The Obsidian Order Boxed Set

by martinez, katerina

  “Lune,” I said, trying to bring a little light into the darkness, but if it was working, I didn’t know. There seemed to be no magic that could penetrate it, I couldn’t even see my hair or the pendant I was wearing around my neck; but the Smother could, and it had gone eerily silent.

  “They don’t make these things easy, do they?” I asked out loud, frustration and panic rising hand in hand through my throat.

  That was when something grabbed my leg and pulled so hard, it took all the strength I had just to keep from falling. I kicked at it wildly hoping to find a weak spot; an eye, a nose; maybe this thing was male and it had a vulnerable set of genitals I could introduce my boot to.

  If I did, I couldn’t find them. Worse, the Smother clambered up and along my body, cold, smoky tendrils wrapping themselves around my calf, my thigh, then my abdomen, my chest. All I could do was hold on, hold on for as long as possible, don’t let it shake me off the rungs, otherwise it was all over.

  The creature crawled up my back, more and more of its tendrils snaking their way around my body. Both of my hands were still desperately clinging to iron rungs, and while I had no doubts about this thing’s intent to suffocate me, I couldn’t loosen my grip to strike at it.

  Then it hit me, something Aaryn had said before I stepped into the room. Darkness is your friend, she had whispered into my ear. I hadn’t understood their meaning before stepping into this dark chamber of death, but the thought crept into my mind now as I struggled with the Smother, and an idea hit me.

  Darkness is your friend.

  Desperate, I scrambled through the Aevian words I’d learned from Felice and the others of my kind since I’d been here. Aevian magic worked by using words of power and infusing them with magic as you said them. The more words you used at a time, the more powerful the magic. I only needed one.

  “Voyda,” I yelled, screaming the Aevian word for night. My shoulders ignited with magic, power pulsing through me in a wild flood, excruciating pain rushing through me immediately after. The darkness thickened around me, if that was even possible, and the Smother shrieked and let go as if it had been hurt.

  My grip was slipping, my whole body was on fire, pain ripping through my muscles and organs. I grit my teeth against it, breathed hard, and as soon as I regained control of my body, I started moving again. Feeling my way through the darkness, I tapped at the wall with my fingertips. I could hear the creature wailing and writhing around beneath me, but the stunt I’d pulled hadn’t killed it, and already it had started to recover.

  Frantic, I swung myself across one set of rungs, then another, and another, sliding my hand across the cold stone wall, until my fingers caught on an edge. I searched for a handle as the Smother moved swiftly up behind me, then I pulled the metal hatch open and hurled myself through the opening.

  I fell to the floor on my side, gasping for air, my entire body aching.

  Aaryn walked around me, pushed the hatch shut, and locked it. “You survived,” she said.

  I rolled onto my back and looked at her. She was grinning at me, the corner of her mouth turned upward, her sharp, ice-clear blue eyes boring holes into my very soul. “Piece of cake,” I said, still trying to catch my breath. “Can I go again?”

  “Do you want to?” She went to open the hatch.

  “What? Hell no!”

  “Good, because I think you’ll find it difficult to beat your own time.”

  I frowned. “I don’t get the joke.”

  She reached for me with her hand and helped me to my feet. “Congratulations, you’ve officially achieved the fastest time.”

  “Get out.”

  “I’m being serious.”

  “No way. I couldn’t have beaten Felice; she was way faster than me.”

  She shook her head. “She wasn’t…” a pause, then, “How did you know to summon the night like that?”

  I shrugged. “You gave me a clue.”

  “I gave everyone else the same clue—no one did what you did.”

  “Darkness is your friend. I knew it couldn’t be literal because the darkness was totally working against me, then I remembered all the magic I’ve been learning, and I thought maybe this thing was only comfortable in its own brand of darkness. Seemed to make sense to me.”

  “Very impressive.” She cast her gaze across my shoulder, then gave me her attention again. “Go and get some rest. You have a long day of training ahead of you tomorrow.”

