by Sarra Cannon
I struggled harder against the knots, determined to saw through my own wrists if that’s what it took.
Nicole laughed again. “You’re never getting free of those ropes,” she said. “See, unlike you, I’ve learned a few tricks along the way. Those ropes are bound by darkness, and they’re impossible to break or loosen. You’re stuck here, Marayah. And just like Hailey, you’re going to die as a warning against teen drug use and depression. I think I’ll make yours look a bit more obviously like a suicide. Poor Marayah. She just couldn’t handle life after the accident. She was so despondent about her friend’s death that she took her own life. Such a sad story.”
My heart tightened and tears spilled down my cheeks. My parents would never know the truth, and that killed me inside. But Kimi.
Oh God, Kimi would never understand. This was going to change her forever. She would blame herself for the rest of her life, thinking that she never should have covered for me and let me keep going down this path. It wasn’t her fault, but she would never know that.
“Tell me what happened the night Hailey died. I deserve to know,” I said. I needed more time to think. There had to be something I could do.
“I really did feel bad at first that I had dragged you into the whole thing, but you were too suspicious,” she said. “You wouldn’t leave Hailey’s side, and I knew that if I was going to kill her, I was going to have to kill you both. That was my biggest mistake, of course.”
My head snapped up, confused. “Why? I thought you wanted me dead.”
“Oh, I did. I do,” she said. “But letting you go with Hailey that night completely screwed up my entire plan. I was going to send you both over the bridge to your deaths, and once Hailey was dead, I would have access to the power inside of her. I thought I’d be able to pull it from her and take it all for myself. What I didn’t plan on was you stealing it from me before I had the chance.”
“Stealing it?”
She narrowed her eyes at me, venom practically dripping from her gaze. “Yes, and I would have killed you for it right then and there if it hadn’t been for Greycloud. I don’t know how he even found us so quickly, but he must have been following Hailey. Tracking her somehow.”
“The bridge,” I whispered. “I saw you on the bridge right before we crashed.”
“Yes, a neat little trick, huh?” she said. “If you had given yourself over to the darkness, you might have learned how to do some of these things, but you’re too weak, Marayah. Too small-minded to see the potential. I learned quickly, though, and one of the tricks I learned to do was to separate my body from my darkness. While my physical body still walked around the party, having a good time, my darker self was waiting on that bridge.”
I closed my eyes, seeing the dark form standing there like a shadow, commanding Hailey to crash into the railing.
“I forced her to send the car over the bridge, and you were both thrown onto the rocks below. No one ever should have survived a fall like that, but I didn’t recognize you for who you were back then. Another Spiritwalker in hiding,” she said. “Hailey had died on impact, her head smashed against the windshield, her pretty face ruined forever. But you.”
She stared at me with pure hatred.
“You survived,” she said. “And you stole the power from her before I had a chance.”
I gasped, a memory flashing through me like a bolt of lightning.
I lay against a rock, confused and hurting. Exhausted from the swim toward the banks of the river. I called for Hailey, but she didn’t answer. I managed to sit up, and I could see her there, just a few feet away, her eyes open but lifeless, blood covering her beautiful face.
Her mouth was open and something thick was leaking from it. At first, I thought it was blood, but as I crawled toward her, I realized it was black and seemed to be...moving.
My entire body screamed in pain as I tried to crawl toward her. I was pretty sure my ankle was broken. Maybe my wrist. I could only use my good hand to pull myself toward her, praying she was still alive. She wasn’t moving at all, and when I looked into her eyes, I knew the truth, even if I wasn’t ready to admit it.
I couldn’t quite remember why, but I knew I needed to move quickly. Someone was still out there, trying to hurt us.
I glanced up toward the bridge, and the dark figure stared down at us.
I needed to get to Hailey. To protect her, but the closer I got, the further away she seemed to be. Blood flowed down my cheek on the left side. My vision blurred, and I couldn’t quite grab hold of my thoughts.
All I knew was that we were both in danger.
“Hailey,” I screamed, but she wasn’t moving. The black liquid that poured from her lips pooled on the rocks, writhing like a snake.
I finally reached her, my scraped hand landing in the black that oozed from her.
“No,” someone shouted, yanking me backward.
But it was too late. Whatever had been living inside the darkness had found me. The black liquid that pooled around Hailey snaked around my body and seeped into my wound. I screamed, pain ripping through me like a sword.
The dark figure reached for my throat.
“That power is mine,” it said, holding its hand up. A dagger made of shadows and darkness formed in the figure’s grasp.
I knew that I was going to die, and I no longer had the strength to fight.
But before the figure could lower the dagger into my chest, a bright light emerged from the forest just beyond the riverbank. The darkness surrounding me dissipated into a thin mist that covered the surface of the river and floated downstream.
At first, I could have sworn I saw a bear rushing toward me, but as the light dimmed and he came closer, the figure turned into a man with hair the color of obsidian.
