Page 8 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)

Five

If we hadn’t gotten that hand-drawn map from the waitress at the café, we never would’ve found Talon’s house. I vaguely wondered if Drake knew the address he gave me was basically useless and was back in Everton laughing about it right now.

Well, joke’s on him. The fae marked out every landmark.

After a sharp turn at a massive boulder covered in purple vines, we followed a dirt road barely wider than a footpath, squeezing the car between two drooping willow trees, their branches trailing along the roof.

Beyond them, a tree-lined cobblestone drive stretched on endlessly before finally revealing Talon’s home.

We spill out of Ensley’s sportscar, and I look up. And up. And up .

Calling it a house is laughable. It’s a full-on stone fortress.

Not like Drake’s mini-castle either. This one’s the real deal.

Medieval and creepy in all the right ways, with high gray walls, four cylindrical towers at each corner, and a central courtyard visible through a wide arched opening. The only thing missing is a moat.

“This is wild,” Ensley says, staring up at one of the towers. “I didn’t think this part of the country was even old enough to have architecture like this.”

“Maybe it was just built to look old,” I offer.

Titus shakes his head, like he’s not so sure.

“Come on,” I say, motioning them forward. “Let’s see who’s home.”

The outer walls are surprisingly clean, free of ivy or moss, which tells me someone’s been maintaining the place.

We step through the arched entry and into the courtyard, the cobblestones echoing underfoot.

There’s no single front door to knock on, just several smaller stone buildings ringing the yard.

No lights. No voices. No clue where to start.

“Should we split up?” Ensley asks.

Normally, I’d say no. It’s smarter to stick together. But I’m too antsy. I need to find Talon. We’ll cover more ground this way. Besides, this isn’t one of the Chaos trials. It’s not like we’re in danger . . . right?

We each choose a different part of the castle grounds and head off in separate directions.

I start toward the southwest tower but get the sudden urge to veer off.

A minute later, I find myself in front of a black metal door just to the left of the corner tower.

I test the handle, and finding it unlocked, I ease it open.

The thumping of fists pounding a punching bag hits me the second I step inside.

The building is two stories tall but narrow and long, a single open space filled with a chaotic mix of workout equipment: weights, machines, sparring mats, and target dummies. But at the far end of the room, it’s not the gear that holds my attention.

It’s him.

A jolt runs through me as soon as I spot Talon. He’s shirtless, barefoot, wearing only a pair of low-slung joggers. He hammers away at a heavy bag, muscles flexing and gleaming with sweat under the dim lights. Fists, elbows, knees. Blow after blow. Relentless.

Earbuds in and facing away from me, he doesn’t hear me. Doesn’t know I’m here, and so for a moment, I just stand there. Watching, absorbing, remembering.

I’m not prepared for the sight of him to gut me, but it does.

It all comes rushing back. Kerrim, the portal, the cold spike of panic in my chest when I realized I was holding Shadow Striker and what that meant.

That I had basically signed Talon’s death sentence.

When the magic linked us and began draining his life, I tried to get him through the portal to sever the connection, but everything fell apart when Kerrim threw Becks in first and reached the other side before we could.

That entire night carved itself into my memory like a scar, and now, seeing Talon alive and whole, it doesn’t bring the relief I expected. It just hurts. In that raw, quiet way that lingers beneath the surface.

He’s here, training like nothing happened. Like it wasn’t because of me that he almost died. Like he didn’t keep secrets that changed everything. Like he didn’t just disappear without a word when I needed him most.

Part of me wants to storm across the room and demand answers. Another part wants to walk back out the door and pretend I never saw him.

And then there’s the worst part, the one I don’t like to acknowledge, the part of me that’s drawn to him.

It’s infuriating. He makes me angry. He makes me ache. He makes me remember everything I’m trying so hard to bury.

I can’t look away, yet I can’t walk out either. Like it or not, I need him. And whether he realizes it or not, he’s going to help me. He owes me that, at least.

He has no idea I’m there as I move quietly along the stone wall, staying close as I make my way across the room.

I’m nearly to the other side when he suddenly stops and, without looking, snatches a dagger off the wall.

Before I can react, he spins and the blade flies through the air, end over end, straight toward me.

I barely have time to flinch before it sinks into the mortar between the stones, inches from my head.

