I held up my hands, palms out, in my best innocent gesture. “It’s a T-shirt. And jeans.”
He bit his lip. “You could be wearing a garbage bag and . . .”
“Next time I will.”
Jack ordered room service, with extra fries; and after we had finished eating, we fell asleep in each other’s arms.
We could do this. We had to do this.
It was a long night, punctuated by a few tense moments when Cole woke up screaming because of some nightmare. Each time I reached out from my bed to his and put my hand on his arm, which seemed to settle him down.
In the morning, I woke long before either of the guys. I went to the kitchenette and put a pot of coffee on to brew and then sat down by the window to think about what to do next.
Yes, we had Cole back, and therefore my life was not in imminent danger; but I wasn’t 100 percent sure Cole wasn’t playing us. There was still that tiny bit of doubt that the guy who tricked me in the Everneath might be trying to pull a fast one again. And I didn’t know where the rest of the band was, but up until two nights ago their plan had been to take Forfeits to an accelerated Feed, and soon.
Not only that, but now we were technically on the run. I still wasn’t sure anyone from the Everneath had connected me to Cole, but what if they had? Would they consider me a threat to the queen? Would they come after me? Would they come after my family?
I was worried about my dad and Tommy. I couldn’t take them on the run with us and simultaneously try to destroy the Everneath. If only going on the lam with me were as simple as packing a few bags and not as complicated as convincing the mayor of Park City to run away with his teenage half-Everliving–half-human daughter because monsters from the Underworld were coming for them.
Jack and I needed to get to the Everneath to investigate the Shade connection; but what if Cole really was lying, and he was waiting for us to make a move?
I needed to know for sure that Cole was telling the truth about his amnesia. But how?
The coffeemaker clicked off just as something clicked on in my brain.
I had just jumped out of my chair to go wake up Jack when he appeared from around the corner and I ran into him.
He used his hands to cushion the impact. “Whoa. Where’s the fire?”
“Jack.” I couldn’t hide my enthusiasm. “We need to take Cole to Professor Spears.”
“Wait. Slow down. What do you mean?”
“I think I have a way we can figure out if Cole’s lying or not, but we’d need the professor.”
Jack backed against the wall. “But we went to the professor so he could help us destroy the Everneath. Cole wouldn’t want to cooperate.”
“That’s the beautiful thing. Cole doesn’t know that.” I poured a mug of coffee for Jack and then one for myself. I felt so excited finally to be one step ahead of Cole, to be manipulating him instead of him manipulating me. “Right now, Cole is a blank slate. And we can fill that blank slate with whatever backstory we want.”
And I had just the story in mind.
THIRTEEN
NOW
The Surface. The hotel.
Jack tilted his head. “What kind of backstory?”
“The kind that convinces Cole he wants the same thing we do.” I handed Jack his coffee. “The kind where he wants to destroy the Everneath just as much as we do. Maybe even more.”
Jack raised his eyebrows as he brought the mug to his mouth. He blew on the steaming coffee and then took a sip and swallowed. “If he’s faking this whole amnesia thing . . .”
“He’d never keep up the ruse if he thought he was helping us destroy the Everneath.”
Jack set his mug down on the counter and smiled. “Do you have a story in mind?”
I nodded. “I’ve got a tragic one.”
Twenty minutes later, Cole was seated on one bed, Jack and I on the other. We had told him about how he was an Everliving, but we also added a fictional backstory, hopefully one that would make him want to help us. He was staring at me with a frown on his face. “So these Everlivings . . . they killed my family? My extended family? Cousins and aunts and uncles? The entire thing?”
I nodded.
“And then they . . . burned my village?” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Jack glanced sideways at me. Okay, I admit I embellished our original story by adding the part about a burned village. But I wanted to make sure Cole was on our side totally and completely.
I nodded again. “Yes. You and I met because we were both trying to destroy the Everneath. I have certain . . . abilities that can help us.”
“What kind of abilities?” he said.
“I can make things appear.”
Cole squinted one eye at me. “How? Do it.”
“I can’t do it here. But in the Everneath I can think about an object and then make it appear. You noticed my ability, and you thought it would come in handy for taking down our mutual enemies.”
Cole looked at me, deep in thought. Jack shifted uncomfortably beside me. There was a knock at the door.
“Housekeeping” came a woman’s voice.
“Later!” Jack and I both yelled in unison.
Finally, Cole sighed. “Okay. This makes sense.”
“It does?” I said.
“Yes. The fact that I’m depending on you to seek revenge for the people I used to love? It explains why I’m so attached to you. Why I feel like lives depend on me being near you. Why everything around you seems made of . . . light.”
His face was earnest. Here Cole was, thinking I was the source of light right after I’d told him the biggest lie. At his words, guilt edged out my hate for a moment. My resolve faltered, and Jack stepped in.
“So now, Cole, we need to go see a man named Professor Spears. Hopefully, even though you can’t remember anything, something will come to you.”
Cole held out his hand. Jack eyed me and then took it, and Cole shook it vigorously. “I will meet this professor. I will help you.”
He left to go use the bathroom, and Jack looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “If he’s faking it . . .”
“Well, then we’ll know for sure, won’t we?”
Two hours later, we were sitting in Professor Spears’s office, waiting for him to get back from a class. The three of us sat facing the professor’s desk, a marble bust of Poseidon staring back at us.
The door swung open, and Professor Spears blew in.
“Nikki. Jack. I didn’t expect to see you again so quickly. And you have a friend?”
