by Leia Stone
Gage crossed the room, stepping in front of me. “Change of plans. You have to trash the place. I’ll say someone showed up right after we got here, and the thieves took you and the talisman.”
I frowned. “No. Come with us.”
He shook his head. “The doorman saw me. If I turn on my own father, he’ll kill me.” He pulled me aside. “Besides, I don’t belong in your world, Tate.” Leaning forward, he placed a kiss to my earlobe. “Please. Just go.”
Agony tore at my chest.
Drea started toppling books and throwing things across the room. “Text your dad now. He’s likely in the lobby. Tell him it’s already been trashed, and we were waiting for you when you got up here with Tatum.”
He nodded, pulling out his phone.
“Got it!” Dash called and popped open the safe.
Gage hit the send button on his phone and then stepped up to the safe. Peering over his shoulder, I took in the contents. Stacks of money, a bar of gold, a picture of Gage’s mom… black pearl. I reached for the pearl, snaking my fingers around it, when a jolt of pain ripped through my arm and right into my head. I yelped, dropping the pearl, and the room swam as dizziness overtook me.
“No!” Gage grabbed me. “What hurts?”
“My arm… my head.”
“Protection spell. I don’t have time to remove it.” His eyes were wide.
I swallowed hard. “I’ll be fine. Magical healing, right?”
I grabbed it again, whimpering at the pain it sent down my spine, and stuffed it into my purse. Even though I was no longer touching it, the talisman must have some magical energy field, because the pain in my head increased until I felt sick.
“Get her out of here!” Gage roared. “They’re coming!”
Drea grasped me by the arm and tried to pull me away.
“Gage, come with us. You don’t have to live this life. You have a choice! Every day you have a choice!” A sob formed in my throat. The bastard had grown on me. I wasn’t going to leave without him.
A darkness fell over his features, and he looked at me with absolute desperation. “My choice was taken from me the day I was born.”
“I don’t believe that!” I yelled, tears running down my face as Drea dragged me away.
Gage stepped over to Dash, squaring his shoulders. “It was a break-in and kidnapping. It needs to look real.”
Dash nodded once and then fisted his hand. Reeling back, he socked Gage right in the nose. The crack of bone filled the space, and my heart broke in two. Why wouldn’t he leave? He could come with me and never look back.
Because he’s broken and broken people think they have no options.
Gage crumpled to the ground, holding his nose, and then we were all running. Drea pulled me along as my headache got worse and handed me off to Jacob.
“Gage. Please. Don’t do this,” I begged one more time, as Jacob tucked me into his chest and his golden wings snapped out.
On his knees, with crimson blood covering his shirt, Gage looked up at me. His dark wings snapped out, and for a glorious second I thought he was going to fly away with us. Then we were plunged into darkness, every light in the space extinguishing, even the lamps in the streets.
He was helping us get away. Covering for us while his dad likely would step out of the elevator any moment.
When Jacob lurched into the air, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I wasn’t ready to be done with Gage and those green eyes. I wanted more of the butterflies.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
I watched the Lumen healers work on Gran from a viewing area outside the room. We’d gone straight from Arthur’s penthouse to Lumen Academy. I ran his talisman to Aurelia and begged her to remove the curse. With a few shouted commands, Aurelia had an unconscious Gran wheeled out of her room on a gurney and into the Lumen equivalent of an operating room. The healers first removed Arthur’s protection spell from the talisman before they started working with it.
I knew the Lumens working on her for the last several hours were only trying to help, but removing a curse was more brutal than I’d prepared myself for. I was assured Gran was unconscious and felt nothing, but every once in a while her body would flinch, or her back would arch when one of the Lumen healers would peel a ribbon of black smoke from her body using Arthur’s talisman. It was as if the curse didn’t want to let Gran go. Watching was like having my heart cut out of my body while I was still awake, but I refused to leave her side.
