Intangible (31 page)

Because of her.

He’d fight to the death for her. Just as he would have for his sister, if he’d been able to.

Jonas paused outside of Lilith’s lair, and braced himself, one hand on the rough stone wall. It felt cold and hard under his hand. Like Lilith. Unlike Sera. He couldn’t let Lilith see that he cared what happened to Sera. He had to keep himself distant, convince her to do the right thing.

Lilith didn’t believe in weakness. And humans were a great weakness, indeed.

S
era dropped her bag by the front door and turned to Luke.

“I checked the windows,” she said.

“I got the doors and lights. Kitchen?”

“Everything’s off.”

“Good.” Luke bent down to pick up Sera’s duffel bag and froze. Sera’s eyes snapped onto his face instantly. He was having a vision, she knew the signs well. No matter how long the vision felt to Luke, they were only about seven seconds long, during which time Luke didn’t move or breathe. She waited, watching his face anxiously.

He gasped suddenly and stood up straight, her bag forgotten on the floor. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, his breathing came in huge, short gasps, and he was as pale as he’d been when Jonas suggested they stay elsewhere. She’d never seen him look so scared.

“You had a vision,” Sera said. He was going to tell her this time. She was not going to give up until he told her.

Luke was silent. Just looked at her.

“What did you See?”

Silence.

“Luke,” Sera said, reaching out to touch his arm. “Talk to me. Tell me what you Saw.” If she thought it might work she’d push the idea into him that he tell her, try to force him into it. But it didn’t work on him at all. His mind was too strong.

Silence.

And then she knew. No vision had ever terrified him. Never. In seventeen years. It was as if his own life were at stake. But he didn’t See his own future. He only saw other’s. She suddenly had a terrible feeling that she knew exactly whose future he’d Seen.

Her voice was a whisper. “Do I get hurt?”

His face contorted, but he didn’t say anything.

“Oh my god. Do I die?”

He closed his eyes.

“Oh.” The air rushed out of her lungs on that one word. She was going to die.

Luke’s voice was tight, tortured when he said, “We gotta go.” He bent down to pick up Sera’s bag again, then headed out the door. Sera looked down at her feet. Their book bags lay there. She should probably pick those up, she thought. Luke was already on the porch, waiting. She reached down and grasped the bags, then woodenly stepped outside.

Luke stared at her a moment, searching her face, then reached around her and locked the door. He started down the steps, but her voice stopped him.

“Luke?”

He turned to look at her. She was going to die. She knew she was going to die. But she couldn’t stop herself from asking even though she already knew the answer.

“Have you ever had a vision that didn’t come true?” she said. “Ever?”

He shook his head, a small unwilling movement, then he turned and walked slowly down the steps and out to their car.

Sera followed. Suddenly, nothing was funny anymore.

TWENTY-NINE

L
uke sat at Fey’s computer, his fingers lightly drumming on the keys, his brain a complete blank. He stared at the screen unseeing, and unclenched his teeth for what felt like the ninety-seventh time. He was getting nowhere.

Not exactly the productive day he’d envisioned when he decided to play sick today and stay home to research. He ran his hands through his hair, as he’d done all morning long, and stood up.

Shall she be the first to die, Seer?

Then sat right back down.

He had to figure this out. He had to figure
something
out. He’d been scouring the internet for hours and had come up with absolutely nothing. He’d searched for things he remembered from his visions: red stone room, hell, scary beautiful woman. He’d searched for things about the abilities of the seventh son of a seventh son. He searched for any information he could find on how to stop visions from coming true or how to change the future. He’d even looked up vampires.

Vampires. He couldn’t believe Fey was a vampire. He and Sera had figured that out on the way to her house last night and had confronted her with it as soon as they’d gotten her alone.

“So,” Luke had said. “When were you going to tell us you’re a vampire?”

The look of shock on Fey’s face told him everything he needed to know. They’d guessed right.

“Never,” Fey said. She looked back and forth between Luke and Sera.

“It’s fine, Fey,” Sera said, reaching a hand out to touch her arm. “It doesn’t change anything. It’s doesn’t matter to us.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Why would it?” Luke said. “But the fact that you can obviously kick my ass and everyone’s at school—at the same time—is sobering, I will be honest with you.”

Fey smiled at that. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about, Luke,” she said.

They hadn’t talked much more about it last night. Fey hadn’t been forthcoming with many details and Sera had been very quiet since she’d learned of his vision. And that had made Luke feel worse. She took it so seriously. She knew, just as well as he did, that it was going to happen. And that they couldn’t stop it.

Which is why he’d stayed at Fey’s rather than wasting time at school. He needed to find something—anything—he could use to even make some small change. Sometimes the smallest changes had the biggest effects.

He had found a lot of crazy stuff in the last few hours, but it all amounted to nothing. He was no closer to saving Sera than he had been when he’d had that first vision.

Yes, I think so. Her healing makes her the more dangerous.

Luke gasped. The first vision. He’d taken notes on it that night, which somehow he’d totally forgotten about. He felt like a complete idiot.

