Page 33

The chill in the air carved its way to my bones, carried by the onshore wind.

Needles of brutal cold snuck past my jacket, teasing strands of hair out of my hood, turning my breaths into clouds.

As the bright lights of a car crept past, my stomach dropped.

The goosebumps on my skin grew so sharp I thought they might pierce my windbreaker.

I tightened the strings of my hood around my face and let my seething anger override the rush of panic.

Reminding myself I had nothing to fear anymore.

If anything, the world should fear me.

I stuck to the shadows, where neither the moon nor the streetlamps shone.

When the ground began to slope, a barbed-wire fence seemed to pop out of nowhere in the dark.

It shielded the entrance to the old truss that bridged the San Lorenzo River, connecting the east and west sides of town.

The surrounding eucalyptus hid a skyline of wood and steel, sporadically revealed by the wind parting their branches.

Strips of moonlight and chips of bark floated to the pavement, the piles crackling beneath my feet as I drew near, and beams started to replace the tree trunks.

In between them, an unobstructed view of the ocean and my favorite roller coaster greeted me.

I stepped onto the platform.

My stomach dipped along with the soggy planks.

The briny mist fell on my tongue and tickled my nostrils—the Santa Cruz version of snowflakes.

I sneezed, and there was a snap—a decayed piece of wood fractured and collapsed, plummeting to the stagnant river below.

My hand shot to my mouth, suppressing a gasp.

At this point even breathing seemed risky.

Filling my lungs with air, I braved the remaining panels, testing the durability of each with my toe.

Breath slipped out of me with each creak and groan.

I couldn’t remember the last time I walked this so late.

Oh, actually, it was Grad Night.

The night I met him .

My feet stopped shuffling as my eyes started to betray me again.

I wouldn’t let him do this to me, wouldn’t let him have this moment.

No more letting things that did not serve me take hold of me.

Cool air calmed the burn when I opened my eyes and stole a glance at the shimmering whitecaps.

The tide bellowed around me.

Conversational, in a way.

Not with words, but in the thundering beat as it crashed against sand and rock, and the sluggish burble as it retreated.

After midnight, the surf was even more unruly, spraying the tops of the bluffs, drenching the stairs to the Boardwalk, stealing the warning flags that dotted the shoreline.

The ocean rebelled against the limits the world had set for it, and right now, I couldn’t have felt more connected to it.

I drifted to the end of the bridge, as if a riptide had swept me up and taken me to where the platform fused with the sidewalk.

Dodging an incoming headlight, I pressed myself against a muraled wall.

I focused on counting the stains in the pavement, as if looking anywhere but the street would help keep me unseen.

Hoping the amusement park security guards were too sidetracked or bored to notice my presence, I hiked my upper body over the thick metal fence that barricaded the grounds.

I swung one foot around, and then the other, the blunt angles of the top bar digging into my chest as I teetered unsteadily at the top.

Stifling a groan, I lost my grip and slipped off, my legs caving in and sending me to my kneecaps as I landed, the sharp pain radiating in a bullseye over the bone.

I grasped a neon pillar and pushed off it to stand.

Sticking to the shadows, I hobbled down the path.

A green-scaled dinosaur watched me with lifeless eyes from its fiberglass ledge above the tracks of the Cave Train.

Its dead, red stare bored into me until I rounded a corner—and careened into a Neanderthal statue.

My heart leapt out of my chest. Even in the day, they were creepy, but now, their permanent grins turned menacing in the darkness.

Both of us wobbled from the impact, but my body never stopped shaking, unlike his.

It was weird to see everything closed, no lines for the thrill rides, the amusement park barred and barren—like I was visiting the doppelg?nger of the Beach Boardwalk, the macabre twin to its lively counterpart.

A draft whipped through the wide berth of the midway, evoking a distorted tune out of a claw machine—just the wind, I told myself.

It set off a row of others, and I hurried past, their chipper melodies way too high-pitched and out of sync for my brain to detangle if I stayed and listened.

My wild-eyed expression stared back at me as I passed the carousel’s mirrored windows.

I froze, swearing at a flutter of movement between the antique horses.

Pressing my nose against the glass, I peered at the golden support poles, the painted mounts, the giant mouth of the clown that ate the rings from ring toss.

Nothing. No one. Not for long, though.

Certain at any moment I’d bump into a security guard, I spun on my heels and launched into a jog—and hit a wall of flesh.

