Chapter TWELVE
believe in me
The rays of the sun are scorching in Gillamoor. I manage to land on my feet this time, but Rhiannon lands on top of me, sending me to the ground.
“I’m sorry,” she says, rolling off of me as she gets to her feet. I get up and immediately pull off my jacket. Sweat is already starting to run down the sides of my face.
Rhiannon’s breathing is slowed and heavy, and her skin starts to redden before slowly blackening. Her cheek cracks.
“We have to get inside,” I say. Rhiannon shields her face from the sun with her hands.
“I’m fine,” she says. The crack slowly disappears, but her hands start to redden now too.
“No, you aren’t.” I grab her wrist. “We need to find shelter.”
She trails behind me, walking in my shadow. The sun is too strong here for the prism to properly separate the light. Gillamoor is a small village surrounded by uncultivated land. The houses are small, the size of shacks, and many of them look run down. But the people are happy, children laughing as they run around, chasing one another. Adults are sitting around, barely shielded by the sun as they do their chores, they all move in harmony. Everything moves in union, like they’ve been doing things this way for generations.
I inhale deeply, the air is so clean here. Fresh.
As we walk through the village, we begin to draw stares. My skin is nowhere near as tan as theirs, but it’ll darken the longer I stay in the sun, and Rhiannon is practically glowing white in comparison. We’re outsiders, and they can tell. I look back at her, her skin has blistered.
“What are you two doing here?” The voice is familiar, and I turn around. It’s Coin.
“Jace is in Harnsey,” I tell him, glancing at Rhiannon. “We couldn’t exactly go there directly.”
He looks at Rhiannon and nods. “You two should get inside. Come on.”
He’s about to grab for my wrist to lead me, and I pull away before he can manage. I can picture the horror on his face, the horror on Lerra’s face, when she told me the prophecy. It’s flashing in my mind. I didn’t know if it was because it was my birthday, or because it was the first contact we had since her mom had been put to rest at the funeral.
Either way, I wasn’t going to chance it.
He noticed my flinch.
“You okay? Didn’t expect the chronomancer to be so jumpy.”
“Things have been a little stressful for him since it happened,” Rhiannon says, cutting in. She takes Coin’s hand instead. “It’s not easy, dying and coming back to life. It takes some getting used to.”
She looks back at me and gives me a small lip-closed smile as we follow Coin into a small shack.
“Yeah, I bet,” he says. He stops to look at me. “What you did was amazing. I’d like to repay you somehow.”
I shake my head as he offers us seats in the house.
“It’s not necessary,” I say.
“Maybe you could help us find Jace,” Rhiannon says. I glare at her but she ignores me. “I can’t exactly go into Harnsey. Maybe you can go with Artemis?”
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
“You’re better off with Coin than me. You know that.”
“I know the area fairly well,” he says. “I swear I won’t lead you into another trap.”
“That’s not it.” I get up from my seat, rubbing my sweating palms against the front of my pants. I move to the table and pick up a photo. It’s Coin, and someone I don’t recognize. I put it back down. “You’re a seer, Coin.”
“What'd you say?” he says, getting up from his seat.
“A seer. Like your mother.” I turn around, leaning against the edge of the table. “On my birthday, you grab my wrist and you finish the prophecy.”
“Please tell me you’re lying,” he says, pulling his cap off, dropping it onto the chair. His curly hair falls against his shoulders. Lerra rubs her face. “I mean how would you even know what happens? I thought your birthday was at the end of next month? It hasn’t happened —”
“We time traveled.”
“Of course you did.”
“Did something happen?” Rhiannon asks, not taking her eyes off of Lerra.
Lerra rakes her fingers through her curly hair as she starts pacing back and forth, avoiding eye contact with the both of us. She inhales deeply, and crosses her arms.
She shakes her head. “This can’t be happening.”
“What happened, Lerra?” I ask.
“I saw you die,” she says, meeting my gaze.
“Well yeah,” I say, “a lot of people did. I —”
“Not in Nevressea.” She sucks in her bottom lip and starts to chew on it. “I don’t know where it was. I thought it was just a dream but if I’m a seer —”
“What happened?” Rhiannon asks.
Lerra looks right at me.
“I saw the Grim Reaper kill you. You walked up to him willingly, and he killed you. He stabbed you with your own dagger.”
My hand slips off of the edge of the table and I turn around to steady my balance. The ghouls were telling the truth. My brother’s going to break him out.
“What was the rest of the prophecy, Artemis?”
I gulp. “The tale of two, cursed for destruction. One with the strength to kill, and the other, the courage to resist. Breaking the mirror destroys the reflection.” I turn around to face the two of them. “Breaking the other, destroys the world.”
Lerra closes her eyes.
It's official. I’m going to cause the end of the world.
The door flies open, catching me off guard. I run my hand over my chest and look at the woman standing there. It’s the same one from the picture.
“Oh, I didn’t know we had company,” she says, she’s carrying a wool bag, and a teenage girl comes running in past her and hugs Lerra tightly.
Lerra shakes her head, like she’s trying to shake the thoughts of what we just told her.
