He opened his mouth, then laughed silently and shook his head. “You don’t understand,” he murmured. “You can’t hear him, so you won’t hear me. Kat . . . I can’t do what you want me to do, and if you’re not going to give up . . .” He inhaled deeply. “I’m so sorry it’s come to this.”
Not a second later, he was coming at me, and I was very much on the defensive. I may have caught him off guard with my previous attack, but Nik had stepped up his game, big-time. It was all I could do to keep his blades from shredding me into fleshy ribbons.
I was sweating by the time he pinned me against the cave wall, disarmed and dripping blood from the fingertips of my right hand. He stood an arm’s length away, the last few inches of his longsword pressed against my throat. Mercy lay on the ground a few feet to my left. It’s difficult to maintain a grip on anything when your palm is coated in blood and the tendons in your wrist have been severed. Now, neither hand was functional for fighting. He had me.
“Go home, Kat,” Nik said between heaving breaths. “If there’s even a chance that Re’s real, that what he’s saying is true—” Nik shook his head. “The barriers between dimensions—between universes—are already weakened by the imbalance caused by the transformations. That’s why I can hear Re. So don’t you see—continuing to transform humans into Nejerets will only make it worse, weakening the barriers until the collapse of the entire universe is inevitable. And yes, there’s a chance that Re’s not real, but it’s not worth the risk. Just let nature run its course. Please, Kat, don’t make me hurt you anymore.”
I still thought “Re” wasn’t really talking to him, but I understood his reasoning, I really did. Even so, I’d made promises that I fully intended to keep. Maybe saving as many people as possible was too risky, but I would not let Charlene die. I would not break that promise. For Samuel and Cassie. For Garth.
I leaned in, the sting of the At blade biting into my neck clarifying my mind, reviving my determination. “I can’t.”
Nik withdrew his sword, lowering it until the tip dragged on the ground.
“Garth’s mom is sick,” I told him. “I have to save her. I promised.” Not to mention the rest of his family. Transforming them was the only way to protect them from my people, but I figured I should start small. “Help me, Nik. It’s just one person.” Damn it, but hope had wheedled its way into my heart. I wanted him to say yes, to give me a reason to forgive him. I was desperate for a reason to believe that this wasn’t the end of whatever warped relationship we had.
Nik closed the distance between us with a single step. He stared down at me, his gaze surprisingly earnest. His eyes searched mine. “Kat, I—I can’t help you. And I can’t let you do it, either.”
I stared at him, disgust a living, breathing thing inside of me. I was just asking for one life. A single life, such a tiny thing. “Then get the hell away from me.”
Nik’s shoulders slumped, and he turned his back to me, taking a few steps deeper into the cave. “He wants me to kill you.” Nik’s voice echoed off the rock walls. “He says it’s the only way.”
My heart rate spiked. I needed to get out of here, but I couldn’t leave without the orb. I tested the fingers of my left hand experimentally. Pain shot up my arm, but I had a decent amount of control, which meant that whatever bones and connective tissue I’d damaged by punching the wall of At were starting to heal. The hand was functional. Or functional-ish.
“He’s right,” I said a millisecond before I dove for my sword, the fingers of my left hand curling around Mercy’s hilt as I rolled over my shoulder and landed back on my feet. The pain was horrific, but I’d been expecting it. “The orb, Nik,” I said, raising the sword. “Give it to me.”
With his back to me, Nik bowed his head. “You won’t give up, will you?”
“Only when I’m dead.”
After a slow shake of his head, Nik moved deeper into the cave until he was consumed by darkness. A few seconds later, an At orb the size of a softball bounced out of the shadows, rolling to a stop at my boots.
“Go.” Nik’s voice was a ghostly murmur. “Get out of here, Kitty Kat . . . before I decide he’s right.”
“Nik . . . it doesn’t have to be like this.” I despised the thread of a plea in my voice. The weakness.
“Go!”
