Promise of Shadows

by Ireland, Justina

  “Hurry,” I say, holding my hand out to help her over the apex of the roof. She gives me a smile, and for a single moment her face is more than just pretty. She’s radiant.

  “I believe in you, Zephyr. I always have.” Something furry jumps at my face, screaming. I swat at it, and it isn’t until I bat the creature away that I realize it was the kobalos. Damned demons.

  I drop my hands in time to see the kobalos jump on Cass’s chest, propelling her backward into Ramun Sol’s arms. He laughs and grins at me as he holds a knife to Cass’s throat.

  “No. Please,” I say, panic slamming my heart against my ribs.

  “Her shade shall help to burn away the shadow vættir, once and for all.”

  Without another word, he parts her throat with the knife.

  Time slides to a stop as Cass’s toga turns scarlet. My heart beats once, and again. The bright smile at Cass’s throat is garish and outlandish. My brain refuses to see it, refuses to acknowledge what it means.

  No. Oh gods, no.

  Cass isn’t just Cass anymore. In my mind she’s Whisper, lying on the patio, sightless eyes staring up at the night sky.

  I’ve failed her. I failed both of them.

  The kobalos jumps on Cass as Ramun Sol releases her. It parts her chest easily, pulling out her heart and devouring it. The golden creature turns and screams at me, its muzzle covered with blood, then it runs off across the roof, disappearing in a bright, camera-like flash.

  Cass’s body slides off the roof, landing below us with the sound of crashing branches. All this has taken maybe seconds, and I haven’t moved. I can’t breathe, and the old panic surges back. He killed Cass. Cass is dead.

  Cass, who saved my life. Cassiphone Pellacis, who helped me escape hell, who believed I was the Nyx. Cass, who never even knew that I was having doubts about her loyalty. My best friend is dead.

  It’s more than I can handle.

  Ramun Sol is still perched on the roof. He smiles at me again, his golden eyes seeming to glow. “Now we settle our grudge.”

  “No, asshole. Now you die.” My voice is far away. I can’t feel anything. My entire body’s gone numb, and everything feels like it’s happening to someone else. Without even realizing it I’m up and running across the roof, the darkness rising around me. I catch a glimpse of fear in Ramun Sol’s eyes before I tackle him around the middle. We fall backward over the edge of the roof, and Ramun Sol drives the knife he killed Cass with into my back. I ignore it.

  The darkness is too hungry to even acknowledge the pain.

  We fall off the roof, crashing into the yard below. Ramun Sol tries to scramble away, but I’m on top of him. I’m not going to let him go anywhere. The darkness tears at his exposed skin, and he screams like a wounded animal. He summons his power, æther as bright as the sun, and just as hot. It explodes around us, lighting up the night.

  The solar flare throws me backward off him. The darkness retreats into me to avoid the bright. My clothes burn away, leaving behind blistered skin and agony. My eyes can’t see anything, the light damaging the retinas. I hear the crackle of fire as the nearby trees and house go up in flames. But the darkness protects me. It wants to devour the brightness, and I laugh.

  I’ve never been so excited by the idea of destroying something. I unleash the darkness.

  I blink as my eyes repair themselves, and the pain disappears from my skin. I’ve just healed faster than ever before.

  I climb out of a bunch of scorched bushes near the house. The darkness swirls around me, eager to fight. But Ramun Sol is gone, and rage sweeps through me. I scream out my frustration.

  Around me the houses are burning, several destroyed by Ramun Sol’s solar flare. But my anger has left me spoiling for a fight. The sounds of battle filter to me from the street out front.

  If I can’t kill Ramun Sol, I’ll tear apart his Acolytes.

  The darkness swirls around me, hiding my nakedness as I calmly walk around the side yard and into the middle of the street. The Acolytes are fighting the people gathered in front of Nanda’s house. The vættir are sadly outnumbered, but it looks like they’re trying to defend themselves against the swords and clubs of the Acolytes. Bodies litter the street, most of them vættir from the neighborhood.

