Текст книги "The Promise"
Автор книги: Jessica Sorensen
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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 15 страниц)
Chapter 35
(Gemma)
“ This was worse than I expected,” I told Alana. We d put the torture chamber far behind us and I was happy for a brief moment, before realizing the sights of that room would haunt my dreams for a long time.
“You expected less?” She gestured at the decaying walls, lit up by red lanterns. “This is death Gemma.”
“I know,” I said. “But I guess I didn’t really look at it like that until now.”
“When people die before their time,” she traced her hand along the wall, “their soul is considered lost. There’s no real place for these souls to go, so they end up here. Queen Helena collects them and turns them into the mummies you saw working as slaves.”
“But my mom.” I swallowed hard. “You said she crossed over. So her soul’s not here right?”
“No, Gemma. Her death was her time,” she explained and we descended to the right wing.
“But she took her own life.” I ducked below a row of red ribbons that smelled like they’d been dipped in moldy water. “So how was that her time.”
“Because it was,” she replied. “Just like when you will save the world. Your mother’s life ended when she took her own life to save you. It was her time to go.”
“But how did it save me? I smacked a ribbon out of the way. “She didn’t know if she’d lead Stephan to me. She just feared she would.”
“No, she knew.” She stopped in an archway and I almost bumped into her.
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“I m sorry, but what?” I scooted back. “Are you talking about a vision?” She nodded. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”
This had never occurred to me. That another vision existed. But it made sense. “And how does this one turn out?”
“I think you already know the answer to that.” She paused. “Gemma, unless the star is gone the world will end.” Then she walked away into the darkness and I followed, trying to shove out of my head the picture of Alex and me dead.
I watched her silhouette as I weaved my way to the mysterious. When my surroundings opened again, I saw a throne. We were in Queen Helena’s chambers. Of course there was a throne. This was always the case with someone in higher power, like it was their declaration.
This particular throne was twisted with thorny branches, and the blood red platform in front of it seemed fitting for someone who collected the Lost Souls of the dead. There were no mummies in the room, but I swore I could hear them whisper: Help me, free me, let us live again.
“She’s not here,” I noted.
“Oh, she’s here.” Alana pointed to the ceiling, where was a flat sheet of shining silver rippled with our voices.
The water warped down, a spiral of shimmer, connecting to the throne. It formed a body of a woman, silver and eyeless, with only lips. And the lips knew how to form words.
“Quomodo audent intra hic sponte. Ubi non est libertas.”
Latin. It was always Latin. Why hadn’t I learned to speak the language yet?
“I’ve come to turn myself in,” Alana called out. “And she… well, she would like to make a bargain with you.”
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“I do not make bargains,” the queen said, either switching to English or I suddenly understood Latin. “There are no bargains here, only souls.”
“And feel her soul Helena,” Alana said. “Feel it and you’ll see.” I was so lost.
“She’s broken,” Helena declared, her mouth a pool of thick liquid. “Why do you bring her to me? Your first time in the Afterlife and this is it? A soul, broken and torn. This soul belongs to another. Take her away. No, better yet, stay now that you’re here.”
“I’ve come to bargain for the Lost Souls,” I said in a small voice. “Well, some of them, anyway.” Alana nudged my hand, warning me to keep quiet. “She’s the one responsible for your heavy amount of traffic lately.”
“Well, too bad for her, I don’t just give over my souls!” Helena cried, with a slam of her fist, spurting silver liquid onto the red platform.
“Show her the ring,” Alana hissed. “Show her now.”
I swiftly raised my hand, showing the queen the purple-gemmed ring.
Helena gasped, shocked. “Where did you get that?”
“Um… I found it,” I said stupidly.
With a swish, the liquid body slithered in front of me. She smelled me, like a dog smells a track. “Who are you? And why does your soul feel unnatural, like venom in my lungs.” At first I thought this was a good thing, that maybe, finally, the soul detachment had saved me instead of ruining me.
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“It’s invigorating. And I want it.” Then, with a dive, she swooped up and sucked me into her body.
I could feel her, dead and lethal, and I wanted out of her. Her skin was like warm water, only polluted and revolting.
“Let me out!” I yelled my voice a thin bubble.
She slinked back to the throne and I could see the desire in her eyes. She wanted to keep me.
And there was nothing I could do to change her mind.
