There was only one way for me to break the ice around the souls of my family: from the bottom up. I grasped another wrought iron bar, feeling the jolt of energy painfully surge through me. The bar felt guided by some other force. When I looked back, I saw that that force was Mason. He was behind me, giving power to the swing. We aimed at the floor, slicing through the ice as Mason bellowed, “Rise!” and the iron bar turned to fire in our hands.
The souls of my family struggled in unison upon hearing his command. The combined strength from their struggle caused the flaming iron bar to slice through water, not ice, triggering the flames that had bound them to wash away.
A peace, a warm peace filled my soul. I felt like I was cutting free an anchor—that everything that had bound me had finally fallen away. I watched as the faces of my mother, my father, my five beautiful sisters turned to light and vanished. My uncle seemed lost, disoriented, like he had just woken up in the middle of a nightmare.
I wanted to relish this victory, to stare at the last peaceful glimpses of my family, but this was not over. Rasure. She was still standing. And if she had done this to my family, there was no telling who else she had trapped, who those other clocks we passed led to.
I only knew one thing: she was not getting out of this room alive.
Chapter Sixteen
Rasure’s guards charged us, but the instant they moved, the instant I heard Wilder’s chains fall to the floor, I heard Mason bellow, “Betray us, cease!”
Whatever that phrase meant, it was powerful. The overgrown guards halted as their arms violently jerked back and black smoke steamed out of every opening in their bodies, finally ripping them apart as they vanished.
I stared coldly at Rasure as my chest rose and fell with adrenaline. I could feel a raw power swelling inside of me.
After a moment of hesitation, she let an evil smile come across her lips. “You have not yet transformed. You are nothing more than a vengeful spirit.”
“Is that your bet?” I seethed, daring to move slowly toward her.
“It is, dear,” she said with a smirk. “And now you never will. He perished. The flaming bird that is to guard your passage has left his existence.”
No amount of self-control in the world could have held back my emotions. Ice began to form across the stone room as she laughed. What was she saying? Phoenix had died? Let go? That because he had, because he thought that we could never be together in the form we were in, he let go? He lost his battle tonight, and at any moment I would lose mine?
“I don’t believe you,” I raged.
“It doesn’t matter if you do or not. I knew you were still vengeful the second you plotted your way around the salt and iron. Someone of your power would never fear the elements of the Earth. I knew his death was certain the moment he did not come for you. He should have arrived the moment you laid eyes on me, the moment fear came to you. I suppose he didn’t care to be another notch on your bedpost.”
I reached down for the last wrought iron rod, feeling—yet ignoring—the pain of its touch as Gavin came to my other side.
I let a deceitful smirk come to the corner of my lips. “I have yet to have fear for you, therefore, there is no reason for him to come. Whether I rise or fall is none of your concern, for tonight you will pay your debts.”
With that I charged forward, rod in hand, aiming for where her heart would be if she had one—if she were human at all. The second the iron entered her flesh, black smoke trickled out of her body.
She let a slow smile come across her face as death invaded her eyes and smoke seeped from her lips. “You are a fool. And I will have the last laugh tonight.”
Mason and Gavin both pulled their blades from where they were tucked in the back of their pants. In mid-thrust they connected, then pushed into Rasure. I pushed their arms down, causing the blade to divide her, causing thick black smoke to rush out of her body just before she turned to flames and vanished.
Breathless, I let my heart race. The ice built, I let the real, terrified me out.
Just when I thought I had control, when I let myself feel the slightest bit vindicated, iron chains wrapped around my neck. I gasped for air as I felt the strength behind them.
I knew from the cut on the arm that it was Wilder, that he was trying to end me.
“Back away, or this will be over really quick,” he said through a locked jaw to Mason and Gavin.
They only stepped forward and turned so they could see him, so they could figure out their play.
“Glad to see that I wasn’t special enough for you to save, D,” he said into my ear as he tightened the chains. I’m not mad. Not at all. I found someone that was a little more interesting than you. I’ll play with her for now.”
At that moment, I heard the echo of a clap and slanted my eyes to the doorway. There, I saw Cadence clapping slowly as she walked to where we were.
“Well done, Sister,” she said as she positioned herself in front of me.
Something happened right then. I don’t know what it was, but one second we were in this heated moment of shock, and the next a rich smell of mint and honey filled the room. I felt myself wave forward, so much so that I glanced to my side to see a massive hole in the stone wall which didn’t make any sense because I’d never heard those stones fall. What really didn’t make any sense was that the smell of lilies was absent now. Even though Wilder was there, he had no scent. To make things even odder, Cadence didn’t look the same. It was the eyes. They looked more distant, more so than what this revelation would have given them.
Oddly, it felt like this game of life had just been paused and the pieces replaced. Both Gavin and Mason glanced at me, sensing the same shift.
“That was by far the best role you have ever played,” the image of Cadence said. “Next go around, leave the picture-taking be and focus on your acting. Maybe then you’ll be able to fool the master.”
I had already forgotten about that weird, vacant moment and focused on rage. “To fool you,” I said with a gasp. “You’re beneath me.”
