Promise of Shadows

by Ireland, Justina

His tone snaps me out of my self-pity, anger rising up sharp and hard. “I just killed a bunch of Acolytes, and my best friend is dead. The last thing I need right now is your attitude.”

  Something flashes across his face. Satisfaction? “You’re right. I’m sorry.” His tone is contrite, and I don’t know what to say. Next to me, Blue makes a choked sound. Tallon sighs. “I’m worried and I took it out on you. How are you feeling?”

  “How do you think?” I’m not ready to call a truce so quickly. He can’t snap at me and be a jerk and expect me to fall all over myself when he apologizes.

  He nods, and his expression softens. “Take a shower. Get dressed. Eat something. I know Jeanine. I’ll go down and talk to her, see if she knows of any spells that would require such a large number of shades to be invoked, okay?”

  A spark of memory flares. “And kobaloi. Ramun Sol had a kobalos with him. So did Ramun Mar, the night he killed Whisper.”

  Blue frowns. “A kobalos?”

  “Minor demon used by some of the Exalteds for errands in the Æthereal Realm. But they don’t usually cross into the Mortal Realm,” Tallon adds.

  I’m surprised he knows what they are. I only know because Harpies are required to have a working knowledge of the entire Æthereal bestiary. The more you know about creatures the easier it is to kill them.

  But how does Tallon know that bit about them being used as servants in the Æthereal Realm? Has he spent some time there?

  I stretch, and my stomach growls. “So I go get pretty, you talk to the Hecate, and then what?”

  “And then we go and see this Oracle of Alora’s,” Blue says with a shrug. “If she doesn’t know what’s going on, no one will.”

  Tallon heads toward the front door. “Don’t dawdle. We need to get moving as quickly as possible.”

  He says it like I’m still that little kid chasing after him, begging him for a piggyback ride. “What’s your deal, Tallon? Huh? Maybe you should back it down a notch.”

  He gives me a sympathetic look. “I know you’re upset, Zeph, but you need to think beyond your own hurt right now. You know your sister’s shade isn’t the only one the Acolytes have. They’ve killed a lot of vættir over the past few years. Who knows what will happen to their shades once they do this spell? You can let your sister be devoured by the Rift, but I’m not letting that happen to my brother.”

  Too late I remember Blue talking about their youngest brother, and how the Acolytes murdered him in the middle of the street. Shame heats my cheeks. And here I didn’t think it was possible to feel any worse. “Gods, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”

  “No, that’s the problem, isn’t it? You never think. All you do is react.” Tallon takes a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry I spend so much time yelling at you, but we have a lot to do. Alora said we have to go all the way to Pennsylvania to find this Oracle. That’s like an eight-hour drive from here. Get cleaned up, and I’ll talk to the Hecate.” Tallon leaves without another word, the door slamming behind him. My shoulders slump.

  Why do I always ruin everything?

  Blue stands and wraps me in a hug. “Don’t worry about him. He’s just on edge because he was worried about you. He didn’t think you were going to make it. There was so much darkness. . . .” Blue trails off, and I hug him back.

  “I’m going to go take a shower,” I say. I pull myself free and climb the stairs to the extra bedroom, where Alora is laying out the clothes they bought for me on the bed. She turns with a grin when I enter.

  “I got you several different bras, since I wasn’t really sure what size you were. There are also three different kinds of underwear. You struck me as more of a boy-short kind of girl, but you never really know these days—”

  “Out,” I say, pointing at the door. She opens her mouth to argue, and I shake my head. “I am not discussing underwear with you. Please get out.”

  She clamps her mouth shut and scurries out. Just before she closes the door, I call her name. “Alora.”

  She ducks her head back into the room.

  “Thank you.”

  She grins. “Anytime. It’s an honor to help you fulfill the Promise.” She closes the door behind her, and I groan.

  I have the awful feeling that living up to other people’s expectations is going to get me killed.

