“And because we’re your best friends?” Fate asked. “I’m a little pissed I’m not one of those other souls, by the way.”
“I had to be careful about who I told. Don’t take it personally.”
Fate grumbled something incoherent, while Ness pretended to run a zipper along her lips. “Our lips are sealed. You know whatever you tell us, we won’t repeat.”
“I know,” I said, nodding. “Okay… so, I know what the stones are.”
I started explaining to Ness, in as much detail as I could, what I’d learned from the dream I’d had. This wasn’t my first time explaining a dream to Ness. In fact, we’d started documenting them, which was why when she pulled her sketchpad out and had started doodling scribbling things down, and then doodling on the page, I wasn’t surprised.
She kept notes on everything I told her, drew pictures to match my descriptions, and handed pages to Fate as she went. It was like automatic writing. She wasn’t looking at me, she wasn’t talking—she was only writing, like a girl possessed.
I saw my city. I saw the dome. I saw a vague impression of me soaring through the clouds, with my dragon-shaped shadow chasing behind me. I saw my mother, and I could’ve cried at how beautiful she was. Ness was incredible at this. I was only telling her a story, and it was like she was reaching into my mind and pulling the details out, enough not only to draw a picture of what I was describing, but to do so in detail. Details I hadn’t even told her about.
By the time I reached the end of the part where my mother had explained what the five stones were, Ness had finished one of her latest sketches. It was the podium on which all five stones sat. Each seemed to be pulsing with light, the biggest and darkest of them pulsing the hardest of all.
There they were. “The God stones,” I said.
Ness flexed and clicked her fingers, then set her pencil down. “You dreamed a lot more this time than you did the last time.”
“I don’t know why this time was so vivid.”
“It’s whatever that Romeo mage gave you. It has to be.”
“Maybe the Hope stone has something to do with it, too?” Fate put in. “My dreams are getting stronger, too.”
“Could be that both of those things combined have sent your brain into, like, overdrive,” Ness said.
“I just wish I didn’t have to get at my memories through dreams.”
“It’s not the easiest way to recover them, I’ll give you that. But it’s something, right? Progress is good.”
“Progress is slow.”
“I think you need to be a little less tough on yourself,” Fate said. “Besides, seems like there’s something more important you need to be focusing your energy on, like trying to remember that incantation.”
“What’s the use? I don’t have all five stones.”
“No… but maybe you don’t need them all.” Ness said.
I perked up and watched her. “What did you say?”
She shrugged. “Maybe you don’t need all five stones. Maybe you don’t need any of the stones. Maybe just the fact that you’re you and you’re saying the words is enough.”
I stared at her blankly for a long moment. “No way,” I said, shaking my head, “No. It can’t be that easy. Can it?”
“Why can’t it? You’re always looking for the most complicated solution to things, but maybe it’s not that complicated. Your mom said the stones belong to you, she said you were the custodian, right? And the stones followed you through the rift to Earth. I don’t know how, but they’re here. Maybe all you need to do is remember the words…”
I could’ve kissed her. What she was saying had holes in it, sure. Like, how did we know the stones followed me of their own accord? How did we know the stones even had that ability? One of them had been embedded into the snow in Norway… that didn’t exactly strike me as a stone that could take off and fly, otherwise, wouldn’t it have just freed itself?
Unless it couldn’t, but for another reason.
“So, remember the words, say them aloud, and maybe we win?” Fate asked.
“That’s an awesome idea,” I said, shooting to my feet. “If I can just figure out how this damn incantation went… maybe this could all be over. Maybe the stones will just fly into my hand like obedient birds.”
“Frist things first,” Ness said, “You need to find Romeo. You need more of that stuff he gave you.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, first of all, you’re ignoring breakfast which is a hugely important meal of the day. And second of all, you don’t know what more of his powder stuff will do to your brain. What if it makes things worse?”
“But what if it makes things better? I have to take that risk, Ness. I don’t have any other options right now.”
“Alright, just don’t go getting yourself killed. After what you’ve just told me, you should be walking on eggshells if we want any shot at surviving all of this.”
I nodded. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Go, get some breakfast. I have to talk to Draven.”
Ness scowled. “Good luck with that.”
I left Ness in her room and made tracks toward Draven’s tower. After all that, I needed to talk to him. He needed to know what we’d learned, as well as what I was planning on doing. But it was morning and the sun was up, so there was going to be no getting him out of his room—not until nightfall.
That was inconvenient, to say the least, but I understood it. The light didn’t just hurt his eyes, it made it almost impossible for him to see anything at all. He’d be useless on an expedition until the sun went down or clouded over, but I needed him to at least know what I was planning on doing.
It didn’t take long to reach the door to his room, but I hesitated before knocking. I couldn’t quite understand why this hesitation happened, but I had to breathe through it before I could tell my body to work. The decision to knock was taken away from me, though. The door opened before my knuckles could tap on on the wood. There was Draven, standing in the archway wearing a set of black trousers and a black t-shirt. He looked tired, worn out, like he’d been up all night… but still hot as all hell.
