Soul Betrayed (19 page)

We stared each other down until she broke first. “We’ll see about that. This isn’t something you just learn in a day.”

“You saw what I could do,” I challenged.

“And you saw what I did,” she retorted.

I inhaled sharply. But I knew she was baiting me. I clenched my hands into fists and held back the urge to shove her against the wall.

Instead she turned on me, her hands wrapping around my shoulders. “I’ve been doing this for a while. Believe me when I tell you that this is going to take some time.” She let go of me and I stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth, more embarrassed than anything.

We reached the end of the hallway and went through a door. Inside the room was brightly lit. There was no furniture, only four white walls. I turned around in a circle.

Before I could say anything, Hannah pressed her fingers against the far wall and it shimmered in front of us. The walls transformed into an entrance made of brown rock and flickering light further in threw dancing shadows on the wall.

Hannah didn’t bother waiting for me but trudged through the space into the darkness.

I followed her. Something moved behind me and I jumped. Where we had entered from had closed off, revealing another rock wall as if there had never been another room. My stomach flip-flopped. There was no turning back now.

We descended further into the cave, making my breath quicken. The walls appeared to close in on us. A lightness spread through my head and I reached out to hold the walls for support, my fingers snagging on the rough rock face but that was the only thing that prevented me from falling.

I tripped over something and almost crashed into Hannah. My breathing was loud in my ears and my limbs were heavy.

“That’s interesting,” Hannah commented.

“What. Is. Happening? I asked between deep breaths. My chest was heavy and I found it hard to take a satisfying breath that filled my lungs.

“You can feel the energy here. Abidan might have been right about you.”

Without looking up I could hear the smile in her voice. If I reacted like this on the way to wherever we were going, I couldn’t imagine being able to hold back. At that moment I wanted to run back into Jackson’s arms and get the hell out of there. But my father’s stern expression flew to the front of my mind. Had he been right about me? Just like he always was?

“If you stop fighting it, it might get easier.”

My teeth ground together as I choked out a breath. I focused on Father’s face. The one person who I wanted to prove my worth to. What would he think of me now? He would probably laugh in my face and say, ‘I told you so.’

“Get up,” Hannah commanded. Her hands grabbed me under the arms and lifted me from the ground.

I stumbled back but she held me firmly.

“Take deep breaths,” she soothed. For a second I could have sworn she was sincere until she loosened her grip and I fell against the wall.

          “This place holds the energy we need to survive.”

Hannah’s hands moved over the rock in a strange pattern as she spoke. “I don’t know how much Jackson has told you, but it is upon Abidan’s request that I inform you of your heritage.”

I didn’t know if it would help, but I remembered the night at the warehouse when I was able to take control of the other Shadowed. And when I was able to let them go. I closed my eyes and concentrated. My breathing came slower and I could feel my lungs expanding and my heart rate slowing. The power was deep inside of me and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to control it, but I had to try. Proving my father wrong would be worth any pain I felt.

“I know what I am.”

Hannah’s hands hovered over the wall, her fingers moving slightly as her black essence spilled out of her hand until it completely enveloped it. It slithered around just like the True Soul had in mine countless times. I recoiled, the vision of Leha’s terrified expression flashed before my eyes. It undulated quicker and quicker until it exploded, moving in all directions across the wall. She thrust her hands over her head and moved them downward. The essence followed her movement, opening yet another doorway.

Hannah stepped into the room which wasn’t as large as the main room where the Shadowed congregated, but it was much more menacing. Slick black walls towered over us. This room didn’t affect me as much as the rock corridor did, but what was in front of us was much worse than I imagined.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

On either side of the room were cages each over ten-foot tall. I counted six on each side. Instead of bars, the protective barrier looked like Hannah’s essence in long thin lines, preventing anything from coming out. The cages were empty, but I had a feeling that wasn’t always the case. I wasn’t blind to the fact that the Shadowed needed victims to feed from, but something about trapping victims in these cages seemed immoral. But these were the Shadowed we were dealing with.

“A Rodas is one of the most important aspects of the After.” She said as she breezed past the cages, indicating I should follow her.

