Sever (The Ever Series Book 3) (17 page)

“Ever?” I gasp.

His lips are on mine again, and it feels like I’m melting into him. Every kiss, every touch sends me spiraling higher until the room begins to shimmer and blur. When he finally pulls away, there’s a rush of coolness, like water cascading over me. Suddenly I see a look of dread wash over Ever’s features before everything goes black.

***

“Will she wake up?” a voice asks conversationally.

I try to swallow, but my throat constricts.

“She already has,” Ever says with a combination of misery and relief.

I feel his hand on mine, and opening my eyes, I try to focus. As my vision clears, I see we’re in Ever’s room at the house in Portland.

“Wren?”

I turn and see his perfect features. Smiling, I try to sit up and feel a familiar pinch in my arm. Ever pulls me up gently until I’m sitting upright. I look over at the needle in my vein and feel a wave of nausea.

“You needed fluids,” he says.

“She did?”

Looking across the room, I see Chasen standing in the corner watching me. Ever hands me a cup of water. Taking a sip, I clear my throat.

“She barely looks human,” Chasen laughs.

“Ever?” I ask turning my attention back to him. “Mind filling me in?”

“Leave,” Ever snaps at Chasen.

“You’re getting as sensitive as these humans,” Chasen counters with amusement. “Wren?”

I look over at Chasen again.

“Welcome to the family,” he grins.

When he disappears, I look down at my left hand, and a spike of adrenaline surges through me. It wasn’t a dream. I’m wearing a ring, an unbelievably beautiful, glowing ring. An engagement ring.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t remember,” Ever says.

I smile crookedly.

“I remember everything … up until things started getting really interesting—
wait
! What day is it? How much time have I lost?”

“None.

Frowning, I think of what he said earlier about being
removed
from human reality.

“Wren … I’m sorry.”

I shake my head and squeeze his hand.

“Just tell me what happened.”

He reaches out and touches my cheek softly.

“I thought I was in control. I never anticipated that my physical reaction to you could put you in danger so quickly.”

I blush, remembering very clearly his physical reaction. Ever smiles with a rueful expression.

“Not what you’re thinking,” he says. “My mind opened too quickly, and your body temperature rose just as fast, which led to a dangerous loss of fluid.”

I glance at the nearly empty IV bag containing saline solution.

“I could have killed you,” he says quietly.

Ever reaches over and pulls out the needle in my arm so smoothly that I don’t even feel it. Looking down, I take a deep breath.

“I need to ask you something, because I’ve been putting off this discussion, and obviously I can’t anymore,” I say as I swing my legs over the side of the bed.

When I try standing up, I sway on my feet. Ever steadies me as I look up at him.

“If it weren’t for Victor, would you still want me to become like you?” I ask carefully.

“If it weren’t for Victor, I would change you right now if it meant knowing that I would never lose you.”

I press my lips together and nod, still unsure if I’m prepared to give up my humanity. On the other hand, assuming my choices are infinite possession, dying in my teens, or becoming like Persephone, then I’m going to go with door number three. But that means that I have more questions.

“If I do become like you, does that mean this is all over? We win. No more Victor?”

Ever smiles, his expression sad.

“I only wish it were that easy.”

“But if I become like you, what use am I to him?”

“It is ideal for him to win your allegiance while you are still mortal and you can still be used as a vessel, but if I were to change you now, while the gateway into this dimension is still open, the barrier would remain permeable—and you would be one of only a few true immortals without the need to possess a human body, given that Victor and the others do not have the power to make humans immortal. You would become a powerful ally if he were to join him.”

“And if I die?” I ask carefully.

“Then the gateway from my dimension into yours dies with you … and my existence ceases to have meaning.”

I smile sadly.

“Then, really, you
should have
killed me the first time you saw me.”

“No. I would continue fighting for an eternity as long as I have your love.”

Ever turns me toward the mirror, and I stare at my reflection, trying to recognize the image staring back at me.

“
Am
I still human?” I ask softly.

“A bit less so.”

I turn and stare at him.

“Less so? You mean after what happened tonight …”

“Can you see now why I’ve been so careful?”

I blink and slowly put the pieces together.

“So, does that mean if we …
Wow
. Then I’d be like you—” I snap my fingers “—just like that?”

