by Jamie Magee
“Guess. I’m telling you, every time I saw us die, he was there.”
“Xavier,” we all said at once.
“Yep.”
“You think he stopped us before?” Draven asked, doing his best to mask his rage for this man.
“I think he killed the both of you before the eclipse, taking our chance away,” Madison said just before she winced and clenched her gut.
“What do we solve by killing him?” I asked, letting the peacemaker side of me surface.
“We stop him from all that he does. We release what he has taken,” Aden answered.
“Good point,” Madison agreed.
“And who’s to say that Xavier is really the quote-un-quote head of the snake? What if we are being played by a bigger source of evil who wants us out of the picture? Are we still worried about Monroe’s dad?”
“I don’t know,” Draven said. “Willow and Landen are just about halfway through their trials, halfway through his gateway. He could be pulling the strings. I really think they are not fighting over light and darkness. They are fighting over souls, the power in them.”
“I would agree with that,” I said. “Light and dark are in all souls.”
“We have to decide this together, guys,” Draven said. “I think...I think that if we know there is a way to divide again for sure, we should do this. Take this man down once and for all.”
I gripped his hand. “We would have to be one hundred percent sure.”
He nodded to agree with me.
“Did they say where we are going? Are we sure that box my mom left me is there?”
“The movie set,” Draven said as he turned to follow Landen’s Jeep down another street.
I took in a deep breath, trying to subdue my anxiety - but I was doing a horrible job at it. Madison was in agony.
“Is this going to be safe for these people? I mean, we are basically having an exorcism or something and using their energy to do so. There has to be some kind of wicked karma in store for us if they don’t know.”
“I thought about that,” Draven answered. “Dad knows this producer guy really well. He and his crew are way into the paranormal and such. The stage and all around where the people are going to be is going to be marked off with salt. Everyone is given bags of herbs to wear and told to enter at their own risk.”
“Yeah, but that’s not fair; they will just think it’s part of the show,” I argued.
“They wholeheartedly believe in darkness, witches, ghosts - you name it. They respect their producer, too. If he said to enter at your own risk, they would not take it as a joke. Apparently, they had a few unexplained things happen on the set as they filmed over the last year and a half.”
“All right, then,” Aden said as he relaxed in his seat. “If we know we can undo whatever, then we’ll try to kill that man tonight. If we can’t, at least we can figure out whether or not we can make a difference in that realm, cut off power to it.”
“I don’t know how these shadows are so corporeal. They’re looking for people,” I said glancing at the road we were turning onto.
We’d left the city and were now moving out toward more secluded areas. Large plantation homes were all that we were passing, and most of them were well hidden by massive trees and the moss that was hanging from them.
“A lot of bad stuff has happened here,” Aden said, “and these shadows are hanging on until they find their loved ones. Apparently, Witnesses hang out in towns like this, too, simply because the shadows can tell them where an Escort is and when it’s in action on a mass level.”
“As if one person was not a mass level,” Madison grumbled.
“Yeah, that’s what I said. But I guess those are harder to stop because that one person really thinks they are in love,” Aden said, catching Madison’s gaze.
“I don’t love him. I felt sorry for him. There is a big difference,” she bit out, referring to Britain.
“Can I say ‘Told you so’ just once?” Aden teased, managing to get a grin out of all of us.
“Go ahead. You can’t say or do anything that I haven’t already done to myself.”
“Just don’t rebound,” Aden said as his eyes carefully looked over her.
“If anything, Britain was a rebound.” Her tone was quiet, near ghostly.
Draven quickly looked at me, trying to see what he missed, but I didn’t have anything more than what she’d told me.
As we slowed down to turn into an old plantation, Aden reached out his arm for Madison to come closer, just trying to make her feel better. Suddenly, out of nowhere the Jeep was jolted up for no reason. The back tires were the only thing on the ground then it slammed back to the street.
Our hearts were beating out of control as we fearfully looked around at the other passing cars, the people along the streets. We couldn’t figure out who had attacked us or why.
Chapter Seventeen
Draven turned into the gate that was feet from us just before we all jumped out.
“What the hell?!” Madison bellowed, bending forward in obvious pain.
I ran to her side, trying to make sure she hadn’t hit her head or something.
“Madison, where does it hurt?!” I yelled.
“Inside!” she squealed through her teeth.
Landen, Chrispin, and Willow were there instantly. Willow’s hand calmed her down. Landen looked for anything to heal.
“It’s just her emotions,” he said to us as Willow walked out toward the street, I guess looking for a reason that it happened or following the emotions.
“What emotions? Fear?” I asked.
“They weren’t mine,” she said, taking in a deep, slow breath. “They were of rage, jealousy, betrayal. They came out of nowhere just as the Jeep went in the air.”
“What were you guys talking about? Doing?” Chrispin asked.
“Nothing. They were really calm,” Landen said as his eyes moved between Aden and Madison.
He was right. For a second, it was like old times, Aden teasing Madison just to make it up to her. They may be cousins, but they were more like siblings, best friends.
