She hesitated and then turned around, running toward the manor. I, meanwhile, ran toward where I had seen Vera go. The sky is blackening and the ash is coming down thicker. It was hitting the ground now.
“Vera! Vera, where are you?” I called. Leaves picked up by the wind led me toward the cliff, and I turned into an alcove of trees.
“Vera!” I went over to her and crouched next to her, touching her shoulder. She jumped and looked at me.
“Emma! What’s going on? What’s all this black stuff?”
I swallowed.
“Everything will be okay.”
The burning in my palms was getting stronger, and I pulled Vera up to stand.
“But, Emma—”
“Lucas is coming, Vera, and you can’t be here when he finds me.”
“No! Emma, my mom—She said—”
“Just tell Zach that everything will be okay.”
I sent her inside the manor, and went to find Lucas. I felt the trees dislike for the situation, felt them wishing they could jump in between Lucas and I when the time came. I did my best to soothe them, and came onto the thickly forested cliff.
“Get the hell off my planet,” I snapped.
Lucas turned to look at me, obviously cured of my disabler. He was wearing all black again, and I reminded myself that he was the embodiment of death.
“Shouldn’t you be hiding?”
“I’ve told you: I’m not hiding from you anymore. Now get the hell out of here!”
“Temper, Emma. No one’s here to save you.”
“I don’t saving.”
He cocked an eyebrow.
“Don’t you?”
I ignored the Path coming in; I couldn’t risk being distracted.
“You might. I’m tired of this stupid game, Lucas! You kidnap me, you torture me, make me do spells. . . For what? Your sick, sadistic amusement? Enough already!”
I shot a killing curse at him, which he blocked with one of his own. With each spell we shot at each other, he managed to get closer to me. Curiosity appeared in his eyes and instead of hitting me, his curse hit one of the trees. My heart seized in my chest, causing me to double over in pain as the tree—my poor tree—desiccated right before my eyes.
But then Lucas grabbed hold of my neck, and he slammed me against the blackened, dead tree. I clawed at his skin, trying to pull his hand off my neck.
“You are not escaping again,” he declared, pressing me closer to the tree.
“Let—go,” I gasped.
He did as I had asked, but immediately grabbed hold of my wrist. My breath came in wheezy gasps.
“And that’s a promise.”
We vanished.
Back at the Mausoleum
Lucas put me in the same room he had the last
time I was on La’veer. He drugged me again, but it was a different drug this time. I was only very, very weak, and the only thing I could do was lie there on the bed that was pushed into the corner. I tried fighting off the drug, to contact someone back home, but every time I began to reach for the Magic pain shot through me.
After the sun had risen three times, the drug was wearing off by itself. I was able to sit up, even though the whole of me ached. I’ve been alone for the entirety of my current imprisonment, which made me wonder what game Lucas was planning. Half-way through the third day, however, the door was shoved open. Lucas walked in and shut the door behind him. He stood at the foot of the bed, and for a while, we just stared at each other in silence.
“Who knew killing a tree would be enough to wound you? I told you that you needed someone to save you.”
I kept silent. I wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of knowing he’d won this round. He scowled, pulling me off the bed. I clutched my hand into a fist, but he pried my fingers open, looking at the moon. He kept my hand open with his fingers, and when I tried to pull my hand away he only twisted my wrist with excessive force. I held back my scream of pain, but when he put his thumb on my scar I couldn’t hold it back.
“This would be revenge,” he thought.
“What would be revenge, Lucas?” I gasped. “That torture? You’ve already broken countless bones,
repeatedly. ”
“Yes. . . Causing you pain would be revenge.” “I’ve only ever protected myself. Kept myself
alive .”
“But you have spited me, Emma Fitch. Escaped
three- no, four times, and you had me sent to prison. You
also set that trap in the market, which I told you would
fail. I warned you I would get you, but you didn’t listen.
You didn’t run when you could have. You’ve also had my
house destroyed.”
“That was the Abarims, not me.”
“But it was because of you. Because they knew
that ominous feeling everyone was getting was the Kahi,
and I put the pieces together. I knew that you and Stone
were the Kahi, for what else could it be, who else could be
it but you? The Council had already chosen you as their
Keeper.” He stopped in his thoughts. “Why did they
choose you as the Keeper?”
“Why does that even matter?”
“Everything’s relevant, Emma.”
I scowled, and sighed: “I’m a Witch Faerie.” “Of course. I should have realized that. . . Your
system can naturally handle more than other Beings’.”
His eyes changed slightly, making me nervous. “I
wonder how much you could actually handle,” he stated
lowly.
“I don’t want to find out,” I muttered bitterly. He smirked.
“No, I don’t think you would. One wrong move
could be too much for you, and we could all be destroyed.
I haven’t tried to kill you in ages, or have you been too
busy hating me to notice?”
