Between (36 page)

Where
is
he?

I finally spot him on the far side of the Source, lying motionless on the ground beneath the treefolk, and I take off running.

I don’t see the long, narrow branch lodged in his side until I’m practically on top of him.

“Keiran!” I whimper, falling to my knees beside him.

He takes a ragged breath. “I’m all right,” he pants, but the sheen on his pale skin says otherwise. I lay one hand on his chest to comfort him and examine the branch with my other. My trembling fingers barely graze the tip of the branch. Keiran’s sharp intake of breath paralyzes me.

“Seth!” I cry. “Help!”

He’s beside me in seconds and winces at the sight of Keiran’s body. “It has to come out,” he says, his eyes on the branch.

Keiran’s fingers curl into fists in the grass. He squeezes his eyes shut. “Do it,” he gasps. “Quick.”

That branch is going to leave a fairly large hole in Keiran’s side. I’ve never seen Seth heal anything like that. “How quickly will you be able to heal him?” I ask. “He’s going to lose a lot of blood.”

Seth’s mouth is set in a grim line, and his eyes are as serious as I’ve ever seen them. “It’s his only chance. He can’t move, and we can’t leave him like this.”

Of course we can’t. No one’s getting left behind. I place my hand over Keiran’s and squeeze. “I’m right here.”

He presses his lips together, breathing hard through his nose. Seth wraps his steady hands around the branch and hesitates for only a moment before pulling it out in one fluid movement.

A strangled sputter escapes Keiran’s lips as his eyes fly open and roll backward. I press my hands to the dark stain spreading across his shirt. Seth drops the branch and replaces my hands with his own. The glow is quick. I just hope it’s quick enough.

There’s movement in the distance, beyond Seth’s shoulder. A darkened form appears in the fog.

“Seth,” I whisper.

He follows my gaze, and we watch while the figure comes closer, separating from the shadows.

His face is a bit slimmer. His brown curls are a bit longer.

But it’s him.

“Sam!”

“Charlie, wait!” Seth yells, but I ignore him.

I take off running, and my brother catches me in his arms.

T
WENTY-ONE

“C
harlie!” Seth yells again, his feet landing in sharp crunches among the debris.

I don’t look back. I don’t need to. He’s here.

I fold my arms around Sam’s neck and hold on for dear life, clutching his shoulders, breathing him in. His arms circle my waist, and he squeezes me in a forever kind of hug.

“Chuck.” Sam’s voice is laced with affection, and it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in weeks. He tries to pull away and I hold tighter, afraid to let go. I don’t want to open my eyes in case it all vanishes. Ever since I left the mortal realm, I’ve had to accept that nothing is what it seems.

Seth comes to a stop, practically standing on top of us. He grabs my arms, pulling me away from Sam. I immediately feel cooler without Sam’s warmth.

“Seth! Stop!” I yank my arms from his hands and study his face, confused. He’s watching Sam, his entire body tense. Why? It’s Sam.

This is what we’ve been waiting for. This is why we’re here.

“You found my bracelet,” Sam says.

His voice is perfection. I scan every inch of his body, from the curly mess on top of his head to his broad shoulders to his long legs and enormous feet. It’s him. He’s here. I’m afraid to look away. I don’t even want to blink. A smile pulls on my lips. “I was so afraid I wouldn’t find you.”

Seth takes another step until he’s closer to Sam than I am. “Where’s Whalen?” he asks. “You’re just out here wandering around alone?”

Seth’s words snap me out of it. My eyes dart past Sam into the fog. Seth’s right. Whalen could be anywhere. “Right,” I say, looking over my shoulder at Keiran, still lying on the ground. “I want to hug you for days, but let’s get back to Ellauria first, where it’s safer.”

“No,” Sam declares. His eyes stay firmly planted on my face, staring past Seth as if he isn’t there. “I’m not going to Ellauria.”

Huh?

“Come with me,” Sam says. “We’ll go home. Away from all this,” he nods at the Between, then finally settles angry eyes on Seth, “and them.”

Home? My skin prickles. I blink, and blink again. The home he speaks of no longer exists. There’s nothing left. The house may still be there, but everything that made it a home has been taken away.

“What are you talking about? We can’t go home.”

He smiles, a sad, lopsided smile. “That’s what they want you to think. Whalen told me we can go back. It’ll be just like it was. We can forget all of this.”

