Collide (Entangled Teen) (The Taking Book 3) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

We creep through the woods, following the bloody path as it winds through the trees. The wind changes as we go farther and farther, the trees becoming still. I reach out for Jackson’s hand, and he laces his fingers with mine. I know we’re walking into a trap, that this is Zeus’s plan to bring us to him. But what choice do we have? Our only hope is that we can overpower him once face-to-face. Finally, the blood stops in an open clearing, trees surrounding us, and I start to raise my gun, as Jackson stops me.

“Look,” he says, his voice barely a whisper.

I follow his outstretched hand and my mouth falls open. There in front of us, a swirl of blood on its trunk, is the Unity tree.

Jackson starts forward, and I grip his arm tight to stop him. “We can’t go in there,” I say, my voice almost frantic. I can’t lose him, too. “It’s a trap. He’ll surround us. There has to be another way. Please, I…you…just…”

He turns to me, his expression resolute. “We don’t have a choice. This is Zeus telling us how to end this. He wants us. Don’t you see? It’s always been about this. This moment.”

I shake my head, words refusing to form. I think to my dreams from before, to Zeus calling me a queen, to Emmy telling me I’d been part of Zeus’s plan all along.

“But how will we get back?” I ask.

Jackson pulls me to him, kissing me easily, and I have my answer without him having to say a word. We may not make it back.

I close my eyes, overwhelmed by everything that’s happened and everything that’s to come. I’ve spent my life fighting for others, protecting those that couldn’t protect themselves, telling myself that I would at any point sacrifice myself for another, but now that it’s here in front of me, now that death is staring at me with one bloody eye, I’m afraid. I’m so, so afraid. Am I ready to die?

No.

“I won’t give myself over to him. We have to fight.”

Jackson stares down at me, his expression fierce. “And we will. But when the time comes to kill him, I do it. His life ends with me.”

I nod once, and then we start for the Unity tree, our hands linked tightly between us. I stare at the tree’s opening, at the dark, black slant in the center that frightened me when Jackson first showed it to me. It feels like ages ago now.

The tree stands even taller than I remember, clearing the rest of the trees in the forest by as much as double or triple the height of the tallest one around us. I feel a rush of memories move through me. Of Jackson and me kissing below it. Of Emmy and Mami explaining that their mother created it. Of Mami lying dead and Zeus’s screams for her to wake.

A shudder ripples down my back, and I take a step closer before I lose my nerve. A series of whispers hits my ears—words too quiet for me to make out, their sounds intoxicating, as though they’re calling to me and me alone, beckoning me closer. I swallow hard, and Jackson releases my hand, then cocks his gun. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

And then we slip through the slanted center into the darkness, and an icy breeze blows past us. My skin tingles, and I blink to help my eyes focus, but they never find their way. I take another step, then another, and then suddenly the ground disappears below my feet, and I scream out as air rushes past me, my stomach plummeting as I free-fall into nothingness.

The fall continues forever, and I wonder if I’ve gotten trapped in some black hole between Earth and Loge, when I slam into a hard surface, my head throbbing from the impact.

I jump up, despite my aching limbs, prepared for anything, to find I’m inside a tiny room—alone. Panic claws at my insides as I open my mind to whatever craziness Zeus has planned for Jackson and me.

I start forward, toward a door in front of me, and turn the knob, only to step into a narrow hallway that looks remarkably like the hallway in the Chemist labs where the Ancients were tortured to test the neurotoxin. The door slams shut behind me. Every sense inside me awakens. “Jackson!” I shout, knowing he won’t answer. Knowing he isn’t even in the same place I am, and then I realize with horror that maybe we are in the same place, yet not, suspended in some altered version of Zeus-land, some mental trick like the blueroom.

I draw a breath to try to calm my nerves and close my eyes, trying to sense things around me. I hear the heartbeat of someone close by, but I can’t make out anything else about the person. I edge closer and then stop. Where is my gun? I spin around. I must have dropped it during the fall. I reach around to pull another from the harness fixed to my back, but the harness is gone. A chill moves through me, and I force myself to stop, to think, to remember everything that Lydian told me. Control my mind. Remember that what I’m seeing isn’t real. But then I remember Zeus’s words the last time I was in the blueroom, how he hinted that if we felt we were dying, if our minds surrendered, then we would die. Instinctively, I reach down for the knife I keep tucked into my boot but pull back even before my hand reaches my thigh, knowing it won’t be there. Not here. Not wherever I am, either in body or mind. Something tells me my weapons wouldn’t help here anyway.

