Path of the Heretic (The Beholder Book 2)

by Ivan Amberlake

Jason didn’t respond. Alexei’s words made him flinch. The estate, the hammock where he and Emily sat, the moment he’d seen her land in front of him after her fight against Pariah at Evelyn & Laurens, the memories flashed chaotically, stabbing at his heart.

  To Jason’s relief, as soon as the kitchen vanished, the Sight returned to him again. It annoyed him that the Sight kept failing him in New York. As he touched threads flowing around him, Energy rushed through his veins, passing its strength to Jason. He fingered the back of his skull where he’d hit his head, but there was nothing except a smidge of coagulated blood stuck to his hair.

  “Why didn’t they kill us?” Alexei asked.

  “Pariah, their leader, wants to kill me with his own hands,” Jason said. “Seems like he won’t let anyone else do it.”

  “Then why didn’t he come?”

  “Good question,” Jason said.

  Tyler moaned, shaking his head slightly. His aura flared with silver brightness.

  “You all right?” Jason asked him.

  Tyler nodded, setting his feet on the floor and removing his hands from around Jason’s and Alexei’s shoulders. He cupped his face, then swayed back a bit, and Jason caught him just in time. “Whoa, whoa.”

  “What was that?” Tyler muttered. “Like they switched me off and tossed me around like a toy.”

  It couldn’t be a coincidence that Tyler also had trouble entering the Sight, Jason noted to himself.

  “Now you know what it feels like,” he said, smiling. “Will you be able to walk?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Tyler occasionally used the wall for support, but Jason watched out for him. “Nice idea to hide in here. At least they won’t get us. Where’s Debbie?” Tyler stopped.

  “They must be somewhere here,” Jason said.

  “Damn it. You don’t know?” Tyler punched the wall lightly, then leaned his forehead against it and closed his eyes. “That’s exactly why I don’t like meeting a lot of Sighted in one day. Something’s supposed to go wrong. First, that girl, then you.”

  “I didn’t mean it to end like this,” Alexei said.

  “I know, I know,” Tyler said. “Let’s go and find them.” He nodded ahead of them.

  “Where are we going?” Alexei asked.

  “To Tyler’s estate,” Jason said.

  Jason and Alexei proceeded down a corridor, Tyler stumbling behind them. Even at a distance Jason could see there was something wrong about the arched doorway. The door was halfway open, stuck somewhere in the middle, and Jason remembered he’d sealed it the previous time.

  It was weird for Jason to return here, his memories still vivid after such a long time. A few minutes later they reached the door.

  Jason bent to step over the threshold, and spotted a familiar legend shining with gold.

  “Never re-enter me if your designs are ill. Never use the samples if you want them to serve you. If your thoughts are ill, they will destroy you,” Alexei read aloud. “Is it safe to enter this place?” He frowned, kneeling beside Jason and eyeing the inscription.

  Jason looked inside, far into the distance where two parallel rows of curving partitions stretched upwards and met high above. This place reminded him of a Catholic church, only now the archways were blackened as if after a fire, the odor of charred wood filling the air. Despite the destruction and the cobwebs growing here and there, it still impressed Jason, only now in an eerie way. Alexei covered his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his parka, his eyes watering. “It smells awful in here,” he said through the sleeve.

  “The last time I was here, I made sure the door was shut. I don’t know if it’s safe,” Jason said. “Watch out for those partitions. They can crumble any moment.”

  The three of them stepped inside, and the Energy seemed to respond to their appearance. Most of the loose threads merged and flowed towards Jason, coiling around and glowing with intense golden light.

  “I’ve never seen it behave like this,” Alexei said. “You make it move. You’re changing Energy. How are you doing this?”

  “I don’t know.” Jason turned to Tyler, but he didn’t say a word. “It sort of happens of its own accord.”

  Jason thought that this passage still missed the energy from the vials that had broken at his appearance, but he decided not to voice his opinion on why the threads grew fond of him all of a sudden. He passed the first pair of arches and looked left and right, noticing there was pitch blackness there, with a void that stretched into the distance.

