Chapter 24
ALEXEI
I could feel myself desperately clinging to consciousness as a flash of terror gripped me. Not only because I was certain I was gonna die, but so would Matteo and the Sinners.
I wondered if that creature possessing Finnegan would hide my body. If there would be another search my family would have to endure. Another lingering question in their lives. I doubted they’d ever be able to get to a truth I had a hard enough time understanding myself.
After Finnegan’s first vomiting bout, there was an eerie silence as the Alpha Alpha Mus came to, trying to work out what the hell happened. Finnegan, now lying on the floor with Brad and Luke on their knees with him, vomits some more of that black tar, and Preston drops to his knees before him.
“What the fuck is going on?” one of the frat guys asks.
Seth glances around like he’s trying to figure out what the hell to push on everyone, when Preston jumps in. “You guys never got too drunk before? Everyone get back to bed. Nothing to see here.”
“Yeah,” Seth adds, “you just came down because you heard him throwing up. Now go to bed.” After he gives the command, he leans over Cody, like between what he pushed before and that, he’s run out of strength.
The Alpha Alpha Mus take a moment, like they’re trying to process what he said, then obey his instructions, leaving just the Sinners and Saints in the basement.
When the coast is clear, Seth asks, “Do any of you assholes know what Cody took?”
“It was a spell,” Spencer answers. “To make it easier for Syphor to jump inside him.”
“This is my fault,” Preston says. “Finn, are you okay?”
Finnegan trembles, tears sliding down his face as he curls in a fetal position.
“It’s okay, I got you, man,” Preston assures him with a sensitivity I haven’t seen from him before, especially not while he’s been controlled by Syphor.
“I’m calling the paramedics,” Matteo says.
*
Seth looms over Cody’s hospital bed, Matteo, Brad, Luke, and I camped out in surrounding chairs, waiting for him to wake.
It’s been a little over two hours since the paramedics arrived at Alpha Alpha Mu.
We had a fairly plausible story. Two guys at a frat getting too drunk, and given that they both wound up passed out, between that and the black smudge across the basement floor, it was concerning enough to get them to take the guys to the hospital.
We’ve been waiting, only a few rooms down from the Saints.
The door handle to the room clicks before it opens. Preston and Gage come in, and I have no doubt Gage is accompanying him in case one of us loses our shit. The guys don’t look like they did hours earlier when they were so hostile, ready to kill us. They’re tired, their expressions rife with guilt.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve coming in here,” Seth says, starting for them. “You know what I could fucking do to you. You know what I could make you do to yourselves and each other. And I haven’t been thinking about anything else after what you did to us.”
“After what Syphor did to us,” I remind him as I stand with the rest of the guys. Matteo comes up beside me, hooking an arm around me and tugging me close.
As Seth fumes, Brad approaches him, draping an arm over his shoulders. I imagine he’s holding him to restrain him, but he better be ready to cover his mouth. “How’s Finnegan?” Brad asks them.
Preston’s chin quivers. “He’s doing fine. He just woke up. So I figured we’d leave Spencer with him. Figured you guys might have some questions.”
“Some questions?” Brad asks.
“Okay, maybe a lot of questions.”
“Do you want to start talking?” Seth asks. “Or should I make you?”
No one bothers to get onto Seth. Maybe because we’re too fucking tired. Or maybe because we’re so desperate for answers, we wouldn’t really mind.
“This all started at the end of the fall semester last year,” Preston says.
“Finnegan found this notebook in the wall of the frat. It belonged to a group that used to practice magic. It was all fun and games at first. Like using a Ouija board. We didn’t really buy into it.
Then some things started happening that made us realize what we were messing with.
Alexei, that thing we told you about Finn’s mom, that was after we met Syphor.
But then we used a spell from the book, and it changed Finnegan.
Syphor entered him, and he had this power to get in our heads.
We were all tied to him after that—we were his fucking drones.
He made us do horrible things to each other. ”
“But you remember it?” I ask.
Preston’s and Gage’s gazes shift around the room.
“We remember everything,” Preston mutters, the weight of his words hitting me right in the chest. “We were always there, in our heads, but we couldn’t control our bodies. We couldn’t talk to each other about it.”
“It was hell on earth,” Gage adds. “He would let us go about our lives to keep up appearances. Us being students at St. Lawrence gives him access to the Rift…and the Sinners. So he would perform as us during the day, and at night, he would work on his mission.”
“Which was?” Brad asks.
“There’s something on the other side. Something worse than him. Something even he fears.”
“That’s what we were warned about,” Luke says. “Last semester, when you and Finnegan were attacked by a bear…”
“I remember,” Preston says. “We all do. Syphor knew something was coming for Cody. Syphor could feel it, and he hoped we could stop it because I think the entity he works for wants Cody for itself. So he arranged for Alexei to meet us out there the night it was getting close. He didn’t realize you guys would show, and it threw the whole plan off, especially when Seth pushed for us to head back inside. ”
“So how long have you known about the Sinners?” Seth asks.
