Claimed by Shadows (Kissed by Shadows Series, Book 3)

by Lola StVil

  “You’re a bit pasty, but I have some bronzer in my purse which would fix that,” Langston adds.

  “I’ll pass, thanks,” Regal says.

  “When can you come home?” Saudia asks.

  “Soon. I’m just waiting for the final sign-off,” Regal says. “And I don’t think that’ll take long. I think they want me gone before anything else can happen. What exactly did happen? Sadie said I got poisoned, but she wouldn’t go into the details.”

  “You were poisoned. You almost died. We saved you. The end,” Tracey says.

  “Well, shit, Trace, don’t give up your day job and start writing movies or anything.” Perry laughs.

  “Come on, guys, be serious,” Regal says.

  “Do the details matter?” Atlas asks.

  Regal looks her in the eye.

  “Yeah. They do to me. I need to know. Please,” he says.

  Atlas nods.

  “You were poisoned by Hydra venom. We’re still not exactly sure how it happened.”

  “But three guesses who did it,” Perry adds.

  “I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t need all three,” Regal says.

  “We needed a drop of Valkyrie blood for the mixture to cure you, but Perry here can’t seem to stick to one girl at a time. They refused to help us, and their leader put out a message saying any Valkyrie that did help us would be exiled from Valhalla,” Saudia says.

  “It feels wrong to stick to one girl, you know. And deprive all of the others.” Perry laughs.

  Langston throws him a look that makes him wince.

  “After a bit of persuasion from Kane, Sadie eventually told us where to find Spectra, a Valkyrie who was already exiled,” Atlas says.

  “You make it sound like Kane tortured Sadie.” Regal laughs.

  “It was only one little pitchfork and a tiny bit of boiling oil.” I grin.

  “Quinn beat us to Spectra and made us battle an Ice Fairy to get the blood. And the rest, as they say, is history,” Tracey finishes.

  “Shit. I missed a lot, didn’t I?” Regal says.

  “All in a day’s work for us,” Perry replies.

  We fall silent for a moment. The atmosphere suddenly feels kind of awkward when Regal speaks again.

  “Listen, guys; I’m sorry for losing control like that. Back at the loft, I mean. But I saw what happened to Remy…and…”

  “It’s okay,” Atlas says, reaching over and squeezing his hand.

  I feel a surge of jealousy rush through me, and I remind myself that the guy lost his sister and almost died. He deserves a tiny bit of affection, surely? Yeah, he does, but I’d be happier if it were maybe not from Atlas.

  “We all felt the same way, Regal. We miss Remy too, and we understand why you reacted the way you did,” Atlas finishes.

  She lets go of his hand, and the knot in my stomach begins to unravel.

  “I have to find Quinn,” Regal says quietly.

  “It’s no use,” Langston says. “We spoke to her. We tried to reason with her, but she’s just not open to it at all.”

  Regal stares straight ahead, his voice hard and steady, full of steely resolve. I don’t for a second doubt what he says next.

  “Neither am I. When I find her, I will kill her.”

  It’s been a week since Regal was released from the Tamlo. The mood in the loft is so different from how it was just a few short weeks ago when we completed the first part of Atlas’s quest.

  It’s funny how so much can change so quickly, and even though the team try to carry on as usual, it’s noticeable that Remy has left a big hole in their hearts.

  Langston went into Remy’s room a couple of days ago to grab a lip gloss she’d lent her. She was gone for an hour, and when she came back, it was evident she’d been crying.

  Yesterday, Saudia decided to go out and get everyone ice cream and try to cheer us all up. It was a lovely gesture, but she came back with one cone too many. She was still counting Remy when she tried to work out how many she needed.

  It’s not even all big stuff like that. It’s the little things that affect everyone the most. That moment where things get awkward, and Remy would have known the perfect thing to say to lighten the mood. It’s the times when one of the team sees something bizarre and knows that Remy would have gotten it.

