The Fading Dusk

by Melissa Giorgio

  I closed my eyes briefly. Poor Aden. He seemed to be faring well in the days since the battle, but I knew Leonid held him personally responsible for letting me leave the mansion and would make him pay for it for the rest of his life. I was actually surprised Aden had agreed to become a spy. He had grown up a lot from the boy I’d met the first night I’d been arrested.

  Parnaby cleared his throat and I focused my attention back on him. “Now then, that brings us to you.” So far Parnaby was being his usual—albeit nasty—self, so of course I was suspicious. I braced myself for whatever he was about to say. Lacing his fingers together, he tapped his index fingers against his chin. “You, like Aden, know too much. Leonid told me he filled you in on certain things in order to gain both your trust and cooperation. But the question is: Do you want to know these things?”

  “I don’t understand,” I replied. “Are you saying there’s a way I can forget…?”

  He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Of course. If you asked it of me, I could make you forget everything that’s happened these past few weeks.”

  Instantly, I thought of Leonid. “No, thank you.”

  “Leonid said you would say that,” he muttered, looking slightly disappointed. I glared at Parnaby. Did he want my help or not? “Then our only other option is to have you become a spy as well.” He leaned toward me, his desk chair creaking ominously. “Can you handle this, Irina?”

  I didn’t like his condescending tone of voice, like he expected me to fail before I even tried. Giving him a frosty glare, I said, “Didn’t I ‘handle’ the Bantheir mess, Parnaby?”

  “I’m not sure ‘handle’ is the correct word,” he said smoothly. “Considering you stole the Essence and voluntarily handed it to Bantheir.”

  I held up a finger. “What I handed Bantheir was a piece of glass.”

  “That you thought was the Essence.”

  I gritted my teeth. “I knew what I was doing.”

  “Did you, now? So when you faced Jaegger…?” He was watching me carefully, as if he expected me to trip over a lie. But I had nothing to hide; everything I was telling him was the truth.

  “While I had no idea I would actually come face to face with Jaegger himself, I went in knowing that I would do whatever it took to stop Bantheir,” I said.

  “Which brings us to our next problem,” Parnaby replied.

  I braced myself, knowing what he was about to say.

  “Vernen.” His eyes narrowed to little slits. “You used Bantheir to bring Vernen back to life.”

  I swallowed hard but didn’t answer. Even now, I was torn. Of course I wanted Vernen alive, but I knew what I’d done was taboo. I’d brought someone back from the dead! Unintentionally, of course, but still…

  I wished it were the old Vernen we had gotten back.

  After that first time in the sitting room, Vernen had experienced a few more quiet moods—never remembering them after he blinked back into existence—but Leonid insisted they were nothing to worry about. I hoped, like Leonid hoped, that they were just a result of Vernen’s traumatic experience and would pass. But he was quiet all the time, and not quite Vernen, and it was hard to get used to. I saw the pain in Leonid’s eyes whenever he watched Vernen and thought no one was looking, and it hurt my heart. Surprisingly, Parnaby had eased up on Vernen as well, and Leonid had seemed to have forgiven him. I wish it were that easy for me, but I had trouble forgetting the calculating look that had been in Parnaby’s brown eyes as he studied Vernen.

  Parnaby was watching me carefully, no doubt seeing the conflicting emotions as they played across my face. “Yes, it’s a very big problem,” he said again. “Do you even realize what you did? You used Bantheir’s life force to bring back Vernen.”

  I rubbed my temples tiredly. “Paranby, we’ve been through this. There was nothing I could have done differently.”

  “Nothing?” He slammed a fist down on his table, causing his inkwell to topple over and spill black ink across a stack of papers. Parnaby ignored the mess. “Our goal was to eliminate Bantheir completely, not pass his existence on to someone else!”

  “Pass it on?” I repeated. “What do you mean? Vernen is Vernen…” I trailed off, feeling a jolt of shock trickle through me. Was that what Parnaby had meant with his “interesting”? Had Vernen done something to remind him of Bantheir? “You don’t think part of Bantheir is somehow inside Vernen, do you?”

