by Raven Steele
“Did you know if they found the Vyken who did this to her?” Tessa asked.
“Because Britt never told anyone, no one knew to look, but she writes in her journal that two men were involved. One of them had a tattoo of a dagger on his head.”
Through glossy eyes, Kiera said, “I wonder why Britt didn’t tell anyone.”
I glanced away. “She was ashamed.”
“She must’ve felt all alone,” May said, but by the way she was staring at me, I couldn’t tell if she was talking about me or Britt.
I rubbed at my sternum where tension had gathered. “But that’s not all I’ve uncovered.”
I proceeded to tell them about Liam (May wasn’t at all surprised to learn I’d been sneaking out at night) and the blood being given to Vykens. I spoke of the fight at the tower, and I even told them about being trapped in the blood room with Tessa and seeing Dr. Han. And finally, I told them about what had happened with Christian.”
“I can’t believe it,” Kiera said when I finished. She was holding her stomach. “I think I might be sick.”
“Crazy, huh?” I said.
“No, I mean I really can’t believe it. It’s just not possible! Vykens in the school, especially someone high up? And our blood being sold to them?”
“It’s true,” Tessa said. “At least the blood part.”
I looked at her. “It’s all true.”
“I believe you,” May said. I couldn’t help but smile. I loved my best friend. “But what can we do about it?”
“We have to find out who’s behind all of this,” I answered. “
Tessa rubbed at the back of her neck, revealing more colorful scales just below her hairline. “Who does Liam think it is?”
“One or more Guardians, but he doesn’t have any solid suspects yet.”
“What about the Vyken in Cyrus’s office?” May asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I know it was one of them.”
“Are you sure?” Kiera asked. “I mean, I’ve never heard of an Aura who could sense a Vyken.”
I shrugged. “That’s what’s odd. We should all be able to sense the evil in them. What good is our Light if we can’t?”
“Go over who was in the room again,” Tessa said, her brows furrowed and gaze staring up at the ceiling in deep thought.
“Jackson and Spencer were behind me. Sophie was on my left. Cyrus and Jameson were in front of me, and Christian and Dr. Han were on my right.”
“We can rule out Sophie,” Tessa said. “And Christian.”
I nodded. “And probably Jackson and Spencer too. I never sensed anything when I was near them before.”
“And it can’t be Dr. Han,” May added.
The room grew quiet.
“What?” May’s eyes widened. “I’ve been training with him for weeks now. He’s not some evil being.”
“But you’ve never met him up close before, right Llona?” Tessa asked.
“I haven’t, but if May says it’s not him, then I trust her.”
It was May’s turn to smile.
“Then why did he take her blood?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t know,” May answered, “but I’ll find out.”
“Okay then.” I leaned forward conspiratively. “May’s on Dr. Han—”
“And I’ll watch Cyrus,” Tessa offered. “See if he does anything suspicious.”
I smiled. “Perfect. And if Christian will speak to me after today, I’ll ask him to check out Jackson and the other Guardians.”
“I guess that leaves me with Mr. Jameson.” Kiera rolled her eyes. “Whom we know nothing about, other than he’s Cyrus’s assistant.”
“I’ll help,” I said. “Tonight I’ll find Liam and tell him our plan.”
We all stood. I took the diary back from May and tucked it into my backpack.
“Are you sure you can trust this Liam guy?” Kiera asked. “He sounds kind of shady.”
“I think so,” I said.
Of course, I’d left out the part about him having Vyken blood inside him just like me. I wasn’t ready to explain how a half-Vyken could be trusted; in reality, being part Vyken myself, I wasn’t sure anyone should trust us.
“Sounds like operation ‘Save Lucent Academy’ is in full force,” May said, cracking a smile.
Kiera opened the door. “Can we have spy names?”
I laughed. “Hell, yes.”
“Cool. I’m going to rock my name.”
“Me too,” Tessa said and followed Kiera out while they exchanged ideas.
I walked May to the door. I could tell by how slowly she was moving that she wanted to talk to me.
At the door, she turned around. “There’s something else you didn’t tell us.”
“Like what?”
She stared at me for several seconds, searching my eyes. “Secrets are like weights, Llona. Let someone help carry the burden before you’re sucked in too deep.”
I knew exactly what she was talking about. “I’m not ready,” is all I could say.
She nodded and squeezed my hand. “I’m here for you.”
I gave her a hug. “I can’t imagine going through all this without you.”
She squeezed me back. “We’ve been through worse, right?”
I nodded and pulled back, trying to keep tears from forming in my eyes.
Before she left, she added, “Christian loves you, Llona. I don’t think he’d care about what happened to you. You need to talk to him.”
“Thanks. I’ll think about it.”
After she left, I sat near the window and waited for nightfall. With every passing second, excitement grew in my gut. I told myself it was because of my lessons with Liam, but that was a lie. I couldn’t wait to get into the forest, to run through the darkness and feel its coolness against my skin.
A thought crept into my mind before I could stop it: maybe there’d be a Vyken out there.
