The Breaker's Resolution: (YA Paranormal Romance) (Fixed Points Book 4) (6 page)

Realizing that my body was now free, I sat upward. Everyone was gone. Casper, Royce, Dahlia, even Jiqui had vanished like smoke in the distance, like the mist that had sent me here. I was all alone, the black desert stretching out for what looked like eons around me.

I stood, my legs stronger than I’d expected.

“Hello?” I asked in a small voice, not expecting anyone to answer me.

What had happened? Where was I? And how did I get back?

A low growl sounded in the distance. Turning, I saw a pair of dark yellow eyes glowing at me. They sat stalwart for a moment and then darted toward me, moving the way a dog might. As the neared me, and I glimpsed the casing they were housed in, I realized it wasn’t a dg at all. It was a wolf.

Would have ran, but I found my body no longer able to obey my commands.

The monster neared, whited fur and bared fangs. It lunged at me, flying through the air, aimed at my throat.

Before it could wrap its teeth around me though, a sharp glint of light sliced through it, cutting it clean in half.

It was a sword, and looking over, I saw who it belonged to. He was taller than I remembered, and certainly more fierce. He wore a skin of fur over his chest and his eyes shone more fiercly than I had ever seen them before.

Sevie’s sweat gleamed under the light of the bloodmoon as his chest heaved up and down before me.

“Hello Cresta. Are you dead as well?”

Sevie’s chocolate eyes bore into me, foreign and tinted in the red light of the hanging bloodmoon. He was harder now, strong and muscular. But the boy I knew was still there. The kindness and empathy that washed over every piece of him still existed in his bright face and arched eyebrows as he extended his hand to me and asked me if I was dead.

“Dead?” I murmured, realizing I had no idea how to answer that.

“It’s a troublesome realization,” he answered as I took his hand. He was stronger than he had been back in the Hourglass and, as he helped me step over the broken body of the wolf he had just cut in half, I caught a glimpse of the sword in his hand.  It glistened in the red light, stained with blood and sweat. “I wonder, are you older now? Did things go your way? Did you die an old woman in your bed with my brother at your side? Is that why it took you so long to get here?”

The questions took me aback.

“I do hope that was the case,” he added, his eyes flickering to the dark ground below.

“Sevie, is this real? I mean, are you…you know, you?” Looking around this place, I saw that it was even more barren than the desert I had just escaped from. Wind raged around me, ice cold and terrifying. Still, Sevie was pouring sweat. Why was that? How could he be so hot while I was practically freezing to death?

“Yes Cresta. The last time I checked I was, in fact, myself.” His brows knitted together worriedly. “Of course, that was quite some time ago.”

I shivered so hard that I began to jerk, my teeth chattering together. “S-Sevie, you’re not making any sense. It’s only been a few weeks, a month at the most.”

While I wasn’t one hundred percent sure exactly how much time had passed since I escaped the Hourglass, I knew it wasn’t near the expanse of time Sevie was talking about. To think I had grown into an old woman with Owen by my side; that would take-

“Years, Cresta. It has been years.” He looked out into the distance. “Decades have passed since the last time we spoke, since the last time I spoke to anyone. That is how I know this is death, because times passes but nothing changes. I am as I was, and you are-” He cleared his throat. “You are as beautiful as you ever were.”

He shook his head hard. “I am sorry. I know that things are not as they were. I have had time to see things as they truly are now, as they always were.” He swallowed hard. “And I am afraid that I owe you an apology.”

“Sevie…” I murmured. Though none of what he was saying made any sense- decades had passed and
this
was death- the idea that he owed me an apology was unquestionably the most absurd.

I had never met a person as caring and kind as the boy who stood before me. Even Owen, who I loved more than life itself- paled in comparison to Sevie when it came to things like beauty and purity of heart.

