Chapter Twenty-Four: Hailley. The Girl Is One Of Us

Here is Chapter Twenty-Four of Evils: The Other Four.

The Girl Is One Of Us
Rain was there was Jag, Asha, Jun, Tia, and - surprisingly - Heimdall.

"Where were you?" Taylor asked. "You were just, hey, a Chinese vampire, and then you just disappeared on us!"

"I had to get back to Bifrost," Heimdall explained. "Without someone working with the rainbow, Hailley could never have a target for her coin."

"That's a lot of kappas," Jun pointed out. "And what happened to Layla, Gunner, Sari, and Hana."

"They're still in California," Gary remembered. "Any chance you can get us there fast?"

"On it," Jun said, summoning some more giant birds.

We explained to everyone what had happened on the island, how I'd tricked Melanie, how Gary closed the vortex, how Sabina and Taylor crushed trolls.

"One question," Jag said. "What happened with the prophecy. We got that 'Four shall head west to the monsters' new site' thing..."

"'One shall be crushed by the great serpent's might'," Gary added. "Shé had taken down the Khaos vortex."

"And no serpent is more 'great' than Shé," Sabina reminded us.

"'Two shall live, though two shall be killed,'" Taylor recited. "Maybe that wasn't about us after all. The head troll and the Aka Manto both survived, but the Aghasura and the Jiang Shi were killed. Not two heroes, two of the monsters that attacked the heroes."

"'Blood and seawater shall both be spilled,'" I said. "The Aka Manto killed a troll by spilling its blood, while Kyūri's head seawater spilled afterwards when he lost his power."

"'A choice shall determine the fate of the two,'" Taylor said. "The Aka Manto's choice of red paper or blue paper. I'd chosen to give the troll red paper..."

"'As heroes enter a level that's new,'" I finished. "Because we are the New Level heroes. And we won."

"Depends on what you mean by 'won'," Gary pointed out. "The Ouroboros is still out there. We left Hana and the others in California with a freaking kraken. The troll and the Aka Manto got away. Melanie's just going to keep coming back. I still never found Tara."

"Tara?" Rain asked. "Tara Young?"

I looked at her. "You know Tara?"

"She is a New Level hero," Rain said. "Right now she and the others are looking for you."

Then time froze.

Rain's mouth stayed slightly open, her vehicle unmoving. Even Heimdall was totally still when I saw a man come up to me.

"Hailley, it is nice to see you again," he said.

"Do I know you?"

"Not anymore," he said. "You don't remember much about your old home, do you? Camp Half-Blood? Charles Beckendorf brought you to camp, but your destiny was to be a New Level hero. So I'd erased your memory and brought you to the Aghasura where you could meet Asha and Camp Life. But part of you should know that you are Hailley Woode, daughter of Demeter, who fought in the beginning of the Battle of Manhattan. Your sisters and brothers in the Demeter cabin assumed you'd died in battle - there was a funeral and everything. But you're here now. And you are ready for your destiny."

Before I could answer him, he vanished and time started up again.

Daughter of Demeter, I thought, knowing in every part of me that it was true.