I sit up, realizing I’m in my room back at home. My mother’s at the foot of the bed, one hand on my leg and a bright smile on her face.
“You did good, baby girl,” she says, and I throw myself into her arms, overwhelmed with happiness.
“Did I—?”
“Die?” she finishes for me, pulling back to smooth the hair from my face. “Yes.”
“Why are we here?” I ask, looking around my room. Not a single thing is out of place. Even the picture I took of the sky, days before I left for the Culling, still hangs on my wall.
“The dwelling lets us dwell where our spirit is tied the strongest to,” she explains, running her thumb over my hand.
My brain feels like it’s been run through fog, and only just now finding a clearing. “What about Mourdyn?” I ask, sitting straight as my heart gallops against my chest. “He’s awake. He woke when I… when I… died.”
My mother’s smile turns sad. “That isn’t your problem anymore.”
I stand up. “I can’t leave them, Mom. As much as I want to stay here… I can’t… I can’t just give up on them. What if they need me? What if they need the… the amulet?”
I’m pulling at my uniform, unzipping it so I can pull it out, only to find shattered pieces of amber. There’s darkness on my skin. No matter how hard I rub, it won’t leave. The coloring has darkened my veins, all the way to my heart.
“What happened?” my mother asks, touching the dark part of my skin. The tone in her voice has me on full alert. She only ever takes that tone when she suspects something bad has happened.
“The amulet… it shattered when I was in the Exanimator,” I say, showing her the shards in my pocket.
“Did it cut you?” she asks, more serious than I’ve ever seen.
“I… I don’t know. Maybe?”
She stands up. Paces across the room.
“Mom, what is it?” I ask, watching her.
“That amulet was passed down to me. It was a part of the legacy I was never able to explain to you. The legacy of our bloodline who are meant to protect the Dagger of Retribution. It held Mourdyn’s blood. When Charles—Jaxen’s father—came to me when we were younger, asking for help to cure Evangeline of the curse, I gave it to him. I had cast a spell on it after we found out the curse originated from Mourdyn. A spell that would slow the process of the curse. But then he died, taking the amulet with him. It wasn’t until I was taken prisoner in the Underground and I saw him pass by our cells, the amulet hanging from his neck, that I knew he was very much alive. And it was then I figured out you could use that amulet to protect yourself against the very man you were destined to wake.”
Questions dangle from the tip of my tongue, but they never see the surface because I’m ripped from my room, flying backward through unending space as if a rope were tied around my waist.
I try to form words, but nothing comes out.
And then I stop, landing in a chair in nothing but whiteness.
“Faye Hadley Middleton,” a female voice says. It’s coming from a beam of light. A light so bright it’s nearly blinding.
“Who… who are you? Where’s my mother?”
“You did well, Faye Middleton,” the voice says, the light growing brighter as it nears me.
I shield my face with my hands, though I don’t turn away from its comforting heat.
“Where am I?”
“So many questions. Look. Open your eyes,” the voice says.
I do.
It’s Alesteria. She’s smiling at me, head tilted to the side. She still looks as fierce as I remember her that day in the cave with Bael, when I had to find the other piece of the Dagger of Retribution.
“I’m so very proud of you. You exceeded any and all expectations Cecilia and I had for you. Not only did you manage to bring our people back together, but you also set everything in place so we can eradicate Mourdyn once and for all. With your help, of course.”
“I don’t understand,” I say, trying to grasp what’s happening. “I thought I… I thought I died?”
“You did. And we needed you to in order to wake the group I formed who will fight alongside of us, against the Darkyn Coven.”
A memory of something Mack said a while back scratches at the back of my head, but I’m too overwhelmed to retrieve it. Too confused with all that’s happening.
“Why?” It’s all I can think to ask, and I want to slap my forehead. Want to hide under covers as I realize I’m standing in front of one of the Divine, asking questions like a toddler.
But she doesn’t treat me like one.
“Because we tied your bloodline to them. After we put Mourdyn to sleep, Cecilia and I sought out a worthy hunter from the group I created who could carry on our legacy until the day came for us to rise again. It was your bloodline, Faye. Cecilia foresaw your birth within that hunter’s bloodline, and so we took steps to ensure a second Great War would never happen again.
“After informing my group of what was happening, they willingly agreed to what I asked of them. Cecilia cast a spell that put all of my hunters to sleep, along with me, and she used your bloodline as the anchor. When your bloodline came to an end, that’s when my hunters would wake. Only, they would wake stronger. Better than they were before. They would wake immortal, because of the power that was in you.”
My head shakes back and forth as I place it all together. It all came down to me. To me dying.
“And now?” I ask, searching her steady eyes.
She smiles. “Now, you wake up.”
“But I died,” I say, forehead creased.
