Smoke and Ritual (Beautiful Dark Beasts Book 1)

by Melissa Sercia

  “You brought a god? Impressive. I guess it’s your lucky day, Diego. But don’t linger for too long, brother. God or not, I will have every Lupi in the city hunt you down.”

  Brother? As in actual brother? It seems I wasn’t the only one with dirty family secrets.

  Chaos grinned, satisfied with himself. I knew he had a slight temper, but there was something darker creeping out that I hadn’t noticed before. A twisted joy he seemed to take in showcasing his own power.

  I brushed past him to go to Diego, but he grabbed my hand and whispered, “We need to talk later. Alone.” His voice was rough and hoarse.

  Butterflies danced in my stomach. “Oh…okay.” After our almost moment in the infirmary, and him losing his cool just now, I was nervous about what he wanted to talk to me about. I hadn’t seen this side of him. The sheen on his forehead, the tightness in his jaw as he smirked while gritting his teeth—he was so unhinged, so unpredictable. It was unnerving. Yet it excited me at the same time. This day was only getting stranger and the world I thought I knew was making less and less sense.

  Fumbling through the rubble of cracked marble and chunks of rock, my stomach twisted into knots at the anticipation of what was underneath. Seven pulled back slabs of stone as if they were light as feathers. As he pushed away steel beams and broken glass that appeared to be the remnants of old light fixtures, a flat surface emerged, revealing a solid steel circle underneath. Wiping the dust away, he placed his calloused hands against it and whispered, “Aperio.” The circle opened, showing us the way in.

  After a brief exchange of hesitant looks, we followed Seven down the hole. With light from only one torch to guide our descent, I clung to Chaos all the way down the steep spiral staircase. The wooden steps were damp and moldy, giving way slightly like sponges. One misstep and it would be a long fall into a dark abyss of nothingness.

  The stairs led us down six stories till we hit solid ground. To our left was a rushing canal, dark and murky, and in front of us, a stone wall. The door embedded into it was barely visible. In its center was a square cut-out window that invoked visions of a giant menacing creature waiting on the other side, demanding secret handshakes or magical passwords.

  The window slid open as we approached and a pair of glowing blue eyes, smudged in thick black kohl, peered out at us. “Who sent you?” Her voice was sweet, high-pitched, and child-like.

  Seven parted his lips to speak, but I cut him off. “No one sent us. I’m Arya of the Sylph coven. I’m here to speak with Fox.”

  Her blue eyes rolled back, then forward. She shook her head. “Echo didn’t call. No record of you. You must go now.”

  I lurched forward as she started to close the flap in the window. “Wait. You’re right, there’s no record of me. Look, I’m…I’m the daughter of Gaia. She knows who that is. Fox will want to speak with me.” I stepped as close as I could to the door without actually pressing up against it. The girl’s eyes searched mine with the curiosity of a cat.

  The window slid closed with a click, followed by three more clicks and then silence. I held my breath and leaned my head against the door, waiting. Another click startled me as the door flew open and I stumbled forward, almost knocking the girl over.

  She huffed and snapped her fingers. “This way.”

  Looking back, Seven and Chaos nodded in unison, while Sapphire and Diego hesitated for a moment before following me down the stone hallway behind the blue-eyed witch.

  We had only taken a few steps before she halted us. “Wait.”

  After what seemed like an eternity of standing idly in the chilly hallway, a voluptuous woman appeared from out of the shadows. Like an eighteenth-century courtesan, she was tied up tight in a floral-patterned corset. Her pale orange hair cascaded down past her breasts and knotted at the ends with black leather strips. Sharp metal spikes poked out of them.

  Tiny sparks danced between her fingertips. She tossed them with ease, back and forth like a deck of cards. Flames flickered in her eyes, and I felt my courage leaving me. “You don’t look like the daughter of Gaia. No…you look more like a scared witch, out of her element.”

  I flinched as the sparks in her hands turned to flames and shot up. “You know who she is, Fox,” Seven snapped. “Stop trying to scare her and let us in. You know what Echo is planning. Help us stop her.”

