by S. M. Boyce
He glared down at her. “Never, under any circumstance, are you to take that off. Not until I say you are ready.”
“Why the hell not? It hurts.”
“It’s supposed to. It’s a training device, meant to teach you to control your new strength. Agneon wore it, and so will you.”
The name rang a distant bell, but Kara couldn’t recall how she knew it. “Why does that matter? Who is he?”
“Don’t tell her, Stone,” the Vagabond said.
“And how exactly will you stop me?” Stone asked, turning around to look at the ghost.
The Vagabond tightened his hands into fists. “She doesn’t need to know!”
Kara bristled. “You don’t get to say that anymore! You’ve hidden important facts from me since I opened the Grimoire. If you had just explained things, I might not even be in this mess!”
The Vagabond held up a hand as if to placate her. “You’ve been through hell and back, Kara, but I need you to calm down.”
“I’ll calm down when I have answers!”
Stone let go of her arm. “How about this? We’ll give you answers if you calm down.”
Kara took a deep breath, but didn’t move. Stone, however, walked back to his chair and sat down.
Stone patted the bed. “Would you like to have a seat, Kara? This might take a while.”
“I don’t want to be anywhere near you. Get on with it.”
He crossed his arms. “There is no need to be rude, child.”
“You turned me without asking and I’m being rude? Seriously? I should—”
“Kara, please,” the Vagabond said.
She groaned. “Fine, but tell me who this Agneon guy is and why his name sounds familiar.”
Stone cleared his throat. “Kara, you aren’t just an isen. You are Agneon’s granddaughter.”
“I said she didn’t need to know!” the Vagabond shouted.
Kara bit back a scathing remark and turned to Stone. “Who is this guy?”
“He was Niccoli’s best soldier, with a natural ability to quickly master magic.”
It clicked. When she had first arrived in Hillside and the Queen ushered her into a room to meet the generals, someone had mentioned Agneon. The drenowith had killed him, and everyone at the table had been grateful for it.
Agneon was a murderer. Kara never knew her maternal grandparents because they’d lived in Ourea.
She put her hand over her mouth and leaned back into the wall.
Stone rubbed his cheek. “Agneon was the most arrogant man I knew, but that was warranted. He was the best and knew it. He could go into a fight alone and leave nothing but blood and corpses. He was fierce. But that is the trait of his bloodline. Your bloodline, Kara. Your family is one of the most powerful isen families in the world. You’ll be more powerful than me someday, no matter how hard I train.”
Kara just shook her head. She didn’t want power if it came from such an evil man.
Stone continued. “An isen is born an isen, but must be awakened at some point in his or her life to realize true power. You’ve already experienced that, of course, but some go their entire lives without realizing what they are. An isen can usually sense another of his kind, awakened or not, but that isn’t the case with you. Your isen nature was hidden, but you wouldn’t have such a strong ability to control magic if you were merely human.”
“I get my magic from the Grimoire,” Kara said, cutting him off.
“Not really. You learn quickly, don’t you? More quickly even than yakona?”
Kara didn’t answer. Her mind raced. When Braeden taught her how to make arrows out of the wind, she had picked it up in minutes even though he’d taken months to learn the same thing. They’d attributed that to the Grimoire. No one but the first Vagabond really knew the book’s true power. Still, Braeden was incredibly strong. For her to learn faster than him, well—she sighed.
Stone leaned forward. “That’s because of your heritage, Kara. Agneon was a powerful fighter. He wore the training guard long after he outgrew it simply because it made his battles more challenging. His only thought for years was of the fight. But your grandmother showed him the value of life, rather than the thrill of death, and that is why he couldn’t live with himself once he killed her, accident or no. He took their only daughter to the human realm to live with his wife’s relatives.”
“My mom,” Kara said under her breath.
“Yes, your mother.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Kara asked.
“He was my friend, once, and I owed him a debt,” Stone said.
