Everbound: An Everneath Novel (24 page)

“Are those constellations?” I asked.

Mrs. Jenkins nodded and continued rifling through the box. “Adonia had a passion for astronomy.”

I thought back to Ashe’s house and the telescope in the corner. He’d said it had sentimental value. Was it Adonia’s?

Mrs. Jenkins straightened up. “Here it is,” she said, holding out a metal object in her hand. “Nathanial’s medal.”

She handed me a worn brass medal that weighed heavy in my hand. It was two swords crossed together inside a wreath. The tips and handles of the swords poked out beyond the wreath, giving the medal a distinct, pointy shape.

“It’s beautiful.”

“I don’t know what it’s called, but I think it’d be worth a lot today—” Her voice cut off in surprise. “Is that … ?” I followed her gaze to the floor, where a ghostly, tattooed hand appeared.

I glanced back up at Mrs. Jenkins. “It’s Cole. But I’m not done asking you questions.”

“Don’t go,” she said. The worry in her eyes told me she was concerned about my interaction with Ashe too.

“I have to,” I said. “I have to find Jack. Besides, Ashe is missing.” I found myself whispering, even though I was pretty sure Cole couldn’t hear us.

His hand made a rolling gesture, as if to say
Get going
.

“If I don’t go now …”

She nodded. “I know. I’ll try to … see what I can find out. I’ll go through my things here. I can look …” She shrugged.

“Thank you.” I walked over to the hand. “But I think that if I come back without Jack again, it will be too late.”

She didn’t protest.

“Can I ask you something?” I said.

“Yes.”

“Why are you helping me?”

She gave me a soft smile. “Living without earthly attachments has … begun to lose its charm.”

I smiled too. I knew that feeling. “I’ll be back.”

“Here,” she said, pressing the medal into the palm of my hand. “Take this. May it bring you luck.”

The hurried nature of our parting seemed to make us promise things to each other that we probably wouldn’t have promised otherwise. Or maybe Mrs. Jenkins was beginning to like me.

Or maybe she still hoped that I would one day be queen and that I would remember her.

Nothing in either world was as it seemed.

As I grabbed Cole’s hand, I had a moment to consider the symbolism of the whole thing. Cole was dragging me down to the Everneath. Over and over. And I was letting it happen. In fact, I was begging him to do it.

I landed on the ground, the debris-filled walls of wind surrounding me and reaching into the sky.

“Sleep well, Nik?” Cole said, stretching as if he was working out the kinks he’d just gotten by reaching to the Surface to get me.

His question weighed heavy on my heart since Jack hadn’t appeared in my dreams. But I didn’t want Cole to know. If he found out, then maybe he would give up—and I couldn’t give up until I was inside the Tunnels. Until I had Jack’s hand in my hand. Until I could give him my tether and help him find his way out, like Ariadne did for Theseus.

Jack wasn’t dead. He wasn’t. He couldn’t be. But his absence last night had left a dark specter on my soul, like some Grim Reaper coming too early to claim something I wasn’t about to give up. The ominous shadow entreated me to abandon my hope. I closed my eyes, willing it away. No. There was some other reason he wasn’t there last night, something beyond his control. But if Cole and Max knew about it, they might think our continued trek was useless. Especially Max. He was always ready to quit.

“You okay?” he said since I hadn’t answered him.

I nodded.

“What’s that?” He pointed to my hand, at Nathanial’s medal that Mrs. Jenkins had given to me.

My discovery at Mrs. Jenkins’s house came rushing back. Ashe. Adonia. Betrayal.

“How well do you know Ashe?” I asked.

Cole seemed surprised at my question. “Well enough.”

“And you trust him?”

Cole raised an eyebrow. “Implicitly. Where is this going?”

I thought about it. I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to handle this yet; I wasn’t even sure exactly what it meant.

At my hesitation, Cole said, “Look, Nik. We can talk about it on the way. But right now, we have to get moving. I think we’re almost to the Ring of Fire.”

“How do you know?”

He lifted his head to the sky. “Smoke on the horizon. Let’s get your tether and go. Tell a story, and make it a good one.”

