by D. N. Hoxa
I practically ran back to my room to hide the files in my drawer for later. It was already late and the others were probably waiting for me so I quickly changed my shirt for another one and made my way to Aaron’s office.
When I walked inside the room, I immediately turned my senses off. There were more sups than I thought there would be.
Aaron was sitting behind his desk while Jack, Horatio—the potion warlock—Arturo and two other sups I had seen around the Base sat across from him.
“Since we’re all here, we might as well begin,” Jack said and turned to wink at me.
“Star, this is Andrew, a warlock.” Aaron told me, pointing at the first guy on the left, who had cropped blond hair and brown eyes. He looked muscled and strong. “He is in charge of the security around this Base.”
I nodded at the warlock, and he nodded back but didn’t keep my eyes for long.
“And this is Christopher, a shifter. He is in charge of guard duty, together with me,” Aaron explained pointing at the guy next to Andrew. The shifter was bigger and his full beard and dark eyes made him look dangerous. I let my senses peek and from the vibe he gave me, he was definitely a were-lizard of some sorts.
“They’re going to help us with whatever we need for next week,” Aaron said, a knowing look on his face. He was right. We’d need more men. So without wasting another second, I laid out the story about the SKO conference for them.
“And why should we do that?” the warlock, Andrew, asked when I wrapped up the story and told them about our plan to prove to the SKO sups that the Council was going behind their backs.
“Because they believe that we killed their sups. If we convince them of the truth, the chances that they’ll switch sides are pretty good.”
“We would be fools to think that proof could change their minds. Don’t you think they already know?” Andrew said. “They fear their Master too much.” And he was right—half, if not more of those sups—already knew what was going on.
“Fear is a powerful stimulator, Andrew. And we’re going to use that against the Council.”
“And what makes you think that they will listen?” Christopher asked calmly.
“Because even if Andrew is right and they all know, a chance is what they’re waiting for. An opportunity to stand and fight against the people they now think are invincible. They’re looking for someone to lead them, and we’ll be right there.”
“This is ridiculous,” Andrew said, and I was going to send him to hell, but Aaron beat me to it.
“It’s our only chance, Andrew.”
“Why, because she says so?” Andrew nodded at me and didn’t even try to hide the disgust from showing on his face. Just when I thought the people were beginning to accept me…
In the next second, my lips were stretched into my favorite evil smile, and I was in front of the warlock, looking down at him like he looked down at me. Jack, the only one who could’ve stopped me, was grinning like a little boy, no doubt enjoying the show.
“Yes, Andrew. Because I say so. Do you have a problem with that?” I whispered in his ear. Every hair on his body stood at attention, and he dragged his chair away from me until he saw my face again.
“I do,” he said. His voice shook violently, but he didn’t look like he was about to back down.
Huh. I took a step back myself.
“How do you suppose we go about this, then?” I asked. “You want to fight me, Andrew? Because I don’t mind that at all.”
But the other guy—Christopher—put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“Andrew, sit down.” It was a clear, calm command, and Andrew obeyed it without word. “Are you capable?” Christopher then asked me.
“Would I be here if I wasn’t?” I said, and Christopher believed me. He confirmed it with a nod. “I’m not asking you to join me personally. You are here because Aaron said so. I will not ask you to help. I’’ll do everything on my own if I have to, but don’t think for a second that I will ask for your help.” When I took my seat again, I realized Aaron’s face was red as a tomato.
“Andrew,” he called the warlock in an ice-cold whisper that gave me the chills. He really scared me when he became like that. The way he was watching Andrew somehow reminded me of a very distant but vivid dream. I shook my head to clear it of stupid thoughts.
“I believed we had this cleared out before Star got here. I believe her and so do the Elders. If you don’t, please leave this room immediately. Because if you stay, no matter what Star says, you are obligated to help in everything we need to make this work. So make your choice and make it fast. We don’t have the time,” Aaron said and I would’ve grinned and hi-fived him if that look wasn’t still on his face. So I just stared ahead.
