by C. J. Valles
“Alex!” I whisper fiercely. “Did you plan this with Ever?”
“No,” he says shaking his head. “I have no idea how Victor achieved Ever’s surrender.”
Shaking loose of his grip, I begin walking toward the stage with no plan and no way out. I have no other choice. Victor is winning. Walking up the steps to the stage, I watch Victor as he reaches over and picks up the crown intended for the prom king, placing it on his own head.
“Yo!” Jeff Summers yells from the dance floor. “That’s my crown, fool!”
When I reach Victor, he smiles.
“Let these people go,” I hiss.
I may not like Jeff Summers, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch him disappear in a puff of smoke.
“You wish for me to release these unwitting chattel? Very well, then,” he says into the microphone.
He snaps his fingers again, and suddenly I’m standing in a hotel room. Victor, the horsemen, and half the people I care about in this world are standing across from me. I watch in disgust as Victor walks over and runs his hand along the arm of a large leather chair before sitting down like it’s his throne. I sense Alex behind me, but I don’t dare take my eyes off of Ever, my mom, and Matt.
“Ah, yes. This is much more comfortable,” Victor says, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. “I’ve noticed that you humans are fond of the bad guy explainin’ how he did it, so I shall.”
I glance nervously at Ever and the others.
“And Ms. Sullivan, seeing as you were so helpful in your own right, it would be a shame if I didn’t share with you your role in my victory.”
The blood drains from my face as I steal a glance behind me at Alex in a fleeting hope that he might have answers. His expression is still as blank as mine.
“You see, my dear, your little journey into our world has imbued a formerly useless material with a critical property I’ve been seeking.”
“A better hair day?” I ask blandly.
He smiles.
“Mortality. Yours to be exact.”
I think of the blades—made of a material that can wound them and can possibly make these immortals powerless—that each of them carries.
“A demonstration perhaps?” Victor asks casually.
Every muscle in my body tenses as he rises from the chair.
“No … please,” I gasp.
I watch, frozen, as he gestures toward the silver-haired wraith—who is still holding Ever. Victor’s minion turns and grins at me, exposing gleaming white, pointed teeth. Not two fangs like out of a vampire movie, but each tooth sharpened to a needle-point. Somehow I had never noticed before. Just behind him the carrot-topped girl puts her hands above my mom and Matt, like she’s playing with marionettes, and I watch helplessly as they begin to dance around together in jerky movements, their eyes still blank and lifeless.
My eyes dart back to the silver-haired horseman as he wrenches Ever’s suit jacket from his shoulders. Finally I see the reason Ever hasn’t moved. There are pale gold bracelets ringed around his wrists, linking them together, searing into his flesh. My breath comes in fast little gulps as Victor walks toward Ever, pulling out a long sword made of the same pale gold material. Victor extends the blade and then slowly begins to draw it across Ever’s chest. A glowing seam opens across Ever’s bronzed skin until he finally drops to his knees.
Unlike the silver-colored metal that Ever’s and Alex’ blades are made of, this pale gold that makes up Victor’s blade leaves a mark on Ever that’s not healing, even in this world. My knees weaken. Is it possible that my entrance into their dimension created a substance that Victor can now use to wound them mortally—to kill them? I can’t risk finding out. I need to stall for time to see if Ever heals.
“Stop!” I scream.
Victor turns toward me.
“You appear conflicted, my dear.”
I nod.
“You’re right. I was conflicted. But now I get it. I can’t win … unless I become like you.”
“You make it sound all bad,” he says in a chiding tone.
“It isn’t, as long as you don’t have a conscience.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
“You would. Now, let’s negotiate. I have something you want, but I think I want more than you can offer me in return.”
“I highly doubt that, Ms. Sullivan.”
“Yeah?” I laugh. “Well, I’ve met your princess, and there’s no way I’m signing up for that kind of crazy. So, if I join you, then I join you, not as a puppet, but as me. And I get something I want in return.”
