by Bre Hall
“Where does it go?” Ren asked.
Meredith ducked her head beneath the doorway. She shined her light back at Ren. “It leads you to answers.”
“That’s extremely ominous,” Ren said, but she stepped inside anyway.
Alfie crossed the threshold last and closed the door. Several bolts echoed into place, sealing them in. Meredith flicked a switch and overhead fluorescents flickered to life without any help from Ren. The corridor seemed never-ending. More of a tunnel than a hallway.
“It leads to the farm,” Meredith said.
Ren and Meredith walked side-by-side this time, Meredith setting a quick pace, Alfie following close at their heels. Despite Ren not really knowing where she was, or having just learned that Meredith had planted herself in Ren’s life, Ren felt security blanket-safe. Especially with her best friend just a foot behind her, keeping an eye out for Peter and his cronies.
“Is this thing really two miles long?” Ren asked.
“Took me years to build,” Meredith said. “Years to perfect the passage. But I knew someday we would need something like it. Something invisible from the topside.”
“So, it’s just a tunnel between Richard’s and the house?” Ren asked.
“Between Richard’s and the safe room I built beneath your father’s sorghum fields,” Meredith said. “There’s another tunnel—much shorter—that connects the safe room to the clock in the dining room. Another hidden passage.”
“Why’d you build a safe room?”
“To keep you safe,” Alfie muttered, then snorted.
“Ha-ha,” Ren said flatly.
“I knew this lifetime would be different,” Meredith said loudly, snuffing out the last of Alfie’s joke. “I knew you’d need a place to practice.”
“Practice what?”
“Honing your abilities,” Meredith said.
“Peter said I shouldn’t,” Ren said.
Meredith chuckled, an evil air to it. “Peter lied to you about a lot of things.”
Ren stopped walking and spun Meredith around by the shoulder so she could look her in the eyes. “I didn’t just imagine it, did I? The man I saw right before Lizzie died. The one with the curls, like Peter. That was him? He killed me, I mean, killed Lizzie, right?”
“Yes,” Meredith said. “Peter was the Rogue assigned to you after the war. All of the cursed Discentem were guarded by Rogues. Preyed upon at the most opportune of times. Sickening, all of it.”
“So why did he say he was trying to help me?” Ren asked. “Why did he have me regress into my past lives?”
“From what I’ve gathered from Alfie, a lot of what Peter told you was true.” Meredith started walking again. Ren skipped along, matching Meredith’s quick pace. “You were a Discentem, a powerful being, and there was a war, which unfortunately Drustan and the Rogue Auxilium won. But I’m the one who has been at your side since your soul was whole. We worked as a team. You taught the humans and I protected them. When the Auxilium turned, I fought to keep you safe, but I couldn’t. I made a vow to you, to myself, that I would try to find a way to reverse what the Rogues had done to you, to the others. I had kept a few of the relics as reminders of what you sacrificed, so that I would keep fighting to protect you. It was an accident when I learned the relics were portals, that you regressed to the past life they were connected to. But after that, I knew it was the way you would return to us.
“You are not the only one Peter has deceived, though. He came to me just after the second world war and begged me to save him from the Rogues who were after him. He learned of what I was trying to do and offered his help. Instead, he killed you and ran off with some of the relics before I could stop him. I think he believes if your soul is pieced together—not fully—but partially when you die, you will die for good.”
Ren looked up at Meredith. “Is that even possible?”
Meredith crossed her arms. “I don’t know. There’s a chance it could work, but I’m not willing to risk it. I swore after the last time this life would be different—that it would be your last one and that you would live.”
“If you’re supposed to be keeping me alive,” Ren said, “Why did you let Peter trick me?”
“I was curious,” Meredith said with a simple shrug. “He’s never gotten this close to you before. I knew something had to be awry. He’s desperate, and that can only mean one thing.”
“What?”
“The Lazarus Order and the handful of surviving Discentem, we’re—”
“I thought the Discentem were extinct?”
