I made my way quickly down the spiral staircase only to realize I had no idea where I was. It took thirty minutes before I found my way back to my room, feeling my way through dark hallways that all looked the same. The castle was impressive, but it was also a labyrinth once you got inside, especially if you happened to find yourself in an unfamiliar part of it.
Felice wasn’t in our room when I arrived, though on my dresser I spotted a jar with the same healing salve I’d been using since I got here, as well as a fresh set of clothes to wear. I scooped everything up and walked over to the communal shower to unwind. The Gods knew my body needed a little TLC right now.
The communal shower was easily large enough to fit twenty people at once. There were stalls for the prospects to shower in, each with stone walls on either side and a curtain you could pull back for privacy, as well as shelves on which they could place their stuff. The shower itself looked modern—hot and cold water, shampoo, conditioner—but the walls were all black stone, the floors too, emphasizing the contrast between the medieval and the modern.
There were two others taking showers when I arrived. I moved into one of the stalls on the opposite side of the room to them and, using the salve on some of the bruises and minor cuts I’d picked up during the trial, allowed myself to relax under a rush of warm water. I could only hope I hadn’t contracted anything as I’d been rummaging through the trash, though considering I was working with a magic salve, maybe that would take care of any potential infections or diseases that may be running around in my bloodstream.
As the warm water fell on my naked body, I thought of Draven and the things he’d said to me. Strange to think of him while I was naked, but we can’t control what we think, can we? He’d known about my tattoos before I’d even shown them to him. There was no way he could’ve seen them. He’d also told me I was an Aevian, and that there were different houses, and that we were at war. It was a lot to chew on. A lot. But the words that kept coming into my mind the most, the voice that spoke the loudest, had been Abvat’s.
Maybe I’ll ask little Fate.
Did he know? I shook my head. There was no way he knew. He couldn’t know that she had the stone, unless… unless someone had told him? But no one would know that Fate had it unless Fate had told them. Fuck. What was happening to her? Where was she being kept? It had been two weeks since I’d heard from her, and while I’d managed to keep busy enough to deal with her absence, this encounter with Abvat had brought a sense of urgency to her disappearance once again.
Lias, that was his name. He was the guy who’d come and picked her up that morning, and I’d seen him that same day during lunch, but I hadn’t seen him since. Maybe his group had started having lunch somewhere else, or maybe we had it at different times, but I’d never run into him in the hallways again, which was already weird. I’d tried to ask Siren, but all she could do was put me in touch with superiors, not other prospects.
I let my head rest against the stone wall. “I hope you’re okay, Fate,” I whispered. I hated that I wasn’t there to keep her safe, I’d never known a life without her. Adjusting hadn’t been easy, but it didn’t look like I had a choice. I shut the shower off and went to step out of the stall, when I caught sight of someone standing on the other side of my curtain.
“Who’s there?” I asked.
“Felice,” came the reply. “I heard you talking to yourself.”
“Oh… I didn’t realize I’d said anything.”
“Yeah… anyway, good job on not dying today.”
I reached for my towel and started drying off, but I didn’t exit the stall. “Wish I could say the same for those other prospects.”
“It’s tough,” she said, “I won’t lie. I’ve seen it before.”
“You’ve seen it?”
“Well, I heard about it. I was here a week before you showed up. I wasn’t privy to any information, but you hear rumors. One group of prospects I heard about thinned to less than half after their first trial. Six of them didn’t make it back.”
“Six? Wow.”
“It’s just how it is. Sooner or later, some asshole or another would’ve gotten lucky with us and finished us off out there, in the real world. At least here we have a chance to train, to protect ourselves.”
“Yeah, but weeding out the weak? It’s barbaric.”
“At least they’re trying. I’ve run into other Factions before. Some of them are monsters, and that’s not to say anything about the real monsters out there, like the fiends. It took me a while to come around to them, but the Obsidian Order is fighting to make Earth more livable for us. I can roll with that.”
“Yeah, I know that, but I just thought… I don’t know. I still think I’m better off on my own.”
“For a while I thought I was better off going home. Y’know, home, home. But the rifts only go one way. We’ve been falling through those holes for a very long time, and no one’s gotten close to even finding out why. I’d say the odds of someone charting a course back home for us are probably pretty shit. It’s better not to get your hopes up. About anything. Fewer disappointments that way. Just make your bed the best you can and hope nobody stabs you in the night.”
“I want to beat the crap out of these trials and make it to the top. I’m tired of being stepped on here, and I’m not letting some Naga murderers put me off winning.”
“I heard about that, too. Shame, really.”
Just thinking about that poor, dead prospect, murdered by people on his own team because Vishal didn’t want him winning made my blood boil. “I’m not letting him get away with it.”
“He’s not getting away with it. He can’t kill anyone while he’s here, all we have to do is make sure to stick them during the next trial.”
“You wanna kill them?”
“Better them than me. And you know Abvat is going to try and fuck you over, maybe even kill you.”
