“Uh-hm.” Stella coughed behind me.
Traian released me. “Pardon us. I haven’t seen her in three days.”
My cheeks burned hot. I rested my head on his chest for a second before turning to face my sister.
“Well, that explains a lot.” Stella held a drink in each hand or she would have rested them on her hips just like Mom.
“I can explain,” I started.
“Please do.”
“Let me.” Traian put an arm around my shoulder, pulling me to him. Together, we stepped forward into the light. “I’m Ian.”
I blinked. Fake name. Lovely. But then I stopped myself. How did I know ‘Traian’ was his real name to begin with? Well, if we’re going to lie…
“A friend from school,” I added.
“Oh, reeeally.” My sister narrowed her eyes. “How did you get into this party?”
“Donor. Transpatia Enterprises.”
“Oh.” Stella’s composure transformed. “My apologies. I just assumed.”
“What did you assume, Stella?” I asked a little too sweetly. “That I wasn’t capable of meeting someone? Of being liked? Of having a boyfriend?”
“No.” Stella shook her head. “I didn’t know.… I understand now. I couldn’t figure out why you wouldn’t go out with your hot professor, but now I understand.”
Oh, why did she have to go there? I couldn’t understand why everyone had to keep bringing up my professor.
“Your sister,” Traian spoke, “has an impeccable taste in art.”
“Oh, does she now?” Stella extended a drink to me and I took it from her. “Well, I’ll leave you two lovebirds out here in the garden. Don’t get too frisky.”
A few seconds later, she disappeared around the corner, Traian took my drink away and pulled me back into the darkened part of the garden.
“I promise I will keep you safe.” He placed his arms around me. “How is your energy?”
“I’m good.” I whispered, but my body shook. “All I wanted was a normal life.” I laughed. And then I went ahead and fell in love with the most unnormal person I’ve ever met.
“What if you weren’t meant to be normal?”
Traian’s words rang over and over in my head.
Before I could blink, his wings sprouted from under his coat, and we were flying. I pressed my head against his chest. As crazy as this all seemed, I knew one thing—the hole in my soul was gone.
Chapter 26
We landed in the cemetery ten feet from Eva Constantine’s grave. Part of me understood why we were here, but the other part was confused. Hadn’t he told me never to come here again?
Before I could catch my breath, Traian’s lips were on mine. I melted into them, but then he pulled back.
I blinked at him. Suddenly, the sky lit up with electricity. I thought it was a storm, until I realized the tiny arcs of light cracking from both my palms and falling to the damp grass below.
“Not this again,” I gasped.
“I have shown you who I am. Now it is your turn.” Traian stepped away. “Unleash your power.”
“I don’t have power. I don’t know what this is,” I insisted. Don’t panic. I didn’t want him to leave me. I searched his eyes and found they had returned to the red glow I’d seen earlier. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere. I’m giving you space, so you can work your magic.”
“Magic?”
“It started here, the night you touched my beloved’s gravestone.” Traian pointed to Eva’s grave.
My attention shifted to the tombstone to my right. In rapid succession, all the events of the last three weeks flashed through my mind.
Yes. This was where everything got a little weird.
First, getting shocked, then running for my life. My mind connected the dots as everything shone bright like the midday sun.
“You think I have magic in my blood.”
Traian nodded.
My mother’s words about Grandma being involved in witchcraft and Mindy asking me if I had witches in my family replayed in my head. Am I a witch? The electricity died down to a weak hum in my hands.
Traian stepped forward.
“I should not have pushed you. I apologize. But we don’t have time.” He took my hand and let me to the tombstone. “You must touch the stone,” he urged as he guided me closer to Eva’s gravestone. “You two are linked and I need to know why.”
“I’ve tried to touch it before. You were there. Nothing happened.” I protested, but he had a strong hold on my arm and pushed me closer.
“That was before you released your power on me. Try it now.”
“So that’s it. You have been hanging around me because of this.” I pointed to the stone. “You don’t really love me, you have zero interest in me—you just wanted information.” I burst into uncontrollable laughter. “Here I thought you actually liked me. The way you touched me, the way you wooed me right into your arms. I guess my mother’s right, I am no good on my own. I can’t take care of myself after all.”
“That isn’t true.” His arms wrapped around me. I fought against them, but it was no use—they were like a steel bars around me.
Another realization hit me like a speed train.
“I’m so stupid.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Who is Eva to you?”
Traian lowered his forehead to mine. “My beloved who was taken from me too soon.” He wrapped his hand around my wrist. “You must touch the stone. Please. Just once, I need to see for myself.”
“You think I’ll bring her back or something? Will you let me go if I do?” I asked.
Traian eyed me for a moment. “I doubt she’ll come back, but you can do whatever you like, go whenever you want. You owe me nothing.”
Really? I thought. After everything we’ve been through he’s just gonna let me go like that?
I suddenly felt like a paper plate, tossed away after one use. The emotions that raged through my body nearly took my breath away. I wanted to cry, scream, laugh, slap him, kick the tombstone, curse every person who had ever touched me or been around me, curse my grandmother, curse God, curse Hell, curse anything. I was done. Witch or no witch.
