“Yes.”
“Why can’t you just go through yourself?”
“I’m not strong enough,” he admitted. “I’d need to be latched on to someone’s shadow to pass, someone powerful.”
And he needed my consent. “Just a ride. No funny business, no staying latched on?”
“You have my word.”
There was sincerity in his tone, but to be honest, even if there hadn’t been, he was my only hope to getting back to Wila, so ... “You have a deal. Now lead the way.”
16
I woke to darkness, skin cool and head clear for the first time in what felt like forever, but it wasn’t a gentle awakening. It was a sudden, gut-wrenching, heart-pounding awakening, the kind where your body is telling you there’s danger and that you’re not alone.
Sometime, while I’d been unconscious, the fire had died, leaving me in almost pitch-black darkness with just enough gray moonlight to allow my night vision to kick in. Night vision I was now using to scan my surroundings, because the whoosh of blood in my ears told me there was something in here with me, and common sense told me that after the beating I’d taken from the toxin I’d accidentally ingested, if whatever was in here attacked, I was fucked.
Azren was gone, slipping into the back of my mind. He’d done his job, he’d kept me alive, and now my psyche had nudged me awake with a sharp claw to do the rest. Sudden movements would alert the thing, whatever it was, that I was awake. Although what kind of creature watched its prey sleep. Unless ... Unless it wasn’t that kind of predator.
My stomach turned. Jinx had warned me about the wanderers—men and women who hunted for sport. They had no interest in getting out of the Everdark. This was their home. They hunted in packs, but once they found their prey, they chose one to make the pick-up. Victims were used for food, sex, and other unsavory things. A denizen I could deal with, but a wanderer ...
The crunch of boots across the cave and the snuffle of breath had my hackles rising. My body tensed, ready to react. Lie still. Wait for it to get close and then attack it. Something swept over me and inky darkness blinded me.
“It’s awake. A female, I think.” The voice was smooth and low in timbre.
The clink of flint and the flare of fire followed the observation, but my heart was beating too hard to focus.
“We mean you no harm,” the fire starter said. “Just needed somewhere to lie low.”
My heart squeezed tight in my chest and tears burned the back of my throat. Fuck this shit. Fuck this poison, messing with me again. I was probably still unconscious. This was a dream, a fucked-up, toxin-induced dream, because that voice was one I’d been aching to hear.
“Do you understand me? I mean you no harm,” he said again. “My friend and I are just trying to get to the breach.”
Fuck it. May as well play along. “Convenient of you to walk into my cave then, Valance.” I pushed myself into a sitting position, looking across the cave to find his chiseled face, bathed in orange hues from the flames, staring back at me in stunned silence. “I’ve been looking for you.” I even threw in a cocky smile. What now, psyche?
His mouth dropped open and then he stood slowly, his chest rising and falling rapidly. “Wila? Is that you?”
Man, my psyche was good. “In the flesh, Dragon Boy.”
And then he was bridging the distance between us, hauling me into his arms and squeezing the life out of me. Squeezing ... Wait, he was holding me. We were touching. Oh, God. Oh, God. This was real.
My eyes stung and a dry sob tore from my throat. “You’re here. You’re really fucking here.”
He pushed me away from him. “What are you doing here?” There was real anger in his voice. “Dammit, Wila. Are you insane?”
My temper flared. “Yeah, I guess I fucking am. What a twat I am for coming to save your arse.”
His expression softened a fraction. “Why? You were safe. You were fucking safe.”
I reached up to cup his cheek, the fight going out of him. “Yeah, but you weren’t.”
He exhaled sharply, his dragon eyes flaring neon blue, and then he kissed me. He kissed me as if I were the last particle of oxygen on the planet. My skin prickled and itched but it didn’t matter, all that mattered was his mouth on mine, his silken chestnut hair between my fingers, and the scrape of his stubbly jaw against my skin.
