Page 13

Chapter 13

Back Home

Xavier

Bambi, the family saber cat, purred herself to sleep on my lap. Her head was tilted to the side, so her long teeth weren’t at risk of poking my leg. I divided my attention between scratching her back and scrolling down the web page I’d been reading for the last hour. I sat outside under the shade of a bushy palm tree. Cassius sat across from me, flipping through a leather-bound tome he had pulled out of Damien’s horde. The pages crinkled loudly as he flipped them.

We’d been back at the Malibu castle for a week. There hadn’t been any new attacks, although the nation still reeled from what they dubbed the Kind Day Massacre. The president was still in critical condition, which made everyone hold their breath. I wondered what Blake must have been thinking about it.

He’d been a little distant from me since that morning he’d woken up in my arms on the living room couch. We’d woken up before anyone else in the house had, so after a moment of wondering if it was real or not, we untangled from each other and went to our separate bedrooms.

I lay there giddy like a kid on Christmas morning.

But had Blake? He wasn’t exactly the smoothest with his emotions or how he delivered them to others, but I couldn’t get a read on why he was acting icy. He sat far from me during our family dinners, didn’t chat with me as often, and declined a couple of my invites to go spend some time around Malibu. I knew he didn’t like to feel contained anywhere. I didn’t want this castle taking on the appearance of a prison.

But he had said no. Said he wanted to continue researching the starlight dagger. Which, in all fairness, was the more helpful thing to do in our situation.

It still bugged me. I twirled the silver bracelet around my wrist, starting to get distracted. The research wasn’t wielding much useful information, at least none that Cassius hadn’t already told us.

“Find anything?” I asked Cassius. He lifted his sunglasses onto his head, pushing back his long blond hair. He had a birthmark on his left eyebrow, turning the hair bleach white. He was an easy guy to trust. I could see why Blake considered him his best friend.

“Nothing new, no. It talks about how Gael the Blessed Marvel created the dagger and how he tried to use it to go back in time to save his son. It says how he failed, and it was lost in the Iron War, before the treaty was formed.”

I sighed. This was why I had been hesitant about taking this job on. Not having answers frustrated me. It had been an issue all throughout my schooling. I’d miss one test question and immediately bungle all the rest because of how frustrated I got with myself. I rubbed at the bridge of my nose.

An idea slowly started to form. “Maybe we’re focusing on the wrong thing.”

“What do you mean?” Cassius closed the tome.

“We’re trying to learn more about the dagger, but I think we need to start learning about who has the dagger first.”

It was time to go down a new route.

I clicked out of the scientific journal and opened a new page. “That red-eyed shifter at the Kind Gala wore the same patch that was on the shifters who attacked Blake in the desert. Those two were linked. That patch has to symbolize something.”

I didn’t have any photos of the symbol, so all I could do was type in a description. Cassius brought his chair over to my side, the legs scraping against the warm stone. I hit Search and was immediately rewarded with images of the symbol. He leaned in and cocked his head. “Hmm.”

“What? You recognize it?”

Cassius paused for a moment before he shook his head. “I thought I might have. Might have recognized that shifter, but his face… it was so twisted between wolf and human. I’m not sure, though. It’s like right there at the back of my mind. I can’t pinpoint it, though.”

The fresh Malibu breeze rustled the palm tree above us. I heard the clinking of ice against glass before I turned around. Blake walked toward us, a condensation-covered pitcher in his hand. “Thought you guys might be thirsty.”

I smiled up at him. I was. He filled up the two empty glasses.

“Thank you,” I said. He spent all morning with Warrick and Dawn while I spent it training my archery skills. I’d barely seen him all day. It wasn’t until he was pulling up a chair and asking to join that I realized how I had missed seeing him this morning.

“What are you guys up to?”

