Authors: Katlyn Duncan
I turned around, holding back the ache in my heart as I walked toward the facility. I didn’t dare look behind me for fear of running back to safety.
Jackson appeared at my side.
We passed the other Shadowed. “Capture as many as you can, but don’t injure the Percipio,” he said to them.
He dipped his head close to mine. “There were more Guard in the distance. She’ll be fine.”
Jackson and I returned to my room. My heart ached. I had been so close to freedom. I feared for what Abidan was going to do next to keep me under his thumb.
Hannah appeared in the room, her face screwed up tightly. She threw Jamie’s smashed cell phone onto the bed and charged toward me. I didn’t have a chance to defend myself before her hands were wrapped around my throat.
“Get off her!” Jackson grabbed Hannah and pushed her away from me.
Her eyes sparked with anger. “You did this.” She pointed her accusation at me.
“The last time I saw this phone,” Jackson said calmly, “it was in Ollie’s hand. Have you seen him lately?”
Hannah’s anger faltered. “Why would he plant a phone here for the Guard to find us?”
“Do you know Ollie? He and Lucius have been unhappy for years. They are traitors.” He avoided my eyes and continued. “We should get out of here. Move to the next location where the others are.”
Hannah’s lips pressed together, her eyes shooting daggers at me before turning to him. “We can’t.”
Jackson cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
Hannah’s eyes flicked to mine. “Not here.”
He crossed the room. “You tell me what is going on. Maggie deserves to hear it too. She risked her life to get the Percipio, the least you can do is tell us who we are fighting for.”
Her shoulders were nearly at her ears as she closed the door behind her. “This stays in this room or I swear I will kill you both without a second thought.”
“Okay,” Jackson agreed.
“There are no others,” she hissed.
His face fell.
For the first time, Hannah looked like a scared little girl living under her adoptive father’s thumb. “While you were off on your mission,” she said a bit scornfully, “Abidan and I went to the other sects to gather the rest of the Caeleste. They weren’t interested in going back.”
“Okay.” Jackson’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Since Noah, there haven’t been any other Rodas.” She glanced at me quickly then continued. “How else do you think we’ve grown in numbers?”
He shook his head.
“We’ve taken the numbers.”
“What do you mean you’ve taken the numbers?” I asked.
“Exactly what I said,” she snapped. “The way he feels about Prognatum or any other thing that doesn’t agree with him. He takes them. Or in this case he made me take them.”
“You were able to take a Caeleste?” I asked, my voice catching in my throat.
“More than just one Caeleste. All of them. The remaining Originals. Abidan used the Shadowed and me to try and convince them of our goal but they weren’t having it.” She finally acknowledged me without disdain. “Prognatum souls are potent enough.”
I nodded, my stomach churning. I almost didn’t want to hear.
“But imagine David times a thousand.”
“I can’t believe this,” Jackson said, rubbing a hand over his face.
“So he’s not doing this for his followers?” I opened my hands, encompassing the whole room.
Hannah rolled her eyes. “Are you even listening? Of course he is doing this for them. When we get to the After he already has followers. The Caeleste don’t stand a chance. Not with you and me on his side.”
I wanted to tell her there was no way in the Living or After Realms I would ever take a Caeleste, Abidan or no Abidan. If she was right about the potency of their energy I knew I would lose all sense of myself even more completely than when I took David.
“What is the next step then?” I asked. “We don’t have the Percipio.”
Hannah furrowed her eyebrows. “I never said we didn’t have her.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“And this time you are going to make her talk.”
“We will deal with finding the traitor later,” Hannah said, escorting us out of my room. I glanced wistfully at the crushed cell phone on the bed. “We didn’t choose this location on a whim,” she said. “We found some data in one of the other bases that the Gate was only a few hours south of here.” Hannah opened the door to Abidan’s quarters. “And with the influx of Guard numbers it has to be nearby. We just need the Percipio to confirm it, then there is nothing else to wait for.”
“Except one thing,” Abidan said, rounding the corner.
Hannah clutched her chest. “Abidan, you scared me.” She shot us a glare as if warning us not to spill the beans.
