Sever (The Ever Series Book 3)

by C. J. Valles

  “She is human and short-sighted, and you, my friend, have my condolences.”

  My mind spins as I remember what Alex said about Irisa choosing him over Victor. It’s why Victor took revenge on her and made her crazy—that is if I still believe anything Alex told me.

  And I chose Ever.

  “I have no use for your sympathy,” Alex says without emotion. “I only care to have what I desire.”

  What I desire, he said. Am I supposed to be the what? I shiver. How could I have been so wrong this entire time? Was all of it a game, a competition for him? Every moment of tenderness, any time he said he loved me—was it all a cleverly planned strategy to win at any cost? I think back to what Alex said to me that night at the restaurant in France.

  I don’t aim to be on the right side; I aim to be on the winning side.

  At the time, he also claimed he wanted me to be his partner, his equal. But that was before I made the choice he’s judging me for—the choice to be with Ever, even if it was only for one night.

  “I suppose it could be very amusing to give her to you for this act of fealty,” Victor muses, bringing me back to the here and now. “Late though it may be.”

  The silver-haired wraith, who had been watching Chasen warily, turns in Victor’s direction, his expression a mixture of surprise and resentment. Catching his eye, I can’t resist smirking.

  “Aww, that’s too bad. I guess you’re not the favorite anymore,” I say sweetly.

  When he bares his pointy white teeth, a shiver runs up my spine. He scares me almost more than Victor does. Victor’s attention suddenly shifts toward his henchman.

  “Yes?” he asks in a bored tone, like he’s humoring a whiny child.

  “You intend to give my prize to this”—the silver-haired horseman’s lip curls with barely contained rage—“proditor?”

  Victor’s laughter fills the darkness.

  “Are the two of you truly vying for this silly mortal? Such a waste. There will be more than enough for my loyal subjects,” he chides. “Though, for the sake of entertainment, perhaps I should let you fight for the privilege.”

  Victor looks over at Ever.

  “You, servus, may watch.”

  Turning toward Ever, I see the rage radiating from him, a glowing green aura growing around him, licking outward like a flame. Victor laughs again like a parody of the villain from an old movie, which makes me wonder if that’s where he’s learned all of his human mannerisms.

  “Yes! Please,” Victor urges gleefully. “By all means, destroy her as well as her nearest and dearest.”

  Envisioning the blast wave Ever is capable of generating, I look at my mom and Matt, still frozen in time—and the swarm of possessed humans surrounding us. If Ever were to release his full power, it could kill every human in the blast radius. Victor must know that Ever wouldn’t do that, which is why he looks so smug. I shake my head.

  “Enough!” I snap. “You wanted me to come willingly. Then, first, give me what I want.”

  Victor sighs.

  “Again, you silly human? Thinking you have some leverage.” He looks around. “Alas, I see no ledge for you to jump from, Ms. Sullivan. In fact, I see nowhere for you to go at all.”

  He looks at Alex.

  “Here,” Victor purrs, gesturing to my mom. “If you destroy what she holds most dear, then you may have the girl.” Victor turns to me. “And you, Ms. Sullivan. If you give yourself willingly, then I will spare your mother.”

  “But that’s—”

  “Unfair?” Victor finishes for me.

  In an instant, Alex is in front of my mom, and panic rises in my chest.

  “Leave her alone,” I shriek at Victor, “and I’ll do whatever you want.”

  Victor holds up his hand to Alex.

  “Was that so difficult?” Victor chides. “I should have taken your mother ages ago.”

  “Wren, please,” Ever says.

  I don’t look at him. I can’t. Walking over to Audra’s frozen form, I pull the blade from her back and walk around to face her as she comes to life.

  “I’m sorry, Audra. I thought we had the perfect plan.”

  Handing her the blade, I watch as her eyes flit around, taking in the scene around her.

  “Why did you trust him?” she asks desperately.

  “Because I love him,” I whisper.

  I wish I could use the past tense, but I can’t. I love Alex and Ever, even if I always knew loving both of them would be my downfall.

