Wander Dust

by Michelle Warren

  Chapter 34: A Choice

  I turn and look at Francis, but he doesn’t move. He only leans against the wall, picking at his fungus-covered teeth. When he finally does move, it’s only after Stu and Jessica appear from behind him. Together, the two swagger across the bridge.

  My jaw drops.

  When they reach the other side, Cece leans over and grabs each of their chins, letting her disgusting black fingernails wrap around their faces. “All of you have done a wonderful thing. You shall be rewarded handsomely.” Like a proud parent, she kisses them each on the head. “Now, off you go,” she says with a flick of her hand.

  Stu and Jessica clasp hands, prance past the group, around the obelisk, and into the shadows.

  I steal a glance at Bishop to gauge his reaction. Perpetua, someone he cared about, betrayed him. She’s always been mean and nasty to me, but I never would have seen her transforming into a treacherous villain. Visibly angry, Bishop stares ahead, grinding his teeth. His muscles tense beneath his gray robe.

  We should’ve never come here. He and Sam were right, and I should have listened to them. I only have myself to blame for the situation we’re in.

  And poor Sam—she just witnessed everything through her connection with Bishop. I know she’s devastated over Stu.

  After a quick analysis, it seems Stu carefully planted himself into our ring of friends, pretending to be an outcast of Perpetua and Jessica. They played on our good nature, hoping that he could gain our trust. And he did. He and Perpetua very easily guided us to this point, tricking us into piecing together the sundial bracelet. They must not have known how to retrieve the final pieces themselves. For the final betrayal, Stu and Francis manipulated us into delivering the relic to Cece.

  “Francis!” Cece yells across the room.

  Moving faster than imaginable, Francis stands before Cece in a split second. He bows his head in absolute reverence and holds out his dirty hand.

  “You have served your purpose,” she says in a dull voice. With a screech of a thousand crashing cars, she lifts her foot and kicks him square in the chest.

  In slow motion, Francis’ bulging body arcs away from her, flying backward through the air and over the edge of the balcony. His arms and legs windmill as he reaches to grab something—anything.

  “No!” I scream, reaching toward him, struggling with my restrainers.

  Francis plummets into the sinking darkness of the pit. He may have tricked me, but he was just a defenseless man, a Seer without the ability to transcend the layers of time with his body, only his mind. His garbled screams last forever, until they fade into nothing.

  Happy with herself, Cece paces from side to side. Her red cape drifts behind her, curling up at the edges. The dog-beast and the bald man glide smoothly in line with her. Together, they form a human snake, anchored to the person in the wheelchair.

  The crowd murmurs, waiting for her next heartless and explosive move.

  Cece spins around, looking at me. “We’re sorry. We’ve been so rude.” She refers to herself in the third person, apologizing with false sincerity.

  “Greetings.” She pauses, holds her arms out, and nods her head. “We’d say that we’ve been expecting you, but you can already see the truth of that for yourself—can’t you?”

  The ruthless mob laughs.

  “You have what you want, now let us go!” Bishop demands with a struggle. His captors restrain him.

  Turning, Cece grabs the bracelet from Exeter. “There are a great many things that we want, young man, but this is only one,” she says in a beautiful, sinister voice.

  “Seraphina—child—come close so that we may see you,” she coos.

  “No.” I shake my head violently. After watching her kill Francis, no way.

  “We said, come here!” She points directly at me.

  “No!"

  “I think our guest needs a little help!” Cece shouts.

  A sweaty, muscular man with an arm sleeved in tattoos grabs my waist. I fight with him, frantically hitting his leg with my fist.

  “Sera! No!” Bishop screams. Instantly, there’s a scuffle I can’t see.

  The man muscles me across the narrow bridge. I hang, pinched in his grip, feet and head dangling over the edge, the pit of nothingness below. Immediately, I’m sick, almost passing out from vertigo and his stench.

  He tosses me on the ground in front of Cece. I look away from her, but she captures my chin in her palm; her black nails curve around my face. She clenches them, snaring my cheeks.

  “Look at us!” she screams like a crazy woman and jerks my head toward her.

  I look right through her. I’ll never give her the respect of looking her in the eyes. I will defy her until my end.

  “You have Eliza’s eyes,” she considers.

  Pursing my lips, I don’t speak. Her grasp locks my face in place.

  “The most stunning part,” she chuckles to herself, “you actually believed you’d find your mother here,” Her head tips back in laughter. The sound ripples through the shaft and ricochets off the ceiling.

  “Didn’t you?” she asks darkly, pushing for an answer.

  “I didn’t expect to find a snake!” I spit at her. The crowd gasps at my response.

  Cece smacks my face with the full force of the back of her hand. When she does, her garnet ring slices my flesh. I recoil, grabbing the wound. Warm blood trickles down my cheek. The crowd hushes to a silence.

  She reaches down to touch my skin, drags her fingers through the red fluid, and then admires her blood-covered fingers. She lifts her hand and slowly rubs the blood onto her own face.

  My eyes narrow. She’s deranged.

  She inhales deeply, continuing to rub my blood onto her skin. Her eyes flutter. An expression of ecstasy crosses her face as though she’s taking a hit from a drug.