She was right. He’d tried to kill me today, and he hadn’t even been subtle about it. I couldn’t believe he’d just shoved me off the building like that, and then when I survived, I couldn’t believe I’d let him. Though I was on that rooftop as part of a trial, I had somehow let my guard down around Abvat, and if not for sheer luck, I’d have decorated that cab with my insides. Sighing, I grabbed my t-shirt and slid it over my head, then slipped into my underwear.
“Hey, I have a question,” I said.
“Shoot.”
“Why didn’t anyone see us?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, nobody freaked out when I fell off the building. Only reason why the cabbie said anything was because I was on the roof of his car. And then later, when you were doing your Supergirl routine, there was a dock full of tourists right next to us. I don’t remember hearing any of them talk about a flying woman.”
“I have my own ways of going unnoticed,” she said, “But we’ve all got the glamor.”
“That’s the thing that makes us look human, right?”
“It does more than that. It makes human eyes just… slide past us, as long as we aren’t doing anything too crazy.”
“What, so, they won’t notice an Aevian flying over the Hudson?”
“Not unless I happen to be shooting off at the mouth or making magic explosions.”
“Huh… that explains… a lot, actually. Wanna know something funny?”
“Hit me with it, and hurry up in there, I’m hungry.”
“Looks like I’m an Aevian, too.”
Felice pulled my curtain aside and I immediately threw my hands over my more sensitive places. “What are you doing?”
Her hair was wet, and she was wearing a black t-shirt and black sweat-pants—comfortable sleeping clothes, similar to the ones I had—but there wasn’t a cut or a mark on her. Fully healed. “There’s no one in here, will you chill?”
“That’s still no reason to do that,” I hissed, shaking my head, “What do you want?”
“I want to see your kithe. You haven’t spread you
r wings yet, right?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t even know how.”
“Just think it.”
“Think it?”
“Yeah, just tell your kithe to come out, and they will.”
I took a deep breath, shut my eyes, and concentrated. I had no idea what color my wings were, how bright they were or what they even looked like, but when I visualized them, they looked like Aaryn’s; powerful, majestic, and as white as snow. I felt like an idiot standing there, wearing only a t-shirt and underwear and forcing my eyes shut, trying to summon a set of wings I apparently had. The more seconds passed, the stupider I felt.
“It’s not working,” I said.
Felice stepped toward me, placed her hand on my shoulder, and shut her eyes. She then started speaking in that language lost to my memories; speaking Aevian. I recognized it now, clear as day. This was the language I spoke to Fate when her sickness would be at its worst, when she’d be at her lowest. For ten years I’d been speaking to her in the language of my people, and I didn’t know it.
After a moment or so, Felice stopped and sighed. “Yeah, it’s not working,” she said, removing her hand from my shoulder. “Get changed, let’s eat, and then we’ll get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll try and teach you a little magic. Maybe that’ll help jolt your memories.”
“Magic?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m guessing someone told you the reason why you didn’t die when you fell off the building, which means you know you can do magic too.”
“Yeah, thanks for telling me on the field, by the way.”
“Where’s the theatrics in just telling you?”
She stepped away from the stall, allowing me to slide into my own sweat pants and step out of the shower stall. Getting some food and some sleep sounded like a great idea, so I joined Felice in doing just that. If nothing else, it’d take my mind away from everything that had happened today, and boy if my mind needed a rest it was right now.
CHAPTER TWELVE
That night I dreamt I was falling, bleeding, and dying. I was tumbling over myself, my arms and legs flailing limply, my body unresponsive, my hold on my own consciousness tenuous at best. I could see the little droplets of blood in the air, my own blood spilling out of me and falling alongside me like rain. There were clouds all around me, stars twinkling through the gaps in those clouds, and while I knew I would be dead soon, I wasn’t screaming—I was crying, sobbing quietly as I plummeted to the world below like a rock.
In the distance I could hear car horns blaring and engines puttering, but I knew they were an alien influence; they didn’t belong in this dreamworld, they weren’t real like this was, because this wasn’t a dream. It was a memory, but this time, it was different. When I woke up, my eyes shooting open, my neck and chest covered in cold sweat, the dream was still with me, the pain in my bones, my shoulders, my muscles, it was all still there, and there were tears in my eyes.
I rubbed them with the backs of my hands and blinked hard, waiting for my hair to start glowing and lend me a little light with which to see. It was still the middle of the night, and Felice was asleep on the bed next to me. I sat upright, but my body felt heavy, and my movements were sluggish. Sighing, I let my head rest against the cold, stone wall behind me and waited for the pain to pass, when something moved around my legs.
My heart leapt into my throat and started pounding there, cutting my air supply to my lungs. I stiffened, then scrambled closer to the wall, pulling the sheet up to my chest. “What the hell?” I hissed.
A pair of reflective, silver eyes slowly opened and looked up at me dreamily. “Do you mind?” the silver tabby said, “I need sleep, too.”
“It’s you again,” I whispered, keeping my voice low, but my tone harsh. “How did you… when did you?”
The cat—Rey—settled, shutting its eyes and licking its lips. I shoved it with the tip of my toes, then it opened its eyes again and stared at me. “Look,” Rey said, “I think you’re alright, but if you keep me from sleeping any longer, we’re gonna have a problem.”