“I figured searching for the symbol might lead us somewhere.” I scrolled through the images. They were all mostly hand drawn, but some photos did come back with people proudly brandishing the symbol on their clothes. I opened the first link, which took me to a video. I hit Play and watched as someone recorded themselves stitching it onto their jacket. The woman had thinning hair and sat outside in an overflowing junkyard.

“I’ve found my people. I’ve found my purpose,” the woman would repeat in an off-putting rhythm, like she was chanting it. And then her voice would rise as she’d shout, “Time shall not control us. Time shall not bend us. We shall bend it.”

“That’s fucking weird,” Blake said.

“She mentioned ‘people.’ Think there’s a group?” Cassius asked.

“Good question. I’ve got no idea.” I went back to the search listings and scrolled down to the bottom. An article caught my attention. It was from a news channel covering a collection of different local groups. It was for the Sunday morning news, so the piece was mostly fluff, interviewing a baking club made of vampires who used blood in their bakes to a group of fae and shifters that got together to do yoga with goats.

One group was organizing to “reminisce and reflect on the power of time,” which immediately caught my attention. There were photos of various kinds of people gathered around picnic tables at the park, talking together and eating BBQ. Many had the symbols visibly worn on their clothes; some had it tattooed on their arms and legs.

I scrolled to another picture and froze. It was the same group, but they gathered around one individual. He had his arms out and his chest puffed. There was an air of control oozing from him, even through the screen.

But what really made me freeze was the man’s eyes. Blood-red. Focused. Hungry. Powerful. Face still twisted between wolf and man.

“Look, it’s the same shifter that attacked me at the Kind Gala.”

“Shit, you’re right.” Blake placed a hand over his mouth.

“Does it say who he is?” Cassius asked.

“Nothing. This is the only photo that even shows him.”

Blake leaned forward and scanned the page. “It doesn’t mention any names at all.”

I got an idea, scrolling up to the top of the article. “What about the journalist? Maybe we can contact them and see if they have any information. Maybe they signed release forms.”

“Genius,” Blake said, rubbing my back. His touch and praise was a reward I didn’t know I was seeking. But damn did it feel good to get it. I jotted down the name of the journalist and took screenshots of the web page and the symbol. That’s when a text buzzed into my phone.

“It’s from Damien,” I said. “Dinner’s ready.”

Blake stretched his arms over his head. The sleeves of his light blue shirt fell down, a tuft of armpit hair showing .

Damn. That turned me on. I swallowed and shut my laptop. “I’ll message the journalist. See what they say.”

“We’ve got this,” Cassius said. He stood between us and threw his arms around our shoulders. “Now, let’s go get some food. I’m starving.”

Family dinner was a relatively new thing for us. We’d always been a tightly knit rainbow flight of siblings. Of course we had our fights (namely me with Madds, but could I really be blamed when he had a boulder for a head?), but nothing ever serious enough to fracture us.

Dawn suggested it the evening after Maddox and Caleb had made a harrowing escape from what would have otherwise been an underwater tomb. Our family had experienced much too many close calls. So that night, when we were all gathered together, safe and sound, Dawn tossed out the idea of making it a ritual.

And so far, it had stuck.

The dining room was loud with the thrum of lively conversation and clinks of glasses and silverware. My mouth watered from the sweet scent of honey-baked ham and spiced garlic rice that filled the air.

I grabbed my usual seat near the head of the table. Blake sat next to me, chatting it up with Robby. Something caught my attention from their conversation.

“Shades?” I asked.

Shades were never a reassuring dinner conversation. They were the embodiments of the Chaos King himself. Monstrous creatures draped in black cloth the texture of shade, with spider-like appendages and nightmarish mouths that were designed to siphon out someone’s intestines through whatever orifice they latch onto first.

“It looks like they’re getting bolder,” Robby said. His vampire teeth glinted in the bright light from the modern chandelier hanging above the long dinner table. “There’s reports of them attacking out in public spaces. An entire concert in the Hollywood Bowl had to be evacuated because of one. Two people died. Could have been way worse.”

