Page 18

Chapter 16

Fallon

"I still think we should go with blue. It's calming. Might help you sleep," Aaliyah said, her chin perched on her open palm. She was lying on her stomach, watching me with innocent curiosity, the upper half of her body covered only with a red sheet, her legs kicking idly through the air.

I sat against the headboard, staring ahead, pretending I couldn't see her. Pretending I couldn't still hear Adrian's screams while I lay next to a fake of the woman we both loved, stuck like a fucking rat in a cage.

I'd tried to get out countless times since I first saw that bleach drenched room, tried to gather some inner strength to break through whatever magic was holding me in, or find a crack in whatever hell this was. But observing had always been Adrian's shtick, and I was more inclined to start my questions with a closed fist. If I were in any other situation, that was exactly what I would have done.

I looked at Aaliyah's serene face, the delicate arches that defined her high cheekbones and pointed nose. She smiled softly at me, like I was everything she'd ever need, a trust in her eyes that made me look away.

I wouldn't take a chance to try to get myself out of this with force. It wasn't worth the risk if somehow Archon had wrapped her up in this. Even if it wasn't, there was no way I could stomach hurting her. The thought alone made me physically ill.

Archon had done a fucking fantastic job at putting me in a situation that I had no chance of getting out of.

"Fallon doesn't need sleep. He needs answers , " Aislinn whispered from beside Ali, leaning over her, grinning broadly until I closed my eyes.

She'd been like a ghost, here to haunt me, and I couldn't tell if she was another part of this cozy cell, or if she was something all of my own making.

Ali waved her hand in front of my face until I opened my eyes again, her nose tilting up in what I'd normally call an adorable glare. Her cheeks were flushed slightly, like they were every morning, dusted with freckles so soft I could barely see them.

"Fallon?" she pressed, touching my hand with a soft fingertip. I took a selfish second to sink into the feeling of her, the spark that jolted across my skin, needing it to ground me even if it was fake. "Hey, what's going on with you today?"

She pulled my face to look at her, the same way she had every morning for the past two years. The same worried expression, and the same hints of lavender in the air that had me pulling in greedy breaths. Until it burned, and until the lavender was washed away just enough to get a hit of something else. Bitter and old, like oil that had been sitting too long in the sun.

Like gold turned to sulfur.

I pulled away gently, shaking my head. "You aren't real."

I'd said it so many times it was practically habit, and Aaliyah laughed as she fell against the bed, a rare deviation from the standard facade of this place. I might get something out of her. A different response, a different reaction. I wasn't so na?ve as to believe it had really changed anything.

Tomorrow would be the same.

"Why not?" she asked, stretching out with an indulgent groan, toying with the white strands of her hair. She lifted herself, crawling close, until she was lying over my lap. "Seems pretty real to me."

She traced the skin on my abdomen until the muscle quivered, and I grunted. I let her linger, didn't push her off or make to move like I damned well knew I should have.

Another selfish fucking moment.

I craved that warmth, the touch of her skin on mine more than anything else. I wanted it to be Aaliyah, wanted to know she was safe and protected. It destroyed me every time she touched me, just as much as it gave me the will to keep going.

Day after day after day.

"It's not that bad, is it?" Aislinn asked, suddenly at my other side, sepia skin exposed as she leaned back. She wasn't wearing anything, exposed from the waist up as she brushed her hair out of her face, the beads that laced it clinking gently together.

Aaliyah looked at her for a second, as if she saw her, before looking back at me.

"What is real, anyway? You could be happy here, with me," Aaliyah whispered, trailing a hand down my bare chest.

She scraped gently with her nails, kissing the lines she left with tender lips. It was torture.

"And me," Aislinn followed, skimming my jaw with her lips, her breath warm on my cheek.

I shook my head, pulling out from between them as my mind warred with my body again.

Aaliyah made a worried noise behind me when I stood up, wrapping her arms around my waist to stop me from moving. I stole another comfort in that touch, another hint of warmth that was enough to get me to close my eyes. It was the only thing that kept me going, that kept me searching for a plan.

For a way out.

"I can help with that."

Hands already raised, I took a stance to fight at the unfamiliar voice. It was the easiest thing I'd done since I was trapped here, the motion as familiar as breathing. My wrist burned, pulsing to the beat of my heart as a woman stepped away from the wall, seeming to almost peel out of the shadow there, her face shrouded by them.

