Warm air swarmed around us, making me feel weightless in his humming embrace. An instant later, we were far from the shores of Delen. I could smell a musky, regal odor. I glanced away from him to find us surrounded by a dim room filled with countless pieces of furniture covered by dusty, white sheets. The room seemed to go on forever in each direction.
“What is this?” I asked, wanting to uncover the hidden treasures all around us.
“The attic to the palace,” he answered, still entirely too focused on me. “The veil...can you see it?”
I glanced all around us, finding us alone. My blank stare told him no.
I felt a warm brush of air glide by us, which caused me to notice Phoenix for the first time.
“You’re in it, Sunshine. You just have to see it,” he said to me.
As his words lingered in my thoughts, I glanced around once more, seeing images lurking around the white sheets. The more I focused, the more real they became. I then began to notice the ones that were near us.
All at once, everything seemed less solid. I happened to glance down, and when I did, on instinct I threw myself in Landen’s arms. The floor was not completely there anymore. I could see all the way down to the first floor of the palace, every floor between here and there, thousands upon thousands of souls lurking in every corner, making it impossible to see which were real and which were the damned.
Landen tightened his arms around me and scorned Phoenix with a glance, telling him to stifle the laugh I heard deep in his chest.
“We don’t have all night, Guardian,” I heard Skylynn say, as if she were absolutely bored. I turned to see her with her arms crossed, standing just behind us. “Good, she can see me so now we can move on.”
“What is your deal?” I asked, letting go of Landen. “I thought we were good?”
“Had a bad day, which has followed a few bad centuries,” she scoffed, pushing back a few ghosts that she felt were lingering too close to her.
“I know it’s a lot to take in up here, with this many souls. You can ignore it—not see what we are seeing, if you want to.”
“Not good with heights.”
Oddly, that seemed to surprise him. He looked like he was rethinking something, but whatever it was, he pushed it aside.
“Just focus on what you want to see. Your eyes can block what you can’t handle.”
I nodded to tell him I understood, then dared to look down again. I reached in my pocket and pulled out another lemon drop, wanting to stifle the taste of blood that was seeping into my mouth.
Skylynn was watching me with a curious stare as Landen and Phoenix began to ask the souls around us to give us room to work. She reached in her pocket and handed me a velvet bag.
“I guess you don’t need this anymore, but it’s the thought that counts, right?”
“What is it?” I asked, peeking in and smelling the sweet aroma.
“Lemon balm. Helps with anxiety, calming element.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
She halfway nodded before she turned, then with a wave of her hands created a massive flaming pentagram outlined by a circle. I noticed words and other symbols within the fire as well.
“You see this?” she confirmed.
My obvious glance told her I did.
“Commit it to memory. You have to make it.”
“You’re not serious?”
“Oh, but I am,” she said with a sigh, giving me the impression that she had her doubts I could manifest anything useful.
Nervously, I glanced around at the covered furniture, knowing I would end up burning down this entire palace if I tried.
“It’s not really there, you see it because you know in reality it’s there,” she offered as Landen and Phoenix made their way to us again, both peering down through the translucent floor.
Telling myself not to get sick, I focused on what they were looking at and saw a massive ballroom that was near empty. Looking to the front steps of the palace, I saw the carriage arriving with Charlie and the others, as the court, Perodine, Alamos, and Drake waited on them.
“There he is, mate,” Phoenix said to Landen, nodding to a man that was standing along the line of people marking the entrance.
I wasn’t entirely sure I was looking at the same person as they were, but I did notice a man that was taller than the others, with almost yellow hair. He stuck out because the ghosts refused to go anywhere near him.
“He’s up to something,” Landen muttered as he walked across the attic, looking down at every crevice the palace had. A few minutes later, he waved Phoenix over. Any other time I would have followed, but I was doing well just to keep my balance with the height.
As Charlie approached, all the ghosts I could see began to rumble amongst themselves, then I began to hear her name and Draven’s. They were telling her to run.
“What’s going on?”
“Hush!” Skylynn said to them. “Out of my space.”
They all vanished from around us and appeared on lower levels, continuing their cry for Charlie.
“Why are they telling her to run?”
“I’m sure they feel the Escorts.”
“Draven?”
“No. The ones that are in service to Xavier.”
“How do we stop them?”
“By doing our own thing—quickly.”
She glanced to my hand, to the velvet bag. “Take that out, rub it across your hands, your skin. Calm yourself and focus.”
Grudgingly, I listened and rubbed the leaves across my skin.
Landen and Phoenix walked back in our direction just as I put the broken leaves back into the bag and stuffed it into my pocket.
“We can’t let him get out of this room,” Landen said to Skylynn.
“He’s strong. Make up your mind. Either we make him weak, or we trap him.”
“No trap will hold him long,” Phoenix offered.
After debating with himself for a few minutes, Landen looked at Phoenix. “If I go, you stay with her no matter what.”