“You can’t hold onto her forever,” Alana said after hours had gone by. “You know you can’t.
She’s not one of your Lost Souls.”
“I can if she offers herself to me.” She roared, but she was weakening. “And you know the souls that offer themselves to me are the best kind.” She pounded her fist, an unstable queen throwing a tantrum like a child over a piece of candy. And I was the candy. “She can offer herself up! She can offer herself up!”
“Helena,” Alana said tired, but patient. “You can’t have her and you know it. So let her go and hear what she has to say.”
There was a pause, then a rumble. The walls shook and the liquid swelled as she undid her mouth and spat me onto the floor.
I scrambled to my feet. “Really?” I wiped the silver spit, or whatever it was, off my arms, shoulders, and hair. “You couldn’t just let me go?”
“You’re lucky I let you go.” She smeared her lips with the back of her hand. “Now what is it you wanted to offer me? My own ring back? Is that what you’re offering? Just that and then I let you go and free all your Lost Souls.”
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“They need to go back,” I told her, standing straight and confident, even though I was a nervous wreck on the inside. “You’re not supposed to have them and you know it.” She leaned forward in her thrown. “You don’t tell me what I m supposed to have. This is the Afterlife and I rule it however I want.”
Raising my hand, I gave her another glimpse of the ring that contained her own soul. “Not even for this? Are you sure?”
She licked her lips. “If I free them, then you’ll hand it over?”
“If you free them and give the life back to a faerie named Nicholas.”
“Give back a life.” She mimicked, the erupted in laughter. “I have no control over such things.”
“Yes, you do.” Alana stepped onto the podium. “Through your sister, Annabella.”
“I don’t have any connection with Annabella or her decisions,” she snapped. “And how dare you suggest otherwise.”
“Oh, I think you do.” Alana strolled to the throne, each step cautious like a soldier approaching an enemy. “I know you want your soul back. You’ve been stuck in that body ever since you lost it, melting away into a helpless being. And you can’t take it from Gemma’s hand, I know how it works. Whoever holds that ring owns your soul and can only give it back to you.” Helena snarled, but then simmered down. “If I were to talk to Annabella and free this faerie’s essence, I’d want to talk to Gemma alone before giving her the Lost Souls and letting her back into the mortal world.”
I flashed a panicked look at Alana, shaking my head.
“That is my final offer,” Helena said. “Take it or take my soul and leave.” 170
Crap.
Alana’s lips parted, but I intervened. “I’ll do it. I’ll talk to her.” Alana bowed her head. “I’ll go then.”
“But not too far,” Helena purred. “You owe me your time, collecting my souls, just like all humans who make the choice to cross over into the Banshee world. Immortality doesn’t come without a price. And you. You’ve been hiding from your debt for a very long time, ever since I agreed to bleed you with Banshee blood and preserve your state.” Alana lowered her head again. “I know what I owe.” Then she backed away, out into the hallway, leaving me alone with the liquid queen.
I couldn’t tell if her eyes were on me, but I sensed they were, heavy and withholding. “I know you,” she finally said.
“Everyone seems to,” I replied with a sigh.
“You’re important,” she said. “Filled with an essence I’ve never tasted before. Annabella would be excited to get a taste of you.”
“As much as I’m flattered,” I said. “I really don’t think I want to be tasted.” She let out a reverberating laugh that rumbled at the walls and floor. “You’re clever. But I wonder just how far that cleverness has taken you and how far it could take you?”
“I m not sure I m following you,” I admitted.
“You’re freeing these Lost Souls for the purpose that they aren’t supposed to be here.” Her hands curled around the armrests. “But tell me. Why not free your own soul?”
“I didn’t realize it needed to be freed.”
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“Everyone’s soul needs to be freed in some way or another. But yours is different. Yours needs to be freed from the pain that holds you captive.”
I touched my heart, unbeating and hollow. “My soul’s fine.”
“But it won’t be,” she said, “Not after you die. And you will very soon.”
“How do you know about that?” I twisted the ring on my finger.
“How do any of us know anything,” she said. “Because we choose to.” I wondered if the queen had been conversing with a Foreseer recently. “So you think I’m going to die soon?”
“All humans die,” she replied. “Your life just ends sooner, with sacrifice. But you won’t be alone. You’ll die with someone important to you. Someone you wish you could save.” Alex. “Perhaps.”
