Kiss Kiss

by Various Authors

  Society soldiers stand behind Terease, ready to attack. Likewise, Cece has brought her own guards. Exeter, her seer, and Cerberus, her Protector, move in line behind her like the vertebrae of a snake, slithering from one spot to the next.

  My heart leaps at the sight of my mom. She stands behind them, next to several Underground guards. She looks different than I remember…older, much older than she did before. She’s no longer in a wheelchair—thank goodness. I can’t control the excitement of seeing her again, and pop up to walk toward her. Turner grabs my sleeve and pulls me back to the floor.

  “Hold on,” he says. “Stay here for a few moments, and then I’ll help you storm the castle.” Turner takes off, running for who knows where.

  Sam and I stay put, watching the exchange. Cece and Terease deliberate for quite a while. We strain to hear but can only make out limited words.

  After a while, Turner returns.

  “Where have you been?” I scold.

  He ignores my question. “Come on, follow me.” Turner takes off, back down the stairs and into the main seating area. Now we’re on the same level as the stage. My mom’s so close now I can hardly stand it. I just want to run to her and pull her into a hug and never let go.

  Finally, Cece and Terease meet some kind of impasse, and the conversation takes an annoyed, louder tone.

  “Enough of this!” Cece says in dramatic fashion. “We will abandon our attacks only if you give us the crystal!” she yells, obviously annoyed. I sit up a little straighter at the realization that the Underground attacked the Academy and my friends were hurt over the crystal I have in my pocket—the dreamdrive containing the dreams of the entire Underground. That’s what they were looking for.

  “We were unable to procure the crystal ourselves, but I have something you may personally find more interesting,” Terease offers.

  Cece laughs wickedly. “Terease, oh dear, Terease. I doubt there is anything you could offer in exchange for the souls of five thousand members.”

  Terease pulls out a crystal of her own and holds it up.

  Cece sucks in a breath. She begins to reach for the crystal and then jerks her hand back delicately. “Is that what I think it is?” She stares at it in amazement.

  “It is.” Terease nods.

  “Exeter!” Cece yells and snaps her fingers.

  The bald man steps forward. He’s dressed in drab monk’s robes, just like the last time I saw him. The Seer only needs to point at the crystal to cause it to rise from Terease’s hand. The crystal tumbles through the air, landing at an airborne spot, right above Exeter’s cupped palms.

  “Who do you think it belongs to?” Sam whispers.

  I shrug my shoulders.

  Exeter’s eyes roll back into his head as he meditates on the object, searching its life path. The crystal dreamdrive burns from within, levitating in a circular motion above him. Rainbows shoot from its core, painting the walls of the theater with radiating prisms. After a few moments, the crystal falls into Exeter’s grasp, and he opens his unseeing eyes.

  “To whom does the dreamdrive belong?” Cece asks. She can hardly contain her excitement for whatever she hopes the answer will be.

  “Seraphina Parrish,” he says solemnly.

  “No!” Many people scream at once. Bishop runs from a side area, where I had not originally seen him. He and my mom rush Exeter, tackling him to the floor. Both are on a path to grab my dreamdrive. An onslaught of chaos and fighting breaks out between Society soldiers and the Underground.

  My minds reels, analyzing why the Underground would even accept my dreamdrive as an exchange—one person’s dreams for five thousand people’s dreams. What good would my dreamdrive do them?

  Before I can put a coherent thought together, Cece spots me. She jumps from the stage, flying through the air and lands, crushing me. We crumble to the ground. I kick her off, sending her flying away. She lands on her feet, ready to attack once again.

  Turner jumps in to protect me. He takes a few swipes at Cece before Cerberus, her Protector dog-beast, appears beside her. The animal’s mouth foams and his fanged teeth snap. He launches his pulsing muscles at Turner. They roll away, clenched together in their own vicious fight.

  Cece and I circle each other, keeping an even distance.

  “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” I say.

  She laughs. “You forget, we know you better than you know yourself. And when you hand over the Underground’s dreamdrive, we’ll have everything we need. We know you have it.”

