by Nazri Noor
“The other gods you have met might have held some tolerance for your corruption, but I see differently. You should be cleansed, the taint burned right out of you. No, no. Your taint should be burned right off the face of this earth.”
Amaterasu charged again, teeth, eyes, and blade flashing in the beautiful, hellish light of the mirror shards above us. That was the source of all my trouble. I clenched my jaw, narrowing my eyes as I looked up. If I could deactivate its enchantment, bring back the shadows –
The goddess slashed, and I wove out of the path of her sword. She was a talented fighter – how I knew that, I can’t explain. All I knew was that anyone who could handle a sword well enough to almost hack my limbs off multiple times in succession must have possessed some amount of skill in swordplay. She growled at the annoyance of missing me again, but that was all I had: agility, reflexes, a quick mind.
But I also had a sword.
I whirled in place like a shot putter, using Vanitas’s weight to propel him, and swung upward with all my might, hurling him into the cluster of broken mirrors. His edge blazed green and gold in the radiance of Amaterasu’s chamber, and she roared in fury as the sword’s point met home. A tinkle, then a crash, and the rainbow brilliance flooding the domicile vanished as the shards showered and clinked to the ground. Which meant the shadows were back.
“No,” Amaterasu shouted, dashing at me again, but this had to end. If she wanted to play dirty, then I was allowed to pull out all the stops, too. And hey, maybe it meant I could have some practice honing. Just a little. I stepped into a shadow, retreating to the far end of the chamber, buying myself enough time to work.
But it didn’t take long. I feared calling out the elements of the Dark Room because of what it could do to me, because of how it left me half dead when I first did it. The Dark didn’t care, though. It always wanted to come out. Always. I was only the enabler, the conduit, and all I had to do was open the door. That was the worst thing of all: that it was so easy, so effortless to cause so much destruction.
There were only a scant few shadows across the marble floor of Amaterasu’s chamber, but they were more than enough. Black mists rose from each of them, swirling, coalescing into solid shapes. How the Dark Room knew to bring its horrors to Amaterasu’s realm, I couldn’t know. But there was a different quality to the shadows this time. It was ecstatic, ravenous, and raring to emerge.
Shapes burst out of the darkness in massive waves, great, glistening tentacles of solid shadow lashing and breaking at everything within reach. I couldn’t tell where Amaterasu’s shrieking ended, and where the sound of shattering crystal began. The darkness frolicked in its dance of joyous obliteration, a raging, frothing pandemonium of shadows, blood, and mirrors bending, breaking, bleeding.
I collapsed to the ground, the marble cool against my cheek, my blood a warm, comforting puddle, all the shattered pieces of crystal and mirror like strings of diamonds in a growing lake of crimson. I made that, I thought to myself. I painted that picture, in red, and black, and white.
“I’m a shadowcrafter,” I said, burbling into a mouthful of my own blood.
I stopped breathing.
Chapter 13
My chest was on fire, like an ember was burning inside of it. The pain felt very much like the night I first died, when Thea had plunged her verdigris dagger into my heart. I moaned in a gloom lit only by candles, half asleep but just awake enough to send curious, frightened fingers groping around me. My hands met with long, smooth patches of stone. I was laid on something flat.
The altar.
I screamed as my eyes flew open. No. Not the altar. I was fine. I was back in my quarters at the hideout, the furniture around me hewn from stone, the mattress at my back flat and firm, but comfortable, nothing at all like the stone altar where Thea had murdered me as an offering to the Eldest. What I thought were candles was just the incandescent lamplight from my side table. I was safe.
Safe, but in a hell of a lot of pain. I groaned as I wrenched myself into a seated position. I grimaced at the bandages wrapped around my chest, and at the spot of blood that was still damp on them. Something inside me wilted. So I ripped myself open when I unlocked the door to the Dark Room again. How the hell was I ever going to sharpen my talent if it meant bleeding myself half to death every time?
“Calm down,” a voice beside me said.