I bent over to pick up the orb. When I straightened, I glared into the darkness. “You know, for a moment there, I actually considered you a friend.” I laughed bitterly. “The moment’s over.” He’d made it perfectly clear that he truly was every bit the cold bastard I’d believed him to be the first time I met him, over two decades ago. “Don’t get up,” I said, voice thick with emotion. “I’ll let myself out.”
Just for a second, I paused in the mouth of the cave, recalling the feeling of the energy I’d channeled to break through the wall and get into the cave in the first place. I’d tapped into a force that was more vibrant and volatile than anything I’d felt before. Something within me was changing. I was changing. And it scared the shit out of me.
Awkwardly, I reached across my body to sheath Mercy over my right shoulder, then stepped out into the dying afternoon light. I spotted Cassie cowering behind the trunk of that same tree, eyes dark saucers in the grim light. She’d seen so much—too much. Poor kid. I worried she’d run from me, seeing me for the monster I was. The monster her brother was blinded to.
“I’m sorry.” Nik’s words whispered on the damp breeze, and I sucked in a breath. But I stomped on the urge to look over my shoulder. Sorry wasn’t enough. Nothing would be, not after this. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice . . .
“Come on,” I said, marching past Cassie. Either she would follow me, or she wouldn’t. Nothing I could do to change that now. “Let’s go save your mom.”
Chapter Ten
Cassie was a little skittish for the first part of the hike back—and really, who could blame her after the brawl she’d just witnessed between Nik, someone she obviously knew well and trusted, and me, the person who’d vowed to save her mom—but she worked past it by the time dusk invaded the woods.
“Why doesn’t Nik want to save my mom?” she asked, voice soft, hesitant.
“It’s complicated, kid.” Which was really just another way to say, “I don’t know.” Because whatever Nik’s beliefs about what was happening to him, whatever his reasons to oppose me in this, he still should’ve been willing to save the life of a woman he clearly knew. If he was so familiar with her daughter, how could he not know Charlene, and know her well?
“Oh.” Cassie fell into a deep silence that lasted the rest of the hike.
It was full dark by the time we reached their property. I stood with Cassie at the fence line, staring at the cabin, and glanced at her sidelong. She looked like she was trying to burn a hole through the wood of the door.
I didn’t want to leave her outside, alone and in the dark. But Samuel had made himself perfectly clear earlier—Cassie was absolutely not allowed inside the cabin. “You’ll be fine out here?” I asked her.
She dug the toe of her rubber boot into the earth, her gaze sinking to the ground as she shrugged. “It’s not like I have a choice. Papa won’t let me go in,” she said, hurt in her voice. Hurt, and defiance.
“Because he loves you,” I reminded her. The last thing we needed was for Cassie to take a page out of my book and decide disobedience was more her taste. I wanted to stay on Samuel’s good side—to agree to letting me save his wife once I revealed to him that the “cure” carried an extra little kick—and I doubted encouraging his daughter to rebel would earn me much in the way of favor. “You should listen to your dad,” I told Cassie. “He seems like a smart guy.”
She pursed her lips, quirking them to the side, and huffed out a breath through her nose. “Then why’s it okay for him to go in there?” She folded her arms across her chest. “I just want to see her,” she said, a tremor in her voice. She was afraid she’d never see her mom again, not alive at least.
I glanced heavenward. Oh ye of little faith—I’d made a promise, and come hell or high water, I was determined to keep it. After everything, I wouldn’t fail in this. But she didn’t know that, because she didn’t know me. Not really.
“I get it, kid,” I said, sighing. “Trust me, I totally get it.” I crouched down to her level, catching her gaze. “My mom died when I was a little older than you. She’s gone, and I would give pretty much anything to have her back. I’m not going to let that happen to you. You won’t be saying goodbye to your mom for a really long time.” If I had my way, maybe not ever.
Cassie’s bottom lip trembled, and she looked away.
I straightened. “Go wait in your house,” I told her, opening the creaky fence gate. I picked my way along the uneven stone path to the cabin’s compact front porch. “I’ll let you know when I’m done.” Once her mom’s transition into immortality was well on its way, there’d be no reason for Samuel to keep Cassie from her mom’s bedside.
