by K. K. Allen
Circe’s eyes don’t waver, and she doesn’t speak. She won’t even consider what I’m asking.
“I’ll do anything, Circe.” Now her eyes twitch. She stands.
“Okay.”
“What?” She gave in too easily. This can’t be good. “Okay?”
Circe nods methodically. “Yes. I need your help with something.”
“Don’t do it, Kat.” Arabella is moving forward now, grabbing my arms. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll have your father deal with this. He’ll get the magic from Circe. He’s the one that controls her, not us. You don’t need to be making deals right now, especially not with her.” Arabella glances over her shoulder.
Circe tilts her head, expression amused. “Excuse me, dear. Your boyfriend could have died last night. Don’t make me regret saving him.”
Arabella ignores her. “You’re the reason for all of this! Dealing with you is just as bad as dealing with Erebus. Kat has been through enough; we all have. Just let us go.”
Circe’s eyes flame with anger. “You two came to me, remember? You’re free to leave. But if you want Grace’s memory back, then you’ll need to do me a favor—a favor that benefits everyone. You seem to forget that I’ve been on your side for centuries. I may not be an Enchanter, but we have a common enemy which makes me an ally.” She looks between us.
Arabella seems to back down. Her shoulders relax, and her mouth tightens in a gesture that says she’s all ears.
Circe nods her head to the whiteboard. I swivel around to face it. “What is this?”
“First, tell me what you think it is.”
I’m confused by her request, but I study it closely. I see everything I saw before, and then I see it slowly transform before my eyes, like a slow-moving picture book. The math equation transforms as the squiggly lines move and the dots in the cylinder begin to twirl like they’re part of a tornado within the confines of the tube. The black dot doesn’t move but slightly between the pressure of the particles surrounding it. For the most part, it’s locked in place.
“It’s a container of Solstice energy,” I say breathlessly, my heart pounding with hope.
“And?” Circe nudges me to continue.
“Erebus is trapped within our energy. Is this possible?”
When I glance at Circe, she’s grinning. “It’s possible. I’ve been working on this for decades and have been so close, I could feel it. It wasn’t until you and your friends did what you did at the hospital that I realized what I’d been missing all these years.” She points to the cylinder again. “That’s not just Solstice energy. It’s a mixture of all descendants’ energy. What I’m finding is that there doesn’t even need to be an exact mixture. I can’t believe I never thought of it before. We can’t destroy his energy, but we’re finally ready to contain it. We just need a chance to capture it first. That’s where I’ll need your help.”
I look at Arabella, who holds an expression of confusion, intrigue, and bewilderment.
“How?” I prod.
Circe looks pleased with herself. “With the right amount of energy, we can quarantine a specific volume of dark energy. It’s particle physics, you see.”
I don’t see. I’ve enjoyed my physics studies so far, but am no expert in the subject. Still, I know I should be impressed.
“Mass is to be smaller than the energy of particles produced here in the Solstice lab. By mixing our descendants’ energy, active neutrinos, with sterile neutrinos, it creates a high energy particle collision that’s greater than the weight of Erebus’ dark energy. With the use of a Solstice cylinder, much like the bigger ones you see that feed the smokestacks, we can entrap the pure energy, releasing all dark matter from the equation and then filling the compressed air with Erebus. He becomes weightless and completely powerless against the energy that surrounds him and that’s where he’ll stay forever.
“You see,” Circe continues, “my magic eternalized Erebus, and he can never be destroyed. But he can be imprisoned. If this works, he’ll never hurt or possess another soul again.”
Getting Arabella to leave the plant is as easy as grabbing a slippery fish. Circe hands her the vial of memory potion and asks her to take it to Grace, giving her the instructions to relay to the others. That in itself probably would have been fine, but then I handed over my pendant and asked her to seal it to my mother’s wrist. Arabella argued with me until I walked her out, begging her to trust the plan. She’s to take my pendant and the memory mix to my parents.