I jerked at the sound of it, at the sudden realization that someone was sitting right by me, straddling a chair with his arms slung over the backrest, chin pushed into his forearms. Sterling watched me with a serene expression, unmoving, perfectly still, like he’d been sitting there comfortably for the past –
“How long have I been out?”
He continued staring at me for a few uncomfortable seconds. “Hours. I want to say about twenty-four now?”
“What?” I threw the covers aside, wondering what I was even supposed to accomplish by doing so, when I remembered that I really only had to look at my wrist to know how much time had passed. I winced as I raised my hand to my face, dreading what I would see on Dionysus’s tattoo.
Fuck. One petal. I don’t know what I was expecting. I thrust my face into my hands, ruffling at my hair that, as anticipated, was greasy from days of not washing. That deep knowing that showers were the least of my problems only made things worse. I was going to die.
I guess I must have been distraught enough that I didn’t even flinch when Sterling’s cold hand came to rest on my bare shoulder. He squeezed in what was almost a reassuring way.
“Cheer up. My offer still stands.”
“For fuck’s sake, Sterling.” I shook his hand off my shoulder. “Can you not make this another creepy game right now? I’m going to die.” I raked fingers through my hair, swallowing my frustration. “At least tell me that you guys managed to track down the Viridian Dawn. At least tell me that this is over.”
He shook his head, the subtle tic in the creases of his eyes telling me that an attempt to be sympathetic was struggling to fight its way out of the alabaster mask of his face.
“Carver told you, didn’t he? We’re supposed to go together, as a unit. We need everyone on board for this job. He refused to proceed without you. Besides, he wanted you and Gil to be rested after that – the whole incident with the sun goddess.”
I sighed. On one hand, that meant even less time for us to fulfill our duty. On the other, it meant I had some agency in this. The stronger our force, the faster we could get this done. If we secured the Codex by evening, then we could hand it over to Mrs. Boules by midnight. Good. Fine. I could work with that.
“So we’re going soon? In – what, a couple of hours?” I checked at my wrist for the watch I wasn’t wearing. “What time is it now, anyway?”
“Dawn, I guess?” he drawled. “Five, six in the morning.”
“How are you awake then?”
He shrugged, gesturing at the shutters over my window. “No sunlight in the hideout means I get along fine. Plus I’m plenty well-rested from waiting for your bag of flesh and bones to recover.” His eyes came to rest on my chest and his lip turned up. “Also I’m very well-fed at the moment.”
My jaw flew open and I reached for my bandages, as well as for the covers, pulling them up around my torso. “What – how could you?”
“Hey, they brought you back, and Carver said he needed help cleaning you up. So I helped.” He grinned in a distinctly perverse manner. “You’d think I’d get a ‘thank you’ out of that, but no. Vampire saliva has powerful coagulant properties, you know. We’re like leeches. You could have bled to death otherwise.”
“I – you – Sterling, how fucking dare you, I – ”
He laughed, resting his hands behind his head and stretching out his legs. “Relax. I’m kidding. Carver took care of everything. He wouldn’t even let me touch you.” He feigned coughing into his fist, as if he meant for me to see the smile he was hiding there. “He didn’t say anything about the shirt he cut off of you, though. It was like
a sponge.”
I recoiled. “Sterling, you’re the fucking worst.”
He lifted a finger. “Listen, the Lorica and all these other arcane idiots have rules about this shit. I’m not allowed to drink from you losers, but nobody said anything about protocol if I found some wine spilled from the bottle.”
I gagged.
“It wasn’t even that good, honestly. I mean you’re magical, so it was still a nice little treat. On the whole, though? Very meh. Your blood is like a passable California red, but the kind you can get at a gas station.”
“Hey!” What the hell, why was I offended? This psycho was talking about my blood. Still, it kind of hurt. A gas station, really?
“So yeah, don’t flatter yourself into thinking I’m dying for more now that I’ve had a sample shot.” He tilted his head, his eyes refocusing on my bandages. “Although – with your wound still open, I can still smell it. Can’t say I’m not tempted to rip you open for another taste.”