I scanned the room. There wasn’t anyone else present, so what was stopping me from ending Hannah right here? Half of our problems would be solved but killing Hannah wouldn’t help me find Jamie. I buried my feelings for now and shuffled past the cages, my skin crawling.

Hannah stopped in front of a heavy curtain, turning to me. “You will have the ability to take a human soul and use the energy to feed your kind.”

She turned away and pushed through the curtain. I followed.

“How come you can do what I can?” I asked boldly. This room was circular and made of the same rock face as the corridor we had entered from, but without the debilitating energy.

She considered me for a moment, as if gauging how much information to give me. “I was born a human. My mother was quite young. She was without means to care for me so one day she left me in the streets of a strange town to fend for myself.” Hannah’s eyes narrowed as if daring me to feel pity for her, but I said nothing. “Abidan found me. At the time I was an experiment to him.” Her fingers twitched and a faint whisper of her essence rolled around her hand.

“An experiment? What did they do to you?”

The Caeleste were dying. Fast. They needed a cure to keep them alive on this Realm since your ancestors prevented them from returning. I was that cure.” Hannah’s eyes were far away but proud. “Noah injected me with his essence. And even though it killed us both, when I was trained in my powers, I was eventually able to keep the rest alive.” Her hands opened at her sides and she peered down at them as if they were the savior of the Realm.

I had to hide the disgust from my face. Jackson had been right. She was prideful, a flaw that could be used against her. “How?”

Hannah grinned, the expression softening her face, making her appear the most human I’d ever seen her. “The Rodas are able to take the life force from souls and pass it to other Caeleste. I am only able to take it.”

I thought of Leha in the warehouse and how her soul remained when her body had been long gone. That night I could have sworn that Leha’s soul was still with Hannah. Until it disappeared.

“The energy you feel in this part of my home is from me. I am able to extract the life force and transfer it to this space.” She smoothed her hand across the rock and I could have sworn I saw it glisten under her touch. “The rock holds the energy and the others are able to remain alive, even in soul state.”

My stomach churned at the thought of Leha’s soul being trapped in that rock. “If you give energy to the Caeleste why do the others need it?”

“Without the True Soul that the other Caeleste have denied our followers,” she explained, “their souls are incomplete. They need to feed from another soul to survive. Just like Abidan does.”

It made my heart ache to think that any soul could forever be without their True Soul. My mind stirred with questions. When the Guard attacked a Shadowed with a broadsword embedded with a True Soul their soul disintegrated into a substance similar to Hannah’s essence. By feeding from her, were their souls transforming into something darker? I knew for a Shadowed to Possess a human they usually latched onto weak souls. Did the darkness live within these walls as well as inside their souls? Would their True Soul even be able to recognize them even if I got them into the After? Had Abidan thought of that?

“Where are the other Caeleste?” I asked, realizing Abidan was the only one I’d ever met on this Realm.

“They are kept separate,” she said quickly. “Abidan wants to protect them until he breaks through the Gate. Then they can all be reunited.”

Hannah had been confident about a lot of things, but her voice wavered with her answer. Just like I felt with Abidan, I knew they were keeping secrets.

“Enough of the history lesson.” Hannah flipped a switch, turning on a spotlight aimed at the middle of the room.

A form materialized from the shadows and I jumped back. Had he been there the whole time? He scrutinized me and I raised my chin, staring back. His hazel eyes glistened under the spotlight. He dropped down on his knee, appearing to bow before Hannah.

Seriously? If she wasn’t sufficiently full of herself already.

But his hand moved across the ground and when the Shadowed stood, he was holding a metal hatch. He pulled out from it a shackle with a thick-linked chain attached to it. The chain was short and the Shadowed locked it in place when he closed the hatch and disappeared from the room. I wasn’t sure I was ready to know why they needed a shackle, but I found out quicker than I imagined.

Hannah turned to me. “This is your first lesson.” Her hands steepled in front of her face. “You have to reach down into your soul and accept your powers.”

She glared at me through her fingers and I mimicked her movements. I closed my eyes and deliberately focused on anything but my powers….
Jackson
. Jackson’s face filled my vision. His full lips grinned at me. As long as I had him, I could do anything. Even though my father’s approval of my life had bothered me, I couldn’t imagine life without Jackson.

