by Cora May
She finally figured out how to close her mouth, which was both sticky and dry at the same time now. She gritted her teeth for a second before one word escaped her throat.
“How?”
That was all she seemed to be able to say, but it was enough for Viktor.
“How do I know your secret?” he asked. Then he took a shaky breath, never once breaking eye contact with her. “Because it happens to me, too. And to Kameron. And to Jace. There was one more—Brendan—but he, uh, died. You seem to have taken his place in Nessi’s ranks. We’re not sure who else, but it seems like the people that she gives the most attention to seem to have the same secret. Or do you mean how does it happen? Because that, I’m not sure about. It should be impossible. A bunch of Jasper students cannot open a portal by themselves, so how are we given access to the Province?”
Addy hadn’t thought about that last part, if she was being honest with herself. It seemed these boys had put more thought into it than she had.
“Something is going on in this school,” he told her. “Something big. Something evil. Something we’re being forced to be a part of.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN: ADDELAI
I t had been hours now, spent on that tiny balcony with Viktor. Addy knew she had more important matters to figure out, but she didn’t find any of them to be terribly pressing in that moment. She only wanted to continue to talk to Viktor. It was nice to finally be relieved of the secret burden she had been bearing for far too long now. As it turned out, Viktor and the other boys had already put together a lot of theories, most of which didn’t make sense to Addy. Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to.
“Have you figured out the pattern?” he asked her.
“The pattern?”
“Yeah,” he continued. “Pattern of killings. It doesn’t happen every day, you know. At first, I thought it was random, but Kameron actually figured it out. It’s based on the lunar cycle—that’s probably because the portals are strongest at certain points in the lunar pull. See, here,” he said as he pulled out a sheet of paper from his backpack. It was a calendar, covered with markings that were in code, but Addy deciphered that code immediately.
“So there is going to be another killing tonight?” she asked him.
Viktor looked her in the eyes, his own eyes sad with resignation.
“Most likely,” he told her. “And worse than last night’s killings. You see, when the portal is at its strongest is when it’s easiest to send a bunch of unknowing students into it. It’s also got a sort of hypnotic pull, and that keeps us unknowing.”
“But it slipped last night,” Addy told him. “I saw what I was doing. There was a moment when I was able to talk to it—to her—to the Anam.”
“You spared her, then?” Viktor asked, hope filling his expression.
Addy’s bleak grimace wiped that hope right off of his face.
“I wanted to,” she told him as visions of Alice’s face flashed in her memory. “I tried to, honest, I did. But it was like… It was like my body wasn’t my own. I wasn’t the one in control. I was programmed like a robot, and all I could do was resist until my own strength outdid me.”
Viktor nodded.
“You weren’t in control,” he told her. “You were under the hypnosis of the moon, and tonight, it will be stronger. Tonight, more students will be pulled in, and more Anam will suffer.”
“How do we know what students get pulled into it?” she asked in a small voice.
“We can’t be sure, but…” he trailed off, looking down at his own wrist. “Who gave you the Jasper in your wrist?”
Addy didn’t even take the time to be surprised by the fact that he knew she had it.
“Nessi did,” she explained. “A long time ago, when I first came to the school. She was the one who did my testing, and she gave me the piece on the necklace and told me to keep this one as a spare in case I lost the necklace. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but I put it in my wrist because—well, because I don’t like to lose, and I thought… If it was meant to be a spare, what good does it do if I don’t keep it on me at all times?”
Viktor nodded and waved a hand at her justification.
“We all did it,” he told her. “You, me, Jace, and Kameron—we all put that spare piece in our wrists because we all have that competitiveness inside us. I think that’s what Nessi was counting on. She gives all the Jasper students the chance, or at least most of them. Not everyone takes it, but those who do end up under her control.”
“What?” Addy said. “How does that make any sense? She’s trying to stop this.”
“Or so she says,” he told her ominously. “Her actions don’t always match up with her words. Have you ever tried to remove the piece from your arm?”
