The five us piled into the Range Rover—Adelaide, Winston, and I squished in the back, while Ethan drove and Jee sat in the passenger seat holding his hand. Every little bit they’d exchange a doe-eyed love-filled look.
When we arrived at the Mall of America, the place was packed. We drove around for a good thirty minutes before we found a place to park—which we happened upon by luck since someone was backing out.
We followed Jee through the parking garage, to an elevator, and then into the mall.
He seemed to know his way, unlike the rest of us.
“Now, I should warn you Cleo is probably not what you’re expecting. So try not to act too surprised.”
We walked and walked for what seemed like miles—who knew, maybe it was since this place was huge. Adelaide was still oohing and ahhing over the fact there was an amusement park inside the mall when Jee stopped.
“She’s around the corner here,” he warned. “She’ll probably be pissed—she doesn’t like to be bothered by us paranormal folk at her place of work, but she can suck it today.”
He marched forward again and, like obedient little ducklings, we all followed.
“Hello, Cleo.”
Jee stopped at a cart in the center of the mall.
A sign saying Cleo’s Fortune Telling hung on top of the cart, and there were all kinds of orbs and crystals displayed.
Have your palm read and know your future—does the guy you’re crushing on like you back, is your girlfriend cheating, is your fiancé the one, will you die alone? Cleo knows all!
Sitting on a stool with a white and red cane was Cleo.
Like Jee warned, she was not at all what I expected. In my mind, I’d conjured some ancient hunched woman, with a million wrinkles and a gravely voice.
But the real Cleo was young, maybe nineteen with pearly white skin and blonde hair darker than mine with a slight red tint. Her eyes were hid behind a pair of dark sunglasses. That, coupled with the cane, told me she was blind.
“Jee,” she hissed under her breath, “why are you here?”
“I brought friends,” he explained.
“I can see … well not see, but I know,” she griped.
“We—they—need to talk to you. It’s important.”
“Well, I don’t want to talk to them.” She turned away, giving us her shoulder.
I opened my mouth to argue but Jee gave me a look, silencing me.
“Cleo,” he said in a sickly sweet voice, “this is important.”
“You’ve said that once already—twice is repetitive. I’m blind not stupid.”
“I never ask you for anything, do I, Cleo?”
She harrumphed, clearly displeased he was indeed right.
“I’m asking for your help now. For my friends. You know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t necessary.”
She swiveled back to face us. “I’m not in the habit of giving favors but I suppose this once I can make an exception.”
“Thank you.” Jee bent and placed a kiss on her cheek.
I swore her cheeks colored pink but it was gone before I could be sure.
“Very well,” she muttered. “Let’s not do this out in the open.”
She placed a closed sign on her cart—like that’d really stop people from stealing—and stood.
“Follow me.”
She moved her cane around as she walked, but I got the uneasy feeling she could see—just not with her eyes.
She led us through the mall, and down a hallway, through a door and then another before we were in a storage closet. Once the door closed behind us and it was dark she tapped her cane against the cement wall three times in a triangle pattern. The wall melted away and we stepped into a … home.
The room was painted purple with gauzy curtains, cushions were on the floor with overlapping rugs. There was a mattress in the corner with purple bedding, and a kitchen set up on the opposite wall.
“Welcome to my humble abode.” She sunk onto one of the cushions. “Sit, sit,” she ushered, oddly pleasant now.
We all did and ended up in a circle with her in the center.
“So, tell me, light one, why are you here?”
“Why do people call me that?” I blurted. It shouldn’t have been the question I went with, considering I wasn’t sure if she’d accept another.
She lifted her dark glasses on her head and pale, lifeless, blue eyes stared back at me. Her hand lifted in easy dismissal. “Light one, dark one, it’s all about the balance really. The balance can’t be disrupted without everything going … Well, let’s just say it’d be bad.”
“Dark one,” I repeated softly. “That’s what the Iniquitous called Theo before … before,” I trailed off, not wanting to say before he died.
She smiled, flicking her fingers so hundred of candles littered around the room sprung to life.
“You cannot have the light without the dark. It’s all about balance. When the fates align and connect you get two halves of a whole.”
This sounded like gibberish to me.
Winston cleared his throat. “Are you saying Mara and Theo are soul bound?”
“Soul bound?” I repeated. “What is that?”
Her lips twitched. “It’s when the cosmos create a soul too great, too powerful, for one body to sustain it so they break it apart, and two separate souls are born, but they are in fact one.”
“This doesn’t mean we’re like brother and sister, right?” I nearly gagged at the thought.
No, no, no. It can’t be right. I couldn’t have fallen in love with my brother of all people.
“No.” She laughed like I was silly. “It means you’re connected in ways most only dream of.”
“Like not even death could separate us?” I whispered, my eyes dropping to the ground.
She frowned. “Yes, not even death could cross such barriers.”
I cleared my throat and grabbed the little jar around my neck, holding on tight.
“That’s not why we came here.”
“I assumed not.” She clasped her hands and laid them in her lap.
