Everneath

“Okay. We’re good here. I can’t wait to see your next draft, Nikki. Don’t shy away.”

When I left Mrs. Stone’s classroom, I couldn’t get my mind off the story of the two lovers. Which is why I didn’t notice, at first, the small group of students gathered around something at the edge of the football field.

I watched the crowd as I walked toward the parking lot. I wouldn’t have stopped, only I saw Jules standing there, and she turned to stare at me. Something in the way she looked at me made me want to see what was going on. As I walked closer, a couple more students turned to watch. As if they’d expected me.

Then a voice rang out from somewhere in the middle of the fray. Jack’s voice.

“Leave her alone!”

Another voice. An all-too-familiar voice. Cole—as the dark-haired Neal. “She got to you, didn’t she? And you want more. They always do.”

Oh crap. I picked up the pace and pushed my way into the center, where Jack and Cole were facing off. I wanted to grab Jack, to wrap my arms around him and pull him away. But I didn’t feel like it was my right, since he was angry with me.

So I stood in front of Cole.

“Stop it.” I put my hand on his chest. Despite being an immortal, he had the physical strength of a regular boy my age, nothing more. He still could have flattened me, but he gave way and stepped back. And I realized my mistake. The way he gave in to me made it look like we were together.

Everyone watched. My face was sweating.

“I can’t help it, Nik,” he said with a smirk. “He’s such an easy target.”

Jack made a lunge toward Cole, but I stood my ground in the middle. I was about to get squashed.

“Jules!” I called out, as Jack collided with us. He tried to strong-arm me out of the way, but then Jules was there, tugging on his arm, trying to pull him off. I wondered why she hadn’t tried to stop it before now.

“C’mon, Jack,” she said. “Let’s go. Please.”

Jack didn’t take his eyes off of Cole, but he let Jules lead him away. The crowd let out a collective sigh, probably disappointed there’d be no fight.

Cole turned to me as we walked and licked his lips. “Oh man, his humiliation is absolutely delicious.”

“Stop it, Neal. Just stop it. None of this is going to help you get me back.”

“It’s not just about getting you back, Nik. Poor Jack is smitten. I feel sorry for the boy and what he’s going to go through again. I’m doing this for both of you.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Leave Jack out of this. He wants nothing to do with me anyway.”

“You’re wrong, Nik. He wants everything to do with you.”

We both looked over at Jack, who was letting Jules lead him to the parking lot. Jack’s eyes cut back and forth between Cole and me. I felt like I was betraying him somehow.

“Poor Jules,” Cole said.

I turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you don’t see it. She’s in love with Jack. And she thought there was a chance, until…”

“I came back,” I said.

He nodded, and then shrugged as he turned toward Jules again. “Now she doesn’t know what to do. Maybe I can help her decide.” He glanced at me sideways. “Do you think I’m her type?”

We’d reached his big black-and-silver motorcycle parked illegally along the curb.

“Don’t say things like that, Cole. Please.”

“Would that bother you?” He had a strange look on his face. Almost vulnerable. It had come so quickly, and it made him look like a different person.

“Yes,” I said. He started to smile, until I added, “I don’t want you anywhere near the people I love.”

He was taken aback, but then he chuckled and was back to his old self. “You can end this anytime, Nik.”

I didn’t answer. I had underestimated how much damage he could do before I left. He couldn’t hurt me, but he could hurt the people I cared about.

Cole sauntered the rest of the way to the motorcycle, swung a leg over, and kicked it to life. “Just say the word.”

He revved the engine and looked past me, toward the parking lot. His expression became smug and he grinned as he pushed away from the curb. I turned to see what had captured his attention. Then it all happened quickly.

I heard Cole take off just as my eyes registered Jack in his black car, peeling out after Cole. Jules was left behind, calling out frantically after him. The chase was on.

Jules and I exchanged silent glances for just a moment. Then we both took off at a run toward my car.

“You drive,” I said to her as I tossed her the keys. She snatched them out of the air. My driving was still a bit rusty. Maybe she could catch us up faster.

We didn’t say a word to each other as Jules tore through the streets. She kept to the main road, probably figuring the boys had done the same. I hoped she was right.

We didn’t see any signs of Jack’s car or Cole’s motorcycle.

“Look,” Jules said. She pointed to an older couple on the sidewalk. They were looking farther down the road, toward a sharp bend, with obviously panicked expressions.

Jules sped up.

As Jack’s car came into view, I let out a yelp of horror. The front end of his car was wrapped around a telephone pole. A few people stood near the car, looking in the windows and calling out to Jack. Some were already on cell phones.

I threw open the door and bolted out before Jules could even stop the car.

“Jack!” I called out as I pushed a man out of my way. Jack was slumped over the steering wheel. “Jack. Jack! Can you hear me?”

I pulled Jack away from the wheel. His eyes were halfway open, and his cheek started to swell and turn red. I turned his head toward me. “Jack. Can you hear me?”

His eyes fluttered. “Is the boy okay?”

“What boy?”

“The boy. In the street.”

I turned to the man behind me. “Was there a boy?”

He shrugged.

“I almost hit him,” Jack insisted.

“There’s no one.” I pushed his hair away from his eyes and took a closer look at his cheek. Maybe there really had been a boy in the street, but I also wouldn’t put it past Cole to make one appear, if he had that power.

Jack’s eyes opened fully, and he looked at me with half a grin. “You remember the first time I told you I loved you?” His words slurred together.

