Midnight Falls (Sky Brooks Series Book 3)

by McKenzie Hunter

  “You will not have to. Although were-animals are immune to our magic and elven magic in animal form, faes still have the ability to compel your mind in any form. I suspect, even as we speak, she is trying to find one that is willing to betray your pack. It is inevitable that you will be the one that will be used; but you can choose in which way. Will you save them from the animal that lives within them, or will you be the one responsible for killing your kind? Although I find us all vile creatures, Marcia only considers the were-animals to be. The rest will exist in a world without were-animals. Who will be there to keep the vampires in check?”

  My long, thoughtful silence had somehow provided implied agreement between us. He smiled.

  “I will not help you,” I reiterated.

  His face was blank, but his tone remained the same, gentle and entreating. “Will you take my number, in case you change your mind?”

  I nodded and handed him my phone. He entered his number and gave it back. As I walked away, all the new information didn’t comfort me at all; there was just too much and I needed to sort it out. I had made it to the edge of the alleyway when I stopped, feeling his presence still there. “How many protected objects are there?” I asked.

  “Five: Gem of Levage, Aufero, Clostra, Fatifer, and Vitae.”

  Vitae? I had to learn Latin.

  “Who oversees the Mouras?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I would like to find him as well. He’s like a shadow. I thought I found him when I found the Moura for the Gem of Levage. But it was too late when I got there. She was dead and he was gone. You don’t have the Aufero, but as I said before…”

  He didn’t have to finish it. I risked being found and used by one faction or another.

  “You thought if you found him you could find the Clostra?”

  He nodded. I tried to make my expression blank, but based on Samuel’s face, I failed. I wanted to help him. If he was right, then life would get uncomplicated fast.

  As a light rain started again, I wanted it to wash away the guilt that wore heavily on me, because half of my walk was me trying to rationalize helping Samuel and betraying the pack. If I brought the idea to Sebastian, would he automatically reject it? They didn’t seem to have a problem with this world, in fact, they enjoyed dwelling in the darkest part of it.

  If he was right and he could remove the magic, I wouldn’t be cursed anymore. Whether or not Maya was a Faerie, elf, or witch would be irrelevant because their magic wouldn’t exist. This world would be better: the battle for dominance in the otherworld would be a futile endeavor because there wouldn’t be any power to be obtained. But there was one thing that dampened my fantasy of a simple life: if the spirit shade could only exist as long as the Tre’ase that created it did, then when the Tre’ase was without magic, could it continue to exist? I was alive only because I hosted her. If she ceased to exist, would I as well? Was there a way to work around it?

  The Vitae, the elusive fifth object that meant “life,” needed further investigation. Life of what? The objects were never simple and usually used for something nefarious, even the Clostra, which in witches’ Latin meant key. But what did it really unlock? It was books of riddles and inconclusive spells that were so dangerous they had been placed in three different books.

  Ethan’s eyes shifted from his phone to me the moment I entered the lobby. I ignored him as he followed me to my room, keeping his curious scrutiny on me. My attention stayed on my screen as I scrolled through my email, fully aware that Samuel’s number was just a few clicks away.

  My wet clothes and hair matted against my skin, so I went to the bathroom to grab a towel and slipped off my shirt. Modesty, much like many of my qualities pre-pack, was fading into nonexistence. When I slid off my shirt, Ethan’s glance was one of indifference, as though it was just another naked body. Ethan was the furthest thing from my thoughts. I was preoccupied by the things that Samuel had told me. If he could find a way to allow me to continue to live and remove magic, would I betray the pack and take the books for the chance at a normal life? I wished I were more confident in my assertion that I wouldn’t. I wasn’t.

  "What do you want?" I finally asked.

  Ethan moved with such natural predacious grace, I had to learn to control the fight or flight reaction his presence sparked in me. When he looked at me, I felt trapped. His sharp gaze tracking my every move, I stopped in the middle of the room. Eyes narrowed slightly, perceptive eyes remained with me as he stepped closer. A twinge of curiosity made me wonder if he knew what had happened. He watched me in silence for a long moment.

