by Tara Brown
I was like a pig. The memory of my father and I watching the show about how pigs could smell the day they were going to die rolled through my mind like a dense fog. It ate up all the self-pity and sadness. My father, mother, and sister were there with me. Inside me.
Aleks grasped my hand and pulled me into him. “What's going on?” he whispered.
“I don't know.” I shook my head. I couldn’t let him know. “She was just asking a lot for payment.”
“What is the payment, Aimee?” His voice was rough. I wondered if he was scared like I was, even though he didn’t know what I knew. He didn’t know what the payment was.
Where Momma Holt’s eyes were pressed shut, a white light fought to break through her sealed lids. She shook and chanted softly.
She threw her arms into the air and screamed and then slammed them down on Ophelia's limp body. Ophelia shot up, screaming. Oliver grabbed her instantly and was gone.
“Where’s he going?” I asked panicked.
Dorian refused to face me. I could see it. He knew. “She’s been taken to a cell she can't escape from. A place where the sisters will find her and release their magic to her.” His words were dead.
“Brother, go help him. He will need the help. I'll stay here and help cover the bill,” Dorian muttered.
Aleks grabbed me and stared at me with intensity. “Hurry home. We need to talk.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, fighting the tears threatening me and taking my voice.
Aleks was gone, making the air in the cabin swirl with his warmth and her stinky pot.
“Momma Holt, I have a better deal for you.”
She shook her head. “No. You no trick Momma Holt, demon.” She held out her hand that showed where she had spit into her old leathered brown palm. Where the burns remained.
He offered his hand to her. “I have taken more than her. I have more to give. She’s new. Few souls,” his voice cracked.
My heart did too.
Momma Holt seized his hand and licked it. She tasted and spit on the floor, nodding and muttering at me, “You go home, demon.”
My eyes widened. “No. Dorian, don’t do this.” I didn’t know why but the idea of him dying was worse than anything I could imagine. “No.”
He gazed back at me. “I'm glad you don’t remember the way I acted toward you. I'm glad this is the way you remember me. I just wish it could have been different. If I had just gotten the chance, I would’ve showed you how much, Aimee. How much this cost me.”
“Why were you such an ass? Everyone tells me I hated you. I sense my disgust for you. It’s old. Please tell me why?” I asked through the tears and sobs.
“Because I couldn’t do that to him. He was the only real brother I've ever had. He saw you first.” His voice broke and I heaved slightly. “I hoped this was the life that would change that, but I wasted all my chances.”
He grabbed my face and pressed his lips against mine. The salt from the tears made its way into my mouth.
Our kiss tightened as I heard the stab of the knife into his hand. I opened one eye to see her put his black bloody hand up to her mouth. She sucked and pulled.
“I will love you forever,” he whispered into my mouth and then he jerked away from me and stared up at the ceiling. His jaw tightened as his eyes turned white like hers had been. He dropped to the floor and slowly became nothing more than a pile of black feathers. One white feather sat at the top of the pile.
“His love for you. You take dat one. He leave it for you.” She pointed at the white feather. I dropped to my knees. My heart was broken.
“I never knew,” I whispered. With trembling hands, I picked the single white feather from the pile. I held it to my chest and rocked back and forth.
Momma Holt shuffled toward me.
“I show you.” She placed her hands on my head and slowly, images of me filled my own mind. My smile, my eyes glowing molten steel, my laugh, me running and fighting, me sitting reading a book in the sunlight. There were more than I could count and I remembered almost none of them. The final image was me, lying in the forest, sleeping on a bed of moss. His hand came into sight and brushed my hair from my face. I recognized the ring and his jacket. His hand lingered as he brushed his thumb across my lips.
“How he see you.” She pulled back her hands but the memories continued to roll around in my mind. I had no words.
I wanted to reach in and grab every feather. I wanted to hold them tightly to me. “I never knew,” I cried out, shaking.
I winked back to the yard at Lydia's, on my knees in a sobbing ball.