Victor smiles, making my skin crawl.
“I’m intrigued. Go on …”
“First, you leave my friends and family alone. They will remain mine.”
He shrugs lazily, but he stops smiling as soon I gesture to Ever, then Alex.
“And … I get them. Both of them. In one piece.”
I feel Alex stiffen behind me, and Ever’s head snaps up at my words. The laceration on Ever’s chest still isn’t healing. Suddenly Victor laughs—a vicious sound—and claps his hands together, startling me.
“Brava! I fear I did not bestow upon you the credit you deserve. Your daring is impressive,” he says cheerfully. “If I may point out, however: I’ve punished others for lesser infractions. Yet you’ve managed to pique my curiosity. Why, exactly, would I bow to your demands?”
I shiver as I remember what he said when he appeared on 23rd Street: I, young Wren Sullivan, am your future. At the time, I assumed he meant that I was about to become his puppet. Now I’m starting to wonder if he really meant that I’m his future—his window to this world.
He needs me; that’s why I’m still alive. Alex said it earlier tonight: Victor requires your acquiescence if he is to obtain what he truly desires. And Ever said it before him: Wren, he won’t hurt you. Victor needs you too much. I kept thinking I was a helpless hostage in this immortal war, but maybe not so much. Victor can’t kill me, or the portal closes—and he needs it open. It’s why Ever was going to kill me. Because, with the portal closed forever, Ever and the others would have almost certainly won.
“Because you need me.”
“I do?” Victor asks humorously.
I smile and nod.
“If I had been expendable to you, then I would have been dead by the first act. But I’m still here. You … need … me.”
Yes, I’m rubbing it in, but I need to push him. I need Victor to know I have some leverage.
“Presumptuous, aren’t you?” he says as he begins walking back toward Ever.
I shrug and walk toward the French doors across the room. Swinging open the door, I walk out onto the terrace, swallowing as I lift myself onto the edge.
“Go ahead, kill him, and—” I pause to look over the ledge, “over I go.”
We’re on the top floor, and the distance to the sidewalk is more than enough to kill me. I wait for Victor to step away from Ever. He turns back to me, smiling, and I keep my expression blank.
Then—before I can even scream—Victor drives the blade under his arm and straight through Ever’s chest. Audra screams as Ever falls to the floor, and that’s when I know this is real.
And I know that if I’ve lost Ever, then there’s only one thing left to do. I let myself fall backward.
Wren, don’t!
I hear Alex’s voice in my head a millisecond before I feel gravity catch hold of me. The last thing I see is Ever’s lifeless body on the floor before air whooshes all around me. For a few seconds I can nearly feel the pavement rushing up to meet me.
Then nothing. Just blackness. Am I dead? Then I realize: I’m thinking. I wouldn’t be thinking anything if I were dead. Sucking in a breath, I feel someone holding me. The person isn’t breathing or moving.
“What the hell was that?” Alex seethes as soon as I open my eyes.
When my vision clears, he sets me down.
“That was me trying to die!”
“You t
hought that would solve things?” he spits incredulously.
“Yes!” I scream, stepping away from him.
My chest throbs as my legs turn to jelly. I fall forward onto the cold concrete ground when I think about leaving my mom with Victor. Matt, Audra, and Chasen, too.
And Ever … gone.
The weight of what just happened begins to crush me. I lost Ever. No—I watched him die. And now nearly everyone else I care about is under Victor’s control.
“Do you … do you think he’ll kill everyone else?” I whisper.
Alex shakes his head.
“No. I think he just realized how serious you are.”
“Why didn’t you just let me fall?”
Alex grabs my hand and pulls me up from the floor. Looking up, I glare at him. If I were dead already, Victor would have lost any interest he had in my family and friends. He might even be powerless by now for all I know.
“I didn’t let you fall because I love you. And, as much as it pains me to point out, you are Ever’s only chance at resurrection.”