Talon yanks out his earbuds, staring at me like he doesn’t quite believe what he’s seeing.

“Freck—?” he starts, then catches himself. The last time I saw him, I told him not to call me that.

“What are you doing here?” he asks instead.

I glance at the blade, just inches from my face. “I can’t believe you just threw that at me. You could have killed me.”

Grabbing the hilt, I give it a tug, but the dagger’s embedded deeper into the mortar than I expected and doesn’t budge. The fine hairs on the back of my neck prickle, and I spin around to find Talon standing there.

Crowding me with his presence, he reaches past my shoulder and grips the dagger’s hilt. My breath catches as I look up into his blue-gray eyes and find him staring down at me with an unreadable expression. My heart stutters in my chest, heat rising beneath my skin before I can stop it.

He doesn’t move right away. For a second he just stands there, his hand still on the hilt, eyes locked on mine. Something flickers across his face. Regret, maybe, or an emotion I can’t name, before he wipes it clean, his expression going flat.

Then he yanks the blade free and steps back, calm as ever.

“How did you find Grimspire Castle?” he asks, completely unfazed by the fact that he almost skewered me.

I give myself a mental shake, irritated by the way my body responded to his nearness.

“Your uncle told me where to find you,” I say through clenched teeth, still trying to regain control. I hadn’t even known his home had a name— Grimspire Castle —and I vaguely wonder if the town was named after it, or the other way around.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he says.

I thought I was angry at him before, but a fresh wave of fury rises in me. Talon didn’t just run from Everton, he ran from me when I needed him most.

“ I shouldn’t be here? You shouldn’t be here,” I snap, letting the anger and frustration bleed into my voice.

He presses his lips together, then grabs a towel from a nearby stool and wipes the sweat from his face and neck before finally answering. “And where do you think I should be, if not here in my home?”

I didn’t expect Talon to fall at my feet and apologize for abandoning me, but a touch of remorse would’ve been nice. Instead, I’m met with indifference laced with just enough hostility to make my hackles rise.

“Back in Everton, helping clean up the mess you made,” I say bluntly.

A muscle jumps in his jaw.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch the shadows pulsing around us, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of reacting. I already know he can manipulate them. If he thinks he can intimidate me with his powers, he’s going to be disappointed.

His gaze sweeps across the room before settling on me again. His brow pinches, but he smooths it away a moment later.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do. Kerrim stole the dagger. It’s lost to us now. What more is there to do?”

Is he serious?

I take a step toward him. His eyes flick briefly to my mouth before snapping back to meet mine, his jaw tightening. He shifts back a step, reaching for the dagger he set down and then walking across the room to return it to its place on the wall.

“What I expect you to do is help me get to that other world and find Becks before it’s too late,” I say, following him.

Talon turns back to me and crosses his arms over his chest. “How exactly do you expect me to get you there? Kerrim took the dagger through the portal with him. There’s no way into that world from ours.”

I try not to look at the way his arms flex across his bare chest, but it’s impossible to ignore. And wildly distracting.

“Could you put a shirt on?” I snap, more sharply than I mean to.

His lips curl into a smirk. “Does it bother you?”

I scowl, refusing to answer even as the heat going to my cheeks gives me away. Instead, I roll my eyes. “There are gates to the human world,” I say, getting back on target. “You said so yourself that night.”

“Gates that have been sealed for hundreds of years,” he counters.

“Then we unseal them.”

Talon gives me a look like I’ve officially lost it. He shakes his head and sighs. “You have less than a month of school left. Go back and graduate, Locklyn. It’s what he would have wanted for you.”

“You don’t get to speak for him,” I snap, and Talon winces. “And don’t even begin to give me advice you’re not even willing to take yourself. If you don’t go back to Nightlark, you don’t graduate either.”

Talon gives me a look I can’t decipher.

“What?” I demand, too annoyed to try to puzzle it out.

Talon sighs again. “I’m not in high school. I graduated two years ago.”

I blink back at him. “Come again?”

He wipes a hand down his face. “You already know I was only in Everton to look for Shadow Striker. Enrolling in the local high school let me blend in and keep my ear to the ground about the dagger without drawing too much suspicion.”

I freeze. It never occurred to me that Talon wasn’t a senior. But it should have.