by Elle Scott
Nodding, Makoto said, “Timing is everything. If we’re too early, they’ll divert. I’m guessing they’ve marked a ton of students like they did Sadie. We need to make sure they’re all there before we barge through. We can’t risk any of them slipping through the cracks.”
Riley rubbed his thumbs over his eyes. “Can we go over the plan once more?”
“Mm,” Makoto grumbled, glancing at the clock again. He wandered into the living room, saying, “Leila, Riley, and Gabby, you’re to head straight to the falls party, act like you’re there for a good time. The rest of us will create a perimeter, and ambush. We need to make sure we have eyes on Kiko the whole time. Leila, at eight thirty, lead Kiko to the place where the road turns to gravel. “
“Got it.” Leila tried to sound confident, but she’d unconsciously bunched the hem of her jacket into her fists. Apparently not so self-assured.
But that’s because of what was left unsaid. Makoto hadn’t mentioned it but there was an extra part of Leila’s task. Kale. They said his presence would strengthen Kiko, and there was no way she’d risk having him near them when it all went down. She’d get Kiko away from him first and then lead her to the meeting point.
Makoto plonked himself onto the sofa, sharing a knowing glance with Ren. They’d been through it before. They knew what it was like to lose a sibling to the Fallen.
She crept across the room, conscious of not making a noise amid the tense air. Taking a seat next to Makoto, she looked between the brothers, and said, “How do you manage it? To love and hurt her at the same time?”
The question seemed to affect Ren the most. He leaned forward, elbows to knees, hands sweeping up over his mohawk. Shaking his head, he said, “The only thing I clung to was that somewhere deep down she could be saved.”
“It’s different for me,” Makoto said, rolling his shoulders back. “It’s not her. Not the real her. The Kiko I loved was lost a long time ago.”
Leila licked her lips. The thought terrified her. Kale wasn’t lost already. Surely, there was hope yet. She preferred Ren’s outlook.
The door burst open. Leila bounced up to her knees and spun her head so fast her neck made a cracking noise. Jamal tumbled in.
“Mak!” he cried. “Kids are showing up for the party. Almost all of them are marked.”
Riley parked his car half a mile from the falls parking lot. He’d veered into an overgrown track, leaving the car hidden by dense foliage. They crept through the woodland toward the entrance of the waterfall track.
For as long as any of them could remember, every first Wednesday of the month, a bunch of misled and misunderstood teens went to the Falls. They called it the Falls Party, and until she’d been marked, Leila had never been interested.
“Oh my god!” Gabby said, pointing to the tree tops.
Leila half-shifted and glanced up. Beams of light shot to the sky. Countless numbers of them. An army of them. This was so much worse than what she’d thought.
The three of them began running. As they jogged up the track, and they returned to human form, the beams of light vanished. Leila shuddered. It was still unnerving to her—seeing things in the Veil that a normal human eye couldn’t see.
Leila grabbed Riley’s hand and squeezed tight. It was happening. This was going down whether she was ready or not—she thought she was, but a sudden fear to face Kiko washed over her. She hadn’t seen the real Kiko—the Fallen Kiko—she’d seen the version that Kiko had wanted her to see.
Leila said, “What are you going to say if they asked why you ran? What if they know we’re lying? What if they know we’re working with Makoto?”
Riley glanced at her, watching as her bottom lip rolled out. “Now who’s panicking?”
He was right. She couldn’t lose nerve now. Wiggling her brows in faux confidence, she jibed, “And now who’s got all of the answers?”
The sounds of laughter and teen debauchery rose louder through the forest. Riley frowned, a shadow of fear creeping back to his eyes.
“Not me,” he said.
They took the few steps into the clearing cautiously. Their fellow students danced and drank around a small fire as if they didn’t have a care in the world. By the drink station, pouring liquid into a red cup, was a familiar face.
Damien spotted them at the same time they saw him. He stared at them through strands of black hair, blinking slowly as if trying to decide whether they were real or not. He must have decided they were, because he jogged over, holding his cup high.
