Chapter Fifty-Eight Such sweet sorrow
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Such sweet sorrow
THE GENERAL, HIS WRAITH FORM now separated from the president’s body, led us through a series of tunnels—tunnels none of us had ever seen—that connected to the medical ward.
Even Angelica seemed lost as we marched forward.
The Sigmas bound our hands behind our backs with their silver rope, so tight that even moving my wrists was painful.
But they didn’t touch Jojo. General Winhall insisted he remained unbound.
“I would like to give him a chance to redeem himself. If he can finish what he started and kill his brother, I will put him as the head of the Westfield University Board of Trustees. The first on his side of the family. Do you see how I’ve progressed with the times?”
Jojo spat at the general.
“Forgive him, General Winhall,” the president said, a few paces behind. “He cannot comprehend all you have in store for us.”
Seemingly appeased by the president’s praise, the general nodded and continued leading us through the tunnels. We emerged at a door that led into a hallway I recognized. And in front of the medical center were two police officers.
Jojo turned to President Saint James, watching carefully to see if the general was listening.
“I don’t need your misguided protection from this anymore, Uncle. Help us. None of us stand to gain anything if you let him destroy the university.”
“You don’t think I’ve been trying to stop him?
” the president seethed, whispering. “All my life, our side of the family has lived under his curse. Every president forced to be a passenger in his own body while the evil we believed our forefathers slayed still exists. All because Duncan thought to make a trophy out of Winhall’s relic.
And now the curse exists and both of our families are haunted by it.
Do you think I want this for Alaster? Do you think I want this for myself? ”
“Capitulating to him and the board of trustees isn’t fighting, Uncle.
Neither is being a reluctant host for his soul.
You think he’ll let Alaster live? If my research on the affinities of time is correct, Winhall will murder him like he killed Duncan.
But this time, he’ll have Sianna keep Alaster’s corpse animated until her affinity is strong enough for a permanent resurrection.
That is the legacy he’s left your side of the family.
Death. Horrors against humanity beyond fathoming.
Alaster will die too if you don’t face the scourge he’s instilled in your lineage. ”
“I will destroy the ring when I die and banish him. I’ve instructed Sigma and Theta,” the president said. “This is where it ends.”
A few feet away, Winhall was giving orders to his wraiths, unperturbed by Jojo and the president’s bickering.
“Don’t you see?” Jojo said. “He infiltrated Sigma and Theta. He knows you betrayed him. That’s why he poisoned the Board and Honey. It’s why he’s unleashed his fury on us all.”
There was no other help coming. It was just us.
The officers stopped us in front of the medical center, and the president nodded to the Sigmas.
“No one leaves or enters,” one of the officers said. But the Sigmas were too fast. The wraiths discarded the bodies they possessed and charged into the officers, forcing masks on them. They too fought the possession, their eyes rolling to the backs of their heads, their screams primal.
Alaster appeared at the medical center’s door, shock written across his face. Just behind him, Kasem held Honey. She was alive. She looked pale, and faint, her breathing shallow. But she was alive.
“Take Honey,” Alaster said. “Now.”
Kasem glanced across the hallway, to where Angelica, Jojo, and I stood.
“Go,” I whispered. “Please.”
He nodded, giving me a look that spoke a thousand words and more, before retreating into the safety of the medical center.
Alaster stepped out, locking the door behind him and staring at the wraith of Winhall with a mix of horror and awe.
“Now, why on earth would you do such a thing as that?” General Winhall said. “Unlock the door. It’s almost midnight.”
Alaster turned past the general to stare at his father.
“Do what the general asks, Alaster.”
The words had come from the president’s lips, but it had been in the general’s voice, his mouth moving in tandem with his puppet, the gold ring, his relic, allowing him to control the president in his separate wraith form.
“It’s the ring,” I said. “If you sever the connection, your father will be free.”
“Sianna’s right,” Angelica said. “Your line of the family has been cursed too, and this is its vestige.”
“Enough,” General Winhall said. “Kill her.”
Suddenly, President Saint James lurched forward, grabbing Angelica by the throat.
Angelica screamed, and Alaster grabbed his father, shoving him away.
“Stop! Angelica’s like family, and Honey needs her help!”
But General Winhall surged forward, knocking into Alaster and possessing his body.
The president screamed, desperate to help his son. “Spare them,” he pleaded.
