by Ainsley Shay
He didn’t give me a chance to ask anything else before he changed the subject back to me, he said, “They’re almost over.”
I plopped down on the couch and put my head in my hands. “God, please tell me, there’s not another season of the Skelside Saga.” When I looked up, he was grinning. I didn’t think what I said was funny, but Chandler had apparently found humor in it.
“No.” He went to touch my leg but stopped. “Do you want to talk about what happened at the bookshop yesterday?”
I shook my head. There was a lot I wanted to talk about, but at the same time, I desperately wanted to forget all of it. I hadn’t understood how they could still be alive all these centuries later. “How is all this even possible?” I waved my arms out at nothing. “You, the nightmares, Blacwin...”
He looked at me; seriousness imprinted all over his face. “Iris, you are destined for something, but I honestly have no idea what it is.”
“Did you know I had a bad nightmare because we’re...” I couldn’t say the word brother aloud. Then, shit! What would my dad say if he knew he had a son, or a half -son?
“Yes. Some bonds are very difficult to break; I believe yours and mine are one of them.”
Bonds? I was so in over my head. The alarm on my phone beeped. “I have to be at school in an hour.”
“Yeah, well, I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not.”
“And you’re going to stop me how?”
I wanted to punt kick him right over the balcony. He was right, I couldn’t. Aside from my stubbornness and pride, I felt better knowing he would be there.
He got up. “I’m calling Blacwin to give him an update.”
Chandler and Blacwin had made it to the level of talking on the phone? I wondered if they had gone to the café yesterday to work out their differences over coffee. That would have been cute. I needed to clear my head before I went to school today. I went to sit on the balcony and propped my feet on the railing. Chandler’s voice carried out to me and I could barely hear what he was saying. “She’s getting close.” Pause. “No, nothing about you.” Pause. “I know. She’s going to find out and freak out again.” Pause. “She’s not over the last freak-out session.” Pause. “I don’t know if she believes me, she’s still processing.” Pause. “That other shit can wait. Right now it’s important that she get through the nightmares to see if she knows anything.”
My ears perked up at that. Were they using me?
“I’m going to be her shadow from now on.” Pause. “Dude, call her, I don’t know.”
Chandler came out and sat in the chair next to me.
Anger and confusion slowly seeped out of me. I used all the control I could gather when I asked my next question. “What do you want from me, Chandler?”
He sighed. “You have an answer locked away in that pretty little head of yours, and there are people who will die or kill to find out what it is.”
“Including you?”
He looked out over Main Street and sighed. “Yes.”
39
I got through the day without incident until I was on my way to Chandler’s car. He had appointed himself my personal chauffeur and bodyguard. Trust was not a word in his vocabulary. Chandler was leaning against his car. The expensive prop did nothing to impress the very audible Snow, who stood with him. So now, he wasn’t so much a bodyguard as a boyfriend in trouble, and trying to make amends with Snow. She walked away and caught a ride with a friend. Over her shoulder, she held up her cell phone letting me know she would call me later. As I crossed the campus, I was never happier knowing Chandler was near. Mr. Pene, Penemuel, was heading directly in my direction.
“Hello, Miss Thorn. I’m sorry to hear that you have transferred out of my class.” I ignored him and tried to walk passed him, but he blocked my way. “You know, the first time I saw you was at your father’s funeral. Well, not the first time...” He chuckled to himself. “You know what I mean.”
I had known what he meant. Who says crap like that? He had been keeping tabs on me since I got into town. It made me wonder if he planted that deer on the side of the road to run out in front of my car. That was a crazy thought, but he had to be the one to break into my apartment and our house.
“It’s been what?” He looked up to the sky as he calculated something. “Twenty-six days since your father’s death.” He was right, but why was he keeping track? “I’m through playing games, Miss Thorn. By now you should have what I need.”
Chandler was at my side. I didn’t know where he came from, but I didn’t care. “Hey, Penemuel, how’s it going?”
How’s it going? Chandler baffled me more than anyone else on the planet did.
“I was telling Miss Thorn how disappointed I was that she transferred out of my class.”
Chandler eased me behind him. I felt the urge to run. I didn’t want to be part of whatever was getting ready to go down.
“Aw, yeah, I can see you being disappointed with that. But, I’m pretty sure she values her life more than your lessons.” Chandler turned at the waist toward me. “Did he ever tell you what his name means?”
I was still on the ‘values her life’ part as I shook my head.
“Penemuel chose his name from a fallen angel who corrupted mankind through writing.”
My mouth gaped open. The memory of the painted dome rushed in. It wasn’t colorful like in my dream, but I remembered the details.
Chandler looked at the screen on his phone. “Someone’s been looking for you, they’ll be here in... oh a—now.”
Penemuel glanced over his shoulder. I peered around Chandler to see Blacwin’s Jeep pull into the lot. He parked and jumped out. My stomach dropped when he started toward us. It felt like forever since I had seen him, and it hit me hard how much I missed him. I touched my lips with the tips of my fingers remembering the feel of the kiss we shared.
“Just like old times,” Chandler said with an added jeer and open arms.