“You look like shit,” I said, omitting the rest of my thought.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Have you eaten anything? Or slept?”
“No, and no. Why are you here?”
I took a deep breath. Being in his presence required more of my composure and concentration than I’d expected. It felt like every few seconds I’d catch a flash of memory swimming through my mind; the pain from having my wings cut, the sound the sword had made when it sliced through muscle and bone, the smell of the blood.
I pushed it all down and swallowed it.
“I have an idea, and I need your help carrying it out,” I said.
Draven narrowed his eyes. “My help? I wasn’t expecting those words to come out of your mouth anytime soon.”
“Let’s not forget we made a truce. Whether I want to or not, we have to work together. Trust me, there are at least three other people I’d rather be talking to than you, but you are the best choice, and I believe in sucking it up when life deals you a bum hand.”
“I suppose I’ll take that for what it is.”
“Good. Now, are you going to let me inside so we can talk, or would you prefer I stay out here?”
Draven stepped aside, and I walked into his bedroom for the first time since the night I’d picked up my armlet. It had been there, on his workbench, the thing now sitting on my wrist. His workbench was empty now; or, at least, he didn’t seem to have an active project going on. Draven shut his bedroom door and walked over to his bed, where he stood and turned to face me.
“Well?” he asked, “What’s this idea of yours?”
“I need to go out there again and find Romeo. I’d go on my own, but I don’t want to risk Valoel thinking he can come and pick me off while I’m vulnerable. So, I want you to come with me.”
Draven seemed to consider what I’d just a
sked. Maybe he also didn’t like the idea of teaming up with me, for the same or possibly for different reasons. I mean, we’d teamed up just fine before the truth came out, but… there was no going back after what had happened. Everything was different, now. Part of me, the part of me inside of which pumped the royal blood of House Dawn, saw him as an enemy now.
An enemy I had to ally myself with for a greater good, but still an enemy.
“Exposing yourself again so soon after Valoel almost took your life is a big risk,” he said, “What’s the endgame, here?”
“There’s a spell hidden somewhere inside of my mind,” I said, “An incantation, a powerful one. One I memorized a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve forgotten it, not really. I know it’s in there, somewhere, and I need to get more of the magic Romeo gave me. I need to shake that memory loose, and I need it to happen fast.”
“This incantation has something to do with the stones?”
“It does. I think they followed me through the rift after I fell. The incantation I was supposed to give on my birthday was going to open the door to the chamber of the Gods for me… I was going to sign my name and claim the stones’ power and the responsibility of being their custodian.”
“And you know this through your dreams…”
“It sounds insane, I’m having a hard time believing I’m important too, but the dreams are vivid, Draven. I believe what I’m seeing. I think if I can only remember that incantation, all I’d have to do is say the words, and the stones might just fly right into my hand.”
“Just like that? What about Valoel?”
“The stones’ aren’t his. They’re mine. If they followed me through a rift across worlds, then maybe they can fly out of his hands and into mine, and then this is all over. Done. Finished. No more stones, no more rifts. We can all go back to living normal lives.”
Draven paused again, examining me from where he stood. “Normal lives…” he said, “Look around you. This is normal for me. I don’t have anywhere else to go, or anything else to do. The Order is my life. When this is all over, I will go back to running it—fulfilling our mission.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then how did you mean it?”
“I don’t know…”
“Do you still cleave to the idea that we can all go home, somehow? That we can just pick up where we left off on the other side of the rift?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea, Draven. I couldn’t tell you. But I’m warning you… tread carefully with your words, because you know as well as I do, all I would have to go home to is ash and ruin thanks to you.”
I could taste the poison in my own words. I’d meant for them to hurt him, and while I didn’t know if they had or not—Draven’s expression was stone, hard to break—it felt good to let them out. Better to put them out there than let them fester inside of me. That’d probably just make things worse in the long run.
Draven took a deep breath in through the nose, as if my words had knocked the wind out of him. His lips pressed into a thin line, and he nodded. “I apologize,” he said, “I didn’t mean to imply that.”
I nodded. “Good. It’s daylight out, so, we’ll do this at night. Get some rest.”
“And you. You still haven’t fully recovered, yet.”
“I think I’d need a good week’s worth of rest before I’m back in top shape, but I don’t have that kind of time.” I headed for the bedroom door. I was about to open my mouth to speak again, but I didn’t. Instead, I kept walking and shut the door behind me as I left. The longer I spent with him, the more my chest tightened around itself.
I wasn’t sure when those feelings would subside, but I knew they needed to go away. Otherwise Draven and I were going to have a hard time working together.
The portal orb dropped Draven and I about two blocks away from Romeo’s studio. Neither of us wanted to attract the attention of the local mages before it was necessary, so we decided to keep a low profile and go the rest of the way on foot. In silence. In the rain. It was coming down hard tonight, bathing the streets, the cars, the people and buildings.
