“What just happened?” Matt asked, still cradling Debbie in his arms.
“It didn’t work. I have no idea why,” Jason replied.
“Seems like there’s nothing we can do to help her,” Dave said, brushing away the dust from his jacket. “All we can do is just wait.”
***
Dave showed Jason the way. Alexei felt feather-light in Jason’s hands. He brought the kid inside and along the corridors, then they entered a dark room. Dave switched on the light. He and a few men put a table in the middle of the room and covered it with a velvet cloth. Jason carefully laid Alexei’s body onto the table.
Dave and the men left the room without saying a word while Jason stayed. He couldn’t take his eyes off Alexei. Biting the inside of his cheek, he tried to rein in the bitterness that overwhelmed him, but that proved to be impossible.
“Sorry, kid. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. You weren’t supposed to die. It’s wrong. It’s just freaking wrong.”
He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Alexei in this room, all alone, in the dark, even though nothing could be done for the kid. After another ten minutes or so Jason forced himself to turn and leave the room, no matter how hard it was. He met Dave outside who offered to accompany him to the building where his friends were staying.
Jason thanked him and they parted. Violet waited for him at the entrance. They entered the apartment that they now shared with Matt and Violet and checked on Tyler and Debbie who were housed in the next room, laid carefully next to each other, looked after by Matt and one of Dave’s group, a girl in her early twenties named Tonia.
Neither Tyler nor Debbie had come round. Matt insisted that he stay and help Tonia tend to them both while Jason got some sleep. Jason was too tired to argue, exhausted after his futile attempt to save Debbie. Violet even had to support him by the arm to help him get to the bed. Alice also tried to help, and Jason was grateful to the little girl. Violet promised she’d take care of Alice and assured him that everything was going to be all right. Jason nodded then flopped onto the bed and closed his eyes, glad to plunge in darkness where he could forget about the guilt that throttled him. No, I won’t be able to forget it. Not even in a dream.
Violet talked quietly for a while, soothing him. He pretended to have fallen asleep, and soon Violet tiptoed out of the room, and he was left with his incoherent thoughts. Though he was tired, sleep didn’t come easily. He tossed and turned, haunted by the image of Alexei lying dead, but then darkness prevailed.
As his eyes fluttered open, he found himself standing in a forest. Heavy branches hung low over his head, letting only a little of the sunlight through. A bird chirped, hidden somewhere among the leaves.
He’d already been here. In his previous dream. In front of him there was that crack of light, like an invitation to go into the clearing, but that buzzing hadn’t let him in. And now it was gone.
You don’t have to go there, he thought. You know what you’ll find.
On the one hand he was terrified, but on the other hand the thought of finding Emily’s estate actually made him thrilled. He scrambled through the bushes that fringed the estate and entered the clearing. Nothing had changed here—the flowerbeds brimmed with color and life, the two trees with a hammock tied to them where he and Emily spent the moments of his life he cherished the most, and the estate, old and yet impressive.
The entrance door opened, and someone exited the house. By the dark brown hair, her clean, sleeveless shirt, and purposefully crumpled shorts, Jason knew it was Emily.
He came closer and found her wreathed in smiles as she knelt beside a tulip flowerbed and started tending to the crimson flowers. She was even dressed in the same way as the previous time. That way he loved her even more than the girl with supernatural abilities and ultrafast speed, clad in black leather clothes.
He paced across the clearing, taking cautious steps. He was scared she would disappear, and he’d never have a chance to glimpse her amber eyes or hear her voice again.
He stepped onto a short gravel way, the stones crackling underfoot, loud enough for Emily to hear him. She turned her head at the sound, then shook dirt off her fingers and smiled at him.
“Emily?” Jason asked.
“It took you a while to find me.”
“Have you been waiting for me?” Jason asked.
“Every single day. And you were trying to forget me, weren’t you? I know what I did was wrong, but…”
“No,” he interrupted her. “I was trying to understand why you didn’t tell me the truth, why you preferred to keep it a secret.”
Pink coloring her cheeks, Emily came over to him and flung her arms around his neck, laying her head on his chest. That special tenderness that had rippled through his limbs before enveloped his body.
“I’m sorry, Jason.”
Her embrace made him dizzy; he pulled her closer to him. I missed you so much.
“Will you now?” he said. “Will you tell me the truth?”
She looked in his eyes and shook her head. “I can’t. Not because I don’t want to. It’s just … we’re in your dream, so—”
So you’re not real. Just a figment of my imagination.
He let loose of her embrace, taking a step back, then another.
“I have to go,” he whispered, unwilling to live in a dream that would never come true.
“Don’t leave, Jason. Please.”
He stopped and turned around. “For once I’d love to meet the real Emily. I can’t go on lying to myself. I keep telling myself that you weren’t a traitor. But the more I repeat it in my head, the less it makes sense.” He shook his head. It hurt him to be so unceremonious, but he kept reminding himself that it was an illusion.
He turned away from her and set off at a brisk pace.
“To get past the defense you need to find the Ethan tree. You’ll see it in the Sight. You are not going to miss it.”
Jason turned to say that he wasn’t going to search for the estate, that he was tired of her riddles, but Emily was gone.
