Or at least that was the idea. I was told things were sometimes different once we got there. I supposed the fact I wouldn’t remember otherwise would help with whatever small changes happened.
Jett kissed both my hands. “I pledge myself to you.”
“Jett…”
He shook his head. “In this world. In any world. Forever. I’m sure I’m going to screw up a lot. But I’m always here for you. And, yes, I’m going to hate the years apart, too.”
I was yanked back into my body, and the world tilted. I would have fallen over if Jett hadn’t been holding me. He was there in my mind, right where he belonged. His lips met my cheek and after a second he whispered to me.
“I’ve always been there, Krystal. Even when they took it from us, even when we weren’t where we were supposed to be. We were there together, me with you, always.”
I closed my eyes, leaning my head against his shoulder. “Nothing went the way it was supposed to.”
“Not a thing,” he agreed for. “Except this. You found us.”
Even after I was dead…
He winced at my thought. I was going to have to figure out how to keep them out of my head if I was going to get gloomy. I opened my lids.
“No, don’t.” There he was in my mind, intently listening as only Jett could.
He smiled. “I don’t listen to other people as closely because I don’t care. You’re different. I’ve been in love with you since they showed me your light. I could see how it melded with all of us, how it was made for us. I…” He laughed. “I don’t have to tell you because you can feel it.”
I could.
“Krystal,” Paden’s voice called to me, and I turned around, taking his hand as he gently tugged me from Jett. “My turn.”
I stared up at him. “I don’t know how these things work, Paden. It’s not like I’m choosing.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t think you were. But trust me, I know how these things work now.”
He did? Well, then he was way ahead of me. “How?”
“You’re not choosing. But we are. And we will. Time and again. Always.”
I walked into his mind as he opened it for me, like I’d simply known how to do so. Paden always made things make sense. He took care of all of us. I expected to see the other space, the existence we shared with Divinity, but instead, I was back here in the throes of the mess that was this existence.
He walked toward Katrina. His mind was… wrong. This must have been a memory from the time they were cursed. His head was clouded and a dull aching thud pounded on his temples. He had that pain all of the time.
I winced. How had he lived like this?
“Paden.” Katrina knocked her knuckles on the desk where she sat. “Did you not hear me calling? Don’t make me increase the pressure.”
He knew what that meant. The ache would be worse. “What is it you need?”
Titus was in bad shape. Every day whatever this was went on weighed further and further on their leader’s shoulders. He was going to collapse from trying to resist soon. And whatever discomfort Paden had in his head, it had to be worse on Titus. Paden could resist pissing her off. Titus seemed bound and determined to never stop, despite the constant compulsion to do what she wanted.
Paden spoke quickly. “What is it that you need, Sister Katrina?”
The woman insisted on protocol all the time and I hadn’t bowed. I did so immediately. “My apologies.” Kiss my ass. “What do you need, Sister Katrina?”
She smiled as though she’d won some kind of battle. But she’d never know that she hadn’t really achieved victory. No, she could make their bodies do what she wanted, but she’d never take their souls.
Somewhere deep inside of him, in the place where he defied her, where he resisted, where he knew the others did, too, someone else owned their souls. He didn’t know who, but he could feel it. There was someone. Even if the others looked at him like he had two heads if he said that, he’d hold to his word. She was somewhere.
He just had to find her.
“I want you to run an errand for me.”
Whose life did they have to screw up now? “Sure.”
He’d hold on. As long as he had to.
I entered my own consciousness slowly. It wasn’t jolting, and I was only guessing, but it might be because they were all five finally with me. My brain might be one big pool of mushy happiness. I smiled. I’d never felt this good.
“Thank you for holding on, Paden.”
He kissed my forehead. “Thanks for existing so I wasn’t, you know, nuts.”
“I…”
Paden swayed, and I held onto him, my turn to be the support. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m suddenly just exhausted.” He rubbed his eyes, and behind me, both Ryland and Jett made similar exhausted sounds. I turned around. This hadn’t hit Titus and Zeke this strongly or as fast.
“Guys?” What was happening?
“It’s all right.” Titus approached us, and I’d never been so glad to see him. “They’re being pulled in fast. I woke up knowing that.” Titus put his hand on Ryland’s arm. “You guys can make it to the bedroom. You’ll see Zeke on the way. He’s up. Go, now. All will be well until you wake. I know that, too.”
Paden nodded. “But something is coming.”
Titus scrunched up his face. “I think so. I’m not… I’m not sure. But they want you whole and that’s going to take the regenerative sleep. Go. Now.”
Jett leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “Be good. No saving the world while I’m knocked out.”
“I’ll do my best.”
He rolled his eyes at me, but there was nothing but amusement in his gaze. “Try really hard.”
Ryland tugged me against him for a hug. “Love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Paden grinned at all of us. “Things finally are as they were always supposed to be.”
He was right, and that was why as I watched the three of them practically run from me toward the main house, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the very last time I was going to ever lay eyes on them. I got to live and love on borrowed time. The question was how much more of it I had. Not to mention, what was coming that was going to demand I live up to the extra time I’d been handed.
