by Lindsay Nall
“There was already a demon there but with the fracture in my heart I already had powers to defend myself. I destroyed the demon but I lost my right eye.” Nyght gaped at her. She had lost her eye? Was this one glass then? “When my parents found me I was unconscious, the trauma I guess, but the fracture I had found…” She trailed off closing her eyes. “It repaired the damage and when I came to and opened my eyes…” She opened her eyes to reveal her right eye had turned pure black. “I told my parents what pretty souls they had.”
Nyght’s eyes went wide at her statement. If she could see souls then she would see his and know what he was. She would see the darkness he always felt front and center in his heart. “Don’t look!”
“I’ve read your file; I know what you are.” He ground his teeth but said nothing more. “Why are you so afraid of what I see in you?”
“It’s evil.” Nyght stared at her when she laughed and shook her head. Walking over to him she gently placed her hand over his heart.
“It’s shadowed not evil. You fight a constant battle with it, a battle you win every time but there is another shadow…” Nyght looked from her face to where her fingers were spread across his chest. “Your fear of humans…” She stepped back from him then so they no longer touched and looked into his eyes. “Why?”
“Let’s just say I wasn’t very well accepted when I was a kid.” She nodded not wanting to make him tell her anything he didn’t want to. It couldn’t have been easy for him, being half-human and half-demon.
“So you can see my soul huh?” She nodded.
“I can see everything in a person’s soul…I can give you a rundown of your entire emotional psyche if you like.” Nyght thought about the statement for a minute not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” She shrugged.
“Exactly what it means, how you feel, if you’re angry or hurt, if you care about the people around you or if you hate them if you’re uneasy or unsure of things…” Nyght bit his lip.
“That must be nice, knowing what people think and feel.” She turned her eyes to the ground with a disgusted look.
“It’s a curse; I try not to use it if I don’t absolutely have to.”
“You saw something you didn’t like didn’t you?” Mari’s gaze shot up to him from the ground.
“You’re hurt...” Nyght turned to look at his shoulder where Mari was staring. Reaching out she touched the fabric just above where she could see the injury, they always gave off a deep purple glow when she saw injuries, pulsing with the beat of the person’s heart.
“It’s not that bad I figured I’d just take care of it later.” He shrugged.
“Just because you are a healer doesn’t mean you have to take care of yourself too. Let me see it.”
“What?!”
“The injury idiot.” She rolled her eyes when he grinned then waited as he pulled his shirt over his head. She hadn’t been expecting that and had to focus on not staring at the well-formed muscles of his chest. “Idiot.”
Maybe she’ll take her clothes off too. Nyght let out a growl making Mari freeze.
“Sorry.”
“Do you always growl at people who call you an idiot?”
“What? No that wasn’t it I just… it’s hard to explain.” She wanted to ask another question but he seemed to be fighting an inner battle over whatever had just happened making her drop the subject. Taking a handkerchief from her back pocket she held it in her palm as she whispered more words in that strange language. As she pressed the now wet handkerchief to his wound Nyght tried to figure out what he just saw.
“How did you…?”
“There’s water in the air. I can’t summon the elements but I can call on them.” He nodded watching her as she continued to clean the deep scrapes on his bicep and then wrap the handkerchief around his arm with a tight knot.
“So you can summon any element?” She shook her head.
“I can’t just hold my hand out and go poof fire.” He snickered. “If the element is around me I can call it to me.”
“So water obviously, fire?” She shrugged.
“Never really had a chance to play with fire.”
“What about wind?” A strong breeze blew at his backside making him step forward into her. He grabbed her by the shoulders to steady them both. “Show off.” She laughed stepping away from him.
“You going to ask about earth next?” He nodded with a smile on his lips. “What did you notice when you came to find me earlier today?” He thought back on where she had been sitting and what had been around her.
“The flowers.” He had smelled the sweetness of the night-blooming flowers in the middle of the day.
“Any other questions?”
“Yeah, can you turn that off?”
“Sorry.” She closed her eyes opening them a moment later to show they were both now that bright emerald green. He didn’t want to tell her that it made him a little uncomfortable that she could literally see down to his core anytime she wanted to. She took a seat in the grass letting out a little sigh as she stretched out her legs.
“Hey, Nyght?”
“Yeah?” He took a seat next to her.
“What’s it like? I mean facing a real demon.” He thought about his answer for a minute not wanting to scare her but not wanting her to go into a fight thinking it would be easy.
“It’s terrifying. You never know if you’re going to walk away from the fight or not.” Mari was silent for a moment as she thought about it.
“Then why do you do it? If you had a choice would you still want to be a Shadow?”
“Yes.” He took no time to think it over. “In a heartbeat. I don’t do this for the battle or the thrill I do it because at the end of the day I can look in the mirror at myself and be proud of what I see, proud that I saved peoples’ lives, proud that I protected the people I love. If it weren’t for the people, whether I know them or not, there would be no reason to fight. Being a Shadow comes with challenges, it comes with not knowing whether I’m going to survive the next battle or not but even if I don’t I know that I have saved hundreds of lives doing what I do and that gives my spirit ease.” Mari smiled watching him as he talked but said nothing in response for a moment.
