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Chapter 49

Fallon

I was the first to admit that I could be seen as unapproachable . Adrian and Nero had always been the ones with flashy charm and winning personalities, their ability to play a room damned near unparalleled. I liked it that way, being able to fall into the background and have a godforsaken drink without needing to fend off the vultures that circled around me was better than any social standing.

I slipped through the crowd, ignoring the Eternals and their Secondaries talking in low tones, as they watched me out the sides of their eyes. It wasn't enough to warrant my attention, and most moved when I got too close, wary even when I was by myself. They knew better than to approach a member of the Vivas Crypt without reason, even having never seen me in person.

Thank God for small mercies.

I grabbed a drink off a passing server's tray—an aged scotch that went down smooth. I set the empty glass back down, not bothering to look as he bowed and ran off, too busy searching for a man I knew wasn't here.

Fae were unusual among the other Naturals, with their annoying tendency to somehow avoid crowds even more than I did. I'd been hoping that Koldan would be the exception to that.

Though, I wasn't surprised that he wasn't.

I reached for the winding ink that sat on my chest and over my ribs, itching, stretching. The ticking time bomb was enough to get me moving. I made it to the edge of the crowd in a flash, keeping my head high as the door I walked up to opened for me, and I slipped through.

"I don't know what you're trying to prove," a soft voice whispered, and I gritted my teeth, continuing to walk as Aislinn came to my side. The hall flexed, the golden accents lining red walls seeming to curl toward me as she stretched her arms above her head. She wasn't wearing anything unusual today, the normal hides and ornate beads … but her neck was already torn, dried blood caked across her skin.

She'd come more and more often, her visions turning into something I never could have dreamed up before. Her cruel smile came with a trail of blood down her nose, which she swiped away with a calloused hand. "You're going to die. I don't know why you fight it."

I grunted, ignoring her, walking faster. The hall wound with no end in sight, and no other doors to take refuge in.

Fuck .

"The world would be better off without a monster like you," she whispered in a singsong voice, her laugh crackling like old wood in a hot fire. "You can't run from me, Fallon."

I held my breath, struggling to keep looking ahead and not slam my hands over my ears to block out the mocking.

"Fallon!" A hand landed on my arm, and I ripped away, jolting back with clenched teeth. A grunt of pain followed, one that made me so sick I almost puked, wrapped in a cold sweat that sank into my bones as I rubbed my face. Aislinn looked back at me for all of a second before lavender eyes took her place.

"Ali?" I asked as she took a step back from me. My blood went cold, my hands shaking.

She rubbed her hand, the one I'd just about pulled out of her damned wrist. "Fallon …?"

My stomach dropped, sinking to the floor when I saw the first sign of a bruise across her pale skin. I backed up, heel cracking against the floorboard as my shoulder blades hit the wall.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have done that," she said, shaking her head.

She flinched as she rubbed her wrist, her fingers trembling as she pulled it to her chest.

What the fuck was I doing?

I had her hand in mine in the next second, rotating it gently so I could see if I'd done any damage. I searched for open wounds, for broken bones, all while Aislinn's laugh still echoed in my head. The image of blood sliding down her face burned into me. "No, no. You never have to apologize for touching me, Ali. I?—"

I could have really hurt her.

Aislinn's smile was knowing, a dark whisper to what I already knew.

Fuck, I'd almost hurt Ali .

"Fallon?" Aaliyah whispered my name, her hands cupping my cheeks, forcing me to look away from Aislinn and into her eyes instead. Everything about her came forward, the curve of her lips and the nick of scars that I still hadn't avenged for her. "Don't look at her. Look at me."

Saliva filled my mouth as Aaliyah stared on, perfectly still, smelling slightly of chlorine. It blocked her sweet chocolate-tinted scent. I cleared my throat, acid burning down it. "You need to go, trouble."

To where she would be protected, safe. Away from me .

"No," Ali said, the confident tone clearing away Aislinn's words. She lifted her chin, chewing her bottom lip as she continued. "When I said that I won't let you face this alone, I meant it."

But how could she? Fear was alive and well in me, even as much as I wished it had died on that fucking roof. Just being close to her made me shake … I couldn't kill someone I loved, not again. I wouldn't fucking survive it.

