Page 34

34

Reputation

EMILIA

W alking the halls of Luna Academy alone with Venus St. Claire was a subtle yet bewildering experience. Her presence, even in silence, was electric. She radiated magic, like a crystal that had been charging under the full moon. The eyes on the paintings lining the walls seemed to follow her as we passed. She moved with elegance, every step cat-like and smooth. I found myself correcting my posture as she gushed to me about a movie she’d been filming last month. I hadn’t realized that while I’d been away from Luna, so had she. She’d been in New York filming a campy thriller. She described her role as “minor but iconic.”

Maybe it was the wine, but I was fascinated with her story.

“How many films have you been in?” I asked.

She shot me a wry look. “You don’t know my movies? I’m insulted!”

I scoffed, my cheeks heating a little. “Sorry. I’ve never really been into movies. I prefer books.”

“Oh, you’re so classical,” Venus teased. “Well, I started acting when I was a kid, and—”

“Emilia!”

I whirled to find Destiny stalking after us, her face etched with betrayal.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?”

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Faye rounded the corner, approaching us with an apology in her eyes rather than hostility.

“We were just…” I trailed off, glancing at Venus. She eyed me curiously.

“Just what?” Destiny snapped. “First, you ditch us to go to dinner with her . You don’t even say one word to us there! Now you’re sneaking off with her? What the hell, Emilia?”

“Ditch you ?” I shot back, gobsmacked. “You left without me! You didn’t even invite me.”

“Well.” Destiny folded her arms over her chest. “You never want to come. I thought I’d give you space. Had I known you would have come, I would have asked!”

I stammered a few intelligible words before I clamped my jaw shut. I had no idea where this was coming from. The furious look in my best friend’s eyes was foreign. I’d never seen her like this before. Not directed at me, anyway.

Faye moved between us. “Hey, hey. Let’s just calm down a bit here.”

“No!” Destiny hissed. “It’s Nyx’s birthday tomorrow . And to honor her, Emilia is fucking canoodling with her sworn enemy. This is bullshit. We should be focusing on a way to get her back.”

“Whoa.” Venus held up her hands in mock surrender. “Simmer down, sparky. We were heading to the library to do just that. Do you know how to perform a location spell to find Nyx?”

Destiny glared at the redhead wordlessly.

“Exactly,” Venus concluded. “I do. We’re going to locate Nyx tonight.”

I glanced at Venus, both impressed and dismayed at how easily she could lie. We had been going back to her room to drink wine and pull tarot cards. But admitting that to Destiny would start World War 3.

Destiny glanced over Venus’s shoulder. “The library isn’t that way. Your dorm room is.”

“I have to get my supplies first, obviously,” Venus replied, as smooth as ever.

Destiny didn’t buy it. Faye looked uncomfortable.

Venus turned her attention to me. “Deal with your posse’s issues, then meet me in the library.” She turned without another word and left the three of us standing in tense silence.

Okay. Plans were officially changed.

I cleared my throat. “Listen, I know—”

“She is Nyx’s enemy , Emilia.” Destiny’s voice was scathing and drenched in judgment. When I met her eyes, her glare nearly burned me on the spot.

Guilt welled up my throat. “But she’s not really, though. Venus is—”

“Fuck Venus. Her and her cronies have basically tortured us, and more than once. I don’t fucking trust her, Emilia.”

“I get it,” I said. “But Venus has power. Not just magically but influentially. What she says matters to people. They’ll listen to her. They won’t listen to me.”

“Since when do we need people ? The goal is to get Nyx and Natalia back. Not sway the minds of our classmates. That can come later when Nyx returns and sets the record straight.”

“She can’t return, Destiny! Not with the way things are! We need to challenge the narrative before it’s safe for her to come back.”

“Can we please not fight?” Faye begged. “The last thing we need is bad blood between us . After everything, we’re the three left standing and we need to be a legion. Destiny, if Emilia believes Venus is an asset then I think you need to trust her . It’s fine to not trust Venus. Trust Emilia.”

Destiny crossed her arms and grumbled something under her breath.

Faye’s emerald eyes slid to me. “But you… you don’t abandon us for Venus. That’s not how it should work. If she wants an ‘alliance’ that needs to include us.”

I sucked in a breath, nodding instantly. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Tonight was…” I trailed off, glancing at the portrait of a moon goddess as she watched us. “I’m sorry.”

Destiny remained tense but she sheathed her sword, for now.

The Athena Library was dark and silent when we met Venus and her henchwomen there. I assumed she’d summoned them for moral support. The three girls sat in a pool of candlelight in an aisle of books, a paper map spread out on the floor in front of them. Venus pressed her fingers to her lips when she saw us, then motioned for us to come sit.

