by Kat Cotton
Pain overtook me and I curled into a ball. As I did, the darkness surrounding us called to me, telling me to use it, draw from it.
She’d been a fool to bring me to a place that strengthened me.
I stretched out my hand, gathering power. Tiny wisps at first, but those threads grew stronger and stronger.
My lungs filled with that darkness. My strength returned.
I gulped it in, like a thirsty man guzzling water.
Coldness crept inside me with it. All the dark things I hid crawled out, slimy and slithering. Every nightmare of my past gathered. Voices screamed that I was evil coming from a hundred different places. Each foster home and orphanage.
Before I fully regained strength, she blasted me. The strike convulsed through my body with a raw, metal edge. Dragging like a knife blade over my skin.
I didn’t stay down for long. I drank in more of that darkness, letting it fill me no matter what the cost.
The memories flooding through me got worse. I’d done things I wasn’t proud of. Stealing and fighting. I could justify that I’d been hungry or backed into a corner but sometimes I’d done worse. In the orphanage, when the older girls had beaten up Kimmy Lee, I’d hidden in the shadows, watching and trembling. I could’ve saved Kimmy Lee. I could’ve saved so many others, too.
I hurled more of my power at Mrs. Worthington, blazing a blue light through the darkness.
She screamed this time. Her purple light grew weaker.
“You know you’re evil,” she screamed. “You’ve crossed the line so many times in order to survive, and each time, you’ve lost some of your humanity.”
Yeah, I knew that. Still, I grabbed for more of the dark power.
“You’ll become darker and darker until you can’t turn back. And, while you’re connected with Ren, you’ll drag him down with you. You’ll make him suffer beyond belief.”
I hesitated. I hadn’t considered Ren. I could hurt myself but I couldn’t hurt him, no matter how much he hurt me.
“There’s only one way out of this and you know it. You need to be removed. Let him have the life he deserves.”
I sucked in my breath, her words getting to me.
“It’ll be quick and painless.” She spoke softly now, concern tempering her voice. “And, once you’re gone, he’ll be able to live in freedom. That’s what he wants most in life. You hurt him. You’ll keep hurting him, worse and worse each time.”
“No,” I whispered, pleading with her to stop. “No.”
“Your parents never wanted this. They were scared of your potential. They wanted it to stop but, before they could do that, he killed them.”
I hugged my knees, sobbing and trying not to listen. She lied. She had to be lying. She wanted to destroy me.
“Didn’t you ever wonder why you were alone the night they were killed? You were five years old. Parents don’t leave a young child alone. They left the house because you were supposed to die that night. The plans had been set in motion — then he interfered.”
That’s what my mother had been talking about in the garden. No. She’d said the sun and star would join. I remembered that. But I’d been young. Maybe I hadn’t remembered it right. Maybe my mother had been looking at me with disgust that day.
Chills cut me right to my bones. My parents had left me to die and the one to save me had been Mr. Worthington. Not because he cared but because he had his own design for me.
My sobs grew louder.
“I couldn’t kill you then but I bound your powers. I thought that would be enough.”
Had she done that? For years, whenever I needed to use my powers, pain ripped me apart, like a steel band cutting into my head. I’d thought I had no usable powers until the night Ren kissed me at the dance. Anger flashed through me. How dare she?
But that anger couldn’t be sustained. Not with her calm but mocking voice burrowing into my brain.
“You are born from shadows. You draw death.”
“No, no, no...”
“If you live, they’ll all die. The little blond fae, the wolf, the witch, the elf and the demon. Your life puts them all at risk. They’ll die, one by one until only Ren remains... then you’ll destroy him too...”
“Okay!” I screamed into the darkness. “Okay, do what you must.”
Chapter 41
IT ALL MADE SENSE. What was the point of living anyway? I’d been lucky to survive as long as I had, considering.
An oppressive weight pressed down on me, the burden of living had become too much to bear.
