Garden of Spiders Volume 2: A Companion Book to The Fallocaust Series Book 3

by Quil Carter

  “I wouldn’t have work to do, if you would’ve kept Perish’s fucking mind,” I snapped. I shoved him hard and he stumbled backwards. I was surprised he remained standing. “But you decided altering a scientific genius because he hurt your fucking feelings.”

  “That wasn’t Perish!” Silas cried. He pushed me and pushed me again, tears suddenly bursting from his eyes. “Sky altered him before he fucking died. He left me with a monster. Sky left me with a fucking monster and killed himself.”

  I held out my arms just as he collapsed into them sobbing. With my eyes wide with realization, I held Silas tight to me, my heart pounding against his.

  What Perish had said…

  “Silas… where’s Perish’s O.L.S?” I asked him slowly. Perish had said that he took it. But who was he? “Do you have it?”

  Silas sobbed into my chest. “They did something with it. I don’t know where it is. If I could find it… I’d bring back Perry.” A fresh wave if despair took him and he began to cry harder. “I miss him. I miss who he was. I can’t get him back, all I got back was… was…a monster. Then I got…” He raised his head, his eyes red and his body trembling. He looked towards the hallway where the stairs to my apartment was. Where I’d left Perish. “… I got him.”

  The silver threads connected themselves together, forming a cat’s cradle in my mind that weaved together perfectly.

  “What did you do to Perish this time, love?” I asked calmly, putting forth another sacrificial pawn in front of the distressed king.

  “I just… I just cut out near what had been cut out in the O.L.S,” he sniffed. “I allowed him to heal naturally so it won’t repair itself when he dies. He’s… he’s not perfect but he’s better than who Perish was. Don’t you remember all the times he hurt you? I was… I was protecting my boys.”

  I wasn’t listening. I wasn’t listening to his fabricated past where he’d altered Perish for reasons other than the fact he made the Gosselin lab self-destruct, I was staring at my own reflection in the window with my purple eyes wide.

  I knew what I had to do, and I knew what my next step was.

  It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

  I was going to repair Perish.

  But it couldn’t be tonight, no. I needed time alone with the fallen prince, and enough time in private with Perish that his presence wouldn’t be missed and neither would mine. This also meant I’d need a laboratory or a surgical room at my disposal, but luckily the Skytech laboratory would be perfect for that.

  Tomorrow would be a no-go though. I had to investigate Ivan’s parting words, and to me, that was just as important as repairing Perish. My plans were to visit my siblings, who I had previously set out to gather information for me. They didn’t know much, but they did know I was investigating Finn’s death.

  And that was where I found myself the following afternoon.

  Well, almost.

  “You seem to have everything…” I took a step away from Julian and looked at him from head-to-toe to do a mental checklist. He was wearing legionary combat armour but his had a special red stripe instead of blue to show that he was an ambassador, and a swarm of legionary that rallied around him and always had their eyes peeled for trouble.

  ~

  I’m glad that Reaver wasn’t born yet. The boy has always taken a liking to sniping important-looking people.

  ~

  “Do I look dangerous?” Julian said with a half-smile. He turned and looked at himself in the mirror, then began, of course, posing.

  “Oh, quite terrifying,” I said. I walked up behind him and looked at our reflection. “Your friends would be aghast at seeing the dirty slave driver working for Skyfall. Not to mention being involved with the king’s heir.”

  “Luckily, all my friends are dead,” he chuckled and he gave me a loving look. “I’ll be back by tonight. You know the usual routine, if I’m not back by after-dinner tea, my ass is roasting on some filthy greywaster’s spit.”

  “You’ll be careful?” I said. Hesitation and worry gnawed me. The thought of losing him, after losing Finn only a few short months ago… “Perhaps you should stay.”

  Julian made a clucking noise in his mouth and rubbed my shoulder. “My poor baby, worrying about me. I’ll be fine.” The loving look on his face only deepened, but the longer he looked at me, the more it transformed into worry. “You’re going to relax today, right? I know you’re not sleeping like you should. It seems every time I wake up at night you’re already awake…”

  Sleep didn’t find me often nowadays. My head was wrought with worry and my heart was poisoned by it. How could I sleep when there was so much on my mind?

