The little girl was the last image I saw before I left the house. I told myself that if I could only find one, save one damned soul, it would be her mom. No child should be alone - ever.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, Madison ran up to my side; not to stop me, just to walk with me. We didn’t say anything. We were too focused on what was about to go down.
Behind the house, there were close to a thousand people moving to the music that was playing. A woman tried to hand us a velvet bag to wear around our necks, but we politely ignored her.
There were large sound amps at the back of the crowd. I climbed on the one that was to the left of the stage, and Madison stood on the one to the right. The stage was the back porch. Lights had been added to it, along with temporary stands. There were cameras aimed at the porch, and one in a lift that was attached to a truck. I assumed it was supposed to capture the audience during the show.
On stage, there were other musicians that I didn’t recognize: a younger man on the keyboards, two guitarists, and a violinist – no, make that two violinists. One was a man who was in the lights, like the rest of the people on stage, and the other was a girl. I couldn’t see her face because she was hidden in the shadows, but her long hair reminded me of that shadowed soul I’d seen at the beach house.
I tried to get Madison’s attention to see if she could see her any clearer from her angle, but she was too busy analyzing the crowd, where everyone else was, finding a reason to let her eyes meet Drake’s stare across the crowd over and over again.
Nana and Monroe were standing to the left of the stage, and Landen and Brady were just feet from them. Evan, Austin, Chrispin, and Olivia were sporadically placed in the crowd in front of the stage.
The older man who greeted us before came to the stage as the band that was playing finished their song and set their instruments down. He told the audience how proud he was of the work they’d done, made a few jokes about what they’d been through, and forecasted a welcoming release to the movie they had created.
“I have a special treat for all of you!” he said when his opening was complete. “It took a lot of phone calls and long flights, but I found the band that created the song we all love so much.”
The crowd went insane with cheers.
“Now, I was only able to get a few of them here, and I had to promise them two things before they came.”
He paused, allowing them to cheer.
“I promised them that my crew and all their plus-ones LOVED the wicked!”
The crowd roared in response.
“And I promised them that all of you would be the most energetic audience they have ever played for.” The crowed cheered over him as he glanced back at the dark doorway that Draven must have been behind. “Told you so,” the man said, getting a bigger response out of the audience. He turned back to everyone. “So do me a favor - make me an honest man and show this band how much we favor this song!”
He hooked the mic back in place as the stage went dark and the crowd roared. I recognized the silhouettes coming to the stage. Drake stood off to the side of the stage with his arms crossed. Willow mirrored him on the other side. Aden slid behind his drums as Draven adjusted the wires around his back. It didn’t matter how many times I watched Draven take the stage, my breath still caught in my throat. My heart still thundered. It was always hard to believe he was mine when I watched him mesmerize an audience.
My eyes moved across the stage, not really sure how these new instruments would sound or how well these musicians would play it live. That’s when I noticed that the second violinist was now missing. Before I could look for her, the guitar began and my heart started to race...this was it.
Chapter Nineteen
Now that I knew how to see energy around me, this experience was all new to me. As the people moved, as they screamed and rocked their heads with the sound, white energy shot up from the crowd. It was so bright, at first I thought it was the spotlights creating it.
The lights of the house were rigged to come on and off with the rest of the spotlights on the stage, which made the house itself become a stage. I’m sure if the crowd could see what I could see, their cheers would turn to horror: behind every window, there were ghostly images staring blankly out at all of us. They were not alone. I would guess the crowd before me had as many dead within it as it did living.
The sound of the violin caught my attention. It was so uniquely played that it fell into the song perfectly, as if it were always there. The keyboard was a nice addition, too, but it could not compare to that sound. At first I was sure there had to be two of them, but for the life of me I could not see that girl anywhere. I figured if that was the girl we saw before, Brady would have noticed. He was a lot closer to the stage than I was.
I felt my body tense as the bridge that Draven always left at approached. I locked my eyes on him, waiting, waiting for that moment that he would become still. Anticipation jolted me forward, and within that breath I was in The Realm.
The basic field was there: long blades of orange grass and a stormy sky. The music was so loud that it felt like I was still in reality. One glance over my shoulder told me why: the stage and the house had manifested here; only the living were left behind. Everyone in the crowd was still. They were not the same dead that I’d seen moments ago. These souls were lost, confused, and absently moving closer to the stage - like moths to a flame. I knew who I was watching play was not my Draven or Aden...there was no real energy around them; just the sound.
As the images those ghosts had shown me before started to spin through my thoughts, I hopped down off the amp. My first plan was just to look for the ones I was asked to bring back, but the mass was too dark. Finally, I just gripped the one closest to me and asked, Why are you here? in my mind.
I’d made a decision: if they didn’t look demonic, I was going to set them free. The only problem was I didn’t know how to do it. They would not look at me. They just kept staring at the stage.
“Charlie!” Madison yelled to get my attention. “The stage! Everyone is here, the circle is complete - that is their way out!”
