Page 7

Tell her goodbye.

T ristin is still gripping my arm very tightly even after the door closes behind me. I wriggle free—try to, anyway—and spit up at him, “Let go of me.”

“Calm down, Syrsee.” Tristin says this in his low, monotone, unaffected voice. And even if I wasn’t already pissed off, this tone of his would be enough to set me off.

“Calm down?” My eyes are wide, my voice too shrill. “Calm. Down ? You fuckers set me up. ‘You need to take a ten-day trip, Syrsee. So you’ll be safe, Syrsee. You need to be very careful. We’re trying to keep you safe, Syrsee!’ Any of that ringing a fucking bell, Tristin?”

He puts his hands up and backs off. “I know, we lied to you. I get it. But we didn’t know we were lying. We take orders too, Syrsee.”

I narrow my eyes, so angry I start to tremble. And this is when I realize that the feelings inside me are so much more than anger. I seethe my words out. “You. Betrayed me.”

“We didn’t.”

“We?” I look around. “Where is the rest of this ‘we?’ Where is Zusi?”

“She couldn’t come?—”

“How convenient for her. She betrayed her best friend—and you know what?” I pause my rant to laugh here. “I get it. She was never my friend. They were paying her. She was on scholarship. I was just her job?—”

“That’s not true, and you know it.”

“I know it?” I scoff. “How would I know any different, Tristin? What I just said is a fact. A fact .” I point my finger in his face. “She was assigned to me.”

He lets out a long breath. “I understand that.” And now he’s getting angry too. His eyes are narrowing and he’s clenching his jaw as he talks. “She was assigned to you. Just like I was assigned to you. But it doesn’t mean I’m not your friend.”

“My—” I can’t even finish. The nerve. The fucking nerve of him. “I’m food, Tristin. I’m the scion’s food . He drank me thirty minutes ago.”

Tristin recoils from this statement. Like it’s a real, physical thing that just tried to attack him.

“And he’s not a scion anymore, by the way.” Everything in that sentence is snark. “He’s a vampire now. That was the plan all along. And the Guild was the one who made it happen because they—you!” I point at his face again. “You and Zusi are the ones who made that happen. I’m going to be turned into my grandmother. I’m going to spend the next few weeks trying to come to terms with it, but I’m going to fail. And then I’m gonna run, or something, and he’s going to hunt me down, chain me up, and keep me in a bedroom that’s nothing more than a refrigerator to hold his food. And that’s where I’m gonna die, Tristin. Dirty, and old, and wasted away in a bedroom that stinks like death.”

He’s shaking his head the whole time I’m talking. “It’s not gonna happen that way.”

“Really?” I sneer this word out. “How the hell do you figure?”

“Because he’s not a vampire. Not yet.”

“Well, there are wings growing out of his back, Tristin. He feeds on me every couple of hours. And it’s getting worse.”

Tristin crosses his arms and shoots me a smug look. “If he’s so fucking dangerous, then how did you get away alone? Hmm? If he’s so fucking dangerous, and he’s so fucking worried about you escaping, or whatever, where is he? Why isn’t he here?”

“Are you trying to insinuate that you know him? That you understand him? That I have no idea what I’m talking about even though I’m the one who spent the past month with the man?”

“No. I’m saying you don’t have the full story.”

“The full story?” The arrogance of him stuns me. “Do you know why I don’t have the full story, Tristin? Because they never let me read the fucking books, that’s why.”

“It was for your own good.”

Now I actually laugh. It’s a big one too. One that echoes off the ceiling. I turn, ready to walk out, but he puts a hand on my shoulder.

It’s not a grip. It’s a very light touch. And when he speaks, his words are softer too. “Zusi was forbidden from coming here to the lounge to meet you. But… since when does Zusi follow the rules?”

I stop. Inhale. Then turn to him again. “She’s here?”

“Not here. But close by.” He pulls out his phone, taps the screen, and then takes a deep breath. I can hear it ring just once. Then Zusi’s voice. “Is she there?”

My heart hurts so bad in this moment, I just want to cry. She betrayed me. They all betrayed me. But it’s Zusi’s deception that hurts, not the Guild’s and not Tristin’s. I trusted her with my life and she sent me to the vampire to be food.

