By the time we reach the fifth floor landing, I sprint ahead, out from the reach of Anna’s cloak. Luka is right beside me, casting a cloak of his own. He’s with me as I run and he’s with me as I walk inside my grandmother’s room.
It’s as empty as the rooms two floors below.
“Where is she?” I spin in a circle, as if I somehow missed her the first time. “Why is her room empty?”
Luka takes my hand and pulls me away. “Tess, we have to go.”
“No! I can’t leave her. We can’t leave her.” Not again. Not when we’re this close. “She’s here somewhere. She has to be.”
“Get her out of here,” Cap says from behind us.
Luka’s grip tightens on my elbow. He’s dragging me from the room. I’m so confused by all this emptiness, so desperate to figure out a way to find my grandmother, that it takes me half the length of the hall before I feel what has Cap and Luka so on edge. It’s as though the entirety of Shady Wood has been plunged into ice. How many from the other side must there be to cause such a dramatic drop in the temperature? And where are they all?
We hurry down the stairs, the coldness growing colder with each flight we descend. Instead of going all the way to the first floor, we step onto the second and run down the hall, toward a back stairwell that leads directly to an exit. As we round a corner, we come face to face with an entire white-eyed army. I’ve never seen so many of them in my life. They hold out their arms while wisps of black seep from their fingertips. It stretches and curls and creeps closer—a sinister spider web that slinks straight through Anna’s cloak and wraps around her wrist.
She shrieks. Her cloak disappears.
And the second floor of Shady Wood breaks into pandemonium.
“Get to the exit!” Cap shouts.
Clive doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t question Cap’s orders. Like a good soldier, he obeys and runs straight into the heart of danger. Cap, Sticks, Claire, Jose, and I run ahead of him—trying to clear a path by fighting as many as we can, sometimes three at a time, while Non and Gabe and Luka throw out shield after shield. But we are terribly outnumbered and more and more keep arriving, as though stepping through doorways of their own. Two take out Non until she’s crumpled on the floor. One jumps on Jose’s back, but I spin around with a roundhouse kick that knocks him free. Luka lets fly another intense blast of heat and somewhere in the midst of all the commotion, Clive pushes through the exit door and Cap yells for all of us to startle.
“No!” I shout.
Anna disappears.
Jose disappears.
Sticks grabs his crumpled wife on the floor and they disappear, too.
“No!” I shout again. We can’t leave without finding her. We can’t leave my grandmother here alone. I’ve done it once before. I won’t do it again. I begin flinging the doors open. Room after room, all unlocked. All empty. “Elaine!”
Gabe throws a shield in front of Cap, who yells again for the rest of us to startle.
I throw another kick and run ahead, for the first time in my life thankful for Claire. Thankful that she’s not obeying Cap’s orders, but inching closer to me, her face screwed up in concentration as she grabs one of the demons by the wrist, twirls around, and slams it to the ground. I run for another door as Luka blasts five of them back at once, but there are three more at my heel. And just as I’m about to run past Claire, into the final room, she reaches out her foot and trips me.
I sprawl to the ground with a loud oomph and in the split second before she disappears, our eyes connect. There’s a look of pure vindictiveness in hers. I spin onto my back, but I’m too late. Three of the white-eyed soldiers lunge at me. Luka dives between us, throwing out a shield to protect me.
But they swarm upon him like flies. An entire army of them. Black mist wraps around his hands, binding them together.
“No!” I run to free him, to fight for him, but Gabe grabs one of my arms and Cap grabs the other as I watch Luka being dragged further and further away. I fight against their hold. “Startle, Luka!” I scream. “Startle!”
Only he can’t seem to. It’s as if the black mist wrapping around his body prevents him from doing anything. My captors, however, do exactly what I’m screaming for Luka to do. They startle. And they take me with them.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Gone
No! No, no, no, no! Please, no!
