Damien coughed, propping himself up on one elbow. He found himself unable to get to his feet. Tyler’s Energy coiled around his wrists and legs, pinning him to the ground.
“Tyler, listen! You’re not like this. You’re not like them,” Damien pleaded.
Tyler moved closer and closer.
No, it wasn’t supposed to end this way. Not this stupid.
They both played a dangerous game, and that was where it got them. Tyler turned into a relentless monster, and Damien was its victim.
He yanked his hands, trying to break the chains holding him, but they wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t like him to give up so easily, but deep down inside, he realized he didn’t have chance against four Sighted.
What about Laura and Jess? His two angels. Damien never admitted it, but he knew they were dead. Ever since that night when their picture had covered with cold Energy. Though he kept denying the truth, he knew Pariah had disposed of them. Slaughtered his two angels.
Staring at Tyler, he wished he would meet them soon. His mission was done.
Tyler stood towering over him, his eyes black, relentless pits.
“Of all people, I’d never thought it would be you,” Damien said.
He took one last breath and waited as Tyler raised his foot and stomped on his neck, blackness welcoming Damien in its embrace.
Chapter 30
“Aaron Sloane?”
The blond-haired boy turned to Jason. “Are you looking for anyone else here?” He had large emerald green eyes that scintillated in the semi-dark of the library.
Jason stood still for a moment. “I need your help. A friend of mine is in danger. We have to help her.”
The boy narrowed his eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t help her. And you can’t help her, either. Violet Jones doesn’t have much chance to survive. Never had actually. She’s your protector, remember? She wasn’t supposed to live long. Besides, you can’t take anyone here.”
“But they’ll kill her!” Filled with inexplicable rage, Jason lunged towards him and grasped him by the collar of his shirt. The next moment the boy vanished and reappeared behind Jason.
Aaron Sloane’s green eyes were filled with amusement. “You think you can save everyone, but it’s not true. The Energy has its own will. She was supposed to die a few months back, and then—bam!—Emily finds me and asks if anything can be done to let her and two others live. You should thank Emily that Violet is still alive.”
“Let. Me. Out! Now!”
The heretic’s eyes turned even more emerald. “So you’ve made this long journey, lost so many friends—William, Alexei, Tyler. For what? Just to say you want to leave? To waste away the opportunity to find out the truth?”
“I can’t bring William and Alexei back to life, and you know it.” His temper was rising at the sight of the boy. “But I can save Violet and maybe Tyler.”
“If I let you out, there’ll be no turning back. You will never find me anymore, and you will never see Emily. I’m the only one who can help you find her, so it’s up to you to decide.”
There was no time to argue. “Damn it! Let’s get to the part where you tell me how to find Emily,” Jason snapped.
The heretic smiled. “Finally. The interesting part.” He turned around and walked down the aisle. “Follow me.”
Jason did. They walked in silence at first, wooden floorboards creaking under their weight.
The heretic brushed the spines of books with the tips of his fingers. “What do you think these are?”
Reluctantly, Jason gave the bookshelves a sideway glance. “Books,” he barked.
“You’re right … and wrong.” The heretic chuckled. “I think that’s one situation you can relate to.”
Jason let out a deep breath, doing his best to remain calm.
Aaron Sloane stopped, and Jason nearly bumped into him.
“I can see my outward appearance doesn’t appeal to you,” the boy said, facing Jason. Within a few seconds the boy’s shoulders broadened and he grew larger, small wrinkles appearing around his eyes as his features became more angular. This way he looked much more imposing. The only thing left from the boy was his eyes, the same iridescent emerald green.
“That’ll do, I suppose. Well, you were right. These are books,” the heretic said in a deeper voice, tilting his head to the bookshelves, “but if you take a closer look you’ll see that they’re something else.”
Jason peered at the row of books the heretic faced, one catching his instant attention. Emily Ethan was scribbled over its gray tattered spine. The book was rather thick compared to the ones nearby.
“It has all of Emily’s life, from birth till where she is now. I’ve never let anyone read it, although some were especially interested.”
“Who?”
“Some you know, other you don’t. Doesn’t matter. If you have enough guts, you’ll find her one day and she’ll tell you, so I’m not going to rush things.”
“So you’re not going to let me take a look at it?” Jason asked.
The heretic gave a wide smile. “Nope.”
“What am I doing wasting my time here and listening to your crap?”
“Before you say anything you’ll then regret, let me tell you that here are the books belonging to those still alive.” The heretic raised his hand to the shelf where he’d taken Emily’s book from. “Your book is here too. On the other side you can see books that belong to the ones who passed away.”
“So Emily’s still alive.” Jason heaved a sigh of relief.
“Yes, but she doesn’t have much time left. And here’s the catch. She didn’t want anyone to find her, that’s why she chose the most painful way of existence. She created her own reality. Anyone trying to force their way into her world will have to face the most devastating scenes. The path is paved with the greatest pain anyone has ever experienced. You’ll see things one can only imagine in the worst nightmare.”
“So far you’ve been describing my life,” Jason responded acerbically. “I just don’t understand why she would do that.”
