by Lenore, Lani
Moving out, Sly caught Calico in his arms.
“I didn’t want you to come,” he said, but he couldn’t keep the smile from his mouth.
“But you knew I would,” she countered.
He kissed her out of desperation – for truly not knowing if he would live or die. There was always a probable future, but nothing was ever definite. She smiled at him, and even though he could not see it with his eyes, he knew it was there and he knew it was beautiful, despite her bruises.
The others are standing about…
Sly raised his face from her, suddenly aware of another presence among them. His brothers were talking to someone else, thanking him for his help, expressing their pleasure to see them. He was giving them back their equipment and weapons. He was tall. He had one eye.
Nix. Yes, Nix.
“Here he is, Sly.” Finn’s voice. “Nix was able to help us after all. You were wrong.”
Wrong? No, not wrong.
“It seems that I was,” Sly gave, but he could not free his mind from it.
Nix looked at Sly for a long moment, and the blind boy gazed back at him. When it became obvious that Sly was not going to speak, Nix did so himself – to the others.
“Did any of you see Rifter?” he asked.
“No, but Sly said that he took Wren,” Toss told him.
“Then we have the need to see him now.”
Without any more than that, Nix began to walk away. He could not have known where he was going, but his resolve was apparent and admirable. None of them protested. The other boys, Calico with them, followed him without question.
Chapter Thirty
1
It was the careless sound of chuckling pirates that led them to the cave. It wasn’t very far from where the group had started out to look for Wren, and it was Sly who brought up that someone had likely wanted them to find it easily.
With very little effort, the two pirates waiting outside received a slash at each of their throats, and then the group of six moved deeper inside, keeping as quiet as they had been when they’d started out. Their thoughts were too blurred for conversation.
The sound of more laughter within led them cautiously further down until they found themselves in the open cavern. The sea had moved into it, opening up somewhere a good distance away from them. In the area lit faintly by torches, they found what they’d only half expected to see.
They found Wren, tied by the wrists between two rocks. But the other thing they found – that was both unexpected and unwelcome – was the one who stood there as her captor. How long had it been since any of them had seen him? Too long for them to remember, and he was something new to their senses.
The white hair, the fiery eyes, and he was wearing a pirate’s coat. The whole group was restless and shocked and angry, but they held back near the spot they had entered. After they had all finally acknowledged what they were seeing, their faces twisted and they stared in horror.
“You came after all,” Rifter addressed them, his voice full of silken pleasure. “Wren was waiting for you.”
The boy peeled off the pirate’s coat, revealing the clothes of stitched hide.
“I have to say, I’m surprised you got out of the cave, but this is alright – unexpected. No matter. That keeps things exciting.”
“This is your big plan?” Finn shouted, clearly enraged. “To become the Scourge?”
“What the hell is this!” Mach demanded.
“Charade, charade! That’s what it is!” Rifter cried. “I’ll be you, you’ll be me; we’ll play this game and see who comes out on top! This is a world where anything is possible, is it not? At least, that was why it roused my interest.”
His eyes cut across them, landing on one in particular, and the smile fell from his face.
“You,” he growled. “I certainly didn’t expect to see you here.”
It was not hard for them to tell that his focus was on Nix, who stood out in front of them. The two of them glared, each intent on melting the other. In a flash, Rifter drew his sword, and as a counter action, Nix drew his own just as swiftly. The others stepped back, touching their own weapons in case they should have to step in. Rifter smiled at that, but made no move.
“Did you see that?” he asked them. “You saw it, didn’t you? When faced with a challenge, he instinctively reached for his sword – not his gun.”
None of them spoke. He stepped in front of the boys and the Tribal huntress, pacing before them, examining them all. They wore angry, ferocious expressions – for him. He had betrayed them, had he? Did they not see? Out of all their anger, however, two of them who stood there did not seem so surprised.
“You’re all clever, but you still don’t see it, do you? Not even when it’s been standing right in front of you?”
The demon stood directly in front of Nix, challenging him with glowing eyes.
“Do you mean that you honestly didn’t tell them? Not even Wren?” the tanned boy asked, his eyes burning into the one cold eye of the other. “Not that I mind. It played into my plans quite well.”
“I knew it…” Sly whispered to himself. However, the demon boy managed to pick it up with his keen ears.
“Then would you like to tell them, Sly?” the mock Rifter asked hatefully. He looked back toward the one they knew as Nix, who glared at him furiously. “Or would you like Rifter to tell you himself?”
Silence fell upon the area. What had this one just said? Could they have understood it properly – after the few seconds it took for their brains to wrap around it – that while this strange demon-boy was looking at Nix, he had renounced that name and claimed Nix to be Rifter?
In that moment, it was as if a fog had lifted from their minds – a cowl that had been serving to block out the features of the one they should have recognized all along. When they’d looked at him, they’d seen what he’d meant for them to, but now, they saw him for who he was, and their memories cleared.