And maybe I’d kill it.
Chapter 22
As soon as the sun set, I escaped through my window. Liam had told me to meet him again in the same clearing where I’d showed him my Light. I just hoped he was there this early so I wouldn’t have to wait in a forest lurking with Vykens. One Vyken might be okay . . .
“You’re early,” Liam said as soon as I entered the clearing.
I whirled around. Liam was leaning against a tree in a black leather jacket, his arms folded. His serious expression was made worse by his brooding eyebrows. I wondered if he ever smiled.
He stepped away from the tree and came toward me. “What did you find out today?”
I resisted the urge to step back from his commanding presence. “A lot actually. Tessa and I found our way into the blood room. They keep six months of our blood in stock. I think they throw it away after that.”
“How is that helpful?”
“Be patient.” I sucked in a breath. “Some of the blood has been replaced with Vyken blood.”
His stone expression cracked. “How do you know it was Vyken blood?”
“I could sense it, just like I knew you were a Vyken, or half-Vyken, I should say.” I paused. “But honestly I really only sensed it when I first met you. Since then, I think my senses have been shut off, except for today of course. I don’t get it.”
Liam began to pace, opening and closing his hands into tight fists. “This is bad, worse than I thought.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Vykens must be planning an attack on Lucent. And when Auras are hurt, their blood will be replaced with the poisonous ones.” He removed a cell phone from his pocket. “I have to alert the Deific.”
“Just wait,” I said. “I’m not finished.”
“How much worse could it get?”
“There’s a Vyken in the school.”
He froze and looked at me. “Tell me.”
“My aunt Sophie took me to meet the president of the school.”
“Cyrus?”
I nodded. “He was in his offi
ce with several other people, including a Vyken.”
“Who was it?”
I averted my gaze and tugged at my heart. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?”
I threw up my arms. “It’s like I was saying. My senses are all screwed up. For some reason I couldn’t pinpoint who it was. I just had this general, overwhelming feeling that a Vyken was in that room.”
“Who else was in the room with you?”
My eyebrows lifted. “You believe me?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s just that,” I shook my head, “the president. The other people in the room. It just seems impossible that one of the higher-ups could be a Vyken.”
Liam met my gaze. “If you say there was a Vyken, then I believe you. Who else was there?”
I gave him everyone’s names.
“Interesting. And you couldn’t tell who it was?”
“I’m sorry.”
“What about me? We’re standing ten feet apart. Do you sense my Vyken blood?”
I directed all my focus on him. On the way he smelled like a faint breeze blowing across a lake, mingled with the raw scent of leather, freshly scrubbed. I drew in a sharp breath, noting the way a dark strand of hair curled away from his forehead, or how his jacket hugged his muscular frame. And his jeans hanging just right—“
“Well, do you?”
I startled and blinked my eyes in rapid succession. What am I doing?
After swallowing the lump in my throat, I said, “I sense absolutely nothing.”
He took a big step toward me. “Now?”
I shook my head, my tongue darting out between my parted lips.
Another step.
My chest heaved, and heat flooded my abdomen. I wish he’d stop staring at me with those stupid, intense green eyes. I barely managed to squeak the word, “Nothing.”
He moved closer until only a foot of pressurized air stood between us. It was practically electric.
“And now?”
I pushed past the strange reaction my body was having to his, assuming it had something to do with my Vyken-half, and focused on the way my head felt like it wasn’t getting enough oxygen. My vision began to blur.
He took one final step so he was standing only an inch from me. He stared down at me. “How do you feel now?”
I could feel his warm breath feathering past my lips. “Dizzy.”
“Close your eyes.”
I did as he asked.
“Can you still sense me?”
So much yes. Too much.
“Where am I?”
“In front of me,” I breathed, my legs growing weak.
“I’m not.”
I opened my eyes. Liam wasn’t there.
“Turn around.”
I whirled around, coming face to face with Liam again, except I stumbled on account of being so dizzy.
He caught me in his arms and steadied me against his chest. “Your senses are definitely off. How come you weren’t this dizzy the other night?”
I tried to think through the fogginess in my brain. We had stood close when he was showing me the butterfly. Briefly, but still. I didn’t remember feeling all crazy-headed. “I don’t know.”
“What did you do today that you didn’t do yesterday, or vice versa?”
“Get the president knifed?”
He chuckled. “So this Guardian—”
“Christian.”
“Christian. He must really like you if he cut the most important person at Lucent in order to protect you.”
“Yeah, well, because of me, they’ll probably strip him of his title.”
“Is that a big deal?”
“It’s what he’s worked for his whole life.”
Liam’s mossy eyes lowered to mine. “Some things are more important than a title.”
I glanced away and cleared my throat. “What kind of training do you have in store for me tonight?”
He stepped away from me a couple of steps. My mind instantly cleared. “Can you give us some Light?”
“No problem.” A ball of Light burst from my palm. I mentally stretched it until it was two feet in diameter. I raised it high above us.
“It’s like the moon,” Liam said, staring up at it in awe.