It knocked me to the ground, and I blinked against stars that seemed to have dropped from the sky.

When they no longer speckled my vision, I took in the person who’d literally stopped me in my tracks.

Thick-soled boots. An all-black uniform.

A blinding flash of silver-white.

“Ryder?” I lifted myself to my elbows, my gaze darting between his hardened stare and his arrows.

“What are you doing here?”

In the shade of the building, he loomed above me, with a full quiver peeking out from behind his shoulder.

His broad shadow draped me with an air of indifference as I lay there, breathless.

He said nothing—no offer to help, no outstretched hand—he was a ghost of himself, of the Ryder who once held me in this theme park.

Wincing at the weight on my sore knees, I stood up.

He tracked me with a hunter’s precision, the hollowness to his eyes almost sucking the life out of me.

I took a step back, but he matched every movement, cornering me in the merry-go-round’s alcove.

Hands clenched at his sides, he left nothing but a breath between us.

He hadn’t come to apologize, that much was clear.

So, what then?

“Do you need something? I’m kind of busy.” I shifted to go around him, but he blocked my way, and I noticed a thin braided thread of silver dangling from his fingers.

A shockwave of awareness jolted through me.

My gaze followed the metal up to his fist, where a glimmer of blue snuck between his knuckles.

There was no doubt in my mind—that was my necklace.

My hand drifted to the space surrounding my collarbone, as empty as my heart.

“Why do you have that?”

He loosened his grip, letting the pendant peek out from between his fingers.

“This old thing?”

In his care it gleamed dull, lifeless, its beauty muffled by his corrupted touch.

“Yes, that old thing . Last I wore it was…” My eyes grew wide, and the realization hit me so fast I almost reunited with the ground.

Half Moon Bay, at the fortune teller’s house.

I’d had a concussion—or something like it.

When I was cradled in his arms or wiped out on the grass, he must have slipped the jewelry off my neck.

“Looks like you’re piecing things together.”

My head snapped up at his voice.

“I am. And not only are you an asshole; you’re also a thief.” The hopelessness was a sinking ship dragging me down so deep, it had me gasping for breath.

“Why do you want it anyway? It’s just an old family heirloom. It has no value to you.”

He smirked, and it was all bitterness and scorn.

“But it has immeasurable value to you.”

I didn’t meet his eyes—I couldn’t.

So I focused on the stone lying flat against his palm.

“What does that matter?”

Ryder curled his fingers around the pendant, hiding it from sight.

“Because it’s a conduit for your powers. Without it, you can’t channel your Source. Well, I guess you could if you knew what you were doing…but it’s not like you do.”

My feet stood on dry land, but I might as well have been underwater.

His words weighed a thousand tons, pressing against my skull, the air suffocatingly thick with tension.

Memories replayed before my eyes as if I were literally drowning.

Meeting on the bridge after Grad Night.

Finding me after work in the alley.

Showing up at school just in time to whisk me away from the teratorn—and taking care of me, after.

Saving me from a gnarly walk home after running from werewolves.

The Big Dipper. The Ferris wheel…

Teaching me how to drive.

Tears formed behind my lowered lids.

Showing me a world with angels and magic and…

I swallowed, fighting the knot forming in my throat…

Elephant seals.

It hadn’t been because he actually cared.

It had all been for this .

“It’s me,” I whispered, the shock constricting my voice.

“It’s always been me. I’m the one you’ve been looking for. When did you know?”

Weariness pinched his eyes.

It was so brief, it had me second-guessing if I even saw it.

“I had a hunch it was you the night we met. That’s why I sent the sprite for surveillance. This necklace was the smoking gun.” His words chilled my blood, numbing my veins like frostbite.

“An Empyrean water stone, crafted out of the element itself.” He rubbed his thumb over the surface.

“There’re only three others like it. You can guess what those are.”

Earth, wind, and fire.

Did he actually think I was crazy at the pub when I told him about the Watchers, or was that just an act to humiliate me?

Render me defenseless?

Unfortunately for him, it did quite the opposite.

I’d spent my entire life trying to dampen the pain.

Now I let it fill me, fuel me, forge my path forward.

“You used my ignorance of this world against me.” I lunged for the jewelry.

In one fluid motion he loaded his bow and aimed an arrow at me faster than I could blink.

I flapped my arms in frustration, striking the sides of my thighs.

“Why?”

With his weapon locked, the déjà vu slammed into me.

My dream, the dream from the night we met.

It had predicted this exact scene.

