The Midnight Strider (The Chronomancer Chronicles Book 2)

by Reilyn J. Hardy

  “About what?” He sees me looking back and looks back too. He turns around to face the forest. “What happened?”

  “I saw him.” I can’t bring myself to look at Jace, but I can feel his stare. “The forest spirit. He died. The tree’s dead too.”

  Jace sighs and turns away from me.

  “What’s happening, Mae?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He turns back to look at our old house. The roof caving through, the ghost of what we grew up in. The rubble. “You sure she’ll be okay?” he asks me again.

  “She can take care of herself,” I say.

  “I know,” he says, shrugging. Jace rubs the back of his neck and then scratches his bicep. “But she took care of me, and I’d like to return the favor in anyway that I can.”

  “I don’t think she did it as a favor to you. But — as long as you don’t die anytime soon, we’ll all be just fine.”

  I make myself laugh again because I don’t want him to worry. He forces one too.

  “I’m not planning on it.” He nudges my side. “I’m invincible, remember?”

  Yeah. Invincible. If only that were true.

  I look at him, and I can visualize the burns, his flesh missing. The smell lingers in my nose.

  I close my eyes and turn away, looking at the tree.

  “You think you could ripen another apple for me? Or maybe a few,” he asks as he begins picking a few of them off of the ground until his arms are full of rotten apple cores. He looks at me with a hopeful expression and I can’t help but laugh.

  “I’m a chronomancer and you want me to do magic tricks?”

  He shrugs. “They taste like home.”

  We go back into the remains of our house and Miko, Nova, and Kina are already awake. Kina tries to steal some of Jace’s apples but he pushes her away from him and ends up dropping them all on the floor.

  I bring Miko to the side, and give a reassuring smile when Nova looks at me curiously. I don’t talk until he looks away.

  “I think we should go back to Nevressea instead,” I say to her.

  “Good, because we can’t go to Orvale right now,” she whispers back to me.

  I frown and tilt my head. “Why? What’s wrong?”

  She hands me the small script of paper in her hand.

  “A carrier pigeon brought it to me earlier. It’s from my dad.”

  I unravel the small piece of parchment.

  Wherever you are, stay there. Guardians are invading. They know Vihaan was here. They’re interrogating anyone they think might have information.

  “Is he safe?” I ask as I hand it back to her.

  She shrugs. “I hope he got out before they closed out entry ways.”

  “Entry ways?”

  “Well,” she starts, “I don’t really live in Orvale. I live under it.”

  “Under it?”

  Miko nods. “The underground city. It’s probably better we stay away for now, at least until we figure out if Vihaan is okay.”

  “Maybe he’ll be in Nevressea,” I say.

  “It’s possible,” she says. “I don’t know if he’s really familiar with any other territories anymore. He might go to places he knows. Could he go back to your dad’s cabin?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t think he’d be able to find it. I don’t even think we can find it.”

  “Nevressea it is!” she says. Clasping her hand over her cuff, she turns to face everyone else. “There’s been a slight change of plans. We’re going to Nevressea Lake.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Jace says. He’s halfway through eating an apple, and there are already two other cores near his feet.

  Even Rhiannon comes back out through the rubble of the hallway.

  ‘What are you doing, Artemis?’

  “Vihaan is missing. We have to make sure he’s okay.”

  I can feel Miko burning holes into the side of my face, looking at me strangely for what I said. That wasn’t why I wanted to go to Nevressea, but only she knows that. I have a feeling she’s not going to say anything.

  “I know some of us have some bad memories there,” I say, looking at Jace and Rhiannon. “But it’s different now. We deserve to give it another chance.”

  All more lies. Jace just averts his eyes and bites into his apple. Nobody argues. I pick up one of the apples and plop down on the couch next to him.

  Better for me.

