AMANI: Reveal (27 page)

***

“You need to know what you’re so desperately trying to give them…” the man’s voice says before darkness morphs into an odd scenery.
              I seem to be standing at the bottom of the ocean, gazing at an underwater city. Tall Greek columns stand half eaten by time among glowing fish. A little farther away, encircled by statues holding spears and shields, stand… a temple? The architecture reminds me of the Roman Pantheon, though there is something particularly unfamiliar about it.
              I suddenly find myself zooming in on it, through a school of fish which have transparent, glowing blue skin.
              Tall green, red, and brown algae litters the bottom of the sea, moving in slow motion. I zoom past them and enter the temple, where more pillars stand against the walls and what seems to have once been a beautiful carved ceiling is now covered in some sort of moss that lingers on every possible surface.
              Standing in the middle of the temple, however, is the only object that is devoid of any moss or algae: a piece of pottery with engraved drawings…
              “Pandora’s Jar,” the Guardian’s voice echoes. “That is precisely what they are looking for. Not a door, but a jar which, if ever opened, will unleash evil on all four Dimensions. Once the jar has been opened, there will be no border between Amani, Blue, Red, Yellow, Heaven, and Hell. They will make one single realm… And it is very unlikely that the people living in our Dimension will survive.”

Amya Priam

Petrified, I did not move when the Guardian removed his stump from my hand. I did not dare open my eyes. I simply had no idea what to make of his revelation.
              A jar.
Pandora’s Jar
. I had heard of the myth, but never in my life had I believed it was true. Pandora’s Jar was supposed to be a bedtime story or something you saw in movies about ancient worlds. Not a real jar dropped to the bottom of the ocean. Not a means to destroy our Dimension.
              But it was, and the Rascals wanted it.
              Wyatt hadn’t been entirely truthful. Daniel did not wish to find a door back to Hell, he planned on bringing Hell into Amani.
              “So?” I heard Daniel say impatiently.
              “It worked,” Wyatt confirmed. “I know that face. She just Sojourned.”
              “What did you see, Amya dear?”
              I could no longer fake it; I opened my eyes and stared at my sister. “I—I…”
              “You can tell them,” she said hopefully. “Tell the truth and we’ll be rid of them forever.”
              My mouth remained closed. There was one last problem; even if I had wanted to tell the Rascals, I had no idea where the jar was. There were five oceans in Amani, which did not include seas and other deep streams of water. The jar could be anywhere. Though there had been some sort of lost civilization at the bottom…
              Oh God—wait—could it be?
             
No
, I thought.
Impossible
.
              “Shaking your head, are you?” Daniel sneered. “All right. Julian!”
              “No, wait!” I cried as Julian walked directly at my sister. “I
want
to tell you! I swear I do, but I don’t know where it is! I really don’t!”
              Neither Daniel nor Julian seemed to be listening. Daniel got up and pulled me away from my sister, whom I hadn’t realized I’d been holding onto. Moments later, I was watching Julian take Delilah down the stairs, her eyes pouring tears.
              “Deli… No… I’m sorry…”
              Frustrated and ashamed, I sank to the ground, away from Daniel’s arms, and put my head between my knees.
              I couldn’t believe I was letting my sister get hurt again. What was wrong with me?
              Samera’s speech about not being able to take care of her many responsibilities came back to me. My sister was my responsibility and I was failing at protecting her.
             
For good reasons
, a voice inside my head replied.
             
