by Holly Ward
But that wasn’t the case with me. I had been Martis before I was turned. A Valefar nearly killed me, but Collin saved me. Valefar’s aren’t supposed to have souls, but he did. Collin managed to hang onto a piece of his. It was too small to make him anything but Valefar, but shared with the miniscule amount of soul left in my body, following the attack, it was enough to sustain my life. Together, with the demon blood Collin gave me, I didn’t die. I didn’t turn Valefar either, but I was tainted. Now, I was neither Martis nor Valefar. I belonged to no one. And the result was a marriage of powers, both Martis and Valefar, into a new type of immortal with a new mark. The discolored swirl on my forehead reminded me that I didn’t belong, as if I could forget it in this place. No one stayed around me unless they were forced to. I hated it here, and wanted nothing more than to leave.
After silently fuming, I lapped the building to work off some of the tension that threatened to erupt on the next person I encountered. There were two-faced Martis mixed among the people who resided in this place. On a daily basis, I dealt with them, ignoring their looks. They smiled as they passed me, but I could see in their eyes that they held the same horror of me that the more transparent folks had plastered across their faces. Al was the only one that I was certain was on my side.
Even Shannon was a question mark. She had been my best friend since birth, but I never forgot what she said to me in the old church on Long Island. She’d kill me when I became the evil one foretold in the prophecy. Until then, she was trying to keep me from that path. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t on it. I didn’t choose what happened to me. It was all fate. I had no control over anything. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time; which was a classic Ivy occurrence, but on a larger scale. Now instead of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and walking into a bully, I would be walking into Hell. Maybe I did bring things on myself.
Irritation shot through me. I had to go see if I could find the entrance into the Underworld that Al told me about. It was my ticket out of this place. And it pained me horribly to feel so damn helpless. Collin had been gone for three months. Three months! Meanwhile, I’d been up here finding nothing. Now that I knew what to look for, I hoped it wouldn’t be much longer. He needed me. I abruptly turned around and headed toward the archives.
I was so close to finding what I needed. Now I knew the location. The entrance was somewhere in the tombs. I just had to find the correct location and figure out how to access get inside. As I walked down the hall, like I’d done so many times before, I shoved my hands in my pockets. If I encountered a Martis while walking, the guard would close in on me, reminding me that I was a prisoner, and also showing the Martis that they were safe from me. It was a joke really, because they hadn’t taken my ruby ring away. They had no idea I channeled my powers through it. I could leave whenever I wanted—efanotate away—and they’d have no clue how I escaped.
Leaving this place was beyond tempting but there were two things here that I had to have before I could depart, the location of the entrance, and Apryl’s Celestial Silver comb. The Martis took it from me when I arrived, which was rather pointless since I couldn’t kill them with it. They said it was theirs, for a Martis warrior, which I was not. I hadn’t seen it since, but there was no way I was leaving without it. As soon as I gleaned the information I needed from the archives, I’d find my comb, and get out of this place.
I rounded the corner, and cut through another courtyard that smelled sweet with winter flowers. This was the fastest way to the library. The guard closed in on me as we approached a Martis. The woman sneered at me as we passed. Considering that the Martis were supposed to be good guys, most of them were awful. It didn’t dawn on anyone that I was still human, and in possession of my ravaged soul. No one remembered that I still had angel blood flowing through my veins, and that I should have been their sister Martis. No. Instead, they viewed me as an abomination and made sure I knew it.
I stared at the Martis as I passed, refusing to let her get the better of me. I was leaving soon. The Martis wouldn’t chase me into the Underworld. I’d ditch the guard, and finally be on my way to rescue Collin. It’d been so long that I was sure he thought I wasn’t coming.
His blue eyes and soft touch raced through my thoughts, causing my stomach to stir. The night he saved me, and took my place, he said words that I’d never forget—I love you. I didn’t respond at the time. I said nothing, watching him fall inside the pit, taking my place.
I suck.
