Secret Worlds (428 page)

Just then, my grandfather raised his right arm. At the same time, a spinning silver disk rose from the balcony with a quiet hum. It was no bigger than my fist and had razor sharp edges. When it reached the center of the room, my grandfather lowered his arm, and the disk dropped to the middle of the long table. Painted on its top was the Segur family crest.

He spoke: “The first one to get the crest to their opponents shield wins. There are no rules. Begin.”

“Wait!” I cried when the room was plunged into darkness. I’d hoped for at least a countdown or something!

I heard the metal disk scrape the table as it lifted into the air.
Act quickly!
I “opened” my eyes, the darkness only an illusion created by the twins. The disk was flying directly toward the shield above me. I whispered, “Subsisto”, and the disk stopped, floating a couple of feet away. I took hold of it, and, with as much strength as I could muster, flipped it back toward them. Their eyes followed the disk’s movement until they managed to stop its progression. We both mentally pushed on it from opposite directions, suspending it in midair.

To distract them, I created an illusion of my own. It took just a thought to make the ceiling seem like it was moving. The sound was deafening as it creaked and groaned. Pieces of it appeared to fall to the floor.

Harriet flinched briefly, giving me the upper hand. The disk flew in their direction, but she quickly recovered and rejoined Helen’s steady gaze upon the disk, stopping it just above their heads.

A loud pop made me jump. The ceiling lights exploded one by one; glass fell like a sudden burst of rain. Razor sharp shards of glass stung my skin.

This was not an illusion.

Unable to see the disk any longer, I faltered. I heard it whizzing toward me. I quickly created a barrier, like the one in the forest, to stop the disks flight, but when it hit my invisible wall, the twins immediately began to burrow past it.

I concentrated hard upon sustaining the barrier, while also trying to figure out what to do next. The memory of the pocket watch in the cave came to mind. It took a lot of mental effort, but I managed to light up several of the china plates throughout the room. The light was just enough for me to see the hovering disk not far from me.

For several minutes, no one moved. We each mentally pushed upon the disk, trying to gain ground over each other. I focused on my breathing, the disk, and the twins. My feet tingled. The feeling spread throughout my body, the magic expanding, growing until I thought my skin might literally stretch. In that moment, I felt more powerful than I ever had before.

Just then, a ceramic dish from one of the curios exploded. It, along with other dishes, flew from their shelves and toward me, an army of broken china. I easily dodged the jagged pieces, my focus still on the disk, but somehow a shard escaped my notice and hit me in the side of the head, cutting deep into my scalp. My grip on the disk slipped, and the small sphere spun again as it whirled toward my shield.

Despite the searing pain in my head, I sprung from my seat, leaping to an unnatural height, and took hold of the disk. It sliced open the skin on my palm, but I didn’t hesitate. Instead, I tossed it right back at the twins using both mental and physical strength. They easily stopped its motion within a few feet of them, surprising me. I fell to the ground amidst broken china and glass, hurting myself even more.

Anne laughed from the balcony. I clenched my jaw tight and puffed air through my flaring nostrils. Magic once again swelled in response to my growing anger; just in time, too. I used a portion of it to knock the wine glass from Anne’s hand. She jumped and cursed when it shattered on the floor.

I battled the twins well into the night to the point of exhaustion. Even they sat hunched over, breathing deeply, but neither they, nor I, gave up. We had each tried everything we could think of to distract each other until finally we reached a standstill.

There were only a few illuminated plates left on the shelves, lighting what no longer looked like a room but more of a war zone. Broken glass and china littered the floor, and the long table had been smashed into unrecognizable pieces. Even the chairs had been destroyed except for one, but it had been firmly embedded into the wall hours ago.

Both twins were pale, and Harriet had a bloody nose. I sat on the floor with my back against the wall, trying to keep my eyes focused on the disk, afraid that if I looked away even for a split second, I’d lose my mental grip. I kept expecting our grandfather to say something like, “Let’s take a short break” or “We will continue this tomorrow,” but he remained silent, as did my aunt. For all I knew, my grandfather was asleep, and Anne passed out from too much wine.