“You ready or what?” I rolled my shoulders back. I needed some real action, something to burn off my energy. Unexplainable heat still flooded my veins.
“Tonight, I just want you to create, like this moon.” He pointed up at it.
“Psh . . . seriously? Can’t you give me something more challenging? Like make a giant spear that will pierce through a tree or something?”
“I want you to create something beautiful, Llona, not a weapon.”
I exhaled, trying to think what I could do. A memory of my mother appeared in my mind, of the times she used to take me into the forest as a child. A shaky breath escaped my lips. Did I really want to go there?
“Are you okay?” Liam asked and moved toward me.
My hand came up to stop him. “Stay back. I’m going to need some room.”
I closed my eyes, my heart warming at thoughts of my mother. Feeling a smile reach my mouth, I knew exactly what direction to take to complete the masterpiece that had filled my mind.
I summoned Light into my entirety. It burned through me almost to the point of stinging. It had been too long.
Swinging my arms over my head, I sent Light to different parts of the clearing. Still with eyes closed, I spun and twisted, feeling Light flow from me in all directions. A strong pulse sounded in my ears becoming a silent drum to my dance through the forest.
I felt myself connect to the life in the forest, and my Light became the thread that held us together, that kept the darkness at bay. Raw power, as old as time and as powerful as the ocean’s tides, coursed through that thread. Impermeable.
Together we are stronger.
My father’s words came to me so suddenly that I sucked in a quick breath. How had everything gone so terribly wrong? My parents had loved me. They had been good people. And they had been brutally murdered.
I thought of the Vyken who’d tricked us all. A storm of darkness, full of anger and revenge, surged within me, and I fell to the ground gasping for air.
Liam was at my side. “What’s wrong?”
I opened my eyes. All that remained of my Light were twinkling lights filling the air like drops of rain. I extinguished them. “I can’t do this. Too much has happened.”
“But you did do it,” he said, placing his hand on my back. “And I could tell that for just a moment you felt it. You were at peace with yourself, with your life.”
I stared up at him, ignoring the way my head was beginning to spin being this near him. “How do you know?”
A dark shadow passed over his face. “Because I felt it too, and I haven’t felt at peace for decades.” He straightened and backed away from me. “You just have to keep practicing. It will come.”
“Get back!” a voice shouted.
Liam and I glanced over in time to see Christian running toward us at full speed. Liam’s eyes widened just as Christian tackled him to the ground.
“Christian!” I yelled.
“You stay away from her,” Christian growled. He managed to smash his fist into Liam’s face two times before Liam caught it and twisted Christian’s arm. He shoved Christian off him and far from him.
“Hit me one more time and you’ll regret it,” Liam snarled as he came to his feet.
Christian lunged for him again, but this time I was ready. I stepped in between them and took Christian by the shoulders. “Stop it, Christian.”
He blinked and really looked at me for the first time. Confusion filled his eyes.
“Stop,” I said, a little quieter. “He won’t hurt me.”
Christian pushed my arms away and stepped back. “What is going on? First you accuse someone of being a Vyken and now you’re hanging out with one?”
/> “I’m not a Vyken,” Liam said.
I shushed Liam with my hand while I kept my focus on Christian.
“You lie,” Christian said to Liam. “Jackson told me all about you.”
Liam snorted. “I don’t think you should be trusting anything a Guardian says.”
“Watch your mouth, Vyken,” Christian growled. Every part of him was tensed, and it took all my strength just to hold him back.
“Christian,” I said, my voice firm. “He’s an Enlil, and only has the Vyken’s poison inside him, but he hasn’t let it change him. He’s good.”
He looked unconvinced. “Not possible.”
“It is. He fought back the darkness and won.”
Christian finally looked at me and his expression softened like he was feeling sorry for me. “What’s happened to you?”
I couldn’t stand the look in his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“May said I could find you out here, but she didn’t tell me you were on a date,” Christian snapped and glared at Liam.
I shoved him. “Are you going to let me explain or do you want to keep acting like you know everything?”
“Fine. Explain.”
“Look into my eyes as I say this to you so I know you’re hearing me..”
He tore his gaze away from Liam and did as I asked.
“Have I ever lied to you?”
He didn’t answer, but his jaw tightened.
“Have I?”
“No, but you are keeping things from me.”
I nodded. “You’re right. I have, but for good reason. I’m trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” He laughed. “From what?”
I realized the conversation was not taking the direction I wanted it to just yet, so I said, “Something bad is going on at Lucent, and I’m trying to get to the bottom of it before a lot of Auras are killed. And Liam, although obnoxious at times—”
“Hey,” Liam said.
“—is on our side. He can help.”
Christian searched my eyes. Finally, his posture relaxed, and he stepped back. “I’ll trust you, but never him.” He nodded his head toward Liam.
“Fine. For now, but will you at least listen to him?”
Liam shook his head. “This isn’t going to work. He’s part of them, brainwashed. He’ll never believe.”
I turned to Liam. “He might surprise you.”
