Exaltation (29 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

The afternoon went as planned. Raven left the house with the twins, and they dropped her off at Rydell’s.

One of Jamison’s rules was for Raven not to go into Rydell’s house unsupervised. She had never met his family. When she was over there she and Rydell stayed in the garage. She’d watch him work on Kade’s car with Dagen, which was far more fascinating than one would think.
So hot.

Tonight was no different. Kade was over and so was Dagen. Another one of Kade’s friends was coming and going as they all worked on Kade’s ride. Raven sat on the toolbox and watched them.

Kade had won a lot of little races over the last few weeks but a big one was tomorrow. It was for pinks, and the track was on the DL.

It was made for backwoods racing. A friend of a friend of a friend had built it on the back of a hard to get to property. Like really built it. Dirt was mounded on each side and gravel was in the pit so everyone could stand on the mounds and look down, see it all at a safe distance.

It was built so long ago the gravel was almost pavement, but the boys were changing Kade’s tires anyway to give him more traction. Raven had no idea why Kade would gamble his car; it was sweet now.

Raven was more excited about the party in the field. People from every school should be there, along with music, dancing, and just a good time. The race would last less than a few minutes but the party was sure to go on for hours.

Raven jumped when the phone in her back pocket vibrated. It was a text.
Get here now.
From River.

Raven hopped down and went outside to call her. She wasn’t going anywhere near Berries, and she didn’t feel the urge to type out that argument.

River answered on the first ring. “Now, Raven.”

“No way. I don’t want Rydell wrapped up in this and he’s my ride.”

“Take his car and get here now. It’s important.” Raven heard an odd noise in the background and Ash grunt. The line went dead then.

Oh. Crap.

Raven went panicky all at once. She glanced back at the garage. Rydell had leaned out from the hood he was under as if she’d called his name. He grabbed a rag and started to clean his hands as he made his way to her.

A million scenarios were rushing through Raven’s head and every one of them told her she did
not
want Rydell anywhere near this. He was on a thin line with her dad as it was and had family issues of his own.

He ducked his head to look in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Can I borrow your car?” At that he raised his brow. “I just need to take something to the twins.”

“I’ll take you.”

She put her hand on his chest as he tried to walk by her. “It’s a girl thing.” Raven made it sound like it was one of
those
girl things you didn’t talk to boys about, so he backed off a little. “I mean if you don’t want me to drive it maybe you can ask Kade’s friend if I can borrow his car.”

He pulled his keys out. “You sure you’re okay? You’re really pale.”

“Girl thing,” Raven said, putting her hand on his stomach. He didn’t believe her. Raven could tell. But he pulled her chin up and kissed her lips softly anyway.

Raven couldn’t look in his eyes as she drove away. She hated this feeling. She really did. She tried to call River at every stoplight.

No answer.

Raven cursed as she weaved through the back streets. She wasn’t entirely sure exactly where Berries’ house was so she looked for the Jeep. When she found it she followed the fence it was against and came up on the back porch of a home.

“Hello?” she said into the screen. She heard another moan and Ash cuss.
Oh crap!
Raven had her cell phone clutched in her hand and one number already dialed in so she would only have to press send.

Was it 911? No. Rydell? No. It was Jamison’s. But she would only hit send as a last resort. He’d
kill
her if he figured out she was there.

Raven pulled the screen door open, and when it slammed behind her she jumped forward. The house was dark but she could see it was a mess. Books and magazines were stacked across the floor, and it smelled stale, like a bad stale, the way the Quarter smelled in the morning before they hosed the party streets down. Beer and ashtrays.

“River? Ash?” Raven whispered, moving through the books and knocking down a few. When she made it to the front room she clasped her hand over her mouth.

Berries was tied to a chair and had a gag on. River was holding a stick to his chest as Ash fumbled with tapes and an old TV that had snow on its screen.

“What? What’s going on here?”

“He caught us,” Ash said. “He was hiding. Like he knew we were coming. We have to figure out how to spin this, how to get your dad to help us out of this. Soren is on his way. He was at the university with his grandmother so it’s going to take him a hot second to get here.”

Were they insane!
“So you tied him up!”

“He tied us up first! But he ran his mouth when he had us locked away, so now we’re tying to see if there’s any truth to what he said.”

“What are you talking about?” Raven said as she jolted back. Berries had lashed forward, his eyes crazed and sweat beaded across his brow.

