by Meg Anne
“I’m sure we can find someone who does, but first, let’s get you cleaned up.”
“I need to write it down first,” Effie insisted, patting at her side in an attempt to grab her pack.
“Lucian still has it,” Kieran answered.
“I need my journal,” she said, her voice bordering on hysteria.
“I’ll get it while you clean up,” Kieran said firmly as he stood. “Come on. You’ll feel better after you get into some fresh clothes.”
Effie glared at him but accepted the hand he offered. “Why do I feel like you aren’t taking me seriously?”
He shrugged. “Your emotions are high, it’s been a long day, you’re reading into things? I don’t know, love, take your pick.”
The condescendence rankled. “Fuck you, Kieran.”
His eyes flashed and he shot her a one-sided grin. “Just say when.”
“This is so not the time.”
Smirking, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Distracted you long enough to help you feel more like yourself though, didn’t it?”
Effie scowled, not caring that he was right. “I really do hate you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Don’t.”
Effie glared at him; her voice furiously low. “Kieran, I swear on all that is holy, if you tell me one more time how I feel, I am going to throttle you.”
“Men far more fearsome than you have tried and failed, love.”
“They clearly lacked proper motivation.”
His lips twitched, but the smile didn’t come near his eyes. “They’d disagree with you.”
“You are insufferable.”
“So I’ve been told,” he replied, completely unaffected. “Go. I’ll find your journal and then we’ll go to the Triumvirate so you can tell them what you think.”
Eager to feel clean again—and get away from him—Effie nodded and stormed into bathing chamber.
One of these days the men around her were going to learn to start taking her seriously, or she was going to find them in their sleep and punch them in their balls. Then maybe they’d think twice before speaking to her as they did.
Dark satisfaction chased the thought, and Effie sank into the steaming water using thoughts of revenge to keep memories of her vision at bay.
Chapter 25
The only thing keeping Effie awake and upright was the pressing need to speak to the Triumvirate.
“I thought you said they were in here,” she whispered, scanning the crowded room.
“They were supposed to be,” Kieran replied, likewise twisting his head to try to find a sign of their hooded leaders.
Bodies pressed against them, pushing them into the center of the celebratory chaos. Effie hardly recognized any of the faces surrounding her, not that anyone stood still long enough to let her try.
“They aren’t all Keepers, are they?” she asked.
Kieran jerked his chin in the negative. “Looks like they opened up the doors for the townsfolk to join in.”
Effie could understand the desire to celebrate. Even if most of these people had been personally unaffected by the war raging in Elysia, to believe that the threat had been eliminated still had to bring sweet relief.
Too bad she was about to rob them of their short-lived respite.
Enjoy it while you can.
Effie tensed as a body flew into her back and an arm snaked around her waist.
“Have you heard?” Jo shouted in her ear.
Relaxing slightly, Effie turned around and forced herself to smile. “I did.”
Jo’s cheeks were flushed, and her eyes glazed. Clearly, she’d been celebrating for a while.
“Then why don’t you look happier?” Jo asked, inspecting her more closely.
“Long day.”
“Bad vision?” she guessed.
Effie nodded. “The worst.”
Jo pat her shoulder. “We’ve all been there.”
Wondering if this was her opportunity to find an ally, Effie opened her mouth to share her warning. Before she could speak, Kieran’s hand grasped her wrist, pulling her attention. He shook his head no, his face cast in hard lines.
“Why can’t I tell her?” Effie hissed, leaning closer to her tutor.
“It is not your place to spread unfounded fear. If the Triumvirate agree with your assessment, then they will be the ones to share the warning.”
Effie wanted to argue, but it was a valid point, so she grumbled under her breath instead.
Jo smiled sympathetically. “Why don’t you join me and the girls for a while? I’m sure we can help you unwind.”
It was a tempting thought, but nothing would help her relax until she’d spoken with the Triumvirate.
“I can’t, I’m sorry. I need to speak to Smoke or one of the Mirrors.”
“Who?” Jo asked, her brows furrowed.
Effie blushed, realizing she’d slipped into her nicknames for the head Keepers.
“The Triumvirate,” Effie said, raising her voice as if that had been the issue.
Jo laughed. “I must be tipsier than I thought. I could have sworn you said something else.”
Effie gave her a bland smile and shrugged. “It happens.”
“Well, you won’t find them in here. Only one of them was here to begin with, and he left with two of the Guardians.”
“Well where are the other two?” Effie asked, annoyance giving her voice an edge.
Jo shrugged. “No clue. Haven’t seen any of them since.”
Effie growled. Perfect. How like them to vanish just when she needed them the most.
“You can check the balcony,” Jo suggested, pointing to a dark purple curtain. “That’s the direction they left in earlier.”
“Thank you,” Effie said, already walking in that direction.
“See you in the morning?” Jo shouted over the din.
Effie gave her a noncommittal wave and focused on weaving her way through the mess of flailing limbs.
