The Eternal

by Bianca Hunter

  “Gee, they really aren’t kidding around,” Bastian said. It looked like every student in town had already arrived.

  Questionably, the church had been turned into an open bar; I spotted Victoria standing near it chatting with some of her friends. They already seemed to have had at least a coffin’s worth of alcohol and were swaying as they laughed.

  “Can you see Ravenna?” I asked Bastian as we finally walked past a massive speaker. The reverberation hit me as the ground shook. “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by Denmark + Winter was playing, and I snorted. It was as if fate had chosen the song for me.

  “I can’t,” Bastian shouted above the speakers, nearly screaming. I could hardly hear him. “Come on.” He motioned for me to follow.

  He pushed through the hordes of people, and I followed, still hoping to catch a glimpse of Ravenna. My heels still dug into the mud, but I didn’t care anymore. When we reached one of the coffins, Bastian grabbed a silver skull chalice and scooped a cup full up, handed it to me, and then repeated the exercise for himself.

  I took a sip, and my eyes widened. It was so full of rum, my entire esophagus burned as it made its way to my stomach.

  Bastian seemed to have a similar reaction. He raised his eyebrows, peered into the cup, and then downed the rest. I laughed and followed suit so he could refill them both at the same time. Not a minute later, the alcohol hit me like a crashing wave.

  “Are you also getting tipsy?” I shouted at Bastian immediately lowering the cup. What the hell was I doing drinking punch? You have to find Nero.

  He nodded and smiled. “Let’s try to find Ravenna,” he said before taking another sip.

  I followed him through a group of Lycans and then suddenly lost sight of him as he walked into the crowd of demons and vampires. People were screaming and dancing, bumping into me, and walking past; I felt tranquil in the crowd. Surely Serena wouldn’t approach me here?

  Bright flashing lights alternated with darkness, and the music had an almost trance sound to it. I tried to spot Bastian or Ravenna in the crowd, but no matter how many times I turned in a circle, I couldn’t spot them.

  Vampire. Zombie. Werewolf. Witch. Astara.

  Someone bumped into me, and an elbow in my ribcage knocked me off balance. When I recovered my footing, I looked up toward the forest and spotted her again. She stood at the edge of the trees in her white dress, her silver hair waving in the breeze. She was as beautiful as she had been in all of my dreams.

  I blinked and stared at her. She looked right at me; the sorrow on her face apparent. I took a step forward, hesitating for only a few seconds before I took the next one. I took a deep breath to calm myself and tried to force my disbelief aside.

  Don’t be stupid, Evelyn. Do not follow her. You heard Tristan, being alone is bad, my rum voice hummed in my head.

  Then again, what could possibly happen? Maybe she would lead me to Nero?

  I turned my face away from her for a moment. If she was still standing there when I looked up, I would go speak to her. I allowed my eyes to travel to the edge of the pine trees again. She was still there, waiting for me. Damnit. I let the skull cup fall on the grass and stumbled my way slowly toward her and the dark, foreboding forest. Why are you this drunk? You had a bit of punch? Should you be following a dead woman?

  “Why can’t you just tell me what to do, like, really spell it out?” I mumbled. “It’s okay, just go and ask her what she wants and then go back to the party.” I navigated through the field of grass and mud.

  As soon as I reached Astara, the music from the party seemed to be a mile away, and I realized that she had tears in her eyes. She reached out her hand, and I took it, swaying off balance a bit; her hand felt cold and almost dead next to my warm one.

  “You feel so real,” I whispered. I was completely enchanted by her, mesmerized by her blue eyes and porcelain skin. There was something so compelling about her that I forgot to breathe for a moment.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered as her tears continued to flow.

  She placed three of her cold fingers on my lips, then turned away from the party and toward the forest, still holding my hand in hers. We walked in silence, guided by the moonlight that filtered through the trees. The music and party lights faded into the background, and I continued to stumble behind her graceful walk.

