Blest (22 page)

Claire closed her eyes, preparing herself to die.

Instead, she just felt the slightest touch of the cold steel, a whisper of feeling as the blade hovered above her. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked into Jim’s bright blue ones, gleaming back at her. He had both hands on the hilt of the knife. They were white and shaking, as if one hand was trying to push the knife down and the other was trying to pull it up.

“I can’t,” he said in a broken voice, throwing the blade aside and rolling off her. “Kill me if you want. I don’t know what you think I did, but I love you, Claire. I do.”

Claire sat up. The fighting was coming closer to them. It didn’t look like anyone had died yet, but it was clear that the angels and demons were getting tired. Even she felt tired.

“You lied to me!” she growled, trying to urge forward that powerful, consuming rage she had felt when she was fighting him. Anything to make her feel a little less guilty, a little less ashamed of everything she had done.

“I only lied to protect you,” Jim said, rocking on his knees beside her.

“Not about that!” Claire insisted. “About you and Sydney.”

Jim’s face was blank. “What?”

“Don’t lie to me!” she snapped. “I saw pictures of you kissing her under the willow tree!”

Jim’s eyes flashed, as if coming to a sudden understanding. “I’m sorry you saw that,” he said slowly, “but I wish you’d asked me about it. Sydney kissed
me
, and I pushed her away. Sydney and I are just friends, Claire. She wanted to be more, but I told her I couldn’t. How could I, when I love you?”

Claire paused, thinking. She had seen them together so many times, but never holding hands, never doing anything that made them seem like more than friends. The picture had been shown to her at exactly the right time, when she was in the right state of mind. She felt a chill as the pieces began to fall into place. Carlos said he had seen Jim fly out the window. He had heard Claire crying. He had known it would only take a little effort to push her over the edge. To turn her against Jim. To teach her the world was only full of liars and cheats. Could Jim be telling the truth? Did he really break up with her only to protect her?

Carlos landed beside her, slamming into the floor. “Kill him!” He offered Claire one of his swords. “If you kill him, Claire, we can get into Glisten. We can rule the Field with Gunner. As a family!”

“You . . . you used me,” she whispered.

“Used you?” he roared. He caught her eye, and seemed to realize that she knew the truth about Jim and Sydney. “I was trying to protect you! You needed a lie to give you comfort. I helped you turn into the demon you were always meant to be!”

“A lie for comfort is worse than a painful truth,” Claire said quietly.

“Claire,” Carlos yelled. “I led you, but you chose to follow. Don’t pretend this wasn’t your choice.”

“Not anymore,” she said, getting to her feet.

“What did you say?” The scales flared across his skin like a million bloody cuts, seething across his skin like gills.

“Not. Anymore,” she repeated, staring up at him, not backing away.

A few angels cried Jim’s name, flying across the pool toward them. Carlos turned and reached out with his hand. The fire around his blades disappeared, as if sucked through a vacuum, and a wall of flames shot sky-high all around them, forming a crackling circle. The shadows painted his face as he looked at Jim and Claire. Jim ran to the edge of the flames and grabbed his white-bladed knife from the floor. He rounded on Carlos, hunched in a fighting stance.

Carlos laughed. “This is who you’re choosing, Claire? An angel who can never understand you, will never understand what you are?”

“He understands me!” she shouted over the rushing of the fire.

“No one understands demons, except other demons,” Carlos said. “Do you think, if we lose, the Tribunal will let us go?” He jabbed his finger at Jim. “Do you think the angels will accept you? Or him? Angels do not love demons. And demons don’t love. We are stronger than that.”

“Not loving anything isn’t a strength,” Claire shot back. “Being numb isn’t power, it’s weakness. It’s fear. The fear to feel.”

Carlos narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying that you love this angel boy?”

Claire looked at Jim. His blond hair was matted down with sweat from the intense heat of the flames. His clothes had torn in a few places where she had fought with him. He had a lump above his eye where her elbow had caught him. Yet when she looked in his direction, he still gave her that glowing smile of his. She straightened, looking back up at her father.

“I love him,” she said. “I’ve always loved him.”

Carlos held her gaze. She looked for something in his stony visage, some flicker of feeling that a father would have for his daughter. But she could tell from his cold eyes that he had already detached himself from her, like Gunner had detached himself from their mother. Like Claire had tried to do with Jim.

“So be it,” Carlos said quietly. “I should have known when I saw your white feather that you were weak, tainted. A disgrace to all demons.”

Abruptly, Claire felt warm. Burning hot. She looked down and saw in surprise that Carlos had stabbed her through the gut. He yanked the blade out of her. “When I said that I knew how to open the Portal, I forgot to mention how. Two must die—an angel, and a demon. I had been wondering which of you would have to die, but you made the decision easy.”

Claire touched the hot blood dripping from her stomach, sticky against her fingers. “Jim,” she murmured, and crumpled to the cold tiled floor, reaching for him. He was paralyzed with shock, staring at her, open-mouthed.

