by Lan Chan
Her unease was amplified by the urgent conversations of the other students in the dining hall. After stowing the heavenly blade in Sophie’s ingredients box, we’d headed out for lunch. Without Emily present, they directed their gossiping towards the closest humans. “I’m suddenly not that hungry,” Sophie said.
“I am,” I said, “but we can get out of here if you want. I need to go to Rivia anyway to pick up a present for Max.”
All of a sudden, the furtive glances we were getting were of no consequences. Sophie frowned. “You heard what I said about presents and ascension, right?”
“You’ve seen all the fuss about Kai’s bond, right?” I brushed her off. “I figure it gives me immunity to whatever unreasonable shifter mojo is flying around.”
Diana snorted. She contained her laughter after Sophie shot her a dirty look. “You know what he’d love?” Diana started to say. “If you snuck into his room and –”
“Finish that sentence and I’ll hex you so bad, you’ll be in pain for a year.” Sophie rounded on me. “Why do you want to get him a present anyway? You’ve been at each other’s throats since Christmas.”
It was difficult to explain. Ever since Charles had mentioned Max might get shipped somewhere far away, a strange ominous feeling had settled in my chest. Clearly I wasn’t one for prophecies, but the former street kid in me knew when to trust gut instinct. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was on the horizon. Not wanting to frighten anyone and turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy, I went with the easier option.
“I never got to go to Max’s graduation. I might not see him for a while. Besides, if you’re going to be stubborn and refuse to get him a present, then I figure mine will be the next best thing.”
The fork bounced off my protection circle and clanged onto the floor beside me. Sophie huffed as Diana removed the butter knife from her vicinity. I flashed Sophie a smile. “Who knows you, baby?”
I also knew that Sophie would regret this once it was over. But I had the perfect present in mind. Rivia was no less gossipy than the Academy. Conversation coming from the brew houses was also Emily related.
“You know,” Sophie said, as I stuffed a sandwich down my throat, “I don’t think this is what the elite guards had in mind when they gave you permission to use Gabriel’s Key at your discretion.”
“Stop being a party-pooper,” Diana told her. She halted in front of the shop I’d led us to. “A tattoo place?”
They both stared at me. “That’s a bit permanent, isn’t it?” Diana asked.
“That’s kind of the point.” I grabbed the door handle and ushered them inside. Strangely, it had been the scarred shifter from the black market who had given me the idea. Supernatural healing meant that human-style tattoos would never stick. The one Kai had on his shoulder was done by a script mage who had the power to embed writing on any surface. I understood the process was similar to the way Professor Mortimer placed runes around the Academy. It was less about needles and more about will. At least I hoped.
A section of the store was blocked off behind a shimmering translucent forcefield while the script mage, a robust man with arms like tree trunks and a bushy beard, worked on his latest creation. His customer was a prim Nephilim whose snooty expression was completely at odds with the full body tattoo she was getting.
“Hi. I’m Savannah. Can I help you with anything?” a girl in a pair of denim coveralls asked. She had a spiderweb tattoo on her arm. The redback spider inside the web moved up and down the thread. That was a little more complicated than what I had in mind.
Sophie walked away toward the unoccupied part of the store.
I smiled brightly at Savannah. “Could you please show me what you have in the way of enchanted ink?”
“Sure. It’s just over here.” She led me to a set of shelves beside the counter where stacks of ink were housed behind glass cases in small vials. The ink was separated into species. “Are you any good with art?”
My face automatically scrunched. She laughed. “I’m okay with words, though,” I pointed out so as not to conjure up images of me drawing a stick figure on somebody’s arm.
“Right,” she said. “What species?”
“Shifter. Lion if it helps.”
She took a few steps to the right. “What colour fur when they shift?”
The answer escaped me. “Sophie,” I called. “What colour fur does Max have?”
“Gold,” she grunted without turning around. I could have told her that. A more specific answer was not forthcoming.