I nodded to tell her I understood just as she jumped into the crowd of the damned.
I grabbed a hold of the two people by me that I knew were good and pulled them through the crowd, then pushed them on stage. The instant their feet hit it, they vanished - which didn’t make the others trust me. I felt the sting of fear in the energy around me. They wanted to run, to fade back into The Realm, but the music was holding them in place. I dragged a few more before it dawned on me that this was taking entirely too long, that it would take me a year to make an impact on The Realm this way.
I climbed back on the amp I was on before and crouched down. I let that sensation hum in my mind, focusing on the crowd of people. When I knew whether they were damned or innocent, I waved my hand and a force propelled them onto the stage. Before long, I saw others being moved the same way and assumed that Madison or even Landen were doing the same thing.
What was so frustrating was that I knew I had thrown no fewer than three thousand at that stage - and more were appearing. It was making me doubt that I was really moving them at all.
A moment later I was reassured that all of us were doing something: everything - including the stage - began to flicker like a hologram that was losing its feed.
A satisfied grin came to my face as I grabbed more, as I saw them faster, lifted them faster, and pushed them into reality. Thousands more flooded the stage, but it was a short-lived victory. Howling screams covered in darkness soared through the air just before they crashed to the ground with a stagnant force, leaving the men in black in their wake. The ghostly damned images scrambled away from the stage as if they had been caught doing something wrong by the devil himself, but I refused to let them run. I pushed as many as I could to the stage. As the men approached me I held out my hand, sending a force of energy at them that caused them to burn instantly.
I had no idea w
here I was getting my sharp reflexes from or how I knew who was safe to push to the stage and who wasn’t. All I knew was that I was in rhythm with the music, and I wasn’t going to back away from this fight.
All at once I caught a glimpse of the one person I hated more than anything: Bianca.
We locked eyes. She was at least fifty yards from me. I jumped down from the amp, then took off in a sprint – but since I was in The Realm it looked more like a flash as I moved forward. Every time I got close to her, she backed up. Before long, a wall of gleaming water could be seen behind the dense, dark sky. It wasn’t The Fall, but it was clear that she wanted me to think it was.
“Thought you were dead?!” I bellowed now that we were far enough away from the stage that she could hear me.
“I was. Well...am,” she said with a smirk, then glanced at the heavens. “And now, thanks to you, I will be more than alive.”
“What did you do?!” I raged.
“Nothing. A little play on words. I told you, Charlie: I’m your distraction.”
At that second, Cashton appeared in front of her – but not to help me or block her. He was trapped. She had a hold on him. She stepped to the side of him, clearly letting me see that her hand was going right through him.
I felt my insides clench, not with anxiety, but with pain. It was like I could feel that hold, too. It was like she was gripping my soul and preparing to yank it from my vessel.
Cashton’s eyes were calm. He expanded them, a silent notion for me to ‘see’ him. Instantly, I did - and was promptly pulled into his mind, into a forgotten past.
He was rushing around his room, gathering things to put into a small travel bag. He had just woken from a wicked dream and was determined to leave before he forgot each detail of it.
“I’m coming with you,” I argued.
“No.”
“Don’t ‘no’ me. You have no say.”
“Lore has the say. We can’t be together over there.”
“I don’t believe lore. I make my own.”
“Sure, sure - tell that to the mark on your soul. You know we can’t be together. Blooming bull’s-eye is what that would be, little one.”
“Why? Because if one falls, the other does? Because we make ourselves an easy target? I’m calling you on that. I say the evil made that lore, and they made it because they knew if two or more of any of us were side by side, there would be no way to take us down.”
“You’re not leaving with me – or walking through that Fall – without a purpose or reason.”
“And what is yours? Mr. ‘Let-me-find-the-biggest-risk-I-can-take-just-so-I-can-feel-the-joy-after-adrenaline-has-subsided.’ You are not going because you have been called. You are going because you need a new rush.”
“You have no idea why I’m going,” he bit out.
“You’re either going to tell me or you’re going to get over me being side-by-side with you.”
“No.”
“You’re my best friend, the only one that gets me completely. You’re not leaving me here to negotiate with closed-minded souls. I’ll go mad!”
“Mum and Dad are here.”
“Yeah, and they are more protective of me than you. They won’t even give me the chance to speak to those fools that want to close The Fall.”
“Impossible,” he said, zipping up his bag. “No one is more protective of you than me - and the day that someone does surface to protect you, I will bow and smile, tell him, ‘Welcome to the family,’ and take the first deep breath since your mark started to show.”
“That is my point. I’m marked, too.”
“Not for my course. It doesn’t say that yet.”
“It will.”
“And by the time it does, this will be over.”
And that was the last time I saw Cashton before my dream a few days ago. In that dream, he told me that Mom and Dad had tethered me to him, that basically that wasn’t even needed.
I understood now. If she killed him - she killed me.
