Midheaven (Ascendant Trilogy Book 2)

by Rebecca Taylor

  He pulled while I pushed until I was on my feet again. “So sorry,” he said quickly, then rushed away. He entered the middle of a crowd huddled at the base of the Buddha and disappeared.

  I felt something in my hand, when I looked I saw he’d pressed a folded up piece of paper into my palm.

  Before I could think, I headed out the door towards the crowd he’d slipped into, but then stopped. I looked around, wondering, then moved back inside and looked for the nearest restroom.

  That man had knocked me down on purpose just so he could give me this note—privately. I decided to believe he had his reasons. Inside the last stall of the women’s bathroom, I unfurled the tightly folded paper.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Golden God

  “Where’s my Coke?”

  I sat down on the bench next to Aaron and tried to figure out how to tell him what just happened. He should read the note for himself, but as I scanned the crowd, the note’s warning kept me from handing it over.

  “The key keeper isn’t going to meet us here,” I said.

  Aaron pulled his eyes from his phone and sat back against the bench. I worried he would make a scene but he didn’t. Very casually, Aaron looked the other direction, ran his hand through his hair, and crossed one leg over the other. The total effect was of a man with nothing but waiting and hanging around on his mind. It was only when he spoke that I could hear the urgency he felt, “What’s happened?”

  I sat back next to him, shoving my hands between my knees to keep them still. “A man, I think it may have been the key keeper, bumped into me and handed me a note.”

  “You read it.”

  “Yes.”

  “In public?”

  “No, in the bathroom.”

  “And?”

  “It said we are being watched.”

  Aaron leaned his head back, as if admiring the view of the sky above us or stretching his neck. “Tell me exactly, word for word, what it says.”

  “You are being watched here. Come to the cave near the Immortal Peak Temple, I have the key and information you need.”

  Aaron looked forward again, his eyes fixed on the giant Buddha. “That’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  He shifted his jaw and I heard the crack of the joint adjusting. For a long while, he didn’t say anything, only stared out ahead of us as if transfixed. When I couldn’t stand waiting any longer I asked, “Well? What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking a lot of things right now.”

  “I think we should go. It says he has the key.”

  “Of course it does. When you want an animal to walk into a trap, you place a piece of juicy red meat in the center of it.”

  We sat on the bench for fifteen more minutes while Aaron contemplated our options. We could stay here, see if the key keeper showed up in spite of this note. We could go to the Immortal Peak Temple and trust that what the note said was the truth. Or, we could decide the whole thing was too risky and just leave.

  “We could try and make contact with the key keeper at a later time,” Aaron suggested.

  “And come back? Again?”

  “If it means taking the safest option, then yes.”

  “Couldn’t we just head down there, check it out.”

  “Check it out? If there are people waiting for us, watching us, they will probably be tracking our every move.” He turned to me. “Given your recent midnight excursion to meet your star crossed lover, I’m betting he has something to do with this change in plans.”

  I shook my head and looked away from him.

  “I need to know now, Charlotte. Why did you meet him? And for that matter, how were you even in contact with him? I’m watching your every move, you haven’t used your phone to call anyone other than your uncle, I check it, and there—”

  “Wait! You check my phone?”

  Aaron gave me a look like I couldn’t be serious. “For almost a year now, but what I want to know about is Hayden.”

  “And I want to know about my privacy.” I realized how easy it would have been for Aaron while we worked at the library, all he had to do was wait until I was away from the front desk and reach into my bag under the counter.

  “You don’t have any—happy now? How did he know where we were? And how did you arrange to meet up with him?”

  I wanted to be irritated with him for invading my privacy, but there was no time for petulance. “We’re connected,” I whispered. “He can sense my thoughts by entering the astral plane.”

  “What do you mean…he can read your mind?” he asked alarmed by the possibility.

  “Not exactly, it’s hard to explain. When Hayden is in the astral plane, he can come to me, especially when I’m asleep. He’s been entering my dreams for months, although I didn’t realize it was intentional on his part until just recently when Mohan explained to me how the astral plane works. When Mohan helped me cross for the first time, Hayden showed up, that’s how I knew we could communicate with each other, even visit each other. Yesterday, I went into the plane hoping to connect with my mom.”

  “And you got Hayden instead.”

  I shrugged. “I knew it was likely…I think he spends a lot of time there—”

  “Doing what?”

  I looked up into Aaron’s eyes, “Just, waiting I think. Waiting for me,” it came out as a whisper.

  “That can’t be good.”

  “I think…he’s different, sick or something. I mean, he’s always had issues, but he’s changed.”

  “Not for the better I suppose?”

  I shook my head, “I don’t know.”

  “So you met him in person, then what?”

  “He told me where my mother was…and I promised him I would come back today. I was supposed to meet him at ten back at his hotel.”

  Aaron looked at his watch, “That was almost five hours ago.”

  “Also, I gave him a fake puzzle.”

  Aaron’s eyes riveted onto me. “He asked for the puzzle?”