Suddenly every other worry faded away, and I wanted nothing more than to get closer to Jack. Ashe wasn’t even here, so what did it matter if I trusted him or not?

Jack hadn’t shown up in my dream, and that was all that mattered. I needed to get my tether back, and fast; and there was one short, sweet story that I knew could succeed the fastest.

I grabbed Cole’s hands in mine. “Did I ever tell you about the very first time Jack kissed me?”

The Surface. Park City High School
.

The hallway was filled with students, but they all faded into the background. Jack had just confronted me about my feelings for him. In my mind, nobody else existed anymore.

“Tell me, friend,” Jack said, his fingertips grazing mine as people shuffled past us in the hallway. “Is there more for us?”

I looked at my feet. “There’s everything for us.”

He didn’t answer. The bell was about to ring. I could tell because the hallway began to clear out, and yet Jack remained quiet.

Despite the butterflies that had expanded out of my stomach and now filled my entire body, I ventured a look at Jack.

He had the funniest expression. He smiled in a knowing way, as if he had suddenly gotten a glimpse at our entire future and it was amazing. I wasn’t sure he would ever move from that spot.

I tugged on his hand and said, “We should—”

“Yes,” he interrupted.

His fingers closed around mine, and he pulled me down the hall.

“Um, we’re going the wrong way,” I said. “My English class is that way.” I pointed behind us.

He didn’t let up. With his fingers in a death grip around my hand, as if at any moment we would be ripped apart, he led me around the corner, down a side hall, and finally into a dark nook that held a drinking fountain.

The walk to this point had given me exactly enough time to wonder what I had just agreed to. What I had just done to jeopardize the most important friendship in my life.

He faced me, and I backed against the wall.

“Wait,” I said.

“What?” He immediately dropped my hands and stiffened, as if we had been discovered doing something illegal.

I let out a shaky breath. “I just … Your friendship is everything to me.”

He smiled and took a step closer. “I feel the same way.”

I put my hand against his chest. “But …”

“But?” He raised an eyebrow.

“But …” I couldn’t find the words. I couldn’t figure out how to express my concerns; and I’d waited for this moment for so long, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. “But …”

His lips turned up in a sly smile. “Becks, can we move on from ‘but’?”

I bit my lip and tried again. “We could go back.”

“Back to where?”

“Back to ten minutes ago. Back to before you said anything.”

His smile fell, and he pulled away a little bit. “You don’t want this.” It was a statement, not a question.

I leaned my head back until it rested on the brick wall. How could I explain that it was all I ever wanted? It was all I’d been able to think about for months now.

I looked at his face again. His bright eyes had become dull; his shoulders, which could’ve carried the world two minutes ago, now slumped.

What was I thinking? I was thinking too much. That was the problem. That was always the problem.

Before I could think anymore, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward me. I kissed him. Lightly. Quickly.

I sank back, but he gathered me close to him again, and then his lips were on mine. He pulled me tighter against him, his hands pushing against my back; but he wasn’t satisfied with our nearness until he pushed me right up against the wall.

I was clawing at him just as much. My fingers tangled in his hair, then grabbed at his shirt, pulling him closer. His kiss became deeper; his lips urged my mouth open.

I didn’t care that we’d caught a few stares from students passing by. I didn’t care that the bell to begin class rang. I didn’t care that everything between us had changed.

All I cared about was the fact that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get any closer to Jack.

The Everneath. The Ring of Wind
.

When I finished my story, Cole’s face was blank. He wasn’t looking at me. Instead, he was looking at my tether, which was stronger than it had ever appeared before.

We all stared at my tether. Which is why none of us noticed the Wanderer at our backs.

“Run!” Max said.

We took off running, following my tether.

“Why weren’t you watching?” Cole shouted at Max.

“I took my eyes off our backs for two seconds!”

We darted right, then left, then right again; and then a wave of hot air struck us, searing my face with its intensity. I slowed for a moment, but Cole shoved me ahead.

“Keep going!” he commanded.

One more turn, and the dirt-colored walls of wind gave way to the strangest sight I’d ever seen.

We’d reached the Ring of Fire.

The Everneath. The Ring of Wind
.

