CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

 

 

When I opened my eyes, Quinn and Raven towered over me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing my rolling stomach to subside.

I had a sister I never knew existed who hated my guts. And a mom who hated me just as much. What else could explain what she’d done all those years ago? And why she’d done it again, choosing to stay with the devil and her other daughter dearest over me?

I could hear Raven whispering to Quinn. It struck me that my friends must’ve followed me to the shed. My eyes eased open. Raven waved her hand in front of my face. “Anyone home?”

I swatted her hand away. “I’m fine. But I need you to give me a moment while I do something.”

“Something other than lose consciousness for the last two hours?” Quinn’s sarcasm was welcome. At least he was talking to me again.

I held up my hand. “Give me five minutes and I’ll explain everything.”

Raven shrugged. “Fine. You’ve kept your friends in the dark this long, what’s another few minutes?”

Quinn merely snorted.

Patting down my pockets, I found the trans-channeling crystal and yanked it free. “I’m going to be out of it again for a little while but I’ll be back soon. Promise.”

I didn’t wait for their response, desperate to talk to Joss and see if he’d survived. I’d used my powers to escape because he’d made me promise to do so if I faced a life-or-death confrontation. I couldn’t believe I’d left him there, injured, battling Keenan. I couldn’t lose him, not now. I needed him more than ever.

Pressing the crystal to my forehead, I closed my eyes, focused.

Joss? You okay?

My blood ran cold at the silence.

Hey, Warrior Boy. Stop taking the heroic act to extremes and check in.

Nothing. Not a whisper of a smartass retort.

Joss, please. Speak to me. Tell me you’re okay. I’ve got to annoy you about that soulmate thing, remember? And I still have to kick your ass for lying to me about everything. And I still don’t trust you like me for any other reason than you’re using me to get to Cadifor so you can kill him yourself. But I’m pathetic and you’re the first guy I’ve really been into and that kiss … you were great and I really, really want to do it again soon. I don’t know what to do. I mean, I know what I want to do with you, but that scares me too, you know? I’ve never done it before. And I want you to be my first. So answer me, dammit, before I teleport back there right this very instant and kill you myself.

My voice cracked, tears stinging my eyes, and then I heard a faint gasp.

Joss?

I heard a drawn out wheeze, the pained sound of someone dragging in air.

You’re alive!

Another long, agonizing indrawn breath, a hiss out. ’Course I’m alive. Someone’s gotta have your back.

Have me back, you mean?

He grunted and I smiled, beyond relieved. How did you get out of there?

Whipped Keenan’s ass good.

And Cadifor?

Didn’t reappear. He couldn’t, with that sunlight trick you pulled.

I hesitated, the hurt too raw for me to even speak their names.

I didn’t see your mom or Shona either. They fled along with him.

Disgust churned in my stomach. Mom had chosen Shona over me. What sort of a mother did that?

Holly, I got the truth out of Keenan before he lost consciousness.

The truth?

About your mom and Shona.

I didn’t want to hear platitudes. I didn’t want to hear excuses. What I wanted to hear was this was all some bizarre dream and I’d wake up back at Nan’s cottage with her baking banana bread while I re-read The Hunger Games for the umpteenth time.

Maybe hearing the truth would calm me. Anything was better than this edgy, spiky feeling I was about to explode. Tell me.

Because your mom’s a direct descendant of Bel, any female child of hers would be watched closely by Cadifor. When she had twins, he knew one of you could be the chosen one, so he ordered Keenan to kidnap your mom and the Scion.

I hated that word, Scion. Go on.

When Keenan came for your mother, he made her choose which child to take.

“She took the wrong one.” Nan’s words made perfect sense now. No wonder she was shocked into a stroke when I told her about the visions. She’d raised me the last sixteen years believing I was the normal one, only to discover my mom had botched big time.

Apparently, Shona had those weird golden eyes and exhibited advancements beyond her age, even at six months, so your mom thought she was the one.

Well, well, well, the joke’s on her. My bitterness didn’t help ease the rage seething just beneath the surface. I’d managed to put a lid on it during that confrontation, but only because I’d had no choice. If Cadifor hadn’t lunged at me, I would’ve taken another shot at Mom. And that round, she wouldn’t have gotten up off the canvas. I would’ve given TKO a whole new meaning.

So why did Cadifor keep her and Mom alive all these years? If he knew where I was, why not come and snatch me?

Because he didn’t know Shona wasn’t the one ’til you came along. She could’ve exhibited abilities any second, but then you showed up in Eiros. Cadifor got curious with the rumors flying around about the newest Sorority member, and then your mom recognized you in a photo and he knew.