  Chapter SIXTEEN

  room 313

  We use Thirondel charms to get to Nevressea, and lucky for me, Nadia mostly stays by Benny. I try not to think about what she asked me, with Rhiannon so near and able to read my thoughts, but I can hardly wrap my mind around her suggestion. The moment I saw her, it hit me like a bag of bricks. Drink her blood. Pretend to be Apollo. Would that even work?

  I furrow my brows. No, what am I thinking. I’m not drinking her blood. I’m not drinking anyone’s blood.

  Rhiannon turns her head toward me and I quickly think of something else. She’s been out of my head for almost three months, and now she was back in like she had never left. I look around and stick my hands in my pockets like my pants will somehow keep my thoughts hidden away from her.

  “What are we really doing here? Are we really looking for Vihaan?” Jace asks as he comes up beside me. “Why are you doing this?”

  “What’s the problem?” I ask, not turning toward him. I keep facing forward. I don’t look at Rhiannon either.

  “I saw you die here, Mae.”

  “But I’m alive, Jace.” I glance at him.

  “Doesn’t change what I saw.” He inhales deeply. “Are you looking for Coin?”

  “No,” I say. I don’t want to think about Coin. I glance at Rhiannon, and Kina's come up beside her, linking her arm around hers. “Look, the Midnight Strider is a boat, right? Why not come to a town mostly built on water? These people live on the water. They’ll know more about Beinyth’s territory than we will. We’ll stick around the pubs and we’ll listen, you know, like in Thealey.”

  “So you were paying attention,” he says.

  I whack him in the arm with the back of my hand. “Of course I was paying attention,” I say. “I was trying to figure out what the hell you were doing.”

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” he asks me.

  “Nope.”

  He’s not surprised. “Of course not.”

  “Do we ever know what we’re doing?” I ask.

  “Never,” he says and we laugh. “I’m not used to this.”

  “What?”

  “Carefree you,” he says as we stop in front of Whitleaf’s Inn across the bridge from The Wet Fish. “Just remember there’s a fine line between carefree and careless.”

  “I know,” I say. “I’m still me.”

  I pull open the door and the hanging bell knocks against the wood, alerting the front desk of our entrance. Nova, being the only one with any money on him, handled getting the rooms while the rest of us all found tables to sit at.

  Miko shows Kina how her cuff works and Rhiannon is sitting beside the two of them, her finger gently tracing the lace her prism hangs from. She’s staring blankly and we take a seat on the opposing side of the table.

  You okay?

  She doesn’t answer me. She looks at me briefly, and averts her eyes.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed,” Benny says, sitting back in his chair. He partially disappears and falls backward onto the floor.

  “For a ghost, you’re really bad at it,” Jace says.

  “It’s not as easy as being a werewolf,” he says as he uses the chair to get back up. “I don’t just get to turn it on and off.”

  “You think being a werewolf is easy?” Kina asks. Miko sits back in her chair and raises an eyebrow as Benny pl
ops back down in his chair.

  “Well yeah,” he says. “What’s so hard about being able to turn into a big hairy dog?”

  “Feeling your bones break for the first time,” Kina says. “Every bone in your body. Scratching at your skin until it comes off because it itches so much with the hair growing beneath it. Feeling like people are beating your face with clubs while your skull changes shape. It’s so easy.”

  Benny clenches his jaw and looks away.

  “It’s not a competition,” Nadia says, breaking the uncomfortable silence that has fallen between all of us. Even the noise coming from the other tables seems distant. “We all have problems and no ones are worse than anyone else’s.”

  Kina scoffs and sweeps her gaze away from Benny, who slouches in his chair.

  “Why don’t we get some drinks and lighten the mood,” Nova says as he flags down a barmaid.

  “Do you think Vihaan’s here?” Miko asks, looking directly at me.

  “Who’s Vihaan anyway?” Nadia asks.

  “Vihaan’s an old friend from — remember when I said I was a prisoner once? He’s the one who helped me escape.”

  Nadia furrows her brows before her eyes widen. “The dragon?”

  “Not so loud!” Rhiannon snaps.

