by Dannika Dark
Crush had one thing right: Gem had needed sleep. She hadn’t thought she could do it, but after snoozing for almost eleven hours, she’d never felt more revitalized. With a clearer head, she cast aside any negative thoughts and focused on a plan.
If the book had the power to create a spell, it must also have the power to reverse it. The answer was somewhere between the pages, and Gem needed to do some serious digging. To ensure privacy, she barricaded herself in Niko’s room by locking the door. Despite Wyatt’s noisy interruptions throughout the day, she worked tirelessly on translations. Gem had previously only scratched the surface with the complex language, and now that she had more time to devote to the work instead of making up fake translations for Cyrus, the process was going much more smoothly. She filled several pages in her notebook while sitting cross-legged by the fire. Niko didn’t have windows, but Gem preferred working by candlelight. She’d brought in lanterns since Niko didn’t have any. The only thing she hadn’t done was change clothes.
Late that afternoon, Wyatt pounded on the door. “Open up, Gem. I made you something to eat. You’re not going to turn down this delicious food, are you?”
She sat up straight and thought about his tempting offer. Her stomach was growling, and it had been an awful long time since she’d last eaten anything. Deciding a break was in order, Gem stood and headed for the door. As she drifted past Niko’s bed, she stole a glance at him. Seeing him lying there, unmoving with his eyes closed, sent a chill up her spine. He didn’t look like how she imagined a comatose patient would. He simply looked like a sleeping man who might open his eyes at any moment.
Gem unlocked the door and peered through the crack.
Wyatt held a plate beneath her nose and waggled his eyebrows. Her mouth watered at the sight of five pieces of bacon, toast, and jelly. Not exactly a meal fit for a king, but who could turn down bacon?
“I know how you like putting jelly on your bacon,” he said.
She arched an eyebrow. “You made this?”
He gave her an elfin smile that carved laugh lines in his cheeks. “I supervised.” He poked his nose through the door. “How’s he doing? Any signs of life?”
Gem heaved a sigh and slipped out into the hall, shutting the door behind her. “Still the same. He hasn’t so much as moved a finger.” Instead of inviting Wyatt in, she took the plate and sat down on the floor. Gem felt protective of not only Niko but also the book. He had spent centuries guarding that thing, so she wasn’t going to let just anyone waltz in, not until Viktor returned.
Wyatt hiked up his pant legs and sat down in front of her.
Gem used a butter knife to spread jelly on her bacon and gobbled up the entire piece in one bite. “There’s a hole in your sock.”
Wyatt scratched his ear, not seeming to care. “I have a big toe. It likes to make an appearance.”
“You don’t clip your nails short enough.”
“You’re just full of insights, aren’t you?” Though he pretended the comment didn’t bother him, she caught him poking his finger inside the hole and feeling his toenail.
Wyatt had a morbid sense of humor when it came to death, and he owned a large collection of T-shirts to prove it. Today’s featured a long bone with I FOUND THIS HUMERUS written below it.
“What’s the scoop? Want to tell me what happened?” he pressed.
She licked bacon grease off her thumb. “Not until I talk to Viktor.”
He leaned back on his hands, his olive-green eyes twinkling with curiosity. “Keeping secrets is part of my job.”
“I can’t.”
When he threw his head back, his beanie fell off. “O ye of little faith.”
“What if Viktor wants me to keep it confidential? Christian would have to scrub your memories and erase everything I told you.” She devoured another slice of bacon, this one on a piece of toast.
Wyatt grimaced. “Scratch that. I don’t want to know anything. I don’t need a Vamp poking around in my head.”
Gem ate up her third piece of bacon with extra jelly. “Did the mission go okay?”
Wyatt leaned forward and put the brown beanie back on his head. Somehow it suited him. He looked naked without it, probably because of how messy his hair looked. She wondered if in his younger days he’d kept it short or slicked it back with pomade. The thought amused her.
Wyatt dusted off his hands. “Viktor mentioned something about a hiccup, which is a rough translation for ‘something went wrong.’”
