by Brodi Ashton
Page 22
Jack put his arm around me and kissed my forehead. “Shh. It’s done, Becks. It’s in the past. There’s nothing you can do about it now. ”
“I know,” I said softly. I leaned my head into Jack as I thought about the rest of the dream. “You know, Cole always said surviving the Feed made me different in a way that would help me take down the queen. I think I got a good look at how that would have to happen. But Adonia was conjuring up blizzards. When I first got to the Everneath, I conjured up the entire Fiery Furnace at Arches National Park, but once I got rid of it, I had enough of a problem conjuring up a tether and turning it into a stick. Cole said it was a problem with my focus. ” I grimaced as I remembered how Cole and Max had been overcome by hunger in the Ring of Fire, and the only way I could get them to move was to poke them with a hot stick I’d made out of the tether. “I doubt I could kill the queen with a twig. ”
“Maybe Cole was planning on teaching you how to do more. He did say you had a long way to go. ”
I thought back to the memory. “Right before the blizzard got really strong, Adonia touched the necklace. I think it was her heart. Maybe she got even more strength from it. ”
Cole stirred next to me and promptly rolled off the bench.
“Ouch!” he said. He sprang up, looking from Jack to me with a confused expression on his face.
I wondered if the recollection meant he had recovered his memories, and I grabbed Jack’s hand in preparation to face a Cole who knew the truth.
“What happened?” he said.
“Cole, you have amnesia,” I said slowly.
He tilted his head. “I know that. What happened just now?”
I glanced at Jack. “You fell off the bench?” he said.
Cole sighed. “Oh. Okay. Are we going to destroy the Everneath now?”
With a screech of brakes, the bus pulled up to our stop. “We’re going back to Park City first,” I said.
Cole nodded. “Park City. Where’s that?”
Cole fed me again at the airport, and after so much continuous contact, I felt stronger than I had in a long time. Stronger I think than even before I’d lost my heart.
As we traveled, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Adonia touched her necklace—her Surface heart—to get more strength. If I had to face anyone, where would I get strength without my heart?
Once we landed at the Salt Lake City airport, we took a taxi to the Shop-n-Go to retrieve Jack’s car.
“My credit cards are almost maxed out,” Jack said as he started his car. He had used his emergency ones to buy our airplane tickets as well. “Hopefully there’s enough left to get us a hotel. ”
I shrugged, a little lost in thought as I stared out the window.
“Becks? You okay?”
I turned to Jack. “I think I need my heart. ”
“What?” Jack said.
Cole leaned forward from the backseat.
I shifted in my seat so I could see both of them. “It’s the memory of the queens. If we try to take down the Everneath and we run into Adonia, I don’t think I’ll stand a chance fighting against her unless I have my heart. ”
“Well, hopefully we won’t run into her,” Jack said.
“But even if we get that far, to the point where we destroy all our hearts, I’m going to need to know where my heart is. ”
“Where do you think it is?” Cole said.
I pressed my lips together and breathed out through my nose, trying to keep my composure. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m guessing you hid it somewhere. ”
“Why would I—” Cole stopped and tilted his head. “Oh, yeah. I stole it. ”
I closed my eyes and put my face in my hands for a moment.
Cole tapped my shoulder. “You know, if I shared a memory with you, then maybe my memory is coming back. Can’t we go to my condo and see if I can—I don’t know—see if I can feel where I hid it?”
Jack groaned. “Cole, your place was ransacked. ”
“But they obviously didn’t find it, because they’re still looking for me. I bet I hid it well. ”
Jack glanced out the window. “We should follow up on the Cronus lead from Ashe. ”
“Say we found something and destroyed the Shade network,” I said. “We’d still need my heart. ”
“I just think it might be a wild-goose chase,” Jack said.
Cole put his hand on my arm. “What’s on your wrist?”
“What?” I said. Jack and I both looked down at my left arm, the one that hadn’t had the shackle; only now, at my wrist line, the faintest black mark encircled my wrist. Not nearly as dark as the other shackle, but definitely visible.
Jack couldn’t stop staring at it. “Let’s go find your heart,” he said.
I nodded. “We’ll talk to Will and have him research anything and everything he can about Cronus. By the time we’re done searching Cole’s condo, hopefully he’ll have something for us. ”
I stared at the new shackle. Was it growing darker even as I watched? I waited a few long minutes. No, I couldn’t tell a difference.
But even though I couldn’t see it growing darker, I knew it was.
Jack turned the car in the direction of his own house, and I called Will to give him a heads-up; but no one answered.
“He’s probably passed out,” Jack said, referring to his older brother’s love of drinking.
When we got to Jack’s house, we found Will asleep on the Caputos’ couch. Jack shook his older brother awake.
“Wha—” Will startled up to a sitting position.
He looked from Jack, to me, then to Cole. The second he saw Cole’s face, his eyelids narrowed into tiny slits. “You,” he said accusingly. “You . . . ” He jumped up from the couch, but he’d obviously been drinking, because he staggered to the side a few steps and then fell.
Jack ran to him. “It’s okay, bro. He’s helping us. ”
Will looked at him as if he were crazy. “Are you nuts? He’s ‘helped’ us before, and we barely survived. He helped Nikki all the way into the Everneath!”
“We need him,” I said.
He stared at me. “Why? What’s wrong?”
I grimaced. “Um, I’m sort of turning into an Everliving. And we’d like to destroy the Underworld. ”
Will was silent for a moment. And then . . . “So, the usual. ”
Jack helped Will back up to the couch and explained the Cole situation. He also told him of our plan to destroy the Everneath.
