Evermore (The Night Watchmen Series Book 5)

by Candace Knoebel

  The fear comes gunning back in full force.

  Eliza is now on her feet, laughing as she looks on while Cecilia sways weakly on her feet before she falls into the chair. “Well, Ceci. I don’t know what to say. For once, you’ve left me speechless. Something I didn’t think you were capable of doing.”

  “Do what must be done,” Cecilia says, speaking directly to me. “Trust that this is the way. The city should never have turned its back on our people. All witches deserve refuge.” She’s coaching me, nodding, filling me with strength, and then she breaks away and looks to Eliza. “You better go now, brother. The night has only just begun for you.”

  I don’t get a chance to ask her why before Eliza’s hand clamps on my arm and a shadow engulfs us.

  I’M THROWN ONTO AN UNEVEN wooden floor slick with a mossy overgrowth. Boards stick up in random spots. There’s a moldy smell to the air, like algae and rotting garbage. Candles are the only source of light, glowing brightly from sconces nailed to the wall.

  I pick myself up, trying to sort through the swarm of thoughts and pain crushing my insides as feet shuffle and voices mumble somewhere in front of me.

  “Put her in the machine,” I hear his voice say. A voice I could never forget. It makes me think of snakes and bugs and all the vile, dark things in the world.

  Two hands move in behind me, linking underneath and around my armpits with a tight squeeze. There isn’t any time to think this through as the air grows heavier, thicker. I know this was the whole point. I know this is what Sanura and I wanted, but now that the moment is here, I suddenly feel hot and cold. Like I’d rather run and fight than stay and succumb to the pain once again.

  This time, there is no Weldon. There is no friend I can say goodbye to.

  Everything swims back into focus as the rusted doors to the Exanimator swing open. I make out his shape near the windowsill in the large, empty room. Long and thin, like a serpent standing on two feet. There’s a large painting, taking up half the wall next to him, of a man with sinister eyes with a boy perched next to him, looking lost and alone.

  We’re in his house.

  A second later, I’m thrown into the Exanimator and held back against the leather cushion by one of his witches, while another one straps me in. In a matter of minutes, I have gone from the safety of Ethryeal City to find myself right back inside the one thing I never wanted to see again.

  And I did so willingly.

  Mourdyn appears in my line of vision a moment later, and he isn’t anything at all like I’d seen in the portraits of him. His skin is paper thin and equally as see-through. Eyes like watered-down milk. His hands are coated in thick black veins that cover every inch of skin and crawl up toward his biceps.

  “At last, Everlasting, we finally meet in person,” he says, his voice a slithering sound.

  “Took you long enough. I thought you’d stay burrowed like the rat you are,” I seethe, trying not to succumb to my own fear.

  He smiles, but there is nothing pleasant about the gesture.

  He inhales sharply and turns, pacing in front of me. “I find it disturbingly interesting how easy it was to get you here. I thought for sure you’d put up more of a fight,” he says as he comes back to a stop in front of the machine. “I guess you aren’t as powerful as you thought, are you?”

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you let me out and we can find out?” I say through clenched teeth. If he only knew how powerful I am now. How far I’ve come.

  What I have in store for him.

  He chuckles, the sound like nails scraping against metal. “Eliza, please get the machine ready. I’d like to get this over with.” He turns back to me and explains, “I’m not one for conversations. It seems so trivial, doesn’t it? I tell you how I’m going to take your life. You counter with some kind of jeer meant to inflict fear.” I struggle against the straps as he moves closer, inches away from the glass. “We both know what’s at stake here, and it seems I have the upper hand despite all your meddlesome actions.” He sucks in a sharp breath, turning his face into the moonlight steaming through the large window. “It was nice meeting you, Faye Middleton, even if it was brief.”

  He disappears a second later, probably going to hook himself into the machine. I have to train my brain to remain calm. To think of Sanura and what we discussed and pray that I’ll have the strength to do what she said I could. I don’t let the doubt pinging at the back of my mind surface. I hear clicking and twisting, and then, all at once, blinding pain overcomes me as the Exanimator is turned on.