Cole stood and said formally, “Yes. Coleson Stockflet. Pleased to meet you, Professor Spears.”
Jack and I exchanged looks. Coleson Stockflet? Maybe it was an old name. I’d only known him as Cole Stockton.
The professor took his hand. “Nice to meet you too,” he said, giving me a confused look.
“Cole is an Akh ghost,” I said. “Hypothetically. He’s here to help us.”
“Ah. Okay. Why would an Akh ghost want to take down the Everneath?”
“Because Everlivings killed my family,” Cole said, his voice fierce. “And burned my village.”
I gave the professor a shaky smile. Our story must have stuck. “So, Professor, Cole here is on our side. But he has some sort of amnesia. He and his Everliving friends disappeared two nights ago. A large guy with black eyes may have been involved. When Cole returned, he had amnesia. And his friends still haven’t shown up. For all we know, they might have started their accelerated Feed early. But Cole here can’t remember. Do you have any idea what could have happened to him?”
The professor frowned and took a couple of steps closer to Cole. He put his finger on Cole’s collar bone, pointing to a deep scratch I hadn’t noticed before. The scratch got bigger as it disappeared underneath the collar of his shirt. “Do you mind, Cole, lifting your shirt?
Feeling suddenly protective, I took a step toward Cole, but Jack held me back. “He’ll be fine, Becks.”
Cole looked at me questioningly, and when I nodded, he slowly lifted his shirt, revealing his belly and chest.
And my breath caught in my throat. Scattered across his torso were deep purple welts with torn skin in the center of each one. I couldn’t imagine what would make such wounds. Maybe a hot poker? I raised my finger, and Cole flinched. I didn’t touch him.
“Cole,” I said, my voice soft.
The professor frowned, a grim look on his face. “I wouldn’t presume to know what happened, but this looks like . . . torture. And it looks fresh. Maybe not within the past day, but it surely happened within the past week.”
I closed my mouth, which had been hanging open. “Time moves slowly in the Everneath. It still could’ve happened yesterday but healed a little bit before he got back to the Surface.”
I pulled at the hem of Cole’s shirt and softly urged it back down, my breath catching in my throat.
“It’s okay,” Cole said. “I don’t remember it.”
Jack’s face had turned ashen. He looked away, almost as if he wanted to give me and Cole some privacy. I loved him for it at that moment.
I squeezed Cole’s hand. “You’re going to be okay.” Then I turned to Professor Spears. “How can we get his memory back?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. The best way would probably be to share memories of him. Also, he might still have some lingering instinctual behaviors.” At our confused expressions, Professor Spears continued. “I have a degree in psychology too. Sometimes people suffering from amnesia will drive to places they know, like the post office, or a favorite takeout haunt, even though they don’t technically remember them. Cole might exhibit this type of behavior.”
Once the professor had finished talking, the four of us sat there in silence for a while. Now that I knew Cole had been tortured . . . I don’t know. It didn’t change our course of action necessarily. But who would torture him?
I could only think of one person. The queen. Or someone acting on her orders.
“We’ll try to help him with his memories,” I said. “But in the meantime, does seeing him, or being around an actual Everliving, give you any further ideas about our plan?”
He shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything more than what I already told you. And meeting Cole hasn’t really done anything to change that. But I’m still looking through the journal from Sheldon.”
Jack let out a breath. “If we can’t figure out a way to destroy the Everneath in time, Nikki will die. You know this, right?”
The professor raised his eyebrows. “But all she would have to do is feed.”
“She won’t feed. Ever,” Jack said. “Because that would mean taking a life.”
The professor looked down. “Right. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that this isn’t just mythology. We’re not dealing in hypotheticals anymore.”
Jack’s and Cole’s faces were glum, and I could only assume they matched my own expression.
“Look, I’ll work on it,” the professor said. “I have your number. I’ll text you the second I find anything.”
On the drive back to the hotel Cole had a strange expression on his face. “I didn’t know you were going to die.”
I shifted in my seat so I could see him. I considered lying to him and coming up with another grandiose story about how hundreds or thousands of people would also die if we failed, but at this moment the truth seemed to be the best course of action. “I am. If we don’t destroy the Everneath, I’ll die.”
“How?”
I shook my head, momentarily caught off guard by the fact that I was explaining my death sentence to the very person who had given it to me. “Because you . . . because someone stole my heart. Which means I’m halfway to becoming an Everliving. And I’m getting weaker. I can survive by feeding on you, but that’s only a temporary solution.” I glanced involuntarily at the shackle on my one wrist and then looked at the other. Did I see the faint shadow of a line? I closed my eyes and went on. “And eventually I’ll have to take a human sacrifice to the Everneath and feed on him . . . or her . . . for a century. But the thing is, that sacrifice, that Forfeit, would then be condemned to the Tunnels, where he or she would die a slow death. And I would never do that to someone.”
“But if it would save you . . .” Cole paused and seemed to think about it for a moment. “Jack would do that for you. Wouldn’t you, Jack?” Cole said it as if he were telling me Jack would loan me a dollar.
I laughed disbelievingly. “It doesn’t matter. We’re talking about death here.”
Cole frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember all the details, but for some reason . . . I don’t know. I feel like death isn’t as big as we all think it is.”
Jack snorted. “Coming from someone who did everything he could to stay alive forever.”
Cole shook his head as if unsure of which side he wanted to take in this debate. “I don’t know what I did before. Maybe it’s because I’m hundreds of years old, as you say. Maybe my subconscious knows I’m supposed to be dead. Maybe that’s why death feels so natural. So inevitable.”