Evertrue

THIRTEEN

NOW

The Surface. The hotel.

Jack tilted his head. “What kind of backstory?”

“The kind that convinces Cole he wants the same thing we do.” I handed Jack his coffee. “The kind where he wants to destroy the Everneath just as much as we do. Maybe even more.”

Jack raised his eyebrows as he brought the mug to his mouth. He blew on the steaming coffee and then took a sip and swallowed. “If he’s faking this whole amnesia thing . . .”

“He’d never keep up the ruse if he thought he was helping us destroy the Everneath.”

Jack set his mug down on the counter and smiled. “Do you have a story in mind?”

I nodded. “I’ve got a tragic one.”

Twenty minutes later, Cole was seated on one bed, Jack and I on the other. We had told him about how he was an Everliving, but we also added a fictional backstory, hopefully one that would make him want to help us. He was staring at me with a frown on his face. “So these Everlivings . . . they killed my family? My extended family? Cousins and aunts and uncles? The entire thing?”

I nodded.

“And then they . . . burned my village?” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Jack glanced sideways at me. Okay, I admit I embellished our original story by adding the part about a burned village. But I wanted to make sure Cole was on our side totally and completely.

I nodded again. “Yes. You and I met because we were both trying to destroy the Everneath. I have certain . . . abilities that can help us.”

“What kind of abilities?” he said.

“I can make things appear.”

Cole squinted one eye at me. “How? Do it.”

“I can’t do it here. But in the Everneath I can think about an object and then make it appear. You noticed my ability, and you thought it would come in handy for taking down our mutual enemies.”

Cole looked at me, deep in thought. Jack shifted uncomfortably beside me. There was a knock at the door.

“Housekeeping” came a woman’s voice.

“Later!” Jack and I both yelled in unison.

Finally, Cole sighed. “Okay. This makes sense.”

“It does?” I said.

“Yes. The fact that I’m depending on you to seek revenge for the people I used to love? It explains why I’m so attached to you. Why I feel like lives depend on me being near you. Why everything around you seems made of . . . light.”

His face was earnest. Here Cole was, thinking I was the source of light right after I’d told him the biggest lie. At his words, guilt edged out my hate for a moment. My resolve faltered, and Jack stepped in.

“So now, Cole, we need to go see a man named Professor Spears. Hopefully, even though you can’t remember anything, something will come to you.”

Cole held out his hand. Jack eyed me and then took it, and Cole shook it vigorously. “I will meet this professor. I will help you.”

He left to go use the bathroom, and Jack looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “If he’s faking it . . .”

“Well, then we’ll know for sure, won’t we?”

Two hours later, we were sitting in Professor Spears’s office, waiting for him to get back from a class. The three of us sat facing the professor’s desk, a marble bust of Poseidon staring back at us.

The door swung open, and Professor Spears blew in.

“Nikki. Jack. I didn’t expect to see you again so quickly. And you have a friend?”

Cole stood and said formally, “Yes. Coleson Stockflet. Pleased to meet you, Professor Spears.”

Jack and I exchanged looks. Coleson Stockflet? Maybe it was an old name. I’d only known him as Cole Stockton.

The professor took his hand. “Nice to meet you too,” he said, giving me a confused look.

“Cole is an Akh ghost,” I said. “Hypothetically. He’s here to help us.”

“Ah. Okay. Why would an Akh ghost want to take down the Everneath?”

“Because Everlivings killed my family,” Cole said, his voice fierce. “And burned my village.”

I gave the professor a shaky smile. Our story must have stuck. “So, Professor, Cole here is on our side. But he has some sort of amnesia. He and his Everliving friends disappeared two nights ago. A large guy with black eyes may have been involved. When Cole returned, he had amnesia. And his friends still haven’t shown up. For all we know, they might have started their accelerated Feed early. But Cole here can’t remember. Do you have any idea what could have happened to him?”

The professor frowned and took a couple of steps closer to Cole. He put his finger on Cole’s collar bone, pointing to a deep scratch I hadn’t noticed before. The scratch got bigger as it disappeared underneath the collar of his shirt. “Do you mind, Cole, lifting your shirt?

