Dominion of the Star (Descendants of the Fallen Book 1)

by Angelica Clyman

  Twice. Without him, would you be still in Fiora’s grasp? Would Asher have survived?

  Kayla frowned. “Would I have these scars?”

  Or would those marks still be raw burns?

  “Without his ‘help,’ that fire might not ever have erupted!”

  The abilities of a Saros child are unpredictable. I can barely believe he survived; so many of them were slaughtered. But I’m frightened by those bones he wears on his arms. It’s bad enough that Sebastian and Gabriel even built those Ruiners, but to use them on one of his kind? The far-reaching effects can’t be foreseen!

  “Kittie has called them Ruiners too…”

  She understands things I was around to witness. But you’re not wrong to also refer to them as ‘fetters’ — chains that allow movement, but not flight. He’s a prisoner, a puppet. Still, it’s foolish to shackle Saros children this way. He’s bound, but it’s made him stronger. You saw his fiery wings. Did he draw them out from you, or did you lend him power? Is he still human? I don’t know what he will become or what it will mean. I don’t know what he will do or what it will do to him and the world.

  Kayla picked up The Seven of Swords. “If he could bring disaster, willingly or not, he shouldn’t be here.”

  Kiera was silent for a moment. Sometimes things that should not be, are. But that card, that future, must be avoided. I don’t believe Jeremy means you any harm, but that doesn’t mean you’re safe. The sixth card is a warning. Don’t get caught up in any secret plans. And, Kayla…don’t forget that you love him.

  Her cheeks stung. “Love? No, now we’re just bound together by these aptly-named Ruiners. I loved him, I trusted that, and now these intense emotions that sometimes move me are just a perversion of my Angelic fire, used as a weapon against me. Why shouldn’t I try to forget?”

  I’m reminding you of this because your choices will affect your outcome. These feelings, whatever their source, are still there. Reacting against them can be just as destructive as giving in to them. Be aware of your emotions. It will hurt more than denying them, but they will give you the clues you need to avoid danger, whether it comes from without or within.

  Kayla’s vision began to blur, so she tried to let her tears fall. Her mother’s voice was fading, and she realized that her eyes were dry. Some raucous sounds began to pierce the veil of her reverie.

  “You can’t even get lemon ice in Cormina anymore!”

  “C’mon, Kerif, las’ summer we—”

  “Fec, that was more than five years ago,” Vic mumbled.

  Kayla blindly groped around for her cards, but as her sight returned, she realized the silk-bound bundle was still in her pocket and she was sitting on the ground, leaning against an incomplete concrete barrier that stood beside the ruined road. She bit her lip, troubled. How long was she out? It was only her second experience of this kind of direct dialogue, and she was so sure at the time that it wasn’t a dream. Kayla reached over and tugged on the fabric of Asher’s pants, and he glanced towards her, offering a weary smile. She searched his face for signs of concern, but it seemed that neither one of them noticed changes in the other. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his breathing was labored; they must have only been sitting here for a brief time to take a break from walking. Kayla tried to smooth the anxious pull of her brow, covering up her worry with a tired grin that echoed his. The loss of time was unsettling, but she didn’t want to disturb Asher now.

  She took a deep breath before she looked around her, a little shaken by the realization that this reality seemed less familiar than the internal landscape she existed in moments earlier. Kittie and the pirates were gathering around them in a semi-circle, while Jeremy hung back a little further, his stare flickering tensely over Asher’s form before he turned half his back to them, his eyes scanning the horizon. The conversation of her companions seemed muffled and distant, and Kayla struggled to catch the plan they were discussing.

  “Ponchos? We got those, uh, somewhere…” Fec was digging around in his trench coat while Kerif dropped onto his back, but the heavy load he carried kept him suspended above the ground, the backs of his hands hovering over the earth.

  “Baaaad iiideeaa, guyyyys,” he groaned, flicking a heavy lock of hair out of his face.

  Kittie sighed. “Asher and I just have to see how much has changed there before we bring Kayla through. I know neither of us are in top form right now, but we’ll take Vic along.”

  “Cormina blows. Isn’t there another way to Velsmere?” Kerif’s eyes were rolling back in irritation and exhaustion.

  Bruno looked up from his maps. “Yeah, but we’d never get there in time if we don’t use the ferry.”

  Kayla’s awareness of her environment was rapidly becoming acute. She turned her back on her companions, focusing her attention on the clearly fatigued Asher. If she checked his bandages and collected his hair back neatly into a long tail, then she wouldn’t have to acknowledge the tense watchfulness that kept Jeremy’s eyes drifting back more frequently to their wounded leader. What right did he have to wear her concern for Asher’s condition in his own expression?

  “W-wait! Yer leavin’ th’ three o’ us an’ Kayla wi’h him?” Fec stumbled away from Jeremy, his wide eyes bouncing erratically between Kittie and Asher, his skewed features pleading for their attention.

