by HDA Roberts
I walked through the portal and into the familiar alleyway. I sighed heavily as it closed behind me and walked down the stairs, past the bouncer and into the club, which was back to normal. Molly smiled and just waved me through.
Tethys was working for once, though she seemed nervous as I knocked on the door.
"Oh, thank God," she said, darting over to wrap her arms around my neck and squeeze me hard, "I saw the bloody sky going black and spent the last hour hiding under my desk! Where were you?"
"Dealing with it," I said with a smile, "You have a minute to talk?"
"For you? Always," she said, leading me to the nearest sofa, noticing my wrecked blazer and shirt for the first time, "God, Matty, what happened? Are you okay?"
"I don't know."
I told her the story and she sat listening to me, holding my hand. As I got to the end, I pulled my hand away from hers to pull the Shadow Signet from my left pinkie.
"And that's when I got this," I said, handing it to her.
She took it from me and had a look. Her eyes went wide.
"Does this mean what I think it means?" she asked.
I nodded, "I'm the First Shadow," I said, sounding a little bemused, "I didn't know, just to clarify. I'd have told you."
"I know you would," she said, kissing my cheek gently, " and it doesn't change how I feel about you, if that was something you were worried about."
I smiled. I was a little worried about things like that, I have to say.
"Thanks."
"Makes you a little more attractive, though. Power being sexy and all that," she said with her naughty grin back in place.
"I don't even have the first idea what this entails," I said.
"Won't the others help?" she said.
"Sure, but I don't know if I'm ready for the sort of responsibility-"
"Let me stop you right there," she said, "You are quite possibly the best man I've ever met, not that it's a particularly high bar, mind, but still. You are smart, smarter than me, even, and I hate to admit that. You think first and you don't lord your power. That is already leaps and bounds ahead of so many people in authority. So you came upon your position by means of an accident of fate, that doesn't mean that you aren't the right person. You can choose, right here, to be the right person."
I leaned my head against hers as she put the ring back on my finger.
"Whether or not you think you deserve to be, you are the First Shadow, and you always were. And I think you'll be a good one."
I smiled and she hugged me.
"Any chance you'd let me keep that blazer?" she asked innocently.
I turned to glare and she kissed my lips before I could protest.
"Give me the blazer and I won't show Cathy the tape of that," she said evilly.
"So already the whole 'First Shadow' thing has lost all its ability to intimidate?" I asked, peeling the ruined coat off and laying it on the sofa next to me.
"You may be Magic Royalty, but you're still Mathew Graves. And Mathew Graves belongs to me," she said with a smile before pulling me into a cuddle that was soothing and just that little bit dirty.
"I take it that you'd like for me to keep this information under wraps?" she said, nuzzling the side of my head.
"Please," I said, "I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do about any of this."
"Well, if it ever gets too much, and you need a place to hide, my bars, clubs, cars, boats, bedroom and legs are always open to you," she said, gently kissing my cheek.
I snorted and relaxed a little.
"What did Cathy say?" she asked.
"Haven't told her yet."
"Told me first... interesting," she said, her eyes dancing.
"Needed to speak to a friend. Cathy's going to be scared out of her wits, and I've had a very long day."
"And you're afraid that... she won't approve?"
"I don't know. I think she'll be alright. I just don't want things to change."
"She's a good kid," Tethys said, "not a woman like some of the people in your life I could mention. But she loves you. I doubt that she'll have a problem with you finding your place in the world."
"I don't want this to come across as whiny..." I started.
"But you don't want to be an Archon?" she said, snorting, "Oh, what a surprise. I'd never have seen that coming."
I laughed.
"I just started enjoying the life I have," I said.
"Life is change. Barring stupidity, you don't really have an expiry date. So it's better if you get a handle on that idea now. Besides, you won't want for people who'll be willing to help you through these problems. Archons attract many such friends."
"Yes," I said deadpan, "because the friends you get on account of political power are the ones that stand by you through thick and thin."
She smiled.
"Good boy. Never stop thinking."
"You know that none of this crap is going to change how I feel about you, either, right?" I asked, "You're just as stuck with me as I am with you."
"Please, you're so whipped the little red marks on your bottom spell 'Tethys'," she said, squeezing me so tight I was worried about bruising, "but thanks. That's... that's nice to hear."
"Alright," I said, "I'd better go talk to Cathy."
"You know where to come if she can't handle it?" she said, standing with me so she could hug me.
"You are terrible," I said, returning the hug.
"As Milord Shadow prefers," she said with a curtsey.
"Oh, that's just creepy," I said, walking away.
"Your lips say no, your eyes say 'let's spend some time in the dungeon'," she said to my retreating back.
"Not listening!"
"Yes you are!"
I can never win...
As it turns out, I had nothing to be afraid of.
"So, you found out today?" Cathy asked.
I nodded.
"It make you any different than you were yesterday?"
I shook my head.
"Okay," she said, kissing my lips gently, "I don't know why you looked so terrified. From the look on your face, I would have thought Tethys finally managed to trick you into getting your hand stuck in Kandi's cookie jar or something."
