Anarchy (The Stone Legacy Series Book 4)

by Dalayne, Theresa

  Hawa sat on the king size bed at Modem’s feet, her hand rested on the kid’s foot. “Did you tell Renato about her?”

  Peter nodded. “He was just as surprised as the rest of us. He said he hasn’t seen another dreamwalker in decades.”

  Jayden leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and his gaze trained on Modem. “How much longer before she’s good to travel?”

  Peter crossed the room pressed his hand over Modem’s forehead. “She’s getting better. There’s color back in her cheeks. I don’t sense the fatigue like before, so she should be waking up soon.”

  “What about her ability?” Jayden asked. “Is it still freaking out?”

  “Not that I can tell,” Peter said.

  “Good.” Hawa stood. “When she’s better, we can bring her down to the police station and—”

  “What?” Jayden pushed off the wall. “What are you talking about? She’s coming with us.”

  “No, she’s not.”

  “Yes, she is.” Jayden narrowed his eyes. “We can’t throw her into the system. Especially in Guatemala. No telling what foster care is like here.”

  “I know it’s hard, but she’ll be better off.”

  “Listen to me.” He stepped toward Hawa and took her hand. “I grew up in the system, remember? I know what it’s like. As soon as whatever case worker is assigned to her realizes she’s different, they’re going to throw her in the kind of place me and Zanya grew up in.” He tightened his jaw. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

  “And coming to Renato’s with us will mean she’s always looking over her shoulder. If you haven’t realized, shit is about to hit the fan. Contessa is getting stronger, and we don’t know if we’ll be able to fight her off when the time comes. Bringing Modem along will just put her in more danger.”

  Peter rested his hands on both of their shoulders. “Why don’t you guys let her decide for herself?”

  Jayden turned and looked at the girl, her big brown eyes blinking open. She parted her lips and drew in a deep breath, then stretched her arms over her head, as if she’d just woken up from the world’s best nap. “Hey guys…” She pushed up onto her forearms, skimming over the faces in the room. “What’s…what’s going on?” She looked around the suite. “Whoa. Where are we?” A faint smile touched her lips as she ran her hands over the plush comforter adorned with satin threads.

  Hawa gathered Modem’s coat and shoes from the corner of the room and placed them on the bed. “Get dressed. We have to get moving.”

  “Moving, where?” Modem sat up straight and retied her dark, curled hair back into a puffy bun.

  Hawa studied Jayden’s rigid shoulders and tightly pursed lips.

  If she cared about him past the convenient fling, she wouldn’t make him leave Modem to the fucked up fate she was in for.

  “Brisa?” Modem’s tiny voice carried through the air with the warm wind. “Where are we going?”

  Hawa studied him a moment longer, and let out a long, soft exhale. “To Renato’s.” She displayed a warm smile. “Where else?”

  Jayden grinned. He’d never wanted to kiss her so much in his life. Doing it now would just be…weird, so he took her hand instead, and squeezed it extra tight. “Let’s get our stuff together and—” A sharp, piercing pain tore through his temples, shrouding his vision in black, forcing him to his knees. He gripped his hair and ground his teeth before a scream tore out of his chest.

  A pair of hands rested on his shoulders, but he couldn’t define who it was. Then another. His muscles coiled and he curled into a ball, pressing his forehead harder against the floor as the moment stretched, and the pain bore deeper into his mind.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Flashes of light blinded him as the pain lifted, leaving him standing in a fog. He shifted his feet in cool sand, and craned his neck to see the seemingly dormant roots of the underworld overhead. A chill ran over his skin.

  He turned, squinting through thick fog. He could barely see a few feet in front of him, let alone far enough to figure out what the hell was going on. And why was the underworld so cold? Assuming he was in the underworld…

  “Hello?” Calling out probably wasn’t the best idea, but he had little choice. If he stumbled around this realm, he could land in some pretty bad shit. “Um…” He stepped forward carefully, feeling each patch of sand beneath his feet before taking his next step. “Hello?”

  “I have been expecting you,” a voice purred from the blanket of fog.