“But you can’t save yourself and others from death. At least not without a price.”
“What kind of price.” I dared a step toward the throne. “Are you saying there’s a way to save us?”
“Not us. Only one. Only one can survive. With a simple sacrifice. One for the other. But the question is who will live and who will die?”
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Chapter 36
(Alex)
It’d been too long. But there was nothing I could do about it. Laylen and Aislin were watching me like hawks, afraid I’d do something stupid and barge into Gemma’s room and wake her. I probably could have taken both of them down, although Aislin and her magic might have been a match for me.
“Quit fidgeting,” Aislin said sifting through her herbs. “You’re driving me crazy.” The TV was on and I flipped through the channels, which were all the same: madness, chaos, death. It was depressing. I clicked the TV off and picked up my knife to sharpen it across a piece of metal.
“You’re driving me crazy,” I retorted. “Just decide already if you have the stuff or not.”
“These aren’t marked.” She opened a baggy and picked through the green flakes. “It takes some time to sort through them.”
I dragged my knife down the sharpener. “Where’s Laylen? I thought he was going to check on things.”
“He barely went upstairs a few minutes ago.” She sealed the baggy shut. “You need to relax.” I pointed the tip of my knife at the stairway. “Relax? You know she’s dead up there, right? And her spirit’s wandering around in the Afterlife.”
She shook a baggie and then picked up another. “What is that?”
“You tell me,” I said. “I’m no herb expert.”
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She narrowed her eyes. “Not this.” She motioned over her shoulder. “That banging. It sounds like it s coming from the basement.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “This place doesn’t have a basement.” She sniffed the baggy. “Well, then it’s coming from under the house.” My ears perked, detecting a faint nose. “Yeah, what is that?” I stood, knife out as I headed for the kitchen. When I turned the corner, it was obvious the noise was coming from underneath the floor. I bounced on the tile, searching for a lose one, wondering if there could be a trapdoor. The center stone, right in front of the table, caught slightly. I squatted down, digging at the grout with my knife. It shifted and sure enough, there was a trapdoor.
I contemplated what to do. Who knows what could be down there? Anything really. And how it got there was puzzling. I tapped my knife on the tile and the banging stopped. Frozen in the silence, I heard a voice.
“Hello.”
I backed away. “Aislin, could you come in here?”
The tile grinded as it was forced from the rest of the floor. After a second past, a hand appeared out of the dark hole. “Hello.”
I almost dropped my knife at the familiar voice.
The person heaved themselves out of the hole. “Alex,” the auburn-haired woman said. “What’s going on?”
I moved at the terrified woman and dipped my knife, resting it at her throat. “Who are you?” 174
She blinked wildly, scared to death. “It’s me Sophia, Gemma’s grandmother.” I shook my head. “Sophia’s dead. You, what are you? A Banshee? A witch?”
“No, no, no.” She raised her hands in surrender. “I swear I’m Sophia.” She searched helplessly around the kitchen, looking for something that would prove who she was.
“Better hurry,” I said, pushing her to her breaking point.
Tears slipped from her eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
I felt kind of sorry for her and considered moving my knife back, to let her breathe, when a pan went soaring through the air and smacked the woman straight in the forehead. Her eyes crossed and she collapsed to the floor.
I turned, finding a wide-eyed Aislin, breathing heavily. “What was that? A zombie or something?”
“Zombies don’t exist. You know that.” I bent down, examining the stranger. A cut on her head trailed blood down her cheek. “No, she’s alive. But did you really have to throw a pan at her?”
“I panicked.” She came up behind me. “So if she’s not a zombie, then what is she?” I picked up her wrist, checking her arms for marks and then tilted her head, checking the back of her neck. Beneath the collar or her shirt, I spotted the tip of the Keepers mark.
“I think it might be Sophia,” I stated.
“It can’t be,” Aislin breathed. “I did a Tracker Spell. It said she was nonexistent. And Marco too.”
“Well, then something went wrong?”
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“How? I never mess up.”
I let out a snort and she smacked me in the back of the head.
“Even if it is her,” she said. “Why was she down there?”
I shrugged, heading for the hole, wanting to see if anyone else was down there. “When she wakes up, we’re going to find out.”
