Rise of the Discordant: The Complete Five Book Series

by Christina McMullen

  It was hard enough trying to save all the lost students without my sister’s help, but in the last week, it became next to impossible. Never before had I been so relieved when the final bell rang. I planned to run home and jump in the shower, stuffing all of the thoughts that were weighing on me into the back of my mind. It was Wednesday, which meant that Donna would be coming over to give me a cooking lesson.

  “Yo, Hawthorne!”

  I turned around and saw Gordon flagging me down. Gordon was one of the star players on the football team and one of the more popular students. I slowed down and allowed him to catch up. “What’s up?”

  “I just wanted to let you know about the party after the game on Friday.”

  “Oh?” I perked up. I hadn’t been able to try out for football, but when the guys on the team found out I used to play, they were cool with me and I’d gone to every home game since, but I hadn’t been invited to any parties yet. Back home, there was a party after pretty much every game.

  “Yeah, it’s just this thing we do. Some of the guys weren’t sure if you’d be cool, considering. But I said you’d keep it on the DL.”

  “Considering?” I asked, unsure what he was talking about.

  “Your sister, dude. She’s kind of a bitch.”

  I hadn’t expected that. I mean, okay, he was right and if Nai had been there, she would have probably agreed and had something nasty to say about Gordon, but still, it made me angry that he would talk about my sister that way.

  “Wow. Really?”

  “I mean, no offense,” he went on, holding up his hands. “You’re cool, but she’s not invited, okay?”

  “Yeah, that’s cool,” I said, giving him a smile and taking the flyer with the details and the location. As I walked past a garbage can, I balled up the flyer and was about to throw it away when I stopped and stuffed it into my pocket. I knew I was going to go. That is, if Desmond let me. I was popular and Nai wasn’t. This wasn’t any different than it had been before. I went to all kinds of parties that Nai was never invited to. This one would be no different, except that it was likely that Discordant would probably show up, so in a way, I didn’t have a choice.

  So why did I feel bad?

  I got home with only a few minutes to spare, so I ran up to my room and quickly changed out of the grubby clothes I’d been wearing all day. I was just checking to see if my hair still looked okay when Nai’s face appeared from around the doorway, smirking as she silently laughed at me.

  “Something I can help you with?” I asked, even though I knew she was just there to give me a hard time.

  “You might as well just wear a shirt that says desperate horny teenager for the good it will do you.”

  “Whatever,” I mumbled as I pushed past her. “I’m not trying to impress anyone.”

  “Mm-hm…”

  I made it down stairs just as the doorbell rang, grumbling under my breath. Just because I wanted to look my best didn’t mean anything. Still, my smile sagged a bit when I opened the door and found not Donna, but Bogie standing on the front porch.

  “Gee kid, don’t look so happy to see me,” he said, pushing a bag from Blackbird’s fanciest grocery store into my hands.

  “What? I’m not…”

  “Donna’s on her way,” he assured me with a slap on the back. “We was thinkin’ you did such a good job that we’d show you some of the fancier stuff.” He punctuated his comments with a wink. Donna had been using the cooking lessons to teach me a bit about magical spells, so I wasn’t sure if Bogie was talking about food or if the wink meant he was there to teach me some Discordant magic. To be honest, the idea scared me, but I was also curious.

  According to Harry, I was weaker than Nai, which bothered me a lot more than I would ever let on. Nai had all of the skills of Order, not just those we were allowed to use as Guardians. I didn’t, but I could do all of the protective spells that Donna had taught me. Nai couldn’t. If Bogie was going to teach me something even crazier, I was all for it. Imagine the look on Nai’s face when she finds out I can do Discordant magic.

  “Kid, are yous even listenin’ to me?”

  “Huh?” I snapped out of my daydream and noticed that I was still standing in the hallway, carrying the bag that Bogie had thrown at me. “Sorry, what?”

  “I said, go empty the bag and get out a large pot. We’re cooking up an old family recipe as soon as Red gets here with the meat.”

  “Meat?”

