Twisted Dreams (20 page)

Movement came from the doorway leading to the back of the trailer and I realized Russ had entered the room again.

“You need to trust me, Icy.” Riley said, his voice low.

“How am I supposed to do that?” I hissed. The pain from the herbs they’d force fed me remained. I wished I had my strength so I could rip the lot of them to pieces. “You practically handed me to them on a platter!”

Russ called out, “Hey, Riley. No chatting with the sacrifice.”

“I’m not chatting,” he snapped back. “I have to be able to speak for the magic to work.”

I heard Russ mutter, “Damn mumbo-jumbo,” under his breath, but then he turned away and started to fiddle with the cuffs on his shirt.

I glared at Riley. “I know you people caused the accident on the Waltzer on purpose,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

He squinted at me. “Yeah, so?”

“Jesus, Riley! People could have been killed!”

“Collateral damage,” he growled.

“For what? I assume all this has to do with the Disruptive Convergence.”

“How do you know about that?”

I didn’t answer his question. “What about the hell cycle that follows?”

“We’ll be protected.”

“Why? Because you sacrifice people? I can’t believe I ever trusted you!” Tears were close again, but I fought against them, not wanting him to see my weakness. “I didn’t just trust you, Riley. I gave myself to you. Do you have any idea what that meant for me?”

His hand closed around my wrist, gripping it tight. “It meant something to me too, Icy. Don’t ever think it didn’t.”

“What else am I supposed to think?”

“Hey, you weren’t exactly honest with me either. You never told me about being a vamp.”

“Part vampire,” I corrected him with a sniff.

“Yeah, well, you kept that quiet, so don’t make out like you’re all sweetness and innocence. And you never admitted to me the part about being able to see the future.”

I looked at him with tears swimming in my eyes, blurring my vision. “Guess I’m not so good at the predicting the future part,” I said. “Or else I’d have seen you betray me.”

Chapter

22

T
he
door burst open, making me jump.

Brooke came walking up the steps, her blonde hair loose around her face, the moonlight behind glowing through her locks like a halo. Mitch followed her close behind.

My roommate looked around the trailer with a dreamy smile on her face. No part of her acted as though she’d been kidnapped, or that something unimaginable was going to happen in a matter of hours.

“Brooke?” I said.

She blinked at me and smiled. “Hey, Beth. How are you doing?”

We could have been meeting at a social. No, that was wrong. If we’d been at a social, Brooke would have been glaring at me with her usual contempt and probably ignoring my existence. Instead, she smiled at me as though I was an old friend she’d just bumped into.

“Brooke, are you okay?”

“Sure, Beth. I’m great.”

I turned to Riley. “What have you done to her?”

“Nothing you need to worry about. It’s a simple contentment spell, that’s all. She’s probably happier now than she is normally.”

I couldn’t argue with that, but I still didn’t like seeing Brooke like this. Even though no narcotics had been used, the way she was acting felt too close to her being drugged.

Something about how he’d managed to change her behavior made me uncomfortable and nauseous. Had he done this to me, too? Had I fallen for him because of some kind of spell? I didn’t want to even think about what that meant in regards to me sleeping with him.

I shook my head in hurt and bewilderment at Riley. “I can’t believe I got you so wrong.”

But hadn’t I seen darkness in him? Hadn’t his air of danger drawn me to him in the first place? The darkness I’d recognized in him was the same as I knew was within me. I was a fool not to expect the situation to blow up in my face.

I was aware of both Mitch and Russ watching Riley and me. Riley opened his mouth to respond and then closed it again. Instead, he gave his head a slight shake and turned away from me, his lips pressed together. I blinked back my tears while Brooke watched on, a beatific smile on her perfect face.

The door slammed open, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“God-damned idiots,” The Bull growled, barging into the trailer, his size immediately taking up a large amount of space. “Sometimes I wonder if they’d be able to wipe their own asses if I wasn’t around.”

“Everything okay, Boss?” Russ asked, his hands clenching and unclenching anxiously.

“Fine, but the clock’s ticking, and we need to get this show on the road.” His eyes locked on Brooke, and his eyebrows lifted. “Good to see we’ve got everyone we need. Now haul ass. You know where you’re going.”

Mitch took Brooke by the arm and dragged her past Bulldog and back out into the open air. She didn’t need to be dragged. I had a feeling she’d have gone anywhere she was told, but Mitch seemed to like to assert his strength over her.

