“Sooner or later it’ll happen.” Dave sucked in a short breath, stroking his wound softly. “We’re going to face the Dark Ones when they come,” Dave locked his fingers, “and we’re going to fight till the end. If you think you may find a way that’ll help us defeat them, then go. We’ll take care of Matthew, Deborah, and Alice, of course.”
Even wounded and vulnerable, the man exuded so much confidence Jason didn’t doubt for one second he would keep his word.
“There’s someone who may help us. As soon as I find him, we’ll be back,” Jason said.
Dave said he’d tell a few guards to stay at Piccadilly Circus and inform Jason when he and Violet returned.
“What about the Londoners?” Jason wondered. “Isn’t anyone going to get suspicious that the whole city is gone?”
“We’re working really hard on that,” Dave said. “It’s taking more time than I expected. We need to copy and place a few thousand auras instead of the real people. The Lightsighted have never done anything like that before, but we’ll do our best.”
“Maybe I should stay and help?” Jason asked.
“No, no, it’s all right. In a few days the auras will be placed where they belong.”
“If we don’t make it back here in time, is there anywhere where you can hide from the Darksighted?”
“There are five stairwells in the city buildings that lead lower underground to five huge bunkers. When the Darksighted come, we can take the Unsighted there for some time. Even so, I’m hoping you’ll be back by the time the Dark Ones get here. We need you, Jason. There’s little chance we’ll be able to put up a decent fight for long if Pariah summons more Darksighted, and the rumors are he will in the near future.”
Wishing Dave a speedy recovery, Jason and Violet left and headed immediately for the platforms. As they were carried upwards, Jason caught one last glimpse of the city’s skyscrapers rising tall and proud, twinkling with the auras of the Sighted and Unsighted inside.
When Jason and Violet reached the surface they were surprised to find Piccadilly Circus brimming with life. People scampered to and fro, taking no notice of them emerging through the hatch. Tourists were taking pictures of the statue of Eros that looked intact, as if there’d been no damage done to it.
Some people laughed, others looked sleepy and sullen—just an ordinary crowd that didn’t cause suspicion. One even bumped Jason and then apologized matter-of-factly.
Jason spotted one of the Sighted nearby who nodded at him, and Jason nodded back.
“Where to?” Violet asked, tucking her hands in the pockets of her jeans.
“A small estate in the suburbs of Paris,” he said.
“Oh, I didn’t know you’re such a romantic,” she said with a smile.
“Yes, I am,” Jason played along. “Now give me your hand.”
Violet raised an eyebrow, a soft blush coloring her cheeks, but she didn’t argue. Taking hold of her fragile hand, Jason realized how protective he’d become of this girl.
“Close your eyes,” he muttered.
“Are you kidding me?” She giggled this time, and a few passersby sent amused glances their way.
“Don’t be afraid. Or maybe you don’t trust me?”
Violet’s pulse throbbed faster against Jason’s fingers as she complied with his request.
He pulled her into an embrace, as if about to dance, and then looked around. The people—the hollow shells—started moving faster around them. The buses accelerated their movement, whooshing by, coming and going.
Time and space were the two kinds of fabric that Jason could manipulate, and did so with eagerness. Staying rooted to a spot, he watched the world around them picking up its pace. Suddenly, it was them racing past the houses, monuments that soon gave way to fields and meadows. All Jason had to do was control the two dimensions with his mind, not letting them crash into something on their way.
“You may sneak a peek now,” he said softly.
Violet did then gasped, wide-eyed, in fascination at the changing scenery.
“Wow! That’s amazing!” she shouted above the roaring wind.
Jason snapped his head up to look to the overcast skies that turned featureless blue. The city was well beyond; they stood in the middle of the road, tall beech and oak trees edging the road on both sides, birds chirping merry songs. Violet took short, quick breaths, clinging to Jason for support.
Jason looked left and right, trying to remember where to go from there.
