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I reached for my next handhold and slipped. My hands scraped along the rock as I fell a few yards. Then I did scream. I used every ounce of strength to nab a divot in the rock, and finally I slowed down the fall.
But I had accidentally put my hand on a beetle inside the divot.
Startled, I yanked it out and lost all control. I sailed through the air for what seemed like a long time and landed flat on my back.
My lungs collapsed. And a swarm of darkness and scurrying feet surrounded me.
I had the sickle. But it was the beetles that had beaten me.
I lay there for a few moments. Tried to move but nothing happened. Maybe I’d broken my back. Hundreds of beetles found their way under my shirt, down my pants, nibbling as they went. None of the bites alone would’ve been painful. But hundreds of bites at once . . .
The sound of splashing reached my ears, and suddenly a wall of water crashed down on me. The beetles screeched and floundered in the waves.
Maybe I would drown before I was eaten alive.
The water covered me, and within moments my face was submerged. I pressed my lips together, trying to make sure no water got inside my mouth. The last thing I needed, while drowning, was to forget who I was.
“Becks!” Jack’s voice came from somewhere above through the water. “Move your arms! Paddle!”
I tried to move, and this time my arms swung a little bit, and my mouth broke the surface for only a split second. I gasped in a lungful of air before I pressed my lips tightly together and went under again.
And then strong arms grabbed me around my waist and brought me to the surface. I sucked in the air. The glorious air.
I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t open my eyes.
Jack squeezed my cheeks. “Becks. Talk. ”
“Hi,” I said weakly.
“Do you remember who you are?” Jack said.
I nodded. “Nikki Beckett. ”
I heard him sigh, and then he was on the move, with me in his arms.
We collapsed on the beach, soaking wet and panting. Cole was there. He’d taken off his shirt and was using it to dry off my face. When he pulled it away, it was bloody.
“Damn beetles,” I whispered.
Jack took the shirt out of Cole’s hands and resumed wiping me down. Something under my left eye caught his attention, and he gingerly pressed the shirt against the spot. “That was a gouge,” he said.
I let him fuss for a bit, then remembered why we were there in the first place. My hand flew to my back, and I felt the metal handle of the sickle.
“We got it,” I said.
TWENTY-SIX
NOW
The Surface. The hotel.
Will met us on the Surface at our hotel room. At the sight of me, he gasped.
“Have you been through a combine?” he asked, and I knew he wasn’t being flippant.
“No,” I said. “A sea of beetles. ”
“Long story,” Jack said. “But Becks was amazing. And she got the Sickle of Cronus. Any news from the professor?”
“Yeah,” Will said. “He says the Shade network, that egg-shaped ball you described, is a sacred stone called a baetylus. And he says you need one more thing, in addition to the sickle, to destroy it. That is, if you want to escape with your lives. ”
Knowing we had to do one more thing was too much for me at that moment. I collapsed against the bed.
My eyes closed involuntarily, and within moments I was gone.
When I woke, I saw Jack, Cole, and Will poring over documents at the desk next to the bed.
“What’s going on?” I said.
Jack came over to the bed and sat down beside me. “Hey, Becks. How are you feeling?”
I nodded. “Fine. Tell me. ”
He lay down next to me, facing me. “The professor thinks that the Shade network has a fail-safe attached to it, where if we destroy it, it will set off an alarm and basically trap us in the Underworld. Like a lockdown. To give us time to escape, he thinks we need to track down the Helmet of Hermes. Sound familiar?”
“The pendant that Cole was supposed to give the guy with the big head in exchange for that memory?”
Jack nodded. “I think so. It will supposedly mask our presence until we’ve had a chance to get out. ”
I looked at Cole. “You’d told the guy you would get the pendant. Do you have it? Do you know where it is?”
Cole shook his head. “I can’t remember. ”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “I can’t swim a sea of beetles again. ”
Jack smoothed my hair gently with his hand. “You don’t have to. Mrs. Jenkins’s papers contained a log sheet that shows the chain of custody for the pendant. The last name on the list is a woman named Mildred Dorrity. She lives in Roy. We just tracked down her phone number. We’re about to call her. ”
I squinted. “So, this random woman has a pendant that will keep us out of an Everneath prison,” I said.
“Yes,” Jack said.
I nodded. “Let’s get to it. ”
Jack put his phone on speaker and dialed her number. After several rings, a woman answered. She sounded old, her voice frail.
“Is this Mildred Dorrity?” Jack said.
She paused. “Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying. ”
“I’m not selling anything. I was just wondering if you know a Kathleen Jenkins?”
Another pause. “Kathleen Jenkins is dead. ”
With that I knew we’d found the right person.
“I was friends with Mrs. Jenkins,” I said.
“Kathleen didn’t have friends,” Mildred said.
“We’re looking for a pendant,” I blurted out. “Please. We got your name from a log sheet listing possession of the Helmet of Hermes. Do you still have it?”
A longer pause.
“Please, Mrs. Dorrity. Please help us. ”
I could hear her breathing, even though she wasn’t answering. Whatever we were saying, it wasn’t working.
“Mildred,” Jack said, his voice amazingly calm. “Have you ever loved someone?”
Now it was his turn to pause as we waited for an answer.
“Yes,” she said.
“So you know that feeling. ” Jack was being so tender, so sincere. I didn’t know how Mrs. Dorrity wouldn’t be swayed. “The entire reason we’re calling is because of love. Please. Do you have the pendant?”
“No,” she said. “I passed it down to my granddaughter, but it was stolen by the Delphinians. ”
Delphinians. This was the second time I’d heard of the exiled group.
