by Amy Sparling
“You shouldn’t,” I say, and it’s the truest thing I’ve ever told her. I hold my chin up. “I don’t trust anyone, not anymore. I only trust myself. You should only trust yourself, too. I almost ruined my life by trusting a stupid man, and I won’t make that mistake again. What I’m asking from you is for a partnership.”
“Tell me where the stones are hidden,” she says. “I want an exact description so I know you aren’t lying.”
Shit.
She is so close, and yet I can’t take her down yet. Her necklace, the large thing that spreads across her chest, sparkles in the dim lighting. It keeps her alive, keeps her powerful, and takes away the life of those sweet children back in Texas. If I could only get ahold of it. Only find a way…
“Well, it’s kind of complicated,” I say, trying to remember every detail from when I visited the castle. I should have paid better attention to my surroundings. “You know that place where the ticket booth is now?” I ask.
Her brows pull together. “I haven’t been there in decades, child.”
“Oh. Well it’s like a tourist spot now. There’s a ticket booth, and if you walk past it and go up to the castle walls, there’s a door…” I’m rambling now, desperately trying to think up a way for this to work. I don’t know how long I’ve got before Damien jumps in with his stupid gun pointing at Lady Em. I don’t know if he’s a good shot, or if he’ll fumble and she’ll use her powers against us.
I notice the notebook on her desk and take another step forward. “Actually, could I just draw it for you?”
She sits at her desk and takes a pencil from the drawer. I walk over slowly. She holds out the pencil and I take it.
She opens her notebook to a blank page in the back and then slides it over to me.
I get closer, trying not to show my excitement. I am now just a few inches away from her as she sits at her desk. I put my hand to the paper and swallow back my fear. “Okay so, here’s the castle,” I say, drawing a square. The tunnels that run under the castle can be reached by entrances that are outside of the main wall. “Here’s the wall thing that goes around it,” I say, sketching a wall. Lady Em watches my hands intently as I draw. Now that I’ve labeled the front and side of the castle, marking where the ticket booth is, I’m completely out of details to use so I have to make them up.
I lean over the desk, the pencil in my hand as I pretend to think about my drawing. “I don’t know how many tunnels run under the castle,” I say, biding for time. “I only know the one I went in. Do you?”
“There are a few,” she says, her eyes on my drawing.
From this close, I can’t stop staring at her necklace. The elders of the Dover clan had seemed so powerful and royal with their single stone necklace. Lady Em has twelve, all spread across her chest in an ornate brocade necklace. “Your necklace is so beautiful,” I say, unable to stop myself. “I wonder why no one else thought to use more than one stone.”
“Because everyone else believes what they’ve been told,” she says. Her fingers slide across a few of the stones and then she looks back at my drawing. “I dared to think deeper than anyone else in the clan, and I tried new things. I found something they never thought to look for. Immortality…plus more.”
“You’re so smart,” I say, letting my voice transform into star-struck excitement. “I’m so thrilled to partner with you.”
It’s funny how well these lies come to me. Every time she believes me, I feel more of my nerves float away. Now she looks up at me, a smile on her lips, and I know I’ve got her, hook, line, and sinker. She believes me.
She trusts me.
“It’s this tunnel here,” I say, scratching my pencil across the paper. As I draw a circle around it, I glance back at Lady Em’s neck. The ornate necklace clasps at the back, just like every other necklace I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing fancy to it.
“Well? Where do you go once you’re in the tunnel?” she asks.
“Hell,” I say softly.
She points to the door on my drawing. “What did you say?”
I stand. This is my chance. “I said you go to hell. At least that’s where I assume you’ll go.”
In a flash, I grab her necklace with both hands, twisting the snap until it breaks. Lady Em jumps, but she’s not fast enough. The white gold jewelry is soft, malleable, and meant for beauty, not durability.
I hold on tightly and pull my hands back. The necklace rips off her chest. Lady Em’s face contorts in anger. Half a second later, her face erupts into dust.