  Jayden spun and peered through the clouds, his heart bursting into overdrive. That voice. That silken, alluring voice. It could only be one person. A moment later, a shadow appeared in the distance revealing curves like a goddess and long, thin limbs.

  A knot tightened in his gut. “Why do I keep seeking you?” He shifted back as the shadow grew closer, and bits of Contessa’s features became clear. The fog swirled and snaked around her as she pushed through it with every step.

  “Perhaps your heart is tied to this realm. After all, your soul is tainted from this place. Perhaps your spirit yearns to return home.” She stepped closer—close enough for her bright green eyes and polished, pink lips to tempt him.

  Jayden shifted back again, recalling Renato’s warning about the witch. She was beautiful, but that was her poison. She would consume his soul if she seduced him…if he still had a soul anymore, like she claimed.

  “Perhaps your heart is tied to me.” She tilted her head, displaying her long, elegant neck, and the sharp angle of her jaw line, half-hidden beneath waves of red, glistening hair. “You have been watching me. I’ve felt you close.” She curled one side of her mouth into a tempting smile and leaned into him, her lips inches from his. “What is it that you want, boy?”

  Jayden’s breaths were sharp and shallow, uneasy from Contessa’s hot breath caressing his mouth. He swallowed, staring at her lips. His muscles coiled as he fought an unbearable urge to dive into her entirely.

  “Our souls are aligned, you know. We are like each other, you and I. Both from this realm. Both with—” She bit her bottom lip. “Desires.” Contessa rested her hands on his chest.

  Jayden winced beneath her touch. He swallowed and forced himself to speak. “What happened here?”

  “This realm is under new rule. The king and I. Well…” She licked her lips. “We came to an arrangement.” His skin flushed with a sick heat where she had rested her hands. The warmth reached into his muscles, asking him to move in closer. Caught in a bewitched haze, Jayden reached up and brushed his thumb across her cheek. Her skin was like milk, flawless and glowing. She turned her head and brushed her lips across his palm, spiking his blood with adrenaline. “Be wary.” Her voice was softer this time. “You may find more than you can bear.”

  Jayden’s skin was like fire. He sucked in a breath and blinked away the trance luring him into her. Jayden dropped his hands. “What do you want from me?”

  She laughed again, but this time with a sharper edge. Her eyes narrowed. “You unfortunate boy. You never did stand a chance, did you?”

  “What are you talking about?” He had to get out of there, fast. Without Modem to keep him safe, he’d have to help himself. Reclaim his ability, control it, and somehow find an escape.

  “Death, followed by a brief resurrection,” she continued. “The love of your life rejects you, and then bonds with another. You flee, and find comfort in another woman’s arms. Now…” She sighed, curling her fingers around his shirt. “Now you find yourself here, again, in this realm.” She clutched his shirt tighter. “Which you will not again escape.”

  Jayden’s hands shook as Contessa’s sickness brushed against his heart.

  She clenched her jaw. “I will not allow you to sabotage my new empire.” Contessa’s eyes rolled with dark magic, shadows slithering under her once-fair skin. “Aside from the Guardian, you are the only Riyata left with the ability to seek. Yet you are the only Riyata who can seek with open access to my new realm, underworlder.”


  “What?” Jayden swayed and grasped Contessa’s forearm, his legs losing strength. What was she talking about? He wasn’t an underworlder. He wasn’t like her. “What do you mean?” His voice faded into a mere exhale as the witch’s icy power coiled around his heart.

  “It is in fact a rare privilege, seeker, to have underworld ties. How very unfortunate you will not live to understand your true potential.”

  Panic spiked through his mind and he fell to the ground, scrambling away, his fingers raking through the sand. His mouth gaped as he tried to pull in a breath, but it was if the air had turned to stone. An invisible vise had clamped down on his lungs. His eyes widened as fog clouded his mind, and his heart became like a molten rock, sucking the life out of him with every passing moment.

  The air around him shook, and a wavering wall of water plowed between them, spitting sand in every direction.

  “Can you be any dumber?” Modem said from beside him.

  The familiar wall of water shot up in front of him. Jayden gasped in a breath, desperately clawing at the ground.

  As the sick heat lifted from his chest, he drew in several more breaths. “I didn’t do this,” he choked out, struggling to rise to his hands and knees. His muscles quivered.

