Everlost (The Night Watchmen Series Book 3) (13 page)

Weldon finds his way over to the table and sits across from Katie. “Hi,” he says with a playful smile. “I’m sure Faye’s already told you about my luring ways with women.”

Katie giggles, despite trying to look offended.

“See,” Weldon says, looking up at me. “At least someone gets my charm.”

“Ugh… gag me,” I moan.

“I’m sure you will be once lover boy finds out that you did all this without him here. You know how he loves to babysit,” Weldon says.

“Yeah, well, he needed time to clear his head.” I hate that I feel a smidgen of guilt. Sure, I could call out to him mentally. Tell him I’m ready to work a spell that could potentially give away our residence, but I don’t want to. He needs his space. He needs to sort through the trauma left behind by his mother.

I can handle this on my own. I’m strong. Stronger than even he thinks I am.

I push Jaxen, Katie, and everyone else from my mind. Shove away the guilt that tries to tear at me for being selfish in this endeavor, and down the rest of the cooled tea.

“She’s not in a hurry,” Weldon says sarcastically as he pours himself a glass of blood from the fridge.

“And
she
doesn’t need commentary every time
she
does something,” I say sharply.

“Ooh, someone’s in a tiff,” he retorts, wiggling his eyebrows between Katie and me. “Worried that I’m right and Jaxen will come storming through that door any moment, ready to lock you up?”

I don’t respond to him. Like a child, maybe if I just pretend I don’t hear him, then he’ll finally stop talking. With a small sigh, I grab the jar, look down at Katie, and leave the room. I hear Weldon saying something to Kat… probably another taunt or tease, but I don’t care. I don’t want anything interfering with what has to come next.

Like Jezi said, my head needs to be clear.

“Is everything okay?” Katie asks, following me out of the kitchen.

“Yes. No. Maybe,” I say, making my way up the stairs.

“Was it that guy? Weldon?”

“No.”

Lies.

I shove my door open. Place the jar on the end table. “Can you stay in here while I do this? Make sure nothing goes wrong?”

She stops short. “I don’t have my magic,” she says, shame in her voice.

I curse under my breath. Tuck away the need to explain. “Sorry. Can you… can you just let Cassie know then? If something does go wrong, I mean?”

It looks like it takes every ounce of strength for her to nod her head.

“Thanks.” I plop down on the bed and pull the talisman out of the jar. Place it back around my neck.

She moves closer. “You seem mad.”

“I am.”

“Why?”

I stop. Ponder her question. “I don’t know why. I just… I just am, you know? I’m mad about Weldon’s bullshit remarks when I’m about to do something I could potentially screw up. I’m mad about even having to do this, when, if I had put as much effort into learning witchcraft as I did Hunter training, then I probably wouldn’t be in this bind. I’m mad about risking our whereabouts. Mad about Jaxen’s mom and not being able to fix it for him. Mad about my parents missing. Mad that even though I know without a doubt that I want to fix this, I don’t have a real clue how. Mad that our friendship is nothing like it used to be. That I don’t know who you are anymore. I’m just—I’m just plain mad.”

I stop. Close my eyes. Try to steady my rapidly beating heart by breathing and counting. When I open my eyes, she’s staring at me like she’s trying so hard not to cry. Like she’s a punching bag that I just went ham on, and I think I’ve shrunk into nothingness. Into an empty, barren wasteland where the bones of our friendship have been resting, collecting dust.

Get it together,
I tell myself.

She’s biting her cheek, looking at the ground. Her mind is a recorder I wish I could rewind and tape over with kinder, softer words. But life doesn’t work that way. We can’t take back what we say… what we feel, and sometimes, it’s such a sad shame.

“I-I didn’t mean it like that, Kat,” I say quickly, not having to look at her to know that I probably just hurt her even more. Wondering why I’m being such a jerk to her when she doesn’t deserve an ounce of it.

“Yes, you did,” she says boldly.

She waits for me to look at her, and I do despite wanting to bury myself under my covers, pretending the world doesn’t exist outside of them.

“You don’t have to tiptoe around my feelings,” she says, her voice tight and clear. “The truth didn’t scare me before you left, and it doesn’t scare me now.” She inhales and straightens her shoulders, pushing resolve into her eyes. “Because you’re right,” she adds, still standing at the foot of the bed. “You don’t know who I am anymore. And I don’t know who you are. It’s something that we need to come to terms with in order to get past this. I don’t want us to grow apart, but I’m afraid we already have. But more so, I’m scared that I won’t be able to follow you down the road you’re on.”

I’m staring at the floor. My stomach is in knots I’m sure I’ll never be able to untangle. I don’t want to discuss another problem right now. There isn’t enough time, and honestly, I’m too tired to deal with it. I just want to do the spell. I just want to slip away. Take a break from it all. Do something that’s actually propelling us forward for once.

I glance down at the paper Jezi gave me, and then unfold it. I know I should say something to Katie… give her some kind of solace, but I don’t have it in me. At least, not at this moment.

So instead, I read the spell and lay back, clutching the talisman in my hands.

AS SOON AS MY EYES close shut, I find myself as a small, shimmering beacon of light, drifting weightlessly through a land of fog. A land where the essence of every Witch dwells when connecting auras with another Witch. The one and only time I’ve ever done this was with Cassie and Jezi, when they were trying to determine what my inner strengths were. Writing spells, invoking and evoking spirits, and the elements.