  Especially today… Nero and Ellis were on their way. I could possibly be sifting through evidence in several hours.

  But Julian couldn’t know this. So even though I could feel those hairline cracks forming in my mind, splitting the pink membrane to expose the inner anxiety that grew with each day… I pushed it down and forced a smile.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “Have a good day at work.” I gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Julian stared at me. He obviously didn’t want to let this go. But I think he knew that if he stayed, there would be nothing in his future but us fighting. So, with another quick kiss, and one last exchange of good-byes, he left me and disappeared into the hallway.

  Once he was gone, I leaned up against the wall beside the door and closed my eyes. I took in several deep breaths, then opened my eyes and headed towards my small corner bar. I needed a drink, and I needed a smoke. My heart was racing.

  “Hey, brosy!”

  Nero strolled into my apartment an hour later and immediately owned the room by both his overbearing presence and loud, happy voice. He gave me a flashy smile, then put his hand on his head and rubbed it. “I got a new haircut. Look,” he said. It was one of those buzz cuts where they leave hair on top of the head but the sides are closely shaved. “Cephy wanted one too but I love his hair, so I said no.”

  Nero’s cheerful nature helped the anxiety that seemed to have taken control away from me. “You look nice. Give it a week and all the men in Cardinalhall will be getting one too. We’ve always been trendsetters,” I said. I walked to the dining room table and Nero followed. “Do you and Ceph have anything planned for this day off I gave you?” It was rather clear that Nero and Ceph would eventually become partners. Nero and Vinski had broken up a year ago, and it was obvious that Ceph wanted to fill the position. I was well-beyond seeing such things as weird; Apollo and Artemis had desensitized me to a lot of things when it came to that.

  Always knock when entering the room of teenage chimeras. Always.

  “Yeah, we’re going to take the boat out and see if we can see any uglyfish,” Nero said. He reached out and grabbed the bottle of beer that Loren was bringing for him, then Loren put my tea down in front of me. “Fucker loves fishing. Do you think there’s sea monsters now? Would make sense. I mean look at the fucked up radanimals we have in the greywastes, right? Evolved ones, not even mutant ones that Perry-pants spliced. Like the deacons? Didn’t you almost get eaten by a deacon?” Nero chuckled. “Eaten by a deacon, kinda rolls off your tongue, eh?”

  “Mmhm,” I said. Mountains will rise and fall, lakes swell then dry up, the hands of time will turn to rust and crumble away… and Nero will still be Nero. “Yes, I was. It wasn’t a positive experience.” I’d humoured him enough. I put my tea down, tented my fingers, and mentally steeled myself. “Have you found anything for me?”

  It felt as if an iron hand had reached into my heart and ripped it out when Nero’s eyes deflected and his chin pulled.

  Nothing?

  This admission stunned me. “How – how can that be so?” I stammered, and like a light switch was getting flicked, a wall of despair and anxiety hit me. “Nothing? Nero… I… I asked you months ago. You had months. How can–”

  “Bro… bro… it’s okay.” To my humiliation, Nero rose and
sat down in one of the chairs beside me. “Calm down. Jeez, I can hear your heartbeat from here. I’ll get you a Xan-”

  “Do not treat me like an invalid!” I cried. I rose to my feet, my knotted chest heaving. “You’ve– you and Ellis have been avoiding me for over a month and this is why? Because you had nothing for me? How can there be nothing? That compound had their entire fucking lives in it!”

  It wasn’t like I was asking for a god damn homemade video of the traitor confessing. I’d requested any material that had writing on it: their weapons lists, their recruits, their itineraries, anything that could give me a lead. I needed this from him, he said he would help me.

  I tried to inhale a deep breath to steady these emotions currently taking the reigns of my usual control. The room felt like it was closing in on me, the air choking my lungs and stuffing it with dry cotton.

