Dust and Roses: Book Two of the Dust Trilogy (21 page)

I leaned against the bumper of her black
Mercedes reading a book so there was no way she would miss me. I wasn’t sure
what time she would be leaving. I knew her last appointments were always at
four o’clock. It was a quarter to five so she would be leaving at any moment.

“Arden?”

I jumped even though I had been expecting
her. I’d been lost in the pages of my book right in the middle of a really good
part. “Hi, Dr. Scarlett.”

She opened her car door and set her
leather briefcase on the seat. Then she rounded the car and wrapped me into a
hug. “Honey, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

I dug into my pocket and pulled out a wad
of cash. There was one hundred and sixty-one dollars there. “I don’t know how
much you charge per hour. I can pay you more later.”

I couldn’t talk anymore because a massive
lump formed in my throat. My eyes burned with tears. I remembered all the
conversations we’d had, and even though I would have never admitted it back
then, they had really helped me.

“Keep your money.” She pulled me close and
hugged me again. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Why don’t we go to the coffee shop and
talk?”

I nodded and got into the passenger seat.
The coffee shop was close, just two blocks over.

Inside the syrupy scent of the coffee made
me sick to my stomach. Scarlett ordered some chamomile tea while I had a hot
chocolate that didn’t taste so bad.

Once we settled down at our table,
Scarlett watched me with her eyebrows arched. “What’s going on? It has to be
something big for you to come and see me.”

It was bigger than big. She was right. I
hated my therapy sessions when I had to go to them so for me to come to her
voluntarily meant that I was desperate.

I wanted her advice, but I couldn’t tell
her everything. I just couldn’t. “I have to make a decision. It’s not something
that can wait. It has to be done right now. There’s this person. He does
horrible things and as a result of that, people are hurting and dying. If he
goes through with this plan he has, more people will die. There’s no telling
how many, but it will be a blood bath.”

Scarlett stared at me wide-eyed, but she
didn’t say anything.

“I don’t like this person at all, but I
don’t necessarily want to hurt them. They’re leaving me no choice. But, I
promised someone I wouldn’t hurt this particular person. This person is special
to them and I don’t want to go back on my promise. I don’t want to hurt
my—well, I guess you can call him my friend.”

Hollis had gone with me to find Rose.
Hollis had spared Imani’s life at my request. I didn’t want to hurt him. I
didn’t want to take his only living parent away from him, but I didn’t see any
other option.

“Arden, exactly what are you talking
about? Killing people and blood baths, I don’t—”

“This is just hypothetical. I know this is
a lot but I guess my question is, could you kill someone if it would save the
lives of thousands of people? This person can’t be reasoned with. They won’t
listen to anything.”

Scarlett frowned. “Hypothetically, I would
say yes, sometimes people have to be taken down if it’s for the benefit of
others. It’s happened all throughout history. I think sometimes it needs to be
done, but only if there is no other option.”

That was all I needed to hear. There were
no other options. One person was standing in the way of Fletcher being okay. My
father, Imani, and Scarlett had all said what I’d always known deep down in my
gut. I’d been trying to find another way around it, but there was no other way.
I was going to break my promise to Hollis. I was going to kill Mr. Mason.

The shrill sound of Coach Rosa’s whistle
pierced through the air, signaling the end of the soccer game. Thank God. I
couldn’t wait to get out of my sticky, sweaty PE uniform. Coach always chose
the hottest days to make us have class outside.

“Clear the field, girls!” Coach ordered.
That meant to collect the flags and cones and deliver them to the storage
closet.

I had picked up a few flags when Marley
Madden and I bent to pick up the same cone. I pulled away, allowing her to grab
it. She tousled the red mop of curls on her head and pursed her lips. “Hey,
Dust. Long time, no see.”

I rolled my eyes because she saw me every
single day, she just didn’t speak to me. Marley was one of Lacey’s bees, so she
had been ignoring me as usual, until she had spent the entire game yelling at
me for not moving fast enough.

Marley was easily the best soccer player
in our class, but she took the game way too seriously in my opinion. Outside of
PE, there would never be another time I would play soccer or any other kind of
ball, so I couldn’t relate to the passion she had for the stupid game. I sighed
and turned away from her as dark clouds moved across the sky and a rumble came
from afar. It was going to storm again.

“Hey, Dust,” Marley called from behind me.
“Will you tell Imani that we’re going to be meeting at the mall at seven
instead of six.”

The wind suddenly picked up and I was
grateful for the breeze. “Tell her yourself,” I called over my shoulder. “Do I
look like a carrier pigeon?” Several girls walking beside me gasped because I
usually never said anything when people messed with me.

 Marley fake laughed. “Aw, don’t act
like that, Dust. Anyway, we’re going dress shopping for Amber T’s party. She’s
having a huge Sweet Seventeen at a fancy hotel. Do you have your dress yet? Oh,
wait. You probably weren’t invited.”