“Shhhhh. Don’t talk. The paramedics are on their way.”

“Do you?”

I touched his cheek and he winced. I could almost taste his pain, as if it were a tangible element in the air. I could feel my body hungering for the hurt. It was the first time since I’d Returned that I craved someone else’s energy. Even at my lowest point, those last moments in the Everneath, I’d never felt a need for it. Until now. Until I was faced with emotions this strong.

He tilted his head toward me, and I jerked back. The taste in the air became bitter and sweet, a mixture of pain and longing.

“Tell me you remember,” he said. “Please.”

The pain was no longer coming from one source. It was behind me as well. I turned, knowing whom I would see. Jules stood a few yards back, watching us, and the look on her face made it clear that she had heard everything.

I ducked my head and walked back through the crowd. As I passed her, I said, “He needs you. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. I glanced down at my hand, the one that had touched his cheek.

This had to stop. I had to stop.

FOURTEEN

NOW

My bedroom. Less than three months left.

The halfway point of my Return had come and gone, and I still wasn’t any closer to saying good-bye. The only thing I had actually accomplished was getting Jack beat up. It was nobody’s fault but my own.

When I got home after the accident, Cole was waiting for me in my room, as usual. But today was the first time I actually wanted him there.

“I’m ready to leave.”

He sat upright. “You are? I…” he started, as if wondering what he should pack. Apparently I’d surprised him. “Sorry, I just… Wow. I thought you’d take a lot more convincing. Let’s go.”

He stood and held out his hand. I didn’t take it. “I said I’m ready to leave. Not that I’m going with you.”

He let his hand drop to his side. “What do you mean?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m ready to go to the Tunnels.” At my words, the mark began to writhe underneath my skin, like a muscle spasm.

A scowl replaced Cole’s smile, and he sat back down on the bed and started playing his guitar as if I hadn’t said anything.

“I want to go,” I said.

“See ya.”

He wasn’t looking at me. I pressed my lips together and balled my hands into fists. “How do I do it, Cole?” He strummed another chord. “The Tunnels want me. They’re going to take me anyway. How do I go there now?”

He shrugged. “My best guess? It’s called the Everneath for a reason, so aim that way”—he pointed toward the floor— “and go.”

I sat on the bed next to him and grabbed his hand before he could strum another chord. He stared at my hand, wrapped around his.

“Please, Cole. This situation can’t be good for you, either. You obviously aren’t moving on. I don’t know what’s out there for you, but there has to be something more than this—hanging around me. Trying to convince me of something that will never happen.”

He jerked his hand away and looked at me. “Once you choose to Return, there’s no getting out of it early. Except to go with me. I can help you.”

“You’d help me … lose my heart. Right? That’s what it would mean to go with you. I’d lose my heart. And then to survive, I’d have to ruin someone else’s life. Sentence them to the Tunnels.”

Cole stood and walked over to the window. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this. Let me know when the reality of your circumstances has sunk in. Then maybe I can help.”

“Wait.”

He paused. “What?”

“When we were in the Everneath, did you ever tell me about Orpheus and Eurydice?”

He narrowed his eyes. “No.”

“But you said you told me all the stories of the Everneath. Why not—”

He didn’t let me finish. “Because that one never happened.” The iPhone in his pocket vibrated, and he stared at the screen. “I have to go.” He started to climb out the window.

“Bu—”

“Nik, now’s not the time for an education.” He tilted his head toward my shoulder. The one that held the mark. “Time’s running out.”

He slid out the window, slamming it shut behind him with such force that the framed picture of me and my mom crashed to the floor.

I checked my mark. It had tripled in size. And it was still tingling from when I’d talked about going to the Tunnels early, as if the Shade beneath my skin had gotten jittery at the mention of its home.

I sank into my chair for a moment. The last time Cole was here and he’d gotten a text, he’d ended up with Max at the convenience store.

I knew what I had to do. I’d been stupid to go to the store when Max and Cole weren’t there. Maybe whatever happened at the store was triggered only by Max or Cole.

I sprinted out of my room and down the hall to the kitchen to grab my car keys. If there was a chance I could catch them both at the store, maybe I’d understand.

The Shop-n-Go.

I stopped up the street from the Shop-n-Go and walked the rest of the way. Cole’s bike wasn’t parked out front, and I wasn’t at the right angle to see inside the glass windows of the store.

Maybe Cole wasn’t here. Maybe the text was about something else.

I crept closer to the building, ducking down in case Cole was nearby, but then I rolled my eyes. Why would Cole be hiding out? Waiting to ambush me on the off chance I might be strolling down the street?

I made my way to the side of the store, where the windows gave me a clear view inside to the spot near the back. No one was there. No old man, no Maxwell, no bottle. From my position, I could look through the store windows and see the front door too. I decided to wait and see if either Cole or Maxwell showed up.

The thin hoodie I’d thrown on wasn’t doing much to keep out the chill, and I rubbed my arms and bounced up and down, trying to get warm. After a few minutes of this, the front doors of the shop swung open. I stepped a little closer to the glass to get a clear view, and I saw Maxwell go in with a woman I’d never seen before. My breath fogged up the glass a little, so I wiped it down and kept watching.

The woman was blond, with a bad dye job and a few inches of regrowth. She wore a short skirt, a tight, sequined tube top that was missing every other sequin, and an overcoat that was a few sizes too big, as if it were made for a man.