“NO!”
Jesca stumbles backward and falls to her knees. She looks down at the blade, then back at me, before she releases a pain-filled sob. I search for Sam, but he has fled.
I drop to my knees before her. “No, no, no.”
Flashes of Ezra’s experiment in the cabin, stabbing Jesca and having me heal her, rushes through my mind. “No, Jes.”
He was preparing me for this. I hastily pull Jesca into my lap. “Jesca, listen to me. I’m going to heal you. I need you to put your arms around me.”
Her breath is shallow and her body is shaking as she tries to grip my shoulders with her trembling hands. Silently crying, she whispers, “Xander, I’m sorry.”
“Stop it, Jes! You are going to be fine, you hear me?”
Jesca lays her head just below my chin. Her words are almost inaudible. “Xander, pull out the blade.”
I close my eyes and grind my teeth before I reach down and wrap my hands around the shaft of the blade. As soon as I pull it, I know I need to work fast. God, please let me work fast enough. In one swift motion I pull the blade, causing her to throw her head back, gasp, and spasm limply in my arms. I can’t hold back my own tears any longer. I can’t lose her. I pull her head back to rest on my chest, cradle her to me, and close my eyes. I let every ounce of sadness turn to anger, then to energy to heal Jesca. Holding her tightly, I let the force within me flow through every beat of my heart, pumping directly into her. I whisper through my clenched teeth. “I will not let you go.” I hear her breath quicken and she tightens her grip around my neck.
Thank you God, she is healing.
Jesca’s eyes find mine. “Xander?” Suddenly, the life behind those olive green eyes begins to fade, her grip on me begins to weaken, and her body becomes languid in my arms. I take hold of her face and hold it steady, keeping her fading gaze on me. “Jesca! No! Don’t go!”
This can’t be happening. No, no, no!
Her eyes still as her last breath slowly slips through her parted lips. I can’t look at her like this, but I need to comfort her. In her final moments, she needs to feel safe and comforted. I can do that. I gather her up in my arms and rock back and forth as the rush of tears and soft cries come from within me.
*
* *
My tears have stopped falling and her limp body is growing cold in my arms no matter how tightly I hold her to me. The numbness that people say comes when you have spent all of your sorrow has settled in. I shift Jesca’s body off of me carefully and lay her on the ground. I run my hands over her open eyes, shutting them to this world. Placing her small hands on top of her stomach, I sit back on my heels. I don’t pray; no point, my hope is gone. The only thing alive in me now is revenge. I turn away from the purest part of my life and begin my hunt for the darkest.
Jesca
The ringing in my ears and the pulsating headache rouse me from unconsciousness. I am lying face down breathing in the earth and leaves under me. Instinctively, I blink my eyes open and pull my head up from the ground.
Ahh crap!
The pounding is so intense I pinch my eyes shut and lower my head back down. When the pounding begins to numb, I open my eyes, but do not move my head at all; just my eyes. I look up as far as I can. I can’t see the sun, but it is still light out; everything has an auburn cast to it, like it is early evening.
Xander? Sebastian?
My vision crawls along the leaves in all the directions, but all I see is an extended area of leaves, wild shrubs, and a mulched path; a trailhead.
Trailhead!
That’s my trailhead back home in Georgia! I think back to what Nate had said during the traverse.
“When you arrive, go home.”
I raise my head slowly, testing the waters to see if the blinding pain would return. When it doesn’t, I crawl up onto my knees and stand up. I turn in a circle looking for Xander and Sebastian. I don’t see them and my instinct is to call out for them. I remember what Daniel said about Nate and Ezra. Once they ascended the veil, these beings, demons, knew they were here. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if I call out to them if they already know we are here, right?
“Ezra?”
“Nate?”
Nothing.
I look at the trailhead; the only opening in the woods surrounding me. I look at the ground and think back to the last time I was here; before my life changed forever. I was running through on the trail, breathing hard from panic, the dark aura on me, then I see the light, I speed ahead, I’m in the open, I see the lake, then Ezra.
