by Meg Anne
Almost a week had passed since the Triumvirate made their announcement. A week with no sign of the monsters that were lurking in the background, waiting to strike. Effie had expected more of an uproar in response to the news, but the Keepers had taken it in stride.
That was not to say that nothing had changed. Everyone took the threat seriously. The city was on high alert, many of the Keeper’s canceling assignments to remain at the citadel or cutting short those that they were on to return home. No one wanted to be caught alone and unprotected when the monsters struck.
To that end, an unspoken curfew had also gone into effect, the city now shutting down with the sun.
All of which meant that the citadel was constantly packed with people. Effie couldn’t go two steps without seeing someone, most of them strangers. It was a jarring change from how her first weeks had been. She missed the quiet calm from before. Her new home had been a sanctuary and now it was . . . restless.
Tension permeated the citadel. She could sense it in the whispered conversations that ceased as she passed, or the sideways glances cast her way when she’d walk into a room. Effie didn’t blame them. She’d brought that chaos into their world.
Sighing, Effie eyed her mostly empty bowl of warm oats. It was the first time she’d been able to take an actual meal in the dining hall. Despite the influx of people, the mood was subdued. No one spoke above a hushed whisper and the easy laughter and warm smiles were a thing of the past.
It was unnerving, like the citadel was holding its breath, poised on the brink of something, and each one of its inhabitants was waiting for her to tell them what that something was. She could feel the weight of their expectations pressing against her. As the only Keeper who had Seen what was coming, she carried their anticipation like a yoke around her neck.
A soft chime sounded in the dining hall and Effie glanced up with a silent groan. Time to go.
The heavy door opened, and Effie wasn’t surprised to see Lucian’s dark gaze zero in on her. She gave him a small nod and stood up, carrying her dish to the bin holding the others.
Despite her protest that she didn’t want to scout with the Guardians again after her run-in with the Shadows, the Triumvirate had requested that she continue to assist them, on the off chance it sparked something new with her visions.
Effie wasn’t sure what it said about her that she was glad it hadn’t. At least, not yet.
She was exhausted, emotionally and physically. Outside of the few moments she’d steal each day for a quick soak, Effie was constantly on the go and rarely alone. She’d wake before the sun to train with Kael, more determined than ever to ensure she could defend herself when the time came. Then, after a quick meal—usually consisting of her waving at Jo and the girls while stuffing a piece of toast into her mouth and hurrying off behind Lucian, Kael, or the towering blond giant named Nord—she would spend the rest of her day in the jungle.
On the bright side, her new assignment meant that her sessions with Kieran were on hold. If things between the two of them were a tangled mess before, they were beyond complicated since that night on the balcony.
Effie knew he meant well, but good intentions aside, his sense of entitlement where she was concerned had to stop. He wanted more than she could give him; more than she might ever be able to give him—or any man for that matter. It was a conversation that they’d need to have, but one she was in no hurry to initiate. There were bigger things to deal with at the moment.
“Are you avoiding me?”
Effie stumbled; his voice more jarring since she’d just been thinking about him.
“No?”
“Is that a question?” he asked, smirking.
“No,” she replied more firmly, her own lips twitching up into a small smile. “Not a question and not avoiding you. I’ve been busy.”
Kieran’s eyes darted to the door and he nodded, his face unreadable. “Listen, I know you have to go, I just wanted to apologize while it still might make a difference.”
It was a rare enough occurrence that Effie froze, turning her full attention on him.
His eyes closed briefly, and he sucked in a quick breath. When he spoke again, his words left him in a rush. “I never meant to seem like I wasn’t on your side. I just worry about you and I only want what’s best for you.”
The words touched her, speaking to the little girl who’d rarely had anyone care enough to want to look out for her. Some of the ice around her heart thawed.
“I appreciate that, but, Kieran?”
He lifted a brow. “Yeah?”
“Stop assuming you know what’s best for me.”
A hint of pink tinged his cheeks and Kieran dipped his head. “I’ll try.”
“It’s a start, I guess.” She offered him a small smile. “I should go. Don’t want to keep Sir Grumpy Pants waiting.”
Kieran snorted. “Please tell me you call him that to his face.”
Effie gave him a horrified look, which only spurred Kieran’s laughter.
“I’ll see you later, Kieran.”
“Until then.”
She gave him a small wave and turned to hurry out the door. Lucian was tapping his foot impatiently as she stepped out of the dining hall.
Effie stopped short at the look on his face. “Is something wrong?”
His eyes lifted at the sound of her voice and he shook his head no.
Effie frowned and studied the Guardian for a second before moving the rest of the way into the hall.
Lucian was barely approachable on the best of days, but today he seemed more dangerous somehow. A caged predator waiting for the door to open. Although tension radiated off him in waves, none of it was directed at her.
The thought should have helped her relax, but an uneasy Lucian shook her to the core. There are certain fundamental truths one builds their life on: the sun will rise tomorrow, fire burns, and Lucian is the most terrifying fucker around and he’s not scared of anything. For any one of those truths to be disproven calls all others into question. Nothing good could come of Lucian being noticeably on edge.
