by Lan Chan
“I did no –”
He stared me down, challenging me to keep denying the truth of it. “They’re treacherous but they’re also vulnerable. Trickery is their only defence. You broke through their warding without knowing what you were doing. In the Fae realm, that kind of power usually equates to dominion. At any time, if you chose to, you could take the Grove from them. Understand how that feels. You won’t even let someone take a French fry you’ve dropped on the table. Are you going to stand there and question the concept of possessiveness?”
Using food against me was below the belt. But I couldn’t dispute its effectiveness. There was no need to think on it. The similarities between what I’d done and the way the Fae had treated them was glaringly obvious. I groaned.
Now I felt stupid as well as tired and guilty. “What am I supposed to do then?”
He shrugged. “Beats me. They’ve never been this pissed as far as I can tell.”
“Thanks. Your advice is ever so helpful.”
Before my very eyes, his posture turned from early morning languid to drill sergeant stiff. “Speaking of advice, you’re up and we’re both free. We’re taking a trip to the elite guard facility.”
“Please.”
He was not amused. “Make up your mind. Either you want nice, or you want to learn.”
That was just like me. I could have fallen for anyone. But no, I had to fall in love with a moron who thought being nice and being tough were mutually exclusive.
17
When Kai and I appeared on the grounds of the elite guard facility, I was sure someone was playing a joke on me. The gaudy brightness of the trees and mix of plants around the border couldn’t possibly exist naturally. The Fae loved nature, but they had a penchant for warping it into the lush verdant growth of their home dimension. When I’d asked Isla about it, she’d gone on a rant about how harsh the Australian outback was, and how if she wanted to die, it wouldn’t be from being burned alive by the very trees that were meant to sustain us.
“This is a glamour, right?” I pointed towards the castle sitting on the outcrop of rock. The grey stone building sported actual turrets, a cutlass over the arched entryway, and you got it, a moat. All it needed was a glittering rainbow arching over the top and it could have been something straight out of a children’s cartoon.
Kai grimaced. “Don’t say a word about it.”
While Kai and I stood outside the entrance, elite guards of all shapes and sizes came and went. As instructed, I kept my mouth zipped. Unlike in Morgana, the Fae here were not the ones you saw in picture books. The guard I saw dragging a body around the back of the building was grim faced. He had a scar running along the circumference of his neck like somebody had taken a knife to him with the intention of slowly decapitating him.
His wings were a dulled grey. “They do that to themselves,” Kai told me. “It makes them less conspicuous.”
“How does someone change the colour of their wings?”
“Painfully.”
I gulped. Right.
Without another word, Kai led me towards the open drawbridge. When we stepped onto the bridge, my feet caught on something. Moving became difficult as an invisible force latched on to my body. I tried to take another step, but it was as though my limbs were caught in glue. The sensation reminded me too much of that place in limbo just before Jacob stabbed me. My palms turned sweaty. Anxiety spiked, causing my heart to beat faster. Kai clamped his hand on my shoulder.
“Easy.”
I held my breath. The sensation didn’t abate. Just when I was tasting blood on my tongue from having bitten into it, a sweeping wind whispered over me. It felt as though somebody had reached down from the sky and blown warmth into my body. “Alessia Hastings,” the same disembodied voice that organised the MirrorNet spoke. And then just like that, I was release from the goo.
Goosebumps raised on my arms. “Please tell me that doesn’t happen every time?”
Kai shook his head. “Only until the aether remembers who you are.”
“How long does that take?”
Another shrug. “It takes however long it takes. What’s the matter? Find it creepy?”
There was no hint of mockery in his voice. What I found there when I glanced up into his eyes was the appraising scrutiny of a military commander. He hadn’t been kidding. However else he felt about me, Kai wouldn’t allow it to interfere with my training.
I straightened up. “Nope.”
His sniff said he was sceptical, but he didn’t push the point. Now that I’d passed the entrance test, we were able to enter freely. The fantasy nerd inside me did a double-take. Just like I pinched myself every time I set foot in Rivia, my jaw dropped open at the sight of the elite guard compound. The arched doorway led to a courtyard right out of a movie. The only difference was that the people moving about here weren’t in fancy medieval costumes. At least not the shifters and the Nephilim. Most of the Fae wore the same elfin hunting clothes that Angus was so fond of. The material was said to be sturdier than it appeared. It was also spelled to repel magic. I imagined that Celine sometimes used it to make her dresses and that was why they were so magical.
To my left, a squad of Fae guards were practicing archery. They moved as a single cell, drawing, shooting, and collecting their arrows as though they thought as one.
“Blue!”
While I’d been distracted, Kai had walked all the way across to the other side of the courtyard. “This isn’t a day trip,” he said, when I caught up.
“Sorry.”
It came out automatically, but the word made him freeze for a second. Apologies from me were like diamonds. His gaze lingered on my face for a beat longer than was necessary. We were standing in an alcove underneath the shelter of a stone staircase. There were shrubs blocking part of the view back out into the courtyard. At my back was the wall. Blue bled into part of his left eye. My breath stilled. Kai’s grip on the door frame was white-knuckled. The crack of wood startled me. I jerked away, worried the stone wouldn’t hold its structure.