To state it plainly, Sevie had no equals. And the things I had done to him, even if they were in the name of love, still haunted me a little. He was my perfect, after all. Even if I didn’t believe in that sort of thing, even if it was the stupidest idea that ever graced my ears, Sevie believed it. He had built a life around the idea of me, of his perfect. And I crushed that.

So why on earth would he owe me an apology?

“Please just hear me out,” he interrupted. “When we were together, back in the real world, I thought I could be the person I was meant to be. I thought I could be a Breaker and a brother. I thought I could be your perfect, that I could stand beside you, raise your children, and make a home that was worthy to house someone such as yourself.” Tears began to pool in his chocolate eyes. “But none of that was true. I could never be those things Cresta. That boy died at birth. Do you understand? Sebastian Lightfoot died a long time ago. I couldn’t be a brother because I was born in solitude. I couldn’t be a Breaker because that is not what I am. And I couldn’t belong to you because I have always been hers.”

His voice cracked and the boy that was to be my perfect swept fresh tears off his cheeks.

I put my hand against his shoulder. It was hard and tense, but I squeezed it just enough to let him know I was here…wherever here was.

“Sevie, sweetie you’re not making any sense.”

“I know you don’t understand,” he shook his head and looked to the ground. “I didn’t at first either. All the images came back to me at once. It was a tidal wave of mistakes and regrets. I didn’t know what to do. I had no idea what was real and what were the lies she always told me.” His balled his fist up. His shoulder grew even tighter. “She always lied to me, even in the beginning. How can you build something on lies? How can you expect a house to stand like that?”

And that was when it hit me. This person, whether it be Sevie or a figment of my fevered and drugged imagination, was completely insane. He was looking at the ground, muttering like some lunatic on the side of the road. “It can’t,” he said over and over again. “It just won’t stand.”

“What won’t stand? And where are we?” I asked, timid at the idea of hearing the answer.

“I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he said, shaking his head. Tears poured heavy down his cheeks and, wolf hide and muscles aside, he was Sevie again. He was the innocent boy who was too good for the world. He was the soft thing that I just wanted to wrap my arms around and keep safe. “I didn’t mean to. You know that, don’t you Cresta? If I’d have known it was going to be you, I would have never asked for it.”

“For what Sevie? You’re scaring me.” The moon began to shift and the sky darkened. What was once a full and beautiful red moon now sliced itself down to the thinnest of crescents.

“Fate is against us!” Sevie gasped. “I was so afraid!” He shook his head hard. “And so lonely. It had been so long since I spoke, since anyone spoke to me. I hadn’t heard my name in so long that I was afraid I might forget it. And I just wanted someone, anyone. So I begged. And I used my gift. Fate forgive me, I used it to pull you here. But I didn’t know, Cresta. I swear on the world that I didn’t know it would be you.”

Rearing back, I slapped him hard in the face. My hand shook against his hard and weathered cheek. “Snap out of it!” I grabbed his shoulders, much broader than I remembered. “It hasn’t been years Sevie. It hasn’t even been a month. Now I’m not sure what happened to you and I don’t know where you think you are, but-“

“Hell, Cresta Karr. I am in Hell. And I pulled you in with me.”

A hiss, loud and violent, broke through the dark air. Before I could react, Sevie scooped me off my feet. He darted away, carrying me in his arms the way one might do with a baby.

“It’s worse than the wolves,” he huffed. “The serpent is always the worst.”

“Sevie, put me down~” I screamed as he ran through the frigid night air. “You’re not making any sense.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, refusing to either stop or put me down. “It’ll catch us if I don’t keep up. It always does.” Looking over his shoulder, what I saw literally took my breath away. Something large and dark slithered across the black ground. It had glowing yellow eyes and a forked tongue that flickered in and out of its long and terrible mouth.

“My God,” I murmured, tensing up. And it wasn’t shade either. This wasn’t the blue and red energy dragons from back in Weathersby. This was true flesh and blood.

