“A Succession hearing,” I answered, gesturing dramatically with the summons.
“What?!” Travis sat up so quickly, he nearly fell out of his chair.
“Patrick’s off the hook, but I’m not yet. I technically committed an act of treason. If they find me guilty, I will be barred from succeeding Alex as the next chancellarius.”
“That’s just crazy!”
“Yeah, but I’ve pushed my luck too far with them. I’m probably going to lose.”
“So we would be stuck with Andraya?” Travis said, folding his arms.
“Were you honestly hoping that someday it would be me?” I asked with a derisive snort.
“Yeah actually; you’d shake things up in here,” Travis replied, smirking at me mischievously.
“I’m pretty sure I do a fine job of that already,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Yeah, from what I hear your aunt was a wildcat too, but she seems to have nothing on you.”
“Thanks, Travis.” I had heard comments like that on one too many occasions; usually when I was being yelled at.
After a while, Travis came over and leaned on the table next to me. “So…since you’re not married at the moment, can I kiss you?”
“You’re actually asking this time?” I asked wryly.
“Yeah,” Travis answered, blushing ever so slightly.
“You do and I’ll punch you, Travis,” I stated with a glare.
A beeping went off and the ePaper in my hands blinked.
“I guess they’re ready for me, catch you later,” I said, standing up and starting toward the door. “Oh and I’m stealing your coffee,” I informed him, holding it up.
“Hey!”
“You interrupted me getting mine, so you’ll just have to suffer. I have a date with some not so happy people, and I’m not doing it without coffee.”
When I arrived at the Grand Council chambers it was eerily silent. Maybe it was just a morning thing. The Protectorate officers opened the doors, and I walked into the room. Only eight of the seats were filled. My dad was nowhere to be seen. It was the first time I had ever been to the Council chambers and he had not been there. It was unsettling, to say the least.
“Arius Nualla, thank you for heeding our summons. I gather you understand why Chancellarius Galathea is not with us today,” Councilor Tammore said as he looked down at me.
“I do.” I hadn’t really until he mentioned it, but now I did. As far as conflicts of interest went, this would be pretty high on the list.
“Very well then, let us begin. Arius Nualla, you put your own self-interest before the law and the good of the subjects of this region. A ruler cannot do such things.”
“I know, councilors.” I wanted to look at my feet, away from his eyes, but I fought the urge.
“When you become ruler of a region, you must swear an oath to act in the interest of the people first and your family second.”
Now I fully understood my dad’s actions. He was bound. He had had no choice but to take Patrick in or face treason charges himself.
I took a deep breath. I refused to lie to them, even if that meant I would lose the right to succession. I was not ashamed of my decisions, and I would make the same ones again in a heartbeat. I held my head high and said in the strongest voice I could manage, “That is something I cannot do, councilors.”
“What?!” Councilor Tammore asked, shocked. It was clear that he had been absolutely certain that I would bow down and accept the oath. But yielding was not something I did easily, especially when I didn’t agree with what I was being asked to yield to in the first place.
I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin a fraction higher. “I cannot do what you are asking of me, so I guess you have your answer,” I stated, purposefully leaving off the honorific.
Councilor Tammore looked at me for one dumbfounded moment before he spoke. “Then Arius Nualla, this Council has no choice than to—”
“Wait.” They all turned to look at Councilor Reynes who had just stood. “Arius Nualla is young, in time her views may change. This decision should be put off until a time when we find ourselves without the current Chancellarius Galathea.”
“I second this,” Shawn’s father, Councilor Roy Vallen announced standing as well.
Councilor Tammore paused for a second to look at the other nodding heads before looking back at me. “Very well; this Council will suspend this decision until such a time as the succession is necessary. You may leave, Arius Nualla.”
“Thank you, councilors,” I said with a slight bow before turning on my heel and getting the hell out of Dodge.
37
Breaking Free
Wednesday, April 4th
PATRICK
The next six weeks passed by with little consequence. After how chaotic my life had been since I met Nualla, it was a welcome break. School went on, my cast still impeded any real artistic endeavors, and Nualla still clung to me. The incident with the Grand Council had had a much greater effect on her than anyone else. I wasn’t sure if something in her had been broken or been set free. Maybe in this case, like many others, it had been both.
Now when I was with Nualla, love practically radiated off of her. Whatever doubts she had had before, they were gone now. It was wonderful, like living in a little dream world. Everything was perfect in my life. Well, except for one tiny little thing.
After I ran out of Dr. LaCosta’s painkillers, the headaches had started. Or maybe they had been there since the accident and the meds had just covered them up. Either way, they were growing worse and more frequent as the days passed. At first I had just ignored them, but when they started happening every day it became harder to pretend it was just normal.
