“Annabella,” Helena’s voice nipped.
Annabella lowered her head. “Helena, I’d sensed you’d crossed.”
“Of course you did.” Helena stretched her body, trying to rise taller than her sister. “You always do.”
Annabelle’s eyes were kind. “And you’ve brought someone who wants something from me.” I stepped below the branches of the willow tree. “I’ve come to ask you for a favor.”
“You want me to free an essence.” It’s wasn’t a question.
I nodded. “If you would.”
“But why?” She ducked under a branch and stepped in front of me. “Why ask for the freedom of someone you dislike.”
“I don’t dislike him.”
“But you don’t like him,” she said. “Yet you’re still here in death, asking me to let him live again.”
I sighed deeply. “Nicholas… he isn’t that bad. And he’s helped me out.” It was the partial truth.
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“Is that the only reason?” She wanted more.
I let out a breath. “I feel responsible for his death.”
“But he’s not a Lost Soul,” she said. “No one is responsible for his death.” The branches pirouetted, tickling against my cheeks. “Perhaps he should have ended up one.”
“Why do you feel responsible for things that are out of your hands?” she asked.
“He died because I exist,” I admitted in the secrecy of the branches canopy. “Many people have.”
“It’s not your fault you exist,” she said. “Everyone has a path in life, even the Lost Souls.
They’re there because they have to be. They’re there because they’re lost.”
“This is confusing.” I sighed, swatting a branch away.
“Death always is.” Her silver eyes held my gaze powerfully “You’re better than you think you are, Gemma. Your soul is pure, despite what you think.” Then she held out her hand, her skin shimmering like glitter. It swirled down, forming an orb in her hand. “Nicholas’s essence.” I was hesitant to touch it. “You’re just giving it to me?” She smiled. “Not everything is complicated. Sometimes the answers are right in our hands.” I traced the scar of the Blood Promise, thinking of Alex. “Nothing’s ever easy.”
“Sometimes it is.” She urged the orb at me. “But it’s the easy answers that humans question, which only makes it complicated.”
“I think I understand,” I said, and gently picked up the orb of essence, which was warm in my hand like sunshine.
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“Remember,” she said. “Not everything is as hard as you think. Sometimes the answers are right in front of us.”
I nodded, turning away from Annabella, her words the wisest ever spoken to me. I followed Helena back through the garden, leaving the warmth of the trees behind and we shifted back to the darkness of the world of Lost Souls.
“My sister makes things too easy,” she wallowed, pooling her body back onto her throne. “She just hands it over, without any bargains. She’s always been the stupid one.”
“It’s hard to believe she’s your sister.” I cupped the orb carefully in my hands. “You two are nothing alike.”
“That’s because she believes in good, which makes her weak.”
“And what do you believe in?” I asked.
She smiled vainly. “Myself.”
I couldn’t help but think of the story of Malefiscus and his brother Hektor. One selfish, the other good. And in the story, good triumphed for the time being. But I wondered how the story would have gone if Hektor had to sacrifice his life to trap Malefiscus in the portal. Would bad have triumphed instead? Or would he have thrown down his life, to save everyone he ever cared about.
“The question you asked me earlier, I have your answer.” I approached the throne, not steady with great sureness, but terrified and emotional. Because that’s who I was. I wasn’t a fearless soldier with a hero complex to save the world.
I was just a girl, doing what I had to do to make things right.
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Chapter 38
(Alex)
“ Atraitor?” Laylen questioned. “Okay, I think you’ve finally lost it.”
“That sounds like something a traitor would say,” I replied, my eyes never leaving him.
He stared me down. “You re insane.”
“He’s not a traitor!” Aislin cried as she finished removing the Mark of Malefiscus from Sophia.
And I’m not either.
“Then why was I trapped in that floor?” We all turned to Sophia as she sat up, blinking. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked, nearing my knife to her. “Or could your confusion be an act to make us turn on each other, leaving you room to detach Gemma’s soul again.” I bent down, getting in her face. “Is this a desperate attempt by my father? Did he put you in the floor to get to us?”
“I never wanted to detach Gemma’s soul in the first place,” she said quietly. “I thought I was doing what was right. I thought I was protecting the world.”
“No, you were ending it.”
She nodded quickly. “I know that now, but before, what I was trying to do made sense.” She clutched onto my arm and I shook her off. “It’s your father. He brainwashed me.”
“Trust me,” I said. “We’ve all been there.”
Something shattered to the floor. “Oh my God.”
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I turned. The glass cow that was sitting on the table was now headless on the floor and Aislin’s hands were shaking.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I can’t deal with this anymore,” she cried. “He’s a horrible man who messes with minds and murders innocent people. What if somehow he got into our heads?” We all exchanged looks, none of us speaking, or trusting, waiting for something unexpected to happen.
“What are we going to do?” Aislin said, stomping her foot.
“The only thing we can.” I reeled back to Sophia and grabbed her arm. “Sorry Sophia, but until we know who’s in control of their own actions.” I pushed her back in the trapdoor.
“Alex, please!” she begged. “You can’t do this! I’ve ran out of food and I’ll starve.” I snatched a few bags of chips, cookies, and bread from the cupboard and tossed them into the trapdoor. “That should hold you until we work this out.”
“Alex, please don’t leave me down here. I —”