by C. J. Valles
“Who the hell are you?” the guy slurs as Ever puts his arm around my shoulder.
“Her boyfriend,” Ever says evenly. “And her big brother’s behind you.”
When the drunkard and his three friends turn to size up my “brother,” Chasen waves and grins at them.
“How’s it goin’? I don’t take kindly to drunken louts messing with my little sister,” he says with more than a little amusement as he closes both his fists, causing a rumbling of knuckle-cracking.
When the guy’s three friends start dragging him away, Taylor breathes a sigh of relief.
“You guys sure have good timing!” she squeaks.
She looks back at me, wondering suspiciously if I invited Ever. I’m about to make up some excuse for his sudden arrival when he leans over and kisses me on the cheek.
“I’ll see you later,” he says softly.
I nod before smiling at Chasen.
“I owe you, big brother.”
“Yeah you do,” Chasen says, still grinning.
As Ever and Chasen walk off, the two women in line behind us start clapping. A few more people join in, and I blush. I may naturally attract all kinds of evil, but I also know how lucky I am. Most people aren’t walking around with an immortal protection squad. One of the women behind us leans forward.
“Your boyfriend and your brother? I’ll bet nobody messes around with you!”
I smile and shake my head.
“They’re all talk.”
“Yeah?” the woman laughs. “Well, I’ll bet people take them plenty serious, anyway. Your big brother looks like he could crush some skulls.”
The line moves forward, and Taylor giggles.
“Your brother does look like he could crush skulls. What’s he doing here? I thought he was at Cornell.”
“I think the semester ended already,” I say truthfully.
Taylor’s eyes widen with excitement.
“Hey! Does that mean they’ll be going to prom with us again?”
“I don’t know. Do you think Zach can handle taking Audra as his date again?”
“Probably not. That had to be the funniest prom picture ever! Wait! Is Audra going to get back from England in time to go?”
“I think so …”
Considering I just saw her this morning, I finish silently.
By the time we get inside, I’m almost too cold for ice cream. Almost. Not quite, though. The flavors are weird, some involving vegetables, others cheese. But a handful of them look like they could be habit forming. I go for the one that promises salty caramel. When Taylor orders, I look over at her with a queasy expression.
“You had to pick the one that has meat in it?”
“It’s not meat. It’s made with stock. You wanna try?”
“I’m paying—and, no. I absolutely do not want to try it.”
She takes a lick.
“It’s tasty.”
I shake my head.
“Uh, huh. Sure.”
I hand Taylor my cone and take out cash. There’s no place to sit, so we head back outside. Looking around warily for the jerk squad, I take a taste of my ice cream.
“Yum! Salty!”
“Yeah?”
“Super tasty,” I smile. “Actually, I think it might be addictive. You wanna try?”
She takes a spoonful.
“That is awesome. Sure you don’t want to try mine?”
I make a face.
“Positive!”
“Should we walk around?” Taylor asks.
I look up at the gathering clouds, relieved it’s not pouring.
“Sure. No side streets, though. I don’t want to get stuck in a bad horror movie.”
Taylor shakes her head.
“Not after those guys!” she says, turning to look into a shop window. “Some of these shops are so cool.”
“And expensive.”
“Totally.”
I smile.
“I’m really glad we did this.”
“Me, too. If I had stayed in the house any longer with my stepmom, I would have died.”
I know what she means. I remember feeling the same way being in my dad’s house with Jessica. Last summer when I visited, Ever came with me, and any time Jessica got to be too much to handle, I just left.
“Hey, I keep forgetting to ask you,” Taylor says. “What ever happened to that guy—Alex? He was here for like a millisecond at the end of last year, and then—poof!” She waves her hands around dramatically. “Gone. Like he didn’t even bother finishing the semester. What’s the deal with that?”
To Taylor and the others, Alex was just some random guy who showed up and then disappeared again. To me, he’s the reason I’m alive and not trapped in a bunker in Antarctica.
