I was surprised to be alive, and with every breath, I wondered if it would be my last. I forced myself to look at my body. My shadowy limbs weren’t even shadows anymore. They were completely transparent—like a ghost’s. I wasn’t sure how Avery was carrying me, but I could tell it was a struggle for him. Then I noticed his arms. They were faded. He’d started fading again. That was the only reason he was able to hold on to me now. Faded limbs could hold onto faded limbs, just like when we’d held hands earlier before he returned to the portal to our world and bought more time.
Tears dripped down his cheeks. They had to be falling on me, but I couldn’t feel them at all. “Ella, stay with me! I’m taking you back home right now. Just hold on!”
Hold on? I wanted to more than anything, but I felt myself slipping away. How did I hold on when I had nothing to hold on with? My will to live wasn’t enough. The more I thought about never seeing my parents or Avery again, never going to my prom or graduating high school, the more helpless I felt. All the things I expected to do, like any other normal teenage girl, were mocking me. Flaunting themselves and showing me what I’d never have.
I squeezed my eyes shut, refusing to see those images anymore. I couldn’t hold onto something I’d never had. I forced myself to think about growing up in Independence. Riding my bike through town. Going to the street fairs. Watching the fireworks on the Fourth of July. The common thread in all my memories was Avery. He was always with me—like he was with me now. I looked at his face and saw the fear in his eyes. I remembered how I’d felt when I found out he was missing. I was so screwed up I’d followed a shadow to another world. If I died in his arms, it would be ten times worse for Avery. I couldn’t put him through that kind of pain. Knowing him, he’d let himself fade with me instead of returning to our world.
Yet I couldn’t stop myself from dying, could I? If that was what was even happening to me. I wasn’t sure if I was really dying or just disappearing into nothingness. Was there a difference? Either way, I wouldn’t be alive. I wouldn’t see Avery anymore. The only part of this that didn’t totally suck was that fading didn’t hurt, but the pain of never seeing Avery’s face again was too much. That pain burned in my chest, making it hard to breathe.
Avery stopped, and I heard Bobson mumble something in another language. I could barely hear the familiar popping of the portal opening up. Avery didn’t stick around for any good-byes. He jumped through the portal, and I was surrounded by the darkness of the tunnel with the endless rows of doors.
Bobson jumped down beside us. “You can slow down now. She won’t continue to fade.”
But Avery didn’t slow down. He wasn’t willing to take Bobson’s word for it now that my life was on the line.
“Avery!” Bobson yelled.
Avery jumped. He tried to hug me to his chest, but I wasn’t whole again yet, and I wobbled in his arms.
“The tunnel is in your world,” Bobson said. “It doesn’t heal as quickly as your own house would because it’s connected to Stellaris, but it’s still effective. You know that.”
Bobson was right about the tunnel healing me. I already felt a little stronger. Hell, the fact that I felt anything was a major improvement.
“How long will it take for her to be normal again?” Avery asked.
“Not too long at all, but I’m guessing it will seem a lot longer to both of you.”
Avery stared at me for several minutes, and if I had any doubt about what he felt for me before, it was washed away by the look in his eyes. “Her face is still—”
“I know,” Bobson said. “Give her some time. She’ll be herself again soon.”
My throat tingled, and I figured it could only mean one thing. My voice was back. “Put me down, Ave.” I sounded a little like a frog. “I can stand on my own now.”
His eyes widened. “Are you sure? You’re—”
I shot him a look that even the blotchiness of my face couldn’t cover up. He knew I hated to be babied. He nodded and gently lowered my legs, which were mostly back to normal. But he kept one arm around my waist, making sure I could balance.
“Your legs were the last to fade, so they’re the first to return,” Bobson said. “The rest of you shouldn’t take too much longer.” He took a pen out of his pocket and handed it to me. My fingers were just barely able to grip it. Bobson nodded. “See, you’re getting better every second.”
I stared at the pen, taking in how wonderful it felt in my hand. Then I saw the teeth marks and remembered it had been in Bobson’s mouth. “Ugh! You really need to stop chewing on pens.” I tried to find a spot to hold that wasn’t chewed.
Bobson laughed. “What did I tell you? Back to her old self again.”
Avery smiled, but he still looked worried. He wouldn’t relax until we walked through the door to my room and said good-bye to Stellaris for good.
“Wait a second.” I looked at Bobson. “If I’m healing so quickly, then why didn’t that poor almost-faded boy heal in here? I was freaking out trying to find his door.”
Bobson raised a shoulder. “The kid was just too freaked out to realize he was getting better, and I guess his panic made you panic.”
He was lucky I wasn’t a hundred percent yet. “I really don’t like you. You know that, right?”
Bobson cleared his throat and fidgeted a little like he was really uncomfortable. “Well, um, you should head through your door, and—” He stopped and looked back and forth between Avery and me. Somehow he looked older. I knew he was going to miss having Avery around to help him just like I knew he was happy to see me go. “I’m glad you both made it through this okay.” Before Avery or I could respond, he climbed through the portal.
