Black Knight (41 page)

“Free!” she screams, her eyes no longer empty but filled with the anguish of everyone she saw tortured to death in the prison camps in North Korea, her sister included. Her pain is suicide pain, the type that cannot be borne; and she won’t bear it. Turning, she leaps into the pool of lava that swallowed Viper’s bracelet and I hear one final scream, loud and short, and a massive flare rises to the ceiling but it doesn’t last. In seconds there’s no trace left of Li.

I wish I could have stopped her.

But maybe there was no point.

Maybe she was too far gone.

Leaning over, I kiss Marc on the lips and speak softly to him. “It’s you. It was you from the start,” I say, and even though his body is colder than ice, and his heart no longer beats, and he no longer breathes, I know I can heal him.

Impossible, you think? Think again. . . .

Only one will survive.

Which is another way of saying one MUST survive.

I kiss Marc again and whisper in his ear. “I want it to be you.”

Standing, I close my eyes and visualize Li in my mind’s eye. Once again, I feel her body as if we’re still holding hands, every nerve and muscle and inch of skin that made her look the way she looked. Then I feel a wave of power sweep over me and know that from the outside I look exactly like her.

I stagger outside and find Kyle waiting behind the boulder where I left him with a spear poking out his front and back, and a tourniquet tied tight to his leg to stop his bleeding.

Only, the spear is missing because it never struck him.

Clever Kyle. He never forgot my instruction to duck.

The impaled spear had been an illusion.

Yet his leg is still bleeding and I realize that Nordra did wound him, after all, and seriously. The wound has caused him to pale. He stares up at me, or rather at Li, and nods without surprise.

“Did you take care of them?” he asks, his voice flat.

I nod mechanically. “Viper killed Sam. I killed Jessie.”

“And Marc?” Kyle asks.

“He’s dead.”

Kyle gestures to a spot beside him. “I need your healing touch. Come, sit here and invoke your sister’s power.”

As Li, I sit beside him but act like I’m hesitant to touch him.

“What will become of me after you’re healed?” I ask.

He acts annoyed, for a moment, before he focuses on my eyes, locking his gaze on mine. He speaks in a soft, persuasive tone.

“When you’ve healed me, you’ll return to the cave and jump in the lava. You’ll die but in dying you’ll be reunited with your sister. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I say.

Kyle lies his head back on the boulder. “Heal my leg now.”

I reach out with my left hand to touch his leg, while with my right hand I pull Viper’s poisonous knife from my belt, the blade that had been designed by Kyle to kill me.

I raise the knife to stab him.

But to my dismay his relaxed victorious demeanor suddenly vanishes. I’m confident he hasn’t penetrated my disguise, but it doesn’t matter. He’s seen my raised knife, and his reflexes are staggering, faster than my own. The instant I move in for the kill he grabs his machete and raises it above his head to strike.

Yet I still have the advantage; his machete is still above his head when I bury Viper’s poisonous knife in his diaphragm, six inches beneath his sternum. Above me his machete trembles and falls from his fingers as I push the blade in deeper, making sure his system absorbs every last drop of the burning pain the poison will bestow on him. Indeed, that’s why I don’t just stab him in the heart and end it. I want him to feel the kind of pain he has caused all of us.

Kyle gasps as I yank out the knife.

“Feel all better now?” I ask. I’ve dropped my disguise, although I can’t say when I did so.

The rear of his head falls back on the boulder with a thump.

“Fuck you,” he mutters.

“Are those to be your last words? You’re dying, Kyle.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

I crouch by his side. “You’re a master hypnotist, aren’t you? That’s what you were trying to tell us when you bragged about having the cloaking gene. But you’ve also got the telepathy gene, which you didn’t tell us about. That’s why you can stare someone in the eye and get them to do pretty much anything you want. True?”

Kyle grimaces. “That sort of sums it up.”

“You killed Pierre and Keb to make me suspect Sam.”

“Sure.”

“How?”

Kyle feigns boredom. “There was a back entrance to that cave none of you knew about.”

“They meant nothing to you?”

“Gimme a break,” Kyle says.

I nod. “You started your attack on our group when you took Li with you to heal your buddies. It was then you planted the time bomb in her to kill me when all your other enemies were dead. That means you were banking on me being the last one alive.” I pause. “I suppose I should feel flattered.”