  The moment the pain hits, I shut it off. Squash it below the hatred, letting my anger fuel me. It doesn’t take but seconds for the first wave of power from the machine to subside as it regenerates, preparing for another pull. When it does, I turn my power on, searching for the source of energy the same way I did on the hunt with Gavin. It’s pulsing around me in vibrant waves I want to ride on. I don’t have to be facing Mourdyn’s direction to find his. It’s like a black stain in the middle of color. I send a fist of volation toward it and latch on just as the second wave of power releases from the machine.

  The pain doesn’t hit me like it did before. It’s stinging like tiny wasps against my skin. I compel the machine to pull harder, to drain me faster, all the while tethering myself to Mourdyn loop by loop, like a spider spinning its web. I hear him calling out over the strikes of electricity, begging Eliza to shut it off, and I think this might not work. Maybe I won’t be able to stop him after all.

  But the machine never shuts off. I don’t know if it’s because she has woken up and decided to help, or if I am losing my mind. All I know is the weight of death is crushing hard and fast, and I need to remain focused on Mourdyn so I can keep a hold of him… even in death.

  My vision wavers in and out. I see flashes of someone moving in front of me, banging against the glass, but I can’t make them out as my eyes glue shut.

  This time, I don’t think about the things I didn’t do. I don’t think about not being able to say goodbye because I’m not alone. I feel Sanura with me, waiting, nudging me forward.

  I think about Cecilia’s sacrifice and Katie’s chance at a better life. About Cassie’s smile and Jaxen’s kiss.

  And then it all slips away.

  THE DWELLING WELCOMES US WITH open arms.

  We’re spit out into the middle of the cotton field, feet away from the small hut. I’m immediately on my feet, fighting the dizzying, sickening swell of death that presses against my lungs and my heart. Mourdyn is inches away from me, lying flat on his stomach, face pressed against a crushed cotton plant. I leave him there and search for her.

  “Sanura?” I shout, scanning the field.

  I don’t see anything.

  I try to ignore the sickness growing inside me, pushing its way up my throat.

  “Sanura!” I shout louder this time, desperate to find her. Splinters of fear dig into every nerve of my body.

  She steps out of the hut, looking just as I had seen her the last time I was here. “I’m here,” she says with a comforting smile. “I just wanted to make sure I had a few things ready.”

  I stumble forward, trying to remain upright even though my legs are wobbling and my feet are twisting in.

  “I have to say I feel much better here than I did in your world. I think death becomes me.” She catches me when I fall into her arms, as the pain I had kept locked away surfaces all at once. It’s like a knife pressing behind my eyelids. Like my veins being ripped from my skin.

  “It… hurts,” I mutter through chattering teeth as she drags me to the porch and sets me down.

  “That’s because you don’t belong here, girl,” she says as she moves past me, toward the field. “I told you last time and I’ll tell you again. This is no place for a girl like you.” She disappears within the stalks of cotton and reappears moments later, dragging Mourdyn by the arms. His head hangs loose like a broken doll, feet catching every so often over roots and weeds.

  “I didn’t�
� anchor myself,” I say as I wrap my arms around my middle. I’m so very cold.

  “You sure about that?” she asks as she lifts his body up with magic and drops it into the corroded tub. His head falls back against the edge as he groans, only just waking up. She reaches for a rope hanging off a hook nailed to the side of the hut, and then begins to tie him up like a hog by the feet.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I say as the edges of my vision begin to blacken and blur.

  She looks up to the sky, which seems to be cracking in half. “Looks to me like you have a ride to catch.”

  I feel it then… the hand braced against mine. His voice urging me to come back.

  Weldon.

  Mourdyn stirs and moans. “Where am I?”

  I turn back. Watch as Sanura bends to a squat so she’s eye level with him. It takes him a second to register who he’s looking at, but, when he does, he jolts upright, only to be shoved back down again by her magic.