“He said they’re going to take your dad. Said he had proof. That we were next anyway. Experiments and shit,” Ash said as she dumped out small tapes and old pages.

Right then she managed to get the tapes to play on the ancient TV. As she skipped through them they all saw how much of a creep Berries was.

He only used the camera to film the class Raven was in, and he had some kind of odd lenses on it which easily showed the vim she used to protect herself, the vim Rydell had used to protect her. In fact, you could even see where Rydell had lashed out at the camera and it lost its feed.

Then the scene changed—it was what happened the day of the storm. Jamison at war with those dark beings. Soren, and Dagen fighting Benjamin—all scenes from security cameras in the school.

“Okay,” Raven said as she took a shuddering breath. The girl who always got them out of trouble started to surface. “No one will believe this. It looks like a bad movie. They will see it as fake.”

Ash had been moving back through the tapes and stopped when she saw Berries, Dagen, and Rydell in his classroom. When she played the tape Raven felt sick.

They were plotting.

They were making sure she was in Berries’ class and Dagen gave Berries a file on her father, one that had adversaries or something. Berries started to laugh then. River poked him but he laughed harder. She jerked his bandana gag down. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re so stupid. Might be book smart but you don’t know how to come in out of the rain. The boy is playing you. This is a kill or be killed world, and he decided to take you out before you were old enough to figure out what the devil plotted for you to do. Before you slaughtered him like the
sadist
you are.”

“And I should believe you,” Raven said as she fisted her hands, clenching the phone just so she would not throw it at him.

“Do you want to know why?”

“What does this have to do with my family?” Raven said all too calmly.

“Your father is a vile son of a bitch, spawned of the devil. You’re pure evil. A born killer. A black widow. Who’s playing who? It’s been interesting to watch how you pulled the boy into your web when he was only trying to ward off your family’s list of murders assigned to you. How far have you gotten down your list? Do you even care? Or do just kill them then go out for a dance.”

Raven’s vim assaulted him the second he said that about her father. He tensed but kept his smile.

“Rydell wants you
dead
because you’re going to kill him. Obviously your daddy was going to help you out so he was eager to help me get what I needed on him. To have him put away, not jail, no, he could get out of that. No, we need to study him. We need to experiment. He was my prize but little did I know that he would come with side dishes,” he said with glare up at River. He chuckled. “Three little daughters.”

Emotion washed down River’s expression, filled with elation and anger, a little fear. Most of all relief.

“All of you are done. You can decide who to kill from your padded cell. That is if you’re lucid enough.” He smirked. “I told Emery she would regret leaving me. Now she will,” he said with a leer. “Because she’s going to lose you all!”

“Awful big words for someone who’s currently tied down,” Raven asserted.

“You broke into my home and tied me up. You’re making this too easy on me. I thought the tapes and books that clearly outlined how your family plots and murders was enough, but you just added to my case. Do you not think someone will notice I didn’t board a plane tonight? Do you think I haven’t made a copy of everything you have seen? That I don’t have more?”

“Why did you steal those books?” River asked, poking him.

“Research. I needed to read the devil’s play book.”

“I’m not a killer,” Raven managed to say.

“Oh, but you are.
Black widow.”

River poked him with the stick again.

“Why do you keep calling me that!” Raven yelled. River pulled up his gag before he could speak.

“River!”

“The sister whose lover rests in the grave,” Berries tried to say through his gag.

Raven looked at Ash with wide eyes as he repeated it and she understood what he said.

“It can’t mean that. It’s a parable,” River said in a low tone, meaning she didn’t believe herself.

“The book said that?” Raven gasped as Cashton’s image flashed in her mind. The twins didn’t know about him. They had
no
idea how close those words struck to home.

“Raven, it said a lot of stuff.”

“Like what?”

“Five kills. We told you that.”

“What about a grave!”

“It says it differently. I don’t get it, but it says you will come into power with a lover from the grave.”

“Grave or Veil.”

Before she could answer Berries broke free. He took the stick from River’s hand and slammed it across her face. Raven screamed and ran toward her but he pushed her back. Ash jumped on his back, beating her fist into his shoulders. Raven’s energy lashed forward causing him to stumble to the ground. Right as she stood she saw the man cower.

Which made no sense. They were not organized. With Soren the three of them were invincible. Right now River was out cold, they were two down and this man was so full of rage Raven doubted he would be easy to take down with all of them there.

