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Except, Nine doesn’t hit him. He passes right through Five and ends up sliding on his face into the pile of books I tossed off the shelves.
“Son of a bitch!” Nine growls.
“Huh,” Five says, looking down at his chest, which sure looks solid enough to hit.
“There can be no violence here.”
We all turn to look at the room’s far wall, where a doorway just manifested. Standing there is a middle-aged man with a muscular build, his brown hair graying at the temples. He looks exactly the way I remember him.
“Henri?” I exclaim.
At the exact same time, Nine shouts, “Sandor? What the hell?”
Five doesn’t say anything. He simply glares at the man in the doorway, his lips curled into a sneer.
Nine and I exchange a quick look. It only takes us a second to realize that we’re all seeing different people. If it’s really Ella running this trippy dreamland, she must have plucked someone from our subconscious that we’d feel comfortable with. Except that doesn’t really seem to have worked with Five. He keeps balling and relaxing his fists, like he might spring forward at any second. I can’t help but smile looking at Henri, even though the moment is definitely bittersweet. “Are you . . . are you real?” I ask, feeling stupid asking this question.
“I’m as real as a memory, John,” Henri replies. When he speaks, I see a glow inside his mouth of the same energy that Setrákus Ra was mining from Lorien. It’s similar to the way Six described her group’s encounter with a briefly reincarnated Eight. I don’t think it’s just Ella pulling off this telepathic masterpiece anymore. She’s got some high-powered support.
“I’m sorry I got the penthouse blown up,” Nine says. He pauses for a response, then says, “Yeah, it was totally Five’s fault, you’re right.”
I glance first at Nine and then to Five, who still hasn’t said anything but appears to be listening intently, and finally back to Henri. We can’t see or hear each other’s visitors, only our own.
“What are you . . . ?” I’m about to ask Henri what he’s doing here, but I think better of it. Him being here actually makes as much sense as anything. There’s a much more important question that needs answering. “What’re we doing here?” I ask.
“You’re here to meet the others,” Henri replies, then turns around and walks through the open doorway that wasn’t even there a second ago. He motions for us to follow.
“What others?”
“All of them,” Henri says, and smiles at me in that same frustratingly knowing way that he used to. “Remember, John. You’ve only got one chance to make a good first impression. Better make it count.”
I don’t know what he’s talking about, but I follow anyway. He’s my Cêpan, after all. Even manifested here in this crazy dream state, he still feels like the real deal. I trust him. Nine heads to the door too, following a version of Sandor I can’t see, chatting about the Chicago Bulls. Five begrudgingly follows a few steps behind, still silent.
When I get close to him, Henri puts a hand on my shoulder. He lowers his voice even though the others can’t hear him, like he’s letting me in on a secret.
“Start with the ones you’ve felt, John. Those will be easiest. Remember what it was like. Visualize.”
I stare at Henri, not sure what the hell he’s talking about. In response to my look, he flashes that knowing smile again. Holding back on me, making me work out the details myself. The Henri way. I know it makes me stronger and smarter in the long run, but man does it piss me off.
“I don’t get what you’re trying to tell me,” I say.
Henri pats my shoulder, then starts down the hallway.
“You will.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
I’M IN A BIT OF A DAZE, MOSTLY BECAUSE I’M being led down a long hallway by Katarina, my dead Cêpan. Marina and Adam lag a few steps behind me. We didn’t have much to say to each other when we “woke up” in some lavish private library. All of us were either still stunned from what we’d just seen or else in a bit of shock from the vicious battle we were suddenly teleported out of. Anyway, it wasn’t long until Katarina came to collect us.
Except, I don’t think the others are seeing Katarina. Marina addressed the figure leading us as Adelina and Adam’s been keeping his voice purposefully low so we can’t hear what he’s saying. They’re both having separate conversations from me. It’s like we’re here together, but not really existing on the same wavelength.
Adam’s expression has been clouded with guilt since we woke up here. Now, though, he gets a little ahead of me and Marina, moving closer to the figure that I identify as Katarina. Marina and I exchange a look, both of us getting the urge to eavesdrop. We inch up behind Adam.
“Did I do the right thing?” he asks whatever form the Ella-Entity has taken for him.