Phoenix glanced over me slowly, as if he were debating if he wanted to be in charge of me. “I can do that,” he said finally.
“What is going on? Where would you go?” I asked nervously.
“If Xavier moves, I need to follow to make sure he’s not hurting anyone.” His glance fell to the floors below. The ballroom was filling up with guests. “Let’s do this.”
“Where is your Witness?” Skylynn said with little enthusiasm.
As if called, Clarissa appeared next to me.
“Right,” Skylynn said. “You’re on, Willow.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I showed you. Do that, but bigger.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Apparently Guardian is, because he thinks you are capable of actually helping us now that you are not running into someone else’s arms.”
“You’re throwing that card in my face?” I said as I blushed with anger and stepped forward. “At least I wasn’t shallow enough to hold a taken man!”
“Ever heard of Karma?” she threw back at me. “We did nothing wrong, and enjoyed every second of it.”
Just as I went to throw all my force at her, a rush of warm wind surrounded me. Phoenix had carried me at least five hundred feet away from her, but not so far that I couldn’t hear Landen scolding her.
“She is just trying to get your energy pumped up for this spell. She didn’t mean one damn word. It was miserable. I’ll bear witness to that.”
“There are better ways to get my energy pumped up. She meant it,” I seethed, feeling adrenaline coursing through me, the storm deep inside swelling.
“Skylynn only knows one way: to push buttons.”
“I’ll show you a button!”
And with that, I created a massive burning pentagram, with all those little symbols in place.
“One hell of a devil’s trap,” Phoenix applauded with a sleek grin.
Both Skylynn and Landen turned to
us, finding themselves in the center of what I created. The smirk on Skylynn’s face told me that Phoenix was right: she did do that on purpose.
A bit overconfident, I started to walk back to them, avoiding looking down. Clarissa was walking around the details of the mark, holding her hand out over the fire, letting drops of her blood fall into the flames. When I reached the edge of the circle, at the bottom point of the star, Phoenix told me to stay. He then moved to the next point while Landen, Skylynn, and Clarissa marked the other points.
“Focus on the fire,” Landen coached me from across the circle. “No matter what, do not let it go out until this is over.”
I nodded once to tell him I understood. I heard him and the others begin to whisper words in another language. As they did, the smoke from the fire twisted into a vine. Twenty feet in the air, it pooled out into a cloud of darkness, swirling so fast that I could not look at it.
The air around us was vibrating with energy, and the ghosts were screaming louder than before. I wanted to look around and see why, but I was too afraid to lose my focus.
With each minute that passed, the air became denser, the cries louder – then all at once, within the dark smoke above us, a purple wave appeared, lacing through the black. Landen’s relief and excitement told me it was a good thing.
There was an eerie silence that came when the purple began to take over the black. The ghosts were silent and the raging flames were still. There was not a sound that could be heard – that is, until a screeching scream pierced around us.
I thought it was normal, but the automatic defensive emotion I felt from Landen told me I was wrong.
That scream was not alone; there were others that followed. I dared to glance away from the fire to see Escorts, dressed in black suits, appearing on different levels of the palace.
The point of the star that Skylynn was in front of erupted, causing the flames there to reach the purple and black smoke. I could see her stare through the flames and followed it to see Aden a few floors down, running – but not from someone. He was trying to catch somebody. Before I could figure out who, or why he was even here, I felt ice cold hands reaching into my body. As I glanced back, I saw Silas pull an Escort off me, reach into it, and pull black smoke out just before its remains burned. Two more appeared, but before they could act, Silas ended them, too.
“Hey!” he yelled in Skylynn’s direction. “Focus!”
She threw a glare at him but listened and began to whisper the coded words across her lips.
“You, too,” he said to me. “Pull it out, or you will fail. We’re outnumbered.” He vanished before I could ask what to pull or how.
I returned my focus to the smoke that was climbing into the sky. In my mind, I saw it as a flaming tornado, one that I needed to pull everything up, faster. It was a mental battle. I was terrified that I would create a real one, hurt everyone below.
After endless moments of this mental battle, I managed to focus all the energy I was sending out on the fiery trap before me. The energy was so intense, so powerful, it blew my hair back and nearly forced me to close my eyes. I envisioned that blond man downstairs, his energy burning in this smoke, being ripped from his being.
Moments later, other Escorts appeared around me. Adrenaline was fueling my body. I knew I could fight them and keep the fire burning, but just as I went to defend myself, Dane appeared, proving to be just as fierce as Silas was at stopping them. None of them had a chance to get within feet of me.
The spinning smoke began to break. In the center, a light appeared, and a flow of energy that looked like a waterfall flowing backward rushed into it.
I had a feeling that that was the goal, that what I was seeing was Xavier’s power escaping him. The fact that Escorts kept appearing told me I was right. They were doing everything in their power to stop us.
An explosion of energy knocked us all back.