  As if on cue, Donna came in through the back door and threw down a brown paper wrapped parcel that made a loud squelching noise as it hit the counter.

  “Rabbit,” she said, nodding at the paper parcel.

  “Um…” I hoped my face wasn’t as green as I felt. “I thought you were a vegetarian.”

  “I can’t eat the flesh of an animal I haven’t given proper respect to. I gave each of these babies their proper respects before I-”

  “No, that’s okay!” I said, cutting her off before she described how she had killed the rabbits. I’d be lying if I said that Donna wasn’t a little weird and perhaps more than a little creepy. “Maybe we could make something less, um… dead?”

  “And let the meat go to waste? Hell no!” she said before smothering a yawn. “Sorry, I haven’t been getting enough sleep.”

  “Dreams?” Bogie asked, giving her a weird look that she returned with a scowl.

  “That’s not even funny.” To me she added, “My mother was impregnated by an incubus in her sleep. So was her mother and so on down our family line for ages. I’m the thirteenth Nyx, so I was destined to give birth to the one who would enslave humanity or some other nonsense, but I broke the curse by having sex.”

  “Um… That’s…” I blushed and did everything in my power to not think about Donna and the word sex. “I guess I should be happy I’m a guy,” I said at last.

  “Gee, I dunno,” Bogie said. “You guys got it worse what with the succubae. I’m sure gettin’ knocked up ain’t no picnic, but I don’t know if mind blowin’ dream sex is worth what all a succubus is likely to do.”

  “He’s right,” Donna added. “I don’t want to give birth to Rosemary’s baby, but it sure beats having your heart devoured and soul enslaved. Oh and you probably don’t want to know what happens to your Mr. Happy.”

  “Okay, you know what? I don’t think I’m even hungry anymore.”

  It didn’t help that Donna punctuated her words with whacks of the meat cleaver as she cut up what was once a cute, furry little woodland creature like it was no big deal.

  “Eh, come on kid, we’re just yankin’ yer crank,” Bogie said with a wink. “Grab an apron. We’ll make a chef outta you in no time.”

  “And pay close attention,” Donna added, raising her eyebrows. “Bogie doesn’t give out his family recipes to just anyone.”

  So I was going to learn Discordant magic! I pushed down my revulsion and focused on what Donna and Bogie weren’t telling me. What we were doing was kind of a big no-no for a number of reasons, the least of which was the fact that the only thing I was supposed to do with Discordant magic was damper it. By the time Nai, Seth, and Desmond had wandered into the dining room, I had learned to make an old country stew that was as delicious as it was traumatizing to make, and I had a very dangerous and useful secret.

  Like Bogie, I now had the ability to dredge up forgotten memories. This was different from the Guardian’s soul gaze in that instead of seeing an impression of past lives and behavioral patterns, I could look into anyone’s mind and see moments in their lives with clarity, including their emotional reactions to the moments. I was also warned not to try this on my sister, our guardians, or any mystics, because anyone with magical sensitivity can feel when their brain is being manipulated.

  Donna allowed me to practice on her. From the images she was sending to the forefront, I could tell she was trying to get a rise out of me and it was working. Between the images of her wearing nearly nothing and working on her car, to the images of her killing
and hacking up a deer, I found myself rather bothered and more than a little confused. But what was interesting was that there was a whole swath of Donna’s memories that had been altered to make her forget about the previous Guardian. I had to be careful not to bring those to her attention because I didn’t even want to know what kind of trouble I would be in if that was to happen.

  As everyone was clearing the table, I caught Donna alone and took the opportunity to ask her what had been on my mind for most of the evening.

  “So, other than… um, you know. Are dreams, um… significant?”

  “They can be very significant,” she said. “Why?”

  “Just curious,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve had some strange dreams lately about my mom. I mean, I miss my parents, but it kind of…” I broke off, embarrassed.

  “Seems like a warning?” Donna finished my thought in a quiet voice.

  “Yeah,” I said, giving her a surprised look. “How did you know?”

