Scorned by Shadows (Kissed by Shadows Series, Book 4)

by Lola StVil

  “I underestimated you, Seeker. You think on your feet. You know, I think you might even be able to give Arken a run for his money. If nothing else, you’ll for sure make the game a bit more interesting than any of the other Seekers have. Okay, I’ll help you. I’ll give you the feather.”

  I continue to hold her gaze, waiting for what comes next. She isn’t going to just hand it over to us because I had a rant.

  “Did you hear me? I said I’d give you the feather. You don’t exactly look overjoyed,” she says.

  “I’m waiting for the conditions attached. I’ve been doing this long enough now to know that all magic comes with a price—just like in the TV show Once Upon a Time,” I say.

  “See? Clever.” Bethan smiles. “Pay the price, and you get the feather. Don’t pay the price and you don’t. How’s that for fair?”

  “It depends on the price,” I say.

  Bethan smiles again, going back to her charming demeanor of earlier.

  “The price will be high, Atlas, as the thing you want has a very high value.”

  “What do you want?” I ask.

  “Oh, I’m afraid I can’t tell you that,” she says.

  “So you expect me to make a deal with you without knowing the price? Are you out of your mind?”

  “Not at all. I only mean I won’t tell you the price. The price I require doesn’t come from you, and I will only tell the person it comes from.”

  “And who is that?” I ask.

  I can already feel the start of another wild goose chase as she names someone more elusive than her, someone we will have to hunt down and convince to help us. And then complete their condition and so on. I am exhausted just thinking about it.

  Bethan surprises me with her request.

  “The price must be paid by her,” she says, pointing at Saudia. “And it will be revealed to her and her only. It will be her decision and her decision alone.”

  “Name it,” Saudia says.

  “In there,” Bethan says.

  She stands up and nods towards a closed door that leads off the room. Saudia stands up.

  “Hold on a minute,” I say, also getting to my feet. “She’s not just going to go wandering off somewhere with you like that.”

  Kane is on his feet beside me. Bethan smiles and shakes her head.

  “Relax, everyone. It’s a dining room, not a torture chamber.” She winks. “My torture chamber is upstairs. It’s almost as though you don’t trust me.”

  “I wonder why that is,” Kane mutters.

  “Perhaps because you judge me by your standards, Kane,” Bethan says.

  She smiles sweetly, but her voice is laced with venom as she addresses him.

  “I promise that no harm will come to her in my dining room. Unless, of course, anyone tries anything and then she’s toast.”

  “It’s okay,” Saudia says. “I can go in there and hear her out.”

  I don’t like it, but what other choice do we have?

  Saudia follows Bethan through the door. I see a glimpse of a large table with high, ornate chairs placed around it. It really is a dining room. I don’t know if that means the rest of it was true, but at least that’s something.

  “What do you think she’ll want?” Langston asks in a whisper, glancing at the door as if she expects Bethan to run out and strike her mute if she hears her.

  “Maybe a lock of your hair,” Perry says. “And then we’re screwed, aren’t we, because there’s no way you’d sport a bald patch.”

  She glares at him.

  “Can’t you just be serious for once?” she says.

  “Well, I can, but you don’t seem to think I’m real even when I am,” he says, voice laced with hurt.

  I frown. What was that all about? Langston just shakes her head and looks down into her lap. I have missed so much while I was at the Meat Market because I have no idea what is going on between those two. The last I heard, Perry was into her and now it seems like they hate each other.

  I don’t have any longer to think about it, as the door slams back open and Saudia storms into the room. Her face is flushed red, and she looks ready to blow a fuse.

  “I’m sorry, guys. I can’t do it. Bethan is one sick bitch, and there’s no way I’m paying that price,” she says.

  She doesn’t even pause, let alone stop to wait for us; she just keeps moving until she’s out of the house. I hear the front door slamming shut behind her. Bethan comes back in.

  “What the fuck did you say to her?” Kane demands.