Cassi and Bianca glared ominously at us. Venus ignored them.

I sat down, Faye and Destiny following suit on either side.

Without a word of introduction, Venus passed me the obsidian dagger she’d once thrown at my head. “Prick your finger.”

“Excuse me?”

“I need your blood to find Nyx.”

I shared an ominous glance with my friends. Then my attention flicked down to the map. An old, faded map of the entire continent.

“Obviously, Solaris and Nyx are together,” Venus explained. “You and Nyx share blood, therefore I can use yours to locate her. All I need is a drop on the map.”

“She’s not just gonna hand over her fucking blood!” Destiny growled.

“Then she’ll never find her sister,” Cassi retorted bitterly.

“Girls, girls.” Venus raised her hand, beckoning for peace. “The fireling can burn the blood away when we’re finished if she’s so worried about my intentions with it. But this is how we’re going to find them, so unless you’ve decided you don’t care about your sister, you’ll do this.”

I swallowed. Hesitated.

Cassi and Bianca rolled their eyes in unison.

“She’s speaking truly,” Faye piped up, her voice soft. “I can feel it.”

Venus smirked, not bothering to hide her smugness. “Listen to the Empath.”

I pulled my lip between my teeth. “Fine.”

I winced as I pressed the black blade into the tip of my finger. A bead of blood emerged from my skin, and I held my hand out over the map to let the drop fall.

“Good,” Venus murmured. She picked up a selenite wand I hadn’t noticed from the floor beside her, and held it over the map, directly over the drop of blood. “ Invenire ,” she commanded.

My lips parted as I watched the blood begin to move. It traveled across the map, moving from the inland to the west coast, settling over Los Angeles.

Venus’s brows jumped. “So, they are in the city. Interesting.”

My heart raced. Nyx felt so far away.

She flicked the selenite wand, making the drop of blood hover in the air. She suspended it there and nodded to the map. Cassi slid it away, revealing another one below it. This time, it was a map of the city and its closest surroundings.

Venus lowered the blood down onto the second map and uttered the spell again. The blood started slithering like a small red snake. This time, it settled on the coast of Malibu.

“ Malibu ?” we all crowed in disbelief together.

Venus’s eyes flicked to me. “Do you know a place in Malibu where she’d go?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“What about you?” she asked Faye.

“Sadly, no.” Faye bit her lip, her focus stuck to the map. “There are a lot of vacation homes there that aren’t occupied at this time of year. Maybe…maybe she’s hiding out in one?”

My brows rose. Nyx Morningstar, home invader. It didn’t sound too far off, actually.

“Goddess almighty,” Venus spat. “I doubt there’s an in-depth map of Malibu anywhere around here.”

“Does the blood magic only work on paper maps?” Faye asked. “Or can we use a blackmirror projection?”

Venus’s eyes lit up. “Hm. The spell does require paper, but not ink. B, go fetch me a piece of blank paper from the front desk.”

Bianca stood up like a good little soldier and toodled off.

Beside me, Destiny was brewing with something dark and fierce. When I glanced over at her, she had fire in her irises. Not just from the reflection of the candle, either. “You okay?” I murmured.

Her jaw clenched. Then those fiery eyes sliced to me. “No. I’m not.”

My heart dropped. “Destiny—”

“This is fucking bullshit! I can’t just sit here and—no. She ,” Destiny pointed angrily to Venus, “is Nyx’s enemy. And here you sit, giving her your blood to help her locate her! This is fucked! I don’t trust her, and you shouldn’t either, Emilia.”

She rose to her feet. “I’m not gonna be a part of this.”

“Destiny, wait!” I cried, reaching for her hand.

She reefed away from me and turned sharply, stalking out of the aisle.

I went to rush after her, but Faye caught my wrist and tugged me back down. “Just let her go. She needs to cool off. Firelings…when they’re angry, there’s no getting through to them in the moment. Trust me.”

Goddess, I felt fucking awful. Like I had poison pooling in my gut.

I slumped, staring down at the map while I tried not to cry.

“I respect it,” Venus declared simply. “I understand why she feels that way. I know how it looks… But it’s not Nyx I’m after. I want Solaris. But Nyx is the key to finding him, and you’re the key to finding Nyx. My reasons for including you may be self-serving but you benefit too. I’m not going to pull anything weird or betray you. You get to find your sister and I get to find the motherfucker who turned me into his own personal marionette.

