DENIAL AND ANGER weigh down my chest. This cannot be the same girl who wrote stories with me, who baked sugar cookies with me, and who gave me a charm bracelet and called me her best friend. “Why did you do it?” I scoot forward, readjusting my position so that my leg presses down on her spine and my knee immobilizes her neck. I push down on her shoulders, grinding her cheek into the stone floor.
The chamber fills with Autumn’s frenetic laughter. She twists violently under me, flipping onto her back and throwing me off balance. I fall onto my side, banging my knee. Before I can get up, she lunges forward and grabs my neck with both hands. “I did it for love.”
“You think Cash loves you?” I choke out. “He’s a Morati. He has bigger plans than you!”
“He’s all I ever wanted. He sees me. He told me it’s my time to shine. Everyone treats you like you’re some special snowflake. But you’re not.”
“You’re right. I’m not a snowflake.” I put my palms together, like I’m praying. I thrust them upward and slam my arms apart in a V, tearing her arms off my neck and making her stumble onto her butt. “I’m a snowstorm.”
I place my palm against her forehead and focus my energy on her frontal lobe like Furukama taught me, so I can mind stun and incapacitate her, but she slaps my hand away and laughs. “You keep forgetting I’ve been here longer than you. And you’re not the only one who had an angel to train with. Cash will be here soon.”
Brady appears in my field of vision. He got my message. “Yeah, well you keep forgetting who your real friends are,” I say. Brady slides in next to me, and we both slam our hands against her forehead at the same time.
With both of us focusing our energy on her frontal lobe, Autumn’s resistance crumbles and she loses consciousness.
“What the heck is going on down here? Where’s the key to the cells?” He pats Autumn down but doesn’t find it. If we had it, we could lock Autumn in while we look for Furukama.
“It fell into the pit. Autumn tried to throw Emilia down it too.”
“I don’t believe it.” He rises slowly.
“I read her memories. She’s working with the Morati. Cash is one of them.”
“Cash? Aw, hell.”
“How’d you know she had a key?” I ask.
“It’s the only way to open the cells. And only Furukama has got a key.”
“There’s no way he gave it to her willingly.”
We both know what that means. Somehow Autumn incapacitated Furukama to get the key. She took out two guards. There’s no way to restrain her. She’ll wake up soon, and she said Cash was on his way, probably with the Morati cavalry in tow. We are screwed.
Emilia coughs and groans, lifting her head with effort.
“Did Furukama interrogate her?” I point at Emilia.
Brady shakes his head. “No, he wanted her to weaken first.”
I skirt around Autumn’s limp body and offer my hand to Emilia. She takes my wrist, and I help her sit up. She slumps backward into the brimstone bars. Not ideal, but I don’t have time to move her. I pull the skep charm out of my pocket and dangle it in front of her face. “Do you know what this is?”
“An obol,” she answers. Her gaze darts back and forth between Autumn and me. She’s scared. “To travel to Earth and back using the regulated portals from Areas One and Three.”
I shove the obol back into my pocket. “Can it open other portals?”
“What other portals? Those are the only two back to Earth.” Her pained, panicked expression doesn’t change. It’s possible that my dorm room has a portal that no one is aware of. Maybe it also leads back to Earth. Or maybe that burst of energy I created is something else entirely. It doesn’t seem as though Emilia knows. Either that or she’s too frightened to tell me.
Brady cuts in. “We’re all alone down here. We have to fetch help or get out.”
“If the Morati come after us, it’s to our advantage to fight them here.”
“But two against . . .” He trails off. We don’t know how many Morati there are.
We need backup. But who? We can’t call Julian to come down here into the brimstone, and besides, after the revelation of Autumn’s memory, I don’t know what to think about him anymore. He was working with Cash to drive me mad enough to commit suicide, but he claimed everything he did was to protect me. Anyone in our seraphim guard class could be Morati. That leaves Neil and Libby. But what can they do? Enhance our mood while the Morati slaughter us? “Who do you trust?”
“You.”
“Sweet, but not helping.”
“Nate.”
My eyes bug out. “Nate? Are you serious?” After his threat to throw Neil and me down the hellhole, even though he claimed later it wasn’t serious, he’s the last person I’d trust. “Though, I guess he does hate Autumn.”
He shrugs. He’s at as much of a loss as I am.
“Okay, go,” I say.
Brady dashes for the stairs, and his feet pound into the stone as he ascends. He pauses long enough to yell, “Good luck.”
Autumn is still out, but I don’t turn my back to her. I crouch next to Emilia, ready to defend her from Autumn.
Emilia’s eyes are closed and crusted with yellow. I slap her cheek, and she looks over at me in a stupor.
“Who else in our seraphim guard training is Morati?”
“What?” She doubles over and vomits yellow onto her shirt, barely missing my shoes.
Damn it. It’s too late. She won’t even be able to crawl out of here now. I pound my fist into the floor, and my hand screams in pain.
Autumn laughs. She’s awake. I spring up, positioning myself halfway between her and Emilia, my knees slightly bent. I will kick her ass if I have to.
