Daring Hearts: Fearless Fourteen Boxed Set

by Box Set

  "Alec?" I whispered. Things hurt. Things I didn't even realize could hurt, hurt.

  I could feel my ghosts around me. I didn't know how they were still here and not sent back to their cells. I felt Elizabeth's icy hand against my cheek, heard her whisper, "Please fight beside us."

  And then Alec, pulling my bloody mess of a body into his lap. He cradled my head as I forced my eyes open. "Angel, please. Please fight this." He called me an angel, but he was the one with the sun haloed around his head now.

  What I didn't understand, though, is how anyone thought there was a choice to make here at all. Who, when given the option to die or keep fighting, chose death?

  "That's what I thought." Death again sounded amused. Like he'd known my answer all along. "Joanna. Nice to see you again."

  "Wait," I croaked, trying to turn my head. "Garmr, come—" I groaned, but held my hand out. "Alec, don't touch—Garmr—" The big dog pushed his head against my hand and chuffed. "Thank you, dear friend." He'd saved me. He'd risked the ocean for me. For that, I could never thank him enough.

  "Come Garmr. We'll see her soon. We have our weekly meeting tomorrow night, remember, Navi. Please don't be late." Death gave one last amused chuckle, and they were gone.

  My mom took their place. "We hurried as quickly as we could. But I wasn't fast enough. I'm sorry, Navi."

  "Mom. I fought the sea witch," I felt my lips split but I didn't care as a grin spread across my battered face. "And I won."

  My dad, in the background somewhere, laughed.

  "At least for today. I won for today. And I freed souls. But not Bryson's." I struggled to sit up so I could see him. "I didn't free yours. So I’m not done yet."

  Alec watched me, dark blue eyes so intense I could barely breathe. Or that might have been the broken ribs. "I love you, Navi. Whatever you choose, I will be by your side."

  "I love you, too, Alec." Such strength in those few words. So much that I needed to tell him, to explain, to forgive. But that would have to come later.

  With herculean effort, I turned away to glare at the ocean. "No. I'm not done. Next time she comes I'll be better prepared. I'll gather more forces. She won't escape back into the ocean again."

  Chapter 53

  Alec

  "Are you sure you’re okay to fight again tonight? You were pretty much dead this morning." Bryson floated backward in front of Navi as she stalked toward the door.

  She pointed at the window, where the full moon gleamed across the glass. "I’m fine. The sea witch lost a lot of her forces, but that isn’t going to stop her. They’ll come tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day… and they’ll hunt Alec and Konstanz. Unless I stop them."

  In front of my eyes, her long, lethal swords shimmered to life against her back. "What can we do to help?" Konstanz asked, slowly waving her hand through Bryson’s ghostly arm.

  "Will you stop that?" He pulled his arm away, scowling. "It’s weird."

  "I’m a vet. I’m curious!"

  "Stay here. Inside. If any of the demons get past my army, my mom will be able to hold them off until I get back here."

  She glanced at me, a flush staining her pretty face. We hadn’t had a chance to talk yet, since she’d been comatose for most of the day. Until the moon had risen, and her wounds had healed before my eyes, and she’d popped up like a watered flower. Ten minutes later, we were all trying to get her to go back to bed.

  But my Angel, she wouldn’t do it.

  I crossed the room, aware of her parents both watching curiously, and Elizabeth swinging her sword through the air in impatient boredom. Bryson had weapons, too—apparently he thought he was a warrior now. I turned my back on all of them, tugging Navi against my chest. "You’re going to start training me tomorrow, right?" I smiled down at her, my blood roaring in my ears as her gaze landed on my mouth and stayed there.

  "What?" she asked, leaning into me, until I could feel every curve of her, molding against me. I chuckled, although it took everything I had not to drag her back to her bedroom right then and show her how much I needed her. But we couldn’t do that, and if I tried, her dad would probably skin me alive.

  So instead, I tipped her chin up until her eyes found mine. "Training. Tomorrow?"

  She nodded, her lips quirking just a bit. "Yes. Training. Tomorrow."

  Unable to control myself any longer, I lowered my head, trying to devour her. She gasped against my mouth as her hands clenched and unclenched against my chest. She rose on her tiptoes and bit my bottom lip, not hard but enough that I wouldn’t be able to think straight for the next year, at least. Then she dragged herself away from me, raising an eyebrow. "Get some rest tonight."

  I shook my head, running a shaking hand through my hair. The girl made my knees weak. "I’ll wait up. If you think I’m ever sleeping without you again, you’re crazy, Angel."

  She grinned, her entire face lighting up. Once more, she kissed me—light and brief—and then whirled away and was gone, disappearing into the darkness like her ghosts. Bryson and Elizabeth went after her.

  "Well. This has been interesting. I’m gonna go pick out my outfit for training tomorrow. I might need to buy some new shoes…" Konstanz disappeared down the hall and I wondered how on earth she could be concerned with shoes when there were demons trying to fight their way through a ghostly army to eat us alive.

