by Dannika Dark
“I’ve waited a long time for this,” Cyrus said, basking in his words. “A long time.”
The whip struck Niko again, and he grimaced.
“Take off the shirt. I don’t want to get blood on it. Those are your special clothes, brother. We must take good care of them.”
Niko didn’t have to comply—Lykos and Arcadius had already lifted the garment away. Niko seethed. He wanted to fight back, but his team’s lives were more important than his discomfort and pride.
“What are you doing!” Gem shrieked.
Niko snapped his head up to the purple light streaking into the room. “Go in the other room, Gem.”
“You can’t let them do this!”
Cyrus’s laugh was low and malicious. “Foolish girl. He has surrendered himself as my slave, and he is bound to me. A slave who steps out of line must be punished for his insolence. If he chooses to fight, it’s at his own peril. Or yours. Or perhaps that young boy you think you’re protecting. Or perhaps so many others connected to your team. Where should I start first?”
Gem’s light was no longer deep amethyst and silver. The deep blue flutters indicated she was afraid, but she was also angry and confused. Niko could read every detail as her emotions fluctuated, including her strength and determination to win.
“Please don’t do this,” she begged.
The whip struck Niko again. Lykos and Arcadius released their hold, and Niko fell forward.
Gem choked back a sob. “I’ll do whatever you want. Please.”
When Niko heard a slap, he shot to his feet and launched himself at Lykos. It was his energy that pulsed just moments before Gem fell. Niko struck Lykos with a closed fist and then put him in a choke hold. Niko squeezed the trachea, so much rage powering through him that he would have cut off this man’s head if there had been a sword in his hand.
Gem shrieked, and by the scuffle and grunting, it sounded as if someone was holding her down. Niko lost focus. His eye exploded with pain when Lykos struck him. When Niko fell onto his back, someone grabbed his ankle and locked a metal object around it.
“Hold him still,” Cyrus ordered, his patience wearing thin. “He has no power anymore.”
Niko felt the absence of his core light for the first time in his immortal life. The link that had once been around Gem’s ankle was now around his, and the place deep down that had once held his immortality now felt like an abandoned lighthouse. He had no sense of his energy, and though his powers were only suppressed, it was the first time in almost two thousand years that he felt mortal again.
Vulnerable.
Fragile.
And it was dark. So very dark. His gift to see energy was now gone, thrusting him back in the world where he once lived as a boy.
“Will you do anything?” Cyrus mused.
“I could kill you all,” Gem declared in a small voice as if toying with the idea.
“Including your friend? Do so,” Cyrus challenged her. “Show us your powers.” He erupted with laughter.
Gem had little control over her energy balls and how destructive they could be if not properly formed and launched. Niko had seen the energy for himself, and it was immense. But he knew she’d never be so reckless as to wield her power within a small space. Not only could Cyrus and his men flash out of the way by the time she created an energy ball, but Gem could inadvertently kill everyone in the process, including herself.
“What a shame,” Cyrus remarked. “I was curious what gifts you might be hiding in those tiny hands of yours.”
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Do you see that feeble man before your feet? If you don’t do as I ask, I’ll whip him more. His wounds won’t heal with that cuff on. I’ll make him suffer.”
Gem gasped.
“Return to your home and bring me the book.”
Niko struggled against the two men holding his arms. “Gem, don’t.”
“I can’t give you the book,” she argued, ignoring Niko. “I don’t have it. I don’t know where to look.”
Niko winced when Cyrus kicked him in the back.
“This one will never tell,” Cyrus said. “But you’re a crafty woman. I have faith you’ll find it now that you have the right motivation. If you succeed, I’ll remove the cuff from his ankle. He still remains my servant, but he’ll live.”
“And if I fail?”
“Have you ever seen a man flayed? I can also rupture his eardrums and pour liquid fire in there so he’ll never hear again.”
“Don’t do it, Gem,” Niko insisted. “Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t keep promises.”
“Oh?” Cyrus walked in front of Niko. “I promise that Kallisto is ready to end a life. I won’t say whose life, but would you like to find out if I keep my promises?” He snapped his fingers. “Lykos, lock him up for now. Arcadius, please escort the Mage partway home. She’ll have to walk the rest of the way barefoot.”
Lykos gripped Niko by the hair and yanked him up, a sharp knife poking against his back. Niko tried to resist, but the blade threatened to pierce his spine.
“I don’t even know what I’m looking for,” Gem whimpered.
“A book,” Cyrus said matter-of-factly. “An old book with red leather binding. The pages are old, but they shouldn’t be damaged. And the first page has a symbol of the ouroboros. Do you know what that is?”
“I don’t care. Niko, please tell me where it is,” she pleaded.
Niko paused near the hall, and Lykos let him. They wanted him to answer.
But he couldn’t. Even at the risk of Keystone, that book could never fall into Cyrus’s hands. Especially now that Cyrus knew about Gem’s ability to decipher language. She didn’t realize it, but she was about to become his instrument. Gem would probably jump at the opportunity to learn something new, but she had no idea of the repercussions.
Knowledge is power, and the knowledge inside that book had the power to destroy.
