“Once the soldier of death has been released, he answers to his summoner, and him alone. The story says he’ll have three days to do his work, which is to collect those who have refused Bennett’s sanctuary. And Bennett will be the ruler, the true master, of the New World.” She breathed in deeply before adding, “Of course, there’s someth—”
Nothingness.
Pure blackness cloaked my vision. Susan disappeared. I no longer felt the warmth of Ethan beside me.
I didn’t have the power to fight it this time. Not anymore.
Screaming. Blood-curdling screams filled my ears, never-ending. I clapped my hands over them in an attempt to sound out the terrified voice, but it was little use. The problem was, I knew those screams. I’d heard them before. They were the screams of someone about to meet her death.
They belonged to Haven.
“Damn it, she’s out again. K!” Danny appeared before me, snapping his hands in front of my face. My vision blurred and my head went light before I swayed, then collapsed into a heap in front of the couch.
~*o*~
This passing out crap wasn’t going to cut it.
My eyes fluttered open, and it took a good minute or so before I remembered where I was. Someone had placed me on the couch at some point, and there was a blanket covering me. This wasn’t one of the crap blankets we’d swiped from the center; it was a thick, hand sewn quilt. I kind of wanted to stuff it into my pack to take it with me when we left. If we were leaving, that is.
I started to move my legs, but when they didn’t even budge, I realized Ethan was . . . sitting on top of them. Ouch. He was sleeping—it was made clear by the snoring—but he was sitting upright with his back resting against the couch cushions. He didn’t look comfortable, but his face was the most peaceful I’d seen in days. I couldn’t even be mad that he was pretty much pinning me to the couch.
“He didn’t even want to go to sleep.” Susan appeared in front of me, and squatted until the two of us were eye level. Her face had lost the tension it held earlier, but there was still worry present there. “I nearly slipped a sleeping pill into his water, but he caved at the last minute when I promised I’d keep an eye on you. Everyone else is finally sleeping, as well. I think you’re all coming down with something. Each one of you is burning hot to the touch.”
I didn’t doubt that for a minute. I felt like I was on fire. I studied Susan for a long moment, trying to figure out if I knew her from anywhere.
“Who. . .” I choked on the words. My throat was worse than cracked sandpaper. Susan offered me a bottle of water, which I guzzled until there wasn’t a drop left. Sweet relief. I handed the empty bottle to her, then asked, “Who are you? And how do you know all this? About the stories?”
Her smile was filled with sorrow. “I’m someone who knows more about you than you do, I’m afraid.” She paused, waiting for me to reply, but all she received was silence. “A few years ago, my name was Susan Andreas.”
My eyes widened. “You’re—”
“Bennett’s aunt,” she finished, averting her gaze. “I was married into that family for an entire six months. I couldn’t take the insanity any longer than that. Those people . . .”
She chuckled humorlessly, looking back to me. “Nicholas, my husband, was a calculating man, Kerrigan, and he stopped at nothing to get what he wanted. Bennett was the same. That boy idolized his uncle. His own parents tried to protect him from the greed of their family. I even convinced them to send him to Sunrise as a last ditch effort to separate him from the influence of my ex-husband. I’d worked with Dr. Fowler in the past, and I knew that if anyone could help Bennett see reason, he could. But there was only so much that could be done, since he inherited that Andreas lust for power.”
It made sense. It didn’t make it right, but it made sense. “There was something more to the story,” I said, recalling those seconds before I passed out. “Right before I . . . you know.”
A look I couldn’t quite decipher appeared in her eyes. Panic? Worry? Remorse? “Dr. Fowler is a smart man,” she began, “but he never knew the entire story, and I wasn’t able to finish earlier. I’m not sure you should hear it in your current state, but now’s as good a time as any, I suppose.” She reached forward to place her palm over my forehead. She winced at the heat of my fever, and then seemed to consider whether or not to continue.
“Just tell me,” I said, backing away from her touch. “I’m a big girl, Ms. Sinclair.”
