by Kant, Komal
With a sigh, I closed my eyes and let the silence descend upon me; the rushing water from the fountain was the only sound that filled my ears. I tried to clear my mind and focus on the task that Valeska had given me. She had been certain that I alone would be able to find the Triad object, so maybe being a mortal had some sort of role to play in that. The only problem was I didn’t know what that could be.
Crunch.
My eyes flew open at the sound of footsteps approaching in my direction. From the tread and the lack of accompanying voices, I could tell that the person was alone. As they drew closer, I flattened myself against the hedge, hoping that whoever it was would continue on their way and not see me. Unfortunately, the steps slowed as they broke into the clearing and stopped.
Dread settled around my stomach as I immediately recognized the tall frame, the broad shoulders, and the dark blonde hair. I didn’t need him to turn around to know that I would be met with handsome features and deep, blue eyes that haunted me.
It was Talon.
Trapped, and with nowhere to go, I could only watch in fascination as he studied the fountain for a few seconds. Finally, he raised a hand and sent a small ball of flame hurtling towards the pouring water where it danced around in circles before being quenched.
“Nice trick,” I said, before I could stop myself. “Did your new girlfriend teach you that?”
Talon’s body stiffened at the sound of my voice and when he eventually did turn around to face me, his fists were clenched tight. His eyes drank in every inch of me in a way that made my face heat up. He had no right to look at me that way. He’d thrown away that privilege when he’d ruined my life.
We continued to stare at each other for another minute before I broke the awkward silence. “Well, this has been fun, but I really must leave.” I made a move to turn and walk away, cursing the odds of running into him here.
“Kat, wait.” The sound of his voice triggered an aching in my chest that I’d been certain had disappeared a long time ago. I hated not having control of my emotions. I hated feeling weak.
Despite wanting to be as far away from him as possible, I stopped and waited for him to say something.
Relief filled his face and he half-smiled. “I, uh, it’s good to see you.”
“I wish I could say the same,” I said, my tone cold.
Talon flinched under my gaze and ran a hand through his hair nervously. He looking like he was trying to figure out what to say. Maybe in his head, things had played out differently. Maybe he’d expected me to get over what he’d done and forgive him. Did he think that just because I was a mortal my feelings were worthless? Well, he had another thing coming.
“Where’s your girlfriend? It must be a great feeling not having to hide her,” I said with a hint of malice in my voice. I knew it was petty of me, and I was getting far too drawn into the conversation, but I wanted to hurt him the way he’d hurt me.
“I never wanted to hide you.” Talon sounded pained and I wanted to drop the ice queen act, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to let him in ever again, not after what he’d done to me.
“Yeah, you decided to betray me instead.” I didn’t know when I had become so bitter about our break up, but somewhere in between being on the run and trying to prove my innocence, my heartbreak had turned into coldness.
Talon was the one who looked hurt now. “I really think we should talk about that, Kat. It was a hard time for me and I didn’t know what was going on. I said a lot of things that I didn’t mean. I did a lot of things I didn’t mean…” He trailed off, reminding me of the day he had betrayed me in the worst way.
Nearly two months ago, after Headmistress Melkane had been found dead and I had been accused of her murder, Talon had pulled me aside after class one day; his face had been a mix of emotions as I’d given him a quick kiss on the lips which he didn’t respond to.
I hadn’t seen him in days, but I hadn’t realized until then that it was because he’d been avoiding me. I’d been too lost in my own thoughts—after being questioned every day by government officials, and sitting in my room at night with Misha and Anna trying to piece together what had happened—to realize that Talon and I had drifted apart.
“I can’t be your alibi, Kat. My parents would cut me off if they knew I was in a relationship with a mortal, and-” His voice faltered momentarily. “Sometimes I don’t know if you’re innocent or not.”
His words had been like a swift kick to the gut. He wouldn’t listen to my pleading, he hadn’t cared for my tears, and he’d left me standing in the deserted hallway without another word. It had been like ripping off a Band-Aid, except I’d continued bleeding long after it’d come off. Then one day, I stopped crying. I stopped thinking about him. He didn’t exist to me anymore.
The night Headmistress Melkane had been killed, I’d been with Talon in this very spot. He was the only person credible enough to be my alibi since most demons wouldn’t willingly confess to being in a relationship with a mortal. But when Parlum and Headmaster Delware had questioned Talon, he had said that we hadn’t been together. He had made me take the fall to protect his own reputation.
Now he was here, mere inches from me, begging me to understand him, to listen. Well, he was wasting his time. I was not interested in anything he had to say.
“I wish I cared about your drivel, I really do,” I said in a steady voice, trying to replicate the blank look he had given me those distant weeks ago, “But I realized long ago that I have no place for you in my life.”
His face fell. I knew what I had said was killing him. I knew him too well. “I made a mistake, Kat. I want to make things right between us. I want you to know that I would do anything to go back to what we had.”
Rage flared up within me. How dare he try and pass this off as a mistake. “No, Tal, a mistake is like the time you forgot my birthday, not when you forget who I am, what I am. It’s not when you let me take the fall for a murder I didn’t commit. If you’re willing to do anything then stop being a coward and go and tell Delware the truth about us.”