If Sophie’s surliness put her off, Savannah didn’t let it show. “Why don’t we just go with an all-purpose ink just to be sure. These ones are specifically designed to work with a shifter’s natural makeup.”
“Doesn’t the ink poison their cells like silver in order to stop their regeneration properties?” Diana asked.
“In a way. It’s not as harsh as silver but the spell blocks the healing process around the area.”
“Doesn’t that create a bit of a weak spot?”
Savannah smiled. “Perhaps you can ask a shifter the next time you see one.”
I wouldn’t. Questioning a shifter’s prowess was like dangling a red flag in front of a bull.
“Any shifter who can’t take a little bit of enchanted ink isn’t fit for the name,” the script mage piped up from his chair. Oh, so the forcefield wasn’t soundproof.
“Do you need a quill?” Savannah asked.
“I’ll take everything I need to draw it myself, please.”
She added a quill, which looked mostly like a fountain pen, as well as magical sterilizing equipment. As a last-minute addition, she reached into a drawer behind the counter and pulled out a red lion-shaped lollypop. “In case they need a distraction from the booboo.”
Even Sophie couldn’t help grinning at that thought. We arrived back at the Academy before dinner. Though she had been a downer the whole trip, I shoved the ink into Sophie’s hands.
“Diana and I are going to grab dinner take-away,” I told her. “What you do with this ink while we’re gone is up to you. We don’t ever have to speak about it again.”
I shut the door on her before she could react. Diana and I ambled leisurely to the dining hall. We waited in line patiently even though Diana wanted to take cuts from her brother who was close to the front. “Stay put,” I ordered.
She sighed. “What’s Sophie’s issue anyway?”
I scrubbed at my face. “You mean aside from the raging lunacy of shifter mating rituals?”
“I know all that. The rest of us aren’t exactly puffballs either. She’s lived her whole life with wolves. Shouldn’t she know how they behave by now?”
I raised a brow. “There’s a difference between being the soft human pet in a compound of overly protective wolves, and being a contender for mate of the alpha.”
“But it’s not like he’s declared his intentions towards her. You’re further along in the relationship stakes than she is.”
We inched forward in the line. There was a lot of gossip still flying around and the dining hall workers were the glue that held the gossip together. The fact Diana of all people could be asking about Max’s intentions was a testament to how well Max had managed to keep a lid on them. And how serious they probably were.
I bit the inside of my cheek. My suspicion that the thing smouldering between Max and Sophie was verging on mating-link territory grew more solid by the day.
Proof of that winked at me in the form of a glowing pink vial of enchanted ink that had replaced the black one we’d arrived home with. It sat innocuously on my bedside table.
“I’m starving,” Sophie said.
Neither Diana nor I said a word.
36
The bulletin came just as we were getting ready for bed. Sophie joined me on my bed as Orin Harcourt’s youthful face appeared in the mirror. “I wonder if he’ll ever age?” I asked.
“Doubt it,” Sophie said. “Soon he’ll look like
Brigid’s older brother.
“Creepy.”
What Orin had to say definitely gave me the creeps. First, he made the announcement that Emily had returned to the human world. He made all the reassurances that she was being monitored so she wouldn’t blab about supernaturals. The part about the Sisterhood bodyguard and the elite guard tail was omitted. Not for the first time, I was glad Nora was on the Council. We’d never get to hear the whole truth otherwise.
Orin cleared his throat. “Secondly,” he said, “since the discovery of the fissures in the veil, it has come to Council attention that mysterious illnesses have been cropping up amongst our population.”
That definitely caught my attention. “As you will know, demonic energy is poisonous to us. While the fissures are not an immediate threat, the constant ebb and flow of energy disrupts our auras. Effective immediately, containment perimeters have been set up around each of these fissures. Elite guards will now patrol the sites to ensure no entities escape from other dimensions. If you suddenly exhibit any symptoms of ill health, make sure you attend sanctuary in Seraphina as a matter of urgency. Thank you for your time.”