“I think Audra mentioned that he was going back to France,” I lie.
“What a life! I still can’t figure out what they were all doing here.”
Taylor looks around like she’s expecting someone to overhear us.
“So, you definitely can’t tell her I said so, but Linds had this whole dramatic theory that he had this secret thing for you … and Ever had him kidnapped or assassinated … or something.”
I roll my eyes.
“And you never told me?”
“Linds made me swear not to say anything, but it’s not like it’s a big deal now that he’s gone.”
I look down.
“Well, I barely said two words to the guy, so whatever.”
Another lie, but sometimes a lie is the only option. What’s my other choice? To tell my friends the truth and let everyone think I’m crazy—or, worse, to put them all at risk?
“I remember he did look at you in this sort of crazy-intense way. And he was way hot. Like Ever hot.” She laughs. “Well, maybe not that hot. You sort of won the boyfriend jackpot.”
I look down.
“Yeah, well I’m still waiting for him to wake up.”
It’s the truth. Anyone who sees Ever immediately realizes that he’s not supposed to be with an ordinary mortal. Taylor nudges my shoulder.
“Ever stayed in Portland after graduating,” she says. “You think that was a coincidence?”
“What about Josh? Last year he was all into San Diego, sunshine, blah, blah, blah. Now he wants to go to Oregon State? I wonder why, Ms. U of O? How far is the drive from Corvallis to Eugene?”
“Yeah, it’s weird to think that we’ll all be in college in a few more months.” She pauses, her cheeks turning red. “So … have you and Ever—”
A huge drop of water hits me in the face, and Taylor and I look at each other. I take my last bite of ice cream just as it starts pouring.
“It’s like ten minutes back to your car!” Taylor moans.
“You wanna run for it?”
“Not really,” she mutters.
“Well, we won’t melt. Let’s get going.”
We turn around, and suddenly the sidewalks are empty, like everyone else has somewhere better to be. Passing the restaurants, I feel a pang of envy for the people inside who are dry and eating tantalizingly warm food. The ice cream was good, but I’m seriously starting to rethink my craving for frozen food in cold weather.
We stop on the corner, and as soon as the light changes, we start to cross. Suddenly a loud groaning sound makes me turn toward Taylor. The noise suddenly turns into a roar, and the ground begins to roll beneath my feet. I watch in horror as the pavement several feet away opens up like a zipper being undone, the widening gap reaching out toward us.
Taylor’s mouth is open in a shocked ‘Oh’ when I turn to face her. Grabbing her hand, I pull, but she doesn’t respond. Finally, I let go of her hand and give her a shove just as I feel the ground give way beneath my feet. Then I’m floating.
A second later, I feel it—the weight of gravity, pulling me down. As I fall, a hand grips mine, and looking up, I expect to see Ever. But it’s not. The person who hauls me onto the sidewalk is a stranger. He sets me on the ground and stares dow
n at me with an imperious grin, the black depths of his empty eyes burning through me. His night-black hair is pulled back in a ponytail, exposing his impeccable features and flawlessly pale skin. He’s ageless, like Ever and the others. Late teens? Early twenties? I can’t even guess.
“Well, fan-freaking-tastic,” I mutter. “You’re not human, either.”
“It is so good at long last to make your acquaintance.”
I feel the blood drain from my face when I see Ever and Chasen standing behind this being, both of them seething with quiet rage.
“Ah, the rebel leader and his loyal henchman, I presume,” the stranger says without turning toward them.
This guy knows Ever and Chasen. In fact, he seems to know more about them than I do. This isn’t good. This so isn’t good. I turn and look into his eyes.
“And let me guess—you’re the prince of darkness?”
“Quite stunning,” he says to Ever. “She doesn’t fear me.”
“Hello?” I say peevishly, waving a hand at him. “Who—or what—the hell are you?”
“I, young Wren Sullivan, am your future.”