I was reticent to tell the Rascals the truth because it could endanger our Dimension. Was that a good enough reason to have my own sister tortured over and over again? Some part of me believed it was, while the other disagreed.
              Loud screams echoed from downstairs, and I tightened my hands over my ears, making me even more remorseful. I couldn’t bear my sister’s cries… I couldn’t bear to listen to the result of
my own
decision.
              Hours seemed to pass before the house fell silent again. It was only when the stairs creaked from the weight of Julian and Delilah coming back that I dared raise my head.
              The Guardian had moved closer to me and was silently praying in the same position I was. Daniel and Wyatt were sitting on their chairs, each wearing a twisted smirk on their face.
              Ignoring them, I got up and ran to my sister.
              “So, so, so,
so, very
sorry,” I repeated. “I don’t know where it is, Deli. You have to believe me.”
              Her face was wet and there was a new bruise on her cheek. She wouldn’t look at me.
              “Deli, come on. Deli, you believe me, don’t you? I would never hurt you on purpose… You know that right?”
              Still not looking at me, she finally replied, “If you don’t tell them what you know, they’ll continue…”
              What I knew? What I thought I knew, more like. But it wasn’t possible. Gareth had mentioned the Lost City of Atlantis to calm Samera on the convy. Nothing more. It did not really exist. Though the way he had described it, with Greek pillars and ancient-looking statues, resembled the place the Guardian had shown me during the Sojourn.
              “Amya, you have to tell them,” Deli moaned. “I c—can’t take it anymore…”
              I kept staring at her and shaking my head.
             
Think of something, for God’s sake.
              On the one hand, I could not risk the Dimension of Amani’s safety and give the Rascals the exact location of the “door.” But on the other hand, I did not know the exact location and the only information I had gathered—guessed—was probably false, a myth. So telling the Rascals what I “knew” couldn’t be that harmful now, could it?”
              Resolute, I glared at Daniel and said the only word he needed to know. “Atlantis.”
              The Guardian of Chupa gasped, confirming my suspicion, and I bit my lower lip. Had that been a mistake?
              “Where
is
Atlantis?” Wyatt asked, leaning forward on his chair.
              I shrugged, now hating myself for having guessed correctly.
              “Oh, come
on
!” Delilah suddenly exclaimed, stepping away from me. “You’re going to let them hurt me again? Is that what you want?”
              “Deli,” Daniel warned.
             
Deli
? Since when did the eldest Rascal call my sister
Deli
?
              “Seriously,” she went on. “It’s ridiculous. I thought you’d care more about your sister than that.”
              Confused, I replied, “What do you mean? I
do
care! But I don’t know—
”
             
