by Cecily White
“However,” she continued, “because I love you, I’m willing to be nice.”
“You’ll let him go?” Hope crept into my voice.
She laughed, a sweet tinkling sound that should have belonged to a woodland fairy. “Don’t be an idiot. If I let him go, it’s the end of the Guardians. No, he has to die. But I’ll let you say goodbye to him. Think of it as my partial-bonding gift to you two.” Her finger leveled at the vortex, she added, “And if I catch you trying to open a portal, he’s a dead man. Dilué!”
It shimmered for an instant under the command, then dissolved in splintered lines of light. At the same time, I felt the wards around the room weaken, tiny quakes of power coursing into me.
The moment the force field fell, Jack’s head jerked up. He looked stunned and groggy, like a prince awakened from an enchanted sleep.
“Jack!” As fast as my feet would carry me, I hurled myself at him.
“Ow,” Jack muttered around my kisses. “I thought being dead’s not supposed to hurt.”
“You’re such a moron,” I breathed. “I told you I wouldn’t let you die without me.”
“Amelie.” He groaned, but he didn’t stop kissing me. “You can’t be here. It’s too dangerous.”
“Oh, you have no idea what danger is, mister!” I pulled back just enough to frown at him. “I’m so mad at you right now. You drugged me?”
“I-I had to,” he stammered. “I couldn’t let you die.”
“Dumbass,” I breathed. “You think I want to live without you?”
Jack nudged his nose against mine as I tightened my grip on him.
We held each other for a few more seconds before Jack struggled to his feet, his eyes focused on Lisa. He knew what she was, I could tell. He’d probably known since the moment Bud said the word “sister.” Not that he would tell me. Noooo. Heaven forbid anyone actually share such useful info.
“You swore you wouldn’t let anyone hurt her,” Jack said to Lisa.
“And I won’t,” she promised. “She’ll come with us. Matt and Katie are our witnesses. They’ll spread the word we’ve been taken prisoner. In a few years, when the Inferni have been depleted, we’ll be back as heroes to lead the Guardian resistance as it should be led—without stupid Crossworld politics. Trust me, demonkind won’t stand a chance.”
I couldn’t hold back the scowl. The heroes-to-the-resistance thing sounded like a huge hassle. I’d far prefer to sit on a beach with Jack until it was over.
“And you’ll keep her safe?” he persisted.
Lisa smiled. “Haven’t I always?”
Thibault let out a deep sigh from the edge of the room. “Your family loyalty is touching, dear, but can we please get on with this? Mercy is not what I trained you for.” He gestured to Jack. “That boy is a traitor, and it’s time for him to die.”
Lisa caught my gaze. “Ami, I’m sorry about this. We should have finished it years ago. If I’d known how complicated things would turn out—”
“Each prophecy in its own time, dear,” Thibault lectured.
I’m not sure, but I think she rolled her eyes. “You ready, Jackson?”
Jack’s eyes filled with sadness as he turned to me. “Ami, I’m sorry.”
“You can’t be serious.” I looked at him, panicked. “You’re just going to go with her?”
“I have to. I’m the last Gabrielite. It’s prophesied.”
“No!” I shook my head. “What about the Peace Tenets? The Crossworld will go to war! Luc says the Immortals—”
“Will have to find another way to survive,” Jack finished. “Omelet, I don’t like this any more than you do, but your sister’s right. Too many Guardians have died already.”
“So, you’re going to let her start a war?”
“The war is already started. We’re just choosing sides,” Lisa said. “Don’t you get it? Katie was right! We’ve crippled ourselves trying to uphold the Peace Tenets. If they pass, we’ll all die.”
“So, make Jack promise not to sign,” I suggested, desperate. “Hold him prisoner.”
She looked at me like I was an idiot. “If he refuses to sign, prisoner or not, it’ll be seen as an act of aggression. The Inferni will turn on us and—stop me if you’ve heard this before—we’ll all die. The only way out is if all the signatories are dead. It’s prophesied. There’s no way they can blame us.”
