35
Reina
I fought my urge to ask Miranda to get Finn and Enzo to join me on my mission in the heart of the city. I was scared. I knew The Fallen were hunting Fae again, and now that Bri was missing, I was certain they were also targeting GFA students. I’d be exposed, but there wasn’t anyone I could trust anymore. Finn and Enzo were probably just as messed up as Oden; they were all close to Quan. I’d been so busy avoiding Oden, and dodging questions about Kai, that I hadn’t noticed the signs. I mean… he hadn’t triggered my gift. Maybe Miranda was worried for nothing. My pocket buzzed, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.
Miranda:
Did Bri reply yet?
Me:
No. Nothing yet. I’m almost at the city center.
Miranda:
Careful.
I was already on edge and didn’t need the reminder, but it was nice to have an ally, even if it was Miranda. She’d done all she could with such a passive gift and would only be a liability if I brought her along. The rest was up to me. The neon lights flickered downtown. Scattered groups of bundled-up people hurried along the sidewalks on the main roads, passing by the shadowed alleyways where the Fae often did battle.
A few feet ahead, I saw two officers standing at the base of some stairs. I was struck by their jackets, the same aquamarine color that my parents wore when they were on the force. As I neared, I heard someone sobbing, no doubt whoever was seated in front of them, and I slowed my pace to listen in.
“Look!” he said. “My hands won’t light. I swear I could do it yesterday.”
“Sir, calm down,” the officer said, her voice strong and nurturing, just as my mother’s had been. “Maybe it’s because you’re all worked up.”
I always admired my parents’ profession. They weren’t Elite, but they still looked after the city the best they could. If they encountered any real threat on their patrol, their orders were to call the Agency, but they weren’t on duty when they died. They were still wearing the signature police blue-green, leaving me to wonder if that was the reason they were targeted.
The streets grew more crowded as I neared my destination, the cold already cutting through my jacket. I shivered and closed my eyes. A taxi beeped beside me, startling me, as a garbage truck cut into his lane. I turned into an alleyway, away from the main road.
My shoes scraped the pavement, the sound reverberating off the brick walls on either side, along with the dull buzz of decaying neon. Where are you, Kai? Come on. Give me a sign. My breath fogged in my face as I turned my thoughts to my parents. “Please, I need some help,” I whispered.
A few seconds later, my ears pricked when I heard a whistle. In any other situation, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. It could have been anyone whistling for any reason, but to my ears, it was the sound of hope. I took off running toward the noise, cutting through the back alleys at my fastest sprint. I suppressed my heavy breathing, hoping desperately not to miss it if another whistle sounded. I came to a narrow alleyway and began to run through when something menacing moved in the shadows. I froze, adrenaline acting like a paralytic in my veins. The walls glowed purple around me, and I fought to suppress it. I inched backward. The sudden scrape of glass on the pavement brought me straight back to the night of the dance. The shadows rose out of the darkness like a wave. The fragments shuddered like hail, blocking out the last bit of light. My heart raced, my body on full alert. I backed against a wall and prepared to defend myself from the onslaught I knew was coming. I wasn’t going down without a fight.
I was surrounded, shards of black closing in. I pulled my gift in to shield my body as best as I could. A blue light cut through the darkness, splitting the glass debris. The gap widened and my breath caught as a familiar figure stepped through. My body flooded with heat, and an electric pulse made of pure emotion zapped me from the inside out. I was unable to move closer, frozen like a mural against the wall. But if Kai’s shock paralyzed him at all, it only lasted a heartbeat before he broke it. “It’s you,” he said breathlessly. Then he came for me—he came for me hard.
