Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 (38 page)

Caleb made a tsking noise with his tongue and shook his head. “So much secrecy.” He looked from Alex to Emil. “Don’t you both get tired of it? The constant censoring must be exhausting. You should tell her the truth.”

“What truth?” I asked, eyes narrowed.

Caleb turned to me. “You’ve been betrayed, Evie. I suggest you figure out who you are and who you can trust. I have those answers too—if you come with me.”

My eyes widened and I snorted in disbelief. He was number one on my “do not trust” list. “You tried to kill me.” I nodded toward Alex. “And now you’re hurting someone I care about. Why would I ever willingly go somewhere with you, let alone
trust
you?”

Caleb pushed his brows together, feigning hurt. “No, I didn’t try to kill you, Evie. I used you as a means to an end. I wouldn’t have killed you. Well, I might have after you helped try to take the souls of my Clan. But that was before I realized who you were. I would never hurt you now.”

Caleb knew who I was? Or was he guessing like the rest of us?

“I don’t believe you—about any of it.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Do you need a show a faith, then?” He watched me for several seconds. “All right.”

He mumbled more words I didn’t understand and suddenly Alex gasped, falling to the ground on all fours. He lifted his head to look at Caleb, pure anger in his eyes. “Don’t try,” Caleb warned. “I can immobilize you again with little effort.”

Alex stopped. I could see his mind working, trying to formulate a plan. The Amaranthine and Daevos were trained to fight, but not in a situation like this. I turned to Caleb, hoping if I held his attention, it would give Alex, Emil, and the rest of the Amaranthine a chance to come up with a strategy. “What do you want?”

“Besides you?” he asked. “Power.”

“So you’re still taking Trackers? Is that where you’re getting the power from?”

“One of the places.”

Caleb was the type of person who liked to be admired, especially if it had something to do with wits. I was hoping his explanations would not only tell me what had been happening in Gunnison, but also keep him occupied.

“How are you alive? I watched Emil take your soul.”

He gave a sly smile. “No, that’s what you thought you saw. What you really watched was my spelled memories being collected. After a few hours, the memories were deposited back in our bodies, our souls intact.”

I looked to Alex, shocked. “Did you know about this?”

He shook his head slowly, but something about it made me think he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I thought Alex had taken care of their bodies after Emil and I left the cave? What had really happened?

Caleb watched the exchange. “I’d be careful about who I trust, if I were you. You never know when someone’s telling you the truth, or just what they want you to hear.”

I’d been having that feeling for a while now. I hated being lied to.

The shadows shimmered in front of me, their platinum eyes shining pure evil. “What are they?” I asked, watching them closely. It was like my nightmares come to life, only instead of one of them, there were hundreds.

“My most amazing creation,” Caleb answered, pride clear in his voice. “They’re my Nothing Army.”

Emil had explained the Nothing and Bliss to me. When a soul was taken, their memories were essentially destroyed. The remaining bits and pieces of memories were collected and held in the Nothing. “Souls can’t come back from the Nothing. Not enough of their memories are left.”

Caleb smiled slowly. “Souls can’t come back, but pieces of them can. I only need enough of those memories to form a sentient being, intelligent enough to take my commands.”

I stared, a sour feeling curdling my stomach. Not only had these souls been taken—some of them innocent, others evil—now their memories were living on in these beings, pieced together like shadowy Frankensteins, undistinguishable from the souls they’d once been. A person’s soul being taken was horrifying enough; it seemed cosmically unjust that their memories were being tortured to assist the whims of a mad man.

“How did you harness the memories? No one should have that kind of power.”

“No, any Daevos member could have had it; they just weren’t smart enough to think through how to get it.”

“The Trackers?”

“That would have been nice, but even with all the Trackers I have, I needed more power to access the Nothing. I’d been experimenting before I abducted you, and knew it was possible, I just didn’t know how to do it in large numbers. But then you came along and taught me everything I needed to know. You and Alex helped me refine the process.”