  Kayla watched Asher’s head raise suddenly, his gaze cutting upward until it found its mark, somewhere behind her, his irises vibrating with the effort to keep his target still. She followed the sinking of her stomach with a dropping of her eyes before gathering the will to quietly watch Kittie.

  The little girl didn’t disappoint. “Well that does pose a problem, doesn’t it? How will we know if and when the rest of the group should follow without needless running back and forth? Maybe if Jeremy goes with Asher instead, he might be able to get the information back to me.” She looked hopefully in the same direction that Asher was still fixed on.

  There was a small stretch of silence before the voice behind Kayla spoke. “I don’t know if any of that works like it used to.” His dispassionate murmur was pushed out with halting effort.

  “Will you let me try?” Kittie whispered.

  His dry, bitter laugh was almost lost in the shuffling of his boots along the rocky ground as he moved towards her. Kayla turned her head as he passed by, tilting it downward so that she could watch them from beneath her hair.

  Jeremy stood over Kittie for a moment, grinning disdainfully. “Things haven’t been going so well, have they? Were you disappointed when you were powerless to see into me?”

  Her sharp, tiny chin pointed back at him. “It was no victory for me that I had to wonder if you were dead, only to realize that you were beyond my reach because you gave yourself over to Za’in.”

  “What else was I supposed to—” he abruptly cut off the rising snarl of his reply as he grasped her shirt above her shoulder and roughly pulled her towards him. Without moving her head any more than she had to, Kayla strained to see Jeremy’s mouth as he dropped to his knee and hissed out his words against Kittie’s cheek. “It’s not as simple as just ‘giving over.’ If it was, then we wouldn’t have to worry about—”

  “We don’t have to be worried,” Kittie snapped, “but if you’ve suddenly found the ability to suffer that emotion, then be still and let’s see if you can let me in.” The severity in her voice melted into a gentle sigh as she let her head drop against his. Her almost inaudible words came out in breathy, childlike gasps. “How can you think this is about control? Don’t you remember when we started?”

  Jeremy seemed to be lulled into stillness by her warmth and he drowsily closed his eyes. There were a few moments of peace before he shuddered and pulled his head away from hers, the grip on her blouse still tight. “I wish I could forget…that we threw off those shackles for new ones…that we thought we could escape what we were by acting like it was something to be proud of. It’s always been a fight for control, one way or another. Let’s just get
this over with.” Jeremy’s voice was detached, his inflection nearly paralyzed with resentment, but as he released Kittie and raised his face to watch her back away, Kayla thought she noticed some silent plea in his eyes.

  Kittie’s features hardened with resolve as she passed her hand over her eyes and then dropped down on one knee, head bowed, steadying her frame by pressing her palm to the earth. She was completely motionless, her small form showing no evidence that she even breathed. Kayla’s body froze as well, a throbbing silence clogging her ears. She wasn’t sure if Asher and the pirates were also quietly watching this scene or if she was alone in the universe, peering into someone else’s dormant reality. Nothing stirred, and after a while her eyes unlocked from their fixed place and moved to Jeremy’s crouched figure. A morbid curiosity quickly became a guilty indulgence as she examined the contrast of his pale flesh against the black bones that consumed him. The jagged surface that covered his limbs and threatened to swallow his torso only served to underscore the memory of his skin on hers, the pressure of his hands and arms, the weight of his chest. As vivid as those sensations still were, they belonged to an unreachable past. Those fetters meant that whatever he embraced would now be crushed and torn, and any shred of Angelic energy he grasped would be devoured and perverted. Kayla forced her gaze higher, braving his downcast eyes, but the focus of her vision became lodged in the tension that gathered around the side of his face, curving from his brow down into his jaw. She stayed safely caught in that crescent of pressure, her muscles contracting, mirroring his, the strain squeezing out her troubled thoughts.

  Her tenuous peace was shattered as his head raised suddenly, his piercing stare grasping something behind her shoulder. She knew that this time he wasn’t looking towards one of their companions or a danger in the distance. His eyes drew from her the sickening revelation that she should have long ago sensed something hovering above the surface of her skin, some invisible force that was too close to perceive as separate from herself. She was aware of Kittie’s attention pulled to the same spot. Kayla felt cold, an inexplicable terror barring her from any movement, especially one that would allow her to turn her head to the right. In an attempt to reach for something that could bring the familiar world rushing back in, the fingers of her left hand twitched — the only outward sign of her struggle to clutch Asher’s arm.

  Kayla could feel heaviness scrape along her back and cup her shoulder, and her body was rattled as her side collided against something solid. Air flooded her lungs, and more distinct sounds began to reach her clogged ears. She shook her head, blinking, and looked up into Asher’s clear eyes. He held her closer, both of his arms encircling her.