“There is that chance.”

I shake my head as Ever lays his hand over the crook in my arm, causing the puncture mark from the needle to disappear.

“Wait. So, let me get this straight. If I stay human, then Victor eventually finds some way to ruin my life, or if I get really lucky, I look like my grandma someday while you’re still insanely hot. If we have sex, then
I
become immortal and the rest of the world gets to deal with Victor for eternity. And if I die, then the portal closes, and everything is peachy for everyone else? Is there a door number four—or should I even ask?”

“Wren, that first day in Gideon’s class, I nearly killed you. However, my ability to control the extent you are exposed to my mind has vastly evolved since then. And after tonight, I understand even better what I must do to shield you.”

I frown.

“How?”

He pauses, and suddenly I’m afraid of the answer.

“It would appear that the more pleasure I experience, the less ability I have to protect you from my mind.”

My frown deepens.

“That doesn’t sound fun for you—”

“I wasn’t finished,” he smiles.

I hold my hand out, gesturing for him to hurry up and spit it out.

“If I focus on what
you
feel, I have more control.”

“Still not fun for you.”

Ever reaches out and takes my hand. With his other hand, he slowly traces from the center of my palm, continuing along the soft skin of my wrist until my eyes close and I shiver.

“You forget that what you feel, I feel as well. … Trust me. I am beyond impatient for you to feel even more.”

I swallow, my cheeks flushing at the memory of what I just felt on that uninhabited island in the Maldives. Clearing my throat, I try to find my voice.

“But if me dying is the only way to close the portal to your dimension …”

“We will find another way to close the portal,” he says.

The blood drains from my face as I realize that if the gateway between dimensions
is
sealed, then there really will be no way to bring Alex back from oblivion.

And my guilt will live on forever.

L
ying in bed in the dark, I think over the events of the night as I spin the ring in circles on my left ring finger. Ever’s words echo in my head.

I brought you here tonight because I am selfish and wish never to share you with another being in existence.

Of course, by
another being in existence
he meant Alex. I struggle to remember a time when things were simple, but I can’t. And maybe it’s because such a thing doesn’t exist. Searching for glimpses of
simple
or
normal
, I realize nothing ever was. The closest I can think of is a perfect day on West Street Beach. Closing my eyes, I can almost see it and feel it.

The sky is impossibly blue, the water a shimmering blue-green, crystal clear all the way to the golden sand, which has taken on a bluish tint through the water. Looking down, I see my feet as I stare through the water. The sun above is baking, but the water is cool—perfect—as I dive beneath the surface.

Opening my eyes underwater, I enjoy looking at the world turned blue until a hand grasps mine and pulls me to the surface.

Alex.

He’s whole. No scars, no wounds. He smiles teasingly—the way I remember him best.

“I do enjoy your attire, Ms. Sullivan.”

Looking down, I see my pale exposed skin. All I’m wearing is a skimpy two-piece.

“Did you do this?” I hiss.

He smiles and shrugs lazily in the way that made me hate him—and love him.

“
Your
dream, remember?”

“Yeah? Well,
I’m
not the one who keeps choosing bikinis!”

“Maybe your subconscious is,” dream-Alex muses. “After all, your subconscious keeps choosing
me
.”

“
No
, it doesn’t it!”

He pulls me out of the water and gestures around.

“It doesn’t? Then why does it keep bringing you
here
?”

I look down. To my horror, he’s right. And suddenly reality collides with my dream.

“Alex … I told him yes,” I whisper. “I said I would marry him.”

When I look at him again, he’s … bleeding.

“You’ve wounded me deeper than you can know, my love,” he whispers as he sinks down to his knees on the warm sand.

I drop down in front of him, and only then do I realize that I’m holding a blade in my hand.

“Did I do this?” I cry.

I wake up in a cold sweat and stare around my dark bedroom. Alex. He is going to haunt me. And my guilt is going to stab at me like a splinter I can’t remove—unless I bring him back. Flicking on the lamp on my nightstand, I flinch when I see a long silver-colored box with a white envelope lying on top of it. My name is scrawled on the paper in perfect penmanship that isn’t Ever’s. With shaking hands, I reach for it and remove the blank, white card. I open it.