I rolled my eyes. “How difficult do you think it was for him to say that?”
“At least he said it,” Avery said in his typical see-the-good-in-everyone way.
“The guy still bugs me.” Yet, I couldn’t help wondering if maybe I didn’t have Bobson completely figured out. I could’ve been wrong about him in some ways, though I hoped I’d never find out. I met Avery’s eyes and shrugged. “But I guess he isn’t all bad.”
Avery smiled, proud of me for being able to see another side of Bobson. I couldn’t help thinking about the way Hercules brought out the good in Melanie and made her act more like the person she should be. Avery did the same for me—even when I didn’t want him to.
As if on cue, Melanie lowered herself through the portal. Did she somehow know I was thinking about her and getting creeped out that we had anything in common?
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I figured you and your parents would be back at the castle by now enjoying a twelve course meal fit for gods.”
She smirked. “You’ve challenged me since the moment we met.”
Had she come to get in one last round with me?
Her expression softened. “Thank you.”
I thought maybe my ears were still faded because no way did I hear her correctly. “Excuse me, but what did you say?”
“You were the only one who wasn’t afraid to call me out when I did something wrong. I’m a god, or at least I will be one soon. It’s time I start acting like it.”
“For once, I actually agree with you.” I couldn’t help wondering what her parents had said to her after Avery and I took off. They weren’t exactly happy with the choices Melanie had made. Hopefully they’d knocked some sense into her.
She looked at her feet, avoiding my eyes. “I can’t fix the mistakes I’ve made, but I plan to make up for them.”
She’d made a lot of mistakes, but I knew she was talking about the boys who’d lost their mortal lives and would remain in the sky forever—imprisoned like the other constellations.
“Take care of them. Make their lives the best they can be under the circumstance. You owe them that much.” I couldn’t help adding that last part. I had a lot of growing up to do too, but it was going to take time.
Melanie nodded. “Once I’ve mastered my ability to rem
ove the constellations from the sky, I intend to allow the boys to spend days on Stellaris and nights in the heavens. You know, try to mimic the way they would’ve lived in your world.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her how different it would still be. At least she was trying. “Thank you. I just wish I knew what to tell their parents. Or what to tell my own parents.”
Melanie bit her lower lip, making her look nervous and almost human. “It’s awful for me to ask for anything more from you, but if you would keep Stellaris a secret, I would be eternally grateful.”
Keep Stellaris a secret? Like anyone would believe me if I told them a shadowy figure lured me up a shadowy staircase on my bedroom wall and into a strange world where the constellations were trying to take over. It sounded insane. I’d lived through it, and I still had trouble believing it. My parents and the police would have me committed.
The police! That was it. I smiled at Melanie. “Your secret is safe. But tell Bobson he might not want to step foot in my world again.”
“Why?” Melanie wrinkled her forehead.
“Because I plan to tell the real authorities that Officer Bobson”—I paused to make air quotes—“was really some creep who was impersonating a cop to cover up the kidnappings he and his buddies committed.”
Avery smirked, obviously satisfied with the story I planned to tell. It surprised me a little because I thought he liked Bobson. But then again, at least it was a believable story to tell the police.
I stepped closer to Melanie. “That means if you ever find Stellaris in desperate need of an army again, recruit your own kind. Because if you step even one toe in my world, I’ll tell everyone the truth about who you are and what you’ve done.”
Melanie swallowed so hard I could hear it. Game. Set. Match. Ella Andrews.
“Fair enough,” Melanie said without a fight. She stepped back toward the portal. “I’ll tell my parents that we should close the portal. I doubt they’ll have any objections.”
“Good.”
“Good-bye, Avery. Good-bye, Ella.” She locked eyes with me for a second before reaching her hand up for whoever was waiting to help her back to Stellaris.
I watched her disappear and listened for the pop of the portal closing behind her. “It’s over.” I relaxed my shoulders for the first time in days. “We can finally go back to normal and put all this behind us.”
Avery put his hands on my shoulders, which were visible again, and he turned me around to face him. “All of it?” He lowered his eyes. “I mean, does that include us?”
I leaned forward on my tippy toes and gently kissed his lips. “This feels normal to me,” I said with a smile.
He grinned and laced his fingers through mine. “Let’s go home.”
I squeezed his hand and led him to the door that opened into my room. I took the back off the pen and dripped ink on the door. It shimmered and showed my room neater than it had ever looked. Mom must have cleaned it like crazy, just praying I’d come home. Daylight streamed through my open window. Mom and Dad were probably still at work, which meant I had a little time to figure out how I was going to tell them my story. My based-on-a-truth-but-mostly-a-lie story.
I took a deep breath. The next few days were going to be filled with endless interrogations from my parents, the police, and the media. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face all that. I was still exhausted from everything I’d been through.
