Evertrue

THIRTY

NOW

The Everneath. Ouros.

We’d been wrong. Our assumptions that Max, Oliver, and Gavin had taken their Forfeits to an accelerated Feed were completely wrong. I realized then how delusional we’d been. Maybe none of us had wanted to believe that if Cole had been taken from his home and tortured, the band would have been as well.

No one was preparing for war. Instead, the inhabitants of Ouros were gathering in the center square, crowding in to watch the horrific murder of three Everlivings.

Unless we could stop it.

“When was the Feast supposed to start?” I asked.

Cole’s face remained blank, as if he hadn’t heard the question. He didn’t take his eyes off the poster.

“Cole. Do you recognize their faces?”

He shook his head.

“When was the Feast supposed to start?” I said again.

Cole frowned. “I scheduled our arrival for right after the beginning of the Feast. So we wouldn’t have to deal with the crowds rushing to the square.”

Jack pulled at my arm. “We’re under a deadline here. This could be our one chance to destroy the baetylus. Even if we got to the square before the Feast, we’d never be able to rescue them.”

I put my hand on Cole’s shoulder. “Hey, look at me.”

He obeyed.

“What are you feeling right now?”

His mouth was slightly open, and he looked around him as if he were searching for what he was feeling.

“Cole. Look at me. What are you feeling?”

“I feel like I need to go home. But I don’t have a home.” He looked like a lost puppy.

I nodded and turned to Jack. “We have to try to save them,” I said.

“Because Cole wants to go home?”

“Because the band is the only home he knows. That’s what he’s feeling right now.” I couldn’t believe I’d suggested it, but I knew that if Cole had his memories, he’d do everything he could to save his band. His family. We’d tricked him into believing he wanted to destroy the Everneath as much as we did. The least I could do for him was try.

I started to run toward the square.

“Becks!” Jack called out, but I didn’t stop. I knew they would all follow.

I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going, but my previous trips to the Everneath had taught me that if I wanted to reach the center of the Ouros Common, I would go in the direction where the buildings got bigger, not smaller.

We ran for a long time, the adrenaline powering my legs. If we could make it before the Feast . . . maybe there would be other Everlivings who were on the menu to be sacrificed first. Maybe the queen would save the band for last.

Maybe that would buy us some time. Jack could create a diversion. Knock over a building or something to distract everyone in the square, and then Cole, Will, and I would rush the stage and try to free the band.

The buildings lining the streets were more than four stories now, and I knew we had to be close. I could hear the crowds cheering.

One more corner and we were there. The square. It was filled with Everlivings, all focused on the stage. The swell of the noise rattled my chest.

I stood on my tiptoes, trying to get a good view of the platform, when suddenly two hands—Jack’s hands—grabbed my waist and hoisted me up above the crowd.

And there they were. Max, Oliver, and Gavin. Center stage. A line of other Everliving sacrifices off to the side.

The queen was starting the Feast with the band.

Cole stood on top of the half wall I’d stood on so long ago. His mouth hung open as he watched. An army of Shades had already converged together above the platform.

“No!” I screamed.

A few confused Everlivings turned my way at the noise, but otherwise my scream seemed to get lost like a cheer at a football stadium. Except Max looked up from where he stood. He scanned the crowd as if searching for the person who had screamed. Finally, his eyes landed on mine. For a split second I thought I saw a glimmer of hope in them.

Then the Shades swirled together, forming a long spear as they had at the last Feed; and with no preamble whatsoever, the aggregation of Shades dived for the stage and shot through Oliver first, then through Gavin, and finally through Max.

In what seemed like slow motion, I turned to Cole. Jack released me, and I scrambled up the half wall and wrapped my arms around Cole, trying to interrupt his line of sight to the stage. I held him tightly as what sounded like a muffled explosion reached my ears. A pink mist appeared in the air.

“Don’t breathe in,” I whispered to Cole.

We held our breaths together as the entire crowd took a collective gasp and ingested the Dead Elvises.

When the pink mist had disappeared, I put my lips to Cole’s ear again. “You can breathe now,” I said.

He took one gasp of air and crumpled to the ground.

The rest of the sacrifices began to take the stage, one by one. Jack crouched down by Cole, grabbed an arm and a leg, and hoisted him over his shoulder. “We have to move if we want any hope of destroying the network before the end of the Feast.”

