The little girl wasn’t waiting for Ren to take in the sights. She kept going, muttering, “Suit yourself. Whatever,” as she went.
Ren struggled to keep up. The people down here wore colorful, loose fitting, clothing too. Though their colors were more muted than the clothing of their counterparts above. What was a city doing down here? With those Wilds Spirits running around in the tunnels, Ren thought it was disadvantageous to have a home not even half a mile from literal monsters.
But that was how the Mesh lived back in Nyx. So, maybe it wasn’t that bad.
Originally, the Mesh lived on the Northern Shore, idiot. Yes, it is bad to live so close to monsters. Bad and stupid.
Ren rolled her eyes and huffed, no longer missing Nakato’s voice. Now, she missed the silence.
The young lady lackadaisically threw up a hand before vanishing into one of the nearby blackened buildings. A sign hung over the door, a realistic heart carved into the center of the board. Maka pinned Ren with a half-hearted glare before pulling open the sliding door and letting himself in. He left it open for her.
Ren met a wide room sequestered off by hanging curtains. Tattered and patched up, the curtains divided the room further, cutting the divisions into little rectangles of space. The young woman and Maka moved between the curtains, ambling down a long hallway. Moans and groans drifted from between the curtains. Splotches of deep burgundy staining some of the curtains and wiggling through the boards of the floor. Shadows rested behind them, silhouettes that were down and out. Reaching the back of the sick smelling room, the young woman hovered over the shoulder of a taller woman in white who kneeled before a skinny podium. A glass idol sat atop the wood.
“Ah, yes.” The woman in white murmured, silver hair sliding over her deep bronze shoulders. “I see you’ve—” she stood and twirled. Eyes pale as an overcast sky took Ren in before falling to Maka. “You…” she said, turning to Maka completely. “…Ekanna, would you…”
The young woman, Ekanna, flared her nostrils and nodded her head curtly. She pointed at Maka, “Come on.”
“I am here for the—”
“I know, I know.” Ekanna rolled her eyes. “We all know where it is. It’s getting there that’s the hard part.”
Maka’s lips pursed as if he planned to speak again, but sighed heavily instead. “But, we will be?”
Ekanna brought her eyes to the ceiling. “Yes!” she snapped, throwing her hands out. “Stop asking! We know!”
Maka grumbled as she led him out.
Ren narrowed her eyes on the woman in white. “What’s going on?”
Out of all the questions you could have asked…
The woman pressed both of her hands to her heart. “I saw you.” She said. “Not him. But the future is malleable, right?” she laughed, her voice like tinkling bells. “You are here for the Heart. Both of you.”
Finally. Someone useful. “Yes!” Ren regretted the word. “No!” She was here for Kato. How could she get her priorities mixed up? Stupid! Stupid!
“Chi Chi,” the woman introduced herself, opening her hand toward Ren in a graceful, fan-like, movement, “I believe we’ve met.”
“Oh, no we haven’t.” Ren shook her head. “Just call me—”
“Ren.” Chi Chi breathed. “Yes. I like your full name. Renata.” Ren’s name rolled off of her tongue.
Ren pressed her lips into a grim line. Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out.
Freak out at will. If Nakato had lips, they would be grinning.
“How do you know—”
“Your name?”
Ren clenched her jaw. “That’s rude, you know.”
“I am one of the Shapers you seek.” Chi Chi said, motioning for her to follow as she glided down the hallway toward one of the many cordoned off curtain rooms, “Vision.” She said, tapping the right side of her forehead, “Ekanna is Creation.”
That would explain the crows.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Chi Chi yanked back the curtain. A silent smile graced her red lips. Ren peered in.
She could have screamed. The shaking started in her knees, vibrating up through her tailbone and spine. Soon, her fingers trembled as she splayed them across her lips, her stone hand rough against her face.
Kato. Kato rested in a makeshift cot, hay sticking out from the linen wrapped mattress. His right eye was swelled, his left arm in a splint wrapped in what looked like seaweed. His chest was bare, though it rose and fell, a red gash ripping across it made a sucking sound with every haggard breath.