I’m holding onto a necklace in an empty room. Dust and ashes are all that’s left of Lady Em. They coat the chair, the floor, and some of it floats up into the air. I hold my breath and step backward to avoid inhaling her.
“It’s done,” I call out to the guys waiting in the hallway. Theo and Damien walk into the room, bewilderment on their faces. Damien’s gun hangs limply in his hand.
I hold up the necklace like a trophy. “The wicked witch is dead.”
Chapter 29
It’s hard to explain what I’m feeling. Lady Em was the ultimate bad guy of the clan, the person responsible for countless murders and the abuse of children as lifebloods. She created the Rosewater clan out of the blood of other immortals, and she deserved to die. Killing her has been my mission pretty much since the day I met her.
And now she’s dead, and the world is right again. My kids at home are freed, Jayla’s death is avenged. The promise we made to the Dover clan has been fulfilled.
I should be happy.
But instead of feeling joy, I walk around in a daze as Theo, Damien and I clear out Lady Em’s house. We find the paperwork for the properties she owns, as well as the social security cards and adoption papers for the children back at home. I hold back the urge to vomit when we find boxes of adoption papers for other kids she’s used as lifebloods over the years. I do shed a tear though, for the souls of those innocent children whose lives ended too soon.
After we’ve ransacked her place, which is our place now I guess, we take what we need and head back to the airport and our private jet. Lady Em owned that too. Henry says he can get all of her properties transferred to the clan, so that we’ll legally own everything. I’m not sure it matters though, when you’re immortal you can get away with anything.
Damien says we could probably get a lot of money selling Lady Em’s castle house because of the high price of California real estate. I think I’d rather burn it to the ground and dance on top of the ashes.
As we settle into the jet, I lean over and take Theo’s hand. We have six boxes of gold bars loaded into the cargo area. Those things were so heavy the guys needed a dolly to move them. We also have paperwork and precious jewels, some of which I know date back a century or two, all stuff we took from Lady Em’s house. I wonder where she got it all. Or where she stole it.
Theo’s thumb runs across my palm. “How are you doing?” he asks.
“Fine.” I say it quickly. An impulse response to a question you hear all the time.
He leans closer, his shoulder pressing to mine. “You don’t look fine.”
I give a little shrug and look out the tiny window to the cloudy sky below. “I guess…this was a huge victory for us today.”
“It was,” he agrees, a smirk appearing on his lips. “You were particularly amazing.”
“I just—” I exhale. I feel selfish as hell saying this, but it is what it is. “We killed her. We saved the kids and we saved the clan. But we didn’t save me.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “We didn’t save Riley or Bethany or Olivia or Nia. We’re all still doomed.”
“Don’t say that, love.” Theo’s eyes meet mine and then he looks away. “We’re all looking for a solution now. The guys have had a change of heart about their lifebloods, so they’re researching, too. We’ll find something.”
“They don’t know shit,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Those guys didn’t even know other clans exist, Theo. How are they going to help us?”
> Small lines appear in his forehead as he watches me. Theo is too considerate to tell me what I know to be true: that the situation is hopeless. “We’ll find something,” he says, leaning against me and resting his head on top of mine. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say softly. I close my eyes and let the gentle hum of the jet engines lull me to sleep. There will be time to fret tomorrow. For now, I’m exhausted.
***
A few days after our return, I’m still not used to how the house is now. Everyone is like an entirely different person. The guys aren’t quiet and aloof anymore because there are no more secrets. I try to avoid the other girls as much as I can, but I see them every now and then. The three of them have formed a closer friendship now that they’re going to die soon. I don’t know why Riley and I are on the outside of it, but I feel like we should join them soon. We’re all in this fucked up fate together, after all.