She was tall and lithe, with crystal white hair that cascaded over her shoulders and the shoddy amalgamation of twelfth century armor she wore, a mash of silver and gold.

Stars dusted her face, some glowing more vibrantly than others in a pattern I couldn't place, broken by two silver slashes that stretched from her forehead over her cheeks and down the hollow of her neck. They were a direct contrast with the slate gray of her skin and the black of her eyes that were lit by a single white ring where her pupil should have been. I didn't know as much about other Naturals as Adrian, but I knew an Unseelie Fae when I saw one.

But that was all I knew.

The Fae were secretive even among Naturals, and viciously protective of their people and ways. Which made it even more shocking to find her here.

How had Archon managed to get an Unseelie in his grasp?

"Who are you?" I asked, stretching my arm out to try and hide Aaliyah, who huddled at my back.

The woman didn't rush forward or prepare for a fight I was itching to dive into, just watched with a defeated expression. She was gaunt, her cheeks sunken as she wiped her hands over her face. There was a splash of yellow I hadn't seen before under her eye and across one of her sharp cheeks.

"Hadlie," she said, tired even in her words. "Nice to meet you in person, Fallon."

Her voice was familiar, the tone of it hitting me in the chest, taking me back to the moment I'd woken up in once before. The one that had washed away as the days passed, one by one. My mind associated her with the scent of bleach and the chill of cold steel.

With her hands over me, grazing my temples, locking me in my own fucking head.

She was the one who'd put me under. The one keeping me here, with whatever magic Fae could do. This was her spell.

"You can't hurt me here. It's really not worth the energy to try?—"

I pinned her to the wall in an instant, hoisting her up so her feet didn't touch the ground. She didn't struggle, barely moved as she rolled her eyes at me. "Okay."

I tightened my grip against the protest of Ali and Aislinn behind me. Hadlie's skin burned like dry ice, my hand going numb against her neck as my palm blistered. I gritted my teeth. "Get me out of here."

It was like watching her patience drain away as she looked at the ceiling. One second, she was pinned, the next she was gone, and I was hitting the wall where she'd been with a grunt.

"The longer you take to calm down, the less time I'll have to explain," she said, unbothered from behind me. I looked over my shoulder at her, jaw clenched as she picked up an apple from the end table by the bed. She tossed it into the air a few times before taking a bite and speaking through it. "I'm here to help."

She extended the apple like it was a peace offering, wiping her mouth with the back of her other hand. I sneered, keeping my distance, and not even considering looking at the food she offered. I wasn't Adrian, didn't know the intricacies of Fae life and culture, but I damned well fucking knew you didn't take food from them.

"Talk," I gritted out, eye twitching when she smirked. The apple disappeared from her hand a moment later, and the white splashes of stars against her cheeks glowed as it did, flickering.

"You're in Archon's lamp. He put you and … Adrian?" she said, like she was searching for his name before she shook her head and looked me in the eyes again. "In here, after you tried that grand revolt in the main hall. I'll be honest, I was expecting more from the fabled Vivas Crypt."

That made two of us.

I reached for my wrist, the soothing mark almost mocking. What a fucking mess we'd found ourselves in. I'd expected something radical, something crazy, but in his lamp ?

Fuck, Osiris was going to kill us if Archon didn't first.

"Eirik?" I asked, and for once her pause didn't seem to be solely to irritate me. She looked to the side, biting her lip and swallowing hard. The bonds in my chest were strong, but I didn't trust that, not here. "Where the fuck is Eirik?"

My voice rose, cracking as Aaliyah gasped from the bed. The cold chill of the floor under my feet grew worse, my lips going numb as I waited. Hadlie seemed to mull over her thoughts, her long ears twitching.

" Alive ," was her simple answer, as she toyed with a stray ring on her hand.

I let out a breath, my lungs burning. At least alive was something.

I could work with alive.

"Well? Get me out, " I said, rage growing to fury when she shook her head.

Even more so when I realized there was nothing I could do beyond talk.

"Not yet," she said, scratching her neck as she looked over her shoulder at the far wall. Her eyes flicked to the open window, the light breeze fluttering her hair. Her next words were a whisper. "I need your help."

