So much had changed in so little time.
“Gymnasium’s undergoing some repairs after last night,” Vain stated. “So we are spared from some of the more intensive equipment training for a brief time—”
Malice and Ruthless cheered with such intensity, Kallia couldn’t help but join.
“You all would be useless without me.” Vain tsked and rolled her eyes. “Just because the gym is in shambles does not mean there’s absolutely nothing left to do.”
She couldn’t hide the smugness in her tone as they let out a series of groans.
“I thought we were going to hold back on the destruction moving forward,” Kallia muttered under her breath. “What happened?”
“That wasn’t us.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened, breath stalled. “What was it?”
“Divine intervention?” Malice offered. “It was my night, and I didn’t even have to lift a bloody finger.”
“There are such things as accidents.” Vain arched a sharp brow, a quiet blaze of triumph in her eyes. “The fact that accidents can happen is a promising sign that Roth is losing his hold on the city. And if the devils are not pleased by that, all the fucking better.”
The Diamond Rings let out a wild series of howls, as if they were falling right through the sky for all the world to see.
It wasn’t long before Vain got them back to order and back to practicing.
Like the first time they crossed this area in the city, they dueled in the dirt and rubble. Kallia was relieved for the repetition, to feel in control of her power. To feel her magic coursing through her like a fire.
With everything Vain threw at her, Kallia met her with an ease that had Ruthless and Malice hooting from the sides as they watched. They were throwing all manner of illusions against the broken wall of the Ranza Estate, from gusts of winds strong enough to shake the foundations to large vines that stretched over the cracked surface until it began breaking apart even further. Such tricks Kallia hadn’t even felt capable of doing when they had first begun practicing, but now they felt like challenges she just wanted to conquer.
“Good,” Vain said approvingly when the last of the wall had finally broken down. “You’re getting stronger.”
It was perhaps the best compliment Kallia could have received.
“Well, that’s a relief, I’ll say.”
Kallia blinked at the new voice, and they all turned to find Roth observing them with two devils at his side. He looked absolutely terrible. Dark shadows beneath reddened eyes, a sallowness to his skin as if he’d been up all night. And the anger. There was an anger radiating off him, boiling beneath his skin. And something more sinister Kallia couldn’t quite put her finger on.
Kallia exchanged glances with Vain, and the other Diamond Rings stood at attention.
“It’s truly wonderful to see you’ve been taking your practices so seriously, Kallia,” Roth said. “I couldn’t be prouder. And the results speak for themselves. Seem like you are ready to face the gate after all. And the timing could not be more perfect.”
Kallia swallowed the lump of dread in her throat. As much as she wanted to get stronger for her own self, she hated what that made her in the eyes of Roth. “How so?” she asked stiffly. “Did you want a demonstration?”
“Nice of you to offer, but why waste time on a demonstration when we could just skip to the real thing?”
Her entire world narrowed in one blink, one breath. Surely he had to be joking.
She wasn’t sure if it was a comfort or an omen that the other Diamond Rings appeared just as confused. She certainly felt more uneasy when Roth clasped his hands together. “Oh, isn’t this exciting?” he trilled. “Last night’s turn of events was actually quite the blessing in disguise. At first, I thought surely we could not have an accident again. That would be too … coincidental.”
Kallia gulped, keeping her face as neutral as the others’.
“It definitely feels like an orchestrated attacker.” Frowning, Vain folded her arms. “We were worried what this would mean. To break the gate.”
“That was my concern as well.” His voice was all light, soft as a feather. “Which is why I’m so grateful you took my Kallia under your wing so diligently. Even when chaos ran rampant, you kept at the training and have made her into a better, stronger magician.”
A slight sting of heat flew to Kallia’s face.
“You wanted the best from the best.” Vain shrugged. “And I don’t disappoint.”
The magician makes magic.
How easily Vain flew from one lie to the next. The skill was as impressive as it was unnerving.
“You certainly don’t.” Roth nodded, letting out a deep breath. “But you have disappointed me.”
Muttering under his breath, Roth pointed to Vain, and almost instantly, the devils appeared at her side and were upon her.
“What the hell—” For the first time, fear flew into her eyes as she snarled, struggling. “Get off me!”
Ruthless and Malice rushed to Vain’s side, but the devils shifted forms to bar them away. Even Kallia tried using it to pry them off Vain, but it was useless against them.
“What’s going on?” Kallia set her glare on Roth. “Call them off.”
Her heart sank even deeper as the man ignored her. “I’m very disappointed in you, Vain,” he said calmly. “You were one of my most trusted. Though I guess that should’ve been the first cause for suspicion from the beginning.”
Vain’s curses were muffled behind the devils’ hold, more like a wall of smoke that covered her entirely.
“I gave you a stage, your very own show night—and this is how you repay me?” With a slow tsk of his tongue, he only shook his head. “I made you what you are. So now I can unmake you.”
Kallia drew in a breath of horror at Vain’s screams. She’d heard those words before, thrown at Jack like acid.
Where was Jack?
Her pulse drummed hard as the Dealer’s hands came together in a final clap and the devils vanished—taking Vain with them.