The sound of rock sliding against rock pulled my attention back to the present. The Shadowed had returned through a new doorway with a human in tow. The man had a cloth on his head and I had a sense of déjà vu when I’d seen Robert being dragged down the hallway of the base. The Shadowed put the shackle on the prisoner’s ankle then pulled off the sack from Robert’s head, but I realized it wasn’t him. He wasn’t human. At least not anymore.

I’d been around enough Prognatum to know one when I saw one.

My body temperature spiked and I stepped closer to him. The Prognatum looked up, his eyes squinting against the light. He was an attractive man with a military-style shaved head, reminding me of Thomas. His eyes widened in my direction and I assumed he knew me because of my rumored powers. I wanted to convey to him that I wasn’t going to hurt him. Although if he was here, I wasn’t able to guarantee what Hannah was about to do.

“Have I missed the good part?” Abidan’s voice called as he entered from the cage room.

“We’re just starting,” Hannah said and turned a steely gaze on the Prognatum. “Get up.”

He struggled to move his body, I assumed the rope tying his hands together didn’t help. Even though I was sure about what I was going to see, I hoped to be wrong. I couldn’t watch her take another Prognatum.

My breath hitched. “I thought you fed from human souls?”

“Margaret,” Abidan said condescendingly. “We are trying to save humans. Prognatum on the other hand…they are made from us. It’s almost like recycling.” He clapped his hands, before circling the Prognatum like a vulture waiting for his next meal. “And when they betray us, they become the enemy. How many of my followers has he and the other Guard taken? It’s only fair.”

The Prognatum stared at the ground. “You will never get through the Gate.” He spoke in a low voice, but it held a threatening tone. “They will come for you.”

Hannah stepped closer to him but the Prognatum stayed in his place. “And what makes you think that?”

The Prognatum said nothing, his eyes staring at the ground.

Abidan knelt by the Prognatum, taking his chin into his hand. “You have one more chance, boy. Join us or become a part of us.”

“You don’t deserve to live in the After,” the Prognatum said.

“Enough of this,” Abidan said and snapped his fingers. The Shadowed came over and put the cloth back over the Prognatum’s head. “I don’t like to see their faces.” He glanced at me with a pained expression as if he wasn’t the one to just sentence the Prognatum to death.

The Prognatum started to mumble under the cloth. It sounded like a prayer. I willed my body to stay calm. I knew what I was about to see but I couldn’t do anything to stop it. At least not yet.

Hannah shoved her hands against his chest and his cries of pain were muffled under the cloth. I bit my lip to prevent myself from screaming, my body frozen in place. Leha’s death washed over me and I attempted to shove those emotions away. I glanced at Abidan whose eyes were on mine and slid my gaze over to the dying Prognatum, keeping my expression blank.

The black essence pooled around her hands and feet spreading upward. I focused on the smoke-like being that I knew intimately. I knew the feeling of it. The strength. Tingles rode up and down my spine in quick succession like a roller coaster, leading down to my extremities. My legs went numb. Hannah spread her fingers wide and I did the same. Something within me altered and I stepped forward. The Prognatum had stopped screaming. His body wobbled stiffly as if Hannah’s hand was a kickstand, the only thing keeping him upright.

Abidan touched my shoulder and I leaned into him. “Don’t get too close.”

I dipped my shoulder, and his grip loosened. I didn’t need anyone telling me how to handle the essence. I stalked around the Prognatum, mesmerized by the way Hannah’s essence elegantly moved around the once-alive creature. As it made its way higher I could start to see the soul shimmer under the surface.

I gasped lightly. I hadn’t been able to see a non-corporeal soul since I met my human body again. I’d almost forgotten its beauty. Hannah shifted her feet and the essence quickened its pace, enveloping the last of the Prognatum. She closed her eyes and pulled her hands back, the essence coming with it. A few things happened in quick succession. The body dropped to the floor, leaving the shimmering form of his soul standing in his place. The soul looked as if it were in a trance. I stopped behind Hannah, entranced by the dull expression on his face. She turned quickly and the soul responded by following her.