Gem flashed home after Arcadius dropped her off a mile from the mansion. They had blindfolded her and put her in the trunk so she couldn’t identify their location. She had a number to call when she was ready, and they would provide her with a destination point to meet. Cyrus knew their home was protected, so he took no chances.
Gem couldn’t get out of that car fast enough. She had spent the entire drive wondering if she should wield an energy ball and destroy Arcadius as soon as he opened the trunk, but he had the power to shield himself. Aside from that, Niko was still in danger, and no telling who else Cyrus planned to target.
Once Gem found the book, she’d figure out the rest. After punching in the code to the gate, she slipped between the iron bars as it opened and flashed up the road.
A wolf exploded into view, gathering speed and bounding toward her. Gem shrieked. When she reached the locked door, she spun on her heel and sharpened her light to blast the animal before it tore her apart.
The wolf slowed his pace, his coat as black as midnight. Before he reached her, his sharp canines disappeared and his tail started wagging. Gem held off her attack, uncertain if he was friend or foe. When the black wolf sniffed her, he lifted his head and howled. Other wolves in the vicinity howled back, and a chill ran up her spine.
Gem pounded her fist on the door. A few seconds later, the door swung open and Wyatt gaped down at her.
“Son of a ghost! Where did you come from?”
She briefly took notice of his Déjà Boo shirt of a ghost. He looked so normal considering their world was crumbling around them. “Why are there wolves?”
Switch appeared behind him, his long hair framing his stern face. “Are you alone?”
She pushed her way inside.
Wyatt gripped her arm. “Where have you been? Why are you still in a nightgown? If this was some kind of prank—”
She wrested her arm free. “I don’t have time to talk to you.” Without answering his questions, Gem hurried up the stairs.
“Hold your ponies,” Wyatt called from behind her.
“You can’t just ditch us in the middle of the night and come strolling in like nothing happened. I’ve fallen out of contact with Keystone, Niko vanished looking for you, and all hell’s broken loose.”
She flashed to get ahead of them and made it to the second floor. Niko had a room on the same floor as her but nowhere near her room. Gem had a nice view of the courtyard, but when she opened the door to Niko’s room, he had no view at all. She had been in his room twice but never took notice of anything other than the wardrobe. His space was so dark that she had to retrieve a lantern from the hall to see in front of her nose.
Once inside, she closed the door behind her and slid the lock into place. The first thing she noticed was the wood floor against her bare feet. Why hadn’t she thought to put wood in her room? It was so warm and inviting. She remembered him once saying how he liked the feel of wood, how it had a life to it. It was once trees, and now those living things were artifacts of a former life. A mink blanket covered his bed on the left side of the room. At least, she thought it was mink. Today’s artificial furs made it impossible to tell. It felt luxurious beneath her fingertips as she made her way to the bedside table on the left. Usually people put lamps on them, but his had no personal or decorative items.
She set the lantern down and searched the drawers. The top drawer had a burlap pouch with something crushed up inside. It smelled like flowers, but she wasn’t good at identifying scents. The bottom cabinet held a neat stack of knitted hats on the right and gloves on the left. Everything was so organized and simplistic.
Gem got up and went to the wardrobe on the opposite side of the room. He had replaced the pulls with ones that were knobby glass, and it occurred to her that everything in his room was about space and texture. When she opened the doors and looked at his black shirts, a terrible pang clenched her heart. The pink shirt she’d slipped in there was staring her right in the face. Gem ripped it off the hanger and flung it onto the floor, furious that she’d been so insensitive. It was only a reaction to his all-black attire, but what right did she have mocking someone’s disability?
Niko was offering himself to Cyrus as a slave in order to save Gem, and what generous thing had she ever done for him?
“Well, that’s going to change,” she muttered.
Different styles of black pants were neatly folded at the bottom. Gem lifted each one to search for a hidden book. She even pulled the heavy wardrobe away from the wall to look behind it. Alas, there were only a few cobwebs. Niko kept his shoes lined up against the wall to the right of the wardrobe, all below a long bench. Every other shoe had a pair of socks rolled up in it.
Wyatt and Switch were banging their fists on the door, but Gem took her time, tapping and pushing on every single wood plank in the flooring. She’d seen enough movies to know about trick floors and secret hiding spots. After that, she tugged and pushed on the stones in the walls, but none of them came loose or activated a secret hiding spot.
The bathroom had absolutely nothing of interest but a standing shower, toilet, and sink. But she checked inside the toilet tank, just to be thorough.
“Will you open the door?” Wyatt shouted, his fist still banging. “I’ve got a chain saw, and I’m not afraid to use it.”
Gem sat on the edge of the bed and thought about the countless rooms in the mansion. This could take eons! She considered Niko’s warning. He didn’t want Cyrus to have this object, even at the risk of people’s lives. Gem had always respected Niko as her elder, but was he making the right choice for Keystone? Older immortals were often emotionally detached and therefore impervious to death. They knew everyone died eventually, and so they were less likely to make emotional decisions.
Gem was about as emotional as they came. His unwillingness to compromise could bring death and destruction to those she cared about, and she couldn’t let that happen.
