Kara’s chambers are easy to find because I can hear Niykee’s voice from the hallway, gushing over Kara’s baby names, which she has yet to tell me. Though, now, I don’t want to hear anything about it. Irrationally I march into the room and start searching her closet for a bag.
“Amara,” Kara says nervously. “Amara, are you okay?”
I come out of the ridiculously large walk-in closet with a bag and start emptying her drawers, stuffing the contents into the bag. “Pack your bags. We’re leaving, now.” I say, knowing full well Theon is standing in the doorway, probably, hoping he can sway me to reconsider. But I am not afraid. I’m stronger than him. I know that now. I’m not afraid of him anymore.
“No, Mar, we can’t leave.” Kara protests.
“Like hell we can’t.”
“Amara, these people need us.”
“Us? They’re an us now?”
“Amara—”
“Pack your shit, Kara. We’re leaving. We’re going home. I’d rather deal with Theron Novak than Theon Beleros and his lies.”
“Amara—” Theon says, taking hold of my wrist.
I react by striking him with an icy blast of nether, sending him sliding across Kara’s chamber floor. “I am done being controlled by naïve men thinking they’re more powerful than me. I know who I am now. You try to stop me and you’ll die right along with Bastian Beaugrand.” Niykee tugs Theon to his feet and pulls him out into the hallway.
“Amara, please. We have to stay and fight.” Kara begs me.
“No, we don’t. This isn’t my fight, Kara. It’s his. I never wanted this. I never wanted any of it. I don’t wanna be a princess, or a queen. Don’t you get it? I am done.”
“Amara, what’s really going on here?” Niykee asks me.
“Amara,” Kara says gently. “If you only knew how these people, how your people have suffered you wouldn’t—”
“And what about me?” I fire back, tears pooling in my eyes. “What about how I have suffered? It’s his fault.” I cry. “It’s his fault. Keenan…”
“Betrayed us? I know. Niykee told me.”
“No, Kara. You don’t understand. He…” But I can’t bring myself to say it, to tell her. I feel like I’m betraying him, because he saved me. He saved my life and he let me go. He set me free. To tell her now would be a betrayal.
“He what, Amara? What did my brother do?” she demands. She takes my shaking hands into hers. “Just tell me, please. I’m your best friend. Just tell me.”
“He almost raped me, Kara.” I blurt.
“What?” she breathes, taking a step back from me.
“The night Theon came to Baal for my blood, to see if I was the nether user he was looking for. He drugged me, so that he could get it. Keenan and I drank out of the same cup and the drug, it made him aggressive. He kissed me and I—when I pushed him away he got angry and he…”
“No,” Kara shakes her head, tears spilling over her cheeks.
“He stopped before anything happened, but it’s why he left. It’s why we never spoke while he was gone and it’s why he betrayed us. He gave up. Because he thought I would never forgive him for what he did and so he went to the king and he sold me out. Theon did this. It’s his fault. I hate him, Kara. I hate him.” I cry.
“Amara, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” she cries, tugging me into her embrace. She holds me for a time, letting me cry until she realizes that she’s been wronged here too. She ceases me by the shoulders and holds me at arm’s length. “That was almost two years ago, Amara. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you love him, Kara. If my brother had done something like this, knowing would have killed me. I didn’t wanna take him from you the way he was taken from me.”
“I’m so sorry, Amara.”
“I’m not. I’m gonna kill him.” Niykee says, marching for the door.
“Oh, are you?” I challenge her. “You gonna march into the Vakrovian palace and murder yourself a king?” I ask sarcastically.
“No one hurts my little sister and gets away with it.” Niykee sneers back at me. She looks so determined, so angry, so…Niykee. It makes me laugh. “I’m—I’m sorry are you laughing right now?”
Kara looks at me and then she starts laughing, which in turn makes me laugh harder. Niykee only looks angry for another minute before she starts laughing with us.
