Dark Ember

by R. D. Vallier

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Gasoline sloshed in the jerrycan; my shoulder sockets burned from the weight. Sickness squirmed in my stomach, fearing Orin's fate. "Why not demand your fire at the consulate? Or wait one more frigging minute so we could wipe Raina off your surface?" I grumbled, flying through the air. "Kill trees and harm the race who wants you destroyed. Two birds, one stone." Ugh! The Earth made no sense.

  The energies felt strange, as if ballooning like a groundswell, then … fizzle. Over and over. Lightning snapped sideways across a dry sky. Thunder followed, laughing.

  Something is wrong. I found Delano where he said he'd be, lightning flicking above him like a scorning finger. He staggered to his feet from his knees, his shirt smeared with blood from wiping his face. He lifted his hand to the sky as I descended. The energies did the groundswell sensation, then … fizzle. Delano collapsed to his knees, clenching his hair and wailing.

  I landed beside him, dropping the jerrycan. "What's wrong?"

  "I can't break out of intracloud lightning," Delano gasped. He looked faded, as if the night was syphoning his edges. Blood dripped from his nose. "The opposite charges are staying within the cloud. I'm trying to establish a ground connection, but something is junking the frequencies. The Earth keeps stopping me, believing I'm starting a rainstorm instead of a fire."

  "I brought gasoline and a lighter."

  "Oh thank God." He reached for the jerrycan, then slapped his forehead with the heels of his palms and wailed.

  "I'll do it," I said, screwing on the jerrycan's nozzle. "Tell me where."

  "Anywhere."

  I raced along the hill's base, splashing a stream of gasoline. I soaked the weeds, the shrubs, the tree trunks, until the jerrycan was empty and I felt lightheaded from fumes. Delano panted and wailed as if tortured behind me.

  I can't believe I'm committing arson, I thought, digging in my pocket for the lighter. I used to be such a good person.

  Something poked my finger. I removed what Orin snuck inside, and stared for a heartbeat until recognition came. It was the reflector shard I had slipped into his pocket after Sam slammed him unconscious. He kept this silly thing? A smile touched my lips. Orin had given me his lucky charm, it seemed, even though he needed luck the most.

  Delano wailed behind me. I shoved the reflector into my pocket and snatched the lighter. My magic grabbed its spark, creating a fireball, and I chucked it at the gasoline. Flames rocketed. Delano stopped wailing. I backpedaled to him as the blaze snaked.

  "Thank you," Delano gasped. He looked solid now, his breathing steadying as if he'd sucked a few shots of morphine. "I'm so sorry I left you at the consulate."

  "Don't be. Raina split like a coward, and Orin and Lyell have everything else under control." I hope.

  Delano lifted an eyebrow. "Who's Lyell?"

  I summarized what happened as Delano's hands twirled and glided through the air like a maestro. Wind bayed and rushed through the small valley, curling flames up the hillside. Within minutes, a flicker grew into a firestorm, gobbling brush and trees. Black smoke billowed in ever-expanding palls.

  Delano clasped my hand. "Let's get out of here."

  We flew to a ridge overlooking the burning hill and valley, and watched the destruction from a granite outcropping. The hill was a massive, burning mound, the belly of an unearthly furnace, devouring fuel and staining midnight orange.

  "Are we done?" I asked.

  "For now." Delano wiped his face clean with his shirt. "We'll see how fast the humans respond. We might need to repeat this. A lot." He sighed, then grinned at me. "I'll make sure to carry matches and cigarettes from now on."

  I smiled back at him, but I didn't feel happiness. I feared the humans would douse the flames before his territory was satisfied, and I worried how much this would hurt Delano in the future. I hated how vulnerable he'd been, unable to spark the fire. A sniffer could've killed him. I might have found him dead. I peered over the valley. The roaring forest fire chewed landscape as it climbed the hills, and I truly understood the ridiculousness of Delano's commitment to a system created when pollution and industrialization and a booming human population were incomprehensible. Over 6,400,000 acres. Over 10,000 square miles. And, now, one of the world's largest tourist attractions, where humans would retaliate using governments and scientists on anything they disagreed with, unknowing and uncaring he was forced to obey. It was easy to forget the world's massiveness when focusing on a tree, microbes, or a playful smile. But here on the cliff, watching the world burn, I burned too.