  “Look, they’re really shitty at cataloging shit, bro…” Nero began. His slow-said words held a timidness to him that my brother had never had. This made my gaze shoot to him, and I stared at my brother as if expecting someone new to be in his place. “I’ve been looking and I got Cephy looking but… I’m the Imperial Commander; it’s not often I have time to really look by myself.”

  “Then let me look!” I said hastily. “Tell me everywhere it could possibly be and let me look. I told you, Nero, this is important.” Yes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I would look. I would tear that place apart and I would find every shred of evidence.

  Yes, yes, that’s what I’ll do.

  But why won’t Nero help me? I needed him right now.

  I had sat him down and I’d… I’d done something difficult for me to do. I bore my heart to them. I’d explained to them that I couldn’t move past what had happened to Finn until I knew what Ivan meant.

  He knew how important this was…

  Fuck. What was happening to me?

  This isn’t me.

  “Bro, I think what Ivan said… I think he was just fucking with you,” Nero said gently. As I stared down at my tea, Nero’s hand rose and rested against my cheek. He stroked it, but I didn’t look up. “We ripped Vlad limb from limb. You shot Ivan and we’ve wiped out the Jacksons and the Bratva. Eenie-Meenie-brosy-bro… I think you’ve already avenged Finny, and for your own health, you gotta just accept that there are no spiders.”

  My eyes seemed to have forgotten to blink. I stared at my tea, Nero’s rough fingers caressing my cheek, and found myself unable to move.

  Was Nero lying to me?

  Was… was he told to not allow me access to the evidence found at the compound?

  Silas. Only Silas would’ve told him to do that.

  That was it, wasn’t it? It wasn’t Julian. I knew it couldn’t have been Julian. He was beside us when Finn and I had gotten shot. He’d run off after realizing where the sniper was. In all respects, Julian had saved my life – he’d gotten there first.

  It was Silas. Silas was the spider. There was only one; there was only one.

  No. My brother wouldn’t lie to me. I was crazy for thinking such a thing. Even if it was Silas, Nero would never, ever, lie to me about something so important. He would find a way to warn me.

  A veil of silence draped over us like a fisherman’s net. No words came from Nero, and the only sounds I could hear was my own mind cracking.

  “Elish… there’s no spiders,” Nero said, after a long silence. One that may have been uncomfortable to him, but my emotions were too used up to be bothered by such trivial things.

  Then there was movement. I heard Nero begin to fumble with something metallic, a lighter I realized. He banged the metal against the table, and began rolling the flint.

  He was fidgeting.

  My eyes rose and found his. “You will let me look,” I said with finality. “I’ll be in Cardinalhall by the weekend.”

  Nero swallowed, then he licked his lips.

  He was about to lie to me.

  Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Nero’s gaze deflected from mine, and out of the corner of my eye, Loren rushed past, his hands being dried on a dish towel.

  My eyes didn’t leave Nero, not even when I heard Loren greet Ellis behind me.

  While I was turning to face her, I saw a strange look on Nero’s face, but when my head shot back to him… it had disappeared.

  When I turned back to Ellis, she was looking at me with concern. “Elish, are you okay?” she asked, her voice was soft, full of feeling, another tone that was foreign to one of my siblings.

  I walked to her. “You have something for me, right?” I asked her in haste.

  She nodded.

  I almost sank to my knees I was so thankful, so flooded with relief. It was as if the thousands of pounds of pressure had been released from my back.

  “When can I see it?” I asked. I looked to Loren. “Get her something to drink.” I walked back to the dining room table, ignoring the tremble I could feel in my shoulders. Perhaps I did need to take several days off…

  I could when I had that evidence.

  I could when I knew who these spiders were.

  Or spider. I think it was only one… Is it only one?

  Silas. No. It couldn’t. He’d never do that to me.

  Or maybe my feelings developing so quickly, strongly for him, refused to see the signs.

  I’m terrified to know, yet it’s obvious now that I must find out. For my own sanit-

  “You’re going to have to speak to Silas about that.”

