Evertrue

THIRTY-ONE

NOW

The Everneath. Streets of Ouros.

Everlivings poured out of buildings. Some pointed at the sky. Others stood there with knees bent and eyes squeezed shut, as if trying to propel themselves to the Surface. But they remained where they were. A few released panicked screams, looking for missing loved ones. The good thing was that with everyone worrying about being on lockdown, nobody would notice us. I wondered how often the Everneath had been on lockdown before, because the Everlivings seemed genuinely panicked.

We fought our way through the throngs of Everlivings and ran to Ashe’s house, scrambling inside and shutting the door and the windows.

“Are you sure it’s a lockdown?” I said.

Cole nodded. “I assume that’s what the change in the sky means. Either way, I tried to jump us, but nothing happened.”

Jack took a few steps closer to Cole so he was in his face. “Maybe you forgot how. Maybe you didn’t try hard enough.” He grabbed Cole’s hand and then mine. I grabbed Will’s. “Try again.”

I closed my eyes once more in the vain hope that this time it would work. But nothing happened.

“I’m telling you, it’s not working,” Cole insisted.

Jack threw our hands down and stormed to the opposite side of the house. He ran his fingers through his hair, pulling out more than a few strands as he did so.

“What do we do now? What do we do?”

I tried to stand next to him, but he wouldn’t stand still. He just kept pacing.

“Where’s Ashe?” he said.

“The Feast, I’m sure,” Cole said.

Thinking of the very few war movies I’d seen, I said, “Okay, let’s take inventory of what we have.”

Will was the only one who responded. He emptied out his pockets. Three quarters, a poker chip, and a ball of lint.

Jack looked at it and paced even faster. I put my hands into my pockets. One cell phone that didn’t work in the Everneath. And nothing else.

Cole saw what we were doing and backed up a step. He almost looked scared. Jack noticed too. He called him on it.

“What do you have, Cole?” he said.

“Nothing,” Cole said.

He wasn’t a very good liar. If there was one change about the new, amnesiac Cole, it was that he couldn’t lie as easily.

Jack was in no mood to play games. He grabbed Cole and dug his hands into the pockets of Cole’s pants. He came up with a metal object.

The pendant.

The Helmet of Hermes was supposed to be our escape plan. It was supposed to be with the destroyed baetylus, masking its energy, allowing us to escape. Instead, it was here.

Jack threw it against the wall so hard that the edge of the pendant embedded itself in the plaster a good inch. I was definitely angry, but I thought Jack’s head was about to explode.

“What the hell?” Jack growled, baring his teeth.

For the first time, I had no desire to hold him back. Cole had betrayed us. Again. I wanted Jack to rip Cole apart.

“Now, settle down,” Cole said, his hands out, palms down. He walked around the table in the room so that he kept it between himself and Jack.

Jack followed around accordingly. “Settle down?” Jack said. “You raised the alarm on us. It’s because of you that we didn’t have time to get out. You betrayed all of us. Again!”

I just shook my head. Before, I’d needed Cole alive because I needed him to feed me, but now? There was no point in feeding on Cole anymore. This was the end. We were through.

Jack went around the table, and Cole moved to position himself the farthest distance from Jack. They went round and round. I did nothing to stop them. If I’d had the strength, I probably would have torn Cole’s head off myself.

Will stepped forward. “Uh, guys?”

Jack spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m going to tear through your chest and grab the nearest thing to a heart you have inside there, and then I’m going to rip it out, and it will make that scene in Alien look like a kid’s movie.”

I almost laughed at how detailed Jack’s threat was.

“Uh, guys, wait,” Will said.

Jack finally spared him a glance. “What?”

“Did you empty all of Cole’s pockets?”

Jack nodded.

“Then we’re missing something,” he said.

I looked at the contents on the table. There was my phone, three quarters, a ball of lint . . . but what was Will’s point? What were we missing?

Cole looked up from the table, realization dawning on his features. “My heart. My Surface heart. My pick.”

“He never goes anywhere without it, right?” Will said. We had learned that lesson when we tried to break Cole’s heart.

I looked back down, trying to figure out what he was thinking. “It’s gone,” I said.

Jack didn’t give up his position of pursuit on the side of the table, but he stopped long enough to say, “What does that mean?”

I rubbed my forehead. “So when the lockdown went into effect, suddenly Cole’s Surface heart disappeared. The Surface heart is the way the Everlivings go between the worlds.” I bit my lip. “What if . . . the only way the Everneath could be fully locked down is if everyone’s Surface heart was somehow confiscated?”

Jack dropped both hands, and his eyes got wide.

“That means . . . ,” Jack said, but he couldn’t finish the sentence.

“That means all the hearts might be in one place,” I said. “That means the thing we thought was impossible . . .”

