“Do you really want to keep talking?” Jessica spoke for all of us. “You just gave away everything I wanted last time.”
He flinched. “And I thought you were the type of girl to care.”
“I do,” she growled. “That’s why it’s over, Darthon.”
Robb’s face stilled, but his hand landed on the table, and each one of his fingers tapped the top in a wave. “I’m your friend,” he started, but she interrupted.
“Was,” she corrected. “What happened to everyone’s memories anyway?” Crystal, as far as she had told us, didn’t remember the bar. “Did you just erase them to play a game this whole time?”
Robb didn’t answer.
“Erasing your own people’s memory,” Jessica paused, but she nodded. “That’s pretty low.”
Linda and Zac had fallen victim to him, too, but Robb still argued, “The Dark did it to you.”
“I did it to myself.”
Right when I thought Jessica would leap across the table and start the fight, Jonathon interrupted—again. “Coffees and crumpets.” He laid a plate of pastries on the table before he juggled mugs out of his grasp. “I’ve always wanted to say that.” If I hadn’t known myself, I would’ve thought Jonathon had experience in the service industry. “All on me.”
Jonathon sat down right next to Robb.
Our enemy had to stare. “A little close, aren’t you, Stone?”
Jonathon shrugged. “I don’t mind.”
Robb shifted away, but Jonathon shifted toward him. “Want a pastry?” he asked. “They had cherry ones.” He grabbed the plate, but Robb met his offer with a glare. Jonathon shrugged before pushing the plate to me. “I guess I bought them for you guys.”
Jessica didn’t even react. Jonathon was being too cocky.
I had to grip the table to keep myself from speaking to him out loud. “What. Are. You. Thinking?”
“Just take it,” he said right before shutting off our connection. It felt like he had punched a migraine into my skull, and it only melted away when I grabbed the plate.
Jonathon—in all of our years together—had never blocked me, and he had done it now for a reason. It was the only way I would accept his orders.
My fingers wrapped around the plate, and I pulled it across the table before I realized what sat on the corner. A single knife—just a butter knife—but a weapon, nonetheless.
Jonathon had one near him, too.
My skin prickled with sweat as their reasoning for coming in cleared. A war had already begun. My concentration on Robb had blocked everything else. The Dark’s cloud of power was sparking with the electricity of the Light. Everyone was battling. It would be seconds before Robb made a move, even if it were at the coffee shop.
The humans didn’t matter to him.
I hesitated and looked at the window. It reflected all the people around us—the old couples, the teenagers, the families—all the possible witnesses were also possible victims. Innocent victims. But I saw Jessica’s reflection the clearest. My fiancée, the only girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, could die, too. So could Jonathon. So could I. But we could no longer take away our possibilities. We could only fight.
I grabbed the knife without looking back.
52
Jessica
As soon as Eric picked up the knife, everything changed. The coffee shop spun into a chaotic blur as all four of us leapt up. Eric’s chair fell backward, and the wood smacked against the floor with an ear-splitting shotgun blast. The heat followed, but it dispersed as Robb transformed into the man I never wished to see again.
Darthon stood in front of us, and he had a weapon.
Instead of Jonathon reaching the knife, Darthon had, and he held it against Jonathon’s throat. My guard didn’t even have the time to transform, but now, he didn’t bother. He stood there with a grin on his face. “Aren’t I the damsel in distress?”
“Shut up,” Darthon growled.
“If you say so, boss,” Jonathon practically laughed, and I didn’t realize why until I took a step back.
The rest of the coffee shop was acting normal. The customers continued to chat, drink, and chat some more. Not a single person looked our way. No one was moving. No one was reacting to the fact that Robb had transformed into a superhuman. Not even the people I thought might have been lights. Robb was alone, but so were we. The shades couldn’t sense the illusion he covered us with. Only we could see the truth.
“Let him go,” Eric started slowly, but Robb only tightened his hold.