The healers were two women of average height and looks, but they were powerful. Arcs of buttery yellow light shot from their fingertips as they cut the shadows in half and the curse left Gran’s body. Every time a shadow was snipped in two, it tried to reenter again, but these women were fierce in their protection of my beloved grandmother. Filigree tattoos swirled on the tops of their hands as they bent light, guiding it into Gran’s body.
Aurelia laid a hand on my shoulder, startling me. “Tatum, you need to rest.”
I read the concern in her eyes. I shook my head and then went back to watching Gran. “No. I need to be here. And then once they’ve lifted the curse, I’m heading back to the Netherworld for my mom.”
“I don’t think that’s the best idea,” Aurelia said, her words soft for my benefit.
I cast a sharp glance in her direction. “I’m not leaving her there. You didn’t see what I did. They’re not—” My throat tightened, and I had to clear it before I could go on. “She’s not being treated well. I’ll go alone if I have to. I think I’m rested enough to open a portal to the Netherworld myself.”
I wasn’t exactly sure that last part was true, but I wasn’t giving up. If it took me hours or even days to open a portal, I was determined to do it again.
A crease formed between Aurelia’s eyebrows and she gently shook her head. “I’m not trying to stop you from going after your mom. I know that’s something you’ll eventually need to do. I’m only suggesting it would be wise to make a game plan first.” Aurelia gestured toward the viewing window. “It will probably take a few days for Joelle to recover. When she’s up for it, you can talk to her about what she knows about your mother. Maybe she’ll be just as surprised as you were to find out she’s still alive. On the other hand, she may know more than any of us. There’s so much mystery surrounding you and your family. Joelle just disappeared one day, left her students, her apartment, all of us. And when your mom chose to be a Shade, she cut off contact with us, so no one even knew she was pregnant with you. Having some light shed on the situation may give you an idea of what you’re up against so you can be better prepared.”
I ran my teeth over my lower lip as I watched the Lumen healers pull another dark strand from Gran. The color seemed to be returning to her cheeks, and she didn’t flinch this time as the piece of the curse was removed.
“Besides, we don’t know much about this ability of yours to open portals, but if it’s anything like closing portals, it’s dangerous work. I’ve studied my entire lifetime to learn how to close them and I still run into hiccups. You were lucky you weren’t sliced in half the first time.”
Sliced in half!
As anxious as I was to help my mom, Aurelia had a good point. I needed to have a real and truthful conversation with Gran. Even if she didn’t know that mom was still alive, she’d be able to tell me why they turned their backs on the Watchers and kept me in the dark all these years.
“There’s something else to consider as well,” Aurelia went on. “You have less than a week before your eighteenth birthday. When the curse is broken, you’ll have the freedom to choose your house, then your gifts will be bestowed on you. You’ve already presented abilities beyond what a regular Watcher would ever be capable of at your age. I can only imagine how powerful you’re going to be after you ascend.”
Aurelia reached out and rested a hand on my shoulder. “Demons are strongest on their home turf. You’re going to need every bit of advantage you can get if you want to travel to the Netherworld and bring
your mom home.”
With a sigh, I hung my head, knowing everything she said was right. My heart was telling me to run to the Netherworld and break my mom out right now, but I’d be doing so half-cocked. It would be wiser to gather as much information as I could beforehand and make a solid plan. There was so much I still didn’t know about being a Watcher, demons, the Netherworld, or Avalon. Getting a boost of strength, or whatever juiced-up abilities I might inherit by becoming a full-blown Lumen wouldn’t hurt either. I’d been dying for some of those fancy tattoos.
“All right,” I finally admitted. “I’ll wait until after I ascend and can talk to Gran.”
My mom had survived the Netherworld and all its horrors for the last seventeen years. She was going to have to hold on for a little while longer.
Aurelia’s shoulders sagged in relief. “I’m glad to hear it. In the meantime, I’m going to arrange for you to get as much private tutoring as possible. Drea and her friends can handle the textbook material. And I know more about portals than any Lumen in the city, so I can work with you on trying to figure out your portal-making powers. We’re going to try to cram eighteen years of early childhood Lumen training into the next six days. If you’re going to the Netherworld, I’m going to make sure I’ve done my best to prepare you. And I won’t let you go alone.”