Good old Mom, landing me in the crap again. He had Shona, so why keep Mom around?

Joss’s lengthy pause indicated I wouldn’t like the answer.

He calls her his Elphame. The original Queen of Elphame ruled the Otherworld. She presided over death and destruction. You know Cadifor’s buddies, Mider and Nemain, are part of the Dark Trio? Elphame was Mider’s consort. She felt like the slighted, inferior female to the powerful trio, so she was intent on ruling on her own. Rumor has it Elphame has reincarnated yet again, and taken on a human body to continue her quest for domination of the worlds.

This echoed what the monster had told me before he’d vanished, something about me returning to false safety, and in that instant I wondered if this reincarnated queen was someone I knew. But for now, I needed to hear it spelled out why Cadifor kept Mom around to completely eradicate any lingering sympathy I might have had for her being kidnapped.

So why does he call her Elphame when she clearly isn’t?

Because she stood by him, he considers her his queen. Initially a captive, she has roamed the labyrinth freely for many years.

And Shona?

Keenan wouldn’t elaborate. I got the impression he has a soft spot for your mother and has tried to protect her when things got rough with Cadifor.

How touching. I wanted to puke. My mom, with a bad case of Stockholm syndrome, falls for a monster like Cadifor?

What was she thinking?

As for my sister, I had no idea what her story was, but surely she’d want to escape that hellhole? I couldn’t begin to comprehend what it would’ve been like for her, being raised by two monsters, trapped underground. It was like something out of America’s Most Wanted, one of those horrific, heart-wrenching stories involving kids being locked up and abused for years.

My sister had been like those victims.

And that’s when I started to feel sorry for her.

No one deserved that kind of treatment, and while I’d disliked her on sight due to the simple fact Mom didn’t, that wasn’t Shona’s fault. She simply hadn’t known any better. While I couldn’t understand her hatred for me, and had no intention of trying to figure it out, I could excuse it. I was free. She was still cooped up with those lunatics.

Then another annoying twinge of remorse niggled at me. While Wolfebane High had sucked most days, at least I’d had the opportunity to attend school. Was she educated? Did she have hobbies? Was she aware another world existed above ground?

Throwing a pity party for the unchosen one was getting me nowhere, so I refocused.

So my mom’s shacked up with a monster and has a not-so-secret admirer. Anything else?

You were amazing. Joss’s voice, barely above a whisper, filtered through my mind, warming me despite our distance apart.

I almost lost it at the end there.

But you came through.

Without Arwen, though.

Doesn’t matter. We don’t have it, but neither does Cadifor. Time to reevaluate, plan a new strategy.

The thought of going through it all again turned my stomach, because essentially nothing had changed.

I was still the Scion.

I still had to find Arwen before Cadifor did.

As for the answers I’d so desperately craved from my mom, guess I had the big one answered when she ignored my invitation to escape and walked away from me.

First she chose Shona over me; now she’d chosen Cadifor over me.

Thanks, Mom, got the message loud and clear. You don’t give a rat’s ass about me. You never did.

Have you ever thought your mom’s doing what she can to survive and to keep Shona safe?

You’re not supposed to read my mind from a distance.

Lucky guess. It probably killed her to leave you behind, but what if she had no option? Keenan would’ve threatened her somehow, maybe even threatened to kill you, the one she left behind, perhaps your Nan too, if she didn’t go with him. What choice would she have?

She could’ve fought back, she could’ve fought for me, I wanted to scream at him. But I knew that wasn’t true. I’d stood against the monsters now, knew what they were capable of. No way could Mom have fought Keenan, not when she had two babies to protect.

Joss might have been right, but it didn’t change what had happened less than thirty minutes earlier.

I’d given Mom a choice.

Me or the monster.

And she’d walked away from me a second time without a backward glance.

Holly, you okay?

Yeah, just thinking about happy families.

And how through all of this, the Sorority, Quinn, and Raven had stood by me. They’d been more of a family to me than my mom ever had. At least at C.U.L.T. and at Eiros I’d gained the acceptance I’d craved for so long.

Mack, Maeve, and Oscar are here. They say hi and thanks for everything.

I didn’t do anything. Not really.

You did plenty. Lowering his voice, he said, You’re amazing, Holly. I want you to know that.

Right back at you, Warrior Boy.

He chuckled. Lie low for a day or two, let us check out the fallout here, then contact me and we’ll talk about how soon you can come back, okay?

Okay.

I didn’t want our chat to end yet, not when I had so much to say but no idea how to say it.

Joss, about that soulmate thing—

You weren’t the only one who learned a thing or two today. I had this fear I’d fail, that not being a born warrior, I wouldn’t be able to protect you when it counted, that maybe my feelings would get in the way, but you know something? No matter how much I stay away from you and treat you like my protégé, I still care.

