The two of us leaned against walls across from each other. The silence was awkward.
“You did a good job on me and Rose the other day,” I told her. “I feel completely normal.”
Cadence nodded. “It was nothing.”
“Is Hollis still pissed?”
“Yeah, but I think a huge part of it is the pressure he’s feeling from his dad. He hasn’t been speaking to us but he’ll come around.”
Why couldn’t Hollis understand that with the curse broken, he wouldn’t have to worry about finding his Gemini to please his dad?
“Waiting for me?” a voice boomed from one end of the hallway.
Mr. Mason.
Cadence and I locked eyes with each other, neither of us knowing what to do. What was he doing back already? Where was Wes? She cleared her throat and let out a loud chirping sound I had never heard her make before. That was Violet’s signal to hide. “Uh, hello. Mr. Mason. Where’s Hollis?”
Mr. Mason wouldn’t take his eyes off me even though he was speaking to Cadence. “I sent him on an errand. Can I do something for you ladies?”
We shook our heads.
Mr. Mason was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid. He was on to us. “Let’s see. The only reason you would be standing outside of my office keeping watch would be because something is going on in there that shouldn’t be.”
A low rumble came from outside—the familiar sound of an approaching storm. Mr. Mason finally stopped looking at me and turned his attention to Cadence. “I’m surprised at you. You’re the most responsible of all the Takers here. The one I can depend on, even more than my own son.”
Cadence looked down sheepishly. I wanted to tell her to stop looking that way. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “Of course, Mr. Mason. You can always depend on me.”
Another crack of thunder and the sound of pounding rain came from above. Mr. Mason stormed past us and just as he reached his office door, the electricity went out. Sounds of creatures howling and screaming at the sudden darkness came from above us.
A door creaked open and a whip of wind chilled me as something flew past. Violet. Hopefully she’d had enough time to find the box. After this, we’d probably never be able to get back into his office.
“Cadence,” Mr. Mason called sharply. “Find a flashlight or some candles and go calm the others while I go down to the breaker box.” He brushed against me as he stormed past.
“Yes, sir,” she said obediently, leaving me in the darkness.
Feeling my way down the hallway, I was startled by a shushing sound. “Violet?” I called.
“Yes, it’s me. I cracked the safe. I have the box.”
She was a life-saver.
“Can you make the storm stop?” I asked. Maybe the power would come back on. Having to deal with Mason in total darkness had me a little on edge.
“Um, I’m still working on that. I can make them start, but stopping them is a little harder.” That explained the days and days of flooding we’d had.
She groped me in the darkness and placed the box in my hands. “Thank you, Violet. You have no idea how important this is.” In my hands I held the key to saving Fletcher’s life and the way of keeping half the younger creatures from dying. The contents of that box meant everything in that moment.
“I know,” she whispered. “It’s to stop the curse. Let’s go back upstairs where it’s a little less creepy.”
We moved toward the elevator before I realized that was the only way up. I didn’t know where Cadence and Mr. Mason had gone. Surely there were plenty of exits and tunnels, but I had no idea where they were. “I think we’re stuck down here until the power comes back on.”
Violet sighed. “I’m so stupid.”
“Don’t say that,” I told her. Roars and growls came from below us in the sixth tunnel. I could only imagine what was going on down there.
After a few moments of standing in the darkness, the lights whirled back on. The storm still raged outside but Mr. Mason must have found a way to get the power working again.
As I turned to head toward the elevator, Mr. Mason stood dead in the middle of the hallway, his wings stretched, blocking the entire path. He glared at both Violet and I.
“Oh, great. I see you got the power back on,” I said with as much cheer as I could muster.
“Give me the box,” he said in a low, steady voice.
I held the box as tight as I could. “I can’t do that.”
“Give it to me,” he insisted, “and we won’t have any problems.”