  “How appallingly sentimental and tragic,” Victor gloats. “Truly. Ms. Sullivan, it’s almost a pity your choice of mates is so poor.” He pauses and looks at Alex, whose expression remains unreadable. “Ah, wait. You didn’t choose him. Perhaps that is what has led to your current predicament.”

  Ignoring Victor’s critique of my romantic choices, I grit my teeth and walk forward, gesturing to Alex, who’s still standing with a blade millimeters from my mom’s throat.

  “A deal is a deal,” I snap. “Let my mom go.”

  I’ve made so many mistakes, and the ground has shifted beneath my feet so many times that I don’t know where I stand. All I know is that whether I live or die, I have to save my mom. Walking carefully toward Alex, I stop in front of him, desperately searching his face for some sign of what’s real.

  “If you ever loved me, let her go. Please,” I whisper.

  His hand drops away from my mom’s neck, and all the breath in my lungs leaves me.

  “Thank you,” I gasp.

  But when he looks down at me, his eyes are like ice, bitter and cold. Before I can move, his arm shoots out, his fingers gripping the back of my neck. Then he turns and marches me toward Victor like a puppet.

  “And what if I send you back to the hell you created—and then destroy her, sealing your fate?” Alex growls at Victor.

  Victor smiles and claps his hands together in a way that is really beginning to get on my last freaking nerve.

  “Very well. You may have the girl.”

  The silver-haired wraith snarls again.

  “Silence,” Victor demands with quiet authority as he waves his hand to Alex, who pushes me down into sand at Victor’s feet.

  Alex twists my arm against my back until I wince.

  “Do you come to me willingly?” Victor asks, holding out his hand for me to take.

  I scowl, having nearly lost any sensation in the hand Alex has pinned to my back.

  “Yeah, that’s why my other arm is nearly broken behind my back,” I hiss.

  “I shall ask one more time. Do you submit to me willingly?”

  Suddenly I hear Alex’s words in my head: We convince Victor that he’s won. That was what he said. Was it just Alex’s way of convincing me to go along with his plan? Or could it have been his way of telling me that no matter what he said or did, it was part of the plan? I swallow. Or … everything has changed, and he truly hates me for choosing Ever.

  There’s no way to know for sure.

  Then I feel something being pressed into my palm. It’s the heel of a blade. As I tighten my grip, a jolt of adrenaline spikes through me. There’s no time to ponder the weight of what I’m about to do, no time to come up with a witty one-liner. Holding out my free hand to Victor, I bow my head.

  “I …”

  The second I feel Victor take my hand in his, I let every ounce of fury rise through me into my fingertips. Looking up as the blast of energy hits him, I watch the smile freeze on his face. Then I swing up with my other arm to stab the blade into his chest.

  “Unwise,” he chides as he grabs my neck with his free hand, his fingers crushing my throat.

  Looking into his black eyes, I force the blade forward with all my strength. In an instant, Victor’s hand loosens from my neck as the blade Alex used to cut my arm pierces his chest. Alex yanks me backward as a single ray of pinkish orange light appears over the bluffs and shimmers out across the black ocean. The snow stops. And as Victor falls backward, the sea of black-eyed p
eople surrounding us collapses.

  “Matt!”

  I start to run toward him when Alex grabs me.

  “We have to finish this, Wren.”

  “He’s going to die!” I scream.

  Alex grabs my face between his palms.

  “Trust me.”

  “Clever, clever,” a voice says from behind us.

  Turning, I see the silver-haired wraith standing behind my mom. With Victor out of commission, I had nearly forgotten about the horsemen.

  “Thank you both for incapacitating my lord and master. It is much appreciated. You can’t imagine how tedious it has been to be at his behest, tethered to a dead realm—while the unworthy enjoy the spoils of this fresh, if imperfect, world, complete with an endless supply of creatures to fit every taste.”