  “I just named my price. She obviously didn’t like it. But I’m sure you can get her to come around, Seeker. You have twenty-four hours to change her mind, or the price goes up.”

  She storms back out of the room leaving us all in stunned silence.

  We sit together in the living room of the loft. We managed to catch up with Saudia, and here we are. No one is speaking. I don’t think anyone knows what to say. After what feels like a lifetime, Regal speaks up.

  “What now?” he asks.

  “I’m sorry, guys,” Saudia says. “I just…I just can’t pay the price she wants.”

  “What did she want?” Langston asks.

  Saudia just shakes her head. She seems almost dazed.

  “Look, we don’t have much choice here, Saudia. Whatever it is, we’ll help you get it. You might have to be the one to deliver it, but we can help you get it. We only have twenty-three hours left before the price goes up,” Perry says.

  Saudia doesn’t respond.

  “Saudia?” Perry says. “Let us help you.”

  “It’s not something anyone can help me with. And it’s not something I’m willing to do. I’m sorry for letting the team down, but I just can’t.”

  “You’re not letting the team down,” I say.

  I don’t know what Bethan asked for, but Saudia isn’t afraid of anything, and if she won’t pay Bethan’s price, it’s too high for any one of us to pay it. No one has a right to try and make her feel bad about that.

  “We’ll find another way,” I say.

  “Oh, well, I didn’t know it was that easy. So what? We just Google Phoenix feather suppliers and go on a little road trip or something?” Perry says.

  I glare at him until he looks away.

  “No. We do some research, think about it. Bethan can’t be the only person in the whole world who has a Phoenix feather. We just have to know where to look,” Langston says. “Let’s split up and make some calls and pay a few visits. We can have another one sourced within a couple of hours.”

  She gets up, and Perry follows her. It’s as good a plan as any I guess, and it sure beats sitting around here in silence feeling useless.

  “I’ll go to the bookstore and take a look through some of Sadie’s old books,” I say. “Kane, can you go to Pest and Sadie, see if they have any ideas?”

  He nods and gets up. He waits for me.

  “I have a few people I can ask,” Regal says. “Saudia? Want to come with me?”

  Saudia shakes her head and gets to her feet. She blinks a few times, and the dazed look leaves her eyes.

  “No. I have something I want to follow up too,” she says.

  She is gone before anyone can respond. Regal, Kane, and I leave the loft and head off in separate directions. I hurry to the bookstore, and within twenty minutes I’m seated and deep into the first of Sadie’s books.

  An hour passes, and I check in with the rest of the team. I get a slew of text messages back. Langston and Perry are still trying to find their contact. Regal has hit a few dead ends, but he’s still looking. Kane is with Sadie and Pest going through all of Pest’s research and papers. Saudia doesn’t respond, and I feel a rush of sympathy for her.

  If we don’t get the feather, she’s going to feel like that’s on her, but it’s not. Bethan could have chosen any of us to pay the price, and if it’s so terrible, none of us would have done it.

  I am starting to feel like we’ve lost our one chance when an idea strikes me.
I could be way off, but I have a feeling it might just work.

  I text Kane my idea.

  Bethan knows what I said to her about not having any power left if Arken wins this thing is true. I think we just wait her out. Call her bluff. And she’ll give us the feather anyway because she wants to keep her power.

  The reply comes through in seconds.

  I hope you’re right because this is hopeless.

  Ten minutes later, the door to the bookstore opens. I jump to my feet, on my guard and ready for a fight, but it’s just Kane. His face is grim, and I know instantly he’s bringing me more bad news.

  “What is it? What happened?” I ask.

  He motions for me to sit back down and he takes the chair next to me.

  “We might have a problem,” he says.

  I frown. Like we don’t have enough of those already.

  “I’ve had dealings with Bethan before. Not directly, but I know of a few demons who have gone to her for one thing or another. Her price is always a heart, usually of someone innocent, but not always. Demons have no problem handing those over, but Saudia is no demon. It explains her reaction if Bethan has asked her to kill an innocent.”