Russ approached me and reached down to grab my arm.

I yanked away. “I don’t need you to drag me around.” I still felt impossibly weak, though the fire raging in my stomach seemed to have abated. Using the chair behind me, I pulled myself to my feet. The ground felt unstable beneath me, my legs wobbly. I teetered for a moment, and Riley reached out and grabbed me before I fell. I pulled away from him, too. “I don’t want you anywhere near me.”

“You can’t walk, Icy. Would you rather I help you, or shall we let Russ do it?” I glanced over to Russ, who licked his lips as he sneered at me.

“Fine,” I relented. Despite everything, I would rather have Riley’s hands on me than Russ’s.

I leaned against Riley, allowing his strength to hold me up as I took step after unsteady step out of the trailer. His arm was around my waist, his familiar scent and warmth encasing me. I wanted more than anything to give into the ache in my heart, to have him hold me and tell me this was all a big mistake, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I forced myself to be strong, to build a wall around my heart against him, but nothing in my life had ever been harder.

Russ, Mitch, and Brooke waited for us outside. We stepped off the small set of metal steps and onto the dirt ground. Bulldog followed us out, locking the door of his trailer, before joining us.

My legs buckled again, and Riley grabbed me, holding me up.

“She’s struggling to walk,” he said to Bulldog. “Why don’t I take her on my bike and meet you there?”

The Bull gave a snort of laughter. “Yeah, right. So you can whisk her away to lover’s paradise, you mean?”

Riley snapped. “Would you quit that? You’ve been like a father to me, Bull. You looked after my mom before she died. You could have kicked me out of the carnival, but you didn’t. You kept me on, and trained me, and kept me clothed and fed. I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me. Now you keep acting like I’ve betrayed you.”

The Bull was smarter than I’d given him credit for. He gave Riley a cold, intense stare. “Never trust someone completely, son. The moment you do, that’s when they’ll get you,” he pounded his chest, “right here. Straight through the heart.” He pointed a finger at Riley. “Even the most faithful dog has the capacity to turn around and bite you in the ass. Don’t you ever forget it.”

“Yes, sir,” Riley said, but I didn’t miss the tightness in his jaw.

We were all outside now, standing beside the trailer. Looking toward the midway, I noticed several of the rides had been dismantled, the huge structures remaining now appearing awkward and out of place. Though it must be approaching midnight, the carnies still worked, their voices carrying over to us in the night air. I considered screaming for help, but I doubted anyone would hear me above the clanging of machinery, music, and shouting men. Even if they did hear me, who would help? The Bull ran the show, and they wouldn’t challenge his authority—not if they still wanted a commission at the next town.

Bulldog lifted his face to the sky, and, in a moment of unusual serenity, smiled up at the stars. “Well, look at that,” he said. “It’s already happening.”

I looked up to the night sky and gasped. The moon was full, appearing huge and yellow. It was close enough to allow me to see all the shadows and craters that made up its surface. It was beautiful. But that wasn’t all. Several of the stars appeared far larger and brighter than I’d ever seen them, their radiance, together with the moon, making the night far less dark than usual. Though light still spilled from Bulldog’s trailer, I knew as we headed across the fields and into the forest, that we wouldn’t need flashlights to help us find our way.

The hairs on my arms began to stand to attention, the hair on my head beginning to lift as though someone had placed a balloon covered in static electricity close me. I lifted my hand to touch my head, checking my hair wasn’t literally standing on end.

Riley spotted me doing so. “It’s the proximity of the moon,” he told me. It’s affecting our electrical fields. You might find yourself breathless too, the closer the moon gets, so try not to panic.”

I didn’t think a bit of breathlessness was going to be my main concern.

He pointed at the sky. “See the one farthest to the right, the brightest one?” I nodded. “That’s Procyon.” He moved his arm to point farther left. “And see the one that’s the least bright? That’s called Capella. And the one in the middle is Rigel.” I felt his breath on the back of my ear, the heat of his body against my back. “In another hour, all of those stars will be aligned with the moon, and that’s when we’ll experience the Disruptive Convergence.”

My heart ran cold. “And when you’ll kill everyone in Sage Springs.”

“I’m not killing anyone, Icy.”

“But you’ll play your part.”

He didn’t answer.