The others looked back and forth between them, and they were suddenly keen to the clear difference between the two, as if they should have been able to see it all along. They had forgotten about everything but the one in the fox skin coat, and several among the number remembered the truth about the past.
There had been a fight between Rifter and Nix. Nix had ruined Rifter’s eye. Rifter had cut Nix’s arm. In the end, it was the Rifter – the one with the horrible scar on his face – who’d knelt down to the ground, clutching his bleeding eye. But there was another odd thing about it. Yes, a very odd thing. The strange-looking boy that had stripped himself of the pirate clothes… He had certainly been the one fighting Rifter that day!
The lot of them stood there, anxious, confused and angry, but the tall boy in the fox skin coat did not say a word. Did he not deny it? Could he claim that he had not lied this whole time when he had answered to Nix’s name?
As if he could read their minds, the white-haired boy with slit pupils smiled wider as he looked at them, pleased with their bafflement, whether or not it suited his plans. It was worth it to see the look on their faces.
“Who are you then?” demanded Mach of the false Rifter.
The floating boy took great pleasure in smiling in his enemy’s face, grinning with those glowing eyes.
“I think he should be the one to explain all that. Meanwhile, you have your girl, and I have other business. But mark my words: it isn’t over. Not for any of you.”
With little effort, the demon pulled himself off the ground and flew deeper into the cave as if he were blessed, moving over the water until he was gone. None of them could go after him – because they could not fly and because they hadn’t the will. They dismissed him as soon as he was gone, considering him to be a lesser concern. Together, they closed in on the one who had lied to them.
“How could you do this?” Mach demanded of the one-eyed imposter. “How could you lie?”
“You made us come all this way for nothing!” Finn accused.
“Answer us!”
Their words fell on deaf ears; their voices, indistinguishable. All the while, the accused could do nothing but stare at Wren. The others seemed to have forgotten about her, tied up between the rocks. She stared at Rifter as intently as he stared at her. He saw the tear glisten and roll down her cheek – saw the hurt and confusion in her eyes.
“All this and you have nothing to say?” Calico rose up, shattering those thoughts.
“Yeah, say something!” Mach demanded, shoving Rifter in the chest. He rocked back, but did not fall. And he did not say a word.
“You all need to calm down,” Sly said forcefully, drawing their attention.
He had moved away from them to assist Wren, who was completely bewildered. She did not even seem to notice when he cut her down. Sly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her face into his shoulder as if encouraging her not to look at a horrible monster.
“You mean to tell me that you’re not upset about this?” Finn inquired of Sly. “And this is what you thought back when we were inside the cave?”
“It is,” Sly admitted, “but I did not know for sure until he was in my presence. Looking at him with eyes, however, I’m not sure I would have known – as the rest of you did not.”
“And we are to just forgive him?” Calico demanded. It was the first time Sly could remember that she’d ever raised her voice at him.
“That is for you to decide,” he said easily. “But you are too hostile to hear the truth just now. A little walk will cool you down.”
“As if we could stop and have a walk while he’s standing right–!”
But the accused was not standing there. He was gone. They all looked around, but there was absolutely no trace. Seemingly, he had vanished, but he had merely slipped away when their attention had been averted.
“You let him get away!” Mach yelled, pointing a harsh finger at Sly. Sly did not take kindly to it, but he found no need to shout his return.
“I think we all know where he went, don’t you?”
They guessed what Sly meant, and there was no choice to be made whether or not they would go. There was one question on all their minds, and it could never be satisfied unless they went to meet him – Rifter.
The question was: why?
Chapter Thirty-One
1
Rifter – the real Rifter, with his missing eye and the long scar running down his face, with the dark tattoos on his strong arms – took off the sleeveless coat and tossed it to the wet ground with a sigh.
He’d returned to the ruined Tribal camp, littered with the bodies of pirates, and while he’d not been the one to ask the Pack here in the beginning, he thought they would know to find him here now. This was the place they were supposed to get their answers. If they wanted the truth – or if they wanted to fight him – they would come.
He had been traveling across the plains when he’d made the decision to turn back. The bout with his shadow – which stood beside him now, unscathed – had somehow made him realize that he couldn’t go on as he had been. How could he let himself be forgotten, even though he’d thought that was what he wanted? How could he let the one he loved go off with another who would either harm her or simply take his place?
In the beginning, he’d kept his secret – among other reasons – because he thought it would protect Wren. But leaving her, he’d suddenly realized, was the worst thing he could do. He was upset with her for her ignorance, but that did not make his feelings go away. He’d thought he’d done well enough to hide them and that his affection would not show as he followed her, but he’d found he was wrong. Accidentally, he’d made her care about his Nix persona even though he’d vowed not to let it happen.
But there was time to think of these things later. He would have too many issues to deal with soon.
In an area where scorched tree stumps had been arranged as perches, Rifter made himself comfortable. The others would come. In fact, he could already hear their approach.