  Alexei stepped close to the edge of the passage, too close to the dark.

  “Step back,” Tyler said.

  Alexei rolled his eyes. “Why?”

  “Tyler’s right,” Jason said in a stern way. “You’d better stay away from it. The darkness beyond may get hold of you. Don’t play with it.”

  “All right, all right.” Alexei held his hands up, taking a step back. “See?”

  As Jason walked farther inside, he exited the Sight, so as not to fall under the partitions’ influence. William McAlester’s words played back in his head. They were reflections of a person’s feelings: joy, surprise, fear, pain, sorrow, hatred. When he looked into a gap on the right, he could experience one of the positive feelings in its most intense, pure way. The left side reflected the fears and doubts he had within, whether explicit or implicit. Both were fraught with peril, so he had to be cautious not to fall under their influence.

  Jason snapped out of reverie as he heard faint voices in the distance.

  “It’s them!” Tyler said, a shade of a smile settling on his tired face.

  Jason took a deep breath, relieved to see his friends’ silhouettes far ahead. There were three of them there: Debbie, Matt, and the girl. The threads didn’t lie then.

  Though everyone was sore in their limbs, they picked up their pace, the distance between the two groups closed fast. Tyler folded Debbie into his embrace, Debbie hugging him so hard Tyler groaned and then chuckled. “You’re going to strangle me one of these days.”

  “No offense, guys, but seems like I’m unemployed now, and it’s all your fault.”

  Tyler lowered his gaze. Matt shifted uncomfortably, then asked, “What? What happened?”

  “We didn’t save the people. They got crushed by the walls,” Tyler said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Holy shit,” Matt hissed, turning around.

  “You know it’s not your fault,” Debbie said, stroking Tyler’s hand. “No one would have died if it wasn’t for the Dark Ones.”

  “Even so, it doesn’t make us feel any better,” Jason said.

  “We had no choice. It was supposed to happen this way,” Alexei said.

  Matt glowered at him. “Seems like you don’t care much about those people, do you?”

  “It’s not true,” Alexei retorted.

  “Chill out, Matt,” Jason said.

  Alexei looked away.

  “We’d better get going,” Tyler said. “This place isn’t safe.”

  In silence, everyone moved.

  “How did you get inside?” Jason asked.

  “Violet let us in,” Matt said, pointing at the young woman.

  “We waited for you in the kitchen,” Debbie said, “when Violet came round. She just walked to the center of the room and … vanished. We followed her and the kitchen was gone. I told Matt we had to wait for you, but he said he wanted to take a look around.”

  “As far as I know, Unsighted are not allowed to enter Fraud Images,” Alexei said, amused.

  Matt glared at him, then turned to the others. “Guys, I think I know why I don’t like this kid. He speaks English too well. And he’s from—”

  “Belarus,” Alexei finished.

  Matt raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes, that’s right. But I assure you, the ability to speak foreign languages is part of the superpowers package, so there’s nothing surprising about it.”

  Jason didn’t pay much attention to their squabble, looking around the place and taking in the aftermath of hi
s last visit here.

  “Does anyone have any idea what happened here?” Debbie asked.

  “It was probably me,” Jason said. “When you guys disappeared I decided to go back after you. If I knew that the vials would explode, I’d never have gone this way.”

  “It was probably because of the Energy that woke up in you,” Tyler said. “It was the first time you realized you had it, and there was so much of it that it clashed with the Energy of this passage.”

  “That sounds like it.” Jason pursed his lips.

  As they walked down the aisle, Jason realized the destruction was far more extensive than he’d expected. Some of the thick wooden bars hung precariously, threatening to fall any second. Everyone walked with their heads up, watching out for a possible collapse. Tyler had warned them not to talk, which at least shut Matt and Alexei up, though they kept glaring at each other.

