The Lost Heir

by Allison Whitmore

  She looked up at the tarp with a sense of renewed determination. With her hands sore, her arm cut, legs tired, and spirit partially damaged, she managed to pull herself up and set her feet in the trampoline-like tarp. With utter precision, she carefully placed her hands and feet on the rope and started to climb across it. She continued to be tortured with painful emotions inside of her body and was deeply physically weary, too. At times, it felt to her like the tarp was loosening from the walls.

  Isabella frowned. She had not come this far to lose. She picked up speed, pushed past her pain and fears, and moved to the wall. Suddenly, one of the anchors of the tarp gave way; the tarp partially collapsed. Fear walloped her as she struggled to regain a strong grip. Then another anchor point was lost, causing more trembling. What was going on? As she looked to where the anchors had been connected, she saw a faint figure looking back at her. He looked familiar, but his face was barely visible. Then he shifted left, allowing her to make out his profile fully. Franklin.

  "I won't let you betray me!" A boost of inner strength ignited a dormant fire in the pit of her stomach, propelling her toward the last door. As her feet reached firm ground, the net collapsed in on itself and fell into the darkness below. As her eyes lifted from the falling net, she noticed Franklin staring at her from the distance. Now more than just a blurred face, she could stand up to him. She turned away, opened the next door, and walked through it.

  "The sixth and final face. Watch your step." The voice cut off abruptly without any other instructions.

  Isabella noticed she was outside this time. She looked around, unsure if she should feel happy that this might almost be over or worried about what was coming last. Before her were nine squares, each with a small fire burning on it. She felt a dark presence growing. A slow, progressive pain ate up her inside. When she looked to her left, she noticed a terrifying dark shadow emerge from the ground. The monster lurched forward slowly. Then the squares’ fires rose around her. She looked to her right and saw a gaping hole far in the distance. The portal. Without hesitation, she ran for it.

  "It won't be that easy," the voice taunted aggressively. "Get her, my minion. Do NOT let her escape!"

  The squares started to explode around her, and then the false sky above her lit up orange. Her heart lurched when she saw a dark figure rush through the fire toward her. It was Franklin. She turned and clutched her necklace with her left hand and then extended her right. She felt the magic inside of her swim, trying to beat forward. But Jack's enchanted game was quelling it. She concentrated harder. "You can do this, Isabella." Just as the words fell from her mouth, a hot blast of light shot from the palm of her hand, sending Franklin to the ground.

  A large clock loomed above them. Was it the same clock she'd heard before? It read ten minutes to midnight.

  She started to run faster toward the portal. The demonic voices surrounded her, chanting a spell as she continued sprinting.

  "Tide, bind. Light, strike./We live and hail upon the night./Retribution bring on strife,/Those opposing the one true light./We, united, standing true,/Time will come, our rights will be due./Fallen stars, fire rise./Fallen stars, full of pride."

  Nine minutes to midnight. She saw the portal ahead, growing smaller by the minute.

  "Tide, bind. Light, strike./We live and raise upon the day./Retribution bring on strife,/Those opposing the one true light./We, united, standing true,/Time will come, our rights will be due./Seer's light, water rise./Seer's light, full of pride."

  Eight minutes left. She smelled smoke in the air as fire consumed the area around her. She felt the flames grow higher than her, now towering above her with a blazing intensity as they tickled her skin from feet away. Isabella thought back to her parents.

  "Mommy! Daddy!" she heard a voice shout.

  A vision. Like the one she'd had so many times before. It was coming to life in front of her.

  She watched her eight-year-old self in an area filled with smoke shut her eyes against the acrid sting. When the child opened them, she was in the middle of the fire in Isabella’s old house. The flames screeched loudly, encircling her.

  "Your time is almost up, young diadem!" Jack shrieked. His evil laugh filled her ears. Isabella looked down at her hands and realized she was younger, the same age she had been that night.

