Page 28 of Beg the Night (Mystics of Ashora #1)

TWENTY-EIGHT

athena

B enedict ran his fingers through his dark hair and exhaled loudly. “I can’t simply teleport us all back there. That would be suicide.”

“Why not?” I asked. “It worked before!”

“Because they weren’t expecting me to help you. Hell, I wasn’t even expecting me to help you.”

The five of us stood in our room at the inn. It was cramped, but when Katherine and Benedict brought us breakfast, my stomach growled loudly again, and I begrudgingly allowed them to enter.

“We can’t go back,” Katherine said. “Not unless we’re turning ourselves in.”

Margaret cocked her head, licking the butter off her bread dramatically. “I wonder sometimes, Katherine. Truly. What is wrong with you?”

I choked back a howl of laughter.

Katherine gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. “Excuse me?”

Margaret shrugged, her expression light. “Clearly there is something deeply and disturbingly wrong with you. I’m just trying to figure out what exactly it is.”

Sinner coughed beside me as Katherine’s face turned red.

“We have to go back.” Benedict stepped forward. The more time I spent around him, the more I liked him. Though I couldn’t help but pity him, too. He must have really pissed someone off to be paired with my terrible sister for the claiming. “There are mystics in those dungeons just like us. It’s wrong. We can’t leave them there.”

“And where would we go afterward?” Katherine cocked a hip, her chin lifted in derision. “There isn’t a place on the planet that’s safe from the Ministry.”

The room fell into silence. That had been the question, the one thing stopping us. We could storm the Ministry, sure. We could pretend like the five of us had any chance against the hundreds of guards surrounding that dungeon and we could attempt to get the others out of there.

But then what? Where would we hide dozens of rebel mystics in a world where mystics are being hunted?

“Actually, I’ve heard of a place.” Sinner, who had been quiet all morning, leaned casually against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’ve heard of places where mystics live together. Small communities safe from the Ministry’s reach.”

Katherine laughed out loud, shrill as ever. “You seriously think communities of mystics the Ministry doesn’t know about exist?”

Margaret put down the rest of her bread. “My brother’s right. Where we’re from, people talk about them. And I wouldn’t say that the Ministry doesn’t know about them. It’s more that they’re too afraid to confront them. If they did, they’d be outnumbered. Outpowered.”

A chill ran down my spine. If what they said was true…there could be an entire rebellion awaiting us.

Yet that still didn’t solve the issue of getting into the Ministry’s camp without dying.

“All right.” Sinner pushed himself off the wall. “Benedict, you stay here with Mags. Come up with a plan to infiltrate the Ministry. You two—and Katherine—know the grounds better than we do.”

“Where are you going?” Katherine asked, her eyes narrowed to slits, her whole being radiating suspicion.

Sinner straightened, grasped my wrist, and pulled me toward the door. “I’ve got one day to teach Athena how to use her power. We’re getting started now.”

Before I could argue, I was pulled out of the inn and into the bustling streets. Like last night, the energy of this town lit my body aflame. Excitement and nervousness both flitted through me. I relished it. This was like nothing I had ever felt before.

Sinner pulled me between two buildings, leading me away from the crowded main streets of the bustling city. He ignored my protests and questions, just like I figured he would, and didn’t stop walking until we reached a grassy field on the outskirts of the town. I could still see the inn in the distance, but we were at least a half mile away from any living being.

“You can’t be serious,” I said as I finally extricated myself from his hold. “I can’t learn my gift in one day.”

In the soft morning light, his face glowed. His skin was slightly pink from the sun exposure—exposure he hadn’t seen in months—and his muscles rippled with each movement.

And those dark eyes…

“You can and you will,” he replied. “You don’t have a choice. We can’t make it through this without you.”

I put a hand on my chest. “Aw, I’m flattered.”

“Don’t get cocky.” He fisted his hands at his hips. “It took me years to learn how to control my shadows. Now we’re going to teach you.”

“You’re forgetting an important detail in all of this.”

“Oh, really?” He stepped forward, brow arched, head bowed over me. “What is that detail?”

I didn’t back away as I craned my neck to look up at him. “I don’t have phantoms to wield. And every time I’ve used my magic in the past, bad things have happened. One day of training won’t help.” I tried to keep my voice strong, but the crack in my words betrayed my fear.

My power wasn’t the kind that could be reined in. How was I supposed to learn to control death itself? Evil personified?

No, I wouldn’t do it. Not when there was so much at stake.

“You can’t be afraid of yourself forever.”