  “Occasionally, I can be a little rude,” he said softly. “Today I was. I’m sorry.”

  Were we using “occasionally” the same way? His eyes narrowing ever so slightly as my conscience began to get the best of me. Ethan just waited in silence for me to confess my sins. I hadn’t betrayed them; it was only a conversation. Yet I bore its shame as though I had already given the books to Samuel.

  “I went back to the restaurant, but you weren’t there. Where were you?” he asked.

  My lips rolled slowly over my teeth as I bit back the truth. “I went for a walk.”

  I wasn’t sure why I didn’t tell him the truth. Feeling like I was in a state of perpetual limbo between trust and mistrust, I needed to sort things out. There was truth to what Samuel had said, and perhaps there was some in what Sebastian and Ethan had told me as well. But how much of it had been edited for me to see the reality they wanted me to believe? This uncertainty was the result of years of deception.

  He focused on me, but I couldn’t hold his gaze for very long. Intense and disarming, it left me feeling exposed.

  “Did you enjoy your walk?” He inched closer, making slow deliberate steps as he walked in front of me, stopping periodically to assess me.

  Now I had his full attention as he waited for an answer.

  I swallowed the confession and nodded.

  “Thirteen,” he whispered.

  “What?”

  “When you are not giving me the full truth, your respiration drops from fifteen to thirteen times a minute. You blink six times instead of your usual eight times, and your heart rate jumps to between sixty-nine and seventy-seven instead of sixty-four. So shall we try this again? Where were you?”

  Most times I remember how sharp my teeth are, but at that moment I didn’t. I tasted blood from my lips as I bit into them.

  The heavy gaze remained on me, entreating an honesty that I just couldn’t give. I wasn’t going to ever be a good liar. The were-animals considered it a tool in their arsenal of weapons to keep them safe, but I still considered it the behavior of psychopaths. It was not a skill I wanted to work at improving because to me there wasn’t anything brag-worthy about it. “Hey guys, I can lie with the best of them.” Not who I wanted to be. Detecting lies was a skill I wished I could master. But how useful would it be for me? I would have to be more skillful than the ones that could detect them.

  Ethan’s hand intertwined with mine; disenchantment and disappointment washed over his face. “I hate when you lie to me,” he said.

  “And I celebrate with a dance-off each time you do it to me,” I said.

  “I don’t enjoy keeping things from you. Often it is to protect you when I hold back information from you.” His lips pulled into a tight line.

  “I don’t want to tell you.” And that was the truth.

  He nodded and let go of my hand. “Our flight is at eleven fifty. I will meet you in the lobby at nine,” he said, but his back remained to me as he spoke.

  “What is the Vitae?” I asked.

  He stopped and took a long controlled breath and wore the tension harshly on his face as he turned around. He looked instinctual and predacious. It was the look one gave another predator once confronted. The very look that made me remember the many times I had seen him in a fight, the bodies that he walked over when he was done, the fear that people showed at the mention of his name. Sometimes I forgot who I was de
aling with, because I had become comfortable with him. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that, despite the odd tension and animosity, Ethan protected me and I was a little happy to have a person like that in my corner. Now he seemed to have turned on me and I wanted him gone.

  “What do you know about it?” he asked, closing the distance between us, studying me with a new intensity.

  “It’s the fifth protected object that you and Sebastian want to pretend doesn’t exist,” I said.

  “Did you discover this on your walk?” he asked. The strain of his thoughts placed a harsh scowl on his face.

  His lips were pulled tight into a frown and I knew I wasn’t going to get anything from him. He turned for the door in silence and started to leave.

  “I met with Samuel today,” I blurted out.

  He took several steps back away from me as if I had just done the most vile thing and he needed to distance himself from it. “And?”

