Riven (The Illumine Series)

by Anders, Alivia

  "Are you seriously staring at me while I'm trying to break you free?" Ari gaped at me in disbelief. Shaking his head, he latched onto my wrist and brought me into his chest. Heat blew off of him in waves, a perpetual sun for my cold and hopeless heart. He raised a hand and muttered something, white fire lancing from his hand in the form of a spear. It sliced through the wall, melting the rock into burning pools of black.

  “Ari,” I started to say. “Ursula said-”

  A high, glass-shattering scream sounded from below. I felt the color drain from my face as I recognized the tone.

  “We need to go to her,” I said. “Ursula, she-”

  “No, we need to leave.” Ari held onto me tighter, no doubt afraid I’d make a run for it. “That was the plan.”

  Pulling me along, we started down the hallway at a jog, Ari dragging me as I tried to jerk free. “Screw the plan,” I yelled sharply. “I can’t let her just die!”

  Spinning me around, he locked his hands around my upper arms, forcing me to meet his hard stare. “Listen to me, I appreciate you’re trying out the whole hero thing, but now is not the time. I came here to save you, not burn to death with you, and like it or not, we need to get through this together. Now work with me, dammit.”

  He had barely finished speaking when a pair of Vens, dressed to the nines in their iconic black, split from the shadows of the hallway. Red daggers flashed in their hands, the shine of the metal instantly making me wary. They both leapt for Ari, moving faster than I could keep track.

  “Ari!” I screamed, yanking myself from his grasp and flinging out a hand. Blue fire spiraled up my arm before it fired into the hallway, setting the walls and floor ablaze.

  But Ari was already gone. He moved faster than both Vens, winding between them with a dancer kind of grace, fire twining off his hands like a personal light show. Bolts of white shocked the hallway to life, and like flies attracted to the light, each Vens fell crippled to the ground, shrieking and writhing in pain before fire consumed them whole.

  “Move,” he commanded, grabbing my wrist once more and pulling me along. I didn't dare look back over my shoulder, partly because I was afraid I'd see the aftermath of our fires racing to catch up to us, partly because I was afraid I'd come face-to-face with one of those red daggers. Instinct told me I didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of those blades.

  We turned down another set of hallways before the sounds of voices and feet caught up to us. Ari looked over his shoulder and met my eyes for one split second, a finger pressed gently against his lips. Locking an arm around my waist, we ducked into the nearest room and sealed the door shut.

  The room was dark, a never-ending pit of emptiness. Only a flicker of blue and red, glowing halfway into the room, gave a hint of light to combat the dark.

  I instantly knew where we were. And how we had to get out, fast. "Ari, we shouldn't be in here."

  Against the dark, I could barely make out his silhouette. His hands were moving fast, quick dashes of white lingering on the door in front of us as he drew several different symbols into the heavy wood. "What's the matter, Essie darling? Two weeks and suddenly you’re afraid of the dark?"

  "It's not the dark that you should be afraid of." It’s what hides inside it. I stepped further into the room, a sense of familiarity washing over me in cold shocks. The dull glow of three blue orbs came closer to view, red spiraling within to create a blast of brilliant violet. Underneath one of them, my name had been scrawled in a precise script, red printed on gold. "Ari, I... I think these belong to us."

  "What?" Ari's voice barely reached me, his tone colored with nervous confusion. I barely paid attention to him, concentrating more on the growing glow of the orbs. Still perched on their center pedestals, I was no longer curious as to what they were for, but what they could do if placed in the wrong hands. Hands like the Queen.

  I stopped before the furthest orb, unable to make out the name written on the golden plaque. Barely any blue swirled within, black smoke filling the once illuminated globe. The second was just as dark, but the third was easy to read, bright and burning like a thousand suns. A name I knew and recognized well, delicately written in script, stood out against the gold; Ari.

  Footsteps sounded behind me, and I heard his breath catch as he read his name from over my shoulder. "What is that?" Ari whispered fearfully, inching closer until he stood by my side. Using one of his hands, he brought his brilliant white fire to a glorious blaze, illuminating the whole room in a dull, milky glow. “Do you... do you hear that?”