Whalen told him? Like that means anything? Besides, I don’t want to forget all of this. This is who I am now. I can’t go back. I can’t pretend this world doesn’t exist or that I’m not a part of it. “Sam, it won’t be like it was. We know the truth now. You’re a jourling. I’m a muralet. We don’t belong in the world we used to know.”

Seth starts talking in smooth, even tones. “Sam, Whalen lied. The two of you can’t go back. Nothing will ever be like it was. Whalen wants to destroy the Between.”

“I know,” he says, looking at me like I was the one speaking, “and we’ll go home.”

I shake my head, open-mouthed. I feel like the weight of the Mothman is on top of me again, taking away my air. This isn’t what’s supposed to happen. I came here to find Sam, get him away from Whalen, and take him to Ellauria where he’ll be safe.

Seth continues in his hostage negotiator voice. “If he destroys the Between, he destroys magic entirely. The realm, the creatures who live in it—they’ll die.”

I study Seth, awed by his demeanor. He’s as solid as a rock while everything inside me quivers.

Sam lowers his head to look directly into my eyes. “That’s why we have to get out of here.” He says it like the two of us are the most important parts of the equation. What about everyone else? What about these places? The Between? Ellauria? All the incredible creatures, with their beautiful histories and amazing powers? He can’t seriously believe that all those things should suffer.

And why does he keep looking at Seth with such animosity?

Alexander’s words echo in my mind.
The future of the Fellowship must come before any individual member
.

No. I’m not giving up my brother.

I lick my lips and try to explain this more clearly. “Sam, the mystical realm is built upon the Between’s magic.”

Sam closes his eyes and nods like he’s tired of hearing about it.

“Without it, the realm and everything in it dies. The creatures in the mortal realm will lose their powers. We’re not entirely sure what it’ll mean for them, but it’ll be catastrophic.” I take a deep breath. “We’re talking about the end of magic everywhere. That includes me and you. We’re magical. We’ll suffer.”

“No. You and I will be all right. Whalen said he’d make sure we survived.” Sam’s eyes light up, and he smiles like a missionary spreading his truth, like he’s about to give me the gift of life itself.

Seth laughs, short and quick, completely dumbfounded. I am too. This isn’t my brother. Sam would never sacrifice an entire population like this. He doesn’t even know them. He only knows what Whalen has told him.

Sam pushes past Seth. “We can go back, Chuck. No Fellowship. No magic. Normalcy. Me and you, hanging out on the porch, guitars and sketchbooks, while Mom bakes something in the kitchen.”

Oh, my God. He doesn’t know about Mom.

My stomach rolls, and a chill settles over me. “No, Sam.” I pause, wishing I didn’t have to say what is coming next. “Mom’s dead. The Mothman killed her.”

His face pales, and he stumbles backward. His eyes stay on mine, his expression passing through moments of shock, disbelief, and pain.

“No,” he says, over and over. Just the one word. “No.”

I reach for him, but he turns away and crouches to the ground, holding his head in his hands.

I look at Seth. He shakes his head slowly at me.

This isn’t the Sam that left us a few weeks ago. This is a new Sam, tainted with Whalen’s words. Whalen is as much a poison to my brother as he is to the Between, choking the life out of the Sam I grew up with.

Several seconds of painful silence pass before Sam takes a deep breath and says, “She shouldn’t have run. Whalen told us, if we ran, he couldn’t protect us.”

“What?” I ask.

“The Mothman killed her because she left.” Sam rises from the ground and turns. “All she had to do was stay with us. She went for the Fellowship instead.”

I simply cannot wrap my head around his thought process. The Mothman works for Whalen. How can he possibly blame the Fellowship for her death?

“The Fellowship didn’t kill her, Sam. The Mothman that Whalen sent after her did,” Seth says.

Sam sniffs and wipes his eyes with his fingers. “She chose that life. She chose to live for the Fellowship, and she died for it.” He holds out his hand to me. “No one gave us that choice. We were born into this life, but we don’t have to stay. We can leave.”

I stare at his empty hand, and something between a stunned laugh and sob escapes my chest. “I can’t leave, Sam. I can’t let Whalen destroy magic. Muralets are composed of the same elements that make up the Between. I
am
magic. Don’t you see? Destroying magic means destroying me.”