By then, I should already be with Erebus.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
JOHNNY
The shrill ring of my phone rips me from my dreams. Great dreams. As frustrating as the timing is, intuition tells me the phone call is not a good one. I’m confused when I see the name on the caller ID shows Arabella and not Kat.
“What?” I snap dryly. I know Arabella is one of Kat’s closest friends, but she has an annoying habit of putting her nose in business that isn’t hers.
Arabella’s voice is breathless and shrill, jerking me to full consciousness. “Get to Summer Estate. It’s Kat. She’s gone and done something heroic again.”
I practically throw my phone as I flip off the covers and yank on the first pair of pants I find. In an instant, I’m hopping off my boat and onto the dock. Paul’s boat will be much faster, so I help myself to it, using my powers to start the engine.
Within minutes I’m flying through the back door of Summer Estate, where I’m greeted by a room packed full with descendants of all breeds, including a confused Grace. All of them are here: Alec, Arabella, Isaac and the rest of his daughters, Paul, Charlotte, Trisha, the Elders, Kaleb, and Khloe. Even Rose crawled out of bed and is sitting in her oversized chair.
No Kat. Where is she? My frantic search for her must capture Paul’s attention because he is the first to speak. He looks completely disheveled. “She snuck off and went to the energy plant. She’s with Circe. Arabella called us all here. Kat’s up to something, and we’re waiting for Arabella to be so kind as to fill us in.” His voice has a layer of sarcasm that doesn’t go undetected. No one else speaks. We all just turn our focus on Arabella, who is shivering in a wet bathing suit cover-up. I’m sure she’s shivering from fear, not the dampness. Paul is glaring at her furiously, and so am I.
“Kat made a deal with Circe.” An audible gasp is heard around the room as Arabella’s eyes sink to the floor as if she knows she’s done an awful thing by letting whatever just happened happen. “She just wanted Grace to have her memory back. That’s the only reason we went to the plant. But Circe refused to help her unless she did something in return.”
Arabella holds up a tube with the words Memory Mix scrawled across it. Paul lunges for it and stares at it long and hard, then squeezes it tightly with his fist. For a moment, I wonder if he’s about to toss it across the room, smashing the glass into a million pieces, allowing the elements within to splatter wherever they may fall, but he doesn’t. Instead, he pockets the substance and glances at Grace, who stares wide-eyed at him.
“What did Kat promise in return?” Paul is practically growling, his voice tamed with great control. My reaction is the same, but I choose to stay silent.
“Circe has a plan to capture Erebus. She’s worked out a formula that will hold his darkness in forever. We’ll be rid of him for good if this works.”
“If this works, Arabella. That woman has been working on this plan for decades. What makes her think it’s ready now? And what does Katrina have to do with any of that?” Paul takes off pacing from one end of the room to the other, forcing guests to shuffle left and right to accommodate his movements.
Everyone continues to stare at Arabella, but she just looks confused. “What if it does work?” she finally asks.
Paul stops in his tracks, looking outraged that she’d even consider it.
Then Arabella does something that threatens to burst every vein in my body. She holds up the pendant. The only thing that could keep Kat safe from
Erebus. She promised she wouldn’t remove it. She promised.
I can’t hold in my voice any more. I step forward and try to level it so as not come off as the hysterical wreck I feel. “Arabella, why did she give you her pendant?”
“She wants Grace to put it on so she’ll be safe from Erebus. Kat’s confident she can fight him again.” Arabella tosses the pendant in Grace’s direction, and Grace catches it without looking at it.
Now everyone turns to look at the woman who appears more lost and confused than anyone else. She shakes her head. “I won’t wear it if you all don’t want me to.”
“Go ahead and put it on, Grace. It’s no good to anyone else,” Paul says gently.
“Where is she?” I demand. I can’t control it anymore. If anything happens to Kat …
Arabella looks like she’s about to cry. “Johnny, you know how stubborn she can be. I couldn’t stop her. The only thing I could do was gather everyone because you are all part of Circe’s plan. It’s what Kat wants.”