  I shook my head, confused. “Hear what?”

  He leaned closer to the orb, reaching a hand forward as if to touch it. “It’s whispering... I can hear my Father... and Bethanie...”

  I grabbed his hands before he grasped it, enveloping my fingers around his. "I don’t think you should touch it,” I said, shaking my head again. “I’ve seen these before, when the Queen captured me. She brought me in here, and my guess is she showed me these for a reason. It could be a trap." My breath caught in my throat, the memory of burning black bands awakening a stinging sensation deep within my wrists. "I don't know what they do, but Kayden said-"

  Kayden.

  "Where is he?" I whipped around to face Ari, the pounding in my head matching the frantic pounding in my chest. Fear flushed a river of cold, destructive rush of ice through my veins. "Where is Kayden?"

  Ari’s fire flickered, and that was all it took for me to know. "I don't know, sucking your brother dry with a straw? How am I supposed to know where your leech of a demon is?"

  Anger bled red into my sight. “You don’t get to be like this. Where is he?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said, quieter than before. The look he gave me bordered on pitying. “The plan wasn’t to save him.”

  A surge of energy unlike anything I had felt in weeks pushed through my veins, a fire igniting off my skin in a violent burst of blue and black. He didn't know where Kayden was, didn't know that the last time I had seen him, he had been in tow with a familiar succubus and her slimy seduction self. How had I not thought to ask her where he was before she left? He had to be here, trapped somewhere inside this castle.

  "We have to find him," I said, brushing past him and making for the door. Adrenaline mixed with something equally dangerous ran rampant inside of me, a swirling cocktail ready for the smallest provocation. Torture me, fine, but torture him? The Queen had just signed her own death warrant, twice over. I'd give her a burning hotter than the sun. "He's here, I know it. How fast can we comb the place?"

  “Are you mad?” Ari nearly shouted, taking a step toward me. "You're talking about covering countless rooms, not including the hidden ones, and for what? For a thing that put you in this mess to begin with?"

  “A thing? Shut up! Demon or not, he is not a thing, he’s a part of this, and we need him.” The scream had left my lips before I could even think of taking it back. "He didn't put me in this mess, I let myself get here. He reminded me of who I really was, who I really am."

  "And who," Ari half-mocked, rolling his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. "are you really?"

  Fire rushed over my arms, ensnaring me like a pet snake curling round its master in a grip of death. It emblazoned over my shoulders, chest and back, until all that remained was a sliver of my neck and head. Voices whispered within my head, some taunting, others challenging, but the only voice I heard was my own, clear as a bell. "A weapon of my choice."

  I surged for the door, a palm raised up toward the wood. Ari rushed in front of me, his chest pressed against my palm. Not for the first time, I could feel the rapid dance of his heart against his ribs. I briefly wondered if he thought I had gone mad, maybe even as mad as the infamous Hatter.

  "Essallie, listen to yourself. You're trying to track down a demon. We're Nephilim, not demon hunters," he sighed, speaking to me as if I was a child who didn't understand the difference between apples and oranges. "Kayden wouldn't want you to waste your time, your life, just
to find him."

  "He's wrong."

  I froze, the sound of a whisper barely tickling my ears. Looking to my left, there she stood. My ethereal carbon copy, Ebony, her eyes burning with a vicious desire of blood so heavy, I could almost taste the metallic sensation on my tongue. Her waist-length hair rested over her shoulders as she stood straight and demure, hands folded neatly in front of her, poised like a deadly serpent aiming to kill.

  Now I was positive I had gone mad.

  "Find him, Essallie. Find Kayden,” she repeated, disappearing into thin air.

  I wasn’t sure if what I had seen was real or product of captivity, but either way, the voice was right; I had to find Kayden. "That's where you're wrong," I countered back at Ari, unable to keep my grin in check. "You're right about one thing, we are Nephilim. But half-angels and demon hunters go hand in hand, Ari. We are the reason they cower at night, the reason they don't actively devour the human race. It's in our blood to hunt them, track them like a human tracking wild animals."

  "No one taught me to track demons," Ari muttered, shrugging his shoulders. "But if you wish for death, who am I to stop you? Not like we can save him, regardless."