I had also started to see things; things I knew I shouldn’t be able to see. We would pass buildings and every so often they would flicker for a brief second, revealing what the illusion fields were hiding. But it wasn’t just the buildings. My friends, my daemons friends that is, had started to do the same thing. Every few hours or so they would flicker briefly, giving me glimpses of their true forms. Not fast or frequent like a strobe light; more like a little blip and then another one a few hours later; like a TV losing signal for a second as you watched a show.
I was sitting at a table with Connor in the Japantown Mall contemplating this all when something suddenly flashed in front of my eyes.
“Hellooo, Earth to Patrick?” Connor said as he waved his hand in front of my face.
“What? Sorry,” I said, shaking my head to clear it.
“You’re going stir-crazy with that thing, aren’t you?” Connor asked as he gestured to my cast.
“Is it really that obvious?” I asked with a wry smile.
“Patrick you’re practically foaming-at-the-mouth anxious.”
“Well I am getting it off today.”
“Aww, really? But you were getting so good at using your left hand,” Connor said, playfully rolling his eyes.
I punched him in the shoulder with my cast.
“Ouch! What the hell, man?”
“Not funny, Connor. You know I haven’t been able to draw crap for almost two months now.”
“And you could before?” he asked with snort.
I glowered at him until I caught sight of the time. “Oh fuck, I gotta go. I should have been there like, now.”
NUALLA
After dropping in for a quick visit with Travis, I started making my way to the front entrance of The Embassy to meet up with Patrick. Turning a corner, I all but ran into Nathan Jordash, Natasha’s father and our Head of Security here at The Embassy.
After staring at each other for one startled moment Nathan inclined his head with a slight bow. “Arius Nualla.”
“Hello Nathan,” I said with a sl
ight smile. Nathan was pretty awesome as far as authority figures went, and he let me get away with an unbelievable amount of crap in the last few years. “I’m sorry I almost ran into you, I really should have been looking where I was going.”
“No, the fault is all mine, I was a bit distracted myself,” he said apologetically. “Where were you headed?”
“The front lobby,” I answered.
“Care if I join you?” he asked with a friendly smile.
“Not at all,” I replied, returning his smile. I normally saw Nathan a lot, but lately he had been strangely absent. On the other hand, I had been a lot busier, so maybe it was just that I wasn’t around as much.
We started walking as he looked over at me and asked, “You are about to graduate from high school in a few short months, yes?”
“Yep.”
“Then you will be coming here for classes, correct?”
“Yeah, though probably not till the end of July because of the wedding.”
Nathan stumbled a bit but regained his stride. “Wedding?”
I looked at him curiously. “Yes, I’m getting married to Patrick Connolly at the end of June.”
Nathan was silent for a few moments before he spoke. “Yes, of course, I do believe your father mentioned that the other day.” We walked a few more feet in silence. “Is it wedding preparations that brings you here today, or were you visiting with Travis?”
“Neither actually, Patrick is getting his cast off today.”
Nathan stopped dead, and an odd expression crossed his face just for the briefest of seconds. “He is coming here?”
“Well yes, he should be here any minute now.”
Nathan stood staring at me for a while before he pulled out his phone. He looked at it for a brief second before looking back at me. “Duty calls, my dear,” he said with another bow of his head before he turned and walked purposefully back in the direction from which we had come.
I stared at him as he disappeared down the hall. Well that was more than a little weird.
PATRICK
Luckily, Nualla came down to get me at the front Embassy entrance, because walking through this place alone wasn’t something I exactly felt comfortable doing. And I probably would have just gotten lost if I’d even tried. She looked like something was bothering her, but when I asked about it she said it was nothing. Which meant it was most definitely something.
I decided not to push it though, if she wanted to tell me she would. If she didn’t, it would either end up being nothing or it would come kick my ass later. Either way, not really my problem today; today I was finally getting released from this stupid cast.
Dr. LaCosta pulled out what could only be described as a miniature electric circular hand saw. “What the hell is that for?” I asked apprehensively.
“To slice through the fiberglass. I assure you it won’t hurt,” he said as he took my arm and flicked the saw thing on.
It made a high-pitched whine as it cut into the cast. The sensation of the vibrations through my arm was a lot like the cleaning things they use at the dentist, and I couldn’t help but shudder. Once he had made a cut to each side of the cast up the length of my arm, he put down the saw and pulled out some kind of bizarre pliers. I didn’t even bother to ask what it was for.
He wedged it gently between the two pieces of the cast and pushed it open. The cast gave a soft pop in response, and he moved to the other side to repeat the same thing. Then he pulled out a large set of clippers and carefully snipped the padding of the cast. And then it was off and my arm was finally free.
I flexed my hand back and forth for the first time in six weeks, testing the movement, making sure it still moved the same way. I ran my fingers over my forearm, my skin felt weird and a little sticky. My arm felt tight, sore and a little numb. And then I had a sickening thought.