“Am I? Or am I the one you have been fighting from day one? The one that took your family, the betrayer that stood at your side while you grieved for them? Am I not the one that orchestrated this entire event? Kept your focus on Rasure, a mere servant to me?”
“Choose your words carefully, they are your last,” I said through broken breaths as I tried to inch my fingers between the chains around my neck.
“Stop your acting, Sister. The best lines could not cover the bruises along your arms, the ones that say you’re a weak, dying soul.” She leaned toward me. “Your eyes are still green, only flickering with a deep blue.” She let a smug grin come to her seemingly innocent face. “No acting can cover up the fact that your very own guards are the reason you are struggling now. They set Wilder free. If they were who they were meant to be, they would not have been so foolish.”
“They’re not fools,” I said with a grunt. “They were waiting for permission.” I swallowed, searching for air, then said, “Permission granted.”
At that moment, Gavin and Mason moved forward at the speed of light, took the chain from my neck, and flung it back, wrapping Wilder in it. Mason slammed Wilder into the ground, knocking him out cold. I’m sure he would have found the courage to kill him in the next breath, but Cadence’s laugh stopped him.
A wickedly sinful expression masked the guiltless person I knew my sister to be. “A fighter to the end. We have been here before. Right when you arrived, and several times since then. I have scattered the souls of your guides across this globe, and I will be damned if they did not all end up under the same roof once again.”
She glanced at my uncle, who was starting to realize who I was, who she was. With a nod, Cadence sent him flying across the room. I heard his body hit the wall and had no way of knowing if he was alive or not anymore.
“You see, Sister, my servant Rasure was correct. She will have the last laugh tonight, one that she deserves after decades of
loyal service. Your adored is gone, and now it’s time for you to move on. We’ll pick this up in a hundred or so years.”
At that moment, I felt fire in my legs, in my arms. It wasn’t a good fire, it was an agonizing fire, one that Mason and Gavin must have felt, too.
Cadence began to circle us as we fell to our knees. “You see, the best way to end a vengeful soul is to salt and burn their remains. Your brother has done an extraordinary job of protecting those remains, but money is power. Right now, a nurse is injecting your body with a mix of sodium and sulfur. You will burn, slowly, from the inside out.”
I looked down to see my flesh beginning to break apart.
I was furious, terrified, and in agony, but I was not going to let her see that. I glanced to each of my sides to my guys and nodded up once. As soon as Cadence circled again, we were going to take her out—or die trying.
Right as she stood before us, right as I felt agony in every part of my soul, Phoenix appeared in front of me, us, and took the blades, the arms of Gavin and Mason, and joined them just as they lunged them into Cadence.
Black smoke didn’t come from her. Instead, she flickered like a hologram just as she vanished. I thought maybe I was hallucinating, that Phoenix wasn’t there, that I was just letting go and he was the last image I wanted to see.
I fell forward on the stone floor as the guys did. I barely noticed that Phoenix had picked me up and was cradling me in his arms, that Skylynn was standing over him, yelling something I could not hear.
“Burn,” I made my lips attempt, but there was no sound. “Burn,” I choked out. I raised my wrist with the watches on it for him to see. Seconds, that was it, seconds, and it wouldn’t matter; we would be gone.
Skylynn grabbed my wrist and yelled something at Phoenix but he wasn’t listening, he was trying to hear me.
“Save us,” I said as my eyes locked with his.
You would have thought I confessed an eternal love to him. His flaming eyes grew wide with relief. “I’ve got you, Love. I’m never going to let you go.”
I squeezed his arm with what strength I had. “Leave Wilder.”
And with that, my eyes closed.
I felt a blazing fire and jerked my eyes open, only to see flames coming from Phoenix, reaching out to Mason and Gavin, lifting their now limp bodies into the air.
The next beat, I felt ice and I saw the river. I saw the crash, I felt myself struggle to get out of the car, but I soon realized it was not the car that was holding me under the icy water—it was Phoenix.
The water felt like it weighed a thousand tons, like no matter how powerful, how supernatural Phoenix was that he would not be able to break me free from this death.
My body went limp, succumbing to frigid temperature.
I don’t know if it was an illusion or not, but I saw my family, all of them, floating around me. My gaze met the compassion of my mother, the protection of my father, the wisdom of my grandmother, the life and energy in each of my sisters’ eyes. I saw them in another time, in another world. I saw them stand at my side. I saw them sacrifice their lives to carry me here. I saw lifetimes on this side where they had been tested, divided, silently tormented, imprisoned, unable to go home.
They were free now, and they were lifting me up. They were raising me from the ice, breaking it apart. Their gazes spoke a million words, all powerful, all full of love. They were telling me goodbye. They were rejoicing that after all this time, we found each other, that we’d set each other free.
The cold was past the point of being unbearable. I was numb, disoriented. I felt Phoenix’s arms under my back, my soul soaring up. The water became warmer and warmer, and all at once it erupted into flames.
I saw Mason floating near my head, Gavin at my feet, and Phoenix holding me. The three of them were soaring through the icy lake that had turned to flames.
One. Slow. Beat.