  Blue swings his giant sword at a knot of Acolytes chasing a woman. Tallon has his own battle going on, his smaller blades whirling in a deadly circle. Even Alora fights, tiny throwing knives that reappear in the bandolier she throws them from. Infinity knives. That used to be my weapon of choice back in the Aerie.

  The darkness snaps around me, anxious for release. It wants to hurt, to kill. My pain is its pain as well, and it aches for my loss. The shadow’s bloodlust should scare me, but it doesn’t. Because I want the same thing it wants.

  I want to destroy everything.

  I send the darkness out, tendrils of it spiraling through the street. I can sense the Acolytes acutely, their corrupted brightness like rot on a piece of fruit. The first couple of Acolytes go down easily. The darkness understands the need for stealth and speed. It kills the Acolytes quickly, consuming their brightness without touching their physical forms. After the first dozen or so I realize that the darkness is saving its appetite. After all, you don’t want to stuff yourself on the first course of the meal.

  I walk toward the battle, sending the darkness out farther and farther. First down past the end of the street, then over to the next street, where the Acolytes stalk a sleeping family. Farther and farther I send out the darkness. To the next street, and the next. The shadows spread out from me like a dark plague, killing those Acolytes it finds. A barrack of sleeping Acolytes in New York. A party of Acolytes at some college nestled among giant pines. Farther and farther the darkness goes, seeking out Acolytes, stretching impossibly far.

  They killed my sister and they killed my Cass. All my fear has disappeared in my burning need for revenge.

  I fall to my knees. I’m exhausted. I can feel my heart slowing. But I still pour everything I have into sending the darkness out to find the Acolytes and stop their hearts.

  Because Cass is gone and my heart is broken.

  Someone shakes me, and I turn my head slowly. Tallon kneels next to me. His dark eyes are filled with worry. He isn’t wearing a shirt, and I dimly realize it’s because I’m wearing it. I look down, but my eyes don’t want to focus.

  “That’s enough, Zeph. You have to call it back.”

  “Call back what?” My brain doesn’t want to work. I’m so sleepy. Why won’t Tallon just let me sleep?

  “The darkness. Please. Everyone else has fled. You have to call it back.”

  At first I don’t know what he’s talking about, but then I feel it, tiny tendrils of death snaking out across hills and valleys, searching for more Acolytes. So many gone. And it’s still hungry.

  I close my eyes and urge it to come back. At first it doesn’t want to listen, like an errant puppy sniffing out a rabbit trail. But then I tell it how much I miss it, and how much I need it, and it comes rushing back.

  All of the darkness comes rushing back.

  I gasp as the power slams into me. The shadows are glutted and huge, fat from the deaths of so many. It’s too much. Too much destruction, too much darkness. I did this. I gasp as the swell buries me under a wave of erebos. I’m drowning under the weight of my own power.

  Then Tallon is there, siphoning it off and using it. His hair whips around his head as he pulls in the darkness, and I turn my head to watch him. Smoky tendrils wisp around his eyes, and he grits his teeth as he pulls in the power so that it won’t kill me. I didn’t even know he could use the erebos. Suddenly the design on his shoulder makes sense. Not a tattoo, but shadows etched into his skin. A halo of darkness surrounds him. He is absolutely gorgeous.

  I smile at him, and it’s enough to get his attention. He looks down at me. “Too much, Peep.”

  “No. It will never be enough,” I say. And then I surrender to the shadows.

  CHAPTER T
WENTY

  I WAKE WITH A START, jolted by a dream of Cass. In it she smiles at me with garish red lips. She keeps mumbling and talks out of a mouth in her throat. Only every time she tries to speak, blood sputters forth, and I can’t understand what she’s trying to tell me.

  Finally she shrugs sadly and falls backward into darkness. I scream and reach for her, but she’s falling and I can’t get to her.

  I startle awake when I realize it isn’t a dream.

  Cass is dead, I think.

  I open my eyes and sit up. I’m on the couch in the living room, and gray daylight streams through the window. A tattered quilt covers me, and the stink of worry permeates everything. It smells like a musty closet mixed with lemon cleaner and sweaty gym socks. The scent is so cloyingly strong that I turn in the direction of the doorway to the kitchen. Nanda stands there. Her eyes are red rimmed.

