Iridescence

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

EMILY

I usually went straight to the woods after school, but I needed to clear my head, so I went to the cemetery instead. I walked directly to Eve's grave and sat down. "Hey, guys," I said to my sister and the others. I could feel them listening to me, which was strange for them. Usually, their spirits didn't linger in the cemetery.

To my shock, Eve and Joey suddenly appeared in front of me. "Hey, Sis," Eve said with a sad smile.

"Eve... You're here," I said in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Someone called us here," Joey replied.

"We assumed it was you," Eve explained.

"It wasn't," I said, suddenly feeling nervous. I looked around and tried to figure out who was lurking. I glared as I realized who one of the people was. "Jake, this place is private," I snapped. "If I'm here, you'd better not be."

Jake showed himself. "I'm sorry, Emily... I didn't mean to invade your privacy," he said. "I felt something wasn't right, so I came closer."

"I'm fine. Go away."

"Emily, listen to me... Something's wrong."

"Then I'll handle it. Get out of here!"

Jake couldn't even consider listening to me as spirits suddenly surrounded us. They weren't the friendly sort. I noticed Betty in the distance watching us. She looked curious, but also very afraid.

Betty, hide, I commanded her silently. Don't let anyone see you. Anchor yourself to your grave and stay there.

Surprisingly, Betty listened to me. She hid herself and tried to stay as far away from us as possible. I turned to my sister, her boyfriend, and their friends. "Cross back over," I said. "Run from here. It's not safe."

"We can't, Emily," Eve said sadly. "We're stuck here. We were summoned."

"You have to go. Jake's right, something's wrong." I felt panic consuming me as I realized I might lose my sister all over again. "No," I said firmly. "I'm not letting anything happen to you... Not again. Not ever again."

"Emily, it's not your fault," Joey said, which surprised me. "It never was."

"That doesn't matter right now. I couldn't protect you before, but I can now."

As the other spirits became more aggressive, I braced myself for their attack. "They're not after you, Emily," Jake said. "They're recruiting more souls for whoever is controlling them."

"They can't have these souls," I replied. "I'll destroy every last one of them if they try."

Jake nodded and said, "I'm down for a fight. Let's do this."

We each drew our weapons and began to fight. We fell into step easily, covering each other's backs and taking down any spirit who got too close. I noticed they each had red cords wrapped around them and suddenly realized what was happening.

"It's Altheos," I said. "He's controlling them. He's building an entire army of souls, and it's huge... This is only a small sample of the spirits he's gathered and enslaved." I looked at Jake with horror in my eyes and added, "We have to free them."

"We'll free as many as we can," Jake promised. "And we'll get more the next time they attack. We won't stop until they've all been released."

We continued cutting them free from the cords binding them to Altheos. No matter how many I set free, more appeared. As I was focused on a group of them, I heard Eve scream, "No!"

I turned toward my sister and watched in horror as the spirits swarmed around her and the others. Red cords began to wrap around them. I was about to fly into action when Jake destroyed the cords with a furious burst of Fire magic. The fire burned so brightly it made the army of spirits hesitate. As the fire moved toward them threateningly, the army began to flee.

I ran to my sister and felt tears in my eyes. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm alright," Eve promised. "We all are, thanks to you and Jake."

Jake smirked and said, "You're welcome... And now, I think you should go back to the other side, or the Underworld, or wherever you usually hang out." He paused. "Or I can keep the fire burning if you want to talk to them for a bit, Emily."

"No," I said. "They'll be safer away from here." I hugged my sister tightly. "I love you, Eve," I said. "I always will."

"I love you, too, Em," she replied.

"Go on... You belong in a safe place."

Watching them fade away was hard, but I took comfort in the fact that they were alright, and they were together. As long as they had each other, I knew they'd be okay.

I turned toward Jake. "Thank you," I said. "For saving them."

"Anytime," Jake replied.

Our conversation was interrupted as more spirits appeared. We resumed battling, trying to release them while still keeping them from harming anyone. This time, they were more aggressive. The original group of spirits had been sent to capture my sister and her friends. This group was out for blood... Our blood.

"We can't keep going easy on them," Jake said.

"It's not their fault, Jake," I pointed out.

"Some of them might have chosen to serve him, but you're right about the others... It doesn't matter. Either way, they're going to keep trying to kill us."

We continued slashing at the cords. Jake tried to burn some of them off, but it didn't work. "I guess once they seal around a spirit, Fire doesn't affect them," he said.

"Cutting them works," I reminded him.

"Cutting them requires we get pretty close. I prefer Fire, but alright. Let's get this done."

We each focused on our groups. I lost sight of Jake as I was surrounded, but I could feel him and knew he was still close. I was stunned when two living men grabbed me and pinned me to the ground. A third raised a dagger into the air and prepared to plunge it into my heart.

Suddenly, the man holding the dagger burst into flames. This caused the other two to release me. One of them immediately turned to ash as flames consumed him. The last one tried to run, but Jake chased after him.

Two more guys appeared with a woman. They attacked Jake in unison. As the woman shoved a sword into his chest, I lost control. I let out a powerful scream of rage before I ran toward them and cast a spell I never learned as Emily. All four of the remaining cult members spontaneously combusted in front of my eyes.