  “It was part of the deal, for the information about my mother, Emerick told him to get it. Promised him that if I would hand over whatever you crawled out of the burning building with, he would tell me where my mother was and set Hayden and I up for life.”

  Aaron leaned close to me, his lips hardly moved, his voice came at me like a dagger, “So you thought you would give him a fake one?”

  Stunned by his venom, I pulled back.

  “When exactly were you planning on telling me all of this? Ever? Do you think this is some game? A teenage love triangle?” He pointed to my chest. “You should have come to me, immediately, the minute you had contact with Emerick Wriothesely’s son.” He sat back, tried to control his breathing, he shook his head, his eyes darting around at all the people milling around the summit. “The minute you didn’t turn up to meet Hayden, we were in serious trouble. Now, thanks to you taking matters you don’t understand into your own hands, they’ve also had five hours.”

  “To do what?” I asked.

  “We don’t run the risk of walking into a trap at the Immortal Peak…we’re already in the middle of it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Do you suppose there’s any chance of us getting down off this mountain without Emerick Wriothesley getting exactly what he wants?” He continued to scan the crowd around us. “Right now, without hardly trying, I see three men tracking us, and those are the crappy ones. How many others do you suppose are in place, just waiting for us to make a run for it?”

  “But how would they even know…” my question died on my lips. “He told them.”

  “He told them,” Aaron repeated.

  They knew how to find us, because Hayden had told them. Hayden, when I didn’t show up to meet him at ten, I had felt him, his presence near my head. I had pushed him away—but too late. How hard could it have been to see the giant golden tourist attraction in my mind and put two and two together? Hayden wouldn’t care about his father getting what
he wants, but he would help his father if it meant getting me back.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked.

  Aaron shook his head and took a deep breath, “The only thing we can. Play along…for now. For as long as we can I suppose.” He turned and faced me. “You know he wants the puzzle.”

  I nodded my head.

  “And as soon as he sees it and starts guessing about what it is and why it’s so important, he’s also going to want the one person capable of solving that puzzle and collecting the remaining keys.”

  “What do you mean…me?”

  “No, my Grandma Susan. Yes you.” Aaron put his hands over his face and pressed hard on his closed eyes. “Christ almighty,” he dragged his hands down his face turning the skin an irritated pink. “We’re completely screwed.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  All of Them

  All the way down the mountain, Aaron didn’t say a word. Silently, side by side, we boarded the packed cable car and descended through the fog and clouds to the station where the beige buses waited to take those not hiking the mountain to the other must see sights, like the Immortal Temple, or back to the Banguo bus station at the bottom.

  “I don’t see how they could possibly do anything,” I whispered as we took our seats near the middle of the small bus. “With all these people? And every stop is surely crawling with tourists. It’s not like they will be able to just snatch us up without causing a huge scene.”

  Aaron looked at me, stared at me, like he was inspecting a foreign object. “What you don’t understand about the people we are dealing with, their capabilities, their resources, the lengths they will go to…your ignorance about what we are doing, I have to say that is what frightens me the most.” He turned away from me and stared out the window. “They already have a way, and that way is waiting for us as soon as we get off this bus.”

  His words, his tone, the blank defeated stare he’d had ever since he had learned about Hayden and the fake puzzle box, his whole attitude was scaring me to the point of explosive irritation. “Well why not just stay on the bus? We’ll just ride it all the way down, get off with the rest of the tourists at the station, blend in, find a car…just forget the key for now. Let’s get back to the airport. Is your phone working yet?” Ever since the summit, Aaron’s phone had not had a signal. “Call the pilot, have him get the plane ready. Call my uncle—”

  “Stop.”

  “No. I’m not giving up.” I sat back against my seat and shook my head. “I think my plan’s not bad.”

  “That’s only because you don’t know how many people on this bus are here to make sure we do as we were told.”

  I sat up straighter and looked around at the other passengers. The bus wasn’t even full, which was sort of surprising since there had been a huge line of people waiting for the busses. Actually, why hadn’t they filled this bus up? Other than Aaron and me, there were only eight other people on a bus that could easily hold thirty.

  “How many?” I asked.

  “All of them.”

  The bus driver glanced up into his huge rearview mirror, his eyes met mine then returned to the road ahead. The realization hit me and I gasped.

  “Can I take that to mean that you’ve finally figured out our little predicament?” Aaron asked.

  I sat back against my seat and nodded my head. This bus wasn’t filled with the protection of tourists, not even one.

  “Our own private car service. Door to door, right into Emerick’s hands,” Aaron said.

  “What will we do when we get there?” I asked.

  “Give him the puzzle.”

  “What?”

  “And probably you as well.”

  I shook my head. “I thought you were supposed to be protecting me.”

  “And I thought you would make that job easier by doing what I told you. Forgive me, but I don’t seem to recall ever telling you to meet secretly with Hayden Wriothesley.”

  He was right, of course he was right. It was stupid of me to try and handle Hayden on my own. “I’m sorry Aaron.” I was sorry. Sorry to him, to Caleb, to Sophie. I had been so afraid of my connection to Hayden, so ashamed of it, I thought I could keep it buried, hide it from everyone I cared about. “I was scared, and I wanted to find my mother. But I should have told you.”