“Is suddenly possible,” Cole finished.

It was as if we were all so surprised that we’d lost the ability to start and finish a sentence. Will just smiled. Had he figured this all out before any of us?

“Ha-ha!” Cole exclaimed triumphantly. “See? I was following my instincts back there. Something inside me told me to take the pendant. It was a sign. That if the lockdown happened, all the Surface hearts would be stored together. And how could we expect to destroy them all if they were scattered around the universe?”

He looked up at Jack, whose ears were scorching red, as if he still really wanted to be angry with Cole and was disappointed that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to beat him again.

“You’re welcome,” Cole said.

Jack clenched and unclenched his fist. “You forgot one thing in your brilliant plan.”

“What’s that?” Cole said.

“We’re trapped here now. We can’t get back to the Surface either.”

Jack was right. Cole no longer had his Surface heart, which meant there would be no way to go back and forth.

Cole nodded. “Hopefully the lockdown will last only until we destroy the Everneath.”

Will leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Just like we always said. We destroy the Everneath or we die trying.”

We had always said that. Only now we couldn’t take it back.

Just then the door flew open, and Ashe blew in. He caught sight of us around the table and looked toward the door again as if he might run out.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

Jack and I looked at each other.

Ashe frowned. “Don’t tell me. You’re the reason for the lockdown.”

Cole nodded.

“Shit.” Ashe looked at the windows, which were all covered by blinds, and tugged a loose one a little closer so that no one could see in.

“You’re not going to turn us in again, are you?” Cole asked.

Ashe shook his head. “You destroyed the orb. Which means you destroyed the single object linking us all. Which means you’ve set the Shades free. Without the orb, I’m under no obligation to do what the Everneath wants.”

If that was true—if Ashe was no longer tied to the Everneath—maybe he could help us locate where the queen was keeping the Surface hearts. Jack looked at me and raised his eyebrows questioningly. He must be wondering the same thing.

I nodded.

Jack turned to Ashe. “They confiscated all the Surface hearts. Which means maybe all those hearts are being stored in one place. We need to get to them.”

Ashe frowned, then looked at Cole. “I know where she keeps them. All the Shades know. Now that you’ve destroyed the orb, I can tell you.”

We all leaned toward Ashe expectantly.

“Hearts are kept in the center of the High Court. In a vault in the throne room. At least that’s where she keeps the Everneath hearts. I can only think that once they confiscate the Surface hearts as well, that’s where they keep them.”

Ashe caught a look at Jack’s smile and held up his hand. “Don’t get your hopes up. If you thought getting to the Tunnels was tough . . . the throne room is Fort Knox. Yes, there won’t be as many Shades around in all this chaos, but if this is all you have”—he gestured toward our knickknacks on the table—“you’ll never destroy it.”

Cole put his hands on the table, lacing his fingers. “But what if you took us to the throne room, and we could find our own hearts. Every Everliving has an affinity for his or her own heart. One time when I dropped my own heart, all I had to do was think about it and it came racing back to me. As long as we’re close enough to the actual heart . . .”

I studied his face. “Did you just remember that?”

He seemed to wilt a tiny bit under the scrutiny. “Bits and pieces are coming to me.”

I wondered if he was starting to remember because of what he’d just witnessed with the band. The professor said adrenaline would trigger memories, and I couldn’t imagine more emotional turmoil than the band vaporized before our eyes. I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to someday regain his memories—hopefully after our siege of the vault of hearts—or if I wanted him to remain clueless for the rest of his life about the pain and heartache he’d been through.

“So we go to the throne room,” Jack said. “Cole’s heart will do that magnet act, and then the second he touches it, we can zap to the Surface and plan our next move. Maybe we can research some sort of Everneath ammo we can use to destroy the throne room.”

Cole leaned forward. “When are we planning this . . . coup?”

“There’s no better time than now,” Ashe said. “The Shades are newly free. They’ll be all over the place, including going to the Surface to get their fill. They’re not limited by hearts the way the Everliving are. Before, the existence of the network kept them in place. But now they’re disorganized. The hearts are the least protected that they’ll ever be.”

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. “The Shades let loose on humans.” I shook my head. “Can they drain them completely?”

“Yes,” Ashe said. “It’s what they do.”

“Then we really do have to destroy it. We have to destroy it all, now. Before anyone else dies.”

Jack stood. “Let’s go. Ashe, will you take us?”

Ashe nodded. He started toward the door, but Cole asked him, “Why?”

“Why what?” Ashe said.

“Why are you willing to help us destroy the Everneath?”

Ashe smiled a sad grin that dripped with oil. “You laid out a convincing argument. It turns out I have nothing to live for. And everything to die for.”