“When we were fleeing the manor in Seattle, we found Victor. I don’t know if you know him—”
“Antonescu?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
“Continue.”
I took a breath. “He was dying, and he told me I had to get away from there and I had to find Cleo. That she—you—held the key to the truth. But I don’t know what it is. What’s the truth, Cleo?”
Her lips twitched with a slight smile. “I knew you’d come to me one day. Your mother knew too.”
“My mother? How do you know my mother? You’re my age, right?”
Jee shook his head and laughed.
“Looks can be deceiving, Mara.” She pulled her lips back, revealing her teeth, the incisors sharpened to fangs. “I’ve walked this earth longer than anyone should. It’s a lonely life—a half life—but it’s my life.”
She smoothed her hands over her skirt and looked at me.
“I should warn you, child, the truth is not always easy to accept. Sometimes the truth seems like another lie. Truth is a sword. It cuts you and rips out parts of you you didn’t even know you had. But alas, you’re here, like the stars foretold, and therefore I’ll give it to you.”
I held my breath, waiting for her to spill whatever secrets and truth were on the tip of her tongue.
Instead, she stood and walked over to the far wall, fiddling on a bookshelf. She picked up several books, looking inside before shelving them. Finally, she pulled out an emerald green one with a leather bookmark attached and found what she was looking for.
She clasped a small object in her hand and walked over to me.
Opening her hand she held out to me.
“The key.”
I stared at the silver key in her hand, weathered with age, and blinked.
When Victor said Cleo had the key to the truth, I thought he meant she was the key. I thought I’d get answers. Not more riddles.<
br />
She shook her hand. “Take it.”
I took it from her and held it in my hand. It was small and surprisingly warm. It almost seemed to hum with energy.
“What’s it for?” I asked, looking up at her.
“That, I cannot tell you. You will know when the time comes.”
You have to be kidding me.
“Uh … thanks, I guess.”
She laughed. “It’ll all make sense in due time.”
I touched my fingers to my necklace again, wishing Theo was here, that he’d speak to me, make some joke, do something.
“May I?” Cleo asked.
I nodded.
She clasped my necklace and her eyes rolled back in her head. I almost jerked away from her, but somehow I held still.
She let go and smiled at me, her fangs poking into her bottom lip.
“Oh, it is exactly as the stars have told me. The darkness cowers. I shall celebrate.”
“… What?”
I didn’t get an answer though, because Cleo then closed her eyes and began to dance around the room.
When she started to take her clothes off, Jee cleared his throat. “We should go. She won’t stop this for …” He looked at an imaginary watch on his arm. “A month or so.”
We filed out of the room, and I looked back at Cleo one last time.
The darkness cowers.
I smiled.
Yes, yes it did.
Since we were already out, Jee and Ethan let us explore the mall for a bit before grabbing a bite to eat and heading back home.
I puzzled over and over the strange key Cleo had given me. I was still baffled by the fact it was an actual key.
Lying in bed that night I stared up at the ceiling and turned the key over between my fingers, watching the light glint off of it from the bedside lamp.
Adelaide came into the bedroom and flopped on the bed.
“Can I see it?”
I handed it over.
She studied it too. “What could it be for?”
“I have no idea. I guess it’ll all make sense one day.”
I felt like I’d ever since I’d stumbled into this world there was always something I couldn’t know until I was older, or more wise, or more something.
It hardly seemed fair.
If this key was the literal key to something big then why were we waiting?
I mean, we had to wait since we didn’t know what it unlocked, but it seemed like Cleo could’ve given us some hint.
Instead, all she said was, “It’ll all make sense in due time.”
What was due time to a vampire? A year? Ten? A century?
Adelaide handed it back to me. “You better put it some place safe. It must be important.”
I snorted. “Is any place safe?”
She snapped her fingers and pointed at me “True, boo. True.”
We laughed together. I loved these moments. The ones where things were easy and happy, and almost normal. Where I didn’t feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, feel the sadness of Theo’s loss, or worry about how I was going to survive any of this.
In a war, there are casualties. I’d already seen it firsthand. It wasn’t so farfetched to think I could be one too.
I got up from the bed and found my backpack in the closet. Slipping the key into a pocket inside, I zipped it up once more.
Back in bed, I rolled to face Adelaide.
“Do you like Winston?” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Her whole face turned red. “Is it obvious?”
“No—well, maybe, but he likes you too.”
“He does?” she gasped, like this was news to her.
I laughed. “Um, yeah. Are you blind? I’m pretty sure that’s why he asked you to the Christmas Eve dance.”
“He was being nice.”
“Adelaide,” I said in a tone implying I thought she was crazy.
“It’s weird, though, right? For you? I mean, you dated him.”
I snorted. “Can you call it dated? I tried, but we both know all I could think about was your brother.”
She bit her lip. “I’ve never done this before. I don’t even know how to go about telling him I like him.”
I laughed. “Just like that.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t. It’s too weird. Why can’t he make the first move?”