Deep down, I must have always known he’d betray me.

“My, my, my,” a deep voice crooned from the darkness.

I jumped and gasped, my palm smacking against my heart.

Leif. What the hell was wrong with these guys, always sneaking up on people!

? “Was worried you didn’t have it in you, brother.”

Using the distraction, I whirled out of the alcove, and out of Ryder’s reach, onto the main pathway.

His brother stepped into the moonlight from behind the tiled wall of the frozen dessert stand.

Disdain draped his features as casually as the leather jacket over his shoulders.

I had no problem matching his snarled lips, meeting his wroth eyes.

He’d shown nothing less since the moment we’d been introduced.

“Why are you here?” I spat.

“I couldn’t miss my little brother’s initiation into the big leagues.” He settled next to Ryder, wrapping a firm arm around his neck, shaking his shoulder.

“Initiation into what?” I emulated Leif’s glare.

“Your ridiculous Nephilim Society you were going to tell me all about at the body shop? Isn’t he already branded for that—or is this the official test?”

“Make this easy on yourself, River.” I fumed at the way Ryder drew out my name, and how it still managed to reach some wanting part of me.

“Back down. You can’t outrun them.”

I finally looked at him, ignoring the flare of golden green trying to shatter the darkness that wrung his irises.

My finger pointed at him.

“You don’t get to act like you care.”

“Oh, don’t take it out on Ryder,” Leif drawled.

“He’s just following orders.”

“That is the lamest excuse in the history of excuses.” I swore smoke was going to blow out my nostrils, and any minute I’d start exhaling fire.

“Can someone explain what orders? And who’s ‘them?’”

A heavy flapping whooshed from the rafters of the bordering bumper cars, rustling the cables.

All three of us snapped towards the aerial wires sparking and popping from a focused gust of wind that blew nowhere else but inside the ride.

Fallen leaves and trash funneled into mini cyclones, twisting over the floor.

The tempest grew fiercer, stronger, cars crashing into each other, until the clang of metal against metal and a searing flash obliterated everything within the oval track.

Shielding my face with my hands, I dropped my chin to my chest, the ringing in my ears drilling into my nerves.

I was stuck in a serrated bubble of blinding light and echoes from the blast, a putrid char burning my nostrils and souring my tastebuds.

My efforts to control my breathing were simply lost as the panic pulled me into myself.

I wasn’t sure how long had passed, but I knew the effects were dampening when I started to feel my body shaking and I was able to take a conscious inhale.

When the sounds became clearer, I dared a glance between my fingers.

Slowly, my eyeballs dragged over the brothers.

They hadn’t moved, aside from parting and getting into a still, wide-legged stance that reminded me of two predators staking out their prey.

I flicked my gaze past them to the destroyed carnival ride, the shadows dispersing into smokey forms like phantoms of amusement park goers before they dissipated into the ashy air.

One splintered off towards us, intensifying in color, its translucent tendrils molding into limbs as it evolved into a familiar figure that made my mouth go dry and my hairs stand on end.

She looked hungry for blood.

Of course, she did; the last time I saw her I tried to kill her.

Or something like it.

Dr. Finis glided towards me, corvine feathers shedding from her shoulders, singeing as she emerged from the explosion—like she’d been born from it.

I glanced to my right.

Ryder blocked the path to one of the main gates.

My heels shifted to turn, then sand and gravel crunched a few paces away—a purposeful sound.

Leif wanted me to know he had moved behind me.

The urge to look over my shoulder left me.

“River. I told you we’d meet again.” The demon’s words tried to catch the breeze, but the element simply refused.

In a motion that made the blood leave my face, she turned to each brother, the corners of her lips upturned as she nodded in acknowledgement.

In thanks . “Night Stalkers.”

The phrase set off an internal alarm even though I’d never heard it before.

A persistent clawing in my gut told me to run or brace myself for the worst, but the confusion held me in place like a fishhook.

“River,” she purred.

“You look confused.”

Not only was I racking my brain for some sort of indication as to what Night Stalker could mean, I was also trying to process the link between these three inhumans who clearly all wanted to end me.

My eyebrows pushed together so hard it felt like they had fused together.

“No shit.”

A hoarse laugh left the demon, as if her windpipe hadn’t been used in years.

Tiny moths flew out of the black pit of her mouth.

I recoiled a half step backwards, until I remembered Leif blocked my exit.

“Did the boys not fill you in on their end of the bargain?” Glancing their way, she tsked.