The flames immersed us all, and the next thing I saw was the ceiling of the observatory.
I knew without a doubt that Phoenix had thrust us through that ceiling and broken into the fire pool that centered the room just before the tombs of my family.
As I rose into the air, every part of my soul broke apart. The ice in my core exploded, and what looked like diamonds surrounded us all. Fire reached out for that ice, grasping it and pulling it back to me.
I felt agony. Pain. I felt like giving in, nothing was worth this much pain, this much torment.
I was so cold, I was hot; so hot that I was cold. Billions of images rushed through my mind, ones of a powerful, determined past, ones that showed me how wicked my dear sister was.
Memories that showed me that when no one returned to our true home, our true reality, that the people there had sent the woman that became my grandmother here, my uncle here. They were sent here to assemble the Falcon legacy. Through numerous lifetimes, my grandmother had searched for and found all of us. She prepared us for this war. I was determined not to let her down, not to let any member of my family, of my world, my universe down. Too much had been sacrificed for me to give up now. I screamed at myself to become who I was meant to be—to accept this pain as my power.
With that thought, the pain increased, as if it were challenged and accepted the dare to bring me more misery.
Two slow beats later, the pain stopped and numbness came. I felt flames licking my flesh and smelled smoke, an awful, unnatural smoke.
“Genevieve!” I heard Phoenix bellow, causing me to thrust my eyes open. When I did, I had no idea where I was. Flames were all around us. Phoenix let relief come to his flaming stare—but only for a second—then he pulled me up. I was lying on a hospital bed. Ashes, a massive amount of ashes, lay where I was.
Phoenix beckoned his fingertips swiftly above them, and in that instant they rose, swirled rapidly, then vanished into his hand. He glanced across the room. Skylynn was raising Mason, calling his ashes. Phoenix pulled Gavin up with a glance and called his ashes before he turned to me. I was still out of it. I could not figure out why everything was burning. I felt like jelly. I was not solid.
“Walk out of here,” Phoenix demanded.
“Where is here?” I asked as I swayed forward.
Phoenix called the flames around us to my body, and when the fire wrapped around me I felt strength come back to me.
“The hospital. They set it on fire. The flames will give you strength. Walk through them, right out the front door. We have to get you home,” Phoenix demanded.
“Then do your whisk thing,” I said as I reasoned that moving was more than I could do at this moment.
“Your family has to know you are alive. They have to see you walk out. Skylynn and I have to get the patients out. Cadence didn’t care who she took out when she took you down,” he argued, telling me I could do this. That he was not my crutch. That I didn’t need one.
I glanced around the room, noticing that as Skylynn put her hands on a bed, the patient and every machine around that patient vanished in that instant. She appeared a second later, moving to the last patient in the room, but surely not the last one in the hospital.
“Trust me,” Phoenix said as he pulled me to his lips. The force and passion behind his warm flesh focused me once more. He pulled away from me, then led me to Mason and Gavin, placing me in the center.
“Walk through the flames—the longer, the better!” Phoenix demanded as he vanished from my side.
Mason and Gavin looked a thousand times stronger than me, and more determined. They each took one of my arms and led me out of the room, purposely walking through the flames in the hall. With each step, I felt stronger, but it wasn’t enough. It was like I’d been dying of thirst, and no matter how much I drank I was still dry.
Firemen were crawling across the floor. Mason and Gavin moved me to the side wall, hiding us behind the flames until they had passed. We slowly walked through the blaze as we descended the stairs that led to the lower floors, floors that were not on fire, which meant the strength the flame
s were giving me had vanished. I felt Gavin and Mason hold me up as we moved through the open lobby, as firemen came to us and ushered us out.
The parking lot was full of fire trucks, police cars, patients on beds, others standing holding oxygen over their faces. Hundreds and hundreds of people were running in every direction.
As we passed the beds where the doctors were frantically working on the people, I heard, “It was an angel. She carried me out,” and “He was so fast, so strong. He brought me here—he saved me,” from the disoriented patients.
I didn’t have the strength to smile on the outside, but on the inside I was beaming. Emergency workers tried to help us, but Mason and Gavin waved them away as they pushed us through the crowd. We had almost reached the edge of the mass of people when I heard someone scream out Mason’s name. It was his mom, and she charged though that crowd with nothing less than the sheer power of motherhood.
Gavin’s mom must have been near her, heard her cry, because Gavin’s name was screamed next.
They both kept one hand on me as they embraced their mothers. I glanced over my shoulder to see the fifth floor raging with flames, firemen courageously aiming their weapons of water at that floor—hoping against all hope that they could save lives, be the heroes they were born to be.
This was my fault. I was the target, the one that had put the weakest people in danger. I wanted to save them, save this building, and with that thought the flames breaking out through the windows froze. An eerie silence came to the crowd. The only sound was water from the hoses that were now obsolete.
I felt my knees buckle, and as they did the icy flames turned to water and washed down through the building, ending any and all further destruction that the fire could have wrought. I felt arms catch me and assumed it was the guys, but I recognized the cologne, the dark blue suit: it was Ben. He had caught me and turned me in his arms in utter disbelief.