“What was their mission? Now that it’s over, he won’t care if you tell me the details.” Gem had wondered about it for some time. Everyone had left in such a hurry, their destination shrouded in secrecy.
“Transporting Potentials. Three teenagers.”
Her eyes widened. “Potentials? Real Potentials? I thought—”
“They were an urban legend? Yup. That’s what everyone thinks, and the powers that be want to keep it that way.”
A few books she’d read alluded to Potentials, but no one had ever spoken about them as if they were real. Gem marveled at the idea that someone could choose to be any Breed they wanted. Had she been given that choice, she wondered if she might have chosen to be a Chitah.
Nah. How ridiculous would that look? She would have wound up being the shortest Chitah in the entire world.
“Are you okay?” Wyatt asked with the utmost seriousness. “Last night was a blur, and I should have asked. Maybe I did, but I can’t remember.”
“I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine.” She suddenly lost her appetite and set down her half-eaten piece of bacon. Niko wasn’t fine, and here she was, merrily eating outside his door.
“There’s nothing Viktor can’t figure out. He’s got connections to the best Relics in the world. I’m sure someone out there will know what’s wrong with Niko. It’s probably something to do with his core light. Maybe the circuits misfired. Did you have an epic battle? Can you at least tell me that much?”
“They fought. I just watched.” Dejected and growing weary, Gem pushed the plate toward him, half the meal untouched. “Thanks for bringing me food. Is Crush still here? I should apologize to him.”
“For what?”
“I wasn’t myself last night. I snapped at everyone, and I might have offended him. He’s done so much for us.”
Wyatt snorted. “The only thing that would insult that man is owning anything other than a Harley. He asked about you this morning. In fact, he was the one who had me bring up the food. Pushy old bastard. He’s in the kitchen, driving Kira batty.”
Gem quirked a smile. “How so?”
“He refuses to let her cook his meals. I told him that’s her job, but he won’t listen. He leaves crumbs and dishes piled in the sink, and I even caught him rearranging the canned food. He said something about how the beans don’t go with the pears. Kira has her own system, so you know that didn’t go over well.”
“Raven’s so lucky. Crush is such a fun guy, and I just love all his wrinkles and grey hair.”
Wyatt knocked on the floor. “That’s a strange compliment.”
Gem felt no need to explain. She adored the elderly. They were both fragile and strong, and they were also something she’d never be. The life they’d lived was mapped on their skin, and Gem could see that Crush had experienced tremendous hardship but also joy. From the deep frown lines on his forehead to the laugh lines around his eyes, he was a man who had truly lived life.
“How long are they staying? The wolves, I mean.”
“Until Viktor walks through the front door.” Wyatt scratched his head and yawned widely. “I can’t wait for things to get back to normal.”
Normal. What an odd concept. Could life ever get back to normal with Niko lying in a coma? Would Viktor continue accepting new assignments? Would seasons pass while Niko remained in that bed?
“Wyatt, can you do me a favor?”
He collected her plate. “That depends.”
Gem stood up and unwound her lavender hair from the tig
ht buns on her head. “Send Viktor up the moment he walks in the door. Tell him it’s urgent. And…” She hesitated. “Did you tell him about Niko?”
“He knows something’s wrong, but I didn’t give him the details.”
“Don’t tell anyone else.” She felt her cheeks heat with shame. “I want to talk to him alone before everyone rushes in and—” Blames me, she thought.
“Okeydokey.” He stood up with the plate in hand. “Just do me a favor?”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t go crazy in there. You have that look you get when you’re knee-deep in a special assignment. You and I are like mad scientists. We get obsessed with our work until it takes over our life. Just… just be careful how far down the rabbit hole you go. Sometimes it’s not easy to find your way back.”
“Have you ever gotten lost?”
Wyatt popped a piece of bacon in his mouth. “Sometimes I wonder if I ever returned.”
Gem awoke to crashing thunder. No, not thunder. A fist pounding against the door. Sitting up on her makeshift bed on the floor, she rubbed her sleepy eyes. After a full day of translations, she’d nodded off, thinking to take a short nap. But exhaustion had gotten the best of her, and now it was after midnight.