Raven advanced, playing her part as a fearless girl. And he crawled backward like she was the devil he thought she was. Then she figured out why.

“Raven come to me,” she heard her Aunt Saige say.

Raven glanced over her shoulder and saw her father glaring down at Berries and Saige just behind him.

River’s body was levitated and sent in Saige’s direction. Ash scrambled to get out of the way. Raven was shell-shocked as she stared down at the man who had ruined her. He had brought forth all her dark untrusting thoughts and threw them in her face.

He called her a killer. He told her the boy she had fallen hard for was plotting to kill her because she was supposed to kill him. He called her father a devil. He had destroyed her with nothing more than his tongue.

In an instant she felt energy encase her and within a breath she was on the front porch of the house. Family and friends were pouring inside. There was a dome of vim around the property, obviously one which shielded it from view. Cars were driving by like they didn’t see hundreds of people in the front yard. The neighbors were playing cards on their porch as if they could not be more bored, and runners were gliding by the drive none the wiser.

Raven glanced inside and saw some of the papers and magazines were turning to flames and vanishing, others disappeared without fire. It happened so fast  the house which had nearly been a dump was almost pristine inside of five minutes. Saige was saying words over River and putting something on her head where she was bleeding. The wound was closing, slowly, but it was still closing.

Raven stood frozen in place. The only time she even bothered to flinch was when she saw Rydell and Dagen charge through the door.

Saige reached for her hand right as River blinked her eyes opened.

“There’s an alliance, child. You were never in danger.”

“He—he was really going to kill me?” Raven gasped as her eyes watered over.

Saige stood. Her hands were trembling ever so slightly as she cradled her face. “Child, no one could look into your eyes and find the thought to end you.”

“Am I a black widow?”

She didn’t answer, instead she closed her eyes and pulled Raven to her shoulder. The war of emotions began in Raven’s heart then. She had never been so scared.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

When Rydell had watched Raven drive away he knew something was wrong. Really wrong. Before he could follow her he understood why.

Benjamin appeared in his driveway. Dagen was at Rydell’s side in an instant.

“You want to do this now?” Rydell asked as he raised his chin to look down at him. Thankful Raven had left him just in time.

“What would we be doing?” Benjamin asked with a crooked smile.

“I’m going to take you out,” Rydell swore. “You’re a turncoat.”

“Me? If anyone is, out of the pair of us, it would be you,” Benjamin said with a grin. “Besides, you wouldn’t want to do it until you knew where all my little plots were, now would you?” he said with a glance to Rydell’s garage. “That’s going to be a sweet curse. Too bad you’re not the one that’s racing or we could fast forward this cat and mouse game.”

Dagen was right.

He’d thought for weeks Benjamin was behind the races Kade was winning. The other drivers clearly had better rides, nevertheless at the last second Kade would assault the finish line.

Benjamin had been hazing the races, building Kade up for a track and a race he was not ready for. Rydell knew that could only mean the curse he feared really was in play. How it would be in play was a mystery. He wasn’t sure if it would impact River. But no matter what it would impact Kade, and he didn’t deserve it. Rydell had pulled him into this.

What Rydell didn’t understand is why he was telling him of his plots, giving them a chance to change the course. This was a distraction; he was sure of it.

“You haven’t fed from Kade. I would have sensed you before. What are you not saying?” Rydell asked.

Benjamin shrugged. “Never been one for the discernible.”

“Clearly, I trusted you.”

“You. Trusted me? You robbed me,” Benjamin said with a snap.

“From a careless sovereign.”

“From power. My place,” Benjamin said with a murderous gaze.

A wayward thought crossed Rydell’s mind.
Could he be the next First? Is that what Britain was trying to say?
The thought was mind-blowing to Rydell. Benjamin was weak in his mindset, a follower, a puppet who was easily distracted—everything a First wasn’t. Rydell knew Revelin was empowering Benjamin; as he could and would do for anyone in his line—but a First? It just seemed ludicrous to Rydell.

“What lies have you heard?” Rydell said with a cock of his head. He was evaluating his energy. It was elevated, and Rydell’s was depleted. There was only a hairline of distance between their power at that instant.

“Never trust my ears, usually not my eyes. But the springs are revealing. They’re so full of information.”

“He’s using you,” Rydell warned, knowing he was right. First or not, Benjamin was still adjusting to the higher levels of power. Killing him now would be easy. What wasn’t easy was they were not ready to take down Revelin. Rydell needed to plot this, and quick.