5: Ascension
Suddenly the stranger is gone. There one second, gone the next. Like Ever and the others. A second later, I remember shoving Taylor out of the way. Spinning around, I exhale when I see her sitting on the curb, surrounded by a crowd. There are people everywhere, all of them indifferent to the pouring rain as they gather around to examine the cavernous pit that now encompasses a wide expanse of the street. Rushing over to Taylor, I kneel down and study her. She looks dazed but mostly unhurt.
“Oh my god, Wren!” she weeps. “I thought you got swallowed by that sinkhole! You saved my life!”
I grit my teeth. I nearly got you killed. I need to get Josh over here and have him take her home—and away from me. The second I think this, Ever is on his phone calling Josh. A short middle-aged woman with an apron and a thick accent kneels down next to us and tells Taylor she can come in and have a warm drink on the house. I look the woman up and down, trying to determine whether she’s human. As soon as I’m sure she is, I help Taylor up, and the woman hurries over and opens the door of the restaurant behind us. I lead Taylor inside and get her situated at an empty table.
“Josh is coming to get you, and I’ll be right back.” I squeeze her hand when she looks like she’s about to burst into tears again. “Hey, at least we got to finish our ice cream.”
She lets out a half-laugh, half-sob as I move toward the door. Ever and Chasen are just outside. Stopping in front of them, I notice the difference in them immediately. The tenderness I’ve seen in Ever’s eyes when he looks at me has been replaced by ice. And Chasen’s easy smile is gone, replaced by the look of grim determination he wore the day I first met him. It’s as though all the humanity in their features has gone dormant. Or maybe it disappeared altogether.
“As soon as Taylor’s gone, we need to talk,” I whisper.
I have a bad feeling that this is worse than even Ever was expecting.
***
“All right. How bad is it?” I ask.
“Bad,” Ever says.
My stomach pitches. Hearing this from someone who has been trying since he met me to shield me from the weight of his reality, I believe him. Now I’m not sure I want an answer to my next question.
“Who was he?”
“Victor.”
I snort, assuming that like Ever and Alex and the others, this is another “chosen” human name.
“Victor? As in winner? A little presumptuous, isn’t he?
“Regrettably, no,” Ever says with an air of defeat.
We’re sitting in Ever’s “room,” which is actually the beginning of a suite of rooms. During the past year—while things have been good, stable, and under control—we’ve always spent more time at my house, something I didn’t question much until now. It seems like in order to arrive in Ever’s inner sanctum, the world has to be on the verge of collapsing around us, and I’m starting to wonder if there’s a reason for that, one Ever hasn’t wanted to mention. Like the fact that I have a tiny twin bed, and the one in his room is a king—even though he doesn’t sleep. For a split second, it looks like he’s going to respond to my last thought, but he doesn’t.
“What do you mean, ‘Regrettably, no’?” I ask, refocusing on the current danger.
“Victor is a part of the ruling class—”
“From your dimension?”
Ever nods.
“And this one if we fail,” he says quietly.
I swallow and think back to the first time Ever told me what he was. A guardian.
“So, you’re doing what, then? Protecting this world from those who ruled yours?”
Ever nods.
“What does that make you?”
“To Victor and his kind … I am an escaped prisoner—an insurgent to be crushed.”
“You were a criminal in your dimension?” I ask quietly.
I’m sure my voice betrays my shock, but I’m not judging him. I’m just hungry for more information—any small detail that will help me better understand Ever’s existence. He’s spent the last year deflecting and avoiding talking about anything he thinks will derail my enjoyment of my mortal life, as though he’s not a central part of that enjoyment.
“That would depend upon point of view,” Ever says with a trace of his dry humor.
“Yours!”
“I existed in servitude before becoming a dissident.”
The truth behind what he’s saying hits me.
“You were … a slave?” I whisper.
“I was whatever the powerful wished of me.”
“And Victor?” I ask, my question dripping with hatred.
“He is heir apparent to whatever he lays claim to.”
