by A. J. Locke
“Taj, I’m not going to deny that it’s been a messy road for me with a lot of damage done…”
“Death,” he said. “Not damage, death.” He moved away from the wall and brushed past me, using his stick to guide him. “Leave me alone.”
“I could have you arrested.”
He paused and turned back.
“For what? Telling the truth?” He gave bark of laughter. “Go ahead and try. I’m not afraid of you or any of your threats. You can’t bring me down Selene Vanream, because you’re already as low as anyone can go.” He walked away and I slumped against the wall, trying to calm myself down. The urge to choke the life out of Taj had been so overwhelming I was a little dizzy with having to suppress it. No doubt that urge stemmed from the dark energy. I wanted to find Jacob McNabb and rip his head off. I’d probably be okay if the dark energy made me do that.
Truthfully, I had no grounds to call for Taj’s arrest, it was more likely that I would get arrested based off his revelations about the Rot treatment. I made a sound of frustration and pounded my fist against the wall. Jacob was the one I had to stop. Taj was just being used; Jacob had gotten into his head and turned him into the instrument of my downfall. The man was more dastardly than Andrew had ever been. What was with these McNabb men? Their father, Ernest, had probably been even worse. But I couldn’t go to the police without solid proof that Jacob was causing me harm, and emotional distress didn’t count.
I’d figure it out. For now I at least knew for sure that Jacob had launched his attack and Taj was involved. Somehow I would bring Jacob down. After taking some time to get as calm as I was going to get, I headed back to my car and relayed my encounter with Taj to Kyo, who gave a low whistle when I was done.
“I’m sure Jacob knew I’d figure out who was behind the articles, he just didn’t care,” I said. “Especially because I can’t do anything now that I know. My life will probably crumble around me before I get a chance to bring him down. That’s what he’s counting on.” Little did he know, a hell creature was after my soul and was probably going to steal his thunder when it came to destroying me. He’d sure be pissed.
Kyo squeezed my hand. “I’ll cut him in half with my sword before that happens.”
When I looked at him, he flashed me a wolfish grin, and I wasn’t a hundred percent certain he was joking.
“Don’t tempt me to take you up on that,” I said as a pulse of energy went through me. I fished out my cell phone to check the time and saw several missed calls from Amy. There were also a couple text messages and a voicemail from her.
“Ah crap,” I said.
“What’s wrong?” Kyo asked.
“I completely forgot I had made plans to meet up with Amy today. Which, given the state of my life, is totally forgivable, but she doesn’t know what I’m dealing with.”
“So reschedule,” Kyo said.
“Yeah, whatever.” I tossed my phone back into my bag. I didn’t mean ill toward Amy, it’s just that when I had Revath, Jacob, and finding Kyo’s body on my list, lunch with Amy was a very, very low priority. Though honestly, it’d be nice if meeting someone for lunch could be the most pressing item on my to-do list. “I’ll get back to her when my head doesn’t feel like it’s about to explode.”
“So in about ten years or so?” Kyo quipped.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, exactly.” I started the car and drove off.
“I don’t want to go home,” I said. “Sitting around the house with all of this on my mind is just going to drive me crazy.”
“I’d like to check out the open circle,” Kyo said. “I haven’t been able to get there on my own yet.”
“All right, but I don’t think there will be anything useful for us to find there.”
“I know you already scoped it out, but I want to see for myself. And it gives you something to do other than going home.”
“Okay.” I headed onto Lexington Avenue so I could drive up to Central Park. Once we got there, I parked, fed a meter, and we headed in. There wasn’t a lot of activity in the park. The cold, dreary weather was keeping people away. There was a quietness that was a bit unnerving as we walked, and I found myself looking around a lot. Every now and then I felt as though I was being watched, and I didn’t know if it was my own nerves continuing to mess with me, or something else. The open circle was in a secluded area, so it was taking us a while to get there.
