Page 12 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)
Eight
The cold, windowless room looks more like a converted dungeon than a kitchen, except fully equipped with the latest appliances.
Along one wall sits an eight-burner stovetop next to two sets of double ovens large enough for me to fit inside.
Across from them are two glass-door fridges, loaded with food, and a long kitchen island stretches through the center of the space.
For the first time in days, the sight of food makes my stomach growl, but I’m too antsy to give in to my hunger.
When my stomach growls again, I grab the closest thing I can—a banana, yuck —and peel it quickly.
Shoving it into my mouth, doing my best to ignore the mushy texture, the goal is to get food in my stomach fast, not to savor a gourmet meal.
“Easy there, tiger,” Titus says with a wince as I take another giant bite, nearly finishing the banana in two mouthfuls.
“Where’s Imogen?” Ensley asks, sliding into a chair at the island.
Talon snorts a humorless half laugh. “She wants no part of this conversation.”
He leans back against the counter, arms crossed, and watches as I settle into a seat beside Ensley.
Titus hoists himself up onto the counter a little off to the side.
Close enough to be part of the conversation, but just removed enough to say this is mine and Ensley’s show, and he’s just here for backup.
“So, what’s it going to be?” Ensley asks, a frown tugging at her lips, her hair streaked black to match her mood. “Are you going to help us or not?”
I swallow the last bit of my banana, wishing I had some water to wash the taste out of my mouth, but at least my stomach isn’t trying to eat itself anymore. Then I lean back in my seat, waiting to see what Talon’s going to do.
He looks at me with an unreadable expression, and I arch an eyebrow. He said he wanted us all together to explain. Well, here we are. It’s time to see if he’s going to be true to his word or not. No more stalling.
“The gates were discovered thousands of years ago,” he starts, and hearing mention of the gates gets my attention right away. “We don’t know how long they have existed, or how they got there, but they were believed to have been formed by the Creator to be a bridge between his two creations.”
I lean forward. Now we’re finally getting somewhere.
“Just so I’m clear,” Ensley says. “Are we talking about two different planets here? Like is this some sort of gate that takes us from one part of the universe to another?”
Talon shakes his head. “No. It’s believed that the worlds are not so much completely separate planets as they are different realities or different realms. It’s not understood why or how, but some things in our world affect theirs, and vice versa.
So, in a lot of ways their world, their reality, mirrors ours, but with one big difference.
The beings in their world, the humans, don’t have magic. ”
He says the last line while he’s looking at me.
“How many other worlds, or realities or whatever, are out there?” Ensley asks, her eyes wide.
“Who’s to say?” Talon says with a shrug. “As far as we know, there are only two. Theirs and ours. I suppose there could be more, but for some reason it’s only our two realities that have been linked.”
“Okay, so where are these gates?” Titus asks.
“There are eight, spread across the globe. Some are warded by magic, others hidden in plain sight.”
It’s an answer. But also not.
“So to find Becks we just need to get to one of these gates?” Ensley asks, practically jumping out of her seat.
“It’s not quite that easy,” Talon says, his gaze flicking to me before returning to her. “Knowing where the gates are isn’t enough. They were sealed two thousand years ago to prevent anyone from crossing between our world and theirs. The gates that aren’t hidden are guarded.”
Ensley deflates, sagging back in her chair.
“Who sealed and guards the gates?” I ask, my hope still burning faintly thanks to what I overheard in the library.
“Us.”
“And by ‘us,’ you mean . . . ?”
“The Arcane Society.”
He pauses, running his tongue along his bottom lip. I can tell he’s deciding what to share and what to hold back. It’s a look I’ve come to recognize, and it instantly annoys me, until he starts speaking again.
“Our society was formed during the time right after the first Vampire King. Over the centuries, we’ve expanded our mission to include protecting the world from dangerous magic no one should access.
But our original and most important charge has always been to guard the gateways between worlds and keep them sealed—and to keep Shadow Striker from falling into the wrong hands. ”
He pauses again, meeting each of our eyes.
