I skitter back like a scared cat, right into Kian’s chest. He catches my arms, slides a hand down to my wrist, and runs. I’m glad he does, that he leads the way, because my head is spinning.
What did I just hear in there?
CHAPTER 17
Kian shuts my and Emery’s dorm-room door with a soft click while I stand at the edge of my bed and stare. I bend down, holding my weight up with my hands on the mattress. I’m top heavy, about to fall over. Maybe I should sink to my knees and bury my face in the royal-purple comforter.
I don’t want to see anything right now. I don’t want to sense anything at all.
“Nova—”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I snap. “Madeline was talking about you, wasn’t she?”
“It’s not like you give me many chances to talk to you.”
I sink to my knees and bury my face in the comforter like I wanted to. I fist the fabric and squeeze. My breaths are erratic, so I try to focus on them, to calm down, but it’s not working.
Kian touches my shoulder.
“Don’t touch me,” I mumble.
“Fine.” He takes his hand away, but he doesn’t move. His warmth radiates off him and into me. I’m hyperaware of his lungs contracting and expanding, of his honey-sweet scent, the bite of ginger on my tongue with his taste wafting in the air.
The steady beat of his heart.
I squeeze my eyes shut, press my forehead a little harder into my mattress, and then I turn to face him. He’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, barely far enough away not to touch me.
I squint, doing my best to see past his Color, but I give up on that and end up looking at his reflection in the full-length mirror. It doesn’t look like he’s bleeding anymore, not from his hand or his neck. It’s all been washed away, too. Madeline won’t know what I’ve done unless she’s looking for it.
“How’d you know?” I ask Kian’s mirror reflection. I watch him move and observe the expressions on his face in ways I can’t when his Color burns through. He really does look like the kind of guy who’d be in a rock band.
“Know what?”
“She looks like me, right? How could you tell the difference if you just get flashes?”
“I’ve never seen Archer before, not until recently. You two must be identical twins, but I can see the difference. And Archer’s hair is blue.”
What are the chances she’d dye her hair an equally standout color?
Someone knocks on the door. I bite my tongue, considering if I should run or hide, but then the door opens. Madeline stands there in one of her frilly gothic dresses. She presses her fingers together and says, “I thought I heard you two snooping around. Kian, explain.”
“I saw that Archer had arrived and thought Nova would want to know.”
There’s a Color behind Madeline’s vermilion. It’s sky blue, but barely there, like transparent fog. It’s so dull, in fact, that I can see her skin, her eyes, her hair, without any trouble. We do look alike. She’s a mirror image of me, aside from her sky-blue hair.
She’s as dim as the plants at the foot of my bed. Every Color is unique, but I’ve never seen a human’s Color look so… absent.
“We need to talk,” Madeline says.
I consider burying my head under the comforter. “I don’t want to,” I say.
“Too bad.” Madeline steps into the room and holds out her hand. “This is Archer, your twin sister.”
Archer takes one lazy step forward and then another. She glances around the room with a bored expression on her face. We might look the same, but her eyes are a lot sharper than mine.
“I don’t have a twin,” I say.
“Looking at you both, I think it’s safe to say that isn’t true. And I have records,” Madeline says. Her voice is thin; she’s about to run out of patience.
I cover my ears with my hands and go back to the safety of my bed. Just erase everything. Make it all go away.
“Nova, really. Head up. I need you to listen.”
“Haven’t you changed my world enough already?” I ask, voice muffled. “I never wanted any of this. I just wanted a quiet life, to never be bothered, to forget about college and excelling at something. I wanted to keep flying under the radar and to stay with my mom and take care of her, but now I’m a vampire locked away inside of some secret world, and I’ve got a bloodlust that’s so severe I’ll probably never get to leave.”
“Nova, we found your mother.”
I sit up so fast I crack my neck. “You did?”
Madeline nods, but her vermilion is stuck. Frozen glass crystals. “We found her body, Nova. She likely committed suicide.”
My jaw drops. It hangs there like a dead fish, and there’s nothing I can do about it. “You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Y-you’re lying! If my mom’s dead, it’s your fault! Eduardo is still out there. If he was after me, he must have been after her, too. He killed her.”
“Eduardo wouldn’t have left a trace. He may be a dangerous and destructive vampire, but he’s not stupid. He’d never do anything that leads back to him. He’d wipe clean all evidence.”
“So, you can’t prove he didn’t kill her.”
“She drowned. She had a poem with her that sounded an awful lot like a suicide note. Her body washed up on one of Baltimore’s beaches.”