Ren stumbled, tripped and fell, but crawled her way over. She would kick herself later for losing her balance and losing her cool in front of a woman she barely knew—but Kato was alive. She laughed, giggled as her face became wet. Her eyes bleary. She touched the side of his stomach tentatively, fingertips only. She braced herself against the bed and stood up. Hovered over his face, handsome and boyish in sleep.
Kato is alive.
“How long has he been asleep?” Ren forced out, clenching her jaw as her voice wavered. About to crack.
“Maybe a day.” Chi Chi said, her voice too close. The woman stood near Ren’s shoulder, the stifling scent of chamomile wafting off of her white dress. “He is alive. He is fine.”
“You knew I would come.” Ren twisted. “So you planted him here? Where did you find him?”
“He washed up,” Chi Chi smiled, “right in the mouth of the cave.”
Ren could have broken down right there.
“I can lead you to the Heart.” Chi Chi said, resting a hand on Ren’s shoulder. Pulling her back, she yanked her through the curtain with a wiry strength that threw Ren off balance. She didn’t give a fuck about the Heart. She’d wait here until Kato came to. She’d fight for the right if she had to. They didn’t need her.
Dragging her back to the wooden podium, Chi Chi pulled out a cracked porcelain bowl with still water sitting in it. Snatching up Ren’s left wrist, she pressed Ren’s petrified hand into the water. A tingling sensation snapped up her fingers, the substance weaving itself into muscle and sinew and bone.
“You met those things—the Nephilim—on your way here. There are thousands of them out there, guarding the Heart.” Picking up Ren’s hand, Chi Chi tested it. Ren snatched it from the lady and pressed her thumb into the palm of her newly healed hand.
“To survive against them, you must give up your addiction to souls.” Chi Chi said, tapping Ren’s empty Scion crystal. “To become stronger, you must learn to pull from the land.”
15
Nakato’s grave chuckle echoed in Ren’s head, giving her the chills.
Ren agreed to…whatever this was. She got the feeling that if she didn’t comply, they’d throw Kato out like a patient without health insurance. Luckily, Kato had insurance. Her.
Ren met Ekanna at the back of the building. Ekanna sat with her back straight against the wall, eyes closed. A long stretch of black dirt separated the back of the clinic from a nearby home with a cracked glass door glinting in the little furrows of natural white light.
“She’s fast,” Ekanna grumbled. The mousy haired little girl grunting like a grizzled man. “You ready to do this?”
Ren dropped down beside her. Could she at least catch her breath first? She almost died in that damned cave. Things were moving fast because they had to, though. If Morgan Black’s helicopters were already flying over the city, that meant that they had either cleared the Wilds entirely, or had already started building their drill tower right on the lip of the Great River.
Were the Mesh still alive? Was Elder Lindiwe taking care of them, helping them avoid Morgan Black’s mercenaries?
Best not to worry about that.
“So, here’s how we do it.” Ekanna dipped her fingers into the black dirt, “close your eyes. Feel the life around you, blah, blah blah…”
Ren did as she was told, cupping the dirt in her hands. It was rough like jagged stone. “Then what?”
“Just�
�envision everything. See the stuff around you and put a color to the energy. Maybe even a voice if you’re feeling…fancy.”
Okay…
Ren saw the clinic’s sparse backyard. The cracked glass door attached to the home across from them. She saw diamonds of light skirting the edges of her vision. She heard water lapping lazily at the black dirt.
Put a color to the energy.
It was almost too easy. With a thought, swirls of air blackened, dancing over the sooty ground and picking up like a dark curtain of gossamer. Black haze hung there lazily, drifting over everything that lived.
And a voice.
“You’re too weak to control me.”