The rain forced me to take a little more cover than usual, making our approach a lot slower than I wanted it to be. But there was something beautiful about rainfall on a big city that made me not mind the delay much. The way the water made everything glisten and shine under the city’s artificial lights was almost artful, calming.
And the Gods knew I needed all the calming I could possibly muster considering who I was standing next to.
It was hard not to look at him, but it was also hard to look at him. I wanted to see the guy I’d fought alongside, the guy who really did want to help the rest of us fallen even if he had a strange policy about it all at first. Part of me thought maybe I could again. It was easier to forget, to pretend like what had happened to me had happened to someone else.
But I didn’t want to forget. That was no way to start something new, something strong, something that would last. Gods. Was that what I really wanted? To build something with Draven that would last? Focus, Seline. Focus on the task at hand. Draven glanced at me, and I turned my eyes away from him, putting my head down and moving out into the rainy street.
From there, a quick dash across put me at the doorstep to Romeo’s studio. The reception desk was empty, but the lights were on. Nodding at Draven, I let myself inside, shrugging off the worst of the rain coating my leather jacket. My hair was soaked, too, but I didn’t want to wring it out all over the studio’s plush, crimson carpet, so I left it alone.
“Hello?” I called out once I’d reached the reception desk.
The desk stood like a quiet sentry, barring the path to the doors behind it. Even though there wasn’t anyone around, walking into the back like I owned the place didn’t feel right. Like using someone else’s bathroom for any longer than three minutes.
Scanning the reception area, I was met with pictures of rap and hip-hop icons, chipped paint, and plaques with inspirational quotes from stars long dead. Romeo’s studio wasn’t exactly a triple-A place, it sat a couple of blocks away from a strip club, but it had the charming quality of an underdog that wanted to make it big.
I was half-way through reading one of the quotes when an attractive young woman with deep, dark skin, thick black hair, and a body fit for a Victoria secret catalogue, walked through one of the doors. She plucked her phone from the desk, scrolled along her social media for a couple of seconds, and then decided to take a selfie.
She was human, and neither Draven or I had moved or spoken, so she couldn’t even see us.
“Ahem,” I said, once she was done taking her selfie.
The receptionist jumped so hard her phone flew out of her hand. Draven caught it in mid-air and handed it to her. She was about to say holy shit, but she stopped herself just shy of shit. I had to admire her professionalism.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, shaking her head and composing herself. “I didn’t even see you there. Welcome to Romeo Records. How can I help you?”
I smiled at her. “Yeah, I’m looking for Romeo. Is he around?”
“I’m sorry, but Romeo isn’t available right now. May I ask what your name is? I can take a message for you and be sure to pass it through to his PA.”
“I really need to speak to him urgently. Is there any way you could get a message through to him now? I’ll wait if I have to.”
The girl scanned my eyes, then Draven’s. To her, his eyes wouldn’t be the black pools I was used to—they’d be dark, possibly deep brown, but they’d look entirely human. This moment on hesitation on her part was enough for me to pick up that there was more to this than met the eye. I decided to press a little further.
“Is Romeo okay?” I asked, concern that was all too real showing on my face.
“Mister Romeo is unavailable,” she repeated, “If I could take your name and a message down, I can make sure that he gets it when he returns.”
Before I could say anything furth
er—better yet, before Draven could pressure the poor girl anymore than she already was—one of the doors behind the reception desk opened and a man tentatively walked through. He was a big guy wearing the frame and face of a boxer, and a black suit that made him look like more than just hired muscle.
“Everything okay, Shanti?” he asked as he moved a little closer to the reception desk. Right away I felt the instinct to either fight him, or run away from him. It was an animal thing, part of my lizard brain or whatever it is humans called it. With this instinct bubbling up, I knew, this man was some kind of supernatural—probably a mage, given where we were.
Lucky for me I’d been living with Bastet for a while, and I’d developed a little immunity to the urges that came with meeting a native for the first time.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Shanti said, “This is… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Seline,” I said, “I’m looking for Romeo. Is he around?”
The boxer glanced at the receptionist, who looked easily to be about half his size. He then turned his eyes on me, gestured with his head toward the door he’d just stepped through with his hand, and nodded. “Come with me,” he said.
I followed him through the door and into a quiet corridor. I must’ve walked past three recording studios, all empty, before we were finally brought to what looked like a small lounge. There were couches here to relax on, a coffee table covered not in magazines, but in tablet computers each flashing with a different music video.
The boxer gestured to the couches, and I sat beside Draven. “Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Your name is Seline, right?” the boxer asked as he sat down.
“That’s right.”
“My name’s Mercutio. I don’t know much about you, but I know you and Romeo have been in contact before—more than once.
Mercutio. The word burned on my tongue, waiting for me to set it loose and ask why? Was it a coincidence? Had they planned to name themselves after Shakespearean characters? Were they being ironic, or did they really enjoy Shakespeare?
The Obsidian Order Boxed Set Page 67