I took a deep breath as I climbed the three porch stairs. All I had to do now was convince Samuel that immortality was the cure he’d been hoping for all along; he just hadn’t known it was a possibility.
I twisted the brushed bronze doorknob and pushed the front door open. “Samuel,” I called ahead, not wanting to startle him. “It’s Kat.”
I made my way to the bedroom door and rapped my knuckles on the solid wood. The door creaked open, and I poked my head in through the crack.
Samuel sat in a chair pulled up to the side of the bed, a rain poncho covering his upper body, a surgical mask over the lower half of his face, and yellow rubber gloves on his hands, the type people use to clean their toilets and bleach their bathtubs. A poor man’s hazmat suit. He was holding a paperback book opened to some point in the middle, though his attention was on the doorway. On me.
I glanced past him to Charlene. Her heartbeat wasn’t only weak now, it was irregular. She didn’t have much time left. Hours, maybe. Or less. And then, she’d go all she-Hulk and attack everyone she could, spreading the disease to the rest of Garth’s family, assuming they didn’t already have it. One more fuck-you from the joint team of jackasses—the Nejeret Senate, the Ouroboros Corporation, and Initiative Industries.
“Can I come in?” I whispered.
Samuel nodded once and closed the book, careful to mark his place by dog-earing the top corner of the page.
I pushed the door open a little further, offering him a silent wave.
His red-rimmed eyes locked on the blood coating my right hand and wrist. Damn, but I’d forgotten all about that. Both my left hand and my right wrist were well on their way to being healed, though the bones in my left hand would have to be reset for the hand to be fully functional. But at this point, the knife wound on my wrist was likely just an angry pink scar under all the crusted blood. Not that he knew that.
“I’m fine,” I said, glancing at my hand, then lowering it to wipe some of the blood off on the back of my jeans. “We heal super-fast.”
Again, he nodded once. But he still hadn’t blinked.
“I’m just going to wash up real quick,” I said, pointing over my shoulder with my thumb. The kitchen sink was calling my name.
When I returned, hands freshly washed and free of crusted blood, I pushed the door open the rest of the way, cringing at the squeaky hinges. Charlene didn’t notice. She was out cold.
As I stepped into the room, I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the At orb. “I have everything that I need,” I told Samuel. Another step. “But you should know—what I’m about to do will cure more than just the disease.”
“What do you mean?” He eyed the orb, seeming to become hypnotized by the smoky, swirling ba contained within.
I hid the orb behind my back, hoping to regain what little of Samuel’s attention was up for grabs.
He blinked, the first time he’d done so since I’d entered the room, then shook his head. “Wha—” He focused on my face, his brow pinched. “What was that?”
“It’s the thing that will allow me to save your wife’s life,” I told him, moving deeper into the room.
When I reached the foot of the bed, I sucked in a deep breath and held it for several seconds. “Listen, Samuel,” I said, blowing out the breath. “Garth knew what he was getting into when he agreed to the transform—the procedure, and I want to—need to—make sure you understand, too.” I stared at him for a moment, waited, made sure he was listening. “I can cure your wife . . . by turning her into a Nejeret.”
Samuel stared at me for a long time. So long that I wasn’t sure he was comprehending my words. I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t just incapacitate him and heal Charlene regardless of his decision—too much had happened to get me here, in this room, ready to save her—but I wanted to at least give him a chance.
“Do you understand what I—”
“Yes,” Samuel said, cutting me off. “I understand.” A breath. Another. “Do it. Please.”
That whisper of consent was all I needed. I rushed the rest of the way around the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress, the quilt bunching up underneath me. I set the orb down beside Charlene’s leg, then reached out to take her hand in mine. There was a spark of built-up static electricity the moment my skin touched hers.
I leaned in. “Charlene?” I whispered. “I honestly don’t know if you can hear me or not, but if you can, I want you to not be afraid. Things will be . . . intense when you wake up. But you’ll be alive, and you’ll get to watch Cassie grow up, and that’s all that really matters, right?” I shot Samuel a quick glance before refocusing on Charlene. “Alright,” I said as I reached for the orb. My fingers closed around the smooth, cool surface. “No time like the present.”
