Synergy (8 page)

I followed her stare, and in the distance I saw the silhouette of who could only be Bianca. I gripped Madison’s arm. “We aren’t following her – it’s a trap. She wouldn’t just appear that easily.”

“You’re right,” Madison said, forcing herself to look away from her. “What, then? Where do we go? Where would they be in here?”

“They were going to look for those guys. Maybe they started in a place that looked like where they were taken.”

“Do you remember it?”

“Yeah,” I said as I closed my eyes.

“That’s a little eerie,” Madison said in a shaky voice.

I opened my eyes slowly, and now on the horizon there was a massive castle-looking place. A stone wall surrounded it, and the
building itself was at least eight
stories high with balconies stretched out on different levels. The sky above this place was black and circling rapidly in place. Lightning would spider web across it every other second.

In one of the large windows that was a few floor
s up, I saw images
. There was a massive balcony in front of it.

“Balcony,” I whispered.

Madison squeezed my hand, and in that instant we there. We crouched down in the shadows and peered in. There was a fireplace on the back wall, and an aggressive fire was raging within it. At first it was hard to make out the images in the glow of the room, but then I began to focus my eyes. There were three men and a woman, Bianca. They didn’t notice us. As the man in the center turned to his side, I saw that it wasn’t a man at all; it was a boy. It was Winston. At first I thought he was trapped, that they were questioning him or something, but he looked too calm, too at home where he was.

“That evil
bastard
,” I hissed
.

“I don’t know; he may be just playing it cool,” Madison whispered.

Bianca began to circle Winston, looking him over seductively. Winston followed her path with hungry eyes. At that moment, the other two men turned into images of her.

I looked over my shoulder out at the field and imagined an explosion, and with my thought it appeared. The force rattled the stone palace we were at, and I looked back for any kind of response from Winston. If he were guilty, he would have shown fear; if he were trapped, he would have used the distraction to escape.

Bianca looked out the window, then her and the images of her vanished. Winston looked down and sighed; he almost looked disappointed.

“What now? Are we going in there?”

“Yup,” I said as the thought came to mind and I appeared in front of Winston. He jumped back, only to find Madison behind him
.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he seethed.

“Says who? Draven? Or your girlfriend?”

“Says me! Why did you do that? I was so close!”

“To what?!”

“My family!” he said as he vanished.

“What the hell?” Madison said to me.

“I don’t know
; maybe he was looking for his m
om.”

“I’m not worried about Mom...Dad, that’s another ball game.”

A horrifying moaning echoed around us. I looked at Madison, then nodded for her to follow me. The sound was definitely a man, but I didn’t think it was Draven. When we reached the threshold of the room, we didn’t find a hallway; instead, another room appeared. I wasn’t really surprised by it. You never really moved far in this place before everything changed.

The room was so
dark;
it took me a second to focus my eyes. When I did, I had to hold my breath. This was the room the prince was in, and I could swear he was slouched against the far wall. It was too dark to see his face, so I had a second or two before Madison’s world came crashing down around her. The moaning wasn’t coming from him; it was coming from another boy lying across the floor. He was too shadowed for me to make out his features, but I could hear him clearly. It was like he was having a nightmare.

He was moving his head from side to side. “We leave together, or we die together,” he muttered. Then a second later, he said, “She’s not here! Watch out!”

Just as I went to step forward to wake him out of whatever illusion he was in, an icy chill blew past us. It was so cold that it was dark.
Shivers
spread a
cross every inch of my body. B
efore I could say a word, ash began to spin before the images of the boy
s
on the floor. Within that second, an image appeared. It was the evil angel that Madison had sketched. Its wings were dark, ashy, and stretched from one
end of the room to the other.
Its flawless face smiled slyly at us, daring us to move forward. It was a silent standoff; he was telling us that they belonged to him.

I was torn on what to do. If that was Draven or even Aden lying on the floor, I wouldn't care what was in my way; I would charge forward. But not knowing who those boys were -
-
or if they were even real -
-
made me hesitate. I was screaming at myself on the inside, telling myself that karma was a bitch and that if I di
dn’t help them, it would come for
me, come back and hurt Draven. I boldly stepped forward.

“And what or who are you?” I asked in the bravest voice I could manage.

The angel growled deeply, and the room became so cold that my teeth began to chatter. I thought of warmth. I thought of the sun, but the sun didn’t come; instead, my butterflies appeared. The angel flowed back ever so slightly.

“Something bothering you?” I asked just as boldly as before. With my words, more glowing butterflies appeared, and the angel growled. He tried to move forward, but he couldn’t. At first I thought it was because of the butterflies, but then I saw it: a devil’s trap.

Madison must have manifested it beneath him. The roar of the angel grew so loud that I felt it in my core. The room fell apart, taking the images of the boys that I intended to save. We were in the field again, but almost instantly trees sprang from the ground, creating a dark forest all around us.

I heard music, Draven’s music. It was loud, so loud that I knew Madison wouldn’t be able to hear me. I squeezed Madison’s arm to get her to follow me, and we moved from tree to tree, trying to find the source of it and stay hidden in the shadows. 

Just as we moved around another massive tree, Bianca appeared in front of me. Anger boiled in my skin as I thought of a weapon, and with that thought, a knife appeared in my hand.

“You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Bianca scuffed.

“Me?! You’re the girl that won’t die,” I rebutted.

