Page 38

R.I.O.T

Something is wrong.

The air feels heavier than it should, pressing down on my chest like a weight I can't shake. The castle feels unnervingly quiet, but the silence isn't calming; it's sharp like it's holding its breath.

I try to focus on something—anything—but my thoughts keep spiralling. It started the night Nightmare left my office, and the feeling has only grown. Did I miss something? My mind scrambles for clues, like trying to piece together a puzzle when you're not even sure you have all the pieces.

The door creaks, just barely, and the sound is so soft, I might have missed it if I wasn’t so edgy. I glance up as a small face peeks through the sliver of the doorway, eyes wide and glistening. His fingers clutch the edge of the door, knuckles pale from the grip.

"E?" I sit up a little, my senses heightening. "What's wrong?"

He grits his teeth, but I can see it’s only to stop his lips from trembling as he shifts on his bare feet, looking down for a moment as if he doesn't know what to say, before he whispers, barely audible, "I'm worried about my mom."

I slide back in my chair and pat my knee. His hesitation breaks. He pushes the door open and races across my office. I help him onto my lap, his little body pressed against mine, warm and trembling as I smooth his head of curly hair with my hand. "What's wrong?"

"She…" He pauses, staring down at his lap and fiddling with the hem of his shirt, and murmurs, "She didn't sleep with me last night. And she didn't kiss me this morning, and she forgot my name, and when she stares at me…" He gulps, his words a fractured whisper. "It's cold."

Suddenly, the weight on my chest feels heavier—almost suffocating—but then I feel the faint ripple in the castle's cupola, the slight shimmer in the walls, and the whisper of a name echoing in my head.

I stiffen, holding onto Eden a little tighter as I glance at my door. That's not right; she's never returned to the castle early. Eden seems to sense my mood because he asks, "What's wrong?"

"Your mother's home." And if she's home, Nightmare is, too.

****

I’m not sure what I expected walking into the cupola, but it certainly wasn’t the sight of Reece stumbling towards the nearest door, pressing a crimson-soaked cloth against her temple. Her dark hair is matted with blood, strands clinging to her sweat-damp skin.

"Mom!" Eden runs to Reece, and the moment he's in reach, she flinches— fucking flinches —before he can take her hand. Eden's hand pauses in the air, just over hers, before he drops it limply to his side, his shoulders sagging as he takes a step back.

"What happened to your head?" I ask, my brows furrowed at her behaviour.

"A training accident with the other recruits." She smiles, staring at me, and laughs. "It happens a lot."

"You're training?" Seth and Kyrian have tried multiple times to get her into the gym, but she's never had any interest in fighting. She tried once, but she had a panic attack the moment Seth raised his fist; no one tried to force her again.

"After Damien’s last attack..." She pauses, wrapping her arms around herself as if trying to hold her fragile frame together. "I can't keep expecting my friends— my family —to give their lives for me. I'm sick of it."

She stares at me, chestnut-brown eyes glistening with unshed tears. "You can train here, we have all—"

"I appreciate it, but no." She shakes her head and sighs. "I'm human. I need to train with the humans."

"The fuck happened?!" Two, overly loud, annoyed voices seethe. Reece glances over my shoulder and grins.

"I'm training!" She practically beams as Seth and Kyrian crowd her space, forcing Nightmare—always invisible somehow—to take a step back as they stare at the wound on her head.

"I'll call Auntie Mia," Eden tells her, his lips pulled into a worried frown. "She can help."

Reece glances at Eden, her lips twisting into a scowl. "Did I ask for your help?"

I stiffen, shooting my gaze to Reece, and Seth and Kyrian pause their inspection of her wound to look at her. "Reece," I warn. Her gaze snaps to mine, sharp and scathing.

"What?" she lashes out. "It's a Nightwalker, just like its father."

Eden stands stiffly in front of his mother, his hands clenched into trembling fists at his side. He stares at Reece and takes a small, almost imperceptible step back, but I notice, and so does Nightmare.

Her hand wraps around Reece's arm. My gaze hardens, my words deep and low, "Let her go."

Nightmare glances at me and tilts her head. "She may fall."

"We've got her," Seth answers, eyes hard.

My eyes narrow, a snarl on my lips, and my hands clench into fists.

I didn't feel her using her ability, and I don't feel her using it now, but I can't take any chances.

I know she needs physical contact to enter someone's head, so Nightmare touching Reece, even if it is to support her weight, cannot fucking happen.

Nightmare seems to understand that I don't care and drops her arm before taking a step back. Reece stumbles a little, and both Seth and Kyrian take an arm to steady her. She chuckles softly and gestures to her bloodied skull. "A little help?"

Eden takes a step forward. "Mommy…"

"Not from you," Reece snaps. I growl, low, at the tone of her fucking voice. I know Reece is his mother, and I probably shouldn't intervene, but I raised the kid and protected him. No one talks to him like that, not in front of me—not even his mother.

I place a hand on Eden's shoulders, and he stares at me with wide, tearful eyes. He’s trying to hold himself together; his bottom lip trembles, and he blinks rapidly, trying to force the tears back. I grit my teeth. "Go to your room, E. I'll bring some food up for you."

He looks like he wants to argue but glances over his shoulder at Reece. His shoulders slump before he turns on his heel and walks right out. His small chest rises and falls with quick, shallow breaths, and he looks down at the scuffed toes of his trainers.

I glare at Reece. "What the hell was that?"