  Isabella heard her father coughing as Jack cackled through the flames. She watched her parents on the other side of the house, where it burned. The little girl limped to her mother and father, who looked both terrified and surprised.

  A horrific scene played out as Jack stood still in the flames, unfazed. His eyes went from a blazing violet to black as her parents' eyes glowed in a bright light. They extended their hands to finish him off. Jack turned to see the little girl, frozen in place as the house continued to burn around her. Her mother noticed and, attempting to save her daughter, yelled, "NO, ISABELLA. RUN!"

  Jack jumped out of the flames and threw his hands into the air. Her parents both became paralyzed and floated off the ground. Their heads contorted back a bit as two light-filled orbs, one for each of their souls, were extracted from their chests. The moment those lights were released from their bodies, they paled to a grayish color and lost life in their eyes as they both dropped to the ground. Young Isabella screamed as her parents' bodies turned to ash.

  She was about to run to them when a backdraft pushed her back to the other side of the house. Her head hit the ground, and she fell to the floor. Her little legs and arms remained immobile, twitching, her eyes shut. She felt the fire approach her. Then she felt ice-cold air surround her. She was scooped up into the arms of her parents' killer, looking up as she saw Jack’s eyes turn unnaturally black.

  "I've got you. You're a light in this darkness. I've got you," he whispered. Then she heard, "You will help me finish this all when you're of the proper age, last diadem."

  She had never remembered that part before. Isabella felt a sense of clarity revitalize her. It was his plan to turn her against her friends and family, and to destroy everything that matters in the world. She wanted to wipe that evil grin off his face but her vision dissolved, and she was on her back outside again. She sat up on her elbows, coughing out the soot that hung in her chest. She looked at her hands: She was herself again. Her eyes went to the looming clock. Five minutes. The portal was closer than ever. She bounded to her feet and ran. As she did, black ravens like the ones atop of the Landry House began diving for her head. She ran through them.

  A voice spoke behind her. She turned to see the devil watching her from across the road. The ravens flocked to him, perching on his gloved hand and the hedges near him.

  "Did you think I was ever going to let you go? We can find much more happiness in the darkness! I need your light, so you and many others can join me in self-pity and despair!"

  Isabella glared at him.

  "I remember everything, and I won't be your pawn!"

  She turned around and ran. She felt him behind her, gaining on her.

  A scream tore from her throat as she turned and tried blasting him with her powers. But they did not affect him. She continued to run as fast as she ever had in her life. "Keep going, Isabella. You can do it," she heard Pythian say again. “Don’t let my father destroy you.”

  A furious ringing sound tormented her ears. His father?

  Before she had time to think, Jack’s fire grew into a blazing inferno around her, making it hard to breathe. She held it back, not allowing it to touch her. The portal ahead of her, which had been about the size of a hula hoop, started to shrink before her eyes, but she was so close. She felt the breath of evil on her neck as one of his hands turned to claws and scratched at the threads of her dress.

  Just as the portal shrunk to almost too small to fit her body, she clenched her eyes shut and thrust herself through it. Isabella landed on her face and shoulder, rolling onto her back on the ground of Brightwood Studios. She heard Seth, Nano, Theophilus, and the others run up to her, calling her name as th
ey approached.

  She turned to look at the portal: It grew smaller but then suddenly she saw Pythian staring at her through the closing whirlpool of magic. Jack was closing in behind him, but the boy looked at her without any fear on his face. Then she saw Jack as he'd always been come up beside the boy and place his hand on his shoulder. The boy looked up at Jack and smiled. Jack turned away as the portal closed.

  "Pythian..." Isabella mouthed as she felt a shadow move over her. Then, she fainted into Seth's arms.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Alive

  Isabella cried with relief when she woke up in her own bed to see Colin and her grandmother smiling down at her. "Colin, how did you get here?"

  "I took an elevator. You know, those things do come in handy around here," he said, sitting on the edge of her bed. "You've gotten yourself a good sleep there."