“We will have a history-correcting lesson later,” Meredith said. “Right now, all you need to know is that we’re banding together. Now, the humans might not be prepared for supernatural teachers or ready to learn that their angels of faith actually exist, but we’re ready to put an end to the Dark Souls and live in peace again; we’re ready to resurrect all of the lost Discentem. For that, we need you.”
“Resurrect.” Ren scoffed. “That’s exactly what Peter said he was doing.”
“He stole that line from me,” Meredith said. “Little prick.”
“Language, Meredith.” Ren laughed.
“First thing’s first.” Meredith clapped her hands together. “We’re getting Peter off of your back once and for all. His little jockeys too.”
“Can we tell her about me, yet?” Alfie asked.
“What about you?” Ren glanced back at him.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you—”
“No,” Meredith said sharply.
“She deserves to know.”
“Know what?” Ren asked.
“Not now,” Meredith said, marching ahead, heels clacking over the rough concrete floor. “Not tonight.”
“Know what?” Ren repeated at a whisper as Alfie stepped up alongside her.
“Another time,” Alfie grumbled.
They walked on for another mile or so, the tunnel bending slightly to and fro as if it had been dug out by hand, which it probably had been, knowing Meredith. Ren pictured her stepmom, a shovel poised in her dainty fingers, hacking away at the cold Kansas earth for years. As if she were digging her way out of prison. In in a way, she was.
Without warning, the tunnel stopped. A faceless cement wall sat at the end of the passage, a long, jagged fissure running down its middle.
“What now?” Ren asked.
Meredith didn’t say a word. Instead, she lifted up on her tip-toes and pressed a combination into a keypad on the ceiling that Ren hadn’t noticed at first. A hiss groaned from above and Meredith gave the stone just overhead a shove. A square of ceiling swung upward and back, as if on a hinge. Even if Peter managed to get inside the tunnel at Richard’s, there were too many hidden entrances to maneuver.
Alfie boosted Meredith up first, then laced his fingers together and made a step for Ren, hoisting her up through the small space. When she climbed up into darkness, she could hear Meredith clicking across what sounded like a metal floor with the flashlight. When the light had all but vanished, a series of fluorescent bulbs blinked on, illuminating the vast room.
It reminded Ren of the void she had met her past lives in the night she was knocked off her bike. It was just as long, just as echoey. But it was well-lit and every twenty yards or so, concrete pillars, padded like goalposts on a football field sprouted from the floor and rose to the ceiling. There were different objects around the room, too. Practice dummies like the ones she saw in FBI Training movies. Dumbbells. Weighted medicine balls. A stack of padded mats folded and piled along one wall. A clock hung in each the corner of the room. To Meredith’s right, stood a door, and to her left, sat a robust, wooden wardrobe.
Once Alfie had joined them, he bent low and closed the hatch to the tunnel, the square of metal fitting in perfectly with the rest of the floor. He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the room. “Well, what do you think?”
“The metal,” Ren said. “That’s why the combine compass wouldn’t work. It interfered.”
/> “Yes,” Meredith said.
Ren scanned the room a second time. “It’s like a scene from the first part of an action movie.”
“Get very comfortable,” Meredith said. “When we’re not in the house, we’ll be in here, training. You will not step foot outside until Peter is dealt with and you will go nowhere inside unless Alfie or myself is nearby. Is that understood?”
“So, basically I’m under house arrest?” Ren grumbled. “Only worse.”
“It’s better than being dead,” Meredith said, then opened the door beside her. Another passageway. “You’ve had a long night. A lot to take in. Get some rest and we will begin our work at dawn.”
“What about school?” Ren asked.
Meredith stepped through the doorway, the darkness on the other side engulfing her. Her voice trickled back into the room. “High School is for humans. You’re a Discentem. This is your school.”
chapter
23
REN AND ALFIE SAT AGAINST the side of her bed, the boxy analog TV across the rug playing Wait Until Dark. Ren’s hair was long, loose, and dripping all over her mattress, wet from the shower she had taken after they left the safe room. Alfie had sat outside the bathroom door the entire time. A good watch dog.
