“It’s possible he hasn’t gotten here yet,” Rhiannon says. She’s not covering her face, nor does she seem bothered by the ash in the air. She scans the area, walking around on the scorching ground of the destroyed town. Her feet are bare, they’re already blackened from the fire Marisol started. It doesn’t seem to hurt her anymore, or if it does, she isn’t showing it at all. She fumbles with the cord of the prism around her neck. Though she says it, her expression tells me she doesn’t believe what she says.
She’s looking for him.
I don’t want to believe he’s here either, but I can’t look. I can’t see anything with the smoke burning my eyes.
“I can’t smell him,” Rev tells us as he and his brother approach us.
“I can’t smell anything,” Dapper says.
I can barely see the two of them standing in front of me now. My eyes are watery, burning from the smoke and fire, we’re in the middle of the flames.
Rhiannon latches onto my arm.
“Maybe I should go up in the air,” she whispers, her hand trickling down my arm till it reaches my hand.
“The sun —”
“It’s not so bad here,” she says. “I’ll be fine.”
She squeezes my hand and disappears from by my side. I turn around, walking in a circle, she’s gone. I try to wave the smoke away from my face, but it’s no use as the fire travels through Newacre.
“Hey, look up there!” Dapper says, pointing at the sky.
Rhiannon transformed, she’s hovering above us, fanning the smoke away with her wings from where we stand. The smoke clears briefly, and I can see a little better than before. Her black eyes are focused on the ground below her.
Do you see him?
She doesn’t answer me. She’s concentrating.
“She really cares about him?” Rev asks. I turn to him and nod.
“Yeah,” I say. “She does.” I look back up at her, and she stops hovering. Something grabs her attention that sends her flying away from us in another direction, further out, near my house. I look at Rev, and he pushes me forward, urging me to run. Dapper has already taken off.
We follow her — or they follow her and I do my best to try to keep up. All of my sense are still only human. Unlike theirs. If I hadn’t lived here and already know my way around, I doubt I would have been able to keep up with them.
My heart is racing. My mind is drawing blanks. I can’t think. I don’t know what she saw, and I don’t want to think the worst. But what if it is Jace? What if he got here early and what if he’s not okay? What if he’s…
No. He can’t be dead.
I keep my shirt up, covering the bottom half of my face as I try to follow them.
I run right into Rev, who stopped in his tracks.
“You made us worry over some bear?” Dapper asks, he’s irritated with her.
I push between them, shoving myself forward so I can see what they are talking about. Rhiannon is back in her human form and she’s holding Zoirin’s bear in her hand. She looks at me, before turning to Jace’s brothers. Rhiannon holds it out to the two of them. Her eyes are red. “Can’t you smell that?” she asks, her voice is breaking. “His scent is on it.”
Dapper and Rev exchange glances, and they both inhale deeply, while I can’t look away from the bear in her hand. Rhiannon’s eyes water. I know it’s not because of the smoke.
“We have to find him,” she says, tightening her grip on the burnt bear. She turns around, frantically looking at the rubble that surrounds us. “He has to be here somewhere,” her voice cracks. It’s subtle, she’s probably trying to hide it in front of Dapper and Rev. “I just know it.”
“Zoirin was a girl we used to watch while we still lived here. Is there any way it could be an old scent from then?” I ask hopefully.
She doesn’t even look at me, she just shakes her head.
“It wouldn’t be this strong,” she says.
Dapper and Rev split up and look for him while I stick beside Rhiannon. I try to take the bear from her, but she doesn’t want to let go. She tightens her grip around its body. But then eventually she loosens it, her fingers unwrap, and the bear slips from her hand and into mine. Her grip gave out.
“Where is he?” she asks me, but she knows I can’t answer that. She turns away from me, looking around us. “He’s here. I know he’s here.”
“We’ll find him,” I say. I grip the stuffed toy in my hands like someone’s going to tear it away from me. It slipped away from me once. It isn’t going to happen again. “We will, okay?” I try to catch her gaze. She keeps averting her eyes at first, but she eventually nods.
“What if he’s —”
I turn to face her and grab her arms. My shirt slips from covering my face. “Rhiannon, it’ll be —” I start coughing, now completely exposed to the smoke. “It’ll be okay.”
Her gaze finally meets mine. Her eyes are full of tears.
“You can’t know that,” she says, shaking her head.
I slip my hand into hers.
“Well, let’s go look. We won’t find him just standing here.” I press my face into my shoulder, into my sleeve. My voice is muffled. “And I can’t really see.”
Or breathe.
I cough against my shoulder.
Howling comes from the distance and Rhiannon doesn’t wait another second. She pushes past me and darts in the direction. I try to keep up, covering my face again with the front of my shirt. I grip the bear even tighter. The howls come again. It’s a whining kind of howl. My stomach is doing flips again.
There’s sadness in their voices.
They’re mourning.
I shake my head as I climb through the debris of the fallen homes of my town. I pass burnt bodies laying in the streets. I don’t look at them, I pretend they aren’t there. I know that if I look, for even a second, I may recognize a face. It would be a second too long. I don’t want to recognize any faces. None of this was supposed to happen. We were supposed to be here before any of this happened. But even then, we couldn’t prevent it.