  I don’t think it helps that we still haven’t had a funeral for Remy yet. It would give the team some closure. Allow them to say goodbye to their friend and let her go in peace. At first, they held back because of Regal being in the Tamlo. No one thought it was right to lay her to rest without Regal being there.

  The day after he was released, Atlas brought it up with him. He point-blank refused to even think about holding Remy’s funeral while Quinn is still alive. I don’t know if it’s a symbolic thing, or if he thinks Quinn will show up and somehow wreck the funeral, but either way, he’s not budging. They’ve brought it up to him a few more times, and he gets angry and refuses to talk about it.

  The team focused on trying to find a way to combat Quinn. All of us except Regal. He refuses to entertain the notion of combating her. He says that’s too good for her, and he won’t rest until he’s killed her. I’m inclined to agree with him, but I mostly keep that opinion to myself.

  I’m sitting on Atlas’s bed now, waiting for her to come back from the kitchen. She only went to grab us some snacks so that we could watch a movie together, and she’s been gone a while. I’m guessing she got held up talking to someone. I should probably look for her, but right now, I’m intrigued listening to a conversation between Langston and Perry. It’s obviously meant to be private, but I just can’t help myself.

  I swear for all of my faults, the team is a bad influence on me. I’ve never paid any mind to idle gossip or listening in on people’s personal affairs, but ever since Langston and Perry kissed at the Tamlo, I’ve found myself wondering what will happen between them.

  If I continue down this slippery slope, I’ll be watching Desperate Housewives or something equally lame with Tracey.

  “Why won’t you just talk to me about what happened?” Perry demands.

  From his tone, I have a feeling this isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation.

  “Because there’s nothing to talk about,” Langston says. “We kissed. The earth didn’t move. I felt nothing. And that’s the end of it.”

  “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” Perry says.

  I imagine Langston shrugging.

  “Well, you asked,” she says.

  “I asked because I wanted to make sure you’re okay. I know you’re still feeling confused about Drew,” Perry replies.

  “Fine. You want the truth? The truth is I’m not confused about Drew. I’m not feeling anything about him. And that makes me feel guilty, okay? Especially when I should be grieving, and instead, I’m out kissing other guys,” she snaps.

  “It’s hardly like you were out clubbing and kissing multiple guys, Langs. It was an emotional time,” Perry says.

  “Exactly. It happened because we were all emotionally drained after the battle and the worry about Regal. So, can we drop it?”

  “Fine,” Perry says.

  I hear his feet stomp away and then his door slam shut.

  “And I hate myself because a part of me liked it,” I hear Langston say to herself after he’s gone.

  My eyebrows shoot up. Did she really say that, or did I imagine it?

  That’s it, I tell myself. I’m getting way too invested in this shit. I stand up and head for the living room, looking for Atlas. I find her sitting on the couch, alone. She’s staring at the coffee table. On it sits a gold cube.

  “Atlas?” I say.

  “It’s the next object,” she says without looking up. “Can you call everyone in here?”

  I do as she asks. Regal is the first to arrive. And he looks seriously pissed.

  “Not this shit now, Atlas,” he rages. “It’ll distract everyone from trying to find the bitch who murdered my siste
r.”

  “Regal—” she starts.

  “Isn’t Remy important enough to you to want to make this right, Atlas?” he snaps.

  “Of course, she is. And we will make this right. Don’t think for a second that we won’t. But right now, we have to focus on finding the third object. You know as well as I do what’s at stake here, and if we ignore this quest, then no one will be making anything right,” she replies.

  He still looks angry, but he sits down. Saudia and Langston came in while Regal and Atlas were arguing.

  “Where’s Perry?” Atlas says.

  Nursing his broken heart, I almost say, but I stop myself.

  “I’m here. Where’s the damn fire?” Perry says as he walks in.

  He sees the golden cube between us all.

  “Oh. It’s right there,” he adds.

  He takes his seat, and the golden cube floats up into the air. It hovers for a moment, and then it splits into six equal parts. The parts float around, faster and faster until their movement is a blur. Abruptly, they stop moving, and what was once a cube is now a golden staff.

