“I’ve heard it before,” Owen said. He swung, but came up empty. He swung again; again nothing. Flora was luckier though, as she hit Owen in the back. He stumbled forward, and she hit him again. He spun, swinging behind him, but she was already gone. Another blow hit Owen, this time in the throat. He grabbed his neck, gasping for breath.
“Flora no!” I screamed.
“I have to, Cresta,” she said. There was a sniffle in her voice, like she was actually crying or something. “You’re the Bloodmoon. He’s the Dragon. He has to die so you can live. You have to live, Cresta!” She hit him again. He went careening to the floor. He was on his back, gasping for air. She must have been over him now. One more hit, a boot to the throat, and he would be dead.
“Flora, don’t you dare!” I screamed. She didn’t answer. She could be moving right now. She could have been about to murder him in front of me. I had to do something. Suddenly, the world shifted. I could see all of it again, all the shade in the room, all the shade in the world, including the shade that was hiding Flora.
She was over him, about to crush his windpipe with her boot. “No!” I screamed, and threw my hands forward. The shade covering her twisted in the air and turned inward. It pushed against her and threw her against the wall. She hit hard and slid down to the floor, now visible to everyone.
She jumped back up, but I wasn’t having any of it. I used the shade in the room to push her back down, to pin her against the floor. She wasn’t getting anywhere.
“You must be out of your mind,” I murmured, blood trickling out of my mouth. “How could you do this?”
“You don’t know, Cresta,” she said, her eyes pleading with me. “They let him die, my little brother. They said it was his destiny, his fate. They said to try and stop it would be blasphemy. They made him believe it was okay! They killed him, Cresta and they made him like it! They have to be stopped. You have to stop them. You have to come with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I spit. Crawling over to Owen, I scooped his head up in my arms. “Are you okay?”
“Merrin,” he grunted. “Help Merrin.” I looked up to find Merrin twitching and shaking; and now I could see why. The amount of shade running in and out of her was astounding. It poured out like a tidal wave and rushed back in like an avalanche. But it wasn’t right. Something was missing, broken. We had broken her. I crawled toward Merrin, hoping that my weird shade shaping power might be able to fix whatever was wrong. Her face was distorted. She was in so much pain. A pang of the worst guilt I had ever felt in my life cut through me. I touched her, hoping that, if nothing else, I could put a stop to the pain. Screw forgetting that I was the Bloodmoon. Screw keeping my secret from the Council. If I could just make her stop hurting, it would be okay.
As soon as my hand touched hers, I knew that, whatever I was doing, it wasn’t helping. The shade crackled and popped. It surged and ran between us, burning through my body like electric lava. I pulled away, but it was too late. The shade had taken ahold of me. It coursed through my veins, lighting my everything on fire. It felt like my soul was going to burn up. I yelped and screamed and, when I was sure I was going to die, I saw Owen op top of me, screaming something I couldn’t hear through his tears. I wanted to speak to him, to reach out and touch him, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t think about anything but the pain.
I heard a sniffle, and then the word ‘love’. And then I passed out.
When I woke, my head was pounding. My mouth was dry and my muscles felt swollen and aching. I was in bed, but not my own, covered up to my chin. As my blurry eyes started to make sense of what was around me, I noticed a machine sitting beside me, and registered its constant and steady beeping. Rubbing my eyes, I realized that wires ran from stickums on my chest up to the beeping machine. I was in the infirmary. They were keeping an eye on me.
A person, a woman, sat slumped over in a chair beside. A book lay spread open across her chest. It was Dahlia, and she was sleeping. Wait, Dahlia was watching over me?
“What happened?” I asked croakily. The noise, however quiet, jarred Dahlia from her sleep. She grabbed the book, and looked at her watch, while straightening up in her chair.
“There was an incident,” she cleared her throat. “You’ve been unconscious for almost eighteen hours. You gave all of us quite a scare.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you were worried,” I muttered.