  “Where are you taking me?” I whispered, but she didn’t turn to answer, just continued to walk barefoot over the dead brown pine-needle carpet. The moon was so full, it illuminated every shadow. I glanced up at it as we walked and took in some of the dead skeletal trees between the evergreens.

  Eventually, we arrived at a small clearing I didn’t recognize from any of the dreams. We walked to the center of the meadow. She turned to me and took both my hands in hers. I could see her face fully illuminated in the moonlight, her hair more silver than ever before, her crisp eyes suddenly cold and distant.

  “Astara?” I said, suddenly feeling less enamored with her.

  She lifted her ghostly white hand, letting go of mine, and stroked my cheek with her cold fingers. Our eyes met, and as I gazed into her beautiful translucent eyes, she took both my hands and began to guide me forward. One step, then another, and another.

  She suddenly stopped, and a smile curled her cold blue lips. I cocked my head, wondering why she was behaving so oddly when I felt my heels sink into the mud. This time they wouldn’t stop sinking. The terror of my sudden situation woke me out of the delirious state I had been in, and my heart dropped.

  My heels finally hit dry ground when my feet were completely covered in mud. I looked down at them and then back up to Astara, who let go of my hands and took a step back. In an instant, the earth cracked and collapsed beneath me; before I could take a breath, I plummeted through something dry and then into nothingness. I flailed, reaching desperately for something, anything, but I was free falling. The earth had caved in beneath me.

  A few seconds later, I hit the ground with a thud and felt the air leave my lungs. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t feel my body. I couldn’t see or hear anything anymore, and the blackness took me.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Evelyn,” I heard a voice so soft, it could have been an echo of a whisper. God everything hurt. Every inch of my body felt broken. I slowly opened my eyes and my entire stomach lurched. Astara’s hair was full of crawling insects, a black tar-like substance had formed around her mouth, and her nails were ripped from her fingers that were bleeding dark, dirty blood. I clenched my jaw and remained frozen, lying on my back on what felt like a cold, flat rock. Astara bent down toward me, her hair falling over her face. My eyes met with her gray dead ones, and she reached out to touch me with her bloodied hands. Please don’t let this be real. Wake up, Evelyn, wake up, it’s a dream. But it wasn’t. As Astara’s cold fingers stroked my cheek, and her raspy breath collided with my skin, it took everything for me not to scream.

  I bit my bottom lip and turned my face away from her to my left and felt around, but my eyes met with something else, and a blood-curdling scream finally left my chest and throat.

  Standing directly in front of me was Serena, her red hair falling around her shoulders, her green eyes narrowed at me. “Hello, Evelyn,” her tranquil voice echoed through the caves. I looked back up feverishly, but Astara was gone. She had led me here and left me alone with Serena.

  I turned back to the witch, my heart beat so loudly, and the blood from the sudden shock of seeing her standing there was flowing to my ears, so that I could barely hear her. I took a deep, steadying breath and looked directly at her and as soon as I did, the memory of the night my family died came flooding back.

  “You killed my family,” I said through gritted teeth, feeling the anger of everything she had done resurface and replace my fear with rage.

  “And many more will die until you do what you need to do,” she spoke calmly, stroki
ng the cold stone wall of the cave and examining it instead of looking at me.

  “Serena,” I mouthed. “You have to tell me what to do. I don’t want anyone else to die, but I can’t help you if I don’t know how.” My voice was so constricted I barely recognized it.

  I shook away a flashback of Serena leaning forward in the car and telling Justin to drive through the red light.

  “Do you know what it means to have the sight, Evelyn? To be able to see the future?” she asked. Before I could answer, she waved her hand across her chest and suddenly, every muscle in my body stiffened, and I felt my back lift from the cold ground.

  “What are you doing,” I rasped as my entire body turned to the side, and my stiff back leaned on the wall.