My heart leaps in my chest.
“What do you mean?!”
“There’s no time.”
He grabs my hand and begins leading me through the darkness. At first, I think we’re in an underground parking structure. Then I smell rancid cooking oil, rotting fish, and fried food. We reach a door, and when Alex opens it, I see three people, including a small boy, crammed into a space no bigger than my closet at home. The woman, who’s bent over a pot on a makeshift stove, looks up at us and says something in an unfamiliar language. She doesn’t seem to care that two strangers have walked into the equivalent of her kitchen, living room, and bedroom. She goes back to her cooking before we continue along the corridor. We pass at least ten more families crammed into impossibly small spaces, and I stifle a scream when something furry slides past my ankle.
“Where are we?” I gasp against the raw sewage smell.
Alex looks back at me.
“The basement of a luxury condo in Beijing.”
“China?”
“Try to keep your thoughts to yourself,” he mutters almost to himself. “They’ll be looking for us.”
They. Victor and the horsemen. Of course they’re looking for us. Because instead of ending up flattened on the pavement outside my senior prom, I’m here with Alex. He forces open a door and takes my hand. I squint in the sunlight as I follow him. Suddenly we’re on a congested street teeming with street vendors and people on bicycles. The air is thick, almost grayish, and I choke on the exhaust of a passing truck. As we begin hurrying along the street, I turn toward the mirrored glass of another high-rise building.
What the …
I stop and stare at the reflection. I don’t look like me. At all. I look at Alex and then at his reflection in the mirrored glass. We both look middle-aged—and Asian. As soon as I realize this, the concrete beneath my feet begins to rumble. People on the roadway start running and screaming, and a truck on the other side of the road overturns as the concrete splits down the center of the street. When the building next to us starts swaying like a drunken giant, I look up, wondering if concrete is about to rain down on us.
Suddenly I remember being in the Malé Airport last year when the horsemen appeared. Ever had stayed behind to protect me, but now he’s gone. I’ve lost him. Alex turns toward me.
“So much for giving us a head start,” he says. “I’ve officially run out of ideas—or at least ones you’ll like.”
Ice runs through my veins.
“We ran before, and I only ended up losing you. I can’t lose both of you. Alex, just let them take me. I’ll make a deal with Victor …” before I lose anyone else.
“Never,” he hisses as four figures appear around us and begin closing in.
“Clever, clever, my brother,” the silver-haired horseman says as he approaches us. “Though, why you insist upon clinging to this insignificant human puzzles me. Once we have her, there will be no end to what could be yours. This world is ripe for our taking.”
Alex’s top lip curls.
“Then take it. I have all I want.”
He grabs me, and everything spins until I black out. When I open my eyes again, I’m still pressed against Alex. Pulling away from him, I turn and see a very nicely appointed kitchen that looks like it’s never been used. Alex points across the room, and my eyes shift to an enormous stone fireplace. Shivering, I start moving as he hands me a large glass of liquid, which I drain immediately. At the fireplace, I sink down on a fluffy white rug. I look anxiously at Alex, who has perched on the edge of a glass table.
“Is what you said true? About Ever? Can I bring him back?”
He studies me carefully and sighs.
“If what Victor said was true—that you brought mortality to our dimension when you crossed over, then there might be a way to reverse the effect.”
Feeling a stab of pain, I shake my head.
“I had no idea that coming after you would help Victor …”
It’s not that I regret saving Alex. I would have done it no matter what—I didn’t have any other choice. But it hurts knowing that by saving Alex, I may have caused Ever’s destruction.
“No one knew what would happen,” he says gently. “A mortal human has never crossed the divide. Had Ever and the others known the result, I don’t believe you would be alive now.”
I raise my hands, fighting off the idea.
“That’s not true!”
Suddenly Alex is kneeling in front of me, gripping both my hands in his before I’ve even seen him move.