“Only since Syphor. Before that, we didn’t have a clue anyone else knew about this stuff.”
“So Syphor was the one who got Alexei to follow us?”
Preston nods.
“I’m sure you can understand why I’m having a hard time believing you,” Seth says. “I’m tempted to push for the truth, but the only reason I’m not is because Cody would tell me that’s wrong, and though he’s passed out, I respect his wishes.”
“We can appreciate why you’d be suspicious,” Gage says.
“Seth,” a faint voice comes from behind us, and we all turn to see Cody stirring.
“We’re not finished yet,” Seth warns Preston before hurrying to Cody’s side.
“Codes, you okay?”
Cody squints as his eyes adjust to the light. “I feel all right, I guess.” He’s still a little out of it, blinking as he seems to be forcing his eyes to stay open.
“Do you know more about this thing that’s coming?” Luke asks Preston, picking up where Seth left off. It’s a question that’s on all our minds.
Preston shakes his head. “No. Syphor had access to all our thoughts, but we didn’t have access to his. We saw what he allowed us to see. Knew what he allowed us to know.”
“So we’re not that much better off than we were before,” Luke says.
I’m stunned he’d say that. “That’s not true. There were only four of you before who could fight this thing. Now there are ten, and yes, I’m including myself, the useless one.”
Matteo turns to me. “You’re not useless,” he spits out.
“I appreciate that, but I just meant, I’m a part of this now, whether anyone likes it or not. We all are. And we all have a responsibility to deal with this.”
I’m waiting for someone to object. To remind me I’m as useless to them as I was to Syphor, but Seth pipes up from beside Cody. “You’re right.”
Of all the people in the group I expected to hear that from, he wasn’t the one.
“If you hadn’t been there tonight, you wouldn’t have bought us that time, and he might have gotten into Cody.
And then God knows what might have happened.
You got me out of that gag so I could stop the frats from intervening while Matteo attacked Syphor.
As far as I’m concerned, you and Matteo are Sinners, and I’m sorry for doubting either of you.
” There’s a sincerity in his words I’m not used to hearing from Seth. “Unless any of the guys disagree?”
“No, I think Seth summed it up pretty well,” Luke says, placing his hand on my shoulder, offering a warm smile.
And fuck if I’m not getting all choked up, tears stirring in my eyes. I couldn’t imagine a scenario where these guys would ever consider trusting me after what I did, yet here we are. As my gaze meets Matteo’s, I know he understands what this means to me. The weight it takes off my chest.
“Anyway,” Preston says, “we have plenty to catch up on, and I figure we can do that when Finn and Cody are better, but, Alexei, I do want to have a quick word with you. In private.”
The way he looks at me, I know what it’s about. My brother. The promise they made. Or one that Syphor made.
“I think we should be done with secrets,” Seth says.
“It’s personal,” Matteo says, stepping up for me. “Very personal. Doesn’t have anything to do with anyone but Alexei.”
I see the hesitation in Seth’s expression.
“No,” I say. “I’m tired of secrets. You can discuss it in front of them.”
“Alexei,” Matteo says. “Are you sure?”
I nod.
“All right, then,” Preston says. “Syphor never had any intention of helping you find out what happened to your brother.”
And there are the tears again. I fight them back. Keep it together.
“Figured,” is as much as I can say without totally losing it. It’s an emotional sucker punch. The last straw in this wild night. Maybe because I’m so fucking tired. Or maybe because I’ve secretly been hoping that somehow, this one thing would pull through.
“You said Finnegan got in touch with his deceased mom.”
He shakes his head. “That’s what we were led to believe, but now, from what we understand about the shit Syphor did, it could have been anything telling Finn what he wanted to hear. It was all a lie.”
As I keep myself together, I swallow, struggling with the news, beating up on myself even more. I should have fucking known.
“Thanks for telling me,” I say.
Preston nods, and he says something before heading off, but I don’t hear him, too caught up in my shit.
And I’m just glad when he’s gone, but the emotion’s creeping up on me.
I can’t keep this in. I need to get away.
I hurry through the hall, toward the restroom I visited while we were waiting for Cody to wake up.
I’m relieved when I finally get inside and close myself off in a stall.
The tears rush down my face. My chest constricts.
My mind takes me back to so many years earlier.
All the hope.
The desperate searching.
I wrap my arms around my chest, holding on to my shoulders as I squat down, curling into myself. Even though there’s no one else in the restroom, I find myself trying to keep the pain in, but it bursts free. The tears fall in drops onto the floor as I stifle a cry, rage at the universe.
A creak catches my attention. The restroom door. I’m not alone.
Fuck.
“Alexei?”
I’m relieved to hear Matteo’s voice. I push to my feet, sniffling before opening the stall door, finding him standing outside.
“I’m never gonna find out, am I?” I can’t bring myself to say more than that.
I throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him, and he pulls me close. My body erupts into a feverish tremble as I sob against him. This is so fucking painful, tearing me apart, but in his arms, I feel safe. And like no matter how bad it gets, somehow I’ll survive this pain.