off. I went back for you. When I got to the room, he was the only one there. It all gets murky after that so he must have messed with my memory again. We fought, I think. I must have won.”
“But why didn’t you follow us?”
“I really thought you didn’t want me.” Leland kissed her cheek.
“Leland.” She took in a deep breath. “For all of your existence, we’ve found each other and have been in love. It may not be fate, but I can’t believe you didn’t trust me.”
“I should have.”
“Yes. You should have.” Alexia dropped his hand and straightened. “But now we know the truth.”
Leland nodded. His mouth was a hard line. “His compulsion was so real. It wasn’t a thought or a question. What he told me was true.”
“All this shit with Blaine. It’s all I can think about.”
“Me too. But after all this, we can be free.”
She touched his cheek. “What if there isn’t an after that?”
***
Cali stood outside in the sun. It hadn’t been as hot as the week before, but she was still sweating.
I’d like a portal to the kitchen, please. I need some freaking water, Lexi thought to her.
Cali laughed and with a slight tilt of her chin, a crystal-clear portal opened from where Lexi stood to the
kitchen door.
For just a second, she was sure she saw the yellow cloud between Alexia and the kitchen, but it vanished immediately.
Dustin cried out as if in pain and Cali turned toward him as he dropped to the ground.
“Dustin?” Cali ran to him.
“What happened?” Lexi asked, running from the house.
“Dustin?” Cali asked again.
“Something is happening. Something is happening.” Dustin repeated the words as if he were in pain.
“What?” Cali asked.
Gregory and Leland dropped to their knees next to Dustin.
Gregory shook his head as if to clear it. “He is sensing something.”
Cali crouched in front of Dustin. Sweat poured down his face and his eyes were pressed shut.
“I don’t know who they are. There’s danger. I don’t know where.” Gregory’s voice was strained.
Gregory’s eyes shifted back and forth under his closed eyelids. Cali watched him and held tight to Dustin’s shaking hand. The sun beat down on her and she could hear each ragged breath of everyone around her.
“I don’t know what it means, but Dustin is sensing people we don’t know. I am catching fragments.” Gregory paused. He opened his eyes, looking to Dustin before turning back to the group. “It has something to do with Blaine.” Gregory put his hands on Dustin’s shoulders.
Dustin sagged. “He did it?”
Gregory nodded. “He found the ability he needs to get in here.”
Cali felt her blood run cold. “He’s got a power like mine? He’s coming?”
“Not yet. Dustin’s vision hasn’t happened yet.”
“What does that mean?” Lexi asked.
“It means it’s time to go,” Leland answered.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cali watched the sun set on her last day in the Ether. Pinks and oranges spilled through the window and the patch of light on the floor invited her to curl up in it as if she were a cat. Instead, she and the four other people in the room stood and held hands one another’s hands.
Training was over.
She wasn’t ready though, and she could see the same fear in everyone’s eyes. Even if none of them wanted it, there was no walking away.
Blaine was in the Cetteri. They would go there. They would overpower him. They would disperse him. It’s not murder. It’s not revenge, Cali reminded herself. He’s trying to kill us. It’s self-defense.
If it wasn’t as simple as Cali opening a window and Lexi convincing him to walk into the dispersal portal—how could it be?—they had backup plans. They were basically just stay together and kill him before he kills us kind of plans.
There were no speeches. No declarations of soon to be won freedom or safety.
They would fight and they would live, or they would die.
The ragged breathing around her terrified her as she let it all sink in.
They would fight and they would live, or they would die.
“We have to go,” Gregory whispered.
Cali focused and a shimmering portal to the Cetteri opened in front of them. She’d only opened two other test portals to the Cetteri, in case Blaine noticed them. While it was easier to open, she still felt the tiny hitch in her breathing and the pinch in her gut. It wasn’t effortless, but she knew it was almost over. The portal glistened, showing the land they were heading to. Cali wondered how something so beautiful could fill her with such foreboding.
Walking through the portal felt like pushing through a wall of thick yet pliable plastic. It didn’t impede Cali’s progress, just molded around her body. Lexi paused at the opening like she was fighting with herself. She couldn’t seem to make herself take the step through. Cali reached her arm back and grasped her friend’s forearm. She didn’t say anything, just held Lexi, and smiled. Lexi let out an unsteady breath and stepped through. Leland was right on her heels. Gregory was the last to pass through.
Blaine materialized in front of them like a mist. It was as if he had sensed their arrival. He looked each of them in the eye and laughed. Cali saw no hint of fear or worry in his eyes.
“I’m so glad you’re here.” Blaine’s voice was crisp and excited.
Cali’s heart sank. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but she’d hoped Blaine would have looked just a little worried, even for a second.
***
Blaine’s words and careless attitude filled Alexia with dread. Before his dark laugh had even finished, his arms flew up and a storm whipped through the trees. The wind howled and tiny dust devils danced among the edges of the clearing they stood in.
