“Skylan,” I say as Keenan lays me down on the stretcher.
“Long time no see, princess.” Skylan adjusts the stretcher and throws a blanket over me, tucking me in gently. “Alright, princess. Let’s see what we can see, huh?”
My eyes catch Keenan’s as Skylan wheels me through the double doors, leading deeper into the infirmary. Keenan looks like he wants to chase me down. He glares at the doors as if they alone spell my eternal doom.
I wish I could be on the other side of those doors, waiting to hear something. Instead I’m rushed into a room that’s white walls and white and silver machines make me feel even colder than I already am. For the first time since he stumbled back into my world I wish for Keenan, wanting someone else’s familiar presence, anyone’s. Even his.
Thoughts of Roman linger, taunting me the way they should have for months now. But I intentionally pushed him away, hoping he would fade like his voice or the deep shade of his green eyes. In a burst of jealous anger I kissed Kol and felt sparks, but in my dreams it’s Roman I want. Keenan is a history I’ll never relive, a dream from a girl with a naïve heart. Kol is a fleeting memory, an impulse driven by a girl heartbroken over her best friend’s betrayal. But Roman, he is flesh and blood and bone. Solid. Roman would never betray me, never hurt me the way Keenan and Kol have.
Thoughts of the boys I’ve loved and lost brings me back to the first boy I’d loved and lost. He’s shown up in moments he deemed dangerous for me. But where is he now, when I might be in real danger? Where is he?
The doctors go through many different treatments to try and chase away the chill. They hook me up to machines and take them away, pile me with blankets at my desperate request. I barely notice when they’ve exhausted all their resources. I know this to be true when I wake much later to Atwood standing in my room talking to Haven, Keenan, and Bastian.
“Physically there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with her, but…if I had to guess, and it is just a guess, I’d say that her blood is slowly freezing.”
“But I thought you said you couldn’t find anything physically wrong with her?” Keenan snaps.
“I did, but the symptoms she’s presenting with: the shivering, the weakened pulse, her shallow breathing, the discoloration of her skin, it all tells me that she’s suffering from frostbite, inside her body.”
“How is that possible?” Bastian chokes out.
“How is it possible?” Keenan’s voice is so dark, so deadly I barely recognize it. “You did it, that’s how. You let that Borderline freak unleash her ice on Amara and now her blood is quite literally being frozen.”
“I’m sorry. What is he talking about?” Atwood asks, solely out of medical curiosity, nothing more.
“He let a Borderline with the ability to turn things to ice freeze her blood, to torture information out of her and now her blood is freezing.” Keenan grits out angrily. I’m pretty sure any other time Bastian might backhand the boy for speaking about him that way, but to his credit even Bastian looks stunned, remorseful. He’s got that terrified, oh shit, what have I done look in his eye.
“That does make more sense.” Atwood decides, looking pensive. “Perhaps too much exposure to the Borderline’s ice slowly damaged her cells, freezing them over time, very slowly.”
“We know the cause.” Bastian sneers back. “Can you fix her?”
“We’ll keep trying, Your Majesty, but we have tried the treatments we know of, we’ve tried every test in the book. This illness, it is supernatural. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I don’t know if it’s within my power to fix.”
“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to discuss the fate of the sick girl in front of the sick girl?” I grumble in the background, catching the attention of my angels of death.
“Mara,” Keenan rushes to my side, only now realizing I’m awake. “How are you feeling?” He takes my ice cold hand into the both of his and my whole body reacts to his warmth.
“You’re so warm.” I breathe, pulling his hand to my cheek.
Keenan curls his fingers around my free hand, his other cupping my face. His thumb runs over my bottom lip gently. “We’re gonna figure this out, Mar, I swear it. I won’t let anything happen to you. I won’t.” I’d like to ignore the tears pooling in his eyes, pretend they’re not there, but it proves difficult. My boy is here with me now, even if it’s just for a little while. Bastian’s creation will surface again, but in my weakened state, my mind a confused mess due to the icy chill enrapturing it, I can let him in.
