Chase the Dark (Steel & Stone Book 1)

by Annette Marie

  “Mom?” she whispered.

  CHAPTER 13

  DEAD silence rang through the room. Piper gaped at the smiling woman, unable to think. It was impossible.

  With a low, pained grunt, Ash pulled his head up and twisted it to one side to peer at Mona Griffiths. Piper’s hand, still resting on his shoulder, clenched and her fingers bit into his bicep. Ash turned his head the other way to meet Piper’s shocked stare.

  “You said your mother was dead.” His voice was a low murmur but the room was suffocatingly silent.

  “Dead?” Mona repeated, her brow furrowing.

  “I—I—” Piper couldn’t speak. She just stared.

  “Piper?” Lyre muttered, shifting to stand so close his leg brushed her back. “What’s going on?”

  Mona stepped forward, cold anger melting from her face as she spread her arms in an unspoken request for a hug. “Piper, sweetheart,” she said. “I’m not dead. I’ve missed you so much. You’ve grown so much.” Her eyes shimmered with tears. “You’re such a beautiful young lady now.”

  Piper slowly stood. Lyre hovered right behind her, so close they were almost touching. Her foot was pressed against Ash’s arm, another connection to keep her calm. She sucked in a deep breath. “I . . . don’t understand,” she finally managed.

  Mona glanced at the other people in the room, all eyes watching mother and daughter.

  “Gregory, take the two daemons downstairs for the time being. Piper and I need to talk.”

  Panic jumped in Piper’s belly. “I want them with me,” she blurted.

  Mona frowned. “Piper—”

  “You can’t hurt them. They’re my friends.”

  Her frown deepened. “They’re daemons, Piper.”

  “They’ve both saved my life more than once,” she said stiffly. “That makes them my friends.” Now was not the time to mention betrayals. Whatever she felt about Ash, more than anything she wanted him right there with her.

  Mona sighed. “Gregory, take them downstairs but be—careful—with them. They can wait there until Piper and I are done talking.” She gave the middle-aged man who’d brought them in a meaningful look.

  Piper swallowed hard, knowing that arguing would be pointless. As two men approached, Ash rolled onto his back and lunged to his feet. He was standing so quickly everyone in the room froze.

  In that moment where no one moved, Ash stepped up to Piper, brushing against her as he put his mouth against her ear.

  “Don’t forget, Piper,” he whispered urgently, “we are prisoners in enemy territory. Your mother is leading these Gaians. Remember what they did in that vault. To your family.”

  Piper went rigid as she realized the obvious. If Mona was alive and leading this sect of Gaians, then she was the one who, at the least, had allowed the attack on the Griffiths Consulate—the attack that had nearly killed Uncle Calder. And—her heart nearly froze in her chest—her mother must be the one holding her father prisoner, trying to force him to reveal the location of the Sahar.

  Ash was jerked away by the two haemons. His stare didn’t shift from her as they pulled him away. She watched them steer Ash and Lyre back across the room and out the double doors. Cold shivered through her as the doors closed, blocking the two daemons from her sight.

  She jumped when Mona touched her arm. She looked into her mother’s familiar hazel eyes, eyes she hadn’t seen in ten years and had never imagined she would see again. She said nothing as Mona led her to a door off the main room, struggling to reconcile the bombardment of violent emotions making her hands shake. Through the door was a barren office with a sitting area. Mona sat on the stained sofa and patted the sagging cushion beside her. Piper sat gingerly, reeling inside.

  “Piper.” Mona took her hands and squeezed them. “I know this must be a shock. How do you feel?”

  Piper stared into her mom’s face. “I don’t understand,” she finally said. “You’re not—you didn’t die?”

  “No, sweetheart.” The cold rage hardened her features. “You can thank your father for that lie. He was determined to keep us apart. If I’d known . . .”

  Another axis of her world shattered. Quinn had lied to her? Lied about her mother being dead just to keep them apart? It couldn’t be. He too must have believed Mona was dead. Someone else must have tricked him. He never would have lied to Piper about something like that.