  I try not to appear shocked that she knows that I have the crystal. I have no idea how she does, but she’ll never get it back. I’ll die first.

  “Even after all this time, the Academy keeps so much from you.” She smirks behind her blood red lips. “You’re no better off than the last time we met you,” she sneers.

  “Oh, I’m better—much better.” I’ve been waiting for this moment. I breathe deeply and smile. Then I attack.

  ::35::

  A Truce

  Our collision comes in an exhibition of power. Cece and I are so evenly matched, it’s as though she can foresee my strikes and I hers. Flip. Kick. Jab. Punch. Roll. I direct a blow to her head and change my mind at the last minute. Instead, I kick her legs out from under her. The new “change-my-mind-at-the-last-minute approach” helps. I gain the upper hand until Cece, I think, applies the same tactic.

  Her knuckles crash across my jaw then again across my face. My nose instantly burns with blood. It drips uncontrollably down my lip and over my chin. At the sight, Cece’s hungry eyes look as though they want to devour me. Not me, my blood. She rushes me again. I elbow her ribs, sending her crashing away.

  Ricocheting, Cece leaps, soaring over my head, reaching to grab me from behind. I flip her over, throwing her body to the ground and drop both my knees onto her chest. Her ribs break and crush. At the exact same moment, Exeter and Cerberus, who have been fighting their own vicious battles, collapse in my peripheral view.

  I pause for a split second at what has happened. Cece, Exeter, and Cerberus—they’re connected, truly connected. To hurt one is to hurt all of them. To kill one may kill them all. I stare down at Cece, thinking I’ll find her in pain, near death with punctured lungs. Instead, her mouth gapes open, and she’s catching the blood dripping from my nose—sucking it like some kind of sick, messed-up vampire.

  I jump back in horror.

  She licks her lips and smiles. Her chest, which was caved flat, reconstructs before my eyes, expanding like a balloon. She and her team jump to their feet, apparently stronger than they were before. The fighting mayhem continues.

  “Figure it out yet, Sera?” Cece paces. Some of my blood has dripped across her face. She reaches her hand to her cheek and smears it into her skin, just like she did on our first meeting. A long, deep cut on her cheek shimmers, magically returning to glowing perfection.

  My blood heals her, heals all three of them.

  “If you could only find my weakness, you could win this.” She laughs.

  I jolt at her words. She really does know me. It’s the tactic I apply for all my fights, often helping me win.

  “But you won’t find any. I have none.” She lures me to the stage. “But you do. Many of them.” She looks around. I follow her eyes. Bishop fights Exeter for the crystal. Turner struggles with the dog-beast. Together, Sam and Mom scuffle with two Underground members. They’re all fighting for me, suffering, taking beatings, to make sure my dreamdrive does not fall into Cece’s hands.

  Turner, closest to me, crashes to the ground with Cerberus growling and snapping on his chest. From his hand, a square object skids across the floor, landing at my feet. I look down. It’s a remote. I look up and smile at Cece. “Seems your weakness at the moment is lack of help,” I say. I step on the biggest button on the remote, knowing exactly what it’s for—holograms.

  Within seconds, Cece’s guards have no chance. A hundred holographic soldiers glimmer and zap into being. Turner
has installed hologram machines around the theater. That’s why he left Sam and me earlier.

  The holograms are every single beast I ever fought in the training room and many more that I have never seen. They’re horrifying. Warriors made with a mishmash of mythological animals, men, and women. Each carries their own weapon: swords, knives, clubs with spikes, and other menacing tools of violence. I always viewed the touchable holograms as training exercises, but never imagined that they could be used for true warfare.

  Cece screams and leaps away. She lands on my mom, wrapping her white hand around her neck. “I’ll kill her if you don’t do everything I ask,” she screams.

  I lock eyes with my mom. Despite her situation, she smiles as though she’s looking at me for the first time. She searches my eyes, as if memorizing my face, and says softly, “I’ve been with you always.” There’s a long second where I search her violet eyes, realizing that I’ve never heard her voice before. It’s beautiful, like angelic bells and soothing wind chimes.