  I strip off the running shorts and T-shirt and walk into the bathroom to start the shower. I’m shocked by the glimpse of my reflection that I get. My entire body is covered in the twining black vines now. They curve up my neck, stopping just short of my face. I look down at my arms and legs, which are also covered with the dark lines. I look over my shoulder at my back reflected in the mirror. The swirls seem to be concentrated the most where my wings used to be, covering the scars in between my shoulder blades. It’s beautiful and terrifying, a physical manifestation of how much I’m changing.

  I should ask Tallon about the marks. His angry zigzags must be tied to the erebos. Since he knows everything, he probably knows what the markings mean. Cass said Elias had the marks as well, but the memory of our last conversation makes me well up. It takes a few moments of deep breathing to fight back the tears.

  I swallow down my loss and continue to study my reflection. My hair is also different, but I was expecting that. The long ropy snarls are gone. In their place is a halo of blue curls that stick out in all directions. After the solar flare that Ramun Sol generated I’m lucky I even have hair. The tiny curls are a nice change, and the lack of hair makes my silver eyes look huge.

  I feel different, and now I look different. It seems to be a fitting change.

  I shower quickly and search through the clothes that Alora and Blue picked out for me. There’s a lot that I will never wear. The underwear and bras I need, but there’s no way I’m wearing any of the dresses. There are several pairs of jeans, and after pulling on underwear, I settle on a nice pair of jeans in a dark wash that fit like they were made for me.

  The bras are a disaster. Most of them are lacy push-ups in bright colors that make me want to swear vengeance on their makers. I finally find something cute and cotton that doesn’t seem like it could double as some sort of torture device. My choice of top is easy: a blue short-sleeved shirt with four-inch-high letters that spell out OVER IT. I’d bet money that Blue picked it out.

  I pull on socks and gray, soft leather boots, and I’m ready to go.

  Alora is going to have a fit. The thought actually makes me smile.

  There’s not much to do with my hair, so I do nothing. The smell of something delicious fills the room, and I head downstairs to eat. There’s a massive hollowness in my middle. I seriously need food.

  I hope Nanda is ready for me.

  Tallon shows up just as I’m finishing enough sausage and pancakes to feed a small army. He enters through the back door, and a tall, willowy girl in a sundress follows him. Her golden eyes widen as she sees me. I slowly put my fork down as a tendril of jealousy unfurls in my middle.

  “Hey,” I say. My words are directed at Tallon, but my eyes are on the tall girl. Her straight brown hair hangs down to the middle of her back, and her skin is pale. She’s pretty in a bland sort of way.

  “Hey,” Tallon says, sitting at the table. He looks at my plate. “There any left?”

  “In the oven. Nanda actually went to the store to get more food. I think she’s worried that I might start eating her plants.”

  He nods, and the willowy girl hovers behind him, her eyes on me. Tallon pulls out a chair and gestures for her to sit down. “Zephyr, this is North, Jeanine’s daughter. She’s a Hecate.”

  I give the girl the stink eye and a slight nod. “Hey.”

  “Hi.” Her voice is tiny, like a little kid’s. She looks around the kitchen nervously, and I sigh.

  “Do you want something to eat?”

  She shakes her head and continues to stare at me like I might grow another head.

  “What?”

  “Are you really the Nyx?”

  Ugh. Well at
least that explains her skittishness. I shrug. “That’s what they tell me.” I turn to Tallon. “Did you find out about the deal with the shades?”

  “That’s why North is here. I just wanted to tell everyone at once, and she can explain it better than me.”

  I roll my eyes but don’t say anything else. I could seriously do without all the buildup for once.

  Tallon gets up to find out where everyone is, and I sit with North in the kitchen. We don’t say anything for a few long moments. She clears her throat. “Are you from around here?”

  I shake my head. “No. I grew up in an Aerie out west in California.”

  She leans forward, and a spark of interest lights her eyes. “Really? What was it like?”

  “I don’t know. It seemed normal. I went to school, I learned how to kill people, and I watched TV. Every once in a while my sister and I would go to town and eat ice cream or something. The townies all thought we were just part of some weird religious cult.”