“But there has to be another way—”
“What do you suggest? Should we put everyone to sleep for a hundred years?” Lisa sounded annoyed. “Amelie, this isn’t a school prank. You can’t just magic it away with fairy dust and wishes.”
“Nobody said fairy dust.”
“Yeah, well nobody promised you a happy ending, either!”
“Amelie, please,” Jack begged. “You know I love you. I’d do anything for you. But you can’t keep looking for a solution that doesn’t exist. Maybe this is how it’s supposed to end. Maybe we’re not supposed to be together.”
I stared at him, horrified. “Excuse me?”
He let go of my hand and turned to Lisa. “Do it. I’m ready.”
Okay, I was getting pretty pissed myself at this point. Not supposed to be together? Seriously, if we got out of this alive, I was going to kill him!
Subtle as a breeze, I tested another shred of power between my fingers. Yup, all systems go. I hadn’t forgotten about Luc, still waiting for my signal in the ceiling vent. If we were going to do this, it had to be now.
“Stop!” I shouted as her hand touched his chest.
“What now?” Lisa demanded.
My eyes darted to the grate. Luc and I hadn’t agreed on a specific signal, but if it was too subtle for him, then his species probably deserved to die. “I just wonder what the vampires have to say about all this.”
“Huh?” Lisa asked.
Jack frowned in confusion. “Ami, what are you talking about?”
“I said,” my voice rose, “what would the vampires—”
All at once, Luc swung out of the metal grate, his body catapulting toward Alec as if shot from a string. He hit Alec in the chest with his feet, knocking the crossbow in a spiral toward the wall. I barely processed the scuffle before Thibault was in it. He limped out of the smoke, a deformed nightmare. With an ugly sneer at his lips, he twisted the top of his cane and detached it, revealing a long, slim blade that could have run through any demon.
“Behind you!” I screamed.
In a movement too fast to track, Luc turned, scooped up a chunk of plaster, and hurled it at Thibault’s head. The Chancellor crumpled, a thin trickle of blood at his temple. Luc dove for the crossbow at the same time as Alec, their bodies colliding with a hellish crack.
“Luc!” I’d just taken a step to help him when I felt it.
Lisa’s channel.
It burned through the air in searing waves. The kind of Arctic wind that strips the skin right off your face. Jack must have had the same idea as I did—to help Luc—because he’d scooped his sword off the ground and readied it for a strike. He was in motion when she grabbed him.
“No!” My hands flew out in a defensive splay and I screamed, “Redivivus!”
Instantly, the flow reversed itself, Jack’s life force funneling back into him. I held the channel as Lisa’s face twisted with fury.
“Silencio!” she screamed, at the same time I yelled, “Desisté.”
I felt her silencing command hit me and dissipate like steam. It was much the same effect as when Channelers tried to heal themselves—which is to say, useless. My freezing spell vanished in a similar puff and I realized we couldn’t curse our own souls any better than we could heal them.
Lisa must have understood about the same time because, quick as a bunny, she flattened her hands back on Jack. “Doloré,” she said.
“Salvé pacem, you evil cow!” I responded, before the pain curse could rip into him. Her upper lip curled into a snarl.
“Maledictus!” she cursed him. “Tenebrae!”
�
��Immunis!” I deflected. “Concordia!”
It was pathetic. We couldn’t fire on each other, so in the art of war, Jack became our canvas. She threw weirder and weirder spells at him, and I kept returning to the basics—curing, calming, deflecting. Thank the gods of irony Lisa made me pay attention to that lecture in Hansen’s class last year.
I was vaguely aware of Luc and Alec moving like ghosts in my periphery. Every so often, they would slow and I’d think it was over, then they’d be off in another blur of dark hair and expensive clothing.
“Stop it!” Lisa finally ordered me. She sounded furious. “This is ridiculous. You know he has to die. It’s prophesied, for heaven’s sake!”
“Prophecies were made to be broken.”
“That’s rules, moron! Rules are made to be broken. Prophecy is law!”
I shrugged. My relationship with the law was patchy, at best.
It was probably a good thing we’d stopped, because Jack looked like he was about to keel over. Though none of the spells took hold, each carried its own brand of Crossworld poison. It billowed into him like black ink through water.