  Her head hurt, and when she tried to sit up, it stung a little. She took a deep breath as her Nano gave her a glass of water and some aspirin, which she swallowed without hesitation. "Thank you, Nano," she whispered before turning back to Colin. "But what about the portal? How are you going to get back underground?" She instantly hated herself for worrying that if Colin could get through, so could Jack.

  "I have my ways," Colin said cryptically. "It may require me going halfway across the world the regular way, but I guess you're worth it, kid. And don't worry. The Fire is at its height. Your hotel is protected and so are you, because we saved it together, and you beat Jack at his own game."

  "What do you mean? The Fire became stronger because I got away from him? That doesn't make sense."

  "Because you didn't succumb to the darkness," Colin explained. "There was a chance before the portal closed that, if he got the better of you, he could take control of the Fire himself, but you got away."

  "Why did he even give me the chance to?"

  "He had to test your weakness before he could seize control over you," her grandmother said with a pained expression.

  "Okay," Isabella said, studying her hands, unable to look at any of them for a moment. She felt her energy wiped out. "But I'm sixteen now. Does that make me more vulnerable or something?"

  "The Fire is strong, and you're safe now," said Colin. “Jack will be waiting a long time before he can get to you again.”

  She looked at her brother. He was very good at keeping secrets. She knew there was more to it, that none of this was over. But maybe they weren't lying. Maybe she was safe again. "What about Pythian?"

  "He's fine. His home is the Underground."

  "He said Jack was his father. Is that true?"

  Colin nodded grimly but did not answer any further. Isabella swallowed.

  “But what about you? Your mother?”

  “She’s fine. Great even. She doesn’t know much about me and my life here, but she knows about you, your family, and she wishes you the best, I guess.”

  Isabella smiled at him. “I do have the best.”

  Behind Colin and Nano, Isabella saw her new friends, Micah, Cleo, Xander, and Seth. Her heart faltered a bit as she looked at Seth. But she decided not to think about what she’d seen before as Lana, Lana's younger sister Dot, and Theophilus appeared. Her new family. She stared at them for a while until Colin ruffled her hair. "You still alive there, kid?"

  “You're one to talk," Catherine said to him pointedly. "You live a very dangerous life. Maybe it’s time you retire.”

  “Maybe in thirty years or so,” he deadpanned.

  Neeta and Max came in just in time to overhear Catherine's suggestion. "Yeah, man, sounds like a plan. Think it's about time I took over the Brotherhood."

  "Shh!" Neeta said, eyeing Lana and Dot.

  Isabella laughed. "Don't worry. They know everything."

  "We do?" asked Dot, showing her missing teeth with her trademark grin.

  "Be quiet," her sister shushed her.

  Isabella chuckled. Her grandmother was already trying to be a parental figure to Colin, and Dot looked like she was ready to join the Brotherhood, studying the communication device that Max wore and Neeta’s half-gloves.

  "I expect to see you here every other holiday, young man, and be here for every birthday as well. That includes your own."

  "Unless I'm on a mission or keeping order down there, I'll be at every occasion," Colin said seriously.

  "We'll see what we can do about that," Nano said, her very serious tone inspiring everyone in the room to laugh.

  They all seemed to let the realization sink in that they were finally safe and together as the last diadem child succumbed to sleep.

  ***

  "Izzy, get out of bed, or you'll miss your own party!"

  "Lana? But... What happened? Did I pass out again?" She glanced around and noticed she was still tucked in her own bed.

  "Yes, and your new friends keep saying you've been through a lot the last few days. Are you really going to tell me everything? Dot's not here, so feel free."

  "I promise I will." She sat up, feeling much better. "I forgot to ask. Have you heard anything about my Uncle Robert?"

  "He's still in the hospital, but he's getting better, I heard your grandmother saying. He'll probably have to have a nurse from now on, though."

  Isabella's heart twisted. She knew that that happened when people got older, but she didn't like thinking about it. She was happy that he was still alive at least, and she hoped that Jack stayed in the Underground. She was sure he knew a way out if Colin and the Brotherhood did.

