Chaos (Lanie Bross) - Lanie Bross Page 0,56

off, but couldn’t. The Executor grabbed both of Jas’s elbows and hauled Jas to her feet.

“Leave me alone!” Jasmine cried. She knew it was hopeless. But maybe someone would hear her and come to her aid. The Executor was gripping her so tightly she left tiny half-moon fingernail marks in Jasmine’s skin. “What is this place?” Jasmine asked. “How did we even get here?”

“You’ve just traveled the Crossroad—here, to Pyralis,” the Executor said, pushing forward. Jasmine wondered why the Executor didn’t just finish her off already.

“Why am I here?”

“Because you took life from the Great Gardens, and now you must pay for it in blood.”

Jasmine dragged her feet, stumbled, leaned back, forced the girl to slow down. “I’ve never been here before,” she argued. “How could I take anything?” It was a lie. She knew she had been here before—could feel it in the humming of her blood. But she had never, ever hurt anyone. She was sure of it.

“Stop whining,” the Executor said, for a moment sounding just like a harried mom leading her toddler around a grocery store. “We’ve wasted enough time already.”

“So you’re just going to kill me, then?” Jasmine’s fear felt out of place, like it might somehow contaminate this world, which was so beautiful, so peaceful and still.

“I’ve told you,” the girl said. “I have no choice.”

Jasmine thought she sounded a little sad. Or maybe she just imagined it.

They stopped in front of a huge iron gate. Beyond it, Jas could see a vast garden with an explosion of colors, many of which Jas had no name for: petals that looked like the tie-dyed shirts she used to love as a kid.

In front of the gate were seven enormous stone statues—they all had a woman’s body, but each face was completely blank except for a crescent where the mouth should be. Jas had the sensation that the statues knew she was there, that they were watching, and as the Executor propelled Jas to the gates, she half expected them to come alive and attack her.

“She has returned,” the Executor said in a loud voice. “Open the gate.”

The gate squeaked open and the Executor dragged Jasmine into the garden.

The perfume that filled Jas’s lungs hit her almost like a drug, like taking that first pull of really strong weed and feeling the world get warm and fuzzy at the edges. She was suddenly filled with a fierce longing—not to escape but to stay, to be left here, alone and in peace.

It terrified her, the connection to this world.

“Please,” Jasmine said in a low voice, giving in to the fear that welled up inside her. “Please. If you let me go, I can pay you. My family will pay you.” Another lie: her family had no money. Her dad was in the hospital. But she was desperate, babbling now.

“That’s not how it works. You took from the Garden. Now you must give back.” The Executor grabbed Jasmine’s hands before she had time to react, then bound her wrists together behind her back with thick green vines. “The nectar from the Flower of Life flows in your veins. It was never meant for you. Your brother crossed a line.”

“What do you know about my brother?”

“Only that he has created chaos across the universe. The Unseen Ones are not happy. He should be careful, or he’ll be next.”

“Next?” Jas asked, but she already knew. They would pursue Luc, too.

The girl was crazy. It was the only explanation. She was certifiably, one hundred percent insane. Maybe all of this was some kind of weird acid trip. Maybe the girl had drugged her.

The girl yanked on Jasmine’s bound wrists, verifying the knots would hold. A stab of pain radiated from Jasmine’s shoulders. When the girl returned to face her, Jas could see that her features were too perfect, like a porcelain doll’s, and her eyes were the color of the sky swirling with storm clouds. Pale light shone against her skin, making it appear lavender.

Jasmine couldn’t tear her gaze away from the knife. Why was a knife so much worse than a gun? At least with a gun she would feel it less. She felt sick. Her knees were liquid, and she didn’t know how much longer she could stand.

“Please.” Jasmine choked on the plea. There was a time only recently when she hadn’t thought she cared about whether she lived or died. But faced with death, Jasmine realized that she very much did care.

She definitely, definitely did not want to