Still, I couldn’t just blab everything to Elliott, especially not since I’d just decided I wasn’t even going to tell my sister. “What do you mean?”
He ran his tongue over his lips like he’d also felt that blast of hot air and it had dried them out before he asked, “What were you doing yesterday when Daunator got stuck in your head?”
I had known he was in the hallway when I was talking to Brandon, trying to get the monster out, but I didn’t realize until that moment how carefully he’d been paying attention to what I was screaming about. “I was checking on these people.” I tipped my head in the direction of the stacks of paper all over my coffee table but didn’t pull my hand out. I needed to get him off course, make him think he was wrong. “I found one of them. I was just about to go tell Cadence and Aaron—some of these missing people are those creatures Eliza fought. Daunator is ke
Out of the corner of my eye, I studied him for a second before I asked, “If you already know that, why do you need me to tell you anything?”Elliott sighed so loudly, the papers on the table moved. I turned my head to look at him now, feeling like a small child who’d disappointed her favorite parent as he said, “I guess I was just hoping you were still my girl. That you hadn’t changed so much in the last year that you wouldn’t be straight up honest with me.”Those words stung deep inside of me. I knew he was right. I had changed. But in this case, I was trying to be true to my old self, the one that would’ve never betrayed her word, not to anyone, regardless of who was the friend and who was the enemy.Elliott’s hands banged down on his legs and he pulled himself up off of the couch. “Guess I was wrong.”“Elliott, come on. Don’t be like that. Look, I’d tell you what I know
Mrs. Carminati is one of the nicest people in the world. I could seriously stand at her desk and talk for hours. She smells kind of like cookies and flowers, but in the sort of way that makes you just want to hug her. Even though I wasn’t feeling very good about myself when I walked into the office, her smile instantly made me feel better.“Well, hello there, Cassidy. How are you today?”“Fine,” I said, managing a smile. “How are you?”“Fair to middlin’,” she said with a little chuckle. I’d heard my grandmother say that before and figured it meant somewhere in the middle. “Glad the weather’s finally starting to cool off a bit. Us humans care about such things.”“I remember.” Had it been all that long since I’d been human myself? Not really, but it seemed like an eternity. I leaned against the counter. “Cadence wanted to see me.”“
Aaron turned his attention back to me. “I want you to get into contact with Mila later and see if you can help her out while they look for the next Vampire on their list. She’s aware now that Eliza was speaking to you.” He must’ve seen my eyes widen because he assured me, “Eliza’s not in trouble or anything, but I’m sure it’s yet another reason why Mila doesn’t quite trust her. Anyway, if we can find that guy, and take him alive, we might be able to figure out the answers to some of our questions.”I said, “All right,” but I didn’t think that would be possible. I knew enough about Sylvester, the next mark, from my research to know he wouldn’t go down easily. They looked ready to move on to the real reason I was here, so I switched topics. “Something else happened last night.” Even thinking about the situation with Daunator made me nervous. I could feel sweat popping up on my upper
Taking a deep breath, I knocked on Brandon’s door, hoping my mouth would be as confident as my feet had been when they led me here. I was praying he was home while I still had the nerve to talk to him about everything. But he wasn’t answering. I knocked again, a little harder this time, but not the bone-shattering way I’d pounded on his door the night before.Waiting for him to open up, I thought about the conversation I’d just had with the bosses. I didn’t want to go over it all again. I couldn’t explain why I felt the way I did, but I felt like I was letting everyone down. At one point, I actually thought I should go ahead and get Christian while I was sitting there, but I hadn’t done it. I hated the fact that Cadence had put me in the middle of the situation—keep my promise or help the team. Maybe I was just being stubborn.And with Elliott’s speech earlier, about how I’m not who I used to be and I’m
“Daunator?” Brandon was alarmed now. He leaned forward. “What do you mean? Christian has a plan to stop Daunator?”Here it came. Confession. “Christian went after Daunator by himself.” His eyes widened in shock. “He needed me to help him gather some information about who might be working with Daunator and to try to help him find the monster. He also wanted me to get into Daunator’s head, but I can’t really do that. Anyway, Christian swore me to secrecy because he didn’t want anyone to know what he was up to.” That was a lot. I paused for him to process it all.After all of that, he asked, “You were helping Christian?”“I am helping Christian,” I corrected. “And I know that my sister knows I’ve been helping him, but I haven’t told her I know where he is yet. She knows I know where he is. And she probably knows where he is because I think she was going to ha
