Page 11

11

The Droll Truth

JEDIDIAH

M y stomach churned as my portal globe dropped me off on the snowy plateau where the door to San Gabriel Academy should have been. I’d been here a handful of times before, for balls and other pretentious, extravagant events. Chilly mountain air wrapped around me in warning, whispering that I should turn around. I glanced back at the city below, my heart flipping in my chest.

Friends of mine had died here. Well, not even died exactly… ceased to exist. An entire academy of starseeds wiped from existence just like that.

I shook my head. I couldn’t think about that right now, even if I could begin to understand how something like that was even possible.

The door was naturally glamoured. I remembered the charm to make it appear, but surely, that wouldn’t work now, right? Was there even a door left?

I had no idea if that projection was even my mother, but when it came to this, when it came to her , I couldn’t gamble. I may have been walking into a trap, but so be it. I was already dead.

What difference would it make, for a ghost to walk into a death trap?

“ Aperta stella ,” I murmured.

The groaning of stone had my jaw dropping. The tall, rounded door morphed into the mountainside, appearing right before my eyes. There were two golden carvings of the sun and moon etched into the dark brown wood, and they seemed to stare at me, completely sentient, hedging bets on whether or not I would dare to go inside.

I blinked. So much for San Gabriel Academy not existing anymore.

A raven in the trees above cawed dramatically, making me jump.

“Fucking stupid birds,” I spat, offering a vulgar gesture to the trees. “Why are you guys always on my ass, huh?”

The raven made an exceptionally cheeky squawk that sounded more human than I was willing to acknowledge.

“Fuck it.” I snarled, reaching out to grip the golden doorknob. It began twisting open before my hand even secured around it, like the place wanted me to come inside.

I crossed the threshold and the first thing that hit me was a strange, metallic scent. Not a bad smell, just…strange. Unplaceable. I couldn’t think of a time where I’d ever smelled anything like it.

Flaming lanterns lined the long hallway that led me through to the common room. A low hissing sound followed me as I moved through the strange place, noting how all the details I remembered no longer existed. There were no statues or pictures on the wall. The great room was empty—no furniture, no nothing. The stone walls and floors were completely barren, looking as if there had never been any kind of life here at all.

There were shadows, though. Shadows seeping out of the cracks in the walls. Shadows rising up from the floor. That was the hissing sound, I realized. The place was infested with shadows.

Great . I’d entered some haunted lair of darkness.

One thing was clear as I searched the place: San Gabriel Academy was gone. All that remained was the shell of what used to be. Every hallway, classroom, dorm room and library were completely void. Audible shadows occupied each space, and they seemed to be noticing my presence.

“Fucking creepy,” I muttered, bristling as a chill rushed up my spine. San Gabriel had always been a weird place, being built inside a mountain and all. Just like Veneficus, there were no windows to let light in. The flaming lanterns became more and more sparse the deeper I went. I started to get that urgent need to run I used to get as a child going up a dark staircase alone.

Was I really supposed to believe this was where Nyx Morningstar was? I scoffed aloud at that. No way in hell would the Princess of LA reside here. That girl needed opulence. She needed warmth and art and human interaction. She would never stay in a place like this, though I wouldn’t put it past her new dark companion.

I made my way back to what was once the common room. I stood in the center of the stone floor, alone in this massive, vacant circular space.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, trying to sense her.

Where are you, Nyx?

My chest tightened instantly, a phantom pain erupting through my body. I gasped, eyes shooting open.

Someone in here was in agony.

“Nyx!” I cried, my heart thundering. What was happening to her?

I could feel the suffering, in my own body. A pain so relentless and unending, I staggered a little.

I followed the pain.

It led me down the meandering hallways and up a set of spiral stairs. Through more hallways, up more stairs. Sweat beaded on my temples and down my spine, my breath coming out hard and ragged. I could have tuned out of this empathy, but I didn’t want to. If this was her reality, then it would be mine too. I would eat her pain; I would eat all of it until she was free of this torment.

“Nyx!” I shouted, stalking down the final hallway.

I could feel her, like a heartbeat. Throbbing slowly in my chest.

What the fuck had he done to her?

I pushed through the heavy wooden door which I knew would bring me to her.

