“What was happening to them? It didn’t look like their souls were being taken.”
Emil glanced behind me as we kept moving. “They weren’t. I don’t know what was going on.”
As we came to a clearing, Emil started to say something when the figures of two men stepped out in front of us.
My immediate response was to turn around and run like the wind in a different direction. Emil moved in front of me, Jas, and Zach. As the figures came into view, we saw their faces. Alex and Tate. I breathed out a long sigh of relief.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Emil said.
“Evie hit the SOS button on her bracelet,” Alex said. “By the time we arrived, Daevos members were everywhere.”
Emil sliced his head down once in acknowledgment. “Any idea what they’re doing, or what they want?”
Alex nodded, meeting my eyes. “I think Evie was right about the sickness being linked to Trackers missing and love. From what we could tell, they were targeting couples, drawing from the bond.”
“What about the cloud of blue smoke?” I asked. “It was like they were collecting it.”
Tate nodded. “I think they were. It must be how they’re harvesting the power stolen from the bonds.”
“We have to go back and help them!” I said, voice rising.
Alex shook his head. “We’ll go back, but you’re leaving.”
“No,” I fumed, “I’m not! My powers work on them, I’ve already tried it. I can help!”
“You could also get yourself killed, and having you here means we’ll be more worried about keeping you safe than dealing with the problem and saving everyone else. Get Jas and Zach out of here,” Alex commanded.
“Umm, guys?” Jas said.
I met Alex’s eyes and held them. “I’m not leaving.”
“Evie,” Alex warned, “this is not the time. Of everyone who could be fighting, you three aren’t immortal. And I won’t risk any of your souls being taken. Get them somewhere safe.”
“There’s a reason the Daevos are all here, and it seems to have something to do with me. Wherever I go, they’ll just follow.”
Alex, Emil, and Tate all stopped, thinking it through. It seemed obvious to me, but I guess that hadn’t occurred to them yet.
Alex met my eyes and held them. “You’re leaving, Evie. Tate’s going with you. That’s final.”
“Guys!” Jas yelled.
Our heads all swiveled to look at her at once.
She pointed to the right of us.
“We have a problem,” I said, keeping my eyes on the steadily growing crowd in front of me.
Emil’s eyes were wide. “I’ve noticed.”
“Are they all Daevos?”
Simon came up next to us. I turned around and saw an army of Amaranthine at my back. “Not all of them.”
Alex met my questioning eyes. “I called for help.”
I nodded. “Good thinking.”
Suddenly, the Daevos members let out a piercing scream in various tones. Screeches that sounded far worse than nails on a chalkboard. My ears felt like knives were slicing through them. I put my hands on the sides of my head, trying to protect my eardrums; Jas and Zach were doing the same. The Daevos charged forward, and the Amaranthine pushed past us in waves to meet them.
The fighting had turned to unchained chaos. Arms and legs flying in every direction as bodies hit the ground sliding across the icy, packed snow. I slid my eyes from left to right, taking in the unhinged violence. These people had been taught to hate each other because of what they each thought the other believed. People who would kill and die for their cause without even knowing the name of the person they slaughtered.
If history had taught me anything, it was that it was never wise to give any one person or group too much power. Whether the Amaranthine or Daevos ended up with that power didn’t matter. The world needs balance, which means it needs the good and the bad. The Amaranthine and the Daevos. Things couldn’t have continued as the utopia the Goddesses originally created. I hadn’t had much time to think about my spells flashback, but I knew it meant I’d have to explore possibilities I wasn’t comfortable with. There was a chance I was the reincarnation of Callista. Did that make me evil? I didn’t think so. And if I really was Callista, I should be able to control the Daevos and stop this.
I was going to do something about this mess. The next question was: did I really have the power?
Yes, came a familiar voice.
My breath caught in my throat. She was there again. The helpmate I didn’t know, but couldn’t do this without.
I will help you, Evangeline.
I thought back to the other times I’d used my powers and knew that with help from the musical voice, I could do this. I could stop this massacre from happening.
I started forward; the bodies flying seemed unable to touch me. Like I was in a bubble that no one could penetrate unless I allowed them in. I felt like I was gliding over the rough, frozen snow. The angry voices around me made it difficult to hear, but from behind me, I heard someone yell, “Evie! Get back! You’re not safe there!”
The voice didn’t know about my partner though. I smiled slightly, confident I would be fine, and kept moving. When I reached the center of the fight, I stopped and looked out over the crowd. Dark spots pooled on the icy snow; the red, rusty color of blood. When this was over, the area would look like a slaughter had taken place. But I was going to stop it.
I’m ready, I thought. Immediately after I thought the words, I felt power punch through my back to my soulmark, pushing me over, until I was bent at my waist. The feeling was at least ten times stronger than I remembered it being in the cave. Whether the increased power was because of my own growing abilities, or the voice helping me, I didn’t know. I gasped at the intensity, my heart skipping a beat—or several. I took a deep breath to balance myself and when I stood, I felt…powerful.
Energy pulsed, radiating from me in waves. The Amaranthine and Daevos members close to me stopped fighting and stared in stunned silence. My soulmark still burning with pressure, I took a deep breath, opened my mouth and roared, “STOP!”