  Was this area even supposed to be Delano's territory? Or was he forced to serve as caretaker because darklings died and nobody else volunteered? My blood simmered; my heart ached. He governed what seven darklings should govern—fourteen if you counted partners—and his territory would expand until, when? He was the last darkling? Would he be forced to care for an entire country? The world? How, when one area needed fire, another needed rain, and both tore him apart to win? How much territory could he endure before destroying himself?

  This is outrageous, I thought, my hands curling into fists. He can't do this alone. He shouldn't do this alone. My insides bubbled, hot and seething. Worry consumed me, overshadowing my disdain for the Fathers, the Realm. I hated watching Delano fret and suffer. I wanted him to achieve his aspirations. I rooted for him. I wanted him to fulfill his purpose, and I wanted to help him, join him, spend every beautiful moment with him, as well as every goddamn frustration. I wanted—

  "I'll do it."

  "Do what?" Delano asked.

  "Become a darkling. You can't do this alone."

  Delano pulled back, his brow creased. "No. I don't want you manipulated into something out of fear and pity."

  "I'm not. I've given it a lot of thought. I want to help you, the night, the Earth. But more so, I need to, because…" I shrunk into my shoulders with a shrug. "Well, because you're my home. And I love you."

  Delano's eyebrows popped. "You do?" I nodded, smiling. "Honestly?" I kept nodding, my smile widening. His hands ran through his hair. His grin practically hit his ears. "Oh … Oh … Okay." He rolled his eyes to the heavens, laughing. "Okay!" I squealed as he bear hugged me and spun me in a circle.

  "It's painful," he said, as my feet found ground. "And you'll feel as if you're losing yourself, but it's fast! Doesn't feel fast, but—"

  "Are you talking me out of this?"

  "No!" he gasped, then noticed me smirking. He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I'm excited. Should I get down on one knee or something?"

  I laughed. "Please don't."

  "When do you want to take it?"

  "Now."

  "Serious?"

  I nodded, beaming, a heavy weight lifting at last. Tears brimmed, as if saying those three words—admitting my truth—had popped a cork. My heart raced. Anxiety released, and I finally felt excited over what I would gain instead of fearing what I might lose. I knew my grin made me look like an idiot, but I didn't care. The darkshine's origins became meaningless. Yes, when darklings stared into each other's eyes they saw their creator staring back, but that no longer scared me. They loved the God in each other, but I also loved the man.

  Of course I love him, I thought as Delano hugged and kissed me, his low voice murmuring his happiness. Orin is right. I've loved him for a while.

  I pulled shadows toward me. Delano drew a quick breath. "Wait!" I tensed, fearing sentries and encroaching flame. Delano brushed his thumbs over my eyebrows, down my temples, his two waning moons soaking up my face. "I want to memorize the brown eyes I fell in love with before I lose them forever," he said. "They're like our territory, you know. Wood flecked with granite and gold." His eyes watered. "I will miss them."

  My chest hitch-hitch-hitched. "I'm sorry I was too broken before to do this."

  "You've never been broken," he said, and kissed me.

  I called out to the night as Delano's lips pressed against mine. Come to me. Come to me. Come to me. I yanked on the energies
harder than ever. It rushed in, ramming light magic out of me and yanking Delano closer. He hugged me tight, his fingers clenching my back as if he couldn't join with me fast enough.

  I gasped and threw back my head, glimpsing a moon fading behind smoke. Delano kissed my throat as the night rushed into me with an overwhelming familiarity. It was the whirr of a coffee pot, a front door's creak. It was a beloved blanket on a favorite chair, pillows cradling a head before meeting dreams. It was everything comforting. Everything familiar. It was my birthright, and it was my home.

  It's always been home, I realized in Delano's embrace. Why couldn't I see it before?

  Come to me! Come to me! Come to me!

  Shadows stretched as if raising their cups. Moths flew in from the trees, circled me and Delano frantically as if we shined in the dark. Beyond Delano's lips, the rushing magic, and our two racing hearts, I heard their singsongs cheering.

  The night beckoned relentlessly.

  I'm ready now, I answered. I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm coming.

  The night exploded in a silent energetic rush, sending ripples throughout the air, across the territory and the night. Delano stumbled away from me, caught himself on a tree to keep from falling. The moths scattered like a birdshot blast, raced into the shadows. I held my ground, looking at myself, confused. I didn't feel as if I held as much night magic as I had in the past. No pain, no changing feeling. Delano steadied himself on the tree trunk, gazed at the stars. The night energies rippled. A stone crashing into a calm pool.

