Dark Consort

by Amber R. Duell

  Seemed like a non-issue, then. “What does that have to do with Mara?”

  “She escaped. Clearly.” He made eye contact with me and held it. “Everything you’ve been hearing about her destroying our worlds? It’s because she wants to open the safe and let her friends out to play.”

  My stomach dropped. I assumed she wanted to come back because the Day World sucked so much for us, but if Kail was right… My mouth ran dry. Screwed. I was so screwed. “Can she do that?”

  “If she didn’t know how, would the night lords have messed with the balance to exile her?” Kail’s gaze dulled, his thoughts taking him far away.

  “Perfect,” I mumbled around a lump in my throat. “Just perfect.”

  Since I was going to die—either by Rowan before I found her stump or by Mara after—I needed to do a better job of saying goodbye. My family needed closure. There was only one way to do that given my current situation, so it would have to do. I poked at the grin in hopes that it would have a better idea, but it snapped its lips shut.

  Fine. That settled that, then. Option number two it was.

  Afterward, I would make things right with the Sandman. Who knew—he could already have a plan. Maybe it was time I tried to remember the girl who thought we could unite the realms. The grin thinned, but it didn’t have to like everything I did.

  When Kail and I finally dragged ourselves back inside the Blood Tower, my feet felt raw. Almost as raw as my nerves. But nothing else attacked us along the way. A few mindless nightmares stopped to watch us with something like reverence, and a tall flower with a face waved her leaves in greeting. The only thing keeping me from falling asleep right there on the hallway floor was the fact that tonight could be my last chance. I paused beside Halven, where he waited just inside the door, and waited for Kail to shuffle to the staircase.

  “We leave at dawn,” I announced to both brothers. Then I whispered so only Halven would hear, “Meet me outside in two hours.”

  24

  The Sandman

  Katie flopped down on the edge of the pavilion with a plastic bag. “Good evening, Mr. Sandman,” she said in a poorly-executed English accent.

  “Hello again.” I didn’t bother climbing out from my half-buried state. It felt too good with the sand covering my bare torso to get up before it was necessary.

  “I come bearing gifts.” Katie dug into the plastic bag and produced a spiral notebook. “My mother was tearing Nora’s room apart earlier, so I liberated this.”

  Her notebook. “How did you know where to find it?” I asked carefully.

  Katie pointed to the drawings on the wall. “No one gets that good without practice, so I may have done a little digging of my own. Don’t tell Nora though.”

  “Your secret is safe with me.” I eyed the notebook hungrily. Nora hadn’t let me go through her drawings in a long time, and it would be a lie to say I wasn’t curious. I knew I shouldn’t look, that it was private, but the temptation was palpable. “Why did you bring it here?”

  “Are you kidding me?” She reached back in the bag and pulled out a large box of colored pencils, setting both items on the pillow beside her leg, before stuffing the empty bag into the pocket of her plaid pajama pants. “My room isn’t safe from expert snooping, and I clearly can’t go back to college in the middle of this crisis. If my mother saw this, she would absolutely lose it. It was either try bringing the pictures here—victory!—or use them to start a bonfire.”

  I nodded, glad she opted for the first choice. “I’m sorry. About your mother.” I looked away then, toward the stars. “If it wasn’t for me, she and Nora would’ve been closer, and you wouldn’t have to deal with her invading your space so often.”

  Katie snorted. “Maybe. Or maybe she’s always been like this.”

  “You don’t have to say that to spare my feelings. I know what I’ve done,” I said quietly.

  Her laugh filled the beach. “Please. Like I care about that. You’ve definitely screwed a lot of stuff up, but credit needs to go where credit is due. My mother’s issues are her own. Plentiful as they are.”

  “Okay,” I said, strangely amused. “Then, in your opinion, what do I need to apologize to you for? You deserve that much from me.”

  Silence fell as Katie picked at her bottom lip, her gaze faraway. “Nothing,” she said after an eternity. “If I had believed Nora, she wouldn’t have hidden so much, and if I knew, then maybe I would’ve had a pouch of sand to keep me from the Weaver when I needed it.”

