“It’s their lives were betting on.” Her gift pointed to the fight playing out before them.
Gregg wielded a knife from his boot, taking out several mortals before three Immortals took him down. He didn’t leave them unscathed, unleashing the brunt of his electromagnetic power into them. The three men fell to the ground, twitching and jerking. But the collar that snapped around Gregg’s neck was done so by mortal hands, not as affected by his magnetic pulse that could separate an Immortal from their power.
“No!” Allie gasped at the sight of the strongest man she’d ever known, down on his knees in the dirt. Unarmed and helpless with that damned collar around his throat. “This will not happen!”
“Focus on the important details and discard the rest,” gift-Allie said. “Do not let your emotions cloud what you see. Watch without fear so we can stop this.”
“Naeemah!” Gregg cried at the sound of gunfire.
Allie stared as Naeemah fell from the trees, her body riddled with bullets. She’d tried to travel through the trees to reach Hélène, but they were watching for her.
“They know what their abilities are.” Allie gasped as the realization struck her. “They’re prepared. They know exactly who they’re facing and they know exactly how to use their power against them.”
“But the question remains, how did they get past the gates?” gift-Allie asked.
“Lucien’s an architect. He designed this place like a fortress. He would have made it impossible for anyone to break in,” Allie said.
“And yet, it seems they’ve managed to just walk right in.”
“We’ve been betrayed,” Allie said. “But who? How?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Allie took a step back and stumbled to her knees, watching in horror as Gregg, Naeemah, Aide, and Hélène were all collared and forced to their knees beside a raging fire.
“No,” Allie choked as she caught sight of two bodies lying on the ground behind them. “Gen? No, please no.…” Allie’s tears streaked down her face, mixing with soot and sweat. Her heart broke for Aidan. He adored his sister. But Lucien and Gen lay dead beside the fire. “How can they do this? Imogen was so talented and Lucien was so young. It’s just wrong. We have to stop this!”
“Focus.” Gift-Allie forced her to turn away from the awful sight of Aidan’s dead sister and her Complement—Complements no longer.
Green shadows danced in her peripheral vision, and distant voices spoke. Allie reeled from seeing so much happen in such a short time. But she had to focus. She needed to watch objectively if she was going to gather the information she needed to stop this.
“You will bend knee to the Coalition or this ends here, for all of you.” The Immortal man was dressed all in black and he spoke with authority, but he was not the one in charge here. He was just a mouthpiece.
“You will have to kill us too,” Gregg spat. He was not afraid to die if he must. He grasped Naeemah’s hands and they turned to face their enemy, resolved to meet their death together.
Eerie, unnatural silence filled the night. Muted voices sounded just out of reach, and dark shadows whirled around them, like a movie with the sound turned down.
“What aren’t we seeing?” Allie cried, fearing what would come next. It was bad enough seeing Imogen and Lucien dead, but she couldn’t handle watching an execution.
“Drain them, then end them.” The Immortal’s voice returned, loud after his long muffled silence. “But keep the other two. Use the male to control the female. She might be useful.”
“No!” Hélène screamed as they took Aide, binding him with magnetized cords, and dragged him away from the others.
Hélène succumbed to the same treatment, tears streaming down her face as they dragged her through the dirt. She met Naeemah’s steely gaze one last time. “Be strong, sister,” she whispered.
When they were gone, Gregg turned to Naeemah and her eyes filled with tears.
“Nae, love. Do not cry. Be strong. Where we go, we go together.”
Allie sobbed. “I can’t watch this.” She turned her head, wishing she was anywhere but here.
“We have to.” Gift-Allie pulled her hair back and made her watch. “This is the only chance we have. Everything we’re seeing now—it’s going to happen no matter what we do. But we can change it. This is not set in stone. It will happen, but it doesn’t have to happen like this. And we have to be prepared to react. Every decision we make now will affect what happens here. It will affect how this plays out, so we need to have all the information.”
Dark, gloved hands grasped their skulls as Naeemah and Gregg’s shrieks echoed in Allie’s mind. Shaking and trembling they held each other, completely drained of the gifts that made them who they were.
Blood oozed from Gregg’s nose as he cried out in agony, his voice full of grief and regret. The knife—his own—pierced his heart.
Naeemah gasped when the same knife ripped through her chest a moment later. Their bond was broken by their mortal wounds, and all that was left of them began to slip away.
A bloody hand tossed their still-beating hearts into the fire and the night exploded in golden-amber light.
Naeemah slumped forward, collapsing onto Gregg, their vacant eyes blank and staring.
“No!” Allie sobbed, her shrieks ripping through her throat like broken glass. The world flashed a brilliant shade of chartreuse and then faded to black and white––the afterimage branded in her mind forever.
“That can’t be it?” She struggled as she fell into the darkness of the void. She still didn’t know one very important piece of the puzzle—the most important detail of all. She had no idea when this would happen.
~~~
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Allie!” Aidan shook her. “Wake up, please wake up!”
“No!” she shrieked, her eyes flying open. She sat up in bed, tears drenching her face. “No, Aidan, no!” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” She held him tightly. “It hasn’t happened yet. We won’t let it happen … not like that.”