The Bull started forward. “Enough standing around,” he said. “Let’s get moving.”

We headed away from the trailers, toward the fields behind the carnival where they’d first captured me, and to the forests beyond.

I felt as though I was willingly walking toward my death. I was tempted to simply not bother to move my feet, and force them to carry me, but I didn’t want Bulldog, Russ, or Mitch’s hands on me. Besides, what would it achieve? No one around here was going to help me. Also, as much as I didn’t want these particular people for company, I had to at least be at the pools during the Disruptive Convergence. I had no idea what I could do to stop it, but if I wasn’t there, Sage Springs wouldn’t stand a chance.

I hated that I needed to use Riley’s strength to keep me upright, but as we left the trailers behind and headed into the depths of the trees, a tingling began in my legs and arms, a burning in my muscles that had nothing to do with the herbs they’d fed me, and everything to do with my strength returning. I made no more effort than previously to walk, not wanting to alert them to the fact the herbs were wearing off. The last thing I wanted was to suffer another dose. If that happened, I would stand no chance of surviving the next hour. At least this time I would be prepared for them. If they came anywhere near me with that stuff, I would bite their fingers off before they had a chance to get it in my mouth.

As we walked through the trees, following a small trail, I realized the forest felt different tonight. At first, I struggled to pinpoint exactly what the change was, but then it dawned on me. Other than the sounds of our feet crunching against twigs and leaves, and the heavy breathing of the unfit men ahead, the forest was utterly silent. No insects buzzed or whined near my head, no animals scurried away from us in the undergrowth. Even the birds roosting overhead were gone. It was like the strange emptiness of the pools had spread its boundaries, causing all life in the forest to scatter to safety.

All life except us.

Chapter

23

The walk through the forest was starting to sap my strength again. Though the light from the moon and stars was bright, brighter than it would probably ever be again, the darkness caused by the trees made the route harder than in the daytime. I found myself tripping over hidden roots and fallen branches. On those occasions, I was thankful for Riley holding me up.

I stumbled again and turned my ankle over. Pain shot up through my ankle and calf, and I hissed air in between my teeth.

Riley stopped with me. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking down at me with concern.

“Fine,” I snapped, not liking him seeing me at my weakest. I ignored the pain and kept walking, using Riley as my crutch.

But the effect of the herb was wearing off, the weakness that had held me in its clutches abating with every minute that passed. I just hoped it would be gone from my system by the time Bulldog decided to kill me.

As Riley had warned me, the air grew thin, and I fought to take a deep breath. I noticed the men in front struggled worse, their large forms needing more oxygen to replenish their muscles while they were on the move.

Good,
I thought bitterly. I hoped they felt like they were drowning.

Brooke barely seemed to notice anything was wrong, and strode on, as though out for a Sunday hike.

We were getting closer to the pools now; I sensed their presence in the atmosphere. But that wasn’t the only thing getting closer. Every so often I caught a glimpse of the moon and stars between the tree branches. The moon was huge and had taken on a red glow. It was both magnificent, and terrifying.

“There’s blood on the moon,” I muttered beneath my breath. The hairs on my arms now stood at full attention, as though I was freezing cold instead of warm and traipsing through a forest on a balmy night. I imagined my normally frizz-heaven hair would be twice its regular size by now.

“Maybe it’s a sign,” Riley said.

I glanced up at him. His expression was unreadable as he stared ahead, just keeping his feet moving, his arm still around my waist. Whatever the sign meant, I didn’t think it would be a good one.

My lungs were starting to burn now, and a flutter of panic tickled my heart. What if the air grew so thin I was unable to breathe? Would we all die before we even reached the pools? Perhaps that would be a good thing, and the Disruptive Convergence would pass without further event?

“Here,” Riley said, noticing my breathing. “I can help.”

His eyes closed briefly and he spoke in almost silent whispers. A sudden breeze lifted around us, stirring my hair. He reached out, as though catching something in the space in front of us, and he brought his cupped hand to my mouth and nose.

“Breathe,” he told me.

I didn’t have much choice. My lungs were already burning from the thin air, and I hadn’t yet caught my breath. I inhaled, expecting the shallow breath I’d managed before, but instead my lungs filled with oxygen rich air.

Instantly, my chest expanded, letting go of the tight wheeziness I’d been suffering with most of the hike. My head cleared, the building panic abated. I doubted the relief would last, but for the moment I was grateful.