  “That doesn’t matter now.” Modem swayed while she stood beside him. “I can’t hold the barrier for long.”

  Jayden forced himself to his feet and turned to face Contessa. Modem’s protective wall had not only severed Contessa’s hold on him, but now shielded them from all directions. The temptress stood on the other side of the rippling barrier, staring at the wall with a slight tilt of her head. Her eyes flashed with a glint of darkness, and her lips parted. “Fascinating.” She stepped toward the barrier. “This is what withheld your presence. I was sure I had sensed someone nearby.” She reached out and touched the barrier, making it shudder. Tiny veins of black crawled over the spot she had touched.

  Modem groaned and clutched her stomach. “Whoa.” She blinked and tightened her grip on her belly. “Just her touch hurts. She’s no small fish, is she?”

  Jayden shook his head. “No, she’s not.” He examined Modem’s contorted features. For a kid, she was putting up with a whole hell of a lot of pain. “How much does it hurt?” He reached out to her.

  She held out her hand with a flat palm. “Don’t.” Her throat tightened. “I’m barely holding it together as it is. We need to get out of here.”

  Jayden paused, searching his mind for a way out. “You.” He gestured toward the barrier. “I usually came back after the wall of water hit me. Not always, but it’s worth a try. You need to get us out of here, not me.”

  “I guess it’s the only chance we’ve got.” She stood up a little straighter. “You ready?”

  Jayden nodded. “Does a bear shi—” He snapped his jaw shut. “Um, yeah. Totally ready.”

  Modem let her hands fall to her sides and curled her fingers into fists. She drew in a deep breath and exhaled. Her chest dropped, and her features softened.

  Jayden waited for ice-cold water to crash into him, but the barrier hadn’t moved. Contessa walked along the wavering wall, skimming her fingers along it, leaving streaks of black in her wake.

  Modem opened her eyes and looked around. “Something’s wrong.”

  “What?”

  “I…” Modem shifted. “I tried, and it didn’t work. She must be manipulating my mind somehow.”

  Particulates of soil fell from above them, landing on the barrier shielding them. He snapped his head up to see roots from the tree shift and churn in the sky as if it were waking up from hibernation.

  “Even if I did allow you leave this realm a second time,” Contessa said, “you are too late.” She extended her hand above her head, as if reaching out to the tree. “And after you are gone, there will be no other with the ability to seek, and who also holds ties to the underworld. No other to observe me in times of necessary discretion.”

  Modem gawked at the tree above them, her cheeks drained of color, and her eyes growing wider by the second. “Oh my God…”

  Jayden scanned the abandoned realm, spotting the distant shadow of a ruin within run-like-hell distance. Jayden glanced up at the tree’s roots again, only to see them reaching down from the soil. “Go!” Jayden dashed toward her. Modem stood, her neck craned and mouth gaping. She’d been in the underworld before, but always behind her own barrier. Now it was a world torn wide open, ready to swallow her whole. “I said run, damn it! Go!”

  A booming crash echoed in his ears. He stole a glance over his shoulder just as a second root from the tree crashed through Modem’s barrier, punching a hole in the shield.

  Modem’s feet were stuck fast to the ground while she continued to stare up at the tree. She might have been in shock, but there was no time to explain what was happening. If they didn’t find cover soon, they wouldn’t have a second chance to escape. He scooped her into his arms as he passed and ran faster than he’d thought possible. A third root slammed through the barrier. Black shadows spread through the wall in thick veins, as if the tree had poisoned it with its assaults.

  With every frantic step, the stone ruin grew closer. Jayden slipped on the sand, and quickly gained traction again, just in time to dive behind the base of ruin. Panting, he pressed his back against the cold stone, searching for his next grand idea. Now they were stuck, with nowhere to go and nothing but a pissed off woman and a man-eating tree trying to turn them both into an evening snack.

  “Damn it, damn it, damn it.” He pressed his head harder against the stone, pressing his eyes shut. “I don’t know what to do.” He turned to Modem. “Any ideas?”