“No.” My voice breaks. I catch Kian in my peripheral vision. His Color has taken on blue, dark and deep like the ocean. It’s usually so calm, but when it’s expressive, it’s the most elastic Color I’ve ever seen.
“Kian had a vision concerning Archer. A couple of them, but they were very fuzzy on the details, a glimpse of her on the streets and Eduardo on her trail. We didn’t know what we’d find when we managed to track Archer down, but thankfully Eduardo didn’t manage to swipe her first.”
Archer yawns and walks over to Emery’s bed. She runs her hand across it, apparently approving of the texture, and plops down on it, acting like she owns the place. She holds the back of her head with her hands, elbows splayed out to either side, and closes her eyes. It’s like she doesn’t have a care in the world. I can’t tell anything from her Color.
“When did my mom die?” I ask. It feels wrong to say it. Those words aren’t mine. Somebody else said them.
“We don’t know yet. One of my people found her body last night. We flew her in for you and for the possibility of her spirit lingering. It doesn’t look promising so far, though. Which means suicide is more than likely the cause. So, if you want to, you can see her for yourself.”
I don’t know if the block in my throat and the cement in my stomach mean I’m going to cry or hurl. “I want to see,” I say. “I want to know. She wouldn’t have committed suicide. There’s no way.” But that’s a lie. She really might have. She finished her duty with me. She raised me to eighteen.
Don’t trust anyone, Nova.
“I’ll have you and Archer come with me, then,” Madeline says. “After ransacking your house for clues, we finally found some journals you may find enlightening.”
“Journals.”
“Apparently, in all your running, there were a few things your mother wouldn’t leave behind.”
I think about the one bag Mom would always take whenever we packed up and left in a hurry. I had no idea she was lugging around journals, though. It’s against her minimalist lifestyle. Hell, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. “You read them,” I say to Madeline.
“Of course.” Madeline purses her lips. “I’m hunting Eduardo.”
“You two have fun,” Archer says. “I’ll stay here.” Her eyes are still closed, and her breaths start coming in longer and deeper. She’s completely at ease here.
“I’ll give you the short version of the story, but I expect you both to look deeper. Archer, this very much involves you, too. According to one of Donna’s journal entries, she had relations with a man who turned out to be a terrible monster. Eduardo. She learned about th
e monster sneaking underneath his skin and left. Eduardo must have allowed it, even wanted her to, because he did not pursue her.
“On her own, Donna decided to have the twins she was carrying anyway. She didn’t think she could take care of both of you, however, and by this point she was running scared. She gave Archer up and took Nova with her. Archer, your public records match up with Donna’s story.
Madeline closes her eyes. “Kian, you’re coming with me, too.”
Kian flinches but says, “Understood.”
I tune everything out for a minute.
Everything.
My mom is dead.
I’ve been abandoned as I always knew I would be. This twin and Nightshade’s kindness don’t change anything. There’s a black hole opening up behind my eyes, swallowing everything it can.
That stinging sensation in my eyes comes back. I won’t let tears fall, though. I have questions, and I’m getting answers.
I’m going to see my mom. I’m going to figure out if she committed suicide or if this Eduardo killed her.
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Nightshade Academy
Episode 1: Awakened Vampire
Episode 2: Bloodlust
Episode 3: Auras and Colors
Episode 4: Den of Demons
Episode 5: Deadly Contract
The Lost Princess of Howling Sky
Prologue: Phantom Fangs
Book 1: Taken by Werewolves
Book 2: Saving the Werewolves
Book 3: Queen of Werewolves
Marked by the Moon
Book 0: Her True Wolf
Book 1: Her Brave Wolf
Book 2: Her Fierce Wolf
Book 3: Her Wild Wolf
Book 4: Her Noble Owl
Book 5: Her Bad Cat
The Holiday Shifter Mates
Book 1: Halloween Werewolf
Book 2: Christmas Polar Bear
Book 3: Valentine's Day Tigers
These Immortal Vows
Book 1: Demon Snare
Book 2: Angel Asylum
Novella: Desire
Short Story: Guardian
Short Story: On the Precipice
The Soul Seer Saga
Book 1: The Wandering Empath
Book 2: The Lonely King
Book 3: The Lost Souls
Book 4: The Beautifully Cursed
Short Story: The Lunar Dancer
Standalone
Novel: Blind to Love
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About the Author
Kestra Pingree is a creative who doesn’t know how to stop. They are first and foremost a writer and storyteller with an endless library of books in their head just waiting to be typed. They are also an artist and animator, as well as a singer, songwriter, and voice actor. One day they swear they’re going to make their own video game, too.
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Nightshade Academy Episode 2: Bloodlust Page 8