“Can I talk to her?” Zusi says. It’s not on speaker, so this is just a low, tinny sound coming from Tristin’s hand.

He offers me the phone, but I shake my head. “I don’t have anything to say to her.”

“Syrsee!” Zusi is talking louder now. “You have to listen to me. I didn’t know. They didn’t tell us anything. I would’ve never, ever sent you to that town if I had known. That’s why they didn’t tell me.”

“I’m not having this discussion over the phone.” I’m talking to Tristin when I say this. “If Zusi wants to explain herself, she will do it to my face.”

Then I cross the reception room, sit down in a tufted chair made out of leather so soft it feels like butter, and sigh as I fold my arms across my chest in defiance.

Tristin puts the phone back up to his ear. “I’ll call you back.” Then he ends the call without waiting for Zusi’s response.

He looks at the room for a moment, trying to figure out where to sit, I think. There are no chairs, just two couches on opposite sides of the room. It’s not an intimate set-up—the distance between the two couches is ten feet, at least. It’s not meant to encourage conversation between Guild members as they wait for their pamper sessions. It’s meant to separate them. Give them space.

So his choices are to sit next to me or take the couch across the room.

He takes the couch across the room.

Part of me knows that this is just Tristin. He’s… kind of a cold guy. Not in any way touchy-feely. And I could accept that as the reason he doesn’t want to sit next to me, but I don’t. I think he chooses the couch across the room because he doesn’t want to get too close because I’m really not in the mood to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Once seated he leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and propping his chin up with his hands. Then he just stares at me.

“What?” I snap.

“I understand how you feel.”

“Don’t patronize me, Tristin. You have no idea how I feel.”

“You’re wrong. Do you think you’re the only one who was ever betrayed by the Guild?”

I scoff and shrug. “Probably not. But this is about me. Not everyone else.”

“So you don’t want to hear my story?”

“What story? You were a privileged Guild kid, everyone knows that.”

“They do not know that because I was not a privileged Guild kid. I was on scholarship, just like Zusi. Just like you.”

“Just like me? You’re crazy. You’re nothing like me. Being too poor to afford Guild School tuition isn’t even close to being a Black Witch.”

“That’s not how the scholarships work, Syrsee. Scholarships are for outsiders.”

“And I guess you’re gonna tell me you’re one of those now, huh? Save it, Tristin. You’re a Guardian. I was a glorified librarian. I was never allowed into the classes that Zusi took.”

“Zusi, sure. But I’m not Zusi. Zusi’s family is Guild. They were outsiders because she is the first in her family to be a Guardian. They are poor—dirt poor, actually. I’ve met them. I’ve seen how they live. But they do have some Guild blood in them. It’s all very mixed…” He sighs. “Anyway. I don’t come from the Guild. I come from the Obscurati.”

As soon as this word comes out of his mouth I’m back in the purple mist of the wooded clearing with Paul as he tried to explain what would happen to me.

“ My promise is that you and Ryet can be together. And the two of you can have a baby, Syrsee. I’ll show you how it can be done. This baby would be the new breed of Black witch. And trust me when I tell you this, the Guild will want her. They will be girls. And there is a good reason to take them to the Guild. Because the Guild will do everything in their power to protect them from the Obscurati.”

The Obscurati, he said, were his bosses.

“You are the new mother of all demons. You are the dark now too, Syrsee. And from here… we rule the world.”

“What does that even mean?” I ask Tristin. “Who are these Obscurati people? Where are they?”

“They’re… everywhere. Well, except for America.”

“Why not here? What’s so special about America?”

“It belongs to Paul. And he was cast out. He made abominations back in the Old World. Sick things. And he was punished for it.”

“Is that what he wants me to make with Ryet? Sick things?”

Tristin shrugs. “I don’t know. I am not privy to the ambitions of Paul. I doubt it, since the last time resulted in a very severe banishment. But the important thing here is that whatever happens next, it must not happen in the presence of the Obscurati. They must not get a hold of you, or any children you have. They must not get Ryet, either. He’s under our protection too.”

“Since when ?”

“Always. He’s always been under our protection.”

“So you were lying to me the whole time. You were never trying to keep me safe.”

