by Leia Stone
I waited until Marlow and Skye went back to their conversation about fashion, and then leaned closer to Drea.
“What’s the deal with Jacob and Gage?” I asked in a low voice. “I know Shades and Lumens probably don’t like each other, but is there more to the story?”
I’d already watched Gage and Jacob come to blows in the alley behind the diner, and I wasn’t vain enough to think that was just over me. Then there was the look on Jacob’s face a minute ago when he thought Gage was texting me. There was some bad blood between the two, and I was curious to know what went down.
Drea flicked her gaze to Jacob to make sure he wasn’t listening before dropping her voice and answering. “You’re right, we have a natural rivalry with the Shades, but Jacob’s dislike goes a lot deeper than that. There was a girl named Britt. She was Lumen-born, from Upstate New York, and Jacob was really into her. Rumor has it, before she chose her house, Jacob and Gage both went after her. When she had her obligatory tour of Shade Academy, she fell for Gage instead and eventually decided to become a Shade. Jacob’s always felt that Gage played on her emotions to get her to join their side.”
I gasped. It wasn’t loud, but noisy enough to draw some of the group’s attention. I patted my chest and pretended I’d choked on some of my food, and they went back to their separate conversations.
“Is that true?” I whispered to Drea, my stomach souring with the thought of Gage pretending to be into a girl just to trick her into picking Shade Academy. That was disgusting.
Drea shrugged. “Who really knows. I don’t follow Shade gossip, but I don’t think Gage and Britt were ever officially an item. Or if they were, it wasn’t for long. How it all went down certainly doesn’t make Gage look good though.”
I glanced at Jacob laughing with Dash because he’d just sunk a shot by ricocheting the ball off the ceiling.
Would Gage really do something that despicable? The truth was, I didn’t know him well enough to say that he wouldn’t.
I felt for Jacob though. I hoped it was just a small crush and not more serious. Watching someone you cared about pick a different house had to be painful. I didn’t know the full story about why my mother decided to leave the Lumens and become a Shade, but it probably broke Gran’s heart.
I knew it was going to be hard for her to talk about it, but I had to confront Gran the minute she was lucid enough to do so. Now that I knew what I really was, Gran was the only person who could help put the rest of the pieces together.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Rather than returning to our soggy apartment, I stayed by Gran’s side at the healing center all night long, dozing in a ratty orange tweed chair next to her bed. Aurelia said her healers were trying to analyze the energy they pulled from Gran to decipher who’d laid the curse on her. She was apologetic about it taking so long, and offered me their visitors’ room in the dorm, but I turned her down, wanting to be near Gran if she woke up. She’d been asleep since we brought her to the healing center, and that scared me.
I was stretching when Drea poked her head into the room. She winced when she watched me try to work a kink out of my neck.
“Rough night?” she asked, looking over at Gran.
“It wasn’t the best night’s sleep of my life, but I’ll live.”
Drea offered me a small smile. “Hungry? We could grab a late breakfast in the cafeteria, and you can go to a couple of classes with me today.”
I glanced at Gran. I’d been with her all night and morning, and nothing had changed. Leaving her for a little while would probably be okay.
“I think I need to run back to the apartment and get changed,” I said.
“I’ll go with you,” Drea offered.
“You really don’t have to. I’ve been navigating New York and its five boroughs practically since birth.”
“If you don’t mind the company, I’d like to come.”
I shrugged. Company wouldn’t hurt.
It took almost an hour to get from Lumen Academy to my apartment. One of the subway lines was closed for maintenance, so we had to take a circuitous route. Bonus, I didn’t see any demons on the way, but it was still a long trip.
Once inside the apartment, I stared at the torn-out carpet and padding. The rattle of the box fans drying everything out drowned out the noise from the busy street below. The landlord must be so pissed, but there was nothing I could do now. I changed quickly while Drea tried positioning some of the fans to dry out the bottom two inches of the couch I normally slept on, but it was a hopeless task. The musty smell of mold had already started to set in. In truth, I wasn’t sure how much of our furniture was going to be salvageable.