Jonathon wheezed as his glasses fell off of his face. “It’s all right.” He finally transformed, but the transformation was slow. It crept over his skin, and he winced with every inch. Being so close to Darthon affected him more than I knew. “I’m quite comfortable here.”
Robb nicked his neck. “I told you to shut up.”
A bit of blood popped over the edge of the blade. This time, Jonathon didn’t joke, but he didn’t flinch either. He was Pierce now. Pierce could handle the pain.
“You’re trying to mock me.” As Darthon screamed at Eric, his hair glowed. “All of you are.”
“I think that was me,” Pierce spoke up.
More blood trickled out as Darthon pressed down, but he didn’t have time to slit his throat. I transformed, and the powers shifted from the Light to the Dark. Even I couldn’t breathe, but the moment extended the second Pierce needed.
I was a shade, and Pierce was free. He had slammed Darthon against the window and gotten away as if we had planned the movements together. In a way, we had. We were all a team. It was in our blood. We reacted as one, and Pierce stood by our sides like we could melt into one person.
Darthon stared at us like we actually had and dropped his knife. Right when I thought he would pull out his sword, he stared at me. “I don’t want to hurt the humans.”
He had put up an illusion, after all, but I stood my ground. “You can’t change your mind now,” I spat. “We’re finishing this. Right now.”
“Not here,” Eric spoke up, and it was only then that I realized he was the only human among us. Even then, his moss-colored eyes burned. “Not with the people around.”
Darthon shifted from foot to foot, and his illusion shifted with him. I could feel it move just like the realm moved, but it never fell. He only contemplated it. As much as I was one with Eric and Pierce, I was one with Darthon, too. I was sure of it, and I was positive about what end I wanted to slice off me.
“We can fight like we were supposed to,” Darthon spoke only to Eric. “Alone.”
“Deal,” Eric said before I could stop him.
The room erupted into flame. The reddish pull flew over the walls and drowned the floors with electricity. My shade flesh sizzled, and I fell out of myself just as Pierce fell into Jonathon. We were human again just in time.
Darthon was gone, so was his illusion, and Eric was nowhere to be seen.
They had gone back to the Light realm—the one place Eric had no power—the one place where only I could get him out.
I started to rip myself into a light, but Jonathon grabbed my arm. “Don’t,” he hissed. “Not here.”
The coffee shop was staring.
A gasp escaped me as I forced my molecules to remain in place. My human skin had never felt so suffocating before.
“He’s not doing this alone,” I managed, knowing Eric would die.
Jonathon never dropped his grasp. “Of course he isn’t,” he said and dragged me toward the exit. “Have a nice night,” he shouted over his shoulder as we ran outside. The cold air blasted us apart, but Jonathon grabbed both of my arms to face me. “He expected that.”
I knew it before he said it. Eric had practically asked for it. Why was beyond me.
We only had seconds.
“Go after him,” Jonathon spoke as he looked over his shoulder. Crystal must have been hiding in the alleyway. “We’ll meet you at the shelter.” The same shelter that was probably under attack alread
y.
Before he could run for the war, I latched onto him. “Pierce.” His shade name was the only one I could use.
He froze as if it controlled him. “Yeah?”
“Protect Crystal.”
“Like she needs it,” he joked, but his face flinched. “Stop worrying about us.” He finally broke away from me, and the world was cold again. “Just go.”
53
Eric
I was staring at myself. It was the last thing I thought I would see in the Light realm. I was human, and so was the Eric standing in front of me. He looked exactly like me, down to the frayed bits of brown hair. Even his eyes were green. Darthon—with an illusion—could be me, and we were both in the Light realm. Even with my sudden pain, my shock took over.
“What…” I couldn’t fathom the words. “What are you doing?”
His smile was even like mine. “You really think she’ll leave us to fight alone?”