  When aren’t they long days? “Could I ask you something?”

  Aaryn angled her head to the side. “Sure?”

  “When you were telling us about this thing, you said it had been captured… who captured it?”

  She grinned again, then gestured with her head across my shoulder. “I’ll give you a hint.”

  I turned around, and there was Draven, heading directly toward us. I froze and sucked in a deep breath when I saw him. “Of course he did,” I said, sighing.

  “Aaryn, I need to speak with you,” Draven called out as he approached.

  His shoulders swayed as he walked, boasting all the confidence of a peacock and the predatory grace of a panther. His eyes were low, his long coat billowing at his back. The shadows in the hallway reached out and touched him as he passed, the light playing across the exquisite landscape of his face to make him look even more dangerous.

  Strapped to his back was a longsword, the pommel peeking just over his right shoulder. Sitting on his neck was a shining red ruby the color of blood. It shifted as I looked at it, as if a little light were trapped inside.

  Draven and I hadn’t spoken much over the past month, and when he had spoken to me, his attitude had been icy at best. He’d suggested we’d be training together after the whole situation with Abvat, but duty had called him. He’d barely been seen in the fortress at all. He was always doing something.

  “Your timing is impeccable,” Aaryn said, “Seline, here, just survived the Smother.”

  “How did she fare?” Draven asked, directing himself to Aaryn as if I weren’t even present.

  “Top of her group. The fastest to elude the creature yet.”

  “The fastest?” Draven asked, glancing at me, his black eyes impossible to read. “Well done,” he said.

  “I have a great teacher,” I said. “I have to ask, though. Don’t you think it’s a bit dangerous having that thing in the fortress? Aren’t you worried it’ll get out?”

  “It’s perfectly safe where it is,” Aaryn said, “There’s no need to worry.”

  Draven’s eyes moved over me, eyeing me up and down. He then clenched his jaw and turned his attention on Aaryn again. “I need you to come with me,” he said, “It’s important.”

  “Yes, of course,” she said, nodding. “Excuse us.”

  Aaryn and Draven walked down the hallway, and I watched them disappear around the corner at the end. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, naturally that meant part of me wanted to follow them and see if I could find anything out.

  Prospects weren’t told much about the Obsidian Order’s dealings. Not even me. Not even the prospect that saved three of her superiors and probably a few thousand other people by containing an explosion inside of herself. No. Why tell that prospect anything?

  “Fastest time, huh?”

  I shut my eyes and sighed. Sorus, give me strength. “So, you’re a lurker now, too?”

  A man stood behind me wearing a jumpsuit just like mine. His suit bore a silver trim around his collar. A pair of silver stars linked together by a curved line sat just above his left breast, embroidered into the fabric. He had short, copper hair that shone like fire against the light, a milky complexion, and a starfield of freckles around his nose and cheeks. His body was lithe, and toned, and he had the kind of face I probably could’ve taken home with me one night after a couple of whiskeys, if not for that smug smirk of his.

  It was enough to put any woman off wanting to do anything other than punch it over and over again.

  “I don’t lurk
,” Ferrum said, “I observe… and right now I’m observing you.”

  “Is that right?” I flipped him off. “How’s this for an observation?”

  “Really? The middle finger? What are you, eight?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have the time for your games, Ferrum. What the hell do you want?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing. Only to congratulate you on your victory… and to tell you not to bother competing in the silver finals.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? And why’s that?”

  “Because it’s not something you can win. Broken things don’t get to wear gold stripes.”

  I squared up to him, hot anger burning like a furnace inside of me. “What did you call me?”

  “You heard me,” he said, not budging an inch. “You’re broken. Less than. I don’t know how you managed to score top points with the Smother, you must’ve cheated. But do yourself a favor—skip the next one, save yourself the embarrassment.”