“Hold me, Keenan. I’m so cold.” I cry. The tears that pool in my own eyes feel like icicles when they hit my freezing skin.
Keenan doesn’t need to be told twice. He slips into the bed with me, wrapping us in the blankets. His body heat sends chills through my body, the good kind and I cuddle up to him as best I can. Keenan’s eyes flick to Bastian, not the useless doctor. “Figure this out.” The words land like the edge of a blade, with all its sharpness and promises of pain.
Once again I find myself drifting in and out of sleep. The next time I wake I’m met with a pair of blue eyes I know better than I know my own. I reach for his face, tears welling back up in my eyes. I smile, even though it hurts. “Aaric?”
He smiles back. “Hey, peanut.”
I dip my head, almost laughing. “You know you’re not gonna be able to call me that forever, right?”
He lets out a strangled laugh, like this apparition of him knows I’m dying. “I’ll never stop.” He vows. “You’ll always be my peanut, no matter how strong or powerful you become. We have to remember who we were, Amara, before.”
“It’d be easier to forget, wouldn’t it? If there’s nothing before then there’s nothing to miss. And I miss it, Aaric. I miss it all.”
He brushes a hand across my cheek, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “If you could go back, right now, what would you do differently?”
It’s a loaded question. Some responses are obvious. I never would have went looking for answers that would only bring me pain. I would have stayed in that night, so we never get caught in those woods with those assassins, never gain our powers. Never have to leave the comforts Baal offered us, however meager and small. But I know what my answer has to be, and because this isn’t real, I know I can be honest without fear of Aaric knowing the truth, of what his best friend did to me.
“I’d go back to that party, that night where it all changed for me and Keenan, and I’d stop him, when he ran, and I’d tell him I love him. That I forgive him. I’d never let him get on that transit. I’d never let him leave. If I could go back, that’s what I’d do differently.”
And for the first time since that night I realize that I’m not blameless. I made the mistake of letting him walk out of my life without him knowing how I truly felt, how hurt I was, how angry I was, how fundamentally in love I was, with him. You can’t hate me forever. He told me that once and finally, I believe him.
“Amara,” Aaric’s face quickly shifts back into Keenan’s, the blue-eyed boy who’s actually here with me. Aaric isn’t. He’s somewhere far away. Part of me wishes I could call the apparition back, for that torn part of me to be whole again. The other part, though, is glad he’s gone. That part would hate for him to see me like this.
“Keenan?”
“You were mumbling a lot of…weird stuff.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. You—you were telling me all the things you wish you’d done differently, back in Baal. I wish I’d done all those things too.”
A world of regret festers between us for a time, eating and poking at old wounds that haven’t healed. I think of our pyramid and wonder if this is the start of a rebuild. I’m too delirious to know for sure, but I think I might like to entertain the possibility.
“Fire.” Haven shouts, rushing into the room, catching herself on the door’s edge to keep herself from tumbling into a mess of limbs and golden brown curls.
“Is there a fire?” Keenan asks, rais
ing his gaze to Bastian who walks in much more gracefully than his fiancé.
“The beautifully brilliant princess has an idea.” Bastian offers, gesturing to Haven to explain.
“Fire. We need a fire user. If your blood is freezing than maybe, just maybe a fire user can correct whatever Missy broke inside of you.”
I give her an encouraging smile. “Have I told you lately that you’re my favorite?” At my side, Keenan laughs.
“Do you think it’ll work?” he asks Bastian.
“It’s worth a try.” Bastian does not look at me and I quickly realize he can’t. He is ashamed at what he’s done to me, as he should be. He brought me here to turn me into his queen, his beautifully crafted figurehead. How delightfully ironic it would be if he accidentally killed me before he had the chance.
—CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE—
AARIC
RIFT
The station in Ironport is bustling with people, more than there should be. The city isn’t as large as Taar, the only other city I’ve ever been to, and so there certainly shouldn’t be this many people populating it.