Kallia’s blood turned cold at the silence, at how suddenly it came.
“Where did you take her?”
“None of your concern,” Roth said, already turning. “You just focus on your practicing—”
“She didn’t do it alone.” She stopped him in his path, her fists clenched at her sides. “I helped her. If you’re going to take her, you’ll need to take us, too.”
With Ruthless and Malice standing behind her, there was no need to put on an act anymore. She couldn’t tell how long Roth knew it had all been false, but there was no point in her pretending. She wouldn’t let Vain face punishment alone.
She expected Roth to express disappointment. Disapproval.
Instead, his laugh sent a chill down her spine.
“Honorable of you, my dear, to shoulder some of the blame if only to help your friend,” he murmured. “Jack told me you would spin lies like that.”
Her heart gave a hollow thump as she froze. Behind her back, Malice and Ruthless gripped her hands, but the comfort lasted no more than a second and Roth chuckled at what her expression must’ve shown.
“I did warn you, I’ve got strings on everyone, my dear. Just like the devils do.” On a whistled note, he turned with a wink over his shoulder. “You might want to practice a bit more. The gate arrived only just last night, so the clock starts now.”
ACT III
Satisfied as the gatekeepers were of the magician’s feat,
they demanded one more spectacle.
One last test.
42
Daron woke up to darkness. To cold.
The ground was ice hard against his face as he stirred with a groan. His muscles spasmed with every movement, no matter how slight. He couldn’t recall where the pain had come from, but it would go away. If he could only just get up.
Get up.
“Dare?”
The pain vanished at the firm jostle at his side.
> “You have to wake up. Please.”
Eva? Even in darkness, he knew her, and the panic chipping at her voice drew him up instantly. “Eva,” he gasped. “What are you—”
“Oh, thank Zarose.” Her head hung as she exhaled, crouched just over him. Her short black hair flared out like thorns, and he couldn’t help but marvel at the way the style opened her face, sharpened everything on it.
Especially fear.
As he looked beyond her, he blinked at pure darkness staring back. Everywhere he turned his head—nothing. As if they’d been dropped inside of a shadow, a night with no stars. No lights or colors or music pulsing everywhere from the world before.
This world went entirely without.
“Nice of him to punish us together, I guess.” Eva half-shrugged, rising to her feet. “Or cruel. Can’t tell which.”
“Why are you—and I—” His heart stuttered. He could barely speak through the relief breaking him inside. Seeing Eva—so near and alive, talking, breathing—would never stop feeling like a dream. Even in a nightmare. “Where are we?”
She drew out a long, grim sigh. “We’re outside the gate. Far from the city.”
The way she said it, they might as well have been shackled to the ground and left for dead. But all they had was each other and the wind for company, able to move about as they pleased with nothing stopping them.
A warning bell rang in his head, throbbed at his temple. It was too easy, freedom like this. No restraints or anyone around to hold them in place.
Whatever was coming, running wouldn’t stop it from finding them.
“Has anyone ever made it back?” Daron’s throat dried, already hearing Herald’s sardonic chuckle in answer. Nowhere to hide, only darkness where no rules applied. Roth never forced anyone to live in his city, but he could certainly force anyone he wanted out of it. And everyone knew that beyond those gates, the devils waited.
Daron saw his odds in the endless dark ahead. This land breathed over his skin like the Dire Woods had, sweeping through his hair, staking its claim before he’d even taken a step.
Harsh hands yanked him by both arms.
“Come on, we have to keep moving,” Eva said, hefting him up to his feet with surprising force. “And keep your eyes down.”
Alarm pierced his bones as he followed her lead and jogged to catch up. “Wait, why are you here? When did—” His vision spun so violently, he stopped. “Kallia.”
Something in him snapped. The last face he remembered before losing consciousness was Jack’s—carved more cold-eyed than usual, like darkening glass from the smoke trapped inside. Whatever it was, it had led him to Daron. And it was only a matter of time before he went for Kallia next.
He needed to go back. “Which way do we go?”
“No need to turn into a raging white knight, Dare. Kallia has been taking care of herself longer than you know. And she’s too important to Roth now to dispose of—unlike us,” Eva pointed out with a huff. “So for once, put yourself first. And for fuck’s sake, just keep walking.”
His mouth dropped slightly when she threw her shoulders back and strode forward. She’d reprimanded him in his thoughts so often, hearing it aloud brought a bite of whiplash.
“Now, forward.” She nudged him brusquely in the shoulder. “And eyes down.”
“What the hell for?” he muttered with a hard nudge back. “Yours aren’t.”
“That’s because you don’t know what to look for.” Something snapped in Eva as she whirled around fast, eyes ablaze. “You’re not keeping watch for the city lights, I am. Because I have more power and training than you. Because when I first fell here, I had to walk this land alone. And I made it.”
All the wrath of the Queen of the Diamond Rings couldn’t hide that splinter of terror in her voice. Herald had spared Daron from knowing it by bringing him safely through the gates. A mercy he shouldn’t have taken for granted, Daron now realized, squeezing his fists by his sides. “How did you survive it before?”
The wind hissed sinuously between them, around them.