  “Sanura!” he says, his tone light and hopeful. “How are you… Where am I…” He’s looking around, moving like a desperate fish out of water until he realizes there’s nowhere for him to go. No way for him to move. “What is this?” he asks, his tone a striking command. “Why am I bound like this?”

  Sanura takes her time as she stands and then rests her hands on the edge of the tub, looking down at him. “This is hell, baby,” she says, the words rolling out effortlessly across a red carpet she’d been waiting for. His eyes widen in alarm, and then he opens his mouth to protest but is quieted with a flick of her hand.

  She looks to me, wearing a satisfied, grateful grin. “Thank you, Faye,” she says as winds begin to rip around us. “You have taught me that not all hunters are bad.” She pauses and looks down to Mourdyn as she adds, “And not all witches are good. Go,” she says when meets my eyes again. “Live for the both of us. Love. Be in a world without his darkness. I will make sure he never forgets you, my boys, or any other who he has brought harm to.”

  Mouse, please. You can’t go like this, I hear Weldon say. The world shakes me like bugs in a jar, and I realize it’s him shaking me, trying to pull me back.

  I look up to the sky.

  “Go!” Sanura shouts behind me.

  I reach out to Weldon just as Mourdyn’s pained scream slashes through the air, and I go.

  WELDON IS CRYING.

  His tears are warm and hot against the freezing cold of my skin. He has me strewn across his lap, rocking me back and forth, head tucked against my neck. “Please, mouse,” he begs on the edge of a sob that rips my heart in two. “I know I’m not easy to get along with, but I swear I will try harder if you only come back to me.”

  “You promise?” I say, my voice sounding like it’s been dragged through sand.

  He pulls back. Sucks in a breath as his eyes roam over me. “You’re back!” he says, eyes wide with hope.

  “It seems death can’t keep me down,” I try to joke, but it’s lost in the swell of the moment as Weldon crushes me against him, squeezing out what little air I have left.

  “Damn you, Faye! I knew you were about to do something stupid, but I believe what just happened surpassed stupidity,” he says, trying to scold me even though it doesn’t sound right coming from him.

  “Why are you here?” I ask, trying to piece together what happened. “I thought you were out cold with Jaxen and Jezi.” It all comes crashing down on me then. I jolt upright. “The city. The Darkyns are going to invade. We have to warn them!”

  Weldon doesn’t make any rush to move. “There are no Darkyns, Faye,” he says quietly.

  I look around the room as it dawns on me. There wasn’t anyone here when Eliza brought me here either, save for the two witches who put me into the machine whose blood now pools around us.

  Cecilia’s vision…

  “Turns out, not even the worst of our kind is willing to follow a leader who plows through them like blood bags to a vampire. Once the veil was pierced, they showed up like Eliza said they would, but not to fight. They turned themselves in willingly, asking for protection from Mourdyn.”

  I sit up, trying to find my bearings. Cecilia’s words replay in my head. “She said all witches deserve refuge. She was talking about the Darkyns. That’s why… that’s why she stabbed herself... so they could enter the city.”

  “She what?” Weldon asks.

  “She stabbed herself to break the tie their magic had with the city so the Darkyns could invade… but she must have known they wouldn’t. She must have known they just needed a safe place to hide.”

  He plows a hand through his hand. “That’s what’s so annoying about witches and their visions… they can never happen in a timely manner. It’s always last minute, after all the bullshit has happened.”

  There’s a small moment of silence as everything sinks in.

  I look to him. “How did you… how did you know to come?”

  “Eliza’s an idiot. Witch concoctions don’t work on me. The demon blood in me burns right through them. I heard what was happening, but figured I’d stay low and follow so I could warn the others and help you. I knew you’d think I wasn’t there, which is what I wanted ever since the moment you decided to bind yourself with Sanura without telling me.”

  I open my mouth to protest.

  He points to my head, shushing me. “We’re in this together, remember? Connected. I hear what you think you’re hiding from me.”