Suddenly something fell just a few feet in front of us and Kyo and I jumped back, although I was the only one who released a girlish yelp. We looked at each other, then looked to see what had fallen.
“A bird,” Kyo said.
“A crow,” I said, swallowing hard.
Another thump, this one behind us. We quickly turned around and saw another dead crow. Seconds later another one fell down next to it.
“Let’s go.” Kyo took my hand and started jogging forward, but the birds kept falling and it wasn’t easy to dodge. More than one cold, stiff body slammed us as they spiraled to the ground. We ran off the path and under a tree, staring at the line of dead crows where we’d just been walking.
“What the fuck,” I said, breathing hard. My entire body was flushed with a highly uncomfortable feeling.
“Revath,” Kyo said, sounding angry.
“She’s fucking with me,” I said. “Just because she can.”
“We need to get out of here. Forget the circle.”
“Something tells me there’s no escaping this.” But how I wished there were. Kyo and I stepped away from the tree, prepared to run if the crows started falling again. But between one step and another, I suddenly realized that we weren’t alone. I stood still as though rigor mortis had seized every muscle in my body, and stared with wide eyes at the figure standing before us.
A long, dark cloak with a drawn up hood shrouded a slender figure. They slowly reached up and pushed the hood back, revealing a face I had once forgotten but now would never forget.
My mother.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Mother.”
“Hello, Selene.” My mother took a step forward, her piercing eyes on me. It was like Kyo didn’t exist. After I’d said “mother,” Kyo had gripped my forearm and moved closer to me.
My mother almost seemed ageless; there were only subtle lines on her face that belied that she was in her late forties. She looked like me; rather, I looked like her. It was unnerving to stare at a face that was so similar to my own yet was so alien because I had no connection to her. Her long dreadlocks with their twists of blue fell over her shoulders to her waist. But it was her eyes that were the most striking. Even though I did not have many clear memories of her, I felt certain that she had not had the piercing golden eyes that she stared at me with now.
My mother, no, Nova, took a step forward, and Kyo and I instinctively took one back. She stopped, her expression so severe she gave Tielle a serious run for her money.
“What do you want?” I spoke up. “What are you doing here?” I was glad my voice didn’t come out shaky. The last thing I expected was for Nova to show up here. The memory of her brutal attempt to kill me in the Underground rose up and I sucked in a sharp breath. Nova flicked her eyes down, and I realized that I’d placed my hand on my chest where she’d stabbed me. Her eyes moved back to my face.
“Nova,” I said again, louder. “What do you want?”
“I’m here for you, my daughter.” Her voice made me want to block my ears and run away. It was trying to conjure softer memories from my childhood, but those memories were tangled with the more recent ones of bloodshed.
Nova said nothing else, and before I knew it she’d run forward and hurled herself at me. I hadn’t been on guard enough to get myself out of the way, and even though Kyo tried to pull me away, I toppled under her weight and went crashing down. I slammed onto the ground and Nova wrapped her hands around my neck and started to squeeze. In an instant, Kyo was standing above her with his sword of ghostly fire held above him. But before he co
uld bring it down she shot her arm out and he went flying back. I didn’t see where he landed, nor did I hear him. I knew he was a ghost, but I was still worried.
But I had to focus on keeping Nova from choking the life out of me. Before she could wrap her hand around my neck again, I threw my weight forward and got her off me. I punched her in the face and scrambled to get my feet under me, but she grabbed me and flung me hard, and I hit the tree Kyo and I had been standing under. The wind was knocked out of me and pain exploded in my body as I struggled to get up. Nova was on me again, but I ducked before she could grab me and swept her feet out from under her. She fell, and I tried to kick her in the head but she rolled away, grabbed my foot, and pulled me down. I managed to keep my head from hitting the ground, but she was on top of me before I could get up. She held a gleaming knife in one hand.
“I take no pleasure in this,” she whispered. Her face looked fractured, devastated, and not a hundred percent sane. Her free hand was once again wrapped tightly around my throat.