I spend my time with the kids, learning their names and ages and where they’re from. Most of them aren’t really kids anymore, since they’re teenagers or nearing their teens. They feel like kids though, and I have this fierce desire to protect them from all that is bad in the world. We take them shopping and I go crazy with Lady Em’s credit cards, buying Air Jordan’s and Sketchers, among other shoes, American Eagle for the girls, and whatever the boys think is cool. It’s like therapy, giving these orphans anything they want. It makes me feel really good about the world, at least my little part of it.
Damien still hasn’t gone home to Greece, and he’s been spending a lot of time with Theo and the other guys while they work out the mysteries of the immortal world. Damien won’t exactly admit it, but I think he doesn’t want to see me die. And I’m 99% sure he has a crush on Riley, which is kind of hilarious because she’s so not into hipsters.
On Friday when the weather is particularly nice, one of the kids suggests that we have a Mexican dinner night. Julio is from Mexico, and was put into foster care after both of his parents died. He’s been missing his culture and I think this might be the perfect way to cheer him up. Julio and I spend the morning with our chef, going over all the Mexican dishes he’d like to serve. My mouth is watering by the end of the conversation, and Julio is so excited his cheeks are pink from all the smiling.
We go to the store and pick out colorful tablecloths, decorations, and some piñatas just for fun. Kyle rents a margarita machine and Olivia and Nia string up colorful lights around the patio by the pool, which is where we’ll be eating dinner tonight.
The whole area is set up with delicious Mexican foods and we play Spanish pop music over the speakers. The other kids shower Julio with questions and words they want him to translate into Spanish. I’ve never seen them so happy.
As the foods are brought out and everyone digs in, piling their plates high with tamales and tacos and quesadillas, I lean against the concrete railing on the porch, so overwhelmed with love for my new, diverse, crazy, fun family.
Theo walks up wearing a sombrero. They’re not very good quality because we got them cheap at the party store, but he looks cute anyway. He’s holding a plate filled with corn husked tamales. “These are the best tamales I’ve ever eaten,” he says, his mouth full.
“Julio gave Chef the recipe parts he could remember from his mom’s cooking. Chef filled in the rest and they came out pretty good. Julio was excited.”
“I love that we’re doing this,” he says, taking another bite. “We should let all of the kids explore their culture and do something for each of them. Make them feel like an individual and not just one of many orphan kids.”
“I love you so much,” I say, my heart feeling like it’s going to explode.
He grins and puckers up to kiss me, but I shove him away. “Ew, tamale breath.”
“The tamales are amazing though,” he says, pointing one of them at me. “You should be delighted to get a tamale kiss.”
I roll my eyes. In the distance, Henry emerges from the house, wearing his glasses. He only wears them when he’s doing paperwork, which means he’s probably still working on Lady Em’s documents that we gave him. He knows a lawyer who is both very good and also a con artist. Last I heard, they were going to forge her signature on all of the deeds, transferring them to the clan. I think they were going to call us a business and get some kind of business license so that we’d all equally own the assets. I like that plan, even though I won’t be here very long.
Henry nods at us and then walks over to talk to Russell, who is giving three boys a piggy back ride around the pool.
“Hey, Theo?” I say as a question comes to me. “I’m your lifeblood. Riley is Kyle’s. There’s only Russell and Henry left, but we have Nia, Olivia, and Bethany, and they replaced Jayla with someone. Who are the other two immortals?”
“Our pilot and Chef,” Theo says, still eating his tamales. “The pilot’s name is Sean but he lives alone. He’s kind of a loner. He was friends with Russell, they both fought in World War one. Chef chose Jayla’s replacement…a terminally ill person. He took that suggestion from me.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I say. “So have you guys discussed what you’ll do once we’re all gone? You might want to become really good friends with a hospice center or something.”
Theo’s expression darkens. “Babe, this is so not the time to talk about this. You’re not going anywhere.”
I shrug. “I will someday. Even if the bracelets come off, I won’t get to stick around. I’ll age and grow old and die.”
“If we take your bracelet off, I’ll beg you to become immortal,” he says. “I’m not ready to give you up.”