“I was eavesdropping on you when you thought I was unconscious.” She lifts herself casually onto her elbows. “You know why Nate hates me?”
Like I care about that now.
“Because I was the captain of the seraphim guard team that beat the crap out of the demon hunter team in last year’s softball tournament,” Autumn says. “What a petty idiot.”
So that’s why Nate threatened to kill Neil and me. To get back at Autumn for a freaking softball tournament. Unbelievable. But Nate is not my top concern.
“You’re a traitor.” I’m still trying to fathom how I could have been wrong about her all this time. And how she was able to trick everyone else for so long, even Furukama.
“Speaking of traitors”—Autumn stands up and inches closer to me—“it was Julian’s idea to kill me in your bed. I had to be killed to come straight to Level Three and prepare everything here for Cash, for when he came through the mainframe.”
I don’t believe Julian would do that. But then, I can’t believe Autumn is standing in front of me now with a murderous gleam in her eye either. “Why would you let yourself be killed?”
“I’d do anything for Cash. Because Cash would do anything for me. Everyone thought it was over when you crashed the system in Level Two, but it was only a distraction so that the Morati could come through. Soon the war will really begin.”
Even though she’s obviously demented, she might have some of the answers I seek too. If I can keep her talking until Brady gets back, I might have a chance to beat her. My temple throbs. The brimstone headache is coming on.
“Why did the Morati steal my memories?” I ask. “And why did they return some of them?”
“To manipulate you. And it worked, didn’t it? You would do anything for those globes I delivered to your room. It’s truly pathetic how weak you are.”
I can’t stop the shame from exploding red across my face. I let my obsession color all my decisions and played right into whatever the Morati’s plans are for me—and they must have a plan, because otherwise they would have disposed of me right away. I was so blind. “But they’re not manipulating you, right?”
Autumn only smirks knowingly. “You don’t want to face the truth about how selfish you are. I don’t blame you.”
Like Eli taught me to do in Level Two, I summon all my rage and frustration and concentrate it into a blast of energy that I hurl straight at her chest. That’s for lying to me.
She flies across the room and pounds into the opposite wall. I charge at her and swing my fist into her stomach. That’s for conspiring against me.
When she doubles over, I bring my knee up, catching her in the chin. That’s for taunting me.
The force of impact throws her head back, and her feet slide out from under her. She falls onto her back with a moan.
As I prepare to kick her in the side, her moan fills me with guilt. Maybe I’m enjoying this too much. My foot connects with her rib cage, but she grabs on to my ankle and hurls me into the corner. I hit the wall shoulder-first, the impact reverberating though my body.
Before I can react, she comes at me and punches me in the abdomen, making me double over. While I’m clutching my stomach, she decks me in the mouth and then the bridge of my nose, snapping the cartilage. “Oh, look. You still believe you can bleed. How sad.”
The pain is excruciating, and I concentrate everything I have into shutting it down. I reach up and touch my split lip, healing it as I do. My nose continues to gush blood until I clamp it with my thumb and forefinger.
She slams into me, knocking me to the floor. I throw out my arm to break my fall, and my bone crunches. I scream, letting go of my nose to cradle my elbow.
Autumn bends over me. “It’s too bad Neil will never know what happened to you.”
I’m desperate enough now to call Julian. I reach out for Julian’s brain waves and try to send an SOS. But my signal is fuzzy. The brimstone must be causing interference.
“Getting some static?” Autumn raises her eyebrows. “I’ve blocked all your signals.” She digs her fingernails into my biceps and begins to pull me toward the pit. Emilia groans loudly, and Autumn turns at the sound.
While Autumn’s distracted, I pull together my energy again to form a concentrated blast, and aim for her torso. Her nails scrape my skin as she’s blown back. I make a break for the stairs and put out another call to Julian.
Autumn crashes past me, throwing me off balance and into the bars of Julian’s former cell. “You’re not going anywhere but down,” she screams. She turns and lunges at me, her hands forming claws in front of her, but I jump to the side and she bangs into the bars chin-first and her eyes roll wildly in her sockets.
As I continue to retreat toward the stairs, I shoot more energy blasts at her, but they hardly faze her. I’m getting weaker. It wasn’t such a good idea to stay down here after all. She darts around me and blocks my exit.
“Wait,” I say. I’m almost completely tapped out, and I need time to recover my strength. “I want to ask you something.”
Autumn shakes her head. “No questions.” She places her hand almost tenderly on my forehead. “Should I stun you before I throw you into the pit? That would be the best-friend thing to do.”
I step out of her reach and try to run around her, but she catches me easily and carts me over to the hole.
Autumn yanks me up by my shirt. “But then again, you were a sucky best friend.” She prepares to pitch me over the railing, and I scream.
“Don’t,” a male voice commands. I perk up, hoping against all hopes that someone—anyone—has come to my rescue.
As the new arrival nears, I deflate completely. It’s Cash, and he’s grinning ear to ear. “Thanks, Autumn, dear. Let me do the honors, won’t you?”