Something lifted me, shaking me.
“What happened? Where is he? WHERE IS HE, AIMEE?” Lorri ripped me from the ground. Her face changed slightly.
I had no answers. I held up the single white feather. She dropped me to the ground. Tears flew from her eyes.
She screamed with her head turned up to the sky and then shook with each sob and heave. “No. No. Why would he do it?”
Oliver was there, beside her, holding her. His eyes met mine and I knew how he felt. I didn’t feel better with Dorian saving me. I would’ve traded places in a heartbeat. I was unworthy of the sacrifice that was made. Only he knew the pain I was in.
I clutched the feather.
Lorri spun, her face filled with hatred. “You never even loved him back. You never even cared for him.”
Sam stood in front of me. “You know as well as I do he did it the way he wanted to. He never would have seen her dead. How was she to know how he felt?”
Aleks walked out of the house. I felt sick when I saw his face. “Where's Dorian?”
Lorri cried harder, angrier. She was gone.
Sam turned to Aleks and shook his head. “He didn’t make it.”
Aleks stopped. “He is fallen; he can't die. Not unless Aimee—” He eyed me accusingly.
Sam stepped toward him. “No. She didn’t.”
Oliver grabbed his arm. “This was my fault. I made the deal trading her life for O's. Dorian saved Aimee and took her place.”
Aleks looked baffled. “Why? Oliver, why would you make that deal? Why would you trade her life?”
“Aleks, it wasn’t like that.”
Aleks grabbed his shirt and lifted him off the ground. His face and arms trembled. “HE LOVED HER. YOU KNEW HE WOULD SAVE HER!”
Oliver was savage. “YOU LOVE HER TOO! YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HER!”
Aleks dropped him and turned back to me. Tears lined his cheeks but it wasn’t from gratefulness; he was destroyed. I didn’t blame him. They had been together for hundreds of years. He seemed not to know how to react. “I never got to say goodbye.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“He loved you,” Aleks muttered.
“I never knew.” I clutched the feather.
He nodded, dejectedly. “I know.”
Sam smiled softly. “No one knew, Aimes. He never told anyone. We all just guessed.”
Aleks’ face revealed the truth of it. He knew. He had known all along. He put a hand up. “I can’t do this right now.” And he was gone too.
Oliver looked at me. “I'm sorry. It wasn’t personal.”
Sam wrapped himself around me again. “Piss off, Oliver,” he muttered and led me away.
“Did you get Ari back?” I asked softly.
“No. Lost the trail.” He leaned into my hair and sniffed it. “What's that smell?”
“Old lady magic. We went to a cabin.” I couldn’t say anything else. Not without dying inside. I never wanted to remember the cabin again.
“No, it smells like something else.”
Chapter 21
Anything but this
Aimee
Sam’s face was killing me as I explained Hanna was no longer under the protection of the witches. “You never told me she was with us again.” His eyes bore down on me accusingly.
I didn’t have an excuse. I mumbled, “I mean, she’s not really. She’s not with u
s.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe.” I tried to cover for it but knew I owed him the truth. “Henry will keep her safe.”
“YOU TRADED HER TO MARCUS?” His furious spittle landed on my arms and then he was gone. I was alone in the kitchen, holding my mug of apple cider Annabelle had made me. “It wasn’t my idea,” I muttered and softly stroked my white feather.
Lorri came into the kitchen with Lydia. “We need you. Just in case.”
I tucked the feather into my bra, over my heart, and stood, touching Lorri's hand. Suddenly, we were in a dark cold place. The dank air was ripe with something bad. Something dark and sinister.
“Stay beside me,” Lorri whispered harshly, not meeting my gaze.
“I'm sorry about Dorian,” I whispered back.
She glared like I was nothing more than an insect. “You should be.” Her words were cold and cut right through me.
“Well, I am.”
We walked in the dark until we came to a dimly lit room. My whole body buzzed when we entered. I trembled and twitched.