A wiry grin slipped across Penemuel’s face. It was pure evil I saw come to life in his eyes.
“Maybe we should take this somewhere else?” I suggested.
“Good idea, sis.”
Penemuel’s head whipped around at those words. “Sis? She knows?”
His words were like a knife slicing through my insides. I hadn’t wanted to think about that little piece of added stress, so I conveniently shoved the tidbit to the back of my brain for possible later use. But, hearing Sis, and Penemuel confirming what Blacwin and Chandler had both tried to tell me, turned the morsel into a mouthful. It wasn’t that they had reason to lie to me; it was the unbelievability of that newsflash that had thrown me.
Through a wicked smirk, Penemuel said, “That means she’s close.”
Whatever they meant, I did not like the sound of those words.
Blacwin looked like he was on the verge of killing someone. Holy crap! It only took a second to put together what was going down right in front of me. Saturday, when Blacwin and Chandler stood in a face off at the bookshop was nothing compared to the looks of hatred Blacwin and Penemuel traded. Pure repulsion radiated from Blacwin. Penemuel absorbed all of it with a grin on his face and humor in his eyes.
“Hello, brother,” Penemuel said in a teasing voice.
Did I hear that right? Brother?
Pure hatred and rage surrounded the four of us. We totally needed to take whatever was going on here somewhere else. I tugged on Chandler’s arm to get his attention. On my tippy toes, I whispered in his ear, “We really should be getting out of here.”
Agreeing, he nodded. I pulled him toward the parking lot to his car. My shoulder brushed Blacwin as I walked past him. Our eyes caught hold of one another’s for a brief second. The pain I saw was so deep, it made my stomach hurt. I wanted to bend at the waist, clutch the agony in my fist, and squeeze until it dissolved.
If it weren’t for Chandler guiding me toward his car, I would have stopped, turned, and ran back to Blacwin. “Keep
going, sis. We need to get you out of here and somewhere safe.”
It was still weird to hear him call me that. I had a long lost brother. Maybe not lost, but recently acquired.
I glanced over my shoulder to see them following us to the parking lot. Blacwin was a few steps behind Penemuel. His eyes shifted from Penemuel to me. I wanted him to say something to me, anything. His gaze fell back to Penemuel and I turned to face forward. I wondered where on this planet would be a safe place for me.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Chandler unlocked and opened the door for me. I slid into the passenger seat of the Porsche. I wish he had driven the beat up truck. It sat higher and I felt safer in it, but this was probably faster in case we needed to get away.
I watched Blacwin climb into his Jeep. The doors were off like they had been when we went to the lake—when he’d promised me I wouldn’t fall out as he turned the corner. That seemed like forever ago. God, so much had happened, changed, and become so screwed up.
“The cemetery.”
I stiffened. “Chandler, I—”
“It’s the only place around here that’s private and free of any humans.”
Humans? “I’m human.”
“Sort-of. But you don’t count.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, come on, don’t get all sensitive.” He patted my leg and gave me a crooked grin.
We sped toward the last place I wanted to go. I hadn’t been back since that miserable day. Guilt had crawled up my throat.
“What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, unable to speak. Tears I hadn’t let fall in so long threatened to betray me. If one fell, there would be thousands more that would follow and now wasn’t the time to lose that control. The large oaks shaded the entrance of the cemetery.
“He wasn’t my father, but I know what it feels like to lose someone.”
I took a chance and looked at Chandler. He was looking straight ahead. I never expected to hear something like that from him. The sensitive side of Chandler had come out on more than one occasion, and each time it still caught me off guard. Although, I was more used to his cocky-so-sure-of-himself attitude that overshadowed most his waking hours.
We parked in the older part of the cemetery, and for that, I was thankful. Blacwin’s Jeep pulled up alongside us, and Penemuel next to him. I had no idea what the purpose of this confrontation was, and I didn’t think anything good would come from it. “Should I stay here?”
“Come on, I won’t let anything happen to you,” said Chandler.
I hadn’t known how he could protect me if anything happened. Blacwin, I thought, would never hurt me. But he wasn’t the one I was concerned about; Penemuel made me nervous as crap. I sure as hell didn’t want to be caught in the middle of their battle. As I stepped out of the car, Blacwin climbed out of the Jeep.
“How are you holding up?” Blacwin asked.
“I’ve been better.”
He nodded, as though he understood exactly what I was feeling.
“Iris?”
Hearing my name come out of Penemuel’s mouth caused an icy chill to crawl up my spine and ignite every hair on my head.
“Don’t talk to her.” Blacwin stood in front of me, blocking me from Penemuel.
“I was only going to ask how she was getting along without her father.”
I wanted to lunge at him. Chandler must have felt the hate-filled energy coursing through my veins because he grasped my arm and held me in place. Penemuel chuckled. In unison, the four of us began to walk deeper into the cemetery. Crumbling tombstones and statues surrounded us, and I thought of Adelina’s statues.
Blacwin stopped under a large oak and turned on Penemuel. “What do you want?” Blacwin’s eyes were turning darker than I had ever seen.