  My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see,” was all he said, shrugging his shoulders once more. “Since you want to find him so bad, and engage in your little suicide mission, I might as well let you find out the truth.”

  Deciding not to waste precious seconds arguing, I gave him a nod and took a step back, creating a small well of distance between us. Inside, I felt broken, lost in a swirling disarray that could only be explained as nausea with a side of adrenaline. I knew I had to focus if there ever stood a chance of me finding Kayden.

  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, blinking out the voices in my head one by one, until nothing but silence echoed within. Outside I could feel my fire, cradling my skin like a favorite sweater, protecting me from the harsh cruelties of life. I locked onto that familiar feeling, letting the sensation take over me, loosening my iron-clad hold I kept on my soul.

  Like a net casted over the world, my senses burst to life. Sharp, rushing waves of scents and sensations overwhelmed me, the effect like a numbing alcohol. I could feel everything, everyone, almost as if they all stood in front of me, each one branded with their own taste. With a test, I took a small inhale of the space between Ari and I. Pictures of fresh, wild grass conjured in my mind, visions of corn fields stretching as far back as the eyes could see. Without him having to say a word, I knew this was his home, the place he kept in his heart when the darkest of moments threatened to capture his soul.

  I took another inhale, this one deeper than the last. This time I focused harder, looking for a lingering trace of an all too familiar black smoke. There, hiding within the corner of the room, my senses caught something, the taste unlike anything I had dreamt of. Dark caverns, crumbling towers, and the dirty copper taste of blood rushed through me, lingering like a foreign object lodged in my mouth. I followed the leftover remnants of his soulless being as far as it would take me, my mind rushing through quick glimpses of rooms with chairs and water and dirt.

  My eyes snapped open. "I know where he is." Crossing the room, I placed a hand against one of the walls, fire sparking under my fingertips. "We have to go through the wall."

  "But the door," Ari started to say, but I cut him off.

  "Is completely useless. You open that door, and we'll die." I grimaced, tasting a putrid mix of perfume and rotting flesh. Definitely worse than bile. I eyed one of the walls across the room, planning the quickest way to reach Kayden’s scent. "Five Vens will be coming down that hall in a matter of minutes. Looks like we're making our own path."

  Ari stared at me, utterly dumbfounded. Dangerous caution colored his eyes a dark, stormy blue. "Essallie, how did you do that?"

  If only he knew that new powers were the least of my worries. "I don't know," I confessed, pushing down the urge to shake uncontrollably until my limbs fell off. Now was not the time to become weak and weighed. "Frankly, I'm not sure I want to know. We'll discuss it later, come on."

  Concentrating on the wall, I let the familiar rush of heat build against my fingers, a dull burn settling just under my skin. Pictures of wildfires tearing through trees, consuming the raw earth and all its beauty rushed through my mind, and with a gasp, I felt something unlock in me. Dazzling, brilliant blue fire rushed out of my hand, spreading up the wall as fast as warriors charing into battle. The wall crumbled beneath the flames, leaving a gaping hole in its place big enough for the both of us to step through. Past the hole, the room on the other side was equally dark, hints of shimmering glitter reflecting off the light my fire gave off.

  Ari moved forward without a word, white fire covering him like a suit of armor. One hand cupped, he raised it above his head, lighting the room for us to see. Sharp, jagged spikes of black jolted out of the walls, remnants of limbs sticking to them like a bloody afterthought. I met Ari's steeled gaze, forcing the roll of nausea back down. This was no time to get squeamish.

  We rushed through the room, crossing the opening gap to a barren wall on the other side. As my blue fire melted another hole, Ari swear behind me.

  I stole a look over my shoulder, a flicker of shadows moving along the black spikes. Inky bolts of burned lightning scurried across the way, hiding exactly where Ari's light wouldn't reach.

  Turning around, I blazed my blue fire higher, flowing off my shoulders and chest like extension cables. "Come out, or by death we'll light the whole room on fire!"

  Ari looked at me in mild horror. He looked like he wasn’t sure if I was all there. "We'll do what?"

  "Shut up and go with it," I whispered in a hiss.

