I Am Never Alone Read online

  I bit down on my cheek so I wouldn’t scream with the anguish. When the cold water from the faucet hit my arms, it redefined the definition of pain.

  From the back of my hands to the elbows, the fire had burned half of my arms. The only good thing was that there were no blisters. It wasn’t a third degree burn. Hopefully it would heal without any problems.

  The entire time I tended to my wounds, Oliver stood looking panicked. He moved from foot to foot, powerless to do anything to help. It tormented him being so useless but no amount of reassuring him that it was fine would make him feel any better.

  We returned to the apartment and I locked us in for the night. I couldn’t use my coat anymore so I took out the blanket from Jet’s supply closet and tried to make a comfortable bed on the concrete floor.

  Tried to.

  Failed miserably.

  There was no way to sleep comfortably with flaming hot arms and a hard floor. I alternated between staring up at the ceiling and counting sheep in my head. Nothing could distract me from the throbbing pain.

  I needed help.

  Chapter Six

  There was nothing that highlighted the fear of the world after the Event than when someone needed medical attention. There were no doctors, no nurses, no-one remotely qualified to administer health services.

  Which was starkly obvious the next morning.

  I would have sooner cut off both my arms than suffer another long night with the searing pain. They throbbed and ached right down to the bone.

  “Go find Jet,” Oliver said, for the millionth time that morning. It was how he had said good morning to me.

  “I don’t need his help,” I replied. Again.

  “Yes, you do. He probably has access to bandages and pain killers.”

  Yes, he probably did.

  Was he going to be willing to help me? Probably not after our last argument.

  I didn’t have a coat to wear anymore but I couldn’t put anything on over my burned arms anyway. My thin T-shirt that had seen much better days was as good as it got. And it was freezing. Even with fiery arms they couldn’t warm the rest of me.

  “You’re in pain,” Oliver pointed out, oh so helpfully.

  “I know. So are you,” I shot back. After he had told me how much it hurt being trapped in the between world, it was difficult to feel sorry for myself. Whatever I was feeling, it was a hundred times worse for Oliver.

  There was no time for being a sook.

  “This is different, you can do something about your pain,” Oliver said. He lingered over me with crossed arms and an all disapproving glare. He would have made my mother proud.

  “And we can do something about yours too. We have to work out how to kill Kostucha.”

  He threw up his hands in frustration, rolling his eyes. “How? You can’t even move properly with your arms. And you can’t go outside because it’s too cold and you’ll freeze to death.”

  He had a point.

  A good one.

  But just the thought of running back to Jet for help was horrible. I didn’t want to owe him anything, even if I did kind of owe him for my life.

  “Please, Ev.”

  If there was one person who could make me suffer that humiliation, it was Oliver. His pouting got to me like no other. To make it worse, he knew exactly what effect he was having on me.

  “Fine,” I sighed. “But you may as well stay here or go somewhere else. You’re not able to go underground with me.”

  “I’ll walk you there.”

  Which is exactly what he did. It was freezing outside without a coat but the throbbing in my arms took precedence in my thoughts. The wind tormented me with harsh beatings, soaking its coldness right down to my core.

  My lips were blue by the time I arrived at the tunnel entrance. Oliver said goodbye before leaving me. There were no spirits underground, for a reason I still couldn’t work out. Oliver said it was like he felt a force-field around the tunnels, a solid wall he couldn’t penetrate.

  Just another puzzle I couldn’t solve.

  I stood at the entrance and waited for the onslaught of mole people. It would have been nice to wander down on my own and find Jet but that was never going to happen. The tunnels were a pitch black labyrinth with no pattern or logic. If I stepped foot into the darkness alone, I’d never be able to find my way out again.

  The mole people surrounded me soon enough. I wasn’t scared of them anymore. Jet had declared me as his property which meant they weren’t allowed to touch me. They were more scared of Jet and the consequences of hurting his possession than their hatred of me.

  “I need to talk to Jet,” I said loudly.

  Perry, a girl I knew could inflict some serious damage on me if she wanted to, was the first to speak. She was always guarding the tunnel entrance. I wasn’t sure if it was her job, or whether she just enjoyed beating people up.

  “Why are you here?” she asked, eyeing me carefully but giving nothing away.

  “I told you, I need to see Jet.”

  She went to punch my face but it was only to get a reaction out of me. It worked. I flinched. The memories of the pain she inflicted on me the first time we met was still fresh in my mind.

  “You like being his pet? Because you know that’s all you are, right? You’re nothing but a bug that he will choose to squish one day.”

  I couldn’t disagree.

  “Will you just tell him I’m here or take me to him?” I said. I was in too much pain to trade barbs with her. She should save all her best material for a time when my head could think clearer.

  “I don’t take orders from you,” she sneered, getting right in my face. In slapping distance if I could move my arms.

  “It was actually a question,” I pointed out. “Will you take me to him or not?”

  She glared at me, her eyes narrowed in what could only be described as a death stare. If looks could kill I would be on the floor and long gone. I wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

  “Hurry up then,” she finally said with venom in her voice. Perry hated me, there was no point in sugar coating it. “Lea, take her down to Jet. He was in his room when I last saw him.”