Addy looked at him questioningly.
“No,” she said. “Have you?”
He raised his arm to her then and pushed back the sleeves of his hoodie. She gasped in horror.
Viktor’s beautiful tan skinned was marred. He had more than the slight, thin slice of a scar that she had—the original scar from the wound that swallowed up the Jasper stone. His entire forearm was slashed in various places, with angry pink scar tissue that varied in length and depth along his skin. Some of them made it obvious that he had used a blunt instrument and dug into his flesh as forcefully as he could. It looked like a horror scene, and she could only have imagined the bloody mess he had made.
“Why didn’t you look for a Healer?” she asked him. “Any student could have covered that right up for you.”
“Why didn’t you look for a Healer for your scar?” he asked. “Because it’s against the rules to have a piece of stone inside your bloodstream, and we have already run the risk of expulsion. When I tried to take it out, I could feel it digging itself further in, shrinking away from my knife, like it was alive.”
“All stones are alive,” she told him, reminiscing about the way she had felt. It was like the stones were separate beings that coexisted with those who were Blessed.
“Precisely,” he told her. “But these ones? I don’t think they’re working for us. I think they are the reason we are under Nessi’s control. They are what gives her power over us and how she sends us into the Province. And we never remember it because it’s not really us that’s doing any of this—it’s the stones.”
“So what are we supposed to do, then?” she asked him. “About tonight, I mean. If we’re supposed to kill again, how do we stop it?”
Viktor looked down into his lap.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we meet up the day of a killing. Those of us who do the killing, I mean. We try different things. You have to come with us this time.”
Addy hesitated, but ultimately nodded and gave way to his suggestion. She knew that agreeing to meet with the other Anam Hunters would mean she was part of whatever they were going to do. She would be dragged down with them. Her choices were slim, though—and maybe with more of a team, she would be able to put a stop to this.
She had to trust someone.
So she let Viktor take her back through the halls.
When they arrived at the boy’s floor, Viktor opened up the door of his dorm to her. She stopped short, seeing the room already full of a few strangers. He ushered her in. With her bottom lip tucked between her teeth, she entered.
Inside, there were five people total—seven now, including herself and Viktor. She recognized Kameron and Jace, but not the other three. There were two boys and a girl.
“You told her, then, I take it?” Kameron said, one eyebrow raised to the ceiling. “You stupid ass.”
“Blinded by her tits, probably,” one of the boys said, nudging Kameron and then fondling his own pecks for emphasis.
“You guys are pigs,” the girl said. Her voice was rough, but Addy could sense the softness underneath it. “It’s nice to finally have another girl in here. Besides, if she’s here, it’s because she’s one of us. Hello,” she said, turning to face the newcomers. “I
am Liz. And your name?”
“Addy,” she said instinctively, automatically, as her eyes drifted over the room. “Are you… Are you all…”
She desperately wanted the words to come out, but she couldn’t force them away from her throat. She couldn’t admit it out loud, she realized—not to a room full of strangers. She couldn’t ease her mind away from the possibility of it all being a trap—even after spending some time with Viktor at his most human state.
“Anam Hunters,” he finished for her. She whipped her head around to look at him. He smiled encouragingly. “Yes, each of us put the stone in our arms, and each of us began to notice things successively until we discovered what we were.”
“We are not Anam Hunters,” the second boy, sitting on the ground, said, eyeing his shoelaces as he spoke. “We have been brainwashed and hypnotized and used and abused. Our bodies? Yes, they are technically doing the killing. Yes, technically, they are doing the hunting as well. But we are, by no means, one of the dark humans of this world. We are simply victims of a bigger threat.”
Addy listened intently, wishing he would raise his face so she could look him in the eyes. But when he was done, he simply pushed his thick-rimmed glasses further up his long, slim nose, and continued to stare at his shoelaces. She waited for him to continue the conversation—everyone was waiting, all eyes on him—but he seemed to have said all he wanted to say, so Liz took the floor again.