I hear a soft voice whisper on the breeze that emerges from the trail, “Jesca.”
It sounds like my mother. “Anna?”
Maybe she is trying to reach me to tell me something.
What if something happened to Nate or Ezra? What if she has found Xander and Sebastian too? What if I’m the one that is lost?
“Anna?”
I’m inching closer to the trailhead, when I feel a sensation I had not felt in weeks coming at me from behind; the vibration, the hum, the warning of something dangerous. Lightning getting ready to strike. Without thinking, I run into the woods on the trail. My body feels like it has a mind of its own as it soars with every stride
, dodging the over-grown brush from left to right. The humming vibration is still coming strong. I turn my head to see if anything is following, but there is nothing there. My next step lands me in water, the depth trips me up, and I fall to my knees. I stay there for a moment, get my bearings and listen; the humming vibration is gone. I wait and listen, it may come back. A glow catches my eye in the water; a reflection. I look to my right, following the reflection and the flow of the water. Crap, I am kneeling on all fours in the middle of a stream, but not just any stream. The very stream I dreamt about before traversing. I stand up slowly and walk to the water’s edge. In my dream, I drudged through the stream. Without considering the consequences, I follow my instinct and walk along the bank downstream. I look ahead at the enigmatic amber glow piercing through the tangled tree branches interweaving above the stream.
I move quicker, determined to see if the end of this stream bears the same resemblance as my dream; the lake, the river, the mounds in the distance. It takes me no time at all to get to the opening of the overgrown tree branches and where the stream empties into a river. I try and get my bearings.
I am not on the ridge that overlooks the lake like I was in my dream. In my dream, I was looking at the river from the overlook by the lake.
I hear Anna’s voice ag
ain over the sound of the river, “Jesca, don’t.”
Don’t what? I look across the river and fix my eyes on a vast ridge housing the distinct silhouette of three mounds. In the quickly dimming sky, above the
highest of the mounds rests three bright stars; a constellation.
I hear a rustling in the woods behind me and it is coming fast. I turn and get my footing, ready to fight to protect myself. Anna breaks through the tree line, stumbles toward me eyes looking frantic. She grabs
hold of my arms and talks quickly, “I tried to get to you before you could show him.”
What was she saying?
“Show who?”
Anna tries to catch her breath as she says, “Michael.”
I look behind her searching for Nate and Ezra. They should be with her. “Why aren’t Ezra and Nate with you?”
She looks at me strangely. “With me? I haven’t found them. I have tried to make contact with them
, but I couldn’t connect. Michael knows I am here. ”
I start talking frantically. “Nate said that you were with them! You were taking them home! To my home in Marietta!”
She realizes what has happened the moment I do. Anna shakes her head quickly. “He is pretending to be me.”
I break her hold on me, put my hands to my head, and start to pace along the riverbank. “I have to try and reach Nate and Ezra.”
I close my eyes and try to focus on Nate first, but my mind feels like it has a million thoughts running through it all at once. “Damn it, I can’t think straight!”
Anna walks over to me, her voice clipped and stern. “The same thing happened to me. It’s this place. It is trying to consume us.”
I turn to look at her. “Wait, how were you able to reach me?”
Anna
says, “Because you are unconscious.”
What the hell is she saying?
“No I’m not! I’m standing here, drudging through this creek in THIS Marietta looking for Xander and Sebastian!”
Anna shakes her head and grabs my shoulders firmly again. “No Jesca. That is exactly what Michael wanted you to think. He wanted into your subconscious. He wanted to see the premonition and where it will lead you! I couldn’t get to you fast enough to stop you from showing him where your legacy is taking you. What it is leading you to.”
That bastard! He got into my head! If he got into mine, then I’m sure he is attacking Sebastian and Xander’s.
Anna continues, “Now that he knows what you know...”