“And you didn’t? You nearly let that girl kill me. Served me up like a steak. Telling us all she’s evil and an infant. Then low an behold you pulled her into your bed.”

Dagen reached his arm in front of Rydell. He knew he couldn’t stop him from lashing out but he wanted to put the thought in Rydell’s head to pause.

“Every dark moment brings joy, no wait, what is it we say…every joy brings a dark thing? Ah, it doesn’t matter. The thing is Revelin felt it when she struck me. He felt it
hard
, and as soon as he recovered he called me home.”

“He put you in a cage.”
How could Benjamin not see
that?

Benjamin glanced behind Rydell at his rental. “I’d rather be in his cage than your grease pit.”

“And he taught you to lie.” Benjamin was addicted to cars. So good at handling them Rydell was sure he had past lives that centered around them.

“Omit. No sense in engaging in earthly games unless they bring power.”

“What do you want right now?” Dagen asked, stepping forward. Benjamin was starting to sound just like Revelin, spouting his same words.

“Now? Nothing. I’m just a distraction.”

Right about then they all felt power surging through the air. A lot of power. Jamison and his coven moving to one location.

It was a call to battle.

Benjamin laughed. “That’s right. She knows about you now. Someone let the cat out of the bag. If I were you I would leave her be. I bet she has a dagger waiting on you.”

Rydell and Dagen were gone at that instant. Fury was all Rydell knew when he saw his car outside of Newberry’s house.

“She’s on the porch,” Dagen said.

They charged past her and through all the witches who had descended on the house and were going over every stitch of property there. Discarding what was useless and removing what was. Rydell was going for Berries. He was going to kill him, destroy him piece by piece for even thinking of coming near Raven and Jamison.

In the front room Rydell found Jamison and a few others. Berries was pinned to the wall with vim; his eyes were rolled back in his head.

Just because Rydell couldn’t hold it in he slammed a blow of energy at him. Berries gasped as Rydell heard bones break, then Berries hung his head as if he were being crucified.

“I’m going to have to heal that now,” Jamison said as he looked over his shoulder at Rydell. The slight smirk he had told Rydell he had done exactly what he’d wanted to do.

“Why would you heal a man I’m going to kill?” Rydell said in a dark, cold tone.

“Can’t. Not in the obvious way,” Jamison said.

“What happened?” Dagen demanded. Jamison moved his head side to side as he glared at Berries.

“My phone rang. I answered it and heard him breaking my daughter’s heart. Calling her a black widow…though the part about you plotting to kill her before she killed you was surely the point where I actually heard her soul weep.”

Rydell swallowed anxiously.

Jamison turned to face Rydell. “I’m over this because I knew about Newberry a while back. That you were pulling his strings. This is new to her.”

“Does she know anything about the five kills? Does she know about her fate?”

“Deep down every soul knows their fate. She’s seventeen. She’s too young to know,” Jamison said evenly. Even after all this, he wasn’t ready for her to know, to truly understand. She only had a few years left before all of this consumed her life, before her mortal life would be far behind her. He wanted her to savor that time.

“Is it me or you?” Rydell asked in a gruff tone.

Jamison furrowed his brow. He was surprised Rydell had figured it out, surprised he had not come to him with it before now.

“Me or you,” Jamison said with a sigh. “King, do you understand the five kills?”

“No. It’s BS. Change should come without slaughter.”

“Agreed,” Jamison said and crossed his arms. “The five are to fall so the king will be weakened. It’s calculated to bring him down from his pedestal.”

“How did you break away? How can I break away?”

Hearing Rydell say that eased Jamison. It meant he wanted to, and wanting to was the first step to making a real change—getting him and Raven exactly where they needed to be to survive this Rapture when the time came.

Jamison’s gaze moved over Rydell. “Are you not a notch above mortal now?”

“I didn’t want her intoxicated with the emotion,” Rydell admitted.

“So you stopped feeding.”

“After Revelin tried to kill me, yes.”

“Seems like you would want to feed more if that were the case,” Jamison said.

“Do you know if it is you or me? Or someone else? What if we brought him down on our own?”

“No, I don’t.”

Jamison stared endlessly into him, trying to see if he saw some flicker of recognition in Rydell’s stare.

“The five that fall need to fall for they are evil and feed the sovereign—sounds to me like you stopped doing that.”

“Are you saying he’s clear?” Dagen asked.