“I knew you had it in you,” Kyle says.

“Maybe. But you thought I was too naive to figure out your plan until too late.”

“I was a fool. I underestimated you.”

I reach out and squeeze his arm. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have no idea how close you came to fooling me.”

“How did you figure it out?”

I lean over and whisper in his ear. “I finally took a good look at your hole card.”

He’s bitter. “You didn’t know. I had you fooled. It was that wall, that damn wall, it warned you somehow.”

I wipe the blood from the blade on my pants leg. “In a sense it was the wall. In another sense it was the love of a dear friend I lost in Las Vegas that came to my rescue.”

The burning is already beginning to spread through his blood. He shakes with pain and trembles with fear. His bitterness appears to grow and I realize that this is a first for him. No one has ever defeated him before.

“Too bad you’re not going to have a chance to celebrate your victory with your lover boy,” Kyle chokes, managing to flash a satisfied grin. I stand and slap him in the face.

“How little you understand love,” I say.

His whole body is suddenly racked with tremors as blood leaks from his gut and sweat drips off his face. The
real
pain from the poison has finally hit, I realize. His cocky attitude vanishes in an instant. Suddenly he is just a pathetic beaten asshole, and I pity him. But only a little. . . .

“Jessie, please, at least stop the pain. Kill me,” he begs. “I can’t bear it.”

Leaning over with the knife, I use the sweat dripping off his face and his shirt collar to wipe away any last remaining residue of poison from the blade.

“Do it!” he cries, thinking I’m about to cut his throat.

“I will, I will,” I say, even though I have no intention of stopping his pain. I hold up my naked wrists for him to see. I actually smile. From reading, I know the best way to open the veins is to cut from the wrist up the center of the inside of each arm. Feeling not a shred of fear, I press the blade deep into my flesh and swiftly make the incisions in front of Kyle and then toss the knife over my shoulder.

“Do you understand love now?” I ask.

Kyle gasps in disbelief. “Why?”

I smile. “Because only one can survive.”

I walk away without another word. My destination is the wall and I know it will be a hard hike at the rate I’m losing blood. I’d like to bury Chad, although I doubt I’ll have the strength, and I’d like to have another quiet chat with Russ before I go. I always loved Russ and wish he hadn’t left my life so soon.

But Chad is already half covered with ash by the time I reach the wall, and a stream of molten red lava has spilled over from the volcano’s crown and is slowly creeping toward Nordra’s body and the black wall. Nordra being the warrior he was, I doubt he’ll mind having his remains incinerated.

I’m not surprised the volcano has sent out lava to cover the area. It will probably pile up against the wall and cremate me as well. But it’s only a narrow stream and it will take time. The one thing the king of the island has, though, is time. I was right to mistrust it. I knew it would claim me for its own in the end.

I’m only ten feet from the wall when I stumble and fall and can’t get up. Rolling onto my back, I stare up at the stars and the edge of the wall and try to figure out if it really has a top. The pain in my wrists has subsided and I no longer feel as if I’m squirting blood onto the ground. Considering that I don’t have long to live, I feel pretty good.

Time goes by and I think of everything that has happened in the past few days. As the old song says, “Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.” I’m pleased that in the end I had the courage to do what I thought was right. The only thing that makes me sad is that I’d like to shake the hand of the winner of the Field. Maybe even give him another kiss.

And of course I miss Lara and Jimmy. God do I miss them . . .

I close my eyes and drift. When I open them, there’s a hint of light in the sky and the narrow stream of lava has reached the wall. I doubt it will have much effect on it.

A figure climbs over the hill and waves to me.

I wish I could wave back but I can’t move.

He walks to where I lie and kneels by my side, brushing my sticky hair from my eyes. I can’t remember the last time I showered.

I smile. “You woke up on your own.”

Marc nods. “I was lucky.”

“That’s because you’re a lucky guy. I knew it the first night I dreamed about you.”

He smiles. “If I knew you were watching I would have behaved better.”

“No, it was fun. You had everything planned.”

His smile fades. “What happened?”

“Kyle and I had a final showdown. He betrayed us all in the end, the bastard. Luckily, I was able to kill him.”

“How do you feel?”

“Happy. Sad. That’s life, I guess, and death.”

