It flew across the canvas, and it spiraled down in swirls. A mask of black drew across it, hitting the hues I had created by mixing colors together, and everything took over me. I didn’t think. I didn’t even feel. The brush was the only part of me that existed. I didn’t even realize the amount of time that had passed until knocking broke through the blockade my passion had built.
Before I turned around, the person spoke, “Hey, Jess.”
It wasn’t Jonathon, and it wasn’t Eric or the elders. “Brenthan.” I expected to see my guard’s little brother by himself, but he wasn’t alone.
A middle-aged woman stood by his side, and a young girl stood behind her. The child’s thick, brown hair sprang up around her face. She never looked at me, but Brenthan did.
He pointed back at the girl. “This is Raquel.”
“And I’m her mother,” the woman spoke, but she didn’t offer up a name.
“They wanted to meet you,” Brenthan explained.
I forced a smile at the two. “I would shake your hand, but—” I raised my hands to show the splattered paint.
The woman didn’t laugh. “That’s okay.” Her voice was soft, but her face wasn’t. Her sharp cheekbones made the rest of her expression sink in, and her blue eyes defined her as a warrior, but her daughter had swirling eyes, remnants of a preteen that hadn’t gone through the Naming yet. It wouldn’t be long. She might have one year left.
“Why don’t you two go train?” the mother suggested, but she never looked back at her kid. Her eyes were locked on my painting.
I fought the urge to cover it.
“I can’t train yet—”
“Go, Raquel.”
The girl straightened up, but she left. Brenthan ran after her, but I only heard his voice as they disappeared down the hallway. My door stayed open, and the entryway remained empty. I half-expected Pierce to walk in. He was always chasing his brother around, but today, he was training, and rumor had it that he was training with Eric. The two were talking again.
“Do you know who I am?” The woman’s question tore my concentration apart.
I searched her face, but she was unfamiliar to me. “No. Should I?”
“My name is Ida.”
Her identity made my heart sink. Eu’s wife was standing right in front of me, but now, she was a widow, and Raquel didn’t have her father anymore. He had died in the Marking of Change, and Ida had lied about her identity to the Light. To them, she was Eric’s mother, but the lie had died over the winter.
“I didn’t know Eu very well.” I stood up. “But he seemed like a really good man.”
Ida’s eyes finally landed on me, but her stare was cold. “Do you know why I lied that day?”
My mouth was dry. It was her tone, sharp, but low, a momentary growl.
“I only lied to protect my family,” she finished when I didn’t ask. “Shoman was supposed to win, and now—” Her fingers curled against her hips until they disappeared beneath her jacket. “I hear he’s being controlled.”
I didn’t have to confirm it. She was practically an elder herself. The others would’ve told her.
“He’s not here.” I stepped away from the canvas, so I could gesture to the door. “If you want to talk to him—”
“I want to talk to you.”
Her eyes brightened, but the rest of her face lingered in the dim light. Even though her hair was short, the blackness blended over her, and her powers heightened.
Every nerve in my body spiked. “Are you okay?”
“Is it true Shoman left you?”
I stepped back, but she stepped toward me like she was my second shadow.
“Is it true your death causes Darthon’s?”
“I don’t think we should talk about this,” I snapped, trying to focus on her abnormal movements.
She lunged at me. When she tore her arm out of her jacket, a blade caught the lamplight and gleamed as it streaked through the air. I didn’t have time to breathe.
I lifted my arm, and her forearm slammed against mine. A sickening noise snapped through the room, but I wasn’t hurt. She screamed, but it wasn’t out of pain. She kept lunging at me, and her cheeks burned red below her widening eyes.
“Stop!” I shouted as we fell to the floor.
Ida—Eu’s wife—was trying to kill me, and her body was on top of mine. When she brought her hand down, I barely moved in time. The knife hit the floor.
I screamed.
She was a shade, and I was still a human, but in that instance, I transformed. Every piece of my human skin shattered into the form I hadn’t taken in weeks, and my powers rushed through my veins.
When she tried again, I was faster.
I grabbed her wrist, but she twisted, and my wrist was in her hand instead. My lack of training was at fault. Her knees slammed into my sides, and I gasped as she restrained my other hand. She could hold me down with one grip.
“I’m sorry about this,” her voice tore out of her as her eyes glistened. It was the same glisten her knife had as she brought it down.
My adrenaline took over.
Power rippled through my veins, and my descendant sword split out of my hands. It tore right through her torso.
The knife fell from her hand and sliced my cheek before it clanged against the floor. It was the only noise I heard. She didn’t even let out another breath. Her blue eyes slid to brown, and her shade’s complexion disappeared into a human’s right before all the color left her cheeks.
My sword zipped back into me before she fell on top of me, and warm liquid soaked through my shirt.
Ida was dead, and all I could do was scream.
43
Eric
As Pierce and I trained, three hours passed, but we didn’t talk, even when the machine was off. The stifling room took another ten minutes to cool down, and we sat drinking our water with our backs against the wall.
Pierce was the first to speak. “Too bad we can’t go for a flight.”
