Everbound: An Everneath Novel (11 page)

“Here goes,” I said softly.

Just as I opened my mouth, a hand grabbed my wrist hard.

I whirled around, expecting to see Cole but it wasn’t him. It was Max.

With his hand clenched around my wrist, he took the hair out of my fingers, held it up to his eyes, and examined it.

“This isn’t Cole’s.” His hair looked black under the fluorescent lights, and his eyes looked even blacker.

“How do you know?”

He flicked the hair aside, ignoring my question. Turning his tall, lanky body to the window, he made a motion, and then he watched me silently, leather-clad arms folded across his chest. The muscles around his mouth were tight, making him look hard and detached at the same time. Like a bodyguard.

I looked out the window, to where he’d signaled, but I didn’t see anything. “What, did you alert the authorities or something?” I mumbled. “Unauthorized attempt to eat hair at the Shop-n-Go?”

He looked unimpressed but stayed quiet. The doors to the store opened and shut, and moments later Cole joined us.

“Pay up,” Max said to him, holding out his hand.

Cole sighed and pulled a ten-dollar bill from his pocket. Max wadded it up and wandered toward the front of the store, leaving Cole and me alone.

“What was that about?” I asked.

“Ah, Nik.” He ran his fingers through his blond hair, and my gaze darted to his hand to see if he had any loose strands. “You’re always losing me bets. You see, Max bet that you were bluffing.
Lying
. About having a hair of mine. As usual, I was blinded by my high expectations of you. I didn’t think you had it in you to pull that kind of bluff.”

“Jack and I played poker once a week for years. I can lie.”

“An admirable trait, to be sure.”

My eyes involuntarily went up to his head. His hair. Maybe if I—

“Stop thinking about it, Nik!”

“What?”

He grinned and shook his head. “You
know
what. You’re looking at my hair like an addict at a crack carnival. Enough already.” He took a step closer. “Look. You may have bluffed, but I know enough about you to know you won’t stop until you get my hair; and at the risk of you taking my scalp with you, I’ll go.”

His words didn’t quite reach my brain. “You’ll go where?”

He rolled his eyes and then spoke slowly. “I’ll go with you.”

“You’ll go with me?” I said, incredulous.

“Yes. But not because I have any feelings for you or I’m attached to you in any way. I’m just attached to my hair. Quite literally.”

I didn’t know what to say. “You’ll go with me?”

He gave a sideways glance. “Oh boy. It’s like your brain is on a ten-second delay. Just do what you have to do and then meet me at my condo. We need to prepare.”

“Prepare how?”

“Look, the Everneath is not a place you go to lightly. If you land in the wrong spot, if you make a wrong turn, you’ll die. And if you die, I’ll lose everything I’ve been working toward.”

The air was heavy with a sudden ominous feeling until Cole clapped his hands together loudly. “Right then. See you later!”

“What do I pack?”

His lips turned up. “Pack light. You can’t really bring much to the Everneath. But one thing you will need is a token of Jack’s.”

“A token?”

His face grew serious. “Yes. A token. Look, Nik, there are scary things that go bump in the Everneath, and the terrain is hard to navigate, but our biggest challenge will be you.” He took his pointer finger and poked my forehead. “More specifically, your memory. Find something that reminds you of Jack. Something that connects your brain to him, and only him.”

“Like what?”

“The two of you were lovey-dovey. Didn’t he ever give you … I don’t know … a heart-shaped locket necklace?”

“No.”

“A teddy? With a T-shirt that says
I LOVE YOU BEARY MUCH
?”

I rolled my eyes. “
No
. He wasn’t like that.”

“Whatever. Just find some object that makes you think of Jack and no one else, and bring it with you.” He started to turn away.

“So you’re going with me?” I said.

He paused for a moment, shook his head in an exasperated sort of way, and then continued out of the store. Max followed closely behind, shooting me a disgusted glance before storming out the doorway.

I heard motorcycles rev up and pull away, and then Will came rushing in.

“What happened? Did he say no?” He looked at my face when I didn’t answer. “Becks, are you okay?”

I shook my head.

“You’re not okay?”