“You know little about her life. A lot of things had happened before she met you, and some of them influenced her choice. That’s why she made me promise to create the Path of the Heretic.”
Jason knotted his brows. “A what?”
“Path of the Heretic. It’s a path you’ll have to take if you really want to find her and get her back.”
“I’ll do anything to get her back,” Jason said. “I’ll follow her anywhere.”
“Even though you don’t understand what you’re talking about.” For the first time Aaron Sloane’s smile faltered and his lips curved into a grim line. “I’m sure you won’t give up on her.
“There’s one more thing you should know. Your heart will have to stop before you can set off on this journey. And I’m not sure if you’ll be able to return. No one has ever done that before.”
Jason remembered the words the heretic told him a few minutes before. You’ve made this long journey. For what? Just to say you want to leave? To waste away the opportunity to find out the truth?
He was never as close to Emily in all these months.
“I’m ready to take this path.”
“I thought as much.” Aaron put Emily’s book back on the shelf where it belonged, among the living. “Before you try to save her you’ll have to go back to the estate. There are terrible things brewing, and I will have to rearrange quite a few of these books and put them on the opposite shelves. Now go. You don’t have much time.”
Jason broke into a run down the aisle when he suddenly ground to a halt and turned around. “Will we meet again?”
Before him stood the old man from the picture, old and smiling. The heretic shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll see. Meeting me is not really a good token, so I hope we won’t see each other often.”
Jason nodded. “Thanks,” he said then spun to run full pelt towards the exit. Towards the ‘terrible things’ as the heretic called them.
No, he was finally running towards Emily.
Chapter 31
Debbie’s eyes snapped open. The first thing she saw was an unfamiliar ceiling, cracked, nondescript. And somewhat weird. There was something different about the colors. They were too bright, despite the overall murk in the room. Even the cracks seemed perfect, as if they were supposed to be like this.
She inhaled the air and it seemed oddly sweet, a rich bouquet of flower scents swarming the air.
Her left hand was numb. She couldn’t move it, as if something held it in place. With a groan, she strained her neck to see what was wrong with her hand. Her vision dimmed, and the room spun.
Matt sat in an armchair beside her bed, dozing off with his head tilted to the left, his hand clutching hers in a vise grip. He had dark circles around his eyes and his face was covered with the stubble of several nights.
“Matt,” Debbie whispered. It felt as if she hadn’t used her voice for a while. She cleared her throat while trying to get a grip on the reality around her.
“Matthew Allen, wake up!” she said in a hoarse voice, tugging at his arm and finally getting him to stir.
He squeezed her hand so hard she nearly whimpered.
“You’re hurting me,” she breathed.
Matt’s eyes widened, then his fingers loosed hers and he touched them gently. Within seconds he seemed awake, although the circles gave away the signs of long hours without sleep.
“You’re awake.” He placed the other hand on hers.
She gave a weak smile, but then pain shot through her. She gritted her teeth, squeezing Matt’s hand so hard he started yelling. Then he started swearing and calling her names as the bones of his fingers snapped.
“Debbie, damn it, it hurts!”
She released him, but the pain inside her lingered, reluctant to let go.
What’s happening to me? She panicked.
Matt asked her something, but she couldn’t hear the words. Her vertebrae arched from the bolts of lightning lancing through her body and bile reached her throat. If the pain didn’t go, she’d be sick. Or dead.
She took hungry gulps of air but her lungs felt empty, her body starving of oxygen, never getting enough of it. Every cell of her body tingled. Her brain worked slowly through the throbbing pain in her temples.
Then something exploded inside her and spread like wildfire through her weak body. That was the moment when she saw fine silver lines floating in the air around her, appearing without anyone else’s influence. The strong silver light grew, filling the murky room, flooding the floor, the furniture, the ceiling. She closed her eyes, but the lines were still there, sprawling over everything in beautiful webs.
She was turning into a Sighted.
Chapter 32
When Jason returned to the hidden room, the first thing he spotted was blood. Lots of it, smeared along the floor, creating phantasmagorical images. Violet had obviously tried to grasp at something as they hauled her away. Her fingers left blood-red lines over the floorboards, and then the trail was gone.
“Sons of bitches,” Jason spat.
Lying next to his feet was the Ethans’ family picture. He snatched it and hastened out of the room, through Monsieur Bertrand’s office, then the hall. Violet’s trace was feeble, but still warm.
“Where did you take her?” Jason hated questions that he couldn’t get answers to.
He got out of the estate, sniffing at an unusual sickly sweet scent that hovered in the air. Something’s burning. Smoke seeped in through the entrance where the Ethan tree stood. He paced down the gravel path, the burning smell hitting his nostrils. Did they set it on fire?
He gulped a lungful of smoke then coughed. There was no other way back, so he lunged forward, holding his breath, right into the black smoke roiling upwards into the gray skies. The Ethan tree was there, engulfed in flames, being consumed by the ravenous tongues.
A huge bough fell at Jason’s feet, bursting with thousands of sparks. The forest was dry and the fire spread too quickly. Jason passed by the Ethan tree, and the entrance closed, leaving the Fraud Image behind.