I nodded, unable to form words. Maybe it was good we had a destination and a goal, because if we didn’t, I wasn’t sure how I would react.

In fact, I didn’t know how to feel about the band dying. They wouldn’t have hesitated to force me to take over the throne, but did that mean they deserved to be blown to bits? Not even to bits, but to tiny droplets? I was having a hard time processing my feelings, which was okay, because there was no time.

Again, we ran through the streets, away from the square and toward the hidden entrance to the Shade passageway. By the time we got there, Cole had woken up. Jack set him on the ground, and then we all dropped to our knees, panting.

The band. Slaughtered before our eyes. I’d known them for a long time, but for Cole . . . they were like brothers. I put my hand on Cole’s cheek.

“Cole? Are you okay?”

His face was blank, but he nodded.

“Do you remember the band?”

He shook his head and put his hand on his chest. “But there’s a hole right here.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m missing something. I’ve lost it. But I don’t know what it is I’ve lost.”

I dropped my hand and leaned back against the wall. Jack shook his head. “Did that really just happen?” he said.

I closed my eyes, and for a long moment we all just sat there.

Jack moved next to me, and I opened my eyes. He stood up in front of us. “We can’t waste any more time. This is our chance. Your second shackle is nearly indistinguishable from the first. The Feast is almost over. This is it. Are we doing this?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

Jack opened the door to the snake belly tunnel. I put my hands on Cole’s cheeks. “Look at me, Cole. We’re going to be okay. We have to destroy the network, and we have to do it now. Are you with me?”

He closed his mouth—it had been hanging open—and nodded. “I’m always with you, Nik.”

Nik. No matter what he’d forgotten, he’d always remembered his nickname for me. The guilt weighed heavy in my chest for a moment. How I’d tricked him into getting to this point. How I still wasn’t telling him the truth—that he never wanted to destroy the Everneath. He wanted to rule it. With me by his side.

“Everyone remember where we’re meeting if we get separated?” Jack asked.

We all nodded.

“Let’s go!” Jack said.

Jack pulled the door open and ushered all of us inside. He followed last, shutting the door behind him.

The throat-like tube lay just in front of us, contracting and expanding in that same swallowing motion, but unlike last time, there was no echoing noise coming from deep inside. There was no noise at all.

“The clock is ticking,” Jack said. This time there was no trembling, no blood draining from his face. He was the first to the mouth of the tube. “Me first. Then Becks. You have the sickle?”

I nodded. We had decided I should be the one to stab the baetylus since I supposedly had the power down here.

“Good.” Jack grabbed Cole by the shoulders. “Cole, you come after Becks. She needs you. Make sure nothing gets to her. Will, you bring up the end.”

Will raised his eyebrows. “You mean the most dangerous spot? Got it.”

“Some people might say the front is the most dangerous,” Jack said. Then he looked at the rest of us. “Ready?”

We all nodded.

The journey through the tube seemed longer than before, probably because our window of opportunity was limited and finite. The farther we got, the more I expected us to see a dim light coming from the end of the tube where the Shade network should be, but there was no light.

“What does it mean that there’s no light?” I said to Cole behind me.

“I don’t know,” he said.

From up ahead, Jack turned slightly. “Maybe the end is blocked by something.”

“But by what?” I said.

We kept going, but with each yard we immersed ourselves farther into pure darkness.

“Shouldn’t we be there?” Cole asked. His voice was too loud for the tube, and I realized that we’d all been basically holding our breaths.

“Shhh,” I said.

Finally, Jack stopped. I knew because I ran into him.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Something hard is blocking it,” Jack said through a grunt. “I’ve almost got it. . . . There!” He tumbled through, falling into the cavern that housed the baetylus. I scrambled after him, then Cole and finally Will. A round steel door hung broken at the end of the passageway. Jack had busted his way through it.

When I had righted myself, Jack was already standing, his feet apart in an athletic stance, as if he were about to get hit.

“Jack?” I said, but then I saw what he was looking at, and I froze.

There were ten Shades, at least, surrounding the orb. Swirling around it. Protecting it.

I didn’t have any excess energy to attract the Shades, and Jack had the pendant around his neck, cloaking his own. Cole was an Everliving. Will was the only one of us who had anything that would draw their attention.

Just like a wave, one by one the heads of the Shades turned toward Will.