“I can understand that. The day Marinique told me about my father, when he told me I was a Shadow I was frightened. I always knew I was one, I knew I was a member of The Fourteen but it scared me more than the thought of being alone the rest of my life. But then as I thought about the people I still had, the people I wanted to protect, my friends, Bart, Marinique, my family in the district, that’s what made me okay with it. It’s what gave me the strength to train, the images of those people’s smiling faces, my life would be a small price to pay to keep them smiling and safe.” Nyght nodded at her explanation but something in her eyes told him there was more to her thoughts, something that worried her.
“We should go in, it’s getting late.” She nodded but didn’t move from her spot as he stood. “Mari?”
“Can you promise me something?”
“What is it?”
“When I get to the point that I am ready to face a demon if I mess things up don’t risk your life to save me.” He stared at the top of her head before she looked up and met his gaze. “I don’t want to be the reason you stop smiling.” Nyght sighed and held out his hand to help her to her feet. Pulling her up he held her hand close to his chest and smiled down at her.
“Don’t make me promise something I wouldn’t make you promise me.” She stared into his eyes for a long moment. She had seen his soul, she knew that he was attracted to her, she also knew it was a bad idea for him to be. Shaking her head she turned away letting her fingers slip through his as she left him out there with no response. ‘Nyght… your heart beats so strong I can still hear it; please promise me it won’t make you do anything foolish to protect me.’
Six
It had been two weeks since that first day
of training with Nyght. They had met in the same practice yard every day since then challenging each other and pushing their limits. Vander and Reagan both had joined them a few times but had claimed defeat quickly at how advanced Mari was getting. She had nearly broken Vander’s morning star the second time he had attacked her with it making him have to go and get it repaired. She had felt horrible about it but he had shrugged it off saying the maintenance was well overdue. Reagan, on the other hand, had lasted longer. His fracture weapon was much harder to destroy given that he produced it. A rare form of poison ran through his blood tainting his fingernails which he could grow as long as he wanted with his will or break off and use as a throwing weapon. She had dodged every single attack of his even going so far as catching one with her wind ability and sending it back at him. It was still stuck in the tree in the courtyard.
Tadum had left a week ago with his party to continue the mission they had cut short to come see her with a guarantee from Nevelyn to make Tadum come home more often. Mari knew no one could make Tadum do anything he didn’t want to do but she had thanked Nevelyn before the group went on their way. Reagan and Vander were both called away on a mission to the west the next day, the day after that a mission called Ella away leaving only Nyght for Mari to train with.
They had been practicing both with and without the use of Mari’s fractures today and more than once Nyght had used his abilities to make her step up her game but it kept proving pointless. She was strong enough to deflect every spell enchanted arrow he shot at her. No one had ever been able to deflect his arrows, not with the enchantments that Alto had taught him. He had spent years perfecting the spells that imbued their powers to the feathers on his arrows, more than once injuring himself and structures around him.
Mari caught Nyght off guard when she not only caught the arrow he shot at her but added her own elemental attack to it and sent it back at him.
“Mari…you can…” He stared at the arrow embedded in the tree next to him as the ice it had spread over the tree melted in the warm sun. Mari walked over and touched the now wet tree trunk gently.
“What is it?”
“There’s never been a Shadow known that could not only handle but use another Shadows fracture weapon.” She flopped down onto the ground next to him on her back and heaved a sigh.
“Great, another reason for me to be ‘special’.” Nyght looked down at the girl next to him with a knowing look, she hated that she was considered special to the organization. He was pretty sure if she could she would disappear from all of this.
“I don’t think we need to practice anymore.” Her eyes shot to his for a second.
“So you want someone else to work with me?”
“No, that’s not it at all. I think you’re ready for the field.” Worry paraded behind her eyes so intense it was hard for Nyght to look at. “Karter’s been bugging me to go out and join Vander and Reagan in the field anyways.”
“I’ve been keeping you from a mission?!” She shot up straight at that glaring at Nyght, she had made it clear that if a mission were to come up she wanted him to go on it no matter where she was in her training.
“No. You were my first priority, Karter knows that.” She grumbled a few choice words under her breath and nodded but still worried about any missions Karter would send her on if she was cleared for field duty.
“Well if you think that I’m ok then you should go.” She didn’t like the idea of not being around Nyght every day but hated the idea of going into battle with a demon and failing more.
“You mean we should go, you’re ready for the field Mari.”
“You mean I’m going with you?”
“I promised to be there with you through every step, what kind of person would I be if I abandoned you at the biggest one?” He had made that promise, a few days earlier in this very spot. She thought it over for a long moment debating over horrible scenarios in her head of her failing against a demon, of someone getting injured because she messed up but at the look in Nyght’s eyes those scenarios changed to ones where he was hurt because no one was there to help him. Nodding she agreed that she would go with him into the field, she was on her way to becoming a fully-fledged Shadow and as long as Nyght was next to her she couldn’t see herself failing.