“You are. You’re also quite strong-willed. It comes with your name.” She must have seen my confusion, as she gave me a look filled with sympathy. “You see, a visionary is the only person able to open the scrolls. When it comes to the fourth scroll, and most powerful of them all, however . . . two visionaries are required.”
My heart sank. There was a sense of dread in her voice that immediately set me off-kilter. Her eyes blazed into mine, as if she was trying to communicate without words. That’s when the message from Bennett’s radio broadcast played through my mind.
“Kerrigan, if you are out there, I truly hope you’re listening.”
He knew my name. He said he knew me, but I didn’t know him. “What are you trying to say?” I asked Susan. “You’re saying I have something to do with this?”
“I’m saying the Andreas family had another child,” she said. “Bennett had a sister. Her name was Callia.”
My blood went cold.
“Can you say ‘exousia,’ Callia?”
My mouth dropped open, but no words came. Instead, I shook my head rapidly, refusing to believe what she was saying. I tried to erase the past five minutes from my memory, but there were some things that just couldn’t be unheard.
The sorrowful smile returned to Susan’s face. “Yes. I knew it the moment I saw you on my porch. You have his eyes—the Andreas eyes. Your vision earlier only confirmed my suspicions. You’re Callia Andreas, and your brother likely has men dispatched to the ends of the earth in search of you. His mission can’t be completed without you.” She paused, her growing concern evident by the way she looked at me. “Are you okay? You’re looking a bit pale.”
Okay. My head swam with too much information. The fever’s fire was inching over my body, making me sweat and freeze simultaneously. My heart pounded with fear of what was to come. Okay was ridiculously far from accurate.
“Here.” She reached out and gently urged me to rest against the pillow beneath my head. “Get some rest, sweet girl. You’re safe for now.”
“And what about five days from now?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Will I still be safe then?”
Susan stood, then rubbed a hand over my hair. The gesture was so soothing, something my own mom would have done, that my body relaxed despite the anxiety swirling in my brain. With a sigh, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
I could hear the pain in her voice when she whispered, “I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
Chapter 10
I woke to the sound of a hacking cough, but when I tried to open my eyes, the brightness of the room made them snap closed again. Indescribable pain coursed through every inch of my body, which felt like it was blazing in the depths of hell. And I was convinced there were tiny gnomes in my head with jackhammers. It was the only explanation for the searing headache.
Someone groaned beside me, and it was only then I remembered I hadn’t been alone on the couch when I fell asleep. I forced my eyes open once more. Ethan was sitting up the last time I saw him, but was now squished in between me and the back of the couch. Any other time, being this close to him would’ve been a dream come true. However, with his body pressed against mine and his face buried in my neck, the scorching heat radiating off his body clued me in to his insanely high fever. This couldn’t be good.
Danny trudged toward us, only to plop down on the floor beside the couch. He looked like hell, too. Where was everyone else? I could have gotten up to look, but that wasn’t happening. Not when I felt like I’
d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler. Instead, I asked Danny what was going on.
“The damn flu to end all flus? The plague? Who the hell knows.” He sniffled loudly, then groaned and situated himself on the floor. It didn’t look comfortable, but I assumed he didn’t care. If he felt like I did, just resting his head felt like heaven. “I think we’re all dying,” he added with a cough.
Ethan shivered then, and when I looked over at him, his lips were quivering. I shifted enough so I could lift the edge of my blanket, and placed it on top of him. His eyes fluttered open for the briefest of moments, but he promptly fell back asleep with a hint of a smile. The poor guy needed all the sleep he could get. He and Dr. Fowler had taken this whole trip by the reins, and if any of us deserved rest, it was those two. Especially if Danny was right and we all had the flu, though “dying” felt more accurate.
My body demanded I get some sleep of my own, but when I heard Dr. Fowler on the other side of the room, I made myself tune in. “We need to get moving, Susan,” he said. “Time isn’t on our side.”
