CHAPTER SIX

Scarlet coughed and wiped dust from her eyes. Her mind swirled as she tried to make sense of what was happening around her. One moment the Immortalists had been advancing on her and Sage, the next moment there’d been a tremendous explosion that rocked the castle. Then the ceiling had caved in, bringing with it brick, wood, and heavy slate tiles.

Scarlet looked around and found that she was in a cocoon of rubble. It was so dark she could hardly see. Thick dust clogged her lungs, make it difficult to breathe.

“Sage?” Scarlet cried into the darkness.

Something stirred beside her.

“Scarlet?” came Sage’s voice. “Is that you?”

Scarlet’s heart leapt as she realized her beloved was still alive. She scrambled over boulders and debris toward the hunched shape of Sage. Once she reached him, she pressed her lips against his.

“I’ve got you,” she whispered.

“Scarlet, it’s too late,” he countered.

But Scarlet wasn’t listening. She slipped her arms around his naked torso and pulled him to sitting. He slumped, weak, barely able to hold his body up.

“What happened?” he said, surveying the damage, his voice little more than a croak.

“I have no idea,” Scarlet replied.

She looked around again and this time started to notice the tangle of Immortalists sprawled across the floor, or trapped beneath ceiling beams and clumps of brick and stone. Flames rose from several different areas like strange orange shrubbery.

Octal lay motionless on the floor. His staff lay beside him, snapped clean in half, and the cross on the tip that had been used to pierce Sage was aflame. Scarlet couldn’t tell whether Octal was dead or not but he certainly looked like he wasn’t going to be doing any harm for the time being.

Then Scarlet recognized the twisted metal fuselage of a military plane amongst the rubble. She gasped.

“It was a plane,” she said. “A military plane crashed into the castle.”

Sage shook his head, confusion across his brow.

“There’d be no reason for a plane to be here,” he replied. “The castle is in the middle of nowhere.”

“Unless they were looking for it,” Scarlet finished for him, as it dawned on her. “Unless they were looking for me.”

Just then, a mound of brick shifted and Sage winced as it slammed into his leg.

“We have to move,” Scarlet replied.

It wasn’t just danger from the damaged building she was worried about – it was the Immortalists. They had to escape before anyone came to their senses.

She turned to Sage.

“Can you run?”

He looked up at her with weary eyes. “Scarlet. It’s too late. I’m dying.”

She gritted her teeth. “It’s not too late.”

He grabbed her hands in his and stared deeply into her eyes. “Listen to me. I love you. But you have to let me die. It’s over.”

Scarlet turned her face away from him and wiped away the single tear that fell from her eye. When she turned back she reached out and hauled Sage’s arm across her shoulder, wrenching him to a standing position. He cried out in pain and sunk into her. As she began to lead him across the rubble and through the plumes of acrid smoke, she said:

“It’s not over until I say it is.”

*

The castle was in disarray. Though the plane that had crashed into it had been small, the damage to the ancient building had been colossal___.

Scarlet weaved through the corridors as the walls crumbled around her. She held Sage tightly to her side and he slumped into her, groaning with pain. He was so weak and feeble it made Scarlet’s heart ache. All she wanted was to get him to safety.

Just then, she heard shouting coming from behind.

“They’re getting away!”

Scarlet realized with a sinking sensation that they were coming back to their senses, that despite their castle being destroyed and many of their brethren lying hurt and dying around them, their desire for vengeance was going to drive them on.

“Sage,” Scarlet said, “they’re coming for us. We need to go faster.”

Sage gulped and grimaced.

“I’m going as fast as I can.”

Scarlet tried to hasten her pace but Sage’s weakness was slowing them down. He had to stop running. She had to find somewhere safe to hide him so that they could at the very least say their goodbyes.

She looked over her shoulder to see several Immortalists advancing. There, at the back, half concealed by shadows, she saw Octal. So he wasn’t dead.

As the group gained on them, Scarlet saw that half of Octal’s face was badly burned. He must have been in significant pain and yet he still wanted to harm her and Sage. It made Scarlet so sad to think that the love between her and Sage outraged the Immortalists so much.

Suddenly, an almighty crash made Scarlet leap, and a sudden spray of icy water soaked her. She looked over her left shoulder to find that the whole side of the castle had crumbled into the sea, causing a mighty wave to crash over them.

She heard screaming and looked back to see the Immortalists tumbling into the sea. They fell so quickly they didn’t even have time to fly to safety, and as soon as they hit the waves, the angry ocean swallowed them up.

As the tiles began to give way beneath her feet, Scarlet slammed her back against the wall of the corridor and pushed Sage back with her arm. The black water churned several feet below them. Scarlet suddenly felt as though she were balancing precariously on the ledge of a mountain.

The only person left standing, on the other side of a wide chasm, was Octal. Scarlet knew that it would take him no more than a few seconds to fly across the gap between them. But instead, he decided to watch.

He thinks it’s hopeless. He thinks we’re going to die.

“Quick,” she said to Sage. “Before we fall into the sea.”

Cold ocean spray hit her face as she led him across the ledge. With every step, more of the flooring broke off and tumbled into the ocean. Scarlet’s heart raced with anguish. She prayed that they would make it out of the castle and to safety.

“There,” she said to Sage. “Just a few more steps.”

But no sooner had the words left her lips than the tiles beneath Sage’s feet cracked. He just had time to look up into her eyes before the floor gave way and he plummeted down into the blackness.

“Sage!” Scarlet screamed, her hand outstretched, reaching for him.

But he was gone.

Scarlet glanced up at the other side of the chasm and saw a smile spread across Octal’s horrifically disfigured face.

Without a second of hesitation, Scarlet leapt off the ledge like a diver from a diving board, and soared downward toward Sage’s falling figure. Seconds before he hit the ocean she swept him up into her arms.