“If it’s dark, it’s not going to get in this gate. Go ahead and drive up. Austin said your dad and Nana were at the house with Monroe,” Landen directed.
“What if it’s not evil?” I asked as a chill went down my spine. I could swear I could feel those emotions Madison was talking about in the air around me. A harsh stare, to say the least.
Landen raised his eyebrows. “Then I guess I will have to figure out why it’s so jealous.”
Just as he said that, his sister appeared at his side. Clarissa glanced at us, then nodded for Landen to follow her away. I urged Madison in the backseat and sat next to her, determined to block her if I needed to. I didn’t know what was going on, but I already didn’t like this place.
The driveway was lined with massive trees. Even though they were hundreds of feet in the air, the gray moss dangling from their branches touched the ground. Random buses and trailers were lining the way, with people lingering around them.
The house we were told to go to could not be less than two hundred years old. It was massive, two stories tall, with aged white wood siding covering it. The porch itself was at least thirty feet wide, with pillars that were no less than five feet around.
Draven parked at the edge of the circled driveway, behind a semi that was being loaded with equipment. We all climbed out, getting nods and grins from the people who were lining up to add to the trailer’s load.
“You must be Evan’s boys,” an older man said as he stepped off the front porch. He had a thin gray beard and deep crow’s feet stretching out from his eyes. To say the least, he looked like he’d enjoyed both smiling and squinting throughout his entire life. “He’s in the great room off to the side. Looking forward to hearing you boys play the song that we have all heard a million times over the last few weeks.”
Draven reached to shake his hand. “Thanks for using it.”
“No, t
hank you for writing it. When I heard it, I knew it was perfect for this film,” he said, shaking Draven’s hand back. “I’m going to make sure everyone has their hex bags on. We’ll be ready to go at sundown. We plan on filming you - are you okay with that? Not camera shy, are you?” the man teased.
Draven blushed slightly. “The cameras are the last things I’m scared of tonight.”
“Agreed,” the man said with a wide grin. “I’ll tell you what: I’ve been on a lot of sets, but this one, this one didn’t need any help when it came to picking up on the aged darkness.” His eyes briefly scanned the house behind him as obvious memories of his time here echoed in his inquisitive expression. “We even had sightings. Soldiers would just show up on scene. We thought they were in costume, a joke. You should have seen the assistant producer’s face when he went to move him, but the vision vanished.”
“Are you serious? Were you filming?” Aden asked.
“Trying to. These ghosts, or whatever they are, like to drain batteries - spent more on that than any other expense for this site. We’d catch a wave of light or something, then everything would die. Finally, we just figured out when to film and the power of salt. Much cheaper than buying new equipment or batteries.”
Madison and I looked at each other, then at this guy, like he was insane. You would have thought we were talking about rodents or something.
We politely nodded to the man, then left Aden and Draven to talk to him. If Nana was here I wanted to talk to her.
This house carried every element of an old southern plantation home. It even smelled old; a deep musk was in the air. Parts of the floor squeaked in protest as we crossed it. One second it would be freezing. Walk a few more feet and it would be suffocating.
What looked like old servants - now corporeal shadowed images - crowded around downstairs. They were silent, but their stares were screaming at me. In my mind I could hear gunfire, smell blood, and feel the undeniable emotion of dread.
An image of a little girl gestured what direction we should walk in. I had to hold back tears as my mind played her voice in a forgotten time, yelling for her mother. It was clear she was still silently pleading for a response, still trying to find her mom.
The great room was just past the entry hall, and it looked more like a library than some big living room. Maybe the palace in Esterious had just raised my expectations or something.
Monroe was in the center of the room, sitting Indian style with her eyes closed. Evan was leaned back on the sofa with a really old book in his hand. Austin was next to him with a book that looked just as old, if not older. Nana was in the chair just behind Monroe. She saw us first, and the way she slowly rose from her seat with wide eyes would have led you to believe that it’d been years since we last saw her, not a few days.
I let my shoulders fall in relief as I walked to her outstretched arms.
“Oh my,” she said as she swayed me, then reached for Madison. “You guys have survived a lifetime in just days.”
“Use ‘survive’ loosely,” Madison said, squeezing her before walking over to Austin and nudging him to move over. “Listen, buddy, I’ll give you anything if you promise to stay within feet of me until we get back to Chara.”
“Are you alright?” Austin asked, reaching his arm around her as Evan made it to his feet.
“You’re just calm, balanced.”
“Still painful?” Austin asked her.
“More so.”
Evan reached to squeeze her shoulder before he walked over and hugged me.
“They’re outside,” I said to him, but at that moment Draven and Aden walked in the room - Evan had them both in his arms in that same breath.
The tears I was trying to hold back began to burn at the sight of their embrace. Evan was such a good dad, the only alive one I knew. This had to be killing him. Without even trying, I could see that he and Nana had been doing everything in their power to figure out what that wooden box had to do with us, why my mom left it. They had even researched every family line they could to try and understand if we’d lived before this life - with no luck.
