Of course, if they ditched me, the two of them could just stroll into a coffee shop and enjoy a cappuccino. They could pass as human. I couldn’t, and I was the one being hunted. This whole thing was getting ridiculous. Night wrapped around us as we headed to the one place we could go: the halfway house.
“This is stupid,” I said. “I mean, won’t they look for us here right away?” The place still seemed deserted. Ian shrugged.
“I don’t know. I mean, this place is pretty much shut down. They might think that you’d just run out of town and leave, which most smart people would do…”
Clay shot me a grin. I returned it. It felt so good to see him do that again.
“Maybe we should just do that,” Clay said. “Just run out of town. Leave.”
“They’d find us,” I said. I looked to Ian for confirmation.
“They would,” he confirmed. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s hardly your fault,” I said. “So, what’s our next step, then? I mean, we have to join a guild, don’t we?”
“We do,” Clay said. He leaned back against the wall on his bed. I sat at the end of the same bed. Ian stood near us. He still didn’t seem very comfortable. Maybe staying in human form this long grated on him. I wondered if he could shift now, and chose not to, to better guide us.
“Can we just go join another guild?” I asked nobody in particular. “I mean, really, the main point is that we get to hang out, right? So what if we go to another guild? Something different.”
Clay didn’t answer, but I could tell by his silence that he really just wanted to go back to the fighter’s league, even though he’d given his life to them once already.
“Once you’re marked,” Ian said, “you’re meant for a guild. You can’t just change your mind.”
“That hardly seems fair,” I said. “We were told that they were invitations, not orders.”
“Well, you were told wrong,” Ian said, not unkindly. “The fighter’s league will want Clay back. The second they find out he’s still alive, they’ll come for him.”
“Nobody wants me,” I said.
“You can come to the fighter’s league with me,” Clay insisted. “I’m sure they were impressed with what you did back there. I mean, you won against me. And I’m not easy to beat.” He gave me a grin. “But also, you managed to escape, and you brought me back to life! You’ll be a hero after this!”
“Why do you even want to go back there? I mean, they killed you!”
“Yeah, kind of. If I’m fast enough, though, and smart enough, I should be able to live. I can also not do death fights,” he shrugged. “I might have been a tad over-enthused there.”
“You signed up for death fights? On purpose?” I asked, eyes wide.
He sighed. “It’s the most glory, you know?” He continued before I could wrap my mind around his stupidity. “And it’s not that bad a place. Even without the bigger fights, I still get to battle, I can get some glory if I win, and I think I’d do well. Well, not against you,” he shrugged. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”
“But you’ll make friends there,” I said, “and you’ll have to fight those friends!”
“I don’t make friends that easily.” A dark mood descended on him quickly.
“Well. I don’t know. You and Blake could be BFFs.”
He snorted.
“Seriously, though,” Clay said, “you should consider it. Come with me. Be a part of something different! Hang out together still.”
“Sure, until you get killed,” I said bitterly. “Which I don’t think will take that long, at this rate. I mean, that old woman made you go berserk, or something. You went insane!”
“Yeah, that was weird.” He looked perplexed. “It’s like I lost control and I just wanted to hurt everything around me.”
“Great,” I muttered.
“I’m sure that that won’t happen again.”
I wasn’t so sure about that.
He pushed on. “Well, if we have to go somewhere, it might as well be somewhere that I’m going to enjoy before I go,” he spoke softly, with none of his usual brashness. It made his words more powerful. “We’re Traded, Tira. How long can we really believe we’re going to survive in this world anyways?”
I sighed. I didn’t really have a counter-argument. Everyone and everything seemed pretty intent on killing us right now.
“I don’t really have anywhere else to go. I might as well stay with you, Clay. But no death fights, Clay. Seriously. Let’s at least try to survive a bit longer. If you die, I’ll just join a circus guild and curse you forever.”
“Blake would never let you live it down,” Clay said with a large grin.
“Oh, I know. I’d have to beat him into letting it go.”
Clay laughed as we fell back into our old patterns. I noticed that Ian stood very quiet beside us. I shifted to look at him.
“What about you, Ian?” I said. “Can you change guilds? Do you want to join the league with us?” Clay stiffened at the suggestion.
“I should go,” Ian said. Before I could protest, he’d stepped outside of the room, reaching the exit quickly.
“I’ll be back,” I said.
“Want me to follow?” Clay asked.
“Nah. Get some sleep. I’ll be right back.” And I slipped out after Ian into the shadows, hoping that he wouldn’t vanish into a mouse before I got to ask him what the hell was wrong with him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Ian moved pretty fast, but I was faster, more used to two-legged running than he was. He stuck to a quiet street, thank goodness, lined with old wooden fences.
“Where are you going?” I said. He stopped, looking annoyed. Maybe even angry. I didn’t let that stop me, coming up to him.
He sighed.
“Can’t you just let it go?” he said. “Why do you have to make everything so complicated?”