She dug into a bag of microwaved popcorn and munched on a buttery handful as she watched Audrey Hepburn walk onto the scene. The star’s brown hair was trimmed short, curled at the back to give it extra volume. Audrey walked to the phone—three men hiding in plain view—and dialed.
Audrey spoke to her on-screen husband through the receiver of the black telephone. “I was the best in blind school today.”
Alfie leaned into Ren’s shoulder. “Maybe you should go to blind school.”
She elbowed Alfie in the ribs and tossed a fistful of popcorn at his head. Her jaw tightened. “I’m only half blind, you ass.”
“Hey, look, I’m sorry,” Alfie said. His voice had no playful tremble. He was serious. She looked at him, hands folded and rested on his knees, his eyes staring at his white knuckles. “About going behind your back, I mean. About telling Meredith everything that was going on. I was just trying to keep you safe.”
“It’s okay,” she said. She rested her head on his shoulder. “Of all the people who have been lying to me, I’m the least mad at you.”
Alfie stiffened. “You might not think so later.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Heels clicked down the hallway toward Ren’s room. Meredith didn’t even knock. Just poked her head in and said, “Get some sleep, you two. You’re going to need some rest for tomorrow.”
“I don’t get how we’re both off the hook from school,” Ren said. “I know this Discentem thing is more important, but if you recall, you practically bit my head off a week ago for cutting, but now it’s no big deal?”
“I wasn’t angry about you missing school,” Meredith said. “I was angry about who you were missing it for.”
“Even though you wanted me to spend time with Peter,” Ren said. “To find out what he was up to.”
“It’s complicated,” Meredith said. “Now, goodnight.”
“’night,” Ren grumbled. When the door closed, she flopped up onto her bed, propped up on her elbows, and dug back into the popcorn bag. “Hey, how is your mom okay with this?”
Alfie shrugged. “She just is.”
“If you say so,” Ren said.
Even before Alan Arkin’s character started changing costumes every five minutes in the film, Ren’s eyelids were drooping. She crawled up to her pillow and tried to stay awake. Soon, though, she was just listening to the movie while she watched the blackish red color of her closed eyelids.
THE NEXT MORNING, ALFIE SHOOK her awake. “Get up.”
“What?” Her good eye was fuzzy with sleep. Alfie blurred in and out of focus.
“We have to meet Meredith,” he said. “I’m going to wait in the hall. Get dressed.”
The door clicked closed, but it did not keep the buzz of the house out. She could hear her father’s low voice, Meredith’s higher pitched velvet tones drifting through the floorboards. She could even hear Grams humming quietly to herself. Probably burning sage or reading her tarot cards. Predicting the future. Could Grams see what would become of Peter? Of Meredith’s training?
She put on a pair of lace tights with black denim shorts pulled over the top of them and ducked into a baggy, bleach-stained Nirvana t-shirt. She braided her hair down her back and headed downstairs with Alfie.
Meredith stood at the kitchen counter, talking to Ren’s dad, who was perched on a bar stool, his back turned toward them. Meredith nodded ever so slightly toward the hallway that led to Grams’ room. Alfie and Ren moved silently into the hall and waited.
“What time’s your help showing up this morning?” Meredith asked Ren’s dad.
He glanced down at the watch strung around his wrist. “Any minute now, I reckon.”
Meredith leaned across the counter and pecked a quick kiss on Ren’s dad’s lips. Ren’s shoulders deflated, knowing the kiss, like all of hers and Peter’s, was just for show. Her dad rose and walked into the mud room. He tugged on his boots, a thump on the floor as each one slid on, and opened the back door. When it closed, Ren and Alfie went into the kitchen.
