by Lan Chan
“Alessia Hastings-Pendragon, Seraphina Vault, account number three. Transfer initiated.”
The beads on the abacus started to rattle as they slid from one edge to the other. The goblin’s wide-eyed disappointment was overshadowed by my mute disbelief.
“Kai...”
He imitated stone. I bit my tongue as I wrestled with what was happening. When the last bead stopped moving, the light faded. Kai let go of me and inclined his head. The Nephilim guards descended on the goblin and the mountains. I’d never seen a crowd disperse so quickly. It felt like I’d blinked and the market was deserted.
While the Nephilim guards snagged the auctioneer and his compatriots, Kai turned on his heel to face Andrei.
The vampire was impassive. I supposed it was better than a smirk. “You should get that stick up your ass checked –” Andrei started to say.
Kai slugged him.
33
I didn’t even have the presence of mind to scream. Sophie reacted for both of us, jumping wide and stepping quickly to my side. There wasn’t really any need for alarm. Andrei went down and didn’t come up again. Exactly how much had Kai held back during the games? Kai crouched beside Andrei’s crumpled body, grabbed hold of the front of his shirt and teleported them both away.
“Uh oh,” Sophie said. “Kai’s going to kill him.”
“I hope so!” I’d given Andrei a free pass on the compulsion during the games, but messing with me just to get his way wasn’t cool.
She rubbed my back. “I had to call him.”
“I know. I just wish...” There was no point even voicing everything that was racing through my mind. “I owe him four hundred thousand manna.”
“And one,” she piped up. I made a face at her. “I don’t think he’s worried about being paid back.”
I stood there rubbing my temples. All of this for a stupid, cheap rattle that I no longer even wanted. After Andrei compelled me, my enthusiasm for helping him had withered. But I’d just lost a fortune and I intended to at least claim my prize. A prize that was rapidly being carried off by a Nephilim guard as they began to dismantle the auction set.
“Hey!” I called out, racing along until I caught up with the guard. “That’s mine.”
He frowned. He was young. Probably just a little older than Kai. “We’ve been instructed to acquisition all property for the hearing.”
I took in a slow breath. “I just paid a lot of money for that.” I pointed to the rattle sitting on top of the box he carried. “I’m not leaving here without it.”
To my utter amazement, he bent his knees and lowered the box in front of me. Sophie snatched the rattle when I stalled. “Thank you,” she said. He nodded and returned to his contraband goods acquiring.
“What?” I stuttered.
“I think it’s the Pendragon effect,” Sophie informed me.
I grabbed her and we teleported the hell out of there. Back in the dorm, Sophie set the rattle down on my bedside table and plonked herself on my bed. Adrenaline made me jittery. The merciless darkness that crossed Kai’s face played over in my thoughts.
“You don’t think Kai is really going to kill him, do you?”
Sophie’s deadpan expression was my answer. “Andrei almost got you contracted as a slave to the auctioneer. I think he’s already dead.”
My irritation at Andrei festered into concern when I tapped the bond and couldn’t trace Kai’s location. Worry lined my features when I slapped my hand on the mirror. “Victoria Amos.”
It was hard not to shudder when Victoria’s stern face appeared. Neither of us spoke for a full ten seconds, the novelty of the call surprising us both. Just about when it got way awkward, I managed to compose myself.
“Kai currently has Andrei in an unknown location. I can’t be sure what he’s doing to Andrei.”
Victoria’s lips puckered. “Was it justified?”
I recounted what happened. She made a parched hissing sound before cursing in an unknown Eastern European language. “There isn’t much I can do at this point.”
“What if Kai kills him?”
There was no change to her demeanour. “Maybe that will finally get it through Andrei’s head that he can’t keep going for the rest of his life as if nothing matters.”
“You have to do something!” My voice was incensed.
“Do you think I haven’t tried?”
“Try harder.”