His jaw hardened. “You know I can’t do that, Kat. You know why.”
“Then I can never forgive you.”
He was silent for a few moments, his brows knitted closely together, before he met my eyes with his remorseful ones. “I know you hate me, but just know that I’m sorry and that I wish things had happened differently that day.”
I met his gaze fiercely. “Then you should also know that I don’t care about you. I never want to be close to you again. I want to forget I ever had anything to do with you.”
Talon’s jaw clenched and he nodded mutely. He hesitated for a few seconds before there was a rush of movement and he exited the way he had come.
My body, that had been so tense the entire time he was here, finally relaxed and I took several deep breaths to calm down the rage and pain that was building up inside of me. Out of everything Talon had said, only one thing resounded in my head.
I know you hate me.
Tears pricked my eyes and I quickly brushed them away. If only it was as simple as hating him. If only his words were true. Because the one thing our encounter had confirmed was exactly how much I didn’t hate him.
“Are you okay, serial killer?”
I jumped at the sound of Tyrone’s voice.
“How long have you been here?” I asked, turning around to find him standing at the other entrance of the clearing.
“Long enough,” he responded, his expression not giving anything away.
Great. Tyrone had eavesdropped on the drama between Talon and me. I wondered if he’d heard the part where I’d proclaimed my innocence.
“Misha was supposed to let me know when you woke up.”
“Kind of hard for her to do that when I have this.” He pulled something out of his pocket and waved it around. It was Misha’s phone.
“You weren’t really asleep, were you?” I asked.
“Nope.” Tyrone shook his head. “I’d be
a pretty crappy guard if I had fallen asleep.”
I should’ve known that a SRECON agent was smarter than that. “Did you follow me here?”
“I don’t follow jailbait.” He pointed to the ira bands around my wrists. “I can sense you wherever you are.”
Right. The stupid ira bands.
Tyrone tilted his head in the direction of the school. “C’mon, let’s go back inside. It’s freezing out here.”
“I find it ironic that an ira demon is cold,” I said with a laugh, trying to shake off the bad feeling that Talon had left behind.
As we headed back to the school with me leading the way, Tyrone said, almost to himself, “I can’t believe that dumbass forgot your birthday.”
It was his way of letting me know that he had heard our exchange. For some reason, that knowledge didn’t bother me as much I thought it would.
Chapter Eight
The next morning, as Misha and I were getting ready to go down to breakfast, Veritas strolled into our room holding an inconspicuous, brown paper bag.
“Here’s your breakfast,” she said, shoving it at me.
I nearly dropped the straightening iron that I’d been running through my hair as I grabbed for the bag. Peering inside, I made a face at the contents and threw it onto my bed. “I hate eggs. Why can’t I get my own breakfast?”
Plus, Cedee’s egg assault was enough of a turn-off.
Veritas gave me a look of disapproval. “You have a visitor at eight. After that you go straight to first period.”
Misha whipped her head around, smearing her lip gloss a little. “Is it that Parla douchebag? God, I hope it is. I’d like to give him a piece of my mind.”
Veritas was clearly offended by Misha’s choice of words for the Parla, but instead of saying anything, she simply grimaced. “I cannot disclose the identity of the visitor. However, I can tell you that Katerina will be meeting her alone.”
“What?” Misha’s face fell. “That’s not fair. This my room, too.”
“Yes, but this has nothing to do with you,” Veritas said firmly. “You need to leave. Now.”
A look I knew very well passed across Misha’s face. It was the one she got when things weren’t going her way. Unfortunately, Veritas was just as stubborn as Misha was and it was pretty obvious that leniency wasn’t a word Veritas was familiar with.
“Tell me everything,” Misha said, wrapping a scarf around her neck. “Do not leave a single detail out, okay?”
Once I assured her of this, she left the room, still sulking. Veritas paused in the doorway and looked back at me with dislike etched into every inch of her face. “We were told to give you some alone time with your visitor, so Loire will not be here until 8:30. Do not, under any circumstances, do anything stupid. Is that clear?”
When I nodded my affirmation, Veritas seemed satisfied enough to leave. I felt immediate relief from being out of Veritas’ company. For whatever reason, she genuinely seemed to dislike me. Maybe it was because I was under suspicion of killing one of her kind, or maybe it was something else entirely.
Either way, when Veritas wasn’t around, I felt the tension uncoil in the pit of my stomach. Though I didn’t love Tyrone and Loire, they didn’t have that effect on me. For all I cared, I’d be perfectly happy never laying eyes on her again.
As I slumped down on my bed, it occurred to me that this was the only time I’d truly been alone since I’d come back to school. Of course, that was about to change with the arrival of my visitor, whoever it was.
My mind went through the many possibilities of who my visitor could be. Misha’s words about the Parla haunted me; I really hoped he wasn’t the one making the house call. Maybe it was another Parla. Maybe they had decided to prosecute me after all, but they had no reason to do that. I had been behaving myself.