My temples throb, and my stomach feels weak. Every muscle aches. Every organ screams. How many times does Kat think she can escape the clutches of Erebus? And if Grace is protected by the pendant, then he’ll want collateral after the damage he creates this time. He’ll want Kat.
“Where. Is. She?” I ask through gritted teeth.
Arabella shakes as she raises her hand to point out the bay window that faces the beach. “The rock pier.”
I run.
I’m not sure if Kat is at the rock pier yet, but that’s where I run, not wanting to wait around to ask any more questions. If I have a chance to stop her from doing something stupid, I won’t hesitate, no matter the consequence.
Paul is right behind me, but we stop in our tracks when we see Circe at the tip of the pier, water slamming into the rocks and spraying her from all directions. She tilts her head toward the sky, arms raised as if summoning the gods.
What the—?
I practically fling my head around to see if I can catch a glimpse of Kat. If she was with Circe, then she should be here. Paul is beside me, swiveling his head too. In fact, everyone has fled Summer Estate and is now gathered at the beach.
“There!” someone screams, and our attention is now behind Circe, to a mound of water building behind her. A figure stands at the tip of the wave. Kat.
No.
Why is Circe summoning the ocean? And why is Kat hovering above land, like she’s about to sacrifice herself to the gods? Or to Erebus. Every ounce of air deflates within me with as I watch my life give herself to death. She invites it in with a bravery that’s terrifying.
The night sky alights with a blue glow that winds through the air—or should I say slithers? It’s moving fast toward Kat and Circe, its intent clear. Erebus hasn’t wasted time finding a new body.
I run for Kat, knowing it’s useless. She’s made up her mind, and now we all just need to sit back and watch the scene unfold. Paul pulls me back and points at something at the base of Kat’s feet. I see it now. It’s not a wave she’s standing on. Water from the bay is pouring over it like a wave, but it’s just a mask. It takes some additional effort to identify the object below her feet as a cylinder; almost a replica of the tubes from the plant which contain Solstice energy.
“What is she doing?” I ask to no one in particular.
Paul must understand what’s going on because he immediately gestures for the rest of the crowd to gather around the pier and tells us all to wait for his signal.
What signal? What are we doing?
Erebus slithers past us, his aim focused on Circe and Kat, but I don’t miss the glance he throws toward Grace. I can almost feel his wicked smile as he enjoys the fact that we’re all here to watch his next move. He loves this. Crowds. The gears in my mind click a few notches as I register the word again. Crowds.
His movements stop as his eyes linger on Grace, who is cushioned in between the crowd. “Won’t you come back to me, dear Grace?”
Grace steps forward through the crowd, unafraid, squarely facing the Serpent with a boldness that reminds me of her daughter. “No, Erebus. This is my home. I’ll be staying here.”
A hissing sound escapes his mouth, revealing his irritation at her response. “I see. And I see you’ve found your pendant.” He sneers. “Which means…”
His snake head swivels to glance behind him where Kat is perched above the water. “Well, well, well. Now isn’t this a surprise?” He glides toward Kat now, stalking her.
Paul is still holding me back as I struggle against his grip. What is his problem? “C’mon, Paul! Let me get to her.”
“She doesn’t need saving, son. She’s doing exactly what she was born to do. You need to trust her.”
How is he so calm? His words confuse me more than if he were speaking a foreign language. How can he just sit back and watch this? His daughter is inches from Erebus without her pendant to keep her from his claim, and he doesn’t feel the need to stop it.
The Serpent moves in closer to Kat, stalking his prey and getting ready to strike. Kat smirks. Just as he darts to enter her body like last time, she raises her arms and jumps upward, levitating herself in midair.
