My god, Joely makes every moment of our terrible history mean something. She makes the monotony of our immortality worth it. I finally feel like there’s a future ahead that doesn’t revolve around Damon Underwood, a future full of Joely and my brothers.
Assuming Van can see this through to the other side and see Joely for who she is. She’s more than just a means to an end. I think about the prophecy, the part that refers to Joely, and a new idea begins to move into my head.
“The Nightbird will be born under the full moon.
She and the Shadow Walkers will join forces.
They will waken each other and grow strong.
Together, they will extinguish the flame of evil.
Putting an end to the suffering for all time.”
Van assumed that the prophecy talked about Tobias and Underwood and was all about revenge. But what if we got that part wrong? What if it has nothing to do with revenge? What if it’s just about finding her and loving her, and through that, we can end the suffering we’ve been living with for centuries?
Van made a promise to Tobias that he’d get his revenge, and even if that were the only reason, I will help him see it through. Maybe once Underwood is gone, Van will see the prophecy in a new light, too. Maybe we’ve misunderstood the vision Tobias shared as he died. What if he was using his sight to let us know that we would be okay after he was gone.
Either way, Underwood has taken up entirely too much of our lives. It’s time for us to live for ourselves. Joely has given me, given Marco, that hope.
Maybe, just maybe, she can help Van see that, too.
I run faster.
Chapter Thirteen
JOELY
The house is empty when I wake up in the morning, but I don’t mind. I lay in bed and press my hand over my medallion and think about the boys. I feel each of them, calling their energy to me and letting it surround me as I focus on each of them. Angus and Marco dance around the edges of my mind, and I imagine their earthy and airy energy mingling with my puffy clouds. The thought makes me smile.
I normally wouldn’t let myself take in Van’s essence for too long, but that’s because I thought he didn’t want me. After what happened yesterday, I don’t know what to think anymore. The connection we share is undeniable, but something about him feels broken or stuck. I wish I could get him to see that I am not here to cause him any more pain.
I latch on to Van’s cool liquid essence and push against it, following it back to him, wherever he is. I want to surround him with my energy the way his comes to me. I don’t know if any of them experience me in that way, but I am more than willing to try. Maybe I’ll get through to him this way, and it can be enough until we have time to patch things up.
A sharp, edgy energy pokes through and I recognize Tobias in an instant. I wonder if getting close to Van is what pulls Tobias’s energy in. I don’t pretend to understand any of it.
I rub my fingers over my medallion, welcoming Tobias, inviting him closer. I can almost feel his essence surrounding me in the bed, and then in a flash his energy slams into me, pressing me into the mattress, holding me down as it moves into my body. Tobias is inside me. I can feel the weight of him all the way through my extremities. He’s trying to take over my mind. He’s forcing me to lose consciousness and fall away. I close my eyes unable to resist his pull.
I’m standing in the woods, surrounded by ravens. The white wolf steps out from behind the trees, the edges of his form getting lost against the backdrop of snow. Tobias’s rough energy presses against me and takes all of my attention.
“What are you doing? Why am I here?” I call out to him but he doesn’t respond, he just watches me with his amber eyes and then looks up into the trees.
The ravens circle and hover above me, occasionally swooping down and diving in front of my face. The birds watch me with their dark eyes as a humming fills my ears. It’s like a human voice combined with the rolling call of the raven, and it sings into my heart with a longing ache so deep that it brings tears to my eyes.
I’ve seen this before. I’ve been here before.
“Stop! Tobias, please! I don’t understand!”
The sound of a woman’s voice echoes into the night, a distant scream over the humming. Then, a series of images flash in my mind. Fiery red eyes, a wolf howling, sparkling flames like fireworks curling into the night. A flash of fangs comes at me from the shadows and tears at my throat. I try to scream, but the wound is too big and there is too much blood and the woman screams again as the fangs flash once more.
The ravens are back, circling again, pecking at my hands as if nudging me to move. But I’m frozen in this world of blood and teeth and death from the shadows.
“Tobias! Please!”
The woman’s scream comes again, and this time it morphs from a keening wail into the howl of a wolf as it fades away.
I turn to the wolf, pleading for help, but he turns and walks away from me, disappearing under the evergreen boughs.
“Don’t go. I’m afraid,” I call to him.
The huge beast turns back and his words appear in my head as if I heard them, though he has yet to make a sound.
You’re not alone. Go to them. Their blood calls for you.
I’m falling. The black birds circle