36
Kaito
I pulled Reina’s body to mine, a glass waterfall plunging to the ground around us as my entire focus locked onto her. Her arms wrapped around my neck, her fingers swept over the back of it, yanking her into my gift’s range. A chill slid through me as I lifted her and pressed her against the brick wall. Her face flushed as I watched the frenzy unfold behind her eyes. Her legs wrapped tightly around me, and before a groan of pleasure could escape my lips, they found hers. Her owl charm locked between us. I felt the heat of her body through her clothes and deepened the kiss as she rocked her hips against me. Her lips branded me, and I couldn’t stop tasting them. She grabbed a handful of my hair, urging me on, so I yanked down the zipper on her jacket and gripped her waist, guiding her. She moved against me, the friction of her jeans driving me insane. I pinned one of her hands against the wall, using the leverage to bring us closer. Her fingers curled around mine. Whether from emotion or lack of air, my vision began to blur white.
Her head rolled back, exposing her neck. So I took a taste. “Kai...I—” Her chest heaved. “I might...”
But she didn’t have to finish her thought. Her movements grew erratic, her body bucking under my hold as she moaned from deep in her chest. The sound alone was almost enough to push me over the edge. My heartbeat pounded almost loud enough to hear, her back arching off the wall. My eyes widened in awe as her legs tightened around me, and a tear slipped down her cheek. Holy shit.
She shook as her gaze lowered from the night sky back to me. Her mouth fell open. The surprise in her face must’ve mirrored mine. Damn. I hadn’t even taken a shred of clothing off her. Our breaths synced for a moment, then she snapped out of her daze and threw a hand over her mouth in embarrassment. I felt my smile grow then break to a laugh. I pulled her hand to my lips and kissed it. It wasn’t until she buried her face in my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her, that I suddenly realized I was shaking too.
Several silent heartbeats passed. “Rei,” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
She pulled away and took a deep breath that skipped when she exhaled. “Oh my God. That felt so good,” she said, biting back a laugh. I grinned, cupping her face in my hand and wiping away the line where that one tear fell.
“Who are you telling? You were... mesmerizing. I’m definitely going to revisit that memory later.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “Was that… I don’t know... typical?”
So cute. I pressed my lips together in amusement and shook my head. Shit, what was it going to be like when we actually had sex? “Rei, you’re just so...” She looked at me expectantly and I lost my words.
A whistle sounded from a few blocks away, where Zane was posted. The sound shook me like an earthquake, dumping me back into reality. I looked up, hoping like hell there would be only one. But the second whistle followed. Two meant he was hurt, three meant we’d stumbled upon Yemoja Roux. I found myself wishing for the latter, practically willing the third whistle to blow. If Reina was here, Yemoja could be too, but the third whistle never came.
“What is it?”
I turned to her. “It’s Zane. He’s in trouble.” I grabbed her shoulders. “Stay here. Stay hidden. I’ll come back for you.”
“No,” she shouted. “I’m coming with you.”
“I need you to stay safe.”
“Fuck you. I’m coming, Kai.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Again?”
A smile teased at her lips but didn’t give way. “I’m not going to lose you again.”
“You won’t,” I said and stole a kiss. “Let’s go.”
I threaded our fingers together and took off towards Zane. I’d gone off course when I saw the purple glow, disregarding that first whistle and straying away from my team. Fear clawed into me. Please! Don’t be dead. As we neared the area where the sound originated, I peeked down the alleyways, a catalogue of Fae I
might have to face tonight flipping through my muddled mind.
Reina gasped and my gaze shot up to see Zane crawling from an alleyway. He was covered in blood, one of his arms dangling unnaturally from his body. My body numbed as I raced toward him. A voice roared through the alley. “Where is he?”
I recognized the voice in an instant and bolted into the alley to cover Zane, pushing Reina behind me with my gift.
Oden’s blood-spattered face darkened into a twisted smile when he saw me. “It’s about time,” he said. “Your buddy was running out of bones to break.”
37
Reina
I gritted my teeth and shattered Kai’s gift around me, landing hard. Darting between him and Oden, I felt my gift surge.
“Oden!” I yelled. “Back the fuck down.”
His smile died, the hard lines of his face that were once handsome now threatening. His green eyes glowed in the darkness, cutting through the flicker of pink neon lights. He looked deranged, and I felt my anger morph into fear.