He lifted his narrowed gaze to the hillock where they would emerge in his sight, but as he looked on, there was only one figure that appeared. A ripped gown, blond curls… She stepped around the slaughtered bodies, trying not to look. He could handle any one of them, he’d thought, but her alone? His fingers began to twitch, and he awaited the inevitable.
2
When Wren caught sight of him, even though she was still standing amidst the bodies, she stopped. Was he the same as she’d once seen him? He was still Nix in her mind, but that was a lie.
“Are you the only one?” he asked her. His voice sounded exactly as it had just before his secret had been revealed – a mild accent on the edge of it – and now that her memory had been cleared, she knew it was the same as it had been years ago.
“You must have known they’d let me come first,” she answered.
Wren approached, almost certain she could hear her own mind speaking words as it told her to stay calm and not give in to tears. Despite the attempted consolation, she knew it wasn’t going to work. Though she held a solid expression, she could feel her chest hitching already.
“The demon put on a good show, I imagine,” Rifter said, crossing his arms. “It was certainly enough to fool you, wasn’t it.”
Wren gasped at his lack of care. After all this, he must act like she was at fault? She couldn’t stop it. Water flowed from her eyes then.
“Please,” she sobbed quietly. “Please just tell me the truth! How did all this become so twisted?”
Rifter looked back at her with little interest.
“Do you really think you deserve to know? You couldn’t figure it out for yourself.”
She shook her head in disbelief, feeling that there was a wall between them and she had just run into it.
“Why are you treating me this way?” she demanded. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I tried to tell you once,” he countered. “In the cave that night. I didn’t get the chance before I realized how blind you still were. I suppose I was a little angry.”
Wren remembered that night. He’d embraced her and she’d enjoyed his closeness. Come to think of it, he’d tried to say something to her, but she’d pushed away from him. She’d said something about Rifter and he’d gotten angry – for he’d been standing in front of her all along.
“As if you have any reason to think you can be angrier with me than I am with you!”
With movements so swift that she could hardly register them, he moved to her. He did not touch her, but looked down into her eyes so firmly that she was locked in place.
“You looked right at my face, Wren!” Rifter growled at her. “You’ve looked at it many times since then, but not once did it cross your mind! Yes, I’m a bit upset. It’s true that I’ve been living my life as Nix for the past few years, but you, Wren, should have seen the truth. When we met in the woods, you looked straight at me and recognized me as him.”
She stared up at him in silence, but did not lose her grip on this argument.
“I wasn’t thinking of it!” she exclaimed. “I thought I knew who Rifter was because I had already met him. I was then only looking for the boys, one of which I assumed you were. There was no reason for me to doubt it.”
“You took it for granted!”
“How could I have known any different?”
Was there any sense to this yelling? To this whole argument? But of course there was. They were both the source of the other’s frustration.
“You could have looked a little closer!”
“I was too busy trying to convince myself that I loved him and not you!”
Finally a stopping point – a place where thought revealed itself once again. Rifter’s thoughts could not be known. Wren spoke hers.
“It… This is what you were trying to show me all along.” Realization dawned. Her voice was much softer, apologetic. She understood now what he’d been trying to make her see ever since they had met. Nearly everything fit. The way he had acted toward her – his feeling
s – had been there all along. He’d encouraged her to question what she’d been told because he’d wanted her to see the truth for herself.
“I was blind,” she admitted.
She moved past him without another word, sitting herself down on one of the stumps. Wren did not look at him, only at the ground. She felt a tear’s wet trail passing down her cheek.
Rifter crossed his tattooed arms over the dark vest of rhino skin.
“I tried to tell myself – more than once – that I was being too harsh in my thoughts toward you,” he confessed, his voice gentle. “Especially since it was all my fault in the first place. I’d claimed that my bond with the world was broken, but I don’t think that’s true. I wanted to forget myself by becoming someone else, and maybe that’s why no one could see me – even you.”
With a sigh, he sat down near her and reached for her hand. Wren soon found herself looking up at him as he wiped the tears from her face.
“It seems we are both at fault,” she said, and he gave her a short nod.
“Things have become so confused,” he began as a light mist of rain came on again, “so I’ll start over and tell you everything like it truly happened. Whether you believe it or not, yes, it’s your choice.”
Wren was ready. He looked over to her, and she stared back at him. She saw it now fully. In that face, there was the boy she had been so fond of. How could she not have seen it before? It was in the curve of his eyes, the corner of his mouth, the slope of his nose. She felt sad then, as if she’d broken a promise – as if she’d forgotten something she said she wouldn’t. He had every right to be angry with her for that.
Wren wanted to throw her arms around him, but she did not. Rifter looked away and began his story.
“Four years ago, the darkness came slithering over the land like a great snake, and though we didn’t know what it was at the time, or what to call it, we knew that the land was dying. But we were as good as children,” – He said this angrily. – “and though we tried our best to understand what was happening, we could not.