  “How long was I out?” I ask.

  Her lips purse. “Two days. The boys have been strengthening the wards daily. You pissed the Acolytes off but good.”

  I vaguely remember the fighting in the street. “How many of your neighbors were hurt?”

  “Not many. We lost Marjorie, an old Fae woman, and a couple of others. But it’s nothing compared to the blow you dealt the Acolytes. Alora said from what she can read in the Strands of Time, you killed at least a thousand of them up and down the Eastern Seaboard before Tallon got through to you. Maybe more. The Strands are snarled right now.”

  I want to puke. A thousand Acolytes gone because I let my darkness loose. I can’t even imagine that many vættir. The Aerie only had about a hundred of us at our fullest capacity. There were fifteen of us in my year group. A thousand . . . it’s so many.

  I’d kill three times that to bring Cass back.

  “Cass is dead,” I say.

  “I know. Blue found what was left of her.”

  My head snaps up. “What was left?”

  “Ramun Sol completely incinerated the house and the surrounding area. It took six hours to put out all of the fires.” Something in my expression must show my emotions, either that or she can smell the horror I feel.

  “I’m sorry, Zephyr.” There’s so much pity in her voice that it undoes what little control I have. A sob hitches in my chest, and I cover my mouth. A Harpy doesn’t cry, I remind myself. But I’m not a Harpy.

  I’m the Nyx.

  Nanda walks over and sits next to me on the couch. “I was wrong about her. She was loyal. I wish I could’ve seen that before it was too late. But I’m glad you did,” she rasps. I can’t answer. Words won’t force themselves past the lump of guilt in my throat, and if I open my mouth, I’m pretty sure that the only thing that will come out is a scream.

  I wrap my arms around my middle and try not to cry, but it’s hard. Tears slip down my cheeks unchecked, and Nanda lays an arm across my shoulders.

  I should’ve done more. I should have done something.

  I saw what Ramun Mar did to my sister. I shouldn’t have hesitated.

  My stomach lurches and my heart seizes with pain.

  It’s my fault Cass is dead.

  Nanda sighs. “Your hair is gone as well. It was badly burned from the flare Ramun Sol attacked you with. I had to cut off most of your locks. I saved as much as I could.”

  I shrug. “No big deal. I’m not a Harpy anyway.” I look in her eyes and confess. “I failed my Trials right before I was sent to Tartarus.”

  Nanda laughs, the sound sharp and short. “You think those antiquated tests are what make a Harpy? Please, child. You’ve fought more battles than most of the Matriarchs. You’re more than a Harpy. You’re the Nyx.”

  Her words should make me feel better, but they don’t. All I can think is that I should’ve been able to save Cass. She was my friend, and I doubted her. I let her get killed.

  My thoughts must show, because Nanda puts her hands on her hips and sighs. “It’s not your fault she’s gone, Peep. But I’m smart enough to know that’s something you’ve got to come to terms with on your own. I’m going to go make you something to eat. Things tend to look better with a full belly.”

  I nod, and she moves off into the kitchen. I’m not sure there’s enough food in the world to close the hole in my chest.

  Why did Cass have to die?

  I wipe away my tears, but fresh ones take their place. At the doorway Nanda stops and turns around. “I know it probably doesn’t seem like it, but you did everything you could. You saved a lot of people, Zephyr. I was wrong about Cass, but she wasn’t wrong about you. Cass always believed in you. I do too.”

  She disappears into the kitchen, and I pick at lint balls on the quilt. I sniff and force myself to stop crying. Would Nanda still believe in me if she knew that my selfishness is what brought the Acolytes to Ulysses’s Glen? What would she say if she knew that I was the one who got her neighbors killed?

  Ramun Sol never would’ve found me if I hadn’t done the summoning spell. No matter how I look at it, Cass’s death is my fault.

  And so are the deaths of all the other vættir.

  The front door opens, and Blue walks in, his arms full of bags. Behind him is Alora. The two of them chatter happily, and I recognize a few of the names on the bags. They’re all from mall stores. An ugly feeling rises up in my chest.