  I sat up then, sand cascading down my chest. She couldn’t find me completely blameless. If the situation were boiled down to bare facts, I stole her sister away. She had the dream because of me, the Weaver went after her to get it, and now—

  “So that’s the tattoo, huh?” Katie said with a playful smirk. “I’m dying to know why Nora saw you shirtless way back then.”

  “Back when?” I asked and hurried into the pavilion for a shirt. The black fabric clung to my body, putting just enough pressure over my breastbone to make it uncomfortable.

  “The day we saw you at the mall, Nora said you had tattoos.” Katie wagged her eyebrows. “Interesting development.”

  “She was talking about the ones on my arms,” I clarified. “Not my chest.”

  Katie burrowed into the pillows. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

  I leaned my back against the wall, legs crossed. “What about Kellan?” I asked, feeling slightly defensive.

  “He’s gone. I broke up with him.” Her words were unbothered and lacked emotion. “Jen came home for Thanksgiving and wanted to meet up, so… you know.” She waved a hand through the air. When I stayed silent, she added, “We talked. I begged forgiveness and pled with her for another shot.”

  “I knew what you meant.” Because I felt like doing the same thing with Nora—but at the same time, it was her that needed to apologize. She asked me to wait, so I would. I would wait forever, but there were still conversations that needed to be had. “I hope you two work it out. Nora told me you guys were great together.”

  “So.” Katie forced a cough, her voice rising, and motioned to the notebook. “Have you looked at them before?”

  I stared hungrily at the cover and shook my head. “She didn’t talk about drawing much. I had to ask for the ones on my wall.”

  “Maybe you should.” She gave me a pitying look before snuggling deeper into the pillows and closing her eyes.

  Katie was giving me privacy to take her advice, but I wasn’t entirely sure I should. These were Nora’s. If she wanted me to see her drawings, she would’ve shared them herself. Then again, she wouldn’t have left the notebook behind if she didn’t want anyone to eventually find it. Nora admitted more than once that her mother went through her belongings and would again after she was gone. Maybe she wanted her mother to see what was inside.

  Against my better judgment, I slid the glossy black book into my lap and cracked it open. The first page was a spectacular rendering of the beach. So was the second, as well as the third. Pages and pages of a starlit sky, then one of Katie with her pink hair, followed by a portrait of Natalie, then Emery. Me with my hood up and another with my hood down. And finally, drawn with a regular pencil, so light that the page almost looked blank, was a knowing grin. Who would it have been if she finished?

  I went to shut the book when Katie quietly said, “There’s one more.”

  I jumped at the sound of her voice breaking my reverie and carefully turned the page, the crisp crinkle of it loud in the silence. My heart dropped. I wished I hadn’t seen this until I was alone. Maybe not at all. Mostly, I wished Katie hadn’t seen it. My finger traced the pencil marks in the corner. It was another one of me, this time with my head on Nora’s pillow as I slept. She captured every shimmering mark on my bare arms and followed the path across my collarbones, where the tattoos disappeared beneath the sheet. It wasn’t hard to figure out when she’d drawn this. I had only been shirtless in her bed once. Heat flooded my face, and the ache in
my chest had nothing to do with my healing body. With shaking fingers, I closed the notebook and placed it back on the pillows.

  “I’m never going to see my sister again, am I?” Katie looked up at the sky, the bright stars reflected in her watery eyes, and her chin trembled.

  “You will,” I promised. “Someday, when she’s ready.”

  The silence that followed was a heavy, painful thing, but something about it felt easier with Katie there. A shared sadness stretched between us. I hadn’t realized how much I needed another soul to share the burden, if only for a few minutes.

  “You two look comfortable,” drawled a familiar voice. “Moving on so soon, Sandman?”

  I flew to my feet and faced Kail. “How did you get in here?”

  “Like Mara’s the only one who knows how to hitch a ride?” He flicked a piece of hair from his forehead. “Baku’s back.”

  There were only a dozen things wrong with what he just said. “Where is he?”