“The Delphinians want all the sacred artifacts for themselves,” she continued. “Devon stole it back for us, but then he disappeared. ”
Beside me, Cole tensed. I could feel a distinct wave of anxiety roll off him. Maybe it was because he was the only person I could feed off. Whatever the reason, his reaction was strong enough that I could taste it in the air.
I turned toward him and whispered, “Does this sound familiar?”
“I’m not sure,” he said.
I turned back to the phone. “Who was this Devon?”
“Millie—my granddaughter—her boyfriend. ”
“Where’s Millie now?” I asked.
“She’s dead. ”
I glanced at Jack. For a moment there was only the sound of some quiz show on the television in the background.
“She was named after me, you know,” Mildred said.
“Thank you,” I said. Jack hung up.
As we stared at the phone, a new despair blanketed our souls. Yes, she’d known about the pendant, but we were no closer to getting it.
I reached over to adjust the thermostat on the wall. Jack glanced at my hand and grabbed my arm.
“What?” I said, startled.
“Your wrist. The shackle. ”
I looked down. The faint line had become darker. Almost as dark as the other shackle. I pulled down
my sleeve. “We already knew we had to hurry. Doesn’t change anything. ”
But it felt as if it changed everything.
I turned to Cole, anxious to take the focus off of my wrist. “When Mildred mentioned that Devon guy, it triggered something in you. What was it?”
Cole shook his head. “I don’t know. Nothing specific. Just a feeling, but then it went away. ”
He didn’t look me in the eyes when he spoke. The emotions I’d sensed coming from him during the phone call with Mildred seemed to indicate it was something more than just a feeling.
“Are you sure that’s all it was?”
“Yeah. ”
He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Something told me he was holding back. I was walking a fine line. On one hand, I wanted him to remember things that could possibly help us destroy the Everneath. On the other hand, what if he remembered his true desire? His longing for the throne?
If it came back to him, would he betray us?
TWENTY-SEVEN
NOW
The Surface. The hotel.
The sun was setting and once again I was feeling the exhaustion. It hadn’t been that long since Cole had fed me, had it? I wondered if the appearance of the second shackle meant I would need more frequent feedings.
Or maybe more frequent feedings wouldn’t be enough.
I tried not to think like that.
“We’ll find something else,” Jack said, glancing at me sideways. “I’ll send an email to Professor Spears. See if he has any ideas. Maybe we’ll just risk it, without the pendant. ”
I nodded, wishing I had the energy to sound more enthusiastic.
“You need to eat,” he said.
“Let me shower first,” I said. It had been two days. “I think that will perk me up a bit. ”
“Okay. ”
I went straight to the bathroom and started the water running. The water turned warm, and I took a deep, steamy breath.
When I got dressed and came out of the bathroom, Jack was alone, on the computer.
“Where’s Cole?” I said.
He didn’t look up. “Playing with the ice machine. ”
I snorted. “I’m going to miss this side of Cole if he ever gets his memory back. ”
I walked over to the window to close the drapes, but a figure down by the roundabout in front of the hotel caught my eye. I squinted my eyes to get a clearer look.
It was Cole. Standing at the curb. It looked as if he were waiting for someone.
“Jack,” I said.
He could hear the worry in my voice. He rushed over to me, and I pointed down at Cole.
“What’s he doing?” he said.
It hit me. “He’s getting a taxi. He remembers something. ”
Jack and I exchanged looks, and then we took off. Jack grabbed his keys on the way out the door.
We ran down the stairs. My first thought was to confront Cole, but just as I was about to burst out through the front doors, Jack pulled me back.
“If he’s going somewhere, let’s follow him. ”
I nodded. Following him would be the only way to know what exactly he remembered. My biggest fear was that he would remember his mission to make me his queen. And if he did remember, he would hide that from us, wouldn’t he? Again, I was faced with the fact that I was putting a lot of trust in Cole right now. He knew our plan. And at any moment he could easily thwart it.
We ran quietly to the parking lot and reached Jack’s car just as a taxi pulled up to the curb where Cole was standing. Jack waited until Cole was inside to turn on the ignition, then pulled out after the cab, his lights off.
We kept a safe distance behind the cab and followed for four or five miles out west of the city toward a more industrial part of the valley. It turned into a side road surrounded by warehouses.
“Where’s he going?” I said.
Jack shrugged and turned in behind him.
The taxi stopped outside a metal gate, which opened into an asphalt parking area surrounded by storage units.
We pulled over down the road and watched as Cole entered the property.
Jack frowned. “Very deliberate move for someone who doesn’t remember anything. Wait here. ”
“No way am I waiting,” I said.
Jack sighed, but there was no time to argue. We ran across the street and made our way up to the entrance. Cole was already turning down one of the rows of units. Jack pushed through the gate and held it open for me, and then we took off to follow.
Cole stopped in front of unit 677, paused only for a moment with his finger over the keypad, and then punched in a bunch of numbers. Something metallic clicked, and Cole pulled the storage unit door open.
Cole knew the code. He knew the existence of a storage locker. Unless he had rented it in the last twenty-four hours, he hadn’t been telling us the truth about remembering nothing.
“Bastard!” I said.
Cole jumped and then turned around. A wide grin broke out on his face. He looked genuinely excited to see us. “Hey! I was just about to call you. ”
“Bullshit,” Jack said, stalking toward him, his fists clenched at his sides.
“No, I’m serious. I was going purely by instinct, telling the cab where to go as we drove. Left here, right here, that sort of thing. I swear. ” He put his hands up as if he couldn’t figure out why Jack was angry. “Without you guys there, it was easier for me to focus. ”