  North shifts in her chair. “That must be different. Not going to regular school, I mean. Of course, even here the public school’s not exactly normal. I mean, it’s all vættir. The whole town is populated by vættir. People don’t even bother to wear glamours most of the time.”

  “Yeah, I noticed that. It must be pretty cool.”

  North shrugs. “Maybe. The only time we get to pretend to be normal is when we go to the city. I almost wish we spent more time being just regular people, you know?”

  I nod, understanding what she means. In the real world you can just be how you are. But in the vættir world you are what your lineage says you are. Gorgon? Well, then you have snakes for hair and a quick temper. Harpy? You must love killing and hate men. There really isn’t a whole lot of room for the truth, just stereotypes.

  It’s exhausting, always caring about that kind of thing.

  Tallon returns with Alora and Blue in tow. Blue and Alora sit at the table while Tallon stands. He gestures to North. “You may as well get started. My aunt won’t be back for a few hours. Grocery shopping is serious business.”

  She clears her throat. “Okay. Well, my mom wanted me to come and explain things because I’ve spent more time working with the pathways than she has. Mom is kind of a psychopomp, just ferrying the dead to the Underworld. I actually traverse the Paths and patrol them to make sure they stay in good repair.”

  Everyone else is nodding, but I have no idea what she’s talking about. I raise my hand. “Yeah, uh, what are the Paths? I’ve never heard of them.”

  “They’re sometimes called ley lines. They’re underground currents of energy that flow through the worlds. In the Underworld they’re all erebos, in the Æthereal Realm, æther. Here there are dark Paths and bright Paths. We use them to get somewhere really fast.”

  “How fast?” And why haven’t I ever heard of these Paths before?

  North shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe half the time as a plane trip? Hecate usually stick to the dark Paths, but there aren’t many of us left who can actually use the dark Paths anymore. The Acolytes”—her voice drops, as though saying their name can make them appear—“well, they’ve been killing a lot of our kind. We can usually use the ley lines to escape, but they’ve recruited a few of our kind to watch the Paths, so that’s been out of the question.”

  I nod. “Okay, got it. Ley lines, awesome way to travel. But what does that have to do with the missing shades?”

  North shifts in her seat and clears her throat. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “There was a theory that came out around the same time as the Promise. It said that the vættir fed their abilities by being near the Paths. It’s why Ulysses’s Glen was founded on a Node, which is kind of like a junction of the Paths. We’re attracted to the power of the Nodes. Glory Kirkcutt, the woman who came up with the theory, thought that if you flooded the Nodes with power, it would actually have a transportal effect on vættir.”

  I blink. “What? What does that even mean?” My voice comes out sharper than I intended. I’m almost sure that she’s just making words up.

  I hate being confused.

  Blue interrupts to explain. “What she’s saying is that if you put enough erebos or æther into a Node you could use it to draw in all the nearby vættir. Kind of like turning it into a vacuum cleaner.” Blue mimics a sucking sound, and North nods so hard I’m afraid she’ll pull something in her neck.

  “Yes, exactly. Shades are essentially the erebos that remains after a person dies. I believe that the Acolytes are going to use the shades to turn a Node into a magnet for vættir. Since like attracts like, they’re going to use the shades to pull shadow vættir down the Paths to wherever they are.”

  I shake my head. “And then what? Kill them? Why?”

  There’s a long moment of silence, as though talking about such a terrible thing will make it real. It’s Tallon who finally speaks. “Many reasons. There are folks who believe the shadow vættir are evil. That’s the reason a lot of vættir join the Acolytes. But Hera wants the shadow vættir dead, because once they’re gone there will be no one to oppose her and the rest of the bright Exalteds.” Tallon’s lips thin into a narrow line as he thinks. “The bright vættir aren’t a threat. The bright Æthereals can easily overpower any vættir that uses æther. But the erebos is deadly to the bright Æthereals. Even a small amount could kill them.”

  I shake my head. “But there aren’t that many shadow vættir left, right? Why would she even bother?”

  Tallon’s dark eyes seem to bore into me. “It only takes one person to change the world.”

