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Auras

EMILIA

T he Luminary led me to the Sacred Temple, where she pulled out a selenite wand to open a portal. My jaw went slack as my eyes bulged because— what ? Where could we possibly be going?

She glanced back at me, expressionless. “Come.”

She stepped into the spinning vortex of light. My chest rose and fell as I looked back at the exit. I could just leave. The academy, the city, all of it. Maybe I needed to go home. Take the year off.

But I made no move to flee the temple. Instead, I focused on the whirling portal, sweat forming at the back of my neck. Whatever awaited me on the other side wasn’t good, but it called to me all the same.

With a daring breath, I went through, attempting to step gracefully into it as the Luminary had.

My body thrashed and lost form, the ride an intelligible blur of light and low, vibrating sounds. Not as harsh as Jedidiah’s portal, though. Quicker too.

It spat me out in a dark, narrow, circular room where the Luminary awaited me. No, not a circle—the dark green floor was shaped like a hexagon. The high walls were so black I could see my murky reflection within them. The bizarre space was empty, save for the singular onyx podium with a cloaked figure standing behind it. An ornate black mask covered their face.

“Emilia Morningstar, here for the High Lord,” the Luminary said.

The black mask fixed on me.

The moment swelled, my heart thundering harder with each passing second. Where in the seven hells were we?

Finally, they raised their hand, one of the giant walls opening up, leading into a dimly lit corridor.

“Follow me, Emilia,” the Luminary instructed before stalking forward.

I had no choice. I wasn’t about to hang back with the freaky masked person.

The hallway was illuminated by candles mounted on the walls. The flames were charmed to be green, providing an ominous glow down sharp and narrow corridors. Just as I was about to demand she tell me where we were, footfalls echoed down the way, and following them was a group of cloaked, masked figures. They wore silver masks. They were more detailed than the black mask had been. Their billowing cloaks were the darkest shade of green, and they each carried a staff.

My skin erupted with chills as we stepped aside, giving them room to pass. They didn’t acknowledge us in the slightest.

I breathed hard, confusion poisoning my brain.

“Luminary,” I whispered. “Where are we?”

“The Institution.”

I waited for her to elaborate, but she just kept walking.

“The institution of what ?”

No answer.

I followed her in silence, too perplexed to drum up any more questions or arguments. When we reached a dead end, I thought we’d made a wrong turn but instead, she waved her magic in front of the black wall, making it ripple like dark water.

She turned to me expectantly. “Go on.”

I gaped at her. “Go where?”

“Through.”

This was fucking mad.

“He’s waiting for you, Emilia. You don’t want to keep him waiting.”

Fear punched my heart, but I had no time to fester. She grabbed my arm and yanked me forward, shoving me through the rippling wall.

My senses were snuffed out, complete nothingness enveloping me. It only lasted a second before I came to, stumbling forward into an extravagant space.

The floor-length glass walls unleashed starlight through the room, taking my breath away with the vastness. I’d never seen the night sky look so clear, as if every single star in the Milky Way was visible.

My heart thumped like crazy as I swept my eyes around the enormous room, which was like some kind of study. A fire roared under an ornate mantle. Half the walls were glass, and the other half were bookshelves. A black fur rug led the way to a pristine, shiny oak desk. Sitting at it, waiting for me, was the High Lord. Aries Vanderbilt.

He drew me in, my feet moving without my brain’s consent. The stars gleamed from beyond the glass behind him, but even they paled in comparison to his majesty. I had never been this close to anything so regal and fearsome before. He was enormous— he filled the room . Physically and energetically. The air around him crackled with the power emitting from his staff. His face was carved in hard, cruel lines, his black eyes heavy with years.

And his horns— Goddess . Thick and curled, jutting from his temples and pointing menacingly at me.

“Miss Morningstar.” His voice rumbled low. No light touched his eyes. “Have a seat.”

He gestured to the chair opposite his on the other side of the desk.

I did. I sat right the fuck down.

He almost smirked.

“How was the portal ride here? Are you adjusting to such magic?”

I fought the urge to make a face. “Er, yeah. Sure.”

He regarded me for a moment in heavy silence. A shooting star burned through the sky behind him.

“You have been busy,” he mused eventually, giant hands folded casually on the desk. His glare never left mine. “I hear you were one of the lead hands in a valiant band of unlikely heroes. You and your friends. You and your…mortal boy.”

Every cell that made up my being was standing on edge and screaming.

“Where are we?” I breathed. “Why am I here?”

He sighed. Leaned back in the chair and studied me.

“You are here so we can speak face-to-face. I have had the pleasure of speaking with your sister on several different occasions, but never with you. I am curious, Miss Morningstar. Do you share your sister’s insatiable nature? It is rather common in your lineage, I fear.”

“We are different in some ways and the same in others,” I muttered.

“You went to great efforts to help her at the Clash of Spirits. Your Luminary has told me all about your thorough, daring plot.”

“I would do anything for her.”

“Would she do the same for you?” He quirked a dark brow.

I glanced down at my fidgeting fingers. “I-if it came to it, I think so.”

“Hm. Interesting. Personally, Miss Morningstar, your sister has always seemed entirely self-serving to me. But, it’s good to believe the best in people, I suppose.”

His staff pulsed with electric power that had the room dense and hard to breathe in.

For several moments, he didn’t speak. He only examined me like I was on display in a museum. It went on for so long, I began to suspect he was waiting for me to crack. What did he expect to spill out of me?

“I thought your High Council wore gold masks,” I blurted.

To my surprise, the ghost of a smile touched his lips. “My Gold Masks are of the highest stature. My inner circle, you could say. Yes, they are also known as the High Council. What brings this up, Emilia? Did you cross paths with Silver Masks?”

I nodded slowly. “And the person who let us in wore a black one.”