  “He’ll be along when he wakes up,” he said casually, eyeing Katie with interest.

  My jaw hung open, speechless.

  Kail huffed. “Oh, don’t give me that look. He wanted to eat me; it was purely self-defense.”

  I scanned behind him for Nora, but she was nowhere in sight. “What are you doing here, Kail?”

  “I’ll give you two guesses.” He looked around me to Katie. “Should we talk in front of the human?”

  “Is it about Nora?” Katie eased to her feet and took in Kail from head to toe. A worried gleam shone in her eyes as if she thought he would snatch her away at any moment. It wasn’t impossible.

  “Ah.” Understanding lit Kail’s face. “You must be the famous sister. Is she around?”

  “Is who around?” I asked.

  “Nora, obviously. Who do you think?” he snapped, suddenly impatient.

  My pulse roared, my magic grating against my insides. Stay calm. Think. Process. “What do you mean, ‘Is she around’? She’s supposed to be with you.”

  He made a low, thoughtful noise in his throat. “Well, this is less than ideal.”

  “Nora’s supposed to be with him?” Katie asked. “This is the guy?”

  “She could do worse,” Kail quipped. “A clown, perhaps.”

  The blood drained from Katie’s face at the mention of clowns. If Katie was afraid of them before the Weaver trapped her inside a cave with one, she had to be absolutely terrified of them now.

  “Enough,” I demanded. Kail pulled a piece of yellowed paper from inside his jacket and held it out. I accepted it only to find Nora’s handwriting filled the center: I’ll be back soon. Wait here. “What does that mean?”

  Kail scowled at me. “I’m pretty sure it means she’ll be back soon and for me to wait there.”

  “Give me that.” Katie ripped the letter from my hand. She scanned the words a dozen times, as if something new would appear, before clutching it to her chest. “Where did she go?”

  “Well, I rather thought she’d be here,” Kail said cynically.

  My insides flipped. “You’re telling me you don’t have any idea where Nora is?”

  “I’d ask Halven to find her, but he seems to be aiding and abetting her little jaunt.”

  “Let me get this straight.” I sucked in air, trying desperately to keep myself from murdering Kail on the spot. No burst of emotions broke through Nora’s walls signaling she was in trouble, so that had to count for something. “Nora took off with your brother? And you have no clue where?”

  “As I said, I had an idea.” He motioned around us at the never-ending sand. “It didn’t pan out.”

  “You were supposed to be taking care of her,” I shouted. White-hot rage blasted through my head. I trusted Kail against my better judgment because Nora seemed to, but he couldn’t even keep track of her, let alone stop her from storming the Keep when she thought I was held captive. For someone as old as he was, he was completely incompetent. He had one job—keep Nora safe.

  “Don’t try to pin this all on me,” Kail shouted back. “If you hadn’t dragged my name into this earlier—”

  “Don’t you dare,” I said through my teeth. “She had a right to know about the tree. You might be okay with lying to her, but I’m not.”

  “Oh, that’s rich.” Kail laughed, stepping close enough that we nearly touched. “You lied to her for years.”

  A knife to the gut. “And look how things turned out.”

  “Wow. You two are being ridiculous.” Katie stepped between us and held her hands out to keep us apart. “I don’t give a rat’s behind whose fault it is, but one of you better come up with a way to find her, pronto.”

  I inhaled, and a shudder ran through my body. Don’t kill him. Nora needed him. Him. Not me. The thought barreled through me like a freight train, but now wasn’t the time. “Katie’s right,” I admitted reluctantly.

  “She’s definitely with Halven,” Kail said slowly. Then, to Katie, he added, “Before you get your panties in a twist, he’s trustworthy.”

  “Oh, I highly doubt that,” Katie scoffed.

  “What about the army?” I asked.

  Kail’s lips parted in disbelief. “If the army was missing too, would I have assumed she snuck away to visit her lover?”

  “You two are talking like Nora’s your prisoner,” Katie sharply interjected.

  “Of course she isn’t,” I said, her outburst stealing my anger. “But she’s still learning to use her power.”