“No. Yes, I’m okay. But no, he didn’t say no.” I threw my arms around Will. “I’m going to get Jack.”

I knew what object I needed. Something small enough to carry. Something that made me instantly think of Jack the moment I saw it. Something tangible and tactile that I could press into the palm of my hand and identify without even seeing it.

The feel of it gave me an instant connection to Jack. I always kept it nearby, always at hand. Even after I’d Returned and things were so different between us, this object was my tether to the life I’d given up. The life I had before. The life with Jack.

I found it in my bedroom, under my bed. A note. Jack’s note.

Ever Yours

He had given it to me after the Christmas Dance last year. No amount of Everneath brain-suck could take away the meaning behind those two words. The same ones he had on his tattoo. I was sure of it.

I decided not to see my father and Tommy again. I didn’t leave a note or anything. If I didn’t make it back by tomorrow morning, that would mean I’d been in the Everneath for weeks. And I probably wasn’t ever coming back.

Will drove me to Cole’s condo. When we got there, we sat there in silence for a minute or two, then Will grabbed my hand. Squeezed it tight.

“I want to come with you,” he said.

“Absolutely not.”

“But I can help.” His eyes were pleading.

I couldn’t believe he was bringing this up
now
. “Will. You know you can’t come.”

“Why not?”

I watched him for a moment. He knew why. But maybe he needed me to tell him it was impossible so he could take comfort in the fact that he’d done everything he could. I listed the reasons.

“Number one, I doubt Cole would take you. Number two, your mother needs you, and I need you to take care of everything here. Number three, there is no way in hell I will be responsible for losing both of the Caputo brothers.”

He frowned and brought my hand to his lips. “I know you’re right.” He sighed. “I want my brother back,” he said. “But I don’t know if this is the right way.”

I brought his hand to my own lips. “This is the only way.”

“But you’re putting your trust in Cole. The same Cole who did everything he could to keep you and Jack apart.”

I sighed. “I’d be more worried about Cole’s motives if Max wasn’t so intent on keeping me away from him. If Cole had some evil plan, Max would be in on it. Not objecting to it.”

He looked forward, a helpless expression on his face. I opened my door. “I’ll see you soon. Maybe even tonight.”

Will only nodded.

“Watch after my family.”

He nodded again.

I slipped out, and before I was halfway up the staircase outside Cole’s condo, Will drove away. I put my hand in my pocket and pressed my fingertips against Jack’s note, feeling closer to him already.

The Surface. Cole’s condo
.

C
ole swung open the door and gestured for me to come inside. A clicking sound made me turn toward the living room, where Max was lounging on the couch. He fiddled with a silver lighter in his hand.

“What’s he doing here?” I asked.

“He’s coming with us.” At my expression, Cole added, “More specifically, he’s coming to keep me in line. I tend to make galactically stupid decisions when it comes to you, and the Everneath is not a place where you want to make stupid decisions. Besides, two of us will hide your energy better than just one.”

I held up my hands in a
fine by me
gesture. Cole was taking me to the Everneath. I wasn’t about to argue with anything, although I was pretty sure Max was also going to keep me from messing up Cole again.

Cole took off the guitar that had been strapped over his shoulder and placed the instrument gently in its case in the corner of the room.

“I’m going to miss you,” he said tenderly, his mouth turned up in a half smile.

“You’re not bringing your guitar?” I said. I rarely saw him without it.

Max and Cole both looked at me with alarmed expressions. “No,” Cole said. “I don’t want to die.”

“What do you mean?” I said warily.

“Music. It’s forbidden. Like the penalty-of-death kind of forbidden.”

“Why?”

Max clicked his lighter closed. “Because music is a powerful manipulator of emotions, and the Shades can’t control it,” he said.

“And the Shades don’t like things they can’t control.” Cole snapped the case shut and straightened up. “Speaking of things you can’t control, did you bring your token?”

I pulled the note out of my pocket. “Yes, but I don’t think I’m going to need it.”

“That’s because you’re currently standing on the Surface. Your brain is still intact.”

I sighed and slipped the paper back into my pocket. “When we get there … well, how will we avoid getting caught?”