“Ah, my friends! Where the hell have you been? Half the damn school has been absent this week.”
“They have?” Leila asked, sharing a glance with Riley. “Would’ve been good to know earlier.”
Damien shrugged and gulped his drink. “Check it out,” he said, pulling his shirt up on one side. A dark spiral curved high on his chest. “It showed up this afternoon. Thought I’d celebrate.”
“Who gave you that?” Riley asked.
“You did,” Damien said, swaying on the spot.
Riley eyed Leila, he leaned down, and whispered, “I tried to mark his shoulder, like before. Not his chest. Someone else has marked him.”
Damien swept his hair from his eyes and glared at Riley dubiously, as if he had heard what Riley had said. He lifted his cup and pointed at the three of them. After a hiccup, he asked, “Want a drink?”
“You’re a mess,” Gabby said.
“Thanks Gabs, always count on you to be honest.”
Gabby rolled her eyes. “Are you gonna ask how Sadie is? Or?”
Damien sculled the rest of his drink, and threw the cup toward the fire, missing it by a yard. He sniffed and said, “Shacked up with Sebastian Weir last I heard.”
Gabby rolled her eyes harder, slumping her shoulders in defeat. “Because that’s all that matters.”
A flash of bright red darted at the edge of Leila’s vision, followed by a scream ripping through the crowd. Most people ignored it, the noise passing as a joyful expression. But not Leila. She moved toward where she saw the flash, Damien, Gabby, and Riley following her. When they got to the edge of the clearing, Leila stepped behind a tree and half-shifted, letting her Guardian eyes search the area.
A beam of light shone a little deeper into the forest, and then, it stopped. Riley ran first. Leila quickly catching up. They found a boy no older than Summer. He was unconscious, arm turned up and resting on the forest floor. His mark was on his forearm right above his wrist, and as Leila crouched down to examine, teeth marks healed around the spiral, leaving wet blood dripping down his fingers.
“It’s happening,” she said, peering back through the trees. The sight almost blinded her. Beacons charged up to the sky from almost everyone as they danced, oblivious and innocent and marked.
“What’s happening?” Damien asked hesitantly, as if he didn’t really know if he wanted the answer.
Leila gazed down at the sleeping sophomore. A wildebeest stood beside him, waiting for him to wake. She whipped her head to Riley. “We need to expel the Guardian before he wakes.”
Riley nodded. “Will it work if he’s unconscious?”
“Only one way to try,” Leila said, reaching for his hand.
He wasted no time to take her hand. Leila gazed at him, feeling the warmth of his returned stare. She re-gripped his hand so tight she could feel his pulse under her fingertips. Hearts pounding in sync, Leila let their love wash over her, and together they surged, expelling a combined light around them. The surge grew like an uncontrolled fire, expanding through the newly marked body and pushing the wildebeest back. The wildebeest dug its hooves into the soil, but it was no match for the Imprint’s power, its body dissipated, twinkling like dust particles until it was completely gone.
Out of the corner of her eye, Leila saw the red flash again, followed by a green stream of light. She knew it was Kiko and Mr. Robertson. They flew through the crowd, taking one more innocent victim each. A bronze bear leapt from the shadows and dragged another s
tudent by the feet back into the forest.
Everything happened so fast, but it felt like it was going in slow motion. Leila squeezed her eyes to stop tears from falling. Not Kale. Please not Kale.
“It will take too long doing it this way,” Riley said, already running for the clearing. “We have to stop them first. Then, we’ll save those who’ve been turned.”
“Go home,” Leila said to Damien, pushing his chest. He stumbled backward, long legs wobbling under him. “We’ve lost enough already to lose you, too.”
Gabby ran for the clearing. And as she ran past Damien, she bumped him with her shoulder and hissed, “Now!”
Leila chased Gabby to the clearing, both of them meeting Riley near the drink station. He scanned the crowd, letting himself half-shift split seconds at a time.
A scream resonated through the crowd, and this time most people stopped to look around.
Leila overheard a nearby freshman crying; “Some Japanese lady just took Dee. Snatched her right in front of me.”