Gasps and screams escape us all as Kat’s arms straighten in front of her, palms facing each other, growing a ball of energy between them. Her energy looks and sounds like an electric current circulating from palm to palm. The zapping and buzzing irritate my senses, and I have to press my hands to my ears to muffle the sound. Paul does the same.
Erebus seems stunned for a moment, but then he’s on the move again, coming dangerously close to Kat. This time, Kat doesn’t allow Erebus any closer. She turns her palms outward so the electric currents run straight at Erebus, illuminating him in a bright white light.
He’s paralyzed by her energy. I’m paralyzed by her everything.
This must be Circe’s cue, because she turns and raises her arms again, energy exploding from her palms and colliding with Kat’s light, which saturates Erebus. Together, they lower their arms, pushing the Serpent down into the clear glass tube.
From her point of levitation, Kat begins to falter. She’s using all of her energy, and I’m sure she’s beginning to weaken, but she doesn’t stop.
Circe turns to look at Paul over her shoulder. “Now!”
He nods and moves forward, raising his arms above his head, releasing his energy into the tube. The Elders follow his lead and wave for everyone else to join in. It’s as if this has all been planned. I watch as the Serpent’s body struggles against the downpour of light. It washes over him, suffocating him, although it’s not air that he needs to live. He’ll continue to survive, but he’ll be confined to this tube.
An insane rush circulates my veins, and I know this is the most power I will ever feel—my energy combined with other descendants. Together, we are more powerful. Just like when we beat the dark energy right out of Brent. The elation that came from that night was draining, but it was the most powerful I’ve ever felt up until this point.
While everyone’s eyes are on the tube filling with energy, submerging Erebus deeper and deeper into his tomb, my eyes stay on Kat and her teetering balance. I recognize her weakening energy by the dimness in her eyes and the limp hold of her arms as she fights to hold on.
And then, in an instant, the light she’s expelling from her palms vanishes, and she falls from the sky, down into the raging waters.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
JOHNNY
“No!” I scream and pull my arms down, running faster than I’ve ever run before. With a lunge and a deep pull of air, I toss myself into the ocean in search of Kat.
It takes a few strokes to spot her. As I do, a vision of her fighting against the crashing waves on Fourth of July flashes through my mind.
She was kicking and fighting with everything she had, but she couldn’t win against the current. It wasn’t the first time I saw her, but it was the first time my heart began beating for her. My entire plan drowned in tha
t moment, unable to bear the sight of an innocent girl with splaying limbs and terrified eyes.
She was limp and sinking to her death when I finally got to her. I pulled her onto my boat. As Kat lay beneath me, I considered what Iris had asked me to do, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to go through with it. Even if she was who Iris said she was, she was still a young girl, younger than me, with her entire life before her.
I applied pressure to her chest, pumping her water-filled lungs, performing CPR just as my father taught me. I didn’t know of any magic that would rescue her at the time because I had no idea what was going on with me could be controlled. It wasn’t until Iris approached me that I knew I wasn’t going completely crazy … or if I was, at least I wasn’t alone.
When Kat finally began coughing up the water, I was terrified of what I had agreed to, realizing I made a deal with the devil when I agreed to help Iris. In that moment, staring down at her, I wasn’t sure if I should be afraid of Iris or this girl sputtering beneath me. Iris had me convinced that Kat was part of the evil clan that murdered my parents. I was broken and confused, and I couldn’t believe that I almost allowed this beautiful girl to drown.
My eyes caught sight of her chest where two necklaces pressed against her skin as if suctioned to her. Fear enclosed me when I recognized the symbol engraved in the heart. I didn’t know who Erebus or the Equinox were at the time; I just knew the symbol of the Infinity Snake because it was the same one that was marked on my parents the night they were murdered.
I couldn’t kill the girl, and I couldn’t allow Iris to hurt her, but I had to be rid of her. I knew something was off about Iris, so it didn’t take much for me to stray from her demands. Against her orders, I laid Kat on at the shore and sped away into the night, not returning to the marina for days. But I took the pendant with me.