It’s going to be a long road to recovery for me and Haven, and that’s the truth. It isn’t going to be easy, especially not for her. But as the three of us sit there and laugh—for reasons we’re not even sure of—I know that we can. As long as I have them I know this path we’re being forced to walk will make sense eventually.
—CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN—
AARIC
GAME-CHANGER
“So, are you and Theon buddies now?”
I cut Felix a look across the breakfast table. “You’re joking.” I eye Bay beside him. “He is joking, right?” Bay merely shrugs. “This isn’t about friendship, or even tolerance. It’s about what we have to do to save all of these people.” My eyes sweep over the dining room, at all our friends and even some of the Serpentarians that live in the palace. They laugh together, swapping stories and experiences, no one giving a damn about gender or ability. I look back at Felix. “Today is a simple fact-finding mission.”
“What facts might that be?” Bay asks.
“I’m going to find out what he wants with the Nexus.”
“And what makes you think he’s going to tell you?” Felix asks with a note of challenge in his voice.
I’m about to respond when Haven walks into the room. It’s been a few days since they’ve been back and I think she’s starting to adjust to the crowds. For the first time she glances over at me and gives me a smile. I smile back and wave stupidly.
“She know that you and Malia are…you know?” Bay says.
“Bay, we’re adults. I think we can say the words.” Felix nudges him.
“What would you know?” Bay scoffs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you show interest in anyone. Some might see that as a sign.”
“Ladies, ladies, don’t fight. To answer your question no, Haven doesn’t know about me and Malia because there is nothing to tell. Malia and I agreed it would last for as long as our search for the girls did. Now that it’s over so are we.”
“Right. Because Haven seems eager to jump right in with you.” I don’t respond to Felix’s naïve comment. He doesn’t know what she’s been through. No one does, but Kol, Theon, Roman, and Amara. It still makes me ill when I think about it. It’s my fault. If I’d just told her to stay when she’d practically begged me to that day, right before the funeral, then none of this would have happened. When she smiled now it would be because she’s happy, not because she wants us all to think she is.
Malia walks in then and I decide now is as good a time as any for us to have the conversation I let the boys believe we’ve already had. “I’ll see you guys later.” I rush over to Malia, catching her by the arm from behind. “Hey, can we talk?”
Malia turns to me, her eyes dark as night. They smile knowingly at me. “Hey,” She brushes her hand over my cheek softly. “We have nothing to talk about.” She’s so kind, so selfless, it makes her beautiful to me. “Haven’s back.” She presses a hand over my heart, which races just being in the same room with Haven. “You love her. And to me it looks like she might need to hear that from you right now.” She slides her gaze to Haven who is settling into a chair next to my sister. She’s never more than a few feet from her lately. My sister protects her like it’s her job.
“Yeah, maybe.” Overwhelming Haven with my feelings for her isn’t the right time right now. Instead I have to let her come to me, when she’s ready. It might be the hardest thing I’ll ever do.
Malia presses a kiss to my cheek. “Don’t wait too long, okay Aaric? People like us, some of us never find someone willing to accept us for what we are. The way she and your sister move, like magnets, it seems your princess does.” Ha
ven looks up to where Malia and I stand so close, hand in hand, and I see a glimmer of jealousy in her eyes.
Theon isn’t here this morning so when I part from Malia I go in search of him. I hope to find some time for him and I to talk one on one. I want to get the information I need to get from him with no interruptions.
Ambushing Amara the other day with our questions was probably a little cruel, I realize that, but while I can always tell when she’s lying she won’t always fess up to me so I needed her to do it in front of an audience if I was ever to get the truth out of her. It’s just one more thing to add to the list of reasons I hate Keenan Volterra. Taking my sister down for his own kill though seems to be small potatoes compared to what he’d almost done to my sister. He’s more like Bastian Beaugrand than any of us knew.
I find Theon in the sitting room where we were led when we first arrived here, speaking to a petite girl not much older than me. Her thick, dark hair hangs in waves down her back, blue eyes as big as Amara’s. The two seem to be arguing in hushed tones.
