Ominous (21 page)

At the top of the carpeted steps, I turned left and made my way down the hall toward the elevator that would whisk me to Noelle’s floor. It was amazing how muffled the sound was from up here. Aside from the dull thud of the bass coming through the floorboards from the ballroom and the occasional shriek of laughter, everything was silent. As I approached the small elevator alcove, my steps slowed. Usually light radiated out from the alcove at all hours, but right now it was dark.

I felt a cold wisp of a wind tickle the hair on the back of my neck, and suddenly, the gold locket felt warm against my chest. My hand fluttered up to touch it.

Images from my last dream flooded my brain. The birthday cake, the robed figures, the dead bodies. What was wrong with me? This had to be a trap. Of course it did. How could I have possibly thought it was a good idea to go anywhere alone right now?

I took an instinctive step back, heard a creak, and whipped around.
There was no one there. Down in the foyer, a glass shattered and was met by a resounding round of applause.

I should just go back to the party
, I thought, taking one step in that direction.
Surrounded by a crowd, I’ll be safe
.

But then, all I had to do was get in the elevator and it would take me right to Josh. No one could attack me if I was alone in an elevator. And I wanted to see him. Really, it was
all
I wanted right then. If I could just see him, everything would be fine. I turned around again and something caught my eye. A video camera bolted to the ceiling in the corner, trained right at me. I let out a breath, feeling foolish. Surely if someone shady had somehow slipped by the guards on the first floor—which was unlikely—and come up here, they would have been pounced by one of the dozens of security personnel. I was just being paranoid. Not that anyone could blame me, after everything that had happened to me in the past two years.

Steeling myself, I walked over to the alcove. The lightbulb in the overhead fixture was out. That was it. There was no sign that it had been tampered with—no shattered glass on the floor, no hanging corners or wires sticking out. No one was lying in wait. I hit the button and the elevator instantly pinged. My heart hit my throat.

Damn, I was jumpy.

The doors slid open and I stepped inside. As soon as I did I had this awful premonition that a hand was about to descend on my shoulder. I turned around quickly, but no one was there. Reaching out a violently shaking hand, I hit the button for Noelle’s floor. The doors couldn’t close fast enough. Every second it felt like someone was about to leap
inside and grab me. Every moment a gloved hand was going to come around the corner and hold the door. By the time the doors finally did close, I was hyperventilating.

“Okay, calm down,” I told myself, as the elevator ascended with an efficient hum. I leaned forward, resting my head against the cold, reflective gold doors. “Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

When the doors slid open again, I stepped out slowly, glancing left before I turned right. Again, I heard a creak. The door to the emergency stairs wasn’t closed all the way. Had someone just come through there? Suddenly terrified, I sprinted into Noelle’s room, slamming both the doors behind me, and whirled around, fully expecting to be jumped, blindfolded, dragged away. But when I turned, the only person standing in the candlelit room was Josh. He wore a blue suit and a dark gold tie. His hair was slightly neater and more styled than usual, and in his hand was a small red jewelry box.

“Hey, Reed.” He pried the box open with a creak and a pop. Inside was a gorgeous square aquamarine stone, surrounded by tiny diamonds. A ring. “Happy birthday.”

“What? What are you?” I tore my eyes away from the sparkling stone, which seemed to magically reflect every one of the dozen candles dotting the room, and looked at Josh. Suddenly I was breathless for a whole new reason. “Are you serious with that thing?”

Josh cracked up. He took a step forward. “Don’t worry. It’s not an engagement ring or anything,” he said. He plucked the bauble from the box, holding the delicate gold ring between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s your birthstone.”

“I … I know,” I said, stepping toward him. “It’s beautiful.”

Josh swallowed hard. He took my right hand delicately in his own and slipped the ring onto my ring finger. It fit perfectly and felt surprisingly light. “I just wanted you to know … how much you mean to me,” he said earnestly, looking me in the eye. “If we were ten years older, I’d be asking you to marry me right now.”

My heart expanded to fill my chest and tears stung my eyes, but this time they were perfectly happy tears. No fear, no anger, no nostalgia. Just happiness.

“And I’d be saying yes,” I said.

Josh grinned. He pulled me to him and kissed me and kissed me and kissed me, until I seriously considered breaking Noelle’s no-naked-birthday-fun rule. The room gradually seemed to grow warmer and warmer, until tiny beads of sweat broke out along the back of my neck, but we just kept kissing. His arms around mine, his chest to my chest, our knees knocking together. We kissed like it was the last time we’d ever have the chance.

“I love you so much, Reed,” Josh said, finally breaking away. Our foreheads touched, and his hands were tangled up in my hair.

“I love you too,” I said breathlessly.

It was a totally, utterly perfect moment. Then I heard a thud, and Josh’s eyes went wide, and he crumpled to the floor. After that, all that there was in the world was my scream.

“You are the strongest of us all, Reed. You’re the only one who can save them. The only one who can save yourself.”

Eliza Williams spoke directly in my ear. But I couldn’t see her. Everything was dark. All I saw was blackness stretching out for all eternity. My head lolled to the side and I started awake, but even with my eyes open, all was black. My head radiated with pain.

“Use your power, Reed. Use it to warn them.”

Frustration bubbled in my veins. I wanted to reach out and grab her. Shake her. Slap her as hard as I could. But I couldn’t move my arms. How was I supposed to use my power to save myself? My power, if I even had one, was prescient dreams. And since I hadn’t dreamed that someone was going to knock Josh out cold and grab me, the ship had basically sailed on using my powers for anything.

“Warn them, Reed. You can warn them.”