My heart did a somersault and a goofy grin spread across my face.

In fact, I used my feelings for you to summon strength after Keenan clubbed me, so ultimately this thing between us? It’s kinda special.

Cool! I silently cringed. Could I sound any dorkier?

Stay warm, my Holly. Until we meet again.

Soon, I added, easing the crystal from my forehead with regret. My Holly echoed through my heart and made me want to go back this very minute.

“About damn time. A girl can’t wait around all day, you know.”

My eyelids cranked open to find Raven grinning at me, her heavily kohled eyes sparkling with mischief. “Whatever you were just doing, whoever you were talking to? Must’ve been some chat.”

I glanced at a stony-faced Quinn. “Why?”

“Because you had the soppiest smile on your face. And you kept blushing.”

I fanned myself. “That’s because it’s hot in here.”

Raven jerked a thumb at the carefully arranged stone roof. “I’m not surprised, with all those rocks. It’s spooky and claustrophobic in here.”

Quinn darted a knowing glance overhead, obviously connecting the shape of the stones in the roof to the stone archways around the school. “Though something tells me you haven’t exactly been conscious when you hang out here.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Did you tell her?”

He nodded, his mouth in an obstinate twist, while Raven bounced on her heels.

“Can’t understand how that moron didn’t believe you could teleport. With the range of abilities in this place you’d think he’d accept whatever you said.” She glared at Quinn, poked her tongue out. “Especially from a friend.”

“It’s okay,” I said, “I don’t blame Quinn for not believing me, considering all I’ve kept from you.”

Raven shrugged. “You must’ve had your reasons.”

My heart twanged for the second time in as many minutes. This was the true meaning of family: acceptance, non-judgment, loyalty, being there through good times and bad.

I’d never shut my friends out again.

“Yeah, there was some heavy stuff going on for a while, and I wished I could tell you, but it wasn’t safe.”

Understanding lit Quinn’s eyes as the familiar quirky smile I’d missed curved his lips. I had my friend back and I could’ve hugged him. “You were protecting us?”

“Uh-huh.”

He took a deep breath and puffed out his chest, stopping just short of beating it, and Raven rolled her eyes. “Those bumps on your chest? Not muscles. They’re the start of man-boobs ’cause you acted like such a girl and wouldn’t give Holly the benefit of the doubt.”

Quinn flipped her the bird. I snorted. If he’d had Drake’s talent, Raven would’ve been ashes. As it was, she blew him a kiss and we started laughing.

I’d needed the tension release, and once I started laughing I couldn’t stop. Raven didn’t help when she made cupping actions on Quinn’s chest and mimed snapping his bra straps, which set us off again.

“You’re an idiot,” he said, his wide grin telling us he’d enjoyed the joke as much as we did. “But can Holly continue the story?”

Raven poked her tongue at Quinn before focusing on me.

Thankful to be back here, surrounded by my friends, I hugged my knees to my chest. “Cutting a long story short, I’m a descendant of Belenus, the Celtic sun god. Apparently I’m the Scion, the only one who can find Arwen, a biokinetic icon capable of achieving immortality.”

Raven’s eye lit up. “Just like the philosopher’s stone. Wicked!”

I chuckled. “Harry Potter I ain’t, because I didn’t find it and I didn’t defeat my version of Voldemort.”

Raven patted me on the arm. “Not to worry. Harry had seven books to do it. You’ll get another chance.”

Just like that, the magnitude of what I still faced hit me.

I had to find Arwen, defeat Cadifor, and save the world. To do so, I had to continue my studies at Eiros and learn what being a true Sorority member meant—all while mastering my abilities at C.U.L.T. and passing high school.

Not to mention the other questions bugging me: Was there a deeper reason behind my mom’s defection to the dark side? What was Shona’s story? Who was this mysterious Queen of Elphame? How soon would Cadifor come after me again?

Quinn offered me his hand and I took it, allowing him to pull me to my feet. He didn’t release it when we stood almost toe-to-toe.

“I’m sorry for doubting you, for not being there for you when you needed me most.”

I squeezed his hand. “You’re here now, aren’t you?”

“But—”

“Listen up, you two. You’re the best friends I’ve ever had and just knowing you’re on my side is enough.”

I could’ve sworn Raven sniffled, which made me tear up. Quinn rolled his eyes. “If you two start blubbering, I’m out of here.”

Raven and I smiled through our tears. In that moment, the bond between us and the friendship we shared gave me courage.

I would find Arwen.

I would conquer Cadifor.

Or die trying.