My heart filled. Aurelia really did care. But she was also letting me make my own choices. Growing up with Gran wasn’t bad. She made sure I was cared for and knew that I was cherished, and I loved her for it, but what would life have looked like if I’d grown up knowing I was a Watcher? There’d always been a pit in the bottom of my stomach that said I was somehow different. Even before I quit school to take care of Gran, I never had good friends. There was never anyone I clicked with like Drea, or even Indigo. I was lonely, and knowing what I knew now, it seemed it didn’t have to be that way.
Why did Gran hide me from this world if it was always going to catch up with me? Maybe she was trying to protect me, or maybe the curse had kept her from telling me the truth. As soon as Gran was awake, I was going to find out.
“Thanks, Aurelia. I really appreciate it.”
The corners of Aurelia’s mouth lifted, the smile reaching her honey brown eyes. She really was a stunning woman and the resemblance to Drea was uncanny.
“Your mother, Emery, used to be a good friend. I was crushed when she chose to become a Shade, but that didn’t mean I stopped caring about her and hoping for the best. I know if our situations were reversed and I was separated from Drea, that Emery would do whatever she could to help my daughter.” Aurelia reached over and squeezed my hand. “I want to see her back safely as well.”
“I’m going to get her back,” I said with conviction.
Aurelia nodded in agreement. “I believe if anyone could do it, it would be you. I’ll help in any way I can.”
She reached next to her and lifted a brown lunch bag and handed it to me. “If you won’t rest, at least eat.”
I took a sniff. Did I smell bacon?
Aurelia left after I thanked her for the food and assured her I would eat it. There was an apple, some carrot sticks, and a BLT sandwich in the sack lunch. Digging in, I turned my gaze back to Gran and the Lumen healers working to remove the curse, but my thoughts drifted to my mom and what she might be enduring right now, especially since she’d helped me escape. Apollyon seemed to be going to an awful lot of trouble to capture me. He couldn’t have been happy that I slipped through his fingers, and logic dictated that he would take it out on my mom. The thought soured my gut, and although the hunger pangs in my stomach didn’t subside, I put down the half-eaten sandwich.
“Don’t worry, Mom,” I whispered. “I’ll be there soon. I promise.”
The Lumen healers worked on Gran for another four hours. There was one scare when they used Arthur’s talisman to pull a band of dark curse from Gran’s forehead and she seized. The healers concentrated some sort of light magic from their hands on her head and stabilized her. After that chunk of curse was removed, it was like it knew it was beaten and gave up. The healers were able to peel the rest of the curse off Gran within the hour and then it was over.
Gran remained unconscious for the whole process. She was sleeping soundly now in a recovery room, and even in slumber she looked a solid ten years younger. I, on the other hand, picked up every one of those years. She’d given me such a scare that I wouldn’t be surprised to look in the mirror and see a couple of gray hairs.
Gran’s room in their recovery wing had a nice street view and lots of light that Gran would love when she woke up. But the room was only set up for one person, so the little bit of sleep I managed to get was sitting upright in the world’s most uncomfortable wood chair. Everything ached.
“You look rough,” Skye said from the doorway. Drea smacked her on the arm, and Marlow rolled her eyes.
“Learn some tact, Skye,” Drea said as the three girls walked into the room.
Skye pointed to my head. “Come on, it’s true. Just look at her hair.”
I lifted a hand and tried to run it through my hair, but I couldn’t get my fingers through the strands without hitting snags. I was still dressed in Drea’s red dress, and there was a layer of fuzz on my un-brushed teeth. Skye might be lacking tact, but she was probably right about how I looked.
Drea lifted her gaze upward and shook her head.
Marlow stepped forward and offered me a bundle of clothes and a brand-new toothbrush and paste. “We thought you’d like to get into something a little more comfortable.”