I thought of Rose’s heart and the dust of my bone. The sacrifice we had made, her much more than me. We’d literally given parts of our bodies. The only Nephilim heart left was the one Rose needed to live. There would be no way for us to make another offering. “I can’t do that. I need it to stop the curse. Why don’t you want the curse to stop? No one else has to die.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and his wings flapped, the wind from them almost knocking me over. “I’ve already told you, sacrifices must be made for the greater good.” How ironic for him to say that. “Sure, we will lose some of our own, but in the long run, we will be stronger for it. We will not cower to Givers and they will come to fear us. I have a weapon that is much stronger than their sacred curse.”
The sixth tunnel.
I glanced at Violet who didn’t look afraid at all. He pulled his attention to her. “Little bug, your powers have gotten stronger, no? You’ve gone from shaping clouds to controlling the skies. Clearly you are the winner of your Gemini dual, so you need not concern yourself with this. Give me the box.”
Violet straightened her shoulders. “I’m sorry, sir, but you will not take that box.”
Before I could react, Mr. Mason struck out. He grabbed Violet by her tiny throat and dangled her in the air with one hand. Her legs kicked back and forth.
“Put her down!” I screamed.
Mr. Mason was unmoved. “I’m sick of the loyalty you all have to this girl over me. After all I’ve done for you—protecting you, raising you. Anything she asks you all to do, you do.”
Violet tried to speak, but she couldn’t. He was crushing her throat.
“Please, Mr. Mason. Stop.”
Violet’s eyes bugged out as he squeezed harder. If I didn’t stop him. He was going to kill, Violet. He was going to get the box and Fletcher would die too. I wasn’t going to let that happen. Mr. Mason should have destroyed the box when he had the chance. Familiar words bounced around in my mind; Takers take life, but only when they have to. There was no longer a question in my mind. I had to take and there was no time left to think about it. If I didn’t kill him right then, he would kill Violet.
A warmth surged through my body. I focused all the energy I had on Mr. Mason. My chest burned and my head felt so light that I wondered how I hadn’t passed out. My vision blurred. I had never felt this feeling before but somehow I knew it was right. This was what Banshees were supposed to feel.
I glared at Mr. Mason. He faltered for a moment. He knew what I was doing. He tossed Violet away from him like a rag doll. She landed on the ground where she lay still. He turned to me and retracted his wings.
“What do you think you’re doing, girl? You think you’re going to kill me?”
Yes, but only if I had to. “I know you’re angry about your wife, but we’ve all lost people important to us. Nothing is going to bring her back, especially not what you’re doing.”
Mr. Mason moved toward me. I tried to back away, but I wasn’t fast enough. He grabbed me by the collar of my dress and pinned me to the wall. Just like the other Takers did with Violet, he was underestimating me. The last time, I may not have been able to kill him, but this time was different.
I put a picture in my mind. Nothing too gory or gruesome. As much as I may have hated him, I wanted to make this as quick as possible. I imagined the blood vessels around Mr. Mason’s heart tightening, allowing for no blood or oxygen to flow through. I saw his blood vessels shriveling d
own to the size of a spaghetti noodle. With his free hand, he grabbed his chest.
His face turned scarlet and then purple as he loosened his grip on me. My feet touched the floor again and from somewhere at my left, Violet coughed.
Veins popped out of Mr. Mason’s face and neck as he tried to speak. He looked at me with bulging eyes, straining to talk. I had no interest in what he had to say. I didn’t even feel as bad as I thought I would. He had brought this on himself. Mr. Mason was the very reason the curse hadn’t been called off. Creatures had died because of him and he was only going to make things worse than they already were.
He dropped to the floor, flopping like a fish out of water as he convulsed. He reached for one of my legs, but I hopped back. Mr. Mason writhed for another minute. It was strange to see such a huge powerful creature be taken down by little me. I wished I could have made it faster and less painful, but I didn’t know how to. Finally, he stopped moving. His wings flapped one last time and then dropped to the ground like a wet blanket.
It was only then that I noticed Cadence and Wes standing at one end of the hallway. They had probably seen the whole thing. What was I going to say to them? I had just killed their leader. Their father-figure. Were they going to kill me now?