“I’m sorry, Maite, this is Art and Rhiannon. Guys, this is my fiancée, Maite and her daughter — our daughter — Marisol.”
“Your fiancée?” I ask, reaching my hand out to Maite’s. She struggles with the bag, trying to reach for my hand but I take the bag from her instead and put it down on the table.
“Thank you,” she says, brushing strands of her thick black hair out of her face. Her skin is bronzed from the sun, and her daughter looks exactly like her, but her hair falls in curls. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Will you be staying for dinner tonight?” she asks, looking at Lerra.
“Do you think they could stay the night?” Lerra asks.
“We don’t want to impose,” Rhiannon says.
“No, no, it’s fine,” Maite says. “Any friends of Lerra’s are friends of mine.” She walks behind the table and slips behind a door for only a matter of seconds, before emerging with a crossbow. “I’ll be back with dinner,” she tells us. “Any preference?”
I look at Rhiannon before looking at Lerra. I shrug.
“I’m not picky,” I say. “Anything but fish.”
Maite laughs. “There’s no fish around here. I’ll be back. Depending on game, I might be a little late. There are some potatoes and carrots, you can start the stew if you want.” She acknowledges the wool bag on the table.
“You aren’t going alone, are you?” Lerra asks.
“No, my brothers are coming with me. You don’t have to worry.” She kisses Lerra and smiles when she pulls away. “Don’t let Marisol eat too many pastries before dinner.”
When she leaves, Lerra pats Marisol’s back. She’s trying to dig through the wool bag.
“Hey, you heard your mother. Stop with the pastries. Go take a bath.”
“You’re getting married?” I ask once Marisol leaves. “What about that woman in Nevressea?”
Lerra laughs as she starts taking the vegetables and roots out of the bag. “We have a complicated relationship,” she says. “I have a drive, she doesn’t, and I respect that. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, and she’s fine with what I do. The key to making it work is communication.”
“You didn’t strike me as a relationship type of person.”
“I’m not,” Lerra admits. “Or at least I thought I wasn’t. But attraction is a fluid thing, you know? At least it can be. It was for me — it’s different for everyone I’m sure — but the more I got to know her, the more attractive she became.”
I sit back down in my seat. Will that happen to me too? I have friends, people I know decently well, and still I feel no attraction to any of them. Nope. Still asexual. Still aromantic. Still perfectly okay with that.
The idea of doing anything with anyone makes me want to throw up. Which makes me think of the ghouls, especially the one who wanted to wear my face, and what he wanted to do with it. I try not to gag.
The flames in the Woodlands cloud my thoughts.
“I don’t know if we can stay the night,” I say. “We have to find Jace and get to Newacre before the fire starts.”
“Are you okay?” Rhiannon asks me.
“Just fine, why?”
“Just wondering,” she says. “I think we should at least wait until Maite comes back. Then hopefully Lerra can come with us.”
“I’m not a fighter, you know,” Lerra says. She’s peeling the potatoes over a bucket. “I'm a runner.”
Rhiannon gets to her feet and flattens the back of her dress. “When your mom was going to attack Artemis, you hit her with a paddle. So hard that the paddle broke. You’re brave, Lerra.”
“I was scared outta my mind,” she says, putting the potato down. She doesn’t reach for another one.
She just stops.
“That’s where bravery comes from. Being scared and still doing something about it.” Rhiannon grabs a carrot and starts to peel it. “You didn’t have to come outside. You could have stayed in like everyone else in that town, but you didn’t. I’m sure it didn’t help that she used to be your mother.”
Lerra looks at me. “I owed it to you.”
“You didn’t owe me anything.”
“Yes, I did. You and Jace. If someone was going to die, I realized it should be me.”
I stand up. “Lerra, you made a mistake. You wanted to protect your mom, that’s all you wanted. You did the only thing you thought would work. So what if I died. I came back.”
“But you won’t next time.”
I sigh. I don’t want to think about her dream or vision or whatever it was.
“Because the Reaper is going to kill me?”
Something breaks behind us.
Marisol is standing there, shattered glass at her feet. Her eyes are wide, they almost look like they’re going to pop out of her head.
“The Reaper’s coming back?”
“No,” Lerra says, dropping the peeler. She grabs Marisol by the wrist and pulls her into another room. I can hear her trying to reassure her.
“How old do you think she is?” I ask Rhiannon.
“Sixteen or seventeen,” she says. “Why?”
“Do you think she remembers the eruption?” I ask, but before Rhiannon can respond, Lerra comes back out.
“Her dad died,” she says. “She was four. She thought her dad was going off to work like any other day, but then he didn’t come home. Maite said eventually she had to tell her he was trying to protect them so they'd have a better life, and he’d come home as soon as possible.”
“But he never came home,” Marisol says, appearing beside Lerra. Lerra wraps an arm around her. “A vampire killed him. Maverick.”
Rhiannon looks down and continues to peel carrots.
“I want to come with you two,” Marisol says.
Lerra shakes her head. “Your mother won’t let you.”