“Great,” Sophie said, stretching her legs. “Just what we need on top of everything else. A supernatural pandemic.”
I couldn’t swallow the story so easily. Especially not after seeing what happened to Astrid. It was too much coincidence. “You’re not going to stay up all night reading that again, are you?” She pointed to Hilary’s diary and the Nephilim Codex that I had stacked beside me on the bed.
“I can go to the library if you find it disturbing.”
“It’s not the reading that I find disturbing,” she said. “It’s the obsessive page flipping and muttering to yourself.”
I made a face. “I’ll try to keep the muttering to a minimum.”
“You do that.”
It was barely lights-out before she cleared her throat. I hadn’t even noticed I had been cursing underneath my breath. If Sophie weren’t trying to sleep, I would smack my great-grandmother’s diary against something. Preferably something hard. There was just no way to make sense of the unintelligible writing. I kept thinking if I stared at it for long enough, I would suddenly have an epiphany of some kind. No such luck.
Switching over to the codex, I read the account of all the most notable Nephilim. It was obvious that the book hadn’t been updated since just after Raphael’s line had been murdered, because none of them were in there besides Kai’s paternal aunt Rebecca Pendragon. Before the attack on Seraphina, Rebecca had been the strongest healer in their House. She had a cloud of curly, dark blonde hair and light green eyes. In her portrait, she was smiling unabashedly. It said in the description that, unlike Kai, she was especially gifted at healing humans. I couldn’t help wondering if things would be different for me if Rebecca had been around. But that was like wondering what would happen if I didn’t make any of the choices I had leading up to this point.
Unsure when I fell asleep, I awoke to the sound of an incoming call over the mirror. “What the hell?” Sophie complained. The sky outside hadn’t even begun to lighten. Pushing the heavy codex off my chest, I shuffled out of bed. Though she complained, Sophie did the same. A mirror call outside of acceptable hours could only spell trouble.
The face that stared out at me when the call connected was the epitome of the word trouble. Except I didn’t really feel like hearing it. Sophie groaned and jumped back in bed. “Hang up,” she advised me.
Andrei heard her. “Wait!” he said, voice smoky. It sounded like his voice box had been shattered and then healed poorly. I didn’t recognise the room behind him.
“What for?” I snapped.
The questioned stumped him. This close, the blisters on his face were still weeping. How long ago had he gotten down from the cross? Not that it made a difference. No apology meant no speaking to him.
“Wrong answer,” I said. His mouth opened again but still no sound. Until the door behind him burst open. It busted right off its hinges and went flying across the room. Andrei ducked, clearly still in control of his reflexes. The corner of the door slammed into Andrei’s mirror, shattering the image into a thousand fractured pieces. Sound was the only thing transmitting now. What I head was a scuffle followed by a voice I knew.
“Took you long enough to get down,” Alastair Thompson said. “A five-year-old would have been able to get out of that crucifixion in less time.”
“Get your hands off me,” Andrei yelled. It was followed by the crunch of a fist. Something thudded along the carpet and then dead air.
“Umm...” Sophie said from her bed. “Did Max’s dad just kidnap Andrei?”
I rubbed my left eye. “Seems like it.”
“Should we be concerned?”
“No.” He was alive, and he wasn’t sorry. That was all I needed to know. Now that I was up, it would be impossible to get back to sleep. “I’m going to head to the Grove.”
Sophie sighed contentedly. “Good. It hasn’t been the same since you stopped.”
The nymphs were much less appreciative of the fact that I was here of my own good will. I didn’t sweat it. They were so used to procuring labour through deception that it might take some time before they stopped worrying that I might disappear.
Charles was a font of information when he slid into the seat next to me at lunch time. “Did you hear about Andrei?” All evidence that he had gone rogue were gone. Not that I expected it to leave any scars.
“Where is he?” Diana asked because I wouldn’t.