She gave me a hard look. “I understand that things were tense the last time we spoke. I said things that I shouldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean I want to see bad things happen to you. It’s been a difficult few months for all of us and, after the events of yesterday, I’ve come to believe that the only way any of us is going to make it is if we try our best to pull together.”
The events of yesterday? What did she know about what happened yesterday? What did happen yesterday? The last thing I remembered was passing out trying (and most definitely failing) to help Merrin. But what happened after that? Did they know about Flora? Did they know about what Owen and I did to Merrin? Oh God, did they know what Merrin and Flora knew; that I was the Bloodmoon?
Now the idea of Dahlia watching over me made more sense. She wasn’t concerned about me. She was guarding me. I was a prisoner, and they were waiting for me to wake up just so they could cart me off to the Council.
“Yesterday?” I asked, hoping that I was wrong.
“You don’t remember?” Dahlia asked, standing. “I suppose that makes sense. You suffered a sizable amount of trauma. I’m going to go tell the others that you’re awake. Get dressed and meet us in Echo’s office. We’ll explain everything.”
Before I could respond, she was out the door. I found my jeans and brown tank; the same clothes I had been wearing when I passed out, folded on a chair beside my bed. My body ached as I slipped them on. They had been washed and smelled like sunshine and detergent. I slid into my shoes and out the door. I walked out of the infirmary and through the uncharacteristically empty common area toward Echo’s office. I had no idea what I was going to find when I got there. Owen and I had been hiding so much, and everyone in that room knew everything. So the idea that we’d have messed things up so much and might still somehow get away with it seemed ludicrous. I mean, even if Flora or Merrin (if she had even survived) didn’t tell Echo and Dahlia what went on, certainly the walls would when Dahlia walked in.
A cool sheen of sweat peppered my forehead. Nervousness crept over me, but it was a calm nervousness; the sort that you get when things are completely out of your hands. The truth was, if my secret was out, there wasn’t a damn thing the world I could do about it. It was over, and I’d have to accept it; whatever that meant.
The door to Echo’s office appeared in front of me too quickly. I didn’t want to go in there; not with so much hanging over my head. I remembered my first night in Weathersby, the first time I even walked into this office. I was just as scared, just as confused. The big difference: I had Casper beside me then. And, even though I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that him being here wouldn’t have made the tiniest bit of difference, I still ached for Casper to be beside me. At the very least, he’d crack some stupid joke that made me feel better.
I pushed through the door of Echo’s office to find him, Dahlia, and Owen sitting in a semi-circle around his desk. I couldn’t read their expressions, but Owen wasn’t in chains, and that was a good sign.
“Cresta, are you okay?” he stood when he saw me.
“Yeah. I think so,” I nodded. He rushed me and scooped me up into his arms.
“I was so scared. I didn’t know if you were gonna wake up.” He pulled away from me quickly, and that made me feel better. This was a quick hug, a concerned friend hug; without even a hint of the lingering lovers’ touch. He was still trying to keep us being us a secret; which meant that maybe he was still keeping our other secrets. But how could that be?
“It’s good to see you up and around,” Echo said. Time was that he would have hugg
ed me too, but there a distance between us now; a distance that I worked hard to build, a distance that I regretted at this particular moment. “I’m sorry for everything that happened.”
“It’s not your fault,” I assured him.
“Ha! Tell that to the Council,” Dahlia scoffed.
“T-the Council?” I stammered.
“Yes, they blame us for most of it, you see; not that I blame them. A traitor weaseled her way into our ranks. She lured the Council’s proxy into her chambers and tried to extract sensitive information from her head. And, when the two of you caught her, she almost killed the both of you. If that doesn’t scream incompetence on the part of the people running this institution, I’m not sure what would.”
Dahlia’s laundry list of what happened played like a slide reel of ‘almost truth’, with a few key points edited out.
“You couldn’t have known,” I said shakily, still trying to decipher just what they did and did not know.