“I’m making everything so complicated?” I protested. “I’m just trying to find out where you’re going and why you’re being all sulky. I mean, just leaving like this is a great idea! It’s not like there are people trying to kill us or anything.”
“They’re not going to try to kill me,” he said. He seemed to regret his words immediately. He took a deep breath. “Look, you’re in danger. You have to be careful and you have to be smart.”
“Okay,” I said. “Care to tell me what you seem to know that I don’t?”
“Look, Tira, you can’t just…” He looked even more frustrated, like he was searching for words that evaded him. He sighed, like the fight had drained out of him. “Everyone gets summoned to a guild, Tira. It’s the way of the Traded.”
“I wasn’t,” I said. “But it’s okay. Maybe I was summoned by the fighter’s league, and I just didn’t know until now. Maybe I’m part and parcel with Clay. I mean, if you say they’ve been watching us this entire time, then they must have known that that’s the way to get us in, right? You get one, you get the other. We’re better together, anyways. We always have been.”
Ian observed me for a few moments. I had a feeling that he wasn’t about to support my argument.
“You received a hair barrette,” Ian said, his voice so soft that I barely heard him. “You received a barrette on your last day of school.”
I blinked a couple of times, absorbing the information. I had. I’d completely forgotten about it until now. I pulled it out, the dark item reflecting no light in my hand. I observed it more closely, something I hadn’t bothered doing. The infinity symbol seemed to fold in two, if I bent the barrette.
I glanced up at Ian, then folded the barrette. It followed my movement, a small needle appearing from below the symbol.
“That wouldn’t have killed you,” Ian quickly said. “It’s just a sleeping agent, which could prove useful to you.”
“If I knew it was there and didn’t prick myself, anyway,” I mumbled, folding the barrette back, satisfied with the slight click.
“This doesn’t look like an invitatio
n,” I said. “It looks like a weapon.”
“The best things serve double duty, Tira,” Ian said, then looked up at me. “It’s the way of the Guild of Shadows.”
The Guild of Shadows. I remembered Sonsil’s words. We keep the balance.
“Why not tell me?” I whispered.
Ian finally looked me in the eye when he answered.
“It’s a very different guild, and very selective,” he said. “We need to make sure we have the right people, even those selected.”
“You brought me there,” I said, working through all of the details and possibilities. There were so few of them. “You’re one of them, and you stayed with me…” I whispered.
He nodded. This time when he spoke, he didn’t look me in the eye.
“I was sent to assess you after you left school. Keep an eye on you, hide in my animal shapes as necessary. Make sure that you survived long enough to be of use to the Guild of Shadows and see where your loyalties lay. With Clay, or with the Guild.”
“I don’t know the Guild,” I said.
“I know,” Ian said, his voice matching the softness of mine. “But we know you.”
Well I hated the sound of that. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“How did you do that to Clay?” The question seemed to surprise Ian. He looked me in the eye again.
“I know how to use poisons,” he said. “It’s part of what the Guild of Shadows can do. Something a little bit more quiet, a little bit less detectable. I used one on him, and just had to reach him in time to revive him without any danger.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, that’s good.”
He nodded, waited for me to continue.
“That’s how we found Clay so easily when the guild had him, isn’t it? You’ve just been pulling me along this entire time.”
“No, not fully,” Ian said, “but somewhat, I’ll admit. A lot of that you managed by yourself. A lot of the things that happened, well, I couldn’t have predicted.”
“You were sent to protect me,” I said. He shook his head.
“No. But I owed you one. When you got me out of that room. I had been trapped in dog form, and I couldn’t change back. One of the most annoying features of my powers. You got me out before I got killed. That’s not a bad thing.”
“Who’d have killed you?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I really don’t know who those people were, or why they collected what they did. But the Guild of Shadows wants them now, starting with that canister. And so we’ll have to go and get them.”
“All those dead animals…”
“I know,” he said, his voice stricken by grief. “They killed them, collecting something from them. All those different pieces, they boiled down and stuck in that canister. We’re not sure why, but Sonsil is worried about it. I’ve rarely seen Sonsil worried about anything.”
“He likes animals?” I asked.
“He doesn’t like innocents getting killed,” he sighed again. “Like the little girl you saved from the fire.”
“During Clay’s test?” This wasn’t getting any less puzzling.
“That wasn’t a test for him.”
“Oh.” In retrospect, that made some sense. Why would a fighter’s league test someone without having them fight? I narrowed my eyes at him. “Would the Guild have saved the little girl, if I hadn’t?”
He nodded. “The little girl is one of our operatives. She could have saved herself.”
“She gave me up!” I spat out.
He shrugged. “We needed to see what you’d do then, too. You could have run, or denied it.”
“You were testing my moral fiber?” My eyebrows must have been near my hairline now.
“Like I said, we keep the balance. There are tough choices to be made, Tira.”
My head hurt. I wanted to go back and check on Clay, make sure he was safe.
“Okay,” I said. “So, what happens now?”