Will looked as if he could’ve used a few more drinks to process everything Jack was saying. It was moments like these that made me realize how totally ridiculous the entire thing sounded.
But at the end of it all, Will stood up. “I’m in. What can I do?”
I explained our clue about Cronus Tantalus and then handed him the documents from Mrs. Jenkins.
“And try the internet,” I said.
“All right. Google can destroy worlds. ”
We left Will with a fresh cup of coffee and an open laptop, and headed to Cole’s condo.
TWENTY
NOW
The Surface. Cole’s condo.
Minutes later, Jack pulled into the parking lot below Cole’s condo. We all got out of the car and started jogging toward the stairs that led to Cole’s balcony and the front door.
Jack led the way. But as he turned the final corner, he stopped so quickly, I had to dig my toes into the ground so as not to run into him. He put his hand back, catching me around the waist and pulling me directly behind him.
“What is it?” I whispered.
Jack turned slightly and put a finger to his lips. “I closed the door when we were here before. I’m sure of it,” he whispered. “And now it’s open again. Stay put. ”
I nodded and backed away from the corner. Cole wrapped his arm around me and pulled me so now I was directly behind him.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t need two bodyguards. ”
&nbs
p; He grinned apologetically. “Sorry. It just felt natural to do that. ”
“It’s fine. ” I couldn’t help a smile. “Just . . . stop. ”
We peeked around the corner. Jack was a few yards away, standing with his back to the wall just to the side of Cole’s door, which was hanging off its hinges.
A chill ran down my back. Jack leaned around the doorframe and apparently didn’t see any immediate danger, because he crept inside.
Cole started out, but I grabbed his shirt and yanked him back. “What are you doing? The bad guys could still be there! Again!”
Cole leveled his gaze at me. “I thought you wouldn’t care. ”
“I . . . don’t. I mean, I don’t want you to get hurt. In your present state . . . That is . . . ”
Cole smiled sadly. “You mean, if I still had my memory, and I was the bastard of your past, the one who stole your heart, it’d be fine. ”
Shaking my head, I was about to protest, but then I realized . . . he was right.
I looked back toward Cole’s door. There was no sign of movement. “He’s been in there too long. ”
“It’s only been a few seconds. ”
“I’m going. ”
“Then so am I. ”
Upon first glance inside, I couldn’t see Jack. But the condo seemed to be in the same state of disarray as it had been before. It was difficult to tell, given that it was trashed, but it didn’t look more trashed.
“Jack?” I whispered.
There was no answer.
“Jack!” I said a little louder.
“In the back,” Jack said. “There’s no one here. ” We followed his voice toward the farthest bedroom. Cole’s bedroom.
It was in worse shape than the living room. Cole walked in and righted a lamp that had been overturned.
“Does anything look familiar?” I asked.
He didn’t get a chance to answer. The front door slammed shut, and immediately cold air breezed in and settled over us.
There was a frozen moment in time when I could see my own breath. Jack was the only one with a good view down the hallway. Whatever he saw made his mouth drop open.
Then he dived for me, his shoulder catching me in my stomach. I barely had time to brace for impact before we crashed to the ground. He kept his hands on my back, trying to cushion the fall, but I still heard something crack. Lightning quick, he shoved me under the bed and followed, and I had just one moment to glimpse what looked like floating black oil crossing the threshold of the room.
A Shade. It could only be a Shade.
Jack put his hand over my mouth with a warning look in his eyes. He didn’t have to use words to tell me not to breathe.
But the Shades could sniff out humans so easily. I had no idea if I could ever hope to hold my breath long enough.
Cole hadn’t made it under the bed with us. I saw his black boots for a split second before the Shade rushed inside. Then Cole’s boots disappeared off the ground. A moment later, he landed with a thwump on his back on the wooden floor.
He glanced at me. I tried to call his name, but Jack held his hand over my mouth too tightly.
And then it was too late. A black, oily shroud covered Cole’s face and upper chest, wrapping itself around and around, like a flat, black python. Cole’s legs kicked and thrashed.
I struggled against Jack, trying to reach Cole, but Jack locked his muscles down tight. I couldn’t move.
All I could do was watch Cole’s feet. Finally they fell still.
But the Shade didn’t let up.
My first instinct was to go to Cole. I tried again to pry Jack’s hand off my mouth, but he was too strong. He held his arm around my waist even tighter, as if to tell me it would all be okay. But it wasn’t. Cole wasn’t moving. My lifeline was dying right in front of me.
Cole’s hand had flopped underneath the bed, inches from my own. I took it, and held it, and tried to squeeze it reassuringly, even though I knew he was probably dead.
The Shade tightened around Cole’s head like coiled cords being cinched. I held tight to Cole’s hand. His other hand was up over his head, toward the fireplace. He was reaching for . . . something.
What if I could reach what Cole was looking for? I bit down on Jack’s finger, and he finally released his death grip. Scrambling out from under the bed, I climbed over Cole’s body to where his hand was flailing. Hopefully the Shade was so busy sucking the life out of him that it wouldn’t notice me.
Cole was reaching toward the poker next to the fireplace. I dived for it, grabbed it, and placed it in Cole’s hand. In a move so fast I could barely see it, Cole brought the poker around toward his own face and sliced through the Shade at his throat.
With a hiss, the Shade disintegrated, turning into a dusty smoke before disappearing completely. Cole sucked in a deep breath and coughed it out, the color drained entirely from his face.
“Cole!” I threw myself at him and touched his face. His cheek cooled my fingertips.
I lowered my face until it hung inches above his so he could feed. But within a few seconds, his face changed from pale to ghastly white and then almost to gray. Yanking back my head, I realized my mistake. I was still automatically feeding off him. I’d just made it worse.