He pulled back slightly. “You shouldn’t have come.” He kissed me again and then pulled away. “You are completely insane, Miss Bastion.” His lips found mine once more in a punishing kiss that stole my breath.
“What’s happening to you both?” the other voice said.
Someone was with him. His friend. I broke the kiss and looked at my arms locked around his neck. My shirt was gone and in its place were golden scales. Valance held up a hand, tipped with talons and wrapped in silver scales. He placed it against my cheek and my skin prickled. Scales on my face. Scales called forth by his kiss.
“What’s happening, Valance? What’s happening to me?” Because the grin on his face told me he had to know. “I’m changing.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “We’re connected, Wila.”
“Yes. I felt you when you were gone.”
He closed his eyes. “I thought I was cursed, that after what Elora did, I’d never find you, but I did. Just not in the places I was looking.”
What was he talking about? “I don’t understand.”
He blinked slowly, his dragon eyes boring into mine, daring me to look away, but not today, not ever again, because there was sanctuary in those electric blue eyes. My sanctuary.
He stroked the side of my face unmarred by scales, and the gentle rasp of his dragon scales sent a shiver of anticipation through me. “Wila.” He breathed my name. “You’re my scalemate.” His smile was small and intimate. “The other half to my soul.”
His words settled in my mind, clicking into place and making sense of everything I’d been feeling. But how could this be? How could I be his scalemate and Azren’s kindred. “Valance, this makes no sense.”
“I know. Azren and I spoke about it, we were just as confused, and to be honest, he was a little territorial. I even began to think I may have imagined it, but I’ve felt you in my mind so many times since then, and this…” He held up our hands, fingers entwined, gold scales against silver. “This proves it.”
It was wonderful, and terrifying, like stepping over the threshold to your home and wanting to just relax but then finding out someone had stripped the pink decor and painted it green or something. Panic gripped me. “Has this ever happened before? Someone being connected to a Shedim and a Draconi?”
He shook his head, pressing his lips together. “No, Wila. This is unprecedented.”
I locked gazes with him. “Then what the fuck am I?”
He smoothed back my hair. “I don’t know, but I promise you, we’re going to find out. As soon as we get to Arcana City, we’ll look into it. We’ll get answers.”
“We have to get Azren back first.”
He frowned. “What do you mean, get him back?”
Oh, God. Did he not know? From the expression on his face, obviously not. “Your mother took him. I’ve sensed him too, dreamed about him, but most of the time the details slip away, except this one time when he said he was in the pit. I think he wanted me to remember that.”
He’d made me forget the rest, pulled the memories away and pushed me away. It made sense, because it was what he’d do. It was who he was, who Elora had honed him into being—a protector. Her protector and now mine.
Mine.
He was mine, and I needed to get him back.
Valance exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck.”
“What? Is that bad? Where is this pit and how can we get to it? The plan was to find you, get you out of this shithole, and then use your expertise and knowledge of the Keep to get Azren out.”
His eyes were dark with sorrow, mouth turned down. “And that would have worked. I c
ould probably find a way into the Keep, but, Wila, if he’s in the pit then there’s no way to reach him. The place is deep underground—fortified against Arcana and Draconi magic. There is no way in or out, not without Elora’s say-so. If she has him in the pit, then—”
“No. I won’t accept that. There has to be a way to get him out. We can’t leave him there. We can’t.” The awful feeling from the dream I’d had about him surged up in my chest. Pain and despair and sorrow. “You don’t know ...” I choked on a sob. “She’s playing with him, Valance. We have to make her stop.”
He was gnawing on his bottom lip, his gaze fixed on the ground as he wracked his brain for a solution. “If only Elora can get him out, then we’ll have to find a way to make her.” Valance’s brow cleared. “Some kind of coercion. Blackmail, maybe?”
“Like having evidence of what she’s up to and threatening to take it to The Institute?”
“That would work.” Valance’s expression sobered. “If we had it.” He sighed. “At least I finally know how she did it. How she convinced everyone of a lie.”
