Page 6 of Above (Darkness Reigns #1)

Each narrow and steep wooden step was a struggle to climb up.

How long had I been asleep down there? It couldn’t have been that long.

I spent hours with a vial of haya, working on deciphering what exactly was in the elixer.

Never before had I been bold enough to waste the precious black liquid, but my desperation pushed me over the edge.

If I could figure out what haya was made out of, then I could begin my work on making my own version. A better version, really.

Extracting my magic was a battle for another day.

Waving my hand, I willed the door back into existence and tugged it open.

What I expected to be a not-so-warm welcome from my older sister turned out to instead be the smiling faces of my entire family.

For a moment, I was too stunned to acknowledge what was happening, but then my eyes caught on the cake resting in my sister’s hands, and I was bombarded with love—and dread.

“You’re one year older, one year bolder!

Today is your day, to the stars we do pray!

We wish you a great year, so for you we do cheer!

Happy, happy birthday to you!” They all three practically screamed the song, not one of them even slightly in tune, which somehow made it even better.

As awkward and uncomfortable as it was, I still couldn’t stop the smile from tearing open my face as I shook my head at the three of them.

“You’re all crazy,” I muttered with a chuckle.

“Shut up and blow out the candles,” Celeste teased as she shoved the cake towards me. It was a small oval, the frosting was white with little black sprinkles shaped like stars. Fifty black candles were stuffed into the top—crowded, crooked, and lit with tiny flames.

Closing my eyes, I thought of the only wish that mattered. The only one worth hoping and praying for.

Please help me find a way to save my family.

Then I blew them out.

“Now it’s time for gifts!” Mama cheered as she clapped her hands together.

She was always the most excited about birthdays.

Not that there was any real reason to be.

For me it meant another year wasted on meaningless experiments that got me nowhere.

For them it meant getting closer and closer to their untimely death. It was horrifying.

“Mine first,” Celeste yelled right next to my ear, giggling as I nearly knocked the cake out of her hands. “It’s the one with the yellow wrapping paper.”

“I hate yellow,” I groaned.

“I hate yellow,” she mocked.

“I hate ye—”

“Enough, girls.” Dad’s booming voice wasn’t enough to stop Celeste and I from sticking our tongues out at each other.

Celeste backed away first, setting the cake on the wooden table in the center of our kitchen and then grabbing her gift.

Unlike what she said, the wrapping paper wasn’t yellow at all.

My eyes threatened to water as she handed it to me with a soft smile on her face.

Around the thick rectangular gift was black paper, which would have been plain if not for the stroke of her paintbrush.

She had added swirls of purple, blue, and green, creating a vast galaxy with specs of silver stars.

A stunning depiction of what existed above. Darkness that shone.

“Heavens.” Her nickname slipped between my lips like a hushed secret, as if the moment might be savored if only the world couldn’t hear it and steal it away.

“Shut up and open it,” she ordered, her voice shaky.

With a chuckle, I slowly tugged at the paper, making sure to preserve it.

She had folded it so well that it was hard to unwrap without ripping it, but I managed to get it off safe and sound, revealing a deep brown tome with gold writing on the spine.

Shadows That Breathe.

“Stars above, where did you get this?” Disbelief consumed me as I let the paper fall and opened the cover. The pages were worn, faded and stained into a yellowish hue, with deckled edges and what looked like quickly scrawled words.

“I took a page from your book.” My eyes flicked up to her, widening as I realized exactly what she meant by that.

“You stole?” The judgment in my voice was obvious, but the smirk that lifted the left corner of my lips was what must have really tipped her over the edge.

With a triumphant screech I lifted the book into the air and jumped up.

I felt Celeste’s fist collide with my arm, nearly making me drop the precious tome. “Careful you heathen!”

“Okay, break it up,” Mama said as she placed her hands between us, giggles shaking her chest. I gripped my new book, the smell musty and sweet at the same time. I would need to ask Celeste how she managed to find it, let alone rob someone of it. “Mine next.”

Mama grabbed a small box in black paper with a silver bow, the velvet far prettier than we usually used for birthdays.

My smile fell a bit, the extravagance reminding me of what they had said last night.

If they stopped taking haya, then they would both quickly age to their proper sixty-eight years.

While it wasn’t impossible for an eadi to live passed seventy, it was not likely if they had been taking haya as much as my parents had.

Were they spending more money than normal on gifts because they knew they might not live to see me turn fifty-one?

Swallowing the sobs that begged for freedom from my chest, I tried to smile wider as I grabbed the gift.

Quickly, I unwrapped it and tugged off the lid, revealing something far more expensive than they had the ability to buy.

A small, eight-pointed silver star sat on one end of the silver chain, brilliant and glowing beneath the light of the candles around us.

On the other end of the chain was a black burst of what had to be shadows, the swirls connecting in a skewed circle.

“The shadows are a clasp,” Mama said, her voice thick with sadness that made my heart ache.

She took the necklace out of the case slowly.

Without hesitation I lifted my head full of wild curls, trying to contain them enough to get them out of her way.

When she wrapped the chain around the back of my neck, I nearly cried.

“Once it’s around your neck, open the clasp and slide the chain through, then close it. ”

When her fingers released the necklace, the clasp made of shadows slid up, stopping just between my collarbones, while the star slid down and found its new home about three inches below.

“This is too much, Mama,” I muttered, softly touching the star.

“Nothing is too much for my girls,” Dad chided as he offered me the last box. A single tear paved its path of sorrow down his brown cheek, settling in the smile lines that terrified me more than anything, not even his beard able to hide them.

My fingers met the box without much thought. It was heavier than I would have guessed, the lid riddled with holes. What on Dajahim was this?

I was informed before I even had a chance to peek inside, because the little beast shot up and shoved the lid off.

“You got me a kitten?” I asked in surprise. The kitten was small, its fur blacker than night and its eyes a fierce yellow.

“Well, you’ve always wanted one, and she was left behind in a box near the shop.” Dad’s voice was paired with his hand reaching up to my arm and squeezing gently.

“She’s perfect.” My smile was genuine as I grabbed the kitten and let the box fall. The tiny thing immediately bit one of my fingers, causing me to yelp. And then, with a wicked smile on my face, I lifted the cat and said, “I think I’ll name you Death, evil little thing.”