Witch and Wizard_ The Fire - James Patterson [35]
I frown, uncertain what to make of this. Whit’s kneading his knuckles into his forehead, deep in thought.
“Don’t you understand the implications of your power, darling? If The One Who Is The One succeeds, it will be the end of the last shred of free will any of us has left. It will be the end of resistance, of creativity, even hope. It will be the end of … everything.”
“Okay.” I sigh, feeling like a very heavy chain has just been placed around my neck. “But what am I actually supposed to do to beat The One? My so-called Gift feels like this thing that’s so much bigger than me, something I can’t even totally control, and I’m not even sure what it’s for.”
Mrs. H. considers her answer. “The Gift is certainly not to be used to be God. Only to prevent others from trying to be God.” I nod, waiting for a directive, but Mrs. H. shakes her head. “I can’t tell you exactly how to use these tremendous Gifts you’ve been given,” she says gravely. “To grow and to understand the Prophecy, you must learn to master them on your own.”
I sigh, the gravity of this situation settling in my gut.
I’m supposed to infiltrate a heavily guarded compound and pick a fight with the most powerful being the world has ever seen, and Whit is supposed to go stumbling through the Shadowland, where people either are eaten by the voracious Lost Ones or get so lost in the haze that their minds turn to gruel. All because of a Prophecy someone saw written on a wall. Because, for some reason, they all believe in us, a truant and a foolball star.
I look at Whit, the one person I can always count on, who has been with me through every terrible loss, every struggle, every victory. Are we really going to do this?
Whit nods, his eyes bright with hope, and I squeeze his hand, suppressing a feeling of panic. Of course we are.
Besides our lives, what else have we got to lose?
Chapter 35
Whit
THE SHADOWLAND IS a labyrinth of despair.
It’s a knot of wrong turns, a blanket of fog weakening your resolve, a stench of lost souls who’ll do anything to claw their way out of this purgatory. The Shadowland is the taste of fear in your mouth urging you forward, deeper into the maze, farther from any connection to time, sanity, or the living.
But the Shadowland is also Celia, the girl I loved and lost, a beautiful soul known in this purgatory as a Half-light, whose life was taken too early, whom I’d do anything to get back. And now it’s my parents, waiting for me by a river in the depths of its secrets.
So, with a cocktail of emotions coursing through me, I’m finally on my way there.
But first I have to get to the portal — the only one Mrs. H. is sure is still in operation. It’s deep in an area of the capital I’ve never been through before. I walk briskly, and soon the elegant white stone buildings give way to a concrete no-man’s-land full of heavily guarded factories belching thick, white steam into the still air.
I turn down a narrow alleyway, and shadows shift as men bundled in rags move away from me in the dark. I stand straighter, trying to make the most of my big frame.
I walk beside the concrete wall, barbed wire snarling along the top, twelve feet up. A red sign tacked to it reads TESTING FACILITY — KEEP OUT. Two exhausted-looking soldiers are keeping watch, but one appears more concerned with rolling a cigarette. The security measures almost seem ridiculous anyway; the rumors of what goes on in The One’s experimental labs are more than enough to keep out the curious.
Except vengeful wizards, I guess.
Though these guys seem like slackers, I see the brass N.O.P.E. pin of honor on the soldiers’ uniforms, meaning that they