Ophelia was tied to the wall. Her eyes were swirls of gold and black. Her hair moved as if there was a breeze but the air was still. She smiled at me. “Your sorrow is exquisite.”
“What?”
“Your broken heart. I can taste it in the air.” Her voice was freaky.
“We need an old priest and a young priest.” I leaned into Lydia who scowled at me.
“Focus.”
Ophelia's smile was creepy and weird. She looked disturbed.
Lorri glanced at her watch. She always did.
Phillip and Trist flashed into the room. Phillip smiled politely, but Trist rushed his sister.
“O, oh my God. You look haggard.” He was worried.
She laughed. “Give me a kiss, Brother.”
He almost stepped into her, but then stepped back and pointed. “What is that?”
“That’s your sister,” Lorri said flatly.
He turned to me harshly. “You did this!”
Lorri grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “No, she didn’t. O did this to herself. She saved Oliver's soul.”
Tristan’s face was filled with horror. “She sucked the darkness from him?”
Lydia replied, “Yes. Now we have to get your father before time’s up. Let's do this. Call the sisters.”
Phillip looked at Tristan and nodded.
Tristan closed his eyes and whispered. The blue balls of light flitted into the room as one and then separated slowly, hovering in the air.
“Death dealer, you must suck from her as we fill her up. Take her poison.”
I frowned. “Me?”
Lorri sighed. “Of course you.”
“Won't she die if I suck from her?”
Lorri turned her face sharply. “No, you idiot. They're replacing her soul. You take the damaged old one, and they give her the new one that’s combined with their goodness.”
“So Ophelia will no longer be O? She'll be the combined effort of these other girls?”
Lorri snarled at me. I put my hands up defensively. “I'm just checking. It sounds a little evil to take over someone’s body.”
“Well, since she became evil, it’s our only chance. It’s suck and blow time.” She grabbed my arm and shoved me at Ophelia. I peered into her golden fiery eyes and tried desperately to see something of the girl who was my friend.
Oliver flashed into the room with Giselle. His eyes were puffy. I was certain we looked the same. I was terrified he knew what was about to happen.
“There might be another way.”
Lorri shook her head. “We can't chance it. Not once she has the power.” She shoved me again. I stumbled forward and looked back growling. Lorri's growl was scarier.
Giselle stepped forward. “Don't do it, Aimes.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
Oliver's voice lowered, “Don't touch her. We might find another way.”
I reached my hand out and took a deep breath. The blue balls of light hovered above Ophelia as she started laughing. It sounded panicked and sharp. She beamed at Oliver, “I loved you, baby.”
He lunged forward, but Lorri snatched him midair and they both vanished.
I grabbed her arm and released the hold I had over myself. As the first blue light jumped into her mouth, she screamed toward the ceiling. A burst of darkness, sweet incense-tasting darkness, filled me up. The second light floated in and I grabbed on with my other hand. It was too much. I was filling up and screaming in sync with her. Giselle grasped my face and planted her lips on mine and pulled from me. We screamed inside each other's mouths in unison for a second and then it stopped. I dropped to the hard stone floor. Pools of black blood gathered under my hands. I was panting and twitching. Giselle was next to me. She was a funny color, ashen. I glanced over. “Thanks.”
She gagged a little. “You taste bad.” She wiped my black blood from her lips.
“Yeah.”
She laughed weakly and glanced up at O.
Oliver and Lorri flashed in and out of the room for a minute. Both punching and wrestling with each other.
Lydia took my arm and helped me up. Her touch soothed me instantly. “Are you all right, my dear?”
I nodded and turned to O. She blinked a few times and spoke with the voices of all of them, “It worked.”
My stomach tightened. “Is she in there too?”
She didn’t answer for a moment and then frowned. “She isn’t.”
Tristan screamed. Phillip cried but held back his man. The room was in tears. Oliver flashed in free of Lorri. He grabbed both of Ophelia's hands. He looked deeply into her eyes and looked back at me. My gaze dropped. He turned to Lydia and Giselle but none of us could hold his accusing gaze.