“Oh, come on. You’re a smart, independent woman. You can tell a guy you like him.”
She breathed out heavily. “No, I’m a five-year-old child stuck in an eighteen-year-old’s body.”
I snorted. “You’re insane.”
She smiled. “You know you love me.”
“I do,” I agreed, frowning.
“What’s wrong?” She grew serious.
I swallowed thickly. “I was thinking about my friend, Dani, in the human world.”
“You miss her?”
I nodded. “Every day. I try not to think of her because it hurts, but I can’t help it. I had to leave so suddenly and give her a half-assed story I’m sure she didn’t believe,” I winced, remembering that stupid phone call. “She probably thinks I hate her, but I don’t know how to contact her without risking her being exposed. The Iniquitous must already know who she is, they were at the graduation party I was attending the night Theo found me, and I’m afraid if I keep contact with her …” I paused and gathered a breath, tears in my eyes. “I’m afraid it’ll put an even bigger target on her back. I’ll never forgive myself if she’s killed because of me.”
“Oh, Mara,” she breathed, “I’m so sorry.”
I brushed a tear away.
“I’m sorry you’ve lost so much. It’s not fair.” She frowned, reaching out to grab my hand.
“I can say the same for you.”
Sadness overcame her for a moment and then she began to giggle. “Look at us. We’re such a sad lot, and why? None of them would want us to be like us. They’re probably mocking us for being such cry babies.”
I giggled with her. “You’re right.”
Yeah, she’s right.
I gasped. It was the first time I’d heard Theo’s voice when I hadn’t been practicing magic.
Adelaide stared at me with wide eyes.
“Is it him?” she asked.
I nodded.
He spoke again. Tell her I love her.
“He says he loves you.”
Tears returned to her eyes. “Can he hear me?”
Theo?
I hear what you hear—so yes.
“He can hear you.”
“Oh, my God—Theo, I miss you so much. You have no idea.”
“I’m sorry I’m not there.”
“He says he’s sorry he’s not here.”
She sniffled. “Is he okay? Wherever he is? What’s it like?”
Tell her I’m okay, but I cannot answer the rest.
“He’s okay,” I promised her.
I have to go, he said suddenly. I’ll meet you in your dreams.
I wondered what he meant by that, but as I drifted off to sleep I dreamt of a magical garden and the best first kiss anyone could ever ask for.
***
“Again,” Ethan commanded.
I roared, slinging my sword into the air; it met with his with a clatter. The sound seemed to vibrate all the way down my arm.
My ponytail swung around my shoulders as I moved.
Like that, Theo spoke in my mind.
My top stuck to my chest, wet with sweat. We’d been at it off and on for hours. Ethan would rotate us out so we’d get short breaks, but it wasn’t enough to rejuvenate.
His reasoning was, in a battle we’d have to keep fighting so we might as well start now. This was a taste for what was to come since we were still actually getting a small break.
My arms felt weak, but I kept pushing, refusing to submit.
My stubbornness was a curse and a blessing.
Theo chuckled in my mind. You are extremely hardheaded.
/> Shut up! I screamed at him and he only laughed harder in my mind. Go away!
Aw, doll face, you know you love having me here. It’s better than not having me at all.
He was right, of course. You still haven’t told me why I can hear you.
He clucked his tongue. So many questions. You should know by now how special we are. You can’t get rid of me so easy.
Why were you so quiet in the beginning? It was like it was hard for you to talk.
I managed to have an entire conversation with Theo in my head and focus on fighting Ethan. Talk about multitasking.
I can’t tell you.
Why? I ducked, narrowly avoiding a blow to the shoulder from Ethan.
I just can’t.
Fine, I huffed.
“Enough,” Ethan commanded, and we stopped. “Your turn.” He pointed at Adelaide, and she reluctantly stood up.
Adelaide was getting really good with her magic—but combat, not so much.
I personally thought she was too sweet to relish in the feel of a kill, the high of a win. They’d already killed a vital piece of me, maybe the best part, so I had no qualms about ending any of their lives.
I sat by Winston and stretched my legs out. My water bottle sat to the side and I picked it up, gulping it down.
“I think Ethan wants to kill us before we even encounter an Iniquitous.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m beginning to think the same. But I guess we have to be prepared.”
My feet shuffled against the floor before I crossed my ankles. Clearing my throat, I asked, “Did anyone ever know why Thaddeus turned to the Iniquitous?”
His lips twisted in thought. “No,” he answered. “He was already a very powerful enchanter, so it was always assumed he wanted more powerful. That’s how it happens a lot, you know, people get power hungry. Greed is the strongest motivator.”
I pressed my lips together, refusing to speak anything about my supposed brother.
Nobody seemed to know about him so how could he be real? It felt like a ploy by Thaddeus to get me to feel sorry for him. I wouldn’t put it past the psycho to make up some story to try and get what he wants.
I was glad I’d only seen him in my dreams twice. Any more, and I was afraid I might go crazy. There was something about him that felt like being drenched in an ice-cold bucket of water.
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