Crossing Nexis

by Barbara Hartzler

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “It’s the officer’s lounge.” Shanda barely glanced up from her laptop, fingers flying over the keyboard. “Remember when I said I was spying on Nexis? This is where all the action is.”

  I lowered my voice. “So he knows you’ve been spying on him?”

  “Since day one, but only because I’ve been spying on them, too.” He pointed to the other side of the room, with an antique leather sofa. “Look familiar?”

  “Stop trying to distract me.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

  The corners of his mouth curled as he pulled out two flashlights. “I’m taking you somewhere secret, someplace only meant for true Nexis members.”

  “Are you sure about this? Won’t you get in major trouble?” I couldn’t tear my eyes off his face.

  Shanda cleared her throat and glanced up from her laptop. “He better be sure, because I just hacked your way in and fed the security cameras a ten-minute loop. It’s now or never.”

  Will’s irises darkened as a shadow passed by his head, only to be choked out by a thousand diamond-white twinkles. A war waged somewhere deep inside this guy. I hoped to God the angels would win.

  “I don’t want to keep secrets from you anymore.” He froze, jaw twitching as his eyes darted to Shanda then landed on me. “I want you to know that I’m on your side. Not Nexis’ or anybody else’s. I’d choose you over this stupid society in a heartbeat, if you’ll just give me half the chance.”

  I swallowed back the lump of fear bubbling up my throat. “Okay, Stanton, now’s your chance to prove it.”

  “You sure you’re ready for this?” The moon caught the gold flecks in his gray eyes, telling another story behind his words.

  A parade of goosebumps stampeded up my arms. “Yes. I think I’m finally ready.”

  “You won’t regret it, I promise.” Those platinum eyes flashed at me.

  With a gentle tug, he led me to the far corner of the room and tapped out a Morse-like code on a series of square stones. A familiar clanging of metal gears ticked behind the wall, until a panel shifted back and a dark doorway loomed before us.

  Uncanny. Just like the Guardian’s secret passage I found last year. Without the Morse code.

  “What is this, another hidden room?” I toed one boot through the crack, craning my neck through the dark opening.

  “It’s more than that. It’s the secret Nexis chamber. You ready for our little adventure?” Flicking on the flashlight, he edged in front of me.

  Tingles wracked my shoulders, and I tightened my leather jacket around me. Somewhere in the abyss, I glimpsed a tiny ray of light. White, yet glinting with color in every shade. The angel all-clear? After one final gulp, I nodded.

  “I got your back, Lucy,” Shanda called from somewhere behind me.

  That was all the encouragement he needed. Flipping a switch, he ushered me into the spiraling stone corridor, now lit with electric worklamps.

  “Do you come down here often?” I bit my lip, wondering what sort of horrors lay ahead of me. Luckily, the door behind us remained open. A small comfort.

  “Not really, maybe a few times a year.” He shook his head as he led the way down the rocky steps. “Students aren’t allowed down here unless it’s for something important like an induction or a grand council meeting. Sometimes you can get special permission for research purposes.”

  “Research? So you have a library down here?” I sniffed the musty air that smelled more like dank limestone than old books.

  “Of course,” Will scoffed, pausing to turn around a look at me. “Nexis dates back tens of thousands of years. We’re just not arrogant enough to hide it in plain sight like the Guardians.”

  “I never thought about it like that.” I traced my fingers along the dusty block-stone wall.

  The Guardians weren’t as noble and infallible as I’d always thought. After all, they’d thrown me to the wolves. Colleen, too, for that matter. Did that make Nexis more noble than I assumed? The mere idea made me shiver, and I raced to catch up to Will.

  Then I stumbled, scraping my hand on the stone wall. But the rock beneath my fingertips was etched with something.

  “Hey, look what I found.” Shining my flashlight on the wall, I rubbed away layers of dust and grime. “What’s this?”

  He stood one step below me, making our faces almost even. “Just some old pictographs to remind us of our history. Carved by the early settlers who established this Nexis sect.”