He jumped up, grabbed his keys and headed for the door. Then paused. He wasn’t supposed to go home. But home was where his notebook was. Where perhaps some pertinent information was. Where maybe the missing piece to this whole puzzle lay.

He had to go home. He glanced at the clock. Two o’clock. He had a little over an hour until Sera and Fey would be home from school. Fey had made him promise he wouldn’t go anywhere when she’d reluctantly left him home alone this morning. Luke had been a little puzzled at her hesitation, but figured it must be that she secretly loved him and almost couldn’t bear to leave him. Well, he wished that was the reason. She’d left with Sera this morning after glancing worriedly at his wrist, which he’d thought was strange. But also kind of hot.

And even though he’d promised Fey and he didn’t like to go back on his word, he figured that what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her as he closed the door behind him and took off in a jog toward home. Though, perhaps he would swing by the church that was a couple blocks over from their house first. Holy water might be a good thing to have on hand, he’d learned from his research—hey, it hadn’t been a complete waste of time after all—and he had his dad’s empty flask in his back pocket.

Fey only lived about five minutes away by car, but Sera had taken their car to school this morning and Luke was glad to have the excuse to run the three miles. Perhaps if he got his blood pumping, his body moving, it would clear his mind enough that he could make some headway to solving this very large problem of his.

He had a good rhythm going between breath and step by the time he rounded the corner to the church. He was a little sad to be there already because he really could have kept going, it felt so good. Breathing heavy as he stopped, he was in and out so quick, had slipped the filled flask back into his pocket, and was already running toward home with his heart rate hardly slowing.

When he got to his street, Luke paused by the house next door. From this angle his house appeared to be empty, so Luke walked over to the front door and unlocked it. He felt strange going inside. It was quiet. Too quiet. It almost felt as if he didn’t belong there, as if he were entering a stranger’s house. But then there was all their stuff, all the familiars of his home. His heart pounded now in anticipation of someone jumping out at him, but no one was there.

In his bedroom, he grabbed his notebook, sat right down on his bed, and flipped through the pages until he found what he’d jotted down that night. His eyes skimmed the pages:
red stone walls, torches, scariest woman in the world, red-haired, beautiful and hideous, throne, black floor—volcanic rock?, empty cavern, Egyptian gold necklace.
Hey, the necklace. He’d forgotten about that. He could look that up and see if he could find the same necklace he’d seen her wear. Maybe that would tell him something.

He looked back at his scribblings again.
Hell? hot and cold, huge, underground? children of the prophecy.
He stopped at that. Children of the prophecy. He tried to decipher his notes. He’d written “
the children of the prophecy must die” then Sera killed.
A chill etched its way over his skin.

He got up suddenly and turned on his computer. He needed to look this up now. This could not wait until he got back to Fey’s.

He skimmed the notes again as he waited for the computer to boot up, but nothing else stuck out to him. The children of the prophecy. The children of the prophecy. There was something in that, he could feel it.

Shall she be the first to die?

As soon as the computer was up, he googled “children of the prophecy.” Luke clicked on every one of the entries on the first page of results and found nothing. Finally on the ninth page, he came across the title “Children of the Prophecy—When Will They Come?”

He started reading and felt goose bumps spread down his arms. This was it. This was exactly what he’d been searching for. He could hardly breathe. The secret had to be here. Whatever he needed to know
had
to be on these pages. He quickly bookmarked the site to ensure he’d find it again if he needed to and started printing out the pages for Sera to read, then went back to reading.

Because he couldn’t stop.

It was all there. Who they were, what they were. Written in this detached scholarly language as if it weren’t actually about real people.

Children will be born amongst the human race with special abilities like nothing ever seen before. Their appearance will bring about a change in the world, for better or for worse—the Prophecy does not specify which.

Of special importance will be a seventh son of a seventh son born with a twin. The two will share the powers of the 7/7—one a healer, one a seer.

This
was
them. This wasn’t just some ancient myth. It was about
him
.

The healer will heal any creature of ailment, be it emotional, physical, or psychological in nature. However, this healing power may also transform those of the Realm into other forms, sometimes even human. If this power is used indiscriminately, it is possible whole populations of vampires, elves, faeries, goblins, witches, etc. could be wiped out. Some theorize such action would cause the collapse and disappearance of the Realm, with effects on the Real world unknown.

“No wonder she wants us dead.” Luke sat wide-eyed as he continued to read.

The seer will See events destined to happen, though he will have the ability to change the outcome—essentially changing the future—if he desires.

“HOW?” Luke shouted at the computer screen. His eyes ransacked the page, searching for the answer he hoped was somewhere on the site. “How? Tell me
how
I can change the future!”

But he was too frantic to focus on any one part. He glanced at the printer spitting out page after page of text. Please, he thought, please let the answer be there. He sat immobile for a few moments.
Shall she be the first to die, Seer? Yes, the more dangerous.
Then he shut down his computer, grabbed the stack of paper from the printer, flipped off the power.