Oden shook his head. “Why am I not surprised to find you here with your little boyfriend.”
I looked over my shoulder as Kai lifted Zane and started to float him out of the alley.
“Oden! Stop this! You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about! Listen to me!” But I was afraid he was too far gone already. I needed help.
“Miranda was right,” Oden spat. “You are a fucking traitor, just like him.”
I lowered my voice, hoping to deescalate the situation. “Miranda knows the truth now. And if you’d just calm down, you would too. Kai is innocent! He didn’t kill Quan. He didn’t kill anyone!” Despite my best efforts, my emotions had crept back into my voice.
“Don’t bother trying to bullshit me, Reina. I was there, too! Kai fucking killed him. And nothing you say will convince me otherwise!”
I felt blood pumping through my body. Oden was out of control. He was dangerous, not just for Kai but for me too. There was no way he was going to stop. I really needed help.
“Is Yemoja Roux here?” I asked quietly.
“She’s around. But I’ll be finished with Kai by then.”
“Oden, no! You have to stop! Please!”
I felt Kai’s hand on my shoulder. He whispered, “Pull Zane east and whistle. Tell Ensley to take him and go. I’ll handle Oden.” I didn’t see him take it off, but he slipped my necklace over my head, the familiar weight of it landing on my chest. I knew he’d had it ever since the day I nearly killed him but had no intentions of taking it back. I didn’t like this. It felt too much like Kai was saying goodbye.
There was no time for questions. Based on the way he looked, Zane had minutes, if that. He was hovering above the ground, caught in Kai’s levitation, so moving him would be easy as long as Kai kept Oden away.
I locked my hand around Zane’s clammy wrist and began to pull.
I heard Kai’s voice behind me echo through the narrow lane. “I wasn’t the one who attacked Quan.”
Oden gave him a sub zero look. “Save your fucking lies for getting into Reina’s pants. I’m not buying it.”
“Alright, then. Come get it, man,” Kai said, his voice growing more distant as I turned the corner. A glass shard sliced across my cheek and I brought my hand to where it stung. Did Kai just cut me? The glass dragged clumsily across the ground and scraped into a pile. It shifted into a demon, one I’d seen before, only now I wasn’t looking at the puppet but rather searching for the puppeteer. I whistled twice. “Ensley?” I called into the darkness.
“Who the fuck are you?” A small-framed girl with a pixie haircut stepped out of the shadows.
“Kai sent me; Zane is dying. Take him.”
“Where is he?” she barked.
The brick building where I’d left Kai shook, a crash crackling through the labyrinth of darkness.
“It’s a trick,” Ensley seethed, and a spike of glass shot toward me.
“Stop!” I screamed, slicing her attack with a sharpened wave of truth. “Can’t you see how much he’s bleeding? Take Zane or he’ll die.”
A man with a red beard walked up next to her. I’d seen him before; he was a gemini gate.
I turned my gaze on him. “Please,” I begged.
He nodded. “I’ll take him.”
“If you try anything,” Ensley spat, “I’ll kill you.”
I pushed Zane over to her.
Ensley’s face instantly drained of color when she saw Zane float into the dim red light. She turned to the man with the beard. “Go without us. I’ll take care of her.” In a flash, Ensley and I were alone. Relief filled me knowing I had done all I could for Zane. If The Fallen had been able to revive Kai, I was sure they could do the same for Zane.
I clutched the charm on my necklace for courage. “We don’t have to fight.”
She lowered her stance. “I think we do.” She tilted her head and stepped closer. “I know you. You’re all over the news. You’re the infamous Reina Roux.”
“We’re not enemies. I swear to you, we aren’t!”
She smiled. “That’s where you’re wrong. You’re on the fast track to becoming Fae. That makes us enemies.”
“I—” The glass monster surged forward, but the movements were clumsy. Its inhuman mobility was difficult to predict. But the glass shard I’d cut from the beast a few minutes ago remained motionless on the ground between us. I filed my gift into blades over each arm and saw the purple glow reflect off the spiked monster. I slashed at it with both arms, my hair standing on end at the screeching sound of our colliding forces.