A few moments later, he stopped laughing enough to say, “Thank you for filling me in, Cass. It sounds like I’m missing out on a lot of information still, but at least I know what you’ve been up to. It must’ve been stressful for you, trying to keep Christian’s secret when you knew it would be better for both of you if you got him some help. I can imagine that must’ve been very distracting.”He seemed to think my confession was over, and if I was smart, I would’ve left it at that. But as long as I was baring my soul, I may as well press on and clear the air of everything. I didn’t want for us to get back together with any secrets between us. “It was difficult, Brandon, but if I’m going to be completely honest with you, I have to say, that wasn’t the only problem.”The color slowly drained from his face. “There’s more?”I wasn’t sure how to explain the rest of what
I spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening at Brandon’s apartment, sitting on his couch, talking and watching movies we’d already seen a million times before. That way, whenever I got interrupted to work on something, he didn’t have to pause the movie. He’s always been understanding about me having to mentally step away for a minute, but I felt like he was even more so with everything I had going on.After the leadership team met, Elliott came in and said, “Well, we’re headed to Hungary.”We’d been watching Office Space, and Brandon did pause it for that. “Me, too?” he asked, hopeful.“Not sure yet. I’m guessing Aaron will let you know.”That sounded like a cop out to me, like Elliott didn’t want to tell Brandon he couldn’t go. He walked down the hall a few steps before he came back into the living room. I’d hoped he’d have more news, but
“Jamie is hoping Eliza or someone will take one of the creatures captive tonight so he can do some experiments on them when we get over there. I’m not sure what we can do, but we’ll try our best.” Cadence sounded hopeful despite the odds.“All right. Heather coming, too?”“We’ll need her. She can float things and throw shields.”“Right. We’re leaving at 8:00, so Brandon and I need to be at the airport at 7:30?”She was quiet for a second, and I could see her rolling her eyes in my head even though I couldn’t actually see her at all. “Cass....”“I need him there, sis. I don’t work as well without him as I do when he’s there. We just got back together. If you want me at my levitating best, I need my most trusted Guardian.”“Cassidy, it’s only necessary personnel.
Cadence was glowing, holding both of her babies, one in each arm. I smiled at her and then focused on Josephina. She wasn’t crying now, but her little face was wrinkled as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Aaron had his hand on her back, beaming with pride as he looked at his little family. Jamie and another Healer, Ona, were cleaning up a tray table, but I caught his eye, and he winked at me. I hoped he could tell how grateful I was. If it wasn’t for him and his life saving blue magical healing powers, not to mention his medical skills, Cadence never would’ve come back to life.“Where’s my new favorite lil girl?” Elliott asked beside me.“Hey! I’m your lil girl. You’re going to have to think of something else to call her.” I threw an elbow at him.“Oh, I’m just teasing,” Elliott assured me. “Still, she is definitely lil. And she is my girl.”“I&rsqu
I’ll never forget the day my sister died. Even now, eight months later, sitting outside of Jamie’s operating room with Brandon’s hand in mine, every time I think about what happened that day, I get tears in my eyes. So many things could’ve gone differently, if only one of us would’ve made a different choice. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on what I could’ve done differently myself that day, and even though everyone tells me there’s no point in dwelling on it, what’s done is done, it still haunts me sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep at night, when I can so vividly see Cadence hanging there in the air before she plummeted to the ground, the whoosh of power that left my hand just missing its mark.The new Hunter Leader is a guy named Daniel Bower. He came in from California a few months ago. He’s awesome. I’ve known him for a while. He’s the one who helped capture Professor Stewart after th
I continued to beg and plead with her to come back to us. At fifteen minutes, Scarlet’s whispers were loud enough for me to detect what she was saying to Cale. “How long will he give it?”“I don’t know.” Cale seemed agitated and upset, certainly more connected to my sister than Scarlet. “Not yet.”“Please... Cadey, please.” I felt as far and as deep as I could, thinking about how I’d had to go so very far into her brain to plant that dream. The clock continued to tick. Cadence still wasn’t breathing, and Jamie began to sound desperate. At twenty-five minutes, when Jamie said “thirty,” his voice broke. He knew that the chances of her coming back to us now, after this long, were minute at best. He couldn’t give up, though. We couldn’t give up.Aaron blew two breaths of air into my sister’s lungs, and Jamie started counting again.Something was diff