  I’m rocked out of my thought when the floor violently shakes. An earthquake jolts, whipping us. I heave right and left while the world tilts, teetering back and forth. I fall backward onto a theater chair and grasp its armrest. Gibeon is apparently moving to a new location in time, just like Mr. Tash explained.

  The theater rips apart, right down the middle. A gash opens, a crack in the earth so deep that I can’t see its bottom, zigzagging the length of the main aisle of seating. The chair I’ve latched on to sinks, disappearing into the hole. I wobble backward with unsure footing and almost fall in. I clasp on to a nearby incline of stairs. Throwing my leg over the risers, I pull my body upward, and latch on to the edges. When I steady myself, I make my way back onto the stage.

  “Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you,” I say to Cece as I pull myself to my feet. My hands are held high, surrendering. I’ll do anything to save my mom.

  Plaster crumbles from the ceiling. Chandeliers rattle and shatter, crashing to the floor. Fighting between the Underground and the Society holograms continue despite the earthquake.

  When I’m a few feet away from Cece, so close she can reach out and exchange Mom’s position for my own, Cece makes a quick motion with her hands, snapping my mother’s neck.

  “No!” In slow motion, I reach for my mom. Her eyes shut at the moment her body hits the floor. Cece leaps over her body, ready to attack me in my most vulnerable state. She barely grasps my shoulders when Turner crashes into her, rolling her away.

  I turn to see them struggle, ripping, punching, and kicking like madmen. Except they keep rolling together in their combat, moving farther away with each new strike. And finally, before I can stop it, before I can yell out, Turner and Cece whirl together over the edge of the crack created by the earthquake, plunging into the endless pit.

  On hands and knees, I scurry to the edge, looking over in disbelief. My hand reaches out for Turner, ready to pull him back from death, but they’re already gone, swallowed by the sinking blackness.

  Gut-wrenching screams tear from my throat.

  Turner—Mom—Mom—Turner. Gone. They’re both gone.

  I push away from the edge on all fours, then turn, collapsing onto my mother’s lifeless body, like she’s some kind of lifeboat that can save me from my grief. Tears, so many tears drop onto her, willing her to live.

  In a moment of desperation, I grab a nearby shard of glass and puncture my palm. A steady stream of warm blood oozes from the wound, and I rub the liquid around her broken neck and let it drip into her open mouth. Cece and her team healed with my blood, so I pray that, somehow, my mom will, too.

  I wait and gather her into my lap, holding her close, praying for a miracle. Minutes pass. My gaze roams her body for any indication of life, but she doesn’t recover. I frantically try again but nothing happens. She’s gone. Really gone. In shock, I blankly stare at her face and then off toward the pit.

  Mom’s gone. Turner’s gone.

  My screams, piercing and tormenting, give vent to my anguish, as everything that’s ever been good in my soul begins to die a sickening, bitter death. I rock my mom in my arms until the earth stops shaking.

  Then, for several moments, there is complete silence and stillness. I look around, taking in the eerie destruction. Amazingly, though I don’t understand how, objects begin to move with the tiniest tremble again, but this time, on their own.

  Life reverses in slow motion. This is real slow motion, happening in real life, not just in my head. Plaster that had fallen from the ceiling floats upward. Shards of glass rain in reverse, returning to their chandeliers. Chairs move, forcing themselves upright. Everything that’s broken mends, healing to its original state of perfection.

  Leaning into my mother, I rush to inspect her for any sign of life: a breath, a jolt, or any minuscule movement to give me hope. I pinch her wrist, testing for a flutter of a pulse. But still, there is none. The reversal does not affect her.

  I slump back and stare at the pit, desperately hoping for Turner and Cece to reappear, emerging from the hole, returning to me. But instead, the gash closes. The fissure sews itself shut, as though it’s devoured Cece and Turner, together, forever.

  ::36::

  Hearts Lost

  I scream repeatedly, clutching my mom’s body. Sam rushes to my side and pulls me into an embrace. Tears spill down her face as she tries to console me. Bishop barrels to where the pit closed, throws himself to the ground and screams, slamming the ground with his fists, willing the earth to split back open, so he can jump in to save Turner. But there’s nothing he can do.