  I gasped, unable to believe the scene before me. Carved into the stone was a depiction of what looked like the Salem witch trials. A girl, her hands and long skirts tied to a post, engulfed in flames. A look of pure horror on her face.

  When I blinked, I was back there with her. Flames licking at her feet. A tortured look on her face. A crowd of angry onlookers, standing there. Doing nothing.

  In an instant I stepped back into reality, landing in Will’s arms.

  “It’s just like the—” I clamped my lips together. Too late.

  “Just like what, Lucy?” He spun me around to face him.

  I glanced away.

  “The Guardians found something like this too, didn’t they?” He tilted my chin up, staring into my eyes. “I wish you would just trust me.”

  My insides caught fire, as if I could bust open with a million fireflies any minute.

  “Lucy,” he whispered in the silent cavern. “I trust you, even though I know what the Guardians asked you to do.”

  “What? How do you know?” I squeaked out, but something inside me melted at his tone. And at that look in his eyes.

  “Because they ask everyone to spy on us. I figure they picked me because I’m the president.” He gulped, Adam’s apple bobbing as his eyes roamed my face. “And it’s completely obvious how I feel about you.”

  “Trust isn’t easy for me anymore.” I ran my hand along his smooth cheek with the barest hint of stubble. “But the truth is, I want to trust you.”

  “I know.” He nuzzled into my hand. “That’s why you’re here, following me on this crazy whim. Right?”

  “Right.” I took his hand and let him lead me deeper and deeper down the stone stairs.

  We reached a landing with an arched entryway and a weathered door. He pulled out an ancient skeleton key not unlike the one Harlixton gave me many moons ago. The door opened in a series of creaks and groans. He nudged me into another dark cavern and led me into the center of the room.

  I stood next to a shadowy statue of what used to be a fountain.

  “Wait right there, and close your eyes.” He scurried off into the black recesses.

  “All right.” I stared at the stone carving in the center of the dry fountain. A perfectly chiseled man lip-locked in an embrace with a Grecian woman in a long, flowing toga. Except the man had wings jutting half-furled from his back. An angel.

  Was this how the Nephilim were made? I shuddered at the thought, shutting my eyes tight as the hint of a breeze wafted in.

  Something clicked, echoing in the dark cavern. The darkness behind my eyelids lightened a few shades. Footsteps. Then Will stood beside me again. Holding my hand.

  “Ready for your surprise? Open your eyes.”

  Slowly I lifted my lids. An eerie, yet beautiful sight greeted me.

  “Wow. There are no words.” I stood in the middle of a stone courtyard, under a domed ceiling twenty feet above. Gothic archways with lichen-covered pillars flanked the room on all sides. Old-fashioned gas lights, now electrified, illuminated the walls beside each pillar. One story above the archways stood a terrace overlooking the strange subterranean courtyard.

  “So this is the chamber.” I scanned the walls for any hint of a hidden doorway. Could the Guardians ever find this from their secret passage?

  “Welcome to Nexis headquarters. Right now you’re standing in the Nexis Chamber, where the induction ceremonies are conducted. Through that doorway is the Hall of Semigods, the meeting place for all Nexis Grand Councils. T
hat passage leads to the library, the one behind you to the training rooms. The one on the left is the Repository.”

  “Sounds ominous. What’s in the Repository?” I asked.

  “It’s the reason I brought you here, actually.” He turned toward the dark opening. With his hand on the small of my back, he led me into a dimly lit room with eight-foot-tall bookcases.

  “What is all of this?”

  When he flicked on the light, they weren’t bookcases after all. Eight-foot tall towering file cabinets surrounded us, their labels yellowed with age.

  “Just records, mainly. Ancestral lineages, recruitment files, meeting summaries. That sort of thing.” He pulled out a chair in front of a splintering old table and motioned for me to sit down.

  Will sat on my right, jiggling his leg and refusing to look at me. “I brought you down here to prove to you that I’m not afraid of them any more.”

  “What do you mean?” I angled my chair toward him.