"What?" Aislinn whispered, and I bit my tongue so hard it bled. "I think she'd look so pretty in red . "

"I killed Aislinn, Ali," I said, the cracked words that of a broken man I didn't even recognize.

I killed her, and then I watched her die, again and again.

Her blood stained me long before Archon had trapped me, but the memory was fresh now, as real as the hint of iron on my lips as I bit my tongue until I bled. "I deserve this. She's haunting me, and I deserve it."

"What happened was a tragedy, one brought on by a man that wanted to play God, not you. Aislinn wouldn't want this for you."

I struggled to swallow, to fight back the tears that burned in the back of my throat.

Taz.

I'd held Aislinn, comforted her while her blood spilled onto sand I'd never see as home again, dying from the gouge I'd put on her throat. She'd smiled at me, those endless ink-black eyes dulling as the press of night cast a shadow that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Smiled like she had every morning, beaming at me with a life I snuffed out.

"What was she like, Fallon?" Aaliyah's question split the air, and even Aislinn paused. "Aislinn, tell me about her?"

I pulled in a breath, my head thudding against the wall behind me. The room could have very well closed in on top of us, and I wouldn't have been able to look away from Aaliyah's eyes. I'd been attracted to the fire in them since the moment I'd seen her, drawn like a moth to an open flame. I wanted her to burn me and destroy the bits of myself that I'd left on that beach I once called my home.

"She was sweet, soft. Headstrong and …" I rambled off, even as Aislinn snorted from beside me. I closed my eyes, remembering the way she used to be . It killed me to think about her; it always had. Now, more than ever, I struggled to remember how she was before, when she was still alive, but there was one thing she'd always been. "Kind. She was endlessly kind."

To everything and everyone. She'd loved helping people, and there were few creatures she wouldn't put her neck on the line for. Like the wily Tasmanian devil that had wandered into our home.

Good morning, Taz.

"In the entire time you knew her, would she ever say what she is now?" Ali asked, like a voice of reason, acting as the angel on my shoulder.

Such a simple question had never crossed my mind, not in any meaningful way. I hadn't thought about it, not when everything else pointed toward what I already knew … that she was gone because of me.

"I don't?—"

"This isn't Aislinn, Fallon," Aaliyah whispered, her hands never leaving me, like a bridge from the past to the present. "Her words hurt because they come with her face, but it's not her. She wouldn't do this to you."

I ripped myself away, breaking the contact Aaliyah had made. The loss of her touch, of that explosive warmth, made me shiver.

I looked at Aislinn, and she was smiling at me now. Like I'd somehow solved her riddle, my breath coming out in a soft apology. She snorted, raising an eyebrow, but she didn't speak again. Not outwardly, anyway, as she mouthed the words to me.

"See you on the other side, Taz."

I breathed out, and in that breath, the weight lifted off me. Aislinn was gone. I felt free in a way I hadn't in years. I sank back against the wall, rubbing my face with my hands. The constant state of fight-or-flight dimmed.

"Are you all right?" Aaliyah asked, always so open as she sat in front of me, patient, rubbing the hand that had found its way to hers. I flipped it, taking her wrist, tracing the empty space where my mark once was.

"Yes," I said as I stood. I dusted off the suit, cracking my knuckles as I cleared my throat. Emotion stuck clung to me in a way that made me feel sticky, almost like I was wading through a shallow pool of it. It dragged me down, and I shook my head, trying to clear it.

"Good, you're going to deal with the mark, right? Then let's go." She grabbed my hand again, intertwining our fingers, and staring straight ahead. It was crazy how much stronger I felt with her by my side. She took my silence as a refusal, gnawing on her bottom lip as she glanced up at me. "I'm going with, Fallon. The only question is, am I following behind and are you pretending not to see me, or are we walking into whatever this is together?"

I almost laughed. In one shocking breath, she'd managed to remind me why I'd fallen in love with her. She might breathe heavily, her hands shaking, but Ali never backed down. Not once in the time that I'd known her. She was a force to be reckoned with, and I pitied anyone that tried to get in her way.

"You really are trouble," I said, shaking my head, looking around the empty hall. Like the Eternium knew what to do, it shifted until just barely in the distance, I could see something. Someone . "Come on. We have a Fae to meet."

She didn't respond, looking ahead, learning with what she saw. We walked toward it, the door that appeared standing almost twice as tall as the guards that stood by it. Two, one on each side.