“Crap! He has Nate and Ezra. He hasn’t killed them because he is using them as a trap for me.”
Anna
replied, “Yes, and he has separated you from Xander and Sebastian who are still unconscious.” She starts to walk away from me and I catch her arm in my grip. “Wait, where are you going?”
Anna wiggles her arm out of my grip. “I’m going to find Ezra and Nate!”
She runs from the riverbank and into the woods and I chase after her. I catch up and grab hold of her arm again. “Anna, I’m coming with you!”
She turns on me and pushes me up against a nearby tree trunk. “No! Wake up
, Jes!”
Her eyes burn with fire and sadness as she looks at me, pinned against this tree. What is she doing? Her breathing changes, becoming and panting and cry all in one, as she pounds me against the tree again, and again. “I’m sorry
, Jesca, but you need to get to Xander and Sebastian and find us! Wake up!”
I grip her arms harder now. I can’t let her go alone. “No, I need to help you!”
I hear a loud crack as the back of my head makes contact with the tree once more. Then, a shooting pain runs from my skull to the bottom of my spine. Shards of light flash before my eyes and the hands that held me to the tree disappear and I fall to the ground hard. I try to call out to her, but it comes out as a croaking whisper, “Anna.”
*
* *
The rise and fall of my head on something solid is what brings me to.
Am I really waking up this time or am I still unconscious?
I lift my head and immediately feel the familiar sharp pain from my earlier dream and I worry that Anna’s manhandling might not have done the trick. I look down at what my head was resting on. In the paling sunlight falling below the earth, I see an abdomen, chest, broad shoulders; Xander unconscious beneath me. Okay, this is good sign that I am really awake. I try and sit up to look for Sebastian, but Xander’s arms are locked around me keeping me from moving too much. Just then, I remember the tight hold he had on me when we traversed. Sebastian had a tight hold on Xander so he shouldn’t be too far either. I’m able to look around Xander’s body among the dried leaves, but I still don’t see him. I needed to get up.
I wiggle my body in Xander’s arms either to loosen
his hold or wake him up, whichever comes first. He doesn’t wake, but I am able to loosen his hold enough to move closer to his face. I put my hand on his shoulder and I’m about to whisper to him to wake up when I notice tears running down along his temples and his inhale and exhale speed like he is running. I grip his shoulder and call to him, “Xander, wake up.”
He doesn’t respond. I’m about to shake him a little harder when I hear a rustling in the leaves behind me. I look back, not knowing what to expect, and see Sebastian leaning his shoulder against
a nearby tree trunk; he looks tired, drained.
“You okay?”
He wiped his dampened eyes with the sleeve of his shirt and just shakes his head as he comes to kneel beside me. He starts to pull Xander’s hands from around me. “Your voice woke me.”
I sit up on my knees next to Sebastian, hover over Xander and shake the hell out of him. “Wake up!”
Xander groans, still not opening his eyes.
I grip his face between my hands. “Xander, open your eyes!”
When those bright green, blue eyes flutter open and meet mine, they double in size. He takes hold of my arms and rises up to sit. “Oh my God, Jes, I thought you had died.”
I search his frantic eyes, wondering what illusion plagued him, tested his resolve, and made him think I was dead. Xander’s arms encircle me, pulling me flush against his chest. His entire body trembles as I wrap my arms around his neck and hold him.
“They are just illusions, Xander. I’m here.”
Xander loosens his hold on me, cups my face in his palms, and urgently feathers slow, tender kisses on my lips. Those kisses...I can’t deny that my desire for them takes over. I surrender and let my mouth glide against his feverishly.
The sound of Sebastian clearing his throat reminds me that we are not alone and I feel heat rising on my face as I slowly pull back from Xander. Xander brushes his thumb against my cheek, his eyes studying me less frantically now. I pinch my eyes closed, trying to calm my racing heart and breath before speaking. “He used the illusions to pull us away from Nate and Ezra.”