Evie's Knight (35 page)

The pendant rested firmly against the base of her throat, nearly pressing against her, as if some magnetic connection to her flesh held it in place.

“That amulet has a direct relation to one of Jocelyn’s victims–their mother,” Fiona said. “That alone is extremely powerful. But what makes it even more potent is the connection it has to Calvin, and what he has with you. It binds the three of you in a way.” Fiona looked at Evie thoughtfully. “That piece will help protect you.”

Evie tried to sift through all the information clogging her brain: Magical amulets. A dead lady who kills people. Secret worlds and luring spells. She tried to simplify all of it, get back to where she’d left off. Only she’d reached a dead end; Calvin wouldn’t be able to leave the witch’s world if he went along. That much was clear.

“So the plan is,” she started, “that Calvin won’t go with her, but Parker will. And once Parker does go, hopefully of his own will, Calvin and I will head to this other place.” She felt encouraged when everyone at the table nodded in agreement. “And since I’ll be wearing this necklace, it will lead Parker and Jocelyn to our location where we can vanquish her?”

Fiona shook her head. “Vanquish? No. Trap? Yes.”

“What?” She might be new to all this, but Evie liked her idea much better; it sounded more permanent. “Trapping doesn’t sound that great.”

Calvin stood up, pulled some bills from his wallet, and set them on the table. “It’s better than it sounds,” he said. “I’ll tell you more on the way home.”

Grey sky deepened to a near black above the mountains in the east. In a subtle shift of hues, the color gradually slipped into lighter, pastel tones until it met with a pink sliver of sunlight sprawled over the western sky. The shimmering color danced on the surface of the Great Salt Lake, and Evie marveled at the deception; the view belonged to a warm evening in spring, yet the air outside was frigid. Early May and it still felt like March.

Calvin flipped on the heat in the covered Jeep while Parker escorted Fiona to his own car. Evie rubbed her hands together in front of the vents. “So what kind of world will we be waiting in? For Parker, I mean.”

“The Lockdown. And it might not vanquish Jocelyn, but it will trap her in every sense of the word. I mean, body and soul–bound indefinitely. We won’t have to worry about her again.” He eyed the rearview mirror as he backed out.  “This one’s different from The Loft. The world itself already exists, so I won’t take part in designing it. What I
will
design is her cage.” After pulling onto the main road, Calvin shot her a quick glance, a spark of excitement flashing in his eyes. “Once we get down there–”

“Hold up. Did you say
down
there?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He let out a short chuckle. “These worlds are below the surface, but they don’t belong to the underground, and evil has no way of entering without someone from our side. Anyway, from what Fiona said, there will be other spirits down there, captured and bound. We may actually see them while we’re there.”

“Other souls?” She shot him an incredulous glance. Every once in a while, when something was just too hard to fathom, Evie had moments of doubt. “Calvin, don’t you ever wonder…” she began, but stopped short when he looked back at her, eyes tender and kind. After everything she’d experienced, how could she doubt? She’d been on journeys to the sky, watched Calvin transform a giant, blank canvas into a moving, functioning world. “Never mind,” she said.

Calvin took one hand off the wheel, reached to secure her hand within his grasp, and watched the road ahead as he spoke. “Evie, it’s a lot to take in. I’ve had more time to digest all of this than you have. But even in the beginning, I
had
to take it seriously because it threatens your life–you–the person I love most. I could never dismiss anything that might cause you harm.”

Evie nodded, comforted by his words, and reached into her pocket with her free hand. After grabbing her ChapStick, she smoothed a thin coat onto her lips and replaced the lid.

Calvin cleared his throat.

When she looked over, his eyes were unreadable in the fading light. “What?” she asked.

He pulled to a stop at the traffic light, brought both hands back to the wheel. “My lips feel dry.”

She smiled. “They do?”

Calvin nodded, his gaze settling on her lips. “Extremely.”

They didn’t look dry. They looked perfect and smooth. Thoughts of their first kiss rushed to her mind. Evie held up the ChapStick and raised her brows in question.

He shook his head. “No. Not like that.”

A warm dose of desire shot through her. “You want it from here?” she asked, pointing to her smile.