T
he final ring before the bull’s-eye. The only thing standing between me and Jack.

And it was a furnace, with burning walls as high as the Grand Canyon.

My toe caught on a divot in the dirt, and I went flying to the ground. Within a split second, the Wanderer had caught up to us. But then he stopped, mesmerized by the walls of fire. His eyes traveled upward as the flames reached into the sky, dancing and crackling toward the middle of the pathway. It was as if he’d forgotten we were even there.

Cole had his hand on my arm, ready to help me up; but at the Wanderer’s reaction, he paused and watched.

Keeping his eyes on the burning inferno surrounding him, the Wanderer turned to the nearest wall, took two steps toward it, and then jumped in.

I flinched as I heard a grotesque sizzling sound; then the flames engulfed him completely, and we couldn’t see anything else.

He was gone.

I looked up at Cole with my mouth open, panting. “What happened? Why would he do that?”

Cole stared at the flames, his eyes wide. “It’s the fire,” he said in a breathless voice. “It attracts despair.” Even though he was saying the words, he was staring at the spot where the Wanderer had burned as if he couldn’t believe it.

Max stood nearby. “Coming straight from the Ring of Wind, it must’ve taken the Wanderer by surprise. He couldn’t fight it.”

Cole nodded. “It’s a good reminder. We have to be ready to feel the effects of the fire.”

I looked from Cole to Max and back to Cole again. “You mean … the Wanderer felt so much despair that he just voluntarily jumped into a wall of flames?”

Nobody answered me.

“How does fire do that?”

Cole finally tore his gaze from the wall. “It’s Everneath fire, which means it’s linked to emotion. Fires destroy things completely. Even the things that survive it are still changed on an elemental level. They are brittle and broken and ready to snap. In this way, fire is so similar to despair. If unchecked, despair will consume every other emotion, leaving them all only fragile shells. Fire in the Everneath draws out the fire of despair inside of you.”

“We have to move,” Max said.

I looked at the narrow pathway, trying to forget the sizzling sound of skin burning. The flames shot out from the walls at random intervals. There would be no way to anticipate a sudden flare bursting from one side to the other. I couldn’t see how we could avoid getting burned, no matter how hard we tried to stay in the middle.

The little spark of energy I had left turned to ash in the face of the fire. There was no way we wouldn’t burn.

My shoulders sank. The adrenaline that had kept me going up until this point was gone. Drained.

Cole stood beside me as if he could read my thoughts. “We stay in the middle, Nik.” His face was a sober mask. “We can do this. We just have to stay focused.”

I closed my eyes. “How?”

“Same as we’ve been doing this whole time. We follow your tether.”

My tether
. My gaze went from the tether at my feet to the scorching pathway ahead of us. I was going to lead us down it, knowing the whole time that Jack hadn’t shown up in my dreams last night. Would Cole follow if he knew the truth? Or would he say it was a lost cause?

I allowed myself only a moment of guilt that I was keeping the secret from Cole. Maybe Jack wasn’t dead. But Cole would never attempt the Ring of Fire on a “maybe.”

“Which way, Nik?” Cole asked. I looked at his face. He trusted me now, I thought. He would expect me to tell him the truth.

I glanced at my tether. “That way,” I said, pointing down one of the fiery corridors.

Cole nodded. “Let’s move.”

The going was slow. Max stayed in front, I was in the middle, and Cole brought up the rear. Our steps were careful. One wayward mistake and our shirts would get singed.

At first I was good at dodging the sparks that flew our way and staying in the middle. But the extra effort took its toll on me. After a particularly narrow section, I blinked a little too long and stepped to the side.

I heard the sizzle before I felt it. Somewhere near the right side of my face. Cole tackled me to the ground, escaped out of his leather jacket, ripped off his shirt, and smothered the flames on my arm. The whole thing took place in about a second.

When the flames were out, we sat there panting.

And then the pain hit.

I screamed and tried to rip off my sleeve, but Cole grabbed my wrist and pinned it against my side. “You’ll rip the skin off too,” he said.

I strained my neck, trying to see the damage; but the angle made it difficult. The fire had gotten my upper shoulder and neck.

“Is it bad?” I asked through clenched teeth.