“What are you looking for?” Violet asked.
“There has to be a way in. Last time we turned and drove to the estate along a narrow road.”
Violet stepped to one side and peered at the thick branches. Jason decided to go the opposite direction and do the same. He entered the Sight for a few moments, but it showed no sign of Sighted Energy anywhere.
“It’s hidden somewhere,” he told Violet, “but I hope we’ll be able to find it.”
You could only enter if you knew where the Entrance was, and only if you were allowed to be here. That’s what Emily said.
“Jason! Come here!” Violet’s called, waving frantically at him. She tugged at a low-hanging branch and there indeed was a dirt road sprinkled with dried leaves.
“That’s the one!” Jason exclaimed, suddenly excited. “Well done, Violet!”
The path was shaded by heavy boughs that made them duck or push some branches to let themselves through. Since the last time he’d been here, the forest seemed to have grown old and wild. A thick bed of fallen leaves covered the ground, and they had to look down not to lose their way.
Jason told Violet about the tree where the entrance was, and they moved into the depths of the forest. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Violet said, “You promised you’d tell me about your parents and why you don’t talk to them anymore.” She plucked a blade of glass and twisted it between her fingers.
“No, I didn’t.” Jason shook his head with a weak smile.
“Oh, come on. Matt told me you didn’t like talking about them. Why? Do they live in New York?”
“No, they moved to Seattle after my father and I had a fight.”
Violet looked at him expectantly. Jason shrugged his shoulders.
“Dad wanted me to do something I loathed for a living.”
“It’s the same with me.” Violet nodded vigorously. “My mom always wanted to learn to play the violin, but she’s tone-deaf, so I had to attend a music school for three years.”
“Are you good at it?”
Violet grimaced. “Worst violinist ever. Thank God Mom gave up on the idea.”
“Well, my father wanted me to follow his footsteps and become a lawyer just like him, and I said no.”
“You’d make a great lawyer.”
“That’s exactly what he said to me. Over and over. Then I left home. We haven’t spoken for a few years now. I call Mom to check on her, but we don’t talk much anymore.”
Violet stroked his shoulder softly. “You need to call him and talk. I’m sure he’s as upset about it as you are.”
“It doesn’t look like it, but maybe you’re right. It’s been a while since we talked,” he said.
As they were walking deeper and deeper, the forest grew still, not a branch swaying, as if the trees listened to their conversation, towering around Jason and Violet like ancient warriors. Though Jason knew they were alone, he glanced back from time to time to make sure no one watched them.
They trudged through the underbrush, the road twisting left and right. Gnarled tree roots protruded from the ground, and Violet tripped once.
“I think it’ll be best if we hold hands,” Jason offered.
“If I didn’t know otherwise, I’d think you were hitting on me, Jason.” She smiled at him.
“So what if I am?” he asked, surprised at himself.
Violet blushed another time, but he pretended not to notice and only smiled back. Her next sentence caught him off guard though. “Tell me about Emily.”
“I don’t think there’s much to tell. I still don’t know if I ever knew what she was really like.”
“Sorry I brought it up.”
“Don’t be.”
“Do you think she’s alive?” she asked.
Jason brushed through the withered leaves with his feet. “I really hope so, but she’s gone and no one can find her.”
“Even you?”
Jason shrugged. “She left some clues, but they don’t make much sense yet. For now all I need to do is follow them. You’ve found me. And then I found Alice. And this picture pinned to the tree. I don’t know where it leads.”
Jason told Violet about what Emily had done, and about their final fight at Evelyn & Laurens.
“Maybe she’s not a traitor after all,” Violet said. “Perhaps there are reasons why she acted that way.”
As they walked a bit further, Jason realized it was getting darker.
“Don’t you think it’s too quiet?” Violet asked, her brows knotted in concern.
“Look, the road ends here.” He brushed the leaves with his foot, but there was nothing there. “We must be close, but I’m not sure where to go from here.”