  “Listen to me, you little asshole,” I said, shoving him hard against the wall and pinning his neck against it with my forearm. “You may be a fire Elemental, but that doesn’t scare me one bit. If you wanna go, let’s go, right now. You and me. Show me what you’re really made of.”

  Ferrum snarled, his eyes ignited from the inside, becoming tiny fireballs inside of his skull. Before the situation could escalate, a voice exploded through the hallway like a 12-gague shotgun blast. “Enough!”

  It was Crag. He was already pretty damn scary, but the relative dim light of the hallway and the way the shadows moved and shifted made him look even larger, and more imposing. Next to him I spotted a smaller, more compact figure sporting grey hair filled with streaks of color. Fate. I stepped away from Ferrum, who patted at his jumpsuit and scowled like my touch had somehow gotten him dirty.

  “Is there a problem here?” Crag asked as he approached, his voice shaking the very ground.

  “No problem at all,” Ferrum said.

  “Really? Because you were about to get the beat down of your life,” I said, “I’d classify that as a problem for one of us, at least.”

  “No one’s getting beaten up tonight. You, carrot-top, get back to your dorm. And you—what the hell are you doing skulking around this part of the fortress, anyway?”

  “She just faced the Smother,” Fate put in, her voice meek in comparison to Crag’s; a rat’s squeak against a German Sheppard’s bark. She waved at me, though she kept her movements slight so as not to be too overt.

  Ferrum glanced at me. “Think about what I said,” he whispered, before disappearing down the hall.

  Crag took a breath. “Picking fights with other prospects won’t get you higher up the ladder,” he said.

  “I didn’t pick—”

  “—save it for the trials. Kick his ass then.”

  The mountain with legs moved past me, leaving Fate and I alone in the hallway. I still hadn’t calmed down, I wanted to throw my fist into a wall seeing as I’d been denied the pleasure of throwing it into Ferrum’s smug, privileged face. Who gave a shit if he was some Duke’s son from who the hell cared? Here, on Earth, we were all refugees trying not to get killed.

  Level playing field, asshole.

  “Are you okay?” Fate asked, her silver, mercurial eyes sparkling against the soft light.

  “Fine,” I huffed.

  “I’ve seen that fine before…”

  “It’s nothing, okay? What are you doing here, anyway?”

  She pointed at the corner at the end of the hall. “I thought I’d wait for you over there, see how your practice trial went.”

  “You knew it was happening?”

  A sly smirk spread across her lips, and she blushed bright red. “One of the benefits of sleeping with the guy who handles some of the administration around here.”

  I couldn’t help but smile, instantly disarmed. I shook my head. “Yeah… you’re right there. Thanks for the moral support.”

  “You’re welcome. I heard you did well… y’know, before all the shouting started.”

  I shrugged. “It was nothing.”

  “Hey, don’t do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “Don’t let other people ruin your moment. You earned that victory and you should celebrate it.”

  Sighing, I ran my fingers through my hair and shook the tension out. “Speaking of victories, when was your final bronze trial again?”

  “Tomorrow… kinda nervous about it.”

  “Nervous? Why? You’re totally gonna make silver.”

  “I don’t know, because it’s close, I guess.”

  “You’ve come this far. I’m sure you’re gonna kill it.”

  “If it doesn’t kill me first,” she grumbled.

  I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and walked to the end of the hall with her. “I don’t know about you, but I could do with a drink.”

  “Is that how you want to celebrate?”

  “Only if you’ll drink with me. It might help with your nerves?”

  “The trial isn’t until tomorrow, and the last thing I want to do is rock up with a hangover.”

  My lips pressed into a thin line, and I felt my arm slowly slip off her shoulder. “Yeah, you have a point…” Fate and I hadn’t hung out as much over the last month. She was in a new relationship and had been training for her own trials, so that limited her free time. This was the first time we’d shared any kind of conversation in almost a week.

  A pause hung between us as she thought long and hard, biting her lower lip. “One drink,” she said, “But no more, okay?”

  I nodded, smiling. “Deal.”