“It could have,” I said.

Claire, Dawn’s girlfriend and close family friend, leaned over Robby. “I’ve been hearing whispers. It’s not looking good out there.”

“Could it have something to do with the paintings?” Caleb asked. He had been with Maddox when they destroyed the Moriarty paintings, said to reveal the location of one of the locks of the Chaos King’s cell. “Maybe with us destroying them, it knocked something out of balance?”

Claire cocked her head. She steepled her fingers, golden polish shimmering. “Maybe… I think I want to look into it some more. What exactly happened when you guys destroyed the paintings?”

“Chaos,” Maddox said, jumping into the story. He had an arm around the back of Caleb’s chair. “There was that massive quake, and the glass amphitheater started to crack. I knew the ocean was about to swallow us whole, so I shifted and saved Caleb.”

“Do you two remember anything else? Anything random? Any tiny little detail?”

Maddox and Caleb looked at each other and shook their head in unison. “That’s pretty much it,” Caleb said. “I guess there was that weird moment when it didn’t seem like anything was happening. And it looked like the Crimson Ring didn’t even bother running toward the paintings. You’d think if the portal were active, one of them would have tried to leap through. That always bugged me.”

“Really?” Claire sucked her teeth. Dawn joined the table with Damien and Warrick in tow. All of us were here now. Tonight was family-style, with a Caesar salad already sitting on our plates. “Interesting…”

“What?” Robby asked.

“It’s just, from what I’ve read about hidden maps, they don’t normally have such a big effect when destroyed. Maybe this one’s different since it pointed to Niazatos’ prison, but it’s unusual.”

“Great,” I said. “Now we have to worry about the very fabric of time being altered and something happening with Niazatos’ prison.” Blake crossed his arms. “I’m not sure this can get any more complicated.”

“Oh, I’m sure it can,” Damien answered as he shoveled a spoonful of mashed potatoes onto his plate.

“But we destroyed the map. How could the prison be compromised?” Madds asked.

“We’re not a hundred percent sure it is compromised,” Claire rebutted. “I have to ask around.”

I swallowed a mouthful of salad and croutons before speaking. “While you’re asking, can you find out what this symbol has to do with the dagger?” I unlocked my phone and showed her the screenshot I had taken .

“Hmmm.” Claire bit her bottom lip. “I haven’t really come across it much, if I’m being honest.”

“Let me see that,” Caleb asked. I passed him my phone. He looked it over, wineglass swirling in his other hand. “I’ve seen it.”

“You have?” Blake and I both asked in unison.

“I have.” Caleb handed the phone back. “A client I worked with would wear something like this quite often. I asked him once what it was about, and he went into a long diatribe about time and meaning. I tuned him out.”

“Do you have a name?” I asked, leaning forward.

“Of course I’ve got a name. Also have a number and address too. I’ll warn you, though, he’s the definition of a loose cannon. He tried to fight me because he thought I was robbing him when I was really just grabbing a towel to dry my hands with.”

Blake smiled at me. “Looks like we’ve got our first lead.”

“It does,” I said, wondering two things: how Blake’s eyes could be so enrapturing and whether or not it was a good idea to have him with me. My job felt split down two avenues. Protect Blake at all costs and retrieve the dagger at all costs. I knew which one I wanted to prioritize, but wouldn’t that just make me compromised?

“He lives in the Harmony District. You could walk there if you wanted to.” Caleb’s gaze flickered between Blake and me. “Or you can go on a dragon ride. Has Xavier taken you flying yet?”

Blake shook his head and turned those long eyelashes in my direction. “He hasn’t. I didn’t even know that was an option. ”

I was going to say I’d just drive us there, but those damn eyes of his. They had me in a chokehold. I felt myself wanting to give him whatever he asked for and then breaking my back searching to give him even more. “Guess you’re riding a dragon tomorrow.”