  “What is it?” Atlas asks, puzzled.

  “It’s the Staff of Lost Souls,” I say.

  All eyes turn to me.

  “How do you know what it is?” Langston asks.

  “What, you think just because I’m pretty I don’t know shit? You of all people should know better than that.” I wink.

  She beams, and Atlas rolls her eyes.

  “You were saying,” she prompts me.

  “Ooh, someone’s jealous,” Perry teases her.

  She fixes him with a look and turns her attention back to me.

  “I take it you’ve all heard the human story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden? How Eve ate an apple from the one tree she was forbidden to touch and cursed all mankind with sin. Or something like that?” I start.

  They all nod.

  “Well, it was partly based in truth, although there was more than a little artistic license in the human version of the story.

  “The Garden of Eden was created by Nyten as a place for angels to hang out. It was paradise for them, filled with everything they ever wanted. Arken got wind of the place and naturally sought to destroy it, but he learned that Nyten had found a way to prevent demons from entering, and he argued that everything must have a balance—good and evil, dark and light.

  “Nyten argued against his logic, but Arken was cunning, and he challenged Nyten to place the most beautiful tree he could think up in the garden, and have it laden with the reddest apples, which would tempt anyone. He told Nyten that if he was so sure his angels were good, he could plant such a tree and tell the angels they weren’t to touch it and they wouldn’t.

  “Nyten, angry by this time, agreed that such a thing was possible. Arken made a deal with him. If the angels could resist the tree for ten years, he would stop trying to find a way to destroy the garden, but if any of them touched it, it would become a bleak place that only the darkest souls would ever venture into. Arken put it into the deal that Nyten wasn’t allowed to tell the angels why they couldn’t touch the fruits of the tree, only that it was forbidden.

  “Nyten made the tree and warned the angels that they may not touch it. Nine and a half years passed, and no angel touched the tree. But Arken wasn’t ready to give up without a fight. He searched far and wide for an angel who was disillusioned with their task of protecting mankind. One of his followers introduced him to Dora.

  “Dora had always been one of Nyten’s most faithful supporters, and she had always believed that humanity was worth saving. Until one day, she witnessed something so terrible that she began to doubt humanity. There are many stories about what it was she witnessed that day, and no one knows for sure what it was, but the most popular legends tell of her stumbling across a gang of youths taunting a blind man.

  “They beat him, robbed him, and left him for dead. And something in Dora broke that day. She began to think that humanity was just an ideal. That really, humans were flawed, evil. And Arken told her that was all true. He told her that Nyten knew it, but he wasn’t ready to admit he was wrong.

  “It took a while, but he began to wear her down, twisting Nyten’s words, until she was primed to believe him. And then he told her that the tree, the one with the best fruit, held all of the secrets of humanity. The real truth about their creation and the reason Nyten protected them, even though he knew they didn’t deserve it.

  “She was skeptical, but she went back to the Garden of Eden, determined to learn the truth. She stood, looking at the tree, and Nyten came to her then. She told him of her doubts, and he tried to reassure her. She asked about the secrets the tree protected, but of course, if he told her, then Arken won the bet.

  “He pleaded with Dora to have faith in him. She took his hesitance at telling her the true meaning of the tree to be guilt, and she reached for an apple. As she reached for it, another angel, Harlow, saw what she was doing, and he fired at her, killing her.

  “Nyten was so enraged that his own angels had turned on each other that he sent a plague down to earth, a plague of sin, greed, and lust to keep the angels out of trouble. They would be so busy protecting humanity from itself that they wouldn’t have time to turn on each other.

  “And when they were gone, he returned to the Garden of Eden and questioned his own motives. He realized he had been so determined to beat his brother that he had knowingly cursed the humans, whom he had fought so hard to protect.

  “And he knew then that indeed, humans are flawed, but so are angels, even gods. And he knew that the Garden of Eden could no longer be a paradise, because instead, it was a symbol of his own failure. He attacked the tree and cut it down himself. As it fell to the ground, a group of demons swarmed the garden, taking it over as their own.

