The Convergance (an excerpt) by Elizabeth Carroll

Chapter 6

The scent of sandalwood filled the storeroom where Wil busily stacked the basketballs on the cart. He grimaced and closed his eyes as an overly warm hand ran across his shoulder and down his arm.

        “Hello, Wil,” purred a voice that sounded much too much like Cassia’s. “I have missed you for all these moons.”

Wil fought the urge to turn around; even at her best, Giselle could not match the sincerity that would have come from Cassia. His Guardian was not here.

        “Go away,” he said as he put the last two balls on the cart and rolled it into the corner.

        “Why? I am here for you. Surely you cannot deny that you are happy to see me—”

“Stop it!” The cart thumped against the wall. “You’re not Cassia!”

“Oh, all right.” There was a flash behind Wil, and then Giselle said,

“You’re not being a very good sport about this, you know.”

“Sorry to ruin your fun. Why don’t you go find a flame thrower to hook up with?”

“Oh, humor, I get it. You know, we could have such good times together,

Wil.” She took a few steps until she was in his peripheral sight. “You would be such a…well, a breath of fresh air for me.”

“Not interested.” But he was. His soul vibrated at her nearness, and he had to forcibly turn himself from her. Her sickly sweet scent swirled around him in a haze, exacerbating the headache behind his temples. He had thought coming to the center for a few hours would help mellow him out; it had taken a little over two hours to find out he’d been wrong.

“But you haven’t heard what I’m offering in return.”

“I don’t care. Now go away.” Wil started towards the door.

“So you enjoy suffering?”

His essence cramped suddenly, a knot of desire pitted against a knot of repulsion. He stumbled against the wall.

Giselle walked casually over to him and traced one perfectly manicured finger down his arm to his hand. “I didn’t think so and why would you? It’s pointless, this agony. It won’t bring her to you—she’s condensed water, for hell’s sake.” She shuddered, then turned her dark eyes on him coyly. “But I understand, Wil, and I’m willing to help you.”

He saw the succubus then, and wondered again how a demon could be so beautiful, so tempting.

The darkness inside him flared up and reached for her, and Wil struggled to push it back. “You’re lying. You made the same promises to Andrew and look what you did to him.”

“But you’re not Andrew,” she purred. “Andrew’s weak whereas you have

this incredible strength of spirt, Wil. You’ve resisted me all these months, although I think you’re finally ready to start giving in.” She flashed into Cassia and laid her hand against his chest. Wil’s soul reached for her again.

Careful, the angel warned.

“No. You’re not Cassia.” Cassia was on the Gateway. She wasn’t here. So why, then, did he want to believe her?

Maybe because this is as close to her as you’ll ever get, the devil taunted.

“True, I’m not your precious Guardian.” Cassia flashed back into Giselle, and she pressed closer to him. “But I could be…if you wanted me to. Come on, Wil. Let me take away your pain, let me give you what you long to have.”

Wil couldn’t look away this time. He saw the blue in her ebony eyes, the gold in her black curls, the fairness in her bronze skin. His mind warned him not to trust his eyes, but his soul reached for her anyway. The real Cassia would never be his, not really, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still be with her, even if it was just a counterfeit Cassia.

“Kiss me, Wil. That’s all you have to do.” Her red mouth whispered near his ear, her smooth cheek brushed against his. “I’m here for you, Wil.”

Wil’s heart leaped with leaden joy, and a tear raced down his cheek.

“Cassia—” He brushed her hair back from her face and gazed at her. She

looked so much like his Guardian. His mind battled itself: should he see past the illusion or embrace it?

Her mouth was very near to his. “Don’t fight it, Wil. Give in to me and Cassia will be yours for all eternity.”

“Yes—” Leaning in to kiss her, he felt the searing heat on his soul; he was being branded a second time, but this time he didn’t care. He could stand any torture as long as it brought him to Cassia.

“Okay, Wil, I’ve given you long enough. Now we need to tal—”

Scott’s voice penetrated the fog that had enshrouded Wil’s brain, and he pulled himself away from Giselle’s embrace before his lips touched hers. She shrieked suddenly and arched her back as though someone had stabbed her from behind.

Startled, Wil blinked and struggled to clear the remnants of magic from his eyes. Giselle spun around, hissing, her tail lashing dangerously on the ground. Scott stood in the doorway, frozen in fear and wonder.

“What the—?”

The demon spit and snarled, her pupil-less eyes flashing fire. Pointing her finger, Giselle shot a bolt of white hot lava straight at Scott.

“No!” Wil lunged for Giselle as Scott threw his arms up defensively.

Grabbing at the demon’s flame red arms, Wil felt as though he had touched fire itself. The flesh on his hands was raw within seconds, but he never got the chance to scream.

The fire bolt disintegrated with a watery sizzle, and a forceful blast

knocked him to the floor. Giselle shrieked in fury and vanished in a cloak of black smoke.