“W-what bargain?” My breaths were so shallow I could hardly form the words.

Onyx liquid pooled with her saliva and coated her lips.

“To find you and deliver you to me,” she said, spittle clinging to her chin.

A pallid tongue darted out, licking it clean.

So very reptilian. “Don’t be sad, River; these aren’t your friends. These are Night Stalkers, nothing more than hit men with no strings attached. With the way they parade it all over their skin and clothing, I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out sooner.”

Unfazed by Finis’s praise, unfazed by my hurt, Ryder remained still as a statue, with an arrow nocked.

At least he pointed his weapon at the ground.

Though I’m sure if I so much as flinched, he’d aim it right at me.

My eyes glossed over his hand holding the bow, the tattoos etched on his knuckles, the inverted abbreviation between his thumb and index finger.

NS. I craned my neck, the eyes of a snake head wrapped around the S triggering a flurry of images.

This whole time, it’d been staring me dead in the face.

Scribbled on building corners, patched onto moto vests, forever inked on his and his brother’s skin.

It’s more of a syndicate, really, Leif had started to tell me.

You got peddlers, thieves, and …

assassins. I finally filled in the blank.

Finis was right: Ryder wasn’t my friend.

He was my enemy. I clenched my fists so hard to keep myself from biting my fingers that my jagged nails pierced my palms. I’d found his introversion to be different and charming…

Was that even him? Was his fascination with me all just a ploy to get me to trust him?

Did he even care about who I was?

Did he ever even see me?

My eyes fluttered open and shut.

That rare, dimpled smile; that feverish green stare; the way his calloused touch gently scraped my skin—it had all felt so real .

The writing had been there on every damn wall.

It’d been inked onto his fucking hand.

My gaze shot up his arm, recalling the only hint of color amongst a sea of black and gray art hidden behind his jacket: the blue streaks and white brushstrokes that flowed under his bicep.

A river tat, I realized then.

The mark of his prey.

How original.

Could I even call it betrayal though, if it was never anything more than a shady business transaction to him?

“Why?” I croaked out, unsure who I was directing it to.

Finis pirouetted closer, in an answering dance of sorrow and devastation.

The rotten stench of eggs and burnt rubber polluted the air with each twirl.

I clutched my stomach.

“When Mira deserted eternity, we figured we’d won—that the absence of the Daughter of Gabriel, the Wielder of Water, would destroy the power and protection of the Watchers, and Chthonia would be able to seize Mortal Earth.” Her eyes were obsidian inkpots, incapable of reflection, so dark and bottomless they swallowed the light.

“Imagine our shock when the western watchtower did not fall. That it still stood because she hid from the consequences for eight years, and when she was finally captured, a child took the place of the Angel of Water.”

As if I wore a dozen soaking layers, I buckled to a force that weighed on every fiber of my being.

It wasn’t just about my mom losing her immortality for my dad—she had sacrificed herself for me .

“Because of you, the Watchers get to keep their power. Faulty, but strong enough to hold up a ward. The only way to break them is to break you…” She broke off to grin at Ryder, revealing her nubby, ground-down teeth—stained by the black-tinged saliva that drizzled out the corners of her mouth.

I knew she was evil, but right now, she didn’t hold any part of that demon back.

She clasped her hands, nails bruised and sharp as daggers.

“Now, give me that Empyrean water stone so I can fulfill this sacred oath.”

Ryder’s grasp loosened around the handle of his weapon and an orange bracelet slid out from his cuff.

The paper wristband was frayed, the numbers were faded, but the white text still legible said Boardwalk , printed in diagonal patterns behind the date of our first real hangout.

“You never took it off,” I whispered.

I hadn’t meant for him to overhear it, but it traveled to his ears and ripped his moody stare from seeing through me, to me.

A tremble rocked his grip, fracturing his hardened shell, and we locked eyes.

The prolonged creak of string being stretched against wood sounded behind me.

Uneasiness struck the top of my spine like a bullseye.

I didn’t need to turn and see to know Leif had nocked his own arrow at me.

But his words were directed at Ryder.

“Don’t forget who you are, little brother. Don’t forget where we came from.” His voice reverberated down the bow, tickling the hairs standing on the back of my neck.

“The Sainthood takes our wings because of people like her—people like her mother.”

W-what did he say?

I couldn’t have heard him correctly, but then I remembered the way Ryder’s entire demeanor had shifted when he’d spoken about the Saints.