The fear, the panic. The fact that she was here and still looking over her shoulder like Archon might jump out and bite her.

"You're a Fae, a strong one at that. Just kill him and be done with it," I said, watching as closely as I could. The fact that she had me and Adrian under her spell said enough about how much power she had. It showed when she breathed; the air distorting in front of her as she looked at me again.

I wasn't Adrian, but I saw the way she froze, holding her breath like it might make her smaller. "Unless you can't. Why?"

"Because I'm his ," she whispered, biting the words out, her lip curling in a snarl as she grimaced. A shiver rocked her, like even saying that much hurt. Her eyes dulled, agony splitting across them as blood pooled in the corners, only to be wiped away as her hands slid over her face.

Her shoulders bunched, like she was steeling herself, strengthening her stance as she watched me with jaded eyes. I'd fought many like her before … and I knew that look. I'd never known a more dangerous opponent than one that didn't have anything to lose.

She needed an out, and that was me.

The stars on her face twinkled, glittering like little diamonds when she bared her teeth, and showed me the exposed collum of her throat.

A tattoo stretched up her neck, like the limbs of a tree cut off just below her jaw. They moved, as though flowing in the wind, magic ingrained in the wayward branches. Some kind of spell, or …

"A Fae Bargain?" I asked, sighing when she nodded, her head jerking like even that was going against it.

Wonderful. Caught between a Djinn and a Fae.

I looked over my shoulder at Ali, who was watching us with cold, beady eyes. So different from how she was just seconds ago, like whatever action she'd been told to make had been cut off. Hadlie's doing, without a doubt.

Two years I'd spent by Ali's side, trying to force my way out of this. Four years total, I'd failed. I wasn't getting out of here without help. This wasn't my game, and it was abundantly clear that Archon had built it that way. We were easier to control if we were out of our element. So, he trapped me here, in my own head.

Strapped Adrian to a table and cut him open.

Did God knows what to Eirik.

"And you can get me out of here?" I asked, carefully.

She nodded her head, wobbling slightly, using the wall as a brace as she let out a long breath. "Get you out of the lamp , yes. The rest is on you."

Which meant whatever was waiting on the outside was going to be a fight. I cracked my neck from side to side, keeping my face carefully blank.

"Well, what do you need me to do?" I asked.

She shook her head before her entire body twitched. She slammed against the end table, her head snapping back as she let out a gurgled cry. The few things on it clattered to the ground, a lamp and an open book that had no words on the pages. "No, just agree. "

The room wobbled, and a pain shot down my throat as my fangs fell. I grunted at the weight of it, rubbing my arms as a heat built there. "I'm not agreeing to shit without knowing what you want."

The wall behind Hadlie cracked, her lips opening on a cry as the world around us seemed to crumble. The room I was so attuned with melted , the wallpaper dripping onto the floor, leaving stark white walls behind. Aaliyah clattered off the bed, like a doll that had been dropped, and I jolted to help her just as Hadlie spoke again. "Then you die here. If nothing else, I can promise you that. I'm your only way out, Fallon, and we're out of time."

The room seemed to agree, bits of it flaking away, like the ache that started in every bit of my body. I fell to Aaliyah's side, knees hitting hardwood, just for her to turn to dust when I touched her.

One way or another, I was fucked. At least this way, I knew the terms. I weighed my options, weighed every second I spent in this fucking room. I couldn't get out by myself.

Was it worth it? Unlikely.

My stomach rolled, something like acid burning at the back of my throat.

Worth it or not, I didn't have a choice.

"Fuck," I mumbled, as a fissure opened under me, and nothing but that blank void stared back. "Fine. I agree to help you."

The deal sealed in seconds, a flush of power shooting over my skin, burning down across my chest and side. I grunted, watching as the mark etched into the skin. A tree . It grew along me, branches thick with thorns and the pink hint of flower blossoms. Just like the one that stretched under Hadlie's jaw. It crawled up my hip to my side, ending just under my floating rib.

It wasn't the only thing it did; as my chest clenched, my entire body seizing as I arched forward into a fetal position. The air dusted with bits of atomized floor that I kicked up, and in an instant, the bonds in my chest closed off. "What the fuck ?"