Fine.
I would do this one last thing for him and then I would be out of here.
He released my hand. I touched the stone.
Shockwaves of electricity gripped my entire body. I felt like a solid statue, frozen. Images raced through my head: a red dragon with ruby eyes and a tongue of red fire, a female elf with blonde hair and eyes as green as the spring grass. Then there was another woman, with dark hair, black almost, but her eyes were the same green as the other woman’s. All three—red dragon, elf, and dark woman—looked at me and then disappeared. Then another series of images appeared one by one. A silver cup, a glowing, silver stone, a silver dragon and a silver sword. The last image was of a black dragon, coming straight for me.
The next moment, I was back in Seattle, gasping for air just as rain poured from the sky.
I didn’t know what had just happened, but I felt like I had gone through all twelve heart surgeries, plus transfusions, blood treatments, and whatever other craziness I’d gone through in my life, all in one second. Despite everything, my heart continued to sputter inside my chest, pounding away irregularly.
Traian held me as I shook violently. It was like I was having a seizure, yet I fully knew of what was happening around me.
“Stay with me, my love.” Traian pulled me close to his chest and rubbed my back and arms. “Stay with me. I can’t bear to lose you too.”
“Then you shouldn’t have brought her here,” a voice spoke from behind us.
Professor Perry. Of all places for him to show up.
He’d been acting strange all week, ignoring me.
Had he suspected something?
A low growl rumbled through Traian’s chest. “What are you doing here?” He moved me behind him.
“Same thing you are,”
Perry answered. “I shouldn’t be surprised to see you. I have been trying to protect her since the day she was born.”
“You think you can keep her hidden with your elfish parlor tricks?” Traian barked. “He’s already aware of her presence.”
Who is aware of my presence? Perry has been protecting me all my life?
Perry’s revelation stopped me in my tracks. My body ceased shaking as a strange new energy filled my bones. I slowly peered around Traian’s shoulder and looked right at Perry.
Just like I had seen in the classroom earlier, his ears stood straight and pointy. In addition, his jawline had changed somewhat, his cheekbones had risen higher and his hair had whitened. It was still Professor Perry, but a different version of him.
And then the memories came flooding in one by one.
The male nurse at the children’s hospital, the janitor in my preschool, the lab tech in the hospital who had drawn my blood before each surgery, the clerk at my high school library, where I’d spent an hour each day, and then the professor of Microbiology at the university—all those men had been different versions of Perry.
How could I have not noticed this until now? I should know better. How can I ever be free?
The world tilted on me again.
First it was my hands. Then Traian and his bat wings. And now Perry stood in the graveyard, looking very much like a main character in The Elf’s Promise.
Either my medication is messing with my brain, or the world is very much not the way I thought it was.
Either prospect terrified me, but then another horrid thought came.
Medication… Perry… Oh. My. God. What had he done to me?
“Everly, I need you to step away from him and come over here.” Perry opened his arms and motioned for me to come.
“Are you poisoning me?” I shouted. “What’s in that medicine?”
Perry’s jaw tightened. “No, it’s keeping you alive.”
Traian cursed something under his breath. “She will go nowhere near you. Why do you always have to show up, every single time?”
“You guys have history?” I asked incredulously.
Grandma’s words rung in my head. ‘Two men will come into your life.’
“It’s not what you think, you stupid, dead brain,” Perry retorted to Traian.
I’d had enough. I pulled away from Traian, but he held onto my wrist.
“Don’t leave. He will only destroy you,” he warned. “As he did Eva.”
“Oh, I’m not going to him. I don’t want to be near either of you right now,” I lied.
I wanted very much to stay in Traian’s arms, but the problem was that I couldn’t think straight when he was near me, touching me. And I needed to think as straight as a two-by-four.
Traian finally released my arm, and I stepped back. The further away I got, the clearer my thoughts were. As soon as I had reached a safe distance, Perry jumped over the tombstone and landed on Traian’s shoulders.
I didn’t have time to react to what was happening except to continue moving away. What in the world? This is beyond crazy.
The two continued to fight. One moment, Traian had Perry by the neck, and the next, Perry smashed Traian’s head into a nearby tombstone, breaking the marker into a million pieces. The ground shook when they both landed on the grass.
Aren’t these the two men who are supposed to protect me? I recalled Grandmother’s note, which had conveniently shown up after Perry had been in my apartment. If I hadn’t known her signature from all her will documents, I would have thought Perry would have been responsible for this madness.
I continued to back up until I hit something solid, and two cold arms grabbed me.
“Now that they’re distracted, you and I can have a chat.”
The next thing I knew, sharp teeth sank into my right shoulder. A hand covering my mouth stifled the scream escaping in my throat. The cross on my chest burned as pain exploded down my arm and torso.
I caught a flurry of motion from the side.
Smack.
Something had taken Traian down. Perry was on the ground, too. Dark shadows moved about the cemetery at lightning speed.
My vision faded until a loud crack of thunder snapped me back to lucidity.