A cool breeze brushed over my legs, startling me. The cold pressure in the air, which had darkened significantly, crowded the space around me. I sucked in too quickly and nearly froze my lungs.

“Finish this,” a deep voice whispered.

My heart pumped faster.
Boaz?

“Now!”

My shoulders slumped forward.
But I’m so tired. Help me.

“You are the great Eve Segur,” he hissed. “Push harder!”

But there are two of them!

“There are two of them,” he repeated, his voice thoughtful.

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t understand.”

“There are no rules.”

I thought hard, trying to grasp what he wanted.

“End this!” he shouted inside my mind, making me jump.

And then his words made sense.

I
could
end this. Right now.

Before I could think twice, I used the last of my mental strength to take hold of the wooden curio cabinet behind the twins. There were nails driven into its back, holding it fast to the wall. At first, they groaned and resisted my pull, but their rebellion couldn’t last. I jerked it one last time. The curio moaned and creaked as it fell forward. It suddenly looked much bigger and heavier than I originally thought. When it collapsed on top of the girls, dust and debris billowed into the air. A single scream was all that escaped.

I stared at it, the image before me like an abstract painting. The disk dropped to the floor nearby, making me jump.

“Eve…” Boaz’s voice said, his voice stern.

My gaze lowered to the silver disk. Without opposition, I lifted it with minimal concentration and directed it across the room and into the shield where it fit perfectly.

From the balcony, a slow clap began, and the room lit up, the lights magically fixed. My grandfather stood there, his hands slapping together. Anne was next to him, but she wasn’t celebrating. She was staring at the overturned curio, her mouth open and her face pale. Wine from a tipped-over bottle poured from the balcony.

I slowly followed Anne’s gaze to the toppled-over hutch; a dark pool of blood stretched out beneath it. A sharp breath caught in my chest, and my knees weakened.

What have I done?

I stumbled forward, pushing my way through the broken debris and shattered glass, while my grandfather spoke.

“You have won, Eve. All that I have will be transferred to your parents’ account, and in time the fortune will become yours. Like generations past, you will use this money to further our political power in both our world and the humans.”

I reached the curio cabinet and tried to lift it but was too weak. “Help me!”

My grandfather and Anne had somehow moved off of the balcony and stood not far from me. Anne’s color had returned, her expression unreadable.

“It is done. You are free to go,” my grandfather said. He turned around and walked toward the door. Anne followed him.

“Anne!” I cried. “These are your daughters. Help me!”

“I’ll send a maid,” she called over her shoulder as she stepped outside into the night. The door closed behind her.

I yelled in frustration and tried again to lift the heavy shelving, even trying to use magic, but either I had nothing left or my emotions were somehow blocking it. I glanced all around the room. “Boaz!”

The door opened, and he strolled in with open arms and a huge smile. “You did it! I knew you would.”

“Get over here and help me. Now!” I again tried to lift, grunting and groaning.

Boaz came next to me, but stepped back to avoid the red puddle I was standing in.

I took hold of his arm and jerked him forward. “Lift this.
Please.
The twins are beneath it.”

His expression twisted into horror. “You did this?”

I blinked. A few times. Words struggled to come out of my mouth. “You told me to.”

“I would never tell you to kill someone.” Boaz bent down and easily tossed the curio aside.

I turned the first twin over. I think it was Helen. Half of her head was caked in blood, but I couldn’t tell if it was hers or not. She moaned and her eyes fluttered open, exposing a glossy blue surface.

“Helen?”

She stared through me.

“Helen?” I asked a little louder. “Are you all right?”

I waited a few seconds then patted her cheek. No response. At least she was breathing.

“Help Harriet,” I said to Boaz. I reached under Helen and pulled her body away from the broken glass and to the corner where I propped her against the wall. “Helen? Can you hear me?”

“She’s dead,” Boaz said.

My heart skipped a beat, and I straightened. “What did you say?”

“This one’s dead,” he repeated. “You must’ve killed her.”

