Within a flash, Cashton had manifested what looked like a glass tube, and he caught her soul right as it began to swim from her vessel. Once it was sealed, he fell to the ground, gripping it to his chest, having a hard time catching his breath.
“Why did you do that?!” Silas demanded, standing over Cashton, holding his arms back so I could not go to him. He clearly didn’t trust him.
“Because,” Cashton breathed as he winced, “the second Xavier knows she’s gone, everything he’s got is going to descend on us. He has to know Charlie hasn’t killed before, that the first mark would make both of us vulnerable.”
Silas’ eyes grew wide for an instant. He knew in past lives that I had killed many, but he seemed to be grasping something.
“Five,” he said under his breath.
Cashton nodded his head as he continued to grasp for breath, in obvious pain.
“Why are you still weak?” Silas asked him.
I rushed to Cashton’s side, but he was too busy trying to protect that glass tube. It was like he was doing everything in his power to keep me alive.
His eyes caught mine, and he grew less tense. “I’ll be damned...you listened to me.”
I assumed he was talking about sharing energy and nodded once.
His eyes grew wide. “Where’s Draven?”
“He and Aden are joining so they can take down Xavier.”
“Have you lost your mind?!” Cashton said as he bolted up.
“What did you just say?!” Silas said at the same time.
“The box had knives in it. They think that was the way to kill Xavier.”
“That is why you’re weak,” Silas bit out as he punched the air.
“What? Clue me in here.”
“You are connected to your brother, and his energy is lower because he is still in the veil. He is feeling your pain before you.”
“Pain is coming?”
“Yeah, the second you let Draven do something stupid - and guess what? I’m connected to you, too. So, in one shot they are going to take out both you and your brother. Draven and his – and
me
.”
“Where? Where are they?” Cashton breathed.
“Um...stairs. Seven stairs. Water. Fire. That was what Monroe kept showing us, why they thought it was right.”
The battle from the stage had stretched to where we were now. Shadows were running as Escorts devoured them. Escorts were charging toward us, but Silas was deflecting them with nothing more than a glance.
“We have to go!” Silas said, reaching his arms around me.
As he did, I recognized one of the women that ran past me. She was that little girl’s mother. I began to chase after her.
“Charlie, no! We have no time!”
“Make it!” I yelled, gripping that woman. She did everything in her power to escape my grasp, but I finally grasped her chin, forcing her to look into my eyes. “GO HOME TO YOUR DAUGHTER!” I yelled as I flung her to the stage. I watched her vanish as Silas’ energy pulled me to him, then a jolt of energy charged us up into the air.
When I thought I could not handle the pressure any longer, my feet found the ground. Taking in my surroundings, I saw Witnesses lined around a shoreline, staring hopelessly at a massive stairway that was divided into seven different paths. The sky above us was spinning out of control. I could see the wall of water just behind the sky, which was starting to break apart.
Silas’ grip turned me to face the stairs. “Run!”
I hesitated, not sure what I was supposed to do when I reached the top, how I was supposed to stop something that fate had set in motion. Draven would not have manifested this. He was pulled here, which meant that he had every reason to believe he was supposed to join with Aden and end this ageless war.
“RUN!” Silas bellowed. It was a command that I had heard from him a thousand times in the past, one that I always knew meant for me to trust my path, one that said I didn’t have to see the other side to know I would survive - that I would if I believed I could.
There was two feet of flaming water between the first step and me. I tried to just see myself there, but something blocked me. The illusion of a dream, able to do anything, did not work on this level of The Realm.
I had to jump, then I had to climb. The steps were short, and there were thousands of them. The fierce wind not only created flaming waves, it also made me lose my balance. At one point, I crawled up the steep stairway.
I screamed for Draven and Aden, but the wind carried my voice away with it. When I reached the top I saw them locked in a stare, daggers in hand, moving toward each other. I had no time.
I launched myself between them, grasping the dagger in Aden’s hand seconds before it lodged into Draven, seconds before I felt a blade pierce my skin - before I unknowingly drove the blade into Draven.
Draven’s eyes were wide with agony and pain - and betrayal. He thought I’d stopped this because I was too scared of losing him.
“We were fooled,” I said as our legs buckled and we fell to our knees.
I let him see everything that had happened to me. We both knew that Bianca had played us, played into what information we had, that he was seconds away from death - that Silas and Cashton had saved us.
Blue rose petals rained from the sky just before an explosion of light erupted between us, reaching for the heavens. It seemed to strengthen that wall of water, causing the darkness that was pushing against it to sway backward.
The stone on my neck turned white, vibrating my very soul. The light from it wrapped around Draven and me and pulled essence from each of us, then its beaming light shot across the air into the wall of water. That water turned into a blinding light. An overwhelming sense of bliss gripped the air. It was as if souls that I could neither see nor perceive were rejoicing. I could swear I felt my parents. Felt their relief, their absolute bliss.
That wall grew dim again as if the two of us were only a small part of the victory that was needed to open the bridge between the two realities.
Aden was yelling our names as dark energy snaked around the stairs, stabbing him, reaching for us. We all knew we had to stop this, that we had to wake up, but we were in too much pain to move.
Draven and I were bleeding out, and Aden was assaulted with every move he made. It seemed that victory was short-lived.
Electricity webbed through both of our bodies and pulled us against each other, driving those daggers deeper into our core. Something was either trying to capitalize on the fact that we were one or kill us, one of the two.
A second later, Landen appeared at the top of the platform.
“Pull them out slowly,” he said in a forced calm tone.
