Arise (34 page)

“The dark world is opening,” Gaby whispered, “isn’t it?”

I simply nodded and tried not to shiver in the frigid wind. I sucked in another panicked breath; but before I had time to release it, I heard terrified cries coming from behind me.

I spun around and found the young Seers looking far more alert than they had a few seconds ago. By now Annabel had doubled over, moaning in pain, while Hayley and Drew fumbled closer together.

Shocked, I looked up at Alex. He hadn’t moved, nor had he removed the gun from Jillian’s chest.

“How did you wake them?” I demanded.

To my surprise, Alex shook his head. “I didn’t. I only brought one syringe. I don’t know what’s woken them—maybe the cold.”

It made a terrible sort of sense: the unnatural chill of the dark world would force them awake, force them to see this horrible place. That explanation, however, didn’t fully pacify me.

“Let them go before everything shifts over,” I demanded. “The demons just want Gaby and me—this isn’t Jillian’s fight, or theirs.”

Alex shook his head again. “I have no power over that, Amelia. The voices said that if I found a way to open their world and bring you to them myself, they’d reward me by letting me inside. They must be letting in any living person who happens to be nearby.”

Feeling another wave of terror, I glanced back at the young Seers. Although they were awake now, none of them looked like they were in any shape to get away. Not before the netherworld descended completely.

Still, I had to try. I let go of Gaby’s hand and dropped down beside Annabel.

“Run,” I whispered urgently. “Annabel, you have to run.”

She turned her head, staring up at me with bleary eyes. “Amelia?” she croaked.

I realized, dizzily, that this was the first time she’d actually seen me. Hayley and Drew must have seen me too, because they repeated my name in a chorus of confused voices.

And at that moment, another confused voice repeated it as well.

“Amelia?”

My head shot up; and, in the span of one horrified second, my eyes met Joshua’s.

Chapter

TWENTY-NINE

J
oshua stood at the highest point of the footbridge, staring down in disbelief at the scene in front of him.

“Run!” I screamed, bolting up. “Joshua, you have to—”

But it was too late. Before I’d even finished my sentence, the world shimmered and changed.

All at once, frost spread in a glittering sheet across the landscape. The metal structure above the wharf groaned in protest as its roof dissolved and its girders turned lurid shades of red and purple. Even the footbridge changed, melting beneath Joshua until it disappeared—swallowed whole by a dune of cold, wet sand.

“Run,” I whispered, finishing the useless command I’d tried to give Joshua before the darkness closed in on us.

I didn’t know whether Joshua heard me or not. But when his eyes connected with mine, I saw a glimmer of understanding in them. Although he’d never seen it, Joshua had listened to me describe this place enough times to know where we were.

Alex obviously knew too.

“Yes!” he crowed, laughing giddily. “I’m home! I’m home.”

I angled my body so that I could see him better. But the maniacal glow in his eyes made me recoil. The sheer joy of being here made him shiver uncontrollably. If he didn’t look insane before, he certainly did now.

And I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

Jillian also watched Alex’s excited display closely. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, she wriggled out of his grip. Unfortunately, she made a crucial mistake once free from Alex’s grasp.

“Joshua!” she cried, stretching out one hand to her brother, who was more than an arm’s length away.

In a flash, Alex grabbed a hank of her hair and jerked her back to him. Then, for extra measure, he lifted the gun into the air and brought the butt of it down—hard—onto her right temple. When she crumpled under the blow, Joshua screamed from the bridge.

I’d never heard him say such a foul word. The odd thing was, I’d screamed the same word.

Joshua and I moved simultaneously, scrambling to rescue Jillian. But Alex anticipated that reaction. With both hands gripped to the gun, he pointed it directly at Joshua and stared me down.

“Tell him to stay back or he’s dead,” Alex told me. “You don’t want his life to end in this place, do you?”

I froze.

“Joshua,” I muttered, holding my palm up to him. “Joshua, honey, stay back.”

He froze, too, although his mouth curled up in anger and frustration. I tried not to look at him, keeping most of my attention focused on Alex instead.

Moving slowly so that he wouldn’t do anything retaliatory, I circled around, placing myself between Joshua and Alex. My eyes flickered down to Jillian—cowering on the ground, bleeding but thankfully still conscious—and then I looked back up at Alex.

“That was unnecessary,” I said.

“Trust me, it wasn’t. I think all of you are underestimating the fact that I’m in control.”

“I know you are. And Gaby and I are staying, I swear. But at least let Joshua get Jillian,” I pleaded. “At least let him take her and his cousins away from here.”

Alex frowned, studying me. Then, unexpectedly, he nodded.

“Fine. Joshua can drag them a few feet back. But I’m not promising that the dark ones won’t take them too. And … Jillian stays right here. As leverage.”

“That’s not fair.”

Alex glared at me. “Life’s not fair, Amelia. I know that better than anyone.”

“Then show a little mercy, for God’s sake.”

While Alex and I argued, Joshua crept over to the young Seers and helped each of them half crawl, half stumble away across the sand. Although Alex didn’t try to stop them, I could tell he watched them closely.

Someone else—someone Alex had temporarily forgotten about—unfroze too.

Apparently Gaby had recovered, because she now moved carefully, almost out of Alex’s line of sight. As I emphasized the unfairness of the situation to Alex, I saw Gaby crouch next to Jillian, whisper in her ear, and then drop something into her open palm.