“Do you know what he did to me? Not just literally, but socially? He has sullied my name—my reputation. Forcing me to pose as his girlfriend ! I am Venus fucking St. Claire. My image—my identity —has never had anything to do with a man . You should see what the media has been saying about me! He used me as a piece of arm candy that got his name out in the Celestial Society. My name will now forever be linked to him! Which is exactly why I need to fucking kill him.”

Venus breathed hard, her eyes smoldering as they slid to Faye. “Am I lying, Empath?”

“No.” Faye swallowed and her emerald gaze met mine. “She’s being honest.”

I nodded. I felt it, too.

Faye placed her hand on mine. “Destiny will come around.”

At that, I scoffed. It didn’t seem like it.

Bianca returned with a sheet of white paper. She placed it on the floor in front of Venus who had moved the maps away. She slid the candle closer to the blank paper. “Who brought a blackmirror? I left mine in my room.”

Cassi pulled hers out of her robe. “Me.”

“Okay. Look up a detailed map of Malibu, then project it onto the paper.”

Cassi did. The shimmering holographic map appeared just a moment later on the paper. This was no old, ink map. This was a detailed smartphone-style map that could be zoomed in and out. I pricked my finger again, letting the blood drop. Venus waved the selenite wand, casting the location spell once more. The blood instantly traveled to the shoreline. Cassi zoomed the map in further until we could see the houses lining the beach. It didn’t take long for my blood to settle over top of one.

Even after the blood went still, we waited. It seemed so ridiculous. None of us seemed to be able to picture Nyx and Solaris in a Malibu beach house. But I guessed that was the point, right?

“Well, then.” Venus sat back, releasing a sigh. “I guess that’s that.”

“What do you propose we do with this information?” Faye asked her.

“We’ll go there, obviously. Tomorrow. I’m sure the place will be swarming with wards, but with my crystals, I should be able to neutralize them.”

“And then what?” I had to ask. “Solaris, he—”

“Will die screaming at my hand.” Venus snatched the candle holder and stood up. The rest of us followed suit. “We’ll sneak away after Intentions. Meet us in the Stone Gardens tomorrow. Okay?”

Faye and I shared a glance. She gave me a subtle nod of encouragement.

I turned back to Venus. “Okay.”

Destiny wasn’t in our room.

I stood in the doorway, looking into the dark, cold space. None of her candles were lit. Her bed was made, no clothes or books strewn chaotically about.

It was a gut punch.

I swallowed the pain, forcing myself to crawl into bed. The cold didn’t bother me, not literally, but the absence of her warmth made everything feel heavy. She was probably staying in Faye’s room. They had grown close in my absence. While I was glad for them, I felt pushed out. But it was a self-serving prophecy, wasn’t it? I had left Luna Academy without saying goodbye. I’d smashed my blackmirror.

This pit of isolation was my own doing.

I tossed and turned. Sleep evaded me, and soon, I kicked off the blankets, sat up, slid my feet into my slippers, and grabbed the candle holder off my nightstand.

Alone, with only a small pool of candlelight to guide me, I ventured to Michael’s tower.

But it wasn’t Michael’s tower anymore. It was Natalia’s.

I ascended the spiral steps, my shadow taunting me on the rounding walls. I gasped a little when I found the door unlocked. Part of me thought I’d be turned around.

Stepping into the low-lit circular room had a storm of memories whirling in my mind. Michael on the floor, Natalia reading his dreams. Him blowing smoke through my parted lips. Nyx bursting into the room, drunk, babbling about her deal with the devil.

It was dead silent in here now. Natalia’s unconscious body floated mid-air in the center of the room with her hands folded neatly over her chest. She was still in the black dress from Hallows Eve. Her springy black curls were buoyant around her head and face like she was underwater.

I approached her slowly, as if not to wake her.

She was as angelic as ever, even in this state. I sniffed, clutching the candle holder a bit too tight.

“We need you,” I whispered. “We’re falling apart. You’re the voice of reason. The glue that keeps us all together.”

The silence that followed had a pulse.

I swallowed. My heart was racing. Despite Natalia being unconscious, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t alone. Could she hear me?

Her eyes flew open and I jumped harshly.

They were pitch black. Two endless pits of darkness in her face, sucking me in. Her hand shot out to grab the back of my neck, her nails like claws digging into my skin. “ The star-crowned prince did his part—now you must do yours .”

A violent gasp sailed from my throat as I flew upright—in bed.

Drenched in cold sweat, my breath sawed in and out of my lungs. I scanned my surroundings in bewilderment.

A dream. It was just a dream.

My heart was fucking rocketing out of control and the back of my neck, I swore, was stinging.