“What Tomas says is true. Don’t ever refer to yourself as one, either—at least, not in your heart,” she said encouragingly. The roughness of her voice dissipated for a moment. “This is not your bidding, or your mind doing the work. It is the evil deed of someone else.”
“Are you all done gabbing like a bunch of girls?” Kameron said, annoyance fully coloring the tone of his voice as he interrupted Liz. Addy couldn’t hold back the eye roll that escaped her face. He seemed less tolerable now than he had on the balcony. She wished for the quiet, brooding boy back. “We have work to get done,” he reminded them.
“Here, sit down,” Viktor said, rushing over to his bed and throwing aside the messy stack of books and pillows that were taking up the entire bed space. He then quickly threw a plain blue comforter over the mess of sheets, attempting to make his bed appealing in any way. Addy grimaced.
“Wow,” the first boy—the vulgar one of the group, Addy assumed—said. “He’s even making his bed for her. That must be one great set of tits. Hey, why don’t you show us?”
“Ignore Chaz,” Viktor told her. “He’s an ass who was never taught manners. Probably on account of the fact that he has no parents.”
Addy grimaced again—pointing out someone’s orphaned state was not something to throw around so blatantly. It did work, though, in shutting up the boy—Chaz. Addy looked back at him. He didn’t seem hurt by the comment—more annoyed, really, as he glared at Viktor. She quickly crossed the room and sat on the bed Viktor had tidied up.
“Addy,” Jace said quietly, with one simple nod in the way of greeting.
“Jace,” she said back. “Nice to see you.”
“Have you heard from Brin yet?”
Addy could have choked on her tongue. For some reason, she hadn’t expected to be questioned about Brin’s disappearance in this room. She didn’t know what to say. ‘No, Jace, I haven’t heard from your girlfriend, but I have a feeling she’s faring quite well in Hell. I hear the weather is quite lovely.’ So she didn’t say anything at all, falling mute to his words.
“I didn’t think so,” he said, lowering his head. He didn’t seem too disappointed—as if he had gotten his hopes up beforehand—simply curious as to whether or not Addy had any information at all. He cared for her, she realized. Perhaps more than she did, though she loved the girl like a sister.
“I’m sorry,” she told him, reaching out to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
There was a moment of silence then, as if the group decided to let Jace have a breath to mourn for his girlfriend. Or, perhaps, no one knew what to say. Luckily, Kameron was blunt enough to get the ball rolling.
“Should we get started?” he asked. “Or do we want to wait until after we’ve all gone on another hunting trip?”
“So that means you’re accepting another girl?” Viktor said with a sarcastic scoff. He hadn’t sat down yet, hesitating by Addy’s side, carefully not touching her. Though it was clearly his bed, he seemed not to want to sit next to her. Addy almost rolled her eyes again. She was pretty sure they were all supposed to be past the cootie phase.
“No,” he said defiantly. Addy got the sense that she wasn’t going to get along with Kameron. She had only seen him a few times before, but she hadn’t realized he was this disagreeable. “It just means I have no choice, do I? You brought her here, she knows everything now, what else is there for me to say?”
“Great,” Addy said, interrupting whatever Liz was about to say. “Then let’s get this show on the road, please? I was promised answers about what to do. I’d like to put a stop to this as much as you.”
Liz looked approvingly at her. She evidently didn’t mind being interrupted, as long as it was by another girl. She seemed to like the idea of having another strong female presence.
“So, anyway,” she continued. “Viktor told me that you guys try different things. What is that supposed to mean? How do you try things when none of us are conscious during the process?”
“First of all,” Kameron said with an exaggerated sigh. “We’re not unconscious.”
Luckily for Addy, Jace interrupted her in that moment.
