by Reilyn Hardy
At the sight, he leaps away from Rhiannon, nudging her in the process and she stops half way through her song.
“Gross — no, no.”
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. Amelia and I break out into laughter. But we’re silenced when Rhiannon shoots us a glare and then one at Jace.
I think, at first, she thought he did something to make us all laugh and interrupt her song. But then, she looks up. She looks up and sees what he actually reacted to.
She frowns.
Suddenly, it isn’t so funny anymore.
She stands, straightening her dress.
Rhiannon glares at him before excusing herself from the room. That didn’t go the way we thought it would.
I glare at Jace too, and get up to go after her, but the voice of my father pulls me in another direction.
“This isn’t your fault,” I hear him say.
“I gave them the new information, Alekoth.” Nova replies, her voice is shaky. “I started this.”
“You were cursed,” he says.
“It doesn’t matter,” she says.
“Of course it matters. I’ll bring him back to Newacre at the start of the New Year. With Caliswen’s help, he’ll be safe there.”
“But he should become a chronomancer —”
“Drarkodon will kill him.”
“You know as well as I do that he’ll try to kill him eventually either way,” she says. “Once he breaks free. Remember, the curse will end when a bloodline ceases. Breaking the mirror destroys the reflection.”
“Is there any more?”
“I don’t know, Hennessy died before she gave the full prophecy.”
“So likely, one of my sons is going to die before this is over — and it’s probably going to be Apollo.”
“I’m sorry, Alekoth.”
Air is caught in my throat again and I quickly bite down on my bottom lip before sound can leave my mouth.
“I’ll bring Artemis back to Newacre and ask Caliswen to protect him until we can figure out what to do about my brother.”
“You can’t hide him forever.”
“He doesn’t want this, Nova. He doesn’t want to be a chronomancer and parents shouldn’t have to bury their children — I don’t want to — I have to go. I have to help Nicholas this year —”
I move away from the crack in the door.
I don’t want to hear any more.
Even my dad thinks I’m a coward. Even he thinks I’m not strong enough to do this. Sure, I agreed with him at first — it’s just different when you think something of yourself, something bad, only to hear that someone actually agrees. It makes you want to prove them wrong, or at least I think that’s what it was doing to me. Which only means that I don’t have a choice.
Now I know how Jace feels. Maybe we all have something to prove.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
carvings on the wall
I didn’t sleep easily that night. I didn’t sleep easily since I left Newacre. I fell asleep listening to Jace eating cookies and I felt bad that I had forgotten to talk to Rhiannon, too preoccupied by the things my dad had said.
I toss and turn in my bed, and my nails feel like they’re ripping from my fingers. My mind is blank, or at least I think it is. It feels blank.
There’s a darkness.
A void, but I hear voices.
I remember nothing.
“What’s he doing?”
“I don’t know, wake him.”
“Why me? You’re his best friend.”
“Which is why you should do it. I don’t want him getting mad at me.”
“God, be a man for once. Ugh — his blood — it’s so strong.”
“Don’t you dare, Rhi — Rhiannon. I don’t want to have to stop you. I don’t want to kill you yet, you know.”
“Who said I’d even let you kill me, Jubilation?’
“Stop calling me that. Just wake him up, will you?”
My eyes open quickly, and I see Rhiannon standing over me, her arm is outstretched like she is about to shake me.
“Mae?” Jace asks as he steps into the room. “You doing okay?”
My lips part and I’m breathing heavily. My heart is beating so rapidly that I’m sure the both of them can hear it too. Out of the corner of my eyes, I even see Jace run his hand over his bare chest, like he was making sure his own heart isn’t about to burst.
“I’m fine,” I whisper, so quietly that I can barely hear my own voice. If I were in the company of munfolk, I’m sure neither of them would have been able to hear me either.
“I’m fine,” I say again, louder this time. I rub my eyes with the corner of my finger and wipe the sweat from my brow.
“You seem like you were having a really rough time.”
I sit up. I pull my knees up and rest my head against my hand, propping up my arm with my elbow leaning against my leg. “I’m fine,” I say again, not sure who I’m trying to convince. I look at the two of them. I smell the air and notice my fingers are bleeding.
The name Apollo is carved over and over again into the wood of the wall closest to my bed. Some large, some small, all of them say the same thing and all of them are coated in my blood. Jace takes a further step into the room and shuts the door behind him. He presses his back against the wood and looks at Rhiannon, then at me, then back to her again.
“I woke up when I was convinced the Witchfen had paralyzed me again. I woke with a jolt, but lucky for me,” he inhales deeply and his voice remains in a low tone, “Amelia and Father Time didn’t notice while they were standing in the door. It was only slight — anyway, I kept my eyes closed and I overheard some things.” He furrows his brows and leans his head back against the door. “Amelia’s hearing voices,” he tells us. “Not just any voices either, David’s, and now you’re carving your brother’s name into the wall. Something’s wrong.”
I shift on my bed and pat on the mattress beside me while I make room for the two of them, and I tell them what Vihaan told me. I tell them the truth about him and his father, and what he said about the Grim Reaper and the dark creatures in Mithlonde.