Cole frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “Last time you dropped down in the New York City of the Everneath. I’m going to take us to … Oklahoma.” I must’ve looked lost, because he raced to the kitchen and came back with a piece of blank paper and a pencil in hand. With a sweeping gesture, he cleared the coffee table of everything on it, sending a few books, sheets of music, and a dirty coffee mug to the carpet. Then he put the paper down on top.

“Watch carefully.” He proceeded to draw a large circle, then a slightly smaller one inside it, and another and another until he had drawn five concentric circles leading to a bull’s-eye in the middle. “The Everneath is made up of elemental rings. The outermost one”—he pointed his pencil to the largest ring—“is the Ring of Earth. The five Common areas—cities, so to speak—are spread out evenly in this Ring of Earth.” He drew smaller circles evenly spaced within the Ring of Earth. “When you took off with a tuft of my hair in your hands, you landed in one of these Commons.” He pointed to one of the smaller circles in the outer ring. “This particular Common you went to is called Ouros. It means ‘mountain.’ It’s named that because the entrance—at the Shop-n-Go—is located in a mountain. Each Common has several entrances, or ‘rivers’ as your mythology books call them.”

I remembered reading about one of these, called the River Styx. I couldn’t remember the names of the others, although, if each Common had more than one entrance, then there were a lot of them. More than the mythology books knew about.

He moved his finger inward to the second-largest ring. “This one is the Ring of Water, then the Ring of Wind, then the Ring of Fire. There are no cities in these rings.”

I pointed to the middle circle, the bull’s-eye of his map. “What’s there?”

He looked up from his map. “Two things. The Feed caverns and the High Court, where the queen lives.”

I’d been to the Feed caverns. I hadn’t realized how close they were to the High Court. “So who exactly is in the High Court?”

“The queen, her chosen companion, and anyone else she wants.” He took the pencil and drew an X over the bull’s-eye. “We do not want to go there.”

“Why?”

“Well, besides the fact that it’s where the Shades and the queen live? Because the three rings that separate the High Court from the Commons—the Water, Wind, and Fire—are deadly. They’re the queen’s security system. They’re there to keep Everlivings out.”

“But then where are the Tunnels?”

He grimaced. “That’s the question. They’re hidden so nobody will mess with them. Only the Shades know where they are. But I’ve spent the last few weeks tracking down older Everlivings who might know something about their location. One of them believed the Tunnels were hidden in the void.” He pointed on his map to the space outside the largest ring. “We’re hoping he’s right. The void is made up of all the unstable areas, the places of unformed energy. But that also means it’s relatively uninhabited. It would be the perfect place to hide the Tunnels. So, my plan is to land us in the outer ring, between Commons”—he put his finger in the middle between two Commons, one of which was Ouros—“and see which way your tether to Jack leads us.”

“My tether to Jack?”

He stood up and put the tip of his finger over my heart. “You’re connected to him, and that bond is strong. It’s what’s keeping him alive. And when we’re down there, it will point us in the right direction.”

For some reason, the way he spoke of the tether made me think of Ariadne and the ball of twine she’d given to Theseus so he could find his way out of the labyrinth. I took in a few deep breaths, wondering if my connection to Jack could ever be so tangible.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” He removed his finger from my chest. “At least that’s what I learned from my search. Hopefully it’s true. Or we’ll get lost and the Shades will track you down and we’ll both die via Shade impalement.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

He gave me an innocent look as if he hadn’t just said the word
impalement
. “Don’t worry. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Ready to go?” He stepped closer, and I flinched back. I guess I had trained myself a little too well to pull away from him.

His lips twitched. “Um, Nikki, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to touch.”

“I know. Sorry. It was a reflex.”

“I’ll try not to be offended.” He stepped closer again and took my hand. He smirked. “Your hand is clammy.”

“It is not.” But it was, and I knew why. I was being forced to trust the person in whom I had the least faith. I had no choice.

He squeezed my fingers. “Ready?”

Max stood up and came near us, ready to follow.

I closed my eyes for a moment. “Cole?”

“Yes?”

“Is it really …”—I pointed downward—“…
underneath
us?”