  Mona squeezed Piper’s hands again. “I tried to reach you for a year, Piper. I called, I left messages, I sent friends to try to talk to you. Quinn banned me from the Consulate and eventually threatened to have you shipped off to a boarding school where I would never find you.” She exhaled slowly. “I stopped trying then. I didn’t want to disrupt your life anymore than I already had. I always assumed you would try to find me once you were older. When you didn’t . . . I thought you must hate me for leaving you.”

  “No,” Piper croaked. “I thought you died. I thought you were killed in a car crash.”

  Mona pulled her into a crushing hug. Piper squeezed her mother just as fiercely, her heart and mind bursting under the weight of unveiled lies. After a long minute, she leaned back. Her eyes travelled around the room.

  “Are you part of the Gaians?”

  Mona smiled hesitantly. “I lead this chapter, yes. My affiliations with the Gaians are the main reason your father and I separated.”

  “I—yes, I knew that. But this Consulate . . .?”

  “We rotate our meetings among a number of locations. One of our members is a Consul and she recommended this spot. We don’t normally gather in one place for more than a single night, but the current situation is a little different.” She glanced at the boxes in the corner. “Of course, we can’t leave any evidence behind. We don’t want anyone guessing . . . details about us.”

  Not wanting to face the reality of Mona’s involvement in the events of the last week, Piper tossed out another question. “Why would Consuls be allied with the Gaians?”

  “Consuls know, even more intimately than most, why change needs to occur. Daemons are parasites, Piper. We can no longer allow them free reign here. They are diplomatically immune in almost every sense. They are petty tyrants who take whatever they want from humankind without restraint.” Her expression hardened. “You’ve been sheltered, growing up in the Consulate. You only know daemons who are on their best behavior. You have no idea what goes on in the dark corners of the city. What daemons do to humans—for fun. What they could do if the powerful among them decided to unleash their magic.”

  Her mother’s expression softened. “We know not all daemons are cut from the same mold. Overworld daemons, on average, aren’t quite as . . . depraved in their tastes. We don’t want to eliminate daemons or even hurt them. We merely want to regulate their visits here to protect innocent humans who have no defenses. Our mandate is simple, and—as you may have heard—very popular. Hundreds more join our cause every year. People are beginning to see that the daemons’ reign on Earth must come to an end. It is time for humanity to reclaim our world.”

  “The daemon’s reign?” Piper repeated as her brow crinkled. “They don’t reign here. They don’t—”

  “I realize you find it hard to believe. Your father has taught you his philosophy, I know.”

  “Did Father always know you were a Gaian?”

  Mona shook her head. “I became interested when you were still little, after I’d seen so much daemon violence. By the time I was ready to join, Quinn was starting to suspect something. So one night, I told him everything. I was—” She paused, breathing deeply, then continued. “I was certain he would see what needed to change as I did and join too. He did not. He exploded. That was the night I left.” She shrugged off her dark mood and smiled. “But that is behind us now. We can be together now, Piper. You don’t have to join the Gaians if you don’t want to. I just want us to be together again.”

  More than anything, Piper wanted to melt into her mother’s arms and never move again, but Ash’s words kept circling
in her head. She saw Uncle Calder’s bandaged face and the burned bodies in the vault. With shaking hands, she straightened in her seat and crossed her arms.

  “What happened at the Consulate, in the vault? Why did you try to steal the Sahar?”

  Mona bit her bottom lip. “I didn’t know Calder would be there, Piper. I swear to you, I didn’t know.”

  Piper shook her head. Calder went everywhere Quinn went. Mona had to know that. “You were there?”

  “No. But it was essential we take the Sahar before it was returned to daemon hands. It was far more important than any one life.” She gripped Piper’s hands hard. “You can’t imagine what a powerful daemon could do with the Sahar. It would be a return to the dark ages.”

  “You killed all those people.”

  “We had to, Piper.” Her eyes pleaded for understanding. “Quinn tried to kill my people in retaliation. He caused that explosion.”