  She gathered her crimson-painted lips into a sharp pout. “I have no qualms with Echo and I certainly don’t want to stop anything. We have been in the shadows for too long. Echo is going to change all that.”

  “Echo is lying to you. She only wants the power for herself. She will turn you all into her slaves. When Arya becomes the Aether, she will ensure that doesn’t happen.”

  Fox coiled back in disgust. “The Aether? She can’t even speak for herself. You think she can control the fire? She’d probably burn herself alive. Besides, Echo doesn’t need an Aether, she has the next best thing.”

  My heart sank. The Keeper. Echo really was lying to her. To all of them. I opened my mouth to speak and Chaos tightened his grip on my shoulder.

  I shrugged him off. “I can learn to control the fire. I promise you. If you side with Echo, you will lose your freedom. Help me and when I become the Aether, I will help you.”

  Fox tapped her stiletto-heeled foot on the ground. “So you can speak. Listen, dear, you seem sweet, but very naïve. I’m not going to be a part of whatever this little experiment is. And I’m certainly not going to go against Echo. That would be treason. If I were you, I’d steer clear of her.”

  Chaos muttered something inaudible under his breath.

  Fox leaned forward, cupping her ear. “What was that, handsome?” A fresh ball of fire, bigger than my head, formed in her other hand, lighting up the whole hallway.

  “I was just going to tell you where you can shove—”

  “He was just saying, thank you for your time.” Seven shot him a look.

  Fox snickered. “Oh, I’m sure he was. Well, off you go. I’ll do you one favor and not tell Echo about this little coup d’état.”

  “Thanks for nothing,” I mumbled. She didn’t believe me. That this was all some kind of joke. What a waste of time.

  Seven guided me back toward the entrance as Fox sauntered away, chuckling to herself. The others followed behind, their heads down as exhaustion spread across their faces.

  As the door began to shut behind us, the blue-eyed girl clutched my hand, her eyes watering as she slipped a crumpled piece of paper inside it. The door slammed and I waited for the three clicks before moving a muscle. Whatever it was she had given me, I clutched it tight the whole way back up the spiral staircase.

  Chaos let out a groan as we reached the surface. “What now?” His eyes darted back and forth between me and the now sealed circular entrance.

  Knowing how short-tempered he was, I wouldn’t put it past him to consider doing something irrational, like burying Fox and her coven underground. But the note from the blue-eyed witch was burning a hole in my pocket.

  “Maybe this will help…”

  Seven took it from my hand, his face paling as he read. “This can’t be right.”

  Chaos leaned in, attempting to read over Seven’s shoulder. “Well, what does it say?”

  Seven continued to fixate on the paper, his expression blank. “Just one word. Luminaries.”

  Sapphire plunged her sword between the cracks of the crumbling ruins, jarring us all to attention. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  The sharp clash of metal hitting marble sent a shrill piercing bang through my eardrums, jolting the nerves all the way down into my jaw. Why did everyone seem to know what was going on except me? “Who are the Luminaries?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Sapphire snapped.

  Seven frowned as he watched her grind her sword further into the slabs. “They are a coven of outcasts, dangerous and highly volatile.”

  Chaos snatched the paper out of his hands, crumpled it back up and tossed it into the sea. �
��Then they are out of the question. We will find another way.”

  Besides Diego and myself, everyone else seemed either angry or terrified by the mere mention of this coven. My heart pounded. “I don’t understand. Why did that girl give me this?”

  Seven lifted his head to the sky, rubbing his temples as the sun beat down on his face. “I don’t know. Maybe she wants to help. Or maybe she’s trying to send you to your death.”

  I was racking my brain, trying to make sense of all this, but I was confused. “Seven, you aren’t telling me everything. Who are the Luminaries? Who are they really?”

  “They are Elemental witches,” Sapphire spat. She rested on the hilt of her sword and closed her eyes, pinching them tight. “And without Fox…without the Seraphine, they are the only other coven who can awaken your fire magic.”

  Thirteen

  The Luminaries—the outcast coven of fire, lived off the grid. Their legends were made up of myth and dark fairytales, illusive, mysterious, and unpredictable. The very idea of them shook me, taunting me with the threat of losing control.