“I merely wanted to tell you that we are almost ready to go.” His golden gaze fell on me. “We need Maggie to get us through the Gate.”
“How?” Hannah asked. I noted a hint of envy in her voice.
“If the other Caeleste see that we have a Rodas on our side then they will have to open the Gate or risk losing more souls from their precious After.”
My legs were numb as his plan was revealed. Even though I knew I wasn’t transforming, he was prepared to use me as bait.
“Where is Jamie?” I asked.
Abidan chuckled to himself as if he shared a private joke. “She is in good company.”
I imagined the Shadowed holding her hostage. But the smile behind his eyes made me think there was something I’d missed. Jamie had been with Thomas and the other Guard. If they caught up to her then that would have made it easy to capture any of them as well.
I had to know. And the only way to do that would be to accept Abidan’s offer, or at least pretend to.
“What do I need to do?” I asked. All eyes were on me.
Abidan smirked. “Follow me.”
***
We passed through the main cave room where the Shadowed had congregated. The group were huddled and facing the rock walls. I narrowed my eyes and my stomach plummeted. Wisps of black essence billowed around those who had their hands against the wall. Some leaned their heads back as they fed. Some pushed others away to get a turn at touching the surface. I held back the urge to run the other way out of that madhouse but I had something more important to do. I took Jackson’s hand and he squeezed mine, not letting go.
We followed the same path to the cage room. Hannah opened the door and I prepared myself for what I was about to see.
The cages that had been empty previously had at least one Guard in each. Ally’s blonde hair stuck out like a sore thumb in the bleakness of the room.
I avoided their gazes, especially when Cooper stood from a small bench as we passed. Jackson pulled me along, not wanting my reaction to betray us.
We went into the room with the spotlight again, but this time it already had its victim shackled to the ground.
Jamie knelt in the middle of the room, her chin resting on her chest. She perked up when we entered, looking around at my captors and finally at me.
Abidan circled her. “Since the Percipio is unwilling to give up her information, we will have to take it from her.”
Jamie’s eyes widened.
Abidan caught Jamie’s eyes in his gaze. “I’m assuming you know how Margaret’s power works?”
Jamie nodded once.
“Good,” he said, his gaze darkening.
Hannah stepped forward and she reached for my hand, putting it on her arm. I wanted to take my hand back but I couldn’t reveal that I wasn’t on their side. Not yet.
Hannah put her hand on Jamie’s chest and Jamie whipped her head up, her chin trembling.
“Okay,” I said pointedly, attempting to warn Jamie while hoping that Hannah thought I was preparing her for my essence.
“I will tell you!” Jamie shouted, backing away from Hannah’s touch. “Just please don’t take my soul!” The shackle didn’t allow her to get that far away but it was enough. Jamie’s voice trembled as she detailed the location of the Gate.
“How do you know that?” Hannah barked.
Jamie glanced at the doorway and dipped her head. “I heard them talking about it before you brought me back here. That’s where they were headed to bring back the fallen Guard. It’s where they are based to protect it.”
The room was silent after her confession. The only sounds were the shuffling of feet from the other room as the Guard moved around in their cells.
Abidan nodded approvingly. He snapped his fingers and the Shadowed who had been assigned to that room grabbed Jamie by the shoulders. She squeaked.
“What are you doing?” I asked Abidan.
“We have everything we need from her. She is a liability and a distraction for you and my followers. Her purpose is served and we need to prepare for battle.”
Jamie’s teeth started to chatter under the Shadowed’s hands. Hannah lifted her hand to Jamie’s chest again and held it there. Jamie squirmed but he held her steady.
Abidan’s golden eyes narrowed. “Release your nature, Margaret. It’s the only way we will triumph.”
My breaths were ragged. I was trapped. I couldn’t take Jamie but if I showed my own betrayal of Abidan’s trust I feared he would do worse to Jamie and those out in the cages. I weighed the options but couldn’t make my choice. At least not fast enough for Abidan.
“That’s what I thought,” he said, his eyes murderous. He revealed his true nature and lifted his hand. The last thing I heard was Jackson’s voice calling for me as the darkness swallowed me whole.