“Then why the hell am I here?” I seethed. “I don’t have to kill you to have your Magic,
Emma; I can still use it. I proved that to you and to
myself the last time you were here.”
“And what makes you so sure that won’t kill me?”
I asked bitterly.
“Because I won’t let you die.”
“What do you even care, Lucas?”
“I don’t care. I know that when I’m dead, I’m
going to hell. I’ve killed far too many people not to have
a first-class ticket. But if I kill you, or if I purposely push
you too far and you die as a result of that, I still wouldn’t
have any peace. Stone would hunt me down even in
death. . .” Lucas’s eyes flickered between mine. “Our
family has an uncanny gene for wanting revenge.” I stared at him, my heart leaping slightly. Lucas
looked amused.
“What? You didn’t really think I don’t know that
Stone’s my cousin? I know who my family is, even if I
want them dead.”
“I won’t let you kill him.”
He frowned.
“Why do you care for him so much?”
“Because I love him. I wouldn’t expect you to
understand that.”
He frowned at me.
“No,” he said stiffly, “I don’t understand that.
Which is why I have no problem doing this.”
Lucas moved his hand too quickly, rendering me
unable to stop him as he clasped his hand over mine. The
sudden pain that shot through me made my legs give out
from underneath me as I screamed. I was barely aware of
him pulling me back to my feet, and then we were gone.
Destruction
We came out on the roof of Lucas’s home, it
seemed, and he finally moved his hand from my scar. I was able to distribute air through my lungs, to stop screaming. I looked ou
t over the roof and saw that La’veer is a small island. There seems to be what looks like horses in the distance. I committed every image of the place to memory, determined to search every island on e2 after I got away from him so I could stop him.
We moved toward the edge and Lucas muttered a few words, clasping his hand over my scar again. I didn’t have time to register the pain, for the next thing I knew, immense amounts of Magic were being sucked out of me. I stumbled forward, holding myself up on the short wall there. I tried to stop whatever he was doing, but every time I saw my Magic, it was doing Lucas’s will.
When he stopped, when he moved his hand to my wrist and off of the star, I was finally able to raise my eyes and look out over the island.
“How could you do this?” I whispered. “How could you ever wish the sun away?”
“Darkness invokes fear, and that is what I need instilled in the e2ians before I continue with my plan.”
“I won’t let this stay,” I told him, shaking my head.
“You don’t have a choice.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I objected bitterly.
He looked at me.
“What do you think you can do, Emma? Right now, when I have a hold of you, what do you think you can do?” I didn’t reply, and he smirked. “That’s what I thought. Your Magic is mine.”
“You’ve said that before and look what’s happened.”
Suddenly he had me pinned to a wall, his fingernails digging into my shoulders.
“Fighting me is only going to get you killed!”
“No, it’s not! If I don’t fight you, you will kill me! Why the hell can’t you just deal with what our world is instead of trying to ruin—?”
“Shut Emma! I am who I am because of my father. My father hated you and that drove me to hate you, even before we met at the school.”
“Just because our fathers hated each other—”
“You really don’t get it, do you, Emma? Why I’m doing everything that I’m doing?”
“Because of your father.”
“Not just because of him.”
He stepped closer to me, so that our faces were inches from each other’s.
“Do you understand? Do you understand why I’m doing what I’m doing?”
His eyes flickered back and forth between mine, as if he were searching for something. Something that, it appeared, wasn’t visible to him.
“Are we even talking about the same thing?” I asked uncertainly.
He stayed silent, but then stepped back.
“No, I don’t think we are.”
He released my arms and took my wrist, dragging me through a door and down a staircase in a heated silence.
We eventually came out into a large room—a living room, I realized. Tess was lounging in a chair, flipping through a magazine. When Lucas stopped next to her, she looked up.
“Look nice?” she asked, sounding bored, looking back down and turning the page.
“It looks like it fits, Tess. But yes, it looks nice.”
“And yet she’s still alive.”
“I don’t think she die, actually. There is way too much Magic and power running through her.”
“You’ll enjoy using her, won’t you?”
His hand tightened on my wrist.
“Absolutely.”
There were footsteps behind us and Lucas turned around, facing a little boy wearing white. He has bags under his eyes. As I watched him, I realized he could not be any older than seven, and the thought broke my heart.
“Excuse me, Sir, Mr. Biggins wanted me to tell you that he has finished cooking your and Ms. Wilcox’s dinner, Sir,” he stammered, head lowered.
“Fine. Go back to the kitchen.”
“Yes, Sir, right away, Sir.”
The boy turned around and ran back the direction in which he had come from. I looked after him, my hand twitching as I wished to do something to help him before it was too late. Lucas’s grip tightening on my wrist made me realize he had been watching me.
“What’re you going to do with her?” Tess asked, standing.
“What?” he asked, looking away.
“What are you going to do with Fitch while we’re eating?”
“He’s not going to have to do anything.”