“Doing hard time with Dorian,” Charles laughed. “Can you imagine Andrei Popescu on a shifter routine? It’s going to kill him.”
In opposition to their animal halves, the shifters were renowned for their militaristic hierarchy. Even the non-soldiers had roles within the pack. Andrei slept past noon if he slept at all. If the structure didn’t kill him, Dorian would.
Trey was less amused by the news. “Great. Now I have to see his stupid face on breaks.”
He forgot that Max’s ascension was that weekend so he would be seeing Andrei’s stupid face much sooner. All of that was pushed to the side as worry started eating at me. It had only dawned on me this morning that I had neglected to consider that Max might not want a tattoo.
“What do people normally give shifters for their ascension?” I asked Trey out of curiosity.
“Sex,” he said with a deadly straight face. I waited for the punchline but none came. Fearing that I had severely misjudged the situation, I had to bite the bullet and call Max.
He looked better, though still not a hundred percent. I didn’t mention the veil fissure thing because I still didn’t really believe the theory. Knowing better than to make another crack at his appearance, I launched right into it.
“So, you know how all you shifters are hopped up on pheromones during your ascension?” I started. He chuckled.
“Did you call with the express intention of insulting me?” he asked.
I cast around, unsure what I had said to offend him. “I thought it was common knowledge.”
“Someone is pulling your leg. Just don’t go around saying that on the night. I don’t have time to defend your honour all night.”
I waved off his concern. “Anyway! You know how I have this thing about presents?”
“You mean how you didn’t get any for years and have developed a strange aloof obsession about it? Yes, I do.”
For two people who supposedly never spoke, Max sure knew a lot of stuff I had only ever told Sophie. The incident he referred to was a breakdown in Rivia when I tried to get Basil a Christmas present but couldn’t decide because he had everything and could conjure up anything he wanted. Demons couldn’t reduce me to tears, but that day had broken me. The stress of spending money and the overabundance of choices freaked me out.
Pushing it aside, I barrelled forward. “So I got you a present, well, Sophie and I did, but it’s not because we want to have sex with you. Well, I don’t but...anyway
...”
What the heck was I even saying? There were too many possible landmines in this conversation. Never mind the fact that Sophie had turned the ink into a wicked pink colour.
“You’re rambling, Lex.” Something clouded passed across his face. Ah shit. This was going south fast. To salvage it, I fell back on instinct. As a shifter, he would appreciate that.
“I have this awful feeling,” I started to say, then caught myself. Did this constitute questioning his ability to look after himself? It was too hard to retain all of their customs. So I just came out with it. “I’ve had it for a while now. Something about where you might be going that makes the hair on the back on my neck stand up.” As I spoke, his expression became deceptively calm. “I saw a shifter with runes tattooed on his skin in the black market and I thought it couldn’t hurt to have some insurance.”
“Remind me to have a chat to you some time about going to the Ravenhall black market with Sophie on your own.” His voice was rough.
“Andrei was there.” Not my strongest defence. “But my point is, do you want a protection tattoo or not?”
After I had made it sound so enticing, I was prepared for a staunch refusal. The stretched-out silence certainly pointed to it. “Oh, and did I forget to mention, this is what the ink looks like?” I raised the vial of enchanted ink up so he could see the colour synonymous with Sophie’s personal brand of magic. Flecks of gold appeared in his grey eyes.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked.
I gave him my most reassuring smile. “Not really. But how hard can it be? It’s just writing.”
Somehow, that didn’t put him off. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah. Come to my place before the ceremony.”
“Ahhh.”
“You know where we live.”
“Yes, but –”
He cut the call. What had I gotten myself into?
“Have fun with that,” Sophie informed me when I told her I’d be meeting Max before the ceremony.
“You’re coming with me.”
“No, I’m not. I’ll be arriving with my parents and Jacqueline and Cassie like normal people and not weirdos who get themselves into strange situations they can’t salvage.”