Ensley was focused on her puppet, and she didn’t notice me maneuvering around to get a shot at her. When I saw an opening, I went for it. My arm cocked back, the sheen of my ghostly blade reflecting in her widened irises as the sharp of it descended. At that moment, I thought of Yemoja Roux. My gift blinked out as I balled my hand into a fist and connected directly to her cheek bone. She slammed to the ground, knocked out cold. Her glass monster dropped to the ground in dispersed shards.
“Bitch,” I muttered, and without wasting another second, I raced back toward Kai and Oden.
38
Kaito
The walls on each side of the alley were destroyed, the broken bricks adding to my ammunition. My ribs throbbed, and I suspected that Oden cracked more than one of them with his last attack. I scrambled around to touch as many bricks as I could before he rushed me again. “Stop holding back!” he shouted. He was crazed, but that didn’t mean I wanted to kill him. I was afraid he was going to leave me no choice, though, if he continued.
I slipped his punch, and it connected with the corner of the wall where the alley branched off. The bricks exploded, and I blocked my face from the new debris. If I didn’t do something fast, I was going to die here.
My daggers rose from my belt, my gift glowing blue as if aware of the danger it posed. Oden hesitated but shook it off as he cocked his arm back to strike. His fist glowed green, gaining brightness as he neared me. I sent all five of my daggers at him full force. But at that exact moment I saw Reina dart between us. I yanked them back, but it was too late. Their momentum was as unstoppable as Oden’s fist as it sailed to Reina. The world froze. The neon light above us blinked out.
I heard the clash of my daggers hit the ground, and then everything went dark and still. A magenta light beamed in front of me, and I shielded my eyes, stumbling back. I gaped. Yemoja Roux stood between us, Reina standing safely at her side. She’d done it. Yemoja Roux saved us all.
Oden dropped to his knees and spit a mouthful of blood. For a second, I thought one of my daggers might’ve connected, but all five of them lay clean at Yemoja Roux’s feet.
Yemoja lifted Oden and slung his arm over her shoulder to support his weight. He looked much the worse for wear, as if the momentum of his own punch had rebounded. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth, and the glow in his eyes was extinguished, and with it, his fight.
Yemoja Roux whispered something to Rei
na, but I didn’t catch it.
“No,” Reina said, then lowered her voice and whispered back to her. Yemoja Roux looked stunned, her mouth opened in an O, until she responded. She nodded, then Reina walked over to me, apprehension dripping from every movement.
Why do I feel like she’s going to dump me?
“I’m so sorry, Reina. I didn’t—”
“I’m fine. This is about something else.” I turned her so my back faced Yemoja Roux and Oden, and she leaned into me.
I felt a lump in my throat the second I saw the cut across Reina’s face. “You’re cut.”
“Really, I’m fine. This is about Bri. She’s missing. Can you take us to where she is?”
“I don’t know where she is.”
She took a frustrated breath. “Look, Kai, I’m not going to go in there alone. Yemoja Roux is here. We have to get Bri out of there.”
I shook my head, confused. “Out of where? You think The Fallen has her?”
“Yes.”
“Reina, The Fallen is just a group of coms and serfs. It’s just… us and DT now. And we were all here.”
“What color are DT’s eyes?” she asked, her voice much sharper than before.
I barely had to think about it; they were his most striking feature. “Blue. Why?”
“He’s…” Oden said, his voice cut with a pained cough. “He’s lying.”
Reina turned to Yemoja Roux and said, “He’s not.” Reina’s head dropped, and she careened to the side. I wrapped an arm around her to steady her. She spoke again, this time to herself. “If it wasn’t The Fallen, who the hell took her?”
Yemoja moved closer to us. “We’re going to find her, Reina.”
The Brave & The Broken: Gifted Fae Academy - Year Two Page 13