The left was an imposing figure, his black eyes steadfast and cold, like the frosty mist that hovered over his blue-tinted skin. His eyes were almost black, with a solid circle in the middle that looked like a new moon, beyond a slight sliver of light on the outside that matched the dusting of white stars across his high cheeks and the white lines that stretched from the corners of his mouth up to his pointed ears. An Unseelie Fae, and from the chill that leaked from him, it didn't take much to guess that he had an affinity for the cold.

To the right was one I wasn't expecting to see. About as large as his pair, with skin a pasty white, stars across his face just the same, and a bright full moon in the center of his black eyes, just slightly less than whole. His marks trailed up his neck, solid black lines that came out from under his armor, ending just below his eyes.

They had the same scattering of stars over their high cheeks, and if I was a betting man, I'd guess they were the opposite in every way. Two pieces of the same whole. A perfect combination, not that either of them mattered right now. They were little more than a show, standing like grunts in front of a door that likely saw no travelers.

Two Fae with near total moons in their eyes, and Koldan had them on door duty.

I rolled my shoulders, grunting as though preparing to go to blows. The Eternium felt it too, already shackling me with those invisible chains.

"I need to speak with Fae Eternal Koldan," I said as the guards stared dead ahead, not even looking down.

There was an air of superiority around them, the kind that I usually beat out of fuckers like them.

"Eternal Koldan, Bringer of Dusk, is not taking visitors," the one on the left said with a curt sneer, slamming his spear into the ground with a violent thud. "Leave."

Patience was a virtue I'd never learned. Anger rose hard and fast inside of me, catching my vocal cords as I bit out, "I won't ask again."

His face twitched, rage slipping into his eyes as his other half gritted his teeth. It was a fragile few seconds of silence before he lifted his spear and pointed it at us. "And I said leave, Fang . "

He couldn't do anything with it, but I didn't like the threat for what it was. I moved Ali behind me as I stepped up to the spearhead, letting it sit against my chest, over the marking that Hadlie had left there.

I gripped the metal until it bit into my palm, pushing it to the side with a slam. The Fae holding it jolted back, teeth bared in a snarl. I braced, ready to deflect a blow if the Eternium found itself lacking, just as Ali peeked her head around me.

She hummed, catching my attention, and that of the Fae. "You're scared. You wouldn't resort to insults if you weren't," she said, simply. Watching carefully as the guard flinched and fell back into line with a straight face. "Is it of us or Koldan?"

One simple sentence gave her all she needed in a way I never would have thought to try. His eyes darted between us before landing on her, filled with contempt, hatred, and no small amount of fear .

"Us, then," she whispered, more confident now as she stepped fully around me. I nearly choked, watching the two guards warily, keeping my hand on her shoulder and biting back the need to push her behind me again. That need only grew when the Unseelie snarled. "But there's nothing to be afraid of here. The Eternium stops people from attacking others with bad intent."

She looked at the door, a bit longer than they were comfortable with. Her next words damned well could have been carved from ice. "So, what's going on behind that door that you don't want us to see?"

I was so fucking proud of her.

The Seelie Fae was the one to move, crossing his spear over the front of the door like he was trying to block her seeking gaze. He leaned down to speak, mockingly slow. "You don't know anything, Vampire slut. "

My fangs fell in an instant, my mouth filling with my blood as they pierced my bottom lip. I lost control in the blink of an eye, grabbing his spear, ripping it from his hands. He stumbled forward, shock clear in his expression as I sank the tip into the wall by his head.

The Eternium stopped me from doing what I really wanted, what I'd do the moment the spell let me go. Even then, I memorized his face, the cold scent of his fear as he bared his teeth in a fanged sneer. The wooden end wobbled, the marble by his face fissuring open.

"You're going to die for that," I snarled, clenching my fists. "Maybe not now, but I swear as soon as this Eternium is over, I'll find you."

The other guard was on edge now, his spear raised in a defensive position. My hands ached, the unholy desire to split his face all consuming.

Aaliyah didn't even flinch.

"Insults are a show of fear, so something we don't want to see, then. You're flushed, a sign of physical activity, and it smells like … steel." Aaliyah was unrelenting, like a tidal wave as she rammed over and over into the guards' heads, battering them with information that she garnered just from watching. It was like art, to watch the way she broke them apart with soft words and sure confidence. The mix of psychological warfare and her collected tone broke them in real time. "It's odd how much something so small can tell you. Isn't it?"