I kicked open the library door, my mood turning darker. The guard scribbled something on his pad behind me. I turned to him irritated, “Oh, and you guys never get mad, and kick a door, right? You’re always perfect all the time.” They said nothing, not acknowledging that I spoke.
They sucked, too.
I walked into the room. Massive walls stretched to the ceiling covered in whitewash, thick wooden shelves with thousands of books and ancient texts went all the way to the top. The room was gleaming white. I had no idea how they kept everything so clean. The floors, walls, ceiling, bookcases—all of it was pristine, like it was brand new despite its age. The impossibly high books on the top shelves were so far out of reach that I wondered if anyone ever read them. Each shelving unit stretched from floor to ceiling in no apparent order. There was no card catalogue or computer to look stuff up. I had to have a Martis get me the things I needed. There was a lady assigned to me, Casey, who seemed to live here. She never went home. I looked around the room for her, assuming she was lost in the stacks somewhere. I walked over to her desk, leaned on it and waited.
After a few minutes, I slid up onto her desk to sat down. There were no cushy chairs up here to wait, and if I wandered around without her, I got scolded. Despite the fact that I loathed most of the Martis, Casey wasn’t so bad. I dangled my legs off the side of her desk, wondering how long she would be. The Martis had records, books, and texts going back to the beginning of time. Or at least that was what Julia said. This vault connected underground somewhere with the archives at the Vatican—the place Julia worked when she wasn’t trying to kill me. I was certain my trial dragged on because of her, although no one would confirm it. That woman hated me from day one, and that was when she thought I was a Martis.
The Martis Dyconisis knew how everything was filed in this room and exactly where to find it. The Martis were split into three groups based on their abilities and powers. There were Seyers, Dyconisis, and Polomotis. The Dyconisis were healers and handled the law. They also deciphered the Seyers’ visions for the Martis. Apparently, they were also hardwired to retrieve books in a library that was the largest I’d ever seen. It was weird. There was no computer, no file, no nothing that even had a record of which books they owned.
The Dyconisis just knew.
I heard Casey approaching behind me with her quiet librarian voice. That was something that transcended cultures. I slid off her desk and turned around, shocked at who was with her. Casey turned to a small desk across the room, holding three small books. She placed the books on the little desk, and turned up the flame of an overhead lamp. She gave directions to the Martis, and as she spoke, he turned and looked up at me.
I started at him, saying nothing, not revealing the betrayal I felt. When Shannon said they were to summon Eric, I didn’t realize they already had. I felt my teeth sink into my lip, as I bit down to try and remain stoic.
I don’t know why my anger with Eric didn’t surface the last time I saw him. Maybe I was too shocked to notice. Maybe I couldn’t feel the depth of his betrayal until now. Life is like that sometimes. You sit there and stare, blank-faced and horrified, but utterly unable to respond.
Eric turned back toward Casey, nodding. He slid into the chair, and flipped open the book, ignoring me. I don’t know what I wanted him to do, but that wasn’t it. It confirmed the feeling that he used me, and betrayed me. Dirty blood, he’d said. Abomination. I started to walk towards him with sharp words cascading into a symphony of screams in my mind, but Casey
approached me. Her petite figure and perfectly cut blonde bob would toss me out if I picked a fight. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself. I needed my books first. There would be time to scream at Eric later.
“Yes, Miss Taylor?” Casey asked, always polite. She dressed in pastels, always pastels.
“I need books on the catacombs,” I said. The movement was miniscule, but it was there. She flinched. I looked at her round face and brown eyes. She never responded like that before no matter what I asked for.
Her pretty pink smile faltered, “The Roman catacombs? What specifically are you looking for? There are hundreds of texts about them; everything from lineage to architecture.”
Oh crap. I didn’t plan on telling her anything. The more information I fed the Martis, the longer I made my noose. There was no doubt in my mind that if the trial didn’t turn out the way Julia wanted, then she would find something else to hang me with. I needed to think of something fast, but I didn’t know what to say.