Sirens wailed in the distance. He needed to get the hell out of there. No one could see him there. He had too many problems to deal with.
A rabbit scampered by, its eyes wide with fear. Jason wasn’t sure if the small creature was more scared of the fire or him. Not that he had lots of Energy left, but he couldn’t let the poor creature die. Without losing precious seconds Jason made it stop its frantic attempts to escape, then came over and scooped up the animal shivering in his hands.
The frightened animal calmed a bit, and with it calmed Jason. He clasped it to his chest, shielding it from the heat with his jacket and stumbled towards the flames, determined to find a way out.
His limbs felt cold and his head was spinning, but he pushed himself forward anyway. Each step took too much energy to make, the wound on his hand tingling so hard he didn’t know what to do to relieve the pain.
Jason took another step and tripped on a tree root, falling to his knees, still pressing the scared rabbit to himself. It thrashed in Jason’s arms, but he was set on helping it survive.
His eyelids drooped with heaviness, as the smoke clouded his thoughts.
No, not now.
Suddenly, the flames parted as a narrow path invited him out. Through a thick sheet of smoke he spotted a silhouette approaching from afar. It blurred as his eyes watered.
So many times before Tyler had come to his rescue, but the idea that it might be Tyler there in the distance made him cold.
The silhouette was getting close fast. Whoever it was, they were in a hurry.
Jason lay on the ground, raking with his fingers at the leaves littering the ground, trying to push himself up, but instead keeled over and fell.
With his eyes closed, he listened to the sounds around him. In the roar of the flames he discerned someone’s steps, feet rustling along the ground, then a hand—strong, reassuring—grabbing his hand.
Jason forced his eyes to open, but all he could see was a hooded face peering back at him. The man’s lips moved, but the voice came muffled as if Jason’s ears were plugged. Jason blinked a few times to fight the dizziness, but it lingered, making him feel vulnerable. The man applied a cloth to Jason’s mouth and nose, its coolness moistening Jason’s skin. He took a mouthful of air through the cloth, then pressed it with his hand.
The man locked hands with Jason and helped him get to his feet, scooping the rabbit from Jason’s hands and tucking it under his own coat.
Jason wrapped his hand around the man’s shoulder for support. Together they headed past the flames, along the path created by the guard. Jason swallowed hard, but his mouth was parched.
As they retreated a few dozen yards from the flames Jason felt a surge of Energy running through his veins.
“Feeling better?” the hooded man asked.
“Yeah,” Jason breathed. He recognized now his savior as one of the guards he’d met in the City of Tranquility. “Kyle, right?”
“Yes.” The guard smiled because Jason remembered him. “We have to go back to the city. The Dark Ones have gathered an army. There are about fifty or sixty of them there.”
Jason’s heart dropped. “How did you find me?”
Kyle smiled. “I’m quite good at tracking powerful Sighted. It wasn’t hard keeping an eye on you while also watching out for a possible attack by Pariah. I’m not a traitor, believe me.”
Jason believed Kyle. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem.” Kyle nodded. “As soon as I saw the Dark Ones coming, I rushed after you. Greg, my fellow guard, headed down to the City to warn Dave. I hope they’ll manage to withstand the pressure until our arrival, but we’d better hurry.”
“You’re right.”
Kyle put the rabbit that thrashed in his hands on the ground, and it scampered away, finding shelter in the underbrush.
He didn’t know if Dave and the other Lightsighted had much chance aga
inst the darkness that was about to descend upon the City. Emily was always skeptical about them. Probably not without reason. Even the previous time, when Jason confronted Pariah and his servants at Evelyn & Laurens, the Lightsighted preferred to steer clear of the battlefield.
Jason could feel the pressure building up inside. So many lives were at stake: hundreds of thousands of Londoners were there—trapped—oblivious of the coming fight, unaware that their existence might come to an end if the Lightsighted failed.
The Darksighted will crush them like bugs, and no one will be able to stop them. The thought made cold sweat break out on his forehead.
Trudging away from the burning forest, Jason promised himself he wouldn’t let that happen. He would face Pariah and do everything not to let the Dark Ones hurt the Londoners.
Chapter 33
Jason thought it’d be faster to travel the same way he did with Violet, but Kyle said it was too Energy-consuming. By the time they reached the underground, Jason would be exhausted and unable to keep up a proper fight against the Darksighted.
Panting, with thoughts tumbling in his head, Jason agreed to whatever Kyle had in mind. The guard suggested they travel by leaps.
“We think of some destination, around forty miles away,” Kyle said, “then focus and jump there. Are you all right?”
Jason jerked his chin upwards. “Err, yeah, sorry. What were you saying?”
“Ready?” Kyle asked.
“Yes, let’s go.”
Kyle ran first, and Jason followed suit. They swept past the trees, picking up their speed.
“We jump on the count of three,” Kyle shouted. “One, two, three!” Jason pushed himself up in the air, holding his breath, and the trees rushed by. The scenery blurred and the colors around them whirled. When his feet touched the ground, Jason exhaled. They found themselves in a different location. There was no forest nearby, but a cobbled street flanked with nondescript semi-terraced houses. Both kept running, and Jason did his best not to lag behind.
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