  I nod. It does. And it’s definitely not something we could have helped her with as Perry suggested.

  “I was worried about her. You know she’ll do anything for the team, and I was afraid she would cave and pay the price, so I sent a tracker app to her cell phone so I could keep an eye on her if she went missing through the night or anything.”

  I smile a little. Kane can play the tough guy all he likes, but the team has gotten firmly under his skin.

  “I hate to say this, Atlas, but I think Saudia may have lied to us,” Kane says.

  I pause, waiting for the punchline. It doesn’t come.

  “Are you kidding, Kane? Saudia is the last person who would lie to us.”

  “That was my reaction too, but now I’m not so sure,” he replies.

  He shows me the screen of his cell phone. A rough map with a flashing red dot marks Saudia’s location. Below the map is an address. Tracey’s address.

  I shake my head firmly.

  “No, Kane. I know what it looks like, but I…I just can’t believe... Not Saudia.”

  “Honestly? I can’t either. I thought I’d tell you about this and you’d laugh and tell me why she was there. But I’m sure we’ll find some explanation. A more likely one than her betraying us all.”

  His words don’t sound convincing when he says we’ll find an explanation for it, but his tone does. He believes in Saudia as much as I do.

  When Sadie told us there was a traitor on the team, I refused to believe it. I wanted to think I could trust the team to have my back in this. But I was wrong, and Sadie was right. But Tracey wasn’t one of the team. Not really. She was an outsider.

  Saudia is one of the team. Did Bethan push her over the edge? That means aiding me, the Seeker, is her destiny, her calling, her life’s work. And if I allow myself to believe she’s turned her back on all that, then I have to wonder about everyone. It would change everything. It would mean that nothing I believe about this world is true. It would mean I was truly alone and didn’t have anyone I could fully trust.

  I glance sideways at Kane. Okay, it would mean I didn’t have anyone I could trust except him. Because nothing would ever make me think Kane would sell me out.

  “Are you going to tell the team?” Kane asks quietly.

  I shake my head. Last time I told the team when Sadie made her accusation, and all I did was warn Tracey that we knew something was off. It must have made her more careful, more cautious, and it makes me wonder now how much sooner we might have found out the truth about her if I’d kept it a secret and just kept a closer eye on everyone.

  That’s not why I’m keeping it a secret from the team this time though.

  “You really think she’s betrayed us?” he asks, surprised.

  I shake my head again.

  “No, I don’t. And unless there’s some concrete proof that she has, then I’m not going to doubt her,” I reply.

  “So why is it a secret then?” he asks.

  “Because that would be us betraying her. I’m not going to tell the team until after I’ve spoken to her and gotten an explanation for why she was there. You know, Kane, maybe she just wanted to see her. I know Tracey betrayed us, but Saudia loved her. I can understand why she’s finding it hard to not go to her. And if that’s all this is, then there’s no reason for the whole team to hear about it and judge her.”

  Kane nods.

  “Yeah, I get that. Especially after Tracey saved Saudia’s life.”

  “Wait, what?” I blink in shock.

  “Oh, you don’t know about any of that, do you? Tracey saved Saudia on the Isle of Shamala when we went to get the unicorn hair. That was after Saudia had told her she didn’t want to see her again. Tracey did her own research, and she knew we’d need the unicorn hair. She was trying to get it for us when we ran into her. The battle with the unicorn was over; we had the hair. But then something went wrong, and Saudia ended up impaled on its horn. There was nothing we could do. We’d been battling it for what seemed like forever and were getting nowhere, and we hadn’t even worked out how to seriously wound it, let alone kill it.

  “Anyway, Tracey was watching us battle it, and when she saw what happened to Saudia, she came running to us. She had a powder that rendered the unicorn powerless, and she saved Saudia’s life.”

  “So, maybe Saudia feels like she owes her in some ways,” I say.