“I know this,” Susan replied in a hushed voice. “Keep your voice down. The kids are falling apart, Eugene, and so are you. Your face is the color of a tomato. I know you’ve got to be cooking with fever. You can’t keep on like this. You’ll catch your death.”
“I’m fine,” he protested.
“You. Need. Sleep,” she said. “Pull up a patch of floor and get some. You’ll be worth nothing at all if you don’t fight off this illness.”
“But—”
“Sleep.” There was finality in her voice no one in his right mind would argue.
Sleep. Sleep did sound pretty darn fantastic.
I cast one final glance at Ethan, who was snoring once again, with his lips parted. And they were right there next to my face. They looked so soft, so inviting, that my own tingled with the urge to just do it. Kiss the boy already.
And in my slightly crazy, fever-induced delirium, I did before I could second-guess myself.
It lasted half a second tops, but when I pulled away, it took every ounce of willpower to refrain from doing it again. I had no idea if he would’ve even “approved” of my kissing him in the first place, and I felt guilty for doing so while he was pretty much comatose. But just as I started to drift back to sleep, that hint of a smile on his face curved up into a full-blown grin.
So long, guilt.
~*o*~
The next few days passed by in a haze. All I was aware of was sweating, coughing, sleeping, and more sweating. I had to have eaten at some point, maybe? Probably used the bathroom a few times. I remembered none of it, though.
But Ethan was there, right beside me the entire time. I did remember that much.
When we were finally able to rejoin the land of the living, the two of us ventured outside to see what the world had been up to in our absence. It was nice to see there was still a world left; for now, at least.
Ethan and I stood on the porch, staring up at a sky that had become a dull gray color. The clouds were still, which sparked a bit of hope inside, but I knew better than to assume anything anymore. Assuming got your butt into trouble.
We sat at the top of the porch steps, side-by-side. I kept waiting for things to become awkward between us, for some sort of tension to break this weird bubble of contentment surrounding us. However, the bubble stayed in place. I guess drooling on one another while in a fever-induced slumber kind of eliminated the potential for awkwardness.
“So, is it true?” he asked. I turned to him with a questioning look. “I heard bits and pieces of what Susan was telling you. But I’m not sure if I actually heard it, or if I was dreaming or whatever. My head’s been in a weird place the past few days.”
Ah, that was a feeling I knew well. Judging from the way his cheeks flushed, he knew the irony of what he’d said. I shrugged, giving him a tight smile. “You heard right, unless we were both having the same dream. But is it true?” I sighed and looked to the sky. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. Everything I’ve ever known about the world . . . it’s been flipped upside down since the day this all started. I guess it could be true.”
“But why? Why now? Why didn’t he try and track you down, I don’t know, five years ago? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Because she needed to be eighteen,” Susan said, stepping onto the porch with her arms crossed. I jumped a little, unaware we were being watched. “Only someone eighteen or older is capable of summoning the final soldier. That’s specified in the scrolls. I suspect he was counting down the days until your birthday, though I’m not sure why he hasn’t tracked you down by now. He has plenty of resources at his disposal.”
“Well, he didn’t waste any time starting this mess. I turned eighteen the day after my parents had me committed. Happy freakin’ birthday to me.”
There was a loud bang from inside the house, followed by shouting. Instead of appearing concerned, Susan just rolled her eyes and turned back to the doorway. “Excuse me.”
“Well, that settles that,” I said to Ethan with a frown. “You know, by now, my parents, sister, and I would be going to chop down our Christmas tree. Instead, they’re dead and I’m sitting here, in clothes I’ve been wearing for God knows how many days. I don’t even know what day it is, Ethan. I haven’t showered, I’ve barely eaten . . .”
Ethan scooted closer, grasping my hand and lacing his fingers through mine. I looked up at him, only to see pure determination in his gaze. “I won’t let him touch you,” he said. “None of us will. We’ve got your back. You know that, right?”
My heart skipped a beat. “I appreciate the thought,” I said, “but it seems my brother is a pretty ambitious fella.” My brother. Good Lord, I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to that. My brother was a sociopath bent on world destruction and domination. I hit the sibling jackpot.