Somewhere in the distance a stick snapped. Violet’s and Jason’s eyes locked for a moment. Jason focused on the Energy around them and sensed darkness coming their way.
“They’re here. Four of them,” he said.
Everything happened so unexpectedly he only had time to shield Violet with his body. Clutching at her hand, he looked into the distance, waiting for them to appear. And there they were, ripping whatever Light threads existed around the place, sewing evil and getting threateningly close.
Chapter 26
Dawn settled slowly over the forest. The trees grew so close to each other that their branches intertwined, fighting their way to the sun. Nothing around stirred; an occasional mouse would scamper by, sniffing the air then scurrying to its burrow to get out of a nocturnal predator’s reach. Crickets would stop chirping, to let the silence reign supreme.
In the overall quietness thin wisps of smoke crawled over the ground, snaking past the trees as if driven by the wind, except there wasn’t any, not even a breeze. At one point one of the thin wisps of smoke stopped and spiraled upwards. The others followed suit, and then they turned into ghost-like silhouettes whose shapes formed and soon became flesh. Pariah was the first, flanked by Catherine, Tyler, and Sean Cryer. Pariah’s eyes glinted in the semi-dark, burning with red that made Catherine uneasy.
She was even more scared of the two massive silver shining trails zigzagging among the trees. She raised her arm to shield her eyes from the burning brightness that without a doubt belonged to the Lightsighted. Surprisingly, it didn’t seem to affect Pariah the way it affected her and the other two. Tyler even took a few steps away, clearly uncomfortable with the silvery Energy.
“One of them is Walker, right?” Catherine asked, squinting against the light. “How did you know he’d be here?”
Both Tyler and Sean screwed up their eyes, then turned their heads.
“It doesn’t matter,” Pariah said. “We have to get to them before it’s too late.” He stroked gently one of the two trails that weaved their way through the forest, and it hissed venomously, which seemed to amuse Pariah even more as he smiled. “Let’s go.”
The shining made Catherine’s skin crawl. She couldn’t understand how Pariah was able to stay in such close proximity to the Lightsighted Energy. Her temples throbbed as they got deeper into the forest.
Dead leaves rustled beneath their feet. Somewhere in the distance, the way they headed, Catherine could discern a similar rustling sound. Jason Walker and Violet Jones. Her heart beat faster with each step she took.
“Keep a low profile,” Pariah ordered, his aura losing its intensity. He hid behind the nearest tree and pointed his index finger at the trees nearby—a sign for them to do the same.
It always amazed Catherine how easily Pariah was able to control his power, how easily he could keep his anger at bay. With Walker being so close, she wanted to shoot towards him and rip his limbs and head off, shred his existence in both physical and spiritual ways. If Pariah felt the same way, he was really good at hiding it. She did her best not to let the crimson sprouts of her aura reach where the voices came from.
“Don’t you think it’s too quiet in here?” the girl’s voice was carried through the silence. She was concerned.
“Look, the road ends here. We must be close, but I’m not sure where to go from here.”
Walker. Damn it, I hate him so much! Catherine seethed.
Pariah touched her and his voice poured into her mind. On the count of three. One, two, …
Catherine made a step forward, and her foot fell on a stick. It crunched before she yanked her foot back, grimacing, but it was too late.
The two figures in the distance stopped, brought to alert by the subtle sound. Pariah, Tyler Woods, and Sean Cryer lunged forward, three shadows craving destruction and chaos, and though she knew they’d get to Walker first, she followed suit. The next instant she changed her mind and shot to the right. Relieved to be a bit farther away from the two trails, Catherine sped up, braked midair, then tugged at the Energy threads around her and they carried her forward.
Her lips twisted into a wicked grin as she approached Jason and Violet, glad to find them facing the other way. So her gaffe proved to be a blessing in disguise. Walker was trying to slow down Pariah’s and the others’ approach while being unaware of her.