“What?” I ground out. I imagined Caleb learned a lot from his Sync experiment when he’d taken Alex’s memories through his bond to me, so I was interested to find out how else I’d helped him in his efforts to destroy the world.

“In the past, Trackers have been used by the Daevos to track bonds and split up couples. But I had a theory about the bonds. You and Alex confirmed it. During every moment your bond and connection to Alex was triggered—regardless of the reason—power coursed through you both in massive waves. Your connection was unlike any other we’d ever seen. I had no idea how powerful love could be.”

I scoffed. “The Daevos don’t believe in love. You purposefully take half a person’s soul so they can’t find their other mate and they’ll be miserable without love forever.”

“The Daevos have always had such a limited view of the world. They’ve never understood what they were actually missing out on, or why the Amaranthine have the power they do. I plan to change that.”

“With love?”

“Love is the most powerful of all emotions. It’s the root of everything a soul feels. Think about it: happiness, sadness, anger, despair, passion…they can all come from love. No other emotion has that raw intensity. That kind of power is equivalent to harnessing the sun. And I’ve done it.”

“How?”

“By drawing on the bonds of love. I don’t want to take a person’s soul, Evie. I
want
them to find their soul mates,” he paused and met my eyes. “And then I want to use them.”

That explained the couples who were getting sick, and confirmed my theory. “Why,” I asked, truly confused. “What do you want?”

“To win, Evie. I want to lead the Daevos. I want to be the one in control of who gets to stay together, and who does not. Someone needs to keep things organized. The old methods have failed. Letting souls make decisions doesn’t work. I’m going to fix that.”

“Take away free will?” Emil asked. His face seemed pale even from a distance. The shadow figures started to shimmer with movement as murmurs rose up from the crowd of Amaranthine and Daevos. Caleb raised a hand, stopping all conversation, and the shadows calmed.

“Precisely. Think of the power I’ll have! Trackers to help me put couples together, soul mates happy and in love, and love bonds to draw from, creating a base of unstoppable power.”

“But if you draw from their bonds, they can’t be together,” I said. “It makes them sick!”

“Not my problem.”

Caleb turned to the rest of the Daevos, addressing the paralyzed crowd. “I’ve been calling you here for this very moment.” Well, now I knew why Daevos members were being drawn to Gunnison. Caleb had brought them here. “Our time has finally come. We have the same powers—better even—than the Amaranthine. Join me, and you can have everything you’ve ever dreamed. Join me, and you can be Gods.”

Alex, standing now, was shaking with rage. “No one should have that kind of power.”

“The Amaranthine already do.”

Alex shook his head. It was clear he thought Caleb had a poorly skewed view of the world.

Caleb saw it too. “You have such a pretty picture of what you think is right and wrong, Alexander. You’ve convinced yourself that even the vile things you’ve done have a purpose. You think the Amaranthine Society and its members can do no wrong. Well,” he said, thinning his eyes, “Let me show you something.” Caleb said another word I didn’t recognize. I watched as Alex’s eyes fell back into his head. He seemed to be convulsing while standing up. Caleb held him there for several seconds until Alex was completely spent, and then Caleb said something else that relieved Alex of the manipulation.

As soon as Caleb let him go, Alex dropped his chin to his chest, crumpling into a ball on the cold ground. I ran to him at the same time as Emil and Tate. I fell to the ground next to Alex. Emil was standing to my right, his lips pressed into a line as his eyes traced Alex’s exhausted form before looking up at Caleb. I saw Emil shift his weight and lean into Tate. With me kneeling right beside them, the whispered words were clear. “Find Sam.”

Tate froze. “Are you sure?”

Emil held his lips tight and nodded once. “As soon as we get out of this.”

“What did you do?” I yelled at Caleb, cradling Alex’s head and brushing my hand over his face to see if he was conscious. He didn’t seem to be. I fought back angry tears.

Caleb’s laugh was low and sinister.