  Scraping his chair back, he shot up and strode to a file tower, yanking on the drawer so hard it almost toppled over. He pulled out two green file folders and plopped them down in front of me.

  “Do you remember the first time we met?” Perching on the edge of the chair, he took my hands in his, staring down at them.

  “Of course.” A smile tugged my lips upward. “You handed me some ridiculous Nexis flyer and expected me to swoon over you.”

  “I don’t know about the swooning part.” His mouth curved. “But the reason I invited you to that meeting was because my parents made me.”

  I sucked in a breath, afraid to breathe until he finished his confession.

  “You were my Nexis-mandated mission. To get close to you. To win you over, by whatever means necessary.” His shoulders slumped as he finally glanced up at me. “I’m ashamed to admit that I took the mission. Sometimes I don’t even blame you for preferring Bryan at first.”

  I gasped, a sound the reverberated in the cavernous space.

  “Here.” He thrust the file forward. “It’s all right here, in the Grand Council minutes.”

  “I, I don’t know what to say.” I reached for the file, tore it open, and scanned the pages until I spotted my name. It gave a full account of exactly what he had just admitted, as decreed by the Nexis Grand Council. My hand flew to my mouth.

  “You didn’t …” I whispered.

  “I did. Just because my parents’ asked. But that’s no excuse for even attempting to manipulate you.” A sadness washed over his face, and he hung his head. “The fact that you were James’ sister only made it worse. We were friends, and I knew what’d happened to him. After that first meeting you came to last year, I knew I couldn’t let anything like that happen to you. So I marched into the Nexis Grand Council. Told them I wouldn’t do it. Told them you deserved to make up your own mind.”

  “You did? Prove it.” Sitting back, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared him down. Waiting for him to make the next move.

  “I thought you’d say that.” He reached for the other file and flipped to the back. “Here it is, August 31st.”

  “But that was the beginning of the school year.” I bit my lip, reading the file. Afraid to look up at him.

  I blinked and rubbed my eyes, but the words on the page didn’t change. He was telling the truth. The file said he’d resigned from the mission the night after he’d shown me the pictures of James in the observatory tower. Then he’d been given some kind of demerit for failing a mission.

  The world tilted on its axis as the entire semester last year played through my mind. I let the file fall to the table. Will wasn’t the leper I thought he was. All these months he’d had feelings for me, ever since he’d actually met me in person. And I’d treated him like the plague.

  “I’ve been right here ever since you waltzed into that campus orientation fair back in August.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Just waiting for you to want me, too.”

  That was it. He’d just named that feeling swirling around in the pit of my stomach.

  I wanted him.

  I’d wanted him back in August, but Bryan and the Guardians had scared me away. For once, maybe it was time for me to get something I wanted, even if everyone else thought it was wrong. It felt right to me.

  When I finally worked up enough courage to glance up, my heart stuttered. He stared at me with a look I’d never seen before. And I knew exactly what he wanted, too.

  Edging closer, his face millimeters from mine, he paused there. Waiting for me to show him how I felt.

  If I kissed him he would see the truth, just like Bryan had. What would he do, once he knew I was the Seer—that my gifts were already working, ready to use? Only one way to find out.

  Closing the gap, I pressed my lips into his. A muffled gasp gurgled at the back of his throat, like he wasn’t expecting my surge of boldness. Or maybe it was the visions he had to be seeing by now. But he didn’t pull away. Instead he wrapped one arm around my waist, pulling me in closer. The other hand wove its way into my hair, tangling between the strands.

  My toes curled. Man, this boy knew how to kiss.

  Slowly, something emerged in the darkness.

  A vision of the two of us, flying with my angel. Soaring above the earth. Riding a giant eagle of light. Into the stars, the globe a glittering blue dot below us.

  The image faded, replaced by a new scene.

  The two of us, standing side-by-side. In a world of clouds and light. A golden lampstand and two olive trees before us. Strange words boomed from the light, like claps of thunder in a foreign language. As if a different angel spoke to us. Or maybe the Creator himself.