He glanced at Hailey, a deep sadness in his expression. He kneeled at her side and whispered a prayer.
“Don’t hurt her,” I said, still refusing to believe she could be gone.
“No one can hurt her anymore,” the man said. He reached around her neck and removed the medallion she wore on a black chain. He closed her eyes, and I began to cry.
The man placed the cool medallion in my injured hand and closed my palm around it. He kept his hand tight around my own and began to chant words I couldn’t recognize.
A glow emanated from the strange necklace, its light growing stronger with every word he spoke until it surrounded my entire body. When he had finished his chanting, the light entered me the same way the darkness had before, seeping into my wounds. But this time, instead of the chilling cold of death, I felt the warmth of love and light.
“Keep this with you, no matter what,” he said as sirens howled in the distance. “You are stronger than you know, and you are one of us. You must fight against the darkness and learn to call upon the spirits of those who came before you. I must go—”
My eyes widened as the dark figure reappeared behind him, its shadowy hand still holding the dark dagger.
“Watch out,” I shouted, but it was too late.
The figure buried the dagger into the man’s back. The light left his eyes and his lifeless body fell into the water and was carried away by the rushing river.
The figure laughed, its face so familiar and so horrible.
“Nicole?” I asked, unable to understand what was going on. I recognized my old friend, but knew that this figure was not truly her. This was something evil, but when she laughed, I could feel it deep in my own heart, as if we shared some dark secret.
The shadowy figure kneeled beside me and held the dagger to my neck.
“That power is mine,” she said.
In one swift motion, she slid her weapon across my throat. I waited for the pain to come and felt myself slipping away, but her shadowy blade turned to mist in her hand. She shook her head and attempted to conjure a second blade, but the sirens grew closer, their lights flickering across the trees that surrounded the river.
A policeman ran down the embankment, shouting for hel
p as he shone his flashlight on the two girls left for dead on the rocks.
The shadow was gone.
I inhaled sharply as the memory flashed through my brain like a scene from a movie. I saw it all, these memories I had been desperate to recover. I finally knew the truth, and it was too late. I was going to die, anyway.
“I didn’t mean to steal the power,” I said. “I didn’t even know what it was. If I could give it back to you now, I would.”
“It’s not that simple. But you already know that, don’t you?” Nicole asked. “I need all of my power to release my other two Sisters from their stone prisons. Without the full strength of my spirit, I haven’t been able to locate their idols, but after tonight, I will find them, and the three of us will terrorize this land the way we once did so long ago. But first, you have to die, Marayah. There’s no other way.”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” I said.
She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “And how do you intend to stop me?” she asked. “We are miles from town and there are acres of dense forest surrounding us. You could scream for hours and no one would hear you. You are mine, Marayah, but you don’t have to die if you don’t want to. I’ll give you one last chance to surrender to the darkness inside you. Join me and we can work together. Refuse me and you die alone.”
I closed my eyes, the medicine woman’s words coming back to me. I needed to surrender, but not to the darkness. I needed to surrender to the light.
I stopped struggling and allowed my body to relax. I stretched my bound hands toward the floor of the cave and grasped a handful of earth, feeling its life surge through me. I listened to the world around me, my spirit becoming one with the crackling fire and the breeze that caressed my skin. I stretched further, soaring through the trees with the birds and falling, tumbling over the rocks with the waterfall.
I was one, but I was many, connected to all life. I gave thanks to the Great Creator, and my soul called upon my ancestors and the Spiritwalkers who had come before me.
I surrender to the light.
Something sparked deep inside of me, and my true self awakened for the first time.
My eyes snapped open just as Nicole approached me, the large rock held over her head, ready to strike. She reared back, but just as she lowered her weapon toward me, a bright light burst forth from the medallion around my neck.
She cried out and fell backward, the rock tumbling to the ground.
The ropes that bound my hands and ankles broke free, and I stood up, light coursing through me. Movement just beyond the mouth of the cave caught my eye, and my lips parted in surprise.
Men and women, their bodies made entirely of light, walked toward us and blocked the exit.
Nicole scrambled back against the wall of the cave, her eyes black as night and wide with fear. She shook her head violently. “No, you can’t do this to me,” she said, dark tears like oil sliding down her pale face. “I won’t let you take this darkness from me.”
Dark shadows swirled around her, and she pulled a shining dagger from her boot. She ran forward, aiming for my heart, but just before she reached me, a growl echoed throughout the cave.
The spirit of a large bear tore through the darkness and lunged at Nicole. The dagger fell into the dirt as the bear’s jaws clamped shut around her throat. She screamed as he dragged her from the cave and into the woods.
I fell to my knees as the light around me faded, and I waited for the darkness that had consumed Nicole to find its way back to me. I knew that it would.
As soon as Nicole was dead, the Sister’s spirit would seek out its other half, and I would have no choice but to welcome it in. I only hoped that when the time came, I would be strong enough to survive it.
When her screams stopped and the forest had grown silent, I felt the darkness searching for me. For the other half of its power.