No, I hadn’t been invited to Amber’s party
and Imani hadn’t mentioned it. I was fine with being left out because the last
party I had gone to had ended with someone dying. I was done with parties—at
least until I could move away from Everson. I walked a little faster. but the
gym suddenly seemed miles away. Marley wasn’t getting under my skin and I
wanted her to know it.

She jogged past me, ramming her shoulder
into mine. Once she was halfway across the field, the sky boomed and a bright,
white flash struck the ground just a couple of feet from her. For a moment we
all froze. Marley dropped the cones she was carrying and everyone shrieked with
panic. Girls raced past Marley, who seemed to be stuck in place until another
bolt struck the ground just inches from her feet. She yelped and followed the
others.

Coach Rosa blew her whistle from where she
stood at the gymnasium doors. “Drop everything! Everyone inside now!”

We did as we were told, sprinting toward
the gym. I wasn’t afraid like the others because something told me only one of
us was in real danger.

 The entire way, bolts of lightning
continued to strike the ground, barely missing Marley. The air smelled like
burnt matches. About ten feet from the door, Marley tripped over her own feet.
The ground vibrated beneath me as a bolt struck the ground right between her
legs.

Marley’s eyes widened as a stream a smoke
rose from the ground. She managed to get moving again, making it through the
doors.

By the time we’d all made it inside, and
Coach shut the doors, Marley was white as a ghost, hunched over and struggling
to catch her breath. “What . . . the . . . hell?”

Sarah Daniels rubbed Marley’s back. “That was
crazy. That lightning just came out of nowhere.”

“Not only that,” Haley Dobbs said, “it
seemed like it was only trying to strike Marley.” She gazed at Marley with a
super-serious expression. “You must have done something really, really bad.”

Marley scowled at her. “What? Don’t be
stupid. It was just a freak incident.”

Still, everyone took a slight step away
from Marley. I knew exactly what had happened and Haley wasn’t completely
wrong. It hadn’t been some freak incident.

***

Before I dealt with Mr. Mason, I had to
know where the box was. There was a good chance he had hidden it somewhere and
not destroyed it. I knew the perfect person to ask for help.

I found Violet sitting against the side of
the school building bouncing a ball off the wall and catching it. She was
always alone and once again out in the open where she wasn’t supposed to be.

I sat beside her, tucking my legs
underneath me. “Hey, Violet. What’s up?”

She held the ball in her hands. “Hey,
Arden. Not much. Just the usual, I guess.”

“You know, something very strange happened
earlier today while I was in school.”

Violet looked down at the ball, pressing
her fingers into it. “Really? What?”

I took the ball away from her so she would
look at me. “A girl almost got struck by lightning. Quite a few times.”

She shrugged and reached for the ball.
“Stuff like that happens all the time. Blame Mother Nature.”

I held the ball out of her reach. “Violet,
look at me.” She stared at me with clear blue eyes. “We both know Mother Nature
had nothing to do with that. It was you. I know you can control the weather.
You’re the reason it’s been storming so much.” I finally understood why she was
a Taker.

Violet started to shake her head. “Don’t
lie to me,” I said firmly.

She scrunched her face at me. “So what?
Yeah, I did it. I was listening from the trees. That girl was being mean to you
the whole time you guys were outside. She deserved it.”

“Violet, you could have killed her.”

Her face relaxed to the point where it was
almost emotionless and scary. “If I wanted to kill her, she would be dead. I
was just trying to scare her . . . for you. What’s the big deal? She’s fine.”

I took her hands into mine and squeezed
them. “Violet, I appreciate you trying to look out for me, but I don’t want you
doing things like that anymore. I can take care of myself. The things those
girls say don’t bother me anymore. No more stunts like that, okay?”

Violet narrowed her eyes at me. “Sometimes
bad things need to happen to bad people. That’s the only way they learn.”

I couldn’t argue much with that,
especially considering what I was about to do. I would have to deal with Violet
and her storm-causing emotions later.

“We’ll talk about this another time. Right
now, I need you to do me a huge favor.”

Her eyes lit up and she sat up on her
knees. I felt horrible for asking what I was about to ask. “Sure, what?”

“It’s kind of risky,” I warned.

“That’s okay.”

Taking a deep breath, I let it out. “I
need you to get something very important from Mr. Mason’s office.” Cadence and
I had already worked things out. She would lure him from his office with a
false emergency and Violet could use her sneaky skills to get into the office
and find the box. Wes thought Mr. Mason had hidden it in a safe built into one
of the walls.

She looked up at the sky for a moment.
“Yeah, I could do that. You guys will make sure I don’t get caught?”

I nodded. “Yes. You’ll definitely have a
look out.”

The door of the janitor’s closet banged
open. “He’s gone,” Cadence whispered, staying hidden. Violet and I made our way
inside. I found Cadence leaning against a wall. “What happened?” I asked.

“We told him a Ghoul got loose. He and
Hollis went to catch it.”

