The raised lines on their forearms slightly swelled as Bruno’s hair grew dark, his body becoming harder, paler. He looked down at his hands. “Aah!” The Captain whipped his head back towards his friends. “Kerif! I never asked you to make me look like Saros!” he wailed.
“You said ‘something scary!’ ” Kerif called back defensively from the mist.
Bruno sighed, staring down at the cross on his chest and the fetters that crawled up nearly to his elbows. “Scary is not the same as creepy,” he mumbled. He looked up to see Evangeline’s lithe frame bending around Kittie’s makeshift staff, her sharp knuckle duster barely catching the girl’s round cheek. “Okay, that is not cool. Vic, I’m counting on you!” he shouted as he ran towards them, trailing smoke and launching his razor-edged coins with an unnatural force.
In the tense moments before his tiny weapons met their target, the markings behind Evangeline’s ears blazed softly, pulling her head towards the direction of the attack. In that brief instant, she turned, brought her wrists together, and then dragged the heel of her left hand down her right arm, stopping at the inside of her elbow. She had created a gauntlet just in time to raise her arm, a handful of coins embedding themselves painlessly in the blackened bones. Bruno didn’t hesitate, continuing to rush forward, drawing an imitation of Jeremy’s sword before the gloom of the smoke cloud completely enveloped them.
“Careful who you pretend to be. I might not have killed you if you didn’t look like such an offensive person,” she said, her voice untroubled as his blade caught in her gauntlet. “Why would you want to look like him? Without the illusion, you’re actually sort of cute, really.” Evangeline pulled her arm down and Bruno stumbled as he was dragged towards the ground by his sword.
The Captain’s eyes widened for a moment before he let go of his weapon, flattening himself to the ground. “Vic, now!” he yelled out before his sudden, powerful sweep to her ankles slammed her to the broken concrete below. He scrambled away from Evangeline, struggling to stand as he covered as much distance as possible. “Kerif, she can see through it! Change something else! Fec, it’s not gonna work as cover — try another! Vic, stay with me!”
Kittie jumped back into the fray, bringing her pole down to strike the momentarily dazed Arch. Evangeline caught the weapon, pulling her adversary down with her, a sharp kick sending the small girl skidding over the rocks and weeds.
Evangeline giggled as she slowly stood, turning her attention back to the pirates. “Appearing like Saros in a fog…was that supposed to do something? You still can’t fight for shit.” She pulled the sword from the blackened bones, casting it aside, uninterested, as it transformed into a splinter of wood. The Arch eyed the raised lines on the pirates’ forearms. “You’ve got Mods. Hmm, I thought only Tregenne was into imbedding Intercessor frags.”
Kerif dropped the rest of the illusion, sighing, while the other three exchanged uneasy glances.
Her sweet chuckle erupted into raucous laughter. “You’re really them? Who knew the world was so small? We really did an awful job wiping Madeline off the map if not only Saros and his tumor there walked away from it, but you pirates too? I’ll have to remedy that.”
As she rushed towards Bruno, a look of resolve hardened his features. “For the Ugh!” he screamed as he launched two more sets of coins from his knuckles.
“No new tricks?” Evangeline snorted as she moved to block the attack with her gauntlet. Her intake of breath caught in her throat as she coughed, her head jerking away from the acrid smoke that suddenly curled around her face. She kept her arm raised, shaking as she blinked hard with her red, watering eyes, but the blackened bones were a weak defense.
The coins followed the path of Vic’s outstretched hand, colliding with the gauntlet, grinding through the bones, and splashing over the obstacle like water, finding their way into her flesh. She shrieked in pain, stumbling back as Kerif came forward, his fingers brushing against her eyelashes. “See through that one!” he laughed, peering at her to admire the results of his illusionary handiwork.
A broken grin distorted her face. “If you insist,” she whispered between her painful coughs. Evangeline lunged towards Kerif, who was only saved by Vic yanking him back by his hair. The dreadlocked pirate howled as he fell, while Evangeline nearly collapsed in his lap as Kittie struck her from behind with her metal pole. The small girl dropped to her knees, gasping for air.
Fec quickly put his cigarette out beneath his sandal as they all stared down at the fallen Arch. “What do we do now?” Kerif asked softly, rubbing his head.