“Just us today?” Effie asked, eyeing the empty hall.
“Kael will be meeting us later. He had some things to take care of this morning.”
“Ah,” she said, falling into step beside him.
Still on edge, she lowered her voice to just above a whisper. “Has there been any news?”
“No news. No sightings.”
She let out a breath she’d hadn’t been aware of holding. “I guess that’s good.”
Lucian grunted.
They walked a few more steps in silence, but his mood was making her stomach tie itself into knots.
“You’re acting weird,” she blurted.
Her Guardian stopped mid-step and looked at her. “Weird?”
Effie’s face was on fire, but she nodded.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
His brow lifted. “Interesting logic.”
Waving her hand at his face she tried to explain. “You’re always kind of scary and broody, but today you’re a lot broody. Or maybe distracted?” Effie let out a frustrated breath and shook her head. “I don’t know how to explain it. You’re just not acting like yourself.”
One side of his mouth lifted. “Kind of scary?”
Effie sighed and crossed her arms. “That is the part you’d pick up on.”
“You’ve never seemed remotely scared of me.”
“Guess I’m good at hiding it,” she said, turning away to start walking again.
Lucian followed, his long stride taking him past her so he could hold the door open to the portal room. Effie still thought the name was a bit of a misnomer. There were no shimmering pools of power, or really any clue at all that portals were anchored to the nondescript stone room. She’d dreamt more than once about accidentally stepping through a portal and not being able to find her way back.
Effie moved toward the left wall since it was the portal they’d
used the day before.
Lucian stopped her by grasping the back of her cloak and giving it a sharp tug.
“That one,” he said, pointing to the opposite wall.
“Really?” she asked, surprised because it was the only portal they’d never used.
Lucian nodded, his dark eyes filled with shadows that made her shiver.
Tentatively, she placed her hand on his arm. “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
His eyes dropped to where she touched him, when they lifted again the metallic flecks near his pupils seemed to glow. “Of course something’s wrong,” he growled, his hands flexing and unflexing as if he was trying to grasp his weapon. “Our enemies are out there, and we are no closer to finding them today than we’ve been all week.”
“Right,” she murmured, still not believing that was all that was weighing on the warrior.
“Let’s go.”
Dropping her hand, Effie followed him, her breath still catching in her throat as she walked toward the wall. Even though she’d done it several times now, her brain never quite understood that she wasn’t about to bash her face into the stones. She didn’t take another easy breath until her boot crunched over fallen leaves.
The jungle was darker today, heavy clouds obscuring the patches of sky visible through the treetops. Effie shivered and pulled her cloak tighter around her body, squinting up at the sky as a gust of wind caused the branches above her to shake.
Something soft and cold brushed her cheek. Glancing around, Effie noticed tiny white flakes swirling through the air.
“Is that . . . snow?” she asked, her fingers lifting to her cheek.
Lucian nodded, clearly unimpressed with her observation skills.
“In the jungle? Where are we?”
“Northern border.”
Fear shot through Effie’s body, turning her blood to ice. “As in, the one near Vyruul?”
“You know of another border to the north?”
“Smart-ass.”
His quirked brow told her what he thought of that insult.
“Is it really a good idea to be sneaking around so close to Rowena’s home?”
“Greyspire was decimated and the Corruptor is dead.”
“Oh,” Effie replied softly, not even mildly appeased by his reminder.
She fell silent as she moved through the forest at Lucian’s side. He seemed to know where he was going, but everything looked the same to her. Especially once the jungle was blanketed in white, the snowfall heavier as they moved closer to the border. It should have looked like something from one of the fairy stories her grandmother had told her, but Effie couldn’t shake the feeling that the ghosts of Rowena’s victims haunted this place, their restless spirits lingering even after the threat of her reign was extinguished.
A branch snapped and Effie let out a garbled scream, her dagger drawn and thrust out in front of her as she spun around. She would have felt foolish if Lucian’s sword wasn’t also leveled in the direction of the noise.
“Mother’s tits,” Effie swore when a familiar blond head poked out.
Seeing their blades, Kieran lifted his hands. “Hello to you too.”
“What are you doing here?” Lucian demanded.
“Offering my services.”
Heart still racing, Effie sheathed her blade. Lucian was slower to lower his.
“How is sneaking up on us being helpful?” she asked, still shaken.
“I didn’t mean to startle you. I would have called out, but I wasn’t sure if the footprints in the snow back there were yours.”
“Who else would they belong to?”
“How did you even know we’d be here?” Lucian asked.
That was probably the better question to start with.
“I had a dream.”
The hair on the back of Effie’s neck lifted. Effie and Lucian spoke at the same time.
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Effie asked.
While Lucian asked, “What did you See?”
Kieran shook his head, his lips pinched with worry. “I wasn’t sure when it would come to pass, until other events fell into place.”
“What other events?”
“Speak, Keeper,” Lucian said, his deep voice sounding like growling thunder in the relative quiet of the snow-covered jungle.