Owen, I tried communicating with him in my head. There was no answer. Owen, tell me what’s going on. He didn’t move; didn’t react at all.
“Whether we could or couldn’t have is beside the point. What matters is that we didn’t,” Echo said. “And, while your heart was in the right place when you tried to save Merrin, your actions were foolish and selfish. Do you have any idea how close you came to killing yourself?” There was a hint of fatherly concern in Echo’s voice, but just a hint.
“I’m sorry,” I answered. “Where is she; Merrin, I mean?”
“She’s in a coma. Something went wrong when Flora attacked her, and she’s stuck inside her own mind; as is all the information she collected over the last twenty four hours,” Owen answered. Okay, so Merrin couldn’t tell Echo and Dahlia the truth about me; which also meant that she probably couldn’t tell the Council about me either. But what was the cost for that? The poor girl was comatose, and who knew for how long? As far as I knew, she could be stuck like that forever. I felt slimy and disgusting; like the worst person in the world. And not just because of the part I played in what happened to Merrin, but because, in some deep awful part of me, what happened to her also made me feel a little relieved.
“Oh my God,” I muttered. “And Flora?”
“I’m afraid she snuck away after you lost consciousness, while Owen was tending to you,” Dahlia said. “Which is another gold star I’m sure the Council is itching to award us.”
Flora was gone. For all intents and purposes, Merrin was gone, and for whatever reason, Dahlia hadn’t seemed to gleam anything about what had really happened. It seemed like, against all odds, we had actually gotten through this thing with our secrets intact. Of course, I was down a friend, Owen was down a perfect, and Echo and Dahlia seemed to be in more than a little hot water. So it wasn’t all roses.
“I’m not sure what to say,” I admitted.
“That’s unfortunate,” Dahlia answered. “Because it looks like you’ll be doing a lot of explaining.”
I narrowed my eyes, confused about what Dahlia meant; though I did notice Echo drumming his fingers against his desk, which was never a good sign.
“The Council didn’t take this well,” Echo explained. “The words ‘unadulterated disaster ‘ were used more than once. I’m afraid they’ve called on us.”
“Called?” I asked, my face suddenly hot.
“They want to see us,” Dahlia explained in a tone so droll that it took me all the way back to the DeSoto High principal’s office.
“Right,” I shook my head. “And by us, you mean…”
“All of us,” Dahlia answered. “Me, Echo, Owen, you. They’re even insisting we drag Merrin along for the trip. Though, if you ask me, the poor thing is in no condition to travel.”
“The Council wants to see me? Like, me?”
“Yes, like you,” Dahlia answered.
“In the Hourglass?” I looked over at Owen, who, for some ungodly reason, had decided not to tell me all of this in my head.
“Yeah Cress, in the Hourglass. We leave immediately.”
“Immediately?” My voice cracked.
“Is there an echo in here?” Dahlia asked. Echo started to raise his hand, but Dahlia stopped him with a finger and a sharp warning. “Don’t start with me.” Turning back to me, she said, “Yes Cresta. We are under strict orders to set out the instant you regain consciousness and, as you are definitely conscious, we’re already running late.”
“Oh God. We’re leaving now,” I said, looking around.
“Yes,” Dahlia answered. “Unfortunately, we’re leaving now.”
“Wait!” I said, panic rising in my throat. “I need to pack. I need things. I need-“
“Calm down,” Echo said. “Your things have been packed for you. But, in case we missed anything, you have ten minutes. Get what you need, but get it in a hurry.”
I ran out of the room, back toward my chambers. The hall was completely empty; which probably had something to do with the Council and their instructions. But I didn’t care about any of that right now. I needed to talk to Owen. I needed to get the strait of what was happening.
Owen! Owen! Answer me!
But there was no answer. Why wouldn’t he talk to me? Did the Council have an inside track on our thoughts now, and if they did, what chance did we have?