  Lea, a girl that couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven, stepped forward. She had a burst of pride in her step, eager to make her boss happy.

  With an equally contemptuous voice, she spoke to me. “Come on then, we don’t have all day. Hurry up.”

  Great. A mini-Perry.

  I did my best to keep up with the kid but she practically ran through the dark tunnels. She was obviously far more accustomed to the darkness, seeing obstacles that I had to trip over to find.

  We wove through the maze and I quickly lost all sense of where I was. The tunnels never failed to disappoint. We could have been walking around in circles and I wouldn’t have known the difference. For all I knew, the tunnels could have been really short and they just led me up and down the same corridor to disorientate me.

  If they did, it worked.

  Lea stopped in her tracks, I almost ran right into the back of her. The tunnel had a small amount of light from a hole overhead. I could make out her face but that was about it.

  “Jet’s door is the third one down,” Lea said suddenly, pointing downwards. I squinted to see any doors in the darkness. When I turned back, she was gone.

  Great.

  My fingers skimmed the wall to find the doors she promised were there. One. Two. And then, finally, three. I knocked.

  “What?” Jet’s voice was distinguishable even with a door between us.

  A sense of dread washed over me. I really wasn’t looking forward to seeing him. “It’s Everly.”

  Nothing.

  He didn’t say a word but a few moments later the door swung open. I was assaulted with light from his room, momentarily blinded.

  “What do you want?” He leaned against the doorframe, not letting me in. Every part of his stance told me it was a bad idea coming there.

  I had made a
mistake.

  “Nothing, don’t worry about it.” I turned to leave. If I walked long enough, maybe I’d stumble my way back to aboveground. Anything to avoid the humiliation.

  “Everly, you obviously came here for a reason. What is it?” He didn’t move.

  Oliver popped into my thoughts. If I went home and hadn’t done anything about my injuries, he would probably kill me himself.

  By nagging me to death.

  I spun back slowly and held up my wounded arms. “I’m hurt. I thought you might be able to help.”

  He had moved before it even registered in my mind. He grabbed both my arms above the burns and held them up roughly. I refused to flinch from the pain. “What the hell happened? Who did this to you? Tell me!”

  “I did it to myself. I got too close to a fire.” Not technically a lie. Jet hadn’t done enough to deserve the truth.

  His eyes never met mine as he studied what was left of my skin. His teeth chewed on his lip as he was lost deep in his thoughts.

  “Can you help me?” I asked, keen to break the silence. We were standing too close for comfort.

  “They’re going to get infected.”

  “I was hoping you’d be able to help me avoid that.”

  He suddenly released his grip. I had to stop my arms falling back to my sides and brushing the material of my jeans. Even the thought of that made me cringe.

  Jet backed up into his room and started rummaging around in several cardboard boxes stacked against the wall. “Close the door. Nobody needs to hear this.”

  I did as told while he threw things around, making as much noise as humanly possible. At least the room was warm, a nice change from the winter determined to make a mark up above. I sat on the edge of the bed, feeling anything but at home in the tiny room.

  Jet found whatever he was looking for, dumped a whole bunch of things back in the boxes with a crash, and crouched down in front of me. “Let me see the damage in the light.”

  I held up my arms. It wasn’t difficult to see the red and angry patches of burned skin. They weren’t exactly subtle or shy about making their presence known.

  Kind of like Jet himself.

  “This is ridiculous,” he mumbled, adding a few swear words under his breath.

  “It was an accident.”

  “What were you doing near a fire? The apartment was warm, you shouldn’t have needed any heating.”

  “I was outside.” An all out lie this time.

  He shook his head, either in disbelief or frustration, I couldn’t be sure which. “Something makes me think you’re not telling me the truth. What were you doing outside the city the other day?”

  “I told you it’s none of your business.”

  He let me go and held up a tube of antiseptic cream. “If you want my help, you have to answer my questions.”

  “You’re seriously going to deny me medical attention?” I asked. Like I even needed his confirmation to know he would.

  In a heartbeat.

  Jet went to move backwards. “Yes, I would. If you’re not going to talk then you may as well get out. You’re just wasting my time.”

  He was serious.

  Deadly serious.

  There were no doubts in my mind he wasn’t just joking around or trying his luck.

  “I went to Lucien Forest,” I replied.

  “What were you doing there?” He crouched back in place and started dabbing at my arms with a cream-laced piece of cotton wool.

  It stung like hell.

  When I hesitated, he held the cotton wool away from my skin. Still threatening to withhold treatment.

  He really was a son of a bitch.

  “I went there to gather ingredients for a spell.”

  The cotton wool returned.

  “A spell? Tell me the whole story.” He sighed, already resigned to the fact he wasn’t going to be happy to hear anything I had to say.

  I explained everything I did to summon Kostucha, from the trip to Lucien Forest, to the resulting fire that had burned my arms. Once again, I left out Oliver and made no reference to him. Whether I should trust Jet or not was still up in the air.

