Everlast (The Chronicles of Nerissette) (Entangled Teen) Read online

  “As you wish, then.” He turned away from me and made his way to a large wooden chest in the corner of the room. He waved his left hand and the chest’s lid flew open.

  He held his hands out, palms down, and golden light began to pour from his fingertips. His lips moved but no sounds came out, and his hands shook.

  A black box with golden roses carved into it slowly floated upward, hovering beneath his hands. Light seeped through the cracks in its lid. He stepped away from the chest and turned toward us.

  “Come to the table,” he said, his voice strained. “Let us finish this.”

  Winston helped me to stand, and together we walked slowly toward the table where the Fate Maker had stopped, the box just barely floating over the tabletop.

  “Avautua,” Esmeralda said quietly.

  The lid slid backward. I stepped closer, and my breath caught as I saw the glowing, twisted, metal crown inside.

  “Touch it,” Esmeralda said. “If you are the Golden Rose you’ll be able to touch the Rose Crown.”

  “But what if I’m not?” I asked. “What happens then?”

  “The crown will mark you. A pain that will sear itself into your very bones,” the Fate Maker said. “A wound that will forever scar you—that is, if it doesn’t simply kill you in a horrible, intensely agonizing death instead.”

  “What about our families?” I looked over at the others. “What about them?”

  “I don’t understand,” Esmeralda said.

  “What happens if I am your queen? What happens to them, I mean? Are they forced to come here?” Would they bring my mother here? Would she be trapped here along with me? Would Gran Mosely?

  “Of course not,” she said. “They’re of no use to us.”

  “But don’t you think they’ll worry? You took us from a public library in a flash of smoke. Someone will have seen. People will be freaking out. You can’t just steal people’s kids and expect nothing to happen.”

  “But nothing will happen,” Esmeralda said. “Because nothing was seen. You weren’t seen.”

  “But—”

  “For the World That Is, none of you exist,” Esmeralda said.

  “Wait.” Heidi held up a hand. “What? We don’t exist?”

  “You have been erased from their world. No shadow of you remains there. There are no memories, no dreams, no one to notice that you’re gone.”

  “But what happens when we go back?” I asked. “Then we’re what? Just strange, homeless kids?”

  “Of course not.” She looked up at me, her eyes shining. “You’ll slot back into the world as if you never left. They’ll remember you, and the time you were apart will be nothing more than a dream that none of them can quite remember.”

  “But that—us going home and slotting back into our lives—can’t happen unless you’re sure that I’m not actually your queen?”

  “No. We must know if you’re the Rose.”

  “Right. Okay.”

  I held my hand out toward the crown, and my shoulders started to tremble. I took a deep breath and then stopped. What if I wasn’t their lost princess? I’d be burned, scarred.

  But if it didn’t kill me we could all leave. I could go home and back to my normal, boring life. I didn’t want to hurt myself, but if it was that or being forced to stay here forever, then perhaps a bit of pain was worth it to get home. To make sure my friends got home. To be with my mom again. “Oh, this is so stupid,” Heidi said, breaking me out of my own thoughts. “It’s just a crown.”

  She stalked forward and shoved me out of her way and farther into Winston’s arms. “If all it takes is picking up the stupid crown to become queen, I’ll do it. I’d be a better queen than Allie anyway.”

  She reached out for the crown, and it started to buzz a low, discordant note.

  I grabbed her wrist to stop her. The idea of Heidi touching that crown—my crown, a tiny voice in the back of my head screamed—made my skin crawl.

  She jerked her hand away from mine. “What are you doing?”

  I bit my lower lip, and then let go of her hand. “Don’t touch it. It’s not meant for you.”

  “And it’s what? Meant for you? Let’s be serious. If anyone here is a lost princess it’s me, not you.”

  “I hope you’re right. Then we can go home. Either way, why not let me touch it first?” I closed my eyes, and my hand dropped to the top of the crown. It was warm, and I could feel it vibrating against my fingertips, almost like it was purring.

