wanted to ask you about the Daughters of Persephone. Maybe I could—”
“Stop trying to help,” she interrupted. She turned around and took her tray over to the garbage. I sighed. Maybe she was beyond help.
NINE
NOW
My bedroom. Four months left.
T ime’s flying for you, Nik.” Cole was sitting in the darkest corner of my bedroom, his guitar lying silent beside him. I wasn’t sure why he only ever showed up in my room. I didn’t complain anymore. His visits were my chance to learn more about the rules of the Everneath.
The scar on my shoulder began to prickle, as if it were waking up. It did that whenever Cole was around. I wondered if the Shade inside me could feel the presence of an Everliving.
Cole couldn’t know I thought about any of this. I nodded and flipped through my notebook on top of my desk, trying to fight the urge to go sit next to him. Now that I was prepared for the pull between us, it was easier to ignore it, but it never went away.
“Is it everything you hoped it would be?” Cole said.
“It’s everything I allowed myself to hope for,” I qualified.
He sighed, then grabbed his guitar and picked out a classical melody. I thought it was Bach, but I wasn’t sure. “Where’s your family?”
So we were going for small talk now? I turned around. “My dad’s at his campaign headquarters and Tommy’s at my aunt Grace’s.”
He picked through another few measures of the melody. “So you came back to be with your family and friends, and yet you sit alone most nights.”
I turned back to my desk.
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Nik.” He leaned his head against the wall with a soft thud. “I can take you now. You’ve only seen the Caverns and the Tunnels—and yes, those places are all about the awful—but the rest of the Everneath isn’t like that. It’s like the Elysian Fields.”
I gave him a quizzical look. “Elysian Fields?”
He rolled his eyes. “You haven’t been doing your homework. The Fields are a place of light, of happiness, where nobody is dying the slow death of mortality. And all of the good emotions inside you are expressed outwardly in your surroundings. I think it’s heaven.”
“Except for the part where you have to steal energy from other humans to survive.”
He was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was muted. “It’s a small price to pay for heaven.”
“Show me,” I said.
He blinked. “What?”
“Show me. Like you showed me the Tunnels. Only this time, show me the Fields.”
He glanced away as he considered it, and then shook his head. “It’s too hard.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d have to use my own energy.” When I protested he continued. “Too much time has passed since I’ve been in the Everneath. I don’t have any extra energy to waste giving you the five-cent tour.”
His refusal made me want to see the Fields even more. I sat down next to him on the floor. “Please, Cole. Help me see what I’ll be missing.”
He frowned and sighed. “Enough with the sad eyes. I’ll do it. But it’ll have to be a quick glance only.”
I nodded.
“Hold still,” he said as he brought his hands to my head and placed them on either side. “You don’t have to hold your breath, Nik.”
I hadn’t realized I was. I let out a sigh and heard him chuckle softly, and then my bedroom melted away. I was standing in an open field, surrounded by light. A soft breeze with clean air—not the dank stuff in the Caverns, but clean, crisp air—ruffled through my hair. I looked at my hands. They were no longer sickly pale.
I filled my lungs with air, expanding them to capacity, and then even further. I was so caught up in the delicious air, I forgot where I was, or how I’d gotten there. All I knew was that my bare feet longed to be running. I took off toward the center of the field, the length of my stride growing with each step until I thought one more step and I would be able to push off from the ground and never land.