“I’ve got you,” she whispered, holding him to her chest.

Sage was heavy. Scarlet was only able to hover. They were barely inches above the treacherous water. She knew she couldn’t fly up because that would reveal to Octal that they had survived and he would launch an attack on them right away.

It was then that she saw caves to her right. They were naturally made, eroded into the solid rock by the ocean over centuries. The castle must have been built on top of them.

Scarlet wasted no time. She flew into the cave, Sage in her arms, and set him down on the floor. He flopped back and groaned.

“We’re okay,” Scarlet said to him. “We made it.”

But she was soaking wet and shivering. Her teeth chattered as she spoke. When she held Sage’s hand, she realized he was trembling too.

“We didn’t make it,” he finally said. “I’ve been telling you all along, I am going to die. Tonight.”

Scarlet shook her head, making her tears fly from her cheeks.

“No,” she said.

But she realized then it was no use. Sage was dying. It was really true.

She held him in her arms and let the tears fall freely. They rolled down her cheeks and onto her neck. She didn’t bother to wipe them away.

Scarlet was about to utter her goodbyes when she noticed a strange glow coming from beneath her T-shirt, just where her heart was. She shook her head, thinking at first she must be hallucinating. But the glow got stronger.

She looked down and realized it was her necklace that was aglow, white light spilling through the hinges. She reached inside her top and pulled it out. She had never before been able to open the necklace but something told her this time would be different. As she slid a fingernail into the latch, she realized that her tears had been dripping onto it. Perhaps they had somehow unlocked the pendant.

The two halves folded open and white light burst into the cave, illuminating Scarlet’s and Sage’s figures. In the middle of the glowing light was an image. Scarlet studied it. It was a castle in the middle of the sea, but not Boldt Castle. This one was taller and thinner, more like an elaborate tower than an actual castle.

Scarlet shook Sage by the shoulder.

“Look,” she instructed him.

Sage managed to half open a weary eye.

Scarlet heard him take a sharp intake of breath.

“You know where it is?” she asked.

Sage nodded. “I do.”

Then he slumped his head back into her lap, exhausted.

Something inside Scarlet told her that wherever this place was, it was important. And if Sage knew of it, then it was significant to the Immortalists. Why would her necklace show her such a place? And why would it only open when her tears fell on it? Surely it was a clue.

Scarlet snapped the necklace shut and the white glow disappeared, taking with it the image of a crooked castle in the middle of a raging ocean. Somehow she knew deep inside of her that if she got Sage to this castle, he would live. But she was running out of time.

She heaved the unconscious Sage onto her back. He was heavy, but this time Scarlet was more determined than ever, and more certain that there was hope. She took to the sky.

She would save him. No matter what it took.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Caitlin struggled to catch her breath as she fell though the night sky. One moment Caleb had hit the eject button, and the next, the plane was suddenly no longer around her. She was in the black air, falling toward the raging ocean.

She glanced right, looking for Caleb. He wasn’t there. Feeling anguished, she looked about her – and finally, she spotted Caleb above her, his parachute deployed. He was pointing to his parachute cord. She couldn’t hear him over the sound of the roaring air.

Then she realized: he was trying to tell her to pull her cord. She did and all at once the plummeting stopped as her body snapped. All was suddenly peaceful. She was hovering, floating, the white parachute spread open above her like angel’s wings.

Caitlin took some deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She looked back up at Caleb and saw him giving her two thumbs up. Caleb, who had far more experience with this sort of thing, managed to maneuver himself so that they were almost level.

“It’s going to be cold!” he shouted to her.

Caitlin looked down. The water was looming, and before she had a chance to think about the frozen waves hitting her, an enormous explosion made the whole world shudder.

Panicking, Caitlin looked to her right to see that the plane had crashed into something. She realized with a sinking sensation that it was the building she’d seen on the horizon, the one her senses had told her was where Scarlet was to be found.

“No!” she screamed.

Flames and bits of burning fuselage tumbled into the sea as a huge plume of black smoke billowed into the air.

Then Caitlin hit the ocean.

Caitlin gasped as she hit the freezing water. It was so cold, it felt as though her bones had turned to ice.

But the sharp sting caused by the frigid ocean paled in comparison to the anguish in her heart. Just ahead, the building Caitlin was certain her daughter was in was ablaze. She watched, as though in a daze, as the ceiling caved in. A moment later, the whole sea-facing wall crumbled into the ocean, leaving a deep wound in the exterior.

“Caitlin!” Caleb’s voice came from a little distance away.

Caitlin shook her head and found her way back to her senses. Caleb was swimming toward her, his parachute already detached and floating away, snatched by the strong current.

“Get your pack off!” Caleb instructed the second he was beside her.

Caitlin shrugged the heavy thing off, feeling instantly more buoyant. But her body was still weary, and her water-logged clothes were weighing her down.

“We have to get to land,” Caleb said.

He scooped his arm around his wife. She could feel that he was trembling violently. He was trying to be strong for her but really his situation was just as perilous.

“Do you think you can swim that far?” he added, nodding to the crumbling Boldt Castle.

Caitlin gritted her chattering teeth.

“What if the plane hit her?” she managed to say.

Caleb shook his head. “Don’t think like that.”

“I can’t help it. She’s our daughter. What if – ”

But Caleb didn’t let her finish. He pressed his hand over Caitlin’s heart.

“If she was dead, you’d know,” he said. “Wouldn’t you? If you can sense our daughter, track her to this place, then you’d know in your heart. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Caitlin bit her lip.

“Yes,” she said, finally. “You’re right. I would know if she was dead. I would feel it.”

But even as she said the words, and even though she believed them, she couldn’t help but feel that same sense of dread. Even if Scarlet was alive, she was most certainly still in danger.