Page 33

Chapter 32

The True Nightmares

We stepped out into one of the main passageways and were quickly spotted.

Guardians rushed toward us, yelling and making my head spin even more. “Eyes down,” my mother hissed.

It was much easier focusing on the floor instead of the rushing motion around us, so I had no issue complying with her demand.

A guardian with another wing’s insignia on his robe grabbed me by the arm and yanked me roughly to the side. “How dare you betray us to the Fallen.”

Another stepped up and grabbed my other arm. “My brother offered for you, convinced you were something special, but I always knew there was something wrong with you.”

Despite his words, his eyes roved all over me, hungry and calculating, making nausea roll through me like waves.

My mother stepped into the space between them as she formed a brilliant ball of light that exploded into the space. It forced them to let go of me as they shielded their eyes with their hands.

As the glow faded, she stared at them balefully. “If you want to make unfounded accusations about my daughter, a potentiate within my wing and under my guidance, you can talk to me. You can also keep your hands to yourselves.”

“It’s not unfounded. Your consort found a Fallen feather in your suite and reported you. You’re both coming with us. You can walk yourselves, or we’ll make you. We have orders to use any force necessary.”

“I see,” my mother said stiffly. “I’m intrigued to see what a Fallen feather looks like. By all means, then, let’s go.”

She turned with her head held high and marched down the corridor. Her golden hair shone in the sunlight coming through the windows, and I imagined her hefting a sword, like a warrior queen. I matched her pace, if not her confidence, keeping my head down and my eyes averted. I didn’t know how she knew where to go, but she certainly knew how to do it with attitude. The guardians weren’t taken by surprise for long though. They briskly caught up, and one hustled in front of us, leading the way with an air of authority.

As we passed, whispers trailed in our wake, and more guardians joined our march. I noticed my mother nod to someone, and one of my brother’s friends took up a position at my side. It was Nico, the one who had been sitting next to my brother when I served the eligible males in the Aedis. A memory of my mother’s disconcertingly popped into my head. As a youth, Nico had liked to chase the lizards that sunned themselves on the castle walls, and my mother had scolded him for it.

These memories were going to be distracting if I couldn’t assimilate them better, because my mother knew everyone in the citadel, especially the noble families. Although it could help me remember names, which was not a strength of mine.

We were spared the scandalized gazes of the nobles right now, and more memories flooding me, at least. Apart from our entourage, the halls were deserted.

“Have you taken down the wraiths yet?” my mother asked calmly and pleasantly, as if she were discussing the weather at a social event.

The guardian leading us whirled around. “What do you know about the wraiths?”

She glared at the hand reaching for her until it dropped back to his side before she gave him a smile filled with scorn. It seemed I was fair game, but he wouldn’t risk manhandling my mother, even with orders. “News travels fast in this citadel. Guardians gossip more than teenage novices.”

The guardian glowered at Nico, expecting backup, yet Nico merely raised an eyebrow at him, unconcerned at the pointed barb. I glanced at their insignia and realized Nico, as a flight leader, outranked him.

“Well? Have you taken them down yet?” my mother asked again.

It was Nico who responded, keeping his tone neutral. “No. The elders have congregated in the Aedis with their personal guardians and some of the highest-ranked nobles. Several flights are attempting to keep the wraiths to the lower levels, but we’re losing guardians rapidly.”

It shouldn’t surprise me that when real danger lurked, the elders protected only themselves and their allies.

My mother’s jaw clenched as she halted in place. “Well then, you better take us to the lower levels.”

The guardian gasped an outraged cry. “Why would we do that when you’re the one who let them in? We have orders to take you to the Aedis.”

“Because I’m the only person in this citadel who knows how to stop them, and I may need Alula’s help. So unless you want to lose more guardians, I suggest you take me to the lower levels and get the elders to meet us there, if they have the stomach for it.”

She turned and headed back for the stairwell, leaving the guardian sputtering in her wake and me hustling to catch up. When he tried to reach for her, Nico stepped between them, viciously wrenching his hand away. “They’re both Welkin light wielders and come under my guardianship. I’ll escort them. I’m not letting more guardians die on my watch. Tell the elders. You’re dismissed.”

He glanced over the other guardians before he pointed at three with Welkin insignia. “You three, come with me. The rest of you, back to your posts.”

My mother watched for a moment as the other guardians dispersed and her self-appointed guard disappeared with a glare, cradling his wrist. Only then did she whisper to Nico, “Elder Welkin will not let this lie. I appreciate your support, but I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“My duty,” was his only answer, and he gestured for us to move back down the passageway. I wasn’t sure he meant his duty to the citadel, though. My brother’s friends had always been unusually close, if a little distant at times. I remembered Nico more now from my own memories. He was almost as tall as my brother but had always been a lot gruffer. I had no doubt my brother had sent him, but I wasn’t sure why.

