Sever (The Ever Series Book 3) (26 page)

“Wanna dance with the king, Exorcist girl?”

I shudder, reminded of several bad things all at once. Maybe the most disturbing is that the biggest jerk in school is probably right. He probably
is
going to be voted prom king. As he starts dragging me toward the dance floor, I smell something sharper than aftershave on his breath, and suddenly I remember Ash telling us that Emily Michaels broke up with him for the millionth time—right before prom.

I’d almost feel sorry for him if I didn’t know that Ever, Alex, and the others suffered a lot worse than Jeff could ever imagine in his lifetime. Besides, Jeff was a jerk before Emily broke up with him, and if he’s not careful, he’ll spend his entire life that way. Unless Victor takes over this world. Then Jeff and everyone else will have bigger problems to deal with.

“Uh, Jeff. Can I ask you a question?” I ask calmly as he swings me around like a doll.

He stops and sways on his feet. I don’t bother waiting for him to answer.

“You don’t even know me. Why don’t you just leave me alone?”

“’Cause every other chick at this school wants me. What the hell makes you so”—he pauses to belch loudly—“special?”

I’m tempted to say, ‘
I have taste
,’ but I don’t.

“Nothing,” I say, pulling out of his grip.

Walking from the dance floor, I stop as the song playing cuts off and another starts. I close my eyes and feel myself instantly transported to the spring dance in Southern California—to the night I knew I was in love with Alex.

“Our first dance,” he says from behind me.

Turning around, I stare up at him and wonder how it’s possible that I thought Alex or Ever were human. He offers his hand, and I don’t argue like I did that night. I reach up and put my hand in his.

“How did you know? How could you have possibly known that night how much I love this song? You couldn’t read my thoughts then, but you still knew.”

“Your eyes will always betray you.”

He pulls me into his arms, and I breathe in a smell I’ve come to recognize as immortal perfection. Looking up at him, I’m suddenly afraid that I’m guilty of the same thing I just accused Jeff Summers of—wanting something because I know I can’t have it. In my case, what I want is the happy ending. And, for the first time, I think what my English teacher said freshman year might be right. Happy endings might exist only in fairy tales.

“Alex, thank you for tonight.” I watch his eyes harden. “Yeah, that’s right.
Thank … you
. I know I don’t deserve a fairy tale happy ending, but this almost feels like one …”

Or maybe it would feel like a happy ending if I could forget the part about being in love with two different people.

“It could be our happy ending,” he says quietly.

Frowning, I shake my head.

“What do you mean?”

The ground begins shaking beneath my feet as a spotlight shines down on me.

“
Wren Sullivan!
” a voice booms from the stage.

I freeze as I recognize a voice I never wanted to hear again.

“Would you please join me on stage?”

I turn and stare at the stage, where Victor is holding out his hand.

“W
e need to leave,” Alex whispers urgently in my ear. “
Now
.”

Looking up at him, I realize he has no intention of fighting. He wants to run—to leave here. Maybe even leave reality, Earth, my life.

“Wren, my dear,” Victor continues from the stage. “I must admit you have surprised me. However, it is very convenient that you’ve chosen my once loyal servant as your champion … as I have become weary of indulging your second-place contender.”

Victor gestures offstage, and I feel myself lurch forward when I see the silver-haired wraith appear with Ever. Alex grabs me as the other horsemen appear. One is holding Matt and my mom, both of them staring blankly into the distance like that night Alex took Ashley. A third horseman is holding Audra. The fourth is holding Chasen.

“What’s going on here? This was never sanctioned!” a voice barks with authoritative outrage.

As Mr. Chernoff, the pompous, shiny-headed vice principal from my first day at Springview, starts walking across the stage toward Victor, I want to warn him, but before I can even breathe, Victor smiles at Mr. Chernoff and snaps his fingers, causing the vice principal to disappear in a puff of smoke, like a magic trick. People around me start clapping and laughing. They think it’s some kind of elaborate joke.

“Alex!” I whisper fiercely. “Did you plan this with Ever?”

“No,” he says shaking his head. “I have no idea how Victor achieved Ever’s surrender.”

Shaking loose of his grip, I begin walking toward the stage with no plan and no way out. I have no other choice. Victor is winning. Walking up the steps to the stage, I watch Victor as he reaches over and picks up the crown intended for the prom king, placing it on his own head.

“Yo!” Jeff Summers yells from the dance floor. “That’s my crown, fool!”

When I reach Victor, he smiles.

“Let these people go,” I hiss.

I may not like Jeff Summers, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch him disappear in a puff of smoke.