I had no idea what she meant, and a whimper escaped my throat,
waking me for another split second before I floated off into a new state of semisleep. I just wanted to know if Josh was okay. I just wanted him to be here, wherever here was. I scrunched my eyes closed as hard as I possibly could and thought of him. His eyes, his hands, his mouth, his touch. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted him to tell me everything was going to be okay. Forget saving myself right now. All I could think was,
I’m here, Josh. Please find me. Please help me
.

I saw him looking up into my eyes. Saw myself falling into him. His arms wrapping around me. Safe, safe, safe in his arms.

Suddenly the blindfold was ripped off my face, and a fingernail scratched my cheekbone. My head snapped back and slammed against something hard. I saw stars—brightly colored, flashing, popping stars—floating before my vision. I shook my head from side to side to clear it, and saw that I was in some kind of basement room. The ceilings were low, the floor was made of stained cement, and the only light came from several tall candelabras set up around the periphery. Tied to identical wooden posts, directly across from me, were Astrid, Lorna, Missy, and Constance.

Now I was fully awake.

“Astrid! Lorna! Missy! You’re okay?” I blurted.

Tears streamed down Lorna’s face, and Astrid was covered in what looked like dried mud. Neither of them looked anywhere close to okay. But they were alive. At least they were alive. But where was Josh? What had they done with Josh?

“Reed? What’s going on?” Constance asked, her voice quaking.

She was still wearing her pink party dress, and a trickle of blood
ran from her temple to her jaw. When had they taken her? How long had I been out? My fingers clenched into fists behind me, the simple movement straining my biceps. I looked down at myself for the first time. My ankles and my hands were lashed to a wooden pole. My shoes were gone and the skirt on my dress hung lower on one side, torn at the seam. Aside from the throbbing pain at the back of my skull, however, I appeared to be in one piece.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Just stay calm.”

“Stay calm?” Missy shrieked. “What do you think those are for?”

She nodded toward the center of the circle and I forced myself to look. Laid out on a small round table were six pristine silver daggers, their points touching at the center of the circle, their black handles evenly spaced. Each handle pointed directly at one of us. It looked as if they had been set up to be grabbed easily.

Except there were only five of us. The sixth dagger pointed toward an empty wooden pole.

I felt a whoosh of movement behind me and turned my head, wincing at the pain. All I saw was a flap of black fabric, like a robe, and then it disappeared. My heart started to pound in earnest, thrumming white-hot terror through my veins.

Black robes. Just like in my dreams.

“Who’s there? Who’s doing this? Nice work nabbing five defenseless girls, you cowards. The least you could do is show yourselves!” I snarled.

There was a slam somewhere in the darkness, and Constance made a low, pathetic sound in the back of her throat.

“Good job. Now you’ve pissed them off,” Missy snapped.

“Make that six girls,” a disembodied voice growled.

A heavy door slid open, momentarily letting in a shaft of blue light. I saw that piles of crates lined the walls, stamped with the words
ASTI MOVANTI
over a drawing of some kind of quaint, rural village. Suddenly Kiki was thrown through the door, struggling and spitting and cursing loudly. A fresh red bruise rimmed her right eye, and blood dripped from a cut in her lip. Two robed figures had her by her arms, but they were barely holding on. The moment Kiki saw the rest of us, though, she stopped struggling. Her shoulders wilted in what looked like defeat.

“Run, Kiki,” I said through my teeth. “You can still get away.”

As far as I could see, she was our only hope. She was the only one of us who was semifree. But she just shot me a look I couldn’t read and let them tie her to the post next to mine. I groaned and leaned my head back. We were screwed. We were ever so very screwed.

Taking a breath, I looked around, desperate for anything that could tell me where we were, anything I could use to get us out. I heard Eliza’s words in my ear and clenched my teeth.

“You can warn them.”
But who? It seemed like everyone worth warning was already here.

Still, I closed my eyes and thought as hard as I could of Noelle, of Ivy, of Josh. I conjured up a mental picture of the basement and tried to somehow make them see it. As if that were even possible. What really sucked was that it was the best—the only—plan I had.

“They’re all here,” a woman’s voice said in the darkness. “We can begin the sacrifice.”

My eyes popped open. Constance and Lorna whimpered.

“Sacrifice?” Astrid cried. “What sacrifice?”

“Anyone touches a hair on my head and you’re dead,” Missy spat, pulling against her ropes. “Do you have any idea who my father is?”

There was a chuckle in the dark. The sound was so out of place it sent a shiver down my spine. A hooded figure stepped from the shadows behind Constance and Missy and slipped sideways between them to enter the center of the circle. I sensed movement all around me, and soon we were completely surrounded by black hoods, outnumbered at least three to one. My eyes shot to Kiki and she looked back at me, her face grim, but somehow … determined.

Determined to do what? There was no way out of this. The only thing she should have been determining was whether she wanted to say any prayers before she died.

The figure in the center of the circle stood next to the table of daggers and ever so slowly turned, pausing as it faced each of us, as if it could see our faces through the dark fabric of her hood. It looked at Kiki, then Constance, then Missy, then Lorna, then Astrid, and then, as if moving through a thick fog, it turned to me.

It lifted its hands to its hood. I held my breath and forced myself not to look away. I thought of all my enemies. All the people who could possibly be insane enough to think up a horrible scheme like this. The figure looked slight, female. It was Paige Ryan. It had to be. Or Demetria Rosewell.

Just before the hood was nudged back, I had the panicked, wild thought that it was going to be Sabine. Or even Ariana. They had
appeared in my dreams, after all. Could it possibly be one of them? Had they escaped?

And then the hood fell back and I gasped. I recognized the blond hair, the Botoxed brow, the perfect skin, the huge diamond earrings. It wasn’t one of the villains from my dreams, but it was close enough.

It was Cheyenne Martin’s mother.