  “And Nyten realized something else. That while there are bad things in the world, there is one thing that can overcome anything. Hope. It was all he had left, and it was all the humans had left.

  “He carved a staff from the wood of the tree, and it became a symbol of hope for the entire angel world and humanity. And Nyten left it behind, in what was once a garden of paradise but had become a sanctuary for demons. He left them hope, thinking that it might one day bring them to the light.

  “And there it remains,” I finish.

  “So, Dora was...?” Atlas asks, breathless.

  “Yup. Pandora.”

  “So, Pandora’s box? The Garden of Eden? It was all real?” Atlas asks, her eyes wide with shock.

  I nod.

  “Basically, yeah,” I say.

  “The stories have gotten twisted, but they all come down to one thing. Humans are fundamentally flawed, but while there is hope, there is something to cling to,” Perry adds.

  “So where is the staff now? I know you said it’s still there, but where is the Garden of Eden?” Atlas asks.

  “It’s no longer a paradise. It’s no longer a garden even. It’s a vast desert, filled with evil of every kind. Even most demons avoid the place now,” I say.

  “Every time a Seeker fails, their failure is reflected in the landscape as hope dies a little bit more. It’s a barren place where only those creatures with the darkest of souls thrive. It’s called Vulture Valley,” Regal says.

  “And that’s where we’re headed?” Atlas asks.

  “Yes. And from what I’ve heard, Vulture Valley makes the Isle of Grey look like a holiday camp.” Langston gulps.

  “I’ve heard of Vulture Valley.” Tracey swallows.

  “It’s evil’s playground; going there…is suicide.”

  Vulture Valley and the Staff of Lost Souls. It hits me it’s no longer just a story. Not for us. For us, it’s about to become a reality. Once again, we’ll be in danger. Once again, she’ll be throwing herself into danger to protect humanity.

  It fills me with an impotent rage that I just can’t shake. This is why I hate humanity. What fucking right do humans have to sit back and let people like At
las risk their lives to save them? Are they that useless that they can’t take care of their own shit? Are they that entitled that they think this is okay?

  I try to reason with myself, to remind myself that this is all on Arken, that the humans don’t know any of this, but it doesn’t help. It barely takes the edge off my rage.

  This level of rage inside me makes me uneasy. When I feel this way, I make bad decisions. And that’s when people get hurt.

  Atlas’s voice pulls me back out of my head. How is it that even now, when all this is happening, only she can make me see straight? Only she can penetrate my darkest thoughts?

  I don’t know, but what I do know is that I can’t tell her about Silver Lake. Not yet. There’s no way I’m letting her go off to Vulture Valley without me, and there’s no way she’d want me to go if she knew the truth. I will tell her. I will. But after this quest.

  “Kane?” Atlas says.

  Okay, so maybe her voice didn’t totally pull me out of my head because I missed what she just said completely.

  “Huh?” I say.

  “I asked you if you knew anything about what awaits us in this valley,” Atlas says.

  I shake my head.

  “No. I’ve never met anyone dumb enough to go there,” I say honestly. “Oh. There is one more thing. I’ve never met anyone who knows where Vulture Valley is.”

  She gives me a look, but her focus is on the mission now.

  “Okay, guys. Call anyone you think might be able to help. We need to find out everything we can about Vulture Valley. Meet back here in an hour,” she says.

  Everyone gets up, including me. Even Regal looks focused, but I don’t know how long that will last.

  “Kane? Can I talk to you for a moment?” Atlas says.

  I nod. She waits for everyone else to leave and then she takes my hands in hers.

  “Are you sure we’re okay? You’ve been acting strange ever since our fight at the Tamlo,” she says.

  “We’re fine, Disney, I swear,” I tell her.

  She smiles.

  “You haven’t called me that in ages,” she says.

  “I guess it feels strange now. You’re not as naïve as you were back then.” I grin.