The movement broke whatever spell had come over us. Kai shook his head like a wolf throwing off water. I wasn’t sure but I thought he muttered something under his breath.
When he pushed the door open for me, I scampered through as quickly as I could. The door led into a wide corridor. On the other side was another courtyard, this one given over to more garden beds.
“Up the staircase,” Kai instructed. I started up and he followed sedately. My neck burned knowing he was behind me. When I let my guard down, the bond overloaded my senses with a visceral awareness of him.
I needed to get a grip or we would be in trouble. The tortured scream that whipped through the courtyard did that nicely. My foot faltered. Kai overtook me. “Keep going.”
“What was that?”
His expression was unwavering. “Could be anything.”
“It sounded painful.”
“You’re in a military facility. Like I said, it could be anything.”
What it turned out to be was a stunning woman with coal-black hair all the way down to her waist. She stood at the front of a room made of clear glass that was about the size of our weaponry and combat room. Interspersed throughout the room were elite guards of various races. Some of them stood with their backs braced against the wall. Others were in crouching positions, one hand splayed on the ground for support. Yet more stood with their legs akimbo.
Their lips moved in speech, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. The glass appeared to be soundproof. That was until the black-haired woman opened her mouth. Her scream was thin and high-pitched. Not unlike the nymphs’. We were closer now and it rang out in a wave that had me clutching at my gut like I was going to throw up.
That was when it hit me. Banshee.
My eyes squinted into the room. There. More than one guards had a bloody nose. The ones on the ground were gritting their teeth as they fought to stay conscious.
“Immersion therapy,” Kai
told me. “The longer they can hold out, the better they will be in the field.”
“It looks like torture.”
“It is. But better now than out there where they won’t know what hit them.”
I studied him. “How long can you hold out?”
“Not long enough.”
In Kai terms, that meant longer than anybody else but still not good enough for his unreachable standards. He had an ego the size of a jetliner but never about this sort of thing. I knew that in his mind, he had already failed every test when his family was killed. My heart kicked in my chest as the bond ached.
Kai turned away abruptly. “We need to check in.”
“Are you kidding?” I whispered when he led me through more archways and stairs to then push open a set of heavy wooden double doors. I didn’t know whether to laugh or fall to my knees at the sight of the throne room. The floor became polished cream marble. It opened out into a cavernous room. There was more than one iron chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Stout white candles sat half burned in their holders. Behind the throne, a section of the wall was cut out in an artistic circular picture. During the day, I had a feeling if I looked out of it, I would see the drop off the cliff. In the near distance, I thought I heard the sound of water tripping over stones. The grandness of the room was completely at odds with the way it was being used.
The marble throne was empty. Instead, the elite guards gathered in small groups around the high steps leading to it. On either side of the room, they had set up tables. I spotted Ivan sitting at the table on the left speaking in harsh tones with another vampire.
“...sit around and wait for them to attack us?” I heard him say. I didn’t hear the response because Kai’s stride was too wide. I was having trouble keeping up with him. The vampire speaking to Ivan lifted his head. He saw me and paused, but only momentarily. I didn’t miss the flare of red in his eyes that dimmed as quickly as it came. He had seen and judged me as harmless in a single breath.
Angus looked up from where he was scribbling on a poster-sized parchment of paper. His eyes tracked to the window. “This is very early.” Was that approval I sensed in his voice? My suspicions that the elite guards were slave drivers were rapidly being confirmed.
“You wanted her to see the interview,” Kai said.
Angus nodded. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
To my delight, Kai took the short steps up to the level of the throne. I followed him eagerly. We passed behind the throne when Kai made an abrupt left turn.
“Wait!” I said. He halted. I made a beeline for the open window, making sure I didn’t stand too close to the opening.
I took in an amazed breath as starlight bathed the view in front of me. A small waterfall on the other side of the clearing sent up sprays of water that fed the roots of the tropical plants growing unnaturally around the pristine lake. It felt like I was standing at the top of the world.
Too soon, Kai was making impatient sounds. I sighed as I walked through the door he pushed open. All of the beauty from the throne room cut off abruptly as the residue of a spell grazed my skin.
We stepped into a room with glowing runes on the walls and floors. In the centre of the room was an arcane circle throbbing in an ugly red. The rusty iron colour of it said that it had been constructed from blood. Black candles sat on the floor around the circle. They were alight but there was no wax pooling in their centres. Hexed.
“What’s this?” Apprehension burned in my chest.
“A doorway.”
Kai all but dragged me into the circle. It felt like going against everything I stood for, but I forced myself to remain inside. Who or what did this blood belong to? I should have gotten a medal for standing there without shuddering. At least not outwardly.
“Is this normal?” I asked, my voice coming out in a harsh whisper. The runes on the walls throbbed in a strange, hypnotic rhythm. It reminded me of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
“No, it isn’t. But it’s necessary.”