“The Guild of Shadows still needs you to get that canister back from the fighter’s league,” he paused and lowered his voice. “We’re not sure on the league’s involvement in this, and why they had Clay collect it. We know that they’ve wanted Clay for a long time, though, and he’s been marked as theirs,” he looked down, his voice softening further. “And I can’t help you anymore, so you’ll have to decide whether or not you can trust Clay to have your back.”
“I can trust Clay!” I protested and then immediately questioned my words. Ian wasn’t wrong. Clay was so focused on the goal right now, which was joining the fighter’s league, that I may be a casualty in his ambition’s wake.
No, not Clay. Clay had died. Clay would have preferred to die than destroy me. I had to trust my friends. I kept my counsel.
“You can retrieve the canister with Clay’s help, or on your own. But certainly not with my help. I’m sorry, Tira, but this is as far as I can go. My instructions are clear, and I am bound to the Guild of Shadows. As are you,” he added. “Remember that. You can’t just join the fighter’s league. The Guild of Shadows will come for you.”
“I have no doubt of that,” I whispered. “So, I guess this is goodbye?”
“For now,” he said. He looked like he wanted to say something more or maybe change into something else and skirt away into the darkness. But he did neither of those things, simply turning and walking away down the street. I watched him go until he was out of sight.
I headed back to the halfway house, and to Clay. We had some planning to do if we were going to succeed and get out with our lives intact.
As I walked, I analyzed the few days we’d been out of school, with a lens of being manipulated by the Guild of Shadows instead of the fighters’ league, like I’d originally thought.
And I didn’t like what I spotted.
Stealing the canister. Clay choosing to leave me behind to bring them to the fighter’s league. Me going after Clay. Now having to choose between Clay and the Guild.
I could see that they’d manipulated the situation, sure. But I also saw that Clay had followed a certain path, willingly.
And I didn’t think he would swerve from it now, no matter how well he meant, or how much he cared for our friendship.
I hated that the Guild of Shadows had cast such a harsh light on our friendship. I feared it might disintegrate in its wake.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I found Clay on the bed, wide awake. He’d obviously been waiting, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d crawled in just before me, having followed me out to make sure I was safe.
“Hey,” I said, and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Hey,” he answered. “You good?”
“Yeah. I imagine you overheard?”
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. I’d have done the same thing.”
“I’m just not used to us having secrets, you know?” he said.
“But you’ve been keeping so many,” I whispered. “You didn’t tell me about the fighter’s league, or about the canister, or any of it! Clay, this is serious, we’re not in school anymore. We’re going to get ourselves killed this way!”
He looked embarrassed. “You’re right, I’ve been thinking a lot about that. You know, now that I’ve come back to life and all that, and I’m sorry. Look, I don’t exactly know what’s going on either. But I remember hearing all of the stories about the fighter’s leagues and all of the gladiators and heroes of the ring, and I just know that’s where I want to be, you know?” His eyes shone with youthful enthusiasm. “I just want to get a chance to make a mark. Have some fun. Meet some people. But, I want to do all those things with you.”
I loved that he wanted to stay with me. I loved that we’d made it work for thirteen years. I even loved that, no matter what he’d overheard, of being manipulated by the Guild of Shadows, his main concern was getting to join his favorite league.
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” I told Clay. “You heard what Ian said. I got an invitation from the Guild of Sh
adows. I just didn’t realize it.” I pulled out the barrette, dark metal with an infinity sign. It reflected no light.
“Yeah, not noticing something so obvious sounds like you,” he said sarcastically. I playfully punched his shoulder. He sobered up, looked at me seriously.
“You just don’t notice what’s right in front of you sometimes, Tira.”
“I don’t notice! You don’t notice either!”
He paused.
“Oh yeah? What’s right in front of me right now?” he whispered.
I hesitated for a brief second. “I am.”
He looked at me for a few moments, the silence stretching into eternity as I waited for him to say something more.
“You are,” Clay finally said, for which I was grateful, stopping my mind and my heart from spinning at rates that the world couldn’t quite match. “And I’d like it to stay this way. Can we still be friends if we’re in different guilds?” he asked, his voice cracking a bit.
“I think so,” I said, “but I don’t know. I just…I don’t know a whole lot of anything right now.”
“I know we have to get that canister back tomorrow,” Clay said, “together. And I know we’ll do better if we sleep.”
“You’re right about that,” I hesitated for a few seconds and then moved into the bed beside him, took off my boots, and removed as much of my clothes as I could while remaining decent. I snuggled under the rough sheets. The mattress was firm and not that comfortable, but certainly more comfortable than sleeping against a wall.
And Clay wasn’t dead. That made a hell of a difference too.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I told Clay.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he whispered. He looked like wanted to say something else, but before he could, my eyelids grew heavy, and I was fast asleep, still clutching the barrette in my hands, Ian and Clay’s words chasing me into my restless dreams.
#
The building which held the fighter’s league seemed more threatening in daylight. My hood covered my face, my hands stuck deep in my pockets, my heart thudding in my ears. Clay practically vibrated beside me, more so as we climbed concrete steps leading to the door.
Hell Born Page 17