Across the flames, I saw Landen stand immediately. He was glaring down through the floors of the palace and disappeared at that second. I would have followed or protested, but I was under attack. Every second, I felt icy hands reach for me. Growing tired of it, I turned and charged my hand into the first Escort I saw, pulling out its essence.
Something happened inside of me at that moment. I didn’t have to think. I didn’t have to focus. I was on autopilot, killing anything that posed a threat to me.
Then all at once, the fire of the pentagram vanished. Thinking I’d lost my focus, I stopped my fight, but at that point there was no reason to fight anymore. All of the Escorts had vanished.
I looked down through the floors, trying to see what was going on, where Landen was, the others, but there were too many souls in my way. My stare found Skylynn. She was frozen in place, staring into the distance with utter exhaustion on her face. She vanished at that moment.
Dane helped me up from my crouched position. “What is going on?” I asked.
“Nothing now,” he said, looking over Clarissa, making sure she was okay. “You got this?” he said to Phoenix, who was walking toward me.
“Go on,” he said with a nod to him.
Dane and Clarissa vanished at that moment.
I didn’t have a chance to utter a word. A warm rush absorbed me, and the next second I felt the hum of the string, Phoenix’s strong arms around me.
Feeling awkward in his embrace, I stepped back. He smirked in response.
“Where is Landen?”
“Helping.”
“Then I need to help, too.”
“No. You need to wait right here.”
I glared at him. “Maybe you didn’t get the memo, but I do not play the part of the damsel in distress.”
He tried to hold it in, but he couldn’t. He bellowed with laughter, making me feel like an idiot.
I didn’t have time to entertain him. I was pretty sure I knew where I was in the string, and I went to walk into one of the gray passages only to feel his arms around mine, his rock hard chest against my back.
“Now, now. Calm down.”
I elbowed him to get away, but it was pointless. He was too strong.
“No. What if he needs us? You should at least go!”
“He doesn’t need anyone. He’ll be here in a second.”
“Did it work? Can you at least tell me that?”
He let go of me once he felt me lose my struggle. “We didn’t make him as weak as we wanted, but we did take some of his power away. That will help tomorrow.”
“You’re sure?” I asked, looking up at him.
“He would not have sent his army otherwise.”
Landen appeared at that moment. He nodded once to Phoenix. Apparently that was his cue because he vanished at that moment.
“What the hell is going on? I’m sick of all of you popping in and out. It’s making me dizzy.”
That made him smirk. As his dominant stare glanced over every part of me, looking for some kind of damage, his pride and relief told me he was amazed by what I’d accomplished during that spell.
“He went after Charlie.”
“Who, Phoenix?”
“No, Xavier.”
“What?”
“She’s fine. They’re all fine,” he assured me. Something was different about him. His pupils were wide again.
“Something happened to you,” I said, almost to myself.
He let a wry smile reach the edge of his lips. “Charlie let some...well, some energy out, and I was kinda standing there. It’s weird...it’s like my insights are more than feeling now, like I can literally see what I feel.”
“Why did she let out energy?” I asked, raising my brow, prepared to rip him into shreds for putting that girl in danger.
“She’s fine.”
“Apparently, she wasn’t at one point. Why are you keeping me in the dark?”
He reached his hands for my waist and pulled me closer to him. “I have to…we need her to live out her fate.”
“So I’m a weak link?” I asked sarcastically
. “I will meddle or something? You seem to forget that I am the reason they are here, that I was the one that barged into their home and gave them no choice but to come with me. And days ago, I promised Nana I would keep them safe.”
“And a great queen knows the power of carefully placed delegation.”
“I didn’t delegate anyone to take care of them. I don’t trust anyone to do that for me.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Well, yeah.”
“All right then. I took care of it. They are no worse than when they walked into this night.”
“Fine. I want to see it with my own eyes.”
“Brady is going to lead them home to Chara. We’ll wait here until he does.”
“Then we’ll go with them and talk this out.”
He smiled sinfully. “When we began, what was the one thing we always wanted, fought to get, ran away to find?”
“Time alone.”
He nodded once. “Let them have that right now. You know they need it.”
As I stared into his eyes, I felt his truth and his honest intent. I guess he was right. It wasn’t fair to put them through this night, then keep them up all night debating it only to go right back to war tomorrow.
Silence took over for countless minutes as I paced the string and fought the urge to step into the passage and see if they were okay with my own eyes.
“Since when are you scared of heights?” he asked in a lighthearted tone.
I looked up at him like he was insane. “There was, like, an insane amount of floors, people—ghosts, whatever—everywhere. I felt like I was going to fall.”
“So it’s falling, not the heights that bothers you?”
Before I could answer or ask him what was up with the small talk, Charlie and Draven emerged from the passage. They couldn’t see us from where they were. The haze was blocking us. I waited for the others to come through the string, but it was just them along with Brady.
I judged every emotion coming from them. No matter how hard I tried, I could not piece together what they went through tonight. Every emotion was present. But Landen was right: they wanted to be alone.