When Theon sees me coming though he says something to her that gets her to back off. Those giant blue eyes whirl around to face me and I get the full effect of how big they really are.
“Aaric, I’d like you to meet Dariella Aguillon, my ex-fiancé.” Theon says, though there is not a hint of affection between the two. Not on his part anyway. I doubt there ever was.
“Dariella Aguillon.” I grin. We didn’t have to look far for her. The girl responsible for snaking the Nexus our from underneath us back in Baal. She’d left a note for us, letting us know we were too late. I wonder if she knows who she left it for, and that it was me. “It’s nice to meet you.” She has no idea how much.
“Likewise I’m sure.” Her gaze snaps back up to Theon and then she struts off, in anger.
I flick my gaze up to Theon, smirking. “She’s a spitfire, that one.” Theon explains. “What can I do for you, Boudelaire?”
“I think it’s time we have a sit down.” Because at the end of this conversation I am going to either tell him where he can find his Nexus, or use it against him, depending on what he has to say.
“Oh?”
“You want us all to work together, to end the subjugation of our people. Then we need all cards on the table and since Amara is, for the time, unwilling to look at them, I will.”
“Your sister is…stubborn.” he says kindly, knowing full well she’s much more than that.
“Oh, you have no idea. Once Amara makes a decision she is loath to change it unless a fair and strong argument is made. You make yours well and I might be able to sell it to her.”
Theon considers this for a moment, probably contemplating on whether to trust me or not. “Alright then. Let’s talk.”
It’s nearing noon now so Theon arranges for us to eat lunch out on one of the many elaborate terraces the palace has. It’s a large, open one overlooking much of the palace grounds.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asks me as I approach the railing, eyes scanning over the hills and endless trees that surround this place.
“It’s hard to believe that for seventeen years our father kept us from ever even leaving Baal. Now, in the last eight months, we’ve seen more of Endecore than some see in their whole lifetime.”
“It’s a beautiful country, Llìria. Why do you think I’m fighting so hard to protect it?”
The question brings us back to why we’re really here. The pair of us ascend to the table, which is being prepared as we speak. We settle in just as a waiter places two plates of what looks like some kind of rare steak paired with roasted potatoes and carrots.
It seems Theon wants to eat before we talk so I oblige him, mainly because I barely ate any breakfast this morning. I haven’t been able to eat much since Amara told me about what Bastian did to Haven.
Once we’re finished Theon takes up his glass of wine and relaxes back in his seat, swirling the wine around in his glass, breathing in the smell. It’s red, some type of fruity sangria. “Alright, Boudelaire. Tell me what it is you want to know.”
I am not shy with my response. “I want you to tell me what it is you plan on doing with the Nexus.”
Theon freezes for a moment, but to his credit his surprise does not last long.
“Thackeray.” Is all I say.
“Ah, Thackeray. Do tell me you killed him when you were finished.”
“Ah, I—I think he might still be rotting in a Limacoran prison. I don’t know. You don’t seem surprised that I know about it.” I point out.
“Well, of all the soldiers to leave behind Thackeray wasn’t the best choice. He’s got no affinity for pain.”
“Oh, I know. Roman and I tortured him quite a bit. Niykee’s the one that broke him though. Nether mixed with fire magic, I would not want to be on the receiving end of that.” I smile at the memory of Niykee’s ebony fire curling over his skin, burning him slowly. Theon flinches. My smile broadens.
Theon offers a tight smile himself. “Almost makes me feel sorry for the poor bastard.”
“Tell me what you want with it, Theon. None of this works without honesty. Amara won’t cooperate if there are secrets between us.”
Theon heaves a sigh and is silent for so long I think he is going to refuse until finally, he speaks. “I assume if you know about the Nexus you know what it does.”
“Well, Roman says it can infuse all six elements into one.”
“That’s correct. Now, how do you think something like that might gain its power?”
“From us?” I guess. Honestly I hadn’t given it much thought until now.