But then I hesitated. Releasing the ba right now would use up my entire supply. Mari’s supply back at the lab was separated into smaller marble-sized pieces, a bite-size ba delivery system. But I doubted I had anywhere near enough control over my new powers to divide this softball-sized orb into enough parts to work on any other members of Garth’s family who fell ill, and Charlene didn’t have time to wait for me to figure it out.
I set my shoulders. Charlene was my priority. I wouldn’t let indecision make me into a promise-breaker. I’d just have to relieve Mari of some of her supply later. After I took care of Garth’s mom.
I shifted Charlene’s hand so my palm cradled the back of her hand, then placed the orb against her palm and curled both her fingers and mine around the sphere of At. Closing my eyes, I bowed my head and concentrated. On the orb. On the universal energies. On the memory of the sensation I’d felt when I broke through Nik’s At barrier. I squeezed my eyes shut. I called out to the magic.
And felt nothing. Not a single electric zip. No static. Nothing.
I licked my lips and tightened my grip on Charlene’s hand. This would work. It would work. It had to.
But it didn’t. No matter how hard I focused, no matter how intensely I concentrated, I couldn’t get the magic to work. Not this time.
My cheeks were wet by the time I opened my eyes. “I—” I cleared my throat, watching the shallow rise and fall of Charlene’s chest. “I’m sorry.” I let go of Charlene’s hand, reluctantly plucking the orb from her limp grasp. “I’m so sorry.”
Apparently, I’d been wrong about my sheut powers. Maybe they weren’t evolving. The instance up at the cave might have been a one-off, not that I’d ever heard of anything like that happening before. But then, magic was hardly a science. That’s why it was called magic, after all.
“What happened?” Samuel asked, his eyes filled with confusion but also a glimmer of hope. “Is she . . . is it too late?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not that.” Or rather, the problem wasn’t her.
It was me.
Chapter Eleven
“Is she better now?” Cassie asked about a quarter of a second after I opened the cabin’s front door. She’d been sitting on the porch steps, but stood
when I emerged.
I froze in the doorway, heart thudding and eyes locked on her. “What?” I felt like I’d been caught breaking into the cabin, not invited in to save her mom. Oh, right, saving her mom—that thing I’d just failed to do. That’s what she was asking about.
The hope brightening Cassie’s face faded. The light in her eyes dimmed. She already knew. “I’m a failure,” must’ve been written all over my face.
“I, um . . .” I cleared my throat and stepped onto the porch, shutting the door behind me, then passed Cassie and started down the walkway. “I can’t do it alone,” I told her as I hurried away. “I thought I could, but . . . I’ll be back. I’ll fix this.”
I wouldn’t be returning with Nik, that was for sure, but I knew exactly who to ask for help this time—Lex. I just hoped that by the time I got her back here, it wouldn’t be too late. And that was assuming Lex was even willing to help. But after everything she’d said in my bedroom, I had to believe she would be.
“Little sister,” Dom said, “I know what you’re planning, and I would ask you to proceed with the utmost caution. If Heru finds out that Lex—”
“He’d never hurt her,” I said, stating the obvious. An inability to cause her pain was practically hardwired into him, courtesy of their soul bond.
“It is not Lex I am worried about,” Dom said ominously.
I sniffed, unimpressed. Sure, there was always the chance that Heru might take his anger out on me for coercing his wife into an act of disobedience . . . if he found out. It was a pretty likely possibility. But breaking my promise to Garth’s family wasn’t an option. Lex would help—I would do anything I had to do to convince her, consequences be damned.
I jogged down the driveway, settling my helmet on my head without securing the chin strap, then kicking the bike’s engine on. Whatever the urgency, I couldn’t risk leaving an open gateway to the Heru Compound outside of the compound, so I resigned myself to taking the Agate Pass Bridge back to Bainbridge.
The Kat Dubois Chronicles: The Complete Series (Echo World Book 2) Page 43