Feeling suddenly protective, I took a step toward Cole, but Jack held me back. “He’ll be fine, Becks.”

Cole looked at me questioningly, and when I nodded, he slowly lifted his shirt, revealing his belly and chest.

And my breath caught in my throat. Scattered across his torso were deep purple welts with torn skin in the center of each one. I couldn’t imagine what would make such wounds. Maybe a hot poker? I raised my finger, and Cole flinched. I didn’t touch him.

“Cole,” I said, my voice soft.

The professor frowned, a grim look on his face. “I wouldn’t presume to know what happened, but this looks like . . . torture. And it looks fresh. Maybe not within the past day, but it surely happened within the past week.”

I closed my mouth, which had been hanging open. “Time moves slowly in the Everneath. It still could’ve happened yesterday but healed a little bit before he got back to the Surface.”

I pulled at the hem of Cole’s shirt and softly urged it back down, my breath catching in my throat.

“It’s okay,” Cole said. “I don’t remember it.”

Jack’s face had turned ashen. He looked away, almost as if he wanted to give me and Cole some privacy. I loved him for it at that moment.

I squeezed Cole’s hand. “You’re going to be okay.” Then I turned to Professor Spears. “How can we get his memory back?”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure. The best way would probably be to share memories of him. Also, he might still have some lingering instinctual behaviors.” At our confused expressions, Professor Spears continued. “I have a degree in psychology too. Sometimes people suffering from amnesia will drive to places they know, like the post office, or a favorite takeout haunt, even though they don’t technically remember them. Cole might exhibit this type of behavior.”

Once the professor had finished talking, the four of us sat there in silence for a while. Now that I knew Cole had been tortured . . . I don’t know. It didn’t change our course of action necessarily. But who would torture him?

I could only think of one person. The queen. Or someone acting on her orders.

“We’ll try to help him with his memories,” I said. “But in the meantime, does seeing him, or being around an actual Everliving, give you any further ideas about our plan?”

He shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything more than what I already told you. And meeting Cole hasn’t really done anything to change that. But I’m still looking through the journal from Sheldon.”

Jack let out a breath. “If we can’t figure out a way to destroy the Everneath in time, Nikki will die. You know this, right?”

The professor raised his eyebrows. “But all she would have to do is feed.”

“She won’t feed. Ever,” Jack said. “Because that would mean taking a life.”

The professor looked down. “Right. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that this isn’t just mythology. We’re not dealing in hypotheticals anymore.”

Jack’s and Cole’s faces were glum, and I could only assume they matched my own expression.

“Look, I’ll work on it,” the professor said. “I have your number. I’ll text you the second I find anything.”

On the drive back to the hotel Cole had a strange expression on his face. “I didn’t know you were going to die.”

I shifted in my seat so I could see him. I considered lying to him and coming up with another grandiose story about how hundreds or thousands of people would also die if we failed, but at this moment the truth seemed to be the best course of action. “I am. If we don’t destroy the Everneath, I’ll die.”

“How?”

I shook my head, momentarily caught off guard by the fact that I was explaining my death sentence to the very person who had given it to me. “Because you . . . because someone stole my heart. Which means I’m halfway to becoming an Everliving. And I’m getting weaker. I can survive by feeding on you, but that’s only a temporary solution.” I glanced involuntarily at the shackle on my one wrist and then looked at the other. Did I see the faint shadow of a line? I closed my eyes and went on. “And eventually I’ll have to take a human sacrifice to the Everneath and feed on him . . . or her . . . for a century. But the thing is, that sacrifice, that Forfeit, would then be condemned to the Tunnels, where he or she would die a slow death. And I would never do that to someone.”

“But if it would save you . . .” Cole paused and seemed to think about it for a moment. “Jack would do that for you. Wouldn’t you, Jack?” Cole said it as if he were telling me Jack would loan me a dollar.

I laughed disbelievingly. “It doesn’t matter. We’re talking about death here.”

Cole frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember all the details, but for some reason . . . I don’t know. I feel like death isn’t as big as we all think it is.”

