Flynn Nightsider and the Edge of Evil

by Mary Fan

  “I know what you mean.”

  Tamerlane glanced at Aurelia with a thoughtful look. “I wonder if what you’re seeing is more than a nightmare. If what I—”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Aurelia snapped. “We see crazy things in our sleep.”

  “Doesn’t all this Underworld activity worry you?” Tamerlane stood. “I keep bringing it up with Calhoun, but he never listens. He keeps saying the Triumvirate is playing up the supernatural threat.”

  “Well, he’s right.” Aurelia put her hands on her hips. “The whole reason the Triumvirate exists is because people are afraid of monsters. We can’t let the same fears distract us from what’s important. The Triumvirs would love it if we decided to spend all our time chasing beasts instead of looking for ways to end their slimeball-ruled regime of evil. So we’ve gotta bring down the totalitarian dirtbags first and deal with the monsters second.” She turned her glare on Flynn. “Make sense?”

  Flynn nodded. She was right, of course. But faced with the reality of confronting the supernatural in the morning, he almost wanted to agree with Tamerlane. Taking down the Triumvirate is the endgame. Monsters are just an obstacle.

  “Hey,” Aurelia said. “I’m sure the Triumvirate’s keeping things from us on the supernatural front, but once we overthrow them, we’ll find out what’s going on.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Tamerlane turned to the door. “Anyway, I’m going back to bed. You two should as well. The monsters won’t go easy on you because you’re sleepy.”

  Sleep was the last thing Flynn was capable of at the moment, so he remained in the hallway as Tamerlane entered the dorm.

  “Hey,” Aurelia said. “Scared for the test?”

  “No,” Flynn said automatically.

  Aurelia smacked his arm. “You should be, so either you’re a liar or stupid. Pick one.”

  “Liar, then.”

  “Good.” She looked him in the eye. “I usually give people a hard time for being scared because they use it as an excuse, but you’re different. You rush in, which is just as bad. So remember, fear is a survival instinct. Don’t let it hold you back, but don’t pretend it’s not there either.”

  “Okay.” Flynn was glad that she, at least, didn’t think him a coward—clueless, maybe, but not gutless. “It’s weird. I really don’t want to go out there, but at the same time, I do, you know? I mean, I have a hard enough time sparring with you, and let’s face it, who wants to go looking for a bloodwolf? Still, I want to know that I could take one down if it found me.”

  “I get it. That’s how I felt my first time fighting in the wild, except I didn’t have backup. They just shoved me outside the Capital’s perimeter one day and watched as a bloodwolf attacked me. After I chopped off its head, they congratulated me and told me I’d been promoted to Cadet. I was twelve. Then they kept sending me out whenever they needed a quick ganking, and there weren’t any full-time Defenders around.”

  “That sucks.”

  Aurelia shrugged. “Eh, I’m better than the pros anyway. Would’ve become a full-on Defender at fourteen if the system hadn’t been rigged against me.” She locked her gaze onto his. “Promise me something, will you? Promise you’ll think before you fight. I’ll be there to protect you tomorrow, but someday, I might not be. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” She had a look of genuine concern on her face, and for the first time, Flynn caught a glimpse of the vulnerability behind the tough—and obnoxious—girl he’d come to know. It surprised him how much she seemed to care.

  “I promise, I’ll be careful.”

  “Good.” Aurelia turned to the staircase. “Anyway, Tamerlane was right about us needing sleep. See you in the morning.” She threw him her familiar smirk. “Unless you chicken out.”

  Flynn knew she was making fun of him, as usual, but a voice within him needed to say it. Nothing’s going to hold me back. No matter how many times Calhoun or Aurelia or anyone else told him it would be okay if he didn’t succeed, he wasn’t okay with failing. He needed to prove that he could be useful, not just because of what he’d been born as, but because of what he could do.

  The Lord gazed at the ascending sun. He’d already spent much time contemplating his next plan, but as it drew closer to reality, his concerns grew. Was it worth the risk? On the chessboard that was the world, he needed to use the one piece he couldn’t afford to lose. At the same time, he needed it to advance toward his goal. If he never made it there, that piece would be useless anyway.