The room was large and, like the rest of the place, barren. The only difference was this room had a glass door that led to a terrace overlooking the snowy wilderness and then, the city.

“Nyx?” My eyes scanned the room, my entire body vibrating with desperation. I’d been aching and dying without her. Not knowing where she was. Watching her get taken away by that blasphemous winged creature, with not a single clue to where they were going.

“Took you long enough,” a low, mocking voice tittered.

In the farthest corner, wrapped in shadows, he waited for me.

My guts fell out my ass and my cheeks went ice cold.

It dawned on me then. The horrible, droll truth.

It was his pain calling me. His pain which ensnared my body and soul and led me through the mountain to find him.

“No,” I growled, shaking my head.

Solaris Adder emerged from behind the curtain of darkness. Only two muted lanterns lit the room, rendering him little more than a silhouette moving toward me. His enormous wings sulked behind him, hanging low, feathers brushing against the stone floor. With his breath came a wheezing sound. The way he carried himself screamed of pain. His movements were slow and careful, his shoulders hunched, his hand clutching his chest.

“You look like shit,” I told him.

He laughed weakly. “I’ve seen better days. And for me, that’s saying something.”

“Where is she?”

“Heal me, and I’ll tell you.”

He moved further into the light, revealing himself to me. His bright eyes were shadowed with evidence of torment and no sleep. Four vicious slashes ripped apart his torso, as if he’d gotten into a wrestling match with a grizzly bear. Phantom pain exploded in my heart as I took in the severity of the wound. Yes, he’d clearly been attacked by something with lethal claws. To top it off, Natalia’s silver manacles remained on his wrists, biting into his skin with their sadistic metal teeth. His wrists were bloody and raw, clearly infected, and as my eyes darted back and forth between wounds, I couldn’t decide which one was worse.

“Jesus, man,” I muttered, instinctively backing away. “What the hell?”

“Have you ever gotten into a fight with a dragon?” he snapped.

My eyes widened. The memory of Solaris standing over Nyx’s unconscious body while the small golden dragon curled up on her chest played in my mind’s eye. But that thing had been tiny. There was no way it could cause such damage.

He watched me, seeming to notice the conclusion I was coming to. “The dragon grows fast,” he explained vaguely.

“Why aren’t you healing?”

He held up his mutilated wrists. “I am cleaved from my magic. Which you should know, seeing as how you helped seal this fate for me.”

“To be fair, I thought their plan was fucking whack. But you can’t act like you don’t deserve this. Karma’s a bitch.”

“Heal me.” Solaris deadpanned. “You owe me.”

I scoffed but had no words. My cheeks flushed with heat. With shame.

“You didn’t tell her, did you?” He stepped closer, his wings fanning out behind him. “You didn’t tell her that when your own father stabbed you in the gut and pushed you off a cliff, that it was I who came to your rescue? You didn’t tell her your savior whooshed in on a gust of shadows and saved you from certain death. You didn’t tell her I shadow traveled you to the beach and healed your wounds and brought you back to life with my own breath, did you?”

I swallowed hard, my eyes falling to the floor. The memories harassed me. I’d been falling, accepting my fate. Accepting death. Then the shadows engulfed me, interfering with my destiny. Each breath I drew went against the Divine.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Good,” he snarled. “I don’t need her to know. I won’t tell her. You can live in your little self-serving fantasy as long as you want. So long as you return the favor and heal me.”

“You didn’t have to do what you did,” I said, jaw tight. “You chose to save me. I didn’t ask you to. I was perfectly fine with dying. But you aren’t, are you? It looks to me, Darkbringer, like you are now approaching your own certain death. Those wounds are festering. You don’t look or sound so good. You really think I owe you a favour? You’re a plague and you should suffer like this. Why don’t you just do some repenting.”

He inhaled a long, rattled breath. “Heal me and I will take you to her.”

I glared at him.

The little raven-haired vampire from Hallows Eve invaded my mind as I beheld the wicked, wounded creature before me. There were similarities between them, sure. Sharp, cruel features. A presence that made the hair on my arms rise. But shit, they were extremely different too. Different ethnic backgrounds, for starters. Which meant they had different mothers. So, my father had some sort of harem—

I shut my eyes, jaw clenching. I didn’t want to think of this, not now.

