“Emma?” she said, her voice sounding distant and indistinct. Allyra shook her head, trying to dispel the fog clinging to her thoughts. The weakness she’d felt in the Between had followed her back. She tried to move but found that she couldn’t. Still confused, she looked down and found the source of her weakness. Her wrists were bound behind her, shackled with iron.
“What is this?” Allyra demanded. “Jamie? Emma?”
“Close the Gate, Ally,” Jamie said quietly.
“Why have you bound me?” she asked again, struggling against her restraints. The Gate was still open but only barely. Her grip over it was fading.
Emma slapped her across the face, hard enough that it snapped Allyra’s head sharply to the side. “Close the damn Gate,” Emma said coldly.
Jamie grabbed his twin’s wrist. “Emma,” he said tersely, “that’s not necessary.”
He turned back to Allyra. “Please, Ally, close the Gate. This is for your safety and everyone else’s. You promised me nothing would get through. Now I’m holding you to it—Alexander Cairns cannot be allowed back into the world.”
Her strength was failing, the iron cutting her off from the bulk of her Gift, but she strained against it, shaking with the effort of keeping the Gate open. She knew in her heart that this would be her last chance to get Alex back. Jamie and Emma were more than friends; they were family. And if she’d lost even their support, then there would be no more chances.
“He’s right, you know.”
All their heads snapped up at the sound of the new voice. She would recognize it anywhere—Marcus.
Jamie looked at his twin, alarm clear on his face. He reached for his sword. But his twin was faster. Emma grabbed hold of his arm and twisted him around, closing iron cuffs around his wrists.
“Emma?” Jamie said in pained confusion.
But when Emma looked up again, her eyes weren’t the color of cornflower blue. They were yellow.
“Emma?” Jamie said again, horror combining with stunned disbelief.
Footsteps rang over the marbled floor—moving closer. More than one set. Allyra closed her eyes, shivers running over her entire body as she put every last shred of her Gift into holding the Gate open. Her plans had changed now. She knew now there would be no returning to the Between, but there was still hope.
Alex, she begged silently in her mind, please.
“He’s right, you know,” Marcus repeated, his voice much closer this time, but still, Allyra refused to look up. “Alexander Cairns can never be allowed to return.”
“Ally, I’m sorry,” Jamie called out, struggling against the Revenant that used to be his twin. “I only ever wanted to keep you safe…”
A laugh of pure hysteria threatened to bubble from her throat, but she forced it down. Finally looking up, her eyes met Jamie’s frantic forest green ones.
“I know,” she said sadly. “It’s okay, Jamie, I forgive you.”
Marcus laughed, an ugly sound, hollow and empty. It echoed off the marbled walls. “You humans, so easy to manipulate.” He glanced at the army of Cleaners standing beside him, a sea of black and silver. “Close it,” he told them.
Her hold over the Gate was tenuous, and as four Gifted Cleaners started to work against her, the threads slipped through her grip like a handful of mist. The Gate slammed closed.
Her body heavy with exhaustion but no less defiant, Allyra dragged her eyes up toward Marcus. But it was the person standing next to him that caught her attention, her heart seizing in her chest, her rebellious words dying on her lips.
Jason.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
She’d been betrayed by everyone. Jamie unwittingly, but Jason…
He was standing to Marcus’s right, his back perfectly straight and his expression hard and frozen. At the sight of him, any fight she had left drained away. She sagged, but her eyes never left Jason’s indigo ones. “No…” she whispered, almost soundlessly.
But Marcus heard her. “Yes,” he said smugly, almost gleefully. “Like I said, you’re all so easy to manipulate. Throughout history, your art and literature have extolled the power of love—the greatest human emotion. But it is also what makes you weak.
“Of course, I was a little worried when you didn’t immediately fall for Jason’s charms. But through darling Emma here, I found another way. Jamie’s love for his sister, his love for you. So easy to twist into something darker.”
Marcus sighed as he ran his hand lovingly over Emma’s face. “I’ve been here for a long time, but she might just be my greatest accomplishment. It wasn’t easy to break her. She was strong, she fought me for every inch. It took months. Months of torture. In breaking dear Emma, I found my true calling, it was the purest pleasure. She is exquisite. In her mind, I found all the information I needed.”
“No,” Jamie moaned.
“Shut him up,” Marcus snapped at Emma.
Emma slipped a short dagger from her belt, her face icy and unyielding. No trace of the girl Allyra had grown up with.
Before Allyra could truly comprehend what was happening. Before she could react. Emma thrust the dagger deep into Jamie’s gut.
A scream of rage and madness tore from Allyra’s throat. Like a wild animal, she fought against the iron cuffs on her wrists, tearing against them until blood ran down her fingers and dripped onto the white marble floor beneath.
It seemed to happen in slow motion. Everything in perfect focus and painful clarity. Jamie’s body dropped to the ground. A pool of blood formed around him.
Red, the color of love.
Red, the color of blood.
Red, red, red, everywhere.
“Jamie!” Allyra screamed. “Jamie!” His name tore from her, as if the sound of her voice might make him whole again.