  From the sudden awareness behind her eyes, she’d snapped out of her daze. She shook her head. Dreamwalker or not, she was still just a kid, and he was the only one around to protect her.

  “Okay.” He nodded, hoping for a miracle. That’d happened once already when Zanya broke him out of the underworld. It wasn’t likely to happen again.

  “Marco,” Contessa called, as if they were playing a devilish game of hide and seek.

  Modem rested her hand on his. “Is what you guys said true, about me never getting any older? Am I really gonna be like this forever?”

  Jayden searched her eyes. “You weren’t asleep, were you?”

  She shook her head.

  Modem had gone long enough being scared, lonely, and unsure. Even if it scared her, she deserved to know the truth.

  He nodded. “Yeah.” He forced a smile. “It’s true. You’ll never get old. Pretty cool, huh?”

  Without a word, Modem simply turned her gaze forward. Staring into the barren distance, a low sob bubbled from her throat.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I know it’s all a lot to take in, but you can’t have a breakdown. Not now.” He squeezed Modem’s small hand, grabbing her attention. “We need to find a way out of here.”

  “Marco,” Contessa called a second time. Another root from the tree punched through Modem’s barrier, shaking the wavering wall. “What a pity,” Contessa said in a pouty tone. “A game is not sincerely a game unless there is a second party to play.”

  Modem’s arm trembled. “I can’t keep the wall up,” she said in a whispered breath.

  “Yes, you can. You can.” She had to, or they wouldn’t survive.

  The ground at Jayden’s feet pushed up, as if something were clawing to the surface. Jayden pulled back his feet and scrambled away, staring at the cracked dirt as it broke open, and a tiny root pushed through. “Oh no.”

  Now it was clear what she’d used the book for, and that they were too late.

  There were no more hands. She’d used the book to drive underworld souls into her grasp. The souls that had clawed their way up from deeper realms of the underworld had made their way straight into her trap, and been consumed by her dark craving. And now the roots of the sacred tree were everywhere.

  She had them right where she wanted them—trapped—just like the souls she had
consumed.

  “Hey.” Modem smiled through shimmering tears that gleamed against the curves of her jaw. Her honey brown eyes held her familiar light. “Don’t be scared.”

  Jayden stilled. “I’m supposed to be telling you that.”

  “Take care of Brisa, okay? She needs you.”

  Jayden narrowed his eyes. “Modem, what are you doing?”

  “I can’t do…this.” She stared down at her hands splayed out in front of her. “Not forever.”

  “You’ll be fine. We’ll take care of you.”

  She shook her head. “No, you won’t.” She looked up at him. “You say that now, but even my own parents couldn’t take care of me. No foster family will want me. I’ll never find a place I belong.”

  Jayden rested his hand on her shoulder. “You belong with us.”

  “Maybe.” She pushed to her feet, still shielded by the abandoned ancient ruin. More roots pushed up from the ground around them, slithering over the cracked, dry ground. “But Brisa belongs with you, and you need to get back to her. Plus,” she shrugged, “I watched Interview With a Vampire. Living forever is way overrated when you’re stuck as a kid.”

  “Modem.” His tone was more commanding. “We will find a way out of here. Just give me a minute—” He sucked in a breath and cringed away from a root crawling over his shoe. “We need to climb the ruin.” He pulled himself up onto the first step.

  Modem bit her bottom lip. “Okay. Let me just try to reinforce my barrier.”

  As Jayden climbed up to the second step, he stretched out his hand. “Come on. We don’t have time.” Dozens of roots pushed through the ground, growing faster and stronger as the tree punched more holes through the wavering barrier.

  “I’ll be right there.” Modem drew an X over her chest and held up two fingers. “Promise.”

  Jayden’s eyes widened and he tried to grab her arm, but she ran off before he could react. “Modem, no!” She darted around the side of the ancient ruin and out of sight. “Damn it, Modem!” He scrambled down, searching for a patch of soil to rest his foot, but the roots had taken over the ground, twisting and coiling around each other like an endless sea of venomous snakes. “Modem!” He scaled the height of the ruin, and then climbed as fast as he could up the narrow steps. He clung to the altar at the top, staring helplessly at the kid, who walked toward Contessa with a calm, poised posture.