How we were tricked.
“Is that why you didn’t want to go?” I ask Rhiannon, who hasn’t looked at me since she sat down. “Did you know?”
“I suspected, but no one’s trusted me in a while. I was afraid of how it might look if I helped you, and if I helped you and you succeeded and it was true — you wouldn’t trust me again.”
She shakes her head.
“This is Coin’s fault,” Jace says.
“What?”
“Don’t you remember? We left Newacre to go to Barrowhaven. Coin was the one who told us to go to Edgewick instead and bring Mithlonde back. Take away his strongest ally — bullsh —”
“Maybe he was misinformed,” I try to justify it.
“Or he was flat out lying to us.”
Jace is unconvinced. It doesn’t surprise me.
“So what, you think we should go back to Nevressea?” I ask.
“I do — but not only that.”
I hesitate.
“What?” I ask, not sure if I want to know. I think I already know.
“I think you need to be you.”
“I am me, Jace,” I frown. “What are you talking about?”
“No, not Maestri. You need to be you, Artemis. You need to become a chronomancer. You have to.” He shifts his body to draw attention to the names carved on the wall. “At this point, I don’t think you have a choice anymore.”
I sigh and hit the back of my head against the wall.
“Honestly, I don’t think I ever had a choice. I overheard my dad talking to Nova. You know that curse on my family?”
“One with the strength to kill and the other, the courage to resist — yeah everyone knows it. What of it?”
“They found out how to break it, and how to put a stop to this. Apparently some seer was uttering it before she died.”
I inhale deeply and cl
ose my eyes, trying to remember the exact words I had overheard.
“Breaking the mirror destroys the reflection.”
“I don’t get it,” Jace says.
“If the Grim Reaper kills his own heir, he’ll destroy himself,” Rhiannon says. “Is that the whole thing?”
“It’s not. I think she died before she finished it.” I sigh. “I don’t want to become a chronomancer.”
Rhiannon grabs my hand, it’s freezing, like I had stuck my hand in snow.
“You can’t live in fear of yourself forever.” She squeezes my hand and I look up at her. “You aren’t the only one who’s scared.” She glances at Jace, not realizing he was already looking at her. “We all are.”
“I need to talk to Amelia,” I say.
“Why?”
“She was there — well — she was the first person to arrive when David was killed,” I say.
I still remember the look on her face when she saw him.
“Artemis, it’s Christmas. Can’t that wait a little longer?”
She’s right. I shouldn’t ask now.
I don’t want to ruin her holiday.
The door suddenly flies open and Vihaan is standing there, black smoke leaking out of his nose. He’s staring right at me and I swear his eyes have a yellow glow.
“Mae, where is it?” He demands.
“Where’s what?”
“The Heart of Mithlonde! Where is it?” He grabs me by the throat and yanks me off of the bed. Jace starts to get up and Rhiannon holds him back.
“I don’t have it! What are you talking about?”
My aching fingers claw at his hand as I try to get him to release me.
“Someone stole it.”
He looks at the two of them still sitting on my bed and lets me go.
“The stone?” I ask. He stares at me curiously before leaving. I start after him and run into the hallway. Jace quickly follows and crashes into me, making us both hit the wall.
I glare at him and Vihaan comes back, he comes out of Amelia’s room.
“She’s gone,” he shakes his head. “Amelia’s gone.”
He curls his hand into a fist — I think he’s going to punch the wall. I’m glad he doesn’t, his fist probably would’ve went right through it.
“She was asking me about it when we were getting the tree. I can’t believe this.”
“She’s probably doing this for David. It’s not her fault. It’s mine.”
It’s all my fault.
“Well let’s go,” I say. I go back into my room and I start throwing things into my bag.
“Go where?”
“Nevressea. Like you said, Jace, Coin set this all up. He is the only one who we can get any answers from at this point.”
“Assuming he’ll give us any,” he says.
“He will,” I say.
I feel Rhiannon’s icy touch against my wrist again.
“But what about you becoming a chronomancer?” She asks.
I shake my head.
“I don’t have time for that right now. We have to stop that stone from getting to Mithlonde. We can’t waste anymore time. We can’t let those creatures come back here.”
I look at Rhiannon first, no offense. She shakes her head, telling me it’s fine.
I turn to face the other two.
“What about your father?” Vihaan asks.
“What about him? Putting his job before his family, some things never change.” I shrug. “He didn’t save David, he didn’t save my brother — his son. He doesn’t think I’m cut out for this and maybe he’s right. Maybe I can’t do this. But he’s not here — he’s never here and we can’t wait for him.” I grab a couple of the Thirondel charms and turn back to face the three of them as I stick them in my pocket. “If something happens to Amelia, I won’t be able to live with myself. I can hardly live with myself as it is.”
* * * * *
Vihaan and Rhiannon return to their rooms and to get ready to go to Nevressea. I change my shirt and go to the bathroom to rinse the blood from my hands. My nails are rough and jagged again, broken below the beds and my skin is tender. I wince a little when I grab the soap and it burns my fingers. I lightly dry my hands with the towel and blow on them softly as I leave the bathroom.