“Then why…are you…do…doing this?” I wheezed. I was starting to see spots dancing before my eyes and my lungs burned for air.
“Because you have to die.” Her voice cracked. “I’m so sorry, my child.”
Was I supposed to feel bad because she felt bad about killing me? Like hell. Nova raised the knife, and even though I knew she couldn’t kill me, I had no desire to taste another blade. I scrambled with one of my hands until I grabbed a rock and slammed it into the side of her head. She toppled off me, and this time was not as quick to recover. Blood gushed from her temple. I chanced a quick look around and saw Kyo lying motionless some distance away. What the hell had she done to him?
What should I do? If I ran, she would only come after me again. She was groaning and moving to stand up again. Fuck.
I spotted my handbag, which was lying a few feet away with the contents spilling onto the grass. My eyes zeroed in on a small vial and I quickly snatched it up, opened the cork, and flung it at Nova as she lunged for me. She fell like dead weight to the ground and stared up at me in shock.
“Immobilizing powder,” I said, breathing hard. It was all I could do to keep myself on my feet. “You aren’t going anywhere, bitch. And now you’re going to give me some answers.”
Right after I checked on Kyo. I headed over to him and realized that he wasn’t passed out, which wasn’t possible for him to do anyway. Rather, he was immobilized himself. Nova had thrown what looked like shards of a rune at him, and they were stuck all over his ghostly body.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I started to get the shards off of him.
“I should be asking you that,” Kyo said. “Is she…”
“Immobile,” I said, looking over my shoulder to make sure she was still lying there. Once I cleared the runes off Kyo, he was able to move again. We stood up. Even from this distance I could see Nova’s eyes clearly. They were all for me.
“What now?” Kyo asked, staring at her.
“Now we get her to talk,” I said. “Then we get her ass locked up.” We headed back over to her and Kyo propped her into a sitting position beneath the tree. She was looking up at me with so much anguish and sorrow on her face that it made me feel disgusted. Kyo and I stood several feet away. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to ignore the ache in my body. I could ache later, now my mother had some serious explaining to do.
“You know, usually when someone comes in contact with their deadbeat mother who abandoned them, the first few questions have to deal with the abandonment. But for me, my first question is this: why the fuck are you trying to kill me?”
“You have grown up to be so beautiful,” Nova said, smiling at me.
“Are you shitting me? You try to kill me twice and now you’re complimenting me?”
“You are very strong too,” she continued as though I had not spoken. “You have accomplished more than I could ever have hoped for you. You have lived a good life.”
“And now it’s time to end it?” I asked incredulously. “Sorry, but twenty-six years just doesn’t really feel like enough time to me.”
“I never wanted it to be.” Her voice was full of regret. I wanted to spit on her. “But what must be must be.”
I stepped closer and crouched down until we were eye-level. “Cut the bullshit, Nova. Answer the question. Why do you want to kill me?”
Tears filled her eyes as she stared at me. “Because your soul is not your own,” she whispered. “I bargained it away, a long time ago. And now it’s time to pay her what she is owed.”
“What?” I recoiled as though I’d been slapped. I stood up and stepped back next to Kyo, who was frowning deeply as he stared at my mother, though he remained quiet.
“Explain,” I said tightly. Tears slipped down Nova’s cheeks, and she bowed her head and wouldn’t look at me.
“I bargained you away for power, my little dove.”
Little dove. The words struck a chord in me. I remembered her calling me that when I was a child. I squirmed uncomfortably.
She started rocking from side to side, growing more and more anguished as she spoke. “I was a troubled woman; I wanted things I could not attain. I did bad things to get what I thought I wanted. I was not a good mother. Your grandmother looked at me with such disappointment every time I came around.”
“Get to the part where you bargained away my soul,” I said coldly.