The uncertainty of life pressed down on me, sitting heavily on my chest and making it hard to feel like I could take in a full breath of air.
Before we left, I took a moment to call Sal and tell him I needed to take a week or two off work. It was a bad time to take off, we certainly still needed the money, but I didn’t know when I’d be able to make it back in. I’d worked at the diner for the last three years. Sal took a chance on me when I was only fourteen, letting me bus tables after school. I owed it to him to let him know I wouldn’t be in for a bit. I’d given him a vague explanation of family issues. I didn’t think telling him that I’d recently discovered I wasn’t actually human and that I needed the time to figure out how to lift a curse from my gran was a good idea. He was understanding and wanted to make sure I was all right, which I assured him I was, and asked him to pass the information along to Stella for me.
We were leaving the apartment when I ran into Mr. Daniels, my landlord. I stood there and took it while he reamed me out for five straight minutes, yelling about how much damage the water had caused to our apartment and the one underneath it, and how I was lucky we were only being evicted rather than sued for damages. I had to hold my tongue when he reminded me that I had only six days to clear out.
My jaw hurt from gritting my teeth when he finally stomped away. I was both appreciative for Drea’s presence, and embarrassed. It was humbling to have to go through all of this in front of another person, especially one that I’d only known a short amount of time.
“Attacking humans is against our credo or I would have definitely given him a well-deserved knee to the groin,” she said when he was finally gone. I gave her a small chuckle but was too depressed to genuinely laugh.
“Are you doing all right?” she asked on the subway ride back to Lumen Academy.
I sucked a breath through my nose and held it for a beat before releasing it out my mouth. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“You know we will make sure you and your gran have a place to live, right? You can stay in the dorms with us, and the family housing building is right next door for your gran. Lumens don’t have the same abundance of resources that Shades do, but we take care of our own. We won’t let you two be homeless.”
I looked at her, tears collecting in my eyes. It had just been Gran and me for so long that I hadn’t realized how lonely I really was. The thought of having people I could count on, people who cared, cracked the shell on my heart I’d formed over the years. I didn’t want to freak Drea out, but the feels were hitting me hard right now.
Clearing my throat, I tried to inconspicuously brush the wetness from my eyes.
“Thanks,” I croaked.
Drea laid a hand on my arm and nodded. “You’re not alone anymore, Tatum.”
Aw man, why did she have to go and say that? My eyes instantly filled and spilled over. There was no stopping it this time.
Reaching over, Drea wrapped her arms around me as my body shook with the force of my sobs. I’m sure we were getting looks from the other passengers on the train, but whatever, we were having a true friendship moment over here.
Drea didn’t say anything as I wet her shoulder with my tears. She just let me get it all out. I’m pretty sure I cried through all of lower Manhattan, but the flood started to dry by the time we reached our stop
in Midtown.
When I finally leaned back and gave Drea a grateful smile, I knew my face was splotchy, my eyes were red, and I needed to blow my nose, but I felt so much better I didn’t care at all.
It was well into the afternoon when we emerged from the 33rd Street subway stop. We’d skipped breakfast and missed lunch, so my mind was fixated on getting food into my belly. We walked at a brisk pace until we had reached the Lumen Compound and Drea slipped between the healing center building and family housing as I followed her into the courtyard. I was just going to suggest we hit up the cafeteria when Drea’s phone started buzzing and beeping. It wasn’t a normal text or call chime. It sounded like an alarm.
Drea pulled the phone out, glanced down at it, and the color drained from her face, making her look ashy.
“Black alert,” she said with a mixture of awe and fear and then took off running.
I frowned, not knowing what that meant, but realizing it couldn’t be anything good.
I followed, hot on her heels as she sprinted across the garden and right to the armory.