  “Where is my father?”

  “He’s here,” she said quickly. “He’s fine, safe and unharmed. We only brought him to find out where he hid the real Sahar—using harmless drugs, nothing more—but somehow he doesn’t know where it is. It’s clear he doesn’t have any idea.”

  Piper worked to keep her face blank. How could Quinn not know where the Sahar was? He’d given it to her hours before the attempted theft.

  “What about that Choronzon? Did you set it loose in the house too? It almost killed me.”

  Mona’s eyes widened. “Oh no. We had it entirely under control. It would never have touched you.”

  No, it would have just ripped Ash to pieces instead. Piper pressed her lips together. “Where do you get it? Using an Underworld monster to kill people kind of runs counter to your anti-daemon-violence mandate, doesn’t it?”

  “We borrowed it from an ally.”

  Piper waited but her mother said nothing more. “You had people waiting at the Consulate for me afterward.”

  “I couldn’t find you,” Mona explained. “I needed to make sure you were safe. They were supposed to bring you here, not hurt you. They’ve been severely reprimanded for what happened. Piper . . . I never meant for you to become involved.”

  “Involved?” Her voice rose furiously. “Involved? I’ve been up to my neck in this shit storm! I was arrested. I’m a fugitive. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been hurt or almost killed since you tried to steal the Stone.”

  Mona looked down at her hands, knowing better than to offer another empty apology. Silence stretched between them. After a moment, Mona looked up and appeared to notice Piper’s clothes for the first time. She was still in her club outfit and it was definitely worse for wear. Apparently deciding not to comment, Mona took a deep breath.

  “Piper, your father and I disagreed about many things and a lot of them had to do with you. He’s had ten years with you that I was denied; ten years to make his case.” She gazed solemnly at Piper. “Now I want to make my case to you. I want you to come live with me.”

  She froze like a rabbit caught in a trap. “Mom—”

  “I know you’re upset and it all seems impossible right now. All I’m asking is a chance to show you my world—a different world from the Consulate and the constant threat of daemons. I won’t pressure you to join the Gaians or to support our cause. I—All I want is to share my life with you, Piper, sweetheart. Will you give me a chance?”

  Her mouth opened, then closed. A sob tried to claw up her throat, born of the tearing of her heart. Father or mother. How was she supposed to choose? Maybe it should’ve been an easy choice—the parent who’d raised her, who’d been there all along—but if what Mona said was true, her father had told her the most destructive, life-shattering lie of her life. Even without that betrayal in the equation, Quinn had never made time for her. She had never been his first priority.

  “I—I want to talk to Father. He’s here. Let me see him.”

  Pain creased Mona’s face before she smiled weakly. “Of course, honey. But there’s one thing I want to bring to your attention first. I imagine you’ll want to ask Quinn about it yourself.” She paused to gather her thoughts. “One of the things your father and I disagreed on was your future. I wanted you to have every opportunity, even if it was . . . a riskier path than others. Your father always preferred you stay safe and sheltered.” She raised her eyebrows knowingly. Piper grimaced.

  “I’m talking about one thing in particular regarding your future: magic.”

  Piper stared blankly. “I don’t have any magic.”

  Mona’s stare was intent, almost calculating. “Not anymore, no.”

  Piper’s heart seemed to expand in her chest. She sucked in a sharp breath. “What do you mean?”

  “You were born with magic like any other haemon.” Mona’s pressed her lips together hard. “But as you know, all female children with two haemon parents die. When you were six, the age when magic starts to develop, you started to die too.”

  Piper’s whole body went cold. “What?”

  “You remember, don’t you? The headaches?”

  She shuddered at the memory, still vibrant even though she’d been so young—pain beyond description, condensed inside her skull, burning her mind to ash. Within six months, the migraines had escalated to the point where she would fall into seizures.

  “Your developing magic was killing you. We couldn’t let you die. Even though we knew it was probably hopeless, we searched relentlessly for a way to save you. We didn’t give up. Just as it seemed we would be too late, we tracked down the best daemon healer in the Overworld.