“No. You don’t.” She turned to Daniel. “She doesn’t, so let’s just move on to Plan B, shall we?”
              “Plan B?”
              “Oh, Amya,” my sister said before she let out a loud, sarcastic laugh that did not sound like her at all. “Do you really think I’m going to pretend forever? I’m bored.” She raised her hand to her face and rubbed her bruises… making them fade away as though they were makeup.
              “What…? How…?”
              My head spun as I tried to think of a plausible explanation. But none came out.
              “You don’t know me at all, do you?” she spat. “A victim? Me? Never!”
              “But you said Wyatt wanted to talk to you. You were scared that night at HQ. Then you were kidnapped—they took you!”
              “Not
exactly
. Actually, it was my idea. After my fake kidnapping, I really thought you’d be scared for me. Thought you’d do anything to get me back. But you went into hiding, which was very disappointing.”
              “I—the Protectors looked for you everywhere!” I cried. “But when they found you you’d already been taken away from England…” Her smile widened. “You were never taken, were you?”
              She ignored my question and continued. “When we found the Guardian of Chupa, I thought it best to play the victim some more, thinking you’d concede more easily if you believed I was in danger. But still you refuse to help us.”
              “Us…”
              “Yes, us. I, unlike you, chose to join the Rascals the first time Wyatt told me who he was.
I
told him you were regaining your strength when you were in a coma so he would come back and feed on you.
Before you escaped the hospital, we planned on kidnapping you and taking you somewhere safe, where none of your friends would have any contact with you. This”—she gestured at the room—“is one of the places we thought of taking you: peaceful and quiet. And so we broke into Magda’s house as a diversion, but Samera and Xander did not bite. They stayed with you at the hospital, which is why you were able to escape.”
              Sam had told me my grandmother’s apartment had been robbed about a month ago, but they had never found the culprit. Had it only been a diversion to keep everyone away from me?
              A diversion orchestrated by my own sister!
              “Then,” Delilah continued, “it was my idea to get you drunk in order to take you from the HQ the next morning. But again, Samera stayed by your side, so I wasn’t able to drag you with me to the Rascals; hence the pretended kidnapping. It was our last option.”
              “No…”
              “Yup. Anyway. It was our last option until recently, when I discovered my new ability. Haven’t I mentioned, I’m a Rascal now too?” Her smile widened at the same time that the weight of her words became too heavy on my shoulders and I fell to my knees, shaking my head desperately. “In case you didn’t know, I was already half-Rascal—and so are you, since our father is one—so the process wasn’t as painful as it normally is.” She clapped her hands together. “Isn’t that great?”
              I looked at Wyatt, who bore no expression whatsoever; Daniel, who was ginning widely; and Julian, who seemed utterly bored. I waited for any of them to start laughing and tell me it was all a bad joke. Or that they’d drugged me and I was currently hallucinating my sister’s confession. But none of that happened.
              “Guess what I can do now,” Delilah said, clapping her hands excitedly. “I feed on people’s abilities! Sure, I can’t keep their powers forever, but it’s a good start, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
              I stared at her, speechless.
              “Just do it already,” Julian snapped.
              “You have one last chance, Amya,” my sister continued, as though she hadn’t heard. “One last chance to prove you’re not a lost cause, or I’ll have to do it myself.”
              Do what? Was my sister going to feed on
my
ability to Sojourn? I was about to say that the Guardian wasn’t going to tell her more than he had me, when I heard a low scrapping sound. Then it all happened so fast, I barely followed the scene.
              Several people wearing thick protection suits from head to toe barged in, holding weird-looking guns. Two of them started shooting at Julian and Wyatt, though they were not fast enough. The two Rascals ducked and charged at their attackers. Daniel spotted a third person with a gun and ran at him. The person under the suit stood paralyzed for a split second, and it was enough for Daniel to grab his gun and throw it away. But then, when Daniel was about to punch him, the suited man turned out to be equally fast. He blocked his blow and kicked Daniel in the stomach.
              Meanwhile, Julian and Wyatt were gaining ground on their opponents. I recognized Madame M.’s swift and agile combat techniques immediately. Next to her was probably Karl or Xander, fighting Wyatt.
              “Amya!” Karl’s voice came out from the suit. “Get—out! Take—your sister!”
                But I couldn’t move. Delilah heard him and immediately recovered her wits. She threw herself at me and started strangling me.
              “You’re not getting away this time,” she said through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. I had seen Wyatt do this before. She was feeding on my ability, which she would use on the Guardian to get her answer.
              I struggled, feeling like my head was going to explode at any moment. But I couldn’t make myself hit her. I could only plead with my eyes and hope she’d take pity on me.
              “Please,” I mouthed. “Deli…”
              A wicked smile on her face told me she wasn’t going to let go, but she kept her eyes closed, still feeding.
              She pressed harder on my throat as she finally looked down at me, her pupils dilating, covering the brown of her eyes entirely. And still, I couldn’t do anything other than struggle against her grasp. Colorful stars filling my sight told me I was going to lose consciousness within seconds… But then Delilah cried out and let go of my neck.
              I rolled away from her, coughing, my face wet with tears.
              My sister was still screaming when I gazed in her direction. The Guardian of Chupa was on her, strangling her with his stumps this time. I managed to get up and push him, but he was too strong. He shook me away and pressed harder on Deli’s neck, burning her skin at the same time with his golden tattoos.
              A gun fired, echoing through the room, and the Guardian fell backward. The suited man fighting Daniel had shot the Guardian in the shoulder before shooting Daniel in the chest. The latter dropped to the ground, motionless. The suited man then removed his brown helmet, revealing his face.
              “Xander!” I cried in a raspy voice, as I made to run at him, but Delilah’s hand had grabbed my ankle, sending me back to the ground, where I hit my head.
              Next thing I knew, stinging little fingers were on my throat again and a sharp pain shot through my arm. I opened my eyes to a blurred scene, and more gunshots resonated in my ears.
              Wishing to cover the piercing sound, I placed my hands to my buzzing ears and felt the delicate chain Madame M. had lent me.
             
The golden chain!
             
A new boost of energy exploded in me like a firework. I pulled hard on the chain and, as it tore away from my neck, stamped it in my sister’s face.