“Don’t take this as a sign that you can win.” Jeremy stood above Evangeline, his voice toneless and his eyes distant.
The pirates jumped at his sudden appearance. Bruno plunged his hands into his pockets, grabbing for more coins. “Don’t underestimate us. We’ve taken down an Arch on our own!”
Jeremy stared back at them dispassionately. “Tell him, Kit.”
Kittie was looking down at the concrete below her. “We haven’t won anything.”
In that moment, Jeremy fell down on one knee against Evangeline’s back, pulling away her gauntleted arm as she nearly dragged the sharp edge along Kerif’s throat. The former Arch pressed his jagged palms to the mark on her chest. “If this is what you want me to do…” he whispered to Za’in before she collapsed beneath his touch. Jeremy hoisted her up over his shoulder, stood, and turned his back on them without another word.
Kittie choked, the sound full of sorrow and unshed tears. She crawled towards him, wincing as her scraped knees dragged against the ground and her bruised palms made contact with the uneven surface that held up her trembling, twisted form. “Why are you doing what he says? That was never why we got into this in the first place!” she cried at his back.
Jeremy stood still for a moment. “Kit, the voice that led me then has failed me. So now I’ll give him his chance and see where it takes me.”
Kittie stood, wobbling, and with the last of her waning strength, dashed towards Jeremy, falling down again at his feet. She looked up at him. “If you took your revenge on me, would you stop all this?”
“This is stupid,” he breathed, beginning to walk forward again.
She held on to his leg, stopping his progress. “You want to know where Za’in will take you? You’re going to die, Jeremy. Right now you don’t care about that, but I do. I’ll submit to your wrath if you just stop this. Please!”
“Were you always so vain, Kit? Ending your life wouldn’t change a thing.” His eyes were closed, his facial muscles taut as he took another step.
Kittie could see a familiar piece of purple fabric poking out of his cargo pocket. “Don’t forget who you’re talking to. We both know you don’t mean that,” she whispered. The hopelessness was driven from her eyes, her warm brown irises ignited with determination.
Jeremy’s brow tightened, the tense movement somehow loosening the rest of his face. He looked down at the girl that had been the only bright spot in his world for so long. He couldn’t remember why he let go of her. Her hand was outstretched towards him and all he had to do was to let his fingers touch hers. The sound of someone approaching to his left pulled his head in that direction, and then he saw something that froze the movement of his hand.
Kayla was leaning against Asher as they entered the garage, the girl holding a piece of cloth tightly to her bloodied arm. She looked up, flinching as she met his gaze, her hand coming up to touch her bruised face. Asher’s arm tightened around her protectively.
Jeremy adjusted Evangeline’s unconscious body over his shoulder, laughing bitterly. “How did I get stuck with this trade?” he muttered to himself. He took a deep breath before pulling Kittie off his leg and turning back to Asher. Jeremy eyed his enemy’s swiftly drawn weapons, shaking his head. “Don’t bother, Serafin. You already beat me senseless tonight. Enjoy your victory. Next time I won’t go down so easily.” He raised his hand in a derisive wave as he walked away, the others too exhausted by their o
wn battles that night to do anything else but helplessly watch him go.
28
Kayla sat very still, watching through the window as the barren, dusty landscape made way for familiar slash pines and dark patches of ferns. “Kittie, are we close to where I first met you and…?” Her mouth snapped shut, the movement sudden and heavy.
The small girl had almost disappeared beneath her bandages and blanket. “Not really. Everything looks the same. You’ll get used to it.” Her voice was blunted, her eyes desolate.
“It’s my fault.”
Kittie closed her eyes tightly. “I can’t take this right now, Kayla. Not everything is—”
“You would have gotten through to him if I didn’t hurt him just moments before,” Kayla whispered coarsely.
“You fought him?” She opened one eye, which quickly focused on the bruises on the Nephil’s face. “Who got the worst of it?”
“I tried to stand up to him. I drew my weapons with every intention to—” She shook her head. “He’s stronger than before. And he can see everything…inside me…”
Kittie sighed. “I get it now. So he did get the worst of it.” Her gaze rested on Asher’s profile.
Kayla followed her stare before her head snapped back towards the other girl, her face hot. “I don’t owe him anything! Faithfulness is wasted on him. He got the worst of it, Kittie? Whatever it was he got, he deserved.”