I’m shaking with fury, and I wonder if my emotions right now would be enough to destroy Victor and Dr. Dick in one shot.
“Whatever he lays claim to? Does that include me?” I demand.
Ever stiffens, and then the greenness of his eyes softens.
“I would return to the hell that was my existence before I let that happen.”
His words remind me of the first time he came to my house. I remember so clearly the realization that Ever’s time in my world would come to an end and how hollow I had felt. The thought of him returning to an existence of eternal punishment is too much to bear, and with a sudden wave of nausea, I come to grips with the fact that someone already did this. For me.
Alex. He went back to hell for me.
“Is that what happened to Alex?” I whisper weakly.
Ever nods once, and I swallow, thinking about what Alex must have been willing to suffer in order to save me. I think of the tortured image I saw in the mirror the night of the party. I had touched his hand. Up until now, somewhere deep down, I had convinced myself that seeing him might have been a dream. But it hadn’t been a dream. This is all very real, and I’ve been living in a fantasy for the past year, thinking Ever’s world wasn’t coming to claim me—to claim this world.
“I’ve asked you a million times about your world, and it’s always been vague half answers. Why didn’t you tell me any of this? Didn’t I deserve to know?”
Ever’s features turn to stone.
“You deserve not to know. I never wanted you to carry this burden.”
“Ever, you can’t keep trying to protect me from the truth.” I reach out and grip his hand. “I need to know what we’re up against. So, Victor is the bad guy. That I get. But Audra, Chasen, Alistair … Alex. What were they in all of this?”
Audra, Chasen, Alistair, Alex—had they all been slaves in Ever’s dimension? I think about the bitterness I’ve seen in Audra and Chasen’s eyes. Like they contain a fury that will never burn out.
“Yes—Audra, Chasen, Alistair. They were like me. Alex was … not. He was part of the royal guard, those who still seek to turn this world into what mine was—absolutism. Rulers, enforcers, and those to be ruled.�
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The Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That’s what Ever and Alex had called the four otherworldly beings that Alex cast back to wherever they had come from. And Ever had called Alex the fifth horseman. I flinch. It suddenly makes so much sense.
“Alex was one of them?” I gasp. “No wonder you hated him so much.”
I look down at my hands. Ever and Alex. All this time they’ve been polar opposites in my head, but I didn’t understand how deeply it ran. Ever, the slave. Alex, the enforcer. Both of them doing the bidding of this creature Victor.
“My hatred for Alex has diminished,” Ever says. “Though I still have no doubt that he sacrificed himself only to win your favor.”
“Well, if he’s back in hell, it’s not like it matters.”
We both know this isn’t true, but I still look up at Ever with an edge of defiance, daring him to question me. I exhale, my defensiveness melting away as he takes my hand and helps me up.
“Shall we go talk to the others?” he asks.
I nod and start following him toward the door. Suddenly a wave of emotion flows through me. I stop, and Ever turns back. The first time he told me what he was—that he wasn’t even human—it had felt like he had finally let me in. But that moment doesn’t even compare to right now. I understand so much more now, and whatever my uncertainties are, they pale in comparison to the love I have for Ever.
I don’t even see him move, but suddenly he’s right in front of me. His arm comes around my waist, lifting me to him.
“You are my salvation,” he whispers in my ear.
I close my eyes, and when his lips touch mine, time stops moving. I can accept the strangeness that is my life. I can accept my flaws. I can even accept the darkness coming for me—as long as I have this.
Ever lifts me higher, and without thinking I slip my hands into his hair, and my legs wrap themselves around his hips. His hands tighten around me, and an instant later my head comes down on a pillow.
His fingers caress my jaw, and when I open my eyes, Ever is over me, his body weightless yet pressed against mine. Our eyes lock, and what I see causes heat to course through me. His expression is conflicted—filled with hunger, but also careful. Like he thinks I’ll turn to dust beneath him if he lets down his guard for a single instant.