Brodi Ashton: Evertrue

I nodded. “I’ll leave the window unlocked.”

I ran inside, straight past my dad’s study. As I walked by, he looked up from his laptop.

“It’s a little late. How was your date?” he asked.

“Fine.” We broke into an immortal’s condo, looking to steal my heart, which is now a compass. But we came up empty-handed. “Um . . . the usual boring stuff. Good night,” I called out over my shoulder.

“Next time, you’re home by midnight,” my dad said back.

As I got ready for bed, I could no longer keep my disappointment at bay. We didn’t have my heart, so we were no closer to turning me back into a human. Not only that, but tonight showed that Cole had anticipated we would search his apartment. He wasn’t just one step ahead of us; he was several.

He’d predicted we’d go for the safe.

I shook my head as I put toothpaste on my toothbrush. Cole had always known me too well. It was how he’d convinced me to go to the Feed with him in the first place. It was how he’d been able to trick me into feeding on him three times in the Everneath.

I washed my face and then looked at myself in the mirror and yawned. There were dark circles under my eyes, the kind that had only ever appeared when I’d been out all night, and my face was paler than usual.

Maybe I wasn’t sleeping very well.

I went to my room and opened the window for Jack.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

My hand flew up to my face. It must’ve been more noticeable than I thought. “Yes. I just suddenly felt really exhausted.”

Jack frowned. “Are you sick?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m sure I’m just tired from breaking and entering. Nothing more.”

Jack pressed his lips together as if he were reluctant to give up on the subject, but I pulled him toward my bed and wrapped my arms around him.

“We’re never going to find my heart if Cole doesn’t want us to,” I said, my eyelids drooping. “Now that he’s back in town, I say that tomorrow we confront him.”

Jack smiled. “Tomorrow you have summer school.”

“Ugh,” I said. “Okay, after summer school.” I could hear the exhaustion in my voice.

“Just sleep for now, Becks. We’ll figure it out.”

When I could no longer keep my eyes open, I fell asleep entangled in Jack’s arms. There was nowhere else I’d rather be. I just had to find a way to stay there.

At night. My bedroom.

I’m running down a series of hallways. Something, or someone, is after me. The walls of the hallways begin to close in. Hands reach out from deep within the walls, grabbing at my hair, my arms, my legs.

I turn a sharp corner and run into a tall, regal woman with fiery red hair.

The queen of the Everneath. Adonia. My heartbeat speeds up at the sight of her.

“I see you,” she says.

“No,” I try to say, but no sound comes from my mouth. I scramble backward and trip over something at my feet.

It’s a body. Lying on its stomach. I grab the shoulder and turn the body over, and there is my own face, staring back at me. Lifeless. I try to scream, still unable to make a sound.

The queen crouches down beside me. “I see you. You will try. You will lose. You will die.”

“I don’t want the throne!” I try to scream, but it comes out in a whisper. “I don’t want it!”

I woke with a start, my hand pressed against my chest. I knew it was a dream. Only a dream. But dreams had a funny way of being connected with the Everneath. I was scared the queen really could see me: the girl who threatened the throne. What was worse, I was scared the queen would find me.

It took me several long blinks to wipe the cobwebs from my eyes, and even then the world seemed smoggy, as if I’d taken a sleeping pill last night.

Jack wasn’t in bed, so I hoisted myself up and went to the kitchen looking for him. Movement from the window caught my eye. There he was, standing in front of the chestnut tree, his feet apart in an athletic stance, his shoulders hunched, his fists in front of his chest, ready to throw a block. He cocked his arm back and then punched the trunk of the tree over and over, his knuckles becoming bloody and torn. Shards of wood exploded from the tree each time his fist made contact.

I grabbed the windowsill for support. I’d never seen anything like it. Yes, he’d punched through the wall last night, but this tree was a solid oak.

He wouldn’t let us focus on the mystery of why he’d come back the way he had, because he said we had more pressing matters, such as my immortality. But watching him right now, I wondered if we were focusing on the wrong thing.

I leaned closer to the window. “Jack!”

He didn’t turn around for a moment. His shoulders relaxed and lost most of their rigidity from just seconds before. But no matter how he tried to compose himself, I knew he was upset about our failed attempt to retrieve my heart. Even more upset, probably, that I had told Cole I’d rather die than become queen of the Everneath. After everything we’d been through, I knew that Jack would prefer I stay alive no matter the cost. It was the one point we’d never agree on. I would never become an Everliving if it meant feeding on other people. At the same time, he would rather become my Forfeit than see me die.

I’d given up hope that we’d ever agree. Now I could only hope it would never come to that.

He finally turned around and flashed me a dazzling smile.

“Hey, Becks,” he said. “I didn’t know you were awake.”

“I didn’t know you hated trees so much.” I frowned. “What are you doing?”

He looked down at his hands, his bloody knuckles. He stretched his fingers wide and clenched them again. “I don’t know. I was trying to see just how much pain I could withstand.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “A lot, apparently. Do you feel better now, knowing?”

He nodded, about as out of breath as if he’d just jogged for a block. I’d exerted more effort climbing out of bed. There was no wincing or tightness in his eyes. No sign that he’d felt any pain at all, even as a small drop of blood ran down his hand and off his finger. He wiped it on his jeans.

A folded piece of paper at his feet caught my eye. “Did you drop something?”

Jack looked down and quickly scooped up the paper, putting it in his pocket.

“What was it?” I asked.

“Your note.”

He didn’t have to specify which note. I knew the one. Last year, after the Christmas dance, he had left a note in my pocket with two words written on it.

Ever Yours

When I’d gone to the Everneath to save him from the Tunnels, I had brought the note and left it in his hand. He’d literally used it to find his way back to me. Now he never let it out of his possession.

“Come inside,” I said. “I’ll make us some coffee before school.”

He nodded again and walked away in the direction of my front door, using the sleeve of his hoodie to wipe the sweat from his brow. Beating up trees must’ve been quite a workout.

Jack came in, and I started the coffeemaker. He sat down and absentmindedly reached for the watercolor painting on the kitchen table, a summer art project by Tommy.

When he finally looked up at me, his mouth dropped open a little. “Becks, you look worse now than you did last night.”

I put my hand up to my cheek. I hadn’t had a chance to look in a mirror. “I don’t think I slept very well. Bad dream.”

He came over and put his arms around me, pulling me close. “What about?”

“The queen. She had me trapped in a hallway with thousands of hands sticking out. She kept saying that she sees me. I couldn’t hide.” I left out the part about the dead body at my feet. I didn’t want Jack to worry about my state of mind. “Doesn’t mean anything.”