“Marisol? What are you doing down here?” Mari jumped at the voice behind her smiling when she saw it was Alto, Nyght’s grandfather and the only other surviving member of the Dues clan. The clan had always worked alongside the Silhouette helping with cataloging and documentation of demons, healing herbs, incantations and a plethora of other knowledge. They were like monks working with complete bias and keeping every emotion to themselves. They were trained at a young age not to get attached to people or places, in all honesty, it made Mari a little uncomfortable.
“Just getting a book to read on the train, Nyght said it was a long ride so I thought having something to read might help.” Alto watched her for a moment with a look that made her extremely uncomfortable, almost as if he were sizing her up.
“Nyght… the idiot.” She cocked her head at his statement but said nothing. “May I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Have you looked at Nyght’s soul?” She thought about the question trying to figure out where Alto was going with this but nodded. “May I ask, what did you see?” She thought back to a few weeks ago when she had looked at Nyght’s soul, the memory of tending to his arm, and his shirtless chest, came back to her first making her fight back a blush before shifting her attention to the memory of looking at the emotions in his soul.
“He’s a wreck…” She stared at the book she held in her hands as she spoke trying to work through what she had seen. “Strong emotions shine in different colors, he’s very angry and worried about things but I can’t tell you what. His happiness was a faint glimmer but his feelings of love and respect shone the brightest.” She fingered the corner of the book trying to rack her brain for any other emotions she had seen vibrantly in him but came up with nothing.
“I feared as much.” She looked up to Alto confused, why would he fear Nyght’s emotions? “Would you mind looking at my soul?”
“Err…ok?” She closed her eyes and opened them back up but what she saw in Alto’s soul made her gasp.
“There’s nothing…you don’t…nothing…how do you not feel anything?” He nodded as if approving of what she saw.
“This is the soul of a true Deus. We are trained not to feel, not to get attached so that we may document the past and heal people without getting emotionally invested in them, training that I feel is still escaping Nyght.”
“He hides it well though, his feelings and emotions. If I hadn’t seen his soul I would have thought it looked something like yours. Every once in a while he gets this look on his face like he’s retracting himself, building a wall around everything he feels and shutting it all out like he’s trying to hide everything about him. It hurts to see him with that look on his face…” Alto nodded.
“It is his curse to be both a Shadow and a Deus, maybe it is time he chose only one path…” The statement made her eyes go wide. He couldn’t seriously be thinking of telling Nyght he had to choose between his family and his destiny, could he?
“You can’t ask that of him! The two parts of him are so deeply intertwined that I don’t think he could separate them even if he wanted to, the health training he has received as a Deus helps him in the field to aid those who fight with him and his path as a Shadow takes him to places that are new and foreign allowing him to document more than he would if he were not a Shadow. I doubt he’d ever admit it but he wants to make you proud of him, he loves and respects you and even with a soul like yours you can’t tell me you don’t love him.” Alto stared at the girl in front of him leaping so vibrantly to Nyght’s defense. At first he was shocked but after a moment a smile spread across his face.
“I have known Nyght nearly all of his life, I raised him and yet in the short few weeks you have
known him I believe you have come to know him better than I do. I will not ask Nyght to separate his life but keep an eye on him Marisol, he’s an idiot sometimes.” She laughed and tapped her eye.
“Better check your soul old man your pride is showing.” Alto glared at her and walked away but as he reached the doorway to exit the library he looked back at the girl browsing through the multiple shelves. With her at Nyght’s side, he didn’t feel the need to worry about him so much but at the same time he found a new worry, after only a few weeks she felt she needed to defend him so vehemently, how would she feel about him in a few months of working together? And worse yet, how would Nyght feel about her?
“Whew! That was the longest train ride.” Nyght whispered stretching on the platform as the people around bustled to and fro. Klaus was a small town but well known for its trade and marvelous train station. Tall vaulted ceilings with beautiful murals hand-painted on the ceiling and walls surrounded them. Hand-carved oak and stone pillars and sconces decorated the walls in ways that made you want to stop and stare at the craftsmanship but you were lucky if you could stand still for long. The station was packed as it always was, hundreds of people buzzed around them to make it to their connecting trains. Ten railways met and departed from this one station, eight for trade items, one for business and one for leisure, the one they had just departed. It only ran once a week but still only carried a handful of other travelers besides the two. A half dozen benches were scattered between the different platforms ornately carved and lacquered for long wear. Tall marble statues filled the negative space here and there reminding Mari of the sentinels that hung at headquarters. After the original Fourteen biblical statues had become quite popular as décor for any large building or town.
Mari didn’t notice much of it though; she was too busy watching the people around her. On the eight-hour train ride here Nyght had said something that had stuck with her and was making her a little jumpy. “Mari? You ok?”
She shook her head to clear her thoughts and nodded. “Yeah, sorry.”