Jack snorted. “Coming from someone who did everything he could to stay alive forever.”

Cole shook his head as if unsure of which side he wanted to take in this debate. “I don’t know what I did before. Maybe it’s because I’m hundreds of years old, as you say. Maybe my subconscious knows I’m supposed to be dead. Maybe that’s why death feels so natural. So inevitable.”

For a long while silence fell upon us, only broken when Jack flipped on the turn signal for our exit at Kimball Junction.

As he checked his blind spot, he caught my gaze and shrugged, as if to say You still believe the amnesia is an act?

The harder question was, What do you do with someone who doesn’t remember all the bad things he’s done? How do you hold him responsible when he doesn’t even remember who he is?

If this were all an act, I think he would’ve played his hand by now. That being said, I know neither of us trusted him. I didn’t owe Cole forgiveness. But did I owe it to this amnesiac in the backseat?

Jack finally broke the silence. “What do we do now, Becks?”

What were we going to do? I stared out the window for a moment. We’d done everything we could to make sure Cole wasn’t lying, so there was only one thing left to do.

“Pull over at that café here,” I said, pointing to a little place near the strip mall.

“Why?” Jack asked.

“I think it’s time we go to the Everneath. But first we need to eat.”

Ten minutes later. At Sunrise Café.

We ordered giant plates of eggs, bacon, and toast; and when the waitress left to put in the order, I pulled out a pen from my backpack and handed it to Jack, along with a napkin.

“Let’s go over what we know from Professor Spears,” I said.

Jack nodded and began to write. According to the professor, we have three obstacles we have to bring down in order to destroy the Everneath. Number one is the membrane. Number two is the link between the Shades. Number three is the hearts. He rubbed his forehead so hard, I thought he would rub off his eyebrows.

“I think number one and number two are related. I think the membrane will be more easily destroyed if we go after the link between the Shades first.”

Jack nodded. “That makes sense. As much as any of this makes sense. What do you have in mind?”

“There’s someone who might be able to help us with the Shades.”

“Who?” Jack and Cole said in unison.

“When Cole and I were searching for you in the Everneath, we had help from an old friend of Cole’s. Named Ashe.” I checked Cole’s face for any signs of recognition at the name, but there wasn’t anything I could see. “Ashe looked different from other Everlivings. He was gray all over. Looked as if he was made of smoke. Cole had seemed surprised by Ashe’s appearance. Apparently he hadn’t always looked like that. At one point when we’d almost made it to the Tunnels, we were attacked by Shades. We couldn’t touch them, but Ashe . . .” I sighed. “Ashe’s fists made contact with the Shades. He could connect with them when we couldn’t. He’d missed the last Feed, and that made him look more like a smoky version of a Shade. I’m sure he’s least part Shade.”

Both Jack and Cole were listening intently. I kept waiting for Cole to jump in, or at least reach the conclusion I was trying to guide him toward, but he looked as though he had never heard this story before.

“So,” I continued, “maybe if Ashe is part Shade, he’ll know how they’re all connected. He’s very loyal to you, Cole.”

“Why?” Cole asked.

Oh jeez. How did I explain that Ashe’s Forfeit, Adonia, had survived the Feed; and when she decided not to become an Everliving, Cole hunted her down so Ashe could turn her over to the current queen? And then Adonia became the queen?

“You helped him find something once. Something he had lost.” I shook my head. Cole had once used the same generic phrasing with me to explain Ashe’s loyalty.

Cole hung on every word as if he had no idea where I was going with this but couldn’t wait to find out.

“So,” I said again, “we’ll probably need to go to the Everneath. Find Ashe.”

Jack crumpled the napkin. “But why would Ashe help us? Why would he betray what the Shade connection is if he knew we wanted to destroy it?”

The waitress set down a plate of eggs in front of me, and I put a forkful in my mouth while I thought for a moment.

“We won’t tell him we want to destroy it,” I said. “We’ll tell him we’re there to try to jog Cole’s memory. But really you and I will be investigating the Shade link.”