“Wren, I have no doubt that Ever loves you beyond reason. But some small fragment of him always would have been beholden to what he believed was his duty. Trust me when I tell you: he would have sacrificed you to prevent Victor from taking this world.”
I shake my head, tears spilling down my cheeks.
“No! He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.”
Alex grimaces like he can feel my pain.
“I think it would have destroyed any remaining humanity he had left, but he would have done what he believed he had to do. Even he may not have thought himself capable of such an act until forced to make the choice.”
I feel a piece of me wilt. Alex could be right about Ever. Ever, who was at war for his entire existence. If it had come down to choosing between me and ending an eternity of fighting, could I have blamed him if he chose to end it?
“Enough,” I whisper without emotion. “Just tell me how to bring him back, and I’ll do it. Anything.”
“You won’t like it.”
“I … don’t … care. I would die for him.”
I stare at Alex for several seconds. When he doesn’t offer an answer, my stomach flips restlessly and I look away. A few minutes ago, I was in Beijing. Before that, I was inches from hitting the pavement in front of a hotel in Portland. Now … I’m drifting in a sea of regret and confusion, swinging wildly between despair and hopefulness.
Standing up, I walk toward a glass wall across the room. When I reach it, I stop and stare. There’s an enormous cavern surrounding a beautiful pool of crystal clear blue water the same color as Alex’s eyes. Slowly I turn and walk back to face Alex. To keep myself sane, I rack my brain for the most innocuous question I can think of. I need to focus on something that doesn’t make me want to crumble and die, even if it’s only for just a few seconds.
“Where are we?”
Alex stands up and scrubs a hand over his face in such a human gesture that I nearly laugh. Suddenly I realize that I can’t read his thoughts … at all. Nothing. Which means he’s actively blocking me. And his expression is serious, so serious that it frightens me all over again. So much for coming up with a harmless question.
“We are … where I had hoped to bring you if you had said yes,” he finishes.
Suddenly I can’t move. I can’t even blink. He means … if I had said yes to his proposal.
I promise you aren’t dreaming, Wren. I am h
umbly asking you to choose me.
He had proposed—and I never answered him. Instead, I had kissed him.
“Call it a brief lapse of optimism on my part,” he continues dryly. “Clearly I hadn’t anticipated Victor finding a means to destroying our kind—or you throwing yourself from a hotel balcony before the night was over.”
A sound finally escapes my lips—a cross between a sob and hiccup—as I realize how badly I betrayed Ever.
“Tell me how I can bring Ever back. I’ll do anything. I’ll make a deal with Victor. My life in exchange for everyone else’s.”
Alex’s eyes blaze.
“And I told you—I would go back to hell before I see that happen.”
Suddenly he’s in front of me, gripping my arms. Adrenaline pumps through my veins, giving me the strength to pull away from him. Stumbling toward the glass wall, I feel anger boiling up inside me as my vision blurs and tears of frustration sting my eyes.
“So, you’re saying that I should just forget Ever and everyone I else love to save my own butt and stay here with you?” I demand. “Are you insane?”
Biting down on my lip as hard as I can, I stare out at the pool of blue water, watching steam rise from its glassy surface.
“No. I am asking you to be mine for one night,” he whispers from just behind me.
When his lips touch my bare shoulder, I shiver at the spark of electricity and close my eyes. Shaking my head, I spin around.
“Don’t,” I growl.
I stare up at him defiantly, but my stomach clenches at the look in his eyes.
“I love you, Wren Sullivan. You’ve been the only thing that’s right in my existence, and if I can’t have you forever … then one night is still more than I could have asked for.”
26: Feel Me
I stare up at him speechlessly, studying his perfect features—his burning blue eyes and copper hair lit by the fire. His suit jacket is gone, his tie is loosened, and the first few buttons on his shirt are undone. He’s beautiful; I can’t deny that.
He is fire and ice to Ever’s gold and lush green.