“How did you do that?” I asked, staring up at him, curiously.

He gave me a wink. “A magician never shares his secrets.”

I scowled. “I hope you’re not flirting with me, Riley Draiodh. Especially considering the situation!”

He shook his head and kept walking. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

I started to recognize the path we were on, the fallen tree trunk which Riley had needed to skirt around when we’d come here on his bike. The boulder completely covered in moss on one side. The low lying swathe of branches which were low enough to brush my hair and force the men to duck beneath. My heart picked up its pace, thumping against the inside of my chest. What would we find when we got there? What would happen to Brooke and me? The words ‘bleeding’ and ‘sacrifice’ had been mentioned, so I was certain it wouldn’t be good.

Out of nowhere, Riley pulled up short, forcing me to stop with him. “Wait!”

Bulldog turned at the sound of his voice, and the others stopped too. “What now?” Bull demanded. “We need to move. We’ve only got another thirty minutes, at most.”

“We’re not alone,” Riley called out. “Some people have already made it to the pools.”

My heart leaped. Of course, Laurel, Dana, and the others. Would they have realized something was wrong when I’d not come back to the beach? Had they come here to find me, perhaps finally taking me at my word that the Disruptive Convergence was going to be far more treacherous than they knew? But then my heart sank again. This put them in danger. How far would The Bull go to get what he wanted? He wasn’t afraid of committing a little murder among friends, but would he really kill four college girls? I understood him wanting me dead, I was hardly a normal girl, but they were innocent.

He’s willing to kill Brooke,
I reminded myself.
She’s done nothing to him.

Had I only lured Laurel’s circle to their deaths, or would they be able to do something to save us?

We followed Bulldog off the path and into the clearing.

My prediction about who was already here had been correct.

The girls sat on a patch of grass in the middle of the pools. Candles shone around them, and they held hands, chanting quietly. They barely seemed to register our arrival. I wanted to cry. They might not have come for me, they might have only come because of the pools and the Convergence, but they were here and that’s what mattered.

“Kayla, hi!” Brooke squealed with excitement and waved frantically. Kayla’s total lack of response did nothing to perturb her.

Bulldog started forward and suddenly rebounded back. “What the hell?”

For the first time, Riley left my side. I felt the space he’d left like an empty chasm beside me. I didn’t want to feel that way, he was my enemy now, but I couldn’t help myself.

He reached out into the space Bulldog had bounced back from. Laid his palm flat, as though pressing against a pane of glass. “They must be creating some kind of protective spell to keep us out.”

Bulldog’s eyes narrowed. “Can you fix it?”

Riley gave a curt nod. “Of course.”

He placed both hands against the invisible surface and lowered his head as though in prayer. I stood watching, part in fear, part in fascination. Riley began to speak, though I was unable to pick up on the words, his voice was too low. My eyes darted between him and the group of girls sitting on a patch of grass between the pools.

As I watched, the leaves in the trees overhead began to rustle, and those on the ground gently lifted and flipped and swirled across the forest floor. The ferns began to bend, and the water stirred in ripples. Dana’s long hair blew back from her face, and all of their clothing billowed.

Bizarrely, standing on the outskirts, I barely felt a breeze. I checked out Brooke and noted that her hair wasn’t moving either. The wind was directed purely at the circle.

The force of the gusts grew stronger, causing the water to lift in waves, splashing on the surrounding ground.
I’ve seen this before,
I realized. The night Flynn brought me here. Had that been Riley then, too, sending us a warning? Or had it only been Flynn he’d been chasing off?

The wind had become a low moan, quickly rising to a howl. The candles flickered and spurted, before extinguishing completely.

The circle of witches clung tightly to one another’s hands. Their hair whipped from their faces, Dana’s red curls threatening to strangle her. Their clothing blew back from their bodies. The noise was tremendous, a shriek I’d only ever heard during a storm. The girls’ chanting grew louder, trying to be heard over the wind, until their voices became a chorus of shouts.

“Hang in there,” I willed them under my voice.

But they were starting to lose it. I caught Melissa shooting Dana a look of sheer panic, her skin pale. I hoped she wasn’t about to have another fit.

I glanced up at the sky. The moon was blood red, the stars beginning to slip in line.

“Riley, quit it!” I yelled. “Leave them alone.”