“Dude, Sterling, I try so hard to get along with you, but every time you talk to me like this it’s such a struggle and all I think about is picking up a knife from the kitchen and – ”
“I heard screaming.” Gil strode in, rubbing his eyes, clad in teddy bear pajamas and fluffy slippers that I guess were meant to resemble some kind of stuffed animal. I tried to contain my surprise, but he caught me, narrowing his gaze. “Hey. Don’t judge.” He pointed at me. “You’re half naked.” Then he pointed at Sterling. “And you’re just a pervert. Are you scaring him again?”
“Wasn’t scared,” I mumbled.
Sterling studied his fingernails. “I was just telling him that he didn’t have to worry about me gunning for his blood anymore.” He angled his head so Gil couldn’t see, then grinned at me. I scowled back.
“I wasn’t scared,” I said again, louder this time. “I was just concerned. I’ve got one day left on Dionysus’s timer and we’re nowhere close to shutting down the Viridian Dawn.”
“Won’t be long now,” Gil said, checking his phone. “Carver wants us to hit the place at two this afternoon.”
“So Amaterasu agreed to take the sun away after all?”
“Better,” Gil said. He pointed at something glinting and metallic on my desk. “We found that on your body when we came to retrieve you.”
It was a mirror, very much like the one Amaterasu had shattered when she attempted to blind me and drown out all the shadows in her realm.
“So you guys came to get me? Thanks, I guess. Wait. So that means you passed her trial?”
Gil scratched his beard. “Trial? Nah. We just had tea. She was really nice. Said she’d never met a werewolf and wanted to ask questions. We had a great chat.”
I threw my hands up. “But you’re the one who told me not to trust entities.”
He shrugged. “A sun goddess doesn’t seem the type to drug and poison someone, you know? Plus she did a tea ceremony and everything. It would’ve been pretty rude to turn her down.”
“I don’t believe this. What about Carver?”
“Oh, much the same,” Carver said, stepping into my room, like he was waiting to be announced. “The two of us caught up, had a little stroll through one of her gardens. Did you know she had gardens outside that crystal? Simply sublime.”
I stabbed a finger in his direction. “You put her up to this, didn’t you?”
Carver raised his hands in placation. “I may have casually mentioned that it would be nice if you could rely on yourself in a fight, but what of it? I didn’t push her to antagonize you. Amaterasu attacked you of her own free will. Do you really think a goddess would take kindly to an outsider telling her what to do?”
He had a point. I wanted to fold my arms and sulk, except that I knew it would hurt like hell considering the state of my chest.
“Carver’s right.” Sterling’s Zippo clicked as he lit one of his cigarettes. “You’re more use to us if you know better than to just duck into the shadows. The sword’s nice and all” – he angled his head at one of my shelves where, I was glad to see, Vanitas was resting – “but would it kill you to hit something with your fists for once?”
“Gil has his claws, and you have your batshit crazy vampire strength. You guys have your advantages, but the rest of us have our limitations.” I coughed very pointedly. “Also I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t smoke in here.”
“Yeah dude,” Gil said, grimacing. “Wouldn’t appreciate you smoking those in my room, either.”
Carver tutted. “Dustin has a point. It’s quite impolite. Smoke in your room, Sterling, or outside.”
Sterling sulkily rose to his feet, his chair scraping against the stone floor.
“Those things are going to kill you some day, you know.”
“Immortal vampire,” Sterling said, showing me a very rude gesture as he headed for the door. “I’d be more worried about your lifespan what with the tattoo and everything. Remember: the offer still stands.”
I leaned back against my pillow and grumbled, holding out my wrist for Carver to see. “One day. Is there really nothing you can do about this?”
He shook his head. “I closed you up and staunched the bleeding. That is the extent of my healing. The only way out of this geas is to fulfill Dionysus’s wishes.”
Geas, Carver said, the Irish word for binding magical agreements. Quests, in short, which came with dire consequences if uncompleted, which was exactly the predicament I was in. I wondered if the sun goddess had done the same.
“So Amaterasu – did she want anything out of me?”