  After she regains her composure, she grabs my arm and stares. “And you have Eliza’s defiant attitude,” she says, “but it will not serve you well. It will only serve us. We promise you that!”

  “You don’t know anything!” I yank away from her.

  Enraged, she shakes violently. The dog-beast growls and snaps his teeth. The bald man trembles. They spasm in their spots, as if electricity courses through them. Even the person in the wheelchair quivers. And when they do, one dainty hand falls out of the green cape’s sleeve. It clutches the handle of the wheelchair. The person is not old and weak like I imagined.

  When their wicked vibrating subsides, the group breathes deeply in unison, calming themselves. Cece paces in contemplation.

  “What shall we do with her?” she asks the crowd. “Shall we send her into the pit?” The crowd cheers. I stiffen with fear. She walks dramatically in a circle.

  “Or shall we make her one of our own?” she says to herself, peering down at me with her coal-black eyes.

  “Never,” I say under my breath.

  Cece rushes me, lowering her eyes inches from my face. “We tricked you into reconstructing the relic,” she says in a playfully sinister tone. She holds up the bracelet, dangling it in the air. She wiggles it, tempting me to reach for it.

  My jaw clenches. Mona’s conversation on the phone replays in my head. “I think, eventually, it will be our best defense against Cece.” I wonder if “it” is the bracelet, and I wonder how I can use the relic to hurt her. I cock my head, staring at it, letting the possibilities run through my mind.

  “We’re quite certain we can get you to do whatever we choose. We know your mind better than you do.” Cece’s mouth lifts at one corner.

  Determination surges through me. I glance back at Bishop, sending him a look I hope he comprehends. He nods. In one precise motion, I smack the bracelet out of Cece’s fingers. The bracelet slices through the air and lands ten feet away. I dive for it, sliding on my stomach across the floor.

  I quickly flop over on my back, but Cece has already descended. Her dog-beast snarls over my face. Its mouth foams, anticipating a fight. />
  She places her hand on the animal’s head. “Relax, Cerberus. There’s plenty of time for that.” Her hand gently strokes its head. “He’s such a good Protector, isn’t he?”

  An animal for a Protector? I don’t have time to understand how that’s possible. I scurry backward on my elbows with the bracelet in my grasp. One arm slides off the edge of the balcony, pushing free several loose rocks. The top half of my body hangs over the edge, the black pit yawns below me. My heart races out of control. The beast inches forward, growling. Hot breath from its fanged mouth puffs on my legs. Warm drool drips on my bare foot.

  “Wait!” I yell.

  I extend my arm in the air over the blackened pit. The bracelet dangles from my hand.

  “I’ll drop it!” I scream.

  I hope this will act as a bargaining chip, one that can free Bishop and me. There’s a long pause. My heart pounds erratically. Finally, Cece’s face folds. She bursts into hate-filled laughter. Tears roll down her cheeks.

  Confused, I look over at Bishop. He’s advancing on the guards: kicking, punching, and flipping around in maneuvers that seem impossible. The crowd cheers him on. He makes his way to the center of the bridge. My stomach clenches, seeing him there. Black emptiness drops into nothing on either side of his feet. I have to get back to him to get out of here.

  “Drop it!” Cece yells out, egging me on.

  I look at her, confused.

  “See? You’re already doing what we want, and you don’t even realize it.” She laughs, delighted with herself.

  Her team rumbles with laughter. I hadn’t put the relic together, just so she could destroy it. It might have been her intention all along, but I can’t let her do that now. Silently, I still cling to the hope that it might take me to my mom—someday.

  The person in the wheelchair jolts. Part of their face appears from behind the hood. I gasp, and my heart thuds to a piercing stop.

  The laughter and cheering of the crowd, Cece and her group prodding me, Bishop fighting with the guards, it all fades into absolute silence. The person in the wheelchair is my mom. I focus only on her face.

  She’s been here all along.

  “Kill him!” Cece commands the guards. Her horrible words pull me back to the moment.

  A guard strikes Bishop down. He falls to the floor of the bridge. The tattooed man kicks him in his rib cage several times. Bishop screams out, his misery unleashing through the cavern.

  The crowd cheers.

  I’m horrified.

  The Protector-beast snarls. My hand trembles, still dangling over the pit. Unsure of what to do, I know I’m trapped. Bishop needs my help, but I also need my mom.

  “Join us!” Cece offers. “You’ll become an outcast like all of us here when the Society finds out what you’ve done. You’ll only know your true strength here, with us. The Academy will keep you weak, revealing only their truths. There’s so much more you can learn with us.” She reaches out her hand.

  I can’t focus on her horrid words. The bracelet had worked, and Cece knew the truth all along. I glance between Bishop and my mom, trying to choose. The one thing I desire most sat here all along, sleeping peacefully, serenely, ageless.

  I look back at Bishop, now unconscious. The tattooed man steps forward onto Bishop’s arm, breaking it under his weight with a sickening crack. It flops limply, dangling over the edge. I shudder with agony, feeling the pain that should have rippled across his face. Another guard squats down and shoves Bishop’s lifeless body over the edge of the bridge and into the endless black pit.