“And you can be reborn,” she says, smiling brighter. “All you have to do is wake up. Wake up, Faye. Wake up.” Her face morphs into so many shapes and colors that I suddenly feel sick. Like peace has just slipped out the back door of my mind as she keeps saying, “Wake up, Faye. Wake up. Wake up.”
And so I do.
“MOUSE?”
My mind feels like it’s been stuffed full of cotton balls. “Weldon?”
“No, it’s the crypt keeper. Of course it’s me.”
I try to open my eyes, but they feel like two locked doors, unwilling to open. “Are we dead?” I ask, wondering about Alesteria and my mother.
He snorts in my head. “I don’t know about you, but I hurt too damn much to be dead.” A brief pause. “I told you I wouldn’t let you die, you pain in the ass.”
I smile inwardly. “You did.” Another long pause. “It isn’t over yet, you know,” I say, thinking of Alesteria and all she said.
He sighs in my mind. “I know,” he says. “Just let me ride out these amazeballs pain meds a little longer. Reality can wait for tomorrow. After basically being thunder-clapped out of the Underground by the almighty Divine, I think I deserve it.”
My heart jolts. “Wait… what?”
“Yeah. You heard me right. And we were just getting to the good part too. I had that infected lymph node of a demon Bael right where I wanted him after Mack’s bombs went off, which worked against Mourdyn’s voice… who… let me tell you… is one ugly mug… but anyway. I had him, Faye. Was going to finally murder that son of a B word, when what seemed like lightning bolts dropped all around us, sucking each and every one of our armies up and dropping them back into the heart of Ethryeal City.”
“Holy mother,” I say, wishing I had seen it. Worrying if everyone made it out safe and okay.
Weldon snickers. “Yeah. Apparently, from what I gathered before I passed out, all Mourdyn had to do was sneeze and we would have all been dead. You weren’t awake, and only the Dagger of Retribution could have put him down. So we live to tell the tale another day. At least until we wake and the Divine start dishing out orders on how we’re going to fight against the king Darkyn himself.”
I try to swallow it all in.
“What about Claire? Meredith? Gavin?” I ask, nervous to know the answer. “Are they okay? Did everyone make it out okay?”
There’s a long pause. “I don’t know,” he says. “
I wound up like this before I had a chance to ask. Don’t ever quote me on this... but I guess I’m not as impenetrable as I thought.”
I try to calm myself. Tell myself that everyone has to be okay. If the Divine plucked them out of the Underground, then everyone I love should be accounted for.
But the pit in my stomach tells me otherwise.
I try with everything I have to open my eyes, fighting against the sedation I feel coursing through my veins.
“Hey, you,” Weldon says a second later. “Don’t leave me while we rest. The others can wait. We earned this.”
I half-smile. Feel my heart beginning to beat harder, stronger in my chest.
“You’re going to regret it,” he says, and I can almost see him shaking his head at me in my mind.
“Regret what?” I ask, my pulse already growing stronger. As my eyes begin to twitch.
“Waking up. You’re going to kick yourself for not riding this wave of peace and quiet.”
I don’t tell him I’ve had my fair share of quiet. And peace. “Weldon?”
“Yeah?”
“Stop being a pansy.”
And then I open my eyes.
“She’s awake!” Jaxen says, standing from his chair beside my bed. “Go get Mack and the Divine. She’s awake!”
Here’s a sneak peek into the conclusion of the Night Watchmen Series:
EVERMORE (NIGHT WATCHMEN, #5)
Coming Winter 2016!
This moment has been twenty-one years in the making.
The moment I stopped asking why, and started facing what’s always been in front of me—my destiny. I didn’t want to face it because I was scared. I was terrified of failing. Petrified of all that I’d lose in the process.
But not anymore.
Death does that to you. Giving in to the darkness for a greater purpose… it rearranges your priorities. Snuffs out all fears, because nothing is worse than death.
So now I know. Now I’m ready to accept it.
My destiny is simple—he was born to start this war, and I was born to end it.
Don’t miss the release date!
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♥ CANDACE KNOEBEL
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Candace Knoebel is the award-winning author of Born in Flames—book one in a young adult fantasy trilogy. She discovered in 2009 through lunch breaks and late nights after putting her kids to bed, a world where she could escape the ever-pressing days of an eight to five Purgatory. And an outlet for all the voices residing in her head.
Published by 48fourteen in 2012, Born in Flames went on to win Turning the Pages Book of the Year award in February of 2013. In January of 2014, the last book in the trilogy, From the Embers, was released, thusly completing the trilogy. She now works on the Night Watchmen Series, while guzzling Red Bulls and pretending to be a ninja on Heelys.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Everdeep (The Night Watchmen Series Book 4) Page 28