The flickering mark on my wrist was next, mocking me as it stuttered, the color dimming to gray, before it faded entirely.

"You already ate my food, in my realm," she said, producing a piece of bread in her hand, the one my mother used to make. There was a detachment to her words that betrayed the kindness she'd seemed to have before, replaced with a furious expectation. "Agreeing sealed the deal. You're mine until your part is done. Sorry, but I needed to make sure you would do what I asked."

I snarled up at her, fighting through the pain as my head spun.

"You never even told me what I have to do!"

She had the gall to look guilty as she rubbed her eyes again, blood pooling there. This time, she coughed, covering her mouth as more slipped from the corners down her chin. "You have until the end of the Eternium. If you can't succeed by then, the thorns on that branch will pierce your heart."

I pulled in a hard breath, curling into the floor. My veins pulsed, the blood in them dragging to a stop as the temperature dropped again. "You?—"

She paused for a minute, as if struggling to find her words, before answering. "You can trust the Fae Eternal."

There was a softness to her tone that oozed warmth. She rubbed her neck again, and I knew that was all I'd get.

Her next breath let out a fog that surrounded the room, dissolving the comfort until we were left in darkness. Her hands brushed over my face, her fingers closing my eyes before her palms were dancing over my temples. I wasn't even sure I heard her right when her whisper echoed in my head. "Tell him my name and he'll know what to do."

When I opened them again, I was blinking at a partially shadowed Century Side of Oakridge. Disorientation was nothing new, and I was quick to take in my surroundings, from the crisp winter air to the bite of shackles at my wrists. My hands were bound above my head, my chest bare as I sucked in steady breaths.

Another dream?

"What—" I said, gritting my teeth, when another rustled beside me.

I flipped my head, finding Adrian looking at me with a bloodied, crooked grin. He was ripped apart, his skin so shredded it was still mending at a snail's pace. He barely looked like my brother at all.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up. Thought I'd die alone out here." He chuckled, his voice cracked and hoarse, looking toward the horizon with a fear I felt in my bones. The reddish hue slammed into me, the weight of where we were as heavy as the emptiness in my chest and the blank space on my wrist. I was out of the lamp, just like Hadlie had promised. So was Adrian, no matter what shape he was in.

But this wasn't free. This was an entirely different kind of hell, one that came with a ticking time bomb that sizzled like my skin.

The sun was rising, and we were on the fucking roof .

I pulled against the restraints, fire-like pain starting at my wrists where the bones broke and ending in my strained shoulders until I felt the muscle give way. Until I was panting, shaking like a fucking leaf.

"Yeah, no use on that. Archon had some serious magic put into his restraints. Pretty sure he meant to hold Osi with them," Adrian said, his head tipping as he spit out a mouthful of blood. "We don't stand a rat's chance in hell."

Fear was a powerful thing. It bound you up and locked away your sense of self. It folded you into a person who lived for self-preservation and would do anything to avoid it.

My crutch had always been control, the need to have everything in place so nothing could surprise me. Fear had swallowed me after I'd lost Aislinn, then again when Aaliyah had stormed into my life, and again when I'd almost lost her, too.

Now, the fear was tangible, alive in a way I never expected on the day I'd die. I didn't fear for myself. I never had. I wasn't worried about what death would bring, or if there'd be anything after it.

I was scared for Ali. The idea of her finding us like we had Nero was revolting, like a final "fuck you" from the gods as punishment for being Vivas.

"You know, of all the ways I expected to go out, this was probably at the bottom of the list," Adrian whispered, shaking his head and pulling at the restraints that held his wrists to the wooden cross. My instincts screamed, telling me I should be running. "I would have hoped for something flashier, like in that fight with Kri'Valta, or a magical exploding cake."

His normally cheery character was drowning in a terror he couldn't hide. His eyes were blown wide, his breaths coming out in shallow pants that ended in a crackling in his chest.

"This wasn't supposed to happen, Fallon." Adrian's words ended with a choked laugh, like now that they were spilling out, he didn't have any chance of stopping them. He pulled on his bindings again, the same feeble attempt I'd made, the sour scent of fear-laced blood filling the air. "God, I just want to put up that Christmas tree with Ali. Like we promised we would."