  In the distance, a black cloud crossed the sky, except they weren’t clouds. They were a distant flock of shadowhawks. Those little beauties seemed especially restless lately.

  The outcome is all but certain. Why should I be afraid of a little risk? All the signs pointed to the Lord’s rise. While he couldn’t see the future, he knew the forces of fate were on his side.

  Chapter 16

  Supernatural Aptitude Test

  The mid-morning sun blazed across a cloudless sky. Flynn stepped past the Citadel’s perimeter, holding a rifle loaded with silver bullets out in front of him. He had a sword with a silver blade strapped to his back, and a silver dagger sat in its sheath on his belt. He felt like a walking armory. He slowly entered the woods, listening for any sign of movement. I wonder where Aurelia is.

  She’d gone into the forest ahead of him. Knowing that she was hiding somewhere nearby, watching him, made him more nervous than the prospect of running into a monster. She’d note every move he made, evaluating and judging his combat abilities. This was his chance to finally prove he wasn’t helpless, and he hoped he wouldn’t fail.

  He wound his way around the dense trees. Shafts of sunlight spilled through the gaps in the branches, and the forest smelled… green. He didn’t know what other word to use to describe the light, barely there mixture of grass and leaf scents. Fallen leaves crunched under his steps, but otherwise, the air was still.

  Every muscle in his body felt tense, and he did his best to relax, knowing the tightness would get in his way when the time came to fight. He’d never felt so exposed before. He’d spent nearly his entire life within the Capital’s protected borders, and the Citadel had an enchanted perimeter to keep the supernaturals out. But now, nothing stood between him and the monsters.

  “Pick a spot that’s easy to defend and wait,” Aurelia had told him earlier that morning. “It doesn’t matter if you can track the things. The beasts guarding the Palace won’t be very hard to find.”

  Easy to defend… I guess I should find someplace with fewer trees.

  After several minutes of wandering, he came across a circular clearing several yards in diameter. With its rich green grass and tiny purple wildflowers, it looked deceptively friendly. That should be defensible, right? Anything that wanted to get me would have to come out of hiding, and I’d see it.

  Satisfied with this reasoning, Flynn walked into the center of the clearing, squinting in the light of the bright sun. All right, you supernatural suckers. Here I am.

  Several minutes passed. He tried to remain alert, to pay attention to every breeze that rustled through the leaves and every shadow cast by the gently swaying boughs along the clearing’s perimeter. The air seemed eerily quiet—no birdsongs, no insect chirps, nothing. I guess the monsters scared away all the wildlife. They did say these woods were more haunted than most. That’s probably why the Sentinels built the Citadel here in the first place.

  He knew what Aurelia would say if she were there. “No matter how long you have to wait, pay attention to everything. Lose focus for one second and you’re dead.”

  Where is she anyway? Probably behind one of the trees, watching me stand here like an idiot.

  That thought bugged him far more than the notion of getting attacked. He wanted to impress her for once. He pictured himself slicing his silver sword through the air like one of those knights of legend then returning triumphan
tly with the head of the beast to a proud and beaming Aurelia.

  He internally scoffed at the thought the moment it entered his head. Impress the Firedragon? As if.

  Something rustled behind him. He whirled, rifle ready. The underbrush at the edge of the woods shook. He watched the spot, ready to take the creature down, whatever it was. It emerged from the leaves—a small white rabbit.

  Recalling that some creatures had the ability to shape-shift, Flynn kept his gun trained on it in case it turned out to be a tiny version of a shifterskin. For all he knew, the rabbit could cast off its snowy fur and reveal its true identity any moment. If it did, Flynn’s Untouchable nature wouldn’t protect him from its vicious strength or sharp teeth. Shifterskins had similar builds to humans—head, shoulders, arms, legs—but they were much, much stronger and could snap your limbs like twigs.