I can’t seem to do anything right.
Rev and Dapper are both in their wolf forms, Rev has his face pressed up against rubble. I stop in my tracks as the wind blows. His nose is pressing up against an immobile hand.
It’s Kina. Her eyes are still open, hair mostly burned off.
I take a step back, and I stumble.
I shake my head. This can’t be happening. I turn around and see Rhiannon through the smoke. She’s standing there, she’s not facing me.
Rhiannon?
She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t move.
I try not to slip in the rubble. I only glance down to make sure I don’t fall.
Rhiannon?
Even as I get closer, she doesn’t respond. My fist tightens around the bear and I keep walking. I don’t stop until I’m right beside her.
“Rhiannon?” I say, looking at her. She’s looking around, her face is completely flushed. Cheeks are damp, eyes are red.
But she doesn’t make a sound.
Her lips part, but she doesn’t say anything to me. Instead, her eyes drift downward, and I force myself to follow her gaze.
I stop breathing. The bear drops from my hand.
Jace is in front of us, stuck in the fetal position. Eyes shut tight, face tucked into his shoulder. His neck is broken. Skin burnt to a crisp, I can see the bone of his elbow peeking out through his skin. I notice the blonde hair, frayed. I close my eyes and take a step back. His body is covering Zoirin, who must have died in his arms.
I slip on the rubble and I fall flat on my back.
My hand grips the gravel. I can’t make myself get up. I can’t look away from Jace and Zoirin. I can’t even look up at Rhiannon.
I gasp for air when it dawns on me that I’m not breathing. I ge
t lungs full of smoke as I inhale. Coughing, I start to choke. I pull my shirt back up over my face and force myself to look away from him. I get up and I grab the skirt of Rhiannon’s dress, trying to get her to come with me but she doesn’t budge.
I step in front of her.
“Rhiannon, look at me,” I say through the material of my shirt, but she doesn’t. She continues to avert her gaze, looking around like she doesn’t even know I’m standing in front of her. “Rhiannon, I need you to come back to me.”
Just past her, there’s movement that catches my attention.
Then a growl.
Dapper’s voice comes to mind.
‘That’s the only reason why you are still alive.’
“Rhiannon!”
She slowly shakes her head.
“He’s dead.” Her voice is soft.
I grab her face between my hands and force her to look at me. Her pupils are small, the green in her eyes has darkened, the specks of gold are nearly gone. She’s looking at me, without really looking at me. She’s looking through me.
“Rhiannon,” I try again, “if we don’t go, his brothers are going to kill you.”
She shakes her head and pulls away from me as she looks down. Her fingers fumble with the charms of the bracelet he gave her.
The growling is closer. I swear I can feel breath on the back of my neck, only to have smoke blown in my face. I’ve never felt more reassured.
Her cheeks have dried, skin tight from the tears. The color has faded from her face. I’m really seeing her now. Her hand moves. Slowly, it reaches for the prism around her neck. Her fingers wrap around it. She pulls.
“Rhiannon, stop!”
Chapter FIFTEEN
tree of life
We’re back standing in Newacre, my hand is still holding the Heliosi in my palm like we never left. Rhiannon pulls her hand back quickly. She looks at Jace, who just frowns, and she runs away from us. Jace pulls his hand back too.
“It didn’t work?” he asks, crossing his arms.
“I guess not,” I say, dropping the sundial back into my pocket. Truthfully, I’m not sure what just happened. I can’t even look at him. Canarywarts creep across my skin. He’s standing right there, but it’s like his voice is haunting me. I just saw his dead body. I turn back to look at Rhiannon and she’s near the edge of the Woodlands now. She must know something. “I’m gonna go check on her.”
Jace nods and I run to catch up to her.
It’s easier to move through Newacre if I don’t think of it as a town. Or a former town. If I just don’t focus on it, I move easily, from one side to the other.
The fence is completely broken through. She’s looking up at the charred trees when I reach her, but she doesn’t stop walking.
“What'd you do?” I ask her as soon as I catch up.
She stops in her tracks. She doesn’t turn around to look at me and I don’t step forward.
“If you turn it and you push the dial in, it'll show you what'll happen before you go back.”
“You were reading my mind, weren’t you.”
She wipes her face.
“I saw him — he was — he was —”
“But he’s not actually, Rhiannon.”
“It was so real.”
“I know,” I say. I take a step forward. The dead foliage crunches beneath my feet. “It felt real to me too.” I move in front of her and she’s avoiding my gaze again.
“How did you know to do that?” I ask. I don’t try to make her look at me.
“Your father gave me a book to read after Amelia brought us back to the cabin.” She rakes her fingers through her hair. “He thinks you’re impulsive.”
“He’s right,” I say.
She doesn’t laugh. She shows no reaction to my words. Instead, her fingers move to clutch onto the prism hanging around her neck.
“Did you see me?” She brings her gaze up to meet mine. “It was like I died when I saw him. How could I do that?”