I needed to deflect. “If you’ve hurt her, man, I swear to God—”

“You don’t actually believe I would harm her,” Solaris cut me off, his tone icy.

I made a face. “Why would I put it past you?”

“I know you are wise and perceptive. A true empath, whether or not you can admit it. You know I would never truly hurt her.”

I leveled him with a stare while my fists clenched at my sides. I took a breath, trying to ground down. Rage tickled my throat, threatening to blow up from my every pore. “Maybe in your twisted definition of ‘truly hurt’, you wouldn’t, but in my reality, you’ve already committed enough sins against her to make me want you dead.”

He scoffed, looking slightly jarred. His bright eyes flicked away, toward the glass door. He said nothing back.

“She’s strong,” I went on. “Wherever she is, she’ll be okay. I’ll find her eventually, on my own. I won’t save you.”

“It’s interesting, what you just said. I’ve already committed enough sins against her for you to want me dead. Never mind the sins I committed against the rest of your people—the entire academy of them, on this very ground, where we are standing. Over three hundred, gone within mere seconds, at my hand. Those sins don’t bother you. Only my little game of cat and mouse with Nyx Morningstar bothers you.”

I shook my head, backing away from him, waving my hands in exasperation. The ghosts of the past howled in my ears, but I grit my teeth to shut them out. “You’re not going to psychoanalyze me and throw me off. I am here for Nyx, period. Call it a personality flaw if that suits you. Now where the fuck is she?”

Solaris drew in a deep breath, moving to stand over by the glass. He peered out at the city below, his back to me, those enormous wings whispering along the floor. I swallowed, hard. The sight—it rocked me. He had wings . A Divine trait, one my people hadn’t had in over a thousand years.

Gods, I hated him.

“Heal me,” he whispered. “I can’t bear it.”

I bristled, wondering if I heard those words right.

Solaris’s misery was a tangible charge in the room. The darkness seemed to come alive, shadows hissing from the walls. He may not have had access to his shadows anymore, but they were desperately seeking him. Like blinded phantom creatures, pawing around, yearning to be reunited with their master.

The sudden feeling that putting those manacles on him was a bad idea washed over me.

I tried to swallow it down. He deserved it.

He turned slightly, his face unreadable. “I’ll take you to her. I’m sure she will be glad to see you. Unlike me.”

I backed toward the door. “I’ll find her myself.”

“You won’t. And if you don’t find her, no one will, and she will die. Her stubbornness will kill her. If you don’t go now, she’s as good as gone. We’re already cutting it close.”

“What do you mean?” I growled. “Shit, man! Where is she? What have you done?”

“I did nothing,” he hissed. “She did. She sealed herself away. Away from me. And now that she is bound to me, acting against my wishes will surely make her suffer.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? She can’t be bound to you. There’s no way. You didn’t win. You didn’t—I mean, right? It must have been a tie or something. You both—”

“I’m afraid I did, Groundshaker. She reduced me to ashes, and from them, I rose—reborn, and transformed.” He splayed his arms then, basking in it. “It seems the Divine sees that as a triumph. Wouldn’t you agree? You saw for yourself—it was me who was left standing. As a result, she is now bound to my will for the rest of her living days. And I want her here, by my side.” Fury lit behind his demonic eyes. “Instead, she has sealed herself away in a tomb. Mark my words, she is suffering. Every second she rebels against me will cause her agony. So, are you going to heal me, or not? Because frankly, I’m growing tired of your presence. Decide.”

My chest heaved, a white-hot blaze writhing inside me. My skin reddened with evidence of my rage. He cocked his head as he regarded me, taking in my emotional response.

Nyx Morningstar, bound to this monster for the rest of her living days.

No .

Fire ignited over my clenched fists. I could hardly see straight, let alone think straight. All I felt was one primal urge. I stalked closer, my flames casting all sorts of maniacal shadows on the stone walls.

Solaris had his wings, but I was bigger, angrier, and full of fucking magic.

She couldn’t be bound to a dead man.

I was half a second away from punching him in the throat with my flaming fist, but his facial expression made me fall still.

His jaw had gone slack, his eyes wide and watery. He stared at the fire writhing over my flesh, shaking his head slowly. The sight of me seemed to cause him physical pain. More than he was already in. “You Power Shared with her.”