She crossed her arms as her eyes moved to Madison. “Here’s a news flash: you may want to stay out of here for a while.”

“Why is that?” Madison said as she looked to the ground. Once again, she’d created a devil’s trap under Bianca.

Bianca didn’t bother to look down. “Let’s just say it’s not a good place for Scorpios with green eyes...besides, I might get bored if someone else kills you. I rather like this game we’re playing.”

“It’s not a game,” I said, drawing her attention back to me. “Who did you take, and why?”

“Charlie, is it Draven? No. So why do you care? You proved yourself. He’s with you. Bla
h blah blah
– soul mates. Back away and let me live my life.”

“Do you think I’m going to let you hurt someone else? Do you think I’m going to let you gain power
over this R
ealm? Think again.”

Bianca moved her head from side to side. “So naïve, Charlie. I’m not your enemy.” She looked down at the pentagram she was standing in the center of. “And I’m not a demon.” She stepped out of the circle just to mock me and Madison.

“Trust me, you’re my enemy,” I said, glaring at her.

“More like a distraction,” Bianca said as she grinned.

I glared.
“Where’s Draven? Who were those boys you have?”

“Have we lost our boyfriend? Why do you care who I have?”

“I care because it’s wrong.”

“How is it wrong? How do you know they don’t want to be with me?”

“Then show them to me. Let me hear them say that.”

Bianca laughed out loud. “I don’t think so. Besides, I think your afternoon is booked.” And with those words, she vanished.

All around me, I heard whispers mingling within the music that was still playing around us.

“Screw these trees. We need to see what’s coming,” Madison said, and with her words the trees fell into the ground. At first the only light around me came from my butterflies, which were resting across the ground and lingering near me, but then an orange moon began to shine, and in that moonlight I saw shadowed images moving toward us. My butterflies tried to move from their path, but some didn’t get away; the images would grab them and they would fade. At first it made me mad that they were hurting something so beautiful, but then I started to feel weak; that fleeting feeling I’d had that morning was coming back to me.

I yelled, “Draven!” as loud as could. I didn’t see him. It was just a reflex. I wanted him to help me stop what was going on.

“We have to wake up!” Madison yelled as I swayed at her side and she tried to balance me.

“I’m not leaving without them,” I mumbled.

I focused on my butterflies, and with a thought I called them to me. On command, they all rose from where they were across the ground and soared into my chest. My eyes grew wide as I told myself that this was like a dream and that it was no big deal. As the butterflies
ascended
into my soul
I found
my balance again.
I found my strength.

A second later, Draven appeared in front of me.

“Is it really you?” I asked before I embraced him.

“I love you, Charlie.”

A smile echoed in my eyes. The shadows couldn’t say that word.  Escorts that give in to their nature couldn’t say that word either. It was the only way I cou
ld ever know he was real in The R
ealm.

I threw my arms around him, and he squeezed me back before pushing me behind him. Aden and Grayson appeared in that moment as well. The shadowed images began to creep closer and closer, then
all at once they charged Aden.
Draven and Grayson dove into the dark cloud to help him.

Madison and I instinctively ran toward them, but before we could take a step, men appeared in front of us. They were just like the men in the graveyard before: all in black, flawless images. Behind them, I saw gleams of light. I knew that Draven and the others were helping those shadows, turning them into light, but I doubted they’d see their way out before these men attacked us.

“Too bad we didn’t get that lesson from Silas,” I muttered.

“Maybe we don’t need it. Anything can happen here,” Madison said confidently.

I nodded to agree, then stepped boldly forward to the man in front of me. I reached my hand right though him. The shock of that act made me sick to my stomach. Inside, around my arm it felt like ice, but it also felt like worms; wet, slithery worms. I grabbed as many as I could with my hand and pulled my arm out as I stared into the vacant eyes of a man that was twice my size. When I pulled my arm out, black smoke came, but not as much as what I’d seen Silas pull out, so I reached in again and set my intent to pull every inch of darkness out of his body. The cold, slithery worms vanished, and I felt a rock in my hand. I pulled back, and with that the man fell as the black smoke drifted into the air.

I glanced at my side to see that Madison had figured it out, too; three men were at her feet, but more were appearing around us. 

I couldn’t help myself. The black smoke made me think of my dream, and instantly my dream came to life. There was an ancient city around us, a stone road, and ash raining down like snow.

I didn’t have time to change my thoughts; another man was attacking me. I reached inside him as he reach
ed for my neck with his hands.
The man forced my mouth o
pen, then began to breathe in
. I didn’t know how he was doing it, but I was becoming weaker, and light was escaping through my mouth. Even though I could focus on the cold rock inside of him, I couldn’t pull it out. Then I felt a hand on mine inside this man. Panic caused me to close my mouth and push away from the man. It was entirely t
oo easy to do so, even in The
R
ealm. The man fell to the ground instant
ly, and when he did, I knew why
it wa
s so easy: Silas was b
ehind him. H
e’d killed him.

Silas had his back to me and was pulling the darkness out of everyone who came near me. Madison was at my side, so was Aden. I looked around frantically to find Draven. He was fighting these men with Grayson at his side.

It didn’t take long for Draven and the others to figure out how to kill them. They were faster at it than
us;
maybe because they were stronger, maybe because they were dark so there was no light that could be pulled from them.