Cole sat back, lacing his fingers together and bringing them up to his chin. “We could do that. Question, though: How do we get to this . . . ‘Everneath’?”

Jack rolled his eyes, then looked at me. “To the Shop-n-Go?”

I nodded.

Technically, Cole could take us down to the Everneath from anywhere, but in the state he was in and the way he’d forgotten everything, I didn’t want to make it harder than it already would be.

So we headed to the Shop-n-Go.

When we got to the store, it was open again, the busted lock fixed. But another clerk, not Ezra, stood behind the counter. The new clerk looked barely out of high school and very bored.

“Crap,” I said.

“What is it?” Cole asked.

“It’s not Ezra.” At Cole’s confused expression, I explained. “Ezra is the clerk you and your band paid to keep watch over the entrance to the Everneath.” I shook my head. “It just seems like a sign that something is wrong.”

I walked up to the new clerk. “Where’s Ezra?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” he said. “He sorta had a breakdown.”

“What do you mean?”

The clerk narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“Ezra’s my cousin. I’m worried.”

The clerk shrugged, as if he couldn’t be bothered being suspicious of me anymore. “He called me to replace him. When I got here, he was freaking out. Looked scared. Said he wasn’t coming back. That’s all I know.”

Jack pulled me away from the counter, and we went to the back of the store. I tried not to think about how ominous Ezra’s actions sounded. Once we were in the back, we all three faced one another, forming a triangle around the spot where I’d first seen that woman slip through the floor. Where I’d slipped through the floor myself after I’d ingested a hair of Cole’s.

“Let’s take each other’s hands,” I said.

Cole took one of mine, Jack took the other, and then, reluctantly, Jack took Cole’s hand. We formed a ring. I briefly thought about all the ways this could go wrong. We could land in the middle of the city square of Ouros. Worst case scenario, we’d appear during one of the queen’s Feasts. We could drop into the middle of a Shade convention or something. At least we couldn’t land anywhere in the labyrinth. Direct teleportation inside the three rings was impossible without an Everliving already there to grab your hand.

“Okay, Cole. We want to land in Ouros. But not in the main square. Anywhere but there,” I said, referring to the Common where Ashe lived. “Does that name mean anything to you? Ouros?”

He shook his head.

“Imagine . . . an ancient city. Surrounded by a circular wall. Single-level dwellings on the outside that give way to larger buildings toward the center.” I closed my eyes, trying to think of something that would set Ouros apart from the other Commons, but I couldn’t come up with anything. I would just have to rely on the fact that Ouros was Cole’s home, and hopefully it would be the most familiar to him.

I closed my eyes. “Okay, Cole. Let’s go.”

He squeezed my hand. I waited for that feeling of falling through space, of being tossed around in a washing machine.

But it never came.

I squeezed one eye open and looked at Cole. His eyes were closed, and he had a peaceful look on his face. I opened both of my eyes and caught the new clerk giving the three of us a very strange look.

“Cole. Are you doing anything?” I whispered.

He leaned toward me and spoke out of the side of his mouth, keeping his eyes shut. “What am I supposed to be doing?”

“I don’t know. Can’t you . . . think downward?” I’d been in his position recently enough that I realized the futility of how it felt.

He pressed his lips together and then began to sink lower. But he was only bending his knees.

Jack sighed and opened his eyes. “It isn’t working.”

I released Cole’s hand. “Give me a strand of your hair,” I said.

“What?”

“No humans can get to the Everneath unless they have a ferryman to take them there. You, as an Everliving, are supposed to be able to come and go as you please, from anywhere; but that obviously isn’t working. Maybe your body just doesn’t remember what to do. In the absence of an Everliving escort, a human can go to the Everneath if he or she ingests part of an Everliving.”

Cole’s eyebrows shot up.

“Maybe if I do that, it will kick-start the process. Which means I need to swallow one of your hairs.”

He looked relieved, as if he’d thought I was going to ask for a finger or something. He plucked a hair off his head and handed it to me.

I put the hair on my tongue, cringing, and said, “Once we get going, Cole, think of Ouros.”

I grabbed both of their hands again and swallowed.

And then the turbulence began.