I rolled on my side, curling into a ball. Hugging my knees so tight that my fingers dug into my flesh. If I could, I’d curl into myself until I completely disappeared.
Because of me, Mr. Norton was in hospital. Because of me, Angela had been attacked and left for dead. Because of me, Nova almost had his brains fried out.
People kept getting hurt, and it was all my fault. She was right. I was born of shadows. I drew death.
Who would be next? Britney? Lucas? Ren?
The metal edges of Mrs. Worthington’s power pressed against me, cold and sharp. She said they’d all die, one by one, and it’d be my fault. Her words touched something inside of me that said she wasn’t wrong. Hurting the ones I loved was my destiny. If my death kept them safe, then I had to die.
No one could love me, not even my parents.
Giving up became the only option. One of us had to die, and that could never be Ren.
I battled all the bad things inside of me, all those vicious and murky thoughts, but how long could I keep doing that? Eventually, that evil would grow too strong for me to resist.
Ren knew it, too. He’d proved it. Every time I got close to him, he pulled away from me. I’d thought that was because he was a jerk. I’d blamed him, but I’d been wrong.
He sensed the evil in me, and it repelled him.
The smoke thickened, wrapping around me in small tendrils. I could fight. I could gather more power. But that power didn’t belong to me. It was tainted and wrong.
It would be easiest to just succumb. To death and darkness and oblivion.
Already, the festering smell of death approached.
Curling into a tighter ball, I waited for Mrs. Worthington to strike. She’d won. Fine. No point lingering.
That stink grew closer like vultures circling. Rotten meat. Decay. Death.
My stomach heaved. My eyes watered. I’d vomit. I didn’t want to die in a pool of my own vomit. I focused on my breaths, making them shallow and light. Death I could handle, but I didn’t want to rot.
“Where is my ring?” Mr. Quiller’s voice bellowed through the darkness.
Huh? That wasn’t the putrid stench of my impending doom but the very real smell of vampires.
I sat up, twisting Farran’s ring on my finger. We’d made a deal and Mr. Quiller wanted to collect on that before I died.
I pulled up my t-shirt, pressing it against my face to block that stink, prepared to take off the ring and fling it at him. If he wanted that stupid ring, he could have it. It’d be no use to me dead.
“I won’t let you have it.” Mrs. Worthington’s odor of violets mingled with the death and decay.
“I demand its return.”
Jeez, were the two of them going to fight to pry that ring off my dead carcass? Come on, already. A quick death is a good death.
The smoke around me dissipated. The darkness cleared a little.
Had Mr. Quiller done that? Like even the dark and the smoke couldn’t stand his stink.
The formless ground beneath my butt became colder and more solid. I put my hand down to steady myself. It felt like marble. Around me, a room took shape. While still dark and nebulous, I made out pillars that rose to some kind of roof, giving the feeling of a great hall.
“You can’t stop me from taking what’s mine.” Mr. Quiller’s roar shook the air. Mr. Quiller was not happy,
He stood in an illuminated doorway with darkness behind him.
Could he fight her? She was more powerful than an ancient vampire and a whole lot more crazy. If I was a betting person, I’d definitely put my money on Mrs. Worthington.
I could see her now, not just the purple light. Wild-eyed and contorted face, she stood on the opposite side of the hall to me. Could I get to Mr. Quiller before her? It didn’t seem so, and I had no idea if he’d even help me. He’d obviously answered my message but I couldn’t exactly pull my phone out here, and I doubted this place even had reception.
“I can and will stop you.” Mrs. Worthington’s laughter mocked him. That laughter echoed around the hall, bouncing off the walls until there seemed to be nothing in this world but her evil laugh.
Movement in the darkness behind Mr. Quiller caught my gaze. No wonder that death smell was so intense. He had an army of vampires.
“You think that will scare me?” Mrs. Worthington said.
Since she’d stopped her mocking laugh, I figured the answer was yes, and she was trying to bluff him.
A sharp burst of purple light shot through the hall, skimming Mr. Quiller’s head and exploding behind him.
