The Ultimate Sacrifice, Talia Jager [novels to read .TXT] 📗
- Author: Talia Jager
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She laughed. “Okay. The guy is trying to impress the girl, who loves nature and outdoors. He told her he loves to hike, and she suggested they come here. Now he’s wishing he had kept his mouth shut.”
I laughed. “That’s funny.”
“There’s a family behind us who climb to the summit every year. Six months ago, their oldest son died in a car crash. This is their first time without him, and they’re all feeling a little different about it.”
“Wow.” I felt bad for them. For me, it would be like losing one of us. I hadn’t grown up with blood relatives, so my friends were my family.
After another hour, I saw some water ahead. “A lake! Is that it?” I looked back at Zane. “Which way do we go?” Excitement rose up in me.
“Calm down, Kassia. That’s not Mirror Lake. It’s Lone Pine Lake.”
I stomped my foot, and Mira laughed. “You gonna have a temper tantrum now?”
“Yes.” I stuck out my lower lip.
“Do you know how much further, Zane?” Daxton asked him.
“Little over a mile.”
Daxton took my hand. “We’re almost there.”
We trudged on. The pain in my side grew with every step. I tried to go slow and easy, but I felt like I was holding everyone back. Daxton gripped my hand, hanging on to me. Every once in a while, he’d turn to me and say something sweet like, “I’ve got you. We can do this.”
In the next twenty minutes, we descended a little into a place called Outpost Camp and started walking through some meadows. We proceeded up the trail and it wasn’t long before Daxton pointed and said, “There, Kassia, look.”
I could see another lake now, not quite as beautiful as the one earlier. There weren’t as many people there. “It’s closed to camping,” Zane said. “Maybe that’s why she likes it here.”
“Look how rocky it is after this.” Auralee pointed ahead. “The tree line ends here.”
“Trees can’t grow further up because of the environment,” Noe responded.
Zane put his finger up, signaling us to be quiet. “I’ll be back.”
I picked at something sticky on my hand until he returned. “Well?”
Zane nodded. “Follow me.”
We waited until there weren’t any more hikers in sight, and then we headed toward the lake. We walked around to a secluded spot. “Now what?” I was beginning to get annoyed. We had been driving around the country for weeks, fighting demons, and hiking for hours. What else did we need to do?
“We wait.”
“For?”
“I’m not sure.”
Glad he had the patience to sit around and wait. I, however, did not. “C’mon, Zane! This is fucked up. We wait? Is she even real? Is she going to appear in the middle of the lake? I want answers. I don’t want to wait!” I yelled, getting mad.
“Psst, Mira, you might want to intervene before she blows,” Noe suggested.
“Oh!” Mira stood up in between Zane and me. The blood drained from Zane’s face as he realized who was getting mad. “Kassia,” Mira spoke softly. “Chill out. We’re all tired. We’re all frustrated, but Zane didn’t do anything, and well, I’d really like it if you didn’t kill him.”
I broke my concentration and looked at her. “Fine, for you.” The look on Zane’s face bothered me though. “I wouldn’t have hurt you, Zane.”
His face softened. “I know…I think.”
I sat away from the group, thinking about what we were doing, hoping this shaman would be able to tell us what to do. What if she couldn’t or wouldn’t? What would we do then? We’d have to go to plan B. We couldn’t keep living like this.
As it got darker, I got more worried. “Wonder if there is even such a thing as a shaman,” I muttered under my breath.
Chapter Eleven
I thought I heard something. My head snapped up, and I saw her. She had long white hair and the yellowest eyes I had ever seen. Come to think of it, I didn’t think I’d ever seen yellow eyes before. Her skin was thin and pale. She looked like she was over a hundred years old.
“I passed a hundred a long time ago, my dear.”
And she could read minds.
“Follow me.” We all stood and followed her. She took us a little farther up the mountain to a place I was sure nobody had ever been. “Nobody can see this place,” she told us, “unless you’re with me or I let you. You may call me Vala.”
Her home was a decorated cave. Long sheets hung on the walls of the cave, and a rug covered the floor. A kitchen table and a bed were shoved against a wall. Many books were lined up on numerous bookshelves. It was plain but homey.
The lady shaman sat down and looked at us all. “What brings you gifted kids to my mountain?”
If she could read minds, she should know. I took a deep breath. Here went nothing. “We’re hoping you can help us.” I filled her in on who we were and what had happened at the school. “We’ve been running and hiding for a couple weeks, but the demons keep finding us. We won’t be safe, ever, anywhere. We’re hoping you can tell us what to do.” I wondered if I sounded desperate enough, because we were extremely desperate.