“Kiran?” my mother asked, being purposely vague but obviously wanting an update. Her mind was going the same way as mine, but her gaze focused forward as we reached the stairwell.

“Has been detained,” Nico answered behind me, from where he was guarding our descent, his voice tight. My feet froze, and I swayed forward on the first step, the air pulling at me as my wings fluttered to steady me. I felt his hand land lightly on my shoulder, helping to ground me, before he continued. “He is also being questioned about the feather. As our wing commander, and as your son.”

My mother had frozen also, as if not knowing which way to move—to her fate or to her child—the hesitation highlighting, more than anything yet had, the struggle she’d endured for most of her adult life.

“You would not help him by going to him now,” Nico added in a hushed whisper. “We have him covered. You need to focus on Alula and yourself.”

“Mara?” I asked quietly.

“Kiran got her to Adrita before he was detained. She’s safe.”

My mother nodded brusquely and got her feet moving again. I took her lead, conscious that there were three other Welkin guardians trailing us that were not in Nico’s flight. He must have trusted them to some degree, though.

We were silent, and everyone’s faces became grim as we wound back down to the lower levels. I was glad for the momentary reprieve. It gave me a chance to breathe and focus on each step, helping the overstuffed feeling in my head to dissipate. I needed my mind clear and steady. My entire broken family would be in the firing line if this went badly.

As the lower levels loomed, Nico sent the others ahead before he finally broke the silence. “You sure you want her down here?” he asked my mother bluntly, shooting me an apologetic look from underneath bushy brows.

My mother spared him only a single irritated glance, fiercely focused on what lay ahead of us. “She can’t avoid this. If she’s not here hundreds will die before the elders step in to save the day. It will be the beginning of atrocities too horrific to name. The deities have spoken. Do you understand, Nico? Do you accept what you are walking into down here?”

“Yes.” His nod was firm and the look he gave me was solemn, it had me humbled. “Kiran asked me to protect her and I will, with my life if that is what’s needed.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that. Take my hand, Alula. We may need to move quickly, and I need you to stay within reach.”

I wondered when, or if, I was ever going to get a say in any of this. It seemed the choice I’d made to stay was the only one I was going to get.

She held out her hand pointedly, and I figured there was another reason. She wasn’t a hand-holder and expected people to keep up on their own. Now that I was looking at her closely, I could see she looked a little ashen. I wondered just how much of her light she’d pumped into me.

She shook her head, cutting off my brimming questions. I swallowed hard as I remembered my promise and nodded. The role of the silent, pious potentiate grated on me even more than the acolyte one had, now that I was aware and connected to my light.

As we neared the next landing, the sound of shouting and clanging filtered out to us, followed by an unearthly screech that sounded like a knife dragging on stone.

“Sounds like we found them,” Nico mumbled under his breath.

“The fates were always going to ensure we did.” My mother’s voice was dry as she stepped through the archway and into the darker passageway beyond, dragging me through with her. I blinked to adjust my eyes after the bright stairwell.

This passage was only one level beneath the main hallways. It had once been a service thoroughfare for the citadel, with another stairwell just past us that led directly to the main foyer. I knew another further along led to the room where the Aedis altar descended. It was wide, with a rough stone ceiling arched so high it disappeared into the gloom.

The passageway should have been lit as it was frequented by thralls, yet all the orbs had become clustered at a point farther down the passageway, the rough, uneven stone ceiling making the reflected light scatter in eerie ways, before disappearing into an inky darkness beyond. But that wasn’t what drew my attention.

The orbs were being held by a wall of guardians. Some were standing, their glinting swords held aloft, while others had taken to the air, wings flapping furiously while they fired a volley of arrows. My mother didn’t hesitate. She pushed her way through them all, yelling at them to make way.

They were trying to fight wraiths with swords and arrows, and they were dying.

What I could see of the floor beyond them was littered with bodies, bright blood seeping into stone crevices from deep gashes and chunks of torn flesh. Some had entire limbs ripped from them, and I saw more than one torn-off wing. A dozen sightless eyes stared at me, and I was assaulted by a warm, coppery scent.

Horror dragged at me. My mind, so recently overwhelmed, struggled to make sense of what I could see. Nothing in my sheltered life had prepared me for a sight like this.

My mother’s hand tightened around mine as movement stirred in the gloom behind them. Two wraiths crouched, cowering just beyond the light of a single orb laying on the floor near the far wall of the passageway. As I watched, one tried to skirt around the light on the far side but jerked back as if burned, and another screech echoed down the passageway.