“You’re falling in love him, Rhiannon.” I say. “Like you told me, he doesn’t look at you as a monster — yet that’s all you see of yourself. Without the one person we feel truly sees us for who we are, how can we stay strong?”
“No,” she says and shakes her head. “I don’t want to. I can’t —”
“Rhiannon, I don’t think that’s something you can just turn off or prevent because you’re scared. It doesn’t work like that.”
She leans her forehead against my shoulder.
‘He’s going to die one day, and I don’t know how I’m going to handle it.’
I’ll make sure that day is a long time from now.
She takes a step back and looks up at me.
“That’s not something you can guarantee,” she says.
“I’m the son of Father Time and Mother Nature,” I say. “I got Nova to stop aging. I will figure it out, Rhiannon. I promise you.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I don’t,” I say simply.
She turns away and nods, crossing her arms. I notice then that she has the pouch tied to her belt. The same one from the vision, the one she got from the witch.
“How are you?” she asks me without looking up.
“I don’t know,” I say. “It’s — it’s a good thing you knew to do that. If that was a reality I had to accept, I don’t…” I shrug. “I don’t know how I’d be. Actually, I don’t think it’s something I’d accept,” I admit finally.
She furrows her brows. “What do you mean?”
I shrug again.
“Why don’t we go see how he is?” I ask, trying to change the subject. I force myself to laugh. “I don’t think he has a clue what’s going on.”
She nods. She starts walking with me but then she stops.
“On second thought, why don’t you?” she says. “I think I’m going to head back into the house to get some sleep before we go.”
She starts walking back before I even answer her.
I look further into the Woodlands and take a step in. The trees have burnt to a crisp. Dried, charred. It reminds me more of the Whispering Woods, and the dancing of the flowers and shrubs from last spring seemed so far away. Twigs and scorched leaves crunch beneath my boots, and the dirt is solid. My feet don’t sink in the mud.
I stop when reach the Tree of Life. The bark is black. The water that gathered around the deep roots has dried. I walk around the tree, and something’s laying beside it. It’s the same fox I saw before the ghouls captured me. The breathing is slow, its chest barely rises and falls. I kneel down beside it and it starts to glow.
I fall back, and scoot away as it morphs into a giant elk. Its antlers are stubs, like someone sawed them off. It looks at me, then looks away. Continuing with its slow and shallow breaths. I sit and I wait. I wait for my mom to come. Where are you?
‘She’s not coming.’
The voice isn’t Rhiannon’s.
I look around but I’m alone. Except for the elk laying in front of me. I frown. “Are you —”
‘She’s not coming.’ The elk slowly breathes. I crawl forward and sit in front near his head. He looks at me again. He has burns on his face and his fur is singed. ‘This world is sick, Artemis.’
“You know?”
‘I’ve always known.’
“Maybe I can do something. Maybe I can —”
But his stare has turned cold. I back away from him. I sit on the ground and look at his massive body laying in front of the Tree of Life. The tree begins to crack down the center, splitting in two.
I look back at the elk, and he’s gone.
Dusting myself off, I get up from the ground and I walk back toward Newacre.
I don’t look back.
Jace is staring up at Mr. Jameson’s dead tree aga
in.
“Is she gonna be okay?” he asks me as I approach him.
“Were you eavesdropping?” I ask, rubbing the back of my neck.
“I didn’t have to,” he says, then shakes his head. “But no, I wasn’t. I won’t do that with you two. I trust you both. I have no reason not to.” His arms are still crossed. I just nod, I don’t say anything because I don’t know what to say. “Are you gonna tell me what happened?” he asks. “Your sundial didn’t work, and then Rhiannon looks like she’s horrified to see me standing there.”
“I don’t think she was horrified, exactly,” I say. “I think she was just — surprised.”
“Surprised by what?” he asks, turning to face me. “I was standing there the whole time. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. I didn’t come out of nowhere.”
I shrug. “What do you want me to say, Jace?”
“I just wanna know what happened. Clearly something happened that no one’s telling me.”
I shake my head and inhale deeply. “You’re just better off not knowing,” I say. “Just trust me on that.”
“You swear she’s gonna be okay?”
I nod again.
“She’ll be fine. You know, she just cares. Maybe I got her hopes up, and then I couldn’t make it work. We couldn’t save anyone.” I avert my eyes.
The fact that she pushed in the dial saved at least three people that I know of. Jace, Kina, and Rhiannon. All of whom weren’t supposed to die. But I can’t tell him that. I can’t tell him that I saw his dead body. Or Kina’s. Or even Zoirin’s. I can’t tell him any of that. What good would it do anyway? It wouldn’t. I’d be burdening him with things he doesn’t need to know.
“What about your brother?” he asks me. “We still doing something about that?”
I close my eyes. For a second, I had completely forgotten about that. I was swept up in trying to change what happened in Newacre, distracted by what would have happened instead. Then the elk in the forest. I sigh and scratch my jaw. “I’ll figure it out,” I say. I look back at the Woodlands. “I believe you.”
The Midnight Strider (The Chronomancer Chronicles Book 2) Page 15
