Runaway Mortal

by Kant, Komal

  “Look at the next line,” he said, snapping out of his daze. “That’s how I know it’s supposed to be mine.”

  Wandering minds, metal, and flame.

  I stared at him, confused, waiting for him to explain.

  He gave me a smug smile, like he’d won a victory over me. “I know that my triad is supposed to possess the ancient objects. ‘Wandering minds’ refers to Veritas’ ability to read minds. My weapon before the Mortal Blade was a sword, so that explains the ‘metal’ part. And, well, it’s easy to relate the ‘flame’ part to Tyrone’s ira powers. I’m sorry, Kat, but this is meant to be mine. That witch lied to you when she said the prophecy was about you.”

  His words should have made me lose all hope. I should’ve kicked myself for making a blood promise to Valeska, but I wasn’t discouraged. Loire wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t exactly right, either.

  “That may be true, but the last three lines speak of the power being broken and the Mortal Blade breaking ties and finding a new ally. That part wouldn’t be in there if it didn’t mean something.” I stared at him fiercely, hoping that my confidence would make him hand it over.

  But he didn’t bat a freaking eye.

  “Rookie, if you think I’m giving a seventeen-year-old something this powerful then you’re insane.” Loire stared back at me just as fiercely.

  “Don’t you understand? This will lead me to Melkane’s killer! It’ll prove my innocence!” My voice was filled with desperation and I was trying not to cry. I didn’t need to break down right now; I needed to prove to him that I was strong enough to handle this.

  His voice rose. “You don’t even know how!” He took a deep breath and turned his head away from me, his hands shaking. “I can’t help you. My goals are more important. In the long run, they will benefit both of us. I’m sorry.”

  Anger surged through me, wild and out of control.

  Loire had shown me his sweet, caring side. He’d been there for me when I needed him. We’d spent time together; we had a connection, and now he wouldn’t even help me clear my name. He was doing to me exactly what Talon had done.

  I moved forward, my mind full of swirling, red hot rage, and smacked him clean across the face. He stared at me, stunned, as he placed a hand over his reddening cheek.

  “What the fuck was that, Kat!” He slammed a fist into the wall, breathing heavily.

  “Your goals won’t benefit me if I’m imprisoned for life!” I leaned in, anger radiating off my body. “That was for being a selfish asshole like my ex! You are exactly like him. You only care about yourself and your needs. You put on this act like you actually give a damn about me, but really you’re no better than he is!” I shoved him hard, but he barely stumbled.

  There was a pulsing in Loire’s stormy eyes, like the sky had been set on fire. Then, just as swiftly, it was gone, replaced with an emptiness that was unlike him. “That’s not true,” he said, his voice so soft that I could barely hear him.

  “Get the hell out of here,” I spat. “I don’t want to see you anymore.”

  “Kat, I really am sorry.” He took a deep breath, stopped, and then took another one. He finally focused his gaze on me, seeming in better control of his emotions. “If I didn’t have a good reason for needing the Mortal Blade then I would let you have it, but I can’t do that.”

  I turned my body away from him, not wanting to hear him anymore. I was over this; over being betrayed by the people I trusted. And, yeah, I did trust Loire. Or had until now.

  He didn’t say anything else, and silently exited the room, leaving me alone in a whirlwind of emotions that I was struggling to control.

  ***

  I didn’t know how much time had passed since jerk-face Loire had left, but I decided it was about time I went to Anna and Misha with everything that I’d learned. I’d heard the bell ring for the end of the day, so it was just a matter of getting a hold of them.

  Pulling out my phone, I dialed Misha’s number. I already knew where Anna would be, so it was just Misha I needed to track down.

  Misha answered on the first ring. “Hello?” Her voice came out in a whisper, barely audible.

  I automatically adopted her low tone. “Hey, where are you?”

  “In the library. Anna’s making me study for mid-terms.” That explained the whispering.

  “Okay, I’ll be there in ten.”

  It was amazing that Anna had managed to get Misha to actually study for our upcoming mid-terms because I hadn’t seen her study this hard since, well, ever.

