04 Last (56 page)

I dodged a sword strike to my head and returned with a strike of my own. I felt my sword cut in to flesh. I moved on to the next. And the next…Each person I met was a little different; each fight was a new struggle to keep my life. My people fought with me. Spider, Ethan and Sprint stayed close. Their help was formidable. Most of the Seekers did not look at them twice. It was a mistake – one that cost many of the Seekers their lives.

I had made it to the center of the room, when the world changed in to chaos. A large man walked in to the room from the stairs. He was not wearing the cloak, and his eyes were a mixture of red and black. He stepped down the stairs with cool confidence. The ground quaked with his steps. The Seekers gave him a wide berth. One of my group – a girl I had talked to only twice – moved to him. She directed her sword directly at his heart. He made no move to stop her. The sword touched his chest then bent backward. I felt my mouth drop open at the sight. The silver sword had no effect on him. He had a talent that made him impenetrable to silver. The man smiled at the girl, reached out, and grabbed her by the neck. He squeezed hard. Her cry was cut short as he broke her neck. The light went out of her eyes. The man grunted in satisfaction then threw her against the wall.

His red-black eyes focused on Spider, Ethan and Sprint, who were all staring at him in shock. The man’s eyes were strangely excited at the idea of killing children. He could not ignore their presence. The kids were frozen in fear. They wanted to fight him, but they didn’t know how. I moved to them, to protect them from the man. I wasn’t the only one. Eli stepped in front of them, his hands empty. Fighting the man with swords was useless. It would take hand-to-hand. Before I could attack, Eli started sparring with the man.

The man was as hard as steel; Eli’s hits meant little. It didn’t take Eli long to realize he was outmatched. I could see it on his face. Two men stepped in front of me as Eli struggled against his opponent. I was forced back as the pair circled me, searching for a weakness. I focused on them, instead of Eli, trusting Eli to win the fight. It was a frustrating, deadly mistake. As I killed the first man, the other searching to take advantage of the distraction of the kill, the man Eli had been fighting finally got tired of the fight. He blocked a kick from Eli, grabbed Eli as he had the girl and started to squeeze. Eli hit the man’s elbows as hard as he could. The man dropped him. Eli hit the floor hard, gasping for breath. The man grabbed a sword from one of the other Seekers. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t even blink. He shoved the sword directly in to Eli’s chest.

Eli looked shocked. He tried to pull the sword out, so his body could do what it did best, but the man wasn’t having it. He kicked away Eli’s struggling hands and kicked him in the face. He kicked him one last time, and Eli stopped struggling. He was silent. The large man grunted in satisfaction again. He left the sword in Eli’s chest and moved toward the kids. He moved to finish what he had started. Eli did not try to stop him.

“No!” Spider yelled at the sight of Eli’s motionless body.

Spider, Ethan and Sprint dropped down around Eli, tears in their eyes. Eli had abandoned them, but the emotions of love were not so easily lost – not as easily as the kids had thought.

Dark anger swirled my senses. I spun out of the way of the man I had been fighting and cut him with a swift slash. He fell to the ground, dead before he hit the floor. I moved with a quick march to the man who had killed Eli. He was focused on the kids. His hand reached out to grab Spider.

“Hey!” I called, reaching the man. “Pick on someone your own size.”

The man turned away from Spider and focused on me. His eyes were strangely aware of who I was. He didn’t seem to care what that knowledge meant. The anger boiled over to the point that I couldn’t contain it. It was the closest to losing control since the change.

He moved to intercept me, trusting in his talent more than he should have. I felt my hand bond with the sword. At the same moment, my necklace glowed with warmth. The man didn’t know who he was dealing with. He didn’t know the weight of my anger. Confident in his ability, the man stretched out his hands grab my throat. I stabbed him in the heart. My sword did not bend back when it touched his chest. It went straight through, like a hot knife in to butter. He looked startled at the feel of the blade against his heart. His eyes told me that my sword was doing the impossible. His knees buckled, and he fell forward.

The world slowed down as I turned to look at Eli. My group kept up their fierce fighting. The number of Seekers in the room had gone down – their bodies covered the white floor. My people remained mostly intact. They were putting up a hell of a fight. I knelt down next to Spider, who was holding Eli’s hand. Eli was unmoving. His eyes stared at the ceiling. Spider’s eyes told a different story – sorrow.

“He’s gone…” Spider said.

“I’m sorry,” I replied.

“I never got to tell him…ask…there was such much I didn’t say…” Spider added.

“He was our brother, and we never reconciled,” Ethan said.

The words struck a cord with Spider. Odette’s prophecy was suddenly clear. She had meant Eli, not Daniel. That was the brother she had been talking about. His eyes showed his sadness at the misunderstanding. Spider’s face hardened when he realized what I was doing. I was wasting time consoling them.

“Go get Marcus,” Spider said. “End this.”

I nodded and stood.

Spider grabbed his weapon with new determination and helped Sprint to her feet. The kids turned back to the fight, moving as a team to take out their next target. Eli remained motionless where he had fallen. I knew he would not get up again. His death was a heavy price. It was one I knew Spider would carry with him forever.

I focused on the stairs. The answer to the end was there. Trusting my friends to take care of the Seekers, I went in search for the only way to stop the bloodshed for good.

I went in search of Marcus.

Chapter 22

No one bothered me on the stairs. Everyone was focused on the battle down below. No one had thought I would get past the two hundred waiting for us.

When I got to the top of the stairs, I saw an elegant door that was as broad as it was tall. The stairs dead-ended at the door – the ceiling above me was low enough to touch. I had found Marcus’ room. My heart beating with unnatural speed, my mind racing to fortify me against the games Marcus was bound to play, I put my hand on the doorknob. This was it.