The trapdoor was empty and it reeked too, like someone had been down there for a long time, stirring in their own filth. I climbed back up and filled a cup with water. Aislin had left and I bent down over Sophia.
“Wake up.” I sprinkled some water on the woman’s face and she stirred but didn’t wake. I patted her cheek, not very gently. I was really curious where this was going to go. Sophia had been missing for months, vanishing without a trace. And suddenly, she showed up a few days before the portal opened. Just a coincidence?
Another splash of water and her eyes opened. “Alex.” She croaked, touching her head. “What happened?”
“You jumped out of a hole in the ground,” I said simply. “And then Aislin threw a pan at your head because she thought you were a zombie.”
She winced as she touched the cut. “A zombie?”
“Yeah, apparently you’re supposed to be dead, but clearly you’re not.” She eyeballed my knife resting next to my foot and I picked it up. “Choose what you do really carefully. I won’t hesitate to kill you, if it comes down to it.” She shook her head. The once perfectionist woman had bags under her eyes, dirt on her clothes, and knots in her hair. “You’re just like your father.” 176
My jaw tightened. “That’s the kind of thing that s going to get you killed.”
“Sorry, but I’m so confused. The last thing I can remember is Gemma vanishing.” Her eyebrows knitted together. “And then Aislin and that vampire showing up.”
“What,” I stammered. “Aislin and Laylen were here?” I cast a cautious glance over my shoulder, making sure we were alone. “When?”
“I don’t know.” She massaged her temples. “My brain is so foggy. I remember Gemma disappearing, Stephan yelling at me for letting it happen and then he went on this rampage, murdering Keepers. Marco and I were going to run, but then Aislin and that vampire showed up and sealed me in that trapdoor with some sort of magic spell. They said they needed my gift Unus quisnam aufero animus so I could detach Gemma’s soul again when he finally caught her. He came for me once, but I guess she escaped and he threw me back under the house. And he…” She began to sob. “He killed Marco.”
“Why didn’t you just climb out?” I asked.
“It’s a one-way door that can only be opened from the outside.” She blubbered.
“And you didn’t think about banging on it earlier.”
She rolled up her sleeves, showing me a triangle mark on her arm. “This kept me quiet… and I think I have to… I…” As if a sudden energy surged through her body, she lunged for me. With one move of my fist, I knocked her back out again.
“Aislin,” I called out, gripping my knife. “I need to talk to you.” She bounced into the kitchen, Laylen at her heels. “How’s it going? Did you find out who she was…” She caught sight of the unconscious Sophia. “Oh, not good huh?”
“I think you two have some explaining to do.” I aimed my knife at them and they exchanged puzzled glances.
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“What’s wrong?” Aislin asked.
“She says you two are the reason she was stuck down there,” I said. “Can you tell me why she thinks that?”
Aislin scratched her head. “She’s lying. She has to be.”
“What happened that time you two disappeared?” I asked. “When we were in Colorado. Where were you guys?”
“We told you. We were running from the Death Walkers in Nevada.” Laylen leaned against the doorway, crossing his arms, looking perplexed. “That’s where we were… weren’t we?” Aislin’s expression twisted. “I don’t know.”
“You seemed pretty confident when you showed up to save us,” I told them, remembering that day at the cabin in Colorado, when they arrived abruptly, almost out of nowhere.
“Well, you seemed pretty confident when you told us the Death Walkers just picked up your dad and left,” Laylen countered. “Seems just as suspicious.”
“Why are we even arguing about this?” Aislin complained. “It’s in the past.”
“It’s important because we might have a traitor in our midst.” I could almost hear my father laughing.
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Chapter 37
(Gemma)
She blobbed down the hall, a silver body of fluid, leading me to her sister, Annabella. This place was different, haunting like a whisper of wind. White wisps of ribbon danced around and coiled up the leafless trees that lined the garden we walked in.
“She’s going to want something,” Helena said. “An essence perhaps, if you have one.”
“What exactly is an essence?” I asked, blowing a ribbon from my face.
“A spirit,” she answered, smoothing the wrinkles from her body.
“So what’s the difference between a soul and a spirit?”
“A spirit is the ghostly form of a person,” she replied. “They are still themselves, possess their soul, can walk and talk on their own. It’s what happens to humans when they die. And Lost Souls are the ones disconnected from their bodies, the ones that are lost due to a death before their time.”