The black oil entered the cave like a snake, slithering along the dirt and keeping to the shadows. I wanted to run from it, but I knew that no matter where I went, it would find me. At least this way, it couldn’t hurt anyone else.
This was my secret now. My responsibility.
When it was close enough to touch, I sent up a prayer to the light, asking for strength and guidance. And when I was ready, I leaned down and placed my hand in the black ooze.
I felt the spirit of the Sister flow through me, strong and dark and horrible, and then I lost consciousness.
48
Things That Could Not Be Changed
I’m not sure how long I slept in the cave before Jordan found me.
I woke at the sound of his footsteps and sat up.
“Marayah?” he asked, his eyes taking in the glowing embers of the fire and the trail of black oil streaked across the floor of the cave.
He knelt at my side and wrapped his arms around me.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
At first, I wasn’t sure how to explain all that had happened, but when the words finally came, they tumbled out of me in one long string. When I told him about the spirit of the bear who had saved my life, his dark eyes filled with tears.
“Ethan?” he asked, shaking his head slightly.
I think in his heart, he had known the truth all along. He just hadn’t wanted to face it.
“He died the same night Hailey died,” I said, glancing toward the back of the cave where his bones had been for over a year. “He died trying to save me. I’m so sorry, Jordan.”
Jordan stood and walked deeper into the cave. I knew his wolf eyes were seeing something I could not, and my heart ached for him.
I gave him time to mourn the brother he’d loved and lost, and when he returned to me, we held each other for a long time before I told him about the Sister’s power inside me.
He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to mine.
“That’s too much for one person to have to handle,” he said. “Marayah, it will never stop trying to control you.”
“Then you’ll have to help me learn how to control it first,” I said, refusing to let this be the end for me. Too many of the people we loved had died already, and I was not going to allow the darkness to take anyone else.
Including me.
“So what do we do now?” he asked.
I glanced around the cave. There were too many clues that might lead police back to us, and if they questioned us, there was no way they would believe the truth of what had happened.
Nicole’s backpack. Her dagger. Her body. We needed to get rid of all of it.
“We need to cover our tracks,” I said. “Erase any evidence that we were ever here.”
It took time, but slowly and methodically, we combed the woods and the cave for any sign of the battle that had taken place there. We gathered every bloodied leaf and burned it in the fire. We buried Nicole’s dagger deep in the woods where no one would ever find it.
And when the easier things were done, we carried Nicole’s lifeless body to the edge of the cliff and threw her over the side. She tumbled down the rocky wall of the cliff and fell into the deep pool beneath the waterfall.
It broke my heart to discard her so carelessly. It hadn’t been Nicole’s choice to be consumed by an evil spirit, and she deserved better. But we had no choice, and I was learning to accept the things that could not be changed.
When we were finished with everything else, we carefully wrapped Ethan’s remains in a blanket from Jordan’s car and carried him down the mountain trail. We discussed burying him there in the woods, but Jordan wanted his brother to be buried on the reservation back home in Nevada where his father had been buried years ago.
Tomorrow, he would drive his brother home and see him laid to rest.
As we parted ways, our bodies and our hearts aching, I wondered if he would stay in Nevada, or if he would come back to me, but I didn’t dare ask him. I wasn’t sure my heart could take it if he said he was leaving for good.
Instead, I kissed his cheek and then watched him drive away into
the night.
49
Deep Dark Secrets
A light mist rained down as we stood at the fresh gravesite, surrounded by our classmates, teachers, and everyone who knew and loved Nicole.
I once loved her, too, but in the end, she wasn’t Nicole. She was something else. Something no one here could ever know existed.
As far as everyone else knew, Nicole’s death had been a tragic accident.
The police questioned me, of course, since I had been with her that afternoon. I told them we had finished our project late that afternoon and parted ways. I had gone on a secret date with Jordan, which my parents later grounded me for, but that was a small price to pay for my lies.
Nicole had gone out to dinner with her family. They all said that she had seemed happy and normal, but that afterward she’d wanted to go spend time with a friend. She hadn’t told them who, and no one in our school admitted to seeing her that night.
Somehow, she had ended up in the woods, alone in the dark. Perhaps she had gone for a late-night run, they said. She must have stayed out too late and gotten disoriented in the darkness. A massive search was organized, and in the end, eleven days after her disappearance, her body had been found floating near some rocks at the base of a remote waterfall. She must have lost her footing and fallen to her death.
She’d been in the water so long, her body was almost unrecognizable, but the rumor was that a wild animal had gotten hold of her at some point, which explained the bite marks at her throat.
As always in a town like this, there were suspicions and rumors about what really happened to Nicole, but Jordan and I were the only ones who knew the truth.
As they lowered her body into the ground, he reached for my hand, his warmth the one comfort I had in all this chaos. The only proof I had that I wasn’t completely alone.
He’d come back to me, after all.
I entwined my fingers in his and rested my head on his shoulder, unable to hold back my tears.