“I was lying.” He shrugs with his hands.

And this throws me. Because I was really expecting him to tell me no, he didn’t know. He was lied to as well. We were all lied to. That we’re still a team. Still on the same side.

But instead, he gave me the truth.

It’s a big letdown.

Tristin continues. “Paul and the Guild have a deal.”

“Me.”

“You’re only a small part of it, Syrsee.”

“He said I would be the mother of demons. I don’t want to be the mother of demons, Tristin. I don’t want to do any of this.”

“Well,” Tristin sighs—it’s nearly a scoff—“that’s like me saying I don’t want to be a rogue. But here I am.”

“What the hell is a rogue?”

“It’s a type of vampire.”

I blink at him. “ You’re a vampire?”

“No. I’m a rogue.”

“What’s the difference?”

“I was cut when I was born. More accurately, I was burned. They cauterized my wing buds so they never formed. Then they took out my heart and put it back in.”

“ What ?” Just when I think this world cannot get any more horrifying, there’s more. “Why would they do something like that?”

“This stops the blood thirst because it interrupts the maturation process of the filtering in my lungs. It makes me ‘other’. They consider me… a eunuch. But…” He closes his eyes, sighing. “Not the way you think.”

I look down between his legs, but then quickly look back up again.

Tristin smiles. “All of that is still very much intact. I’m just missing wings and the blood thirst. I am a low creature to the Obscurati. A… servant. They send the rogues to the Guild as representatives.”

“Representatives of…?”

“They rule the world, Syrsee. The Guild and the Obscurati. With the Darkness, of course, which acts like a judge.”

“I don’t understand. If the Guild and the Obscurati are working together?—”

“Since when do two hands of a three-handed government work together?”

“I don’t know.”

“Never. It never works that way. It’s all in the Guild library.”

“Well, that explains my ignorance, I guess. They never let me read the books.”

“They couldn’t, you see. Because they didn’t know if you were the true match for Ryet. They really didn’t think it was going to work. But now that it has?—”

I stop listening because I remember more of what Paul said that day we were in the purple and he was trying to explain what would happen next. “ If you take your girls to the Guild, they will be safe and so will you. And not only that, Syrsee, they will reward you for coming home to them and let you read the books.”

I finish for Tristin. “They will let me read the books.”

“They will want you to know everything.”

“So that’s why you’re here? To take me back to the Guild?”

“Not just you. Ryet must come as well.”

A little pain stabs my heart once again. Because this is the catch. I can go home. I can read those books that were forbidden to me. I can learn all the secret things. I can have all the knowledge of my history. But only if I bring Ryet with me.

It hurts, I’m not gonna lie. It hurts. Because this is just yet another trap.

“What do you think Ryet would say if I told him this story?”

Tristin gives me a small shrug. “He would… be suspicious. I would, if I were him.”

“But… if he wanted to make me happy, he might relent, don’t you think?”

Tristin smiles. “Probably.”

I let out a long sigh. I knew it was too good to be true. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about Ryet. They care about power.

“Do you think he likes you?”

“Who?” I ask.

“Ryet.”

“Does he like me… as a person? As his food? As his friend?”

“As his lover?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Well, I think he does like you. And you’ve been gone for a while now, so…” Tristin stands up, smiling at me, his job here done. “I’ll see you out.”

I stand up too. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“Convince him, Syrsee.”

“Why can’t you just come take him? Why do you need me to deliver him?”

Tristin scoffs. “Is that a real question? He’s a vampire , Syrsee. A baby one, but still. He’s more powerful than he realizes. He has no idea what he is or what he can do. There is no way we could take him if he didn’t want to come. He would just… kill us all. And he wouldn’t even have to make a decision to do this. It would just happen. It would be instinct. We need him to want to cooperate.”

“And that’s where I come in.” I force this to come out neutral, but that’s not how I feel. I resent this entire conversation.

“Yes.” Tristin smiles, happy and content that I am seeing things his way. The Guild way. He walks over to the door and opens it for me. I get up and I’m just about to walk through it when he asks one final question. “What should I tell Zusi?”

I close my eyes, forcing myself to remain calm. Then I open them and look at Tristin one final time. “Tell her… goodbye.”

Then I walk out.