“Somebody hand me a piece of paper and a pen, quick!”
“Why?” Nualla asked as she handed me a pen from her bag and a scrap of paper.
“Because I want to make sure I can actually still draw.”
38
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
Saturday, May 5th
PATRICK
Prom.
The peppy, cheerful energy rolling off all the girls was practically visible. For a lot of them, this had been the night they had been waiting for all year. Maybe it was a girl thing, but to me it seemed no different than Winter Ball. The same people all dressed up, different location but other than that I couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal to everyone.
My slight cynicism was probably due to the fact that my head was killing me, and no amount of over-the-counter painkillers was helping. Any day now, it was going to just become too much, and I was going to have to move on to something stronger—like alcohol. Which they didn’t have here because oh yeah, we were in high school. So I just sat there trying not to look as miserable as I felt.
I don’t know if it was all my brushes with death, but the approaching end of high school just seemed kind of anticlimactic. The rest of my classmates were super-excited to be graduating and starting their new lives. I, on the other hand, was getting more and more nervous. The end of the school meant a lot of changes were coming in my life. I’d be on my way to art school, be married and, oh yeah, no longer be human—if I survived, that is.
My nervousness in no way meant I regretted any of my decisions, because I didn’t. Being put in any amount of danger was worth it for Nualla. But that didn’t mean I relished the idea of my possible demise, or the feeling of being barbecued from the inside. Even if I did have doubts about my new life, there was no turning back now; that ship had sailed a long, long time ago.
And so I found myself at prom with Nualla who was in another gorgeous, unbelievably tempting dress. But this time, unlike Winter Ball, her ring was displayed proudly, dangling right above her cleavage, daring anyone to make the connection to what it actually was.
I had gotten much better about being able to contain my urges when I kissed her in public, but when she dressed like this it was more than a little difficult to resist her charms. Trying to swim upstream through rapids with your arms tied behind your back would probably have been easier.
As the dance began to wind down, we all sat around one of the big tables sipping soda. It was a lot like any other day at the lunch table, except with fancier clothes and a few other additions. Beatrice’s date was some guy from another school, and they were actually talking about books instead of ignoring each other and reading them. Jenny was ignoring her date who looked terrified to be there, which made me wonder just exactly why he was there.
“So what are you two planning on doing after graduation?” Jenny asked trying to sound like she really didn’t care, but it was obvious she did.
“Getting married for reals,” Connor said with a snort as he pushed the ice around his drink with a straw. I choked on my soda and everyone fell silent. Connor stopped moving the straw and looked up. “Oh fuck, did I just say that out loud?”
“Yeah Connor, you kinda did,” I answered, glaring at him.
Jenny’s hawk like gaze darted between Nualla and me before resting on the ring Nualla had been moving back and forth on its chain. Nualla’s hand froze as she looked at Jenny and then dropped the ring as if it had burned her. The ring fell and swung back and forth just above the edge of her dress, catching the light and sparkling. It might as well have been a smoking gun.
“Married!” Jenny shouted at precisely the moment the song playing ended. Her voice rang out loud and clear in the momentarily silent ballroom. And of course, everyone turned to look at us, because hell, my luck is just that good. Jenny, on the other hand, was oblivious to the crowd of onlookers. A new song began to play, but Jenny was still staring open mouthed at us. “You’re married?!”
“When were you planning on telling us—on telling me?” She was shaking with rage now.
“We didn’t want it getting around school till closer to graduation,” I said nervously.
“Well, that’s a brilliant thought, but you could have at least told your friends,” she spat, her eyes pooling with angry tears. As one tear escaped and slid down her cheek she pushed the table viciously and stood. And then she stormed out of the room like so many times before this. But this time I wasn’t sure if she was going to forgive me. I wasn’t as blind as I had been before. I knew she still harbored strong feelings for me; which was exactly why I hadn’t told her. But sometimes you’re just damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
It was Nikki who finally broke the silence several songs later. “Is everyone else as done with this dance as I am?” she asked, flicking a bit of decoration across the table.
“After party?” Shawn suggested with a grin as he looked around the table.
“Oh hells yes,” I said as I stood. A party would mean booze. Booze meant I could probably get rid of this damned headache and actually enjoy what was left of this night.
“Where to?” Connor asked as he and Sara stood as well.
“We rented a suite for the night,” Nikki answered with a wicked grin.
“Can I come?” someone asked hopefully.
We all turned to look at Jenny’s date who was still sitting at the table. I had completely forgotten he was even there, and apparently so had everyone else.
“Depends; do you drink?” Nikki asked, looking down at him with a mischievous smile as she twirled her purse on her finger.
Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy: Book One) Page 24