I lay on the wet grass of the graveyard, my new black dress in shredded pieces. Voices shouted nearby. I rolled to my side and peered between the tombstones… Aidra lay a few feet away, her mouth covered in blood. My blood. She convulsed, and then black tentacles like spiderwebs covered her entire body. The next moment, she turned into a pile of dust, drifting away in a gust of wind and rain.
“What the fuck?” I gasped, feeling bile rising in my throat.
I scanned the graveyard. Both Traian and Perry struggled against an army of fast-moving shadows, and they were losing.
Everything clicked in my brain, and I realized I would lose the two men in my life that were supposed to protect me. I didn’t know who the monsters were that they fought, but I knew if I didn’t do something, we’d all die.
Balls of blue light exploded from Perry’s hands, killing the creature attacking him, but three more appeared out of nowhere and launched themselves at him.
Traian ripped off heads and limbs as if he were tearing through a pile of thinly wrapped Christmas presents, but he, too, seemed overwhelmed as the dark, wraith-like beings multiplied.
My love.
Now would be a good time to have tingling hands and awesome powers, but I felt nothing except pain in my arm.
One lace sleeve had been torn off, and even in the darkness, I could see the blood spilling from the gaping wound in my right shoulder.
Lightning lit the sky again, and I felt it.
The warmth started at my core, as if the electricity from the air had ignited a fire inside. It spread through my body. Every cell hummed, as if they’d finally been awakened. I raised my left hand toward the sky. The clouds above me crackled, and thousands of arcs danced overhead like a majestic firework display.
“Come.” The words flowed from my lips as if I’d done this before. “I call upon fire. Fill me with your power that I may banish the evil unleashed upon the ones I love.”
The sky responded with a loud cracking sound. All the tentacles of lightning in the sky flowed into one pillar of light, straight down into my palm.
I gasped at the overflow of energy suddenly filling my body. I needed to release it soon or I would explode.
I closed my eyes for a moment to focus, but it was nearly impossible. The buzzing in my ears threatened to overwhelm my mind.
It’s now or never. I opened my eyes. “Hey, you creepy-ass monsters. How about you come play with me?”
The blur of movement stopped. All dark eyes were on me.
“Everly, what are you doing?” Traian shouted as he popped off another creature’s head.
“Oh, no.” Perry threw a ball of light at a creature and then came running toward me.
“Stay back,” I shouted.
No one listened. All of them closed in, including Traian and Perry.
Now. I closed my eyes and directed my right hand down.
“Darkness be gone,” I whispered.
The energy inside me exploded out from my hand. Everything lit up around me like the noonday sun, even though I shut my eyes tightly. When darkness returned, I collapsed in a heap, a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
I don’t know how long I’d been laying on the ground, but eventually I felt raindrops falling on my face. I mustered enough energy to open my eyes and sit up. The cemetery was gone. I was sitting inside a huge crater.
“Oh my god.” Did I do this? Where are Traian and Perry?
I crawled up to my knees, then stood. I looked down at my hands. They looked perfectly normal like before, except there was a faint outline of a cross inside a circle on my left hand. Like I’d seen it the first time I touched Eva’s tombstone
I peered around the big pit.
“Traian?” I called. “Prof
essor Perry?”
Nothing came back except for the sound of wind and the pitter-patter of rain. Did I kill them? I looked around, but I was alone. There were no bodies or limbs… Just me and some smoldering dirt.
The urge to get out of the pit grew until I had to move. I stumbled to the side and clambered on hands and knees. My wounded shoulder screamed in protest from the effort, but I persisted. After a long process, I reached the top completely out of breath.
It was even darker up above. The power had gone out in the entire neighborhood. Sirens wailed, and city noise hummed in the distance, but in the cemetery, everything stood eerily still.
In the shade of night, I made out a couple of bodies lying on the other side of the crater. I hobbled around to the nearest one.
Traian. My heart sputtered, sending out a wave of adrenaline. No.
Sharp, broken tree branches stuck out from his body. He lay as still as Aidra had before she’d disintegrated.
I fell to my knees near his head.
“I love you.” I bowed over him and kissed his forehead. “You can’t die, I just found you.” I lifted his head into my lap, though the wound in my shoulder burned. Tears dripped off my face onto his. “Traian, my love, please don’t leave me.”
He never moved.
‘I’m a monster. A strigoi. I take blood.’ His words came like a whispered memory.
Blood.
I leaned my wounded shoulder over his mouth and let my blood drip onto his parted lips. The pain in my body grew, and my vision blurred… I’d lost too much blood already. If I didn’t reach a hospital soon, I would be dead too.
“I’m sorry, I can’t save you.” I kissed his lips. “I love you.”
I lowered his head back to the ground and stood. My body teetered, and blackness hovered at the periphery of my vision. I glanced over at the other body. It had to be Perry, but I couldn’t tell from this distance, nor could I afford the time it would take to investigate.
“Goodbye, Traian,” I whispered and stumbled toward the cemetery exit. With my left hand, I gripped my grandmother’s cross.
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