  “And you remember our realm, don’t you, Bubble Gum Princess?” Kail smirked. “Nice dye job, by the way.”

  Katie blanched. “You seriously trust this guy with my sister’s life?”

  “Don’t worry. If I was going to hurt her, I would’ve done it a long time ago. She’s rather infuriating, though I’m sure you know that.” Kail smiled, then paled. “Oh, look. Someone’s awake.”

  Baku stormed toward the three of us, swaying slightly on his feet. A cloud of glimmering sand followed him down the nearest dune.

  “That’s my cue to leave. I’ll wait at the Blood Tower in case she comes back,” Kail called as he raced in the opposite direction.

  For a moment, I entertained the thought of keeping him locked inside the barrier. Let him sweat a bit. But now wasn’t the time to be petty. I sighed and, with a quick flick of my wrist, opened the barrier into the Nightmare Realm just long enough for him to escape. Baku chuffed at my side, his brindle fur sparkling with sand.

  “Sorry, but you’ll have to wait a little longer to eat that one.” I looked Baku over. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded once and eyed Katie.

  “Katie, this is Baku. Baku, meet Nora’s sister.”

  “My head’s about to explode,” Katie said in a strained voice, and she wobbled where she stood.

  “You should probably sit down.” I took her elbow and eased her down onto the pillows. “I need to talk to him for a minute.”

  Katie wordlessly tucked her head between her knees.

  I knelt beside Baku, my chest aching worse than before, and lifted a handful of sand. Tapping into his dreams, I let the grains fall from between my fingers, and what took shape chilled me to the core. The Blood Army marched behind Rowan, her face a thing of fury. Then, from behind the red mist, another large group of nightmares broke away, veering right while Rowan kept left.

  “She knows,” I breathed. “About the tree. She knows we know.” I stared at the dream, hoping for a clue about where the second group was headed. “Where did they go?”

  Baku shifted his feet nervously and gave a small shrug.

  My stomach twisted. One battalion to protect the stump, another to hunt Nora down. That’s what made sense. I would’ve done the same thing in Rowan’s position. “We have to find Nora. Now.” And warn Kail. If he was going back to the Blood Tower alone, he might run into them before he got there.

  “Katie.” I put my hands on her shoulders. “Stay here as long as you want—Baku will stay with you. When you’re ready to
leave, all you have to do is wake up.”

  She looked up at me with wide eyes. “Tell me she’s going to be okay.”

  “It’s Nora.” I did my best to smile reassuringly, but my entire being screamed in terror. “She’ll always be okay.”

  Katie glanced over at Nora’s drawings again and winced. “You better hurry.”

  25

  Nora

  Halven stopped at the edge of a black and white floor caked with dried muck. With no walls around the tiled area, a breeze sent dry leaves rustling across the surface. I gagged at the pungent scent of rotting meat that it brought along with it and swatted at the swarm of tiny flies that greeted us. Couldn’t Detective Bell have been afraid of kittens or something? A rhythmic thwacking drew my attention to the table in the center of the floor. A squat, wrinkled nightmare with green skin and no nose stood on a tall stool. His long, pointed ears shook with each thud of his meat cleaver. Blood splattered around him as he hacked at what looked like ribs. Entrails, piles of skin, and fur covered nearly every inch of the table, and unidentifiable liquid dripped from the edges.

  “That’s disgusting,” I said from behind my hand.

  Halven shrugged and pointed to the far end of the table. I squinted, and a human figure took shape near the table leg. A large man with dark skin was gagged and bound to the blood-slick wood.

  “Detective Bell.” I let out a relieved breath. “Thanks, Halven.”

  “I’m at your service, Lady,” he rasped.

  The Weaver had used Detective Bell against me before, so I didn’t see a reason not to use him for a bit of good now. He said he was sorry, and I believed he meant it. Maybe he felt guilty enough that I shouldn’t feel bad for hijacking his body. Either way, this was my only feasible option. I needed Bell in particular. My parents knew him, trusted him, and I doubted they were aware that he was no longer a detective. In fact, I was banking on it.