Eric spoke over his shoulder. “Bring her the oldest texts you have. She’ll want all four.” Then he turned back to his desk. Casey looked at me for confirmation with an eyebrow raised. I nodded, and she trotted off, down the aisles of towering shelves.
I stepped closer to Eric, wanting to ask him what he knew about Apryl’s death. All the information was there in his head. The memories were trapped behind his eyes. All I had to do was ask, but I couldn’t. I wanted to know what happened to my sister, but I felt conflicted. Did I really want to know what happened to her? What if I couldn’t handle it? Would it throw me back into my past? I nearly lost it when Apryl died. It sent me on a downward spiral that ended in a demon kiss. The pain of losing her was too great. It left a gaping hole in my chest. The void was not filled by sobbing, so I tried to fill it with other things. Like boys. I was reckless, and made out with strangers to ease the pain. But, it didn’t really work.
Nothing did.
That was what happened when I learned of her death and I didn’t have all the details. Would finding out the truth make it better or worse? And how was he connected? Did Eric really use me that long? Was I so stupid that I couldn’t tell who my real friends were? Yes, yes I was. The problem was that I wanted to believe he was good, but such conflicting words and actions confused me.
As I stepped toward him, the guards pressed in around me, shielding Eric from me, like they were protecting him. I looked at them with hostility flashing in my eyes. “Move,” I commanded. But, they remained between Eric and me. The guards didn’t do this to Shannon or Al. I didn’t expect them to do it to Eric, but they did. Anger burned within me as I looked at the guards. Being treated like a caged animal was making me act like one. My fingers curled into fists, ready for a fight.
Eric turned, and stood. His amber eyes looked back and forth between the guards, taking in my expression and stance. A crooked smile formed across his lips. Half laughing he said to me, “This must be driving you nuts.” I locked my jaw, staring at him. In a more serious voice, he turned to the guards and said, “You can leave us.”
The two guards remained where they were, and stole a glance at each other. One finally answered, “Sorry, but we were commanded to remain between this person and all other Martis; especially if she shows signs of hostility.”
Eric laughed, and put his hand on the guy’s shoulder. “I’m here to testify for her. She won’t hurt me. I’m her ticket out of this place.” Eric’s smile was as genuine as his words. He tilted his head waiting for the guard to respond, still smiling. There was unspoken guy moment, and the guards stepped back.
By then, my fists were balls, hidden in the crook of my arms. I folded them so tightly over my chest that they were turning white. I hated this place. Being treated this way for so long was messing with me. It was making me want to lash out at them. I didn’t think it was right to hate anyone. Live and let live. Plus, hating people is a waste of time, but I was feeling the hate right then—for all of them. I wanted to scream, but I locked my jaw instead.
Eric’s smile faded as the guards backed away to their normal positions, flanking me from a distance. “How long have they held you here?”
My eye twitched when I answered, “Almost three months.” I bit off the words. I sounded bitter, because I was. Three months of searching for a way to help Collin and finding nothing. Three months of hostile stares. Three months of tears no one saw me cry. It was the loneliest, most enraged time of my life. And now the guy that killed my sister was standing in front of me like everything was fine.
But it wasn’t.
His eyes widened a little, before he turned back to his desk, and kicked out the chair next to him. “Sit. Ask. I see it on your face. Someone told you.”
I stood for a moment, watching him slide back into his chair. His eyes looked tired. Not the kind of tired where you don’t sleep for a night, but the kind of tired that comes from within. It’s a fatigue that is so burdensome to bear that it nearly crushes you flat. I know. I bore it. But, why did he have that weariness? Eric didn’t look like that the last time I saw him. But then, I hadn’t seen him for very long. He was insisting on telling me something that he never got to say. Julia whisked him off to some place before he had the chance.
With my spine straight, I sat in the chair next to him. I didn’t unfold my arms. My mouth wouldn’t work either. Words wouldn’t form. The truth was that I was a coward. I didn’t want to know what happened to Apryl. I didn’t think I could handle it. What if his words made it worse? What if she suffered? It would shatter me completely. And I didn’t trust myself to not attack Eric. I could kill him instantly.