She regarded me with what I thought might have been amusement. “It’s too bad you will never bear children,” she said. “I would so love to revisit this conversation with you then.”
“Well then, I suppose we’ll never know.”
“This is a perfect example of how you allow your emotions to rule you. Andrei doesn’t have that problem. His family –”
“Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit.”
Her eyes could not have widened farther. For a second, the dull quality of them darkened with flecks of red. “If Andrei didn’t care, he would have ended it years ago. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t act out in the hope of somebody calling him out on it. He’s many things, but uncaring? I don’t think so.”
She glanced furtively at me. “And even after the compulsion, you’re still worried about him?”
My top lip curled. “He can go to hell for all I care! I’m worried about what Kai is doing to him. And what that will do to Kai when he finally calms down and sees sense.”
She watched me with sharp shrewdness that said she didn’t believe me. “Malachi will do what’s necessary.”
“If only you had the same faith in Andrei.”
Sensing that we were getting nowhere, I ended the call. Durin was less than ambivalent when I called him to ask for help locating Kai. But he did concede that Kai might not be in his right mind at the moment.
“You know how to cure that, don’t you, lass?” he drawled.
“Don’t make me try and assassinate you a second time.”
His answering grin made me grind my teeth. That was until he yawned like he hadn’t slept properly in an age.
“Are you okay?” I felt like a broken recording.
“Aye. The borders of the Reserve are swarming with those human soul fissures. More each day. The low demons flock to them like ants on a carcass.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. He saw the flash of worry and waved it away. “It’s nothing you have to concern yourself with. I’ll have Max and Alistair scout for Kai. If we find him, you’ll be the first to know.”
The MirrorNet got there before Durin could. Four days later, I was in the middle of trying to balance the properties of a mind protection potion when Kieran let out a guffaw. He had a hand mirror stashed under the desk and he was choking on laughter.
“What gives?” Dev asked. They gathered around, and soon, Dev was shaking his head.
“How the mighty have fallen,” Sasha agreed.
“Boys,” Professor McKenna warned.
They promptly returned to their potions but not before the rumours had sparked. While Professor McKenna was occupied helping Orla with her potion, Kieran walked past my station and slid the mirror across the table to me.
Picking it up, I waved my hand across the reflective surface and dialled the volume down. The image that appeared had the knot in my chest winding tighter. Any relief I would have felt that Andrei was alive fled at the sight of him battered, bruised, and literally nailed to a cross. Not just any cross either. Romanian vampires were oddly religious. It had something to do with their belief that they were divinely created as a warrior race to purge their dimension of the unrighteous.
Kai spat in the face of that belief by nailing Andrei against the cross of the highest church he could find. It was daylight in Romania. Andrei wore no light amulet. Vampires weren’t as susceptible to iron as the Fae, but the blunted head of the stakes buried through his palms and elbow joints were caked in blood.
“At least he’s not dead,” Sophie said when we met for dinner.
“Not
yet,” Sasha added. A smile tugged at his lips.
“You think it’s funny?” I asked.
“I think he deserves more. I’m surprised Kai didn’t just snap his neck.”
“It has to be pretty painful up there.”
“So what? He’s a vamp. He’ll survive the pain and the injuries if he gets down soon enough.”
“You don’t like him.”
Sasha pinned me with his eyes and then shackled my wrist with cool fingers. “What’s there to like? In all the time we’ve known each other, how often have I decided it’d be funny to compel you?” He didn’t wait for me to give the obvious answer. “We all brushed off what happened in the games because we thought it was strategy. But the next time he makes you do something you don’t want, I’ll rip his heart out.” He glanced behind me. “Trey’s coming. Don’t mention it or he’ll lose his shit again.”
We dropped the topic, but Sasha’s words continued to ring in my ears. And then it was drowned out by caustic relief a day later when I turned the corner to the illusion training room and spotted the figure waiting for me by the elm tree.