None of which I have ever really tried to use.

And I think a lot of that has to do with my parents. With my childhood dream of becoming a Hunter. I’ve only ever focused on perfecting those skills, and it’s a shame, because standing inside this fog, feeling the spirits of all of my ancestors around me, it’s a power unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. And I should know what to do with it.

“Faye?”

It’s Jezi, and the sound of her voice in my mind startles me. Her light’s forming in front of me. The color of snow, just as the sun touches it.

I move in her direction. Stop when we’re hovering close together.

“You have the talisman, right?”

“It’s in my hands.”

“Good. Focus on it, and on your Grimoire. Move in the direction you feel the strongest pull to. I’ll follow you.”

“Okay.”

I focus on the bullet. On where it came from. On my Grimoire, what it looked and felt like, and feel myself drifting forward. A hazy blur of images pass by us, and I somehow know that this is time moving around us. Like we’re somehow existing in a plane that dwells within the land of the living. We’re passing through people, through buildings, projecting our auras further and further away from the manor, and closer to Ethryeal City.

Time doesn’t move the same way here, if at all. Emotions don’t exist at the same depth. Everything that has happened feels so insignificant, and I think I could stay here… forever maybe. No cares. No worries. Just a beacon of light floating endlessly around time.

“Do you feel closer to it?”
Jezi asks.

I shake away the fog that has seemed to settle in my brain, reaching out to my Grimoire once more. Jezi’s aura collides with mine from the force of my stop. I was about to pass it. I was that far away from everything in my mind.

“Here,”
I say, hovering in place. I feel like I could reach out and grab it. I’m that close.

Jezi whispers something, and the fog around us dissipates until we’re hovering in front of a Witch I’ve never seen before. She has angled brown eyes and long, dark hair cut around the sharp planes of her face. Choppy bangs touch her slanted eyebrows. Quaint fingers hover over top of my Grimoire. Thin, red lips chant the spell that’s preventing me from taking it back.

“You remember the spell, right?”
Jezi asks.

“Yes.”

“Good. We’re going to chant together, and then, when you feel the Witch’s magic fading, manifest your Grimoire and send it back to the manor. Okay? This has to go exactly as planned. No room for error. The moment it’s back in your possession, we end the spell and wake. If we spend a minute longer, they’ll be able to track us.”

“Got it,”
I say, ignoring the whirlpool swirling in my stomach.

“Okay, on my count, begin. One. Two. Three.”

The spell starts as my eyes hone in on the Witch. Her eyebrows furrow the moment our magic attacks hers. Her lips tighten, the words spewing from her mouth exiting a little more firmly now. She drops her hands for a moment, shaking them out, and then places them back over the Grimoire, hitting us with a blast of power.

But together, she’s no match for us.

It only takes a little more pushing against her when I finally feel the link I need weakening in the chain of her spell. The moment it breaks, I zero in on my Grimoire and manifest it, sending it back to the manor.

The Witch looks up, and I know she can see us.

“Time to go,”
Jezi says, ending the chant.

I turn, focusing on returning home to my body, when a voice freezes me in place.

“I have something else you might want, Faye Middleton!”

Clara.

“I know you’re still there! I could smell your magic anywhere.”

My brain is screaming at my limbs, lobbying against each and every muscle, but they have a mind of their own. Determination lives in them and, slowly, against my better judgment, I turn back around.

“You think you’re so clever. So strong.” Her eyes are moving all around the room, searching for me. “You think because you escaped your judgment day and rescued your friend that you can take me on.” Her gaze locks in my direction, and then a cruel smile moves across her face like storm clouds rolling in. She looks over at someone on the other side of the door. “Bring him in.”

In walk two Elites with their hands on General Sterling’s shoulders, guiding him in.

My body is paralyzed even though my heart has decided it’s had enough of this body. I’m trying to figure out why they have him on his knees in front of her. Why there are different shades of blood smeared all over his neck and across his face. He shouldn’t be in this state. He shouldn’t… he shouldn’t look so defenseless.

“Do I have your attention now?” she barks loudly, her eyes scanning wildly around the room.

My limbs are fire, reaching out, wanting to ignite everything in my wake. But I can’t reach out. I can’t help him.

I am nothing, floating in nothing.

“Know this, Faye Middleton. I’ll always be one step ahead of you. I knew you’d try for your Grimoire. Just like I knew Sterling would try to help you and, for every person that tries to help you, the same fate will be bestowed upon them until you run out of allies. Death and banishment is a high price to pay for the whims of a girl whose only purpose in life is to destroy others, don’t you think?”

Watching her cruel smile unfold is like seeing flames spread from house to house in your neighborhood. Seeing your friends lose everything they’ve ever had, and just waiting for your turn to be next.

“You have one hour to turn yourself in,” she continues, “or he will complete his change. One hour until I choose the next victim.”

She grabs him by the hair and jerks his head to the side, exposing his neck to showcase the two tiny pinpricks only vampire teeth could leave behind.

Fury lives in my soul.

A hand settles on my shoulders within the fog and yanks me back, pulling me away from the horrors in front of me, but not fast enough for one last warning from Clara.

“One hour,” her voice echoes out, filling the foggy space around me.

And then my eyes open.