Kieran paled, his eyes the only color in his face. “Shattered glass, bloody footprints, voices when no one’s there, a pale hand pulling back a dark hood.”
Effie blinked at her tutor. She’d never heard him make any reference to his dreams, outside of the ones that she starred in.
“These were the events that have already come to pass?” Lucian asked.
Thank the Mother one of them was better at dealing with a Keeper’s visions. Effie was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Kieran’s dream had led him to them here.
Kieran licked his lips and nodded. “A glass shattered in the dining hall shortly after you left. Someone stepped on it, their slippers too thin to offer protection from the sharp fragments. Their blood smeared across the floor . . .” he trailed off, shaking himself out of his trance. “Anyway, that’s when I put it together.”
“And your dream showed you us? Here?” Effie asked.
Kieran nodded, looking like he was about to be sick. “What was left of you.”
Her breath left her in a whoosh.
“Did you see what happened?” Lucian asked.
“No, just the aftermath.”
Lucian and Effie exchanged looks; his of grim determination, hers a bone-deep terror.
“That’s why I had to come after you. I thought if someone else was here, if I could warn you, maybe it would make the difference.”
Lucian gave a terse nod, his eyes scanning their surroundings like he expected someone to jump out from behind one of the trees at any second.
“Maybe we should head back?” Effie suggested.
She didn’t expect Lucian to agree, but she didn’t anticipate the look of disapproval he shot her way either.
“It’s not that crazy to wait and fight another day if the deck is stacked against you,” she insisted, feeling the need to defend herself.
“I’m a Guardian, Effie. I do not run away from my duty. Ever.”
He stared at her, as if the intensity of his gaze could drive the point home. Maybe it did. Effie looked away while something that felt suspiciously like shame worked its way through her.
No matter how far she’d come from the girl who used to cower behind her hair, she was still far from a hero. She’d fought in a few battles, even defeated a few enemies, but at the end of the day, when it really mattered most, her instinct was to run and hide, not stand and fight.
The crunch of footsteps in the snow was her only sign that Lucian had resumed his trek further into Vyruul. Effie was quick to follow, not eager to get left behind.
As Kieran moved into position beside her, he brushed his knuckles against her forearm in a silent offer of comfort. She ignored it, not ready to accept solace of any kind just yet.
The three of them walked until Effie could only assume they’d officially crossed the border. The scent of pine was filling the air and there wasn’t a thick, ropey vine to be found. The sky had grown dark, their signal that it was time to head back. No matter what Lucian said about running, they never stayed out after dark. The jungle was too dangerous to risk it.
Goosebumps scattered along her arms as another gust of wind tossed her cloak up into the air.
This time, there was no crack of a branch to alert them of an intruder.
Lucian was in front, ahead of her and Kieran, but still within her line of sight. Kieran was on her left, but too far away for her to touch. She may as well have been on her own.
The tickle along the side of her neck was no stray piece of hair. The path it took was too deliberate. Effie stopped breathing; her body posed on the brink of flight.
“Where are you running off to in such a hurry, dearie?”
a voice rasped just behind her. If death had a voice, this was most assuredly it. Rough and gritty like sand, but as insubstantial as a speck of dust tossed about in the wind.
Her mouth went dry. She couldn’t answer if she tried.
“Pretty girl,” the voice said near her left ear, “you will make a tasty treat.”
Effie shuddered, a strangled whimper the only sound she could manage. The monsters she’d faced in battle had always been more animal than human. The only tormentors she’d ever had to deal with that could actually speak were the ones she’d never learned to fight. They were the ones that still haunted her dreams and made her feel as small and helpless as the little girl who used to hide in the back of her closet.
The ring of steel filled the air and Effie’s eyes fluttered closed with relief. She was not a little girl anymore, and she was not alone.
“Unhand her,” Lucian ordered, his voice filled with the promise of violence.
“Not so fast,” death answered, its hand snaking up to grasp her by the throat. “The girl is mine.”
“Over my dead body,” Kieran said, twirling his weapon in his hand as he slid into a fighting stance.
“That can be arranged.”
Chapter 27
The start of battle always brings a wave of cool calculation. Even amidst the chaos of war, the world can slow to the point that each individual moment plays out for an eternity. And so it was in this instant as the vein in Effie’s neck visibly pulsed with her terror.
Lucian saw the tiny flutter and he felt his rage ignited. Death walked among them now, but it would not be theirs.
It took less than a heartbeat for the Guardian to assess their opponent.
This being was not like his brothers that they’d slain. It was sentient. A creature with its own mind and purpose, not one driven by the whims of another. With Rowena dead, there was no reason it should still be alive at all. But there was no mistaking those milky white eyes snaked with black.
It was wearing armor, or pieces of it. Metal chest plate and gauntlets on its forearms. Its skin was decaying, pieces of its gray flesh already rotted away, including most of its nose and a good portion of its cheeks.
He’d been a soldier once, or at least he had been before he was taken. Was any of that honor still in there, or was it lost along with any semblance of the man he’d once been?