Kieran was close on her heels, his hand wrapped in the soft fabric of her tunic.
“You lied to your new friend back there,” he said behind her, his breath tickling the back of her neck.
Effie’s shoulders lifted defensively. “No, I didn’t,”
Kieran made a clucking sound and shook his head. “And now you’re lying to me.”
Cheeks burning, she flung the curtain aside and moved into a dark alcove.
“Do the Triumvirate know that you’ve given them pet names?”
“Yes,” she snapped.
“And do they actually respond to them?”
“Actually, they do. Keep pushing me, you’ll get one of your own and I promise you won’t like it.”
Kieran laughed, his eyes glowing with the intensity of his smile.
He really is a beautiful bastard. It’s unfortunate that he knows it too.
“Ah, Effie. You wound me.”
She rolled her eyes.
“This way,” he said, taking the lead across a short stone room and out into the glittering darkness.
Thousands of stars sparkled in a sky of deepest black. The moon was hidden behind thick clouds, but a few scattered lanterns lit the way to the edge of the balcony where three robed figures stood looking out over the city below. There was no sign of the Guardians.
None of the revelry from inside reached them out here. The only sound on the balcony was the scraping of their boots against the cobbled stone.
As one, the three figures turned, facing Effie when she was halfway between them and the room they’d just vacated.
“I hate it when you do that,” she muttered.
A sudden rustling of wind was her only answer. They are definitely laughing at me.
“I need to speak with you,” she called out.
“Speak, Daughter, and we shall listen.”
“I had another vision. This”—Effie gestured the way they’d came—“celebration is premature.”
“The Corruptor is dead.”
“I know that you were told that, but—”
“It has been confirmed.”
“Fine, but that doesn’t mean this is over.”
“What isn’t over?” one of the spectral voices demanded.
“Th-the war,” she stuttered, aware of their scrutiny even though their faces were covered.
Silence stretched between them and Effie struggled not to fidget. She needed them to believe her before it was too late. A part of her wished Lucian was still here. He at least listened to her reasoning before dismissing her thoughts, maybe he could help her convince the others.
“That is not what has been foretold.”
“Everything we’ve Seen suggests the opposite.”
“Everything?” she asked, stunned.
If she was the only one to have a vision stating otherwise, there was no way they were going to take her word for it. She barely had a grasp on her visions as it was, how could she expect them to believe her now?
Their hoods dipped in a synchronized nod.
“Is it possible that something has changed? That perhaps this future was not a possibility before now,” she asked, clinging to the hope.
“It is possible.”
“But unlikely.”
Her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides, her nails digging into her palms. There was very little Effie was sure of these days, but this was one thing she did not doubt. Her vision had been a warning. The Shadows were coming. Or perhaps since her visions were created out of what she was familiar with, if the threat wasn’t specifically Shadows, then something was out there coming straight for them. Something dark and terrible that no one had ever seen before.
And when it got here, they were going to drown in the blood of the fallen.
The destruction would be absolute.
“Please,” she said, her teeth grinding together in her desperation. She didn’t know what to say to make them understand.
“Our assurance does not seem to move you. Why?”
Effie pressed her lips together, torn between believing in their experience or trusting her instinct. If she insisted on this, and was wrong, they’d never believe her again. She’d lose any credibility she might have, and their opinions of her were too important to risk losing.
Conflicted, she remained silent as her mind tried to find a solution that wouldn’t end with her disgrace.
“You sought us out to share your concerns and now you won’t voice them. Why?”
Effie knew it was Smoke who pressed her, the voice in her mind had taken on the deeper, more intimate cast.
The answer was simple, obvious even, but not one she’d willingly admit to: fear.
She was terrified because even though she was convinced she was right, there were still those lingering what-ifs floating through her mind. She’d been the laughingstock of her people before. Singled out, humiliated, cast aside. It was not a position she ever wanted to return to. Knowing what it meant to finally belong, the thought of having to resume hiding in the shadows to avoid the endless ridicule made her heart ache and her soul cry out.
“Daughter?”
The hint of concern she detected helped her find her voice.
“Can I show you?” she asked, recalling the first time the Keepers had come to her. How one of them, likely Smoke, had pressed his hand to her forehead and pulled the vision from her mind into his own.
Maybe if they saw it as she had, they’d be more inclined to believe her.
“Show them?” Kieran asked.
Effie jerked her head around, wondering why he sounded so incredulous. Surely this was something the Triumvirate did often enough.
“It is not something we do lightly.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Rifling through one’s memories is dangerous.”
“We cannot always control what we see.”
“Most prefer we do not try, lest we see that which they’d remain hidden.”
“You didn’t think to mention that the last time?”
It wasn’t that she had anything to hide necessarily, but the thought of someone stumbling across intimate moments or even the darker, secret memories she’d buried deep within her mind . . . it was unsettling to say the least.