It thundered through the blackened air, flashes of light exploding from the thin smoky clouds. Ren’s eyes snapped open as she snatched her fingers away from the dirt. Why in the hell did Nakato’s voice pervade everything? Fucking everything? The black energy should have warned her of what would come next, but she had ignored it. Hoped desperately that maybe Nakato would just butt the fuck out of her life—fuck.
A deep laugh soured her thoughts. Made her press her lips together.
“So, you saw it, right?” Ekanna asked, eyes on her. “Pull from it. But, be careful. Pull too much and the energy will start taking. It’ll probably start with your fire.”
Okay…don’t take too much energy or it’ll take my fire. Got it. “Pull what?” Ren said.
Ekanna shrugged her shoulders. “What do you think?”
Ren didn’t like her tone.
She closed her eyes again. Saw the energy whirring around like smoke coming off a fire. When Nakato laughed, lightning boomed beneath the clouds of smoke as they swam lazily through Ren’s field of vision.
Pull from it.
Power. Like pulling from a Scion crystal. She had done it before—but without thinking. She had been a novice back then, transpiring the Wilds, searching for a way back home. Now, she kind of knew what she was doing. And knew that pulling from nothing hurt like hell. You can’t expect something from nothing, Lindiwe had explained that to her. But that was back when the Mesh truly believed that only souls could fuel Moira’s power. Now, Ren knew that energy existed all around her if she envisioned it. She just needed to reach out and touch it.
Her arm stretched, fingers open. A tendril of smoke exploded toward her in a cyclone of black. It wrapped up her arm, slithered onto her shoulder, dove into her chest and froze everything.
Ren gasped her eyes open, her chest numb as she brought a fist to it. She heaved so hard she rocked in place.
Ekanna stood with an exasperated sigh. “It shouldn’t be this hard for you.” The little girl snapped. Clenching her fists, she stomped away, heels digging into the black rock.
Ren stumbled back into the clinic, chest constricting, blood going cold. Lurching down the hallway, she came into contact with a chest. She stepped back to look up at Maka.
“They have told you?”
Wheezing, air charging up her throat like bile, Ren forced a word, “What?”
Maka’s face darkened. “Where the Heart is?”
Ren shook her head. “Time.” She pleaded, but Maka mirrored the head shake.
“The Paragon will not wait.”
A hand crawled onto his shoulder, the fingers squeezing. He frowned and looked over.
“Please,” Chi Chi said, “Give us time to prepare. The journey to the Heart is an arduous one. The creatures you encountered with the animal skulls, they are Nephilim. And there are thousands more the closer one goes to the Heart.” She smiled. “Patience, Sonant. We have only attempted this journey once.”
Attempted? Ren’s eyes bugged out of her head. And, Sonant? What the hell did that mean?
Unfazed, Maka traced his gaze between the two before nodding shortly and shouldering past Ren. Chi Chi’s smile shrank when her eyes fell to Ren, but she opened a path for her which Ren gracelessly stumbled down.
Nephilim. Ren would have to ask about that later.
She found Kato’s room and curled up on the floor. Sleeping the numbness off, the hiss of the curtain being pulled back snapped Ren awake. Chi Chi stood there, her dress a stained gold this time. A day must have passed.
“Come.” She sang before disappearing. Ren groaned, so not ready to try this shit again. Whatever energy she sucked in—Nakato had been right. Ren was too weak to control it, to channel it as her own and fuel her fire. She sprawled out on the wooden floor, head falling to the right. The coldness in her chest still resided there, though it was like a tiny ice cube now instead of a thousand little icy picks. She sighed, closing her eyes.
She only came down here for Kato. Fuck the Heart. Fuck Moira…for now.
“Hey,”
Ren’s heart hiccuped.
Was that Kato’s voice? She sprang up, stood. Hovered over him and threaded her fingers through his. “Hey?” she said, staring at his closed eyes. His lips twitched.
He had spoken.
She tightened her grip on his hand. Ren had to get stronger. Had to learn how to pull that eerie black energy. If not for herself or Moira, then for him. Next time, when they’re dangling off of the side of a high-ass drop, she’ll be the one to slingshot him across the gorge and fall. She’ll be the one to protect him. Not the other way around.