“Are you asking a question or simply stating an observation?”

I shrugged. “Both, I guess.”

He stared at me. By the look in his black eyes, I knew I wasn’t getting an answer.

It was a hierarchy ranked by different colors of masks, I assumed. Something told me the black ones were at the bottom of the barrel.

When he finally spoke, his voice was harsh. “The vampires that attacked. Do you know where they came from?”

“No.”

Again, he regarded me in silence. I wished the ground would open and swallow me.

“I’m going to be straight with you, Miss Morningstar. I’ve been aware that your sister has long been plotting her ascension in the Celestial Society. I found it endearing—at first. But my intelligence now knows she is a truly dangerous creature. She freed the Darkbringer from his prison realm. They have been working together for months. The terrorist attack that took place at the Clash of Spirits was their doing. The first of many attacks to come. They are bringing war upon us.”

“No,” I shot back instantly, straightening in my chair. “That’s nowhere near the truth! Nyx didn’t mean to free him. She isn’t working with him—not willingly—he’s been forcing—”

His hand rose sharply between us to silence me.

The High Lord regarded me with pity. “I understand you being resistant to the reality of who your sister is.”

“What about who your son is?” The words just fucking fell out, my tongue demanding a mind of its own. I shocked myself but I stayed cool, my chin not flinching from its upward position.

The air between us crackled.

His face barely revealed a reaction. Only a flash in his eyes.

“You do not mean Jedidiah, I presume.”

I didn’t reply. I didn’t swallow or blink. I stared relentlessly into his dark, soulless gaze.

“Whatever fan fiction you saw in the Dream Realm, you should be privy to the fact that dreams lie. Dreams—and memories—bend and morph over time. The subconscious is not to be trusted. Everything there is corrupted by buried fears and desires that melt into details and distort them.”

My heart thundered, my cheeks hot. “Solaris is your son.”

I spoke the words knowing he might kill me over them.

His reaction, however, mystified me. The High Lord gave a sad smile. After a handful of heavy, throbbing heartbeats, he said, “You know nothing, Miss Morningstar.”

“Are you saying it’s not true?”

His eyes flicked to the side, focusing on the dark blue crystal pulsing at the top of his staff.

So quickly I didn’t even have time to gasp, he pointed his staff at me. A burst of magic hit me in the heart and made me grunt, but it didn’t hurt. For a beat, I didn’t know what he’d done to me. I felt nothing. Seconds later, dark blue energy began radiating off my skin like ethereal fire. Every inch of me ignited with it. Within the deep blue, there were figments of silver and lilac and something almost glittery.

It was…it was beautiful.

“Your aura,” the High Lord explained.

My mouth was open in awe, but I said nothing.

He swished his staff at me, banishing the magic. He then pointed his staff away from us, flicking it to summon a new aura that appeared in mid-air beside the desk. This aura was a deep, threatening red, laced with black. Where my aura had moved slow and sensual like a calm fire, this one sparked and writhed furiously. Hostile energy crackled from the center of it, filling the room with fiery intensity.

“This,” the High Lord began, “is a copy of your sister’s aura.”

My stomach tumbled.

Aries continued, jutting his staff again, conjuring another aura. One that immediately cast goosebumps over every inch of my flesh. It was pure black and stagnant, barely moving at all, yet emitting the worst vibration that I could physically feel deep in my belly. From the darkest part of it came a low sound—a deep, hellish hum.

“And the Darkbringer’s,” Aries finished gravely.

He forced me to look at them for a moment longer before he banished them and set his staff back at his side.

“Energy does not lie. They are malicious spirits.”

He leaned in closer, his ram horns sizzling. “The Darkbringer— is my son. Therefore, I know better than anyone what a devastating creature he is. Miss Morningstar, you must know that this knowledge is extremely sensitive. Classified. Your possessing it is an incredible burden. Your friends, too. Your mortal boy…what’s his name again? Oh, yes. Michael. In the Old World, that name was pronounced Mike-eye-el.”

Michael’s name in his mouth had lightning shooting through my brain. I gripped the edges of the chair to the point of pain.

“I know you do not wish to see your friends get hurt.”

My heart stuttered and dropped. Cold heat clawed up my neck and pooled in my cheeks.

“A mortal in the Celestial Society.” He clicked his tongue. “That could be a calamity. I take it you have heard he’s being initiated at Veneficus. Ah, yes, a dangerous place…for even powerful young starseeds. But a mortal boy? They’ll eat him alive. That is unless someone in a high place ensures the boy’s safety. I would gladly do so.”

His eyes lit up with a threat. He pulled his staff closer, bolts of lightning dancing over the crystal. “I brought you here to give you a fair warning of what is to come. Despite what others may think, I have a great respect for your mother. Therefore, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, Miss Morningstar, that you are not like your sister. I trust that you understand I need to keep order in the Celestial Society. The Hallows Eve terrorist attack is throwing people into a panic. I need to quell the hysteria now. People need answers, and a face to put in front of all this to make sense of it. And we know who is responsible. Your sister and the Darkbringer organized the attack, and by first light tomorrow, everyone else is going to know that too.”

I was shaking my head. “No. You—”

“You and your friends have been valiant, Miss Morningstar. But also stupid and naive. I would hate for the lot of you to keep meddling, now that you know the truth. A group of brave-hearted kids trying to help their friend is one thing. A faction of informed minds conspiring to aid a terrorist is treason. The answer to treason in the Celestial Society is death. For those directly responsible, and those sympathetic to it.”

My mouth opened and closed. No words came out.

He is going to tell the world my sister is a monster, and he’s threatening to kill me and my friends if I don’t go along with it .

The High Lord watched it all sink in behind my eyes.

He almost smiled, purely vicious and triumphant.