Now this I had to hear. “You know how she manipulated the Shedim memory?”
He nodded and glanced across the cave. “Can you give us a minute?”
“I suppose I could go for a wander,” his friend said, and then he slipped out of the shadows, and I bit back a squeak because he was nothing more than an actual shadow.
“Um, Valance ... what the heck?”
“He’s a shade, and he told me about the key. Elora used this key to manipulate everyone’s memories. She’s hidden it, and if we can find it, maybe we can undo what she did.”
Yes, he was right. “Once the Shedim know the truth, they won’t follow her. She’ll lose her army and maybe even the allegiance of some of the Draconi.”
His hand tightened around mine and the scales melted away, revealing my tanned skin and shirt sleeve. Clothes, no clothes. Well, that explained how the Draconi did it, but I wasn’t one of them, so how was this happening to me?
Valance’s gaze was suddenly intense. “I’m sorry I dragged you into all this, Wila. I never meant for you to get hurt. All my life I’ve remembered things from the time before. Memories the other Draconi didn’t have. Mother told me I was insane. She tried to beat it out of me.” He arched a brow. “Or tried to get Azren to do the beating for her.”
That fucking bitch.
“She wanted to convince me it was all in my head,” he continued, “and eventually, I stopped fighting. But it was still there—the doubt, the need to find out the truth once and for all if I was crazy. The only way to know for sure was to go to the Shedim that despised my mother. The rogues.”
“So, you saved my life by getting your mother to hire me?”
“Yes. The hot, leather-clad neph who’d dared to stroll into the central Keep toting weapons. The neph who had no idea who the infamous Valance Drako was.” He flashed me a lopsided smile. “Pretty refreshing.”
“You were hoping I’d find them and you’d be able to speak to them, to find the truth.”
His breath fanned across my lips. “Yes.”
“We need to find out what your mother is up to, how she intends to strike at Arcana.” I filled him in on my conversation with her, how she’d promised no one would remember me.
He sucked in a breath. “I know what she’s planning to do. It didn’t make sense when I overheard, I was close to unconsciousness at the time, but it’s clear now.” He licked his lips. “After she burned out my eyes, when—”
“What? She did what?” My voice rose in an indignant screech.
He stared at me, unblinking. “It’s one of Mother’s favorite torture methods, especially for her precious boy. They grow back, as you can see. But it hurts like a bitch.”
I reached up and laid my hand on his cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you have a fucking bitch for a mother, and I promise you I’m going to make her pay for every horrific thing she’s done to you.”
His flippant facade slipped and his throat bobbed. He cleared his throat. “I was barely conscious when she took a call from Kelter. He’s helping her, Wila. He’s building an amplifier. I think she intends to use the key on Arcana by amplifying its power.”
Oh, boy.
Valance’s shade friend had retired to the mouth of the cave to keep watch for denizens and wanderers and anything else that may mean us harm. Maybe the bastards that had held Valance hostage would show up. I’d like to take a slice or two out of their hides, show them what it feels like. Urgh, my blood was on the boil just thinking about it.
Valance slept on Jinx’s cloak, snoring softly. His leg where they’d taken chunks had healed but was red and scarred. Probably on the verge of an infection ... Did Draconi get infections? Just to be safe, I retrieved some herbs from the bag Jinx had left for me, mixed a little with some water, and spread it across the affected area.
Valance moaned softly in his sleep.
They’d eaten parts of him. Hurt him. Anger was a twisted knot in my chest, one that I’d cultivate and allow to grow, and then next time I came face to face with Elora, I’d let it explode right in her fucking face.
“You’re thinking too hard.” Valance’s voice was sleepy and warm. He rolled onto his back, snagged me around the waist, and pulled me down beside him, tucking me against him.
My body, still weak from the toxin poisoning, sighed with relief and melted into him. It felt like an age since I’d been held like this. It was an age.
I rubbed my cheek against his chest. “What do you think the others are doing?”