They had been human at some point, only now, they were shrunken, with gray, leathery skin pulled tight over protruding bones. Their eyes were missing, leaving dark sunken pits in their skulls, and they had no hair. Their hands appeared more like claws, withered and bony. Some kind of slick oil seemed to ooze from them in places.

It looked like everything that had ever nourished their bodies had been sucked from them, leaving behind a terrifying carcass of shuffling skin and bones. Terror had my knees locked in place as my mind, and all my senses, urged me to flee. Only my mother’s hand gripping mine kept me in place.

“Report,” Nico demanded of the closest guardian, who startled at the sight of us. He didn’t have any command insignia, but any semblance of rank or strategy appeared to have crumbled in the face of the wraith attack.

“Nothing hurts them. They’re somewhat solid, but swords and arrows go right through them, barely even slowing them down. It’s as if they’re already dead and don’t care. They’re avoiding the orbs but also seem to be strangely attracted to them. They will attack if you get too close. We don’t know if they can steal energy from the orbs, so we’ve been removing them as we retreat, but they got one. It seems to burn them every time its light touches them.”

As I watched, the wraith attempted to reach out and grab the orb directly, then screeched again, yanking its clawed hand away. The orb seemed to dim. From this distance, I couldn’t tell if it had been drained or become tainted somehow.

“Can they see us?” my mother asked.

“I don’t know. They can definitely sense us, though,” the guardian stammered. His eyes kept darting away from us, tracking every movement of the wraiths, not willing to let them out of his sight for more than a moment lest they pounced and devoured him. “They’ll cower behind the light for a while but will then rush through with little warning.”

“How fast are they?” Nico asked. “They seem to be moving slowly right now.”

“Fast,” another guardian grunted from Nico’s other side. He looked barely old enough to have joined a flight, his face ashen as he leaned on his sword, uncaring if he blunted it. “Everyone ordered down here is dead already; they just don’t know it yet. You should leave while you can.”

Another screech echoed down the passageway, louder this time, as the other wraith shoved into the light. I clamped my hands over my ears as it went on and on, crashing over us in bitter, ravenous waves. My tongue was coated in a stench I couldn’t identify as I tried to draw a deep breath and not crumple to the rough stone floor.

“Yeah. When the light burns them, they stink,” another guardian added from behind us as gagging noises echoed around the passageway. I clamped my mouth shut again and tried to breathe through my nose as my eyes watered and stung.

“Orbs. Now,” my mother hissed. The surrounding guardians started passing them forward, illuminating us in a bubble of light.

The two wraiths stilled before shifting their sightless gazes toward us. Fear had bile crawling up my throat.

“Back away,” my mother insisted, but not to me. She kept her iron grip on my hand a moment longer. I clenched it just as hard and thought about all the innocent people sheltering in the citadel above us, with nowhere to go and no means of escape.

“We’re with you,” Nico insisted.

“You’ll die a useless death. Back off, now ,” my mother demanded, infusing her voice with that hidden core of steel as she finally let my hand go and grabbed the last of the orbs being handed to us.

As we collected the last of them, the wraiths turned away from us to stare sightlessly at the shifting darkness behind them.

“We have to hold them here,” my mother shouted. “We can’t let them escape down the tunnel or more will die.”

Assuming she was shouting at me, I tried to think of how to get my light behind them.

Shifting shadows told me it wasn’t directed at me. I’d been so focused on the wraiths, I hadn’t looked beyond them.

Two dark figures stepped into the light of the lumis orb behind the wraiths. Shadows swirling around them as their dark feathered wings flared wide, blocking the path.

Nier was here. His flashing amber eyes caught the light as they met mine. I’d never seen a more beautiful sight.

“It’s the Fallen. They’re driving them toward us,” a guardian shouted, their voice thrumming with fear as swords were raised and the sound of scraping steel echoed along the passageway.

“No, they’re helping us block the wraith’s retreat,” my mother yelled, turning to the guardians and holding up her hand. “Stand back.”

“What are you doing here?” I called to Nier.

It was Raed who answered. “You thought he’d leave you to fight wraiths alone?”

“I did as you asked. We just took a detour on our way out,” Nier added. “The wraiths will back away from the biggest threat. If you drive them toward us, we should be able to herd them back toward the Sanctorum.”

“There’s no time. The elders aren’t far behind us. We have to end this now,” my mother called out.

“Meet in the middle,” Nico called, seemingly unsurprised at the sudden appearance of Fallen to help us. His booming voice echoed down the passageway, making the wraiths turn back in our direction.

“Now, Alula!” Nier yelled.

My mother and I started to run toward the wraiths, which felt like madness, but with Nier running at me from the other side, I found the courage to do it.

For a few drawn-out heartbeats, the wraiths stood still…until they didn’t.