Focused on the two pillars burning bright, Catherine shot her fist at Jason’s head. Her hand trembled when her crimson Energy burst out of it, and sudden pain seared her palm, slithering down her arm and shooting through her body. The impact was so severe she didn’t realize that the world around her dimmed as she collapsed onto the ground, her fall hardly broken by the bed of withered leaves.
Clutching at the remnants of her consciousness, she realized that darkness would consume her. Before it took her to oblivion, she gave a faint smile of delight. There was no more silver shining. Jason Walker was gone.
***
Violet. The name stuck in Jason’s thoughts.
He squeezed her hand in a vise-like fist, and shot sideways, pulling the girl after him. The darkness constricted his throat, his eyes itching as he gagged. Where they’d stood a few moments before, an explosion erupted, so powerful it threw both of them off their feet and they plowed into the forest floor.
Jason’s wound flared again, but he was more concerned about Violet’s safety, not his own. She keeled over, eating earth, rolling along the ground, leaves and dirt stuck in her hair.
Jason braced himself for another attack, but the brightness died down and the auras vanished. He lay stupefied, his hand stretched towards the place Pariah and his coterie was supposed to be coming from. For some reason, they weren’t there anymore.
“What the—” Violet spat a few times, “—hell was that?”
“You all right?” he asked.
“I guess.”
“They wanted to attack us from both sides at once.”
“Where are they now?”
“I’m more interested in where we are now. I think it’s a Fraud Image, but I haven’t created it.” Jason looked to Violet who shook her head.
“Nor have I. I have no idea how to do that.”
“Someone created it for us then,” Jason said.
His cell beeped in his jeans pocket. A message. It seemed surprising his cell worked in a Fraud Energy Image. He remembered it was dead in the underground, but it suddenly sprang to life. He pulled it out of his jeans pocket.
No caller ID. No number. Just a message.
you don’t have much time the image won’t last long i pinned smth to the nearest tree the entrance is in between d & l
db
ps pariah gets his power out of the vial
Jason’s head rushed. db.
“It seems there’s someone eager to help us,
and it was they who got us in here.”
“It’s a good thing, right?” Violet asked, her eyes filled with concern.
“I’m not sure.”
“What was in that message?” Violet persisted.
Jason gave her his cell phone, and Violet scanned it with a deep frown.
“Who’s db?” she asked.
Jason shrugged.
“And what’s d & l?”
“Darkness and Light. Long story. It’ll be better if I show you.”
To his dismay, Jason realized he was unable to enter the Sight. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. Violet looked at him expectantly, biting her lip nervously. Jason didn’t want to keep her guessing. “I can’t see our Energy here. It’s as if the Sight has been switched off.”
It reminded him strongly of De-Energization: The inability to enter the Sight he had experienced in the Evelyn & Laurens office once. How long it was going to last he had no idea, but his vulnerability and lack of control were driving him insane.
Violet’s head drooped, and she cupped her face with her palms. Overwhelmed with sympathy, Jason came over to her and hugged her gently, picking a few dried leaves out of her hair. “Even if we’re stuck here, it doesn’t mean there’s no way out. Whatever happens, I won’t let anyone hurt you. We just have to wait until this place lets us go.”
Violet responded to his embrace by wrapping her arms around him. “And what if it doesn’t let us anywhere?”
Jason looked down to her, smiling. “I didn’t know you’d give up so easily.”
“I’m sorry.” She raised her eyes at him. “I didn’t mean to be such a baby, but I’m scared.”
Jason chuckled. “It’s okay. We’ll make it out of here.” He stroked her soft hair as Violet rested her head on his chest.
“Now we’d better try and find the entrance,” Jason said after a while. He came over to the nearest beech tree and caressed its smooth bark. “It must be somewhere close,” he said, his fingers grazing the small wrinkles, trying to unravel their mystery.
Path of the Heretic (The Beholder Book 2) Page 15