One of the wraith-possessed officers pulled a gun from his holster. I crumpled to the floor as bullets hit the walls, ricocheting dangerously, their shrapnel plummeting into Alaster. When I looked up, Vivian was there, grabbing the officer’s hands, forcing him to misdirect his shots.
Alaster cried out in pain as the general jolted from his body. And with the last burst of energy he could muster, Alaster grabbed the blade from the ground, turned, and sliced through his father’s ring finger.
The end of the president’s finger, and the ring attached to it, landed near me, splattering blood across my arm.
The president and the general’s cries were a squall tearing through the corridor. He lurched into Alaster’s body once more and then he plunged the knife into President Saint James’s heart.
When he yanked it out, the blade went flying across the floor, blood gushing from the president’s chest.
“This is your penitence.” Alaster was sobbing, yet the general’s eerie laughter spilled from his mouth. “I will take your son, and he will take your life. And never again shall your lineage stray from me.”
Vivian continued to wrestle with the officer for the gun, unable to fully possess him. Each time the other officer tried to yank her away, she disappeared and reappeared to fight them off again. I was frozen, watching it all, but somehow Jojo was quietly in motion, untying me.
“Take the ring,” Angelica whispered when she was freed. “Find the general’s remains, and burn them both. And when you find Kasem, let him return to his body. We have a chance to rebind him.”
With my hands trembling, and my face and clothes dripping with the president’s blood, I grabbed the ring with the finger attached to it, while Jojo managed to retrieve the blade.
Jojo helped me stand, and without looking back, we fled the medical center and ran for our lives. Behind us, bullets and screams rang out. And I knew that Alaster, now possessed by the general, would soon be after us.
“How will we find the general’s remains?” Jojo asked when we turned the corner.
Fighting back nausea, I touched the ring for a moment. The vision was violent. A vile remnant of the past. But between the flashes of war and bloodshed, of cruelty and violence, the image of a small box hidden in the base of a statue emerged.
“The library,” I said. “He’s buried there. Near the statue.”
We raced through the halls, Jojo messaging Kasem about our meeting spot, asking him to come with a shovel and a lighter—all things we’d need for a banishment ritual.
We turned sharply at the door, racing outside and toward the library.
“Take this,” Jojo said, placing the blade back in my satchel. “You’ll need it for the binding ritual.”
We were the first to arrive at the statue.
I pointed Jojo to the precise spot and he began to dig with his hands.
Soon after, Kasem and Honey arrived, Honey leaning heavily against him, weakened by the poison.
Kasem looked worn too. With the veil between the realms thinning, and his wraith form unbound from his body, a soft glow emanated from him, casting embers of gold and silver around them.
Gently, he positioned Honey against the statue and handed Jojo the shovel. When Kasem turned to me, his gaze was fierce.
In that moment, everything else gave way as we sank into each other’s embrace. Kasem kissed me and I drew him closer, kissing him back, feeling safe and whole and hopeful for the first time since the night’s events had unfolded.
“It’s almost midnight,” I said, pulling away reluctantly. “We need to do the binding ritual. Now.”
“Vivian and Angelica are on their way. She can only channel from her left hand, and Vivian is trying to gather spirits of the ?nhye to help.” He glanced at my hand, where I was still holding the president’s blood-splattered finger with the ring attached.
“Let me take that from you. We’ll need to burn it with his remains.”
But something was wrong. When I tried to hand the ring to Kasem, the edges of my vision blurred, turning grainy and red. A voice called my name, over and over again. And something inside me told me to listen. Behind us, Jojo and Honey were crouched over a small wooden box. They’d found his remains.
“Sianna,” Kasem said. He touched my cheek, turning my gaze back to him. “Don’t be afraid. We can do this.”
His other hand reached for me, reached for the president’s finger and the ring. But my hands moved before I could stop them, the general’s hold over the ring manifesting. I pushed Kasem away, yanking the gold ring off the president’s remains.
“Sianna, no!” Kasem shouted.
But he was too late.
“You will die,” I whispered, in a voice that was not my own. “And the blood debt shall be fulfilled. His will be done. Or we all will pay the price.”
And with the essence of General Winhall compelling me, I twisted the ring onto my middle finger.
Everything went dark. In that moment, I knew that the future I had witnessed all those months ago in the alleyway was not as it had seemed.