They both looked at me.
“What?”
With a burst of energy, he and Tess were blasted away from me. Tess hit the wall, hitting her head and then the ground, but Lucas was still conscious. There were slight burns on the skin around my wrist where he had been holding me, but it was worth it.
“Don’t be an idiot!” he shouted.
Lucas sent a spell at me, but I deteriorated it with one of my own.
“You’re not going to win, Lucas. I won’t let you win!”
“So sure about that, are you? You don’t even know why I brought you here!”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He stopped himself, and quickly sent another spell. I avoided it and vanished.
Sheer Pain
I appeared on Heath in Capitol City and no one
was outside. It was pitch-black here, too; not even the moon was out. I shuddered and then closed my eyes, calming myself. I opened my eyes, letting them readjust to the darkness lying before them. As they did, I looked back on memories of watching the sunrise, feeling it touch my skin.
I took a deep breath and brushed my thumbs over both of my scars in one smooth, sweeping motion. The darkness sank from the sky into the ground, and the sun rose like a new day was beginning. My skin warmed, but I still pulled my jacket more around me. La’veer is the coldest place I’ve ever been to, even worse than the home in Farbreach.
Taking a breath, I rushed up my parents’ driveway, Materializing a brass key. I eased open the door and slipped inside.
“Dad! Mom! Are you home?”
I heard the quick thudding on the stairs, and then
Dad was standing there, staring at me.
“Emma,” he breathed, “What—What are you
doing here?”
“I had to come here.”
Mom came up behind Dad and then pulled me to
her. Clara rushed down behind her and grabbed hold of
me.
“Oh, Em, I thought—” Mom started.
“The darkness is gone. Lucas couldn’t have
thought I was going to let it stay.”
“So it him?” she asked, looking at me uneasily. “The new president, Samuel Rising, he said they couldn’t figure out what it was. Told everyone to
stay inside until they could figure it out.”
“I couldn’t stop him, not then. But it’s gone. The
darkness is gone,” I breathed.
Dad looked out the drapes on the windows, and
then back to me.
“How did Adler get you?” Dad asked.
“He got into our planet. There was a hole in the
Barrier. He took me three days ago, and—”
“Three? You’ve been with him for three days?” he
asked angrily. “What the hell did he do?”
“He didn’t use my Magic until today, Dad. I
didn’t see anyone the rest of the days; he had me locked
up in a room in his house.”
“But the Farbreach house was—”
“Destroyed, yes, but he has another home.
La’veer—this island. I don’t know where it is.”
“I’ll see if Ecerbion can find something on it.
There has to be records of the buy,” Dad said. “Then
we’ll get everyone over there and get rid of him for
good.”
I nodded.
“That’s what we need. . . But Zach and I have to
be there, too.” The name hit a painful nerve in my being.
“Zach! Has Zach Pathed you? Is he okay?”
They nodded.
“He called the other day. Em, he was so worried
about you. He said he didn’t know where you were,
except that you were with Adler.” Mom took a breath.
“He really does love you, Em,” she murmured. “He
looked ready to fall apart because you were missing.” “I love him, too,” I whispered. “I just couldn’t let
him come out when Lucas was there. I wouldn’t have
been able to protect him.”
“But he could have killed you, Emmy!” Clara
cried. “He can’t kill me. I can’t die.”
Dad looked skeptical, and asked, “Are you
absolutely sure you can’t?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Not—Not completely, anyway.” I pulled my jacket even more around me again,
feeling even colder than I had outside.
“Em, you’re freezing,” Dad remarked. “Come on,
we’ll get you something hot to drink.”
I nodded.
“That’d be perfect. I haven’t had anything since I
left.”
“He didn’t give you anything?” Clara questioned. I shook my head.
“Even if he had given me something to eat or
something to drink, I wouldn’t have taken it. Lucas isn’t
the type of person to take food from.”
“No, he wouldn’t be. Come on,” Dad instructed. Dad put his arm around my back and we moved
toward the kitchen. But by the third step, I was in pain,
frozen. I have never felt this cold before, and it was
crippling. My system took over, turning me down, and
then the floor was rushing up to meet my face.
****
There were voices. . . voices everywhere around
me and they wouldn’t stop. But then they all went away, and I pressed my face into the cool fabric. A hand brushed my head, but something kept space between the two. I felt the current, but as if it were far away again.
“I’m so sorry, Em. I should have been there. . . I should have stopped Adler from taking you to that damned house.”
My system rebooted slightly at his voice, and my eyes cracked open. Zach’s eyes widened, and he held my face.
“Emma!”
“Zach,” I gasped, horrified to hear how broken— how cold—I sounded. “What—Where am I?”
“You’re still on e2, in your parents’ house. They’re getting my family and Mr. Monroe, and then we’re going to take you home, okay?”
Starlight (The Lightning Strike Trilogy Book 1) Page 27