I don’t hear what response he gets. Whatever it tells him, all Adam does is shake his head.
“That doesn’t change what I tried to do, One.”
Ah. I know what he’s asking about. Adam pretty much tried to kill Ella right before . . . well, right before she basically killed herself. I’ve got my own guilt about that considering I sure as hell didn’t spring forward to stop him. I was planning to let the whole thing go, just chalk it up to being in the heat of battle. Apparently, Adam can’t do that.
Neither can Marina. She grabs Adam by the elbow, turning him away from the shape-shifting Katarina-Entity so she can confront him. Knowing her, this anger’s probably been stewing for a while now.
“What the hell was that back there?” she asks him. I almost expect Marina to start radiating her icy aura. I guess that doesn’t happen here in Ella’s headspace, though. Her wide-eyed death stare gets the point across.
“I know . . . ,” Adam replies, hanging his head. “I lost control.”
“You could’ve killed Ella,” Marina snaps at him. “You would have!”
“He didn’t, though . . . ,” I say, trying to keep things peaceable. They both ignore me.
“I don’t expect you to understand this,” Adam says, his voice soft. “I’ve never—I’ve never actually met Setrákus Ra before. But I’ve spent my entire life in his shadow, under his thumb, a prisoner to his words. When I got the chance to kill him, to free myself . . . I just couldn’t help it.”
“You don’t think we want to kill him?” Marina asks incredulously. “He’s been hunting us our entire lives. But we knew Ella would’ve died first so we . . . we stopped ourselves.”
“I know,” Adam replies, not even trying to defend himself. “And in that same moment I became the thing I’ve always hated. I’m going to have to live with that, Marina. I’m sorry it happened.”
Marina runs a hand through her hair, not sure how to respond to that.
“I just . . . I just can’t believe she’s gone,” Marina says after a moment. “I can’t believe she did that to herself.”
“I don’t think Ella’s gone,” I tell Marina, waving a hand at the deep blue marble walls of the hallway surrounding us. “I think she’s got something to do with our current situation, you know? I saw a bunch of Loric lightning bolts shoot out of Ella’s body before we went under.”
Marina smiles tightly, looking at me now instead of glaring at Adam. “I hope you’re right, Six.”
“The charm is broken, though. I tested it before we came here,” I tell them, remembering with no small amount of satisfaction how it felt to crack Setrákus Ra’s head with a rock.
Marina pinches the bridge of her nose. It’s a lot to take in, going from fighting Setrákus Ra to seeing him as a normal Loric to this.
“Is he . . . ? Could he be killing us right now?”
“No, he went down to whatever Ella did, too. We should make a plan, though, because I’ve got a feeling once this little trip down memory lane is over, we’re going to be right back in the shit.”
Adam frowns, looking embarrassed. “I’m in a bad way. I think he broke my whole face.”
“I’ll heal you,” Marina says curtly. “I was about to do it anyway.”
“Good, good,” I say. “And then you guys can help me kill Setrákus Ra.”
Adam and Marina both stare at me.
“What?” I ask. “You think we’re ever going to get a better shot at him? We’ve got his troops on the run, he’s hurt, it’s three-on-one . . .”
“We don’t have our Legacies,” Marina says. “He drained them. I’m going to have to drag Adam out of the crater just to heal him.”
Adam nods, studying me. I can tell he’s not sure if I’m being crazy or if he thinks it’s a good plan. Either way, I don’t miss the admiration in that look. “It won’t be three-on-one right away, Six. It’ll be one-on-one.”
“I don’t care. I’m not wasting this chance,” I tell them. I look around at our surroundings, wishing that I could figure out a way out of here. “As soon as this is finally over, I’m going to end him.”
Marina forgets about her anger with Adam long enough to exchange a quick look with him. I guess I might sound a little crazy. At this point, we’ve entirely stopped walking down the hallway to have this discussion. Katarina, or whoever or whatever has taken her form, notices our delay and stops, clearing her throat impatiently.
“We don’t have much time,” she says in that same stern tone she used to take when I really annoyed her. “Let’s go.”
We start walking again. Marina gets close to me, leaning her shoulder into mine.