I opened the door and let it swing to the opposite wall. I gripped my sword tightly. My senses were alert to traps and more hidden soldiers. I would not put it past Marcus to have more than his share of surprises. I was determined to end his games before they started.

I was not expecting the game he had put in motion, however. It was the last thing I had expected, in fact. It immediately made me question…everything.

Standing in the middle of the circular room I had visited many times in my dreams was the second person I had seen on the balcony. The person still wore their hood. They were standing in front of a large fire that warmed the room more than was necessary. It groaned and popped with flames dancing in the hearth – it almost drowned out the sound of the injured and dying below. Almost.

On the balcony, I saw Nguyen working his weather magic. He seemed oblivious to my appearance in his boss’s room. The figure by the fire turned as I entered. As the figure turned, the person lowered their hood. Instead of Marcus, there was a girl. I had seen her before – our lives had been connected in a way that I thought would last forever. It wasn’t so long ago that I had learned from my grandfather’s book that she was my cousin. She was the same cousin I had fished out of a river after a suicide attempt.

It was Amanda.

Her brown hair was curled and she wore makeup on her face. She looked older than when I had seen her and infinitely more in control. There was nothing of the girl who pined after popularity and friendship, the girl who was searching to find her father again; a father who was more concerned with his drinking and his prejudice than his own daughter. My eyes scanned the room for signs of Marcus or anyone that could explain her strange appearance. She had to be another trick – another vision sent by Marcus to mess with my head.

She looked up when I entered. Her brown eyes – eyes that mirrored Sheriff Cobb’s and, strangely, Ellen – searched my face. She didn’t smile. She was not happy to see me. I was not the girl who had rescued her from her suicide attempt – I was the enemy.

“Marcus said you would come,” Amanda said.

My eyes narrowed at her tone.

“Did he?” I asked.

“Yes,” Amanda said.

I took a step closer to her, seeing the seething mass of bodies moving out the large window. We were so high up, so far from the battle, yet the screams followed us.

“What’s going on, Amanda?” I asked her. “Why are you here?”

“Why am I here?” She laughed. “Why are you here?”

“To kill Marcus,” I admitted.

“We couldn’t have more opposite reasons for being here then,” Amanda said.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

“No, you wouldn’t. You’re too busy thinking everyone needs to be saved to see the truth of things,” Amanda said in a mocking voice. “Clare…must you rescue everyone?”

“If they need it,” I said.

Amanda smiled, tossing her brown hair from her face with casual arrogance.

“That’s what made playing you so easy…If Cassandra and Thomas hadn’t messed it up, we would have had what we needed from you sooner. We wouldn’t have been forced to wait so long to get the sword and wipe the earth clean of filth like my father.”

Her words were startling. They suggested she had been involved in the attempt to get me to give up my blood. Had her suicide attempt been faked? How much could I trust from that night?

“Are you saying you played me in to rescuing at the river?” I asked.

Amanda shrugged.

“It was kind of easy,” Amanda said. “All I had to do was plant the seed of sadness and let your…nature do the rest.”

“Why?” I asked. “I don’t get it…”

“My ‘father’ was never part of the plan. He was the distraction… He was the one we wanted you to blame, so that you were not looking at us. The deception was necessary. Once Daniel came in to the picture and started protecting you, we knew we would have to play a more delicate game. Daniel has never been the kind of person to quit easily. So, I lured you out. The others were supposed to see if you were capable of really changing a person…they were to figure out if you were really the one in the prophecy. Of course, they did figure it out…the hard way. They pressured you in to killing them and our plan was scrapped. I told them it was a bad idea to use Daniel as leverage. We should have just killed him when we had the chance.”

Her words were heartbreaking and shocking. Amanda had been behind Marcus’ original plan to get my blood willingly…to see if my blood would eventually open the vault that held the sword. But it still didn’t make sense. How was she tied to Marcus? Why would she give up her soul to such a man?

She seemed to be able to read my thoughts. Or else my thoughts were on my face.

“Marcus was the first to see me for who I am,” Amanda continued. “We met when I was little…he knew Cobb. He pulled me out of my depression and helped me see that I could be more than I thought I could ever be. He helped me see that I was more than just a sheep doomed to die a miserable life. He woke me up. He gave me love.”

Love? She thought she was in love Marcus? More importantly, she thought Marcus loved her? There was no way. I was suddenly certain she was being used. I was certain that the words I had just heard from her were Marcus’ words. They were not her. She was being controlled.

“Marcus loves you?” I asked.

“Yes,” Amanda said.

“But he leaves you here to face me?” I asked.

“I can fight,” Amanda said. “He trusts me to kill you.”

“He trusts that you’ll be a distraction,” I said. “Nothing more. He’s using you.”

“You don’t know that…”

I took a step forward.

“Amanda, I do. That’s what Marcus does.”

She blinked at me in confusion. It was as if she had never heard the truth put so honestly. She couldn’t figure out what I meant. She couldn’t reason the truth I was bringing her with the logic in her head. It was more proof that she had been used. I heard an awakening in her mind. Amanda was trying to crawl through the lies Marcus had planted in her head. She was trying to break out of the visions.

I was not the only one who noticed.

Nguyen finally turned away from the balcony. His black eyes suggested I had come upon the truth. Amanda was nothing more than a distraction. Amanda was an emotional manipulation – a pawn in Marcus’ larger game. Nguyen raised his hand. A streak of lightning came through the open doors. I moved to Amanda, to knock her out of the way, but I was not quick enough. The lightning hit her directly in the chest. Her whole body lit up with a blue light. Her face was surprised. Her eyes moved to mine. In that final second, she understood. Nguyen was acting under Marcus’ orders. Marcus had ordered her death to slow me down. Her eyes showed her hurt and regret. Then, she dropped to the earth.