Brodi Ashton - Evertrue

Mythology enthusiasts call them Akh ghosts, Akh referring to life after death.

Others call them the souls of the dead, the inhabitants of the Underworld.

But I know they are really the Everliving. They live in an Underworld known as the Everneath, and every hundred years they must feed on—steal emotional energy from—a human sacrifice, called a Forfeit.

I was once a Forfeit.

Now I am an Everliving.

But I will destroy the Everneath before I feed on another human being. And I will destroy anything, or anyone, that stands in my way.

TWO WEEKS AGO

The Surface. My bedroom.

Jack rubbed his eyes and sat up in my bed. “Wait. What did you just say?”

“The Everneath,” I replied. “I said I want to take the whole thing down. Let’s blow it up. Nuke it or something.” My hands started to shake.

Jack glanced at the clock, then reached out toward me. “Come back to bed. Everything is fine. The Tunnels aren’t coming for either of us. It’s over.”

Over. It would never be over. Not anymore. I glanced at the open window, the one Cole had just jumped through after he’d stolen my heart. Jack followed my gaze, saw that the window was open, and looked at me with furrowed brows as if finally sensing that something was very wrong.

“What just happened, Becks?”

“Cole was here.” My voice sounded shaky. “He said that I fed off him three times in the Everneath. He said I’ve lost my heart now. He saw a compass on my desk, and he took it, and . . . and . . .” I gasped.

Jack was by my side in a flash, his thick arms around me. “Shhh. It’s okay. Slow down. You’re saying Cole stole a compass?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “It was lying there on my desk. He said it was my heart.”

Jack held his breath for a moment. “Your heart?”

I nodded and took a deep breath, then did the one thing I’d been scared to do. I grabbed Jack’s hand and placed it over my chest where my heart should’ve been, just as Cole had taken my hand and done the same thing only minutes before.

There was nothing. No heartbeat.

My breathing became frantic. Jack pressed his hand harder onto my skin, held it there for a long moment. His face turned pale. “How . . . ? Why . . . ?”

His voice drifted off as if he weren’t sure what question he wanted to ask.

I flashed back over the past week, to the journey Cole and I had taken through the labyrinth to the center of the Everneath to rescue Jack. The next words spilled out. “When we went through the maze to find you, there were times I had to feed on Cole to keep going.” I shook my head. “He said that since I fed on him three times, I’m going to become an Everliving. Then he said there were certain perks for the Everliving who held my heart. Then . . . he took off with the compass.” I stared at Jack. “My heart.”

Jack looked at the open window. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You were so tired. And I didn’t think there was anything to be afraid of. It was Cole. He . . . he helped me rescue you. He was . . .” My friend. I squeezed my eyes shut and chastised myself. My friend. How could I have been so stupid? So blind? “He tricked me. He only came to the Everneath to get me to feed on him. He never meant to save you. He was even surprised you were here. I should’ve seen it coming.”

I felt my knees buckle, but before I sank too low, Jack held me tighter. “Shhh. It will be okay, Becks.”

“We have to destroy it,” I said. “The Everneath. We have to take the whole thing down.” How could my blood be pulsing so fast without a heart?

Jack nodded and pulled me over to the bed, where we both sat down. “Let’s think this through. The first thing we have to do is get your heart back.” At my manic expression, he held his hand out, palm down. “First, your heart,” he repeated. “Then, after we get it back, we’ll talk about blowing stuff up. I promise.”

“Why?” I sniffed. “What will getting my heart back do?”

“Cole obviously wants it for some advantage. Maybe so he can always have the threat of breaking it.”

I shook my head. “That’s the thing. We were wrong about his heart. His guitar pick. It wouldn’t have killed him if we had broken it that night.” I blew out a breath of air. “He told me every Everliving has two hearts. A Surface heart and an Everneath heart. Break them both, and you become mortal again. That’s how the woman who turned him into an Everliving regained her mortality. But breaking just the Surface one?” I racked my brain, trying to remember what it would mean. All I knew for sure was that it wouldn’t kill him.

“Then that’s why he wants it. Breaking that heart is the first step to making you mortal again. You can’t become human if he has your Surface heart.” He grimaced. “I still can’t believe we’re talking like this. How did he . . .” His voice trailed off as he shook his head. “That bastard.”

“It’s my own fault.”

He gave me a stern look. “Don’t say that, Becks.”

“It’s true. I trusted him. I begged him to come with me. I gift wrapped myself for him, with a giant red bow.”

He pressed his lips to my head. “My life was on the line. I would’ve done the same thing.”

I looked up at him. He dipped his head and kissed me, and in that moment the calmness of his soul washed over me like a warm blanket, quieting my fears. It wasn’t long ago that we couldn’t kiss without me stealing energy from him, but this was just a regular kiss.

Wait. It was just a regular kiss.

If I were a true Everliving, wouldn’t there be a transfer of energy? There was always a whoosh of emotions shifting from one person to the other whenever Cole’s lips had gotten near mine. Wouldn’t it be the same for me now?

I pulled back.

“What is it?” Jack asked.

“I didn’t feel anything. Nothing. I didn’t take anything from you. If I were an Everliving, I would’ve stolen energy from you.”

Jack breathed out through his nose. “See? You can’t be an Everliving yet. It can’t be too late. It’s not. We’ll find your heart; we’ll break it. It’s not too late.”

I nodded and then leaned into him and buried my head in his chest. Maybe Jack was right. I didn’t feel any different, except for the fact that I didn’t have a heart; but even without it, I had a pulse. I’d kissed Jack without stealing any energy from him. Relieved, I lifted my face toward his again. Maybe it wasn’t too late.

NOW

The Surface. The library. Ninety-nine years until the next Feed.

My bitterness toward Cole had reached extreme levels. There had to be a special word for how I felt about him, but I couldn’t figure it out. Hate wasn’t enough. It didn’t convey the eternal aspect of my feelings. It didn’t explain the exponential enormity of its growth every day.

Cole had once told me how some punishments were perpetual: Sisyphus rolling the rock up the mountain only to have it roll back down again; Prometheus getting his liver eaten every day by an eagle only to have it grow back the next day and be eaten again. My hate for him was just as timeless. Just as undying.

I heard Jack shift in his chair.

“You’re doing that spiral-of-hate thing again, right?” Jack said.