“I—I,” I started to explain, but I couldn’t find the right words, probably because there weren’t any.
Wes crouched over Mr. Mason, lifting a limp arm to check his pulse. A slow smile spread across Wes’s face. I didn’t understand. Maybe he was in denial of what he had just seen.
“I’m so sorry, you guys. I had to. I didn’t have a choice.”
Cadence knelt beside Wes and Mr. Mason. “You did good. Everything went just according to plan, Dust.”
My eyes darted back and forth between her and Wes, waiting for her to explain, but neither of them spoke. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
Cadence cleared her throat and stood up. “We respected Mr. Mason. He did a lot for us. But let’s be real, you’re not the only one around here with a brain. He was going to get us all killed either by opening the sixth tunnel or with the Gemini Curse. He had to go, but of course the two of us couldn’t do it.”
My knees felt as if they were going to buckle beneath me. “Why not?” I demanded.
Wes shrugged. “Because of Hollis. I’m his best friend and Cadence lo—” Cadence elbowed him in the side. “Well, Cadence is very fond of him. Hollis would have never forgiven us. With you, he would have understood.”
They had used me to do their dirty work. I struggled to find the words, but I was speechless.
Cadence cocked her head to one side. “Oh, don’t look like that. Think about it. You were going to kill him anyway, weren’t you? It wasn’t like we put the thought in your head. When you brought it up, we were relieved that we wouldn’t have to do it ourselves. We certainly weren’t going to talk you out of it.”
Cadence was right. I would have killed Mr. Mason anyway, but I wasn’t about to admit that. One of my goals was to keep myself from being used as a tool and I had let it happen. I’d let them use me and I hadn’t seen it coming.
Wes grew serious. “Hollis will be back in a couple of hours. How are you gonna tell him?”
I shook my head, running my hand over the box. I’d done enough. The rest was their problem. “You tell him. Tell him it was all on me. I know that’s what you’re going to do anyway. But I can’t stay here. I have to get this offering to the Archs. This curse has to end today.”
A wave of adrenaline flowed through me. Fletcher was going to live. No one else had to die as a result of the curse. The sixth tunnel would remain sealed as it should. For once, everything was the way it was supposed to be. The feelings of conflict and confusion that had been ruling my life were gone.
After making sure Violet was okay, I took the box home and handed it to my father. He stared at it for a long time like he couldn’t believe I had actually done it. He looked me up and down. “Your bone?”
“It’s okay, Dad. We worked it out and I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
Dad stared at the box for a long time. “I can’t believe you did it.”
He was proud of me. I could tell. My cheeks warmed because it had been a long time since I’d felt that from either of my parents. I was even proud of myself. How many people could say they’d saved lives? There couldn’t be a better feeling.
Dad kissed me on my forehead. “I’ll get this to them. I promise.”
I believed him. I didn’t know whether it was in the Givers best interest or not to stop the curse, but I trusted my father. He wouldn’t take the sacrifice his daughters had worked so hard to get and not deliver.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Three weeks after I handed my father the offering, things were falling back into place. According to Imani, Fletcher had been getting better by the day. I refused to go anywhere near the Whitelock house, so I depended on her for daily updates. The day Fletcher finally returned to school, I was elated.
One day, in the middle of my American History test, my stomach rumbled. I got the uneasy feeling that I was about to vomit. I left my seat so fast that my chair fell back and clanged against the floor. Not worrying about getting my teacher’s permission or a hall pass, I raced toward the nearest restroom.
Inside, two girls stood in front of the sink perfecting their lip gloss. I didn’t have time to worry about them and what they would think about me throwing up. I locked myself in the nearest stall.
Bending over, I gagged and retched like I had never done in my life. A foul, brown liquid poured out of me. I heaved and shook as the mysterious fluid filled the toilet bowl to the top. I had never experienced anything like it, but once I was done, I felt relieved and twenty pounds lighter.