  I shrugged. Now I was just as careful about watching Ethan as he was with me. Although I still couldn’t read him as well as he could me, something was off, unbalanced. “We discussed the protective objects. He says that the Clostra is rumored to have spells that will not just kill us, but that can dissolve the symbiotic relationship between us and our animal halves. A spell to remove magic from the world. We wouldn’t change anymore. He thinks it can make us all whole, normal. I wouldn’t have to worry about protecting the Aufero because without magic, there wouldn’t be a need for it to exist. We would be normal.”

  His face relaxed into interest. “And you believe him?”

  “Yes. He could have been dishonest about a lot of things, but he wasn’t. He doesn’t think that magic should exist in any form, and I think I agree with him. Think about it. If we can do a spell that rids this world of magic, that makes us all normal, then this… this world of dominance, curses, bad magic and manipulation ends. It would just be an ordinary life that I think we all deserve.”

  Ethan was expressionless, nodding occasionally, and when I finished, he took a moment before he spoke. “Where did you meet him?”

  “Well, he kind of grabbed me off the street.”

  “Did he drop you off at the hotel?”

  “No, I walked.”

  “Do you have a way to contact him?”

  I nodded.

  “A phone number or an address?”

  “A number.”

  “Is he still here in the city?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The more the questioning continued, the more I realized that Ethan wasn’t on board; he was gathering intel, and like a fool I was giving it freely. Whatever boundaries that had separated us and slowly dissolved over the years, were now erected again, and stronger than ever.

  “You should call him. Let him answer whatever questions you have, and when you’re done listening to his spiel, you pick whose side you want to be on,” he said.

  “There isn’t a side to choose. I am trying to help. He’s not our enemy.”

  “You don’t have to be enemies to be on opposite sides of an issue. He wants to rid the world of were-animals and magic, and the way I see it, that seems to be where you stand too,” he said, disappointed. “I guess I was right about you all along. We shouldn’t trust you,” he said acerbically.

  I sighed into the moment, my frustration getting the better of me. “Now you know how I feel about you and this pack,” I snapped back.

  “Whether you believe it or not, I have never enjoyed keeping things from you, or from anyone. Often it is necessary.”

  “I think you and Sebastian go to great lengths to keep this pack safe. You act as gatekeepers of information that I think people should know, and because of that I don’t—no, I can’t—trust you. I get it: I spilled my guts to a fae and gave in to their magic while you held strong. I am weak. Yay for you… you were right. I hope you enjoy whatever prize you win for being correct.”

  “I don’t think you're weak,” he said softly, moving closer.

  “Whatever you think, it’s a hindrance. You think things are easy for me? Three years ago I had a boring life that I kind of enjoyed. Now I am part of a pack I can’t fully trust because of all the secrets. I am a Moura Encantada without the object I am supposed to be protecting. I host a spirit shade that I’m afraid may be Faerie, that I may not be able to control. I watched four people die today because of me. You think I am okay with it? Well, I am not. I’m tired, frustrated and scared,” I admitted.

  Ethan hugged me. A gentle caress that enveloped me in warmth. I closed my eyes, but it didn’t make things better.

  His touch was tender as he stroked my hair, and when he finally spoke, his tone was soft. “The Vitae has nothing to do with you. I swear it does not. The less people know about it, the better. Will you please trust me on this?”

  He pulled away, beseeching eyes waiting for an answer. “Please trust me,” he said quietly.

  Finally, I nodded.

  Ethan started toward the door, but barely made it to threshold before he stopped, and remained for a long time. Turning around he came back. Taking my hand, he led me to the bed. “Have a seat,” he said.

  His fingers ran over his hair several times. This had to involve Josh. His brother had a tell, which was biting at the bed of his fingernails whenever he was nervous. Only one thing ever made Ethan nervous, and it was always centered around his brother and his safety. “Children always bear the sins of their parents,” he whispered, sitting next to me. “My mother was very similar to Josh: very powerful and very tenacious, which gained her quite a few enemies and provoked the Creed too many times. She had performed a forbidden spell to help a friend and it was discovered. The punishment was death—but not hers. They wanted her to live with the consequences of her mistake, so she had to choose one of her children.”