“As far as I know, you’re clean.” Carver handed me the mirror. “This is the favor we’ve been granted. I trust you’ll be familiar with how to use this. Do you remember the bottled lightning you used to try and kill me?”
I looked away from Gil and Carver just then, my ears reddening. Hell, I sure did. The Lorica gave us Hounds small crystal phials that were used to suck electricity out of buildings, making infiltration easier and safer by effectively killing the power. I’d used one of those to attack Carver before I knew that he didn’t truly mean me harm.
“So this works the same way?” I said, turning the mirror over in my hand. “It sucks the sunlight out of the sky?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it, but Carver just nodded. “So. Out of curiosity. What would happen if two sun gods conflicted on what to do? If, say, Apollo found out and decided ‘Nope, the sun stays out today’?”
Carver stroked his beard. “The sun would probably implode. Who knows.”
I frowned, my mouth half open, but I didn’t argue. Knowing what I did about entities, I could totally see that happening.
“We’ll strike at two,” he continued. “You and Gil will need to show up earlier to cast the darkness over the Viridian compound. Sterling and I will follow once it’s safe for him to walk in without immediately burning to a crisp.”
“I’ll catch a few more Zs then,” Gil said, scratching his chest and stifling a yawn. “You should do the same, Graves.” He flip-flopped back out of my room, the fluffy slippers such stark contrast to his image. They were puppies, it turns out. Fluffy little beagle slippers.
Carver’s eyes darted around my room, then back to me. “And take a shower while you’re at it. I healed what I could of you, but I’m not up to the task of giving you a sponge bath. You need one.”
I lifted my arm, sniffed, then winced. “Yeah. I agree.”
“Bring the sword. We’ll need every advantage we can get, and he makes a fifth.”
Vanitas’s voice droned in the back of my head. “Go, team.”
Carver turned on his heel to leave, his feet hardly making a sound.
“I’ll do my best,” I said to his back, unsure of who I was trying to impress. “But I don’t know if I can manage another honing today. Not that you could call it a honing.”
Carver stopped in his tracks, then turned to address me over his shoulder. “I would caution against it, Graves. Your first attempt proved almost fatal. Thi
s last one was no improvement. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so hard on you.”
I stared at my tattoo. “It was either die then, or when the last petal falls.” I bit the inside of my cheek, my blood pulsing with fury. Fuck Dionysus. Fuck these fickle gods and the idiot humans who coveted their relics, who played with fire.
I fixed Carver with my gaze, intent on showing him my dedication to see this quest through, to continue living. “I’ll find the Codex today, and deliver it tonight.”
“That you must do, Dustin. Or die trying.”
Chapter 14
“Huh. You know, I’m not sure what I was expecting.”
Gil scratched the side of his nose as we both watched the compound. “You know, me neither. I guess I thought things would be, I don’t know, more decrepit, somehow? Inhospitable, even.”
The compound looked a lot homier than we’d anticipated. The garden was properly tended, the house itself midsize, and maybe recently painted, too, not at all like the rundown mess I was expecting. It looked a little too nice for something so close to the Gridiron.
The entire thing was gated, sure, but again it didn’t completely make sense. The compound just looked so domestic, and thoroughly unsecured. No barbed wire, even. It looked, by all appearances, like someone’s house, and maybe that made me a little more nervous. We were properly going to break and enter this time, not just slip in through the shadows.
But what really made me nervous was the gaggle of young people sitting outside, maybe a half dozen men – boys, almost – just chilling at the tables under the veranda in the garden. They were smiling, drinking beer, smoking, not at all an average weekday afternoon in Valero. And they weren’t all wearing the same robes or sweatsuits, either, nothing at all like a cult. This was the Viridian Dawn?
I can’t lie. It made me a little queasy knowing that we were going to beat the living tar out of these kids if they got in the way. I mean, I could tell Vanitas to take it easy and just bash his way through the masses with his scabbard, but Gil had his claws, and Sterling hardly knew his own strength. And who knew what Carver would do?