Unease coiled tight in my belly. “I don’t see any other way.”

Sinner tipped his head back and huffed at the sky like he was looking for answers.

Good luck with that.

“Okay, new plan,” he said. “If you’re afraid to use your own magic, fine. You’ll learn to use mine.”

I swallowed past the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat. Shit.

“We share power now. You can feel it, I know you can.”

As if on cue, that tether tugged at my chest like it had each time Sinner had used his magic since our unfinished claiming ceremony.

I hadn’t had time to really assess the sensation. It all happened so fast, and then we were running.

But holy hell. He was right. I could wield Sinner’s shadows.

“Fine,” I sighed. “Teach me how.”

A wicked smile spread across his face. Shadows pulsed out of his chest, right above his heart. They did not flood the area like I had seen them do before. These were slower shadows. Subtle. And completely under Sinner’s control.

At the sight of those black wisps, my own chest tightened. He was standing close enough that if I reached out, I could touch them?—

“Will them to come to you,” he ordered.

Uncertainty fluttered through me. Yeah. Like it would be that easy.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, silently urging the shadows to move closer. It felt ridiculous. This was all…it was all magic, for god’s sake.

Still, I willed them forward. With my hands at my sides, I turned my palms up, and I pulled, as if there was a physical string tethering me to each of the black clouds that snaked around Sinner’s body.

I pulled and pulled and pulled.

And got nothing.

“You don’t want it bad enough,” Sinner said matter-of-factly.

A humph escaped me as I let my shoulders sag. Was this guy on drugs? “Um, yes, I think I do. Our lives are at stake here.”

Sinner laughed under his breath while he shook his head. “And when have you ever cared about your own life?”

“Excuse me, but I do possess a little self-preservation, thank you.”

“Really? This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

I glowered at him. Real good, Athena. Great scary work. I’m sure he’s trembling right now. “I understand what’s at stake here. Those people in the dungeons will continue to suffer. That’s not a life I’d wish upon anyone.”

A darkness flickered in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. “Then act like it. Control these shadows. Their lives depend on it. We have no chance of standing up to the Ministry if you’re not using a gift.”

My heart rate spiked. I hadn’t wanted to believe that I’d need to, but the earnestness and concern in his tone struck deep. We were their hope.

Possibly their only hope.

Instead of pushing the shadows from his chest again, Sinner held one hand out between us. A single shadow appeared, twirling like a tiny tornado in his palm. “Show me how badly you want it, then.”

My entire body tensed at the sight of it. Each time I saw his magic, I had a stronger reaction to it, a stronger attraction to it.

As if that string between me and this shadow had tightened, I was drawn closer.

Somewhere in the pull of his power, I moved my own hand and laid it on top of his palm.

It was quiet out here, no sounds but the chirping of birds in the distance and the rapid beating of my heart.

Want it bad enough.

I did want it. I wanted this more than anything. Sinner was right. We had no chance if I wasn’t using a gift. Sinner could wield death, yes, but I could too. We could do it together.

I wanted it.

He kept his hand steady beneath mine. Like a rock, unmoving.

Where we touched, a fire ignited and erupted up my arm. I fought the urge to step closer. To grip his forearm. To pull his body flush against mine.

Focus, Athena. You want him, but you want his power more .

I slowly lifted my hand from his.

And the shadows followed.

Between his palm and mine, the dark clouds spread, swirling and whispering, rattling wildly like an animal caged between us.

“It’s working,” I breathed.

“It’s working,” he repeated. “Now, more.”

Without his touch to guide me, my body buzzed. This close to him, power flooded me. Only now did I realize that my body’s reaction to him was so much more than lust. It was as if my power literally craved his.

I could wield his power. I could . I was meant to, that’s what the whole claiming was about. I had done it at the mansion, too. I had actually controlled his phantoms.

So instead of backing away, instead of closing myself off to that feeling of want, I leaned into it.

And the damn shadows followed.

I took a step back, and although it felt like fighting against a magnetic pull, the shadows followed. They wrapped around my arm, coiling up my shoulder and caressing my neck. “Oh my god,” I whispered.

He grunted, his lips ticked up on one side. “God has nothing to do with this.”

The shadows pulsed at the sound of his voice, but they remained coiled around me, wrapping me further in their darkness.

When I met Sinner’s gaze, he was smiling.

A rare smile. A real smile.

It was kind of freaky.

“Good,” he said. “Now pretend I’m your enemy and unleash them on me.”

Hours later, I had gotten the hang of basic shadow wielding.

