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Evertrue

Everneath - 3

by

Brodi Ashton

THE EVERLIVING

Mythology enthusiasts call them Akh ghosts, Akh referring to life after death.

Others call them the souls of the dead, the inhabitants of the Underworld.

But I know they are really the Everliving. They live in an Underworld known as the Everneath, and every hundred years they must feed on—steal emotional energy from—a human sacrifice, called a Forfeit.

I was once a Forfeit.

Now I am an Everliving.

But I will destroy the Everneath before I feed on another human being. And I will destroy anything, or anyone, that stands in my way.

PROLOGUE

TWO WEEKS AGO

The Surface. My bedroom.

Jack rubbed his eyes and sat up in my bed. “Wait. What did you just say?”

“The Everneath,” I replied. “I said I want to take the whole thing down. Let’s blow it up. Nuke it or something. ” My hands started to shake.

Jack glanced at the clock, then reached out toward me. “Come back to bed. Everything is fine. The Tunnels aren’t coming for either of us. It’s over. ”

Over. It would never be over. Not anymore. I glanced at the open window, the one Cole had just jumped through after he’d stolen my heart. Jack followed my gaze, saw that the window was open, and looked at me with furrowed brows as if finally sensing that something was very wrong.

“What just happened, Becks?”

“Cole was here. ” My voice sounded shaky. “He said that I fed off him three times in the Everneath. He said I’ve lost my heart now. He saw a compass on my desk, and he took it, and . . .

Jack was by my side in a flash, his thick arms around me. “Shhh. It’s okay. Slow down. You’re saying Cole stole a compass?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “It was lying there on my desk. He said it was my heart. ”

Jack held his breath for a moment. “Your heart?”

I nodded and took a deep breath, then did the one thing I’d been scared to do. I grabbed Jack’s hand and placed it over my chest where my heart should’ve been, just as Cole had taken my hand and done the same thing only minutes before.

There was nothing. No heartbeat.

My breathing became frantic. Jack pressed his hand harder onto my skin, held it there for a long moment. His face turned pale. “How . . . ? Why . . . ?”

His voice drifted off as if he weren’t sure what question he wanted to ask.

I flashed back over the past week, to the journey Cole and I had taken through the labyrinth to the center of the Everneath to rescue Jack. The next words spilled out. “When we went through the maze to find you, there were times I had to feed on Cole to keep going. ” I shook my head. “He said that since I fed on him three times, I’m going to become an Everliving. Then he said there were certain perks for the Everliving who held my heart. Then . . . he took off with the compass. ” I stared at Jack. “My heart. ”