Kara’s face flushed with anger. “Is that why you changed me? You think you’re paying him back?”
“I suppose that is part of it, yes. But it was just the logical option.”
Kara resisted the impulse to punch something. “You want to make a little more sense than that?”
“What did Niccoli tell you before you escaped?”
“Next to nothing.”
“That sounds about right. He doesn’t waste time. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you the truth about your mother, though. That would have been enough to make you hate him and virtually guarantee you would come back from facing Death.”
A lump formed in Kara’s throat. “Wh—what do you mean?”
“I may not live with Niccoli’s guild any longer, but I will always watch everything that vile creature does,” Stone said softly.
Kara leaned against the wall, calmer. If Stone had lived in Niccoli’s guild, then…
“Was Niccoli your master? He turned you?”
Stone nodded. “He did. If I hadn’t awoken you, he wouldn’t have stopped hunting until you belonged to him. He wants your power. With you, an experienced isen guild could overthrow the yakona kingdoms. Isen would become the dominant race in Ourea.”
“Whoa, really? Just from me?”
He looked at her over the brim of his nose. “You underestimate yourself. Don’t do that anymore. It just limits you.”
Kara glanced at the wrist guard. “But now you can control me. How is that any better?”
Stone looked at the floor. “I lived under Niccoli’s control for a century. It was the worst hundred years of my life. I came close to ending myself several times just to escape it. I have awoken only a few isen in my time, but I never control them unless forced to. None should endure mindless obedience. I won’t control you as long as you don’t do anything stupid. Is that clear?”
Kara paused, but nodded. “Will you tell me what happened to my mom?”
“Ah, well”—Stone rubbed his neck—“I’m sorry I brought it up. I don’t think you want to know.”
“Tell me. Please.” She rubbed her arm and pinched herself to control the ball in her throat. She would not cry—not here.
Stone sighed. “Niccoli hunted her for thirty years, but Agneon told me where she was. I was supposed to look out for her. I did, as best I could, but she didn’t need to know that. Kara, your mother was born with a unique gift. She didn’t have the traditional isen scent. Hers was subtler, almost undetectable. And you—well, you didn’t have it at all. For this reason, isen didn’t know what you were. I personally think your grandmother had something to do with this odd little piece of evolution, but we’ll never know. Now, of course, you smell like any other isen.”
Kara sniffed the air, but she couldn’t smell anything.
Stone leaned his arms on his knees. “But Niccoli is persistent. Last year, he found your mother—though I still don’t know how. He stopped her in a parking lot and demanded she return to Ourea. She told him she would go with Death rather than be his slave. He granted her wish.”
Stone rubbed his hands together and stared at the floor, but didn’t continue.
“What does that mean?” Kara finally asked.
“He killed her, Kara. He poisoned her. She was slowly burning alive from the inside out when she went home to you. He followed her. He found you. But sometimes the isen gene skips a gene
ration or two, and that must have been what he thought happened to you. It’s the only reason I can think of that he would have let you go then.”
Kara’s voice crackled. “Mom was sick that night because of Niccoli?”
Stone nodded. “I paid her a visit when she was in the hospital, but I saw Niccoli go in first. The car accident isn’t what ultimately killed her. I suspect she would have survived that.”
Kara’s bubbling anger cracked. Massive flames erupted around her hands, but she barely noticed them. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, and her throat tightened around the words she tried forming. She blinked away a few tears.
“Why didn’t you do anything?” she screamed.
Stone leaned back in his chair. “Now wait a minute—”
“You were there! You could have stopped him! You could have saved her! How could you be such a coward if Agneon was really your friend? His daughter was dying, and you—”
Stone stood. “That’s enough!”
Kara’s mouth closed on its own. The flames dissolved with a hiss. Her throat tightened until she thought it might implode. She leaned into the wall and buried her face into her hands. She couldn’t fight. She suddenly didn’t want to. All she wanted to do was cry. All these months of shame and guilt at her mother’s death, yet it wasn’t even her fault.