Bulldog glanced back at me and then turned to Russ. “Get her to shut the hell up.”

Russ stalked toward me and lifted his hand. I saw it coming, but didn’t get the chance to move. I still wasn’t up to my normal strength. His hand came down in an arc, the palm catching my cheek and jaw, knocking me sideways. Pain exploded up one side of my face. I struggled to keep my balance, staggered to one side, and dropped to my knees.

“Hey!” Riley yelled, glaring with fury at Russ.

A cluster of pinecones flew toward Laurel. Instinctively, she lifted her hand to protect her face, and broke the circle. The girls fell silent, looking around themselves in confusion, unsure what to do next.

Riley dropped his hands, and the wind immediately fell away. He ran back to me and skidded to a halt beside me. He reached down to pick me up.

“Leave me alone.”

He must have picked up that I wasn’t kidding and turned his attention to Russ, instead. “Don’t you ever lay a hand on her again!”

“Shut it, Riley,” snapped Bulldog. “Have you forgotten whose side you’re on?”

It didn’t matter. The protective spell had been broken.

Bulldog pointed toward the circle. “Get the girls.”

Mitch and Russ didn’t need to be told twice. They stormed past the pools, toward the circle of witches.

Dana saw them coming and tried to regroup her circle. “Link hands. We have time to do something—”

But she was stopped in her tracks.

Melissa’s eyes rolled, flashing the whites, and she fell backward, landing on the ground with a crack that made me wince. Her body jerked and juddered as she fitted in the dirt.

“What’s happening to her?” I called out to the circle.

“It’s the alignment of the stars,” Laurel cried. “Her fits have been getting worse ever since the Convergence started.”

Unsure, Mitch and Russ glanced back toward Bulldog. “What are you waiting for?” he roared.

They approached again. Dana lifted her hand up at one of the trees lining the clearing, and yelled a couple of words I didn’t understand. A flash of light and a burst of flame forked across one of the branches. The branch severed from the tree and flew through the air toward where Mitch approached her. The wood smacked him square in the back, knocking him off balance. He went down heavily, smacking his head on one of the boulders surrounding the edges of one of the smaller pools. He lay there, unmoving.

Not letting the fall of his friend get to him, Russ attacked from the other side. He produced the weapon he’d been concealing, and pressed the muzzle at Dana’s temple. “If any of you try anything witchy,” he told Laurel and Kayla, “your leader gets it.”

“The time’s almost here, Riley,” Bulldog yelled. From his belt, he produced the knife he’d threatened me with earlier. “You’d better get your vampire ready.”

Riley reached out and took me by the arm, pulling me close to his body. He whispered in my ear, “I’m sorry.”

“You will be,” I hissed back, though my threats were unsubstantial. Unless I regained most of my strength in the next few minutes, I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this alive.

I could feel the eyes of Laurel’s circle on me, horror and a question in them. Vampire. Of course they’d heard Bulldog call me a vampire.

I glanced up at the sky. The stars were barely visible on either side of the moon now, the moon almost completely obscuring them. It would only be a matter of minutes, and the Convergence would begin.

And so would the hell cycle.

“Do your thing, Riley,” Bulldog commanded.

Still with one hand holding me, he lifted out his other hand toward the water. A new wind whipped up, lifting leaves and dirt and branches from the ground, whipping our hair and clothes. But the main focus of the wind was the pool. It stirred its surface, creating only a circle of ripples at first, but those ripples quickly became waves, though they seemed to have no direction. Then I realized they did have a direction. It was up.

Riley created a spiral of air, lifting the water from the pool into the sky.

A tornado. He’d created a tornado to remove the water from the pool.

I could see the edges of the pool now, the water pulling away from the sides as it lifted higher. The sides were made of rock and dirt, but the lower it got, the more the material changed—a substance I didn’t think I’d ever seen before. Black glass, but not. Glass which seemed to ripple and stir. Glass which seemed alive.

Something moved down there, and I gave a shriek and leaped back. Had I imagined it? No, I didn’t think so. Something humanoid, with long skeletal arms and legs, and a pale, naked scalp, appeared to be scaling the walls of the pool.

It wanted into Sage Springs, and I doubted it would be alone.

“Riley! Stop it! Stop it now!” I wrenched out of his grasp and took hold of him instead, shaking him. But he didn’t lose control of his spell.