  I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. How could this be happening? Were there two Seers?

  “I knew it,” he whispered against my mouth. “I knew you were the Seer.”

  Questions tumbled out of my mouth, even as I tried to catch my breath. “So you have visions, too? What does this mean? You’re not another Seer, are you?”

  “No. The truth is, I don’t have visions. Not like you do. They’re dreams, actually.” His face lit up, cheeks dimpling as he cupped my face in his hands. “What did you see, my little Seer?”

  “Us riding on my angel’s back, flying around the world. Above it, too.” I was alight and alive with energy, ready to reach out and kiss him again.

  “You saw that? How embarrassing.” He gnawed on his thumbnail, cheeks suddenly a pink hue I’d never seen before. “I’ve had that dream ever since I first saw you three years ago.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot I met you at James’ graduation,” I whispered, the memory flooding back in a flash.

  “I always thought it was the weirdest dream, until you kissed me. And I saw some of your visions.” He ran a hand through his sandy hair. “I get it now. I know what they’re trying to tell you. Like it’s my job to translate them. Make sense of what you see.”

  “So you’re the Interpreter?” I twisted my lips at him, trying the name on for size.

  “How’d you know without me telling you?” His eyebrow quirked into that familiar V-shape. “You really are the Seer, aren’t you?”

  “Okay, Mr. Interpreter.” I leaned in closer, just in case he wanted to try this kissing thing again. “Tell me what you saw. And what it meant.”

  “All right. Here goes.” He caressed my palm with his thumb. “That last vision you saw of St. Lucy? There’s more to her story. She wants you to finish what she started so many centuries ago. It was her fault that Nexis discovered the existence of the Seer—and all of the secret societies by association. She was the first Seer to kiss a member of the secret societies. Before that, they had no idea of her existence. After that, all three societies clamored for her allegiance. And the war for the Seer began.”

  “Whoa, that’s creepy. You’re more than an interpreter. You’re part of my destiny, aren’t you?” I looked straight into his eyes, even as my words faltered. How had I never seen it before?

  “I’ve always
known I needed you. Now I know why. My gift only works with yours. But it’s more than that.” He stared back at me with more emotion than I was ready to name.

  “More?” I practically choked on the word.

  He slid his hand behind my neck, pulling me closer. “We were meant to be together.”

  Meant to be. Those three words rattled my bones. Part of me wanted to object, or at least run screaming from the room. Instead, I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, planting another kiss on those gorgeous lips.

  His mouth smashed into mine. Harder, fiercer this time. I got lost in his kiss, the salty taste of his mouth on mine, the warmth of his breath on my face. His fingers curling through my hair.

  This vision was completely different. Transporting me into his head. A montage of moments. Intoxicating, and completely unnerving.

  A younger me walking with James to his graduation. Will glancing over his shoulder at me from across campus. That night in the kitchen, our almost-kiss. Me running from him—under the maple tree. After the initiation. At the bonfire. Maybe he didn’t show it, acted all cavalier. But inside, he was crushed. I felt the weight of it, like a heavy yoke around my neck.

  “Why didn’t you tell me how much I hurt you?” I mumbled against his cheek.

  “I didn’t want to scare you, my skittish little Seer.” He kissed one eyelid, then the other. “And I knew if I just waited long enough, the Guardians would show their true colors.”

  I didn’t even want to go there right now. “What about that other dream. With the olive trees and the golden stand?”

  “Saw that too, did you?” His pupils widened two inches. “Yep, you’re definitely the Seer. That’s from Zechariah chapter 4. I made the mistake of telling my mom about it. That’s why she went ballistic and ordered me to spy on you.”

  “Why? Is it that big of a deal?”

  “Well, at the end of that chapter it says, ‘These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.’”

  “Yikes. That sounds like a lot of responsibility,” I said, even if I had no clue what it meant.

  “Or a lot of power, if you’re a Nexis control freak like Mom.” He brushed my hair back, massaging his fingers into my neck. “Don’t worry, this is definitely our little secret.”