  Cass is dead, I’m unconscious, and they decide to go shopping?

  Blue stops short, stumbling forward a little when Alora runs into him from behind. He gives me a wan smile. “You’re awake.”

  “Yeah. Surprise, surprise. Did you find any good deals?” Sarcasm drips off every word, and Blue winces.

  Alora steps around Blue and gives me a wide grin. I’ve never wanted to hit someone so much. “We actually went shopping for you. You know, since your clothes burned up while you were fighting Ramun Sol.” Her matter-of-fact statement just makes me angrier.

  “Wow, thanks for your concern. But I’m sure I could’ve borrowed something from your mom.”

  Alora plops down on the couch, completely oblivious to the death glare I give her. “I know you could, but the Nyx cannot meet the Oracle wearing running shorts and an old T-shirt. Look,” she says. She reaches into the bag and pulls out a slinky summer dress in a bright blue shade. “What do you think?”

  “I think you are out of your mind. There is no way in the seven hells I’m wearing that.”

  Blue snatches the dress out of Alora’s hands and puts it back in the bag before pulling her up off the couch and taking her place. It’s such a smooth move that she doesn’t even have a chance to look put out.

  “I’ll put these in your room, Nyx,” she says, picking up the bags and climbing the stairs.

  I turn to Blue. “Anyone else calls me ‘Nyx’ and I’m going to gut them.”

  Blue laughs and leans back against the couch. “Gods, what a week.” He turns to me, the lavender-vanilla scent of his concern rolling over me. “How are you doing?”

  “Gee, my best friend is dead, I just killed about a thousand people, half the neighborhood saw me butt-ass naked, and the Acolytes are trapping the shades of the people they kill. How do you think I feel?”

  “Well, no one saw you naked except for Tallon.” Blue waggles his eyebrows, and my face heats. He laughs. “Relax. He was the only one strong enough to get through the erebos without getting swept up into it. I doubt he was really checking out your goodies at the time. The rest of us just saw you looking like some badass avenging goddess cloaked in darkness.”

  “Well, that’s a relief,” I say, completely insincere. My fingers tingle, and my stomach is unsteady at the memory of Tallon next to me, talking me through pulling the darkness back. It would be a memory I’d cherish if it wasn’t tied so closely to Cass’s death.

  Blue continues. “As for the Acolytes, well, they’re not worth worrying about. Half of them are murderers, and the other half are deviants that get off on bullying others. They’re barely human.”

  “Blue, all vættir are barely human.”

 
; He gives me a look, and the forest-fire scent of his anger surprises me. “No, we are human. That’s why the Æthereals fear us. Because we’re human, and our emotions make us dangerous.”

  I open my mouth to argue, but then reconsider. “Okay. So no one saw me naked, and the Acolytes deserved to die because they were all murderers.”

  “And deviants.”

  I wave my hand. “Whatever. But that doesn’t make me feel better about the trapped shades or Cass.”

  “What do you mean, the trapped shades?”

  I quickly fill him in on Whisper’s missing shade, the summoning, and what Whisper told me on the roof about her and so many others being held captive. Blue frowns. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “No. And now they have Cass as well.”

  Blue leans forward, a small frown pulling together his pale brows. “Do you know what they’re stockpiling the shades for?”

  “No.”

  “It sounds like the old magics.” The front door slams, and Tallon walks into the room. “There are some spells that use shades as a power source. It’s nasty stuff, the kind of magic the Hecates used to do in the old days.”

  My heart does a swan dive as Tallon comes to stand next to the couch. He’s gorgeous, his long dark hair pulled back in a braid. Even with dark circles shadowing his eyes, he looks amazing.

  Blue scrubs his hand over his face. “We should find Kyra and ask her what she knows about this.”

  I shake my head. “Cass said Kyra had fled. She spoke with a Hecate named Jeanine. But I don’t know how she found her.” Tears threaten to well up, because it seems so hopeless. “Gods, what do we do now?” I can barely breathe, and I want nothing more than to just hide until this is all over.

  Tallon levels a gaze at me, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “First of all, you stop panicking. You’re the Nyx. So act like it.”