Chapter 461
I sat with Brandon on the plane ride to England. His mom was nice enough to give us some space. I know they’ve never been close, though she’s working on that now that she’s sober and back in school. But she sat next to Hannah, and they were chatting like good friends, which was cool. I had a feeling Elliott would appreciate his teammates welcoming Amanda. I glanced at Aurora and felt sorry for her. She looked pathetic, like she didn’t know if she was allowed to be sad about him being gone or not.
Cadence had gotten a text from Aaron while she was in with Lex and Gia. She’d let us all know then that Aaron had a plan on his side as well, and we just needed to carry through with what we had talked about. She didn’t go into detail about what it was, and I wondered why that might be. So I asked Brandon.
“What do you think Aaron’s plan is?”
He swallowed hard and wadded up an empty bag of chips. He hadn’t stopped eating since he got out of the shower. He said he had to make up for lost time. I thought maybe he was finished now. Taking a sip of his pop, he contemplated my question before he finally said, “I don’t think he’s planning on coming out. Not until Dad and Jamie are out.”
I nodded, thinking that had to be it. “He doesn’t think we’ll get a Vampire in?”
“He does—I think. But he’ll want to make sure they get out first, and the portal doesn’t stay open that long. It’s really hard to get to the opening to begin with, and then once you get to the opening, there’s a tunnel you have to run through before you’re just falling.”
I rested my head back and thought about that. “I guess he thinks he needs to stay because he’s the Leader. But really, it makes the most sense for Jamie to stay because he can heal himself.”
“I’m pretty sure Jamie said that, but Aaron isn’t going to budge on this one.”
It takes a pretty unselfish person to decide to stay inside of a portal so that his two best friends can get out, especially when he’s supposed to be getting married. “We’ll get him out. We have to.”
Brandon nodded but didn’t say anything else about it. I just wanted to put my head on his shoulder and go to sleep. Instead, he said, “I’m so sorry about Alex.”
I wished he hadn’t mentioned it. It was bound to come up eventually, but I didn’t want to think about it. “I know.”
“He, uh, gave me his phone to give to you. And it has a message on it.”
My eyebrows arched of their own accord. He continued. “Yeah, it’s a typed note, not like a video or anything. I also have his wallet. Not sure what to do with it, except give it to you, unless you can think of something else to do with it.”
“Okay,” I said. He reached into his jacket pocket, which was remarkably not shredded despite everything he’d been through, and pulled the two items out. I wasn’t sure I wanted them.
But I took them and put them in my own pocket. I didn’t need to read the message right now. I didn’t need to think about it. I needed to concentrate on doing my job, on getting Elliott, Jamie, and Aaron out of the portal and ending Holland once and for all.
She was coming. I didn’t need to know if Lucy had seen her on the Eurotunnel video or one of our team members on the ground had spotted her on the road to Stonehenge. I knew it in my gut. When we got to England, she would be there, waiting for us, with everything she had. It was time to end this.
I rested my head on Brandon’s shoulder and went to sleep knowing when I woke up, I’d be ready.
* * *
Stonehenge was magnificent. Even though it was dark by the time it came into view across from us, beyond a wide, open green field, it was still the sort of sight that takes a person’s breath away. Looking up at all of those giant rocks stacked so perfectly, so many hundreds of years ago, was exhilarating. I could feel the power surging through the stones and into the ground before I was even two football fields away from them.
It might’ve been even more life-altering if Hamish Stewart had agreed to walk. Instead, I was floating him over. It wasn’t taxing or anything, but it was annoying. He’d been bellyaching all the way from Southampton, and I wished I’d picked the other SUV to ride in. I guess I couldn’t blame him for being scared to go into the portal, but he’d started this mess. If he would’ve refused to help Holland or Hines or whoever had contacted him, he wouldn’t be here.
A ton of other LIGHTS members were already there. Kaycia, the Hunter Leader for the area, waved at us from her post on the other side of the field. She’s a tiny, spunky brunette with super curly hair and the kind of smile that would make you think she couldn’t hurt a fly, but I had a feeling we were about to see otherwise. It was also awesome to see Jamie’s sister, Margie, and her Hunter friend, Grant, waiting for us. She is a beast if I’ve ever seen one.
When we arrived at the landmark, Christian said, “I’m guessing the portal will open in the center of the circle. It won’t matter where the Guardians come out, but getting Stewart in there will be tricky.”
I didn’t really care what he thought, but I kept my comments to myself. I wished I could toss that guy in....
Cadence answered him much more politely than I would have. “I was just going to throw him, but he doesn’t seem like he wants to go. That’ll make it harder.” I wondered if she had been expecting a cooperative Vampire....