While the fact that power sharing was wildly unheard of in this day and age wasn’t lost on me, I was too focused on the look in his eyes to think about that. It gutted him.

“You’re jealous,” I said, my smugness palpable. “You may be bound to her for now Darkbringer, but you will never have her like I do.”

“Yes, well, we are in a time of great and terrible change, Jedidiah,” he snapped venomously.

It was the first time he’d said my name. He said it with so much conviction . Matching the way he looked at me. Like he knew me.

He stared into me with burning eyes.

A wry smile tore across my lips. “Well, as much as I’d love to stay and pull up a chair to watch you suffer, I’m going to go find my girl.”

Solaris moved as fast as a vampire, giving me no time to react before he crashed into me with the impact of a steam train. My back hit the stone wall, agony erupting in the center of my spine, spreading rapidly like fire through my body. I let out a roar of pain while he snarled, pale fingers gripping my shirt to yank me forward, shoving me to the ground.

Winded, I stared up at the dark ceiling for a beat, attempting to rein in my senses.

He stood above me, a malicious angel of death. His eyes glowed in the dark. “Heal me or I’ll kill you.”

Broken bones in my back desperately fought to heal themselves in time for me to fight back.

I gasped for breath, horrified by the brute force of hitting that wall. A Jedidiah-shaped dent marked that spot, mocking me.

Forcing myself to do something, I summoned fire and shot it at him, giving me time to roll away when his hands darted up to protect his eyes.

I lurched to my feet, swaying like a tree about to tip over, pain searing through me mercilessly.

That. Fucking. Hurt.

I snarled like a wild animal and charged him, my flaming fist aimed right at that stupid pretty boy face.

He dodged me, harnessing that unnatural speed again. His strength, too, was beyond anything I’d ever felt, including my father. Despite his wounds, he was stronger, and faster. The transformation had given him more than just wings.

Fuck, how strong would he be if he were in good health?

He vanished into the shadows, leaving me standing there in a fighting stance.

“Come out!” I shouted, chest heaving while bones and ligaments continued their healing process. Like liquid fire chasing ice through my body. “Finish this!”

Silence.

I breathed hard, resisting the urge to follow him into the dark abyss at the other side of the room.

I could hear him, his wheezing. His feathery wings brushed along the floor.

“I’ll find her,” I vowed. “You know I will.”

“Yes,” he answered a moment later.

My breathing echoed off the walls. I remained in my defensive stance, eyes darting back and forth, preparing for his attack.

But he didn’t attack. Instead, he emerged out of the darkness, presenting me with a sword.

My brain didn’t process what was happening. I blinked, wondering if I was concussed.

The image didn’t fade. My throat dried. Solaris, his chest ripped to shreds, wings hanging low, held out both hands to me, cradling the immaculate blade. It looked ancient and powerful, the promise of slicing right through bones like butter. It almost looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it—not right now while my mind was reeling. Not with this adrenaline and rage spiking my blood.

“Where the hell did you get that?”

“Take it,” he insisted. “Take the stairs to the lowest level. Sense around, you’ll find her. You’ll need this.”

I narrowed my eyes. “One second, you’re obliterating my spine, the next you’re offering me a weapon and telling me where to find Nyx. Do you think I am fucking stupid, man? You think I’ll just stroll into your trap—”

“Time is running out,” he warned sharply, cutting me off. “You can choose not to believe me. Leave this place and find her on your own. Maybe you will. But when you do, you’ll realize I’ve been telling the truth. And when you break into her tomb and find her dead, you’ll wish you chose differently in this very moment.”

I glared at the sword, my heart pumping.

When it came to Nyx’s life, I couldn’t gamble.

“Why would I need that?” I spat derisively. “I’m not you. I won’t need a sword to face Nyx.”

“No,” the Darkbringer murmured in agreement. “But you will need it to face her dragon.”

My mouth popped open. Shit, her dragon .

“My magic should do just fine,” I argued, but the words were shaky and feeble.

Solaris grinned humorlessly. “You want to throw fire at a dragon, Groundshaker? This is your best chance to reach her alive. He guards her. And he is mercilessly protective.”

My shoulders rose and fell, a sinking feeling swamping my stomach. Nyx was somewhere under a mountain, in a tomb, guarded by a dragon.

I snatched the sword and left his chamber without another word.

Only her.