Titus kissed my hand, reminding me he was there as Zeke approached fast. “Hey,” Zeke called out to me. “You’re here. Good.”
He took my other hand and tears threatened to spill. “I don’t know what I did that all five of you are so devoted. I’m not… special. I’m really pretty normal for a Sister if you take away the dead part.”
Zeke smirked at me. “Yeah, well, you’re right. We’ll just leave. Come on, Titus.”
Titus grinned at both of us. “Sure, we’ll just get on that. Never.”
I groaned. “Okay, no more thinking I don’t deserve whatever. I’ll just try to accept that this is life or life after death or whatever. And be grateful for it. What should we do?”
The demon bell started ringing. I looked up. There must be one nearby. But my powers weren’t on. I bit down on my lip. I’d hoped after the last few encounters with demons and the zombies that I’d be helpful, but clearly I wasn’t.
Anne ran by, her five guards next to her. She skidded to a stop. “Medium sized. Daniella and I will keep it under control. No powers?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “No, sorry.”
She shook her head. “We all have things we can do. I saw you manage those undead walkers. Don’t worry about it. Listen, the kids are inside, they hate these things, and the older they get the worse it gets. I keep waiting for it to be blasé. And sometimes they pretend. But still. Could you watch them? For me? I mean you don’t have to do anything with them but be there and…”
“Say no more. If I can help I’m glad to.”
“Great. Thanks.”
The lights went off ten minutes later. Maybe Beelzebub was mad. Did he just affect the hot water or could the light
s play a role, too? I’d put all the young children in a circle. Daniella’s daughters were older. They were training to be Sisters and since their powers actually turned on, they’d gone outside to help.
I sat in the circle with the dozen children who lived here surrounding me. We didn’t need light to be okay. As long as the house stayed upright and the sun…
The light from outside suddenly vanished. Zeke walked to the window. “Did she say mid-level demon?”
“Even the mid-level ones can make it night when it’s day.” Titus was behind me, between the rest of us and the door. He stared at his feet, and I wondered what he was really thinking about. He wasn’t unhappy. From this point on I’d always be able to know their feelings.
He was… pensive, but there was some pent up frustration in there.
I looked over my shoulder. “Titus if you want to go fight you can. I think we’ll be okay in here.”
He shook his head. “I’m good.”
He wasn’t, but I wouldn’t have left him either, so I wasn’t going to argue too much. The door swung open and he and Zeke whirled around. Thaddeus stood there, staring at Titus. “Could use some assistance battling back the zombie mass. Bob doesn’t seem to be taking an interest this time.”
“Go,” I told him. “Watch the door to this place. Fight close if you want to. But we’ll be fine in here.”
He raised his gaze and nodded at Zeke before he followed Thaddeus from the room. Zeke took his place where he’d stood. Funny, I’d thought Zeke would go with him.
“So,” I spoke to the kids. “Here’s the thing. I heard this story when I was a little girl. It was about a fox and a snake. Do you know it?”
Anne’s older son got on his knees. I suspected he was about three. He raised his hand. I didn’t know much about children, but this one seemed very still and controlled for being so little.
“Yes? Do you know it?”
He shook his head. “The time is now, Sister Krystal. The giants are rising. It is time. You must act now.”
“What?” My powers flew to life, my hands burning from the surge. Zeke gasped, and when I stared at him, his white eyes glowed like they were flashlights in the night. The door flung open again and this time Paden, Jett and Ryland stood there, their eyes similar to Zeke.
I jumped to my feet. “What is happening?”
The little boy pointed at the door. “Awake that which is. It’s the only way.”
My world shifted right.
Chapter 15
I walked outside, nearly colliding with Titus whose eyes were the same as the others. Thaddeus stood behind him, a sheen of sweat on his forehead. “This is magic, Sister Krystal. We never know what to do when we encounter magic. And you Sisters always know. Is he okay?”
His trust in me might have been mislaid. Maybe Teagan always knew. I was winging this. “I don’t even know what happened to me, really. I have a vague understanding about something to do with Bob and other powerful beings. I don’t know if they’re okay. I had to leave the kids. Anne’s son was channeling something. You should go in with them.”
He nodded, running past me inside. These guys had all been through the ringer with this demon war. They had children of their own. Lives I was sure they wanted to live. My hands burned. My powers were on.
Time…
It was. I knew it. Whatever that meant. I whirled around to regard Jett. He’d asked me not to do this until he was back. He was up and walking, but I didn’t know if he was really back. I couldn’t tell.
“Can you guys hear me?” The wind picked up, hitting my hair. Someone in the distance screamed. I steeled my spine. This was a mid-level demon. It would be all kinds of dramatic irony that these Sisters, who could take out the most powerful demons and live with Bob under the house, would be taken out by something not named in books as anything other than mid-level. They couldn’t hear me. Or they would have answered.
Time…
Yes, it was.
I guessed I’d finally find out exactly what I could do and maybe get clarity. Or maybe I wouldn’t. Perhaps there were no final answers. I would, at least, get sent wherever Sisters went when they were done.
