Page 46 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)

Twenty-Eight

“What if he’s lying? Or not even that,” Ensley says, stopping mid-pace.

After Kade dropped his parentage-and-prophecy bomb, we all returned to the hotel room to figure out what to do next. Ensley’s been wearing a rut in the carpet ever since.

“What if he’s just wrong about this so-called prophecy? It might not be about you at all. Or what if it’s not even real? Talon and Imogen both said they’ve never heard the parts he brought up. It’s like a bazillion years old, right?”

“Two thousand,” I interject.

“Whatever,” she says, waving me off. “The point is, maybe the whole thing is just a complete fabrication.”

I shrug, not knowing what to say. She’s right. Kade could be lying, though I can’t figure out why he would. There’s no way for us to know if the prophecy is bogus or not. Only time will tell.

“Lock, if you face off against Kerrim, there’s a real chance you could die. Like dead die.”

“As opposed to living dying?”

“I’m serious,” she snaps.

I let out a sigh.

According to Kade, since arriving in the human world, Kerrim has been recruiting creatures into some kind of personal army.

With Shadow Striker, he’s already powerful, but with the dagger and an army at his back, he’ll be unstoppable.

Potentially capable of bringing the human world to its knees, just as the prophecies from both worlds warn.

And as if the part about Lucian’s descendant being the reason for Shadow Striker’s return weren’t enough, Kade claims Lucian made one final prediction on his deathbed: that his descendant would either become the savior of the human race—or the means by which it is destroyed.

And who do they think that descendant is? Me, of course.

No pressure .

Kade finally laid out his terms. I defeat Kerrim and retrieve Shadow Striker, and in return he’ll release Becks and escort all of us to the nearest gate so we can return home.

“Do we really have a choice?” I ask.

If I don’t do what Kade wants, he won’t hand over Becks.

“Yes,” Talon says from his seat across the room.

I twist to face him. He’s been quiet and hard to read ever since we left the Order’s headquarters.

“What do you mean?” I ask, searching his expression.

“You have two choices. Actually, three.”

“Which are?”

“Well, now that we know Becks is alive and relatively unharmed, we could choose to leave without him.” He lifts his hand, wiggling his fingers so the black gem catches the light. “We have the tamalite, so we can use the same gate we came through to get back.”

I’m already shaking my head before he finishes, but he holds up a hand to stop me.

“But I’m guessing you don’t want to leave your princeling behind.”

I shoot him a look that clearly says, What do you think?

“We’re not leaving my brother,” Ensley snarls.

Titus, who’s also been quiet since we left the Order, comes up behind her and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I don’t think he actually thinks we’re going to do that.”

Talon shakes his head. “I don’t. But I wanted to point out that it is an option. As is the third, we could attack the Order and take Becks by force.”

Imogen perks up from where she’s been filing her nails in the corner. “I like that option,” she says, no doubt still salty about the Order’s anti-vampire bias.

“You don’t get a vote,” I tell her.

She squints at me. “Says who?”

“Me,” I say, giving her a hard look.

She rolls her eyes and goes back to her nails like she doesn’t have a care in the world. I suppose she doesn’t. She doesn’t care one way or another whether or not we bring Becks home.

It makes me wonder, and not for the first time, why she even followed us on this misadventure. Was she just bored?

“Trying to free Becks from the Order might be easier than going up against Kerrim,” Titus says thoughtfully.

They have a point. But what if . . . ?

“I don’t like that look,” Ensley says, reading me like only a best friend can.

I chew on my bottom lip, a million thoughts zipping through my mind. “It’s just . . .” I glance at Talon, and for some reason it feels like he knows what I’m going to say. “What if Kade and the Order are right? What if I am Lucian’s descendant, and if I don’t stop Kerrim, no one will be able to?”

I expect Talon to say something, to give his opinion, but he just crosses his arms over his chest and remains quiet.

“Are you saying you want to go after Kerrim just so you don’t feel guilty?” Ensley asks.

“I’m saying breaking into the Order to get Becks might be easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

Ensley drops her head into her hands and groans. “I just want my brother back and to go home.”

Titus pulls her into his arms, holding her close, and I’m struck by an unexpected, sharp pang of jealousy. Not over Titus, but over the fact that Ensley has someone to lean on.

There’s a part of me that aches for that kind of connection. I used to have it with Becks. But Becks isn’t here right now, and even if he were, things feel off between us.

“Come on,” Talon says, suddenly appearing at my side. “Let’s take a break and pick up dinner for everyone.”

It’s a little early for dinner, but I think he knows I need a mental reset.

“Ugh,” Imogen moans. “So now I have to decide which third wheel I want to be? Just shoot me.”

“You can come with us,” I offer, feeling magnanimous. “You won’t be a third-wheel.”

Imogen shoves out of her chair. “Whatever. I’m going out again.”

Talon steps in front of her before she can breeze out of the room. “Where are you going?” he asks.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Yes. That’s why I asked.”

She purses her lips. “I’m going out , Dad .”