Wren,

I wish I could do more. However, under the circumstances, this shall have to suffice. Think of it as your birthday present. You have until midnight; you’ll know where to go. Just remember, you will see our world through human eyes. There will be one waiting to help you navigate the journey. Avoid the darkness at all costs, or you may never return from it.

If you succeed in saving the traitor, come back to Ever, or my brother will be the one who never forgives me.

Audra

Dropping the card, I look around wildly until my eyes catch on the glowing numerals of my alarm clock.

11:58

I have less than two minutes to decide if I want to risk my life and also betray Ever so deeply that there may be no coming back. Then I realize: I have no choice. I can’t leave Alex in eternal torment. Reaching for the box on the nightstand, I lift the lid and stare down at the blade. I recognize it instantly. Both Ever and Alex carried similar weapons. My pulse hammers in my ears. My training with Audra never made it to the point of actual combat. I can deflect her attacks, but the thought of actively trying to stay alive in a world that I can’t even imagine against an enemy I barely understand is another thing entirely.

In other words, I’m in trouble.

Jumping out of bed, I pick up the blade and see a belt with a sheath.
Thank you, Audra
, I think grimly as I cinch the belt around my waist and stare down at my outfit. White T-shirt and short, pink pajama shorts. Not exactly the outfit of a superhero, but whatever.

Taking off the ring Ever just gave me, I set it carefully on the nightstand before unclasping the infinity pendant I’ve worn for more than a year. Guilt stings me, but I ignore it as I fling open my door and race barefoot down the hall. I walk the last few feet to my mom’s room and push open the door. I watch her breaths rising and falling peacefully.

The last time I did this—cast myself into darkness with no promise of survival—I had time to say goodbye. Now, I don’t even have that luxury. Wiping away my tears, I walk quickly back to the mirror and stare at my reflection before closing my eyes and willing the inky blackness to appear. When I open my eyes again, I smile into the abyss.

“I let you go once. I can’t do it again, Wren.”

At the sound of Ever’s voice behind me, I turn slowly and look up at him. Audra hadn’t been exaggerating. She was only able to delay him until literally the stroke of midnight. I wonder briefly what it took for her to distract him. When he holds out his hand, I take a single step in his direction.

“I’m sorry,” I say quietly, focusing every bit of energy on Alex so that Ever won’t be able to access my thoughts.

Then I launch myself backward, feeling as the blackness in the mirror takes me. Suddenly I’m weightless. I see swirls of color, a faint, glowing green that fades into purple. A swirl of orange. Then pain. Searing, terrible pain burns me everywhere even though I can’t move my limbs. When I fight against the inertia, the coldness sears even deeper.

Then, nothing. I see, I feel, I hear
nothing
. I am lost. Hours or days or weeks seem to pass.

Suddenly a frantic voice whispers my name. At least I think it’s my name. With a tortured gasp, I blink. I can see! Sort of. My surroundings are bright, shimmering. And the ground beneath me is soft and glowing with unnatural brightness.
Everything
is glowing. I can’t identify a color, because it’s every color and no color, always changing like the iridescent metal of the blades that Ever and Alex carried. Instinctively I reach for the blade I brought with me.

“I mean you no harm!” the voice whispers lyrically.

I flinch and look around, trying to find the source of the voice. Then I remember Audra’s instructions.

… you will see our world through human eyes. There will be one waiting to help you navigate the journey.

“I can’t see you,” I whisper.

I jump when a small hand touches mine.
See our world through human eyes
, I repeat in my head. I concentrate harder, and things around me begin to take on familiar shapes. There’s grass beneath me—but its hue is unnatural and shimmering. A swath of trees. And far off in the distance, there’s a beautiful incandescent waterfall spilling over cliffs into an aquamarine river. The sky above is bluer than I ever could have imagined. Then I look down at the hand tugging mine and see a small girl. I blink. She can’t be more than twelve years old. Her long hair is coal-black and her eyes a glowing purple color, contrasting with her pale skin. She’s wearing a flowing, metallic-colored dress.

And I realize she’s looking at me the same way I’m looking at her. What do I look like to her? I glance down … Oh no. No, no, no. I had been worried about pink shorts. Instead, I’m wearing my Wren Sullivan, demon-hunter outfit.
This
is how my brain chose to represent me in Ever’s world?