  “Oh crap.” Heidi swallowed, her wide hazel eyes meeting mine. “If I would have touched that…”

  “Yeah.” I shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

  “All hail the Last Great Rose of Nerissette,” Esmeralda said, her own voice quiet. “May the stars save us all.”

  Chapter Five

  “But I don’t want to be queen,” I said softly. “I’m not cut out to be a queen.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” Esmeralda explained. “You are queen.”

  “What if I refuse?” I asked desperately. I could refuse. I could tell them no and order them to send me home. They could find some other queen to run the place.

  “If you rebel against the will of Fate, then chaos will descend. Everything we know will be destroyed. People will die. Fate will take a revenge upon our world that will devour us all, and Kuolema will come for you to devour your bones.”

  “That sounds bad.” So much for refusing, then.

  “She is a vengeful master,” Esmeralda said. “If you defy her there will be consequences.”

  She padded over to the Fate Maker and glared up at him. “You need to do the spells now. Now that there is no question of who she is, you must do the spells.”

  “We could still send her back,” the Fate Maker said. “We’re the only people who know she’s here. No one would ever find out. We can keep Nerissette safe.”

  “We can’t. This is the will of Fate.”

  “We could wait until she’s older. When we’ve had more time to prepare, when we know what will come next.”

  “Fate waits for no one,” Esmeralda said. “She comes in the time of her choosing.”

  “But the girl’s not ready. What if she destroys everything we’ve built?”

  “When the time comes she will be ready,” Esmeralda said. “And we’ve always known the end of our ways was coming—and soon. Now, you must do the spells. No more excuses, no more delays. The Time of Waiting is at an end, and we all have a part to play.”

  “The things to come will be terrible,” the Fate Maker said. “The end of everything.”

  “I know.” Esmeralda’s voice seemed defeated for the first time. “But we are the servants of Fate, and we cannot oppose her. Otherwise, there will be grave consequences.”

  He closed his eyes and grimaced. “Fine.”

  He let his hands drop, and then the box clattered onto the table, its lid sliding shut so quickly I barely had time to get my fingers clear before the lock snapped back into place.

  “Stand back, Princess,” Esmeralda said. “Away from the others.”

  “Why?” I looked at her and the wizard standing across from us, and then at my friends, clumped together.

  “Because they are not of this world, and they must be brought into the fold of Fate’s cloak,” the Fate Maker said, his voice dark and hoarse.

  “And what about me?” I asked.

  He opened his eyes and stared at me, his red eyes fathomless and unreadable. “Fate knew you as her own before the first winds blew over the Veldt. Like all of us, you’ve been sealed to her whims since before the first star was born in the sky.”

  “And them?”

  “They’re from the World of Waking,” Esmeralda said, her voice a low, throbbing whisper. “They are the children of her brother—Free Will. Now step back so that the Fate Maker can do the spells that will make them her own. Otherwise they can’t stay.”

  “But if they can go back,” I said, “shouldn’t we let them?”

&n
bsp; “They can’t go back.”

  “If they can’t be here and can’t go back…”

  Winston grasped Mercedes’s hand, his chocolate eyes fixed on mine. He nodded once, silently.

  I swallowed. I couldn’t send them back, and they couldn’t stay. To keep them safe I was going to have to kill my friends. “Will it…”

  “No,” Esmeralda said. “It won’t hurt any of them. A flash of light and some noise and then it’s done.”

  Winston pushed forward. “I’ll go first.”

  “Perhaps one of the others?” the Fate Maker said. “An easier transformation.”

  “I said, I’ll go first.” Winston moved closer to him. “So do it. Whatever it is, just do it.”

  “Right.” The Fate Maker nodded at him. “It seems Fate chose well with you, Winston Carruthers.” He looked up at the rest of us. “You’ll all need to stay back. This particular spell is…” He grimaced. “Messy.”

  “Messy?” I asked.

  Instead of answering, the Fate Maker pushed back the long, billowing sleeves of his robe and raised his hands, his eyes fixed on Winston. He mumbled a low, hissing chant that I couldn’t understand, and red sparks flew from his hands.