  My head was spinning as I left the room, buzzing with all the things that I had just learned from Loire. Goddamn, mother-effing Loire. I wanted to hate him and be mad at him, but on the other hand I did see where he was coming from. He’d had the Mortal Blade for years; how could he just hand it over to someone else?

  Now, I was screwed in every sense of the word. The only two guys who could help me weren’t helping me, and there was absolutely nothing else I could do. All I had was this prophecy telling me that the Mortal Blade would be mine.

  Maybe the prophecy was wrong. Maybe I wasn’t the queen in all this; maybe I was a pawn. The thought made me sick to my stomach. This wasn’t a game. This was my life.

  In less than ten minutes, I strode through the entrance of the library, nearly scaring the wits out of a seventh grade angel who was dawdling by the door. He flailed off to the side when he caught sight of me and avoided eye contact. I ignored him and made my way to the back corner of the library.

  Misha was tipping back and forth on her chair, chewing on gum, and looking incredibly bored. As usual, Anna was the only one actually studying. She lifted her head to shoot Misha a look of disapproval, but caught sight of me instead.

  “Hi, Kat.” She waved me over, closing her textbook and pushing it away from her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Loire said Junas fixed me up,” I said, taking a seat. “What about you guys?”

  “We weren’t hurt as bad as you were. Uncle Troy made us go to class,” Misha said, scowling at that.

  “Oh, he came to see me?” I asked.

  Anna nodded. “Yes, Healer Junas put you to sleep, and the headmaster came by to check in on us. We told him everything that happened.”

  “What did he say?” I asked.

  “He said that he’d find out who was doing this,” Misha said, a gleam in her eye. “But-“

  “Anyway, I have some news,” I said, cutting to the chase. “Actually, a lot of news.”

  Misha immediately perked up, sitting up straighter in her chair and leaning forward with large eyes. “Oh, do tell. I’m getting sick of Anna reciting dates from the demon invasions.”

  Anna looked annoyed and swatted at Misha. “Hey! It’s important to know when these things happened, especially the battles of Heaven. It’s going to be in our exam.”

  “Yeah, yeah. The Battle of the Gates was in 1077, the Battle of the Arches was in 1252. Like I could care less about this stuff.”

  “The Battle of the Arches was in 1652,” Anna corrected with a roll of her eyes. “I only repeated it, like, ten times.”

  Misha shrugged a shoulder, like it didn’t bother her either way. “I was close.”

  “You were 400 years off!” Anna protested.

  Misha didn’t seem concerned by this. She turned her attention back on me. “See what I mean? She’s insane.”

  “Take no note of her,” Anna interjected. “Tell us your news, Kat.”

  I exhaled. “I told Loire everything.”

  Anna gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth. “You told Loire? Why? What if he tells the headmaster?”

  Misha gave me a knowing look which made me avert my gaze. “Oh, isn’t it obvious why she told him? Kat has a thing for him.”

  My face felt hot all of a sudden from Misha’s blatancy.

  “True.” Anna nodded thoughtfully. “They couldn’t take their eyes off each other at prom. He is very good looking.”

  Awkward. So very awkward. The
n I remembered that Loire had been a douchebag, and my embarrassment quickly faded into anger. Ugly anger—where I was probably red in the face and looked a little crazy.

  “Yeah, well, he can take his good looks and shove it.” I was fuming again.

  “What the hell did he do?” Misha asked, jumping into defensive mode.

  I took a deep breath and then relayed the events that had unfolded in my room a couple of hours ago. Misha and Anna stared at me, identical looks of disbelief on their faces as I finished speaking.

  “Whoa,” Misha said, shaking her head, “talk about a plot twist. Loire’s had the Mortal Blade this entire time? That just blows my mind.”

  “It is crazy.” Anna’s beautiful face fell silent and she looked worried all of a sudden. “But if he won’t give it to Kat then that’s a huge obstacle we need to overcome and I have no idea how.”