But it couldn’t be. This couldn’t be real. It had to be an effect of whatever Jiqui had coerced me into ingesting. Sevie wasn’t here. The serpent wasn’t here. There was no here. I was likely lying on that desert floor convulsing or bleeding or foaming at the mouth. These were the last flickers of life draining out of me and my brain-because it was
so
awesome- decided to construct an elaborate hell for me to slide into.

Talk about going out with a bang.

But even that didn’t make any sense/ If this was a construct of my mind, then why wasn’t it more tailored to me. I mean sure, Sevie was a sweet guy and I had grown to genuinely care about him as a friend. But to be the last face I ever saw in this life? That didn’t make any sense. It should have been Casper or Owen or my Mom. Royce in a stretch, but not Sevie.

And this place? The desert never had any meaning for me. Other than the fact that I had just woken up in one, I had probably never thought about the stupid place twice. The bloodmoon hanging over my head my sense, but what about the wolves and snakes? I wasn’t afraid of those things, not really.

I was afraid of spiders and heights and, since a few years ago, driving on bridges at night. No, this wasn’t my hell, and it wasn’t my mind’s best attempt at one either. This was something else. And someone else was responsible for it. But who?

Sevie made a hard left just as the serpent was about to slither up on us. It followed our trail, keeping pace at our heels.

“It’s going to catch us,” I gasped, noticing the horns at its head and the rim of red around its yellow eyes.

“Not us,” Sevie said, winded. “Me. It’s going to catch me.” Nodding his head forward, he motioned to a small opening in the side of a pitch black mountain. A soft yellow light glowed from inside

“I didn’t know what it was,” he said, moving toward it with one last burst of speed. “It was always here, but I could never enter it. No matter how far I ran, it never got any closer. But look at it now.” Sure enough, the opening was getting bigger and bigger as we advanced toward it. “It was for you. It was always for you.”

“Sevie,” what are you going to do?” I asked, hating the sound of that sacrificial lilt in his voice. “Sevie, you’re coming with me.”

He shook his head wordlessly.

“Yes you are!” I screamed. “I’m not leaving you out here with this thing.”

“It would follow me in,” he said as we neared the cave. “It will follow me always.”

“Then we’ll fight it together,” I said, roping my arms around his neck tightly enough so that he knew I wasn’t letting go.

“I wish it worked that way.” He slid to a stop and, with more force than I thought he’d be capable of, threw me onto the ground toward the opening. “Run!”

He spun around instantly, brandishing his sword at the same instant that the serpent struck at him. The stupid thing’s fangs hit metal and Sevie darted to the side, blade still in hand.

“Tell Owen I’m sorry,” he said, swinging at the beast again. “Tell him his brother will find him soon enough.” He swung again, but the serpent reared back. “And tell the other one that it’s okay. Tell him I wish I had known him and that I understand now why it had to be this way.” He swung again, slicing the serpent along its mammoth body. It jerked back and hissed, but I could tell the blow was far from fatal. “Will you do that for me, Cresta? Will you tell them?”

“She’ll tell them,” a familiar voice said from beside me. Turning, I saw Wendy standing next to me, her pale skin glowing in the soft yellow light. She took my hand gently and stared at me with those soft pupil-less eyes. “She’ll tell them that and so much more.”

I stared at Wendy for longer than I should have. The sight of her, all stoic and enigmatic, filled me with anger. For all I had been through, the seemingly never ending crap parade that was my life, the last thing I needed was Wendy’s particular brand of ‘hard to understand’.

“You again?!” I asked, watching the way her eyes flickered against the soft light. “I didn’t see you this much when you were alive!”

I instantly regretted the tone with which I said that. Aggravating or not, the girl
was
dead. She had died to save my best friend in the world and, by extension, me. And that earned her more than the rough side of my butt.

To her credit though, she didn’t seem effected by it. Maybe once you’ve taken five to ten bullets to the gut, the rantings of a teenage drama queen didn’t quite move you the same way.