Ren charged down the hallway and met Chi Chi out in the back. The woman clasped her hands before herself, smiling sweetly. “Has Ekanna taught you the basics?”
Ren nodded.
“This time, try seeing the energy with your eyes open.”
Nodding, Ren concentrated. Tried envisioning the murky smoke of energy cascading around her. It faded into existence, much like the blinking blue light in the tunnels, and buzzed dangerously. Like a wasp nest kicked over.
“Pull it, Renata. Take it into yourself.”
“How?”
Chi Chi shrugged one shoulder. “How? That is for you to decide.”
Like last time, Ren held out her hand. As it cycled toward her, her fingers danced. This time, she wouldn’t let it crawl up her arm. This time, when it pooled in her hand, she balled her hand into a fist and clenched it. It battled with her fingers, attempting to slide out through the cracks. She simply tightened her grip and held it until it cooperated. Until it stopped buzzing and relaxed.
“That’s it.” Chi Chi murmured.
Ren inhaled, taking the energy in through the center of her hand. An icy chill spiraled up her forearm, threading through blood and bone as it dipped into her arm and out, riding her skin to the shoulder. It balled up in her chest, welling up like a heavy stone. Ren exhaled, white mist escaping her nostrils.
She willed the fire to burn.
Ice melted. Her insides boiled with red-hot flame. Nakato thundered in her mind, moaning, Yes, over and over as power filled Ren. Her palms alighted. The ground at her feet steamed.
“Now, let it go.”
What?
The momentary break in concentration allowed the black smoke to race up her arm and across her shoulder. Rearing back its smoky head like a spear, it stabbed her in the chest, making her lurch back. She pulled at it with her hand, bringing it under control again as Nakato’s screeching shriek splintered her mind.
Let it go?
Ren exhaled, the black smoke dissipating. The burning sensation roaring through her entire body going cold. She shivered at the sudden chill, arms wrapped around her.
You are not worthy, a voice in the distance echoed—a strange voice that wasn’t Nakato’s, but you will do.
Ren slid her gaze toward Chi Chi’s and mustered a small smile.
“You are as ready as you will ever be.” Chi Chi said, bowing her head. “Our preparation is done.”
Though she did wait an entire day to muster them all.
The following day, Ren lingered near the clinic’s entrance as Chi Chi spoke to a clinic attendant in island speak. Probably asking her to keep the place clean until she got back. Maka and Ekanna disappeared through the sliding door, Chi
Chi following. Ren was the last to leave.
Standing on the edge of the door post with one foot in the clinic, one foot out, she froze.
What in the fuck was she doing?
A slight tremor threatened to unbalance her. The clinic’s walls moaned as the tremor vibrated through them.
Ren almost slapped herself. Had she seriously forgotten what—no, who—she had come down here for?
Renata…Nakato’s warning weighed heavy in Ren’s head, silencing her own thoughts, but she ignored it.
“I can’t,” Ren said, the group turning to face her. “I’m not going anywhere until Kato’s awake.”
16
Shocked glances passed between Ekanna and Chi Chi, Ekanna’s face hardening as her lips pressed into a white line. “You should have seen this coming,” she said, eyes on Ren.
“I saw…” Chi Chi shook her head slowly, silver locks sliding over her shoulders. “Trouble.”
Maka took a charged step forward, jaw working as a vein popped onto his forehead.
“I’m just going to wait,” Ren said, shrugging. “He talked. He’s still in there. And I’m going to wait until he comes out.” There. She said her piece. Nodding once, she turned back toward the clinic.
“Stop.”
Ren let out a strangled gasp. Dammit—his voice was like an ironclad grip tightening around every muscle in her arms and legs. He was using his stupid power again and Ren had no choice but to freeze and listen.
Maka grumbled something in island speak before switching back to English. “Turn around and walk.”
Wild Hunt (The Island Book 2) Page 6