They moved faster than I could have thought possible. One moment, they looked like grotesque, unblinking statues; the next, they were a blur of motion, homed in on my mother and me with deadly accuracy, empty, yawning mouths open in ravenous hunger.

“Throw the orbs, Alula,” my mother screamed as she ran alongside me. “Direct them around the wraiths.”

As soon as we were within throwing distance, she launched her orbs into the air, and I followed. A wall of light shimmered between us and the wraiths, who hadn’t slowed at all, or gone into any kind of stupor. If anything, they’d sped up.

Time seemed to hang suspended as the wraiths closed the distance between us, empty eyes fixated on my mother and me.

Forcing myself to concentrate, I pushed past the fear and adrenaline pumping through my system with poisoned barbs, threatening to tear me apart as readily as the wraith’s claws.

The orbs weren’t distracting them, they were too frenzied, yet I had a source of purer light available to me. I also remembered what Nier had once told me. His shadows didn’t respond to him—they were him.

Connecting to the light within me, I brought it to the surface and felt a pure glow spear through me, spreading life within my veins.

I felt whole. Alive. Alight.

My feet skidded to a halt as we got closer, and I felt my mother stop alongside me.

“I’ve got this,” I shouted to her, not wanting her to get too close, but I didn’t give her a chance to respond.

Encircle, protect, I thought as I mentally coalesced with the golden glow within myself. Reuniting with an old friend at last. The orbs pushed forward at my thought, encircling the oncoming wraiths as light surged up from within me.

I held my hands wide, and pure light pulsed between them, but it didn’t stop the wraiths. They kept coming, driven manic by the twin threats.

“Alula, what are you doing?” Nier called, sounding frantic.

“I’ve got this,” I called back.

They struggled against the light of the orbs in their path as if it were a solid presence, trying to push through. Their shrieks intensified, their hollow eyes fixed on me as they pushed forward inch by inch. They weren’t even remotely in a stupor. They seemed frenzied by my presence. This close, I could just make out the lines of what appeared to be sigils that had once been carved into their skin.

Nier and Raed closed in behind them, and they both shouted loudly, trying to get the wraiths attention back, but it was no use.

Nier had suggested we needed to wield the light into them, but I had no idea how to do that without touching them.

We were out of time. I needed to act now . With a wingspan left between the wraiths and me, one wraith lunged. Operating on pure instinct, I closed my eyes and raised my arms. My wings flared wide behind me, steadying me. I pulled up even more light and engulfed the space between us as I dropped into that space within me. It responded to my need before I could even think of a direction, diving into the wraiths. I watched from within the light rather than with my eyes.

I was the light.

The wraiths were nothing but dark apparitions, swallowed by me, twin flailing and screeching shadows writhing with a desperate, burning need to destroy the light before it consumed them. There was an ear-piercing wail that sounded too familiar, before the sound of their torment cut off abruptly. They burst apart in a shower of bright sparks that shimmered before they winked out.

The sense of wrongness that had tainted this space lifted and vanished as if it had never existed.

“Rest now, my friends,” I whispered into the void, for each wraith, perhaps only hours ago, had been one of us.

I lingered for a heartbeat longer, feeling at one with the light, until a warmth surrounded me and an ancient, silken voice whispered, “Don’t waste the sacrifice that has been made for you, my child. Let go of your light or all will be lost.”

Only, I couldn’t. I had no idea how. There was no pool, nowhere to purge, or even any idea how to do it while I was within it.

The light grew so bright it started to burn from within me, and I screamed.

Then it was gone, and I was swallowed in shadows.

Nier was there, his arms and wings wrapped around me from behind, holding me upright and to this world.

“Alula, thank the darkness. I thought it got you,” he whispered.

Yelling broke through the ringing in my head as his shadows pulled back to reveal a wall of guardians down the passageway, staring at me with slack, open-mouthed faces. I’d somehow been turned around, and it disoriented me for a moment.

There were only a few orbs left to light the passage, and the darkness stretched into eternity beyond them. The ground seemed to yawn like a chasm I could fall into as a wave of fatigue pulled at me.

Heat filled my body, only it wasn’t comforting, or a warm bath. It was a burn consuming me from the inside.

I swayed, despite Nier’s strength holding me up, and Nico launched himself at us, still yelling while half running, half flying, only he wasn’t aiming for me.

A pained noise coming from the floor had me looking down a second before Nico skidded back into view, falling to his knees at my feet.

My head shook, trying to deny the sight of the robed figure lying at my feet, clutching at the ruin of her stomach as her life bled from her. The tangy scent of copper hit me again, layering on top of the deeper, moldering scents around me, filling my senses.

“Mother?” I stuttered, shocked beyond comprehension.