A piece of Brimstone hung around my neck disguised as a pendant. Brimstone was a powerful weapon that the Valefar forged from rare black rocks in Hell. The dark stone was lethal to Martis. One scratch from my tiny Brimstone flower and Eric would die. While he was training me back at the church on Long Island, Eric had told me that Brimstone was most commonly made into Valefar weapons, but that it was given other deadly forms, too. The most horrifying was dust. The Valefar would grind down Brimstone until it was a powdery dust that was so fine that it was barely visible. Then during combat, the Valefar blew it onto Eric’s troops. One minute the Martis were slashing their Celestial Silver through their enemies, and the next they were crying out in agony. The Martis had inhaled the fatal powder. It snaked through their lungs, burning them alive from the inside out. It was the worst attack Eric had ever survived, and it was purely by chance that he wasn’t near the front lines when the dust was dropped.
Eric knew what was going through my mind. I wanted to hurt the person who did this to her. I couldn’t leave it alone. And if it was him, if Eric did kill Apryl, I couldn’t let him walk away. His eyes said he knew I’d kill him, but his actions said something else. Why did he send away the Martis guard who would protect him? What really happened to Apryl on that pier?
Eric was cautious, but my silence caught him off guard. “You’re glaring at me because someone told you, right? That I didn’t directly cause your sister’s death? You know. And you’re mad that I said I did it. You don’t know who to believe. But, you’re too afraid to ask me what really happened.”
“I’m not afraid of anything,” I lied staring him defiantly in the face. Why was I so mad at him? Shouldn’t this make it better? He wasn’t the one who killed her. But then, “Why did you cover for whoever did kill her? If it wasn’t you, why’d you take the blame? You lied to me, Eric. About something that was unbearable…” I shook my head, and turned away too disgusted to look at him.
His eyes dropped to the floor. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t lie to you. Ivy, I took the blame, because it was my fault. I was reckless in how I pursued her and it led to her death. The Valefar who said I killed her were right. It was my fault.”
“You weren’t the one who stole her life. You weren’t the one who physically killed her, though. Were you?” Direct questions. Ask him direct questions and he can’t lie.
His
amber eyes settled on my face. “No. I didn’t take her life. I wasn’t the hand that physically killed her. But I should have protected her. You were right. She was a tourist, and didn’t deserve what happened to her. I’m sorry Ivy.” He glanced down at his hands, as he folded his fingers together.
I was quiet for a moment. He didn’t say what happened to her. He released me from that pain. But I couldn’t let it go. “Eric, did you see her die?”
He gazed up at me. “Please don’t ask me to tell you.” His face was melancholy, as he looked me in the eye. “It won’t help you. You won’t heal this time. Not if you know the whole story.”
He verbalized the thought that frightened me the most. It wasn’t until recently that I even realized that I wanted to live. Before that, things were in a painful survival mode. How would I manage the pain this time, especially if it was worse?
Maybe I should have just believed him, and left it alone. I blinked hard, looking away. That was when I saw Casey returning with a stack of books that threatened to knock her over. Martis were freakishly strong, but it was still an odd sight. The corner of my mouth tugged up at the display. She looked cartoonish, as she wobbled slowly towards us.
I pushed my hair out of my face and looked at Eric. “I believe you. I won’t ask. Not now.” I don’t know what expression was on my face, only that Eric made an unexpected response. His eyes darted away, before turning to Casey. I felt like he was hiding something, and he was. It just wasn’t what I thought.
CHAPTER TEN
Shannon caught up with me a few hours later, and was startled to find me sitting with Eric. “I thought you were gonna kill him earlier. How are you guys sitting here like nothing ever happened?” Her hands were on her hips and she was smiling. She looked up, noticing the guards advancing, “Um, she didn’t move. And she didn’t say kill—I did. Geeze.” She pulled out a chair and sat on the other side of me.