“We’re all going to die soon, anyway. Might as well do something but sit around all day,” Horatio said, surprising us all a bit.
“I’m in,” Christopher said. “If Stephan trust you, so will I.”
We all turned to look at Andrew next. The confusion and insecurity in his eyes spoke volumes. He kept shaking his head every second and looking at the ground. My patience was wearing very thin, but thankfully, after what felt like hours but were mere minutes, he nodded.
“Fine,” he said reluctantly, but that was all I needed. I smiled widely.
“Let’s get to work, fellas.” I dragged my chair closer to them. “Jack, please arrange a meeting with Kyahen tomorrow morning. Give him access to my room only. I’ll be waiting.”
“Done,” Jack said without batting an eye.
“We only have a few days so we will use them wisely. We’ll divide into groups, and we’ll leave the Base one after the other, to look for evidence. People, videos, notes—anything we can find.”
The plan was weak but at least we had one, and that made me feel at least a bit better.
“Christopher, you’ll go to South Dakota two days before the meeting with all the information you need about who will be present. Your job will be to act as one of them, and find out whatever you can from the people.”
“I will,” Christopher said with a nod.
“Andrew,” I said, turning to the warlock reluctantly, “you and Jack here will go door to door to every information source he can provide for us.”
Jack sighed. He wasn’t happy about it, and I didn’t blame him.
“I know it’ll be hard to start with words and rumors only, but you’ll take shifters and vampires, and Aaron and I will take fey, witches and warlocks.” It was the best use of our time I could find.
“That’ll take a lot of time,” Jack complained.
“If you have a better idea, share it,” Aaron said to everyone in the room.
They were all thinking about it, and I wanted to tell them not to bother. I had been thinking of every possibility ever since I found out about the SKO. There really wasn’t any faster or better way to get proof. We had to start by chasing ghosts.
“And what about me?” Horatio asked, looking a little offended, probably thinking that we had forgotten about him.
“What you’ll do will be a little more complicated,” I started, and Aaron raised a brow in question. I hadn’t told him about what I wanted Horatio to do only because I’d only gotten the idea when I found him in there with the rest of the group. And I wasn’t even sure it was going to work, but…“You’re going to make us some Veritas.”
Everyone started to laugh, except for Aaron. As always, he knew I wasn’t kidding. It was simple, really. During my meeting with Sam, he said that people would not be telling the truth even if they knew it. So when I saw Horatio that day and realized he was a potions warlock, I thought, what if we can make the people spill their guts out?
“Veritas is the most ancient of magic spells. It no longer exists. No witch or warlock can make it,” Horatio said, but I already knew that.
I’d learned about Veritas in my first year in Lyndor from Simmons. It was a potion that made you tell the truth, that literally worked against your own body and made you
spill out everything in your gut. The formula and the spell were long erased from memory and book pages because Veritas was used for bad and worse throughout history, as you can imagine.
“Can you make it if you have the spell and formula?” I asked Horatio, ignoring the sad smiles on everyone’s faces.
“Sure I can. With the spell and formula. Which haven’t existed for more than five centuries. They’re lost, Star. Dead. Gone.”
“I’ll give you everything you need.”
I didn’t expect him to believe me. I didn’t expect any of them to believe me, and they didn’t.
“If you ever do, I will not rest until I make a whole bottle of Veritas. In fact, I’ll have it ready for you in twenty-four hours, if not less,” Horatio said, shaking his head and smiling at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I really had.
“Then it’s done.”
The sun-shaped necklace began to beat faster against my chest, warming my skin as I pictured it transforming into a book again. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to reading the pages of Illyon, but that was the only place where I could at least search for potions long ago forgotten. I had no doubt that the spell and formula for Veritas was in those pages. I just prayed to God that, if I found it, I’d be able to actually read it.