“Dang it, Amelie. I don’t like killing innocents any more than you would, but if it’s a choice between a few petitioners and the end of our species, then I’m willing to sacrifice.”
“Yeah, other people. What kind of lame-ass sacrifice is that?”
“Oh, grow up. It’s us or the Inferni. Either he dies now, or we all die slowly. So go away, and let me kill him!”
“Never!”
Lisa narrowed her eyes to slits. “You can’t beat me. I am you!”
“And I am you,” I retorted. “Which puts me in the perfect position to make your life a living hell.”
I was spared elaborating on the nature of that hell by a gut-wrenching crunch, followed by a shriek of agony. All three of us turned to see Alec, huddled on the floor with his arm at an odd angle, a metal crossbow bolt lodged in his thigh.
Lisa’s hands flew to her mouth, silver sparks at her fingertips. “Alec!”
Sick as it was, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. Over the past week, I’d seen Jack beaten to a pulp more times than I cared to count, and it never got any easier. Maybe I did want to rip out her eyeballs at the moment, but the kind of pain that came with seeing your Watcher get hurt wasn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy.
Luc’s face was bruised and bloodied as he turned, the crossbow leveled at Lisa’s heart.
“Luc! Stop!” Jack yelled.
But Luc didn’t stop. He was vengeance personified. Like every nightmare I’d ever had come to life. His eyes seemed to burn with hellfire and his face had morphed into something inhumanly, brilliantly monstrous. Make no mistake, it was still Luc—haughty and beautiful—but it was a version of Luc that didn’t belong on this plane.
It was demon.
I wish I knew what happened next, but the truth is, I don’t. My eyes fell shut to the chink of the crossbow launching. A blink, that’s all it was. In that instant, a soft swish of air brushed my skin like the whisper of dragonfly wings, and a rustle of fabric sounded. When I opened my eyes, it was over.
Jack stood between Lisa and Luc, clutching her small body to his torso like a baby kangaroo. Her hands were flat against his chest, and a red stain had begun to spread along his spine where the crossbow bolt protruded. But the bleeding didn’t come in fierce pulses as it had last night. It barely trickled at all.
The first thing to hit was relief. If he wasn’t bleeding, then it couldn’t be that bad, right? I would heal him, just like before. We’d be together.
That’s when I saw his eyes.
Empty.
Nothing but frozen lakes of ice, all the way to the pupil.
Jack hit the ground with an awful thud, his skin dull and papery. For a long time, nobody moved. No screams, no shouts of triumph. Just silence. I thought of the times I’d watched him sleep, his body limp and warm, his breath so sweet on my face as I matched my exhale to his. He looked as if he could be sleeping now. Except he wasn’t.
I couldn’t remember anything; not where I was or why I’d come here. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t move. All I could do was stare at him.
His body was sprawled in a sort of half-collapsed languor that I didn’t think a living person could manage. My brain couldn’t process it. It wasn’t Jack. It couldn’t be.
Chancellor Thibault scrambled to sitting and re-sheathed his cane with a soft shink. Then came the maniacal laughter.
“At last! Gabriel’s blood is dead!” His joyful burbles filled the room, shallow and shrill.
Luc’s crossbow clattered to the ground and he whirled, puking blood onto the floor behind him. My body ached, my limbs like lead pipes. I expected Lisa would celebrate, too. This was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it? No Peace Tenets. No Jack. Her bondmate safe. She was free to do whatever she liked, go wherever she wanted. I couldn’t stop her.
With painful slowness she stepped away from Jack’s body, her eyes fixed on him. The air seemed to grow quiet and still around her.
“Ami, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I never meant…at least, not like this.”
I slowly sank to my knees in the ash, unable to speak. It was a lie. This was exactly how she’d meant it to end, how Jack had planned it. What kind of idiot was I to think it could be any different?
“Just go,” I whispered.
“But I can’t leave you. Ami, please.”