“We’d never find another set of immortality stones,” I say as I gaze off at the distance. This is the kind of conversation that is very hard to have while looking in someone’s eyes. “You know the Dover clan won’t give us one of theirs.”
“There are other ways,” he says. “Find an immortal who is ready to leave the world and has no use for their stones. We’d have to beat everyone else in line to get one, but it can be done.”
“I’m not leaving Riley,” I say. As if reading my mind, she looks up from her chair at the dinner table. She’s wearing a sombrero too, but it dwarfs her tiny head, making her look like one of the kids around her. She grins and waves at me. I wave back.
“We should join the party,” I say, taking Theo’s hand and squeezing it. “There’s plenty of time to talk about how I’m going to die later. Right now, let’s just have fun.”
Theo smiles and the knot in my chest tightens. I push it back as we join the table. The kids need love and family right now. That’s what I’ll be for them, as long as I can.
Dinner flies by with laughter and jokes and delicious food. The girls start begging to jump in the pool, but I make them wait thirty minutes so their food can digest. Kyle and Riley become the margarita machine’s biggest fans. Soon, they’re singing along with the Spanish music they don’t even know the words to. The sun is setting on another beautiful Texas summer evening. In all, the night has been perfect.
“Cara!” Maddie, a little girl with long black hair and the world’s biggest pout on her face calls my name. “Are there more cookies inside?”
“I don’t think there’s any more of these,” I say, looking at the empty tray. “Chef baked them special for tonight.”
“I can ask him to make more,” Theo offers.
“It’s okay,” she says, crossing her hands over her chest. “I just wanted one sugar cookie and one chocolate chip but there’s only one of each one left.”
There’s a sugar cookie on her plate, and a chocolate chip cookie in Ashlee’s hand next to her. “Here,” Ashlee says, putting the cookie on her plate. “You can have mine, it’s okay.”
“No, I don’t want to take yours,” she says, putting it back on Ashlee’s plate. “I just wanted to taste both of them.”
Riley walks over, pushing her sombrero up so it stays out of her eyes. “I have an idea, kids.” She breaks bo
th cookies in half and then presses the halves together to form two cookies that are half sugar, half chocolate chip. “Perfect!” she says, giving each kid one of the double cookies.
“Thank you!” the girls shout in unison.
Kyle says something and Riley laughs. Conversations flutter to life and everyone’s going on with their night, but I can’t stop looking at those cookies.
“Theo,” I say, my voice shaky. I reach for his arm and grip it tightly, my fingers digging into his skin. My vision fades out around the sides, until the only thing I can see is his face. My heart is pounding and sweat breaks out across my forehead, and now that I’ve had this idea, it’s all I can think of.
“Oh my God,” I say in a voice that doesn’t even feel like mine.
Theo’s brows wrinkle in concern. “What is it babe? Are you okay?”
“Perpetual lifeblood,” I say. Riley stops talking midsentence and looks over at me. I stand up. “I know how to save us.”
Chapter 30
It takes every ounce of energy I have to wait until the dinner is over. Theo and Riley practically attach themselves to me, hovering over me like I might disappear at any moment. I told him we have to wait until dinner is over and the kids are in bed before I tell them about my idea.
If this works, it’ll be the best day of my life.
If it doesn’t, it’ll be the last.
For now, I want to enjoy my new family for a just a little while longer. When dinner is over, and the kids are shuttled off to their rooms to shower and get ready for bed, I tell Malina to start reading a bedtime story to the younger kids if I’m not there by nine. I send up a prayer that I will be here to read to the kids tonight, and that more than that, I will no longer be mortal.
I tell Riley and Kyle to meet us in the library. It seems only fitting to try it out here, in the room with the book that taught us everything we know about immortality. Theo is quiet, a little ruffled around the edges. I think he hoped I’d tell him my theory back at dinner, but I’ve kept it to myself. Part of me likes the suspense, but the other part of me is hoping this will work. I’m pretty sure it will. So much, that I’m about to risk my life with it.