  He followed the rabbit’s movements with the barrel of his rifle as it hopped into a bush, wondering if he should preemptively pull the trigger. But he didn’t like the idea of killing for no reason, especially a creature so small and harmless—if indeed that was what it was.

  He watched the spot into which the rabbit had disappeared, expecting it to come out charging any moment. But after a minute or two of nothing, he accepted that sometimes, rabbits were just rabbits.

  Flynn Nightsider versus the Fluffy Bunny. How epic. He lowered his rifle, annoyed. As more time passed, Flynn wondered if he should go back into the trees, rather than standing there using himself as bait. Is this what they made the Cadets do back at the Academy?

  According to Aurelia, the Cadets usually practiced on captured monsters in the Academy’s arenas before being sent outside the Capital’s perimeter. That was the most she’d spoken of her Academy days. Like Calhoun, she didn’t seem too keen to talk about the past. He wondered if it was because the Academy had treated her less as a student and more as—as she had put it once—a weapon. She had mentioned that the Triumvirate might soon decide to send the students out to bolster the ranks of the Defenders, who had been falling at alarming rates. Flynn couldn’t help thinking that it was a good thing Kylie remained a Secondstringer, since at least that meant she would be safe within the Capital’s perimeter. Then again, the perimeter hasn’t exactly been impenetrable lately.

  Another noise rustled from the direction of the trees. He turned to the sound, weapon raised. If it’s another rabbit…

  “Don’t shoot!” A middle-aged man with brown hair emerged from behind a tree at the edge of the clearing. He held his hands up with a fearful look.

  “Who’re you?”

  “Please… I’m lost, and I don’t know… Could you come closer? It’s hard shouting from all the way over here.”

  “Why don’t you come over here?”

  “I… I’m afraid. Please, put away the gun.”

  Flynn lowered his weapon. The last thing he wanted was to shoot a guy by accident, but an uneasy feeling gripped his stomach. “What’re you doing out here?”

  “I’m trying to find my way home.” The man looked around. “Do you know these woods? I have a map here, but I think it’s outdated. Please, could you come have a look?”

  The man reached into his pocket, and as he did, Flynn caught a flash of light in his eyes. Doesn’t want to come out of the shadows, glowing eyes—definitely a shifterskin this time.

  It was using its act to lure Flynn into a false sense of security, but he wouldn’t let it fool him.

  He raised his gun.

  “Put that down!” The man’s eyes widened. “I’m just reaching for my map!”

  Flynn hesitated. What if he was wrong? What if the glint in the man’s eyes had been a trick of light? There was only one way to find out.

  Flynn lowered the gun again. “Come out here, and I’ll see if I can help you out.”

  The man didn’t move, instead furrowing his brow into something that looked suspiciously like anger.

  A human wouldn’t think twice about stepping into a clearing. Flynn firmed his grip on his gun. “Why don’t you step into the light? Does the sun bother you?”

  The man’s expression twisted into a scowl. If Flynn had any doubts before, the grotesque expression on the man’s face did away with them. Any trace of the lost, fearful man had disappeared, replaced by a hungry, malicious look.

  “It won’t stop me,” the man said in a menacing, inhuman growl. He rushed into the clearing, legs blurring as he moved faster than any human could. Flynn fired. The bullet hit the man in the chest—and passed through. What the hell? Those bullets are silver. They should’ve worked!

  Flynn had to be forgetting something, but he didn’t know what. He fired again as the creature raised one arm. A dagger materialized in the shifterskin’s hand. Blade down, it stabbed toward Flynn’s collarbone.

  Flynn dropped the rifle and held up his left arm to block the shifterskin’s move, meeting its forearm with his. The blade hovered over him, inches from his forehead. He shot out his right hand and struck the shifterskin in the throat. It gagged.

  Flynn’s mind was blank. He moved purely on the instincts Aurelia had drilled into him. He reached under the creature’s arm, hooked his forearm against the inside of its elbow, and pulled down, causing it to twist backward. He grabbed the handle of the shifterskin’s knife, and the weapon dissolved in his hand. Nothing the shifterskin conjured would affect him, and that gave him an advantage.