“There are those who can give you what you want,” she said. “Anything at all. I was born with nothing, no necromancy, no reanimation power. I grew up and loved a man who was wrong for me in every way, got me pregnant, then left me! I wanted more than that. I wanted to see things, know things. I wanted to be strong, I wanted to live forever. I wanted wealth. I wanted to never have to depend on anyone ever again. I wanted so many things. And I found someone who could give those things to me.”
“Revath,” I said.
She smiled through her tears.
“The beautiful one,” she said. Then her expression darkened. “She took from me, but she did not give back in equal. I made a deal with her, I asked for everything I wanted, and the price I had to pay…”
“Was my soul,” I finished.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Upon death, your soul would be hers to take.”
“You bargained away my soul to become a fucking Underground Rune Teller?” The anger that was coursing through me almost made me feel as though I could defeat Revath if she appeared before me right now.
“I was supposed to be so much more!” Nova shouted. “She gave me these eyes, and they don’t mean a damn thing! She made me feel powerful, but after she was long gone, I realized that all I could do was manipulate runes and give impressions of someone’s future. That’s all! I was robbed!”
“Do you expect me to stand here and feel sorry for you?” I said. “You are the worst possible type of person that could exist.” It was a fight to keep a handle on my anger, but what I had no grip on was my fear. My body was trembling, and Kyo moved closer and lightly put his hand around my wrist. All I could think about was the fact that the person who gave birth to me had sold my soul to gain power.
“You have to give them what they’re owed,” Nova said, pleading. “That is the way things work.”
“You said upon death was when it happened. I’m still alive.”
“You died,” Kyo spoke up, his grip on my wrist tightening. “For two minutes, you died.”
That’s right. My eyes widened.
“And the transaction should have been complete, but you came back to life and she was denied. She will not be denied. You have to die. It will end if you die…Oh my baby, I did not mean for this to come to pass…”
“Newsflash, bitch, I’ve already seen Revath face-to-face. How did you think I knew her name? She told me she had things to do then she would come for me. She said I caused this, and now I understand what she means. It’s because I didn’t permanently die. Now she has turned people into Savages and taken their
souls. Why do that? Why not just snatch me and be done?”
“Oh no, oh no.” Nova wailed. “It’s already too late…you have seen her face. It’s already too late. I saw the signs, I knew she was coming, but I didn’t think…”
“What are you talking about?” I was trying not to get hysterical but was failing. “If I’m what she wants, what she was promised, why doesn’t she just take me?”
“Because of how the deal works,” Nova said. “You agree to pay their price, but if what was bargained is not paid, they will not just come for you, they will come for more. You cheated your own death, so now Revath is here to collect…but not just you.”
“What?” I breathed. I didn’t think I could feel more afraid. I was wrong.
“Interest,” Kyo said softly.
“A promise sealed in blood, a price paid in souls, an oath that must not be broken, lest the darkness make itself known. If the balance is not weighed, if what is owed not be given, then the shadows will rise, death will unfold, and the price will be paid in one hundred souls.”
That sounded like a quote, and it struck fear deeper into my heart.
“It’s already happening,” Nova said. “Those Savages, they will not be the only ones. She will make more until she has a hundred souls. Then she will come for you.”
Kyo and I looked at each other. I was stunned, unsure of what to say. I hoped to see something on Kyo’s face that offered some consolation, but his look was one of devastation. I turned back to Nova.
“How do I stop her?” I asked.
“There is no stopping her,” Nova wailed. “I thought if I killed you now it would help, but it is too late! She will take a hundred souls, she will turn the soul-less bodies savage and let them kill even more, then she will come for you. Oh my Selene, my little dove, how I have ruined your life…”
I felt like everything that made up my being just shattered to pieces. But I also felt scorching hot anger surge through me. Revath was here taking souls and turning people into monsters, not because of me, but because of the deal my mother made with her and the price she agreed to pay. But now it all fell onto my shoulders. Every single death Revath caused would be my burden to bear.