  My movements halted, as if my sister’s words had frozen me solid.

  But my anger and frustration thawed me.

  “You told Silas?” I whispered. I slowly turned around, a red glow encasing my sister like an ethereal picture frame. “You told him what I had requested?”

  Ellis stood in the middle of my dining room, her eyes deflected from mine. “Elish… have you been sleeping?”

  My teeth clenched at the question, and like a chain reaction going off, my entire body followed suit until I was made of stone. “You told him what I had requested?” I said through my locked teeth. One simple request from my siblings and I’m getting yanked around like a dog on a chain, each one taking their turn to twist me this way and that. When did I let them hold the leash? “Why would you do such a thing–”

  Then there was a knock. But the knock wasn’t on the entrance door, it was on the one that led to the set of stairs leading to Silas’s apartment. I looked towards it, just as the knob rattled and the door opened.

  And out walked Silas with a resting smile on his face.

  But when he saw the expression on my face, that smile faded.

  “What’s wrong my golden boy?” Silas said, sweetness dripping from each word. I stared at him as he approached, unable to move, unable to answer, but inside my mind was screaming.

  Something was happening behind my back.

  Something that my family didn’t want me knowing about.

  Ellis said something to him, but my ears had become nothing but static. I did hear Silas’s reaction however. He made a tsking noise, then rested a hand on my shoulder. “Lovely,” he said. “I have Finn’s crime scene evidence under lock and key. Ellis has to ask me before you’re allowed to see it. Not even I have personally gone through it. But you can see all the evidence you want from the Jackson compound, my baby.” He took my hand and led me towards the stairs. “Come up and visit, lovely boy, stop scaring your brother and sister and have a drink with Master. We’re going to talk all about it.”

  I followed him. Blindly and without thought my mad mind followed him up the stairs. The door closed behind us, and Silas led me to the couch where we both sat.

  I stared forward, no words to be spoken by me.

  “Why do you want to see the evidence, love?” Silas asked gently. He placed a hand on my leg and rubbed it.

  “Why do you want to hide it from me?” I whispered.

  Silas was quiet, and the hand on my leg stopped. “I’m not hi
ding it from you,” he said gently. “It’s been two months since Finn’s murder, and not only has the man who pulled the trigger been ripped limb from limb, but you were there when we bombed the Jackson compound. When we killed, and recruited, all greywasters with––––”

  Static filled my ears, and what words Silas had continued to speak, were nothing but a low hum.

  We ripped him limb from limb.

  He was ripped limb from limb.

  Limb from limb.

  Every time they speak of what was done to Vlad. They say that.

  As if… it had been rehearsed.

  Silas Dekker…

  What did you do?

  “Elish…?”

  I looked up when I felt Silas touch my cheek, and we made eye contact.

  “Elish, you’re not mentally well,” he said, his tone gentle, but both of those emerald oculars held to them deep concern. “I understood it and was patient with your grief… but Finn has been avenged, many times over. It’s time for you to move on.”

  But I can’t, Silas.

  The more I dig… the more I realize there’s a shallow grave beneath my feet.

  And a king with dirt on his hands.

  I could dig no longer with Silas looming over me. There was no point fighting with him on this, or fighting with Nero and Ellis either. I had to do this myself.

  I had hoped I would be able to enlist my brothers and my sister to help me solve this riddle Ivan had left for me… but it was now clear, this was up to me.

  Silas had already gotten to them.

  “Are you worried Julian had a hand in Finn’s death?”

  The air got sucked from my lungs, quickly enough for my breathing to shudder. I cursed myself for the physical reaction. He was brushing a hand over the truth, yet it wasn’t only Julian I suspected, it was the Mad King himself as well.

  There was no other way out of this than to answer with partial honesty. My body had already sold me out, and my lips couldn’t move fast enough to clean up the mess.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  Silas swore. “He wouldn’t dare,” he said with finality. “You were shot, love. Finn I could see… but Julian would never allow you to be hurt.” Then there was silence, followed by a low sigh. “But I can understand needing to know… Oh, love, why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”