Penemuel glanced over his shoulder and said, “The same thing you do.”
My father’s warning slammed into me so hard I felt like I had been knocked into a brick wall. Every ounce of safety I’d felt dissolved. He told me they would come for me, and they had. The ones my father had warned me about surrounded me. Snake-like knots twisted and roiled in my stomach.
“For a very different reason,” Blacwin said.
Penemuel shook his head. Disappointment etched over his face. “Such a shame. He raised you like a son.”
Chandler was quiet during their coded exchange.
“It seems we are at a standstill, Brother, or until she gives it up.” Penemuel glanced in my direction.
Blacwin said nothing. I was clueless as to what I was supposed to give up. Maybe if I knew, and told them what they wanted, all this would be over. “Can someone tell me what the hell you guys want from me?”
“Iris, don’t.” Chandler rested his hand on my shoulder.
“Why not?” I didn’t expect an answer, so I ranted on. “I want to see an end to all this. I’m tired of being in the dark with all of your creepy-ass shit. You guys might be used to it, like it even, but not me.”
I turned and started to walk away. Blacwin was in front of me before I could blink.
“Iris, you may be the only other one, besides Adelina deBlays, who knows how to kill Lord Darenfys.” His voice was strained and tinged with desperation.
At the sound of that dreadful name, I stiffened with fear. “What? Why?” I couldn’t wrap my head around what he had said. None of it made any sense.
“Now that you know what we want, you can stop screwing around and tell us,” Penemuel said.
“Don’t tell him,” Blacwin blurted out.
Why would they think that I knew? The plot of how to kill a fallen angel would just come to me in a dream? Oh shit! That was completely what they thought. “It doesn’t matter because I don’t know.” The three of them were now staring at me. Disbelief on Penemuel’s face, shock on Blacwin’s, and relief on Chandler’s. “And, you know what, I don’t care.”
I started to walk away again, but spun back around and faced them. “Why don’t you guys tell me something for once?” I knew what I was about to ask would have irrevocable consequences that could never be rectified, but I had to know. “Which one of you killed my father?”
None of them spoke for a long moment. I slowly gazed each of their faces. When my eyes met Penemuel’s, his mouth curved into a hellish smile that answered my question. I wanted to scream and kick and thrash, rush at him with a blunt knife and kill him. I did none of those things because when I looked at Blacwin, then Chandler, neither of them looked surprised. Blacwin closed his eyes and pursed his mouth. Chandler’s head fell forward like he had just been caught at something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. All this time, they had known who killed my dad. It was almost as unforgivable as the murder itself. They had all played me right into their fucked-up game, and I had let them. I let them lead me around as easily as luring a child to Disney World.
I did walk away then, and they let me go.
40
Chandler caught up to me as my phone buzzed with a text. I glanced at the screen. It was better than having to look at Chandler. It was from Blacwin. I stopped when I read the text. I felt his stare on my back. When I turned around to look at him, he mouthed, “I’m sorry.” His text said he’d had a feeling Penemuel was the one, but he wasn’t sure. I wanted to believe him; so badly I did, but I couldn’t erase the way his face had looked, guilty and ashamed. The ache in my chest was so painful, but it hardly over-rode the need to get away from Penemuel and the feeling of wanting him to suffer the most horrible kind of death; if he could even be killed. That thought struck me hard. What were they? Mr. Yves had told me Lord Darenfys was a fallen angel. Were Blacwin, Chandler, and Penemuel fallen angels?
I hated Chandler at that moment for wanting to be my personal bodyguard. I just wanted to climb in my own car and drive far away from all of them. Neither of us spoke until he pulled to the curb in front of the bookstore.
“I didn’t know, I only suspected,” he said.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Like ten minutes ago. I got out of the car and started up the stairs. I didn’t try to stop Chandler from coming in. Whatever he had slung over his shoulder, he slid it off and dropped it on the floor near the couch. “Is that a sleeping bag?”
“Yes.”
Humph! I stomped to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. If I was honest with myself, I was happy he was here. With Penemuel out there somewhere, I had to admit, I felt safer with him here. I took off my clothes and stood under the shower. Hot streams of water raced down my back. I pressed my fingers into the stiff muscles at the base of my neck. When the water began to cool, I turned it off and dried.
A cloud of steam followed me out of the bathroom. Chandler had set up camp in between the coffee table and the TV. His long body was in the way to get to the bathroom and the kitchen. Blacwin was at the forefront of every thought. But, I still wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. What happened today was too fresh. I needed some time to clear up everything that had happened today, and the nightmares, before I got more involved with him; if I ever got involved with him again.
I almost got up enough nerve to ask Chandler, who or what, I was falling for, and what they were, but I chickened out. The last time I had asked, he ignored me. After the response I got today with my question about my dad, I wasn’t ready to hear something else I wouldn’t be able to forget.
I got a glass of water and brought it to the bedroom. It was still early, but I was exhausted. After I had settled in, Chandler came and sat on the end of the bed by my feet. “Are you still mad?”
“Oh, no, I’m perfectly fine. Forgive and forget, right?”