  As he reaches up and touches my mom’s hair, I feel a swell of revulsion gathering in the back of my throat. If Alex opens a rift between dimensions now, it’s going to drag the other three horsemen—and Ever, Audra, and Chasen—into its wake. Leaving Alex and me here with the silver-haired horseman, who’s holding my mom, while Matt dies.

  “What do you want?” I hiss at the silver-haired demon.

  “Everything.”

  “Oh, is that all?” I snap as I cast a glance at Chasen.

  Chasen nods and reappears in front of Matt, taking hold of my friend’s unmoving form. I brace myself and start walking toward my mom. When Alex’s hand wraps around my wrist, I look back at him.

  “It’s your turn to trust me,” I whisper as I pull my arm free.

  I walk toward my mom at an angle, and the silver-haired wraith shadows my movement, keeping my mom in front of him.

  “Take me instead,” I plead.

  “You must think me the fool.”

  “No, I think you’re a monster.”

  The other three are standing in defensive positions behind him, their backs to the ocean, which works for my purposes. When I step forward, the silver-haired wraith watches me warily.

  “Goodbye, Mom,” I whisper, reaching out to touch her finger as I press my lips to her cheek.

  Ever, now! I think in my head, hoping for the best.

  I see the green flash all around us as Ever’s blast of power sends all four wraiths flying toward the water. Falling to the ground, I gasp at how much strength it took to channel Audra’s power and shield my mom from the pulse of energy.

  “Chasen,” I cough.

  Chasen looms above me.

  “Keep them safe.”

  “Always,” he smiles grimly.

  Alistair and Persephone suddenly appear just as the wraiths have begun to float across the water toward us. Good. With Ever and Audra, there are now four of them to distract the horsemen while Chasen keeps my mom and Matt safe.

  “I’m sorry, Wren,” Persephone says, drawing two circular blades, one for each hand—a sight that at any other time would make me laugh.

  I shake my head, pulling myself up as she and Alistair disappear. Briefly, I turn and see chaos behind me. Alex and I need to end this now.

  “Alex,” I whisper fiercely. “It’s time.”

  Appearing in front of me, he reaches to touch my cheek. Suddenly, a chill runs through me, and I feel the worst kind of déjà vu.

  “We will see each other again, I promise you,” he says softly. “Now kiss me once more, Ms. Sullivan.”

  Before I can speak, he bends down and kisses me gently, sending a jolt of electricity through me.

  “Alex?” I whisper.

  “Give my love to Aimee and my dear Edith,” he says.

  I see the flash of the blade a second before I feel a sharp, fleeting pain in my chest where my heart is. Blinking, I stare at Alex’s face as he lowers me to the sand. When he stands, I raise my hand to my chest, feeling my life ebbing away from the spot where the blade pierced my chest. Still trying to grasp what just happened, I watch Ever appear, his eyes dark with rage.

  “A wedding gift from me to you, my brother,” Alex smiles. “Hold onto her if you wish to avoid a one-way trip back to hell.”

  Alex raises the blade again, and I watch as he tears a hole in this world. When I try to speak, I can’t make the words pass my lips. All I can do is watch as Alex smiles at me one last time before stepping into the void, knowing that my death will seal his fate. Ever told me once that Alex was never coming back—but I did it, I brought him back. This time, though, I know I’m losing him forever and saving everyone else at the same time.

  And maybe this is as close to a happy ending as I’m going to get.

  My breaths are getting shorter and choppier by the second, and just before I close my eyes, I see Ever’s face above mine, his green eyes blazing. I smile with the knowledge that I’ve set him free. I want to reach up to touch him one more time, but I don’t have the strength.

  I love you, I think with all my strength. Forever.

  Ever puts his hand over my heart, and suddenly the most incredible pain—deeper and sharper than when the blade pierced my chest—rushes through me.

  “Stay with me,” he says softly.

  35: Ever After

  Trying to sit up, I feel a piercing stab of pain over my heart. Then Ever is there, helping me sit up. I look around my darkened bedroom with a strange sense of awe.

  The danger is over.

  I’m still alive.

  And Alex is gone, severed again from this world. Forever this time.

  “Is everyone … okay?” I whisper.

