Chapter 42
DARCIE
My brain spins and tumbles, like I’m trapped in a dryer. Colors blur. Sounds echo.
I fear the disorientation will never end—that I will be trapped in a kaleidoscope of senses forever.
It’s similar to the first time I was pulled through a rip, but so much worse. It’s as if my immortality makes me more aware of the disorienting sensations accompanying the magical travel. And my body struggles to adjust.
Then, just as soon as it started, everything stops.
I crash onto my hands and knees. My breathing is ragged, and my thoughts whirl.
Smoke burns my nostrils, choking me. Fingers dig into black sand. Only…it’s not sand.
Ash.
My head whips up, and the first thing I notice is burning buildings in the distance.
I’m in a vision.
But where?
And when?
I scramble to my feet and wipe my fingers against my shorts, the same ones I was wearing on the balcony, and spin in a slow circle.
I stand on top of a blackened hill. Smoke curls off the destroyed vegetation and skeletal trees, and heat radiates from the ruined ground. The fire that has overtaken the buildings burned through here.
A loud roar sounds in the sky. A plane flies overhead and releases a torrent of water on the flames.
The hot wind carries the sound of distant sirens to my ears.
My stomach clenches.
Why am I here?
Being pulled into visions is mostly accidental, but the circumstances are often informative.
About Des.
The rebellion.
The other Originals…
I’ve yet to stumble into a vision that didn’t give me insight into something relevant regarding the Immortals or my role in their world.
So what am I meant to learn here?
Holding my hands out for balance, I walk down the blackened hill. My bare feet struggle to grip the ashened earth, but I make it to the bottom without slipping.
I turn left, then right.
No one is here.
I focus on the buildings. Even on fire, they look modern. The tall skyscrapers reveal this time isn’t ancient Greece or Europe. But other than that, my location is a mystery.
Seeing no other option, I lift my neckline to protect my mouth and nose from the smoke and move toward the inferno.
A flash of light streaks in my peripheral vision.
I whirl around and stumble when Adir and Des fall through a rip.
White and red bolts of lightning crack through the air, each aimed at the other Immortal’s chest, only to be thwarted by the other Immortal’s power.
Thunder echoes in my head. I cover my ears and spin around, searching for cover, but there’s nothing but barren trees and smoldering grass.
Shit.
A furious roar bellows through the air.
My head snaps back, and my heart falls to the ground.
Des falls to one knee, clutching the side of his neck where charred black skin smolders and blood gushes.
No!
I’m running before I can take another breath.
My lungs tighten, and my eyes burn, but I don’t slow, not even when my feet slip out from under me. I stumble, but push myself up and keep going. I can’t stop running. My soul screams at me to intervene before it’s too late.
Adir’s malicious smirk burns into my eyes, more painful than the smoke, as he strides toward Des, who is hunched over, struggling to breathe.
Tendrils of red light flicker over Adir’s palm. His lips move, but sound is lost to the blood pounding through my eardrums.
He lifts his hand.
My soul screeches.
I’m too far away!
I won’t make it.
A scream tears from my throat.
Adir’s head snaps in my direction. His open mouth gives way to a pleased grin, and amusement dances in his eyes as he watches me race to stop the inevitable.
“Hello, love,” his oily words seep through my panic and torture my mind. “I’m glad you could make it for the grand finale.”
He flicks his finger, and the red light dancing along his hands flies out and strikes Des’s temple.
My heart shatters, along with the rest of the world as the burning scene around me crumbles like a kicked sandcastle, and I am flung back and strike the ashy ground with breath-stealing force.
“AH!” I gasp and bolt upright.
Or try to.
But firm arms are banded around me.
The solid surface behind me isn’t the ground. It’s a muscular chest.
“Darcie?” Des murmurs near my ears. “Are you awake?”
I whip my head to the side, and tears roll down my cheeks when I take in his uninjured neck and clear eyes.
“D-des,” I croak and swallow. “You’re all right.”
“Of course, I’m alright.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “What did you see?”
“I…” I choke and close my eyes, shaking my head.
I don’t know what I saw.
It couldn’t be the past, but I refuse to believe that it’s the future.
There is no way Adir can defeat Des.
Can he?
A throat clears.
I open my eyes and look up.
My mother and Alex hover in front of me, eyes tight and wearing matching frowns. Lome and Eshe stand just behind them, looking just as worried.
We’re still on the balcony. I must not have been trapped in the vision for that long.
Movement to my left draws my gaze. I meet Charmian’s stare. Unlike the others, there’s no concern in her eyes. Rather, she looks at me with understanding that makes my stomach clench.
I don’t know how, but she knows what I saw.
“Was it real?” I ask, voice strained, as if the smoke in the vision damaged my vocal cords.
Her lips turn down. “Yes.”
Oh, God…
My head falls forward, and tears drop into my lap.
Des’s arms draw me closer into his chest. I sink into the comfort, but at the same time, the action makes pain flare in my soul.
I whimper.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs, resting his head against mine. “It’ll be okay.”
He’s wrong…nothing will be okay.
“What is going on?” my mother asks, tinged with panic. “What did she see?”
I lean into Des’s comfort, unable to give voice to the tragedy that unfolded in the vision, refusing to give it life by speaking it out loud.
Charmian doesn’t have the same reservation. “Darcie glimpsed the future.”
A beat of silence passes.
“And?” Eshe prompts. “What happened?”
“Darcie?” Charmian calls my name softly.
With a heavy sigh, I part my eyelids and meet my ancestor’s gentle gaze.
“Was it the battlefield?” she asks.
Was it?
I suppose it could’ve been. Once.
Before it was burned.
“I’m not sure,” I say.
She dips her chin. “Was there destruction? Fire?”
“Y-yes.” Another tear rolls down my cheeks.
Des’s arms tighten. “That’s enough. We don’t need to discuss this now.”
“On the contrary,” Charmian counters. “Darcie’s cognizant insights might be the only thing that prevents the Council and alliance from failing to defeat Adir in what’s to come.”
“What do you mean?” Eshe asks. “What’s to come? What did Darcie see?”
Charmian doesn’t look away from me. “Darcie witnessed the future, and it is what we all fear. Bella’s demise has put our fate on a path of destruction and ruin.”
Des’s growl vibrates through my back. “What does that mean?”
“It means we have entered the Immortal War,” she delivers with no emphasis, only resignation.
Her sad eyes continue to hold mine when she adds, “And we must pray to the Creator that humankind will survive. Or else it will be the end of every Immortal for all of time.”