Things start to get a little weird between us and he avoids my gaze like he thinks I’m going to flip out and stab him or something.
“I’m not making you,” my father tells me. “I just need you to know that you need to do it. It’s important, and I know the kind of person you are—if it needs to be done, you’ll do it.”
“But do what?”
“See. Listen. Choose. Decide.”
I’m still not sure what he means exactly, but I listen because there’s not much else I can do at the moment. “Okay, I will…” I whisper, and then shut my eyes, fearing what I’ll see—what I won’t see.
Images instantly blast inside of my skull, like shards of glass. I focus on the one I need, and then I latch onto it.
I’m standing on a path. No two paths. It starts as one, but halfway up, it forks out into two. It’s paved with various images, reflecting in the light above my head; not the sun, but an actual light, bright and radiant.
“Where am I?” I murmur, turning in a circle.
The sound of my echo is the only response I get, so I start up the path, hunting for something, but all there is to the side of me is desert land.
When I reach the fork, I stop. “Which way?” I glance to the left, which winds and curves endlessly out into the distance, then I turn my attention to the other one. It’s short, no more than two steps and then it just drops, fades into nothing, just an abrupt fall.
“Which one do I choose!?” I call out and my voice echoes. “Dad!”
All I keep hearing is my own voice, so I ball my hands into fists, glancing from left to right. What do I do? I mean, it seems obvious. Keep walking along the one that continues to flow, the one I know will take me somewhere, but where? What if it’s bad?
Then, there’s the other one, which doesn’t seem that much better. It just falls. If I jump, where will I go? Somewhere? Nowhere?
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain how I make my decision. Maybe it’s the need for chance, hoping for a change? Maybe I just wanted to fall? Maybe I really did believe that walking into it blind was better than walking into the knowing? Or maybe I was just ready to for it to be over? In the end, I end up walking down the short path and, with only a second of hesitation, I jump off the ledge into the darkness.
My eyes snap open and I feel eerily calm. I glance around at the garage, at the street outside the window, at the sky, the sun.
“What did you see?” Evan asks. When I don’t respond, he leans forward, getting close to me. “Gemma, what is it?”
I turn my head slowly towards him, meeting his eyes. “The end.”
I thought he’d question my response, but all he does is nod. “That’s what I thought.” He glances at the garage door and then back at me. “You know, I’ve been waiting around for you to say that for a very long time.”
“What?” The calm lifts from my body. “What are you talking about?”
He relaxes back in his chair, calm and settled, acting very different than he was five minutes ago. “The Omnias are kind of a strange breed,” he says. “Since we have a lot of power, we know a lot of things, like how the future’s going to turn out… Or at least, how it could turn out, depending on the choices people make.”
“People like me?” I question.
“In this case, yes,” he says. “I just needed for you to choose to change it.”
I shake my head. “Please tell me you’re not talking about tampering with visions because that just ruins stuff. Trust me, I know from experience.”
Evan smiles amusedly “I’m a Foreseer, Gemma. I know better than to tamper with visions.” He lowers his voice again and leans forward once more, he looks me straight in the eye, like he’s burrowing into my thoughts, or maybe just pressing the importance. “What I’m talking about is going back to where it all started.”
“You mean when Helena possessed me?” I ask, confused.
“No, back to the star.” He pauses, letting out a breath. “Gemma, I’m talking about resetting time. We’re going to channel the Evanescence.”
Chapter 36
Gemma
“Resetting time!” My eyes widen as I remember what my father said. Is it the same thing?
Evan flinches at the loudness of my voice. “Gemma, quiet. No one can know about this.”
I take some calming breaths; then lower my voice. “But you’re talking about resetting time. Like actual time?”
He rolls his eyes. “Okay, you’ve had the power of a Star trapped inside of you and you don’t believe resetting time is possible?”
Okay, he has me there. “But if there’s a way to reset time, why haven’t I heard about it?”
“Because it’s a secret of the Omnia,” he explains. “Why do you think I was so weird about telling you about it?”
I shrug. “I thought maybe you were just being a weirdo.”
His lips turn downward. “Well, I’m not. I’m trying to make sure this all plays out correctly.”
“Correctly?”
“Resetting time—performing the evanescence—is dangerous,” he warns in a high, unsteady voice. “It’s only supposed to be done when it’s supposed to be done.”
To a normal person his words probably would sound confusing, but to me, a Foreseer, I get it. “So that’s what I saw? In the vision? Me, resetting time?”
He shrugs. “That’s for you to interpret.”
I think about the paths, one long, one short, one endless, one abrupt. “I think I saw it resetting.”