The image gagged me, the thought of missing it enough to make me wrench my hands again, until blood cascaded across the roof. One of my thumbs popped out of its socket, and I yanked down, trying to rip my hand free, just for the shackle to cinch tighter. "It's not over yet. We can get out; we just have to … We need ?—"

We needed a miracle.

Gritting my teeth, I bit my tongue, screaming through a snarl as the rays began to light up the houses on the horizon of Oakridge, inching up over the brick. I flinched, my flesh sizzling.

Not like fucking this.

"You don't have to lie," Adrian whispered, almost serene, as he tipped his head back. "I just … Do you think she's okay, Fal?"

I couldn't even tell. The binding of my soul to that Fae Bargain stealing the last touches I'd have with Ali. I swallowed that pain, too. Hopefully, it was one sided, and she'd just been cut off.

I'd hate myself if she felt me die.

"She will be." I hoped . I kicked myself at the short phrase, too locked up to give him anything else.

Something deep in my gut told me something was wrong. Osiris would have come for us otherwise. Or he went after Kri'Valta without us. Either way, it was to save her. That much I knew, and I couldn't ever fault him for that. I would have done the same.

Hope was a dying thing, something that slipped away, bit by bit, as the vicious light began to touch us.

"Fuck," Adrian hissed, turning away from it.

His skin started to smoke, and the unmistakable dark lines painting his skin told me what I didn't want to believe. It affected him quicker than me by just a bit, his age making him burn faster.

He'd be the first to go, and I'd have to watch him die before succumbing myself. I flexed my hands, fighting the chains, the magic.

None of it gave, not even enough to hope .

"Adrian," I whispered, trying to get his attention.

This time he sobbed, his eyes still held shut. The burn started on my face, then down my exposed chest, my skin peeling as the blood in my veins fought to get out.

I nearly vomited.

"Was this how Nero felt? Strung up? God, I can't even imagine being alone. He had to have been so scared." Adrian's words were nothing more than a mumbled mess, tears now matching his veins, ashen black as they boiled off.

His skin pulled taut as those thin black lines grew deeper, pulsing to the beat of his heart. They stuck to his features, clinging to high cheekbones which twisted with a grimace instead of his usual haughty smirk.

" Adrian ," I tried again.

"I mean, he was strong— the strongest —and he still died." Adrian either didn't hear me or was too gone to listen, and when he opened his eyes, the resignation was what got me. Blood pooled in the corners, sliding down his cheeks as he blinked, the familiar brown-lit hazel slowly shifting to black, matching the marks that now consumed his face. "I don't want to die, Fallon, not like this. Not yet ."

His eyes closed again, and the sun peeked over the lip of the roof. It was like lava, burning and seizing. I held on to a scream, just barely.

"Look at me, brother," I hissed, and he did, even as his skin bubbled.

At least Ali was safe. She had to be safe. Osiris made it to Kri'Valta's. Exilium was going to work, and they'd be free. Maybe Eirik would get out, maybe it would just be us.

Another pair of Sebek's Turned lost to time.

Adrian kept his head high, shaking like he had that first night after we'd found him on the streets of London, marveling at the sun he'd wanted so badly to see again, even as it ate him. He was a man who'd gotten on my nerves every second for the past hundred years. He'd stolen my paintings, goaded me into fights like it was second nature to piss me off and pranked me every way he could, most of the time with Nero there to egg him on. My brother, in the truest sense, and if we were going to die like this, then I wouldn't let him die thinking he was anything but my brother.

I couldn't let him die afraid. I wouldn't let him die alone.

"We are Vivas. When one fights, we fight with them," I whispered, body seizing. Agony. Like Kali had lit a match and boiled my blood in my veins all over again. "I love you, brother. I'll see you on the other side."

Adrian froze as I choked on the words, tilting his head to look at me one last time. He smiled through the pain, the one I'd seen a million times, that I used to roll my eyes at. His grin tipped the corner of his lip, splashed with black and red. "Figures you wait until the end to be sappy."

His eyes rolled back, his breath coming out in a quiet huff, before no more followed. I could still recall how it felt to lose Nero, the pain so visceral it had torn every ounce of breath from my lungs. That same pain ripped through me now, nerves dying so fast it stopped for just a second.

"I love you, Fal."

Then Adrian was gone.

And I knew I'd be quick to follow.