The Unseelie shivered, the bravado now lost in the panic, his cheeks flushed a darker blue, the stars on his face glowing like that single crescent of white in his eyes.

"So, want to bring out Koldan so we can speak to him and be on our way?" Ali asked, giving them a way out, and it was too easy to spot the resigned breath. The Unseelie pulled his spear back, dropping his offensive stance. "Or do I need to keep guessing?"

Silence was a serenade, and I squeezed Ali's hand, smiling when she looked at me. Her cheeks flushed with unapologetic pride. That blush stretched down her neck, her pulse beating in my hand. There was a moment when she tipped her head down, biting her lip as she stared at the floor, before she seemed to rethink the move.

She took a breath, squaring her shoulders before tipping her chin up, flinching as the two Fae tensed. Even when their gazes turned sharp, she didn't look down again.

"What part of 'no visitors' do you not fucking understand?" another voice boomed as the door flew open.

The guards went ramrod straight, their eyes forward as frost spilled out of the entrance and into the hall. It overwhelmed and made the Fae guarding it look like children. The man who walked through oozed the kind of power you'd expect from an Eternal. His head was high, his nose turned down on us like we were filth.

The usual.

I straightened my tie, cracking my neck.

He was tall, I'd guess roughly eight feet, though not overly muscular. His long white hair was braided down his back in an intricate design that would have made Eirik jealous, and in his deep-black eyes there was a single solid circular outline of white.

Just like Hadlie.

It put me on edge, even remembering what she'd told me. You can trust the Fae Eternal.

I didn't place a lot of faith in words.

"My Lord," the Seelie Fae said, the tremble to his words lit by the smoke that slipped from his mouth as he breathed a little too hard. "I was just getting rid of them."

"I take it you're Koldan? I need to talk to you," I butted in.

Koldan rolled his eyes, leaning down to look me in mine like someone might a child. They were wide enough that I could see flecks of what I'd assume were more stars lingering behind it.

I bit my tongue, almost desperate to start shit with the tall Fae.

"How very Vampire of you," he said, clicking his tongue with an admonishing tone. "You were already told I'm not taking visitors, and the last thing I need on my door is a Reaper. Leave."

Aaliyah tensed next to me, and I gritted my teeth. "I need?—"

"I said leave, " he cut in, leaving no room for argument as he stood straight again. "I don't care what you have to say, Fang. I want you out of my sight and not sullying my air."

The Eternium dragged me to a stop as my blood roared, and if it hadn't been stopping me, I might have been going to blows with the Fae Eternal. The disrespect was growing old, fast.

If I didn't need to be here, I wouldn't be. This wasn't something that was worth my time, and whether or not Koldan believed it, neither was he.

Deep. Fucking. Breaths.

"Hadlie sent me," I growled, grinding my teeth as the mark on my side ached, pulsing like it was growing.

Koldan stood straight, his eyes going wide for only a second before they narrowed back down. His long ears twitched as he stepped forward until he was too fucking close. He had the same markings that Hadlie had, silver slashes down his forehead and over his eyes, sliding all the way into his obnoxious robes.

"Hadlie?" he asked, saying her name slowly, like I might have misspoken.

I snorted a laugh, shaking my head. "Oh, you seem very interested in talking now."

Koldan ground his teeth, the frost disappearing from the air at the snap of his fingers, all of his cavalier goading gone in a second. His attention was sharp. "Where was she?"

Aaliyah squeezed my hand, and I was quick to squeeze it back. "Archon's, in his?—"

Koldan let out a breath, one faster than I would have expected. "Then she's still with him?"

His face fell when I nodded, his expression souring as he pushed a stray hair out of his eyes.

"Said you'd know what to do, whatever that means," I said.

He hummed, watching me carefully as he stood tall once again with his arms crossed behind his back. It exposed his throat, his demeanor shifting from tense to languid.

"Hadlie is my twin sister, second heir to the Unseelie Fae," he said, his eyes dulling. The silver ring in them seemed to glow. He was almost animated in his interest, his expression hopeful. "She's very important to me."