He seems pleased by this, but I’m not. I’m scared to death. Scared that what waits for me in my past could be even lonelier and worse than what my future holds now.
“Why are you just now suggesting this?” I wonder, plucking at a stray piece of wicker on the arm of the chair.
He moves his chair forward, the legs making a loud scraping sound against the concrete. “It had to be the right time. It had to play out how it was meant to. You had to get to the point where you’d understand. I knew one day we’d probably be sitting here talking about this, but only if I did things the right way.” He pauses and I notice some of the marks on his skin are starting to glow. “You needed to be ready to do this. Mentally.”
“Why me?” I ask. “I’m not a Star anymore. There’s nothing that great about me. I’m pretty much just a girl who magnetizes trouble to her.”
His eyes soften a little and it looks strange on him. “You saved the world once. Do you know how many people can say that? How many people can say they saved the freaking world from a portal?”
“I didn’t do it alone,” I point out. “I had help and, if I didn’t, it would have ended.”
“I realize that, but there are other things about you that can make it so this can happen,” he says, and I start to shake my head in protest, but he holds up his hand, silencing me. “Just hear me out, okay?”
Sighing, I nod. “Fine, I’m listening, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to agree with you.”
He looks like he disagrees with me as he starts, “When I was younger, I was told a story by my father. He told me that I’d be powerful one day and that the time would come when I’d need to use one of my powers to change the world. That there’d be a war and the world would pretty much be falling apart.” He pauses, his forehead scrunched as he recollects. “But I’d need the help of another person, someone who’s already saved the world once. Someone who was a Foreseer, but who had other abilities. They’d be powerful, connected to the Fey and the Keepers, they could carry a hell of a lot more power on top of it.”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” I tell him as he eyes me over.
He considers something, wavering, before he meets my gaze again. “You had the Star’s power inside you, right?”
I nod warily. “Yeah…”
“Do you know how strong you have to be to carry all that energy inside you?”
“Well, it wasn’t by choice.”
“But you still lived through it.”
“S
o did Alex.”
“But Alex isn’t you,” he points out. “Alex isn’t a Foreseer, Fey, and now a freaking Queen.”
“Empress,” I correct pointlessly.
He smiles, like he thinks I’m going to agree. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can handle it.”
I tuck a strand of my hair out of my face with my chin tilted down. “Handle what?”
He smiles, but he looks sad. “My power.”
“Huh?” I nearly shout. “Your power?”
“Yeah, I’m going to give it to you,” he says simply. “Every Omnia is built for a purpose. Mine’s to give you my power. I’ll transfer it into you and it’ll give you the strength you need to travel back through time and reset it.”
He says it like, ‘Hey, I have a lollipop and now I’m going to hand it over to you.’ Like it’s as simple as sharing candy.
“Yeah, I’m not so sure…” I eye the door, wondering if I should run like hell.
“Not sure about what?” he asks. “Making your life better?”
I turn my head towards him. “Yeah, but how do I know it’s going to be better? I mean, for all I know I could never be born or something. Or I could be, but not end up with Alex. Or the same bad things could happen; I really don’t know.”
“Yeah, but you do know this…” He gestures at the door. “You do know that Luna and the Fey are running around and that you’re going to either have to kill her or be killed. There’s also a battle going on between the Fey and one of them is going to have to win eventually. If the world survives through it, it might not even matter, depending on who wins in the end.” He pauses, leaning in. “And Alex, he’s trapped with Draven.”
I swallow hard, thinking about what Alex will become. “I know all of this. You don’t need to remind me.”
“But I have to,” he says. “I have to get you to make a decision. Do we continue forward or do we take a risk and start over?”
I think about everything; good and bad. I think about the pain I’ve experienced, the fear, the love, the passion, the kisses, the friendships. The way it feels when Alex touches me. I think about what it took to get there and I think about how briefly it stayed before it vanished. It’s a moment in my life that I’ll remember forever, yet, I won’t. Because it’ll never actually happen. All I do is nod, but it’s enough that he understands.
Getting to his feet, he heads for the door, looking happier than I’ve ever seen him.
I get up and follow him. “Where are we going?”
He grins as he swings the door open and the air outside gusts in. “We’re going to save the world.”
Chapter 37
Gemma
Evan surprises me when we go inside to only grab his jacket. Slipping his arms through the sleeves, he puts it on. “We should hurry.”
“Where are we going?” I peer outside the window at a man and woman strolling up the sidewalk. They’re holding hands and staring straight ahead. The way they walk looks wrong, lifting their feet up from the ground way too much. That’s how I know they’re probably not really human. I wonder if that’s what’s going on. If maybe the neighborhood is possessed by Lost Souls.