  “I want to see your face,” she replied simply. My back relaxed against the cave wall as Serena dropped her hand. She walked to the opposite wall and lowered herself to the floor, now level with my eyes. “If I could interfere, if I could only make you do what has to be done, everything would be much easier wouldn’t it, little evening star?” She folded her knees up to her chest and looked directly into my eyes. “But if I interfere, if I dare make a move in this, everything changes, and I no longer have a vision to follow, do you see?”

  “No, I don’t. Surely if you can see what’s going to happen, you can just tell me?”

  “Do you really think you would follow my every instruction, make the decisions that I want made rather than the decisions you want to make? Your fate was always this, Evelyn. From the moment Astara died, you were destined to be born, and not even I am powerful enough to interfere with fate.”

  “So what, you’re just going to keep killing people around me until I figure this out?”

  “If I don’t provide you with incentive, you’ll simply leave.”

  “Surely if fate wants me to bring Astara back, it will happen?” I said bitingly. “Were you in love with her?” I wasn’t thinking and immediately regretted asking.

  Serena jerked her head back in my direction and grimaced. “You have three days,” she said, her voice growing even lower and calmer. “Three, and if by the end of the third day you haven’t found Nero and lured him back to Greyhaven, I will start killing everyone you know, starting with Gwenn and ending with Blake.” She lifted herself to her feet gracefully without taking her eyes off of me.

  “Maybe I don’t care if they die,” I whispered, knowing she wouldn’t believe it for a minute.

  “Oh, Evelyn,” she breathed. “Do you know what would happen to you if Blake died?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Has no one told you?” she said, cocking her head to the side, almost looking sympathetic.

  “About the dreams?” I whispered, my heart now pounding against my chest.

  “About the prophecy, little evening star,” she said, her eyes narrowed in curiosity toward my naïve reaction.

  I shook my head. Please tell me what this prophecy is.

  “It’s probably best that you don’t know, you’ll only want to run away even more,” she said, looking up at the breaking dawn. “Find Nero, Evelyn. You have three days.” Then she entered the blackness of the cave and disappeared altogether.

  I placed my shaking hand on my chest, my heartbeat shattering my ribcage, and tried to calm my breathing.

  “God why can’t someone just tell me what the hell is going on,” I moaned into nothingness and tears stung my eyes. The frustration of not knowing what was happening around me made me want to scream and never stop. Okay, you can’t keep sitting here. I took a deep breath and moved my arms and then stretched my legs. My muscles and bones ached from the fall, but I hadn’t broken anything.

  “Okay, all you have to do is get out of this cave, find Lorenzo’s house, find a clue to lead you to Nero, and go track him down wherever he is in the world. In three days.” I let my forehead fall on my knees and groaned.

  I should have been crying, but I couldn’t muster any energy for emotion except the frustration I was feeling for everything that had happened; I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t want any of this. Why was it happening to me?

  I looked around the cave. The flat cave walls were almost forty feet high; I would never be able to climb out, and without any light, I couldn’t look around either. I would have to wait for the sun to fully rise of for someone to find me. But no one came. Hours passed as the sun moved from one side of the sky to the other, and I remained trapped.

  Ravenna, please hear my heartbeat, somehow hear me, and know I’m here, I begged desperately for the hundredth time, desperately wanting nothing else than to leave the cave and figure out what we were going to do about Serena.

  I slowly got to my feet again just as something in the forest cracked, like a dead branch being ripped off a tree. I looked up at the gray sky through the crevice opening.

  “Hello?” I shouted.

  Nothing.

  The sky was clouding over with dark, angry clouds. My stomach was clenching at the thought of spending the night in this place with the black hole that I wouldn’t be able to monitor in the dark, when I heard a faint voice calling my name.

  At first, I was sure I had imagined it, but then I heard it clearly. It was a woman’s voice. I shot up and screamed for help as loudly as I could.

  I heard a male voice calling, “She’s here!”

  And about a minute later, the footsteps drew nearer. I breathed a sigh of relief and waited for the person to lean over.

  “I’m here,” I called again.