Vampire shrieks curdled my blood. They’d been hit. There were an awful lot of vampires, though.
Maybe I’d hold off on that whole dying thing for a while. It’s not every day you get to watch a vampire army versus whatever the hell Mrs. Worthington was fighting. Mr. Quiller had to have a few more tricks up his sleeve, too.
He still stood in the door but the light had changed so that his white suit seemed to glow.
“Oh, Grace. Do you think I’d battle you without some collateral to tie your hands?”
Yeah, I knew it.
Mr. Quiller stepped to the side.
Everything around me went silent — Mrs. Worthington, the vampires, the whole lot. I craned my neck to get a better look. This had to be something super awesome.
Ren.
My stomach dropped so fast, I thought I’d vomit. It couldn’t be. I blinked and looked again. Most definitely Ren.
How had Mr. Quiller managed to capture Ren to use as a hostage? Did he plan on swapping Ren for the ring? I guess that’d work since Mrs. Worthington was going through some pretty serious mother bonding.
I tried getting to my feet while Mrs. Worthington’s metallic screech set every nerve in my body on edge. I’d thought that vampire army was bad but she really turned it up a notch.
I had to get to Ren, though. She couldn’t have him and neither could Mr. Quiller. Everything I’d done had been to save Ren. Now Mr. Quiller dragged him into the pits of danger.
Ren wasn’t a pawn that the two of them could push around. Neither of us were.
Anger welled up in me. Screw dying. I had bigger fish to fry.
Before I even got to my feet, Mrs. Worthington rushed to Ren.
“My baby,” she screamed. “No!”
Mr. Quiller sprang in front of her. “You’ll not have the boy until I get my way. I don’t just want the ring, I want the girl wearing it.”
My heart wrenched. No. That was not going to happen.
I ran to Ren. The two of us working together would have a lot more chance here.
“You can’t have her, she must die.”
Mr. Quiller sighed. “Grace, that time in Sunnyhills didn’t do a lot for your mental health.”
Before I reached Ren, light exploded and columns of white light sprung up around him, like a cage protecting him, but protecting from what?
“Ren!” Mrs. Worthington stood near the cage. “I can’t save you if you don’t let me close.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be saved.” Ren folded his arms. “I think I get a say in this.”
Yes, that sounded more like the real Ren. Had Mr. Quiller bought him here as a hostage or had he come himself?
Mrs. Worthington pointed at me. “But she’ll destroy you. It’s all in the prophecy.”
Mr. Quiller leaned on the door frame, arms folded with a bemused smile. The penny dropped. Mr. Quiller had used me. Duh! He wanted her dead and needed her in her corporeal state to kill her. I’d done exactly that for him.
Her gaze found Mr. Quiller, that hate stare fixing on him. She sprang, but vampires flooded into the room, blocking her way.
Mr. Quiller rose up and up until he hovered high above us. Some of the other vampires flapped into the air. I thought they’d escaped Mrs. Worthington but she rose up too, sprinkling that purple light around in explosive bursts.
While they were occupied, I ran to Ren. I’d make him see sense and get him out of here intact.
“You should leave.” I poked at one of the columns to see what it did.
Ouch. That stung like heck.
“I’m not leaving.” His gaze on me made me all hot and bothered.
“It’s okay, I’ve accepted my fate.” My chest tightened as I said the words but I couldn’t let him get hurt. I needed him to see sense and get out of here.
We couldn’t see the fight from here and had no idea where his mother had gone, but whether Mr. Quiller killed her or she killed him, it didn’t change my destiny. I’d die here today.
“Leave now,” I told Ren again. “Can you move? Can you get out of that cage?”
There had to be a way out. With Mrs. Worthington distracted by the fight, already the light bars faded. Soon, he could be free and he could run.
“I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”
I sighed. I always knew that guy was a complete idiot.
Chapter 42
“WE CAN GET OUT TOGETHER.” Ren’s heart pounded so loud, I could hear it over the squeals of vampires and the weird cackling of his mother. “Quick. While she’s distracted.”