He was suddenly right there beside me. I yelped when he laced his arm around me. A column of red motes raised into the ceiling, creating a barrier around us. “Hold on.” A thousand tiny pinpricks scattered on my skin. The wrenching feeling of pleasure and pain saturated my soul. After a second, I blinked and the oppressive room disappeared.
We stood in a small room intersected by doorways. Kai detached, leaving me feeling slightly woozy. He led me down another dark corridor. I didn’t know why they couldn’t build their cells in a more pleasant configuration. That was one minus for joining the elite guard when I graduated.
The thought had me pausing mid-step so that Kai, who was walking behind me, came to an abrupt halt just an inch away. He became a wall of solid heat against my back despite not making physical contact. My spine tingled, wanting to bow and complete the physical connection. I forced my feet to move once more as my mind contemplated the disturbing thought that I might not make it to graduation.
We came to a brightly lit room at the end of the long corridor. Besides an elaborate oval mirror that encompassed an entire wall, the only other furniture was a double row of uncomfortable-looking wooden stools. Somebody really should introduce these people to couches. We waited a tense minute before Angus arrived.
“I hear you’ve had an encounter with Emily’s visions.” Angus ushered me into the room and pointed to the stools.
“You could say that. Thanks for the heads-up by the way.”
My sarcasm rolled right off him. “We had no way of anticipating her affliction.”
“You make it sound like an illness.”
He moved towards the mirror. “She cannot control the very thoughts that flood her mind. Does that not sound like a disease?”
He had me there. “Prophecies and the visions they manifest are some of the hardest phenomena to predict,” Angus said. “Anyone can have them at any time. And now we have the added complication of Emily being human. I understand you’ve made it a point not to engage with the prophecies. A wise choice given how easily they can influence your decisions.” He reached out and placed his palm on the mirror. “Ordinarily, we would respect your decision. But under the current circumstances, it would be foolish not to give you all the available information.”
I didn’t like where this was going.
The glass in the mirror rippled. Its reflective surface gave way to an image. My relief that Brigid had graduated and wouldn’t be irritating me this year deflated. In the mirror, she sat on the other end of a small rectangular table. Her bright red hair and navy-blue dress stood out in stark contrast to her surroundings. The grey stone wall behind her did its best to leech all life from the room. On the table was an egg-shaped quartz crystal sitting on a wooden stand. The truth crystal. Apparently, it was impossible to lie in the presence of said crystal. Basil had one installed in our house while we lived in Ravenhall. Of course, Eugenia just got around it by spelling herself to believe her own lies, but most people weren’t that creative or powerful.
There was a single window above Brigid’s head but nothing else decorating the room. The whole thing screamed interrogation. I would have enjoyed the thought if it weren’t for the condescending sneer on Brigid’s face.
“Are you deaf?” she snapped. Her palm rested on the crystal. “I’ve told you ten times now that I saw her at the head of a demon army!”
Ivan sat on the other side of the table. “Be that as it may,” he said, “we need to verify the surrounding events to make sure.”
Brigid slammed her manicured hand on the table. Ivan remained unmoved. “And while you waste time doing that,” she said, “Alessia Hastings is going to kill us all.”
I had a feeling this interview had been conducted during my first year when Brigid had decided that I was too big a liability and had conspired to have me killed. Before I could take in the scene completely, it shifted.
I leaned forward as Kieran’s sharp features came into view. This time, his interviewer
was Angus. “But you can’t tell exactly what the events are leading up to the final battle,” Angus asked.
Kieran shook his head. He scratched at his wrist absentmindedly. “No. It wasn’t a stream of images. Just the one. Alessia Hastings and Lucifer upon an open field.”
“There were demons surrounding them?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
Kieran rubbed his neck. “Too many to count. More than our forces.”
Angus’s arms steepled in front of him. “How did she look?”
Kieran’s brow furrowed. His expression tightened as though he was trying to recall. “Calm. Like she wasn’t afraid at all.”
The image shifted once more. My breath hitched as Astrid’s serene expression materialised in front of me. Her hair was a long sheaf of gold gathered over one shoulder. Angus’s voice again. “You say she wasn’t walking beside Lucifer but on her own some distance from the battlefield?”
Astrid nodded.
“But it was a battle,” Angus pressed.
“Most assuredly. There were many casualties.”
“Our or theirs?”
“Both.”
“Yet you didn’t see Alessia battle with Lucifer.”
“I saw nothing but the battle raging around her.”
“So, she wasn’t on his side.”
Astrid blinked. “I can’t infer anything from what I saw. It was a fraction of a second in an infinite timeline.” That was such an Astrid thing to say.
“You’re a guard,” Angus refuted. “Your observations are valuable. I need you to make an inference. Was she phasing or not?”
“She wasn’t moving.”
“So, she was a spectre?”
“Again, sir –”
“Astrid. I’m not asking you to betray Malachi. But I would have thought you of all people would understand how important it is for us to decipher these prophecies.”
She leaned forward this time and pushed the crystal to one side. “You asked me for a recounting of what I saw. I gave it to you. What does it matter how I interpret it?”
“Prophetic visions require interpretation.”