  There was a sharp snap, and the spot where one of my closest friends had just stood was enveloped in blue-black flames. The air crackled, and heat billowed around us as the flames licked at the wooden rafters above our heads.

  There was a sharp, anguished scream from inside the flames, and I watched the shadow where my friend had been, glowing, inside the dark fire. He writhed against the heat. The figure shimmered once, caught in the flames, and then crumpled to the floor.

  “Winst—” I lunged forward.

  The Fate Maker threw a hand out to stop me. “Give him a second to become accustomed to the change.”

  There was a loud, agonized roar—the howl I had imagined would come from one of the fanged beasts that I’d thought were only fairy-tale monsters. The howl turned into a high-pitched wail as the flames folded in on themselves. Slowly, they disappeared into the huddled form of the broken boy lying on the floor in front of me.

  I stared intently at the still, silent body. “You said it wouldn’t hurt him.”

  Winston’s shoulder twitched, and then his back heaved as he made a sudden gasp for air. He sat upright like he’d been jerked awake by nightmares.

  My heart pounded. “Winston?”

  “Okay, that was weird. Those sparks came out of your fingers, and then it got really hot but nothing happened,” Winston said. “And now I just feel strange. What happened?”

  “Man…” Jesse pointed at him. “You were on fire. Like real fire. Flames, poof!”

  Winston looked at the rest of us.

  “Try it out,” the Fate Maker said. “Close your eyes and focus.”

  “Focus on what?”

  “You’ll know once you try.”

  Winston pushed himself to his feet and licked his lips. He nodded and shut his eyes, focusing as instructed. He started to shake, sweat beading on his forehead, and the room darkened. Suddenly he seemed to waver, like that image of water you see on the highway when it’s really hot. One second he was there and the next he was a shimmery mirage.

  The image shattered then, and Winston screamed again, another agonizing wail that made me clench my eyes shut and cover my ears with my hands to escape the sound. The range of his voice changed, and the scream became a roar, so loud that I couldn’t block it out. Tears slipped down my cheeks without my permission.

  By the stars, what had I done bringing my friends into this nightmare with me?

  I felt the Fate Maker’s arm around my waist, and he reached up to pull my hands away from my ears. “He’s fine. Open your eyes and see how glorious he is. Truly my best work yet.”

  I cracked my eyes open and my jaw dropped. Where Winston had stood there was now an enormous black dragon with smoke curling out of his nostrils and heavy blue-black wings outspread from his back.

  “Win?” I stepped forward when the dragon lowered its head toward me. “Are you in there?”

  The dragon snorted and dipped its snout to sniff. I tried not to giggle at the feel of his hot breath on my neck—right now didn’t really seem like the best time to break out in hysterics.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. The dragon snorted against my neck again.

  “Very good, Winston.” The Fate Maker clapped his hands once. “You will make an excellent Queen’s Champion. You were born to fly.”

  “Yeah, well, I have to say the wings help,” Mercedes said.

  “Now.” The Fate Maker rubbed his palms together. “You’re taking up quite a bit of space, and we’ve got some more magic to make. Would you mind going back to your two-legged form? Same process as before, only in reverse. Close your eyes, concentrate, and I’ll take it from there since we’re in mixed company.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Mercedes asked.

  “The dragon is magical. His clothes, unfortunately, are not.” The Fate Maker glared at her, and we all looked at the ground at Winston’s feet, staring at the destroyed clothes littered there.

  “You mean he’s going to be—” Jesse shook his head. “Aw man, that’s not cool.”

  “I can conjure some new ones as he changes shape,” the Fate Maker said. “Now, everyone be quiet and let’s continue. We’ve quite a bit to do still.”

  The large dragon stood upright and flapped its wings experimentally before closing his eyes. Flames erupted again, but this time there was only a quiet groan from inside them.

  The flames died away, and Winston kneeled where the dragon had been, clutching his head and wearing clothes identical to the ones he’d destroyed. “That is brutal.”