I was starting to feel uneasy about this whole thing. I needed to get myself together. The reality of what I had left behind was really sinking in. There was so much school work to catch up on. Our mid-terms, which we took before Christmas break, were less than two months away and it was difficult to get into the right state of mind to study.
Not to mention that I had yet to find any leads on the Mortal Blade. The possibility of being imprisoned loomed over my head like a suspended guillotine, waiting to fall. My random searches around the school were going nowhere and there were absolutely no leads to follow.
To make matters worse, every time I saw Talon with Cedee, it tore me apart. I tried not to let it get to me, but it was hard seeing him with someone else. Especially when that someone was a total bitch.
A knock at the door jarred me from my thoughts, and I sprang up to open it. An older, shorter version of me stood outside. We were almost identical except for her blue eyes and the cleft on her chin. She was dressed in a traditional bodyguard’s uniform—black pants and a black jacket decked with medals. The belt around her waist held a katana and a dagger embellished with a gold dragon. It was a present from the Draconis’, the family she had sworn to protect.
“Mom!” I said in disbelief, throwing myself into her arms.
I nestled into her shoulder and breathed in her familiar scent, not wanting to let go. It had been close to four months since I’d seen her last.
Mom ran a hand through my hair and stepped back, her eyes drinking in every inch of me. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, Katerina.”
“I’ve missed you too,” I said, trying not to cry. “I didn’t know when I’d see you again…” I trailed off, at a loss for words.
There was no way I could ever resent my mom for being dedicated to her work. She was a respected SRECON agent who sacrificed her own life to protect an influential demon family. She lived with the Draconis’ full-time, away from our own home and from Dad. She only had time off on holidays and tried to make the most of it with Dad and me.
My dad was a normal human with no ties to the supernatural world, but he knew about us and had always been supportive of Mom and me. It was clear that sometimes the living arrangements got to him, but those were the sacrifices we had to make in order to be a part of the supernatural world.
Mom clasped my face in her warm hands. “If you ever need me, you just say the word and I’ll be down here within the hour.” Her blue eyes were firm and reassuring. “I have a couple of teleporter friends who owe me,” she added with a wink.
“Is that how you got here?” I wondered. “An angel teleported you?”
Mom shook her head and walked into the room. I shut the door behind us and followed her to my bed where we both sat down. “Troitan informed me as soon as you’d returned. Your dad was ready to jump at the chance to see you, but I wanted to wait a little before we came to see you. We couldn’t risk showing any involvement in this.”
“It’s fine, Mom,” I said, and I meant it. The last thing I wanted was to get my parents into trouble.
Mom was the one who’d directed me to Madriel, who in turn was supposed to lead me to Valeska. She had cleverly sent the information in Dad’s hands when he’d come to visit me after I’d been accused of Melkane’s murder. No supernatural had ever suspected a powerless human like him of giving me the information that had brought about me running away.
“Where’s Dad?” I asked.
“It was too difficult to get the clearance for him to visit,” she responded, clearly saddened by this decision. “Parlum has stepped up security everywhere and it’s even harder for humans to have access to our world. He said he’d see you as soon as your probation ended.”
Screw Parlum and their laws. Those archaic jerks needed to get over their superiority complex.
We sat in silence—I was fuming—for a few minutes as Mom clasped my hands. Being close to her reinstated to me how beautiful she was. There was so much I had to tell her, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment just yet.
“Katerina,” Mom finally said, breaking the long silence. A sad smile was on her face and I already knew what she was going to say. “Before SR
ECON gets here, we need to talk about your trip.”
“What if Veritas is listening in?” I asked.
“I took some precautions.” She pulled a strand of auburn hair out of her pocket.
“Angel hair?” I asked in a whisper.
Mom nodded as she put the angel hair back in her pocket. “Don’t worry; Veritas will not be reading our minds. You can speak freely as long as you keep your voice down.”
My shoulders sagged and I sucked in a deep breath, not wanting to meet her eyes. How could I tell her that I’d failed? That I’d made a deal with a witch? That I was on a quest to find a legendary object because a prophecy had told me to? I hated that this would be weighing on her mind, distracting her from her work.
“Valeska couldn’t tell me anything,” I began. “She couldn’t tell me who killed Headmistress Melkane.”
Mom’s face fell immediately. “I was so sure she would be able to tell you something. Witches have very powerful magic. Did you give her the angel hair?”
“No, I had to use it for something else.” I decided to leave out the part about the blood promise. Why stress her out even more about something that I’d gotten myself into?
“So, we’re no better off than when you first left school?” Mom said, almost to herself.
“Not exactly.” I quickly filled her in on the prophecy, the Mortal Blade, and the tarot card. When I was done, Mom’s brow was deep with creases as she reflected on everything I’d said.
“Well, The Legend of the Triad tells of the Mortal Blade, the Angel Glass, and the Demon Stone being united and bringing the bearer of the objects incredible power.” She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. “But I couldn’t even begin to figure out how it’s supposed to help you. I would take this prophecy seriously though. Valeska is the real deal.”
Something Valeska had mentioned came back to me. “She said she helped you out once.”
Mom’s body language suddenly changed; she stiffened and pressed her lips together, like she was trying to stop herself from saying something. “Yes, she did.”