I was also dripping in sweat, completely exhausted, and slowly losing my inhibitions. That last part was due to my prolonged proximity to Sinner.

My head tilted up to the sky as my knees dropped to the ground, and I caught my breath. Simple shadow movements had turned into intense combat training, which turned into fighting like my life was on the line.

In Sinner’s world, it was on the line.

I understood that, but damn, I was tired.

“You’re getting better.” He dropped to the ground beside me, legs bent, arms resting on his knees. The annoying asshole hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“I still can’t kill people with the power like you can.”

“You don’t know that until you try it.”

A laugh bubbled out of me. “Oh, are you offering to be my test subject?”

He shook his head, but I saw the smile that crept onto his lips before he covered it up. “You’ll have plenty of test scenarios when we make it back to the Ministry.”

“If I don’t die first.”

It was a joke, but the truth in the words hit hard. Sinner was right. Until now, I’d rarely cared about my own life. Lately, though I felt as if, for the first time in my life, I had something worth fighting for.

The Ministry had to be stopped.

God, who was I? Had I become a rebel meant to shake up the government?

I didn’t hate it. Someone had to do it, right? End the corruption of the Ministry or die trying.

It was quite the motto.

“You’re not going to die. I won’t let you.”

I closed my eyes and relished the way the sun warmed my face. “Careful. It’s starting to sound like you actually care.”

When he didn’t quip back, I turned to look at him. The sun cast shadows across his face, but there was no hiding the emotion that rolled through his dark eyes.

“You’re my claimed, Athena. What we feel for each other on a personal level isn’t important. But my power is now connected to yours. Forever. I’m not going to let you die. My shadows won’t allow it. I won’t allow it.”

My face heated. I never could have predicted the scary, sullen tier three from the dungeons would care even the smallest amount about me. Nobody had ever cared about me. Why would they? I was a monster. A killer. A waste of oxygen, as my sister once said.

They were right, of course. Mystics were supposed to be valuable. Talented. They were supposed to possess what the world needed.

Sinner didn’t even know the half of what my power was capable of.

Once he learned, he would think differently of me.

“Let’s go.” He stood, brushing off his pants. “The others should have a plan by now. If they haven’t killed each other yet.”

I groaned. “Can’t we just lock Katherine up and take Mags and Benedict with us? It would help morale.”

Sinner pulled me to my feet effortlessly, and I caught myself on his bicep before I stumbled directly into his chest. “Keep your enemies close. Don’t forget that.”

Sinner the wise. I’ll add that to the list of his surprising qualities. “Fine,” I said. “But I want it on record that I tried to be the bigger person.”

We headed back toward town, wandering side by side. “Really? When did that happen, because I distinctly remember you rolling around in the mud and fighting while you tried to kill each other.”

I flipped my hair over my shoulder and brushed past him. “Well, I mentally tried. And that’s really all that matters.”

By the time we got back to the inn, the sun was setting and the energy had shifted. Even from the hallway outside the door I could sense how tense the rest of our group had become. The weight of the situation was coming down on all of us.

Good. I didn’t mind that it felt heavy. It was heavy. If we failed, those men would stay locked in those dungeons. The Ministry would get their way. Again.

Sure, some of those men likely deserved to stay locked away. Some of them would need some serious therapy. But most were redeemable, and if we didn’t get them out, the Ministry would use them for their own twisted games.

We hadn’t even seen war. Hadn’t even touched that part of the problem, yet.

When I didn’t reach forward and open the door, Sinner stepped up behind me. He stood so close that when he took a breath, his chest brushed against the backs of my shoulders. To my surprise, he grasped my upper arms. His breath caressed the side of my neck as he whispered, “Don’t be afraid of your sister. I’m just waiting for the right time to let you practice your shadows.”

He reached in front of me and pushed the door open.

“There you are!” Margaret jumped up from the edge of the bed. “I was starting to think you two left us here.”

“It was tempting,” Sinner replied. “But we have work to do. Please tell me you came up with a plan.”

The bed was covered in sheets of paper, all full of notes, drawings, maps, and what looked like schematics.

Wow. They really had spent all day brainstorming.

“What is this?” I asked.

Katherine stood near the window, looking out, as if she hadn’t noticed our arrival.

“This is everything I know about where they’re keeping the rest of the mystics,” Benedict said. “I’ve only been underground a few times and it’s very complex, but it’s nothing we can’t figure out.”

My chest expanded a fraction. “You sound confident.”

