Infinity Reaper by Adam Silvera (best new books to read txt) 📗

“I didn’t see them getting harmed in my vision,” Sera says.

“What did you see? How does it happen?”

“What does it matter how it happens?! We’re dying, Bautista. The best thing we can do right now is make sure our daughter and our friends don’t die with us!” Sera is shaking as she switches off the cauldron’s fire. “I didn’t even get to finish the potion for Aurora, and I’ll never get to see Maribelle speak or watch her walk. It’s happening too soon, far too soon. I hate these visions that only show me pain and death but never life.”

The baby is crying, but Bautista tries shushing Sera to calm her down instead. He holds her face to his chest and rubs her back. Neither of them are particularly settled by this.

What Sera says about the visions only showing pain and death syncs up with how my psychic sense has only ever warned me of danger. I don’t know where this power comes from. An ancestor of Luna’s? My grandfather? Whoever that is. As much as Sera believes she wants to see my future as if I have some beautiful life, she would only see how the world has gotten worse and taken me down with it.

“We have to bring Maribelle to Aurora,” Sera says.

“No, come on. I’m getting you out of here. We’ll prove your vision wrong,” Bautista says.

“This warning is written in the stars, and even we’re not powerful enough to change the fates. Grab the journal. There’s still time to set up the Walkers for success against the Blood Casters.”

As Sera leaves the room and rushes down the hallway, I’m dragged with her, like she’s the earth and I’m a moon pulled into her orbit. Bautista catches up, clutching the journal. Emil is side by side with me.

“Are you okay?” Emil asks.

I’m surprised I can hear him. I ignore him like I can’t.

Sera and Bautista are rushing through the hall, dreading their deaths, but not saying anything to each other. Had Mama and Papa known they were about to die, they would’ve used every last minute to express their love for one another. But I was grown when Mama and Papa died. Here I’m a baby who needs my biological parents to pass me on so I can become who I am.

I can’t believe I’m going to get to see Mama and Papa.

Sera stops in her tracks, then shoves Bautista to the side as she steps back, a stream of acid sailing past where they stood. We all turn and a man in a gray jumpsuit and venom-green eyes gives Sera and Bautista a creepy-ass wave with his scaled hand. Bautista wastes no time blasting golden fire his way, but the basilisk specter moves as smoothly as Stanton has.

“Take her and go!” Bautista says.

He tosses the journal to Sera before launching another attack, unaware if he’ll ever see her again. Sera drops the journal, and as she scoops it up and runs away, an index card is left behind. Emil pointlessly shouts her name as he pointlessly tries to pick it up.

“Those are the ingredients!” Emil says.

“Memorize them!” I shout as Sera pulls me with her down the hall.

This is the moment in history that explains why two more decades of specters were allowed to grow, causing more strife between those with powers and those without. A warrior’s carelessness sparked by a mother’s determination to protect her daughter. All the deaths, from Mama and Papa to Finola to Konrad to Atlas—would they still be alive if this power-binding potion had made its way into the world? Would Luna have given up the fight if her efforts were so easily countered?

It’s like I’ve been thinking all along—I’m touched by Death.

I just didn’t realize it’s been this way since the beginning.

Sera has nearly reached the end of the hallway when I see my parents pop out of one of the rooms, wands at the ready. I’m stunned and it’s like I’ve forgotten how to breathe as I marvel at them. I never thought it would be possible to see my parents again, let alone at a time where they’re a couple years older than I am. Mama is so beautiful; I wish I resembled her more. Her dark hair isn’t long like I’ve known it, but cut to her shoulders with a golden wreath wrapped around her head that brings out the green flecks in her brown eyes. Papa is as handsome as all the photos made him out to be, and it’s not surprising to me that he was the player in the group. His thick eyebrows are one day away from a unibrow, and I almost want to laugh given how serious Papa got about waxing later in his life. They’re both wearing dated power-proof vests, our Spell Walker insignia sprayed on in silver graffiti.

“Blood Casters have broken in,” Sera says.

“Look out the window; we’re surrounded by acolytes,” Mama says.

This surprises Sera, her fear building. “I don’t have a lot of time, but Bautista and I need you both to take care of Maribelle.”

“We’re staying and fighting,” Papa says.

“No, you have to go! I had a vision, and I need my daughter out of here!”

Mama holds Papa’s wrist, which I’ve always seen her do to get him to listen. “We’ll fly Maribelle somewhere safe. Anywhere in particular we should meet you?”

Sera is rocking baby Maribelle back and forth while brushing the full head of hair I was born with. She tearfully looks up at Mama and Papa and even though I can’t sense their emotions I trust they know what’s coming as clear as a vision. “This is my and Bautista’s last fight. I’ve seen our corpses in the very near future, and the only way you can help us is by taking care of our daughter.”

Papa is shaking his head. “Sera, you’re not going anywhere. Maybe you’re reading the vision wrong. Don’t play into it.”

Mama is crying, and whenever