  Chaos pulled me aside while the others bickered over what to do next. “Arya, I know I said we’d have to do whatever it takes, but this might be too dangerous.”

  “I’ve come too far to give up now. You know I have to do this. We’re out of options.” I sounded calm, but I was far from it.

  “Look, what I wanted to talk to you about…what if we just left? Disappeared…together.”

  My heart raced. “But what about Elysium? My ancestors? You want me to just run away?” This was not the conversation I was expecting. The god who seemed to delight in conflict was asking me to leave it all behind?

  He reached for my hands, pulling me toward him. “I want to keep you safe for as long as I can. This war will always be waiting for us. Besides…I want more time with you. Not the Aether. You, Arya.”

  Something new in me stirred. A realization that Chaos might actually feel the same way about me as I felt about him. The way he was staring at me, the longing in his eyes, masked by fear, pleading with me. So many unspoken emotions layered between us, I didn’t want to screw this up by saying the wrong thing.

  “I want to. Believe me, I want nothing more than to forget about all of this. To feel just once what it’s like to be normal. And a week ago, I would have said yes…but there’s too much at stake now. I don’t want my fate to be Purgatory. I don’t want anyone’s fate to be that. Going to the Luminaries…it’s the only way to get what we want. What we both want.”

  Chaos dropped his head. “We get what we need…not what we want.”

  My heart sank. He was finally opening up to me and I had to go and ruin it by being responsible.

  “Are you sure you want to do this? We could try to awaken your magic on our own,” Seven called out as he walked toward us, with Sapphire and Diego in tow.

  Chaos crossed his arms. “That could be even more dangerous. Fox was right, no offense, but she might set herself on fire. She needs a guide.”

  “This coven could light her on fire for amusement, and even you, Chaos, would be powerless to stop it. They are unpredictable and outcasts for a reason,” Seven said.

  Diego waved his hands around in an attempt to mock the situation. “What are they going to do? Steal her soul?”

  Seven was not amused. He threw him a deadpan stare, causing Diego to gulp loudly as he dropped his hands and shoved them deep into his pockets.

  “It’s Arya’s decision. I will stand behind her.” Chaos forced a smile in my direction, but he couldn’t completely hide the fear and sadness behind it.

  As they waited for my final answer, the air was laced thick with apprehension. My nerves were shot, but all my life I’d played it safe. I’d kept mostly to myself, always avoiding conflict and confrontation. But all that did was make me feel more alone, more vulnerable.

  When Poppy and her friends taunted me at Sanctum, I cowered. I’d just run away to the Brew Market, drowning my sorrows in honey wine and beignets. All the while dreaming of adventure and far off exotic places. I used to wish that I had a purpose. Well, now I do. Everything I longed for is happening. I’d be a fool to back down now.

  “I have to—want to go to them. It would be a greater risk not to.” I lifted my chin to reinforce the courageous facade.

  Seven smiled wistfully. “You have so much heart. That I know for sure.”

  “This is what I’ve been training for. My mother wouldn’t expect anything less from me. You have me and my sword. Always.” Sapphire’s mother was trapped in Purgatory right now because of my family. The fact she was still standing next to me was the pure definition of loyalty.

  Diego shuffled his feet into the dirt. “When my family found out I was…different, they made me choose. Their way, or leave forever. I—I couldn’t pretend anymore. I couldn’t marry that woman…so I left. Everyone should get to choose their own path. Wherever yours leads, I’m with you, mi amica.”

  My heart broke for him. “Oh, Diego… I didn’t know. They don’t deserve you.” I would never understand how a family could turn their backs on one of their own because of who they loved. It was sickening.

  He brushed away a tear before it could fully roll down his cheek. “It’s okay. I’ve made my peace with it. But speaking of my family, we should leave soon. Lorenzo will make good on his threats.”

  Chaos tucked in his wings. “Let’s get on with it then. Malta isn’t far from here, but we’ll need to lay low for a bit. We don’t want to disturb their sleep.”