“What’s a black alert?” I yelled as Drea and I ran through the back door of the armory. Lumens loaded with weapons ran past us with serious expressions.
Drea dragged me into a large open room. Her hands shook as she pulled swords off of the wall and tapped them to her arm. The second they touched her skin they disappeared, becoming tattoos.
Okay, I really needed some of those.
“Drea?”
She turned to face me, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep me from the truth any longer. “A black alert means that a demon portal has opened somewhere inside the compound.”
My eyes widened.
“A demon portal?”
She nodded. “Directly from the Netherworld.”
I grabbed a small dagger, then another one the same size. No way was I facing another demon weaponless.
“Do you know how to use those?” Drea asked.
I nodded. “Stab and repeat.”
It was a knife. How hard could it be?
A grin pulled at her lips.
The door slammed open then and Jacob, Skye, Marlow, and Dash burst into the room, panting. They were armed to the teeth with swords, daggers, and even bows and arrows.
One by one, their phones buzzed with alerts.
“We’ve got our orders,” Drea called out to the group. “The novice hunter teens from the middle school are being brought up to the gym in the community center. The junior hunters are to defend them there. The senior, principal, and master hunters will find the portal, killing any demons that come through it until my mom can get it closed.”
They all nodded and then looked to me.
“Hey, Tatum,” Marlow said as she pulled a blade from the tattoo on her arm.
I cleared my throat, gripping the handles of the knives as my heart jackknifed in my chest. “Hey. Just a regular day in the life of a Lumen?”
“Not exactly,” Skye said as she secured a whip to her belt.
Now loaded with weapons, the others left, and Drea turned to face me. “If you want to hide in here, I can come get you when—”
“No way!” I admonished. “It sounds like there are children to protect. I want to help.”
Drea grinned, a dimple popping out in her cheek. “Let’s go, then.”
We jogged out of the armory and across the courtyard to the back entrance of the community center. Red lights flickered at the top of the hallway when we entered the building, but no sound was made. It was a silent warning.
Families ran to and fro as we burst into the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time. The gym was on the tenth floor, so it took a while to get there.
“Does this happen often?” I asked, trying to sound less out of breath than I was. I really needed to take up running if this was going to be a common occurrence.
Drea shook her head, her curls bouncing around her face. “The entire Lumen Compound is warded to prevent portals from opening here, so I don’t know how this is happening.”
I stumbled a little. The first black alert and it was my second day at Lumen Academy. Crappy odds.
We burst out into the hallway and through the double doors, and I skidded to a stop. Hundreds of middle schoolers and early high school aged kids were all huddled in the far right corner of the gym. Those must be the novice hunters Drea mentioned.
About fifty older teenagers, the junior hunters, saddled with every weapon possible, stood in a living wall before their younger counterparts. The mere sight of it made goose bumps rise on my arms.
Drea walked up to Jasmine and James, the siblings I’d met the day before, giving them a nod, and then we found our place among the wall next to Skye, Marlow, Dash, and Jacob.
Some kids were sobbing, others just clung to each other quietly.
There was an eerie silence, broken apart only by the children’s sniffles as a few of the older hunters tried to console them in hushed tones.
It was there, standing in front of innocents to protect them from unseen dangers, that I made my choice. I could not join with a side that protected these monsters, knowing they tortured the innocent and caused children to weep and cower in fear. Not for all the money in the world.
I was a Lumen, through and through. I didn’t know what made my mother change sides, but that wasn’t me. I wasn’t her.
Gage’s words played out in my mind now.
Don’t come back here, you’re too good for this place.
I didn’t think I was too good for anything, but I would rather die than serve demons.
The lights went out suddenly. We were cast into total darkness for a moment, until the dim emergency lights turned back on.
Children screamed in fear as Drea stepped forward, obviously the leader among us. She clapped her hands together and every single bulb flared to life with the intensity of the sun.