  The exit door was jammed, and it took Jason and Tyler some effort to open it. Matt and Alexei helped them too. The door gave way, but got stuck midway so they had to scramble inside one by one to find themselves in a cool dark room with an endless number of shelves piled with boxes of different sizes. Some of them had seen better days, others were brand new. Most of them were covered with a blanket of thick dust. Jason remembered that one should never touch a box as each took a person to a particular destination.

  Tyler lit a lantern and walked ahead, explaining along the way that they should be careful while walking down the aisle. No touching, no pushing one another. One wrong move and each of them would end up in different parts of the world.

  “Jason, you’ll be the last to go,” Tyler instructed. “If anything happens, let me know.”

  Jason nodded, watching as one by one, Matt, Debbie, Alexei, and Violet dived into the row after Tyler, a few paces in between each other. When it was Violet’s turn she just stood there without moving. Jason came over to her and realized she was shaking, somewhat nervous, breathing deeply, her face pale in the retreating light of Tyler’s lantern. She kept massaging the back of her neck. It still amazed Jason that she had made it after what Bale had done to her.

  “Does it hurt?” he asked. Yeah, not the best conversation starter, he chided himself.

  “A little,” Violet said.

  “Don’t be scared,” he said. “Everything will be fine.”

  Violet looked at him, a weak smile twitching her lips. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or the light from Tyler’s lantern, but Jason could swear he could see a shade of Emily in that girl: the same eyes, the same disheveled hair, the same smile.

  “I hope it’s some kind of a bad dream,” she said.

  “Well, I’ve been hoping for the same thing for a few months already.”

  “Jason!” Tyler hollered in the distance.

  “I think we’d better be going,” Jason said. “Let me help you.”

  He took Violet by the hand and led her down the aisle. They veered past a few boxes that jutted out of the shelves, and soon reached the group huddled around Tyler. Raising the lantern above his head, Tyler pointed to a small box that was squeezed in between two hefty boxes with little chance to get to it.

  “Don’t touch the other boxes while you’re reaching for this one, all right?” Tyler instructed then went first, vanishing into thin air. The others followed. Whereas Matt was tall enough to reach for the necessary box without much effort, Alexei and Debbie had to stand on tiptoe and stretch their hands carefully not to touch the boxes in the way. Violet seemed more confident of herself when she reached for the box, brushed it and vanished.

  Jason blew out the lantern light and put it down, anxious about traveling to the place where he’d seen the world of Sighted for the first time.

  As soon as his fingers grazed the cardboard box, an unknown force yanked at Jason and pushed him upwards, dousing him in bright light. A few short moments later his feet touched varnished parquet floor of a stately, high-ceilinged chamber with enormous arched windows that invited lots of sunlight. Everyone was here, gawking at the beauty around them.

  All of a sudden a cell phone rang.

  “Mine.” Debbie felt her pockets and pulled out her cell, her eyebrows knotted.

  “We have connection here?” Matt scoffed.

  Debbie answered the phone. There was a pause as she listened to the speaker.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure if we can make it, but—”

  Another pause, the speaker’s voice rising. Debbie cringed, taking her cell phone away from her ear.

  “Okay, we’ll do as you say.” She hung up.

  Everyone waited for her to talk.

  “Evelyn just called,” Debbie said with a steady frown.

  Their boss rarely called them directly. “What did she want?” Jason asked.

  “I don’t get it,” she murmured. “She said we have to fly to London in a few hours. Something about another project.”

  Jason picked the sheet of paper Alexei had brought to him, and stared at it, then at Alexei.

  “I don’t like where this is going. I don’t like it at all,” he said.

  Chapter 7

  First thing Tyler did was show everyone around the house. Matt, Debbie, Alexei, and Violet paced through the cavernous halls, looking around. Jason walked a little behind, reliving the memories of his previous stay in this place. Back then everything seemed different. Not as impressive as this time. Jason had to admit he hadn’t paid much attention to anything around himself when Emily was nearby.