  “Oh my God.” I hurried forward, and Mercedes and I wrapped him in a hug. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” he said, his voice hoarse. “If you can get over the fact that every single law of physics has just been violated, I’m completely fine.”

  “Leave it to you to be worried about some stupid laws a couple of dead guys came up with.” I hugged him tighter. “You were a dragon—a dragon—with wings and a tail. You even had smoke coming out of your nose.”

  “Did I at least look cool?”

  Mercedes put a hand on her hip. “If you think looking like a giant black dragon is cool.”

  “You were amazing,” I said.

  He smiled, glancing up at me, and I smiled back. He pressed his shoulder against mine, and my breath caught at how close he was, how warm he still felt from the flames. Mercedes cleared her throat, reminding me that we weren’t alone, and I jerked my gaze away from his while he did the same, making me feel even more awkward than usual.

  “For a reptile, I mean.” I tried to collect myself. “How are you feeling?”

  “Not too bad.” He shifted, and I let him rest some of his weight against me as I helped him stand. “You know, for having just been a mythical creature that isn’t supposed to exist.”

  I followed Winston to one of the benches next to the table Heidi and Jesse had been hiding behind.

  “Now.” The Fate Maker turned to Mercedes and smiled. “The brilliant Miss Garcia, it’s your turn.”

  “You know what?” Mercedes backed away from him, her hands up in front of her. “I’m good without any special powers, thanks. I’ve got my girl Allie’s back just the way I am. Always have. No special powers needed.”

  “Come now.” The Fate Maker raised his arms again, pushing the robes up past his elbows. “I promise this is a much gentler spell. You’ll hardly feel a thing. A little tingle, and it will all be over.”

  “I don’t think—”

  The Fate Maker ignored her, pointing his hands in her direction, green smoke curling out of his fingers. There was a muffled pop, like the first kernels of popcorn in the microwave, and the smoke twisted around my best friend, hiding her inside its tendrils. I heard a loud cough and then saw a hand batting away the smoke.

  �
�Just because I don’t want to be turned into a dragon doesn’t mean you have to gas me,” Mercedes said, coughing again. “Haven’t you ever heard of lung cancer, you creep?”

  “A creep?” the Fate Maker asked, his voice a low grumble. “Like I enjoy doing these spells? I expend my energy, and you call me a creep. I thought teenagers in this world were disrespectful. It shows you how gratitude works among the Otherkind.”

  “Yeah, well, I like breathing, so a little warning would have been nice, thanks.” Mercedes flapped her arm at the smoke again, clearing it.

  “Oh crap,” Winston voiced for us all. I just stared. If I’d thought I was shocked to see Winston turn into a dragon that was nothing compared to this.

  She was green. The same pond-green color her hair had been this morning in Gran’s kitchen. But all of her was green. Her skin, her nails, even her clothes, had turned green. The only things that weren’t green, strangely enough, were her eyes and her hair. Both of them had turned a sort of silvery color, glinting in the light of the room. Her hair had also grown, draping over her shoulders and crackling around her head like a halo instead of lying in its normal short, messy bob.

  “So what happened?” Mercedes asked. “I mean, besides the smoke?”

  “You’re green.”

  “I’m what?”

  “You’re green,” Winston said. “And not in an environmentally friendly sort of way.”

  “I don’t think I quite understand you,” Mercedes said slowly. “What did you say?”

  “For God’s sake.” Heidi pulled a red plastic compact from her jeans pocket. She opened it and held it up in front of Mercedes. “You’re green.”

  “Oh man,” Mercedes said, her voice wavering.

  I looked over at the Fate Maker and narrowed my eyes. “Fix this.”

  “Fix what? I turned her into one of the most powerful dryads Nerissette has ever seen. Don’t tell me that you’re upset she’s because she’s not a more popular shade of green.”

  Mercedes stared at him. “You’ve turned me into a tree sprite? Why? What makes you think I want to be a tree sprite?”

  “Fate doesn’t care about your wants. She sculpts you to her needs.”