“You wish for me to release these unwitting chattel? Very well, then,” he says into the microphone.

He snaps his fingers again, and suddenly I’m standing in a hotel room. Victor, the horsemen, and half the people I care about in this world are standing across from me. I watch in disgust as Victor walks over and runs his hand along the arm of a large leather chair before sitting down like it’s his throne. I sense Alex behind me, but I don’t dare take my eyes off of Ever, my mom, and Matt.

“Ah, yes. This is much more comfortable,” Victor says, drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. “I’ve noticed that you humans are fond of the bad guy
explainin’ how he did it
, so I shall.”

I glance nervously at Ever and the others.

“And Ms. Sullivan, seeing as you were so helpful in your own right, it would be a shame if I didn’t share with you your role in my victory.”

The blood drains from my face as I steal a glance behind me at Alex in a fleeting hope that he might have answers. His expression is still as blank as mine.

“You see, my dear, your little journey into our world has imbued a formerly useless material with a critical property I’ve been seeking.”

“A better hair day?” I ask blandly.

He smiles.

“
Mortality
. Yours to be exact.”

I think of the blades—made of a material that can wound them and can possibly make these immortals powerless—that each of them carries.

“A demonstration perhaps?” Victor asks casually.

Every muscle in my body tenses as he rises from the chair.

“No … please,” I gasp.

I watch, frozen, as he gestures toward the silver-haired wraith—who is still holding Ever. Victor’s minion turns and grins at me, exposing gleaming white, pointed teeth. Not two fangs like out of a vampire movie, but each tooth sharpened to a needle-point. Somehow I had never noticed before. Just behind him the carrot-topped girl puts her hands above my mom and Matt, like she’s playing with marionettes, and I watch helplessly as they begin to dance around together in jerky movements, their eyes still blank and lifeless.

My eyes dart back to the silver-haired horseman as he wrenches Ever’s suit jacket from his shoulders. Finally I see the reason Ever hasn’t moved. There are pale gold bracelets ringed around his wrists, linking them together, searing into his flesh. My breath comes in fast little gulps as Victor walks toward Ever, pulling out a long sword made of the same pale gold material. Victor extends the blade and then slowly begins to draw it across Ever’s chest. A glowing seam opens across Ever’s bronzed skin until he finally drops to his knees.

Unlike the silver-colored metal that Ever’s and Alex’ blades are made of, this pale gold that makes up Victor’s blade leaves a mark on Ever that’s not healing, even in this world. My knees weaken. Is it possible that my entrance into their dimension created a substance that Victor can now use to wound them mortally—to
kill
them? I can’t risk finding out. I need to stall for time to see if Ever heals.

“
Stop
!” I scream.

Victor turns toward me.

“You appear conflicted, my dear.”

I nod.

“You’re right. I
was
conflicted. But now I get it. I can’t win … unless I become like you.”

“You make it sound all bad,” he says in a chiding tone.

“It isn’t, as long as you don’t have a conscience.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

“You would. Now, let’s negotiate. I have something you want, but I think I want more than you can offer me in return.”

“I highly doubt that, Ms. Sullivan.”

“Yeah?” I laugh. “Well, I’ve met your
princess
, and there’s no way I’m signing up for that kind of crazy. So, if I join you, then
I
join you, not as a puppet, but as me. And I get something I want in return.”

Victor smiles, making my skin crawl.

“I’m intrigued. Go on …”

“First, you leave my friends and family alone. They will remain mine.”

He shrugs lazily, but he stops smiling as soon I gesture to Ever, then Alex.

“And … I get them.
Both
of them. In one piece.”

I feel Alex stiffen behind me, and Ever’s head snaps up at my words. The laceration on Ever’s chest
still
isn’t healing. Suddenly Victor laughs—a vicious sound—and claps his hands together, startling me.

“
Brava
! I fear I did not bestow upon you the credit you deserve. Your daring is impressive,” he says cheerfully. “If I may point out, however: I’ve punished others for lesser infractions. Yet you’ve managed to pique my curiosity. Why, exactly, would I bow to your demands?”

I shiver as I remember what he said when he appeared on 23
rd
Street:
I, young Wren Sullivan, am your future
. At the time, I assumed he meant that I was about to become his puppet. Now I’m starting to wonder if he really meant that I’m his future—his window to this world.

He needs me; that’s why I’m still alive. Alex said it earlier tonight:
Victor requires your acquiescence if he is to obtain what he truly desires
. And Ever said it before him:
Wren, he won’t hurt you. Victor needs you too much.
I kept thinking I was a helpless hostage in this immortal war, but maybe not so much. Victor can’t kill me, or the portal closes—and he needs it open. It’s why Ever was going to kill me. Because, with the portal closed forever, Ever and the others would have almost certainly won.