Alexia steeled her grip and reached out for the hands of the Essences next to her. Dustin and Leland grasped hers back tightly. With little effort, Alexia pushed the wind away and a protective circle formed where the five stood. Alexia watched Blaine’s hair blow in the wind and, for a brief moment, she was sure she saw disappointment, though she had no idea why.
A portal opened.
Go into the portal, Blaine, Alexia pleaded with his brain. Stop all this and walk through.
His face contorted and darkened to a shade of plum red. A deep sound ripped from him that was so inhuman, Alexia wondered how he had created it. He didn’t take one step in the direction Alexia tried to will him toward. Fire sprang up around the five but at a considerable distance. It danced with the wind but didn’t blow out or spread. Bright orange flames kissed the sky. Alexia jumped, but the two next to her stood strong. Cali’s portal wavered and slowly closed. The fire, like the wind, circled around them but did not come closer. Lightning began to crash down, inching closer to the five.
Blaine didn’t move toward the portal, and the lightning streaked down with seemingly no effort.
Alexia was easily able to deflect the lightning back toward Blaine but he ducked to evade it. She dumped icy rain on him. She even managed to freeze him in an ice block.
The wind stopped rushing once Blaine was encased in ice and Alexia moved her rain over the flames to drown them out.
His frozen expression seemed shocked, but that lasted only seconds before he began to move. The motions were small and hardly noticeable at first but soon he was thrashing and the ice around him cracked.
Blaine didn’t look weakened in the slightest once he emerged from his icy prison. He’d escaped too quickly. His most recent acquisition—the ability to heal—worked wonders on the tiny bits of frostbite on his nose and ears. All Essences healed fairly quickly, but this power gave him a greater advantage.
Blaine tried again to break up the group of five, but still their hands stayed latched together. Alexia could see it irritated him and she was glad of it.
“Blaine, you can’t beat all of us,” Leland said as he planted his feet shoulder-width apart and braced himself.
Without warning, they were surrounded by no less than twenty copies of Blaine. “I’m willing to try.”
He, along with all his clones, closed in on them, and the five of them compacted into a tight circle. Alexia felt her heart pounding in her chest, but she tried not to show how afraid she was. The group turned so their backs were facing the middle of the circle and each member faced the copies of Blaine surrounding them. With their shoulders touching they pushed Blaine away with everything they had. Though they had practiced, this felt completely different.
Icy rain fell from the sky. Shimmery portals opened and closed at random, whisking Blaine’s copies away. Leland and Dustin barked out commands for the circle to shift one way or another.
“Stay together,” Leland called out at intervals.
If the circle broke, they would be much more vulnerable. Even with the hint Blaine had given Leland by accidentally passing on several of his powers, they didn’t know all his tricks, and his powers likely outnumbered theirs greatly. If he had many more unknown abilities like the clones, Alexia was worried about what could happen. As long as they stayed close, they could deflect whatever Blaine threw at them, she hoped.
The
copies charged at the group while Blaine stayed a safer distance away. The clones acted as individuals, which Alexia hadn’t expected. One tossed his hands into the air and a weak wind blew around him, but the copy didn’t seem able to move while he summoned the power. Several charged up to the group and looked like they were trying to get close enough to fight hand to hand. Cali used her portals to move them away. Alexia pushed them away with wind. One got through and Gregory fought him hand to hand. It was quick and brutal. Two fast punches to the clone’s abdomen and a twist of his neck and Gregory was ready for the next. Another copy stopped two feet in front of Dustin and started to mutter something. Like the clone who had summoned the wind, this clone didn’t move while using its powers.
They weren’t as powerful as Blaine, but there were so many, and they were everywhere. No matter how many they killed, Blaine kept making more. The group fought through the endless sea of clones but gained no ground on their target.
Turn around and attack the real Blaine. Alexia pointed as she pushed the thought into the clone’s head.
She didn’t expect it to work, but the clone turned and rushed at Blaine. It reached him, swung a fist and clocked Blaine in the cheek. Then it kicked him in the thigh.
Blaine looked at his clone, horrified, before he flicked his wrist and the clone vanished.
Alexia watched, uncertain for a moment, before she realized Blaine’s copies were weak imitations of him. Each of them only had a diluted version of one of his powers. They could move and fight like him, and they were not easy to take down, but they were susceptible to her powers. She turned a few more of his copies against him, but it was slow. She could only talk to a few at a time and once they rushed him, he made them disappear.
It wasn’t helping. It pulled her focus away from the wind and rain still swirling around them. Leland had picked up her slack but he wouldn’t be able to hold onto it forever.
After a while, it was clear that keeping so many copies active was draining the real Blaine. Alexia’s small circle held hands as they used what they could to weaken Blaine further.
They pushed closer to him, but each step closer they got to him, he retreated. Finally, he was running out of space. The clearing was ending and he neared the stairs that bound the two trees together.
Last Time She Died Page 23