Evan zips his jacket up. “We’re going to get my watch.”
I point to a clock hanging crookedly on the wall. “The time’s right there.”
He shakes his head, giving me a dirty look. “I need it so we can reset time.”
I tuck my hands inside of my pockets. “Sorry, I’m just tired.”
We hear rustling coming from the stairs and Evan’s head whips in that direction with panic in his eyes. “We need to go,” he says and grabs my arm. “Now. I’ve seen you try to lie and you suck at it… and they can’t… I can’t let anyone else know. I’ll be messing with the future if I did.”
“Hey, I can lie.” I scowl at him as I move my arm out of his hold. “We can’t just take off and not tell them where we’re going. They’ll flip.”
He surrenders his hands in front of him. “Relax, they won’t even remember it in a few minutes.”
I sigh, knowing he’s right, but hating that we’re bailing. “So what’s the plan? How does this all work?”
He glances at the staircase and then back at me. “Well, first you have to Foresee us back to the castle since I lost my crystal in the damn lake.”
As footsteps head down the stairs, I nod and shut my eyes. “Hold onto me,” I say and his fingers enfold around my upper arm.
I realize how exhausted I am while doing this. How much I loathe constantly moving around. I just want to sit still and take a moment to breathe; I hope that one day I’ll get to.
***
We land in the grass lining the shore. I instantly scan the toppled trees, the footprints in the mud, and the nearly demolished castle. Everything is ruined, destroyed. It’s all gone.
Evan nods towards the castle. “If you want, I can run back and grab it. You can wait here.”
I shake my head. “No, I think I’d rather go with you,” I say, not explaining why. That I want to say a silent good-bye to a place that changed my life. Almost fifteen years ago, I sat in that castle and Sophia detached my soul. It changed my life, but in a few moments, that life isn’t going to exist.
We hike up the hill, a cool breeze blowing against us. The sun is starting to descend behind the mountains, the land shadowing; the day coming to an end.
“So, how does this whole time resetting thing work?” I break the silence, kicking a rock across the grass.
He tips his head towards me and his hair falls into his eyes. “The biggest thing is that you have to believe it’ll work. If you don’t then you might as well not even try,” he says. “The rest is pretty simple. You push a button inside the watch. Once you push it, everything sets into motion, but if you’re not using all of your energy and focus on the exact moment in time that needs changed, you’ll blow it and nothing will happen. We’ll be stuck here, facing the future and everything that comes with it.”
“Wow, way to put pressure on me,” I reply sarcastically.
“A little pressure never hurt anyone,” he says. “In fact, it might help you get everything right.”
We make the rest of the journey to the castle in silence. I’m still not sure if I believe it. If I can do it. If I want to do it. The one thing I know is that I’m going to try.
Evan walks into the foyer and steps around the shattered chandelier at the bottom of the stairway. The walls are cracked, some even knocked out, and there are massive holes in the floor. The banister has been knocked down, the paintings, lamps, furniture—demolished. Strangely, the mirror on the wall is still intact and I wonder if the violet eyes staring back at me will be the same one’s I see in my next life. Will I still be the same person? Will I even remember any of this?
Evan easily jumps to the second step of the stairway, the bottom one missing. Then, he extends his hand to me and I take it, letting him pull me over the hole in the floor and place me down beside him. We make our way up the stairs and, when we reach the top, I let out a quiet gasp at the missing ceiling. Evan ignores the mess and continues through it, ducking beneath the caved-in areas and stepping over the debris.
He keeps going, without saying a word, until we reach where he’s been sleeping over the last few weeks. He lifts a dresser lying flat on the floor and pushes it upright. He pulls the top drawer open and, reaching inside it, he retrieves a gold-plated pocket watch that hangs from a golden chain. It dawns on me how many times I’ve seen him fiddling with the chain.
“You’ve had that the whole time?” I ask, reaching for it.
He turns to the side, moving out of my reach as he runs his thumb along an inscription in the back—to keep track of time. “Yeah, like I’m going to leave it around for someone to get ahold of. Do you know how many people would love to get a hold of this?”
I could name about a thousand names; including Helena, Lucinda and Stephan. I wouldn’t even put it past Sophia to seek it out, in the hopes of
saving Marco.
I let out a breath. “So that’s it? That’s what’s going to change life as we know it?”
He nods, looking at me warily. “I think I should tell you one more thing—I feel like I have to.”
I prepare myself for the worst because it’s always best to be prepared. “Okay, hit me with it.”
The corners of his lips quirk. “If you manage to do this… to reset time, you probably won’t remember anything.” He gestures at the room and then touches the star on my inner wrist.
The Evanescence (Fallen Soul Series) Page 18