  His gaze hardened. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  I thought back furiously to the wish I’d inadvertently made. “I don’t know—I don’t think—”

  “That’s exactly the problem,” Parnaby interrupted. “You didn’t think, Irina. And now Vernen is wandering around with Bantheir’s life force inside of him, and I have to watch him carefully to make sure he doesn’t suddenly evolve into another psychopathic, raging, murdering magician!” He slammed his fist on the desk with each word and I flinched.

  “I didn’t have a choice…”

  “You did have a choice,” he replied. “You choose to walk into that square on your own, visions of being a brave little hero dancing in your head.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “If you had waited for me, we would have fought Bantheir together, and there would have been no need to summon Jaegger!” Parnaby continued.

  “Well maybe if you hadn’t sat around twiddling your thumbs while you hid in your stupid mansion, I wouldn’t have needed to go after him on my own!” I shouted back before I could stop myself.

  Parnaby’s face turned dark red. “What did you just say?”

  I was shaking with fear, but I refused to let him bully me. I’d had my fill of street magicians telling me what I could and couldn’t do. “You heard me. You knew Bantheir was a threat, but you acted like it was some big secret—you didn’t even tell Leonid all of the details! Why did you sit back and allow him to kill again and again?”

  “You think it’s that easy, don’t you?” Parnaby’s words dripped with scorn. “You think Bantheir just stood around waving his arms, saying, ‘Here I am, come get me!’?” He pushed his fallen inkwell to the side, smearing ink on his sleeve in the process. “There is so much more to magic than that. And your master was very, very good at it. Until he slipped up with that couple from Way, I had no idea he was behind any of it.”

  “So that’s when you should have—”

  “That’s when I spent all of my time and efforts protecting you,” Parnaby said. “Which may have been a mistake, I see now.” His words hurt, and I could see that pleased him. “You summoned a god and used him to bring back someone who was dead, someone who should have stayed dead, someone whom I may have to kill if he leads me to believe he’s dangerous!”

  Thunderstruck, I gasped, “You can’t kill Vernen!” I gripped the arms of my chair, my head spinning. I knew he was telling the truth—Parnaby wasn’t one to make idle threats.

  I thought I’d given Leonid his best friend back, but now it seemed I’d muddled things even worse.

  His eyes flashed dangerously. “I can if I have to. And I will, if it means saving Dusk. You forget, Irina, that I do things for the good of this city. If killing Vernen means saving Dusk, I won’t hesitate to do so.”

  How could Parnaby sit there and talk about killing one of his own? Didn’t he care? Wasn’t he capable of any type of feelings whatsoever? Blinking back hot tears, I asked, “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I want you to understand that careless actions can have terrible consequences,” he said. “If I have to kill Vernen, his blood will be on your hands, Irina, not mine.” He pointed at me. “You made this mess for me to clean.”

  “And what if I tell Leonid? He won’t stand for this, even if you are the president. He won’t let you kill Vernen!” Leonid had been ready to hit Parnaby for pushing Vernen too far. If he knew Parnaby was planning murder…

  There was no telling what Leonid would do to stop Parnaby.

  “I know,” Parnaby said, eye
s gleaming. “Which is why you won’t tell him any of this.” He waved a hand, and I felt that familiar tingle of magic, followed by a surge of anger. He was trying to manipulate me! How dare he, after everything I’d been through with Bantheir!

  But even as I fought against it, I knew it was working, and that I would be hopeless to obey his request unless I did something drastic, like grab his pen and stab myself with it.

  But then I felt a curious prickle in the palm of my bandaged left hand, where the Essence had cut into my skin. Elyse had cleaned and wrapped the wound, and it had stopped hurting days ago, but now I felt a strange, gentle but insistent poking in the middle of my palm. When I focused on that feeling, a sense of clarity washed over me, fighting against Parnaby’s spell.

  There was a whisper in my ear:

  Be strong, human.