  Alora nods slowly, her lavender eyes far away. “Tallon’s right. The Strands seem to indicate the possibility of a great catastrophe. I see a knot, and the potential for many Strands to be cut. Human and vættir.”

  I turn to Alora. “Human?”

  Tallon laughs, the sound humorless. “Of course. Why else would you need to get rid of anyone who can stop you? She pretty much already rules the vættir. But the shadows are the only thing stopping her from ruling the world.”

  Alora nods, her eyes still looking at something within the Strands of Time. “It would be just like the old days. The dark days, when humans worshipped the Exalteds and the vættir were the Æthereals’ slaves.”

  North slouches in her seat, looking miserable. “There are old stories of those days, when the Hecate worked to ferry the lower Æthereals all over the world. It was a bad time.” She shakes her head and wraps her slender arms around her middle. “Definitely not something we want to repeat.”

  I think about Cass, her toga soaked with blood. She lived long after the dark days, and yet she still ended up suffering at the hands of the Æthereals. I can’t let this continue to happen.

  “Fine,” I say. “How do we stop this?”

  Tallon looks at me, a smile playing around the edges of his lips. “You’re the Nyx, Zephyr Godslayer. You tell us.”

  “Me?” Everyone is looking at me now and doing this slow nod. The last piece of the puzzle clicks, and I stand so abruptly that my chair falls over. “You want me to kill Hera.”

  Blue shrugs. “How else are we going to stop the bitch-goddess? She’s been hatching scheme after scheme for thousands of years. The only way we can be sure that it’s all ended is to kill her.”

  Tallon walks over, the sunlight from the kitchen window playing across his face. I’m surprised to realize that all this time I’ve been wrong about his eyes. They aren’t black like I thought, but a purple so deep that it appears black. There’s a metallic sheen to them that’s never been apparent until now, and being so close to him makes my mouth go dry. I expect his usual mocking glint, but there’s only sincerity there. “You’re the only one of us with half a chance, Zephyr.” He takes my hand and traces the dark vines twining around the inside of my wrist. “You’re more powerful than anyone I’ve ever met, and you wield erebos like an Æthereal. If you can’t kill Hera, no one can.”

  I don’t know what to say. Everyone is suddenly
looking at me, and my palms go from nice and dry to embarrassingly damp. Their expectations weigh me down like a ball and chain.

  I know what they want from me. They all want me to be the hero. But that’s not me. I’m the coward. The girl who runs first and worries about the consequences later.

  I could walk away. I could just leave, the world be damned. But that would mean turning my back on Whisper and Cass. They both believed in me. And it feels like it’s time to stop letting them down.

  Not only that, but Tallon is watching me. He isn’t glaring at me like I’m about to screw up something important. He’s looking right at me like he finally thinks that I can do this.

  Strangely enough, I really don’t want to let him down.

  I snort and shrug off his backhanded praise. “You don’t really believe that. But I’m not about to sit back and let Hera use my sister and my best friend in some twisted science experiment.” I take a deep breath, because I know I’m about to make a promise I’m going to regret. “I’ll do it. Just tell me when and where.”

  Everyone nods. It’s not the kind of announcement that deserves a cheer. Maybe because they’re all thinking the same thing I am.

  Me against an Exalted? Yeah.

  I am so dead.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  AFTER MY BRAVE, AND COMPLETELY insincere, announcement, everyone disperses. Tallon takes North back home, and Alora goes off to try to contact the Oracle, whatever that entails.

  Blue and I sit in the living room, watching TV. Well, mostly watching TV. I’m trying not to think about Cass and Whisper. Are they suffering? Do shades feel pain or discomfort? My worry sours my stomach, and I idly dig my talons into Nanda’s couch cushions until Blue stops me.

  “Hey, Nanda’s going to freak if you keep doing that,” he says, pointing to the tears in the fabric.

  “Oh, dammit.” I fold my hands in my lap so I don’t unconsciously destroy anything else.

  Blue turns the TV off with a sigh and turns to me. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I shake my head. He studies me for a moment. “Is it about Tallon?”