I laughed and held her close, she returned the gesture and kissed me again.
"I love you, Cathy Campbell."
"Then it's good that I'm bi, and so don't mind dating a big girl like you," she said with a naughty smile on her face.
Fairly certain she's kidding on that one, folks; don't get any ideas.
"Of course, you realise this means war?" I asked, going for her sides, where she's most ticklish.
She squealed with laughter, swatting at me playfully before pulling me into a deep kiss.
"You can be a Magician, an Archon, or a giant talking squirrel for all I care. As long as you're Matty, nothing else matters to me."
That nearly caused a cascade of (very manly) tears.
"That, and the fact that I've been doing unspeakable things to royalty for the last few months rather amuses me," she said, which made me laugh and blush.
"Not royalty-" I began, but she shushed me.
"Don't ruin it," she whispered, leaning in again.
The next day, I told Bill. He took it pretty well. Belle had to be told to shut up before she spread it around. I decided to wait to tell my parents. Personally, I thought that I'd done enough for the day.
Naturally Hopkins didn't agree with me.
Bill, Cathy and I were sitting in the Big Square under the tree, chatting and doing very little otherwise. I was still exhausted, crashing from the sheer stress of the last twenty-four hours.
"Come on Matty," Hopkins said, popping up out of nowhere again, "we have to talk."
I nodded and yawned before hefting myself up and following her out to the fields, where she cast a muffling spell around us.
"So," she said, "how are you doing?"
"Oh fine," I said, "really. How about you? That ca
n't have been fun yesterday."
"Could have been worse," she said dismissively, "I missed the worst of it, and the others did the cleanup. I essentially saw nothing, thanks to you."
"I'm glad."
I toyed with the signet ring on my finger, an unconscious habit I'd picked up.
"It's an adjustment," she said, noticing, "but you're in luck. We're not fighting a war. There aren't any rogue Black Magicians. You have as much time as you need to get used to this. But there are certain things that you must know."
I paid attention.
"You will have to come to the Seat with us. You won't have to show your face, and the hoods mean that it won't be an issue. Still, some people will know. They'll figure it out, and you'll be approached. Who you ally yourself with, what you do with your power is entirely up to you. The only thing is, barring a life-threatening emergency, when we call, you come. Just as when you call, we come. We won't call unless the need is dire. Trust us to know the difference, and know that if we're asking you to be somewhere, it means that people will die if you don't."
I nodded.
"Alright, that's the bad news. The good news is that you have Sovereign Immunity for any crimes past and present. The other good news is that you are now the beneficiary of one fifth of our trust funds, your share of which has been accruing for the last nineteen years, just so you know."
I blinked at that, she smirked.
"We're a family. It doesn't matter that we don't share DNA, the bond is deeper than that. We take care of each other and as long as nobody starts murdering their way through populations, we let each other do essentially as they please. If you have a problem with another Archon, you take it to the group, you don't go after them. I know that you're unlikely to do that, but I have to tell you the way of things."
I nodded again.
"There are certain articles, items and properties that belong to your part of the trust. I'll take you through them in a while. We don't normally transfer full control of assets to a new Archon. It's generally a gradual process, I'll take you through that too in a few days. The point is that your life will change. How quickly and how much are essentially up to you."
"Are you sure that... that I'm the right person?" I asked stupidly. It's not like there was a choice.
"Meaning?" she asked.
"I mean that I'm an idiot! It's fairly obvious, I'm literally wearing my stupidity on my face," I pointed at the scar and my mutated eyes, "People look up to Archons. They shouldn't look up to me."
She smiled, shaking her head.
"Whether you are or you aren't ready, you are the First Shadow. You are my brother. And you've been a damned good one already. Nash, even at his best, would never have stood between me and all that carnage on his own. We were linked, I felt how scared you were, and so I know exactly how brave you are that you were able to overcome it. You've made mistakes. That first one that changed your eyes was down to sheer panic and thoughtlessness, but it was in a just cause. And the scars were down to you hearing a girl crying in an alley and going in to help. That's compassion, and that is a good thing. It makes up for a lot. It's enough to start with. Trust me. You have a long time to learn and people who will help."
"Thank you," I said, quite touched, actually, "for everything."
"Thank you, Mathew. For making it so I didn't have to see that yesterday. I can't repay that debt, but I'll try."
"Any time," I said.
She hugged me.
"Couldn't this have been done without drawing Hellstrom and those other idiots down on my head, though?" I asked. That had really been rather a mess I could have done without.
"Oh no, don't blame me for that! How was I to know that Hellstrom was a Black Magician? You were supposed to bond with other Shadowborn, not go to war with them! They were supposed to show you how different you were from the others and nudge your thick head in the right direction. It's hardly my fault that everything went pears shaped!"
I rolled my eyes at that. She was supposed to be the responsible one. She was over three hundred years older than me, for heaven's sake!
"By the way, how the hell did you summon a Leviathan?" she asked in a blatant attempt to change the subject.