“How is she?” I asked Nana as I glanced down at Monroe.
“Quiet. She let me see her, though, just long enough to assure me that all of you were okay. I’ve been watching this meditation. She goes really deep.”
“What is she seeing?” I asked, knowing the last time I looked into her that I’d just seen darkness.
“Flashes, blood, stairs, raging water,” Nana answered.
“Common theme,” I breathed. “Mom didn’t say anything to you?” I questioned knowing that the new memories in my mind had led me to believe that Nana and Evan had known all the while that something like this would happen.
Nana was blocking most of her thoughts from me. At first that didn’t strike me as odd, simply because I had never really dared to look into her past, or her thoughts. She was my mentor – not someone I needed to help.
Nana’s knowing glance eased over me silently telling me that she was not going to engage my newfound memories in any shape or form. “You know your mom: she keeps her deepest fears to herself. I knew she was planning to send Kara away, planning for you to leave. I knew that she’d been training someone to take over while she went on a hiatus, but I think she thought she had more time. That’s why her office was looking for her.”
“I just don’t get this message in a bottle stuff. Why not just tell me?” I complained.
Nana nodded toward where Monroe was. “You don’t know this, but your mom was a lot like Monroe as a girl. She only saw flashes, heard things here and there. She spent the greater part of her youth trying to fight it, block it out. Autumn helped her balance it. Your grandparents did not believe such things. Your great grandparents did, but they died when your mom was just a girl. I don’t think she had a clear answer to give you.”
That, or she was indeed on a stage, as Cashton had said more than once. As I thought of him once again I tried to figure out why he hadn’t popped in yet, Nana’s eyes focused on me, then a ghost of a smile came to the corners of her lips.
“You found him,” she whispered.
“He found me. Did Mom say something to you?” I questioned back just as quietly as I tried to see my answer.
“First time we taught her to see, help the dead, she said his name. She’s been looking for him since she was a girl.”
Tears welled in my eyes as I watched my mother through Nana’s memories. I knew that my mom was looking for him, but by all outward appearances she had no idea why.
“I wish she would have opened up to me, at the very least explained what she was feeling, what this message from her means.”
“She could have,” Nana said as her eyes wandered to the hall where the shadow images were still lingering. “But maybe she was telling you what she could, as safely as she could. If she laid too much out for you, someone or something could have seen that and used that information to confuse you, send you in the wrong direction.”
“I should call Kara.”
“No, let it be. I’ve talked to her every day. She thinks you’re happy and safe. If she knew otherwise, it could bring her more harm than good.”
I glanced down as I wiped away a tear that’d escaped.
“Where’s the wooden box?” I heard Draven ask.
“Right here,” Austin said, removing books from the massive coffee table in the center of the room. The wooden block was under them, along with notes in a different language.
“Did August figure anything out about it?” I asked.
“He says it’s like the scroll,” Austin answered. “You cannot read forward with the interpretation until the first step is done. Apparently, there are no less than ten possible languages on this thing. You have to figure out the first one in order to know what is next - and even then, the next step might be in a new language. In the end, it’s possible that they would make a pattern that will lead you to another source.”
“Could it be any mor
e impossible?” Madison said with a grunt. She looked so bad, like she was being eaten alive from the inside. I could even swear she was paler now.
“It could. This is not meant to fool you, but those who are trying to destroy you. It’s easy to think that the enemy has all the answers, but truth be told some of them may be just as blind as you,” Nana assured her.
Draven was kneeling down next to the table that centered the sofa, looking at the wood as if it were a poisonous snake. Aden mirrored him on the opposite side. They often moved in sync when they were around each other, and right now was no different. They both reached for the box, letting their fingertips run across the carvings on the outside of it. Nothing happened.
Over this entire jacked up situation, I briskly walked over and picked up the box like it was an ordinary object, rattling it to see if I could hear anything inside. In protest, Draven and Aden both reached for me. I turned just so I could shake it once, prove it was nothing but a piece of wood and move on with a new plan for tonight - redeem some souls and go home, forget the ‘combining’ business.
Because I was smaller than them, it was easy for me to dodge them - but somewhere in the mix of the three of us scrambling, a rush of air burst into my hands. Wide-eyed, the three of us stepped back. I was left holding the box, and I didn’t want to. I dropped it, but someone caught it with their energy before it hit the floor.
Nana leaned down to grasp it from the thin air, and as she did I realized who had stopped it from hitting the floor: Monroe.
“You’re awake,” I gasped.
“Hours earlier than she should be,” Austin said, standing to see what we did to the wood.
Nana gently set it down on the table, then removed the top. Inside, lying on purple velvet were two knives - but they were not your everyday daggers. The handles looked like frozen flowing water or glass. The blades were jagged, so sharp that even the dim room highlighted each point.
I fell to my knees as the air in my lungs left me. Everything was telling me that Bianca was a liar, that she was playing us just to destroy us - but the proof was right there. Monroe waking before the end of her seemingly forced meditation was a sign we were moving in the right direction.