Midsentence, Alex finally noticed the exchange at his feet. Scowling, he pulled the gun away from Joshua and directed it down at Jillian again.

“Back off, Gabrielle. Or I
will
shoot the girl.”

Gaby did as he said, sneering at him as she crawled away from Jillian. Once Gaby had moved far enough away, Alex shook his gun at Jillian.

“Stand up,” he ordered her.

Still bleeding, Jillian rose shakily. She faced Alex but kept her eyes on the ground, like she couldn’t bear to look at him. Unaware of her fear—or enthralled by it—Alex reached out to brush a strand of her hair away from the bloody mess at her temple. When she flinched, he laughed.

“Why?” she asked softly, finally staring up at him.

“Because you hated her the most,” he whispered, “so you questioned me the least.”

“But … I liked you.”

Alex had just opened his mouth to answer when Jillian’s expression abruptly changed.

With a feral shriek, she wrenched her hand upward, shoved something into his open mouth, and then sealed his lips by planting her palm against them. She dug her fingers into his cheeks, and he flailed, grabbing at her with one hand and waving the gun with the other. I saw him swallow reflexively, right before his gun went off.

After that, everything seemed to happen at once.

Alex, who I thought would recover and fire again, stumbled backward instead. For a moment he simply looked furious. Then, without warning, his eyes rolled backward and he began foaming at the mouth.

While strangled sounds ripped their way out of his throat, Jillian clambered backward toward her huddled family. Gaby, however, didn’t move. Which was strange, considering the fact that blood had begun to soak through the middle of her cream-colored shirt.

She’d been shot.

I gasped, dropping beside her on the floor of the pavilion. “I thought you said we couldn’t get hurt!” I cried out, my voice harsh with fear for her.

“Don’t worry about me right now,” she said, but I didn’t listen. I clutched at her abdomen, trying to staunch the flow of blood with my hands. Yet Gaby managed to stay perfectly calm, swiping away my hands without taking her eyes off Alex.

“Seriously, Amelia, stop it. It doesn’t hurt. Besides, you don’t want to miss the show.” She cocked her head toward the pavilion, and the corner of her lips lifted into a frightening smile.

Almost involuntarily, I followed her gaze to the pavilion into which Alex had stumbled.

Although he remained upright, Alex had fallen to his knees as he convulsed. In the still moments between convulsions, his cold gaze found Gaby’s. He must have been conscious enough to see her smile, because his eyes momentarily widened before they rolled completely back in their sockets and he collapsed.

Suddenly, I could hear another heartbeat, thudding loudly and wildly: Alex’s, I was certain. But his heart didn’t get the chance to ease slowly into death like mine had. Instead, it stuttered more frantically, its individual beats growing indistinguishable until they became one long thud.

Then, abruptly, they stopped.

The following silence was almost palpable compared to the preceding frenzy. In the stillness, Alex didn’t twitch or gasp. He didn’t move at all.

He was dead, as far as I could tell.

Everyone—the living Seers, the dead Risen—held their breaths as we watched his motionless body. Then we sucked in a collective gasp when Alex sat back up.

Slowly, horrifyingly, he opened his eyes and glared at Gaby. He grabbed for his gun, which had dropped to the ground when he fell.

But now he couldn’t seem to grip it. He frowned, turning away from Gaby to stare harder at the gun. He swiped his hand over it once, twice, and then growled in frustration.

Gaby barked out a brittle laugh. “Having a little trouble, Kade?”

His cold gray eyes bore into hers again. “Did you … kill me?”

Gaby’s grin widened. She raised her hand and began twirling another small bottle in her fingers.

“Technically,” she said, “Jillian killed you. But I’m the one who gave her the ground oleander seeds, so I guess you can blame me.”

Alex screamed inarticulately and fumbled for the gun again, with no success.

Watching him, Gaby
tisked
several times.

“That gun isn’t going to do you much good, Kade. Besides, you’ve already killed me twice.” She paused, glancing down at her bloody shirt. “Well, sort of killed.”

“Gaby?” I whispered, reaching hesitantly for her. By now I couldn’t hear
either
of their heartbeats. “Gaby, what’s happened to you?”

Keeping her eyes on Kade, Gaby lifted one shoulder in her usual flippant shrug. “Who knows? I feel numb again, so maybe I’m not Risen anymore. But that would be a small price to pay to condemn Kade to this hell.”

“You want to condemn me, Gabrielle?” he snarled. “Then come condemn me.”

“Gladly,” she spat.

She suddenly wrenched out from under my hands and flew at Alex. He bolted up as well, meeting her mid-lunge. Within seconds the two of them had tangled together, snarling and clawing at each other’s throats.

I leaped up too, ready to intervene in their fight. But then I hesitated.

I glanced back at the young Seers, who’d gathered around Joshua like he was their protector. Which, given their hazy mental state, he probably was.

Despite the fact that she still looked disoriented, I caught Annabel’s eye. “Form a circle,” I commanded her, “and do an exorcism on Alex.
Now
.”

“I don’t know how—,” she started, but I cut her off.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re the oldest, and I know you’ve seen your grandmother perform an exorcism before. So you have to try.”

When she frowned reluctantly, I took a threatening step in her direction.

Almost immediately, Annabel nodded in agreement. She began grabbing at the other Seers and arranging them in a circle on the sand. While Alex and Gaby shouted obscenities behind me, I watched as the Seers—including Joshua and Jillian—clasped one another’s hands and started to mimic Annabel’s chanting.