The bars of the cage had faded enough now that maybe he could get out with some minor injuries. He stood so close to me that only those thin bars kept us apart.
“Yeah but go where? She’ll find you again, no matter what. And did you miss the part about me accepting my destiny?” My heart pounded just as hard as Ren’s.
“I didn’t miss it, I just chose to ignore it because you don’t mean it one little bit.”
I spluttered. “She said my parents wanted me dead. She said you’d die, all of you.”
“Well, she would. She’s messing with your head. Just like she messed with mine back in the scholarship room. As soon as she left, I started coming back to my senses.” He ducked his head. “Sorry.”
Wow, that was like the third time ever Ren had apologized to me for something.
“But you can sense it.” I reached for his hand between the bars. “The darkness, the evil growing inside me. It’s going to consume me, I know it.”
“It’s not growing, it’s always been there, but there’s so much more too. Light and hope and goodness.” He paused and swept a lock of hair behind my ear. A simple gesture that made me shiver in the midst of this chaos. “You’re not evil, Cherry. Nothing about you is evil. Look at them, the two of them fighting to control us. That’s evil.”
Ren stood so close that his breath grazed my skin as he spoke, but this was no time for getting thirsty.
“Why did you decide you’d let yourself die?”
I didn’t look at him. I hated to tell him what my destiny would be.
“She said I’d end up killing everyone. Not just you, but Britney and Lucas and Tarragon and Nova — no wait, she never mentioned Nova — but the rest of you.”
“Evil people don’t sacrifice themselves to save their friends. They don’t make deals to save their enemies, or whatever Angela is. They don’t care about other people. Cherry, your heart isn’t made of darkness. It’s made of marshmallows and other gooey stuff.”
I tried to grin. “Like parfaits?”
“Yep, you have a big, gooey parfait heart.” Ren laughed. “I’ve been confused myself lately, and maybe a bit less forgiving than I should’ve been. You haven’t repelled me. I’ve just needed to work things out.”
Boom!
I jumped as a shaft of purple light slammed the
wall behind us, spraying me with stone fragments. The howling and shrieking around us proved we had little time left. It was either run now or don’t run at all.
“Where do we even go?” I looked around, no exit except that doorway.
Ren grabbed my hand. “Out through the door then keep going — and rely on luck and magic.”
Relying on luck and magic didn’t work for me.
“We could fight. Together.”
“And then what? I can’t kill her. She’s my mother.” Ren sizzled as he walked out of the cage. “We don’t have enough control to fight without endangering her life. If we run now, we can buy some time to think of a solution.”
I gulped.
“What about the vampire army? We have to get through all of them.” Some of those vamps looked mighty bloodthirsty and I had blood aplenty.
“They won’t hurt you. They won’t harm me while I’m with you. That’s what Mr. Quiller said.”
“Do you trust him?”
Ren shrugged. “I guess we have to.”
I nodded. Mr. Quiller might not be the nicest guy around but, in all my dealings with him, he’d never lied to me.
The two of us ran with all our might, holding hands until a snarling vampire smashed between us. I reached for Ren, but he’d veered to the left and I’d veered the right.
The sounds of the battle raging above us faded because all I could hear was the hammering of my heart. Even without Ren next to me, I had to keep running. I sucked in deep breaths, air putrid with smoke and vampire decay and violets. The whole time, I kept my eyes on the door. If we reached that door, we’d be on our way to freedom.
I ducked and weaved as the vampires surged one way and I ran the other. They might not be able to harm me but their shoulders pummeled me as I ran, and their bodies slammed against me.
Exploding light made me skid to a standstill. My head shattered with sharp, shooting pain.
I couldn’t see, I couldn’t move. I could only scream. I’d never get out of here while I was temporarily blinded.
Someone grabbed my hand. Had that fool Ren come back to save me?
He guided me through the hall and I relaxed a little, putting all my efforts into running instead of dodging and weaving.