Then Alex started to move…slowly. I breathed a ragged sigh of relief he was still alive.

“I gave him back a memory that never should have been taken.”

I looked at Caleb until I heard Alex speak softly, his breath labored. “It’s…not…true.”

Caleb laughed again, thoroughly enjoying the spectacle he’d created. “Oh, I assure you, Alex. It is.”

Alex’s eyes widened, his mouth open slightly. His expression quickly shifted from stunned to horrified. “No. That can’t be.”

Caleb studied Alex with cold eyes. “You didn’t know. I thought it was time you remembered the truth.”

Alex gritted his teeth. “You’re a liar.”

“Perhaps sometimes,” Caleb said with a sly smile, “but not about this. The memory came straight from your own mind. It was just blocked out.” Caleb threw his hands in the air, lifting a shoulder in a carefree manner. “Your cleanly cut version of right and wrong isn’t so clear anymore, is it? So which side are you on now?” Caleb asked, lacing his hands in front of him.

Alex started to stand as I helped him to his feet. He staggered in front of me, shaking his head like he was trying to puzzle things out. I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but I wanted to know what he’d seen.

Caleb looked back to me with a sinister grin. “Alex isn’t the only one who has a choice to make, Evie. I had no idea who you were before, or I never would have been so careless. You, my dear, are about to change the world.”

“Leave. Her. Alone,” Alex managed to grind out.

“Still protecting her. Do you really think she’d want you to if she knew the truth about what you did?” Caleb adjusted the gloves on his hands. “I
know
you didn’t forget this; the memory has haunted you for centuries. But maybe you’d like a reminder?” Caleb lifted his hand in the air, palm directed at Alex, and spoke another spell.

Alex’s eyes fell back in his head and he started convulsing again for over a minute. Caleb spoke once more, releasing Alex from the memory. Alex, still unstable, started to collapse. I went to the ground with him, cradling him, breaking his fall. Alex could barely speak, but he wheezed out one word as he held Caleb’s eyes, “Don’t.” The word came out as a plea. His eyes were as big as saucers and he looked terrified of what Caleb might say.

Caleb turned to me. I wasn’t sure I wanted his attention, but at least it would take his focus off Alex for a minute. I gave Alex a sympathetic glance before Caleb cleared his throat. “Alex has been keeping secrets from you, Evie.”

I wrinkled my brow, looking from Caleb to Alex. As I watched them both, Caleb’s self-satisfied expression, and Alex’s utterly defeated features, I realized whatever memory the two of them were now discussing was important. This was something Alex had kept from me deliberately, and definitely didn’t want me to know.

Alex tried to stand again, but stumbled back to his knees, his face pulled tight. It was clear his pain hadn’t subsided. He could barely talk, but his eyes didn’t move from Caleb’s as he gritted out, “No…not…your…place.”

The corner of Caleb’s lips quirked. “Oh, but I think it is. It’s been centuries. When were you going to tell her about what
really
happened in that cottage by the ocean so many years ago?”

Alex was shaking with a rage I knew he couldn’t adequately convey.

“Such a beautiful place to be marred by such a horrendous act, Alex. And to think, she believed the Daevos were her only enemies.”

“NOOOOOOOO!” Alex yelled.

Then Caleb spoke seven words.

Seven words that changed my life.

“Ask Alex why he stabbed Cassandra, Evie.”

I started to fall into a flashback.

And my heart shattered.

Publishing takes a village, and I’m so grateful to the amazing people I had the opportunity to work with on this book.

Ali Cross, who makes sure my books are formatted perfectly! The women responsible for another amazing cover: Lani Woodland, photographer extraordinaire; and Alma Tait, my fantastic designer. Adrie Buchanan, my gorgeous cover model who spent a long winter afternoon in a strapless gown taking photos in below freezing temperatures…and is still my friend. And my mom, the amazing seamstress who managed to make the perfect wrap and belt for the dress from my explanation of, “It needs to be satin, long, and sapphire blue.”