The incessant knocking forced her to get up.
“Coming, coming. Wyatt Blessing, you don’t have to be so—” She swung the door open. “Viktor.”
Gem’s chest tightened. Though she had prepared for this moment, the words knotted in her throat when Viktor entered the room.
She closed the door and shadowed him. Viktor was a formidable man, one who had given her hope in the bleakest of times. That hope was slowly withering like a flower in the rain as he turned his head and gave her a shuttered expression.
Viktor’s gaze settled on Niko’s unconscious body and then moved back to her. “Wyatt sent me up. He said that something bad happened, so I told everyone to stay downstairs. What is going on?”
Her jaw hung lax as she, a wordsmith, searched for the right words. “Niko’s under a spell. He won’t wake up.”
Frown lines appeared in Viktor’s brow. In just the few days he’d been away, his silver beard had filled in. He usually styled it short along the jaw and longer around his chin and mouth, but all of it had grown out. His black cargo pants and turtleneck smelled musty and had what could only be bloodstains on them. Gem should have felt guilty for not allowing the man to shower before she dropped a bomb in his lap, but Niko’s dire situation couldn’t wait.
“Spells are for children’s books,” he said.
Gem took a deep breath and then started explaining everything. From the moment Arcadius had drowned her in the pool to Niko surrendering himself to Cyrus as a servant, she left nothing out. She described the silver cuff that blocked her powers, the threats and blackmail, the plan she hatched to free Niko, and the sudden battle at the end. Viktor quietly listened, standing beside the bed with his eyes shifting between Niko and her notes scattered on the floor. She told him about Niko guarding the book for centuries and the power it contained. When he challenged her beliefs, she knelt by the book and found an innocuous fire spell.
“I’ve never read the entire spell,” she said. “And I don’t want to. But I can show you a small example of the power.”
He clasped his hands in front of him and looked down at her, signaling with a nod for her to continue.
Gem found the passage and ran her fingers over one section while reading the words aloud. “In darkness, I call upon the light of the sun.”
The flames in the fireplace roared, and every lantern burned brighter. Gem snapped her hands back and watched Viktor’s reaction. She didn’t dare read any other portion of that spell aloud, not without knowing the repercussions.
After another few seconds, the flames in the room returned to their normal state. She breathed a sigh of relief, still not fully trusting the power in the spells. Her fingertips burned, and she wiped them on her pants as she stood up.
“See? And that’s just one part of the spell. It’s supposed to give someone light in the dark, but who knows what it really does? Maybe the fires will burn forever or burn everything down. There aren’t any references in the book that explain what the spells do. Only the person who wrote this book really knows. All I can do is read the spells and come up with a best guess.”
Viktor used his foot to close the book. “Do not do that again.”
He strode to the wooden bench by the armoire and sat down. Since the team had orders to remain downstairs, Gem and Viktor had complete privacy. Gem crossed the room and sat beside him. The shirts she’d yanked out of Niko’s armoire were still in a heap on the floor. Other things were out of place from when she’d searched his room for the book, but none of that seemed to matter. Gem had put crystals all around the bed in hopes that they might restore Niko’s energy. Viktor hadn’t asked about them, but he must have understood her desperation.
“Is there not a reversal spell?” he asked.
“I’m looking, Viktor. I’m trying. The language is ancient and complicated. It’s a combination of symbols that form single words and phrases as well as parts of a word. The book I found at the pawnshop doesn’t have a complete translation. It’s like someone started but never figured it all out. This isn’t something I can do overnight. Filling in the blanks would be foolhardy. I was lucky I found a passage with every word translated.” She wrung her hands, noticing that her silver nail polish was mostly chipped off. “I don’t see any reversal spells. It’s not that kind of book. Maybe there’s another book out there that has them. Or maybe I’m just not smart enough to figure it out.”
Viktor leaned back against the wall and sighed. “We cannot tell anyone about the book,” he said decidedly. “What have you mentioned to Wyatt?”