Kai leaned with his back to the trunk, his right leg bent and pressed against the tree for support. A phantom force caught hold of me in a cosmic compulsion that had nothing to do with mind control.
I rubbed my left arm absently when I reached him, careful to keep a wary distance, I distracted myself by asking a stupid question.
“Are you okay?” Seriously, I needed to get a placard made and just hang it around my neck.
His reach was almost hesitant, but when his fingers curled around my upper arm, I allowed him to draw me against his chest. The bond flared with an intense flutter that made my stomach dip. “Are you?” came Kai’s response.
I looked up into green eyes backlit by gold. Swallowing down the urge to get up on my toes so that I could press my mouth to his, I nodded.
“I was worried you’d come back without the ability to speak,” I said. “Only grunts and snarls. Good job on the restraint –” His fingers dug into my arm. Not hard enough to hurt me but a frightening reminder that his control was absolute. That he chose when to allow himself off the leash, and when he did, Andrei would be begging for death.
“Killing him would be so easy,” Kai seethed. “That’s exactly what he wants. I’m done pandering to him. If I gave him what he deserves for what he did to you, he would be dead a hundred times over.”
“You did hit him pretty hard...”
“He doesn’t know the meaning of pain. If he returns now, how would you react?”
There was no question. “He would become very well acquainted with Morning Star.” His other hand came up to rest on my waist. He held me there tentatively, searching my face. It occurred to me that if I showed fear, Andrei would be dead for sure.
“You’re angry?” he asked.
I sputtered. “Angry isn’t the half of it. He compelled me! Again! I was helpless.” There I was again, unable to move as Jacob came closer with that blade. The bond flared in recognition. “I can’t be help –”
Kai clenched me to him, his arms tightening around me. He held me in place until the uneven thudding of my heart slowed. “Do you think there is anything I can do about my susceptibility to mind control?” I squeaked.
His thumb ran along the line of my jaw. For a second, I forgot to breathe. He tilted my head up and cupped my face in his hands. “I’ve searched,” he said, eyes soft to cushion the blow. “Professor Mortimer thinks that the reason you’ve managed to integrate so easily is because you’re predisposed to being convinced. You want to believe. It opens you up to being compelled. Unless we take away your free will completely, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“But that means any vampire can just force me to do what they want.”
The muscles in his forearms strained but his hold on me remained supple. “There is one way.” A loaded pause. “Nephilim have a high tolerance against compulsion. I’m impervious to it.”
The implications of his words chased through the bond. It held the knowledge out beseechingly. Like I needed further enticement!
“No.”
“Blue.”
“No!”
His jaw clamped. All of the tentativeness leeched away and was replaced by autocratic dominance. “When you accept the bond, you’ll be protected from compulsion.”
“When?” In his mind, it was a foregone conclusion. The target of my rage shifted. I tried to pry his fingers off, but they were planted well and good. “Let me go.”
The green in his eyes smouldered. “You spend all your energy fighting a bond that will do nothing but benefit you,” he snarled. There it was. I knew this calm couldn’t last forever. “But Andrei compels you against your will and you still feel bad for him.”
I cast around for something to club him in the head with. Weeks of pent-up retorts tried to spill over my lips, but I scooped them up and locked them back down. My relationship with Andrei was complicated. All Andrei needed was someone not to give up on him entirely. Andrei had to compel me to get me to do what he wanted. It was artificial, unnatural, and ultimately worthless.
The way I felt about Kai was the exact opposite. Every waking second, I had to fight against the pull of the bond and my own desire to give in to it. The moment I stopped fighting, it would overwhelm me, and I wouldn’t even feel guilty because it felt right.
On balance, I would rather be compelled. At least I would be oblivious.
Reaching up, I settled my hand over his. “I’m going into training now,” I told him. “You’re going to let me go, because even though it’s hard, it’s what I want.”
His hands peeled off with only slight resistance. I broke away and stepped back. “It doesn’t have to be hard, Blue.”