Ignoring the giggles and the stares from everyone, I continued. “We will use the potion to make everyone at the SKO tell the truth. If they really know about the Council, they’ll say it. All of them.”
“How?” Andrew asked. I grinned.
“By playing a bit dirty, of course. We’re going to put it into their drinks without them knowing it.”
“That’ll be tricky,” Jack mumbled. It was going to be, but…
“Leave that to me,” Arturo said, taking me by surprise. “If you manage to produce the potion, I will make sure everyone drinks it.”
I nodded. “Good. Let’s talk more about your part in this privately,” I said, avoiding his eyes. I already knew how much he was going to hate what I wanted him to do. Still, when I walked out of Aaron’s office, I felt a thousand times better. We finally had a concrete plan.
8
“No! Forget about it,” Arturo shouted. I sighed, for the tenth time in five minutes. “That would be the end of us! Do you not know how many will try to take advantage of this?”
“Yes, Arturo,” I said again. “I know. And I'm not asking you to give them the details you’ll give me. They just need to see a Nephil admit it.” This was so tiring.
Right after the meeting, Arturo followed me to my room. We had been shouting at each other for fifteen minutes now. He just wouldn’t listen.
“Mio dio! You’re out of your mind. Star, with our secret out, supernaturals will do all kinds of deals… it’s…it’s…” And he couldn’t even finish his sentence, so I did it for him.
“It’s a chance we have to take, or we’re all doomed.”
He dropped on the edge of my bed and shook his head violently.
I was already exhausted, and I needed sleep desperately. All I was asking was for him to tell the SKO that he’d been asked to perform the Binding Ceremony. I knew I was asking for a lot, but I also knew that that would make them listen. We needed every blow we could get. So I leaned in and lightly touched his shoulder.
“Arturo, please. We need this. I know it’s bad, and believe me I would take any other chance I thought might work, but we don’t have options. And we don’t have time to come up with them. So please, just do this. For all of us.”
After a second of silence, he covered my hand on his shoulder with his. He squeezed my fingers lightly and then looked up at me. I hadn’t realized how close we were while he had his head down. I barely held a gasp.
He kept watching my lips with so much intensity that I shivered and my mouth went dry. He leaned in and I almost jerked back, but he just rested his forehead on mine, closing his eyes. Then his hand cupped my cheek while the other held mine tightly. He sighed. “I will do this for you, bella.”
I wanted to move away, but I couldn’t. Being so close to him again brought back memories of things I once enjoyed very much but didn’t want anymore. At least not with Arturo. So despite the fast beating of my heart, I slowly leaned back and smiled weakly.
“Thanks, Arturo,” I said and stood up.
Arturo took my hand again and kissed the back of it before he whispered: “Until morning.” And he left.
I fell on my bed not a second after the door closed. I couldn’t wait to get some sleep. And I couldn’t wait for everything to clear out. Tomorrow would be an even longer day, so I closed my eyes right away and waited for sleep to claim me.
***
The sun was shining brightly up in the beautiful, clear sky. I had a smile on my face because I felt happy. Free. All I wanted was to laugh out loud. So I did. But then…
“Come with me, Star,” Arturo called.
He was standing a few feet away from me in the green grass that reached his thighs. The small yellow and white flowers made me wonder if I was in Heaven. But then I looked at Arturo more closely.
He was wearing a white shirt and white pants. His hair shone under the sun and his eyes gleamed adorably. But what made me gasp were the things behind him. Wings! He had big, white, fluffy wings attached to his back. He looked like an angel. The wings were bigger than any fairy wings I’d ever seen, and they were made of big, smooth, white feathers, sprayed with a shimmer of gold. They were so beautiful, I wanted to touch them, feel them and sleep on them for the rest of eternity.
“Come with me,” Arturo called again, and I stood up. He reached out for me with his hands and waited patiently, smiling widely at me. But I couldn’t walk over to him. I was wearing a long, white dress, and I was barefoot. I couldn’t walk on the sharp, overgrown blades of grass without tearing my skin off.