  Jet remained quiet for the entire story, only letting out an exasperated sigh or muttered an apology when I winced with pain. He didn’t fool me, though. Inside he was about to erupt like a volcano. And I was right in the line of fire.

  I finished speaking; he still concentrated on my arms.

  “That’s everything,” I said, wishing he would say something. If he wanted to be angry, he should just get it over and done with. As soon as he was finished with my arms, I would be out of there and not have to see him again.

  “Quite a tale,” he replied, his eyebrows arching like he didn’t believe me.

  “It’s not a tale, it’s the truth.”

  “It was really stupid. And dangerous. You shouldn’t have done it.”

  “That’s your opinion,” I said petulantly. Jet always thought his opinion was the only one that counted.

  It didn’t.

  Not to me.

  “That’s the truth, princess. Playing with Kostucha means you will get burned.” He grinned at me and it took all my resolve not to slap him. If he wasn’t bandaging my arms, I might have done it anyway.

  “Maybe if you had told me what you knew about Kostucha then I wouldn’t have had to summon him in the first place.”

  That wiped the smile from his face. “I was trying to protect you.”

  “Well, that’s not working out so well for either of us, is it?”

  He concentrated on the bandages, refusing to meet my gaze. “I saw Kostucha, that’s how I know who he is. It was just after the Event and he was crouched over some bodies. I don’t know what he was doing there, but he spoke to me.”

  I waited for Jet to continue but he didn’t seem to be planning to. “What did he say?”

  “He said he was coming for us all.”

  An involuntary shiver ran across my skin as I remembered the stench of evil that emanated from the demon. He was darkness embodied, given a face and aura of fear. I didn’t doubt he would come for us all, given enough time.

  I shook away the feeling just as Jet finished with the last bandage. He tidied up his supplies and replaced them in the cardboard boxes along the wall.

  “How were you able to see him?” I asked. I had gone to a lot of trouble to speak with Kostucha, surely he didn’t just appear to anyone.

  Jet shrugged as he sat on the bed next to me. He was extra careful to make sure we had distance between us. “I don’t know. It was in a field just out past Ascot Park. There must have been some kind of football game there or something when the Event happened. The place was littered with adult bodies. I was checking to make sure there were no kids amongst them and that’s when I saw him. He was leaning over the bodies.”

  “That must have been awful.”

  “I thought I was dreaming for a minute. I mean, he’s like something out of a nightmare. Before I knew it he was standing in front of me and warning me that one day it would be the kids’ turn.”

  “That’s how you knew he was behind everything.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Confirmed when Jet nodded. “Have you ever seen him again?”

  “Never. Once was enough. Which is how I know you have to stay away from him. He’s dangerous. No more conjuring or playing with magic. Okay?”

  There was no way I was agreeing to that.

  Like it was up to him, anyway.

  “He’s keeping all the spirits on earth, stopping them from crossing over,” I said quietly. He had to understand why I couldn’t just give up and walk away. It wasn’t about me, it was about a world full of spirits that were trapped and could never be at peace.

  “What? How?”

  “He’s feeding off their energy, that’s why he killed them all.”

  All the color drained from Jet’s face as he chewed on his bottom lip. His entire body tensed up as he sat rigid. “He’s eating the ghosts?”

/>   “Yeah.”

  “And he’ll eventually run out,” Jet finished his trail of thoughts. “So they’re really all trapped? They can’t cross over?”

  “No. It’s painful for them to stay, too. They only want to cross over so they can finally be at peace but as long as Kostucha is alive, they can’t.”

  “Did they tell you this? The spirits?”

  I nodded. It was better to let him believe my knowledge came from ghosts in general rather than one in particular. I had already revealed more information than I intended to. Oliver was mine.

  All mine.

  “You’re helping them,” Jet said quietly, as if just now working it out himself. “That’s why you are doing all this. You’re helping the spirits cross over.”

  “And now you know why I can’t give up,” I agreed. “For every one of them he consumes and kills a second time, he gets stronger. He’s already had a year head start. If I don’t stop him soon, I don’t think anyone will be able to.”

  “You really think you can?” It wasn’t a challenge from Jet, his question was spoken with pure curiosity. Somewhere in our conversation, he had started to take me seriously.

  Go figure.

  “Honestly? I have no idea. But I have this ability to see them for a reason and I can’t just ignore them.” As the words left my mouth, I realized how true they were for the first time. I had no idea why or how I was given the gift of seeing the spirits but surely it couldn’t have been coincidence.

  I was there for a reason.

  And I could see them for a reason.

  “You should have told me this before,” Jet finally said, after letting the information sink in.

  “We aren’t exactly friends, Jet. Plus, I haven’t known for very long – only the last few weeks.”

  He shuffled closer on the bed until he could place a hand on my leg. “I want to help. If you’re not going to give up on this crazy mission, then I want to do it with you.”

  “It’s nothing to do with you. Why would you even care?”

  “Because I want us to be friends.”

  I thought he was joking, teasing me mercilessly.