Violet gave me a captain’s salute. “I’m on
it.” She disappeared down the hallway.

“Wes is keeping an eye on the underground
entrance that Mason uses to get in and out,” Cadence told me, then she and I
waited outside of Mr. Mason’s office while Violet searched for the box.

The two of us leaned against walls across
from each other. The silence was awkward.

“You did a good job on me and Rose the
other day,” I told her. “I feel completely normal.”

Cadence nodded. “It was nothing.”

“Is Hollis still pissed?”

“Yeah, but I think a huge part of it is
the pressure he’s feeling from his dad. He hasn’t been speaking to us but he’ll
come around.”

Why couldn’t Hollis understand that with
the curse broken, he wouldn’t have to worry about finding his Gemini to please
his dad?

“Waiting for me?” a voice boomed from one
end of the hallway.

Mr. Mason.

Cadence and I locked eyes with each other,
neither of us knowing what to do. What was he doing back already? Where was
Wes? She cleared her throat and let out a loud chirping sound I had never heard
her make before. That was Violet’s signal to hide. “Uh, hello. Mr. Mason.
Where’s Hollis?”

Mr. Mason wouldn’t take his eyes off me
even though he was speaking to Cadence. “I sent him on an errand. Can I do
something for you ladies?”

We shook our heads.

Mr. Mason was a lot of things, but he
wasn’t stupid. He was on to us. “Let’s see. The only reason you would be
standing outside of my office keeping watch would be because something is going
on in there that shouldn’t be.”

A low rumble came from outside—the
familiar sound of an approaching storm. Mr. Mason finally stopped looking at me
and turned his attention to Cadence. “I’m surprised at you. You’re the most
responsible of all the Takers here. The one I can depend on, even more than my
own son.”

Cadence looked down sheepishly. I wanted
to tell her to stop looking that way. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “Of
course, Mr. Mason. You can always depend on me.”

Another crack of thunder and the sound of
pounding rain came from above. Mr. Mason stormed past us and just as he reached
his office door, the electricity went out. Sounds of creatures howling and screaming
at the sudden darkness came from above us.

A door creaked open and a whip of wind
chilled me as something flew past. Violet. Hopefully she’d had enough time to
find the box. After this, we’d probably never be able to get back into his
office.

“Cadence,” Mr. Mason called sharply. “Find
a flashlight or some candles and go calm the others while I go down to the
breaker box.” He brushed against me as he stormed past.

“Yes, sir,” she said obediently, leaving
me in the darkness.

Feeling my way down the hallway, I was
startled by a shushing sound. “Violet?” I called.

“Yes, it’s me. I cracked the safe. I have
the box.”

She was a life-saver.

“Can you make the storm stop?” I asked.
Maybe the power would come back on. Having to deal with Mason in total darkness
had me a little on edge.

“Um, I’m still working on that. I can make
them start, but stopping them is a little harder.” That explained the days and
days of flooding we’d had.

She groped me in the darkness and placed
the box in my hands. “Thank you, Violet. You have no idea how important this
is.” In my hands I held the key to saving Fletcher’s life and the way of
keeping half the younger creatures from dying. The contents of that box meant
everything in that moment.

“I know,” she whispered. “It’s to stop the
curse. Let’s go back upstairs where it’s a little less creepy.”

We moved toward the elevator before I
realized that was the only way up. I didn’t know where Cadence and Mr. Mason
had gone. Surely there were plenty of exits and tunnels, but I had no idea
where they were. “I think we’re stuck down here until the power comes back on.”

Violet sighed. “I’m so stupid.”

“Don’t say that,” I told her. Roars and
growls came from below us in the sixth tunnel. I could only imagine what was
going on down there.

After a few moments of standing in the
darkness, the lights whirled back on. The storm still raged outside but Mr.
Mason must have found a way to get the power working again.

As I turned to head toward the elevator,
Mr. Mason stood dead in the middle of the hallway, his wings stretched,
blocking the entire path. He glared at both Violet and I.

“Oh, great. I see you got the power back
on,” I said with as much cheer as I could muster.

“Give me the box,” he said in a low,
steady voice.

I held the box as tight as I could. “I
can’t do that.”

“Give it to me,” he insisted, “and we
won’t have any problems.”

I thought of Rose’s heart and the dust of
my bone. The sacrifice we had made, her much more than me. We’d literally given
parts of our bodies. The only Nephilim heart left was the one Rose needed to
live. There would be no way for us to make another offering. “I can’t do that.
I need it to stop the curse. Why don’t you want the curse to stop? No one else
has to die.”

He narrowed his eyes at me and his wings
flapped, the wind from them almost knocking me over. “I’ve already told you,
sacrifices must be made for the greater good.” How ironic for him to say that.
“Sure, we will lose some of our own, but in the long run, we will be stronger
for it. We will not cower to Givers and they will come to fear us. I have a
weapon that is much stronger than their sacred curse.”