  “Evelyn?” Tristan asked, leaning into my view.

  “Tristan, oh God, Tristan, I can’t get out,” I cried desperately. I had never been so glad and relieved to see someone in my life. Without hesitating, he jumped down into the cave, landed gracefully on both feet, and straightened up. I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck.

  “Oh my God, thank you,” I whispered into his shoulder. After a few seconds, he gently pushed me back.

  “What happened? Are you okay?” he asked as he glanced around the crevice.

  “I fell in,” I said through tears, relieved and grateful that he was back and had somehow found me.

  “God.” He rolled his eyes when he realized that I was all right. “You are such high maintenance,” he moaned, rolling his head back.

  “Tristan, Astara pulled me into the cave, and Serena was here,” I said.

  Tristan’s expression remained steady, but I noticed a flash of concern in his eyes. “Let’s get you out of here right now,” he said. “Hold on to me.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck again, and his arms wrapped around my waist. I closed my eyes, not sure what to expect. But with one leap, we were on the forest floor, and my stomach churned like I had just been on a rollercoaster.

  Victoria was running up to us, so I let go of Tristan immediately, knowing that she would take issue with it. She reached us, and I realized that she was still in her witch outfit from the previous night.

  “How did you find her?” she asked, ignoring my presence and turning to Tristan.

  “She was calling for help,” he muttered flippantly; for some reason, I got the feeling that they were still not on the best terms. Both suddenly had their arms folded across their chests with icy disdain.

  “Oh,” she replied simply and then glanced at me. “Here, you’re cold, take my jacket.”

  For a moment, I hesitated, taken aback by her sudden kindness. I was so cold in the stupid Marie Antoinette outfit that I could barely take a normal breath. Tristan took it from her and wrapped it around my shoulders gently.

  “Can you walk?” he asked, noticing that I was hurt.

  “Yeah, I don’t know how, but I’m fine,” I whispered, starting to warm up under the jacket, which still contained the remnants of Victoria’s immortal body temperature.

  “Victoria, run back and t
ell Blake and Ravenna I have her and we’re on our way,” Tristan said.

  Victoria nodded and started running. She was amazing to behold as she ran from us; at first, she wasn’t that fast, but after about half a minute she sped up to the same graceful run that I had seen Astara do in my dream. Then she was out of sight.

  “Okay, Trouble, let’s go,” Tristan said, glancing at the sky, which was almost dark. I nodded. “You know, every time we’re alone together you look like crap.” His words took me back to the first time we had met by the bridge. I was surprised that he wasn’t pushing me for information about Astara or Serena.

  “Has Bastian been really worried?” I asked, the guilt bubbling over in my mind while I followed him through the forest.

  He stopped and turned to face me. “No, kid’s too drunk to even notice he’s still alive, but now that we’re on the subject of worrying, Blake has been out of his mind with worry since nine fifteen last night,” Tristan replied harshly. “He’s got half the town looking for you right now.”

  “He has?” I gaped.

  “Turns out that the ‘stay mean keep em’ keen—”

  “Hey,” I said, interrupting Tristan and grabbing hold of his arm as he turned to continue walking. He paused and faced me again. “Serena mentioned something about a prophecy. I thought it was just dreams that Blake was having?”

  He seemed to consider my question for a moment and frowned. “You should really talk to Blake about that. Come on, let’s get you back to the manor, and before you start arguing, you are going back to the manor whether you like it or not. The manor is big enough that you and Blake can avoid each other to your hearts’ content.” He rolled his eyes.

  We began making our way through the forest again, the pine needles piercing my skin as we walked.

  “Can you not just carry me and do that fast-running thing that you do?” I asked, realizing that we would have to walk across the entire cemetery and then the field.

  “America, I am not a pack mule,” he hissed just as a black blur appeared in the distance, followed by a white one. As soon as I blinked, Blake and Ravenna stood before me. Blake was dressed in black and Ravenna in a white angel’s outfit, clearly from the Halloween party.