Panic surges through every inch of my body. It crawls across my skin. I kick off the covers with flailing legs and sprint across my room. Tears blind my eyes as I hurl open the door. Lights come on in the hallway. Jillian and Rosie and Ellen all stare out from their rooms—pale and wide-eyed. I sprint through the antechamber, toward Luka’s room. I fling open his door at the very end, crashing inside his room.
Please, please, please, no!
He’s lying in bed. I see his form through the darkness. But he’s not moving. I grab onto his shoulders and shake him. I shake him harder than Link ever shook my grandmother. “Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up!” I scream the words over and over and over again, beating his chest with my fists.
Luka does not wake up.
His eyes remain closed.
“No, no, no, no!” I grab him into a hug, unable to comprehend what’s happening. Unable to process the fact that he’s warm in my arms, yet he’s not really there.
Strong hands grab hold of my elbows and pry me away. I can’t see who it is, not through my tears. I fight against whoever it is with everything in me. I cling to Luka like he is the last life vest in a tsunami. But this is the physical realm, where I am not strong. Where I am easily dragged away. “We can’t leave him! He needs to wake up. Please! I have to go back to sleep! I have to go find him! Please!”
“There’s no finding him, Tess. He’s gone.” The voice belongs to Gabe. He’s the one who has a hold of me. He’s the one who is dragging me away from Luka’s room. It’s his flesh my nails are digging into. His legs I am kicking. His arms that are wrapping me into a bear hug.
He forces me out into the bright hallway, where a crowd has gathered. It’s the middle of the night, but the hub is wide awake. All but one.
Claire stands among them. I saw it with my own eyes—her foot snaking out to trip me, her vindictive look when I fell. The white-eyed soldiers pouncing and Luka jumping in to save me. Whatever reason I still possess snaps in half. I twist from Gabe’s grip and I attack her. I hit and I kick and I claw and I scrape and I scream. “You did this! This is your fault!”
Gabe pries me off Claire, who glares at me from the floor with a bloody lip and a gouge in her neck and a chest that heaves. I kick the air. And I scream bloody murder. But Gabe drags me away, down the hallway. Away from Claire. Away from the watching crowd. Away from Luka, asleep in his bed.
*
They think I’m asleep. They think I can’t hear them murmuring through the walls. But sleep is impossible to find. I am wide awake, scratching the inside of my wrist raw. And I can hear everything.
“Are you sure he’s gone?” Link asks.
“Yes.”
“But he’s still—”
“Breathing?”
There is no reply.
“Give it a few days.” Gabe’s voice is cold and detached. “The other side will have destroyed his soul by now. It’s only a matter of time before his body follows.”
Footsteps recede down the hall.
My sanity follows.
*
I sit in the back corner of my room, knees drawn up to my chest, arms wrapped around my shins, rocking back and forth like the crazy people in Shady Wood. I’m supposed to be numb. This is what shock is supposed to do. This is what I crave. Instead, I am wild. Anguish is the flame and every single cell in my body burns with it. I have to remind myself to breathe.
He’s gone.
Gabe’s words have opened a fault in my chest. An eruption of emotional lava spews forth, scorching and scarring and burning and melting everything in its path. It can’t be true. Luka can�
�t be gone. Not like this. Not ever.
I scratch my wrist, hating the sting, then press my forehead between my knee caps and rock faster. I was supposed to be the one in danger. If anyone was going to be taken, it was supposed to be me. That, I was okay with. That, I could handle. But this? Never once, in the midst of all Luka’s concerns, in the midst of all his pleas for me not to go, did I consider that I might lose him. Never once did I picture what might happen if I was the one left behind to pick up the pieces.
The lava burns hotter.
He’s over there. Across the antechamber and down the hall. His heart is beating. His skin is warm. But Gabe says he’s gone. Gabe says there’s no getting to him.