Ethan held up our hands, and nodded toward the bracelet still tied to my wrist. “I’m always with you,” he said, his voice soft but firm. “I’m not going anywhere either. We’re in this together, Kerrigan. We all are.”
“Kerri,” I blurted out. Now it was his turn to look confused, and I couldn’t blame him. I sounded like a blubbering idiot. “I-I like it better than Kerrigan,” I explained, blushing. “But I don’t let just anyone call me that. I mean, I like it, but it’s a special nickname, you know? Only my parents and sister were allowed—”
His lips were on mine before I could ramble another word. And they were just as soft, just as perfect, as I remembered. It wasn’t a big, “look how awesome I am” kind of kiss. It was gentle. Sweet. Just like him.
He pulled away far too soon, but the moment we met one another’s gaze, his eyes bore into mine with an intensity that left me breathless. “Together,” he whispered. The single word held so much promise, just hearing it made me tear up.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said, my voice cracking. “What am I supposed to do? The way she makes it sound, he’s going to be looking for me. He’s probably already looking for me, and if he is, none of us . . .” I shook my head. “None of you are safe with me.”
Just as Ethan opened his mouth, no doubt to argue, the shouting from inside the house resumed and came closer. He and I looked to the door just as Dr. Fowler stormed onto the porch, with all six of our bags in his hands. He was beet red when he stepped around me and continued toward the yard.
“Eugene!” Susan shouted, stomping out seconds later. The doctor stopped in his tracks and turned around, clearly angry. Susan didn’t stop until she stood before him, just as flustered as he was. “What do I have to do to convince you this is ridiculous?”
Danny, Haven, and Nate filed out of the house, standing behind Ethan and me while we watched the two adults go at it. “Forget the soldiers of the apocalypse,” Danny said. “We’ve got World War Three right in front of us.”
“We need to move,” Dr. Fowler said. “I’ve told you repeatedly—time is not on our side, and you holding me hostage in there did nothing to hel
p. Today’s the day.”
The day. The way he said those two words resonated with me, but I wasn’t sure why. Then, I counted the past few days in my head. Looked to the sky and realized just why the clouds were no longer black and swirling.
It’d been seven days.
Susan threw her arms up in exasperation. “Fine. Do what you will. But have you even thought about what you’re going to do if you actually get there? The place will be swamped with guards—you know that, right? And leave these kids here, where they’re safe. They’re sick, Eugene! And she—” She paused, glancing over at me. Her shoulders dropped in defeat. “She certainly won’t be safe,” she finished in a small voice.
I felt all eyes turn to me as I rose to my feet. While my knees threatened to give out, I pushed forward, forcing myself to walk to where Susan and Dr. Fowler stood facing me. “It’s been a week, hasn’t it?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. The doctor nodded, appearing thankful I’d figured it out. “Then you’re right. We need to go.”
“You don’t understand,” Susan said. “Do you have any idea what you’re getting into, Kerrigan? He’ll be looking for you. There’s no telling—”
“If he’s looking for me—really looking—is there any guarantee he won’t find me here?” My question was answered with her silence. “Exactly.”
“There’s no need to go looking for trouble,” she said, her tone significantly softer. I recognized the look on her face. It was one of pity.
I shrugged a shoulder. “I think I’ve been trouble since the day I was born.”
Susan held my gaze for what felt like an eternity before stepping forward to pet my hair, the same way she had just a couple days ago. “They tried,” she said only loud enough for me to hear. “Your parents…they sent you away. They tried to shield you from this nightmare.”
Even though I knew she was trying to be reassuring, the mention of “my parents” put me on edge. Those people weren’t my parents. Some woman named Mrs. Andreas may have given birth to me, but I’d never known her. She didn’t sing me to sleep every night for years. She didn’t run into my room each and every time I had a nightmare in the middle of the night. She didn’t sit by a hospital bed countless times while trying to figure out a cause for my screwed-up head.
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