Roman seems to notice this too because his green eyes search the station cautiously. “There’s too many people here.”
“It’s a train station. Of course there’s a lot of people here.” Niykee offers.
“It’s a small city, yet there are three times as many people here as there should be.” Malia pipes in, forming up the rear of our little group. Malia sighs, seeming to know what’s going on.
“What is it, Malia?” Felix asks.
“The Guard must be here.” Her brown eyes flick to Roman. “Looking for all of you.” Her gaze lingers on Roman, silently cursing him for our latest setback. She hates royals and Roman Novak is no exception.
“King’s Guard?” Roman questions.
Malia rolls her eyes. “Your father has been sending the Guard around the more populated cities looking for you. A fleet of them came through Baal looking for you just moments before you all arrived. This will make our trip to the boat marginally more difficult.”
“Can we get there without being spotted by the King’s Guard?” Bay steps forward, but takes another step back when he sees me. While he presented his argument for not telling me about what Keenan did to my sister, I’m still angry and he knows it.
“We won’t be able to go through the city to get to the port like I’d hoped.” Malia says in reply. “We’ll have to go through the woods. The end of it leads out to the docks. It’ll work, but we’ll have to move fast. The trek will be longer and any spare time we thought we might have before the ship boards is now gone.”
“Do you know the way?” Felix flicks his gaze over to her, ignoring Bay, also angry at him for keeping this secret for so long.
“Of course I do.” Malia scoffs.
“Well let’s get moving then.” I say. “We have two hours before the ship starts to board and if we don’t get on this one who knows if we’ll get another chance?”
Felix and Bay relax in the woods. They always do when they’re around their own element. While Zodiacs do not need to be near their element to generate it, they tend to feel more at home when around the source of it. Air users and I have more in common with that feeling. My element comes from the essence of life, the essence that flows through our world. It’s all around me at all times, just like the air. We feel our power everywhere we go where the rest of them only feel it when they sit by a fire or climb a tree, dip their toes in the ocean. I draw strength from that, knowing my real strength is thousands of miles away.
Felix falls in step with me, the first time he’s gotten this close to me willingly. He kicks the dirt beneath our feet as we walk, a clear sign that something’s on his mind.
“Fee?” I prompt.
“Ya have to look at it from his point of view. Amara had just been betrayed by the boy she loved, whether she wanted to admit it then or not. Was he supposed to betray her trust too just to tell you?”
“I thought you were mad at him too.” Is my only response. I don’t want to see his side. I need to be angry at him. Staying angry at Bay distracts me from hating my best friend. Ex-best friend.
“Oh I am. But you just found out your best friend is a piece of shit. You need your brother right now, Aar.”
“Does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore?”
Felix shrugs, watching his feet as he walks. “I wasn’t mad at you, jackass. I was just taking it out on you.”
I crack a smile. “I accept your apology.” I look ahead, smirking and Felix shoves me, sending us both into a bout of chuckles.
“Awe, did you two just make up?” Niykee teases from up ahead.
“Shut up, Lysander.” Felix replies.
“I have a question.” Malia speaks up, raising a hand like she’s in a classroom. “I understand why you’re going after the Nexus. Theon wants it and you don’t want him to have it, but I fail to see how this is supposed to help us get Amara back from the king of Vakrov, a country that is quite literally in the opposite direction.”
The question darkens my mood and my stomach churns. Mostly because it’s a good question. “Our mission is to find the Nexus.”
“Yes, but what happens once we do?” Malia presses on, knowing full well I’m avoiding the question because I simply don’t have the answer.
“We were told that Amara is useless to him without the Nexus.” Bay steps in, angling his gaze past me toward Malia. “So if we can get the Nexus first maybe he’ll leave her alone.”