  “Yeah, neither do I.” I sighed, pushing my hair off my face as I glanced around at the shelves that surrounded us. “I guess I could talk to him and try to convince him.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Anna said, nodding. “I hope he can see where you’re coming from. I mean, you’re only going to borrow it, right?”

  “Yes, of course,” I said, but I wasn’t so sure if I really meant that. “And all this time I thought I was attracted to him, it was just me being drawn to the Mortal Blade.”

  “You really believe that?” Misha snorted, shaking her head in disbelief.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, not liking the way she exchanged a quick look with Anna.

  “Nothing,” Misha said, shooting me an annoying smile. “Anyway, I have some news of my own to distract us with.” There was a huge grin spreading across her face. “I figured out who’s been attacking you, Kat.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Of all the things that I was expecting Misha to say, this was not it. I loved Misha to death, but apart from being boy-crazy and kind of the school floozy, she didn’t focus her energy into much else.

  I could tell she was extremely proud of herself—her smile was practically stretching from ear to ear—her statement hung in the air as she clearly tried to build suspense. She was such a drama queen.

  “WHO?” Anna and I demanded at the same time, when we couldn’t take the waiting any longer.

  “Don’t you want to know how I figured it out?” Misha asked, looking annoyed.

  “I can tell you’re dying to tell us, so spill,” Anna said with an amused smile.

  Misha didn’t need further prompting. She quickly dived into the grand story of how she figured out the identity of my attacker. “Well, experiencing the attack first hand, I realized that the rocks weren’t actually attacking you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “So, they were trying to hug me instead?”

  Misha turned red and huffed. “No, I’m saying that they were being ordered to attack you. Someone was pulling those rocks from around us and propelling them onto you.”

  “Yes, Misha, that’s pretty clear,” Anna mused. “It was someone very powerful.”

  “Not necessarily,” Misha continued. “Sometimes when a person is feeling an extreme emotion, like anger, their power can be amplified. Someone with an earth power was attacking Kat which was why my power wasn’t working well against it.” Misha was talking like she was a professor—it was hilarious.

  I was trying to process everything she was saying, but that kind of power was beyond me. Mortals just weren’t capable of harnessing such raw energy like that.

  “So, this was obviously a demon attack,” I said, stating the obvious.

  “Yeah, and I know which demon it was too,” Misha said, her voice becoming sing-song. “Who knows an erat demon with a grudge against Kat?”

  It was so simple that it was amazing we hadn’t figured it out already.

  Anna’s mouth dropped open. “Cedee?”

  “Yes!” Misha exclaimed, slamming her hand down on the table and making us jump. “Look at all the facts. She’s an erat demon and hates Kat’s guts because she’s Talon’s ex. Plus, she tried to attack since the day she came. It all adds up.”

  “It does make sense.” Anna shifted beside me. “We should tell your uncle what you know.”

  “Now, where’s the fun in that?” Misha said with a mischievous smile. “Don’t you worry about Cedee; I will take care of her.” There was a dark look in her eyes and I feared for Cedee, wherever she was.

  It seemed like Cedee had taken Loire’s comment—to attack me in a dark corridor—to heart. I should’ve known that only someone as pathetic as Cedee would be so driven by her jealousy over a boy that she’d try and kill me over it. She was on the top of my shit list right now. Bitch was going to pay.

  “Yeah, she needs to be taken care of,” I muttered darkly.

  “There’s no time like the present,” Misha said suddenly, jumping to her feet.

  “To do what?” Anna asked, staring up at her.

  “To put that puny coward in her place.”

  “What are you going to do exactly?” The way disapproval filled Anna’s tone, I knew she was about to lecture Misha on retribution and all that jazz.

  “Oh, nothing.” Misha shot me an innocent smile. “Just talk.”

  I knew right away that this was not her intention, but right now I didn’t really care. I was so wound up over Cedee and what she’d done to me that it didn’t bother me what Misha did. If Misha was right, and Cedee had been the one attacking me, I wanted payback.

  “Okay, let’s go and see if she’s in her room,” I suggested. “We can talk to her about it.”