  “I don’t think it’s that. As we left the isle, Tracey got attacked by a shark, and Saudia saved her. She said she didn’t want to be in her debt and that made them even. But you’re right; she did love her deeply, and maybe she just wanted to see her. I mean knowing someone saved your life even though they were risking us all turning on them is kind of a big deal. That must be hard to just walk away from.”

  I nod. It makes sense.

  “There’s something else, as well,” Kane says, and I nod for him to go on. “Tracey betrayed us all. And now Saudia feels like she’s betraying us too by not paying Bethan’s price. Maybe she just wanted to ask Tracey how she did it and lived with herself. I don’t know. I just can’t see any world where Saudia sides with Talon.”

  “Me neither,” I agree.

  I pause, thinking.

  “I love you,” I say.

  Kane smiles and shakes his head.

  “I love you too, but that was a bit off topic,” he says.

  “I just wanted you to know,” I reply.

  The truth is I’ve never loved Kane more than I do at this moment as he desperately tries to find a way to explain Saudia’s behavior and not throw her under the bus. He’s truly a member of the team now, and I think he actually accepts it.

  “Let’s just go back to the loft. There’s nothing in any of these books,” I say.

  Kane nods. “Yeah. I guess we’ll just have to hope you’re right about calling Bethan’s bluff,” he says.

  I slip my hand into his, and we walk back toward the loft.

  “Kane, do me a favor, okay?” I say.

  “Anything,” he replies.

  “I know you put that tracker on Saudia’s phone for the right reasons, but I don’t like the way it’s made us doubt her. Take it off. Please.”

  He frowns and then he nods. He pulls his cell phone out and presses a few buttons.

  “It’s gone,” he says. “But I couldn’t help but notice Saudia is no longer at Tracey’s place. The red dot was moving, so I couldn’t get an exact location, but if she’s on the move, she’s not at Tracey’s house anymore.”

  I don’t know if that’s better or worse. Maybe she’s taking Tracey out for dinner or something, or maybe she’s meeting a contact about the feather. I force myself to stop thinking about it. I’m not going to know any of the answers until I talk to Saudia.

  We get back to the loft, and before long, Regal is back. None
of his contacts have been able to help him. Perry and Langston are back soon after Regal.

  “Any luck?” I ask hopefully.

  Perry shakes his head.

  “I thought maybe one of the trolls would be able to help us. They have a lot of magic, and they always seem to know things that no one else knows. They said only two people they know of had Phoenix feathers. One was Bethan, and the other one was a vampire named Steve. We managed to track him down, but nothing came of it. He said it’d been over two hundred years since he had a Phoenix feather.”

  “I don’t know whether to believe him or not,” Langston says. “But if he’s lying, it still means we’re not getting the feather, doesn’t it?”

  I nod.

  “Thanks anyway,” I say.

  Langston yawns loudly, and I realize how late it’s gotten.

  “We should all get a good night’s sleep and then go at it again in the morning,” I say.

  I don’t get any arguments from the team, who trickle away after a few more minutes of chatter. Kane remains by my side.

  “You should go on up to bed,” I say.

  “And you?” he asks.

  “I’m waiting for Saudia,” I reply.

  I’m starting to regret asking him to remove the tracker app from his cell phone. At least then I’d know if she was even close to returning.

  “I’ll wait with you,” he says. “We’ll watch a movie or something and call it date night.”

  I burst out laughing.

  “Wow. You sure know how to treat a girl, don’t you?” I laugh.

  “You know it,” he laughs back.

  He gets up and fiddles with the DVD player and comes back to sit beside me. I am asleep before the credits even roll.

  I jump awake as I feel someone shaking me gently. I jump up. I don’t know where I am at first, only that it’s pitch-black, and it brings it all back. Waking up in some unknown place. I feel my body start to tremble, but then a voice speaks through the darkness.

  “Atlas, it’s okay. It’s me, Saudia. I didn’t mean to startle you, I’m sorry. Can we talk?”

  I realize I am in the living room at home. Kane is sleeping next to the spot I just jumped up from. I was waiting for Saudia, and now she’s here. And if she came to wake me up, then she has something important to report.