“Emily?” Jason croaked, panicked.
The scene had changed. The flowerbeds didn’t have any tulips in them. The two trees were withered, no hammock tied to them. The estate windows were broken or missing, the paint peeled off in places. Best dream gone.
Chapter 16
Jason snapped out of the dream, waking to near darkness. Faint bluish lights from outside gave away the outlines of the scanty furniture scattered in the room: an unfamiliar desk with cups and teaspoons and a book open somewhere in the middle.
He untangled himself from the blanket Violet had covered him with, scrambled to his feet—his body still aching after his failed attempt to help Debbie—and trudged to the next room.
As his eyes adjusted slowly to the dark, he noted to himself that the rooms didn’t have any doors; the bleak concrete walls had no wallpaper, just an occasional sofa and a desk with a small shelf above it.
It’s temporary shelter after all, not a penthouse, Jason mused.
He passed by a murky room where Violet was sleeping peacefully on a couch, little Alice cocooned in her embrace. Both of them looked like angels, a small smile playing across the girl’s face. I hope you two are seeing beautiful dreams. Without making a noise, he walked past and in through another doorway.
Candle stumps burned on bedside tables that stood next to two beds where Debbie and Tyler lay unconscious; their chests made slow rise-and-fall movements, but neither of them showed any signs of getting better.
With his head propped against the wall, Matt sat in a chair staring ahead of him without blinking. When he heard Jason, he raised his bloodshot eyes.
“You awake? Where’s Tonia?” Jason asked in a quiet voice, as if afraid to bother his two unconscious friends.
“She was tired, so I told her to go get some sleep. She’s a great help.” Matt gave Jason a smile, but it came forced.
Jason sat on a chair next to Matt.
“How
are you, man?” he asked.
Matt sighed, folding his arms on his chest. “I can’t believe it’s happening. I’m thinking about … what if they never come round?”
“No.” Jason shook his head. “They’re strong. They’ll do their best to stay alive.”
“No one can help them. Even you. They’re on their own.”
Matt went on to tell Jason about all that had happened in Piccadilly Circus, how he’d seen Pariah attack Tyler and Debbie and how Debbie dropped to the ground.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about what happened, and it seems too weird, the way you got lost in the tunnel, and then the Darksighted attack followed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think it was a coincidence. Someone wanted to get you as far away from the rest of us as possible.” Matt sighed again. “To tell you the truth, at first I thought it was Tyler.”
“Why?”
“He acted strangely when you didn’t show up. He was nervous. Nothing like him. But then you should’ve seen him and Pariah fighting. I thought they’d kill each other. And if it wasn’t for Tyler, Debbie would be dead now.”
“Are you sure then that there’s even a traitor?”
Matt pressed his lips together, then said, “Yes. I thought it was Alexei, but I was wrong again.”
Jason stared at Debbie, unable to tear his eyes away from her placid face, her pale skin.
“We don’t know anything about Violet,” Matt said after a while. “She just appeared out of nowhere and—”
“I believe her, Matt,” Jason retorted. “It can’t be her. She was the one who told you and Debbie not to go, remember?”
Matt cupped his face with his hands. “She really freaked me out with that prophecy.”
Jason grimaced. Frankly, me too, but … “I have my reasons to believe her.”
Matt chuckled mirthlessly. “Well, you believed Emily before, and where did it get you?”
Someone cleared their throat. Jason turned to see Violet standing in the doorway, peeking into the room. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
“No, no, come on in,” Jason said.
Violet tiptoed into the room. “Alice’s still sleeping,” she whispered, pointing her index finger at the other room, “so I thought I’d check on you guys. How are they?”
“Not any better,” Matt replied.
Violet bit her lower lip, shaking her head.
Impatient, Matt went on, “Violet, do you mind if I ask you something? Back at Tyler’s estate you mentioned me, Debbie, and Tyler, what exactly did you see there?”
Violet paced across the room and sank down on a low stool standing between Tyler’s and Debbie’s beds. “You might regret it if I tell you.”
The more Jason watched Violet, the more of Emily he could see in her. The mysteriousness in everything she said. The way she looked at people and at him, as if she could read his mind.
“Is something bad going to happen to me?” Matt raised an eyebrow.
“Some things have happened. Lots of other things are going to happen. Some will hurt for a short time while others will keep torturing you.” Violet looked down. “But if Debbie comes round from her comatose state, she’s going to change. A lot.”
“You aren’t telling us everything,” Jason joined in, slightly annoyed.
“I saw Debbie in the dark, crying, and I felt an acute pain stabbing at her heart,” Violet said.
I feel this way every day, Jason thought sadly.
“Is it because of me and Tyler?” Matt pushed again.
“I’m not sure, but both of you were in the shade behind her.”
Matt lowered his gaze, pinching his eyes with the tips of his fingers.
“I better go take a look at Alice.” Violet got up from the stool and passed by Jason, then turned to him. “I found this next to where Debbie was lying. I think it belongs to her.”
She pulled something out of her pocket and laid it onto Jason’s outstretched palm: a golden necklace with a Believe pendant that he and Matt had given to Debbie as a gift. The chain was broken.
