“The fissure that opened up,” Hannah surmised. “It wasn’t some sort of accident caused when the girls were playing. It was on purpose.”
“It was,” Abigail confirmed. “Josette spent her days trying to drain the girls to enhance her own power base. The girls figured it out. They fought back ... and won. In the aftermath, they warned Clement what would and wouldn’t be allowed and the three of them moved forward together, although they were hardly a happy family.”
“I can’t believe this.” Hannah rubbed her forehead and glanced at the creek. “Those girls never had a chance.”
“They didn’t,” Abigail said. “They were ... victims of their parents but predatory all on their own. Amelia came to this world determined to take it over. Her magic infected Bettina. With the two of them together like they were, there always had to be a counterbalance.”
“And Amelia wasn’t fair-haired,” Hannah volunteered. “She lacked pigmentation, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, awesome.” Hannah made a popping sound with her lips. “What part of the story you told was true?”
“Everything was true. I simply omitted certain arcs. The girls killed Josette as part of a demonstration. They refused to allow anyone to threaten their standing on the mountain. They frightened Clement into submission and lived their lives as they wished until the final battle.
“Their nature made it so they only knew right from wrong fifty percent of the time,” she continued. “They didn’t care the other fifty percent. Bettina was the one who ultimately figured it out and sacrificed herself to seal the land. That door that Josette opened allowed evil into this world, more powerful creatures than Amelia. When Bettina closed the door, sacrificed herself, she created the nexus ... and ensured that power-hungry monsters the world over would always try to tap into the source.”
“And how does that explain you?” Hannah focused on Angel. “Are you even a real girl?”
“I was.” Angel’s smile was benign. “I was a real girl up until a few days ago. Now I am more.”
“She’s Bettina,” Abigail offered on a whisper. “She has an old soul now.”
Hannah went cold all over. “How? Bettina died centuries ago.”
“And during your battle with the furies, the magic that kept my sister and me locked away was cracked,” the thing that looked like Angel replied. “She escaped. That meant I had to follow.”
Hannah thought about the furies, what happened to Becky when her body was taken over. “Is Angel’s soul gone?”
“No.” Bettina had a quiet way of speaking, very little inflection. There was nothing inherently good or evil about the way she spoke and yet Hannah sensed danger all the same. “It is not my intention to kill the girl. I will have to kill my sister again, though, and this body might be damaged in the process.”
“Why did you pick that body?”
“It wasn’t my intention. I needed a shared blood line, though. My mother’s line died out long ago. My father, philanderer that he was, didn’t have that problem.”
Realization dawned on Hannah. “And Angel was part of your bloodline.”
“She was.” Bettina nodded. “I sensed the blood the night the monsters collided.”
It took Hannah a moment to work out the statement. “You mean the crash. Those weren’t monsters. They’re technology.”
“It doesn’t matter. I sensed her ... and went for her ... and missed. I didn’t understand the rules of this new world. I thought I had lost my chance to fight Amelia in a capable body and retreated back to the place I knew. That’s when I ran into ... her.” Bettina’s eyes flashed with malevolence as she focused on Abigail. “She tried to talk to me in my basest form. When I told her what I needed, she threatened to get in my way.”
“Because she thought you were going after me,” Hannah surmised. “She thought you wanted to take over my body.”
“And I did once I sensed you,” Bettina confirmed. “I even tried to get to you through your dreams. All you had to do was recognize my plight and let me in ... but you wouldn’t do it.”
“Why would I willingly let you take me over?”
“You would be surprised how weak people can be. You’re not weak, though. You won’t play the game correctly. I knew that after that first night and went back to looking for another body. I hadn’t seen Amelia in all that time, although I knew she was here ... somewhere. I thought it likely she would try to take you over, too, but I figured she would have no better luck than I did.”
“Does the fact that you have knowledge from both planes explain why you talk the way you do? I noticed in the dreams that your language choices weren’t dated. Why is that?”
“Our stream of conscience can stretch to the past and future. We spoke how we wished given the time we spent looking for answers in the future. It made the workers on the mountain uneasy, which is something we enjoyed. And look, it worked out for the better. We can easily hide in your world without standing out.”
“Because you saw the future?”
“We saw ... possibilities,” Bettina replied. “Nothing is set in stone. Things can always change.”
“You knew, though.” Hannah’s tone was accusatory. “You knew that it was likely your plan all those years ago wouldn’t solve the problem forever. You had to realize that another fight was coming.”
“I knew it was likely. I was tired at the time, though. All I needed was sleep.”
“Well, you got your sleep ... and now we’re in a world of hurt. I want you to get out of that body. That girl has been through enough.”
Bettina slowly shook her head. “I can’t do that. I need this body until Amelia has been sent back again.”
“So you can sleep a little longer and come back again in another few centuries?”
“If that is my fate, I will deal with it.”
“And what about the rest of us?” Hannah was beside herself. “I’m