“Because you
need
me.”

“I do?” Victor asks humorously.

I smile and nod.

“If I had been expendable to you, then I would have been dead by the first act. But I’m still here. You …
need
… me.”

Yes, I’m rubbing it in, but I need to push him. I need Victor to know I have some leverage.

“Presumptuous, aren’t you?” he says as he begins walking back toward Ever.

I shrug and walk toward the French doors across the room. Swinging open the door, I walk out onto the terrace, swallowing as I lift myself onto the edge.

“Go ahead, kill him, and—” I pause to look over the ledge, “over I go.”

We’re on the top floor, and the distance to the sidewalk is more than enough to kill me. I wait for Victor to step away from Ever. He turns back to me, smiling, and I keep my expression blank.

Then—before I can even scream—Victor drives the blade under his arm and straight through Ever’s chest. Audra screams as Ever falls to the floor, and that’s when I know this is real.

And I know that if I’ve lost Ever, then there’s only one thing left to do. I let myself fall backward.

Wren, don’t!

I hear Alex’s voice in my head a millisecond before I feel gravity catch hold of me. The last thing I see is Ever’s lifeless body on the floor before air whooshes all around me. For a few seconds I can nearly feel the pavement rushing up to meet me.

Then nothing. Just blackness.
Am I dead
? Then I realize: I’m thinking. I wouldn’t be thinking
anything
if I were dead. Sucking in a breath, I feel someone holding me. The person isn’t breathing or moving.

“What the hell was that?” Alex seethes as soon as I open my eyes.

When my vision clears, he sets me down.

“
That
was me trying to die!”

“You thought that would solve things?” he spits incredulously.

“Yes!” I scream, stepping away from him.

My chest throbs as my legs turn to jelly. I fall forward onto the cold concrete ground when I think about leaving my mom with Victor. Matt, Audra, and Chasen, too.

And Ever …
gone
.

The weight of what just happened begins to crush me. I lost Ever. No—I
watched
him die. And now nearly everyone else I care about is under Victor’s control.

“Do you … do you think he’ll kill everyone else?” I whisper.

Alex shakes his head.

“No. I think he just realized how serious you are.”

“Why didn’t you just let me fall?”

Alex grabs my hand and pulls me up from the floor. Looking up, I glare at him. If I were dead already, Victor would have lost any interest he had in my family and friends. He might even be powerless by now for all I know.

“I didn’t
let you fall
because I love you. And, as much as it pains me to point out, you are Ever’s only chance at resurrection.”

My heart leaps in my chest.

“What do you mean?!”

“There’s no time.”

He grabs my hand and begins leading me through the darkness. At first, I think we’re in an underground parking structure. Then I smell rancid cooking oil, rotting fish, and fried food. We reach a door, and when Alex opens it, I see three people, including a small boy, crammed into a space no bigger than my closet at home. The woman, who’s bent over a pot on a makeshift stove, looks up at us and says something in an unfamiliar language. She doesn’t seem to care that two strangers have walked into the equivalent of her kitchen, living room, and bedroom. She goes back to her cooking before we continue along the corridor. We pass at least ten more families crammed into impossibly small spaces, and I stifle a scream when something furry slides past my ankle.

“Where are we?” I gasp against the raw sewage smell.

Alex looks back at me.

“The basement of a luxury condo in Beijing.”

“China?”

“Try to keep your thoughts to yourself,” he mutters almost to himself. “They’ll be looking for us.”

They
. Victor and the horsemen. Of course they’re looking for us. Because instead of ending up flattened on the pavement outside my senior prom, I’m here with Alex. He forces open a door and takes my hand. I squint in the sunlight as I follow him. Suddenly we’re on a congested street teeming with street vendors and people on bicycles. The air is thick, almost grayish, and I choke on the exhaust of a passing truck. As we begin hurrying along the street, I turn toward the mirrored glass of another high-rise building.

What the
…

I stop and stare at the reflection. I don’t look like me. At all. I look at Alex and then at his reflection in the mirrored glass. We both look middle-aged—and Asian. As soon as I realize this, the concrete beneath my feet begins to rumble. People on the roadway start running and screaming, and a truck on the other side of the road overturns as the concrete splits down the center of the street. When the building next to us starts swaying like a drunken giant, I look up, wondering if concrete is about to rain down on us.

Suddenly I remember being in the Malé Airport last year when the horsemen appeared. Ever had stayed behind to protect me, but now he’s gone. I’ve lost him. Alex turns toward me.