“Sleep? Get out of my room, how about that?”
“I think you’ll find I have dominion over this place and can sleep, eat, and pee wherever I want. Remember what my name stands for?”
“You’re just a cat, you can’t expect me to believe you’re actually king of this castle.”
“I’m not just a cat. Number one, I can talk. Number two, I’m way more intelligent than you or anyone else in this place, and number three… I’ve already lost interest in this entire conversation, so if you don’t mind…”
Rey tried to settle again, but I shoved it once more. “I don’t know what your game is, but I’m trying to sleep, and if you keep me up much longer, I’m going to grab you and kick you out of this room myself.”
Felice shuffled around in her bed and sighed. For an instant I thought she was going to wake up, but she started breathing loudly again, her breaths settling back into the rhythm of sleep. “I’ll make you a deal,” Rey said, “You let me sleep here, and I’ll help you remember your dreams better.”
“Remember my… what are you talking about?”
“I’m a feline who can wear many hats, one is that of onieromancer.”
“Something to do with onions?”
Rey sighed deeply. “Fine, put into words you can understand, I’m a dream wizard. I’ve helped many of you recover your memories through dreams.”
“Is that why I remember the one I just had?”
“I don’t know. How about we just go back to sleep and find out?”
I shook my head. “Why here, though? I’m sure you can find other places to sleep.”
“Even if I had a reason, I wouldn’t share it with you. You’re a prospect, I’m the King. You’d better get used to how things work around here and understand that there are benefits to having me as a… sleeping proximity acquaintance.”
“Fine,” I hissed, slipping back into a comfortable sleeping position, but curling my feet to make sure I didn’t touch it—him, whatever. “Hey… could you tell me what the deal with Draven is?”
“What about the big, bad wolf?”
“I don’t know. What’s his deal. I literally don’t know much about him.”
“And you want to?”
“I guess…”
Rey licked its front paw, then looked at me. “I could sit here and tell you what I know, but they’d only be rumors. For example, I could tell you he was part of a company of soldiers who were together when a rift opened directly beneath them and swallowed them whole. I could tell you how they all apparently died, ripped to shreds by the rift’s power; all but him. I could tell you he blames himself for their deaths, somehow, and he carries that weight on his shoulders. But it doesn’t matter what I tell you, because it could all be bullshit, so why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“Are you kidding? Who can even get close to that guy?”
“Goodnight, Seline.”
Frowning, I allowed myself to relax, shutting my eyes and trying to slip into sleep again. I was lucky it came quickly, though I didn’t slide back into the dream where I was falling; my dreams this time were of a room filled with beautiful, golden, morning light. I stood on the inside of the room looking out across a marble balcony, to a sea of clouds and a sunrise like nothing I’d ever seen before. The smell of honey and cinnamon played against my nose, followed quickly by the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread. My mouth watered. Taste-buds tingling, I spun around to see what was cooking, but then I woke up, and it was morning.
Birds were chirping outside, streaks of dawn breaking through the high window. I yawned, stretched, trying to hold onto the dream I’d just had as tightly as I could for fear it would slip out of my hands like a wet fish, then my clothes were tossed to me. “C’mon, get changed,” Felice said.
I sat up and stared at her. She was already dressed and was pulling her hair into a ponytail, her body wrapped in that tigh
t, black jumpsuit; our uniforms. “How are you already up?” I asked.
“How are you not? It’s time to learn magic.”
Oh, yeah. In all the excitement of remembering some of my dreams, I’d forgotten about that little conversation we’d had in the shower room. “How is that even gonna work?” I asked, grumbling my displeasure.
“Just get dressed before I change my mind.”
Though what I wanted to do was go back to bed, I got out of bed and got dressed, noting that Rey was no longer in my room. How’d he gotten in and out? The only available window was closed, as was the large, wooden front door. I was starting to really wonder about that cat, if it even was a cat. It had called itself a dream wizard, more importantly, it had the capacity to call itself anything at all which should’ve sent alarm bells ringing in my mind. That thing was no cat, and I’d let it sleep in my bed.
Felice and I stepped out of the room after I’d gotten changed, but instead of taking me to the gymnasium, she led me to the courtyard where we would be in full view of anyone who wanted to watch.
“This is where we’re gonna do it?” I asked.
“As good a place as any,” she said, rolling her shoulders, “Besides, Aevian magic always works better outdoors.”
“Why’s that?”
“Out here we’re in full view of the sun and the moon, the wind and the rain can touch us… our powers are just stronger outside.”
Scanning the area, I noticed at least three other prospects watching us from the fountain, none which I recognized. “We have an audience.”
“You scared of being watched?”
“I could care less what people think.”
“Really?” she arched her head across her shoulder, then she looked at me again, grinning. “Then why’d you even mention them?”
I rolled my eyes. “Just get on with the lesson.”
“Alright, look. Some of us are better at using magic than others, so, just remember that before you go into this. You’re probably gonna suck, but that’s okay. Just watch for a second.”
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