We meet in the hallway. Jace’s hair is tied up now and his shirt was lazily buttoned with the top still undone. Vihaan looks unusual in a shirt, but the black sleeves hide the iron cuffs that are secure around his wrists. Rhiannon is in a black and green dress with a red ribbon tied in her hair. Jace has trouble taking his eyes off of her.
“Did you forget how to button your shirt?” She asks, acknowledging the buttons Jace hasn’t bothered with near his collar, which she fixes and folds over.
“I — um — I di — didn’t —”
“Jace?” He’s stuttering and I am doing my best not to laugh. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he says and looks away from Rhiannon. He turns to me and flips his collar back up before buttoning another button of his shirt. He clears his throat and crosses his arms. “Well? Let’s go.” He says.
Vihaan laughs behind him but Jace doesn’t turn around. Blood rushes to his face. I know I’m going to enjoy this if it becomes a frequent thing. Jace doesn’t get nervous and Jace doesn’t blush, yet she is making him do both.
I shake my head and throw the small glass marble against the ground after touching it to four of my fingers. I shout for Nevressea as it breaks, and we jump in through the icy crack that now takes up the center of the hallway.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
what makes a monster?
I land with a grunt, flat on my back, on a hard wooden floor. Vihaan lands in a corner on a few boxes, and Rhiannon lands on top of Jace, who is still red in the face. His cheeks are darkening again and she quickly gets off of him.
“Where are we?” I ask as I get up and Jace inhales deeply.
“The Wet Fish — cellar probably.”
“The Wet Fish?” Rhiannon repeats after him as she straightens her dress and fixes her hair. “Well, that sounds… delicious.”
“Don’t knock it till you try it.” Jace grins and raises his eyebrows as he sits back against a barrel. Rhiannon looks him up and down before sweeping her gaze away from him. She purses her lips together and shakes her head, while trying to suppress a smirk.
I move toward the stairs.
“Do you think he’s up there?” I ask.
“If not Coin, then Lerra probably. Only one way to find out.”
It is still very early in the morning, too early for sunrise when we got to Nevressea. There are only a few patrons scattered in the pub, and Coin is among them, surrounded by many drunk villagers who are laughing cheerily. They were probably there all night.
“Merry Christmas,” I say loudly as I approach the table. Coin stands up abruptly and bumps into the table, which catches the attention of everyone else.
“Mae — I wasn’t expecting to see you — so soon,” he smiles uneasily just as a nervous chuckle escapes his lips. “How — how are you?”
“How am I?” I ask. He can’t be serious, but I have to appreciate his attempts in trying to play it cool. He’s just doing an awful job at it.
“Really, Coin?” Jace says beside me. I can tell he’s not amused but I don’t want to make a scene, and I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into one.
“You tricked me,” I say as I get closer.
His expression falters. Now he knows that I know.
His eyes widen, and the corner of his mouth twitches but he doesn’t smile. He went from being an eager dog that just picked up a new scent, to a frightened one when he realized it was one he shouldn’t have followed. He starts to wave away his company until it’s just us, and we replace them at the table.
“It wasn’t like that at all,” he starts, but he doesn’t seem like he intends to finish.
“Then tell me,” I say.
He challenges.
“Or what?�
� He crosses his arms. “If the curse on your bloodline is real and you’re the chronomancer heir, you can’t kill me.”
I nod at his words.
“You’re right. I can’t commit murder. But the thing is, as you can see, I’m not here by myself. I have a dragon, a werewolf and a vampire with me. Pick your poison.”
“Okay,” he lifts his hands in surrender and sits back down in his seat. “So you got to the land of the dragons — and brought one back with you. Wonderful.”
“Not just any dragon,” Vihaan says as he takes a step forward toward Coin who sits back in his chair, eyes widening. “I’m King Solomon’s son, and if you’re helping the Grim Reaper continue to manipulate my father —”
“Whoa, whoa, no — it’s nothing like that. All I was supposed to do — was get that kid —” he points at me, “— to get the stone from Edgewick. That’s it. That was my only part in all of this. I didn’t know what happened when Faustine came back and said you weren’t among the fatalities. I sent you there, on the horses, like I told him I would.”
Faustine. The vampire that attacked me in Thealey. I will never forget that.
Jace and I exchange glances.
“We were supposed to die with those people in Edgewick, weren’t we?” I say.
Coin nods.
“There was a storm,” I tell him, even if he doesn’t deserve an explanation from me about why I’m still alive. “We were forced to land in the Ashen Hills.”
Coin swallows hard.
“How the hell did you make it out of there alive?”
I ignore it. I don’t want to talk about the Witchfen. I want to know why Coin so willingly sent me on a suicide mission.
“Do you have something against me?” I ask. “How could you do this to me? Send me off to die? To bring Mithlonde back? Do you know he has creatures there? Waiting to come back here? To start war?”
He clenches his jaw, tapping his fingers along the surface of the table.
“This plan was in effect long before I was even involved.”
“How did you get involved, Coin? What would you benefit from all this? Was he going to excuse you from the war? Make sure no one hurt you?”