With a sigh, he runs his hand through his hair. “At least take one of the phones so we can reach you.”

“Fine,” she says, snatching the one he pulls from his pocket and slipping it into her jacket.

“And can you please get back at a reasonable time tonight?” Talon asks, folding his arms.

She shrugs, already halfway to the door. “No promises,” she tosses over her shoulder, then disappears down the hall.

“So, is she, like, your favorite cousin?” I ask, glancing at him.

Talon laughs, the tension in his shoulders easing. “Actually, she is,” he admits.

I arch a brow. “You have a weird family.”

“You have no idea,” he says with a grin.

After grabbing a coat, I ask Ensley and Titus what they want for dinner and they tell me to just get whatever looks good.

I’m about to follow Talon out when I catch Ensley’s eye. “Whatever happens, we’re getting your brother back. You believe me, right?”

She nods. “I do. But at what cost? I don’t want to bring my brother home just to lose my best friend.”

“That won’t happen,” I say, trying to make myself believe it.

“I hope you’re right,” she says, and then looks away.

By chance, we stumble across a place called Chelsea Market not far from our hotel.

It’s an indoor market inside a warehouse-style building, and we quickly discover it is a veritable food cornucopia.

Without Imogen around to use compulsion on the vendors for freebies, we use up what’s left of the money Titus pickpocketed for us, buying clam chowder, lobster rolls, tacos, even cookies and the fattest, fudgiest brownies I’ve ever seen for dessert.

Walking back, arms loaded with food, when I joke to Talon that I’m going to have a delicious last meal, he doesn’t laugh. I clear my throat to fill the silence, the awkwardness suddenly heavy between us.

“Are you going to try to stop me?” I ask when the silence becomes unbearable. I don’t bother specifying what I mean. He already knows.

To my surprise, he chuckles. “As if I could, even if I tried.” He glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “You’re a force, Freckles. But even so, this is your decision, not mine. We came all this way for your princeling, and I’m going to see it through with you. One way or the other.”

“Do you mean that?” I ask, a little in awe.

“With all my heart.”

Tightness forms in my chest. It’s not painful, exactly, but it’s impossible to ignore.

“You really see me for me, don’t you?” I ask, not even sure he’ll understand what I mean.

He cocks his head, a half smile tugging at his lips. “You’re just now figuring that out?”

“Yeah,” I admit softly. “I guess I am.”

“About time,” he says, and I look away, suddenly feeling shy under his gaze.

“I think I should do it. Take on Kerrim,” I say after a moment. “I know it probably sounds insane, but it feels like the right thing. It’s my fault he’s here. That makes it my responsibility. At least in part.”

“It’s not your fault,” Talon says firmly.

“It’s not like you willingly opened the portal and invited him through.

You’re as much of a victim. In fact, probably more so than anyone else caught up in this mess.

He manipulated you, used you, to get what he wanted.

He planned to bring Shadow Striker to the human world from the beginning. ”

He searches my face.

“You shouldn’t carry guilt for that. You were deceived. I know you feel like all of this is on you—Becks getting hurt, being trapped here, Kerrim taking Shadow Striker—but it’s not. You came here to save your princeling, not to face off with Kerrim. He isn’t your responsibility.”

I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear those words until Talon said them. That what happened at the end of the last Chaos trial wasn’t my fault.

I know it’s true, at least in my head. I’ve been trying to convince myself of the same thing for days. But the guilt has been like a chain wrapped around me, dragging me down to the bottom of the sea. In a lot of ways, it feels like I’ve been drowning ever since that day.

“Thank you,” I say, and I mean it. “But Kerrim needs to be stopped.”

“Agreed. But he doesn’t have to be stopped by you. You have nothing to atone for, no matter what Kade or some dusty prophecy says.”

I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. “Do you agree with Ensley? That I’m no match for him?”

He blows out a breath of air. “What I think is that it would be easier to break your princeling out of Order headquarters. Kade and his people are organized, I’ll give them that, but I’d still rather go up against them than Kerrim.

I, more than anyone, know what Shadow Striker is capable of in the creature world.

And I’ve always been told it would be even more powerful here in the human world.

I’m not ashamed to admit that scares me. ”

“You, scared? I have a hard time believing you’re afraid of anything,” I say with a chuckle.

“You’d be surprised at the things that scare me,” he replies.

When I glance over at him, he’s staring at me with a look I can’t quite read, and suddenly I can’t find the words.

I look up and realize we’ve reached the hotel. We both stop just before going in.

“Ensley’s going to put up a fight,” I say.

“She is,” he agrees. “But it’s because she loves you. She’ll have your back, though.”

I nod, because he’s right. Ensley will always have my back. And I’ll always have hers.

“All right,” I say, drawing in a breath. “I’m going to do this. I’m going to find Kerrim and figure out how to get Shadow Striker back. Without the dagger, he won’t have all that power. But if I’m going to do this, there’s something I have to do first.”

“What’s that?” he asks.

“Get Becks back.”