  "Uh, what happened?" I asked.

  "The darklings gained another."

  Odd. I don't feel different. My eyebrows perked with realization. "Oh, crap. James got his queen." Please let her be compassionate and not like him.

  "No. They took the darkshine here." Delano's edges blipped in and out of sight. He stared past me, his attention on the forest. "I got a new partner."

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  "Wha-what do you mean you got a new partner?"

  "She's near," Delano mumbled as if speaking to himself. As if I suddenly vanished from his life. "She's near and alone. I-I must find her." He darted into the woods without a glance back.

  "Del! Wait!" I pleaded, and sprinted after him. He bent the darkness, jumping huge strides. "I can't keep up! Del! I can't keep up!"

  Delano disappeared into the forest. I pulled night's magic into me, feeling him, feeling the imposter, a rippling merging sensation as the powers shifted. As she merged with night and darkness. As she merged with Delano.

  Maybe minutes passed. Maybe hours. The world became a dimension where everything dragged out while it happened too fast. I stumbled into a small clearing. Firelight backlit the trees in shifting angles, creating a valley of shadows. Delano knelt in the grass. My relief morphed into panic. I wanted to run away, to not witness the writhing naked woman, to not watch magic ravishing her body, to not see her face pressed to the dirt, her arms shielding her head as if practicing an air-raid drill. And to definitely not see Delano crouched over her, his hand rubbing her bare back.

  "It's okay," he soothed as she moaned. "It's almost over."

  He should be whispering to me. My insides liquefied, sloshed as dense as mercury. Smoke filled my lungs. The firestorm stained the sky like a satanic sunrise. Delano glanced around the forest, chest hitching as if the trees were closing in. He caught my eye. Is that sickness in his stare? Fear? Or am I seeing what I want to see?

  The woman sniffled into the soil and pawed for Delano. His attention snapped to her. He knelt beside her curled body, his hand soothing her shoulder. "You'll be okay."

  "I know," Raina replied, and peered up with blood moon eyes.

  I stumbled on watery knees. My heart turned to ash, and a cold wind blew through me, spreading the remains. My lungs constricted, my pulse stopped, and, somehow, I was being disemboweled.

  Raina peeled her nude body off my lover. I nearly vomited as she slid her hands, catlike, through her desert hair. My mouth opened, but no words came. The world muted, but the visual crisped, and that single moment stretched into a godawful, nauseating eon, as if Father Time was a sadist and I was his thrall.

  Delano slapped a hand over his mouth and encapsulated everything in two words: "Oh fuck."

  Raina stood slowly, her wide eyes gleaming passionately, blood crusting her lacerated forehead. "Oh! Oh! Oh my—Oh!" she said, as if seeing her darkling partner invoked an orgasm. My hands shook. My insides felt hypothermic. She licked her full lips as if expecting a sensual kiss. Delano's chest heaved and his eye twitched … but then his hand lowered from his mouth and, like a sailor to a Siren, he stepped toward her.

  The next moments raced faster than a heart in its death throes. I rushed Raina, screaming vitriol, backhanded her with a sound like the crack of falling icicles. She stumbled. I lunged, determined to beat the brains out of her skull as I should have done in the stairwell. Shadows exploded in black silence. My back rammed a tree and I gusted a loud woof before falling to my ass. I swayed to my feet. Delano stood between me and Raina, eyes blazing, magic dripping from his fingers.

  "Del…?" Delano glared at me, his chest heaving like a provoked and hungry wolf. My body numbed. I advanced a single step and his fists clenched.

  Raina giggled, wiggling her jaw. She slipped a hand into his, and their fingers curled together. "Don't you know to never harm a darkling's partner?"

  Raina's magic blasted me, and I might as well have returned to a Las Vegas penthouse. I screeched like a demoniac and attacked with my all. Not just my strength, but the life in my breath, the color of my eyes, the texture of my hair, my thoughts and dreams and memories. I offered myself as sacrifice, but it wasn't enough. Raina's magic plowed mine, a tidal wave against a garden-hose.

  She's too skilled to be new at this. She's been practicing night magic for a while.