Fan-freaking-tastic.

The girl pulls me up with surprising strength just as the ground begins shaking. An earthquake? Then suddenly I feel a familiar darkness as a memory emerges from the very first moment I looked into Ever’s eyes. The “sky” above immediately turns black, and the “air” I’m breathing becomes thick with menace. The “grass” beneath my feet instantly withers to a dull brown as the child at my side begins tugging me toward the river in the distance. The trees around us suddenly appear to be rotting, with sharp branches extending toward us.

All I can think is: we’ll never make it. But we’re moving faster than humanly possible, and I have to remind myself that I’m not in the human world. I push myself harder, and an instant later we’re at the edge of the river.

I don’t feel any exertion at all, which means that my physical form in this dimension most likely is a mirage, a construct of my imagination. Everything about this place is how my imagination sees it. Before I know what’s happening, my tiny traveling companion shoves me off the ground toward the water below. I fall for what seems like longer than the time it took us to run to the edge of the water, and when I hit the surface, it feels like gelatinous goo, not water. I look around, and the girl is beside me, bobbing in the aquamarine sludge. She gestures toward the cliffs above us, and that’s when I see that we just fell a distance at least the height of a skyscraper.

At the very top of the cliffs, I see what was chasing us. Black fur, glowing red eyes, gleaming white teeth, claws like blades. I can feel it, too. The gnawing hunger, the blind fury, the ache to destroy anything in its path.

“What is it?” I whisper.

The girl floating next to me says something, but it’s unintelligible. Then I realize there must be no translation for whatever
it
is. Looking down, I realize we’re moving in the aquamarine muck, but I can’t tell how. I almost expect to wake up, but this can’t be a dream—I never could have imagined the strangeness that is this world.

“Who are you?” I ask, hoping I’ll be able to understand her answer.

“Aimee,” she smiles.

I frown.

“Wait. Where did you learn to talk like we do in my world?”

“I watch you,” she smiles.

When she says this like my world is a TV show, I remember what Alistair told me last year. Ghosts, things that go bump in the night, scary monsters—they’re all just echoes of beings from other dimensions. Suddenly I understand. My mind has turned Ever’s world into one big fairy tale. Aimee is Little Red Riding Hood. The monster that chased us is The Big Bad Wolf. Which means I’m in some bizarre cross between Alice’s Wonderland and Peter Pan’s Neverland—where everything is strange, and no one grows old.

“Where did you get your name?” I ask carefully.

“Audra gave it to me. A name from your world,” she smiles.

I frown. How long has Audra been talking to this girl, and what has she told her? When the sky begins to brighten into a pinkish color, Aimee pulls me toward the “shore.”

“Aimee?” I ask as I step onto the powdered sugar-like sand of the bank. “How long have you been here?”

Now she’s the one frowning.

“How
long
?”

I shake my head.
Time means nothing.
Those were the first words I heard in Ever’s mind, which means that this girl may not have any concept of time, the same way I can only see her world through my eyes. I study a palm tree, electrically bright, a few feet away and wonder what it “really” looks like. While I’m trying to get my bearings, Aimee sits down in the sand and looks off into the distance.

“Aimee? Please. I have to hurry.”

“
Hurry
?” she repeats.

The White Rabbit’s
“I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!”
chant from
Alice in Wonderland
echoes in my mind. Time impacts everything for me, but to Ever and those like him, time is fluid and meaningless in this world.

“It’s very important for me to find someone,” I explain patiently, hoping she can understand how critical this is.

Aimee smiles again.

“Yes, the traitor. Audra told me.”

“The
traitor
? That’s what she calls him?”

Aimee nods and smiles.

“Do you know where he is?” I ask desperately.

“He is here.”

I wait for her to explain, but she seems to think this is the only explanation I need.

“He’s here?” I look around. “Now?”

When she gives me another blank look, I shake my head and plop down next to her.
Now
.
Forever
.
Never
.
Soon
.
Late
.
When
. None of these concepts are going to help me here. Looking out into the distance, I watch as the color of the water changes to a deep purple. Is it nightfall here? I wonder to myself.