“Do you know why I was so interested in Kara and Amara’s Echo?”
“The why still eludes us all, Beleros.” I say irritably.
“Because they can infuse their magic together.”
The word sparks my interest. “Okay.” I prompt. “You’ve got my attention.”
“The Nexus can’t just draw from our magic. It has to take it. But if it were to take that much magic from someone at once…”
“It would kill them.”
“That’s correct. But because the girls possess two different types of magic now…it could draw out one without touching the other.”
“Without killing them?”
“That’s correct. The Nexus wasn’t even a thought in my mind until I learned of the girls’ Echo. They are two parts of a six-piece puzzle.”
Going along with his theory I ask, “Do you have the other pieces?”
Theon grins. “I do.”
“Once it has all that magic, what will it be used for?”
“It will be powerful enough to help us win this war.”
“How?”
“It will help us shut down the Hunters once and for all. The Hunters have their power because they are immune to ours, right?” I nod him along. “With the power of the Nexus we will be able to change that.”
“Make them no longer immune to our powers?” That would be a game-changer. To win this war our first target has got to be the Hunters. Without their immunity they are no match for us. We could wipe them out in one fell swoop. “If we were to do that they’d be as good as human.”
“That’s exactly right, give or take their supernatural stamina.”
“Shit.” I fall back in my chair. I have a choice to make. I can find this Nexus and try to figure out among the rest of us how to use it to do what Theon is saying it can do, or I can tell him that I have it and work with him. There is perhaps one question that might sway me away from doing this at all though. “When it takes the magic from the girls, it’s only going to take the extra power they got from infusing their magic together, right? Amara will lose her ability to control fire and Kara will lose her ability to control nether? The magic they were born with will be untouched?”
“That’s right.” Theon nods.
“Will it hurt?”
“Well, I doubt it will be pleasant. Their extra abilities are becoming a part of them, but it’
s early. They haven’t even gained control of them so beyond a headache I don’t think so, no.”
“Who are the others you have, who’s magic we’ll be taking?”
“Meg and Ari, Kara’s guards? Their Echo has allowed them to swap ether with earth magic. And then there’s Vanya and Asena. One of my advisor’s daughters. They share an Echo that’s allowed them to swap water and air magic. With all six of them we’ll be able to infuse the Nexus with their magic and use it to remove the magic that allows Hunters to be immune to ours.”
It makes sense to do this. Once we overpower the Hunters they’ll be little more than a nuisance. Then we can focus our attention on gaining equality and freedom among the countries of Endecore, for our people. There is only one thing stopping me. Well, two.
“Tristan and Braylie.”
“This again.” Theon heaves a sigh and again cranes back in his seat. “What must I do to convince you lot that those deaths were what is known as collateral damage? It wasn’t personal.”
I grit my teeth, trying not to react to his empty apology. And then I realize what I want from him, something that will be fundamentally hard for someone without emotion. “I want you to apologize to her, and to him.”
“Excuse me?” he says with a note of challenge in his voice.
“Amara’s been seeing Tristan since he died. You’re going to apologize to my sister and to him for your part in his death. Don’t worry. Clea will have her turn to apologize too. And one day when we do see Jayla again, you’ll apologize to her as well.” When he still looks puzzled I press on. “My sister’s compassion is what drives her. It’s why there are three hundred Borderlines sleeping in your beds, eating your food. So give me a reason she should show you any compassion. Show her the compassion you might show Kara if you hurt her. Then she may actually hear you out.”
“And what do I get in return?”
I pause and then say matter-of-factly, “The location of the Nexus.”
“What?” Theon asks darkly.
“I know where it is. Or, rather, who has it.” I lean across the table so that Theon and I are at eye level. “I am willing to overlook the fact that you murdered two members of my Zodiac and kidnapped a third, for the sake of our people, for the sake of our country. I am willing to work with you so that we win this. But only if Amara is on board. Without her you have no one. Our Zodiac will follow her, Kara will follow her. So, Theon Beleros, what’ll it be?”
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