Valance sighed. “I don’t know. Probably scrambling for a way to get to you.”
Of course, Noir wouldn’t have been able to follow me through the breach. He was Arcana, and the Arcana had never existed in the Everdark. So what were they doing? Hoping and praying I’d make it back? They’d probably given up hope by now.
“It’s been forty days. They probably think I’m dead.”
“Noir’s not the pessimistic type, and I doubt Taylem, your troll blood friend, will give up that easily.”
Oh, God. Tay! He’d gone to leave the knell for me, and I’d disappeared on him. “We need to get back.”
“We will. We have twenty days until the breach appears, and it takes only four days to get from here back to Jinx’s cave.”
Twenty more days and we’d be home. No. Correction, twenty more days and we’d have to fight to get through the breach.
“Get some sleep while the shade keeps watch.” He snorted. “And never in all the decades I’ve lived did I think I’d ever utter such a sentence.”
I snuggled close and closed my eyes, allowing his even breath and the steady beat of his heart to lull me to sleep.
17
NOIR
Lex’s office smelled of roses, some kind of air freshener that sprayed every few minutes, and it made me sick to my stomach. Everything made me sick to my stomach recently, the last seventy-two hours to be precise, because Wila was gone. I’d lost her. I was meant to be watching over her, and she’d slipped out of my grasp, swallowed by darkness into a place I was unable to follow. What use was the Arcane when it couldn’t get me through the damned breach? When the magic in my blood made me unrecognizable to the breach, made it so I got knocked back time after time.
I couldn’t go after her, that much had become obvious pretty quickly, but an Other could. I knew it in my bones, and Lex was the only man who could help me with that, but here he sat, stoic and unmoved as I laid it on the line.
“Give her time. She’ll find her way out,” Lex said evenly.
How in the world could he know? How did he know anything? I’d stopped questioning Lex’s knowledge a long time ago and learned to trust him, but the past few weeks my faith had been tested, and right now, if he wasn’t giving me what I needed to save Wila, then he was public enemy number one.
I grit my teeth and resisted the urge to slam my fist onto the table. Lex wasn’t one to be moved by displays o
f aggression, and I wasn’t in the habit of using them to punctuate my sentences. “Lex, it’s been three days. Just lend me an Other.”
Lex arched a brow and sat back in his leather office chair. “I can’t just loan you an Other. They’re not library books, they’re people.”
The greyhound stretched on the rug by Lex’s desk pricked up its ears as if tuning in to the conversation. New pet, no doubt. Lex liked to collect things.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, reining in the rage. My fingers sparked but a quick shake dispelled the agitated magic. Taking a deep breath, I tried again. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, please put me in touch with an Other that can help me.”
Lex snorted. “You think any Other will willingly go back through that breach to the Everdark?”
He was acting as a roadblock, a deliberate roadblock, when all he needed to do was let me speak to some of his staff. “I’m thinking for enough money they might.”
Lex’s lips curled in derision. “And there it is, the money-speak. I thought you were different, Noir.”
“Fuck you, Lex. This is Wila we’re talking about—a potential recruit to the cause and my friend. She’s alone out there.”
The memory of the moment she’d been pulled into darkness surged up in my mind. I’d made a grab for her but then Others had spilled out, knocking me back, and she’d been gone. There’d been so many of them, standing around looking confused and frightened, and then they’d run, leaving me alone by the breach that had swallowed the woman I cared about. I’d made the leap, tried to follow, but it had been like hitting a rubber wall. I’d bounced off over and over again. There was only one explanation for my inability to get through—it had to be about my blood, about the fact that I was Arcana, but Lex didn’t seem to give a shit. He was playing with a fountain pen, twirling it between his fingers. This wasn’t the guy I knew. He hadn’t been himself for a while.
“Lex, what the hell is going on with you? You know Bastion. You wanted to recruit her. You know what she stands for, but you’ve refused to help us time and time again, and you sent her on that ridiculous mission to find the government facility knowing it could get her killed.”
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