  He looked up at the high ceiling with numerous wooden beams running across. Nearly every room had a coat of arms with a lion and a unicorn. The parquet floor was immaculately clean, as if only just polished, shining in the light streaming through a row of arched windows. The rooms were filled with the smell of wood that made Jason a bit giddy as he inhaled it deeply. He came over to the window to take in the view of the vast plains and meadows surrounding the palace. The grass swayed in the wind, rippling with colors.

  Rugged and beautiful, he thought, admiring the scenery.

  Back then, Jason and Emily had visited only two rooms. It hurt Jason to walk through the rooms that reminded him of Emily, his attempts to forget her proven fruitless.

  “Jason, are you coming?” Debbie asked as everyone filed out of the room.

  “Yes, sure.” He nodded, picking up his pace.

  Along their way Tyler was telling them about the family that used to live there for a few generations.

  “It belonged to one of the wealthiest families in Scotland of that time. One year all members caught a disease that afterwards spread across the whole country and killed lots of folks out there. Some used to say it was this house where the plague had started.”

  “Was it true?” Debbie asked.

  “In a way, yes. It was one of the houses where the Darksighted planted a deadly thread. Ever since those times the house is believed to be cursed.

  “As years go by, people tell new stories about this place, even more ridiculous, but they have nothing to do with reality. I found it soon after I lost my memory. Thought it would be a nice place to stay for a few days. I loved it so much, being away from everyone, that I’ve returned here every year. And it’s great because you can have lots of guests here.” He smiled at Debbie who walked next to him.

  “But what about the curse?” Alexei asked. “Is it still here?”

  “I took care of it. Don’t worry. There’s no threat for anyone.”

  “It’s gorgeous,” Debbie mumbled, fascinated. “Why didn’t you show us this place before?”

  Jason realized Emily had probably forced them all—Debbie, Matt, and William—to fall asleep that day, while sending Tyler a thousand miles away, so that he wouldn’t prevent her from fulfilling her plans.

  “I’d have shown you around the last time, if it wasn’t for Emily,” Tyler confirmed his suspicions. “And after that there was always something in the way. But I promise we’ll spend more time here.”

  The next hall had massiv
e French doors leading onto a balcony. Debbie suggested they have dinner there, and no one objected. Jason and Matt brought a table onto a spacious balcony while Tyler told Matt and Alex where they could find a few rattan chairs. He then showed Debbie where the kitchen was. Violet stood watching the scenery when Jason joined her, a light breeze ruffling his hair and playing with Violet’s curls.

  “You know it’s a bit weird for me,” Jason said, “to get acquainted like this. Maybe we should start over?” He offered his hand to her. “I’m Jason Walker.”

  “Violet Jones.” She took his hand. “But you know that already. I can still feel the touch of your hand.”

  “I didn’t mean to pry into your thoughts.” Jason couldn’t understand why standing close to this stranger made him nervous. Her eyes glistened in the sun the same way Emily’s did. “I needed to check if you were alive.” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his trousers. “When Damien Bale broke your neck, I felt your pain.”

  Violet rubbed her neck with a frown. “I can barely remember it.” She brushed her hair back, and Jason could swear that was how Emily used to do.

  “I assure you, it wasn’t nice. You’re lucky to have survived it.”

  Debbie returned from the house, Tyler behind her, pulling a tray with a few dishes, a bottle of wine, and a stack of plates.

  “Let’s help them,” Violet said.

  Matt and Alexei came back, arguing about American and Russian cars. Matt’s face turned red when Alexei told him that the Russian UAZ would put any Jeep to shame.

  “Next time we’re in Russia I’ll prove it to you.” Alexei pointed his index at Matt.

  “Guys, dinner’s ready,” Debbie called.

  By the time everyone had been seated at the table, the skies turned a darker shade. Dusk slowly crept over the horizon, sprawling closer to the castle. The sun had not sunk yet, but a few stars blinked in the sky.

  They ate in silence at first, but then Matt said, “Here’s what I don’t get. Two strangers appear at McAlester’s today, then the Dark Ones follow, nearly razing McAlester’s to the ground. How did they know you’d be there?”

  “I have no idea,” Jason said. “Maybe the Legates followed us all that time?”