“It won’t happen like that,” he says. “Come with me.”

He knows what I am. He knows what Whalen wants to do. How can he not understand? I clench my teeth, infuriated by his refusal to see what he doesn’t want to see. “I. Can’t. It’s a death sentence.”

Sam’s hand closes, and his head drops.

“I’m growing tired of this,” a brittle voice announces from behind the shadows. “I told you she wouldn’t listen.”

A broad man with dark, stringy hair and pale eyes slinks out of the fog and straightens. His ashen skin is illuminated by the bands of sunlight that stream through the cracks in the clouds overhead.

Sam steps aside, moving in the man’s direction. It’s a silent gesture, but its significance is booming. It’s a choice, an alignment, and I stare in disbelief as my brother takes a stand next to the man who hasn’t introduced himself, but I already know who he must be.

“Whalen.” Seth grabs my arm, pushing me backward and positioning himself in front of me.

The confirmation of his identity chills me. The way he places his hand on Sam’s shoulder makes my stomach turn. The man responsible for ruining the lives of nearly every person important to me is comforting my brother, and my brother’s allowing it. My heart pounds in my throat, and I struggle to find my voice. “Sam.”

He won’t look at me.

“She’s choosing the Fellowship over you, son,” Whalen says. His voice is thick with sympathy, but there’s no mistaking the pleasure on his face. “Just like your mother. Just like I told you she would.”

Seth drops the composed act and raises his voice. “Sam, he’s brainwashing you. Whatever Whalen’s told you, it’s a lie.”

Sam lifts his head and glares at Seth, his eyes shining. “As far as I can tell, the only people who’ve lied to me are you and Mom, all in the name of your precious Fellowship.”

He says the word “Fellowship” as if it is a disease.

I know those feelings. They were mine. I remember the betrayal and anger I felt that first night in Ellauria, when every part of my life felt like a lie. I remember wanting nothing more than to turn back the clock and sit on my porch with Sam. I wanted to forget. I wanted to wipe all of this from my consciousness.

I had Seth to pull me out of it.

Sam had Whalen.

“Sam, the Fellowship kept us safe,” I tell him. “I know how you feel. Trust me. I was angry, too. But we can’t deny who we are.”

Whalen coughs, and I catch a whiff of a stench so horrid it makes my eyes burn. I turn my head away, gasping for clean air.

“You’re wrong. Magic is fleeting. It should be denied. It isn’t meant to be a part of us at all,” Whalen growls.

“Funny how you think that now that you’re nothing,” Seth fires back, lunging forward.

Whalen wheezes and thrusts an arm in Seth’s direction. Seth pushes me away just before a jagged yellow orb slices through the air and connects with his chest. An awful, strangled sound erupts from Seth’s mouth before he slams to the ground.

Sam’s forehead creases as he watches Seth writhe on the ground, and his eyes shift from Seth to Whalen and back.

“Tell me I’m nothing again,” Whalen spits.

The veins on Seth’s neck bulge, and his face grows red. He rolls from one side to the other, clutching his chest.

“Seth!” I scream, and rush toward him.

My scream slices through Whalen’s influence on Sam, and my brother yells, “Chuck, no! It’s necrolate!”

I freeze. Seth’s eyes close, then open, then close again. This time they stay that way.

His healing abilities give him immunity. He’s not dead. He can’t die. The necrolate can’t kill him
. I repeat it over and over in my head, but nothing prepares me for the moment when his body goes still.

I tremble and stagger backward. My heart throws itself against the front of my chest over and over, pounding all the way up in my throat. My head swims with fear. How do I fight someone who can throw death from his hands?

Sam circles around until he is standing in front of me, facing Whalen. He picks a jagged branch up from the ground and holds it like a bat in front of his body, pointing it at the fallen founder. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her.”

There. That’s my brother.

“You have outlived your usefulness, boy,” Whalen growls. He grabs the end of the branch and twists it from Sam’s hands before swinging it through the air. The thick end of the branch collides with the side of Sam’s head, and he falls to the ground.

I clutch my stomach and scream.

Sam’s eyes close and his mouth goes slack. Bright red blood spills through Sam’s hair and stains the grass below.

So much blood.

Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead
.

I can’t lose all of them. Mom. Seth. Sam. I can’t. I can’t have gone through all this and still lose everything.