I’d know where that was, too.
Goosebumps broke out all over my arms. The ground called to me, the same way it had that day Jett had stopped me. Nothing would stop me this time. Even if someone objected.
“Krystal?” I turned to Teagan. She practically glowed with power in the night sky. Or afternoon sky. It just looked like nighttime because we were losing. “You are going to do something, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “It’s my turn.”
“Daniella told me the first time I was here that light came from the darkness. You have to go through the dark times to be placed in the light. In my case… that was a lot of stuff, and I don’t know if it’ll apply to you or not. But you are the light, Krystal. We can all see your good heart. Thank you for whatever you’re going to do.”
“Well,” there wasn’t much to say, “we all had a role to play. See you later. If there’s later.”
Her smile surprised me. “Unlike so many others, we never have to doubt that, right? We know there’s a later. Whatever it is. You survived death, Krystal. That’s a heck of a thing.”
I reached down. The soil called to me. Everything had died, and like me, it had to be brought back to life. Others could not stop the evil around us if evil was allowed to feed from the very ground we walked on. Someone had to heal the world.
That someone was me.
My powers surged into the dirt around my feet, electrifying it, and for one second I jolted from the shock, but then the buzzing cooled down, and it was almost pleasant for me. And right in that second, as I woke the world up and said to it, hey we need you to fight back, too, I died.
Again.
Only this time, I knew it.
But then again the last time it happened, I’d known it, too. I’d just blissfully forgotten.
It turned out there were moments of clarity that came with death.
Both times.
The last time…
I lay in the dark, knowing the Darkness would be coming soon. He beat me often. I was tired. Weak. They’d forgotten to feed me that day, and I felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. Why did I need so much food? I rubbed at my head. Maybe it had to do with survival. Maybe I was using more energy than I realized staying alive.
I walked to the window on shaky feet. How much time had I been in this room? Did it matter anymore? Maybe I should just let the dang Darkness take me. I shook my head. No, I didn’t mean that. I’d never willingly give in.
I was just tired. So. Darn. Tired.
The shadow of Darkness appeared, picking me up as he always did and shoving me against the wall. “I can feel how it weighs on you. How life is an endless amount of pain for you. Give in to me.”
I could almost make out his facial expressions. Every day I learned more about my tormenter. He had a sharp chin. I struggled against him. He wouldn’t take my body or my soul. For hours we rolled around in the room. I’d long since ceased screaming. No one would come.
Not even the people I was waiting for, that I dreamed about sometimes. I was totally alone.
Finally, as the sun rose in the distance, the Darkness threw me aside. I hit the wall.
It was funny. I’d taken a lot of pounding from him but that day—maybe because I was tired or maybe because my number was just up—when I hit the wall that was it. There was a crack, and I had a second to realize it was me.
Then I was gone.
But I wasn’t, not really.
A presence moved through the room, a dark power that touched my mind as it sought to return to where I’d been made. I paused to stare. There was a demon near me. Why? It didn’t matter I supposed.
An alluring, soft, gentle white light beckoned me, and I moved toward it as though it was the most natural thing in the world. And then it vanished. What was happening? Had I been rejected? I was…
In a room. A dark room, but I could see. Maybe light didn’t matter once you were dead.
I wasn’t here and yet I was… My body was still on the floor in my room. How did I know that? It didn’t matter. I just did.
What is she? A voice. Seemed to be coming from an… elf? Was it an elf? I couldn’t tell. It was there and then it wasn’t. There were trees in the room. Huh? In the room? What was happening? And then I saw an elephant. I’d only seen them in pictures. Was this a weird… after life thing? I’d never really known what happened to the Sisters after they came back.
She’s a Sister. We know that.
Lots of whispering. I couldn’t keep track of who was in the room. A man sitting, palm facing upward, right hand in his lap. He looked human, but also otherworldly. A taller, bearded man, holding a lightning bolt.
She can’t just be a Sister. Beelzebub doesn’t visit normal Sisters on their deathbeds.
I was a normal Sister. What else would I be? I couldn’t tell who spoke, and I wasn’t sure it mattered.
An old man with a long white beard. A woman, staff in her hand. A cat. A dog. A goat-like-thing. I couldn’t keep track and then suddenly they were one ball of energy and all of it was directed at me.
Krystal, their voices spoke together, do you want another chance? If we grant you the ability to walk for a little while longer, when the time comes, will you save everything?
I had to figure out how to answer them. And then I realized all I had to do was think my response and they’d hear me. Who are all of you?
There are many who exist, who rule, who love this place who do not wish to see it fall to this falsehood. We can give you this gift. For a little while. The chance to perform a miracle.
I still wasn’t sure what they were asking me to do. How would I do that?
You’d bring the world back to life. He cannot take it when it surges with power.
In my current state, I could see everything I had been and could be. It rushed through me like a tidal wave pushing into my consciousness. My desire to be a Sister. The way they had picked me to be just that. The five souls I had never found during my time here. That loved me even if they didn’t remember it. What had happened to them? I might never know. But I could still make them proud—I could still do that for myself.