Humans say that when you die, your entire life flashes before your eyes. My Soul Collector trainer informed me that this was the True Soul breaking all of its connections with the body. I was told that these connections to the human world stayed with the body, but I had been lied to by Felix and all those around me in the After. Jackson had corrected this theory in my training. In fact, it was the True Soul that downloaded all the information from the human into its “brain”. Effectively allowing a soul to remember its time as a human.
I should have been happier that my whole life wasn’t flashing before my eyes, because that meant I wasn’t dead.
Cooper’s bright gray eyes filled my vision. I looked down at my hands. They were Ally’s hands. I turned my head and scanned my environment. I was sitting on the back porch of the Greenes’ house. Cooper paced in front of me, recounting what had happened with him and Jackson all those years ago.
His voice was off, as if we were in a small empty room instead of outside. “The energy in the sword is our own life force; a part of the True Soul is embedded inside of it—”
He said it was tied to a place. The only place I could think of that the True Soul could be linked to was the After. More precisely, Gate Seven.
Why was my mind hovering on that memory? It had to be important but before I could reach out and touch it, it floated away. I closed my eyes, trying to blink but they didn’t open again. I tried to remember Cooper’s eyes but my mind blocked him completely.
My body swayed up and down as I started to wake up. I tried to find that memory again but when my eyes sprung open I knew I wasn’t dead. Not yet.
I sat up on something soft, the world rocking around me. My stomach roiled and I swallowed hard. I was in a cabin on some kind of boat. A small round window filtered light into the room. I shuffled off the bed and stood, my body still not adjusting to being awake.
What the hell was wrong with me? I rubbed a hand over my face and grabbed onto a chair for balance as I attempted to get to the window. Holding onto the edge of the glass I sucked in a breath through my teeth.
This time the nausea got the better of me and I fell to the ground dry heaving, a sharp pain rocketing through my head.
“Ah,” I cried through the tears that streaked down my face.
I reached up for the window again and grabbed a hold of the sill, pulling myself up. I was steadier this time, but as the waves crashed against the boat, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.
A beam of light sliced through the room and I turned, pressing my back against the wall. The last soul I ever wanted to see—well, one of them— stood there, her arms crossed against her chest and a wicked sneer twisting her lips.
“It’s about time,” Hannah snarked. “I thought I was going to have to carry you again.”
The thought of her touching me made my skin crawl. I licked my dry lips. “Where are we going?”
“To the Gate,” she said.
“Where is Jamie?” I asked. And Jackson and the rest of the Guard. But I wasn’t sure how much leverage I had anymore to ask for those favors. I knew they would be okay, but Jamie would lose her humanity if they killed her. That was something I wouldn’t allow until her body was ready.
Hannah rolled her eyes. “She’s alive. For now.” She spun on her heel and disappeared from sight. “Abidan is waiting for you.”
I went after her, bumping into the bed on the way out. I slowed my pace, using whatever solid object I could to balance myself. The hallway was long with several doors on each side of it.
Hannah disappeared around the corner, but instead of following her right away, I opened each of the doors, hoping to find Jamie. There was a bathroom and three other cabins but they were all empty. My stomach sank. After the stunt I pulled, I was sure Abidan would keep a tighter leash on his Percipio and I just hoped I could save her from Yera’s fate.
Jamie had sacrificed information to save me from killing her, and I was determined to repay the favor as soon as I could.
I turned the corner and tripped over the first step in a flight of stairs. My hands smacked against a metal step, and pain shot up my arm. I toppled to the side, grabbing the railing and pulled myself up, fighting against the radiating ache in my fingers. The last thing I needed to be now was the weak human I resembled.
Climbing the stairs I was met with a strong gust of wind and I held onto the railing looking both ways across the deck, my hair whipping across my face. I shoved it back and scanned the deck for Hannah. I didn’t see her but she couldn’t have gone that far. Water surrounded the boat, I didn’t know what time of night it was and there was no land in sight on any horizon.
I turned to the front of the boat, but before I could take one step someone emerged from behind me. A set of hands wrapped around my throat. Black spots appeared in my vision and I gasped as the person pushed me against the railing. I held onto the railing behind me, sprinkles of water spraying my hands.