There was a loud thump, and the floor shook a little, like an earthquake. I could tell from the widening of Drea’s eyes that she was afraid, and this wasn’t normal.
“Fighting formation!” Drea cried as each warrior teen stepped forward brandishing their weapons and formed a zigzag pattern.
I might not be a trained demon hunter, but I wasn’t a coward, I wouldn’t stand back while something awful happened to these children. I found a place among the formation and gripped the handles of the daggers. An electric current buzzed just under my skin as adrenaline rushed through my body.
Every single phone beeped and buzzed and Drea looked down, her face falling into a look of defeat.
“Cover the kids’ eyes! Turn them away,” she called out to the hunters who were standing with the youngest among us, and a pit formed in my stomach.
What did the text s—?
The double doors burst open. Bile rose in my throat as sheer terror gripped my heart and nearly caused it to stop beating.
Holy hellfire and brimstone.
I’d seen some scary things over the last week, but this was by far the most terrifying. A vortex spun at the room’s entrance. Sulfuric smoke billowed from the opening, and flames shot out of its depths. The shrieks of unseen creatures pierced the air, and I had to stop myself from dropping my weapons to cover my ears. Dread churned in my gut and held my lungs in a vise-like grip. It was like looking into the beating heart of the Netherworld.
Serpentine shadows flew from the vortex, attaching themselves to the walls and ceilings as they slithered their way toward us, popping every bulb in their path and raining glass down upon us.
Several of the junior hunters around me manifested semi-transparent wings and shot into the air. Producing swords of light, they swung their weapons at the darting shadows, which turned to ash whenever they came in contact with one of the Lumen’s bright blades.
“Get behind me. Those are level twos, only light blades affect them,” Drea yelled as she shoved me back. Pearlescent tattoos appeared on her exposed arms, and with a flick of her wrist a light blade materialized in
her hand as well. She stood at the ready in front of me, quickly dispatching any of the serpent-like shadows in reach.
I scanned the room. Children shrieked and their protectors shouted for them to bunch together. The junior Watchers’ objective was simple: keep the shadows from reaching the younger kids. At first, they were successful at their mission, but it wasn’t long before a sleek shadow serpent made it past the aerial blockade and zoomed toward the closest grouping of kids.
A Lumen warrior with a dark brown ponytail darted in its path—Jasmine. Holding daggers similar to my own, she slashed at the inky substance, but her blades, which were clearly not made of light, glided through the darkness without slowing it. When it reached her, the shadow serpent peeled itself off the floor and wrapped around her leg, winding its way up her body.
Dropping her weapons, Jasmine batted at the shadow, but her hands went through it as easily as her blades had.
Like sharks smelling chum, other shadow serpents leaked through the blockade and darted for her. Suctioning around her limbs and torso, they twisted around her body as they climbed higher.
Panic radiated from Jasmine’s face. She screamed right before her head was fully covered. Her calls for help abruptly cut off, and she fell to the ground, convulsing.
Fear gripped me. She needed help, but what could I do?
I looked down at the small daggers in each of my palms, realizing they’d do no good against these creatures. Grunting in frustration, I started in her direction anyway, knowing I at least had to try and help.
I didn’t make it two full steps before I was cut off by two Watcher warriors. Rushing to her aid, the Lumens used their light swords to cut the darkness off of Jasmine. She stopped convulsing but lay motionless as the remnants of the shadow serpents turned to ash and floated to the ground.
What had those serpent-like shadows done to her?
A roar blasted behind me, mincing my eardrums, and I swung my head back toward the entrance. I watched a demonic beast emerge from the spinning portal. It had the chest of a man and stood upright, but that was where the similarities to a person ended. Burnt and cracked flesh covered its muscled torso and animal appendages. Tufts of black fur hung off parts of its arms and legs. Lifting its bull-like muzzle, it roared again and the windows along the exterior wall shattered. He was the first solid demon I’d seen, and it horrified me to think of what he was capable of.