“Breathe, Lex. We have to pull it together. It was a dream, baby. Take a deep breath and tell me everything. Do you know what it means? Can we stop it? How much time do we have?”
“We can change it.” She nodded. “But I don’t know when it’s going to happen.” She shivered, still caught up in her nightmare. How could she miss such an important detail? “I don’t know how … I don’t know what to do.”
“We have to find out when this is happening. Think, Allie, please?” His eyes were wide with the horror of witnessing his parents’ gruesome death.
The thought that it could happen at any moment—that they might have to sit back and helplessly do nothing while so many of their family were brutally murdered—left them both terrified.
“It doesn’t have to be this bad, but we can’t avoid it completely. I, I just need to think.” Allie’s hands trembled as her mind whirled with visions too fast for her to process.
“Shhhh, Lex. Pull it together. We need you.”
She couldn’t still her sobs. The horror of Naeemah and Gregg’s murder was still too fresh in her mind.
“Aidan, what the hell is going on?” Liam growled. “I thought we agreed you would stay out and let her dream.”
“This is bad, Liam.” The tears in his eyes were enough to convince his uncle of the seriousness of the situation.
“Liam,” Allie cried, scrambling into his arms. “I can’t stop it. Please … tell me what to do.”
“Deep breaths, little one. We’ll sort this out.” He turned to Aidan. “What did she see?”
“Gen. Lucien … and Mom and Dad’s execution. It was awful. She doesn’t know when, but she saw them drained and killed and Aide and Hélène were—are taken.”
“Let’s go. We’ll call everyone to the common room and we’ll figure this out together.”
Allie fumbled with her clothes, dressing quickly, and then Liam gat
hered her in his arms. She was shaking so hard she could barely stand.
She needed to calm down. This was important and she didn’t know how much time she had. Allie couldn’t afford to fall apart now. This was a puzzle she needed to piece together.
Pick out the most important information and discard the rest as junk.
She had all the information she needed. She’d been dreaming about this for weeks and it was time to figure out how it all fit. One thing she knew for certain, she had some difficult decisions to make and it would be important to make the others listen to her when their instincts told them Allie’s gift was too young to trust so blindly.
Allie needed to look at the big picture and distance herself from her emotions. Like it or not, it was up to her to decide who lived and who died.
~~~
When they arrived in the underground, Allie was feeling better, more confident and focused on the task ahead. They had time. She wasn’t sure how much, but she imagined a few weeks at least. But she had a nagging feeling she was missing something huge. Why would her gift show her so much, but then not reveal when it would happen?
“Where are they?” she asked, combing her hands through her tangled hair. Everyone else was there, but Naeemah and Gregg were suspiciously absent.
“They left for Imogen’s house early this evening,” Ming said gently.
Allie nearly fainted. They were out of time already. This was happening now. Her mind whirled with green shadows, smoke and fire, making her dizzy. Her eyes glazed and she saw the sun blazing overhead followed by a blood red moon rising high over the lake.
“The moon.” That was her clue all along and she missed it. “When is the next lunar eclipse?” She glanced around the room as everyone looked to Naomi for reasons Allie couldn’t fathom.
“It will be a full harvest moon tomorrow night. The first true blood moon we’ve had in years,” Naomi whispered. “I will be at my strongest on such a night. You draw your strength from the sun, I draw mine from the moon.”
“Call them back. Get them out of there!” Allie nearly lost it again, dropping to her knees. She pressed her forehead to the cool stone floor and took deep breaths. She couldn’t let her fear and her grief cloud her judgment. She had to put her big-girl pants on and do this. Keep looking for the important information, Allie. We still have time.
Her breath grew even and steady as she knelt on the floor. Ming Lao crouched beside her, a comforting hand resting on her back. Allie cleared her mind and focused, using the breathing techniques Ming had taught her.
Gregg’s words from her dream came back to her now. What she wants more than anything is Allie … We must draw her out … Give her what she wants—or make her think she can take what she wants by force.
Livia was behind all of this. For some reason she chose Imogen’s home for this attack—and if Allie’s hunch was right, they could thank Quinn for that. At least she wasn’t coming here. Allie got to her feet and gazed at the ashen faces all around her. She knew what she had to do.
“No.” She shook her head. “They need to stay where they are. We have to face this one way or another. Better there than here. Get them on the phone. I need to talk to Gregg. We have thirty-six hours to prepare for this.” Allie’s voice sounded cold to her own ears. But if she was going to do this, she had to be calculated in her decisions. If she let herself feel, she wouldn’t make it through this.
“Allie, you’ve done well.” Gregg’s voice drifted from the speakerphone. “But we can handle this. We have time to prepare. You’ve given us more than a full day to gather our forces to fight this threat.”
“It will not be enough.” She could see it now. As they made decisions, the tenuous future changed and morphed. She didn’t need to dream to know simply preparing wouldn’t be enough. Look for the important details and discard the rest. Her mantra echoed in her mind. “I need to talk to you privately.” Allie took the phone and headed for Aidan’s soundproofed music room.