  “It’s not unusual,” she said. “Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, our brains show us things in a symbolic manner. Dreams are the easiest way for this to happen because we’re not distracted by everyday details while we’re asleep.”

  “Is that true for everyone or…”

  “You’re not a Nyx,” Donna assured me. “Desmond already asked about that.”

  “He did?” That was interesting. Maybe Nai was on to something.

  “Well yes,” she said, shaking her head at my suspicion. “Jem, it’s no secret that you and your sister are unusual. That Desmond would be trying to figure out what that means is no cause for alarm.”

  “I guess not,” I admitted. “But you know, it would be nice if he told us or something.”

  “Now you’re starting to sound like your sister,” she said with a chuckle and gave me a knowing look. “Sometimes people have a good reason for keeping things hidden. Like their old family recipes.”

  “Yeah, okay,” I said, getting her unsubtle hint.

  After she and Bogie left, I went to find Desmond. Nai had already retreated to her attic room and I wanted to talk to him while she was safely distracted. I found him out in the back yard, bent over a small fire and murmuring into his jacket pocket. Only after he turned to look at me and held up his hand did I notice that the flame was an unusual shade of green.

  “Too unstable,” he said to his contact outside of the Cycle. I still wasn’t quite sure how that worked. “Let’s try soft woods next time.” With a wave of his hand, the fire went out and he looked up at me. “Is everything okay, Jem?”

  “Yeah, I just wanted to ask you about something.”

  “You may ask me anything at all. Whether I answer is at my discretion.”

  “No, no, it’s nothing like that,” I assured him, wondering if his assumption was natural or if Nai had been bombarding him with questions. “It’s just that there’s a party after the game on Friday,” I said as casually as I could.

  “I see.” Desmond pursed his lips. “Would this party happen to be down by the river, close to the college campus?”

  “Yeah,” I said, kind of surprised. “How did you know?”

  “Because I had to save some of your inebriated classmates from a siren about a week before you and your sister arrived,” he informed me with a pointed stare.

  “Oh. So I guess that’s a no then.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Huh?”

  Desmond shook his head, but he was smiling. “Jem, I would be a fool to act as if I did not know what happens when teenagers are allowed to gather without adult supervision. It may not be considered responsible of me, but I know that such activities have been a rite of passage since long before I lived my last cycle. “

  “Um…” I wasn’t sure, but it sounded like Desmond just told me it was okay to get wasted or something.

  “That doesn’t mean that I am allowing you to let your guard down,” he added as if he’d read my mind. “A gathering of teenagers is going to attract Discordant under the best of circumstances. Here,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a jar of Nutella. “Take this with you.”

  “Um, okay?”

  “Your party is likely to draw pixies,” he explained. “Pixies are allergic to hazelnuts. If you notice them, simply open the jar. However, that is the absolute limit to the engagement that I am allowing. I will require both you and your sister to contact me immediately if you see any other Discordant.”

  “Of course I will! And uh… I’ll be…” I stammered. “Um, that is… Nai wasn’t invited.”

  “I see.” Desmond pursed his lips and I was afraid he was going to change his mind. “Then I will stress to you the importance of staying vigilant.”

  “I… Thanks, Desmond,” I said and went back to my room. I put the Nutella on the dresser and flopped onto my bed. Even though he stayed silent on the subject, Desmond’s guard went down just long enough for me to see that he cared enough about Nai to be upset that she wasn’t invited to the party, which only made me feel worse.

  * * *

  “Going somewhere, brother dear?”

  I jumped as Nai appeared in the doorway to my room.

  “Um, yeah. There’s a game tonight,” I said as casually as I could, pointing to the athletics calendar that I’d tacked on the wall.

  “Mm-hm,” she said, ignoring me as she sauntered into the room and picked up the jar of Nutella that I’d left on the dresser. “I’m pretty sure pixies don’t give a shit about football.”

  “That’s um… maybe…” I stammered. All of the sudden I felt terrible. Nai shook her head and gave me a pitying look.