I accepted the items gratefully, expecting them to be more borrowed items, but recognized the vintage Bon Jovi tee folded on top. I fingered through the fabric and found my favorite pair of jeans and slip-on Vans.
“These are mine,” I squealed. It had been several days since I’d been in my own clothes.
“We went to your apartment and packed up your stuff,” Drea said with an apologetic smile. “I was worried your landlord would throw it all out if we didn’t grab it.”
I’d forgotten we were being evicted. With everything that had happened in such a short period of time, almost everything from my old life had slipped my mind. It was a good call to contact Sal and tell him I’d be off for a couple of weeks.
“Thank you,” I said, and meant it. “If you hadn’t done that, I’m sure Mr. Daniels would have eventually put our stuff on the curb.”
Drea nodded, her smile turning genuine. “We have some boxes of your things in my room at the dorm. You’ll be my new roomie—at least if that’s okay with you. Everything else is in storage here at the academy. I can show you later in case there’s something you need.”
My eyes started to cloud. I blinked rapidly to keep the tears from slipping over. “I’d love that. Let me go change,” I said and then fled to the small en suite bathroom.
I emerged a couple minutes later feeling clean and refreshed. Skye eyed my shoes and scrunched her nose, clearly not impressed, but I didn’t care. I felt more like myself in my worn clothes and my hair twisted on top of my head than I had since this whole ordeal began.
“My mom already has a schedule made up to get you caught up on all things Watcher related. If you’re okay leaving your gran, we can get started now.”
I glanced at Gran sleeping peacefully in the bed. There was an IV attached to her hand, giving her fluids. The healers didn’t think she’d be awake for at least a day or two while her body adjusted to being free of the curse. After that, they cautioned that she’d most likely be weak for a while. I hated leaving her, but this was truly the best time.
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, let’s do it. Let the cramming begin.”
“Okay, so it goes novice, junior, senior, principal and then master?” I asked, making sure I had the correct sequence of Lumen hunter hierarchy correct. The past few days had flown by with all of the studying and training I’d been doing.
Drea and Marlow nodded helpfully.
“So, you guys are all j
unior hunters, but I’m a novice?” That was disappointing. Just another area I needed to play catch-up in.
“Well, not even that if you want to get technical,” Skye said as she added another coat of bubblegum pink polish to her nails. “Watchers between the ages of twelve and sixteen are novices, but seeing that you haven’t had any official training, you wouldn’t be considered a hunter at all.”
I scrunched my nose. That was a bit insulting. Skye was laying the truth bombs on thick today.
“Don’t get hung up on titles,” Drea interjected. “The terms are just something we use to determine what level of demon it’s safe to go after. If the demon is higher than a level four, we junior hunters are supposed to hang back and call for backup. You’re getting a crash course right now, but I’ve seen you in action with zero training and you’ve done great. I’m sure you’ll get promoted to junior hunter in no time after you ascend to get your abilities.”
Marlow nodded, agreeing with Drea. Skye just blew on her nails. I wasn’t even sure if she was listening anymore.
“But wait, I’ve seen you guys fight demons higher than a level four. The demon at Wings was covered in scales and had a tail, so he had to be at least a level eight according to the chart… right?” I shivered, and tapped the paper in front of me, remembering his yellow eyes with slit pupils, and all those teeth. I would happily live the rest of my days without meeting up with him again.
A wicked smile grew on Marlow’s face. “We don’t always like to do as we’re told. Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
“Corrupting Tatum already, are we?” Jacob asked as he entered Drea’s dorm room, where the girls had been bombarding me with information for the last two hours.
Dash trailed behind him, tipping his head in greeting when our gazes connected. I gave him a small finger wave to acknowledge the gesture.
“Not all of us,” Drea sighed.
“Break time?” I asked hopefully. And by break time I really wanted to know if it was mealtime. I’m pretty sure I could eat my weight in bacon right now.