“I know why you’re there, Gregg,” she said carefully as she closed the door behind her.
“Tell me everything you’ve seen, and don’t leave anything out.”
“I know you want to draw Livia out and I know you want to use me as bait. So let’s do it. She’s coming for me, so let’s make her think she can do it. There is a lot I can’t see. I won’t lie to you about that. I’ve not actually seen her there, but she’s wrapped up in this, I just know it.” Allie paced the length of the room. “You can’t die, Gregg. We all need you, but … I can’t lose you. I love you … Aidan loves you … and you’re the only connection I have to my mother.”
“She always said she had to focus on the details that mattered and ignore the rest. You need to look at your visions objectively and don’t be influenced by the terrible things you see. You know this can be altered? The future is never easy to read, Allie. It’s always changing and things set in motion years ago can affect what will happen.”
“We cannot escape this attack.”
“But why does she think she can get to you here?” Gregg asked. “That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. How does she even know to come for you here?”
“I, I don’t know. That’s one thing I can’t see yet. I just know it will happen there or it will happen somewhere else. And it will be soon.”
“Best to let it happen here.”
“But everything else—your death, Gen and Lucien’s. Aide and Hélène’s capture … it doesn’t have to happen, but I don’t know if we can escape without some loss. We can always try to rescue anyone captured. They can always escape. But we can’t undo death, so let’s try to avoid that.”
“We must focus on the big picture, sweetheart. I hate to see you make such difficult decisions, but I need you to tell me everything you’re thinking. We need to be on the same page, Allie. I don’t want you thinking you can sacrifice yourself to save us—”
“If it comes to that, I will. I won’t let you die to protect me, but I won’t be making any heroic gestures unless I have no other choice.”
“Allie, I’m an old man. I’ve lived long enough to not fear death—”
“Well, I haven’t, so I’ll be fearing your death for you. We don’t have time for arguing, old man. I need to know you’ll trust me when I say something must happen. I know I’m young but I understand my gift now. I know what we need to do. It’s just going to take a lot of manipulating the situation to reach a less sucky end.”
“You are her daughter. You have my complete confidence and my trust. But hear me now, Alexis Carmichael. You are not infallible. You can only do the best you can do. No matter what happens, we all know that.”
“I need you to stay where you are. Call in whatever help you can get, but I don’t think increasing our numbers will be enough. You’ll be fighting Immortals and mortals who know exactly what you can do, so your gifts aren’t going to help you much. Get yourselves armed now. They will fight dirty—they know what you can do—”
“How?”
“I have a theory about that, but I’m not a hundred percent sure.”
“Tell me, Allie. I need to know.”
“It will only distract you. It’s not important now. They already know and you need to prepare for that. They will expect you to use your electromagnetic weapon; they will expect Naeemah to take to the trees. They’ll have Hélène before she can blink—don’t even try to run for tunnel entrance. You won’t have enough time. We have to be careful not to make any big moves at the beginning. Give them a false sense of confidence that it will all go as they have planned. Once it begins, then we make our move.”
“The future is such a tricky thing,” Gregg said. “All you can do is be confident in your decisions and trust your intuition.”
“It’s already changing. It’s changing so fast I’m having trouble keeping up with it and answering questions.”
“Work with Ming; she will help you relax so you can see.”
“How will I get there?”
&
nbsp; “Liam will bring you early tomorrow afternoon. We don’t want everyone flooding in at the same time.”
“We will need more numbers. But we have to split up the Complements. Send them back—”
“We don’t have time, Allie. The Complements will have to fight. I’ll fight with Emma, Nae will fight with Jin, Ming with Greyson, and George with Daniel to keep us all separate and the enemy confused. We have no other choice.”
“I don’t like this. We need more.”
“Aye, we’re going to need all hands on deck. We don’t know their numbers, do we?”
“It seems like a few dozen, mostly mortal, but I can’t see everything. It’s like I can feel there are many more present, but I just can’t see it.”
“We’ll call everyone who can get here in time.”
“You’re right, we do need all hands on deck, Gregg.” Allie paused, hoping he wouldn’t flip out at the mere suggestion that Allie and her friends should be there to help.
“No.”
“It will make a difference if we’re all there.” Allie knew she would have to fight him on this. He wouldn’t let the kids help, but she knew more than ever now that they would each play a key role in this. Quinn warned her through the cryptic message he sent to her at Amrita. And there was a reason her gift had worn so many faces throughout her recent dreams. It was vital to their success that each of her friends be present in this fight.
“Absolutely not. I don’t even want you there, but if Livia is behind this, she needs to think she can get to you.”
“She’ll see right through it if I’m the only one there. We all need to be there.”
“No.”
“You said you would trust me.”
“You’re asking me to jeopardize my children. I’d rather die than see anything happen to them. I can’t worry about six children during a fight for my life. Worrying about one child I love is nearly killing me. Allie, I have to refuse you on this. We will have enough numbers without them. We need to be able to focus on the fight.”
Emerge: The Judgment: (Book 2) Page 21