  Shocked, I look around.

  The fighting has stopped. The Underground, the ones who survived the chaos, have fled. Holographic soldiers, sensing the end of the fight, dematerialize, swirling into the air, leaving in electrified sparkles. Exeter and Cerberus are nowhere to be found. But if Cece is dead, so are they, I suspect.

  “Bishop, Sam, leave us. I must speak with Sera before more Society officials arrive,” Terease says. Unfortunately, she’s survived. Sam and Bishop step away, but not too far. I’m sure they trust her less than before.

  “Your mother.” Terease looks down at my mom, still cradled in my arms. She tenderly sweeps a strand of dark hair away from my mother’s beautiful face. “She was a great woman, extremely brave,” Terease says, and gently rearranges her lifeless hands, folding them on her chest.

  “You knew her? You knew she was alive?” I lean down and kiss her forehead.

  “Yes, I’ve known her since we were teenagers at the Academy. She’s been fighting her own war for a very long time, and now she’s at peace.”

  “What does that even mean? What war?” I look up. There are so many things I need to ask her.

  “We all have our own parts to play,” Terease says, confusing me further. “Here,” she continues, “this is your dreamdrive. Keep it and the other one close.” She tucks it into my hand. “Tell the Society that both dropped into the pit with Cece. Do you understand?”

  I nod, though I don’t understand why I need to lie.

  Society soldiers thunder into the theater. Terease and I look up. Phineas Levi, the Grand Master of the Society, storms in behind them and points to Terease.

  “Arrest that woman for crimes committed against the Society,” he screams.

  I look at her in shock.

  Terease whispers in my ear, “All you need to know is that your mom loved you. For now, whatever you do, deny that you know who she is, or you will have the same fate as me.”

  Two men in uniform seize her by the arms, dragging her away. But for once, she’s looking at me smiling, like she knows something I don’t. She doesn’t engage my mind with her flame-searing eyes the way she has in the past. She looks serene. And for the first time ever, the sickly blackness that has always followed her disappears.

  Sam places her hand on my shoulder. I roll my mom gently away, placing her completely on the floor, and stand.

  I hide my dreamdrive in my p
ocket next to the Underground’s.

  Grand Master Levi descends. He’s tall, dark-skinned, well dressed, and there’s an air of dangerous authority that follows him. “Explain yourselves,” he says, crossing his arms.

  Bishop steps forward. “Terease Ivanov tried to offer Seraphina’s dreamdrive to Cece to stop the Underground’s attacks.” He gestures toward me.

  “Why?” He walks around, surveying the mess in the theater.

  “I don’t know, sir.” Bishop shrugs.

  “Do you have this dreamdrive?” He stops, regarding me with curiosity.

  “No, sir.” I step forward before Bishop can speak. “It was taken by Cece along with the Underground’s dreamdrive,” I lie through my tears.

  “And where is Cece now?” He looks around with his hands held out.

  “Dead, Grand Master. My brother, Turner, gave his life, killing her.”

  The Grand Master allows the information to settle. He paces, tapping his finger to his lips. Abruptly, he stops and responds, “Good.”

  We stiffen at the piercing word. How can a boy’s death be good? A tear slips down my cheek. Sam stifles a sob.

  “He’s a hero. He’ll receive a hero’s funeral.”

  The Grand Master walks away momentarily, leaving us in the care of a soldier. Soon afterward, we’re interrogated for hours, recounting the events repeatedly before a committee of high-ranking Society members. Several times I catch Grand Master Levi scrutinizing me with calculating eyes. His intensity makes me nervous, but thankfully, he never returns to question me himself. My intuition tells me we’ll talk, eventually.

  •

  Two soldiers cover my mom with a sheet and lift her body, taking her away. I want to reach for her, but I have to remind myself that she’s not really there, and I need to let go.

  ::37::

  A Sacrifice

  The sunset is pink, purple, and cyan blue. A thousand people stand at the edge of the sacred river that cuts the city of Gibeon in half. I tightly grip two white lanterns. One is for my mom and one is for Turner.