Two plates of eggs and bacon slid over the counter toward them. Meredith captured each of them with a tight-eyed stare. “Eat quickly. We’ve got work to do.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were stepping through the grandfather clock in the dining room and descending to the door of the saferoom. Meredith tapped a code into the pad beside the entrance and it hissed open.
“Ready to work?” Meredith asked as they filed in.
“I guess.” Ren said.
Meredith stopped. “You be sure now. Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Ren nodded tersely. “I’m sure.”
Ren and Alfie made their way to the center of the room while Meredith walked to where the pile of thick, black mats was. She dragged one to the middle of the room and dropped it in front of Ren with a loud thwap.
“We will build on what you know.” Meredith unfurled the mat one fold at a time. “Now, your former self—your true self—had a menagerie of supernatural abilities in her arsenal, but levitation was highly favored. It was one of the strongest. I believe that is why it appeared first. Have a seat.”
“Okay.” Ren sat down on the mat, keeping her knees close to her chest. Alfie peeled away and took a seat on the floor against the wall close to the wardrobe. Meredith stood nearby. Marched around Ren in a circle, instructing.
“Master the art of self-levitation first. Then we’ll move on to telekinetics—moving objects with only your mind.” Meredith stopped walking and hovered over Ren. “Go ahead.”
“Wait, go?” Ren pulled her hands onto her knees, then quickly replaced them beside her. “How—what am I supposed to do exactly?”
“You already know what to do,” Meredith said.
“I’ve only done it a couple of times,” Ren said. “Mostly by accident.”
“You wield the power.” Meredith snapped her fingers. “It does not wield you. Command it. Go.”
Ren closed her eyes, pressed her palms into the ground, and told herself to levitate. Levitate, levitate. She could feel the mat beneath her. She tried to leave it behind. Nothing. She took a deep breath, exhaled. Levitate. She grunted. She imagined herself floating inches above the mat, but still, she remained attached to it.
“Try,” Meredith said as she began to move in a circle again.
“I am.”
The click of Meredith’s heels swarmed her ears. “Try harder.”
“Float,” Ren whispered. “Come on. Come on. Do it.”
She squeezed her stomach. Held her breath. She slid the heels of her boots forward and laid back on the mat. She thought of the game she and Alfie used to play at birthday parties in grade school. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. She told herself to rise—feather-l
ight—off of that mat. Still, nothing.
“It’s not working,” she said, opening her eyes.
Meredith’s heels retreated. “Perhaps...”
Ren lifted her head and watched Meredith walk to the wardrobe. Meredith opened the right side of the double doors and squatted down, the fabric of her pewter suit slacks stretching. Ren looked from Meredith to Alfie, lifted an eyebrow. Alfie just shrugged.
“What are you doing?” Ren asked.
“All you need is the right motivation.” Meredith stood up. She held up a large, glass jar. A lump of brown was heaped at the bottom.
“What is that?” Ren asked.
Meredith unscrewed the lid and locked her eyes on Ren. “Motivation.”
Meredith launched the brown heap into the air. It unfurled itself into the unmistakable tube of a copperhead snake. Ren bolted upright. The snake hissed and slithered toward her. Ren crawled backwards, away from the beast, but it was moving faster than she was. Her toes curled up. Her face pinched. She turned away just as the snake was coiling, bending away, preparing to strike. She shrieked and shot into the air. Lifted up off the ground just before the copperhead struck beneath her. Ren hovered five feet above the ground. Her heart beat quickly. She was doing it. She was levitating.
Meredith moved smoothly across the room and snatched the snake up by the back of its head. She funneled it back into the jar. It hissed one last time as Meredith screwed the lid on tightly. A smug smile was planted on Meredith’s face as she tucked the jar under her arm.
“What the hell was that, Mer?” Ren bobbed in the air. Scared to break the levitation for fear Meredith would release the copperhead again.
“That,” Meredith chuckled as she moved back to the open wardrobe and slid the jar back in its place. “Was the perfect motivation.”
“You know I’m scared to death of snakes,” Ren said.