“Not my say.”

“And who the fuck is it?” Dagen yelled.

“The soul of balance that rises,” Jamison said with a glance to Rydell. “You’re raw. Exaltation suits you. It’s unmistakable in your essence, and she is born of bliss. Do you not see how that is not balance?”

“Listen to me,” Rydell said, stepping up. “I don’t give a fuck who shares her soul. He’s lost my respect.”

“And what has he done to you beyond existing?” Jamison asked.

“He doesn’t fucking exist as far as I’m concerned. There is no way in fucking hell he has not sensed all the danger my men put her in over the years, all this recent bullshit my men are now protecting her from. Where the fuck is he? What kind of man is he? Just to let her and her guardians handle it? Is that his game? He parties somewhere then when it’s all said and done he takes his throne? Sounds like a selfish fuck to me.”

Jamison nearly twitched a smile. “I suppose we should hope he has a good reason.”

Rydell narrowed his hard gaze. “How much time do we have to find a way to bring Revelin down?”

“No one knows that either. Right now we have to weather the storm and find a way to let Raven be Raven.”

“What does he have to do with this?” Dagen asked with a nod to Berries.

“Nothing. He just let it all out. The evidence he had is a joke, anyone could mock it. Our books of shadows are restored and spells to bring fire to the copies are made.”

“Berries is going to make her life hell,” Rydell argued. He could not let this man live.

Jamison moved his head side to side. “I’m taking his memory of this day and the days just before away. Then I’m going to give him illusions that each of the myths he tried to disprove are haunting him.”

Jamison glanced at Dagen then to Rydell. “This is going to take time. Are you going to stay at her side?” He needed him to stay not only to protect Raven, but so he could find a way to make this right. It was going to be a long road.

“You really think she’s going to let me?”

“That is your karma to bury,” Jamison whispered, hoping that even if Raven sent him away, Rydell would still stay near. If he vanished into The Realm all the realism Rydell was grasping now would fade. His mortal memories would be even further away.

Rydell went to walk away but Jamison stopped him. “Rydell. Never ask her to make a promise she can’t keep, one that you can’t keep.”

Rydell nodded once.

Rydell left Dagen with Jamison and rushed through the house.

When Raven saw him she ran, it was a slow run, not a scared one. She moved through the energy dome around the house. Rydell followed her, finding rain was pelting down. She put her hands on her head as if she were trying to think of a direction to run. Rydell moved to her instantly and pulled her body around his before setting her on his car. You would have thought the rain was representing the tears leaving her soul.

She said through gasping tears, “You wanted to kill me because, because, you think I want to kill you—but I don’t and I don’t think you do so it doesn’t matter right—right—tell me it doesn’t matter!”

Rydell said nothing as his stare peered into her beautiful face.

“Tell me!” she said as she beat her fist into his chest. Rydell let her, then a second later he pulled her lips to his, swallowing her gasp. He leaned his forehead to hers as she cried on.

“I could never hurt you. You were an idea. Not a soul,” he cradled her face in his hands. “That kiss. It changed my existence. I knew I would never be the same again. I owe you everything. I owe you my
life
.”

She punched his shoulder. “I’m not a killer!”

He took her arms and wrapped them around his shoulders. He pulled her into the cage of his arms and let her cry it all out as he rocked her side to side. He felt her crumbling in his arms. The innocent, carefree, blissful soul that seized his being was vanishing and it was tearing him apart. She was too young for this, too innocent.

When she began to tremble he moved them, took her to Emery’s home. Miss Thelma Ray was in the kitchen. She glanced at the compromising way Rydell was holding her and gave him a scowl. Then she heard Raven gasp out another sob and compassion filled her face. She took Raven from Rydell’s arms and led her upstairs.

Rydell paced the kitchen like a lion in a cage. Berries may be a done matter, but he still had to contend with whatever Benjamin had in the works. It wasn’t even about Kade anymore, or if his curse would hurt River, ultimately hurting Raven. It was the fact Benjamin was after Rydell, and there was only one way to hurt him right then…losing Raven.

Rydell wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The twins had come home. Emery was tending to them upstairs.

Rydell knew he should have left, that would have been wise. Raven needed time to think this all through, and he had to get his faction ready for war. When he’d finally decided to do just that, Thelma Ray emerged in the kitchen.

Rydell stood from the stool he was on and murmured, “I know, I’m leaving.”