  Jaegger! I shut my eyes briefly. My last vision of the dragon had been cloaked in violence and bloodshed, but now I only felt relief at the thought of having him by my side, somehow, protecting me. I sent him a silent prayer of thanks. Then, curling my hand into a fist as I focused on the prickle in my palm, I opened my eyes and met Parnaby’s gaze. “Of course, President. I will not speak of this to anyone.” I kept my face a perfectly blank mask.

  As his lips curled into a satisfied smile, I felt a flash of triumph, knowing I’d won this battle.

  I CLOSED THE DOOR TO Parnaby’s office with a sigh of relief. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep up the ruse of pretending to be under his spell; the moment he dismissed me, I’d jumped from my seat and ran to the door. Rude, but I didn’t care.

  “How did it go?”

  I whirled around to see Leonid standing there, watching me with an amused expression. He was dressed once again in plainclothes with a dark woolen coat sitting snugly over his shoulders. As much as I wanted to blurt out everything Parnaby had said, I knew I had to tread carefully. I hated the thought of lying to Leonid, but everything hung in the balance. Jaegger may have protected me from the manipulation spell, but I didn’t know if he could block Parnaby’s mind-altering spells as well.

  I’d die before I forgot Leonid.

  I also didn’t know why Jaegger was protecting me in the first place. Even with a piece of the Essence embedded in my skin, that shouldn’t have meant that the dragon was now at my beck and call. The Essence had been used; it should have returned to his body.

  What did he want from me?

  “That bad?” Leonid asked when I didn’t answer. He leaned forward and tugged one of my curls playfully. “He’s rough, but he’s good. You’ll see, once you’ve known him for awhile.” Leonid paused. “The real him, I mean.”

  I gave a half-hearted nod. Leonid had it backward. The Parnaby I’d known had been gentle and kind, giving me cookies whenever I was sad or lonely. Parnaby the president was ruthless and scared me to my core.

  Leonid suddenly looked nervous. “You are… going to work for him, right?”

  “Who are you, again?” I asked innocently.

  He flinched, then realized I was kidding and began scowling. “Irina! That’s not funny!”

  “Yes, it is.” I poked him. “Admit that it’s funny!” I raised my voice, knowing Parnaby was listening through the door. I hoped my light-hearted attempt at humor was enough to convince him that I was just another one of his mindless spies that he could manipulate at will.

  Leonid growled and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me close for a kiss. He stopped before our lips met, glancing at the guards who flanked the president’s doorway. Dropping his hands, he said, “Come on. I have something to show you.”

  “What is it?” I asked, wondering if it had something to do with the errand he conveniently had to run earlier. I followed him through the darkened hallways, my heart lifting when I saw he was heading for the entrance. I hadn’t been outside since the horrific events three days before and was going stir-crazy. This place feels more like a prison than the actual prison did.

  “You’ll see,” was all he said in response, opening the door for me. Outside, I blinked against the sudden flood of sunlight and smiled. The sky was a deep blue, undisturbed by a single cloud. The temperature was cool but not freezing, but that didn’t stop Leonid from taking off his coat and placing it over my shoulders.

  “Thank you,” I said as I put my arms through the sleeves.

  “How’s your hand?” he asked, watching me.

  For a second, I thought he knew about the Essence lodged into my skin, but then I realized he was just referring to the wound. “Fine, as long as I don’t move it too much.”

  “And your thigh?”

  “And my head, while we’re at it?” I added, chuckling when he frowned. “Fine, it’s all fine, Leonid. Just a few aches and pain, but nothing compared to what could have happened.”

  His frown deepened. I waited for him to say something, but he lapsed into silence as we walked through Rise looking, to the casual observer, like a typical young couple out for a stroll. He offered me his arm, pulling me close so my shoulder rested against his. It felt nice, normal. After everything that had happened, we hadn’t had a moment alone where we could just talk about everything that had happened. I wondered if that’s what he planned on doing now, but he continued to remain quiet.

  We headed southeast, but I barely paid the glittering mansions any attention as I mustered the courage to ask, “Leonid, are you furious with me? For taking the Essence and seeking Bantheir on my own?”