After Aaron finally moved forward, I followed, staying back a little bit. I didn’t want to see her like that. I had never seen a person’s body after they’ve fallen that far, but I could imagine what it was like.Only when I finally did take a few hesitant steps around the trees, Brandon’s hands on my shoulders, she didn’t look like I expected her to at all.Cadence was lying flat on the ground with her hands folded over her abdomen, sort of like Snow White. Her feet were out straight, and her hair was blown out around her. She looked absolutely beautiful. And still. So very, very still.Jamie was doing chest compressions, and when it was time to breathe, Aaron did that for my sister. Some sort of automatic pilot must’ve turned on for him because his movements were very robotic. Jamie would say thirty, and Aaron would breathe into my sister’s open mouth twice before Jamie started counting again.Tears were rolling
“No!” My scream echoed across the mountainside as I watched in horror as my sister fell. I cannot guide what I cannot see, and I didn’t have a chance to get a grip on her before she plummeted. My hands shot out in her direction, but the surge of power I’d sent to grab her went over her head. I saw a streak of blue do the same and knew Jamie had missed as well.Fumbling through Cadence’s stream of consciousness, I tried again, hoping I’d be able to figure out how to get my powers around her before she hit the ground, but she was moving too fast, and without my eyes on her, I wouldn’t be able to get a grip.Part of me wanted to at least jump into her head, to be with her, to let her know she was okay, but then, the thought of what she was about to endure, when she hit the tops of the trees and then cascaded down through them to the earth, I couldn’t bear the thought, and I knew she wouldn’t want me to see it.I
“Brandon!” I shouted, floating over to where he had disappeared. He didn’t answer, and I realized he must’ve fallen all the way in. “Dang it.” I looked around the battlefield. I knew he was safe down there, but I hated that he was in that miserable place. Cadence was firing at Daunator now while Christian moved in, to place the grenade, I assumed, so I thought perhaps she’d be safe for a few minutes. I decided to help Brandon.“Are you all right?” I asked, using my telepathy.“Thank goodness,” he thought, probably not even to me. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just really dark in here.”“I know. Hold on, and I’ll get you out.”“If I hold on, won’t it be harder for you to get me out?”“All right smarty pants.” I needed to focus all of my energy if I was going to do this
“You okay?” Brandon shouted to me as he moved a little closer to where I was standing. The holes in the ground were not shaking now as much as they had been before, but they were still an obstacle we had to consider. I didn’t want him to get too close because of my tornadoes, but I was glad he was nearby.“Great,” I called back, sending another pile of creatures over the side of the mountain.Aaron was fighting his way through the crowd of black creatures, working his way to Cadence. The path was getting clearer, as far as the minions were concerned, but once he got within about a hundred yards of Cadence’s location, one of the Vampires that had been engaged with our forces closer to the top of the mountain broke off, clearly on his way to intercept the Guardian Leader.Whether he liked it or not, Aaron wasn’t alone now. I wasn’t sure where she’d come from, but Eliza was running parallel to him, fighting off
Moving the black creatures off of the ledge worked well, and I was just starting my second round when I realized my sister had taken off running toward Daunator. Christian had reached him already, a grenade in his hand. I prayed he didn’t get sucked down into another hole. The fact that Cadence was so far away from Aaron was worrisome, but he was busy with the creatures. While Cadence was slowed a few times by the minions sinking their teeth into her arm or grabbing at her heels, for the most part, they seemed to be letting her through, which seemed like a bad sign to me. Did Daunator want her to fight him?A blast of light illuminated the mountain, and then a wave of smoke obscured my view of Christian and Daunator. He’d thrown a grenade, the old kind, the ones he knew wouldn’t work. When the smoke cleared, Daunator’s laughter echoed through the air, and Christian went flying twenty feet in the air.Paul’s voice came over the IAC as I tos
Christian’s eyes widened. “Get out of here? We can’t. We have to get Daunator.”“We will. But for now, we need to go back and regroup. The most important thing is that you’re safe now,” Cadence explained to him.Christian was starting to freak out again. “No, Cadence, you don’t understand. We can’t just leave from here! We can’t just let him go!” His eyes were wild, and he reached forward and grabbed my sister’s shoulders. That lasted about half a second before Aaron grabbed him and pulled him off.“Listen, Christian, I agree. It’s important we come back and end this, but you need medical attention. And a good visit with Hannah.”And a shower, I thought to myself. But I was staying out of this one for the moment. I felt a stirring in the ground and a shift in energy somewhere further up the mountain. The argument was about to be moot.“No,