“We’ve already failed with Shadow Striker. If we keep going down this path, we’ll fail at protecting the gateways too.”
“Why is it so important to keep the gates closed?” I ask, and Talon’s gaze shifts to me.
“Nothing good happens when our worlds mix,” he says.
I know he’s not specifically talking about me, but it still feels like it.
If I hadn’t entered Chaos, Talon might have recovered Shadow Striker.
And even if he hadn’t, Kerrim wouldn’t have been able to use me as his personal human portal opener.
He might never have stolen the dagger in the first place if he hadn’t discovered what I am.
Any way you cut it, this all still feels like it’s my fault, even though I know it’s not and that Talon doesn’t blame me. Not like his cousin does, at least.
“Do they know anything about us there?” Ensley asks. “The humans, I mean. Do they know our world exists? Do they even know what magic is?”
Talon shrugs. “When the gates were closed, the general population didn’t know about us.
Only a small number of creatures ever crossed into their world, and vice versa, but stories had started to circulate.
About our magic, our powers. Who knows what they believe now?
Generations have passed. We might be myths or legends to them, or wiped from history completely. ”
“If, at some point, the gates were open and creatures and humans traveled back and forth, then why haven’t we ever heard about it?” I ask.
“Because we’ve done our job well,” Talon says with a grin that fades a moment later.
“One of the Arcane Society’s main missions is to keep the existence of the gates, and the world they lead to, a secret.
The greater population doesn’t even know that world exists, thanks to the efforts of the Society over the years.
But one aspect of their world has leaked into ours. Demons.”
In the Ancient, Shadow Striker was said to be gifted to the Vampire King by a demon.
But demons are nothing more than myths to us, malevolent beings mentioned only in obscure tales.
Sure, some believe in them, but that’s not the common view.
I hadn’t thought much about them myself until recently.
But considering everything I’ve learned in the past week, it wouldn’t take much to convince me they’re real.
“Are you saying demons actually exist?” I ask.
“They’re real,” Talon says. “They just don’t come from our world.
They were beings once close to the Creator, but rebelled when he made humans.
In the human world, they have limited power.
They’re not even corporeal, and rely on possession to gain a body.
But when they cross through the gates into our world, they can take physical form. ”
A chill creeps over my skin, and I wrap my arms around myself, trying to shake it off. The idea of something so ancient and full of hate slipping into our world, into me , makes my stomach twist.
“They’re obsessed with the destruction of the human race,” Talon goes on.
“It was a demon from the magicless world who created Shadow Striker and brought it into ours, gifting it to the Vampire King. We believe it was that demon’s intention for the king to return to the human world and subjugate it.
That demon remained at his side throughout the conquest of our world.
To this day, we don’t know whether it was the demon or the dagger that twisted the king, but we do know the demon who forged Shadow Striker was incredibly powerful. ”
Talon looks at me, and I hold my breath as he adds, “And there’s more to the story you don’t know.”
My blood hums. The Ancient about the Vampire King and his love feels more than just a fairy tale now. I need to know the full story. From the first time Talon told it, I sensed there was more.
“After the Vampire King was stripped of his power when his love sacrificed herself, the demon tried to manipulate the next wielder into returning to his world and enacting his revenge on the humans. When it didn’t work, he took out his rage on the creatures of this world.
That’s when creatures learned just how powerful and destructive the demons of the other world truly are.
If the being wasn’t stopped by the dagger’s new wielder, who knows what would have become of our world. ”
“Who wielded Shadow Striker after the Vampire King?” I ask.
“The Vampire King and his love, Isolde, had a son, Lucian. After the Vampire King was stripped of his power, he was never seen again. Shadow Striker needed a wielder, so the demon showed Lucian how to activate it.”
“The Vampire King had a son?” I ask, surprised. “There aren’t any stories about that.”
“He did have a son. And no, there aren’t any stories about it. The Society made sure any mention of Lucian was erased from history.”
“What happened to him?” I ask.