“Last time?” Kieran parroted. “You’ve let them steal your thoughts before?”
“It’s hardly stealing, Kieran. They were replaying my vision so as to better understand what I had Seen while I was still too new to understand it myself.”
“Don’t be naïve, Effie.”
The vitriol in his tone was so unexpected that she blinked and took a step away. “Excuse me?”
“Do you really think, given open access to your mind, they aren’t going to take everything they want?” His voice was low, his eyes narrowed on hers.
Effie shot a confused look at the Triumvirate, wondering why Kieran would make such awful accusations in their presence, and why they weren’t correcting him.
“Why does my doing this bother you so much?”
“Everything they learn gets stored, shared, repeated. It is how they discover the patterns, discern the nuances within others’ visions. What you’re offering them . . .” he shook his head, looking disgusted, “you might as well walk back into that room and bare yourself for all to see. It’d be less of a violation, and less permanent.”
“So, you’re just trying to look out for me?” she asked in a carefully neutral tone.
“Well, somebody has to.”
“Are you sure you aren’t just jealous that I’m offering a part of myself to someone else? A piece you’ll never have access to?”
Kieran’s face paled as if she’d struck him. “Effie,” he started, reaching out for her, but she stepped out of range.
“You’re so certain you know me, Kieran, because of your dreams—as if those give you a sort of claim and special insight into who I am—but all you know is the story you created in your head about what those moments mean.”
“That’s not true,” he said, his voice shaking.
“You don’t know—you can’t know—what those moments meant to me. What it felt like to live them and relive them. The pain, the joy, the love . . . those are mine and mine alone. For all that you See, you do not know.” Her voice was low and throbbing with emotion.
She’d heard the Triumvirate say that exact thing to Helena once, but now she understood what they’d meant. A Keeper’s visions would always be flawed by their biased interpretation of the events unfolding before them.
It made Effie even more certain she needed the Triumvirate to experience what she’d Seen. With their shared knowledge, they were the only ones who could know for sure if the threat of danger was real.
Anything else they’d discovered while searching, well, she’d just have to trust they wouldn’t use them against her. And if they did . . . it wouldn’t be the first time.
She turned away from Kieran and the hurt shining in his eyes. Purposefully, she closed the distance between herself and the Triumvirate.
“Do it.”
They didn’t insult her by asking if she was sure. Instead, the one she assumed was Smoke raised his arm, his spindly fingers unfurling to reveal the rune inked into his palm as he did.
Effie took a deep breath, bracing herself for his touch.
There was a brief moment of hesitation when Smoke’s fingers sort of curled back in on themselves, as if he was the one who wasn’t sure he wanted to see what she held within her. She lifted her eyes to where his would be—if he still had them.
“I trust you.”
Her eyes fluttered closed as his feather-light touch brushed against her forehead. His skin was soft, but in the way of ancient paper that had been crinkled up and smoothed out over and over again. His long fingers slid through her still damp hair as his fingertips pressed down and anchored his hand on her head.
There was no warning, no way to prepare for the onslaught of images that flashed in
her mind. She remembered the sense of disorientation from before, but this was different, more of a dam bursting and not a slow trickle. It wasn’t just the visions that flashed in her mind. It was everything—her entire life—all at once.
Four-year-old Effie, sobbing in a closet after the other children had thrown rocks at her and laughed when she hadn’t been able to use magic to protect herself.
Sixteen-year-old Effie being told she was good for nothing except spreading her legs.
Darrin as he caught on fire and told her he loved her.
Her grandmother’s arms wrapping around her and pulling her close after a particularly long time apart.
Lucian’s fierce expression when he’d found her in the tavern.
The feeling of Kieran’s lips brushing against her neck.
Her fear.
Her insecurity.
Her desperation.
It was all there. Every flawed and uncomfortable piece of the puzzle that when put together encompassed the woman that she’d become.
And just when she thought there was nothing left, the blood-soaked walls of the cave and the floating corpses took center stage. There was nothing less terrifying about the vision when experienced in this fashion, and she could distantly feel her body start to tremble when the monster slid his wet tongue along her cheek.
Then it was over.
Effie had no idea how long it lasted, but her heart was pounding, and she was sucking in ragged breaths when Smoke lowered his hand. She didn’t even realize she’d been crying until a knuckle brushed her cheek and wiped away a few salty tears.
She held still, waiting for their verdict.
“Our Daughter speaks true.”
“The Corruptor is dead, but her legacy remains.”
“We must warn the Chosen.”
“When death comes for us, it will be merciless and absolute.”
“Is there nothing we can do?” Effie asked, her voice breathless with relief that they’d believed her; that she hadn’t been wrong.
“We will do what we’ve always done.”
“We will keep watch.”
“We will sound the alarm.”
When they spoke next, Effie knew she was not the only one hearing their words.
“Elysia is under attack.”
Chapter 26