He licked his lips, eyes fixed intently on her mouth. “That’s exactly what I want.” The sound of his voice was deep and certain. He leaned toward her.

Evie inched forward too, distracted when, from the corner of her eye, she saw the car ahead of them proceed through the light. Calvin must’ve noticed as well, because he straightened up, shifted into gear, and eased through the intersection. “Guess it’ll have to wait,” he said.

It remained quiet as they wove through the darkening neighborhood. Evie wondered if Calvin would really kiss her once they got to her place–more than the small, goodnight kiss he usually gave her. Ever since that first magical night when they’d gotten back together, he seemed to avoid intimate moments with her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he was afraid–worried that he might somehow upset Jocelyn Blanch even more. Reap an even greater amount of wrath and revenge upon them.

She sighed, taking in his altered appearance. His hair was longer than she’d seen it, he hadn’t shaved in days, and though he was still lean, his entire body had bulked into a more squared and chiseled piece. He looked so…rugged. Was there any look that didn’t compliment him?

After Calvin pulled into her driveway and tugged on the parking brake, Evie looked over at him, wondering where his mind had drifted. When he glanced her way, she smoothed her lips together, hoping to remind him of his prior intent.

“Did I finish telling you about The Lockdown?”

“I don’t think so,” she said, trying to mask her disappointment. She worked to remember the last thing he’d said about the strange prison world. Leaning over, she rested her head onto his shoulder and wrapped her hands around his upper arm. “We left off at the part where you and I will be waiting there–in The Lockdown world–after Parker disappears with Jocelyn. You said there will be other spirits trapped down there,” she said, summing up the last few details.

“Yes. They’ll see us, they may try to talk to us even, but they can’t hurt us. We’re supposed to ignore them.”

Evie’s imagination ran wild. She tried to contain it by asking another question. “So how will we find it, the lock…world?”

“The Lockdowns are always near a water source, which works in our favor. In canyons, we have both rivers and waterfalls. I’ve already learned how to recognize the vortex leading to them. Anyway, once we’re there, I’ll have to create a mechanism to keep her in there.”

“So that’s the cage you mentioned?”

He raked a hand through Evie’s hair, raising goose bumps along her arms in an instant, and began twisting a long strand around one of his fingers. “Yes. But it doesn’t have to look like a cage. I’ll have the freedom to create whatever I imagine. I mean, it could be a giant box of paper-thin glass, but if I build it with the purpose to restrain her, it will. I could even do something like … draw a circle in the sand, simply imagining that the line would prevent her from ever moving beyond it– that it had the ability to keep her–and it would. Fiona told me not to get hung up on the design, but to focus instead on the intent, the purpose of whatever it is that I’m building, what it’s designed to do.”

Evie could see the reason for Calvin’s lifted spirit when the topic arose. It would be a fulfilling moment for him, for everyone. Conquering the beast once and for all, creating an eternal prison where she would dwell. It was something to look forward to–the end of Jocelyn’s wicked reign, and the beginning of their own blessed freedom.

Chapter Thirty-seven

“That didn’t take long,” Parker said when Calvin walked in.

Calvin threw his keys on the coffee table, took a seat on the couch. Parker lounged on the smaller couch next to Fiona, looking like someone had just crashed his party.

Calvin looked at Fiona. “Mind if I ask you something?” 

She shrugged. “Shoot.”

“You said you were from a place called The Harbor. Do you have family there?”

She looked at Parker before answering. “No. My parents were sentinels, like me. But they were killed when I was young. It’s a long story.”

Calvin let that seep in for a moment. He had a million questions he wanted to ask her, but he knew he probably wouldn’t get any answers. “Are you ever going to tell us more?”

She tucked her hair behind her ears. “Probably not. You’ll have to forgive me for being so vague, but you’ll be leading normal lives after this. That’s hard to achieve when you’ve been given too much knowledge about things beyond your own world. So far, you two have handled these phenomenal concepts very well. There’s no need to push it. Now, let’s discuss the recent developments in your dream. We know Evie will be captured at night and taken to the canyon by morning, right?”

Calvin nodded. “Right.”

“What did you find out about the fireworks? How often do they have displays here?”

Calvin reached for a stack of printouts. “Each local city will host an event with fireworks, but they won’t start until June.”