I swung the door of my room open, and started to shudder uncontrollably. This was where it happened. This was where we let it happen. The room was empty, save for the twin beds that Flora and I slept on, which had been completely stripped. They hadn’t missed anything. The Breakers had run their hands over everything I owned while I was asleep, digging through it and packing it away. A wave of horror rose in my chest. What about the letter that I had swiped from Dahlia’s office? If she had found it in my possession then she’d know what I was up to. I dug through my pockets, but found them to be empty. I spun, not quite sure what I was going to do.
“Looking for these?” Owen stood behind me. His face was thin, tired, and sunken in. The ‘Poe’ letter sat in his hand and, under that, the sliver of Casper’s sweater that I had taken with me.
“Oh thank God,” I muttered, and grabbed my stuff.
“I got them after you; you know, after you passed out. I don’t know what significance the cloth has, but I figured better safe than sorry,” he said, looking at the floor.
“It’s Casper’s,” I admitted. “I just needed to-“
“You don’t have to explain,” he said. “I get it.” He was still looking at the floor.
“Owen, what’s-“
“I didn’t think you were going to wake up,” he said, finally looking at me. His eyes had filled with tears. “I thought you were gone, and that was it. I thought I was alone. And Merrin; she’s still not awake. Do you know what they said, Cresta? They said that there was irreversible damage to her brain. It’s like she’s not even in there. She might never wake up.” The tears in his eyes started to fall down his cheeks. “What did we do? Fate’s hand, what did I do?!”
“It’s not your fault,” I said, wrapping my arms around him.
He jerked away from me. “The hell it isn’t! I knew the risks. I knew what could happen, and I did it anyway.”
“No!” I said through gritted teeth. “You will not blame yourself for this! You did what you did to protect me; ‘cause you thought it was what you had to do. And everything would have turned out fine if Flora hadn’t stopped you in the middle.”
“You don’t know that,” he shook his head.
“And neither do you,” I said, taking a chance and brushing his hand with my own. “All either of us knows is what happened. Merrin didn’t deserve what happened to her, but it’s not completely our fault. And who knows, maybe there’s something the Council can do to help her.”
“And what if they do?” Owen asked, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “What if they bring her out of this? You know what that means.”
Of course I knew what it meant. It meant there was a chance
that they’d the information we had been trying to keep from them; that they’d know I was the Bloodmoon.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I answered. “All we can do now is keep going. But we have to stick together. You have to talk to me.” I tapped my index finger onto his forehead, letting him know just what sort of ‘talking’ I meant.
“I would if I could,” he answered. “But something happened when you touched Merrin. I can’t communicate with you that way anymore. I keep hitting a wall.”
Great, just what we need; another hurdle to jump through.
“Fine,” I sighed. “We’ll make due. We just need to get through this whole Hourglass thing in one piece.”
“We will,” Owen shook his head. “The Council works the same way all Breakers do; using shade. So long as you can manipulate it, we can make them believe anything we want. We just have to keep our stories straight. We have to stick together.”
“We have to be us,” I answered, squeezing his hand. I wanted to kiss him, if nothing else, just to make him feel better. But it didn’t feel right. Too much had happened. We had done too much. I didn’t deserve his kiss; at least not right now.
Five minutes later, I was following Echo and Dahlia across the lawn in Weathersby with Owen behind me. I wasn’t sure where we were headed at first, but the nearer we got, the more I remembered. I had been here before, to this spot on Weatherby’s grounds. Echo waved his hands, and the barren area transformed into a bright structure spotted with official looking anchors. This was the holding cell; the place Owen was taken to when he was caught sneaking into Weathersby.
I shot him a look. He cringed, and we both walked into the structure. It was cold inside, so cold that I shivered as I marched down the hall toward the holding area where Owen had been kept. A familiar sick feeling bubbled up in my gut. It was strange, being in this place; where I witnessed Owen go through so much pain, where I had taken my trip through his memories. I didn’t like being here, and I liked the reason we were here even less.
The Breaker's Promise (YA Urban Fantasy) (Fixed Points Book 2) Page 9