“I am where I am needed, Cresta Karr. As are you. As is he.” She motioned to Sevie. He was still swinging at the serpent, who looked even bigger somehow. A hard breeze ripped through the air, and I shivered.

“We have to help him,” I said, but something stopped me from moving toward him.

“There is no help for him, Cresta Karr. This battle has always been his, and only he can attend to it in the manner required.” Wendy blinked hard. “Your path is yours, and his is his. The battle he faces is not of your hand. It is barely of your world. And the fact that your paths crossed at all is nothing short of an abomination born from desperation and hubris.”

“But he’ll freeze.” I heard the words escape my lips, so I knew they were mine. For the life of me though, I wasn’t sure why I said them. Nothing Wendy had told me made any sense, which was pretty common where Wendy was concerned. And, given the fact that Sevie was fighting a giant snake in a dark bloodmoon dreamscape the weather should have been the least of my concerns. Wendy didn’t seem taken aback though.

“He was born to endure this kind of weather.” She turned to me. “This is not our concern. The troubles of the Constants having no bearing for us. The fact that he pulled you here is irrelevant to what is to come…for either of you.”

“What is a Constant?” I asked, suddenly much warmer than I had been before.

“That is not for you to know. Though it’s quite a shame that only one of them can remember.”

I took my eyes off of him for one second. It was just a second. But the instant I did, Sevie’s scream ripped into my eardrums.  

He was on the ground, bleeding from his left arm with his sword just out of reach. The serpent slithered closer to him, fangs bared.

“He’s going to kill him,” I muttered. Without thinking, I darted toward Sevie. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Even after everything I had been through, a giant snake was out of my comfort zone. But there had to be shade here, right? I mean, Sevie had to be producing it. I’d grab hold of the energy and rip this damn monster in half.

My fight or not, this stupid thing was about to learn what the bloodmoon was really capable of.

I slid toward him, throwing myself between Sevie and the creature.

“Cresta?” He said in a small voice behind me. “You promised you would tell him. You promised you’d tell Owen what I said.”

“You’ll tell him yourself,” I said, extending my arms and reaching out for a bit of shade to shape.

But I found nothing. I found none. But how could that be? Sevie was a Breaker. He produced shade. It
had
to be there.

And then his words flooded my ears again.

I couldn’t be a Breaker because that is not what I am.

“Sevie, I…”

The serpent slithered closer to me, its fangs glistening red under the light of the bloodmoon, under the light of
my
bloodmoon.

“Cresta, where are you?” he asked from behind me.

The serpent stared me in the eyes. It blinked and, for an instant, its eyes were deep and blue. They were a person’s eyes.

“You,” it said, directly into my head. “You don’t belong here.”

“Cresta, where did you go?!” Sevie screamed.

I wanted to turn to him, to let him know that I was right here in front of him. But I couldn’t move. I was transfixed by this horrible thing, by this beautiful thing.

“You are not us,” the snake said. “Your days have numbers.”

“Cresta, where are you?!” Sevie yelled again. And before I could pull myself from the stalwart gaze of the serpent, I was gone.

I stood in a small bare room with three walls and an abyss that was only darkness. Wendy stood in front of me wearing a plain blue sun dress and looking much tanner than I had ever seen her before.

“Where am I?” I asked, jerking as I realized that, whether I wanted to or not, I had just left Sevie all alone with that thing.

“You are where you are and I am where I am. The difference is stark now, but it won’t be for much longer. “

“Sevie’s gonna die out there,” I said, choking back either tears or terror.

“Is he not dead already? Is that not what he told you?” Wendy asked, running a hand along the cement wall. Everywhere her fingers touched red painted ‘W’s like the ones that adorned the halls of Weathersby sprang up.

“He’s wrong,” I answered. “Isn’t he?”

“Yes and no,” Wendy said, trailing her fingers and causing a dozen blood colored letters to suddenly dot the wall.