My mouth dropped open, and I shook my head. I forced my gaze down at Harriet’s body. Her arm was twisted awkwardly behind her back, and her knee was bent the wrong way. But it was the broken shard of a china plate protruding from her eye that I would remember the most.

“Can you help her?” I asked Boaz. “Turn her or something?”

“It’s too late.”

I stumbled backwards into the wall and slid to the floor. “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I only wanted to—”

“Win?” Boaz finished for me. He walked back to me, and knelt down, taking my head in his hands gently. “You did what was necessary.”

“But I didn’t have to do that.”

“Look at me. She is gone and there is nothing you can do to fix it. Let’s go home and get you taken care of.
You
are all that matters.” Boaz helped me to my feet.

I leaned into him, my breaths coming in short gasps. “We should do something. An ambulance. The police.”

“No,” Boaz said. “Your grandfather will take care of it. This is no longer our concern.” Boaz guided me toward the front door, his hand warm against the small of my back.

I dug my feet into the floor, but I was too weak to stop my momentum. “This feels wrong, Boaz. We can’t just leave!”

“It isn’t right or wrong. It just is.”

Before Boaz helped me out the door, I glanced back at Helen who still sat motionless in the corner. I mouthed the words “I’m sorry” but Helen didn’t see. She was somewhere else, somewhere dark and lonely.

As we walked toward the house, two servants scurried past us. I could only imagine their reaction when they saw the carnage, but then again, maybe they were used to seeing death while living with the Segurs. In my mind, I saw Harriet again, lying face down in a pool of blood. I stopped moving. “I should go back. I should help Helen.”

“There is nothing you can do for her. Without Harriet, she is dead, too.”

I leaned into Boaz. “What have I done?”

“Only what you were meant to do.” He pulled me forward until we reached his car that was parked a short distance down the lane.

I didn’t speak the entire ride back to Boaz’s, nor did I speak for several days after. I couldn’t even sleep or eat. Over and over, I replayed the events in my mind. Every move, every word. Boaz hadn’t told me to kill the twins. I had done it all on my own. This nightmare played out every hour of every day until I refused to come out of my room.

I was a murderer.

Boaz sat next to my bed daily, saying nothing, but on the seventh day, when the moon’s light filled the window, he finally spoke: “What you did was horrible. You destroyed the body of one and the mind of another. There is nothing more evil than taking a life. But for someone like you, that is to be expected. You are more powerful. This gives you the ability to do whatever you want. Remember the bear? People like us do not have to live by the same rules as others. You must learn to think differently. What you did is considered murder in the human world, but among ours, you simply did what was necessary. In fact, you will be admired for it.”

I blinked, moonlight disappearing and then reappearing. “Why was it so important to you?”

“Excuse me?”

“You promised to tell me why I should fight the twins.”

Boaz leaned back into his chair and squared his shoulders. “Because I wanted to see if you could. Only the strongest will be at my side.”

Afraid his answer would be that simple, I closed my eyes, tucked my hands beneath my chin, and curled up even further into the quilted bed.

Boaz leaned over and found my mouth. He kissed it gently. “You need to get over this.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“Let me help you. Take my power. It will make you stronger.”

“Is that possible?”

“Between us? Yes. Take it from me, and let it overcome your guilt.” His lips brushed over mine again. “Concentrate.”

My gaze met his. A power, dark and alluring, swirled in his pupils until his eyes were entirely black. My heart leapt in anticipation. It was right there: a cure for my pain. Boaz’s energy, his dark presence, was always stronger than mine. Deep down, I always knew that, but it wasn’t until now that I was willing to admit it. And now I wanted it for myself.

I gripped his arms tight, willing his darkness from him, but I didn’t just take it—I ripped it from his entire being. His chest tightened as if he’d been squeezed, and he gasped for air. This was the first time I’d ever seen him in pain, but I didn’t stop. His dark energy raced through my body, flooding me with new life. I took as much as I could, having to suck in air to catch my breath. My eyelids closed, and my body swayed as if were on a boat, moving with the waves of the sea. Gently. Lightly. Floating across the waters of a forgiving sea, not as a deserted castaway, but as a God. Nothing could touch me now.