  “He confirmed the long-rumored cause, that female children inherit two magical bloodlines, one from each haemon parent. Male children only inherit the mother’s bloodline and develop normally. You were dying because two competing kinds of magic were growing inside you, slowly killing you.”

  Mona tried to smile. “Did you know daemon castes cannot interbreed? They can consort, of course, but they can’t reproduce. You will never see a crossbreed daemon. Only haemons can create what was never meant to be: a cross of daemon bloodlines. And they all die—except you. You are the only hybrid in existence.”

  Piper stared, trying to calm her pounding heart. “Why didn’t I die too?”

  Mona pulled her into a hug. “The daemon healer had an idea. It was like nothing I’ve ever heard before; magic so complex I can’t imagine how he conceived such a thing. Even he wasn’t sure it would work.” She tightened her arms around Piper. “But he did it. He sealed your magic away inside you, stopping its development. He cut you off from it, so it wouldn’t hurt you. That’s why you have no power.”

  Piper stared at nothing, reeling inside. So she did have magic—magic she could never use. Magic that should have killed her. Instead, she was alive but weaker than the weakest haemon. A powerless hybrid.

  “Once we knew you were safe,” Mona continued, “your father decided that was the end of it. He had the healer fog your memory of the healing. He announced we would never tell you so you wouldn’t mourn what you’d lost.”

  Piper was silent, thinking her father had the right idea.

  “But Piper,” Mona sat back and gripped Piper’s shoulders with both hands, “I don’t believe that’s the end of it. I don’t think your magic is lost forever. The healer sealed your two lines of magic away from you—and away from each other. There might be a way to reclaim one side of it and keep the other sealed away. Then you’d be safe.”

  Piper inhaled slowly, not daring to hope yet hoping anyway.

  “Maybe it’s impossible. I don’t know. But I do know we will never know if we don’t try. Your father doesn’t want to give you the chance to try. He’s always wanted to make all our choices for us.”

  Mona abruptly rose to her feet and gave Piper’s arm a comforting squeeze. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Go talk to your father. Ask him for his side. You won’t feel better until you do.”

  . . .

  Piper drifted in a haze of conflicting thoughts and
emotions as she followed the young man who’d been manning the ultrasound speaker earlier. Her head was bursting, her heart aching. She felt so much she couldn’t feel anything. Ash’s betrayal with the Sahar hardly seemed like anything now that she was faced with the enormity of the lies her father had told her.

  She’d thought she understood her life pretty well. Turned out not. She didn’t have magic? Actually, she had a deadly magic combo she couldn’t use. Her mom had died nine years ago? Actually, she’d been alive all along and forbidden from contacting Piper. Of all the people she could trust, her father was one of only two? Actually, he’d been lying to her and hiding things from her for her entire life.

  Her Gaian guide interrupted her inner rant.

  “It’s good you came when you did,” he said over his shoulder, grinning cheerfully as though it didn’t matter one bit he’d used that speaker to send Ash into an agony-spawned seizure. “My name is Travis, by the way. It’s great to finally meet you. We were hoping you’d show before we had to leave.”

  She struggled to focus on his words.

  “We figured you’d find out where we were,” he babbled on, oblivious to her emotional turmoil, “but if we’d moved before you got here, we would’ve had to start looking for you again. No way you’d find our new location without insider help.”

  “Why are you moving?” she asked without any real interest. Her mind spun through the revelations of the last hour. She felt sick to her stomach.

  “With all this stuff with the Stone, it was a good idea no matter what,” Travis explained. “But then we caught this daemon snooping around a few days ago. Now, we have a whole group of them hiding in the woods. They haven’t come too close yet but they will any day now, we expect. They must think we have the Stone, like the one we caught, but these ones don’t want to come bursting in. We have greater numbers than them.”

  She frowned. “How many?”

  “Oh, forty or so haemons here, another twenty nearby,” he rambled on carelessly. “The daemons in the woods are only, I dunno, fifteen or so.”