  He pulled out his own dagger and, with a lunging motion, stabbed the shifterskin in the stomach. Gotcha.

  The creature screamed and shoved Flynn back. Blood, which was a sickening shade of yellow-green, oozed out of its body. The wound rapidly healed itself, and the shifterskin grinned.

  Flynn widened his eyes in alarm. Or not…

  Any blade tricks Aurelia had taught him would do him little good against a creature with regenerative powers unless he could lop off its head. The knife’s blade would be too short, so he dropped it and reached for the sword strapped to his back. The shifterskin ran at him again—

  Whoosh-thud.

  An arrow pierced the creature’s middle. It let out an agonized shriek and fell to the ground. Its skin shriveled, revealing the slimy red flesh beneath its disguise. It resembled what a human might look like if it were made of ground meat. The skin of a brown-haired man hung off its shoulders like a cape, the flesh of the two arms tied together around the shifterskin’s neck. Flynn’s stomach turned, and he looked away.

  “Flynn!” Aurelia climbed down from a tree at the clearing’s edge. She held a bow in one hand, which was covered in grayish-white powder. A quiver hung off her shoulder, beside her usual two swords. “You dummy! You didn’t bring any white ash?”

  That’s what I was forgetting! Shifterskins could only be killed by projectiles dipped in white ash. No wonder my bullets didn’t work. Still, beheading it would have worked just as well.

  “I was going to cut off its head,” he said, both annoyed and embarrassed.

  “Oh?” Aurelia marched up to him. “It would’ve torn you to pieces first!”

  “If you’d given me a chance—”

  “Give you a chance or give it a chance to eat your face? Sure, your Untouchable-ness would’ve gotten rid of anything it conjured, but that wouldn’t have stopped it from strangling you, which it would’ve if I hadn’t shot it!”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know, okay?” Aurelia put her hands on her hips. “This is what I do!”

  Flynn started to reply then stopped. A yellow glow appeared in the trees behind Aurelia, and the branches shook. Something was coming—something big, something on fire.

  Two long, curved horns with tips as sharp as knifepoints came into view, topping the fierce face of an angry bull with glowing eyes. Its massive, hulking black figure drew closer, and the ground trembled under its hooves.

  Flynn recognized the creature immedi
ately. This wasn’t just any monster. This was a hellhorn, one of the Underworld’s deadliest creatures.

  Aurelia spun to face it, turning her back to Flynn. She dropped the bow and shook the quiver off her shoulder. “I’ll deal with it. You stay outta the way.”

  “But—”

  “Stay out of my way.” She whipped out her swords.

  The blazing bull entered the clearing. Bright as it was, none of the leaves or grass blades seemed affected by its flames. Flynn recalled what Aurelia had told him once: a hellhorn’s fire was supernatural, and it only affected beings of flesh and blood. The blaze leaped off the creature’s body, flaring from its head and sides. There was no way Aurelia could cut its throat—which was the way to kill a hellhorn—without getting burned. But those flames can’t touch me.

  He couldn’t stand by and watch her get hurt. The sight of those sharp horns and plodding hooves, which could easily crush his skull, sent a chill through him, but he needed to be the one who brought it down before Aurelia got herself burned. But if he tried to attack it before she did, she’d stop him. He quietly approached the rifle he’d dropped earlier, hoping not to catch either her or the hellhorn’s attention. At the same time, he unstrapped the sword sheath from his back.

  If the thought of catching fire bothered Aurelia, she didn’t show it. She clanged her black blades together. “Metal fire!”

  The swords glowed, and the hellhorn’s eyes shot toward them, fixating on their light. It didn’t even glance at Flynn, who held his breath as he slowly leaned down to put down the sword and pick up the rifle, keeping his gaze on the monster.

  The hellhorn snorted, and black smoke poured from its flared nostrils. Its blazing form towered over Aurelia, who kept swinging her blades, as if taunting it.

  “Heeeere monster, monster, monster,” she said in a singsong voice. “La, la, la, come get me…”