She reached out a hand but I flinched away. I didn’t want to touch her. I didn’t want to hear how she’d done this for me, or how it would be okay, how we would always have each other, blah, blah. I couldn’t take it. Not anymore.
Lisa’s eyes met mine in a brief, tearful flicker as she paused in front of me, but she said nothing else. There was nothing to say. She wasn’t sorry. She had meant to kill him and that’s what she’d done. After more than a hundred deaths—some bloodless surrenders like Lutz, some hard won by Alec’s sword, like D’Arcy—the enemy, my sister, had won.
Her victory rang like a hollow slap between us. Then she was gone.
I don’t know where she and Alec portaled, but wherever it was, they didn’t bother taking Thibault. They didn’t need him, and I guess he didn’t need them anymore, either. He sat in the rubble of the fallen statues, happy, like a child in a sandbox.
It’s weird how death doesn’t come all at once. It doesn’t ride in on a stallion, swinging a scythe and yelling about the apocalypse. Real death teases. It prods. It inches up behind you with its claws out, and laughs while you bleed.
I cradled Jack in my lap as his soul unwound itself from mine in soft twitches. The space it left behind felt cold and damp, how a cloud might feel before a snowfall.
“You couldn’t have stopped it, Amelie,” Thibault said. “He had to die. They all did. The prophecy says it’s the only way to end the war.” His words grew quieter in my head until they dissolved.
It wasn’t fair, not one bit of it. For five days, Jack and I had been chased through hell and told to be heavenly. We’d been buried alive and ordered not to scream. And for what? A stupid prophecy?
I was done.
Done with prophecies. Done with demons. Done with stupid politics and holy wars. It wasn’t my war anymore. These weren’t my rules. And nothing that had cost me this much deserved to be written in stone.
My lips brushed Jack’s face where my tears had fallen—his beautiful face, with its hard curves and tiny imperfections. I smoothed back his golden hair and stroked each of the little lines around his eyes where they crinkled when he laughed.
It couldn’t end like this.
With a violent tremor, my fingers coaxed the sword out of his lifeless grip. If there was one thing I’d learned in the past week, it was that death, like everything else, is negotiable. The world doesn’t shut off when you close your eyes. Things aren’t true because someone wrote them down. And, most importantly, Lisa wasn’t the only one with power.
“Redivivus
,” I whispered.
A violent wind sprang to life, whipping my hair. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luc sit up, the demon rage on his face having faded to pain.
I turned to Luc as Thibault eyed us suspiciously from across the room.
“Good luck at the signing. Tell Jack I’m sorry. And Luc—” I struggled to think of something profound for my final words, something that would stick with him for eternity. Nada. “Just try not to be such an asshole, okay?”
Luc scrambled to his knees, struggling to rise. He was still bleeding from a cut on his forehead and several of his fingers looked broken. Maybe some ribs, too.
Yeah, Jack was going to hate me for this, but what choice did I have? I was a Wraithmaker. This is what I was born for, right? I shut my eyes and let the world go silent inside my head.
Things were about to get ugly.
“Ex dona spiritus. Bis vivit qui bene vivit.” With hard cracks and shrill screams, the world splintered into jagged pieces around me.
“Amelie, no!” Luc yelled, but it was too late.
I’ve read about humans who try to stab themselves. They hesitate. There’s always a part of them that doesn’t want to die, so no matter how committed they think they are, they still hesitate in the end.
I didn’t.
A kick of adrenaline pumped through my veins and I lifted the blade high. It barely made a sound as it descended into my heart.
Chapter Twenty-three:
Just Like Heaven
That was the plan, anyway. Unfortunately, plans and vampires go together about as well as Kleenex and hot tubs.
“No!” Luc launched himself at me. The tip of the blade had barely broken the skin when I felt it being knocked out of my hands. Before I knew it, my fingers were empty and I was pinned to the ground by a hundred and eighty pounds of vampire. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Get off me, you stupid…Crossworlder! This is none of your business.”
“None of my business?” he yelled, about four inches from my face. “I swore an oath to protect you! You think I’d let you kill yourself now?”
“I’m not killing myself!” I hollered back, narrowing the gap to two inches.