She wrung her hands and remembered Cyrus’s description of the book. Red leather binding and old paper. That described so many books that she’d seen in her lifetime. But the symbol… something about an ouroboros rang a bell.
The door shook when someone kicked it. After another second, it swung open and struck the wall.
Switch lowered his foot and looked at the broken frame. “I’ll fix that later.”
Wyatt hustled in and knelt in front of her. “What’s going on, kiddo? You can’t shut me out of this. Are you in trouble?”
“We’re all in trouble. Niko especially.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I have to find something.”
“You mean clothes?” He glanced at her scant attire. “Are you hurt? Never mind. You’re a Mage, so probably not. But you know what I mean.”
She slowly shook her head.
Switch remained in the hall, which put her at ease. He wasn’t supposed to get involved in their affairs, and she didn’t know him well enough to trust him. Hunter poked his head in. Switch quickly took his hand and led him away.
“Oh, Wyatt. I’m so awful at making decisions. I don’t know if I’ve made the right one.”
“I felt that way in 1973 when I bought a Gremlin. It had a red stripe down the side.”
She pulled his slouchy beanie over his face. “When’s the last time you shaved?”
“Probably the last time I slept.” He yanked the hat off his head, his hair sticking out in all directions. “What are you looking for in Niko’s room?”
Gem pondered for a moment whether she should keep Niko’s secret, but this house was enormous, and she didn’t have much time. “A book.”
Wyatt snorted. “Then you’re in the wrong room, sister. Who’s looking for a book?”
“Some guy who’s after Niko.”
“Is that who took you?” Wyatt scratched his neck. “What happened to you?”
Her heart pounded against her chest when she thought of drowning again. She’d never experienced anything so terrifying. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
Wyatt leaned back and tilted his head to the side. “Is he Asian?”
She furrowed her brow. “How did you know?”
“I’ve seen one of his dead buddies hanging around lately.”
“The rest of his friends are alive.” Tears welled in her eyes when she remembered the whip cracking against Niko’s back. “I have to find that book. I just have to!”
“Fine. What’s the title?”
She gave an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know! He just said it was old with a red cover.”
Gem froze when a light bulb went off. Could it be? She remembered the old book in her secret study that she’d never been able to decipher. Occasionally she would pull it out to compare the archaic language to the new books she purchased. Lately she’d been too busy with work to fool with it. When Viktor had given her that room, it already had a few books in there, but that wasn’t one of them. It turned up later, but she couldn’t place the exact time. Could Niko have found her secret room and put it in there? But why?
Because he knew she’d keep it safe. He knew she’d never dispose of a book, especially one she hadn’t translated. Everyone knew how much Gem loved a challenge, and Niko was probably confident that she would never decipher the symbols in that book. She thought back to the day she first found it on the bottom shelf, intentionally out of view.
Gem sprang to her feet, knocking Wyatt onto his butt. “By George, I think I’ve got it!”
With lightning speed, she flashed out the door just as nimble as a fairy. When she reached the first floor, she sped toward the hall on the east side. Gem finally stopped at the recessed alcove where the secret door was located. She lifted the lantern off the wall and went inside the room.
Her latest discoveries littered the large work table. She placed the lantern on a hook near her reading chair before locating the large red book and placing it on the table. The spine crackled as she opened it up and turned to the first page. Right there in front of her this whole time was a symbol of a snake eating its tail.
“Eureka!”
She hadn’t made the connection when Cyrus mentioned an ouroboros. Gem had opened this book dozens of times but always skipped to different sections. Just like a cream-filled chocolate, it was the middle that mattered. Gem scooped the book in her arms and sat down in the leather chair in the corner. Cyrus wouldn’t expect her to find it this quickly, so maybe she had time to figure out what she was dealing with.
Gem sat there for a long while, flipping the pages and analyzing the symbols. Just when she was about to close the book and call Cyrus, she came across a glyph that looked familiar.
“I’ve seen this before,” she whispered, the Relic knowledge in her mind flipping like the pages in a book.
Not everything a Relic read was put to memory. They had selective memory, and any new material they wanted to string to their DNA, they memorized at will. So whatever that symbol represented wasn’t something in her Relic knowledge, but she’d seen it. And recently.
Recently.
Gem stood up and set the book on the table. The only books that she’d been looking at lately were the ones acquired at Pawn of the Dead. She grabbed a shawl from the back of her chair and draped it over her shoulders before searching her shelves.
Gem found the fragile book and gingerly opened it. It was handwritten in an extinct Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia. On some of the pages, above the passages, were symbols written with a different ink—a more modern one, because it was blue. Gem held her breath when a symbol caught her eye. She looked back at the red book and saw that they were an identical match.
Identical!
“Behold, I have found the key!” she sang. Gem jumped up and retrieved her pen and paper. This was when the magic happened.
The newer writing must have been direct translations of select passages. It could have been notes, but she decided to go through and analyze each one. Some languages using symbols weren’t structured the same. The shapes might represent a phrase or have separate scripts, or it could be a combination of sounds to form words. Gem could easily translate the original language in the small book, and once she connected the patterns between those words to the symbols written above some of the passages, she could tackle Niko’s book.