Pushing himself to a sitting position, Wil stared at his hands. They had been seared from the contact with Giselle’s skin. Long red streaks stung his

fingers and palms, and black ash dotted the creases of his flesh.

What the hell just happened? One minute, she had been human and the next she was writhing and spitting fire in all her succubus glory. She’d attacked…someone, not him, but—

Scott.

Wil looked up, his momentary panic giving way to bewilderment. Scott stood in the doorway, watching him with a face full of confusion and horror. He was completely unscathed.

“You’re okay,” Wil said in relief at the same time as Scott demanded, “What the hell was that?”

Wil stared at him. “You saw her?”

“Her? That wasn’t a ‘her’, Wil, that was a…what? A lizard? A six-foot tall lizard? And you were about to kiss it? What the hell is going on?”

“Kiss—?” Wil swallowed. He’d almost given in. Giselle meant to gather him, and he had played right into her demonic hands. His soul quivered under the weight of the dark magic; it didn’t help that the mark of Cassia now remained quiet.

“I suppose you’re going to say this still doesn’t have anything to do with Cassia,” Scott said as though he could read Wil’s mind. “But it does. She’s

Cassia’s opposite, isn’t she?”

Wil looked at him and said nothing. What could he say? A denial would have been pointless, but he was bound by the rules of a Secret Keeper, and an explanation would be, well, difficult at best.

Besides, he was still puzzling over how Scott was not hurt by Giselle’s attack, and his hands were throbbing with rawness. He looked down and exhaled. The skin on his palm was now crimson and swollen with black blisters that were already oozing ebony pus. A memory flashed across his mind: Cassia lying on the patio, nearly unconscious, while the green poison of the scorpion’s sting oozed into her broken flesh.

Scott whistled. “Are you all right?”

Wil grimaced. “I don’t know.” Cassia’s wound had partially transformed her into a banshee; there was no telling what, if anything, the poison would do to him. “We need to get home.”

Scott hesitated a moment, then nodded. They crossed the empty gym and left through the side door. Wil couldn’t help looking over his shoulder as they walked across the parking lot to the car; the last time he’d used that door, Giselle had caught him in her magical whip and nearly choked him to death. If it hadn’t been for Cassia, the demon would have succeeded.

The pain in his hands shot up his arms suddenly like a bolt of fire, and he gasped. Using the tip of his pinky to push his sleeve out of the way, he saw snaky black marks on his wrist and forearm. His fingers curled with pain. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and his heartbeat accelerated. An agony like he’d never known drove him to his knees, and the panic welled up inside of him as he realized what was happening: he was burning up from the inside out.

Scott knelt beside him. “Wil, what is it? What’s wrong?”

The fiery heat climbed up his arms to his shoulders and down into his chest. Wil managed to gasp out the word “F-fire” before falling to the frozen ground and screaming in anguish. He could not feel the snow beneath him, nor the icy air around him; all he knew was the sensation of his blood literally boiling as he was burned alive.

Scott’s voice called to him above the roar of the flames, but Wil could not answer. In his eyes he saw black smoke billowing up from his skin, and he could taste ash on his tongue. The part of Cassia on his essence writhed in distress as it tried to pull itself free of his grip. He couldn’t call out to her; the flames were eating away at his mouth and his brain.

Suddenly, cool hands touched him. Something washed over him and extinguished the fire inside him. The smoke vanished, the taste of ash changed into something sweet and minty, and a soothing balm coated his soul and his limbs.

“Hear me, Secret Keeper,” a gentle voice said from somewhere far above him. “The venom is dissipating. You will mend, but you must meditate.”

Wil blinked and saw through the shock-induced drowsiness a familiar figure. A cloud person hovered near him, one with olive skin and dark brown hair lit with golden starlight. Nearby Scott stood, open-mouthed.

Chessa glanced at him and then looked back at Wil. “You are in safe hands, Secret Keeper.”

Wil thought she glowed a little brighter than before. She moved away from him and stood before Scott.

“When he awakens from his meditation, give him this. It will help with any lingering effects of the demon’s magic.”

She held out a small package. Scott took it without comment.

“See that he returns to his shelter immediately. Sentinels will guide you there.” Glancing at Wil, she nodded. “Farewell, Secret Keeper.” At Scott, she only smiled and faded into cloud as she drifted away.

Wil saw Scott look from her to the package in his hand; he longed to say something but his tongue was heavy with healing, and the effects of Chessa’s magic forced his eyes closed as he drifted away into the safety of sleep.