She didn’t speak for a few moments. I got the feeling that she was reading each of our minds, but she didn’t confirm that suspicion. “You are all in a very dangerous position,” she said finally. Her voice was high, like that of a young child. “Especially you, Kassia. So young, so beautiful, and so deadly.” I swallowed hard. “I have heard whisperings long before your gift was revealed. They have been waiting for you.”
My hands were shaking. “I don’t want…”
“I know, child. Despite you killing humans, your soul is full of light. You only killed to protect.”
I nodded, looking at Mira, who had tears flowing down her face. “Please, can you help us? Please...” I was crying now too.
“Demons are awful creatures. They are being controlled by Kern. He is the one calling the shots,” Vala explained.
“Do we need to kill him?”
She cocked her head to one side and then the other as she looked at me. “He is very hard to kill, and killing him won’t stop all the evil in the world.”
My shoulders sagged, my hopes sunk. “Is there no hope then?”
“You already know what you have to do to protect those you love.”
My eyes grew wide. “That’s all there is?”
“NO!” Mira jumped up.
“Over my dead body!” Daxton shouted.
Vala grinned proudly. “You have loyal friends.”
“I have to protect them.”
“Yes…” She looked back at me. “They won’t stop until they have you, and when they do, child, you will be used as a weapon. The only way to stop that from happening is death. But you will have to do it in front of Kern himself.”
I heard Mira gasp behind me.
“That means I have to get caught.”
“Yes.”
I shuddered, remembering the demons’ eyes.
“The dagger you have, make sure it’s well hidden. When you’re brought before Kern, he will want you to demonstrate your gift. You will not be tied up at this point so take the dagger and stab yourself in the heart. They will not touch the dagger; they cannot. It is made by faeries and sealed by angels. It will burn their hands if they touch it.” Vala looked at my friends and said, “You must not take it out either. Bring her body with the dagger back here to me. We will deal with her properly then.”
Mira was holding her head in her hands. “There has to be another way.”
“I am sorry, but there is not.”
Her voice rang of truth, and I could feel it in the very fiber of my being. I had known this all along. I had to die for them. Not that I wanted to die, but as long as it kept them safe, I would. “Where do I go?”
“Don’t worry,” she cackled. “They will find you.”
“If they take her, how do we find her?” Noe asked.
Vala looked over at Noe. “Your difficulty has to do with demon leaders having the ability to cloud people from seeing the future. Once Kassia’s body is abandoned, you should be able to see where to go.”
Noe nodded and softly responded, “Okay.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else?” Daxton asked, his voice shaking.
“You love her. Tell her this.”
“Nothing?” Auralee asked. “We came to you for help, and you tell her to commit suicide?”
“The demons of this world are just getting stronger and stronger. The good is fading. I’m the last of my kind in this country. The faeries won’t come out of hiding. The angels won’t set foot on the ground. Humans are destroying the earth as well as themselves. The gifted are getting fewer. But somehow, you kids have given me hope.” Vala closed her eyes. “Yes…hope. Remember what I said you have to do. I will see you soon.” She stood up and looked straight at me. “Godspeed.”
And with that she was gone.
Nobody moved for a long time. I think we were all in shock. “We should be going,” I muttered.
“That’s it? You’re just going to give yourself to them?” Mira screamed, lunging at me. She grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me. “You can’t! I didn’t take care of you for all these years just for you to kill yourself!”
Oh Mira, sweet Mira. “Always worried about me.” I cupped her face in my hands. “Now it’s time for you to let me take care of you.”
“No!” she wailed like a baby. “Take me with you! We’ll die together!”
“Absolutely not!” I held her while she sobbed. It felt odd comforting my friends over my own death. I had to keep repeating, “This is for them,” over and over in my head or I might have completely lost it. I was holding on by a thread. I felt like I was going to snap at any second. So chanting, “This is for them, this is for them, this is for them…” kept me from doing so.
Daxton sat down next to me and put his arm around me while I still held on to Mira. She had literally cried herself to sleep, and I was still stroking her hair.
“Vala was right,” I told him.
Our eyes met and I smiled.
“I love you, Kassia.”
My heart melted. “I love you, too.”
He kissed me gently and lovingly. I never wanted it to end. I ended up falling asleep while leaning on him. When I woke again, the sun was starting to rise. We needed to go. Vala had given us a safe place to sleep that night, and now it was time to face our destiny.
I woke everybody up, and we descended the mountain slowly. We had no desire to get to wherever it was we were going. A few times, I found myself blinded with silent tears and stumbled along the trail. One of my friends would grab my arm and help me find my balance. Somehow I think it took us longer to get down than it did to get up. We were in no hurry.
Back in the car, we just sat. “Where do you want to go?” Zane finally asked.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Do you want to go home?”
Hell yes, I did, but
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