  Aaron shifted in his seat, cleared his throat. He wasn’t used to me apologizing. “Well, don’t do it again.”

  I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. A sick dread settled in my stomach and made my legs shaky. Every second was bringing us closer to meeting with Emerick, and probably Hayden. What would they do? Take the puzzle, for sure, and the keys. But that wasn’t all they would want.

  What would they do with me? With Aaron? Was I going to just disappear off the face of the Earth. What would my dad think? He would have no idea what happened to me.

  A lump formed in my throat, this would devastate him.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my emotions back down, but it didn’t help. The tears rose up and slipped from the corners of my eyes. Silently sliding, one then another, and all I could manage was to smear the wet away with the sleeve of my shirt. I had messed up everything.

  “That’s good,” Aaron whispered. “Keep crying.”

  At first I thought he was just being mean—yes, keep crying little girl, that’s going to help us get out of the mess you’ve created.

  But when he said, “It’ll make them think you’ve given up, that you won’t put up a fight,” I realized he was serious.

  “What fight?” I whispered.

  Aaron hooked his foot around his backpack at his feet and slid the heavy bag across the floor until it was in front of me. “When they stop the bus, it won’t be at the Immortal Temple. That will be crawling with people and they’ll want to avoid attention as much as possible. When you stand up, take my bag and put it on, like you own it. It has the puzzle and our passports. There’s cash in the zippered bag at the bottom. As soon as we’re outside, I’ll keep their attention on me…you’re going to make a run for it.”

  “What?”

  “Run, straight into the woods, stay off the road, but head for Hongchunping Temple.” Aaron unfolded his tourist map of the mountain. “They may expect you to go to the Immortal Temple because it’s closer, so if they look there first, it will buy you a little time. When you get to Hongchunping, try to find a group to join, college kids or something. Blend in. Stay with them until you’re back down and get yourself to the airport.”

  “But, what about you?”

  “Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself and that box. Do you understand?”

  “How will you distract them?”

  Aaron shook his head and reached into the top of his pack, when he pulled out a large bag of chips—I couldn’t believe it. He was going to eat? Now? “Just whatever happens,” he pulled the bag open at the seam. “Keep running. No matter what you see, no matter what you hear, keep running.” He stuffed a handful of salty chips into his mouth, refolded the map with greasy fingers, and tucked it into the pack’s side pocket.

  “Jesus,” he said loud enough for the others to hear. “It sure is hot in China.” Aaron stood up and I noticed one of the men sitting a few rows ahead of us turn and watch. He tried to look casual, but I could see the muscles in his forearm were tensed, ready to act in a second if Aaron or I made any sudden moves.

  Aaron pinched the window’s locks and pulled the glass down. When he only opened the window and said, “Whew! That’s better!” The man watching us turned and faced forward again—but his arm still looked like a loaded spring.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed.

  “Getting some air.”

  I didn’t believe him.

  “Get ready,” he said. “We’re almost there.”

  A nervous dread clawed at my insides. I didn’t want the bus to stop, I needed more time to prepare for whatever Aaron had planned, but we were already slowing down and the driver was turning the wheel
onto a narrow road that led away from the main one we had been traveling on.

  “Almost,” Aaron said and took another handful of chips from the bag.

  I was sick, scared, and not prepared to run away without any real idea as to where I would be heading. “I can’t do this,” I whispered.

  He didn’t even look at me, he was too busy looking out the window next to us. “You’ll do it anyway.”

  I shook my head slightly but my movement again drew the eyes of the bus driver to the large rearview mirror above his head. I focused my gaze on the bag at my feet instead of his eyes, how was I going to get away with them clearly watching my every move? The brakes squealed loudly and the deceleration made my stomach twist into tight knots. When the bus stopped, the other people stood and Aaron quickly threw a handful of chips out the window.

  I couldn’t even think why, my heart hammered so hard in my chest I thought I would probably pass out. I didn’t want to get off, didn’t think I could, but Aaron lifted me by the arm, “Grab the pack and get it together.”

  Swallowing hard and taking a deep breath, I stood and lifted the heavy pack containing the puzzle box onto my back. Aaron moved into the aisle behind me and we filed off the bus. Two men got off in front of us, but I noticed the others waited and came down the aisle behind, we were surrounded.

  My legs were turning to jelly on the stairs. When I stepped onto the gravel, my attention was immediately pulled to the right, a gang of monkeys crouched and grabbed at the pile of chips Aaron had thrown from the window. One of the men who had gotten off the bus first was standing and watching them as he lifted his shirt and pulled a short barreled gun from a holster near his waist. My eyes fixed on the gun.

  Oh God.

  Behind me, I felt Aaron push me forward so that he could get off the bus. I heard him open his chip bag, the sound was amazingly loud in this quiet place. When I dragged my eyes from the gun to him, I could see that yes, he was actually eating while this man was preparing his gun.

  But he was also crunching the bag, much more than necessary. He walked slowly, almost absently along the bus.