Will assessed the situation like an army officer who was used to combat strategy. “I’ll divert,” he said.

Before we could stop him, he waved his arms up and down. I almost laughed, because it wasn’t his movements that were attracting the Shades, but it didn’t matter. Will had their full attention.

His eyes shifted toward another crevice-like opening on the opposite side of the cavern. I could see why he picked it. The hole was in the ground, going downward. Gravity would aid him. He feinted left, tricking the Shades into darting that way, and then he sprinted toward the opening. He leaped high in the air and then dropped through the chasm. The Shades hesitated for a moment and then swarmed after him, looking like a tub full of oil swirling down a drain.

“Will!” I screamed. He might be able to beat them simply by using the force of gravity, but where would the passageway deposit him?

“Nikki! Quick!” Jack said, pulling me away from the hole Will had disappeared down.

After a moment of hesitation, I ran to the baetylus, held the sickle high above it with both hands, and plunged. The sickle clashed with the orb, causing so much vibration that I had to drop it.

The orb didn’t even have a dent.

I looked at Jack, alarmed.

“Shit,” he said.

Cole was standing by one of the larger openings in the cavern wall. “Whatever you’re gonna do, make it fast. I see something at the end. There’s something coming!”

I took the sickle and plunged it again, but it was like stabbing a granite boulder with a rubber chicken.

“Jack!” I said.

He came running over.

“Try it,” I said.

He looked as if he didn’t think it could possibly work, but he took the sickle from my hands. He raised it high above his head, and suddenly I flashed to a picture I’d seen in my mythology book: of Hercules holding a knife over something. Maybe this was the reason he’d come back bigger. Maybe his own journey to the Tunnels had led him to this moment. This one chance to destroy something only he and no one else could.

The frozen image gave me the chills.

He brought it down, and upon impact, the orb exploded. Shards of light burst out, implanting themselves in the rock walls.

Jack stood above the carnage, panting. He took the pendant from his neck and placed it at the center of where the orb used to be.

“I hope the pendant holds the energy long enough for us to get out of here,” I said.

He nodded. “It will. If we go now.”

“How do you know?” I said.

He smiled. “Faith.”

Cole motioned us toward one of the crevices, and Jack went in first, followed by me. We started crawling as fast as we could. I turned behind me to make sure Cole was there, but he wasn’t.

“Cole!” I shouted. “Cole!”

Jack stopped in front of me. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know. Cole!” There was light from the network end of the tunnel, and suddenly shadow overcame the light. I couldn’t tell if it was a human form or a Shade. My blood ran cold with the thought that the Shades had gotten Cole.

“Run!” Jack said.

“We’re not leaving him!”

“He’s right behind us! I’m sure of it!”

We crawled as fast as we could. The swallowing motion of the tunnel seemed to be working against us, as if the passageway itself knew we were fugitives. For every two feet forward, we seemed to move one step back.

I dug my nails in as I went, clawing my way forward. It felt like working against a strong current. Jack reached a hand back and I grasped it. With his help, we finally ended up in a heap outside the entrance.

After a few tense moments, Cole’s tattooed hand appeared. Jack took it and hoisted him out. It had been him behind me the entire time.

I punched him in the arm. “What were you doing?” I said. “I thought the Shades got you!”

He shook his head. “I was just making sure everything was really destroyed.”

I didn’t have time to ask him questions. We had to meet Will at the rendezvous point. “Run!” I said.

We ran. A flat-out sprint. We weren’t as worried this time about drawing too much attention. We were only worried about the speed, because once we found Will, Cole would zap us out of there.

We were so close now. I started to believe we would make it. All we needed was for Will to have eluded the Shades, and when we turned the final corner and I saw Will waiting at the Fountain of Lethe, I knew we were home free. I grabbed Cole’s hand and Jack’s hand; but just as Jack reached out to grab Will, something strange happened, almost in slow motion. The sky above us turned from light blue to a darker blue, and then it transitioned into a deep red. The air around us seemed tinged with the deep red too, as if each air molecule were reflecting the new hue of the sky.

Jack grabbed Will’s hand.

“Go!” he shouted to Cole.

I closed my eyes, waiting for that familiar feeling of being tossed about in a washing machine.

But it never came.

“Go, go!” Jack said again.

I opened my eyes and saw Cole’s face, and instantly my heart sank.

“We’re too late,” he said. “The Everneath is on lockdown.”