It was then that the realm erupted. If there had been heat before, it was now burning. Jessica appeared in a beam of light, and her hair flickered from white to brown to white again. She had to be a light to enter the realm, but she fell out of her transformation the second her eyes saw us—two Erics.
She was human again. We all were. At least, we appeared to be. Darthon was still using his powers. He was only using an illusion, and I hoped Jessica could decipher it, but her eyes darted between us. Her powers weren’t beating his this time. She only saw me.
“Jessica,” I started to speak, but so did Darthon.
“Jessica.” He mimicked me. He even used her full name.
She took a step back.
He pointed to me. “It’s him. That’s Darthon.”
I couldn’t defend myself against Jessica, but neither could Darthon. She was more powerful than both of us were, and Darthon was using the only weapon he had against her—me—but it didn’t work. She kept her distance. She never lifted a finger. Only her eyes moved, darting between the two of us, searching for flaws in one of us. The biggest downside was obvious. I had spent hardly any time with her over the past two months, and Darthon had spent every other day following me around. He probably knew me better than I wanted to admit, but I didn’t have time to think about it.
While Jessica remained still, Darthon attacked me.
I didn’t even see him coming. Not as a human in the Light realm. I was already in pain, but the pain vibrated when I smacked the ground. My vision spun, but that didn’t stop me from swinging at him.
My knuckles collided with his face, and his fist cracked against my jaw. We weren’t two minutes into our battle, and I already tasted blood. I was already losing, and the circumstances were only getting worse.
I couldn’t breathe.
The air was hot, and my skin burned. Right as I thought the Light realm was taking ahold of my body, Darthon leapt off me. “What are you doing?” he screamed, and his scream sounded like my voice in the same way he appeared as me, but it was his actions.
Fire had erupted in the room, crawling up a wall, and Jessica pointed her fingers toward it like it didn’t burn at all. Only a thread of her hair was white. She had set the place on fire.
The black smoke cascaded over the floors, but I saw every movement.
Jessica didn’t speak. She shot forward and punched Darthon in the gut. He didn’t budge, but the floor did. It shook as she kicked him—not once, but twice—and this time, he fell. He never even tried to hit her back.
She ran to my side, and her hands pulled me up before I could even register that I was fine. The realm wasn’t crushing me like it had the previous time. Jessica was helping. I could feel it when her fingertips touched mine. It was the same relief Linda had given me. She truly was one of them.
“Let’s go.” Her voice whisked past me as she began to run.
I lingered behind to stare at Darthon. He was lying on his stomach, barely moving. The flames were growing. He was weak. I could kill him, but when I tried to step toward him, Jessica pulled my arm.
“Not now.” She continued to tug. “Not here.”
Darthon groaned, and his hands landed on the ground in front of him. He was already pushing himself up.
She was right. He was more powerful here, and I was just a human.
I ran, and we fled together.
The hallways twisted on forever, but they didn’t move, and they didn’t disappear. Jessica wasn’t manipulating the realm anymore, and I forced myself to look forward as we sprinted through the place.
“Can you get us out?” I managed between breaths.
“I’m trying.” Her high-pitched voice squeaked the last thing I wanted to hear. “It’s not working.”
Darthon had probably collected himself. My fears were confirmed when the floors creaked. The wood hopped and bolted to either side. We came to a halt as the entire corridor flipped, and there he was. Darthon stood in front of us—inches in front of us—with black soot coating the side of his face, his teeth barred.
Jessica scratched his cheek, and everything changed again.
The floor was the ceiling, and the ceiling was beneath us, but I recognized the room. Every wall was stone, and the dim lighting reminded me of the days I had died beneath Darthon’s touch.
“It was the only place I could think of,” Jessica muttered, explaining what had happened. She and Darthon were fighting with the realm. So far, she was winning. Another strand of her hair had grown white, but it slowly faded.
I stared at it as I caught my breath. The constant changes were disorienting. I couldn’t understand it. My footing didn’t even feel right. It was almost like I was hovering, slightly disconnected to the place, and I wondered if I was.