“You don’t have to tell me what he deserves.”
“Do you have something you want to say to me?” Kayla asked, her voice low.
Kittie grimaced at her, her eyes slowly traveling between Asher and Kayla.
“Stop acting like a child!” Kayla snapped.
“How should I act? How old do I look? Eight? Nine? Take a good guess. But I’m old enough to recognize what’s going on here. Have you forgotten what you said to Jeremy in that tower? I thought that would be what he could hold on to, if he could only believe it. I wished he would, but you make me think he never should have! He wouldn’t have come all this way just to let you go again if he didn’t love you too—”
“He loves me?” Kayla laughed harshly. “I don’t think I can survive that kind of affection from him. Do I have to pay for it with my life or with the lives of anyone else that happen to be in his path? I don’t need any reminders of what happened in that tower. Do you think I wanted this? You’re the one that brought us all up there that night without one word of warning to him. When he lived through that, you’re the one that held a gun to his head. Sure, he deserved it. But you don’t want to hear that, remember?”
Kittie’s eyes twitched closed, turning her face away as if she had been struck. When she raised her gaze again, her eyes were wide and soft, and all traces of her earlier severity had vanished. “I’ve failed him,” she whispered before her sudden tears drowned any other words.
A deep discomfort numbed Kayla’s body, keeping her unaware of her hand covering her own loose mouth. Just moments earlier, the girl before her was cold, critical…old. Even her anger was experienced, expressed in her inquisitive and long-suffering eyes, and in each trenchant word. But now she was a child again, moved by the desperate anguish of someone unable to see beyond this moment. “Kittie, he chose his own path,” Kayla murmured as she reached her hand towards her sobbing companion.
“Free will,” Kittie gasped through her tears, her eyes growing to dominate her drawn face, her words slowly maturing her features as she spoke again. “You’re talking about free will. And it’s not as simple as that. You made choices, Kayla, but is this where you wanted to end up? Most things, in fact, occurred without your consent. From where you stand, your paths aren’t infinite. All our choices are limited. I had goals, I had purpose! But when you look around and find that your options are short and narrow, sometimes you stand still. You stop acting and you just let things happen. But I wasn’t supposed to let this happen to him. This all isn’t some mistake, some chance, it’s…”
“Fate?” Kayla murmured.
Kittie paused for a moment as if she was awakening from sleep. She slowly looked down and gently took Kayla’s offered hand. “Fate, free will…do any of those things exist? Sometimes I wonder if Za’in will really take God’s empty throne, since it seems that it’s only his will that finds fulfillment anymore. All I know for sure is that I wanted things to be different. I never wanted to see Jeremy like this.”
“Then you have to know that I feel the same. I didn’t want to exact some revenge on him, I just can’t…I can’t…” She stared helplessly at Kittie. “I just can’t. Not anymore.”
Her tiny brown braids shielded her down-turned face. “Yeah.” Her sniffles disappeared into a few deep breaths. When Kittie raised her head again, her eyes were clear. “I’m sorry about Evangeline. I should have sensed her approach and I should have been prepared to see her again, this time stronger and more zealous than ever.”
Kayla ran her palm over her bandaged wrist, her fingers twitching with the memory of that woman’s unconscious body draped over his shoulder. “Who is she?”
Kittie nestled close to her side, resting her cheek against Kayla’s cool arm. “Evangeline Fiora is dressed like an Arch now, but she was once Jeremy’s Ophan. That is, before he—”
“She was the one he killed? But how is she…?”
“That’s the thing that’s not sitting right with me. I’m certain he would have made sure he finished the job. And she was never powerful enough to be an Arch before, no way. Which makes me think that Za’in’s been setting up something for a long time now. Something I haven’t noticed before. If that’s the case, then Jeremy is in more danger than I could imagine. If that’s the case, then we’ve all been his pawns and we’re just moving towards our destruction according to his will.”
Kayla swallowed down the tremors that threatened to shake her. “What do you mean?”
Kittie shook her head as if she drew a simple comfort from her face sliding along the alternating softness of Kayla’s skin and blouse. “There’s still a piece missing. When we get to Azevin I might find my answer, even if I hate that our hopes are riding on that place.”