  He looked back at the shadows, the black and white startling enough to create a vintage movie effect throughout the room. Where the light would not reach, darkness seeped out as if it were blood leeching from a wound, yet where the light danced it looked grey, marred by the dark pooling under the blaze of white.

  A flash in the top corner caught my eye, the shine reflective. Small, pinpricks of eyes danced above the reflection. Something, or someone, was lurking in the dark, watching us.

  Ari fashioned his fire into a full length sword. "One last time, come out, or it'll be your end."

  The eyes vanished, the reflection fading with it. Once again the shadows within the darkness moved, dancing like graceful ballerinas across a fortress of a stage. Ari's mouth thinned into a hard line, eyes narrowed as he took a step further into the room, but I stopped him, silently nodding my head toward the floor. The eyes had reappeared, this time level with us. The scent of crushed rose petals, apples, and fresh blades of grass hit my nose, followed by a deeper and more pungent smell of mold. Whoever it was, they weren't a Vens, nor the Queen, but they weren't the person we needed to find either.

  "Stop," I raised a hand, Ari standing slightly in front of me as a guard. Giving his shoulder a nudge, I gave him an evened stare. "Watch."

  As the shadow came closer, I noticed how small it was. The figure couldn't have been more than four feet tall, and walked with a deep, hunched limp in his right leg. Dark blue skin covered him from head to toe, save for a sea green patch of skin covering half of his face. Pointed ears longer than a foot winged out along the sides of his head. His clothes were destroyed, tattered and ripped and burned, stains of blood and oil standing out against the dirty cream of his shirt and pants.

  The figure fastened its eyes on me, two dark, stormy purple orbs without iris. "Do not burn me, I am here to help."

  Ari stared at the creature, his face torn between barely contained amusement and sputtering shock. "What are you?"

  "It matters not," the creature replied, its eyes still locked on mine. Clouds moved within them, like personal planets buried within each eye. "What matters is you, and the decision you must make."

  I was taken aback. What did this person know about me? Gazed locked, I fought to keep the accusations out of my
tone. "Decisions?"

  The figure's eyes flashed, a inch of pink tongue sticking out of the corner of its mouth. "Will you live, or will you die?"

  "You can't make that choice, no one can," I let out an impatient breath, my body itching to move. What little adrenaline I had left was rapidly fading, leaving me with a drained feeling worse than before. "We're wasting our time, let's move Ari."

  The figure's hand was wrapped my lower arm before I had taken a single step. His touch was cold, a sickening slimy feeling raising goosebumps up on my skin. Pitch black eyes stared unseeing into my face, the purple vanished.

  "You have a choice, Nephilim. Life or death. Which will you choose?"

  "Let her go," Ari hissed, sealing off any extra space between us with a single step. His fire ignited brighter, white tendrils curling off him in waves, aching to consume the blue-skinned man before us.

  "She must choose," the figure insisted, tightening his grip on my arm. His eyes never left my face as he spoke, low and guttural, like gravel shaking on an unpaved road. "There is no other way."

  I'd had enough. Fire flickered on my arm, the flames burning at the man's fingertips, but he refused to release his hold. If we stood here much longer, the Queen and her backup henchmen would be on us like hunters on a prized buck.

  "I choose life."

  The second the words left my lips, the figure released his grip, wincing no doubt from the blisters rapidly forming on his fingers. Still his eyes remained black, reminding me of someone else I knew who sported black eyes. A demon I was knowingly risking my life to save.

  His features were achingly familiar, and I couldn’t help but feel a familiar twinge of memory to the man.

  He continued to regard me coolly, rich amber eyes narrowed in a bitter discontent. “You are wrapped in promises, Nephilim, promises time has failed to keep. Do not make the same mistakes as they did. Honor your blood.”

  Honor my blood?

  “You will need this,” the man continued, quiet but unwavering. His spare hand held the glimmering object I had originally spotted. It was an orb, roughly the size of my hand, the faint glow of blue and red swirling within it. The second he deposited it into my palm, I knew what it was; one of the orbs from the former room, the ones with the golden plaques underneath them. Which one had he taken? “The time to use it will come to you. Now go.”