My pulse picks up as I start back down the hall, and then a series of doors appears on my right and left, no sounds from inside them, no lights shining out from under the doorway to clue me in to what’s inside.

I edge forward, knowing this is part of Zeus’s game, torn between screaming out that I refuse to play along and going through the motions so I can get to him faster. So I can find Jackson and see him with my eyes and feel him with my hands. My heart hurts without him beside me, my mind unsteady. Deciding that quicker is better, I push through the first door on my right, and the smell of honeysuckles fills my nose. A bright sun shines down on me, warming my skin, while the gentle hum of someone singing hits my ears. It takes me half a second to realize I’m outside my old house in Prospect, staring at the forest behind our house, which means the person singing is—

I spin around and start running up the steps before I can stop myself, jerking open the porch door, and then I’m staring at my mom, her dark hair sprinkled with flour. She smiles. “I made cookies.”

Tears pool in my eyes, rushing down my face. She’s so beautiful. Why didn’t I ever tell her that she was beautiful? “Mom?”

I take a step forward, eager to wrap my arms around her, to smell her floral scent, to hold her tight in hopes I can somehow bring her back to me—to Dad. The scene changes, and instead of walking through my common room, I’m in a hallway in the Underground, watching as Ancients rush in, Taking everyone in sight. And then I see her, just inside a lab, her head down, her concentration on some experiment that only she could have developed. An Ancient opens the door, starts in. He’s feet away from her, but she’s too lost in her experiment. She didn’t even see him coming. The Ancient tosses her against a wall, and then before she can try to defend herself, I see the glow of the Taking as the Ancient makes the connection, and then within moments, Mom’s face is lifeless and her body falls limply to the ground.

“No!” I scream, trying and failing to run down the hall, to reach her, but I’m stuck in place, watching helplessly.

My body shakes with sobs, and I close my eyes, trying to pull myself back together. I didn’t get to say good-bye. I didn’t get to tell her that I loved her, that she was the best part of our family, that we will never forget her.

“Ari, what’s wrong?”

Goose bumps rise across my skin as I take in the voice, so familiar it might as well be my own. I turn slowly and there she is, standing before me, her face bright and happy, the way it was before this all began. Before Law and Kelvin, before she lost me. I never realized how hard it was for her that I went to Loge.

“Ari,” Gretchen says. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I smile at the irony and wipe the tears away from my eyes with the heel of my hand. My legs tremble as I reach out to take her hand. “Gretch? Is it you?”

She laughs, her eyebrow cocked. “Girl, what did your mom give you this time? The chocolate pills again?”

I smile, swallowing a sob, and squeeze her hand. “I’ve just missed you.”

She pulls me into a hug and then puts on that devious smile I always loved. “Law’s waiting for us at his house.”

I know this is Zeus messing with my head, that something is about to happen, that he’s about to take her from me, but I want these last few minutes with her too badly to pull myself away. Gretchen nods to the autowalk and I follow, walking side by side as she tells me about a new pair of boots she ordered, and then the sky changes above, the sun racing down to the horizon, dark clouds replacing the yellow, and then I see it—the hovercraft. My eyes widen as it starts to plummet toward the ground below. I grip Gretchen’s hand tighter and spin to face her, tears collecting in my eyes.

“Don’t go. Please don’t go,” I say to her.

“Ari, what are you—”

Then, as though a massive wind ripped through Prospect, her hair whips up and around, and she’s screaming, the sound so piercing I wonder if I’ll ever hear anything again.

“No, please.” I hold her hand as she jerks back, then a red blotch spreads out from her stomach, and her face goes white. “Stay with me,” I whisper.

Her body falls to the ground, her blood pooling out onto the autowalk, and once again I’m stuck in place, watching as someone else I love dies.

Unable to hold it together, I collapse onto my knees, sobbing.

“What is it, child?”

I shake my head. It’s an illusion, an illusion. An illusion. Please. An illusion.