The brief silence that followed stung Kayla’s wrist. “He protected her. They were working together so that she could capture me?” She shook her head. Even though Evangeline tried to seize her, he had let her go. But then why did he carry the Arch away with him?
“Jeremy might be a mess right now, but there is no way he’d ever be interested in working with her again,” she snorted. “Yuck.”
Kayla closed her eyes. She needed to know the nature of their relationship, even if she didn’t want to search for the reason why. It was safe to seek him out through this infected bond they shared, now that she was sure that both he and Za’in already had knowledge of their current position and destination. She wouldn’t be giving anything away, so it was okay to do this, right? Her hands were cold and she found she was now unable to move them. The chill traveled up her arms and into her chest. Kayla took a deep breath as she went under, her psyche swimming in his direction. She broke hard against something that stung her entire being, leaving her too stunned to even bring her hands to her ears in some feeble attempt to quiet the noise that flooded her head — a chorus of muddled violence. She strained to find his voice amongst the sounds that pierced her, but she couldn’t isolate it. He was there somewhere, but no single part of him remained untouched and whole. She was sure that he didn’t even know what voice was his anymore.
As Kayla tried to navigate through this strange labyrinth of turmoil, her senses slowly receded, leaving her floating in a terrifying absence of attachment. A glimmer of remembered warmth pulled her towards some hint of movement that appeared on the fringes of this sudden stillness. She made her way towards that point, beckoned by his pained breaths, racing pulse and turning stomach, and she knew he was trying to drown his fear, doubt and loneliness. She swallowed hard with her new knowledge of what people are capable of in that state.
Kayl
a could see that woman’s blonde hair brushing against his skin, even as his brow furrowed under the lightest pressure of her touch. He was concentrating on the curve of her neck and the heat of her body. He wanted to forget why they were here, who she was, who he was. It was supposed to happen and he knew it should have been his desire all along. It didn’t matter. She wanted this and he just wanted to forget. It would be easy to go along with it if he could keep his mind unfocused and his awareness narrowed. He could do this. Kayla felt her eyelids burn as he pulled that woman into his lap, his arm rough around her waist, his other hand gripping her thigh. She felt her cheeks and lips tingle with icy pinpricks as she struggled to see his face. It wasn’t enough to be shown these shadowy fragments of flesh, to hear his splintered thoughts. This time his eyes wouldn’t lie to her, this time she was sure she would be able to understand all of him, if only she could be doused in his cold, blue gaze.
Kayla could feel water choke her lungs, but she pushed forward, her fingers reaching to brush aside the dark shroud of his hair. Her eyes blurred as she felt herself slip away, but at that instant, his head lolled to the side, revealing a younger boy’s face. A jolt of surprise held her consciousness tight to this vision for a moment longer as his eyes opened lazily, seeming to focus on hers. Here he was, years before she ever saw his face, but his piercing eyes were the same. They weren’t windows, but fortified gates. He had built the wall so that virtually nothing could penetrate his defenses, but it also served to keep his wrath from spilling out in diluted, random streams. She knew she was really seeing his stare for the first time, even though it was as unchanging as her reaction to it. That familiar helplessness gripped her, intensified by the frustration of her inability to escape it.
His face kept falling in and out of focus, and it was hard to distinguish the difference between his memories and his current incarnation. Kayla had to remind herself that she was swimming in the space between their thoughts, and that she too must be constantly shifting in his sight. She struggled to keep her attention trained on his gaze, hoping it would give her answers. Was this scene something recent or remembered? His expression hardened as soon as she felt the question quicken her pulse, and it was then that his features aged, each familiar scar crisscrossing over his flesh before the fetters reappeared, swallowing up his arms. A spiteful look darkened his countenance as he reached out, snatching her wrist. The thick air silenced her scream before she fell headlong into the dark cacophony she first waded through. Flashes of light on the edges of her vision pulled her eyes this way and that, but when she found something her sight could focus on, she immediately struggled to turn back into the black abyss. With every apparition of his past she was forced to experience, he had given her the answers she asked for, and everything else she never wanted. As she plummeted down through this dense atmosphere, an uncomfortable heat was dragging her back to reality, and a tearing sensation seared her skin.
Dominion of the Star (Descendants of the Fallen Book 1) Page 20