"Killian used that word. I'm not sure what that is."
She sighed again, "You're like a kid with a cannon; you know it makes a cool noise, but have no idea what'll happen to what it's pointed at."
"In the time it took you to call me ignorant, you could have just told me about the Dragon."
"Fine. You know that there are different grades of Elemental?"
I nodded.
"Lesser, Common, Greater, Titanic," she said, "Well, the Leviathan is the Shadow Titanic-type. And the one you called was one of the little ones."
"So you're saying that one has a mother around somewhere that might object to her boy playing with strangers?" I asked.
"No, I'm saying that you've done something that stirred up the Shadow Realm enough to wake a Leviathan, and something else that makes it willing to do what you tell it."
"I didn't mean to," I said sheepishly, "You can't deny that he was useful, though."
"I didn't see, but Killian's a little worried. He tells me that thing gobbled up three Sorcerers like they were skittles."
"He's a growing boy, he needs his noms," I offered.
"Oh good grief," she said, rubbing her head.
"He won't kill. He told me so," I said.
"It speaks to you? Directly?" she said, her eyes wide.
"Yes, he's quite friendly actually; when he's not advising me to do people a mischief. He's the voice I told you about at the start of last term."
"I haven't heard of a Leviathan speaking to anyone, ever," she said, "generally Elementals don't speak at all."
"He really sort of... feels at me. It's not really words, though I get the meaning anyway."
"An emotional link? Really?" she said, "What are you, some sort of hippie?"
"Hey!" I complained.
She grinned, "That's the normal way an Elemental communicates. You are so touchy!"
I glared.
"How's Hellstrom?" I asked.
"Gone," she said sadly, "He turned last night."
"Bugger."
He'd gone Shaadre. Poor bastard. The agony I'd left him in probably hadn't helped.
"I'd imagine that his mother..." I said, thinking, "his mother..."
Got it. It all clicked into place. At long bloody last.
"Matty?" Hopkins asked.
"Who would know the most about the Conclave members' histories? And I need to speak to Arianna Hellstrom, is that something I can do?"
"You're the First Shadow. You can do whatever you want," she said with a smile.
Chapter 26
"You realise that she wants you dead, right?" Cassandra said as we were driven up the Hellstroms' capacious driveway.
The place was a few miles outside of Stonebridge's Green Belt in a very affluent area. The house itself was seven hundred years old, huge and palatial, surrounded by lawns and forests. The car was black and sleek, rented, along with the driver, to provide a good impression (Cassandra's idea; I'd wanted to take a cab and had been overruled. Loudly).
"For the moment," I replied firmly.
"You really think that anything you say is going to stop her from trying?" she replied, fiddling with the signet ring on my hand as she held it.
Cassandra had found out yesterday, I'd told her after Hopkins had arranged the meeting and 'suggested' that I take Cassandra with me (meaning she told me that Cassandra would be coming, and if I didn't like it, then I could take it up with Cassandra). She hadn't stopped hitting me and I appreciated that. And she didn't bother with any of that 'Milord' crap, either.
"Maybe something along the lines of 'remember what happened the last time you tried'?" I said, "Maybe I'll throw in a 'bitch' for good measure."
"Language," she said, twisting my finger just enough to make me jump.
"That's not
nice."
"Aw, poor baby Shadow Lord," she said with a pout that made me glare at her.
"Does nobody respect the dignity of my position?"
"Didn't before, why would I start now?" she replied with a smirk.
"You have a point."
I stretched out a little.
"You knew for a while, didn't you?" I asked.
"What makes you say that?" she said, her hands going a little tense.
"I was there when you figured it out last year, remember? Didn't get it then, do now," I said.
There'd been a very pointed exchange between her and Hopkins. I hadn't realised the implications at the time.
"I was coming around before that, I swear. I didn't just see that you were an Archon and immediately change my mind about you."
"Good to know."
"Look, I'm your friend," she said, tensing up, "It's as simple as that."
"Okay."
"Okay?" she replied suspiciously.
I nodded, "I figured you decided you liked me after you told me your story."
"How could you tell?" she asked, frowning, she was very proud of her poker face.
"That's when you started hitting me. You don't punch someone you don't like."
"Do so!"
"No, you stab them with things. You punch your friends."
"I'm starting not to like you again," she said menacingly.
"Does that mean you won't hit me?"
She twisted my finger instead.
"Less of that back-talk, Graves," she said menacingly.
I smiled and so did she.
The car pulled up to the front of the house and a footman came to open the car door for us.
Cassandra stepped out first. She was dressed formally, black trousers, jacket and a silk blouse that was tight in all the right places. She wore practical, yet expensive shoes and had her dark hair pulled back in a bun. I knew that she was armed with a compact pistol at the small of her back, and no doubt at least three other bladed or projectile weapons concealed about her person.
A butler waited at the door, stepping forward as we came up the wide front steps between a set of massive marble columns.
"Mister Graves?" he asked, his voice slightly sneering.