“Okay, good. That means we have a little more time to prepare. Also, I uh…” She pulled her knees to her chest, crinkled her face. “I have to tell you guys something.”

Calvin’s heart plunged. He straightened in his seat, dreading the words she might utter.

After glancing briefly at Parker, Fiona looked back to Calvin. “I lost contact with her.”

Calvin shot up off the chair, a sudden ring clenching around his throat. “With Jocelyn? Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t have taken Evie home.” He patted his pockets for the keys before spotting them on the coffee table. With the jagged set of keys clenched firmly in his hands, he sped to the front door.

“No, Calvin. Wait,” Fiona said. “This is why I didn’t tell you earlier.”

“Why? What do you mean?” Calvin’s heart hammered almost painfully as he debated on whether he’d wait for an answer.

“Because I didn’t want you to overreact.” She eyed his grip on the doorknob. “When we came out of The Loft tonight, Jocelyn’s voice was gone. I couldn’t hear her anymore. But that only means she’s narrowed down her candidates. Now she’ll focus on testing those minds, see which one she trusts to carry out her deeds. It’s not a full-on possession, so she’ll need to find someone she can manipulate precisely the way she wants. And my guess is she’ll spend the next few weeks or so working on her selected pawns, nudging them until she finds the most obedient. It’ll take time.

“Also, we have the advantage of those visions, Calvin,” she reminded him, pointing to the printouts. “If those dates are accurate, we can assume Evie won’t be captured for at least another month.”

Calvin had listened to what Fiona said, every word of it. But none of it made the hurt–the sheer panic–go away. “If you think I’m just going to sit around and wait for them to get to her you’re crazy.” His mind spun wildly out of control. “Some mentally deranged spirit-of-the-dead is on the loose now, targeting Evie, and I’m just supposed to sit tight and wait for it to happen?”

Calvin hadn’t seen it coming, his own crazed reaction to the news. All along he’d known this time would come, that Fiona would lose contact with Jocelyn. It shouldn’t have been such a surprise. Yet the feelings that came over him revealed an unpleasant truth: he wasn’t ready to handle it. He’d been so sure that if he simply figured out all the details, got a clear picture of what to expect, he’d be able to cope once the time came. But all he wanted to do in that moment was run to Evie, stay with her, and never let her out of his sight.

“Listen, Calvin,” Fiona said. “You have to trust the powers you’ve been given, and have faith that they’ll help you conquer. Avoiding the capture altogether isn’t an option, though I know it’s tempting.”

She’d read his mind. That was exactly what Calvin had been considering–how they might skip the entire abduction, move on to the next phase without it. But there was no way of making that happen. Somewhere, buried beneath the sudden weight of anxiety, he knew that. He sunk back into the couch and ran his hands through his hair, trying to ignore the pressing resistance in his lungs. “I’m listening,” he finally said through clenched teeth. He
had
to listen; there was too much at stake.

“You’ve got to let things run their course. Do you understand why?” Fiona asked.

Calvin kept quiet, still desperate for a way out of the dreaded capture.

“This needs to play itself out. And if you attempt to avoid it, you could take away the advantage of foresight by altering the event. There’s only one way you guys can fight this. You’ll need to be led to where you can make contact with Jocelyn. Evie’s abduction is the only thing that will offer you that opportunity. It’ll provide the time and the place to fight her head-on. You can’t win without it.”

None of this was news to him, but it was still hard to hear. “So Evie’s just a pawn in all of this?” Calvin hissed in disgust. He stood up again, too anxious to sit. He wanted to blame someone, anyone.

“A capable pawn that will be followed, watched and protected by you and Parker,” she assured. “Not to mention the amulet you gave her; that alone is extremely powerful.” Fiona stood up to meet his gaze. “Look, I’m not suggesting you become blind to it, Calvin. If you follow the impressions, the hints given in your visions, you’ll be ready. You’ll be there to trail after her and her captor, pursue them from a short distance to wherever he takes her. But in the meantime, we can’t have you smothering her like a crazy person. You’ll scare her to death; cause her to do things that could really throw off the event, rendering your foresight useless. We have at least one whole month until the capture takes place. You need to let her live a somewhat normal life until then, Calvin.”