I thought of Nicholas and how he walked the world. “So why torture the Lost Souls?”
“Why does anyone torture anything?” She smiled with her thick lips of silver. “For power.”
“But you lost your own soul,” I said. “You’d think you d be more sympathetic.”
“Sympathy is weakness. Something you should keep in mind before you make your decision.” She swirled down the path, a shimmer of light in the white sunlight. “You’re a powerful girl, I can sense that. But your humanity makes you weak.”
“I think you’re wrong.” I stood tall with confidence. “It’s my humanity that makes me strong.” 179
Her lips twitched. “You’re a stupid little girl.”
“Perhaps,” I said. “But maybe not.”
We neared the end of our journey. A woman stood beneath a large willow tree, her hair as white as cotton, her lips as red as a cherry, and her eyes sparkling with silver. She watched us approach, her gaze never faltering, her long black dress trailing in the grass.
“Annabella,” Helena’s voice nipped.
Annabella lowered her head. “Helena, I’d sensed you’d crossed.”
“Of course you did.” Helena stretched her body, trying to rise taller than her sister. “You always do.”
Annabelle’s eyes were kind. “And you’ve brought someone who wants something from me.” I stepped below the branches of the willow tree. “I’ve come to ask you for a favor.”
“You want me to free an essence.” It’s wasn’t a question.
I nodded. “If you would.”
“But why?” She ducked under a branch and stepped in front of me. “Why ask for the freedom of someone you dislike.”
“I don’t dislike him.”
“But you don’t like him,” she said. “Yet you’re still here in death, asking me to let him live again.”
I sighed deeply. “Nicholas… he isn’t that bad. And he’s helped me out.” It was the partial truth.
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“Is that the only reason?” She wanted more.
I let out a breath. “I feel responsible for his death.”
“But he’s not a Lost Soul,” she said. “No one is responsible for his death.” The branches pirouetted, tickling against my cheeks. “Perhaps he should have ended up one.”
“Why do you feel responsible for things that are out of your hands?” she asked.
“He died because I exist,” I admitted in the secrecy of the branches canopy. “Many people have.”
“It’s not your fault you exist,” she said. “Everyone has a path in life, even the Lost Souls.
They’re there because they have to be. They’re there because they’re lost.”
“This is confusing.” I sighed, swatting a branch away.
“Death always is.” Her silver eyes held my gaze powerfully “You’re better than you think you are, Gemma. Your soul is pure, despite what you think.” Then she held out her hand, her skin shimmering like glitter. It swirled down, forming an orb in her hand. “Nicholas’s essence.” I was hesitant to touch it. “You’re just giving it to me?” She smiled. “Not everything is complicated. Sometimes the answers are right in our hands.” I traced the scar of the Blood Promise, thinking of Alex. “Nothing’s ever easy.”
“Sometimes it is.” She urged the orb at me. “But it’s the easy answers that humans question, which only makes it complicated.”
“I think I understand,” I said, and gently picked up the orb of essence, which was warm in my hand like sunshine.
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“Remember,” she said. “Not everything is as hard as you think. Sometimes the answers are right in front of us.”
I nodded, turning away from Annabella, her words the wisest ever spoken to me. I followed Helena back through the garden, leaving the warmth of the trees behind and we shifted back to the darkness of the world of Lost Souls.
“My sister makes things too easy,” she wallowed, pooling her body back onto her throne. “She just hands it over, without any bargains. She’s always been the stupid one.”
“It’s hard to believe she’s your sister.” I cupped the orb carefully in my hands. “You two are nothing alike.”
“That’s because she believes in good, which makes her weak.”
“And what do you believe in?” I asked.
She smiled vainly. “Myself.”
I couldn’t help but think of the story of Malefiscus and his brother Hektor. One selfish, the other good. And in the story, good triumphed for the time being. But I wondered how the story would have gone if Hektor had to sacrifice his life to trap Malefiscus in the portal. Would bad have triumphed instead? Or would he have thrown down his life, to save everyone he ever cared about.
“The question you asked me earlier, I have your answer.” I approached the throne, not steady with great sureness, but terrified and emotional. Because that’s who I was. I wasn’t a fearless soldier with a hero complex to save the world.
I was just a girl, doing what I had to do to make things right.
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