My thoughts race, chasing each other in disjointed circles. I can’t pin a single one of them down. The empty rooms in Shady Wood. My missing grandmother. Claire reaching out her foot to trip me. Luka diving in to save me. White-eyed evil binding him up in a black web and dragging him away. Cap and Gabe grabbing my arms and startling me awake when all I wanted was to go with him. To die with him.
I want to blame Claire. I want to blame them. I want to lash out and blame someone. But I keep landing back on myself. Luka didn’t want to go. Luka had a bad feeling. He begged me to reconsider. But I insisted on going anyway. I was stubborn. I was unreasonable. And because I went, he had no choice. I shake my head as tears leak onto my kneecaps and spill down my leg. If not for me, Luka never would have been there.
*
The next morning, I hear them talking through my walls. They murmur in dulcet tones, but I hear them all the same. They don’t know what to do about me. They don’t know what to do with Luka. They speak of him in the past tense. I plug my ears and resume my rocking.
At some point, Jillian comes into my room. She brings me a tray of food and a glass of water. She tries to get me to eat, to drink. She might as well be asking me to swallow the sun. She sits beside me in bed and tells me things I no longer care about—Dr. Carlyle called. Leela got Clive safely to the Greyhound bus station. The hub’s newest Cloak is on his way. Tomorrow, Dr. Carlyle is coming to move Fray to a privately-owned hospital in Northern Michigan. Cap interrogated Claire in her bedroom and she’s yet to come out. Apparently, I’m not the only one who witnessed what she did.
The tray of food goes untouched.
Another day comes and goes.
The hub falls asleep.
I wander out of my room, because there’s no sleep to be had. I go into the bathroom and stare at my reflection in the mirror. The person who stares back is not me. The person in the mirror looks like a strung out druggie, with deep purple bags beneath blood shot eyes and hair that hangs limply around hollowed-out cheekbones.
I roam the halls aimlessly, my arms wrapped around my waist, until I end up in the common room. I expect to find Gabe by the door, but he’s not. Instead, the muted television casts bluish light into the dark room as Non sits on one of the couches, staring at CNN on the screen. I shuffle over and sit beside her. I think the numbness is finally starting to take effect.
The news anchor talks about a possible ceasefire between Egypt and Sudan, then moves on to the continuing decline in our nation’s crime rate and several key attributing factors. I don’t even try to listen. I just gaze at the screen with glossy eyes—impossibly tired but unwilling to close. The second they do, I will relive it all over again. Luka being dragged away.
A few words spoken by the anchor register in my mind. He’s talking about a new initiative by President Cormack to make mental rehabilitation centers available to all citizens, even if they do not have health insurance.
I wrap my arms around my shins. “What happened to all those people, Non?”
She blinks at me through the darkness, the light from the television casting a ghost-like glow on her face. “You saw the rooms.”
Yes, I did. They were empty. Every single one. “What does it mean?”
“You already know the answer.” I can practically see her shifting into teacher mode. “You studied the journals. You made the connection.”
I blink back at her.
“During the Age of Exploration, there was a high population of The Gifting amongst Native Americans. During the time of Nazi Germany, there was a high population of The Gifting amongst Jews. Right now, at this very moment, can you not think of a people group that contains a high population of The Gifting?”
It clicks. This puzzle piece that’s been shifting and wiggling about. But it brings no sense of satisfaction. “The mentally ill.”
“Curious, isn’t it?”
“You think the government is killing off the mentally ill to get rid of The Gifting?”
She taps her nose, but the gesture falls flat. “We are supposed to keep darkness in check. That’s why we exist—to keep it under control. Because uncontained darkness …” Non shakes her head and sinks back against the cushion. “That is a terror too unimaginable for words.”
I should care about this awful terror. I should care that Non is tiptoeing around the prophecy—about a time when The Gifting will face extinction and One will arise with the power to save them and restore the balance between light and dark. I should care that Cap thinks I am that One. But I can do none of those things. Not when my heart is cold and dead inside my chest.
“History has a way of repeating itself,” Non mumbles.