“Nothing. He knows that Cyrus wanted a book, but I didn’t tell him anything about what it could do. I kept everyone out of the room while I worked. Even if people discover the book, it’s more important that they never find out what it does.”
“Agreed.”
Unable to look him in the eye, she stared at her feet. “Do you hate me?”
Viktor placed his rough hand on hers. When he spoke, his voice was comforting, like warm cider. “Niko was very concerned about your safety when we heard about your disappearance. But he is not the only brave one. You saved his life. You must feel a tremendous amount of guilt for his situation, but you are alive, and he is alive. And most importantly, Cyrus and his men are not.”
Gem hopped to her feet. She often found it difficult to sit still when she was brimming with emotions. It was as if they rose up inside her like tiny bubbles in a champagne bottle, and when shaken, her cork might pop if she didn’t move around and burn off the energy. “I can do this. It’ll just take time. I’ll work day and night.”
“Nyet. I do not want you working around the clock.” Viktor leaned forward. “There might be… other ways.”
She rose onto her tiptoes and clasped her hands together. “What other ways?”
He tried to smooth his hair back, but the locks kept flipping out of place as if they had been styled by a cyclone. “I want you and your partner to visit a Relic tomorrow. She is an associate of mine, and I value her opinion. But do not reveal how this happened or discuss the book. We must be very careful about keeping this a secret from everyone, including your partner.”
“How can she help if she doesn’t know all the facts?”
“Explain his condition and see what she says. She might have answers.”
“Do you want us to bring her here?”
Viktor stood up and rolled his shoulders back. “Only if she thinks seeing his condition would help. Call me ahead of time so I can prepare.” Viktor stared for a long moment at Niko. “I only hope for his sake that she has answers.”
Gem swallowed the lump in her throat. “How long can a Mage stay this way?”
Viktor shook his head. “Do not ask questions unless you are ready for the trut
h.” He lightly squeezed her shoulder. “Go to sleep. You will need your rest.”
“I can’t leave him.”
“I will remain.”
Her belly did a flip. “What about everyone else?”
Viktor guided her to the door. “They will stay out. You and I will take turns watching him. I do not want him alone for a moment. The book stays in here.”
“But—”
“No arguments. The book is safer here for now. You cannot keep moving about with such a valuable instrument. Others will notice. If he has protected the book for centuries, then it was not by displaying it to others. Niko is a clever man who knows the importance of keeping valuable things out of sight, an interesting challenge, considering he cannot see what the obvious hiding spots would be.”
“I could stay with you. That way, I could keep an eye on him while you shower. I bet you haven’t even slept.”
“Spasibo. I have slept, little one. It is time for you to do the same. Your notes will stay with me. I do not want you working yourself to death.”
Gem was torn. She didn’t want to leave, but she trusted Viktor, and he needed time to digest the facts. After he closed the door, she felt a glimmer of hope.
Once inside her dark bedroom, she passed the scenic windows on her left that overlooked the courtyard. The rain must have stopped. Normally the sprinkles would tap against her windowpanes, but it was quiet now. Her feet brushed over the colorful rugs that covered her floor, and though she couldn’t see in the darkness, she knew how many strides she needed to reach her canopy bed.
Because of all the fabric, she used candles sparingly. There were some in mason jars, but the vast majority of her lighting was derived from battery-operated lights she’d artfully hung about the room. Gem switched on the ones that twined around the corner posts and overhead railing of her bed. The violet swathe of sheer curtains hanging from the sides lit up like an enchanting aura.
As she crawled across the purple-and-gold patchwork quilt, she felt heavy with sadness. Her positive mindset had gotten her through the day, and she’d accomplished so much after verifying her notes against books in her private library. But now that she was alone with nothing to offer a distraction, all she could think about was Niko. Could he hear everything going on around him? Was he a prisoner trapped inside his own mind? She hoped not. Even worse, what if he no longer had a soul? What if she somehow broke the spell and something else woke up in his place? Something not Niko.