Cashton kept staring, playing out his words last night on the beach, the ones that said I was too weak; that my first kill - my first mark of death - might be enough to take me out. I knew I had joined with Draven and that I was stronger, but this pain in my soul told me that I was weak right now because Cashton was. He was still part of the veil, his energy was depleted, and right now Bianca had a firm grip on what was left of that energy.
“You’re too late, Charlie. Always the slow one,” Bianca mocked me. “Now, let’s talk about a deal.”
A thought from me threw a dagger at her leg, and the act caused me just as much pain as I’m sure it did her. In turn, the reflex in her hand squeezed Cashton’s soul, almost bringing me to my knees.
Blood was pouring from her, telling me that she was too real right now, that she would not vanish when I struck her.
“Give me that rock around your neck, and I will set your brother free.”
Cashton mouthed ‘No’ with a glare as he saw me weigh the decision for a brief second. Seeing my decision to kill her and deal with the risk later, he took matters into his own hands. He lunged forward, yanking her arm out of his gut, then turned and took her down. But before he could get one blow in, she reached for his soul again.
She belted into laughter. “Looks like we are all moving on tonight. Charlie, Charlie...just hand it over. You don’t need it.”
She knew. That evil wench knew we were connected - that if either Cashton or I made one move against her, she could end us both and walk away from this. She wanted this rock on my neck, which meant she was either just saying that so I would protect it or planned to kill us both and take it. Either way, I wasn’t giving up.
Whatever sense of self-preservation I once had was gone now. She had fooled me one too many times, having backed me into a corner and made me think I had no way out. That wasn’t going to happen tonight. No, I was going to end this nightmare.
I lunged a bolt of energy at her - but before it could hit her Silas manifested between us and blocked my blow. I thought he was an illusion, that some other Escort was mimicking him - but I was wrong. He jerked Cashton off Bianca then stabbed her through the heart right where she lay.
Within a flash, Cashton had manifested what looked like a glass tube, and he caught her soul right as it began to swim from her vessel. Once it was sealed, he fell to the ground, gripping it to his chest, having a hard time catching his breath.
“Why did you do that?!” Silas demanded, standing over Cashton, holding his arms back so I could not go to him. He clearly didn’t trust him.
“Because,” Cashton breathed as he winced, “the second Xavier knows she’s gone, everything he’s got is going to descend on us. He has to know Charlie hasn’t killed before, that the first mark would make both of us vulnerable.”
Silas’ eyes grew wide for an instant. He knew in past lives that I had killed many, but he seemed to be grasping something.
“Five,” he said under his breath.
Cashton nodded his head as he continued to grasp for breath, in obvious pain.
“Why are you still weak?” Silas asked him.
I rushed to Cashton’s side, but he was too busy trying to protect that glass tube. It was like he was doing everything in his power to keep me alive.
His eyes caught mine, and he grew less tense. “I’ll be damned...you listened to me.”
I assumed he was talking about sharing energy and nodded once.
His eyes grew wide. “Where’s Draven?”
“He and Aden are joining so they can take down Xavier.”
“Have you lost your mind?!” Cashton said as he bolted up.
“What did you just say?!” Silas said at the same time.
“The box had knives in it. They think that was the way to kill Xavier.”
“That is why you’re weak,” Silas bit out as he punched the air.
“What? Clue me in here.”
“You are connected to your brother, and his energy is lo
wer because he is still in the veil. He is feeling your pain before you.”
“Pain is coming?”
“Yeah, the second you let Draven do something stupid - and guess what? I’m connected to you, too. So, in one shot they are going to take out both you and your brother. Draven and his – and me.”
“Where? Where are they?” Cashton breathed.
“Um...stairs. Seven stairs. Water. Fire. That was what Monroe kept showing us, why they thought it was right.”
The battle from the stage had stretched to where we were now. Shadows were running as Escorts devoured them. Escorts were charging toward us, but Silas was deflecting them with nothing more than a glance.
“We have to go!” Silas said, reaching his arms around me.
As he did, I recognized one of the women that ran past me. She was that little girl’s mother. I began to chase after her.
“Charlie, no! We have no time!”
“Make it!” I yelled, gripping that woman. She did everything in her power to escape my grasp, but I finally grasped her chin, forcing her to look into my eyes. “GO HOME TO YOUR DAUGHTER!” I yelled as I flung her to the stage. I watched her vanish as Silas’ energy pulled me to him, then a jolt of energy charged us up into the air.
When I thought I could not handle the pressure any longer, my feet found the ground. Taking in my surroundings, I saw Witnesses lined around a shoreline, staring hopelessly at a massive stairway that was divided into seven different paths. The sky above us was spinning out of control. I could see the wall of water just behind the sky, which was starting to break apart.
Silas’ grip turned me to face the stairs. “Run!”
I hesitated, not sure what I was supposed to do when I reached the top, how I was supposed to stop something that fate had set in motion. Draven would not have manifested this. He was pulled here, which meant that he had every reason to believe he was supposed to join with Aden and end this ageless war.