“It’s been a while.”
“Too long.” He tipped his water toward me, and we hit the bottles together like we were having beers instead.
Even though we had fought, both of us understood the circumstances now. It was beyond us, but we could still be friends. As far as I was concerned, everything had been forgiven, and things felt normal for once.
After he took another sip, Pierce cleared his throat. “I should probably get going. I told Jess I would see her.”
Just the mention of her took all normalcy away. It wasn’t her fault that things had changed so much. In fact, she was the only reason Darthon didn’t have as much control as he thought. I hated to admit it, but her actions had helped. If she could figure out who he was without me telling her, then we could all fight back. We could find a way to win, and I wouldn’t have to do it alone. I didn’t want to anymore. For once, I wasn’t alone, and I was comfortable with it. She had changed that about me, and when I could tell her, I would explain everything. It was only a matter of days. I could see it in Darthon’s desperation. He would snap soon. Robb would have to die.
Pierce stood up and brushed his clothes off, but he didn’t say goodbye. He asked the last thing I expected to hear, “You really know who he is?”
I wanted to nod, to speak, but my neck burned. The spell, imbedded deep inside of me, hurt, but the pain was succumbing to repetition. I didn’t even flinch anymore.
Pierce chuckled. “I guess it’s useless to ask.” Unlike Jessica, he was just now accepting the circumstances. “I should get going.” The words left him before the air split.
The surge of power was both deafening and energizing. It filled the entire room, and it made my own abilities increase inside of my veins. My fingers twitched with temptation. It was unmistakable. Jessica had used her sword.
Pierce’s green eyes widened. “What was that?”
He shouldn’t have had to ask, but it was impossible. There was no reason she would use it, let alone outside of the training room
.
I leapt to my feet and raced to the exit. Pierce was right behind me when I opened the door. Shades of all shapes and sizes rushed through the corridors in a black stream, but Pierce was the first to step into it. Someone running by bumped into him.
He tried to ask what was going on, but everyone acted like they didn’t hear him. Luthicer’s voice bellowed over the hallway, but his orders went unheard. His voice was drowned out by the shouts.
Jada was the first to break through the crowd, and she gripped Pierce’s arm to gain his attention. “You need to go to the nurse’s quarters,” she breathed. “Now.”
Pierce didn’t move. “Where’s Brenthan?”
His younger brother had stopped by earlier, but the shelter was on lockdown. No one but shades could get in and out. For once, Pierce had let the boy explore by himself.
“He’s fine,” Jada said, but her strained voice sounded like she was saying the opposite. “It was Jess.”
Every part of me froze.
In an instant, Pierce took off, disappearing into the river of shades before I could even comprehend what Jada had said.
Jess was in the nurse’s quarters. She had used her sword for a reason. Someone had attacked her, and she was hurt.
I sprang toward the crowd, but Jada whipped around and grabbed the back of my shirt. Before I could tear away from her, she lunged forward and dug her nails into my arm. “Don’t.”
“Let me go,” I growled. I didn’t care if she was Luthicer’s daughter or not. She would not stop me from seeing Jessica.
“Jess is okay—”
I grabbed her hand and pulled it off me. Right when I was about to run, Jada’s shout stopped me.
“It was Ida.” Eu’s wife flashed in my memory. The woman who had pretended to be my mother had tried to hurt the only girl I loved.
I whipped around. “What?”
“She did it for you,” Jada hissed as her multicolored eyes flickered over the crowed. She clearly wasn’t supposed to talk about it, but I didn’t care.
“I have to go—”
“Ida’s dead, Eric,” she snapped. “Jess killed her.”
Her words sounded as far away as Jessica felt, and in reality, that was too close for comfort. Jessica’s heartbeat thundered inside my veins. It was Jada’s words that allowed me to feel it. Jessica was alive, but someone else had died by her hands. I didn’t understand.
Jada lifted a hand to grab me again, but she stopped at the last moment. “The elders want you to stay away for now.”
It was a phrase I had heard before. When Abby died, when I met Jessica, when I crashed my car, when I returned from the Light realm. Everyone always wanted me to stay away.
“Who cares?” I cursed and turned away from the girl. Urte was standing right behind me. His hands landed on my shoulders before I could dodge him.
“Eric.” His fingers dug into my skin, but other than that, he was perfectly still against the backdrop of rushing people. “Stay here.”
“Why?”
Urte didn’t answer, but his darkened expression said it all.
My sternum was crushing inside of me. “You think I had something to do with this?”
“It’s not that,” he said, even though it was. If Jessica died, Darthon died, and I wasn’t with either one of them to the Dark’s knowledge.
I brushed my trainer off and stepped back. “I can’t believe this.”
Urte didn’t try to touch me again. “She’s okay,” he confirmed what Jada said. “Scrape on her cheek, but that’s it. Luthicer is checking her out right now.”
I kept stepping back, trying to get away from them, but I had stepped back into my training room right where they wanted me. They followed like I had obeyed.
“Just stay here,” Urte repeated before leaving.