Hearing Bay say it aloud though makes it sound so foolish, like a bunch of children came up with the plan. Perhaps a bunch of children did. We weren’t thinking of the politics of it all then. We were just doing the only thing that was in our control. Find the Nexus. If we can’t save Amara ourselves we find the Nexus. That’s been the plan, but it’s foolish for us to believe that Theon’s interest in Amara ends with the Nexus. It doesn’t. He needs her for more than her magical power.
“None of us actually believe that anymore.” Niykee says, using a long dagger she’d confiscated from the transit to chop down any branches hanging into the dirt path we’re walking down. “At best it’s a bargaining chip. Trade the Nexus for Kara.”
“That would require actually handing it over to him.” Malia replies, her words a tornado destroying everything in its wake. She picks our plan apart like a hungry rat does a carcass.
“Well, we haven’t really gotten that far.” Niykee says, chopping another hanging branch.
Malia’s eyes scrutinize me and I want to slink out of existence. It’s not a good plan. It never was. “We needed to do something.” It’s the only thing I can say that makes any sort of sense. “We couldn’t just sit around anymore. We needed to do something.” I repeat, a last cry of a desperate boy.
Malia says nothing more on the subject and for a while we just walk in silence, enjoying the stillness of the forest. It isn’t any of us who break the silence.
Hunters, for all their talents, are not quiet. I hear the first leaf break from a mile away. Malia and Niykee both already have their blades at the ready. Roman and I went for something a little more deadly with holstered guns.
The metal in my hand is unfamiliar. I’m used to fighting with what is invisible, but deadly in its own right. But Hunters are immune to our powers and so we adjust. During our stay at the Serpentarian camp Roman gave me a few lessons in using firearms so while I don’t feel as confident as he looks I know what I need to know. Aim, shoot, preferably a kill shot. Head or heart, Roman had told me.
“On the left.” Roman says and the two of us aim our guns in that direction. Felix and Bay don’t bother with their weapons. We’ve learned that we can’t use our power to hurt them, but we can manipulate the things around them to get the job done.
“Yeah, I hear them too, but they’re not advancing.” Malia’s tone oozes with confusion.
“Maybe they’re waiting for us to come to them.” Felix suggests.
“I don’t think so.” Malia shakes her head.
“Roman,” He’s beside me, eyes searching the woods. He doesn’t move, but he knows what I want. He makes some military gesture behind him that I know means he wants me to watch his back as we move forward.
I do, stepping through the woods, off the dirt path. Niykee cries out for us to stop, but we ignore her. Roman parts the leaves ahead and I let them slap behind me, secretly hoping they’ll get Niykee in the face so she won’t follow, but I feel her at my back and hear no curse words muttered.
A chill runs through me when we see, not Hunters, but Reapers. Their hooded silhouettes are cloaked under black robes, just as I remember them from the Underworld. A dagger with a jagged edge is in each of their hands. There appears to be only three of them.
Felix was right.
They were waiting for us to come to them.
“Run,” Malia breathes.
“What the hell?” Even Roman has the good sense to be afraid.
“Run!” This time Malia screams it and the six of us dart down the dirt path.
“Are those Reapers?” I cry out, grabbing my brother up who, ironically, trips over a tree branch.
“They sure are.” Malia shouts back at me.
“Reapers?” Felix screams at me. “You mean the things you faced in the fucking Underworld?”
I swallow hard, nodding. “Yeah.”
“What the hell, Aaric?” he sneers.
“Wha—don’t look at me. Look at her. She’s the encyclopedia of the Zodiac world.”
“Enycla—what?” Bay cries out. I roll my eyes.
“Here.” Malia’s hand curls around my wrist and she pulls. I expect to be whipped around a corner or behind a tree. Instead she pulls me into what appears to be a small cave that used to be located under a waterfall, though no water streams down through the old river anymore. The others all follow suit and we huddle together, keeping totally silent until we hear the Reapers zip by us.
“We must have stumbled into a hotspot.” Malia pants.
I want to hit her.
“What the hell does that mean?” I grit out, eyes darting every which way to make sure the Reapers or more like them haven’t spotted us in our cramped little cave.
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