I had no regrets.

I ran to Jake and pulled him into my arms. "Don't you dare," I said firmly. "Don't leave me."

As I held him, I knew he was on the brink of death. His eyes had closed and he was barely breathing. I refused to release him. I pulled the sword out of his chest and placed my hand over his wound. Focusing on the Fire magic within him, I willed it to seal the wound and heal the internal damage he'd suffered. The knowledge of what to do was Anastasia's, and currently, I was grateful to be able to retrieve it.

"Don't leave me," I said again. "Not like this."

Jake's eyes fluttered open. "Go away, get lost, stop stalking me, and now don't leave me? You need to make up your mind, Buttercup," he said with a weak laugh. "You're quite a contradiction."

"Shut up," I said. I pulled him up until he was sitting and hugged him tightly. I didn't realize I was crying until Jake gently wiped one of my tears away.

"I'm okay, Emily," he promised me. "You saved me... Although I was supposed to be the one saving you."

"You did. I didn't even realize living people had shown up in all of that chaos. They almost killed me," I admitted.

"I'd never let that happen," Jake promised. As he looked into my eyes, something changed between us. The next thing I knew, he was kissing me.

I was too shocked to stop him. It felt so natural to kiss him, like I'd done it a million and one times before. Considering I'd never kissed anyone before, I assumed that familiarity came from Anastasia. I found myself relaxing into the kiss and allowing Jake to deepen it a bit. After a minute, I took the lead, pulling him even closer to me. There was something desperate in the kiss, like I wouldn't be able to breathe if our lips disconnected. For a moment, I allowed myself to become completely lost in what we were doing.

Then, I came to my senses.

I pulled away quickly. Part of me hated to end the kiss, but the rest was too busy panicking to care. "I have to go," I said.

"Emily, wait-" Jake began.

"I need to check on Betty," I insisted. It was both a convenient excuse to get away from him and the truth. I was worried about Betty with the fact that a spirit army had been aggressively searching the cemetery for new recruits.

I ran as fast as my legs would allow. Jake didn't follow me. Instead, he watched from a distance, still taking his role as my bodyguard seriously. I tried to ignore the fact that he was there as I headed to Betty's grave.

She was hiding behind her tombstone looking nervous. Relief filled her face as she spotted me. "Emily, dear, thank goodness! Are you alright?" Betty asked.

"I'm fine," I lied. "Did they hurt you?"

"No, no, I stayed hidden like you said. They didn't find me."

"Good. If you see them again, make sure you hide until they're gone. They're dangerous, Betty."

"Who are they?"

"They're spirits that were enslaved by a very bad entity. He's looking to add more to his collection. You should cross over, Betty."

She shook her head. "You know I can't leave, Emily. I belong here."

"You belong in the Light, or the Underworld, or whatever... Not in a cemetery."

"This is the only place where people visit me."

"Betty, I'm the only one who comes to visit you," I reminded her gently.

"I know that, dear... And I treasure our meetings. You're like a granddaughter to me."

"I'll visit you on the other side. I can do things like that now. I want you to be safe, Betty."

I realized that as much as Betty depended on me for company, I'd come to depend on her, too. She was a constant, a guaranteed inhabitant of the cemetery. Even if she could be pushy and annoying, she really was like a grandmother to me, and when I'd refused to speak to the living, I'd always been able to speak to her. As strange as it was, I'd miss her if she crossed over.

"I'm not ready to go yet, Emily," she told me. "I'm staying right here for now... And if those no good hooligans come back here, I'll just have to stand my ground and defend my home!"

I was surprised by her determination. "They'll hurt you," I protested.

"I'm not as fragile as you seem to think, dear." She smiled at me. "Now, tell me all about that boy you were kissing!"

I sighed. "Really, Betty? That's what you want to focus on right now?"

"Listen here, Emily. I don't get a lot of entertainment around this place. I can't kiss good looking boys anymore, but I can live vicariously through you! Tell me all about him! Was that kiss as good as it looked?"

"It wasn't bad," I admitted.

"Wasn't bad?" She raised an eyebrow at my choice of words.

"Alright, fine... It was good. It was really good. Ever since I lost Eve and the others, it's almost been like I've been dead, too... Then I got involved with something, and it was like I started waking back up and coming back to life... And when Jake kissed me, I realized I'm still here. I'm not dead. And maybe that's not such a bad thing."

Betty smiled at me. "That sure was some kiss!" She decided. "Why did you run away?"

"To check on you."

"I'm honored, but don't leave a handsome young fellow on my account." She smiled at me before adding, "I refuse to be the excuse you use to avoid happiness, Emily Kang! Go get your fella! I'll still be here when you come back."

I hoped that would be true. "I can't right now," I said. "I have other obligations. I'll come back and see you soon, Betty, alright? Stay safe."

"Go on then. I look forward to hearing the details of your new love life the next time I see you!" She waved me off.

I left the cemetery and headed to meet up with the rest of Iridescence for training. I forced myself to ignore the fact that Jake followed me at a safe distance, because if I thought about that too hard, I might do something stupid like kiss him again.

Everyone around you dies, Emily, I reminded myself. I refused to let Jake be the next one to meet that fate.