“But it’s okay with you, isn’t it?” she asks Lerra, looking up at her. I recognize that look. I had the same look when I’d talk to my dad about being just like him. The look of wanting to be believed in. The look of hope. I can do this if you believe in me.
Lerra groans.
“We’ll talk to your mom about it later.”
“It is okay with you, isn’t it?” she repeats, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s dangerous, you know,” I say. “We need Lerra because —”
“She’s traveled?” Marisol asks. “I’ve gone with her. She lets me come, every other time, since I was twelve. I used to go hunting with my mom. I was even attacked once —” she raises up her shirt, showing a massive scar on the side of her body. “I can do it — and I can take care of myself. I can help you track whoever you’re looking for.”
Lerra squeezes her shoulder. “We’ll talk to your mom when she gets back.” Lerra goes back to the table and picks up her peeler again. “Do you want to help?”
“Fine,” she grumbles and stomps over to us.
I look at Rhiannon before turning to Lerra.
“We’ll be right back.”
Lerra nods and goes back to the potatoes.
I grab Rhiannon by the skirt of her dress and pull her outside. She rips her skirt from my grasp and crosses her arms. She keeps averting her eyes.
I stick my hands in my pockets. “You know Maverick, don’t you. I saw you.”
“Of course I know Maverick,” she says. “I know all of the vampires from then.”
“But you know him personally.”
She purses her lips together.
“He’s my brother,” she admits finally. “I guess it’s truth time, isn’t it.”
The sun is hiding behind clouds, getting ready for the set. Rhiannon’s skin no longer has the red blistering tinge. I don’t think anyone suspects she’s a vampire here, considering she can walk freely now. The blistering though, I’m sure would give it away.
I rub the back of my neck and the two of us sit down on a side bench.
“My family were good people,” she tells me. “Maverick, he was someone I could turn to about anything. Selfless, the type to lend a helping hand without asking. He wasn’t great at expressing his feelings, and I think it made him uncomfortable, but he cared, and it showed. My sister, Seraphina, oh she was so annoying. Bubbly and in your face, she needed to know every detail about everything, and didn’t know how to give me space.” Rhiannon frowns. “They were so perfect, and I didn’t fit with them.”
I look away from her and at the people who walk past us. None of them are paying much attention to us now.
“So I left, and Malachi found me, and he brought me to Drarkodon and then he turned me. I was with them for a while doing things I regret, and it didn’t feel right either. He tried to condition my mind, but the same thing would happen. So he sent me home. My family was so excited to see me, even though I was diferent, and they were all older. They said they’d never let me go again, and we’d be together forever. Malachi took that literally, so he changed all of them.” She inhales deeply, and looks at me. “My family was turned because of me.”
I shake my head. “You couldn’t control their actions, Rhiannon.”
“They took it out on me. I mean, as far as I know, Maverick mostly stopped giving a damn, but Seraphina never forgave me. She made sure to personally attack me whenever she had the chance.”
“Rhiannon, how did you know we were in Edgewick?”
“I may have been checking up on Jubilation every now and then as soon as I managed to find him. Just to make sure he was okay. I thought the worst. But he was safe with you and Weylan. Safer with you than he ever was with me,” she says, and forces herself to laugh.
“He called you an angel,” I say.
She just shakes her head. “I know, I’m far from it.�
��
I frown. That wasn’t what I meant. “No, you aren’t. You’re kinda like a guardian angel. You’ve been watching over him for so long.”
“My family would say otherwise.”
“I don’t care what they think. If they don’t know how to get over something you didn’t even mean to do, that’s their problem. Not yours. If Malachi had gave a damn about you, he wouldn’t have done what he did.” I scratch the back of my neck. “I thought Jace betrayed you in Thealey. I thought he was mad you denied him and spilled your secret to get back at you. But unlike Malachi, Jace didn’t do it to be malicious. Friends who care about you, don’t do things like that.” Her reddened eyes begin to water, until her lashes are damp with tears. “It’s not your fault, Rhiannon.” I pull her into a hug. “It’s not your fault.”
I’ve never seen her like this.
Rhiannon always seemed so put together and as though nothing could really hurt her. She was strong, and confident. She never fully cried, not that I ever saw.
Maybe those are the ones we need to keep a closer eye on. Maybe those are the ones we need to help. Who keep everything in. Who keep it buried. Who don’t know how to express it.
I remembered the way she and Jace interacted with each other in Thealey — and the way she spoke about him. It was her turn to cry, and my turn to be there.
It shouldn’t have taken me this long.
Chapter THIRTEEN
what makes a monster?
We head back once it starts getting dark. Rhiannon makes herself laugh beside me as she kicks a rock across the road. “That was so stupid,” she says, crossing her arms.
I shake my head. “You’re allowed to cry, you know,” I say. “You’re allowed to feel bad, and you’re allowed to let it out. Someone once told me that crying isn’t a sign of weakness. It means you’ve been strong for too long.”
“If I’m not going to be strong for me, then who is?” she asks. “I have to protect myself.”
“Because people leave?”
The Midnight Strider (The Chronomancer Chronicles Book 2) Page 12