Tears well in her eyes as she stares after Eden. "I-I…" Reece's voice cracks as she turns to me. "Damien is after me. He's trying to hurt me. Everyone keeps trying to hurt me because I had him, because he's a Nightwalker, and I'm tired of it."

"You know none of that is Eden's fault. He's a kid."

"I know that," she whispers, her hands clenching around the crimson-soaked cloth at her side. "But I can't pretend like he isn't partly responsible, like I wasn't forced to have him."

"That's enough!" My words sharp. Final.

I turn to Nightmare with a look that could make the Gods weep. "What did you do to her?"

She stands slightly behind Reece as Seth and Kyrian both stand on either side of me, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her lips pressed into a tight line. She doesn't look surprised by my accusation, but she doesn't seem happy about it either, and scoffs, "Fuck you."

I'm toe-to-toe with her instantly, my fingers curling around her throat, and I seethe, "Do you think I'm playing?"

"Yes!" She glares, her tattooed hands curling around my wrist, but she doesn't squeeze or even try to pull me off her. "I think that's all you ever fucking do. I think if you actually cared about your human pet, I wouldn't be here."

I pull her close, my hands tightening around her throat. "Watch out, Nightmare. Your eyes are beginning to bleed, and I don't think you know how to control the chaos."

"Who says I want to control it?" Her eyes darken, a promise in them I was beginning to fear. "You'll find out I'm a lot more dangerous when I'm backed into a corner."

I narrow my gaze at her and say, each word slow and deliberate, "What did you do?"

"Nothing," she snaps, "I take memories, and I read minds, and I can do it with a single touch. Whatever comes out of the human's mouth are her thoughts. Not mine."

As if to prove herself, I feel the familiar tug inside me as she calls on her power.

Her eyes glow golden, and the ink along her forehead shimmers green.

The lines seem to dance and shift, each stroke a living thread of energy.

The moment her magic connects with my skin, pain shoots through her—a consequence for defying the enslavement mark—and I let her go as if her touch burns.

Her mismatched eyes snap to mine, fierce and unyielding, challenging me to look away first. Yet, I see the pain there, hidden just beneath the surface, like cracks in a glass that haven’t shattered yet.

'You'll never break me.' Words from long ago, when the darkness was a living, breathing thing that felt far too powerful to fight.

And yet, those words had a way of bringing me back, kept the darkness from taking me. Words that belonged to a woman whose eyes probably shared the same fierce determination as the woman whose mismatched eyes peer into my own this very moment.

"You're done." My words are venom. "The Supreme Court will take you tomorrow."

"Why not today?" she challenges, arching a brow. "I plan to kill them, too, but I have no problem starting early.”

"That's enough!" Reece yells, putting herself between us as if that'll stop me from wringing her pretty neck. "She's not going anywhere. She's a decent bodyguard, much to everyone's surprise."

"Tread carefully, human. I saved your life."

Reece ignores her and continues to speak to me. "Once I get this healed up, we're going to the Yellowstone Marketplace in District 4.”

“That place is in the Yellow Zone, Reece… You sure you can handle yourself?” Kyrian drawls, knowing damn well she can't.

The Yellow Zone is no place for ordinary citizens. Ones who have never had to bleed for bread, or barter for the clothes on their back. Since the Tearing, Reece has only known luxury. She won’t know how to handle the citizens in the Yellow Zone.

“I can handle myself just fine,” Reece says, tone sharp. She turns to me before I can protest. “I wasn’t exactly living in luxury when you found me.”

I grit my teeth, mostly because I don’t like to think about the conditions Reece was living in before I found her. Partly because she’s right. “What kind of business do you have there?”

“A failsafe,” she reveals, watching me like she’s unsure how I’ll take what comes next. “Look, I’m alive right now thanks to you, but I need real protection. Magical protection. On Earth. Right now, your plan is to drop down the second I’m in danger, but that plan has proven to be… flawed.”

Images of Reece, terrified and powerless, against Damien. Of Nightmare, laying in a pool of her own blood flash across my mind.

“So, what’s your plan?” Seth asks, genuinely curious.

“The Phoenix Amulet,” she says.

Kyrian scoffs. “It’s a myth.”

“It’s the only hope I have,” Reece answers. “I overheard Sergeant Wilkins mentioning he had found the amulet. He planned to hand it over to King Rayan, but if I can get my hands on it first… I’ll be protected. Its shield won’t allow anything to hurt me—not even a Nightwalker.”

She’s right. It’s said many artifacts had fallen to Earth during the Tearing. Artifacts that belonged to Gods and could only be wielded by the most powerful. Except for the Phoenix Amulet. The amulet doesn’t measure power; it measures the soul.

“You could die, Reece,” I remind her. Tools forged by Gods always demand a price. Even if the amulet accepts her, the risk could be fatal.

She squares her shoulders, eyes steeled with that same stubbornness I’ve come to know as resolve. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

I want to argue, but the look in her eyes makes me pause. I know that look. The look she had given me when we struck our deal years ago. When she made me promise never to hold her back. Not even for her own good.

It was during her search for her sister. A time she gambled with her life too often, and I had to keep pulling her back. But when we made that promise, she had also promised to find a reason to live again.

For seven years, I believed she found it—in her son. In Eden.

Was I wrong? Reece nods, but then… I see it.

Right before Reece can hide. Before the smile curves her face like an artist hastily painting over a ruined masterpiece. For a moment, her face is hollow, as if someone had carved out everything that made her human and left only a fragile shell.

"We have so much to do,” she says, grinning.

But I see the truth, and I see you, Nightmare.