“Why can’t you ever just answer the damn question Wendy?!”

“Because you’re not ready for the ‘damn’ answer, Cresta Karr.” She settled in front of me. “Besides, these are not your questions. I explained that to you already. The Constants will deal with the unseen. Your journey is one that will require all your attention.” She clasped her hands in front of her at her waist. “One cannot hope to bring about the end of the world halfheartedly.”

“I’m not doing that!” I said instinctively. “I’m not going to end the world.”

“Yes,” she shook her head. “You are. You will. You always were. The wheels are in motion now, Cresta Karr. The Bloodmoon has risen. The anchors are hanging by the smallest of threads. There is no turning back. Even your death wouldn’t stop it now. They will see that soon enough. I understand what hope is. I have experienced it through you and through your allies. But rest assured that this hope is misplaced. You
will
bring about the end of the world Cresta Karr. Of that there is no doubt.” She bit her lip. “Does that suffice to answer one of your ‘damn questions’?”

“You’re horrible,” I muttered. I couldn’t move, much less talk really. Wendy had just aid everything I had been dreading hearing for so long now. She just confirmed by worst fears, just put the last nail in my coffin, as it were.

“I am truth,” she answered. “And truth is often both horrible and beautiful. You think of the end as the end. Why would you do that?”

“Just shut up,” I whispered. “Just shut up for a second.” I sat on the floor, legs pulled under me.  I could barely breathe. It was as though all the air was being sucked out of the room, like my lungs had collapsed and I was just waiting to die. “What’s the point in this Wendy? If I do it, if nothing can stop it, then what’s the point?”

“Life is to be lived, Cresta Karr. Even in the end, do give this world anything less than all you have is to disrespect its beauty.” She sat next to me now, the dead girl with the blank eyes. “Flood waters rise and wash away everything in its path. They wipe the earth clean and kill everything they see fit. And though those things might be doomed, though there is no future for them, still they swim. They try without hope of succeeding. And that do that because to do anything else would be to invalidate all that had come before. It was never about stopping the end, Cresta. Or at least it should not have been. It has always been about you, and whether or not you will continue to swim.”

“I don’t wanna-”

“And yet you shall,” she said. “You look for Poppa, yes? The world has stolen him from you. But I tell you that he is where he needs to be. He is where he wants to be. And he lives still.”

A rush of relief tried (and mostly failed) to pierce my self-pitying exterior. Still, the idea that Echo was alive somewhere was as good as gold. It would keep my people moving. It would let them know that all wasn’t lost. Which was more of a luxury than I could give myself at the moment.

“I need to remember Wendy. That’s why I’m here.”

“It’s so strange,” Wendy mused. “You have come to this place to remember and Sebastian has come to forget.” She turned to me. “You will wake and it will return to you, all the pieces of your past that fate sees fit to bestow. But there is more; more hurt, more pain, more loss. And yes, there is love too. At this moment, love thinks of you. He wrings his hands and hopes for your safe return. And you will need him, Cresta Karr. You will need love if there is any chance of surviving what is to come.”

“Wendy, I need to know w-“

“I see all there is, Cresta Karr. If I was going to answer that question, I would have done it already,” she said, standing.

“Then what am I supposed to do?” I asked, standing to meet her.

“What all people do,” she said. “What they must.” Leaning forward, she added,” Take care of Momma. She needs you more than she’ll ever admit.”

And then she pushed me.

I woke looking up at a strange ceiling. A fan spun slowly overhead and there was an ugly water spot staining the equally ugly yellow paint. I stretch, my body aching and my head spinning.

Turning on my side, I saw that I was in a hotel room…a decidedly low rent hotel room. But that wasn’t all I saw. Lying next to me, bare chested and covered and covered at the waist, Royce smiled at me.

Was he-was he naked? Was Royce lying next to me naked?

Oh God. What had just happened?

“Hey there Sweetheart,” he grinned. “Hope you’re as satisfied as you look.”