The Haunted - Jessica Verday [103]
“I am sorry we did not tell you before, when you came to see us,” she said. “How does one bring up the nearness of death? But once the Revenants find you, a choice must be made.
They found me a year after Nikolas and I had met. We both thought that perhaps it would be longer for you.”
“That’s why I urged you to reconsider,” said Nikolas. “To stay away from Caspian. To pay attention to what I could not say, in a desperate hope that it would save your life.”
“You told her to stay away from me?” Caspian asked.
Nikolas gave him a hard look. “Have you even seen two sides of a whole? There is usually a dark half and a light half. Now, between Katy and me, I know that I am the darker half. I have much blood upon these hands as a soldier for hire in my past life, and I’m betting that between you and Abbey, she is the light one. So what dark secrets do you hold, boy?” Caspian looked angry. “Did you ever think that things might have changed? We don’t live and die by the sword anymore. I may not have a lifetime of darkness to atone for. Maybe I just need her to be the star in my night sky. To hold back the darkness and to let me see the light.” He looked at me then, and my throat went dry. “Or maybe it really is as simple as something in her fills the hollow in me. The black void disappears when we are together.” I linked my hands together and stared down at them, in awe of what he’d just said. His words filled my heart until all the cracks that had once been there were gone.
“If that is what she means to you, then you are the one,” Nikolas said. “And I extend my hand.”
I looked up in time to see them shaking solemnly, and I mouthed the words I love you to Caspian. He smiled his breathtaking smile at me, and my toes went numb.
Nikolas cleared his throat, and I blushed, realizing that my feelings were probably written all over my face.
“Okay,” Caspian said, directing us back to the topic at hand. “So now we know why the Revenants are here.”
“Actually, that is the problem,” Nikolas replied. A fretful look was back on his face.
“Revenants don’t work alone. They are paired into teams of two, and only one team is needed.”
“So when Katy… passed, and the Revenants were here, there were only two of them?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why are there five of them now?” said Caspian.
“We don’t know,” Katy replied.
“Tell me more about this Vincent Drake,” Nikolas asked me. “He was aggressive toward you?”
“Yeah, he was.” I remembered that moment in the alley, and I shivered. “And he grabbed Caspian by the throat and threw him.”
Nikolas shook his head. “That does not make any sense. Revenants help, not harm. This is a troublesome situation. I am fearful of what it means.”
“It means that I’m going to die soon, you don’t know what’s going to happen to me and Caspian once I die and we’re completed or whatever, and the Revenants may or may not be here to cause that death!” Everything suddenly felt like it was crashing down on me, and I buried my head in my arms.
“I think Abbey should go home and get some rest,” Caspian said.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled.
“No, you’re not. You need to get some sleep and have some time to process this.” I lifted my head. “Hey, I know! We can go on the run. Leave town. If we stay away long enough, maybe Vincent and the Revenants will leave.”
“They will find you, Abbey,” Katy said. “It may take a month, it may take a year, but in the end it’s only a matter of time.”
“So is it like a bloodhound thing?” I asked. “They have my scent now?”
“Something like that,” Nikolas said. “We are not certain of everything.” I laughed, and even I could hear the note of hysteria in my voice. “All I should have to do then is change my perfume. Ha! Great.”
Caspian stood up abruptly. “Let’s go.”
He gave me a stern glare, and I reluctantly stood up too. “I could just stay here,” I argued.
“I’d be safe here.”
“Home. Bed. Now,” Caspian ordered.
“Okay, okay. It was just a suggestion. Geez.”
He ushered me out of the house, and we found ourselves back on the path. I let him