  Fate hadn’t been kidding about that one drink; I couldn’t remember the last time someone ran out on me that fast. I wasn’t used to her acting so weirdly around me. She hadn’t told me much about her boyfriend, she didn’t tell me about her training, or about any emerging memories from her past.

  As far as I knew, her health was also still a bit up and down.

  I didn’t know what was up with her, but I’d also promised I wouldn’t get as involved and let her handle it. It sucked that she’d left me alone with the entire bottle of scotch I’d requisitioned from the galley. Lucky for me, there was at least one other person whose company I enjoyed.

  Felice grabbed the bottle by the neck and took a swig. Above us, the stars shone brightly in the night, a light scattering of clouds blocking out the weakest among them. We were in the courtyard, sitting underneath the Aevian fountain, listening to the trickle of water and the wind as it howled above the Black Fortress’ parapets. It would rain tonight, but as long as it was dry, we’d both decided it was better to be outside.

  “Remind me next time I see the twerp to punch him in the throat,” Felice said.

  “I don’t have to do that,” I said, “Ferrum’s face will remind you plenty. Anyway, throat-punches work best against earth Elementals… maybe not so much against fire Elementals.”

  “He needs to breathe, doesn’t he? A throat-punch will do the trick.”

  A smirk washed upon my face. Felice handed me the bottle and I took a drink, the alcohol warming my insides as it travelled through to my stomach. For a while the two of us just sat there, watching the stars, drinking, thinking. I dipped my fingertips into the fountain, then realized it was way too cold and immediately pulled them out.

  I enjoyed spending time with Felice. We’d passed our bronze trials and became silver prospects a couple of weeks ago, but that had been bittersweet. We had been paired during the bronze trials, and we’d been made roommates as a result. Now, as silver prospects, we were competitors, and that meant we weren’t roommates anymore.

  I lived alone.

  I still considered her among my closest friends—my closest friends being her and Fate—and we spent most of our time together, either training or finding moments like these to unwind. There was a little part of me, though, that wondered if she’d get tired of being around me. I wasn’t blind to the way others looked at
me.

  I was a weirdo, a freak, an Aevian who couldn’t summon her own wings. The truth had gotten out some time ago, and once Pandora’s box is opened there’s no closing it again. There were times when I wanted to scream at them all. I wanted to tell them what I’d done that day, tell them how many lives I’d saved when I threw myself onto the live grenade the Order called a singing stone. I wanted to tell them how I did have wings, I just didn’t know how to use them.

  But I couldn’t. Draven had strictly forbidden me from discussing what had happened that day beyond a couple of surface details. Besides his absence, that was probably part of the reason why we weren’t talking much, and why I felt a twinge of anger every time I saw him. Being forced to keep secrets from my only two friends was a huge weight to bear.

  “We never talked about what I was,” Felice said, her voice breaking the silence.

  “Huh?” I asked, breaking free from the well my thoughts were pulling me into. The drink wasn’t helping.

  “Before I fell through the rift… I never told you.”

  “You didn’t know.”

  “I’ve been dreaming a lot lately. Having flashes during the day. Wanna know what I was?”

  I looked up at her again. “Sure.”

  She smiled at the sky, then shut her eyes. “I was a thief. A common crook with… very few redeeming qualities.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  Felice nodded. “Believe it. I’d go from place to place, stealing just enough to help me get to the next city, and the next, and the next, always moving, always running.”

  “You were running?”

  “I was. Ironic, really. I’d decided to run away from my home and my family because my father ran a cartel, but I had to steal just to keep moving. I learned just about every trick I ever pulled from him. I was close to becoming him. If I hadn’t flown right into a rift and wound up here, I probably would have turned out just like him and the rest of the House of Dusk.”

  The House of Dusk. I knew about them; I knew about all the Houses, now. Including my own. After we returned from the mission to find Abvat, and after she’d recovered, Aaryn had taken it upon herself to teach me more about our kind.