  He took a moment to ponder my question. His eyes were soft, letting me know his answer even before he started speaking. “No, I’m not. I knew you were going to go to him.”

  “Which is why you switched it with a stone.”

  “I thought I could show up with the Essence and somehow save the day with the element of surprise. Be the hero.” He raised his eyebrows. “And you’d be so enamored with me you’d put on that slip of a dress again and we’d…”

  My face began burning. “Leonid!” He ducked when I tried to swat him.

  “The truth is…” Leonid made a face. “This is really embarrassing, but I actually fell asleep and had to scramble to catch up with you and Aden. That was not part of my plan. My entire plan was horrible, as it turns out.”

  I smiled grimly. “My plan was equally bad.”

  Leonid placed his free hand over the one I’d tucked into the crook of his elbow, his skin warm against mine. “And entirely selfless. I knew you would go to him because you didn’t want anyone else to die for you.”

  I found it hard to breathe. How was it that Leonid knew me so well, when I barely knew myself at all? “After Vernen…” My voice caught and I had to clear it a few times before I could speak again. “I couldn’t let that happen to you. Especially after you said you were f-f-f—”

  “Falling in love with you?” he interrupted with a sly gleam in his eye. He pretended to consider it. “I wonder how that happened since you’re so incredibly infuriating.”

  “You scoundrel!” I shook a fist at him. He caught my wrist and kissed my fingers softly, one by one. I sucked in a breath, my knees turning to jelly. “You…” It was hard to form a coherent thought. I shook my head. “You’re one to talk, with all that scowling you do. I think the better question is, how am I falling for you?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” he asked, pulling me closer. “It’s because of my charm and natural good looks.”

  “Are you sure we’re talking about the same person? Because you’re definitely not charming.”

  His familiar scowl was back in place as he leaned closer. “Very nice.” Leonid kissed me, and this time my entire body turned into a quivering mess. I didn’t care that we were in the middle of the street, where anyone could see us. I didn’t care that only moments ago, Parnaby had threatened me, and Jaegger had spoken to me somehow. I didn’t care that I was, in fact, homeless, with no idea what my future held. All I cared about was the feel of Leonid’s lips on mine, his hands running through my hair, hooking onto my hips and pulling me closer,
as if to fuse our bodies together. If Bantheir came back and blasted us both to a burnt crisp, I’d at least die happy.

  Curiosity at something Leonid had said earlier got the best of me, so I pulled away, murmuring, “Didn’t you say you wanted to show me something?”

  His eyes danced with barely concealed mirth. “Oh, I see how it is. You like presents more than me.”

  “I never said that! Wait. You’re giving me a present?”

  Laughing, he pulled me through the streets, impatient. When we began following a familiar route, my heart started racing. I gripped his hand tightly, afraid to ask why we were heading this way.

  “Here we are,” he said, stopping right in front of the last place in Dusk I wanted to be right then.

  “It’s… my home. Or was my home, I should say.” My throat was tight with unshed tears as I stared at the familiar slanted building. “I… I suppose I need to start packing my things up, so the new renters can move in.” After Bantheir had died, I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to live here on my own, not when I didn’t have a penny to my name, but facing it now, knowing I had to say goodbye, hurt.

  I don’t want to leave. This is my home, my only home. Despite everything that had happened inside those walls, I knew it would always be my home. Maybe others in my position would be eager to move out, to have a fresh start, but thirteen years ago this house was my fresh start. I loved it, and being forced to say goodbye was the equivalent of someone reaching into my chest and pulling my heart out. Yes, Bantheir’s true nature had tarnished all those good memories we shared together in this house. But I would cling to the happiness I’d felt in those moments as tightly as I could. Was I being foolish? Maybe. But I refused to succumb to the darkness.

  I refused to let Bantheir win from beyond the grave.

  “Even though I’m his bastard son, my father still provides me with a very generous allowance,” Leonid was saying.

  “Good… for you?” I wrinkled my nose, wondering why he was telling me this. And why he was still grinning.