  My eyes press into a hard line.

  He chuckles. “Anyway, I jumped with you and waited in the shadows. I knew you needed to get in the machine. That much I gathered from your little meeting with Sanura who, by the way, does an excellent job of blocking. I could barely make out what you discussed with her. Just enough to know the machine was important. I just didn’t know the extent until it was too late. I drained those two asshats of blood.” He pauses and adds through the side of his mouth, “I was a little hungry. Needed some strength since you used a lot of mine to shadow walk. And then I took Eliza out and tried to shut the machine off, but you know me and being nervous around it… It took me a minute to remember the switches.”

  I look around the machine and notice an arm across the ground, the ring on the Eliza’s finger glinting under the candlelight. “You didn’t…”

  “Kill her? No. I figured I’d leave that up to the brother who enjoys that kind of thing. Besides, I don’t think she was all there in the head anyway. Whenever you and Mourdyn died, there was this black ooze that came out of her mouth.” He shivers. “It was disgusting.”

  “The mind control,” I say, thinking of Sanura and what I saw around her in the vision.

  “Where did you go?” he asks.

  “Back to the Dwelling with Sanura. She’s there now, with endless days to torture him.”

  “Sounds kinky,” he says as he stands, offering me a hand. “You good enough to head back? I feel like I’m catching the black mold being in here.”

  I look around as I stand, strength returning to my limbs. There’s a sadness to the dilapidated features, rotting away into nothing. The roof is nearly caving in. The floors are doing the same.

  The house was built on the foundation of pain, and the pain has finally swallowed it whole.

  “Let’s go,” I say, reaching for Weldon’s hand. Smiling all the way to my soul.

  I take my first real breath. Feel the old Faye waving to me, calling me back to her.

  From now on, there will be no more Mourdyn. No more Darkyns. No more war. I’ve found the peace I’ve been searching for my whole life, and I found it in a way I least expected.

  I found it through my own strength.

  A strength I didn’t know existed. A strength brought out by everyone I love.

  A strength I will pass on to my future children.

  Weldon smiles at me, and in his smile, I know everything will be okay from here on out. We did it. No matter what we return to… no matter how much work it will take to rebuild the Coven back into a strong, united
unit… we did it.

  And we will continue to conquer anything that ever steps in our way, one fist at a time.

  JAXEN COVERS MY EYES, WALKING me forward, and then stops. “I’m going to let go now, so you better not peek.”

  “I won’t, I swear!” I say, laughing, feeling as if my heart will burst from my chest.

  I hear his footsteps move away from me, crunching through snow.

  “Your man went through hell to make this happen,” Katie says beside me, the thrill in her voice lifting the hairs on the back of my neck. “I told you to wife him.”

  “Which is why I did,” I say, holding up my newly ringed finger, still keeping my eyes shut.

  Katie chuckles as Jezi groans from somewhere behind me. “Lucky you. At least your man catches a hint.” I hear her elbowing Weldon, giggling with every grunt he makes. “It doesn’t matter how many pictures of rings I leave laying around our place, he still doesn’t get it.”

  “Woman!” he says, voice edged with a chuckle, “I told you it will happen when it’s meant to. I don’t understand why there’s a rush. Our relationship… it’s like a fine wine… it’s only going to get better with age.”

  Everyone collectively groans.

  “And what are your jokes? Beer? ‘Cause they sure don’t get better with age,” Cassie jests.

  Gavin lets out a ripping chuckle I’m sure has shaken all the snow from the trees.

  “Okay!” I hear Jaxen shout from somewhere in front of me. “You can open your eyes now!”

  I do, and all the breath leaves my lungs. Every fiber bursts with joy. Every muscle clamps up in excitement. We’re standing in front of the house I grew up in, lit up with every Christmas light I could ever imagine.

  “Jaxen!” I say, stumbling through the snow as my hands swing up to my mouth.

  He rushes over and lifts me up, twirling me through the air. “Merry Christmas, Faye,” he says before planting a big kiss against my lips.