  I shot him a puzzled look. What on earth was he talking about?

  Seven pointed up, motioning toward the sun. “The Luminaries hibernate during the day. They believe they are soaking up the energy of the light. It is also when they are the deadliest. We must approach them at nightfall.”

  As we made our way back to the ship, all of my hushed fears rose to the surface. I took a deep breath and tried to quiet my thoughts, afraid to let my mind wander into all the bad scenarios that might happen. I hoped the Luminaries were at least a coven I could reason with. If they were anything like the Seraphine, we’d be right back where we started except with an added threat of a possible new enemy.

  The sun was close to setting as we docked into a small port just east of central Malta. The Luminary temple stood out, tall and glowing, perched on a hill in the distance and surrounded by olive trees and stone pathways. We clung to the safety of the ship, watching the sunlight slide down the horizon, fading into the background of a rose and lavender sky. There was nothing we could do but watch and wait for night to come.

  “Where are all the people?” I hesitantly climbed off the ship. I expected to see the city come to life after dark. Expected a bustling of sorts—lights flickering on, smoke rising from chimneys, the pattering of urgent feet paired with eager bellies as the dinner hour was upon us—but it was oddly deserted, devoid of any signs of life.

  “Gone,” Seven murmured. “Over time, the Luminaries drove everyone out. Too many disappearances and accidents caused the humans to flee. It’s been uninhabited for centuries.”

  “So much for blending in with the crowd,” Chaos said.

  It seemed too unbelievable to fathom, but as I scanned the beach, the paths leading up to the center of town, it was clear that this was a ghost town. No, worse. There weren’t even any ghosts here.

  The buildings crumbled, decaying in every direction I looked. Rusted lampposts, their bulbs shattered and jagged, littered the streets with broken glass. Broken flower pots filled with maggot infested dirt and weeds that used to be flowers, dangled between the buildings that were once people’s homes. Clotheslines hung empty except for the occasional torn and weathered shirt, as if still clinging to its former life amidst the rotting walls and sunken in roofs.

  “Maybe there’s another side to the story.” I was trying to convince myself of another explanation. That I wasn’t about to put my magic—my life—into the hands of a coven that was responsible for this
.

  Seven squinted in the dark as he guided us through the rubble, careful not to trip on any fallen debris. “Perhaps. But can you think of any other reason why an entire civilization would just vanish?”

  I didn’t have an answer for him. There weren’t any bodies, no rotting bones, not a single hint of death. Only signs of struggle, neglect, and abandonment. Despite the humidity, an icy chill spread across my flesh, tickling the hairs on the back of my neck.

  The stone pathways that led up the hill were scratched, covered in scorch marks only visible because of the tiny torches that lined either side. Beyond that was total darkness. The sky was pitch black without a single star to be found.

  I tugged at my sleeves, fidgeting with the black lace cuffs. Chaos kept his eyes on me the entire way, sweat glistening off his face. His expressions cycled, shifting from curiosity to worry, then concern and back again. It did nothing to calm my nerves.

  The temple entrance was an open archway with no door, as if to say, come on in, we dare you. On instinct, I wrapped my hand around the helm of the dagger I’d stashed in the side of my pants, my palms sweating. Not that it would be of any use to me against a coven of fire witches. It might as well have been a banana.

  A light flickered through the opening, revealing shadows dancing across the stone walls. My pulse quickened as the smell of sweet smoke wafted through my nose—a mixture of rose, sandalwood, and mountain ash. I walked toward it as it beckoned me, teasing my senses and drawing me in like a drug.

  The sensation of heat and fire called to me, pulling me forward like a magnet. The smoke infiltrated my senses, reaching up into my nose and thickening as it invaded my mind. So alluring that I barely made out Chaos’s urgent whisper from behind me. “Arya, be careful.”

  Soft drums beat from within, a slow steady rhythm, seductive as it was haunting. The shadows became shapes as I walked through the archway and into the open courtyard. Bodies bent and swayed to the music—more ritual than a dance. They pushed up against each other, twirling limbs and sliding up and down flesh. They moved like magic personified—slow, deliberate, persuasive.