Their friend replied, “I can’t find Harry, have you seen him?”
“They’re picking them out one-by-one,” Riley said.
They’re.
Leila’s heart lurched to a shuddering stop. She’d tried so hard not to believe it, not to entertain the thought. But Kale was there, doing things that Fallen do.
“It’s not just us who are stronger together.” Riley grabbed her shoulders, shaking a little to bring her back to earth. “Leila? Do you hear me?”
She blinked a few times, staring into his fearful eyes. He frowned and ran to the portable speaker. Turning the volume down, he yelled, “Everyone! There’s no need to be alarmed but there’s been a bear sighting.”
Another scream echoed into the forest and that’s when it sunk in. Everyone around began to panic—screaming and running in circles, calling for their friends, one even began packing up the fairy lights that hung in the trees, as if it were normal pack-up time.
“Hey!” Riley cried. He seemed to grow an extra inch as he said, “We are safer together. Everyone gather at the very edge of the waterhole.”
They heeded Riley’s command, huddling together near the edge of the water. Leila joined Riley in front of them. They turned around to face outward, half the school at their backs. Riley reached across to grab Leila’s hand, and Gabby took the other.
There they were, a three-person barricade.
The wait was eerie. Quickening breaths, shuffling feet, anxious chatter. In front of them, the bonfire blazed unaware. Beyond it, darkened forest.
“Leilani Bel-bottoms!” a familiar voice said from within the crowd behind them.
Leila peered over her shoulder and spotted Taj standing in the center. She released Riley and Gabby’s hands, pushing through bodies to him. “Taj? What are you doing here? You never come to these.”
Taj let his gaze drift. Frowning, he said, “I don’t know really, some kind of inkling. Like a tug.”
A tug? Leila’s heart sank.
“Anyway—” Taj shook his head—“You missed the game. Seriously Leila, I’m going to have to hire a new photographer. Did you have the same sickness as me?”
“Wolf!” Someone screamed.
Tiny groups of people dispersed in panic, breaking the protective huddle apart. Leila heard Riley shout at them to return, that they were safer together, but only a handful listened, the rest running in hysterics back to the parking lot.
Riley appeared through the crowd and told the remaining few to go to their cars and leave. Taj jerked his head toward Riley’s voice and a big black spiral on his neck stared Leila in the face.
“Not you, too,” she whimpered.
Taj would have made a great Guardian. He was an activist and seeker of the truth. But not like this. Not as a pawn in Kiko’s game.
He turned back, raising his brow. “What?”
“The mark on your neck.”
Taj cupped his palm around the side of his neck. “Oh yeah, I’ve had a weird rash. Super glad the itchiness has stopped.”
“Leila!” Gabby’s voice was a warning. “Things are getting out of hand.”
Leila glanced around, noticing a trio of sophomores running for the path to the parking lot. A wolf—Mr Robertson’s wolf—chased them. Down by the fire, Kiko held a cheerleader down, fangs out ready.
“I’ll be back,” Leila said to Gabby. She spun around, grabbed Taj by his jacket, and dragged him down the track to the fall lookout. When she was sure no-one was around, she threw him into the shrubbery.
“What the hell, Bel-monster!” Taj immediately checked his blazer, dusting dirt from the sleeves.
Leila crouched over him, fixing his collar so it covered his mark. “Stay here until everyone is gone. Promise me.”
“I always thought you were a little odd, girl,” Taj peered into Leila’s eyes. “But this is beyond—”
“Promise me!’ Leila commanded, half-shifting, blazing her golden eyes in his direction.
Taj scrambled back and Leila’s grip loosened. She could see his chest convulsing as he gasped for air. “I… I promise.”
Leila nodded and as she marched back to the path, she heard Taj call, “But tomorrow you’re telling me everything. Leila Bel-montage.”
She winced. It was a risk showing him her true self. But he needed to stay safe. She needed him to stay safe. Her trust in Kiko had put everyone in danger, there was no chance she’d let another friend be hurt.