I stand from the couch and wander some more, until I’m standing at the threshold of Luka’s bedroom. Luka’s tomb. I’m not supposed to be here, at night. It’s against the rules. I step inside anyway and I crawl into his bed. I lay my head on his chest and listen to the steady thrumming of his heartbeat. Tears leak from the corner of my eyes, soaking through his shirt.
Please Luka … come back. Please don’t really be gone.
*
The sound of screaming awakens me—a blood-curdling scream that splits the air and raises the hairs on my arms. I bolt upright, heart pounding erratically. Where am I, and who is making that sound? It looks like a cold, dark basement. I rub my eyes and the scream comes again. A cry wrought with pain. A cry that belongs to …
“Luka!”
It’s him. He’s here. Straight ahead of me, lying on the cold, cement floor, bound by black tentacles of mist, surrounded by skeletal men with unseeing eyes. He arches up, the contortion reminding me of my mother in her bed when she was being tortured. His body flails as if trying to escape. The black mist lacerates his body and he screams again.
He’s alive. His soul is not gone.
I run toward him, this time unencumbered by Gabe or Cap. Nothing is stopping me from helping him, from fighting these men. Until Luka’s frantic eyes land on mine and his pain morphs into panic. “No.” He shakes his head, beads of sweat pouring down his face. “Startle, Tess! Please, startle.”
“Yes, by all means, startle.” The cold voice echoes off the walls, bringing me to a halt. It’s Scar Farce. He prowls around Luka like a lion ready to pounce. “Or are you unwilling to leave your friend behind?”
I look between him and Luka, my mind grappling for a solution. A way to get us both out of this. A way to bring his spirit back to his body.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Little Rabbit. We’ve been waiting a long, long time.” He smiles a hungry smile and takes a few steps toward me.
There’s a blast of white, hot light. It slams him against the wall. It was Luka. Even in chains, even while being tortured, he’s still protecting me. The man wipes at a trickle of blood that dribbles down the corner of his mouth. I run toward Luka, determined to break him free. Determined to fight every last one of these monsters with my bare hands. Until Luka is back or I am dead.
My body convulses.
It gives a giant, involuntary shudder. My eyes flutter, and then they open. Gabe stands above me with his hand on my shoulder. My clothes are drenched in sweat. My heart punches violently at my chest. I bolt upright in Luka’s bed.
I should be struck through with terror. I should be livid that Gabe
shook me awake. But all I can feel is a flood of overwhelming relief. Luka isn’t gone. He’s still alive, held hostage by the other side. “Gabe, he’s alive.”
“For now.” Grim words from a grim face. He misunderstands.
There’s commotion out in the hallway.
Lights come on.
Cap shouts something indecipherable.
Gabe looks toward the noise.
“No, I mean he’s really, really alive. I saw him! Just now. He’s being held prisoner. They’re torturing him.” I picture the black mist lacerating his skin, leaving behind angry, red welts. How long before he’s damaged beyond repair? How long before he really is gone forever?
Cap rolls into Luka’s room with Link close behind. “She’s gone.”
“Who?” Gabe asks.
“Claire. Non fell asleep during guard duty. When she woke up, something felt off. She checked the door and discovered it was unlocked.” Cap drags his hand down his whiskered face, looking weary to the bone. “She’s not in her room. She’s nowhere.”
I crawl out of Luka’s bed. “What does that mean?”
“It means she’s defected.”
“Defected?”
“She crossed over to the other side,” Link says. For the first time since knowing him, he looks truly disturbed.
“Can The Gifting do that?” I ask.
“The Gifting can do whatever they want,” Cap says. “It’s the great blessing and the great curse that is our free will.”
I shake away the newest development that is the hub’s growing problems. I don’t care about Claire. In fact, good riddance. The other side can have her. There is one thing, and one thing alone that deserves my attention. One thing, and one thing alone that matters. One thing, and one thing alone that I will fight for until my last dying breath.
I have a Keeper to save.
*
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