Jessica looked me up and down. “Are you okay?”
“Nauseous,” I admitted. Every word I spoke was difficult.
“We’ll find a way out,” she promised, but only the lights flickered. She cursed. I didn’t ask why, because I didn’t have to.
We were stuck, and we had bigger problems.
The door opened, and a silhouette cut through the light. The only good news rested in the fact that it was too small to be Darthon’s. When the boy stepped forward, I already knew who to expect.
Zac, in his half-breed form, cracked his knuckles. His multicolored gaze was the only thing I saw as he shot toward me. The movements were beyond my human vision. Everything was a blur. But Zac never reached me.
Jessica leapt in front of me, and her white hair sprayed out as she transformed into a light. A beam exploded out, but they were stilled against it. Jessica’s hand wrapped around his throat just in time for everything to rush forward again. She slammed him into the ground, and when he leapt up, she kicked him back to the floor, never allowing him to get near me, but her first mistake was checking on me.
He took advantage of her focus. His foot swung out and kicked her feet out from under her. When she hit the ground, he grabbed her hair and yanked. She screamed as her body dragged against the floor.
I shot forward, but someone else held me back. I didn’t even have time to spin around before I heard her voice, “Zac.” Fudicia had spoken, and her single word was enough of a speech to freeze the entire room.
Zac stared, but his grasp never left Jessica.
She was the one to tear away, and she had to hit him to do it. Even then, when Jessica leapt away, a few of her white hairs stayed in his hand. He had barely moved.
Jessica, on the other hand, was not hesitating. She came after Fudicia, but this time, I jumped in front of her. “Don’t,” I managed.
Jessica froze, too. The expression Zac and Jessica had oddly looked related. Both of them searched Fudicia’s face. Neither of them looked at me.
“What are you talking about?” Zac cursed as he stood.
Jessica shot to the side so she could face everyone, but her stance was pointed at Fudicia. She was a bigger target.
“You heard me,” Fudicia spoke only to her brother. “Stop fighting.”
&nbs
p; “That’s the only thing you’ve taught me to do,” he yelled back before he made his move.
He flew toward Jessica, his hands outstretched, his voice echoing around us, but he never reached her.
In a flash, Fudicia was between them, and in a single movement, she had grabbed both sides of Zac’s head. “I’m sorry,” she said before snapping his neck.
He fell to the ground. The only sound in the room was his body crumbling against the cement, and the sparks that flew off his skin as he shifted back into his human form. Zac was dead.
I stumbled backward, and Zac’s black eyes followed me the entire way.
My back hit the wall before Fudicia spoke again. “He wasn’t going to listen.” She brushed her hands off on her pants.
“What—” Jessica’s skin rushed with color as she fell back into her human form. Even she had stumbled backward. She didn’t know about Fudicia. In her mind, Fudicia was our enemy, and in her mind, our enemy had killed their own kind.
“He’s better off this way,” Fudicia spoke to her. “Are you okay?”
It was only then that I realized Jessica was bleeding. A small slit curled over her brow, and blood trickled down the side of her face. I didn’t even know if it was Darthon or Zac. I was completely useless in the Light realm, but I could speak.
“She’s on our side,” I choked out. Everything was lined with pain.
Jessica didn’t look at me, but her chin lifted, and I knew she heard what I had said. She just didn’t believe it. She was focused on Fudicia.
“This isn’t an illusion,” Fudicia promised.
I took a step forward, and both girls finally faced me. Apparently, I did exist. “It’s not.”
“She knows,” Fudicia said as Jessica positioned herself into a fighting stance. “She just doesn’t want to believe it.”
“It’s true—” I started to speak, but I didn’t have to continue.
Fudicia turned her back to Jessica, leaving herself open to be killed—all so she could kneel next to her half-brother. Her fingers ran over his hair as slowly as the frown that took over her lips. Even so, her eyes were wild.
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