After spitting out all that was left over and flushing, I emerged from the stall. The two girls stood there, staring at me blankly. Now that I was getting a better look, I recognized Ava Parsley, a freshman and a friend of Paige who lived down the street from us.
She covered her nose with her hand. “Damn, Dust. Did you throw up a dead animal or something?”
“Yeah, I did.”
The girls exchanged puzzled looks and glared at me as if I were the most disgusting thing they had ever seen and I knew they would spread what had happened all over the school. I didn’t care because I understood. My body had just gotten rid of the last trace of Wendigo. I was finally free of one of my creatures.
That afternoon Fletcher and I went to our special spot, just the two of us. It had been a while since we’d gone to the park to sit on our bench next to the fountain that smelled like rotten eggs.
Fletcher tore open a package of Twinkies while I fished a small package from the front pocket of my backpack. I handed it over. “Here. This is for you.”
His eyes lit up as he took the package from me. It was wrapped in silver aluminum paper that we had left over from Christmas. I’d contemplated sticking a bow on top but decided against it.
Fletcher flipped the small package over and over in his hands. The sunlight bounced off it, almost blinding me. He looked like a little kid receiving a gift for the first time and something about that made me feel sad. “Open it,” I urged.
He carefully tore into the paper. Inside was a red and black bowtie made out of the same material I had used on one of my dresses. That way we could match. Figuring out the clasp had been a lot of work, but for Fletcher, the effort was worth it.
He quickly attached the bow tie to the collar of his shirt. He was wearing a sweatshirt so it looked ridiculous. But Fletcher looked ahead with the widest grin I had ever seen on his face. “Thanks, Arden. I’ve never had a bow tie before.”
I couldn’t help but blush at how proud he looked to wear my creation. I gave him a peck on the cheek because I couldn’t help it and he was so freaking adorable.
“Look,” Fletcher said, pointing down the sidewalk.
Imani strolled toward us, swinging a huge bag of gummy bears I was sure she
had just gotten from The Sweet Tooth, the candy shop a couple of blocks over.
She sat on the bench beside me, shoving me a little closer to Fletcher. I threw her a look and she winked at me. “Wow, Fletch. Spiffy bowtie.”
He nodded. “Isn’t it? Arden made it for me.”
Imani already knew that because I had shown it to her days before. She dangled her gummy bears in front of us. “Have some.”
I chose a yellow one and popped it into my mouth. It wasn’t my favorite thing to eat, but it was good. Sweet wasn’t so bad.
“My dad said that maybe by the summer they’ll stop locking me in at night,” I announced. I was glad that my friends knew exactly what I was talking about and that I didn’t have to explain any further. The weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders since I would no longer be a threat to my family.
“That’s great,” they said at the same time. I wasn’t hungry all the time anymore. I didn’t have any more of those weird urges or cravings for salt and meat. I knew my Wendigo was gone but I understood that my family needed a little more time to be sure.
“Anyway,” Imani said loudly. “When are you two crazy kids just going to hook up already?”
I slapped her knee. “Imani!”
Fletcher sat beside me fiddling with his tie, not bothered at all. “Hook up for what?” he asked.
Imani sighed. “I love you guys, but you have to be two of the most socially-awkward people I have ever met. I mean, hook up as in become boyfriend and girlfriend, Fletcher.”
“Oh,” was all he said, followed by, “I don’t know how Wiley would feel about that,” a moment later.
My chest hurt. I didn’t know how Wiley would feel about it, but I knew how I felt. Wiley was cute and funny and mysterious, but I didn’t love him. I loved Fletcher.
Imani hopped off the bench and stood in front of us. “Clearly, I’m going to have to get this ball rolling. I swear, you guys are ridiculous.” She took my left hand and Fletcher’s right one. “Fletcher Whitelock, do you want to go out with Arden or not? And by “go out,” I mean be her boyfriend, bae, hunny-bunny, whatever you want to call it.”
Dust and Roses: Book Two of the Dust Trilogy Page 19