“I love you . . .” she whispered.

“Don’t worry,” Carlos said, stepping over her. “He’ll die soon, too, and then the Portal will be open. Both of your deaths will have meaning. What a fitting end to your little romance.” He tapped his chin. “Almost Shakespearean, in a way.”

“
Die!
” Jim screamed. Claire saw him rushing at Carlos, and then everything went dark.

Jim couldn’t think straight, but maybe that was for the best. Because he was so angry that he couldn’t even feel fear. He only saw Carlos’s awful, scaly face, bent in a wicked grin. And Claire at his feet, moaning and clutching at the wound in her stomach.

Jim charged and swung his knife as hard as he could, but Carlos easily deflected the blade with his swords, then chopped down with both of them. Jim rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet again, only to drop into a crouch as Carlos swiped at his head. He jumped up toward Carlos, driving his knife at the demon’s head.

The move caught Carlos off-guard and the demon staggered backward, dropping one of his swords. The fires that had been raging around them suddenly died, twisting down into piles of ash and leaving clouds of smoke.

“You’re brave for an angel,” Carlos said as he pushed Jim away. “But being bold and stupid is only going to get you—”

“Shut up and die!” Jim snarled. Carlos had killed Claire. Carlos had killed his mom. Jim’s heart was on fire, and he knew that the only thing that could put out the flames was killing Carlos.

Carlos raised his eyebrows as Jim stormed at him again. This time, he jumped out of the way and slammed the hilt of his sword onto Jim’s head. Jim dropped immediately, almost blacking out. His head smashed against the cold floor. Carlos swirled above him. As Jim rolled onto his back, though, he felt a surge of electricity. Claire’s blood was warm beneath him. He could feel a tingling on his wings, right where he knew he had a single red feather.

It was like a strong wind had blown all the clouds out of his head, sending a fresh surge of strength and adrenaline through him. Jim grabbed his knife and thrust upward just as Carlos jammed his sword toward Jim’s chest. The blades smashed together and the sudden momentum sent Carlos reeling backward. Jim burst into the air, his wings carrying him upward. As he rose, he stabbed his knife straight into Carlos’s heart.

The demon gasped. The red scales across his cheeks flickered, like dying lights, and faded from his face. Carlos fell to his knees, clutching at the knife still buried within his chest.

“You . . .” Carlos said wonderingly. “You have a red feather?” And then he slumped across the floor and fell off the edge of the pool, dropping into the waterless basin where the Portal was swirling.

Jim rushed to Claire and dropped to his knees next to her, his hands shaking as he swept her hair from her face. Her eyes were half-open, and her face was as white as clouds.

“Jim . . .” she murmured. He took her hand, rubbing his thumb in circles on her palm, not sure what to do. Just hearing her say his name was enough.

“Don’t die on me!” Jim insisted, a tear running down his cheek. “I won’t let you,” he whispered. “I won’t let you.” He heard a commotion and looked up. Gunner was on the other side of the pool, tearing his knife from Miles’s chest. Miles’s lifeless body toppled into the pool.

Gunner stared right at Jim, his eyes full of hate. “You have tricked my sister and you killed my father, Jim. But their deaths will not be for nothing!” He turned around. General Lumen was pressed up against a wall, dodging and weaving between the jabbing knives of Ben and Julia. Sydney was fighting Erik and there was a body by her feet, but Jim couldn’t even tell if it belonged to a demon or an angel.

“Demons!” Gunner shouted. “The Portal is open!”

Jim opened his mouth in horror. With the blood from Carlos and Miles, the white lights of the Portal had turned a bright fiery red. It swirled faster, churning like a whirlpool, until the red turned to gold. Beyond the rippling colors, Jim could see a city on the clouds. Glisten.

“No!” General Lumen burst between Ben and Julia, shoving them to the ground, and sprinted full-force at the pool. Gunner tried to block her, but she slammed him in the head with the hilt of her sword. “Sydney!” General Lumen called. “I love you! Keep up the fight and never let the demons get into Glisten!”

“Mom, no!” Sydney screamed.

Time seemed to stand still. General Lumen flew right over the pool and ripped the glittering bracelet from her wrist, wordlessly tossing it to Jim. He caught it, puzzled, hypnotized by the display. Then in a single, fluid motion, Lumen took her sword and plunged it into her stomach.

The demons shouted in dismay.

Sydney let out a long, guttural moan.

Outside, the lightning exploded around them, alongside cascades of heavy thunder that made the whole school shake. The electricity went out as Lumen fell into the glowing, amber swirls leading to Glisten. When her body hit the floor, all of the lights from the Portal vanished, as if a candle had been blow out.

Chaos erupted within the gym. The demons fled. The angels shuffled around in the darkness, their white wings catching the suddenly clear sky outside, shining bright with the moon.

Jim scooped Claire up carefully in his arms and flew out into the cool night sky, holding her body close.

“Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die,” he murmured over and over, but he wasn’t sure if she could even hear him.

In the dawn sunlight, the water tower seemed like a skeleton on the horizon, a great testament to some unknown past. A shy, wet breeze rolled through the air as Jim landed on the platform and looked out across the wavering ocean of trees, which were erupting in damp greens, scarlets, polished oranges.

Jim laid Claire carefully down on the metal platform, cradling one hand underneath her head. In the morning sunlight, she seemed almost to glow, her wings lit from within. She looked beautiful, untouchable, like she was made from glass. But her body was cold, and her hands were covered in blood.

“Claire.” He choked, tears streaming down his face. “Stay with me. Please.”

He leaned forward to touch her lightly on the cheek, and felt the weight of Lumen’s bracelet jingling in his pocket. Curious, he took it out and studied it. She had always carried the thing around, but what did it actually do?

The white metal hummed against his skin, and one of the sapphires reflected a blue beam of bright light. Jim followed the light and saw that it was shining on the graffiti, right where he had painted the white circle around the two figures hovering in the sky. He squinted at the picture and realized that he hadn’t quite drawn a full circle. There were spots in it. Spots of blue, from the sky that he had painted underneath. Like the sapphires in the bracelet. The reflection of the sapphires glittered on the figure to the left, the new one he had painted to signify Claire, shining on her wrist.

Jim studied the bracelet and then looked back down at Claire. He wasn’t sure if she was even breathing. He crouched down next to her and gently slid the bracelet onto her wrist.

Claire gasped and shuddered violently. “Claire!” He struggled to pull it off, but the bracelet was glowing hot like a coal. He watched in wonder as the wound in Claire’s stomach sizzled away, closing and fading before his eyes. Soon, the only sign that she had been stabbed at all was the rip in her shirt.

Jim stared.

“Jim,” Claire murmured, opening her eyes. He grabbed her hand and held it tight.

“Hey,” he said nervously as she propped herself up on her elbows. Which Claire would he see now? The girl who said she loved him or the girl who had tried to kill him?

“Did you just save my life?” she asked.

“Um . . . I think so?”

Claire lunged at him. Jim tried to defend himself, but he didn’t have a chance. She was too fast. She grabbed the back of his neck, pulled him close, and kissed him. Her lips were warm against his, like a fire. Jim returned the kiss. He didn’t move, but he felt like he was flying with her, past the clouds and the sky and the stars, floating somewhere safe. Somewhere beyond the Field, beyond Glisten.

Claire pulled away from him slowly, staring into his eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I feel like I just woke up from a nightmare. A long nightmare.” She paused, looking out into the burgeoning sunrise. “I thought . . . I thought that you and Sydney were together, that you were laughing at me, using me to make the demons weak . . . and I was so afraid of being hurt that I wanted to be the one who did the hurting. I—”

He grabbed her hands. “Claire, it’s always been you.”

She chewed on her lip, looking at him and then glancing back at the horizon. Far away, the St. Louis skyline was emerging from the morning fog, appearing like ghosts across the sky. Her gaze traveled from the city to the painting behind him. She stared at the two figures within the circle. “Is your painting done?”

He smiled and kissed her. “I’m not sure it’s ever going to be done. But I’d say it’s in better shape than it was.”

Claire looked at it thoughtfully. “You know,” she said, “it’s weird, it’s almost like all of your pictures come true or something. Even going back to that sketch you did of me on the water tower. And the painting of the Gateway Arch, the red and white feathers . . . the circle around those figures looks like . . .” She looked down at the bracelet around her wrist. “Like this thing.”

Jim’s mind raced. He had never thought about what he drew. That’s what he liked about the process. But now that Claire mentioned it, he knew she was right. His paintings told the future, in a weird sort of way. Even when he didn’t even know what they really meant until the event happened. He considered the painting from his mom, the red-white sunset. Over Pearlton High School. Red and white wings. It wasn’t because there were angels and demons there, it was because that was where the angels and demons were going to fight. His mom’s painting had showed where the Portal was all along. No wonder Carlos had hunted her down.

“Jim?” Claire asked gently. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” he said, clearing his throat. “Just . . . there’s just so much to think about.” He had inherited his mother’s gift. He was a Seer. But what did that mean?

“I like the circle around the two people flying,” Claire murmured. “It’s like they’re trapped in there, but there are lights breaking through it. The cycle is coming undone.”

They both stared at the painting for what seemed like an eternity. A cool, morning breeze rolled off the water tower, whispering in their ears.

“What happens now?” Claire asked finally. “Carlos and General Lumen are dead. The Portal is closed.”

Jim looked out over the horizon. “There are always going to be people who want to follow in their footsteps. Gunner, Sydney . . .” He brought her closer to him, pulling her in and holding her, never wanting to let her go. “But as long as we’re together, it’ll be okay. We’ll find a way to begin again.”

He lifted her chin up with his thumb and kissed her. The sunlight was warm on their faces, as gentle and insistent as a promise.