“We’re not entirely unconscious—at least not all of us—because we’re aware,” he told her. “Being aware helps us enter the world through our eyes. Not every bit of our brain, obviously, is under our control. Otherwise, we would have stopped this already. But since we are aware, we’re able to try different things to stop ourselves.”
“We’ve tried drugs,” Liz said. “Not like cocaine or something like that. Nothing heavy. Just a sedative, just to try and put us back to sleep, so our bodies aren’t capable of moving at all, whether we have control or not. That didn’t work—I think, really, it just gave them more control over our bodies. We tried Adderall, too—and as much caffeine as we could pack ourselves with. We thought, if we didn’t fall asleep, maybe we won’t be able to get through the portal at all, and when we went through the portal still, we thought it might at least keep us conscious enough that we can fight it. Instead, we…” She took a slow, controlled breath, and Addy got the sense that she was remembering something. The room grew still and quiet, everyone waiting on her to finish what she started. She exhaled. Slowly. Like she was hoping someone would finish for her. When no one did, she looked Addy straight in the eye. “We were forced to watch ourselves murder the Anam in gruesome detail, wide awake and hyper-aware.”
“It wasn’t our best idea,” Chaz said somberly, which seemed uncharacteristic of him.
The quiet boy shuddered where he sat.
“We tried breaking our weapons,” Viktor continued for Liz, who was now looking sadly at her shadow on the ground. “Sabotaging ourselves, you know, so that we showed up with a blunt knife and couldn’t do much. But man, we always came back with a perfectly new weapon every time. Still not sure how that one happens.”
“We’re running out of ideas,” Chaz said. “There are fewer and fewer things that show any promise of working at all, since we can’t even poison ourselves. The only sure thing we can come up with is killing ourselves. Or cutting off our own hands.”
The quiet boy squirmed at the last part.
“You said you guys were able to see the portal, right?” Addy asked them, carefully taking in every word they had said. “You stayed awake to keep yourselves from going through it, but you went through it anyway. So you saw it, right?”
“Yes,” Liz said, almost like she was in a dream. “It was a big, blue, glowing circle. It looked electric, but like a soft electricity that just… invited you in. You want
ed to be a part of that warm, fuzzy shock, even though it looked threatening at the same time. And once you stepped inside, it changed. It was like a purple tunnel, equally as soft. There was so much pastel in that portal, really. Oh, and so much warmth. It wasn’t too hot, like people have said is true of the Realm of the Dark, it was a rather pleasant warmth that lasted even when we landed. We were all wired, sure, but even that warmth just kind of made us feel welcome and at peace enough that—well, I won’t speak for everyone—but that I could have fallen asleep despite the caffeine that was in my body.”
“Why?” Viktor said. “What are you thinking?”
“Well,” Addy said thoughtfully, “I’m not completely sure, to be honest, but… Attacking ourselves isn’t working, right? It seems like as long as we have a functioning body, we will relinquish control of it. I can’t help but wonder if death would really solve it at all, or would our bodies be raised like zombies? Even if we cut our hands off, maybe we would suddenly know how to use our feet.”
Again, Addy watched as the quiet one squirmed.
“This hypnotic effect we all fall under,” she continued, “doesn’t seem to understand our own bodies’ limits. How many of you have ever stabbed someone before, much less an Anam? You all felt the same resistance that I did. It was powerful. They are not weak creatures, and yet, we were able to do it and come away unscathed from it.”
“So sabotaging ourselves isn’t going to do anything at all,” Jace said flatly.
“That’s what I believe, yes.”
“So you’re thinking to attack the portal? How?”
“Has anyone seen it more than once?” she asked. “Can anyone say for certain that it appears in the same place every time? Do we all go through the same portal, or does one open up for each of us individually?”
“The Jasper field,” Viktor said quietly.
It was loud enough for Addy to hear, though, and she understood very well why he had been so quiet about it. He had stepped through a different type of portal that was opened in the Jasper field, hadn’t he? Thus begged the question, are they truly being opened by the same person?