I snorted. “Everything is bloody hard!”
He didn’t follow me into the training centre. For the first time, I welcomed Giselle’s barbed insults and underhanded punches. The pain when she smacked me in the chin was negligible compared to the throbbing ache in my chest.
“You’re distracted!” she hissed.
“Thanks for the running commentary.”
I ducked her next swing and kicked out, planting my knee right into her gut. Her breath came out in a rush. She rolled to create some distance between us. “At least you’re not pulling punches again.”
No, I was not. Right now, I really needed to kill something.
The workout hardly eased all of the pent-up emotion eating at me. I tossed and turned for hours, making a mess of my sheets. Though I knew the Academy was temperature controlled, my skin felt like it was burning. Dammit! Relief that Kai was back and frustration at the relentless insistence of the bond warred against each other in my thoughts. I would give anything to be compelled not to feel this way.
Unfortunately, Sasha had already informed me that a compulsion would only blunt my understanding of what I was feeling. It wouldn’t stop me from actually wanting Kai. The bond would still be there, and Kai would still want me.
“In that state,” Sasha had said, “you’d have no context about why you’re fighting the bond and you’ll more than likely just give in.”
I had huffed. “You don’t know that!”
He smirked. “Right. Because women say no to Malachi Pendragon all the time.”
Witching hour came and went without relief. Finally, sick of trying to sleep, I got up and changed into sweats. Exhausting myself was a last resort. Phoenix and the yowies found it amusing to nip at my heels as I ran laps around the billabong. Months of physical training had improved my stamina. It meant the satisfying burn in my chest didn’t happen until the tenth lap. I took in long breaths of cool, sulphuric air, focusing on the scent to distract me from the bond.
For once, the universe took pity on me. As I rounded the path leading to the Grove for my twelfth lap, an eardrum-bursting scream broke the silence. My heart jerked in my chest. It was followed by a chorus of equally skin-peeling screeches. I stopped
dead in my tracks and veered off towards the Grove.
Grabbing onto the hedge magic as I reached the gate, I funnelled it into a thin blade and sliced through the barrier attuned to me. The spell shattered. Leaping over the gate, I tried not to wince at how easy that had been. Unsure what I would be walking into when I reached the clearing, I threw a protection circle around me and slowed to a jog.
Red and yellow streaks shot by me. Apprehension made my steps tentative. For weeks I had been Grove enemy number one. That they were effectively ignoring me was a bad sign. I hit the edge of the Arcana tree clearing and everything fell away into a pool of despair at my feet. No!
My chest ached. For over two years, I had laboured almost every day to help the Arcana trees grow. Now, in place of two trees that glowed with health, were two withered, broken carcasses.
34
The nymphs sagged on the grass around the blackened trees. Their wings were limp and drawn close to their backs. High-pitched keening sounds came from their throats.
“What happened?” I hissed.
The purple nymph rose from the pile of mourners. My circle was still intact, but she was in no state to attack. Footsteps crunched on the path behind me. A voice I didn’t recognise called out. “What’s going on here?”
Three Nephilim guards appeared around me. I didn’t know them. The male closest to me tried to grab my arm but he was rebuffed by the circle. I glared at him, in no mood to be manhandled while my brain was still trying to come to terms with what I saw.
The purple nymph sailed up to my eye level. Her glamour flickered between unattainable beauty and hideousness. And then it all fell away as she succumbed to a wave of hacking sobs. I dispensed with the circle and held out my hand. She landed on it, curling herself into a ball and bawling her heart out.
Tears pricked my eyes.
“Make some space, please.” The firm command of Thalia’s voice was a stark contrast to her politeness. She drew up beside me and gasped. “Heaven’s above.”
Peter arrived a second later with Jacqueline and Professor Mortimer. Over the sound of them rustling about, I heard low voices murmuring in the distance. Half the Academy must be awake.