Leila
Leila dusted herself off and returned to human form. Bursting back into the clearing, she was shocked to find it empty. A few students lay asleep, their bodies moving through transition. It was only a matter of time before they woke and became Fallen.
“Riley?” she called, scanning the area. They needed to do the surge. Like, now! She tried again, “Riley?”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw a bear run toward the path to the parking lot.
“Kale?” she said to herself. Then louder, she cried, “Kale! Stop!”
The bear halted in its tracks. It half-shifted in broad moonlight, peering over its muscled shoulder. Kale stared at Leila with bronze eyes. “Leilani?”
His earnest expression made all sense drift away. She couldn’t help herself—she began running toward him. He met her halfway and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” he muttered, wrapping her tightly.
The hug was strong and comforting, like the ones he’d give her at home. A hint of hope washed through her. Maybe he wasn’t a Fallen. Maybe he wasn’t turning those kids. Maybe he was there, trying to save them from Kiko.
“Leila!” Kiko appeared from nowhere. She leaned over to catch her breath. “Thank God we found you.”
Leila stared, mouth agape. Kiko was wearing the blue dress, the one she bought for her and Kale’s reception party. Her hair was smooth and her eyes were lined with kohl. She looked stunning.
Kiko noticed Leila staring, she brushed the front of her dress and smiled embarrassed. Leila caught sight of Kiko’s hand, a streak of dried blood lined her fingers. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“You.” Leila said, voice shaking. “You’re… you’re…”
The word wouldn’t come out. Fallen! Just say it, Leila scolded herself. She’s a Fallen.
But the hope that Kale started, grew within her. She turned back to her brother. Were they both innocent? Had everyone gotten it all wrong about them?
As Kale smiled at her, he bared his teeth, and a canine coated in blood popped over his bottom lip.
Leila swallowed, reality hitting her at full force. She’d never been more terrified than in that moment—hopeful one moment, broken the next. She knew then that neither of them were innocent. They’d both deceived her.
Kiko ran a gentle hand over Leila’s shoulder. “We’ve got a problem,” she said, taking a worried glance over her shoulder. “Jay has turned Fallen. He’s marked so many kids here tonight, I just don’t know what went wrong. I tra
ined him. I taught him everything I knew and still—”
As Kiko sobbed, Kale was quick to comfort her. They seemed so honest and afraid, but Leila knew better. The truth was: no-one had been marked that night. It took days for marks to appear.
She felt her insides weaken. Kiko was the real deal. The deceiving bitch had fooled her for a very long time. She could see that now.
The thought of innocent lives being discarded as though their lives were meaningless, was enough to make her want to launch Kiko. But to win this war, she’d have to beat them at their own game. Even though she felt like vomiting, Leila bit her lip hard. She needed to react as though she didn’t know the truth.
“Are you serious?” she gasped. “Although, Mr. Robertson has been acting weird lately.” Then, she pointed wildly to the trail that led to the parking lot. “I saw him head that way!”
Kiko reached for Leila’s hand and it took everything within her not to balk at the touch. “Don’t worry Leila, we’ll save your friends. You and Riley should take care of these marked ones.”
“Where is Riley?” Kale asked, glancing around. “Last we saw, he ran from the camp like he’d seen a ghost.”
How easily he told a lie within the truth. Leila’s head felt light. Should she say she hadn’t seen him? Should she say he wasn’t anywhere near the forest? Should she say she didn’t know? Playing their game wasn’t so easy.
“Anyway, find him and clean up Jay’s mess,” Kiko said, walking. She gave Kale a look and a head flick toward the parking lot.
He nodded and followed her. Leila watched the two of them pick up speed, until they turned around the bend and out of sight. She scowled and glanced around the clearing. What was Kiko up to? She’d already turned half the damn school and the rest were ripe for turning.
Leila began sneaking down the pathway, slow enough that they didn’t know she was following but quick enough to catch up if she needed. As she crept along, she whipped out her phone and tapped on Riley’s name. He didn’t answer. Of course not, his phone was broken.