  “Did she perform a rever tempore?” I asked.

  His brow crinkled with curiosity, but he didn’t inquire how I knew. I wouldn’t forget the one spell that altered time, the one Josh said was considered the most egregious violation by the Creed and often was punished with death. Of course, Marcia being the type of person she was, would choose a punishment that would hurt a mother the most—having to offer her child’s life as penance.

  Ethan stared at his hands, occasionally looking in my direction. I tried not to let the look of horror show, but I wasn’t doing a very good job. The only thing I could think about was the brother he had lost. Stop dammit, I scolded myself, but the tears were already forming and I blinked them back.

  “She chose Josh.”

  Josh. Well, the curse didn’t work. “Josh?”

  “Never underestimate their cruelty when defied. Josh’s eighteenth birthday, he was supposed to die.”

  Josh was a year older than I was; someone had botched that curse by eight years. “But he’s still alive.”

  Ethan nodded. “Yes, but not without great effort on our part. You want to know where the Vitae is? It’s on Josh. Well, part of it is on him.” Ethan pulled out his wallet and sorted through the multitude of cards and handed me a folded picture of a small, metal, and helix-shaped object. “This is it.”

  Blinking back the confusion, I tried to make sense of the information. How had they used the Vitae to save Josh?

  A half-smile came through and he didn’t seem to bear the same stress. “There is a quarter-sized mark just above the top of one thigh that he believes is a birthmark. The metal is in the ink.”

  I stared at the crinkled picture, speechless. I wasn’t really speechless; the hundreds of questions running through my head were fighting for their turn to be asked.

  “What about the Moura, what became of her?” I was happy that Josh was alive and the curse had been circumvented, but I couldn’t forget the dead Moura that I had seen as a result of her losing her protected object. Someone had died so that Josh could live.

  “She’s fine,” he said with confidence. Too much confidence.

  “It’s Claudia, isn’t it?”<
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  He nodded.

  “And Josh has no idea?” I asked.

  He shook his head.

  “Why wouldn’t you tell him?”

  “Do you think that is something he really needs to know?”

  “Yes, I would want to know.”

  “When you found out about the specifics behind your birth, do you remember how you reacted?”

  I hadn’t taken the news with the level of grace that I had reconstructed in my mind. I went a little berserk, but who wouldn’t have? I had found out that I had died at birth and the only thing keeping me alive was a spirt shade that had died years before. You don’t take that type of information with a grin and a nod.

  “But this is different.”

  “How? He will have to deal with the fact that, when my mother had to sacrifice a life, she chose me over him,” he said. “I don’t want him to know that. To live with that.”

  “She chose you to live because of the age difference. You all were given six extra years to remove the curse.”

  “I know, and I am sure he would understand, but I can’t imagine knowing something like that would not mess with him. I don’t see why he needs to know. And you can’t tell him.” He turned toward me. “Promise me you will not tell him.”

  I wasn’t promising that. There was no way in hell I was promising that. As a person that was on the other side of the secrets, I couldn’t do that to someone else. “I can’t do that.”

  Ethan stood, pacing the floor in long sweeping steps, and the tension weighted his movements. “Do you remember how easily we destroyed the Gem of Levage?” he asked.

  It wasn’t that easy. It was a spell that only Josh could perform from a spell book that only the pack had. I ignored the fact that something that powerful was in their possession, opposed to that of the Creed. I nodded.

  “That’s the only thing that is keeping Josh alive. That spell book has to ability to contain such objects, a spell that even a mediocre witch can perform. Do you think that is something he needs to know?” he asked.

  I held my breath as he watched me, waiting for an answer. “I will not tell him, but you should,” I said. Secrets were what my life had become. I was so out of my depth in this world and each day was a constant reminder of it. He knelt in front of me, inches away. His head rested against mine and he kissed me lightly on the cheek.