“Thank you, Violet. It is Debbie’s.”
Violet gave him a weak smile and left the room.
Chapter 17
After checking up on Debbie and Tyler, Jason decided to have a look around the City of Tranquility. It strongly reminded him of Manhattan, the buildings like gigantic fingers rising into the sky. When he and Alice first laid eyes upon it, it was a ghost city, dark and empty, but after the arrival of the Sighted Ones who brought hundreds of Londoners with them, the city seemed to be waking from slumber.
Jason meandered along the streets, still amazed by the fact that a whole city could be hidden underground and even more by the process of accommodation such a vast number of people. He found himself wondering if there were more places as grand as this one nearby.
To have a better perspective of what was going on around him, Jason entered the Sight. By the multitude of feeble lights concentrated in different parts of the city, he figured out the process of accommodating everyone hadn’t yet finished. He walked to the nearest building where two Sighted pulled the Threads and guided the citizens to their new temporary homes.
Watching them weaving beautiful silver Energy, Jason realized he had problems dealing with the fact that some of the Sighted didn’t just belong to either Light or Darkness, but at times could switch sides when they wished to. In what way are Sighted different from Unsighted then? Of course, they had great powers, but then some of them could change their own allegiance from Light to Darkness and back again, which made everything so much more complicated.
Reaching the end of the street, he asked one of the Sighted where he could find Dave. The man obviously knew who Jason was, a spark of recognition flashing in his eyes, as he pointed to an imposing skyscraper a few blocks away. “He’s over there.”
“Thanks,” Jason said and turned to go as the two Sighted got back to work.
Jason walked quickly, weaving his way through the endless throng of Unsighted, anxious to see Dave and ask him questions that kept nagging at his mind. It unnerved him a bit that everyone walked without saying a word, staring in front of them, without turning their heads.
As he reached the skyscraper the Sighted had shown him, he eyed a group of five—Dave in their midst—watching over the people filing past them and disappearing inside the buildings. The man turned around and smiled at him.
“I hope you got some rest,” he said.
“Thanks, I did.” Jason nodded.
“Ted, Scott, will you help me out here?” Dave asked the Sighted nearby. They nodded. “Okay. Let’s go to my office.” He raised his hand to invite Jason inside. “It’s a bit crowded in here tonight, but I think we’ll be able to talk without anyone interrupting us.”
They entered the building and walked up the stairs. The stairwell was filled with people, but they parted as Jason and Dave approached.
Reaching the third floor, they walked down the corridor and Dave opened a door for Jason. Unlike the building where he and his friends stayed, Jason found a nicely furnished apartment with freshly painted walls that boasted a few masterpieces of fine arts, bright lights installed into the walls, lush carpets and expensive mahogany furniture. The apartment starkly contrasted with everything Jason had seen in the city so far, and he wasn’t sure he approved of it. He took a seat in a leather armchair offered by the host.
“I can see that you have questions for me,” Dave said, “but before you ask any, I have a few of my own, if you don’t mind.”
Jason nodded. “Sure, go ahead.”
“I was very surprised to find you here yesterday. I’d thought there was no way into the city other than the one we used.” Dave reclined in his seat, studying Jason.
“Alice and I found a room. When we entered, its doors closed, and the room started taking Energy away from us. There were registers all over the walls, and if it weren’t for Alice, we’d probably be still stuck there. She h
ad a key with her that opened the drawer where the right register was.”
“The girl?” Dave’s tone gave away even more astonishment. “What did you find in that book?”
“Names. Lots of them. But the one that helped us get out was Aaron Sloane.”
Dave’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Why? Do you know him?”
“He is known as the founder of this room, but he is believed to have shut himself off from the world for a few years now.”
“Why?” Jason asked.
“The heretic’s probably tired of us all.”
“Heretic? What’s that?” Jason asked.
“I can see that you still don’t know many things about our world. A heretic is the most powerful among the Sighted. Aaron Sloane has the power of thousands of Sighted put together, but you’ll never find him if he doesn’t wish to be found. It’s up to him to decide when to show up and what to do. No one has heard from him lately.”
“Are there any other heretics out there?” he asked.
“Not that I know of,” Dave replied with a shade of sadness in his voice. “If there are, they keep their profiles low.
“To have a heretic on your side means winning the war we’re waging. It’ll be amazing news if we could find him.”
Both men fell silent.
“You know, Emily never liked us,” Dave said, smiling humorlessly. “She thought we were meek in our struggle against the Dark. She always wanted to avenge her parents and blamed us for not saving them in the first place.”
“Could you have saved them?”
Dave sighed. “Nicolas, Emily’s grandfather, was my greatest friend. And I loved Rebecca and Douglas like my own children. I’d have given my own life if I could to save them. I still can’t get used to the fact that they’re gone.”
Jason found himself sitting opposite a very sad man pining for his friends, the same way Jason pined over Emily. Though their talk brought up things Jason was willing to forget, he was glad they talked. A clearer picture of what was going on formed in his head, though it felt weird to find out new facts about Emily when she was away from him.
Path of the Heretic (The Beholder Book 2) Page 11