Fae couldn't lie, from what I remembered of Adrian's boring fucking lecture on them. It was against their nature, or something of the sort. So that, at least, had to be true.

I hesitated before answering, unsure how much I should share, as Ali squeezed my hand again. When I looked at her, her face was carefully blank, but she didn't stop tapping her pointer finger against my wrist.

"What do I need to do to finish the Bargain?" I asked, keeping my expression neutral.

Hadlie had sent me his way for a reason.

But what was the reason? Part of me wanted to believe it was because her brother had good intentions. The other half knew a snake when I saw one.

Koldan was quiet for a moment, smiling widely as he nodded his head, gritting his teeth. It set off warning signals in my mind when he tipped forward. "She wants out. That is why she sent you to me, and there is only one way to free her of that place."

The tree branches on my side lengthened, their limbs still moving, still stretching. I held in the gasp, strangling the need to reach up and touch it. Ali was my grounding force, the bit that kept me staring straight ahead as she leaned into my side.

"I don't have all day," I said, ignoring the glowers from the guards.

Koldan tipped forward, ignoring my sharp tongue. "You must kill Hadlie."

Ali froze, her hand squeezed tight in mine. Hadlie seemed like many things, but I hadn't taken her as suicidal. There was a fire in her eyes, a will to fight, a will to live.

"There's no way that's what she meant," I said, as Koldan stood straight, looking down on me from over his nose.

"I cannot lie, Vivas. You wished for an answer, yes?" he said, brushing me off, slinging his braid over his shoulder. "That's the only one I have to give. Hadlie wishes to be freed from Archon. This is how you do it."

It was all authority in his stuck up assurance, dismissing us with a bow of his head. "Now, it's best you go. No need to stir unwanted attention."

The door closed as he walked away, not even uttering a goodbye, and we were left with the two Fae guards. Ali never let go of my hand as we turned around. Her face was calm, her eyes straight ahead until we were far enough away for the Eternium to change our path.

Then she let out a breath. "Something about how he talked about her was off."

She said it so quietly I almost didn't hear her.

"I was thinking the same thing," I said.

There was too much excitement in the way he'd moved, and though nothing he said was a lie … that didn't make me trust him, either.

The hall tapered off, and slowly, another body took shape, this one with auburn hair I knew well.

"Adrian," I said, startling him as he jolted and looked up at us. Then he was rushing forward, taking Aaliyah's face in his hands.

"Love! You disappeared on me. Are you all right?" he asked, letting out a breath as he leaned down and kissed her softly. There was a brightness back in him now, a life that had been ripped away at Archon's. It was nice to see some of that spark back. He looked at me. "Fally, you look rather shaken up."

"What do you know about Koldan?" I asked, getting straight to the point as his eyes narrowed.

"Very little. Fae are … real pieces of work. All I know is that he took over for Frileti after Sebek killed her," he said, humming under his breath as he tapped his arm. "He seems like a wild card, killed nearly all of his competition to get to the top after spending most of his life promoting peace. Apparently, he was originally fifth in line."

"He wouldn't be the type to want one of his siblings freed, then, would he?" Aaliyah asked, quietly.

"Oh, not on his life." Adrian snorted, and my little problem grew a lot more complicated. "Why?"

Which meant that she didn't send me to Koldan because she thought he'd get her out. She sent me to him because he had gotten her locked in.

Her Fae Bargain wasn't with Archon; it was with Koldan. I had to figure out what it was and break it. Or I wouldn't see the end of my first Eternium.

"Think you could do some more digging on him?" I asked, and Adrian hesitated for a moment before he nodded sharply. "He's hiding something."

"I'll see what I can do," he said, his expression going harsh. He looked over his shoulder, checking that no one had drawn too close. "Relating to your mark, yeah?"

I nodded. "Something like that."

The air grew quiet then, and we walked in silence to the room. The halls moved, and we were quick to slip inside our little haven. We followed the sound of music as it blared from behind the door that was tucked away by the kitchen, hiding the replica training room behind it. We looked at each other as it flew open.

Nero was grinning from the other side, his expression vibrant and slightly bloodthirsty.

"Ah, just in time," he said through a pant. He still looked rough, his body lacking much of the muscle it had before, though it seemed it was getting better. He was covered in a fine layer of sweat and a few fresh cuts that looked like they were still healing. "Interested in a spar, Fally?"