  “Jem, you don’t have to lie to me. I know about the party. Emma made sure to talk about who wasn’t invited in class all last week.”

  “Oh,” I said, slumping my shoulders. I’d taken an interest in Emma when we first arrived in Blackbird. By far, she was the best looking girl in the senior class and she’s been nothing but nice to me, but it didn’t take a Guardian to see that she had a mean streak. “Uh… I didn’t… That is, I wasn’t really interested in going…”

  “Whatever,” Nai rolled her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Nai,” I said and I really did feel bad. I knew why my sister was the way she was, but no one else did and they all just thought she was some kind of a jerk. “I just thought with all the Discordant…”

  “Oh my god, Jem, don’t be an idiot. I wouldn’t want to hang out with those freaks even if I was invited. I just…” She paused and pursed her lips. “Just… be…” The pained expression on her face was almost comical. “Ugh! I’m trying, okay?”

  “Aw, sis, are you trying to tell me you worry about me?” I couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore. “That is so sweet!”

  “Ugh! Whatever!” she grunted and threw the jar at me. I’m pretty sure she was aiming for my head, but lucky for me, Nai threw like a girl. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay? I mean stupider than usual!” With that, she stormed across the hall and slammed her door.

  “I love you too, sis!” I called after her, pocketing the jar of Nutella and listening to her stomp up the attic stairs. I knew I couldn’t blame Nai for being who she was, but I felt bad anyway. Still, it really was sweet that she cared, even if she was terrible at showing it.

  The game was okay, even though our team lost. The general level of enthusiasm and the fact that it was a pretty mild evening seemed to bring up everyone’s spirits. There were still some folks who were lost, but not as many as I had feared. When it was over, I slipped away from the group I’d been hanging out with, telling them that I’d meet up with them at the party.

  As everyone headed west toward the river, I turned in the opposite direction and headed downtown. I paused just outside the spill of light from the convenience store, feeling a bit like a spy when I caught sight of Nai sitting in our usual booth. Admittedly, I was spying. I only wanted to assure myself that she was okay before I went to the party. From what I saw, I needn’t have worrie
d myself.

  Nai wasn’t sad or sulking and she wasn’t alone. Sitting across from her in what was normally my seat was Jake, a college guy who worked there part time. Not only was Jake smiling and laughing, but Nai was too. Suddenly it hit me. If Jake was working, he always waited on our table. He was totally taking advantage of the fact that I wasn’t there because Jake liked Nai and by some twist of events, Jake seemed to be the first person in the history of ever that Nai didn’t hate.

  Suddenly, I felt like an idiot for checking up on her. Nai was the tough one. She was more than capable of taking care of herself and it looked like she was even capable of having fun. I turned away and headed back the way I’d come, following the directions on the now worn flyer until I heard voices and spied the flicker of firelight beyond the trees.

  “Bro, you made it!”

  Gordon had his arm around my shoulder and shoved a beer into my hand before I’d even cleared the tree line. As he walked me over to the bonfire, his stumbling gait revealed the reason for Blackbird’s poor performance at the game. Gordon was way too drunk already to have just started drinking. Nearly all of the seniors were there and a couple of the more popular juniors as well. As I expected, everyone was drinking and I even smelled weed. Clearly, parties in Blackbird were no different than anywhere else. Well, sort of. Desmond was spot on about the pixies. There were at least three, disguised as attractive teens and spreading their chaos all over the place.

  “You came alone, right?” asked Emma.

  Gordon stumbled over his own feet, pulling me down with him.

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to act cool while simultaneously trying to untangle the running back’s limbs from mine.

  “Damn, Sanders, how much have you had?” someone called out as Gordon stumbled dangerously close to the fire. I was about to help him to his feet when I was pushed out of the way and Emma was on top of him, glaring as she wadded her fist in the neckline of his jersey.

  “Fuck this up and you’re the backup bitch, got it?”

  Gordon muttered something I couldn’t hear and nodded, looking absolutely terrified even though he was easily twice as big as the cheerleader.