  “He’s been staying with me ever since Stanton put out that reward for him and the stone,” Miko says as she digs into her pocket. “Then my dad sent me this when we were in Newacre.” She spreads the scrap of parchment down on the table and everyone takes turns reading it. “We don’t know where he is or if the guardians have him.”

  “What about Amelia?” Jace asks. “Maybe she knows something.”

  Miko shrugs. “I haven’t seen her since Artemis’s birthday. I’m assuming she went back to Barrowhaven. Unless she was at the cabin.”

  I look at Rhiannon. “She wasn’t at the cabin, no.”

  “I can check up on her,” Nova says, and I shake my head.

  “That thing you’re wearing around your neck, the guardians aren’t going to like it.”

  “Are they not on our side?” Miko asks, rubbing her cuff against the edge of the table.

  “There isn’t just our side and Drarkodon’s,” Jace says, sitting back in his chair. He had just finished reading the parchment. “Sometimes people are just scared, and they act out of fear for what they think is right, what they think will cause the least amount of fatalities.” His words make me wonder if he’s justifying his own actions for betraying his family, or his family’s actions for wanting to kill Rhiannon. “Stanton thinks Artemis’s actions are going to get us all killed because of what happened in Valfield.”

  “Oh,” Rhiannon says, and begins to dig through her small pouch. “I forgot to give these to you.” She pulls out my dagger, the Skinharvester beak, and one of the time pieces that was on my desk and slides them across the table. “I didn’t know what was important so I just —”

  “This is great, thank you.” I fasten the sheath of my dagger on my pants and put the beak around my neck. I slip the time piece into my pocket. “More than I could have asked for.”

  She smiles, and continues to fumble with the necklace of her prism. “I never thought I’d be able to walk out during the day again,” she says. “It was the least I could do.”

  I feel safer, armed with my dagger. Even though Nevressea is friendlier now that the hag is gone, you can never be too careful.

  I might be a chronomancer, but it’s not like I know what I’m doing. From what Nadia told me, and what I did to the ghouls without knowing I did, I have no interest in trying anything again any time soon.

  “So, like… What are you?” Kina asks Nova. She gives him a curious look as she tilts her head and raises an eyebrow. “I mean what, exactly. When you punched me, that actually hurt.” She rubs her neck. There’s still a faint burn beneath her fingers.

  “A phoenix,” Nova replies with a smile. He looks at me. “Thanks to him, I don’t age.”

  I have to admit, it’s nice having Nova around without him aging drastically as the weeks go by. I still can’t imagine what that’s like. I wonder what things will be like when the new year comes around. Will he still burn up?

  “Look at you,” Nadia nudges me. “Helping everyone with their problems.”

  “Can you fix a werewolf?” Kina asks me.

  “What do you mean fix? I didn’t — I didn’t fix him.”

  “Well, could you stop a werewolf from, you know. Being a werewolf?”

  “Um.” I glance at Jace and he just shrugs his shoulders. Looking back at Kina, I scrunch my eyebrows together. “You don’t wanna be a werewolf?”

  “We don’t have freedom,” she says. “Any freedom. The second Dad calls us back, we’re gonna have to go. We don’t have a choice. We have to.”

  I look at Jace.

  “This wasn’t a problem before,” I say. “Or he would’ve called you back earlier? When you were younger?”

  “I didn’t have an alpha before,” Jace says with a sigh. “We only become part of the pack when we’re old enough. Once we can change. When I found my family, I joined because after a while, I didn’t really have a choice —”

  “Dad made him,” Kina interrupts. “I don’t mind the werewolf part,” she continues, “I just don’t like not being the one in control. I don’t like the idea that he can make me do things I don’t wanna do.”

  Jace shakes his head. “Don’t ask him that, Kina. It’s not his problem.” He pats me on the shoulder. “It’s a wolf thing, Mae. It’s who we are.”

  “How do you break it?” I ask.

  “I can’t, my dad has to release us.”