Marc’s eyes water and he tries to blink away the tears but I see them. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asks.

“Hold me. Hold me in your arms.”

He leans over and picks me up and presses his head to my head. “I wish you could do this with me.”

“You’ll feel more confident when you press your bracelet to the wall. You have to do it—the pictures in the cave made that clear. It’s the final step in winning the Field. You’ll instantly remember the experiences of every witch who fought on this island and was victorious here. You’ll even get acquainted with that friend I told you about, Cleo.”

“She sounds like a special woman.”

“Like you, she only changed into a witch when she came here. Her mentor was the one who helped her.”

“Her mentor was your inspiration?” Marc asks.

“In a way. But the more I got to know you, I knew it had to be you. Don’t ask me to explain. The Council will be lucky to have you.” I add, “Just don’t let anyone boss you around.”

His face darkens. “But won’t you be there when we’re in witch world? You told me when a person dies in the real world, it’s not such a big deal.”

I wish I had the strength to reach up and touch his cheek.

“I don’t know where here is but it’s not the real world,” I say.

“So you don’t know if we’ll meet again?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t,” I say past a painful lump in my throat. A shudder goes through my body. I want to try—I should be crying. But a part of me feels everything has worked out for the best, the way it was supposed to. Even if that best means I am about to die.

Still, another part of me does not want to let go—not to life, not to Marc. It’s sad it’s taken me so long to realize how I truly feel about him. Jimmy will always be my first love, it’s true, but Marc will be my last.

My words are hard on Marc and he holds me tighter.

“It’s time,” I whisper.

His tears flow freely now. “Did I ever tell you that I love you?”

“Once or twice but you can tell me again.”

“I love you, Jessie. I’ll love you forever.”

I smile. “I love you more.”

He kisses me. I feel his lips touch mine.

Then I feel myself floating upward, like people talk about when they have a near-death experience. But I also feel like I’m levitating up the side of the wall so I’m not sure if my body is making the trip or if it’s just my spirit.

Once I reach the top, I stand at the edge and look out over the island. I see Marc down below, pressing his bracelet to the wall, standing as still as a statue, and it’s like I can see the whole of the Field at once.

A long time seems to go by.

I stand and wait, although I know not what for.

Then I hear a sound and I am no longer alone.

A woman clears her throat behind me. “Having fun yet?”

I whirl. “Who are you?” I ask.

“You don’t recognize me?”

“You look familiar. Sort of like my mom.”

“I’m not your mother, Jessie.”

Then I recognize her.

I’m looking at an older version of myself.

I gasp. “So it isn’t over?”

“Not by a long shot. It’s just begun.” She offers her hand and I take it. “Where would you like to go first? Or maybe I should say when?”

“Can we go back to when Columbus discovered America?”

“Columbus didn’t discover America. The Vikings did.”

“I know that. Wherever he came ashore—whenever—I’d like to go back and greet him. If that’s okay?”

The woman smiles and leads me over the top of the wall.

“I remember asking that same question,” she says.

EPILOGUE

THE MEMORIAL SERVICE WAS FOR
close friends and family so Marc decided to sit at the back. He hoped no one would notice him and ask a bunch of questions. He wouldn’t have come except he felt compelled. It seemed already his intuition was guiding his steps.

Jessica Ralle’s father stood and gave a long talk about how special his daughter was and how he would miss her. Jessica’s mother was going to speak after him but got choked up and was unable to talk. But a string of friends spoke next: Alexis, Herme, Debra. James went last and his talk was the only one Marc could relate to.

“Jessie hated funerals,” he began. “She often told me she wasn’t going to show up at her own. And now that she’s gone and we have no body to bury, I’m sure she would laugh and say, ‘See, I got my last wish.’ Many people might have thought her sense of humor strange and it was, because she was a strange girl. I mean that in a good way. When we first met, I knew she wasn’t like anyone I had ever met before. It took me a little time to realize just how wonderful she was but she gave me that time and for that I’ll always be grateful. Our relationship started with a few bumps but Jessie always had faith in us. She had faith in love itself. I know that might sound corny but it sums up her approach to life. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for someone she cared about. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for someone she had just met. Even though we may never know the circumstances surrounding her death, I suspect she died so that others could live. Like a wise man once said, there can be no greater love.”