  “Caroline is asleep down the hall in her room,” Ever says quietly. “Matt is home as well. He suffered a minor flesh wound, which I healed. The people on the beach awoke with no memory of their brief possession.”

  “Did you know that Alex was going to do that?” I ask, already crying.

  The green of Ever’s eyes turns icy.

  “Do you, for a single moment, think I would have allowed him to stab you through the heart?”

  Shaking my head, I reach down and touch the spot where Alex stabbed me.

  “It hurts.”

  Ever nods grimly.

  “I imagine it will for as long as you remain human.”

  I look down.

  “Is it really …”

  “Over?” Ever asks.

  I nod again.

  “Yes,” he says. “This world is free. Victor and the others will never return.”

  “Never? How can you be sure?”

  “The passageway between dimensions has been destroyed. There is no way back this time.”

  “But I’m still alive,” I whisper.

  Deep down, I know that I’m searching for a sign—any sign—that Alex might not be exiled forever.

  “When I healed you, the damage to your body’s composition was almost too much. I lost you. It was only for a millisecond of human reality, but it was enough time to close the portal, severing it from this world. Alex took an enormous risk—one I would not have taken for anything.”

  I feel the tears rushing down my cheeks again, but I can’t even figure out why I’m crying. It’s everything. I’ve won, and I’ve lost. A part of me lived, and a part of me died.

  Half of me got the happy ending; the other half mourns.

  “What now?” I whisper.

  He offers his hand.

  “Anything you wish, but I have one request first.”

  When I take his hand, the world blurs around us—the entire universe passing by faster and slower than possible. Then we’re standing in the same hotel where prom was. We’re on the dance floor, blue and purple lights shimmering around us, making the simple white dress I’m wearing appear otherworldly.

  There isn’t a single other person in the room as music begins to drift from the speakers. The song is familiar, but not one I own. I think it’s called Promise.

  “Dance with me,” Ever says, his green eyes glowing in a way I’ve never seen.

  He holds out his hand, and as I step into his arms, he reaches around and clasps the infinity pendant around my neck
before taking my face between his hands.

  “Thank you, Wren.”

  I frown at him. I’ve done so much wrong that I can’t even keep track of what I’ve gotten right.

  “For what?” I gasp.

  “For bringing me out of darkness.”

  When he bends down to kiss me, I can feel it. This isn’t my happy ever after—it’s ours. We both made mistakes, but together we found our happy ending.

  ***

  The next morning, when I wake up in my bed at home, I look up and smile at Ever, who spent the night on my tiny twin bed.

  “May I?” he asks, taking my left hand.

  Slipping the ring from my finger, he disappears with it. A second later, there’s a knock at the front door, and even though I have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to do, my heart still hammers. Jumping out of bed, I realize how this is going to look to my mom, seeing that less than twelve hours ago—in her reality—I left for prom with Alex. In my reality, I’ve lived an eternity in a single day.

  “Wren! Are you expecting anyone?” my mom calls from down the hall.

  “No!” I lie.

  Listening to her rush down the stairs, I manage to change out of my pajamas into a T-shirt and a pair of jeans just as the front door opens.

  “Ever!” my mom gasps.

  By the time I reach the top of the stairs, he’s standing in front of my mom with the ring in his hand.

  “Caroline, I would like your approval to ask for Wren’s hand in marriage.”

  For a few seconds, my mom is so silent that I’m afraid she’s gone into shock. Finally, she shakes her head.

  “Ever, you know I think you’re wonderful, but Wren is eighteen—as of yesterday, I might remind you—and she’s free to make her own decisions …”

  She looks up at me.

  … and I hope you have the sense not to get married before finishing college, she pleads silently.

  Walking down the stairs, I stand between my mom and Ever, between my mortal life and my immortal future, between childhood and adulthood. Then Ever kneels down and takes my hand—with so much love in his eyes that I can barely take it.

  “Wren Kathleen Sullivan, will you spend forever with me?”

  My mom starts crying openly as tears slip down my cheeks.