“Come get me!” I called to Arturo instead, reaching with both my hands for him. Because he had wings and he could take me flying. What better thing was there?
But Arturo shook his head.
“I can’t. You have to come to me, Star,” he called. “Come to me!”
I reluctantly looked at the grass in front of my feet. It looked so green and shiny that I had to lean down and touch it. To my surprise, it wasn’t sharp at all. It was soft and it smelled like it had just stopped raining. It wasn’t going to hurt me or make me bleed. And I wanted to go to Arturo.
So I took a step toward him.
“No, Star. Come to me,” someone called from behind me with a deep, dark voice. I shivered because I knew who it was.
I turned around to see Aaron standing there, smiling secretly. He reached out his arms for me, too. My face broke into a smile that faltered the next second, because something wasn’t right. His eyes were darker than normal. He was wearing a black suit with nothing underneath his jacket. My God, but how it looked on him. Every cell in me vibrated with desire. With joy.
But Aaron never wore a suit, unless he was going to a ball. And the way he spoke gave me chills.
“No!” Arturo shouted from behind me, but I couldn’t look away from Aaron. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life, even dark and mysterious like that. It actually suited him. The land around him wasn’t covered in grass. The sky above him wasn’t blue. It was grey, mixed with red and orange clouds. Trees, or what was left of them, looked like nothing but thin, black branches behind him. The land he stood on was dead, I could feel it.
“Come on, Star,” Aaron called again. Something was very wrong, but I couldn’t say no to him. So I started to walk toward him.
“Star! Come to me, Star!” Arturo kept calling. I turned to him to apologize and saw him trying to approach me while his wings moved forward and back, but he wasn’t flying. He tried, but he couldn’t.
“Come…” Aaron’s voice reached my ear in a whisper, and I turned to look at him, only to see that he was moving backwards.
No, he wasn’t moving. His legs were motionless. It was like an invisible cloud w
as under his feet and was carrying him away from me.
“Aaron!” I called for him and started to run. He smiled the most evil smile I had seen on his face. But I couldn’t stop.
“Wait!” I called as I kept on running. Arturo kept screaming my name, but I didn’t have time to look. Aaron was leaving. He was moving away from me. I couldn’t let him. I loved him.
And he was sick. Something was wrong with him, and I needed to fix it before it was too late.
To my horror, the next second, Aaron disappeared behind dark smoke that smelled of sulfur.
“Aaron! No, Aaron!” I ran faster and faster, but he wasn’t there. He was gone. I couldn’t reach him. Around me now there was nothing but dead land and black skies. I was alone. I screamed with all I had because I couldn’t touch him. I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t save him.
And then I fell.
***
Sleep left me before I opened up my eyes. I could still feel everything from the horrible dream I had. My heart was beating loudly. I couldn't get any of it out of my head—neither Arturo’s white, feathery wings nor Aaron’s eyes and his smile. I knew it was just a dream, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy.
I desperately wished I could’ve enjoyed a hot cup of coffee in the morning sunlight. If it was sunny outside. I wouldn't know since I was stuck underground.
I reluctantly opened my eyes and almost screamed. My body froze and my hand was halfway to grabbing Kyahen’s throat.
“What the hell?!” I hissed, the shivers still washing over me.
Kyahen’s handsome face broke into a smile.
“You’re not a morning person, I see,” he said and then leaned away from me.
“How long have you been here?” I pushed the covers off me and stood up. I immediately felt better that way, more in control.
“For the past five minutes,” he said, grinning. “A bad dream, I guess?”
“No, actually. I had a wonderful dream, one full of flowers and rainbows,” I said, faking a plastic smile, which I didn't think came off great since I’d only woken up seconds ago. But when I checked the small black clock on my nightstand, I barely kept myself from jumping him. “It’s five in the morning!”