Lydia's voice broke, “Tristan, it’s your turn.”
Giselle snapped, “Give him a minute, for God's sake.”
Tristan was being held up completely by Phillip. Lydia touched his face. A smile crossed his lips. “Thank you.”
I knew she had given him back all of his memories. Ophelia put a hand out. Tristan took it. He gripped and shook his head. “I don’t think I can do this.”
It was too late. The sisters used their magic to pull. His body instantly vibrated. His feet lifted off the ground. They pulled back and he dropped. Phillip helped him stand on shaky legs.
Ophelia rubbed her hands together. “We are ready.”
“Where is she?” Oliver asked.
“Heaven.” Lydia's voice was almost a whisper.
Oliver looked at me. I knew what he was about to ask but I couldn’t do it. We might need him. Lorri flashed into the room. “Done?”
Ophelia nodded. Her mannerisms were creepy and mechanical. Lorri took her hand and flashed back out. “I hate how she’s so heartless sometimes.” The words left my mouth before I could check them.
Oliver winked. We were in a room with a bed and a bucket. It resembled a prison cell.
I wasn't afraid of him but I couldn’t shake the memory of him ripping my clothes off.
“Do it.”
“Where are we?” I asked.
He put a hand out. “Do it. Do it now while I'm pure and clean and I can go to her again. I'll feed, Aimee. I'll kill again. Then I can never get back to where she is. The fallen were never allowed back, but she saved me. She made me clean again.” His eyes were filled with desperation.
I took his hand in mine. The idea of eating again made me gag almost. I closed my eyes and let it loose.
“I'm sorry, Oliver,” I whispered.
I sucked until there was nothing left.
He dropped to the floor, becoming nothing but a pile of black feathers. There was no white one. He had taken it with him.
My heart couldn't break any more than it had. I was numb and frozen. Sam believed I'd betrayed him. O and Oliver were gone. Dorian was gone. Aleks hated me. Lorri hated me, which wasn’t really different than any other day of the week. Tristan was non-
magical now.
“There you are.”
I spun in the cell to see Phillip. I frowned. “Hi.” The timeline flashed into my mind. Oliver was his father. I opened my mouth but he shook his head. “He told me already. He warned me well in advance. He was a great father until about six months ago. Then he was washed and became a total douche.”
“Washed?”
“Yeah, washed. Like wiped. His memory was cleansed.” He sighed. “Yeah. He was madly in love with O, ready to go and get her and blah, blah, blah. He was always there for Trist and me and then six months ago, boom. Arse.”
“What happened six months ago?”
“Well, I just told you that part. Aimes, you're super bad at listening.”
“What? No. I'm talking to myself. Thinking aloud.” I started to pace. Nothing stuck out in my mind. I paused. “You called me Aimes.”
“Yeah. We used to be friends, you and me. Lydia just gave me back my memories too. I had forgotten how much I liked you.”
“Thanks.”
“So I followed you here because I need a favor.”
I frowned. “What?”
He scowled like he was conflicted. I had a moment where I was terrified he was going to reveal his bad-guy status. It would make sense. Someone had clearly betrayed us. Someone other than Daniel who we had kept in check. Or so we thought.
“I was hoping to get a place in the South of France, where he and I could live out the rest of our lives. I want to surprise him. When I text you, could you wink him there?”
I grinned, relieved. I loved the anxious tone in his voice. “Yeah.”
“I know you're super busy and obviously this is bad timing, but he has no magic and he’s all alone. If I were to fight with you all, he would be defenseless.”
“Of course. I'd be happy to do something fun for a change. Drastic change.”
His face relaxed. “Thanks so much.” He lost some of the light. “I'm sorry about Dorian and Shane. I know you liked them both a lot.”
“Shane?”
“He’s evil. He and Marcus are bad now. Very bad. You must have known. They’ve been helping my dad and Jonathan with their blood-bag places.”
My stomach sunk. “What? No. You must be mistaken.”