  The moonlight dimmed to almost nothing. Sparrows dropped dead from the trees. I writhed and wailed in the sable onslaught, then a whack reverberated through the woods and everything stopped. The moonlight brightened. I lurched to my knees gasping as the night's magic wobbled on an unstable axis.

  "Wh-What are you doing?" Raina sputtered from the ground, peering up at Delano with her stolen, crescent eyes. The red handprint on her cheek practically glowed. "You can't do that! We're partners!"

  Delano snarled at her, magic coiling around his ankles. My heart returned, hammering and full. Yes! Yes! He's back! I lurched to my feet and charged, shadows whipping.

  "Don't touch her!" Delano snapped his magic and I flew six feet, striking my shoulder hard enough to tingle my spine.

  I gaped from the forest floor. "Del…"

  Firelight morphed the tear sliding down his cheek into a falling star. "Get outta here, Miriam."

  "No! I'll nev—"

  Raina shot magic, an ebon tsunami which blasted wood ears to dust. I shrieked and threw up my arms. Delano lunged into the hit, yowling.

  Yellowed pine needles rained over his fallen body like whirligigs. Grasses shriveled and died. "How dare you?" Raina screamed. She flung herself onto Delano's back like a wildcat. Delano snarled and bucked. Her fingers clawed his chest as if desperate to crack his rib cage and peek into the contents of his heart. I darted for him, but Delano's shadows snagged and spun me like spider silk. I struck his magic, kicked and pummeled, failing at breaking his restraints.

  Raina screeched as if she discovered her husband tangled in the bedsheets with the maid. "What's wrong with you?" She faced Delano, slapped his face, scratched his fighting arms. "I know you love me! So why do you betray me, you darkslime bastard? Why?"

  Magic swirled in an inky whirlpool. "I'm sorry," Delano said. I don't know if he spoke to me or Raina. Maybe both. The restraints broke; I toppled forward. The air wobbled and sucked, and Raina and Delano vanished as if falling into a deep, forsaken well.

  Flame crackled nearby, abnormally loud.

  "Del…?"

  My voice sounded lonely and small. Insignificant. Bl
ood surged hot through my veins as the moths abandoned me to find their new mistress. My feet darted one direction, then the other. Back. Forth. In a circle. My eyebrows scribbled diatribes across my forehead. My head swiveled, searching, searching. Searching for what? Delano? Help? Sanity?

  Tears pricked. Trees burned in an encroaching destruction. Magic rushed into me until my eyes rolled and my intestines clenched and a Come to me! Come to me! Come to me! rode through my bones on the heartbeat of the world. Malt became lavender. Singing glasses whined. I sensed Delano in the distance, his energy spiraling, frantic, out of control. And now another mixed with his. A burglar in my home. A stranger in my bed.

  Home-wrecker.

  I yanked on the night to join him. A door slammed in my face, knocking me onto my ass. I clambered to my knees and rammed the darkshine full-force. The door creaked, then slammed. I cried, scratching the energies, magic puddling like a cheap parlor trick. I rammed myself against the night until my nose gushed blood, and lavender burned sores on my tongue. My ribs strangled my heart. I crumpled to my knees and begged the night: "Let me into the darkshine! Please! Let me in! Let me be with him!"

  No, the night whispered. You're forbidden.

  "Then I'll find another way!"

  No.

  "Yes!"

  No!

  "YES!" I slammed my fists and wailed—an unnatural feral shriek without a shard of humanity in its pitch. It was the sound of a heart shattering, a life splintering, a dark ember popping into a newborn blaze. Raina's face stabbed my memory. Her tangled hair. Her malicious grin. The shock and yearning in her stolen, blood moon eyes as if she'd never seen Delano's beauty before this ugly night. I clenched my teeth. My shadows whipped. Firelight pranced along the boughs of a doomed forest. Magic is too merciful for that cunt. Bullets are too quick. I wanted to crack Raina's skull on the Sierra granite, strangle the giggles out of her throat until a pulp of gore stained my hands. I wanted to invoke my trailer park past, unleash my inner white trash. I wanted my nails to gouge her pretty little face, scar her, mark her, broadcast what a man-stealing bitch she was to the world. I didn't just want her gone. I didn't want her to just die. I wanted her to suffer. I wanted to crush the hope and joy out of her life as she crushed mine. I wanted her blood to soak into the territory she robbed. I vowed to spit lavender on her shallow grave.