Everything seemed to flow into slow motion until the defensive moves and fighting halted completely, and everyone stared in my direction.
You did it, the voice said.
My lips lifted in a slight smile. I’d had help, but I’d stopped this confrontation from becoming any worse. At least for now. In that moment, I knew regardless of who I ended up being, I could accept it. Because I was no longer the person I’d been before. I would make different choices this time.
My eyes drifted over the crowd. Emil and Tate were standing together toward the back of the group where I’d left them; Jas and Zach huddled behind them, watching me. Alex was closer—like he’d run after me. His face was pulled tight with concern while Emil looked cautious. I hadn’t given the command to freeze, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at Tate. He seemed stunned.
I turned back to the crowd. Since I had their attention, I had some things to say. I opened my mouth to speak when the air suddenly changed. It became heavy and hard to breathe. I lost my concentration, and was no longer controlling the crowd—but something was. An eerie calm settled over the area. As I looked around, people seemed stunned into confusion—but I wasn’t affected. I started shifting my vantage point, trying to figure out the reason for the unusual atmosphere.
That’s when the smell of wet paint hit me like a boulder. I was the first to notice the dark misty fog start to materialize from the ground up. Like it was coming from the center of the earth. The ominous black haze swirled into spiral shapes of fog that somehow melted into the larger haze while still keeping its shape. I stared at the flecks of metallic within the haze that seemed to glitter in the cold night, wondering if the effect was caused by the moist ice crystals in the fog reacting to the cold mountain air.
A confused murmur started among the men and women in front of me as the haze coalesced. It had made its appearance behind ou
r war zone. Now the haze was moving toward the field we were standing on, toward every Amaranthine and Daevos member there.
It certainly didn’t feel friendly. I thought about commanding everyone to leave as fast as they could, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t matter. Something was exerting some level of control over them, and I didn’t know if my power was strong enough to override it. This dark haze had sought us out, and would keep searching until it found every last one of us. Plus, there was one thing I was sure of: the Amaranthine and Daevos weren’t the type to run.
The murmur quickly became hushed as the haze formed into figures. Dark, shadowy human shaped figures. And even before I saw their eyes, I knew why the shadow by the ice cream shop had only started to seem familiar. It hadn’t formed completely before I told it to freeze. If it had, I would have seen its bright platinum eyes and hauntingly evil smile—which is what all the figures now had. I now also knew that the shadow hadn’t hidden behind the car that night, it had seeped up in front of me from the ground. These shadows looked exactly like the one I’d seen staring at me with a horrific smile as it hovered five feet off the ground in front of my kitchen window last summer.
The Amaranthine and Daevos members were completely ensorcelled as the shadow figures stopped on the edge of where the fighting had been taking place. Like a large door too heavy to open, the shadow figures slowly started to part. Another figure moved through the tunnel the shadows created, only this one was definitely solid. And unmistakable.
I shook with anger as he moved forward.
Caleb.
He was followed by the five Clan members I’d helped defeat less than six months ago.
He flashed me a wide, evil smile as he approached.
I heard a voice yell, “No!” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alex race forward, as if he could protect me from the threat he thought we’d been rid of months ago. Simon looked like he was about to back Alex up. Caleb laughed and held his hand up, palm out, and pointed it at Alex. He whispered a word under his breath and Alex froze in a running position, still trying to get to me. Caleb tilted his head like he found Alex entertaining. “I see you’re still protecting the love of your life?”
Alex was frozen in place, unable to move, let alone answer. Every function of his body was controlled by Caleb’s whims. The Amaranthine and Daevos didn’t move. I couldn’t tell if Caleb was controlling them, or they were just stunned and didn’t know what to do against someone with Caleb’s abilities. “Have you told her about the Amaranthine, Alexander? Has she remembered anything yet?”
Despite being paralyzed, I could see Alex’s frantic eyes reacting to Caleb’s questions and wondered what exactly he was talking about, and what else Alex hadn’t told me. I hated this. Hated that in the middle of trying to figure out who I was, he had information he hadn’t given me—again. The fact that he rationalized it by saying it was for my own protection didn’t make a difference. It still infuriated me. He didn’t trust me.
Caleb made a tsking noise with his tongue and shook his head. “So much secrecy.” He looked from Alex to Emil. “Don’t you both get tired of it? The constant censoring must be exhausting. You should tell her the truth.”
“What truth?” I asked, eyes narrowed.
Caleb turned to me. “You’ve been betrayed, Evie. I suggest you figure out who you are and who you can trust. I have those answers too—if you come with me.”
My eyes widened and I snorted in disbelief. He was number one on my “do not trust” list. “You tried to kill me.” I nodded toward Alex. “And now you’re hurting someone I care about. Why would I ever willingly go somewhere with you, let alone trust you?”
Caleb pushed his brows together, feigning hurt. “No, I didn’t try to kill you, Evie. I used you as a means to an end. I wouldn’t have killed you. Well, I might have after you helped try to take the souls of my Clan. But that was before I realized who you were. I would never hurt you now.”