“Look at this.” He handed me a piece of paper.

It was a diagram of the underground tunnels layered with one of the camps above ground. “When you were at the mansion for the claiming ceremony, you were here.” He pointed to an area on another paper. “Which is only about a mile from here.” He pointed to the map with the dungeons.

“That can’t be right. We were in a car for nearly an hour when we were transported for dinner and the claiming,” Sinner said. His voice had hardened. Grown more serious.

“We’re instructed to drive around to confuse mystics who don’t have the proper security clearance.”

I studied the maps. We were really that close to the rest of the mystics the night of the blood moon?

“And how many men are protecting these places? What types of gifts will we be fighting against?”

Margaret picked up another piece of paper. “Here. We compiled a list of the gifts of every guard we’ve encountered. Of course, it would be nice if we had Katherine’s help, but someone is being stubborn.”

Every eye turned to my sister.

“Really?” I asked, my heart sinking. “Still?”

She finally turned her gaze away from the window. “I don’t want anything to do with the massacre you’re walking into. That’s what will happen, you know that, right? They’ll kill you all.”

“Not this again,” I groaned.

“It’s true.” She stepped toward us. “You can draw your maps. You can make your plans. But do you really think your scary little boyfriend is strong enough to fight everyone?”

I ignored the little boyfriend comment, but beside me, Sinner stiffened. “Why are you so adamant that we’re going to die?” I asked. “What do you know?”

She rolled her eyes. “Nothing.”

“I’ve known you my whole life, Katherine. You’re stubborn, but you’re not an idiot. You know Sinner’s abilities are far stronger than most of the generals in Director’s army. What is it you know?”

“I don’t know anything, Thena! And neither do any of you! Do you think the Ministry gained all the power they have by allowing gifted to infiltrate them so easily? You’re smarter than that. There are other mystics out there with powers you’ve never even considered. Trust me.”

“Do you know other threes?” Sinner’s voice echoed off the walls. “Or powerful twos?”

She crossed her arms and leaned against the windowsill. “The Ministry has been operating for decades. Use your imagination, Sinner.”

God, she was annoying. Of course there would be mystics with powers we hadn’t seen before, but we were bringing the literal power of death with us.

“We can be in and out of there before they even realize what’s happened,” Benedict interrupted, saving us all from drowning in the growing tension. “That’s our best shot. We don’t have to fight everyone alone, either. The second we open the gates to the dungeons, we’ll have dozens of other mystics with us.”

“You can’t take down every guard.” With a shake of her head, she turned back to the window.

“So this is what you’ve been in here doing all day? Arguing with each other?” I asked.

“No,” Margaret said. “After about an hour, we banished Katherine to the corner. Benedict and I are optimists. Glass half full, etcetera.”

“So we’re running on optimism here?”

She lifted one shoulder. “Optimism and a plan. Here. Look at this.”

For the next hour, Benedict went over every detail. He walked us through every note. Every diagram. They had even drawn scenarios where the plan could go wrong, where we would have to jump ship if shit hit the fan.

I couldn’t lie. It seemed like it could work.

Hope blossomed in my chest and a hint of excitement coursed through my veins.

Katherine kept her mouth shut, thank god, and Sinner made a few adjustments to the plan, insisting that he and I stay together at all times.

And I tried not to blush like an idiot at that. It was for the purposes of magic, nothing else.

“The guards open the doors of the dungeon to refill the supplies at dawn. I’d suggest we get a good night’s sleep, then set out first thing tomorrow. We can camp out one more day if we need to, but the sooner we get in, the better.”

Dawn. We had until dawn.

“Can you teleport us all there? Are you strong enough?”

“Yes, but I’ll need time to recharge. We’ll stop near the Ministry, and I’ll rest there.” He pointed to the map. “We’ll stay here for the day and move in before the sun rises.”

Benedict locked eyes with each of us one by one, his expression full of confidence. Thank god. I would rather him be ignorant and confident than pessimistic. Either way, we were going through with this. Either way, this was happening.

“Katherine,” Benedict called out. “Let’s go. We need our sleep, too.”

She scoffed. “Like it’ll matter.” Without bothering to glance at any of us, she sauntered out of the room. A moment later, a door down the hall slammed shut.

Benedict followed with a sigh.

“That was pleasant ,” Margaret cheered. “I hope you two had a better day than I did.”

I cringed. “I’m not exactly a killing machine yet.”

“When the time comes, you’ll be ready,” she replied. “I can feel it. You’re a natural.”

God, I hoped she was right.