I lift up, telling myself that I’ll be back in the small room I dropped into when we entered the Unity tree, but Zeus shows no mercy. I’m in the gardens of Triad, outside the Panacea, Emmy standing over me. And I can’t help myself. I launch into her arms.

“Relax your heart, child,” Emmy says. “I feel it as if it were mine.” She pulls away to look at me, and then her expression turns serious. “It happened.”

I study her, lost as to how she could know everything, even here. “You’re dead now,” I say, unable to keep my voice from shaking.

She nods once. “So I am. Walk with me.”

I feel sure Zeus is controlling this, too. Giving me a bit of comfort before he wrecks me all over again, but I’ve never been able to deny Emmy.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Use your mind, child,” she says. “The mind controls all.”

“I can’t push it away, I can’t block him out. I—”

She stops me, pulling me close so we’re eye to eye. “You can. You must. Rise, child. Rise.”

And then I smell the distinct scent of smoke, hear the crackle of a fire raging out of control. Emmy hugs me close, then releases me, and without a word, walks toward the flames of the clearing, the war happening all around us. She turns to face me. “Rise,” she says once more. Then she steps back, allowing the flames to engulf her body, and once again, I watch her leave me in a puff of ash. But this time I don’t fall to the ground. I don’t cry. I stand.

I rise.

Blinking hard, I order myself to leave this place. Leave this horror. Forget Mom and Gretchen and Emmy. For now, I have to focus on the fight, on killing Zeus, else there may be no one left when the dust finally settles and the fire finally subsides.

Wind rips around me, and then I feel someone behind me, leaning into my ear. “You killed them, you know,” he says, his voice shaking as he adds, “Killed: C-causing the death of. You left your mother in the Underground. Brought Gretchen into your fight. Shot the craft that went down, killing Emmy. They are dead at your hand.”

“No.” I grit my teeth together. “They are dead at yours. But your reign of death ends today.”

I whip around, prepared to punch, but when my eyes focus, I’m in the hallway again, doors on all sides, Zeus nowhere to be seen. I draw a breath, desperate to find control, when suddenly the doors are all thrown open, one after the other, as more and more Ancients rush into the hallway, all poised to attack. I try to remind myself to calm down, to breathe, to remember that this isn’t real, but then they stop in front of me, lined up. To get through this trial I have to fight each of them.

I try to focus my mind, try to find reality, but then the first Ancient advances. He’s twice my size, but I’ve fought plenty of Ancients at this point and I know their weaknesses. They weren’t trained by Emmy or Vill. They don’t know their minds are stronger than their muscles. I close my eyes as the Ancient rushes me, forgetting what he is and what he wants to do to me, and focus on his breathing, on cutting it off. On trapping the air in his lungs. On taking away the most basic need—breathing. I hear him crash in front of me, the sounds of him gasping so intense I wonder if he’s inches from me, if he can still reach me with his hands, but still, I keep my eyes shut tight.

Finally, I feel for his presence and come up empty. When I open my eyes he’s gone, along with the rest of the Ancients. I shake my head, at a loss for what Zeus is up to, when the hallway grows long and I see a woman walking toward me from the opposite end of the hall.

I squint as the woman nears, and then there’s a flash through the hall and she’s closer, and then another flash, and she’s in front of me.

“Hello, child,” Mami says, just before she pulls a knife and stabs me in the arm. Blood soaks through my shirt, and though I know this isn’t real, the pain is very real. I step back, desperate to gain some distance so I can look at her—it—without breaking down. Because this isn’t Mami—Zeus’s wife, Jackson’s beloved grandmother. This isn’t her. Mami is dead, thanks to Zeus.

She rushes me and I duck away, knocking the knife from her grasp, telling myself to stop seeing her gentle eyes as she told me that I was special. Or the smile on her face when she spoke of Jackson. My gut feels hollowed out and weak, and I wonder how I will ever survive this day, when a small voice tells me to close my eyes, to fight with my senses so my heartache doesn’t get in the way.

I close my eyes and feel a swift kick to the gut. Hurling forward, I try to suck in a breath, but the kick has winded me, and I feel her preparing to hit again.
Please
, I say to myself.
Please just do it.