Caleb knew who I was? Or was he guessing like the rest of us?
“I don’t believe you—about any of it.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Do you need a show a faith, then?” He watched me for several seconds. “All right.”
He mumbled more words I didn’t understand and suddenly Alex gasped, falling to the ground on all fours. He lifted his head to look at Caleb, pure anger in his eyes. “Don’t try,” Caleb warned. “I can immobilize you again with little effort.”
Alex stopped. I could see his mind working, trying to formulate a plan. The Amaranthine and Daevos were trained to fight, but not in a situation like this. I turned to Caleb, hoping if I held his attention, it would give Alex, Emil, and the rest of the Amaranthine a chance to come up with a strategy. “What do you want?”
“Besides you?” he asked. “Power.”
“So you’re still taking Trackers? Is that where you’re getting the power from?”
“One of the places.”
Caleb was the type of person who liked to be admired, especially if it had something to do with wits. I was hoping his explanations would not only tell me what had been happening in Gunnison, but also keep him occupied.
“How are you alive? I watched Emil take your soul.”
He gave a sly smile. “No, that’s what you thought you saw. What you really watched was my spelled memories being collected. After a few hours, the memories were deposited back in our bodies, our souls intact.”
I looked to Alex, shocked. “Did you know about this?”
He shook his head slowly, but something about it made me think he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I thought Alex had taken care of their bodies after Emil and I left the cave? What had really happened?
Caleb watched the exchange. “I’d be careful about who I trust, if I were you. You never know when someone’s telling you the truth, or just what they want you to hear.”
I’d been having that feeling for a while now. I hated being lied to.
The shadows shimmered in front of me, their platinum eyes shining pure evil. “What are they?” I asked, watching them closely. It was like my nightmares come to life, only instead of one of them, there were hundreds.
“My most amazing creation,” Caleb answered, pride clear in his voice. “They’re my Nothing Army.”
Emil had explained the Nothing and Bliss to me. When a soul was taken, their memories were essentially destroyed. The remaining bits and pieces of memories were collected and held in the Nothing. “Souls can’t come back from the Nothing. Not enough of their memories are left.”
Caleb smiled slowly. “Souls can’t come back, but pieces of them can. I only need enough of those memories to form a sentient being, intelligent enough to take my commands.”
I stared, a sour feeling curdling my stomach. Not only had these souls been taken—some of them innocent, others evil—now their memories were living on in these beings, pieced together like shadowy Frankensteins, undistinguishable from the souls they’d once been. A person’s soul being taken was horrifying enough; it seemed cosmically unjust that their memories were being tortured to assist the whims of a mad man.
“How did you harness the memories? No one should have that kind of power.”
“No, any Daevos member could have had it; they just weren’t smart enough to think through how to get it.”
“The Trackers?”
“That would have been nice, but even with all the Trackers I have, I needed more power to access the Nothing. I’d been experimenting before I abducted you, and knew it was possible, I just didn’t know how to do it in large numbers. But then you came along and taught me everything I needed to know. You and Alex helped me refine the process.”
“What?” I ground out. I imagined Caleb learned a lot from his Sync experiment when he’d taken Alex’s memories through his bond to me, so I was interested to find out how else I’d helped him in his efforts to destroy the world.
“In the past, Trackers have been used by the Daevos to track bonds and split up co
uples. But I had a theory about the bonds. You and Alex confirmed it. During every moment your bond and connection to Alex was triggered—regardless of the reason—power coursed through you both in massive waves. Your connection was unlike any other we’d ever seen. I had no idea how powerful love could be.”
I scoffed. “The Daevos don’t believe in love. You purposefully take half a person’s soul so they can’t find their other mate and they’ll be miserable without love forever.”
“The Daevos have always had such a limited view of the world. They’ve never understood what they were actually missing out on, or why the Amaranthine have the power they do. I plan to change that.”
“With love?”
“Love is the most powerful of all emotions. It’s the root of everything a soul feels. Think about it: happiness, sadness, anger, despair, passion…they can all come from love. No other emotion has that raw intensity. That kind of power is equivalent to harnessing the sun. And I’ve done it.”
“How?”
“By drawing on the bonds of love. I don’t want to take a person’s soul, Evie. I want them to find their soul mates,” he paused and met my eyes. “And then I want to use them.”
That explained the couples who were getting sick, and confirmed my theory. “Why,” I asked, truly confused. “What do you want?”
“To win, Evie. I want to lead the Daevos. I want to be the one in control of who gets to stay together, and who does not. Someone needs to keep things organized. The old methods have failed. Letting souls make decisions doesn’t work. I’m going to fix that.”
“Take away free will?” Emil asked. His face seemed pale even from a distance. The shadow figures started to shimmer with movement as murmurs rose up from the crowd of Amaranthine and Daevos. Caleb raised a hand, stopping all conversation, and the shadows calmed.
“Precisely. Think of the power I’ll have! Trackers to help me put couples together, soul mates happy and in love, and love bonds to draw from, creating a base of unstoppable power.”
“But if you draw from their bonds, they can’t be together,” I said. “It makes them sick!”
Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 Page 27