*****************************

Cassia’s party moved across the Plane of Dreams. Astin had finally rejuvenated enough to assume human form, but it had been a collective decision to remain in their natural state. They were better able to handle the magical properties of the Gateway that way. Going around the Cadmium Plane was costing them time, but they could ill afford another confrontation with Fire. No one knew what had happened to Jace, but even with Stormclaw and Dilly as their companions, Astin would have little effect on the Elementals. They needed Water or the Sylphs but lacked the time to find either one, and Earth had chosen neutrality, so they compensated by taking the long way

around.

Cassia was lost in meditation. Her connection to Andrew had been severed when Fire had grabbed her. She reached out with her mind and her essence over and over again, but he had retreated into his torment and refused

to know her.

Suddenly she was aware of her other charge far below on the Earthly plane. Wil was in trouble. On his essence was a myriad of emotions: sorrow, annoyance, longing. She felt the searing heat as the demon Hostage tried to steal him a second time and the jolt when he rejected her.

The sensation knocked her out of her natural state, and she landed heavily on her human feet. Dilly materialized in front of her and cocked his grinning head in puzzlement.

Astin also transformed. “Cassia, are you well?”

She held up her hand as she reached out to her charge. Wil was all right, but she had been mistaken. It was not Wil who pushed Giselle away; this time it was a magical force which severed her grip on him. Something strong and pure interceded, something at which Giselle’s power could not strike.

Scott, she realized suddenly, and the thought of him filled her with energy that was both wholesome and potent. She looked at the Sentinel, her mouth opened to speak when sudden, violent pain thrummed across her very being. She staggered against the wall of the Gateway, caught in the all-consuming agony that belonged to Wil. Voices drifted above her head, but she knew only the poison that tortured him with scorching flames, that threatened to take his life. Try as she might, she could not sever her connection with him; her essence remained entwined with his, and she was aware of nothing but the stabs of fire that wracked his body.

Clawing at her human midriff as though she could pull the connection

out of her, Cassia dropped to her knees, unable to stand under the onslaught of physical pain. Astin knelt in front of her and said something, but she could only hear the cries of her charge far below her on Earth.

Astin spoke again, but his words made no sense. A scream bubbled up inside her and was ripped from her trembling lips before she fell into Astin’s arms.

Wil. His name pushed through the murkiness of her mind, and she saw his face clearly. Save him…please.

Just then, a soothing balm washed over her and coated the poisonous burn. Wil’s being pulled back from hers, weary and injured but alive. Cassia lay where she was, her human form lacking the strength to move.

“Guardian, can you hear me?” Astin asked as he pushed her to a sitting position. “Have you recovered?”

Wil. He would be all right. Chessa had reached him in time, and the demon’s poison would leave no lasting mark. Why, then, could she derive no comfort from that?

“Cassia, what happened?” Astin’s face was a blur to her.

“Wil…Giselle hurt him.” Her voice sounded shaky to her own ears, but then she felt shaky. Her hands trembled slightly as she attempted to steady

herself.

“To what end? To gather him?” Astin looked at her funny, as though he did not believe she was really herself.

“No. It was—it was not deliberate.” She leaned against the wall of the

Gateway. “The Sterling One is beginning to come into his powers. She knows now of his existence.”

Dilly landed on her shoulder and wrapped his prehensile tail around her neck. The tip of the tail came up to wipe at her cheek, and she saw water glistening on the point.

“Tears we weep are tears we keep, Guardian,” the dragon chattered in her ear.

Cassia stared at it in bewilderment and lifted her hand to her face. Her cheeks were wet; so were her eyes.

“Tears,” she said in awe. Wil’s mother had once had a wet face like this; so had Wil and Scott after the death of their friend Stacey Jo.

It was a very human thing to do.

Astin gave her a stern look. “The poison within you grows stronger. The time has come for Samson’s mixture.”

“The tears are not mine. They belong to Wil. It is only because of the convergence that I…weep.” Cassia took a deep breath. “Still, it might be wise to suppress these emotions. I cannot fail Andrew again.”

Astin handed her the tonic, which she swallowed. It took almost no time at all for the emotions to dissipate. She nodded, and Astin helped her to her

feet. Dilly flew off her shoulder and turned invisible almost at once.

“Are you able to transform?” Astin asked.

Cassia nodded. It would be a great comfort to be a cloud after that violence.

“Then we continue on.” He transformed, and so did Cassia. Then she took the lead again, moving towards Andrew but thinking only of Wil. He would be all right, she knew that. Still, she had a sudden longing to see him with her own eyes.

Another effect of the convergence, she thought to herself. Such thoughts were distracting. She forced it down, and disappearing through the rip in the Gateway fabric, moved into the Realm of Neutrality, her party right behind her.

Elizabeth Carroll was born and raised in Henderson, North Carolina. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a Master’s degree in creative writing, she began a career teaching and writing novels. Her first two novels, The Secret Keeper and The Convergence, are part of a young adult fantasy fiction series and were self-published by Wheatmark, Inc. The third novel, The Gateway, will be available this summer. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and son.