  Blair smacked me on the shoulder as he walked by. "Welcome to the family, kid. Break her heart again, and you’ll wish the demons had got you."

  I tried to swallow the terror sized lump in my throat. "No sir. I’m not going to break her heart. Not ever again."

  The End

  Through Glass Novella Series

  * * *

  Episode Nine

  * * *

  Rebecca Ethington

  Author’s Note

  This novella is part of an ongoing novella publication.

  A new episode of the Through Glass Series is released in timed intervals throughout the year.

  You can discuss the stories, cast your vote for what happens next, and stay up to date on release schedules by joining our Through Glass based Discussion Group: http://on.fb.me/1krnvM1

  * * *

  The novellas are meant to be read in order.

  Copyright

  Text Copyright ©2014 by Rebecca Ethington

  The Through Glass Novella Series, characters, names, and related indicia are trademarks and © of Rebecca Ethington.

  The Through Glass Novella Series Publishing rights © Rebecca Ethington

  All Rights Reserved.

  * * *

  Published by Imdalind Press

  * * *

  No Part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For Information regarding permission, write to:

  Rebecca Ethington – permissions@ Rebecca Ethington.com

  * * *

  Copyediting by C&D Editing

  Production Management by Imdalind Press

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

  Library of Congress Control Number:

  ISBN (print) 978-0-9884837-4-3

  ISBN (ebook) 978-0-9884837-5-0

  Printed in USA

  This Edition, 2014

  July 28th 2021

  * * *

  Cohen Blakemore.

  Artist.

  College Boy.

  Crush fodder.

  Next door neighbor to my husband as he was growing up.

  Desperately in love with my sister-in-law, just as she was to him.

  I had heard stories about him even before Alexis had shown up. Even back then, Travis had revered him as some kind of older brother, the guy he had emulated beyond all others and had even tried to fit in with his high school group of friends at one point. His boy crush had been that bad, but nothing compared to Alexis’s.r />
  Of course, I was sure staring at him through a window for years had done its own to help things along.

  They had all been cute stories, ones about another life, about loves that couldn’t be and futures that had seemed so certain before the sky had gone black.

  I had seen the painting Lex kept rolled up in her bag. I had watched her panic as she realized the drawing on her wrist had faded, a little thing bearing the same signature on the painting. I had made the connection, even if she hadn’t told me.

  He was her reason for still fighting.

  He was her reason for facing the dark world.

  She loved him.

  Love.

  To her, love seemed possible before the monster carried his dead body away.

  Dead.

  They all thought he was dead.

  Travis had thought he died in the initial attack.

  Alexis thought he had died when he had been carried away by the Tar.

  I was sure he had thought he had died, too. Even if he hadn’t before, he did now while watching the tubes the same as I did, lying feet from me, strapped to the same type of machine I was, his future being designed for him as mine was for me. The clock on our survival was ticking down in time with the pulse of the machine as it slowly sucked our life away.

  For the moment, we were alive.

  For the moment, we were human.

  For the moment, we could figure out a way to get out of this demented prison, fight Abran, and get back to the ones we loved, who just so happened to be traveling together, I might add.

  Sometimes, fate worked in your favor. Sometimes, she smiled down on you and sent you the boy Alexis had been searching for, sent you the assistance you needed. And, even then, sometimes, she was cruel and malicious.

  I wanted to focus on the good in our situation, the fact that I somehow ended up in the same room with someone who not only knew my extended family but loved my sister-in-law. I wanted to focus on the fact that I had help and that this crazy plan might actually work. It wasn’t that easy, however, considering we were both connected to these frightening machines, both being turned into monsters. Oh, and I was apparently paralyzed, like that wasn’t a big enough hurdle in itself.

  Today, fate was cruel, but I could still use that in my favor.

  “Cohen.” The word blabbered through the constant flow of fluid in my mouth, my jaw aching as I forced it to move for the millionth time today.

  I probably should have taken it slow, seeing as I was still learning to grasp this talking thing when my mouth was continuously filling up with blood and who knew what else. Regardless, I couldn’t stop myself. Once I had figured out who he was, I hadn’t stopped talking.

  Working my way through the fluid and the ache that only seemed to ripple through my body more with each syllable, I told him as much as I could about the Lymans, what had happened, where Alexis was, and what she was trying to do.

  I wasn’t sure if what I had told him was of any comfort to him, and part of me didn’t care. It might have been really selfish, but right then, I needed his trust more than I needed his friendship. I needed him if any part of the crazy plan that was in my head was going to work.

  “Cohen,” I tried again.

  This time, my query was met with a low groan that I was quickly learning to decipher as a sound of interest from him.

  “Cohen, you trust me, don’t you?”

  There was a pause, and I held my breath, waiting for an answer, watching the tubes pulse from above me as the clock ticked down.

  Finally, the sound came, this one calmer, more like an agreement, and I calmed, my pulse slowing as the throb of the tubes did.