  “Are you sure you’re going to just talk?” Anna asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

  I nodded. “Anna, I’m not going to hurt her.” Much.

  Misha seemed enthusiastic that I was on board with her plan, and grabbed me by the arm as we hurried out of the library.

  “Her room is 112 in the demon dorms,” she informed me as we stepped out into the cold. “I looked at the student records in the Admin office.” She said this in an off-hand tone, like she did this every other day.

  Honestly, Misha thought of everything. She may have seemed aloof and reckless sometimes, but when she got an idea in her head, she was thorough about it.

  There was a light layer of snow covering the ground as we stalked across it, the imprints of our boots revealing the dead grass underneath. The trees, except for the evergreens, were dry and bare; their branches looked like gnarled and twisted hands. I missed the leaves in autumn; their colors had been warm and cheerful. Now they were just dead and depressing.

  “There’s her room.” Misha pointed to a door to the right.

  “What about her roommate?” I asked as we approached Room 112.

  “Don’t worry about that. Her roommate was Julianna Lawrence. She moved to Europe.”

  I had no idea who that was. There were too many demons at the school to remember them all by name.

  Misha knocked on the door twice and then moved out of sight of the peephole. I guess Cedee wasn’t a very paranoid person because she opened up the door very quickly.

  “You weren’t gone-” she started to say, but faltered when she saw Misha and me. “What do you want?” There was an edge to her voice, but a wane in her words that made it clear she was worried. She had definitely not been expecting this.

  “It’s so nice to see you too, Cadence,” Misha said, her tone pleasant. “Why, we would love to come in. Thank you for inviting us.”

  There was a look of horror across Cedee’s face as Misha and I pushed into her room. I shut the door behind us and stood by it, watching as Misha slowly approached Cedee, who was backing away from her.

  “What do you want?” Cedee demanded, her eyes darting left and right in panic. “You can’t be in here!”

  Misha lifted up her hand and a ball of electricity appeared in the air, levitating a few inches above her palm. She bounced it up and down nonchalantly, completely ignoring Cedee’s protests.

&nb
sp; “The funny thing about being an erat is that you have to be surrounded by your element in order to use it. For instance, this room,” Misha said, gesturing around the room, “would be completely useless for an erat because there’s nothing to channel their power from. Did you know that?” The electric ball hovered a little closer to Cedee.

  Cedee eyes were wide as she gaped at her like a goldfish, not taking her eyes off the electric ball which was slowly drawing closer to her.

  “How silly of me,” Misha giggled to herself. “Of course you know that, considering your element is earth, right?”

  Cedee’s face froze and she didn’t respond. Fear was etched deep into her features, and I felt a sudden rush of satisfaction that she was getting her comeuppance.

  “The great thing about being an ectra,” Misha continued, “is that we don’t have limitations like that. My powers work just as well indoors as they do outside, as you can see.”

  The bulb of the bedside lamp suddenly burst, and Cedee shrieked. “What do you want? Why are you doing this?”

  “I think we all know why I’m doing this.” Misha gave her a cool smile. “I believe you have something to confess.”

  I had never seen this side of Misha before. She was so cold and calculating. It sent shivers up my spine just watching her. I guess this was her true demonic side coming out. She was a natural at this.

  “Y-you can’t bully me into admitting anything,” Cedee said stubbornly. I had to admire her for that. I wouldn’t have dared challenge Misha who clearly had the upper hand. “You’re going to get into a lot of trouble for this.”

  “Am I?” Misha sounded amused. “I’m sure Headmaster Delware wouldn’t be too hard on me. I am, after all, his only niece.” She fluttered her eyelashes innocently, and the electric ball flew away from her and straight towards Cedee’s face.

  Cedee screamed and pressed her eyes together, not realizing that the electric ball had stopped inches from her face. I breathed in amazement. Misha’s control of her powers was unbelievable.

  “I haven’t done anything!” Cedee cried, cowering behind her hands. “I don’t know what you want me to say?”