  "Come on," Lana said. "I'm already dressed. I know you like to avoid everything, but let's go. I really want to see that speakeasy room you keep telling me about."

  "What do you think of my outfit?" Lana said with a twirl. Before Isabella could answer, Dot popped into the room. She was wearing a burgundy velvet dress with a white sash.

  "I told you to wait downstairs, nugget."

  "Couldn't wait. Is-a-bella! You are not even dressed! You're gonna miss it! Oh, and Happy New Year!"

  "Miss what?"

  "You're gonna have to get up and see for yourself. We'll be right outside," she sing-songed, pulling her older sister out of the room.

  Isabella took her time in the shower, knowing that Lana and Dot could fully entertain themselves with squabbling and that her party did not officially begin until three. She dressed and put on a little makeup. She found a small box from the Brotherhood that contained a pin with their symbol. She put it on. She also found a box addressed from Cleo. Boots. She laughed.

  Not as fab as mine, but I thought you'd get a kick out of these. This way we can match when we take our next tour at Brightwood.

  They actually suited her, probably because they didn't have huge go-go heels on them. She put them on and went into the living room, where she gasped when she saw what sat in the middle of it with a big red bow.

  "Is that for me?"

  "Yes, it is," said Nano.

  She nearly tripped over her new boots as she headed toward her gift. "A piano." A baby-grand piano, black and sleek and perfect. It had three LCD players and three sets of subwoofers. "Wow. Thank you, Nano."

  "It isn't from me."

  "Practice. Practice attunes to perfection," said Theophilus, sweeping into the room.

  "Wow. Thank you, Theophilus."

  "My pleasure, dear. And now to the festivities."

  Isabella, Theophilus, Lana, and Dot headed to the speakeasy room where they found everyone, including Elyse. It was tastefully decorated in violet and silver. Nothing over the top, like Johnna Johnson had had at her party, with the exception of a small punch-bowl waterfall in the corner of the room, next to Isabella’s enormous birthday cake. Her gifts were in a small pile next to one of the bookcases. Music filtered into the room—her favorite 1990s classics. She knew Seth loved this music, too.

  She looked over at him, bobbing his head in time to the beat of a softly playing Guns N' Roses tune. When he noticed her watching him, he stopped his movement and smiled. She realized he had something
on his hand: a ring like Theophilus wore. She looked at the other members of her cohort. Xander and Micah had them on, too, while Cleo had a necklace like hers around her neck. Guess they had theirs handed down to them early, too.

  "Isabella! Happy sixteenth!" Elyse cried. "I know it's customary to open the gifts after food and cake, but the food isn't coming for another thirty minutes. I really want you to see mine, but Betty's taking her sweet time about finishing the eats."

  Isabella froze. Betty. Wasn't she Franklin's aunt? Isabella shifted uncomfortably.

  "Don't worry. Franklin fooled all of us," Neeta said, reading her expression. "Including his family."

  "Betty stays sky-side most of the year," said Catherine. "As you've likely deduced. And she's proven her loyalty to us."

  Isabella remembered that Betty's name had been on one of the Light Council chairs, but she had not been with the rest of the council when they left to keep the Fire strong. She chose not to question her grandmother about it right then. They'd have plenty of time to talk later, unlike her and Colin. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" she asked her brother, pulling him to a quiet corner. Elyse bounced on her toes near the gifts with Dot at her side. "I want to know how you and the Brotherhood can come back and forth, if Jack can't. I don't understand."

  "Remember when I went back to the vault?"

  Isabella nodded.

  "It was to get two things. One is my gift to you, and the other was this." He pulled out a shiny onyx stone. "It will allow us to move back and forth easily this year, to train you."

  "Train us?"

  "As good as your powers have gotten, they still need a lot of work," he said in an exaggerated tone. “Battles or no battles, you should be trained in your abilities. Don’t want you accidentally killing anybody.”