My knees shook until I sat on the ground. I couldn’t do anything. Knowing the elders, they had someone standing outside the room. Jessica was right. We were just as much prisoners in the shelter as we had been in the Light realm. We were never going to be free again.
I cursed.
“They don’t suspect you.” Jada’s whisper was loud in the silent room. The chaos outside couldn’t even be heard.
“Yes, they do.” My breath was rigid. “That’s why they want me to stay away.”
“No, it isn’t,” she interrupted. When I looked at her, I could see Luthicer’s genes in her white hair. “Jess asked for Pierce,” she spoke as sternly as he did, too. “She didn’t want you to come.”
Jessica even wanted me to stay away.
44
Jessica
The blood was no longer on my hands, but I stared at my fingers as if I could still see it. The color was the same as my Light powers, and it was the color of murder. My sword had even been red. Even though I had transformed into a shade, it wasn’t my Dark powers that saved me. It was the Light. Above all, it was me. I had killed someone—a mother—a widow—a person.
“You did what you had to do,” Luthicer said from the corner of his room.
I had managed to tell him what had happened, but the words seemed beyond me now. The scrape on my cheek had even healed, and the nurse had found a change of clothes. Warrior clothes. It was all they kept around, but the dark cloth hid the scar Luthicer had seen while checking on me. Other than Darthon, he was the only person to see it, but he had yet to say anything.
He spun around in his chair with his clipboard in his hand. His fingernails tapped across it as his black eyes searched my face. I knew what he would say before he asked, “Where did it come from?”
My hands shook. “I can’t—”
“Jess.” His sharp voice somehow softened in a single syllable. “I know it’s from the Light realm. I can sense these things.” It was that reason I hadn’t let them check me out in the first place.
My chest felt like it was being torn open all over again.
“I need to know why you hid this from us.”
I couldn’t look at him. “I want Pierce.” I could tell him. I could manage that. I had to. I just couldn’t see. My tears were clouding my vision, and I closed my eyes to prevent them from falling.
“He’s coming.” The chair squeaked, but I hadn’t realized Luthicer had stood until he laid a hand on my shoulder. I leapt up, and he leapt back.
“I—” My voice croaked. I lifted a hand to my face only to drop it again. My touch was hot. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he sounded like my father.
I had never missed my dad so much. I just wanted to see him reading in his chair, hear his laughter when he teased my mother about her hair. Anything. I wanted my family.
“Just try to relax,” he said it like it was an easy thing. “You’re okay now.”
“But Ida—”
“Don’t,” his voice was harsh again. “Don’t worry about her.”
I nodded, but I didn’t have a chance to speak.
Pierce burst in, his green eyes wild. “I’m here.” As soon as he saw me, he rushed across the room, and his hands landed on both of my arms. “Are you okay?”
Nodding, I didn’t speak. I didn’t want to cry. I just took a breath and then, I took another one—one after the other. I had never killed anyone before. I had tried to with Darthon, but he had stood back up. A part of me wondered if I would’ve been bothered if he hadn’t. I would never know. I would only know Ida’s death. Darthon was for Eric.
“What happened?” Pierce asked Luthicer.
The elder looked at me, and I nodded. He told Pierce everything, but he only paused right before he told him about what the nurse found. My scar. I had to explain it, and Luthicer knew I wanted to explain it to Pierce alone.
When the elder left the room, I finally sat down, but Pierce stayed standing. He shifted from foot to foot as he ran a hand through his hair. The black spikes melted into brown fuzz. He flipped back into a human as if he knew I would rather face Jonathon than my guard. We were both human now, and I was sure we were alone i
n that. The noise around my room told me of the chaos that had happened.
After Ida had died, my scream was heard. A shade I had never met found us. Other shades responded, and no one knew who the enemy was. I thought I would have to kill another before Bracke stepped in. He had barked orders, but I couldn’t even remember them. Everything was a blur after that.
“You sure you don’t want Eric here?” Jonathon’s voice squeaked just like the chair did as he sat down.
“I—” I didn’t know how I would confess my suicide attempt to Eric. Not when his mother had died that way. “I can’t tell him.”
A moment passed before Jonathon took another breath. “Okay, then.”
He waited.
“Aren’t you going to ask?” I spoke up.
“I’m just going to listen.”
I stared at the boy I barely knew as a human. We only talked about art when we were together, and even then, his face hid behind glasses. Tonight, he hadn’t picked them up. His blind eye was completely visible, a fog of a gaze. His other eye was brown. It looked just like his mother’s eyes in the portrait he had painted so long ago, and I wondered how she would’ve felt if she knew where her sons were—how Brenthan had been detained with Ida’s daughter.
“Is Brenthan okay?” I asked.
“My dad is talking to him now.” Apparently, Jonathon had spoken to others before being allowed in my room.
“It wasn’t his fault,” I started to speak, but he raised his palm to stop me.
“Worry about yourself for once.”
I swallowed my words as they attempted to form. I had to concentrate again, but my thoughts scattered. I saw Ida’s face again. I saw my sword. My powers were bubbling. I curled my hands into fists out of the fear that my sword would form on its own again.
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