It was Niccoli. Niccoli had ruined everything. He had destroyed everything.
Kara bit back tears. For the first time in her life, she felt true hate. Red sparks fizzed across her palm. They sizzled the air and danced along her skin like she was a conductor. Anger churned in her stomach. She slid down the wall and crouched on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees.
Stone knelt in front of her, but she wouldn’t look at him. He lifted her chin until her eyes caught his.
“Anger is normal. Hatred is not,” he said.
A few tears slid down her face, but she wiped them away.
Finally, she nodded. “You controlled me just then, didn’t you? When I was yelling at you?”
“Yes.”
“But you said—”
“Yes, and not listening to me was stupid. Don’t yell at someone when you don’t know the truth of the situation. It’s childish.” He stood and headed back to his chair.
“So why didn’t you help her?” Kara asked with a sob.
Stone paused. “Everything dies, Kara. It’s natural. Why should I have stopped him? She said herself she preferred death to being an isen. It’s apparently what she wanted.”
“No one wants to burn alive from the inside!” Kara punched the wall. The rock cracked, shooting veins up to the ceiling. It didn’t even hurt.
“Your anger is misplaced. Control it if you want answers.”
Kara shut her mouth. She couldn’t look at him. She would start screaming if she did.
He continued. “I still hear Niccoli’s commands, even if I don’t have to obey. They are difficult to ignore. That’s why I didn’t fight for you at the bar. I couldn’t let him know who I was, though he had to know I was another isen. I found a boy who looked enough like Braeden with the hopes that their similarities would make you trust him—trust me—long enough to get you out of there.”
“I was mad at Braeden, so that just hurt your cause.”
Stone shook his head. “Your emotions confuse me.”
Kara shrugged. Emotion in general probably confused Stone.
“Are you calm now?” he asked.
“Not really, but that doesn’t matter. I want to know how you broke Niccoli’s control over you.”
“That’s—”
“He betrayed my trust,” the Vagabond interrupted with a hint of disgust.
Kara glanced at the ghost. She’d almost forgotten he was still there.
Stone took another deep breath. “I have done so much for you, and you’re still angry? After a thousand years?”
“He was my friend.”
“Who?” Kara asked.
“I’ve heard rumors that you have been working with the muses. Is that true?” Stone asked her, apparently ignoring the question.
“Yes, but—”
“Have any mentioned a drenowith named Bailey?”
She glanced at the Vagabond. “Not the muses.”
“They’re still mourning, then,” Stone said.
“Muses are slow to heal, Stone. A thousand years is nothing to them,” the Vagabond said.
Kara crossed her arms. “Let’s get back to the part where you two give me answers.”
The Vagabond shook his head. “I want you to hear this from the muses.”
“After what Aislynn did, I doubt I’ll ever see them again.”
The old ghost sighed. “That’s a good point.”
“I can tell her,” Stone said.
“Absolutely not.”
Stone raised his hands in mock surrender. “Carry on.”
The Vagabond sighed. “Not long after I met each of the Bloods of my time, Bailey found me and brought me to the drenowith. Though Adele, Garrett, and several of the other muses taught me invaluable techniques, Bailey was my only friend while I was there. Once I left, we traveled together for a while, always looking to uncover new magic and the truth behind old myths. With his help, I finished the Grimoire.
“I introduced him to Stone not long after I decided to make more Grimoires, though I only did so because I needed them both to successfully create the extra books. I thought he was safe with Stone, and I went alone to take the finished Grimoires to the village.”
The Vagabond’s voice broke, and he didn’t say anything more.
Stone continued for him. “I couldn’t ignore a drenowith in my home. Because the drenowith are immortal, I had to wonder. Would absorbing a muse let me live forever without ever having to absorb another soul? It made sense. I was young for an isen, but I could still hear the voices of my victims rattling together within me. I didn’t want to destroy myself someday because they drove me to madness. Cedric, you lulled him into such a sense of security that I would have been foolish to ignore the opportunity.”