  “Unless he goes back to being an alpha,” Kina says. “When Jace was with you, he was in his own pack, which is why he’s larger than the rest of us. He just wasn’t as strong as Dad because he was alone. He didn’t have a pack. A pack makes the alpha stronger.”

  “So, he just calls for you guys and you have to go?”

  “Hopefully he doesn’t for a while,” Jace says.

  It doesn’t sound fair, but I don’t know what I can do about it either. I may be Mother Nature’s son, but there was so little I knew about what nature was capable of. I still barely know anything about time.

  Before I can say anything, a few patrons with instruments begin to play. Pairs go up onto the cleared floor and start to dance. Miko grabs Kina’s arm and drags her out onto the dance floor to try to cheer her up. Nadia walks around me and stops at Nova.

  “Come on, phoenix boy. Show me what you got.” She doesn’t wait for him to take her hand and grabs his wrist, pulling him to his feet. He’s one of the few people with us taller than her. Benny gets up too and goes to dance by himself, doing moves I don’t think the living are capable of.

  “Are you going to try to become an alpha?” I ask.

  “I don’t think he should,” Rhiannon says.

  “How can you say that?”

  She doesn’t answer me. She gets up from her seat, not giving Jace a second glance, and follows the rest of the group to the dance floor.

  “I’ll have to challenge my dad,” he admits finally, his eyes are watching Rhiannon as she moves. “We’d have to fight — one of us could get killed — and it most likely won’t be him.”

  Oh.

  “Does Kina know that?”

  He nods and glances at me. “It’s just — she thinks Dad'll just let me go if I ask, and she wants me to ask, but I can’t. If I do, and he chooses to challenge me, then what? It’s suicide.”

  I don’t know what to say.

  “I just hope he doesn’t call us any time soon,” he continues, looking back at the dance floor. “That’s really all I have.”

  “What about the Midnight Strider? What if you’re on it — you can’t exactly get off until it docks, right? Even if he calls you.”
r />   “How am I supposed to get on it? You’re supposed to be dead to go on that ship, or at least not a creation of Mother Nature. We don’t even go to the Underworld when we die. We just get reincarnated. Besides, my body temperature won’t go that low. I doubt yours can either.”

  “What if there was a way to surpass that?”

  “Then I’m in, you know I’m in. If you can figure that out, I'll go with you. But we can’t die to get there. It’s not an option.”

  “We won’t,” I say, glancing at the dance floor too. “Nadia told me she has a plan.”

  “I don’t trust her.”

  “You should be happy, you should thank her actually.” I grab my mug once it’s placed down in front of me. “She got Rhiannon to kiss you, and I mean kiss you. Not like saving your life kind. And we both know— we all know you enjoyed that.”

  “Shut up,” he says, then grins. “I mean, well, you’re not wrong. Not that it’s gonna happen again. But I did enjoy it while it lasted.”

  “Never say never,” I say, shrugging my shoulders. “Anything can happen.”

  Maybe it’s a bad idea, but I’m starting to consider Nadia's suggestion after all. Maybe after the first few times, I can get past the taste, and the over all idea of it.

  I have to do something, not just for Apollo, but for Jace and Kina too. There has to be something I can do. Maybe getting him onto the Midnight Strider could break whatever obligation he has to his father. Maybe if his dad just thinks he’s dead.

  Maybe, maybe.

  Jace is still watching Rhiannon. His jaw is slightly dropped, and he’s watching the way she moves. I smirk.

  “You’re drooling,” I say and he quickly wipes the side of his mouth with his hand.

  “I’m just hungry,” he claims.

  “Hungry for what, I wonder…”

  He frowns as he looks at his hand before glaring at me. “You liar. I wasn't drooling.” Jace shoves me and I nearly fall out of my chair laughing.

  “Why don’t you go dance with her?” I ask.

  ‘Stop it, Artemis.’

  I glance at Rhiannon. She’s dancing with one of the male patrons, but she’s not looking at me. Though she’s apparently listening to our conversation now.