I wanted to forget Stellaris and Melanie and Bobson—and of course the rogue constellations—as quickly as possible, like they’d all been part of a really vivid nightmare. But I couldn’t. I’d never forget what happened to those boys. I wouldn’t allow myself to. Every time I looked up at the night sky, I’d see them shining down on me as faint groups of stars. Maybe I’d never see their faces again, but I’d see the imprint they left, even on my world. They didn’t deserve what they’d gotten in the end, and I’d always feel partly to blame. I wondered how their constellations would look lit up by the Fourth of July fireworks.
“I’ll be right there with you,” Avery said, reading my mind. His hand cupped my cheek, and he pressed a soft, lingering kiss to my lips. As eager as I was to get back home, I didn’t want the kiss to end, but I knew there would be plenty more in our future.
I squeezed his hand and stepped into my room, ready to face my world and tell the story of the creepy fake cop who kidnapped those kids.
About the Author
Kelly Hashway fully admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but that didn’t stop her from jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet one Halloween. Maybe it was growing up reading R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books that instilled a love of all things scary and a desire to live in a world filled with supernatural creatures, but she spends her days writing speculative fiction for children and adults. Kelly’s also a sucker for first love, which is why she writes romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.
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Art of Deception
JT Camp
Note from the Author
Dear Reader,
Thank you for picking up a copy of Art of Deception. This is the first part of a three-part series. Art of War and Art of Redemption are up next for Fallon, Warren, Abraham and Grainger!
As always, we love hearing from you. If you would like to email us, please do @ [email protected] or you can visit our site at: http://authorjtcamp.blogspot.com and we are also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorjtcamp
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Thank you for supporting us!
JT Camp
Art of Deception
A Hallowridge Story
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Fú zé, or Fallon, as she’d like to be called, and her brother Ji, have come to Hallowridge after the death of their parents.
Dealing with their death hasn’t been easy for her, and trouble has quickly become her middle name. The enforcers have had enough of Fallon’s brazen cries for help and are giving her one chance to mend her reckless ways or else she’ll be forced to leave Hallowridge forever.
Grainger Wilcox, vampire and member of the Arrowfire Team along with Warren Maddox and Abraham van Helsing, aren’t looking for a new partner. However, when a group of rogue paranormal pops up on the black market selling potions, blood and “medicinal supplements” aka shifter parts, to humans, they agree to infiltrate group with Fallon, a disrespectful tiger-shifter.
However, Grainger has other plans. Ones that will put everyone in danger.
1
“Calli,” Fú Zé “Fallon” Wu whispered into the darkness, trying to locate her best friend Calliope Cockcraft. She giggled every time she said her best friend’s last name. Cockcraft. What an odd last name. Of course, it suited her friend, who happened to be a witch and who was also very unconventional. It’s why they got along so well. “Where are you?”
“Right here,” Calli murmured behind her. “It worked!” Pride filled her friend’s voice as she crouched beside her.
“What worked?”
“My spell. All shifters have uncanny senses. The mere fact I snuck up on you and got within inches of you without you knowing, is incredible. Score one for the witches.” She held her fist out for a knuckle bump as excitement glittered in her gaze.
Fallon rolled her eyes, ignoring her friend’s comment about being a shifter, and gave her a lackluster bump of the fist.
“Stop rolling your e
yes at me.”
“Whatever.” Fallon gave a playful shove in her friend’s general direction and heard the oomph of Calli hitting the ground. A grinned tugged at her lips. “Guess the spell doesn’t work as well as you thought.”
“Lucky shot is all.”
In the six months since she arrived at Hallowridge, the girl beside her had become a best friend, confident, a co-conspirator, and now Fallon was about to make her a criminal.
Yeah, Calli was freaking awesome like that.
“Can you please not do any more spells,” Fallon requested. The uneasy snap of power surrounding Calli made her tiger nervous and put her on edge.
Although Calli had been born a witch, she was still coming into her powers. More often than naught, her friend’s spells tended to cause mass chaos—something they didn’t need tonight.
“But I have the perfect incantation to warn us when the Five-O approach.” Pride filled her voice.
“The Five-O?”
Calli sighed loudly, giving away their position, and raising Fallon’s hackles. “The police, Fallon.”
“I know what it means. I’ve just never heard anyone refer to them as the Five-O. I think you watch way too much TV.”
“I totally wouldn’t mind if they should show up, if they looked like Alex O’Loughlin. He’s hot.”
“You know he’s old.”
“He’s not old. He’s mature, and he’s hot,” Calli proclaimed.
“Well, don’t get your hopes up. From what I’ve seen of the Five-O around here, none of them are hot. Now can we focus on the task at hand?”
“You’re no fun,” Calli pouted.
Fallon reached out, placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder, and gave her another shove. Calli giggled.
Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances Page 60