“No, I was foolish to think you were a stronger man than that. And don’t call me Cedric,” the first Vagabond said.
Stone arched his back. A flash of anger sparked across his face. In that second, Kara became nothing more than a spectator.
“I barely won,” Stone said with a huff.
“That’s no consolation!”
“Cedric, Bailey’s voice is the loudest of them all. I live in a mountain because it makes him comfortable. It’s as far from Niccoli as possible, which also helps. I try to make him happy, but I don’t think you care. You spoke to me only once after that.”
“To ask you to put his soul in the Grimoire,” Kara interjected.
It made sense. The Grimoire was all the Vagabond had left of a body. Stone, an isen, could move souls around. The Vagabond would live as long as the book survived.
“You were never supposed to know any of this, Kara, much less be involved,” the Vagabond said.
“Did you know I was an isen?” she asked.
“Yes,” both men said in unison. They each looked at each other and furrowed their eyebrows in surprise.
“Wait, you both knew? How?” Kara asked.
Stone cleared his throat. “Do you remember my comment on your smell when I first met you?”
Kara rolled her eyes. “You said I smelled funny.”
“I believe I said ‘strange,’ but yes. You smelled familiar. Thanks to Bailey, I have a drenowith’s heightened senses. I could smell the nearly undetectable isen perfume on you, even when Niccoli never could. I knew.”
The Vagabond sighed. “And the Grimoire saw everything about you when you opened it, even that which you didn’t know. That was part of its design, to decide if you are truly worthy. Your isen blood is one of the reasons you were chosen.”
“What? Why?”
“No isen could steal you and control your power over the Grimoire.”
Stone r
ubbed his temples. “Low blow, Cedric.”
The old ghost shrugged.
“Can I talk to Stone alone, please?” Kara asked.
The Vagabond hesitated. “I supposed so, but you and I have unfinished business.”
“Oh, believe me, I know. But I need to talk to Stone right now.”
The Vagabond nodded. The smoky tendrils that comprised his body unraveled and dissolved until he disappeared into the air.
Stone leaned back in his chair and watched her for a moment. She didn’t say anything. She wanted him to apologize and admit this hadn’t been his choice to make, but her gut told her that wouldn’t happen.
“Oh, I believe this is yours,” Stone said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Grimoire pendant by its chain.
Kara smiled and fastened it around her neck. “Why doesn’t it burn you when you touch it? It burned Gavin.”
“I simply know better than to touch the pendant. The chain is safe,” he answered.
“Oh.”
Stone nodded, but didn’t say anything further. He looked out the window, and Kara crossed her arms. She stared at the floor, the wall, the bed—anything, rather than look at him. Now that she had the man alone, she wasn’t sure how to word any of the questions running through her mind.
She groaned after a while. “You’re not going to apologize, are you?”
Stone just smiled and rubbed his face. Deep bags lined the creases beneath his eyes.
“So how does being an isen work?” she asked.
“Show me your right palm.”
Kara frowned, her question apparently ignored, but she obeyed. A thin purple barb slid out from the base of her palm as she turned it upward. She stifled a gasp.
“Controlling that will be your first and hardest chore. I don’t want you to leave my home until you can manage it. Otherwise, you will scare away those you try to help.”
She nodded and sighed. “Can I get your advice on something?”
“I suppose.”
“Isen or no, I just can’t believe the Grimoire isn’t the source of my magic. I felt powerless and weak when Braeden took the pendant from me.”
“Your power never came from the Grimoire, Kara. You aren’t powerless without it. That was all in your head. There is nothing in that book you can’t learn on your own—it just makes life a bit easier to learn from others. As you improve, you might want to use it less. If you rely too much on others to tell you want to do, you will neglect your own natural talent and never realize your full potential.”