  “Good.” I kept my voice as low as I could, something that was proving to be impossible with the amount of fluid that was still flooding me. “Because I think I know a way to get us out of here.”

  This time, the pause was longer, and I didn’t blame him. If there was a bombshell that I could throw in this place, that might have been it.

  Yes, Alexis was huge. Alexis was going to give him the fight he needed to see her again.

  The chance to see Alexis … he would kill for that.

  I could tell in the way his breathing traveled over to me, the pulse of his machine so loud I could hear it over my own. The desperation was just what I needed. After all, you needed to be pretty desperate to even think about escaping from a situation like ours.

  “How?” The word was muffled by the tube down his throat, the sound barely distinguishable, but it was enough, the excitement behind it clear.

  “We are going to walk right out.”

  Chapter One

  Yellow, the color of a sun, bright and gleaming, was staring at me with wide open eyes, ones that were familiar and haunting, ones full of little fibers of brilliant color, tiny shards of what looked like string woven through tree branches. They were the eyes of a creature I knew I should be afraid of.

  A creature I knew I should escape.

  I knew I should run, knew I should scream, but I couldn’t look away from the sun in its eyes. I couldn’t move for the fear that had run through me.

  Frozen in place, something in the yellow sun of its eyes held me there, freezing through me in what I so desperately wanted to say was fear, but I knew better than that.

  Something in its eyes was familiar.

  Inviting.

  Comforting.

  Something in its eyes was welcoming me home.

  It scared me almost as much as the close proximity of the demon that was staring me down.

  I stood there, before the cabinet, my hands tight around the cables I had pulled from the box, the cables that, until that moment, had been our escape plan. Though, now they were nothing more than wet spaghetti noodles.

  I knew I needed to move, knew I needed to get out of there, needed to fight this thing, to get to my rail and impale it just like I had all the others. Even though it was more of a death sentence with how close it was, I needed to try.

  It was one simple step, one move of my feet. But I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t move past the familiarity. I couldn’t think beyond the scent of sulfur and oil filled the air. Each breath the creature took made the aroma stronger, filling my head until it was hard to breathe.

  The smell of its blood, of its poison, ran over its skin, dripping over the razors that impaled it, dripping, slow and steady onto my shoulder, onto my hand, onto my face. Still, I could not move. I could not breathe, the smell only growing, all oxygen wiped from the tiny space I was confined in, leaving me standing alone with this thing, its claw still firmly placed on my shoulder.

  I knew better than anyone what that claw could do, and while I was so far gone that I wouldn’t turn into a ring of white ash, Travis would. I would only complete the change that I could feel trying to cement its way into me. A change that, while looking into the thing’s eyes, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to fight anymore.

  I wasn’t sure there was a point.

  I didn’t want there to be.

  I looked at the thing and saw the world the way it was meant to be, everything translucent, glowing, as if everything around me was emitting its own light. So bright, so beautiful. Everything glittered and glowed like the color of its eyes.

  I thought it was merely an illusion, this perfect world I was now surrounded by, but it didn’t go away. The more I looked, the more it seemed to change.

  The world looked as if it hadn’t been forgotten. Everything looked new, like I remembered it yet different somehow. It was as though that was how it was always supposed to look, but I had somehow forgotten. Ripples of light moved through everything around me. The cars glowed and glistened as if they had just been washed yesterday, as if they had no dust, and no age. It was as if the memories of the world before had been mutilated by the dark, and what I did remember was so much dimmer than it actually was.

  And this was what it really looked like.

  The brightness, the color.

  I
t was almost blinding, but I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to

  I didn’t want to lose the beauty and comfort of this world, a world that made me feel as welcome as the darkness I was surrounded by. This world that something deep down told me was the darkness or, rather, the darkness it was meant to be.

  Comforting, calm, beautiful.

  Where I was meant to be.

  Where I didn’t want to leave.

  After all, everything was perfect, the weight of its claw comforting, the slight movements almost like the way my mother used to rub my back when I was sick, slow and calm. The look in its eyes was almost, dare I say it, loving.

  Loving like when my mother would tease me over the color of our hair.

  Loving like when I was sick, and my dad would read me bedtime stories.

  Loving like when I would tease my little brothers.

  Loving like the way the darkness made me feel.

  Loving like the way Libby clung to her brother, the way she cared for him no matter what he was.

  Loving like the way Cohen would look at me from across the gap between our houses.

  For years, I saw that look, memorized it.

  And now I saw it again in the creature’s yellow eyes.

  If I was right, if Cohen hadn’t been killed, then he would be one of them by now—one of the Tar. Perhaps he could love me the way Libby loved Jacob. Perhaps I could love him that way, too. Did the Tar love? Did the Tar care enough to do that?

  I thought they did. No, I knew they did. I could see it now in the yellow of this one’s eyes. I could see it in the golden tinged world that surrounded us.

  I had come out into the dark, determined to find Cohen, to kill him and save him from the horrible fate of being a Tar. I was still on that quest until a moment ago, but now, looking at this one, maybe I didn’t have to.