As if his voice were powerful enough to subdue Mother Nature, the light swarming in and around us subsided, allowing us to slowly pull apart. Our blood pooled, then rushed down the stairs I’d climbed. The skies erupted just as the ocean stilled. One drop. That was all it took. One drop of our combined blood had ceased the raging water below us and brought an eerie calm to the air.
As soon as the blades were out, Landen’s hands were on us, healing the wounds instantly. Most of the pain went away, but I still felt the burn.
Landen took the blades from us. “Wake - end the song,” he said as he vanished.
Draven pulled me up, then gripped Aden, who was behind us. “Now,” he said breathlessly.
A stagnant force pulled us back into reality, and I found myself breathlessly standing on the amp.
Draven stumbled through a few chords as he gripped his side, but then he gained his rhythm back and a second later the song was over.
I grasped my waist, still feeling the burn. In the crowd, I saw the same woman I’d seen on the streets earlier. She was moving her lips, and as she did the ghostly images were risen, now joined with whomever they’d lost - and from the looks of it we’d brought back more than were hoped for.
The only ones I focused on were that little girl and that last woman I’d flung on stage. When they turned into light, I allowed myself to smile.
I glanced to my side to see if Madison was back. She nodded once at me, telling me she was. She looked just as bad as I felt. I wondered where The Realm had taken her, but she wasn’t showing me anything at all right now.
I jumped down and made my way through to the center of the crowd where that woman was.
“Well,” I said when I reached her, “did your daughter make it back?”
The woman glanced at the stage, then to me. “No, not yet - but you have assured me that she has a reason.”
In this woman's image all I could see was a flaming bow and lavender hair.
“If she is on the side of Bianca, do not ask me to help her.”
A ironic smile came to the woman's face. “Always go with your natural intuition. You know my daughter is not evil. Impatient and jealous, yes, but she would never walk with mirrored souls. That girl played you. Give Landen my best,” she said as she turned to leave, disappearing into the crowd.
The producer man was trying to get the crowd’s attention and thank Draven and Aden, but Draven barely bowed before tearing his sound wires and guitar off, then jumping the lights into the crowd. They made a path for him to come to me.
Once in his arms, he lifted me above his head, then lowered me to his lips, kissing me fiercely, not caring if anyone was watching. I returned his eagerness, letting the reality surface that we were seconds away from death. The adrenaline was the only thing balancing me from drifting into his electrifying essence, which was embracing me even tighter than his arms.
The lead singer from the other band took the mic and made a joke about how he would attempt to follow that performance. Draven’s lips left mine then he urged us out of the mass of people.
It was quieter on the side of the house, quiet enough to hear our breaths, which were in rhythm with our hearts.
“It still burns? Is it burning you? Charlie, tell me it’s not!” he said as he stopped to look me over.
“She’s alright,” I heard Cashton say, but his voice was weak. He was leaning against the side of the house with that jar in his hand, tilting it from side to side as he watched the essence within it flow.
Draven wasted no time. He was seeing Cashton and knew exactly what was in that jar.
“Why are you still weak?” I asked, kneeling next to him.
The blue in his eyes was so dim it was easily bleeding into the dark canvas behind them.
“She drained me, pulled from me for hours. That is another reason I didn’t want to lose her soul. I’m sure they would love to get their hands on a piece of me,” he said with a wink.
I glanced at the bottle, then to him. “How do we get it back?”
“I don’t want this back. I just don’t want them to have it.”
“But it’s your soul,” I argued.
“No. It’s just essence. Still dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“We have to make you stronger,” I said, wondering just how I would do that.
“What do I need to do?” Draven asked. “You need Landen?”
Cashton smirked. “I’m sure he’s a little busy.” Cashton said with knowing chuckle.
Right about then, Silas appeared. Draven stood in obvious defense as they both stood face-to-face, looking furious as ever.
“Oh, for Creator’s sake - call it off, mates,” Cashton said with a grunt. “They’re bound now - and guess what, buddy? You’re still alive, so she has compassion for you. All winners today.”
They both looked at Cashton like he was insane.
“I didn’t say you had to like it. Just let it be,” Cashton said, raising one brow. “You’re a smart man, Silas. Tell me you figured out that Xavier does not live life on the same timetable we do. He knew that you did not divide a man in Pompeii, but he planted that idea in your head and pushed that button right when he needed to.”
“I don’t give a damn about Xavier. You know why I’m here.”
“Drowning man,” Cashton said. “I’m going to figure you out, buddy. There has to be a reason you have an identity crisis.”
“I have souls I have to protect, and I have to be alive to do it. That is my identity.” He turned his attention to Draven. “You hurt her – in any way – and this Witness right here,” he said, patting his chest. “Will unbind you and tear you into shreds.”
“Do that,” Draven said with a smirk. “Because if I hurt her, I’ve got no reason to live.”
“He is not going to hurt her. So, truce for now, Silas. I’m more than sure that once you get over your identity crisis, you will see things differently,” Cashton said with a sarcastic smile.
“I don’t know why you keep saying that, and I don’t care. I have a job to do.”
Silas nodded toward Cashton, and as he did a glowing light consumed him. A second later he was standing next to us, looking like he had all the energy in the world.
“Why, thank you,” Cashton said with a nod.
“Didn’t do it for you,” Silas said as he glanced at me.
“Right, then,” Cashton said. “Here you go, mate. Take this with you and guard it. Wouldn’t want a piece of me and my sista floating around, now would we?”
Silas took the glass tube with Bianca’s soul in it before looking at me. “Monroe released a lot of power in The Realm.”