“Zarose knows how any of us gets through it.” Eva pushed on. “Anything that shows you what you want to see is smart enough to take what it wants in return. And I wasn’t going to let them take what little I had left. What made me a magician.”
Power.
The guilt daggered through him, twisted as the breeze carried its own words. Voices, at every step. Stilted laughter and distant glee, broken joy from faraway. All of them, lost magicians. Imagining Eva among them made Daron want to crawl out of his skin.
“You look down.” With firmer steps, he hastened. “We’ll take turns.”
“This isn’t a game, Dare. We can’t make things fair here.”
“Then let’s both look and lose.” He trained his eyes as much on her as he did on the path before them. “Because I’m not letting you put me first before yourself.”
He could practically hear the cogs whirring in Eva’s head, resentment dimming her eyes as she finally lowered them to the ground. “But I’m older.”
“And? I’m your brother.” Even in an impossible world, she still wanted to do the most for him. After everything. “If it takes me, you run. And if it takes you, I’ll run.” His pulse faltered a beat. “And if either of us sees those lights, we both go. But this is how it’s going to be.”
In the absence of certainty, Daron planned. Even if strategy was only the illusion of control, it helped to run through their options in any game: how they could lose, how they might win.
If only he knew what card they would draw.
“So intimidating.” Eva’s amused drawl rose to a laugh, as if she could hear every thought firing off in his head. “I almost forgot what it was like taking the stage with the great Daring Demarco.”
The joke sank heavy as a stone inside him, slowed his steps. His breath. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“Two years.” He hated that he couldn’t look her in the eyes. Wished more than anything to be anywhere else, talking to his sister as he used to back when they had more time. “I’d thought you were gone for…”
He buried the knot down his throat like a lit coal, bracing himself as Eva finally lifted her gaze. In the sliver of light, her eyes grew shadowed. “We shouldn’t do this now.”
“Then when?” He wasn’t going to pretend. Not again. “Eva, we need to talk about it some time. While we still can—”
“We need to keep going.” Her jawline tensed to an icy edge. “And it’s your turn to look down.”
Lips pinched together, Daron felt the blood rush to his face as he turned to the ground, the dirt dark as everything around them. “I really am sorry.”
“Again, for what?” Begrudgingly, Eva edged closer to his side. “You keep saying that.”
The moment she acknowledged it, the words were all gone.
For everything.
Everything he missed, everything he took from her. Everything she refused to talk about during the night carnival all came bubbling back up to the surface, rushing against whatever time was left between them.
“Lottie told me everything. I never realized I…” Daron stopped. Excuses changed nothing. He needed to stop hiding behind them. “No, I should’ve known. Something was wrong, and I didn’t—”
“Lottie? Figures.” She barked out a fond laugh. “Sharpest bitch I ever met. Glad to see you two finally made nice without me.”
“How can you be so cavalier about this?” His breaths cut cold through his lungs as he dug a hand through his hair, unable to make sense of any of it. “I-I had been taking your power. I made you sick.”
Eva. Kallia. And Zarose knew who else.
He was worse than a devil. Just as toxic.
A groan rose regardless, steeped in irritation. “Yes, I know what happened. Trust me, I was there.” Eva stopped them with the turn of her heel, arms crossed. “But why the hell does any of that matter now?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you actually want from me, Dare? My eternal loathing, a punch in the face?” She gave a wild wave of her hands, sweeping an anxious glance around. “Doesn’t seem like the best use of our time right now.”
“I don’t understand.” His face burned. She was right, as always. The past was trivial out here. He felt like a fool for even digging it up. Yet he couldn’t ignore how easily she did away with it all, as if he’d committed a simple mistake. “I’m your brother. And I … I hurt you. Couldn’t find you, for the longest time—”
“What if I didn’t want to be found?”
A stabbing silence struck the air. The kind from a duel finally at its end, because she shot first. Perfect aim, from the pain blossoming in his chest.
Averting his gaze, his sister darted another hurried look on either side of them as if hoping devils would show. “Just so we’re clear, I haven’t spent my time here plotting my revenge or waiting to be saved, Dare. But I’m not entirely heartless,” she said. “When I saw this place for what it was, I embraced it. Had to. If you don’t, you sink. And it’s not every day you get a second chance to start a new story in a new world.” Her nostrils flared. “But we all come with ghosts.”
From the way her glare hardened, Daron could’ve been the only one haunting her. A ghost to her as she’d been to him, long before he ever stepped foot on this side.
“When those faded, I searched for you all in the mirrors. Like most do. Just to see everyone alive and whole, that’s all.” Eva kicked at the ground before tipping her head back skyward. “But you … I couldn’t find you for the longest time.”
In an instant, his thoughts quieted. And the words echoed. “You were looking for me?”
There was something so unbelievable to it. Years of guilt had run him ragged. Every failed attempt to locate her gutted him. Yet in all that time, it never once occurred to him that she might’ve been searching for him, all the same.
“Of course I did, you idiot,” she snapped, voice thick. When her stare dropped to her feet, and stayed, Daron couldn’t watch her. Didn’t reach for her, knowing she would only dodge kindness to keep that mask from breaking.
When Night Breaks Page 40