  “What did you see?” he whispered.

  “I…I didn’t—”

  Kayla could feel the small vibration that came from Jeremy’s hand dropping lightly on Asher’s shoulder. “Serafin, there was nothing for her to see. Point is, it worked. Let’s go to Cormina before it gets dark, and I’ll let Kit know if it’s safe to bring Kayla through.” The gentleness in his voice drew uneasy shivers from between her shoulder blades, the tiny tremors making it more difficult to breathe the knot out of her stomach.

  Asher didn’t glance up at him, but kept his eyes trained on Kayla. “Kittie, is this your counsel?”

  The girl’s round eyes were vague and dark, and although her words came slowly, they were firmly stated. “Things have changed. Za’in won’t snatch her up while you’re gone, because he’s just going to let us come. And the rest of us can handle anything short of a pair of Archs.”

  Kittie’s words didn’t have their usual comforting effect on Asher, and Kayla could feel his grip on her tighten as his brow was pulled with tense lines. “Saros, if anything happens here, you’ll know?”

  There was an unexpected, clumsy hesitation in Jeremy’s voice. “Yeah, I think so. But if she tries…if she calls, I won’t be able to ignore it.”

  Kayla wrenched around in Asher’s arms, but Jeremy’s back was already turned. The resistance she fought against was gently released, but not before her protector spoke. “This isn’t the split I wanted, but it will have to do. I didn’t want to leave you without a strong defense in my absence, but I have to remind myself that the only one stronger than him is you. Eventually, you will have to give rise to everything that you are, but I’m still hoping it won’t have to come so soon. Call to him if you need to.”

  She nodded, fighting to pull her eyes away from Jeremy’s bristling shoulders as he wound fabric around his arms, preparing to further conceal his body with the extra poncho and other articles the pirates gathered. Kayla lurched upward, stumbling as she stood, and landed on her feet, close to his side. She could feel his body clench up, ready for violence or flight, and she let out her breath, ready for either. No explosive action erupted. Instead, that potential energy was tightly contained in his eyes, trapped beneath a heavy-lidded downward gaze.

  “Don’t act so surprised,” he whispered. “We’ve heard each other over distances before. This connection is my fucking torment, but by all means, let’s see it through to the end. Why stop now?” Another tiny convulsion moved him before he spoke again, this time more gently. “Okay, he’s right. You need to let me know if something happens here, and I’ll come for you. But don’t listen for a reply. Only believe it’s me when you see me. I know you’ve heard me in the past, but don’t trust it anymore. Don’t trust any voices, got it?”

  Kayla was stunned, not only by his words, but by his change in manner. Frustration rendered her silent, unable to form a reply, and she was caught somewhere in the process of unraveling his statements and guessing his motivations. She saw no reason to dismiss the purity of her own visions and put her faith in him, but she couldn’t ignore the fear that still lingered from his recognition of that unknown presence beside her, within her…

  There was no need for that conflict to find its way outward now. Jeremy was already a few yards in the distance, supporting Asher’s wounded frame through the broken landscape.

  40

  Asher found a spot near an upper window where the rain didn’t fall. There he waited to see Kayla descend from the craggy hills, imagining the damp odor of mildew and rot that seeped into his nostrils transforming into the earthy fragrance of wine that must have once filled this place. Cormina was in worse shape than he’d expected. The town was heaped upon itself, down in a valley that was created during the Eclipse’s shifts. Villas were still standing with their lacework of windows, rows of swelling columns, and scalloped, ceramic roofs, but many were incomplete, leaving a jarring contrast of densely stacked elements that ended in sudden emptiness, and staircases that led nowhere. The simple elegance of a town that once thought it could adapt gracefully to a cataclysm had given in to stark decay.

  Jeremy joined him in the main vat room and climbed onto the catwalk, the only remaining portion of the second level. He didn’t come near the window, obtaining his reading of the outside world by occasional glances at Asher’s eyes. “She’s close. Unhurt.”

  “You can sense that now?” the older man murmured.

  “Vaguely. Kit got the picture, and I know it put her on the move. It’s Kit that can see me; I don’t get much back. But I’m not feeling anything now, from either of them. That means it’s okay.” Jeremy restlessly tugged on the bandages that covered his fetters.

  Asher pulled his gaze from the window to regard the former Arch. This wasn’t easy for either of them. Jeremy had helped him make his way over the rocks, down into the valley and through what was left of Cormina’s streets. Asher had dealt with his enemy saving him in Azevin, but now he had to accept that his body was still too weak and wracked with pain to walk more than a few steps unaided. His hand and feet never had the luxury of time to heal, and that meant he had to lean against his rival, who effortlessly took on the burden of his weight. Asher couldn’t gauge the limits of Jeremy’s supernatural strength, nor could he tell if Saros allowed his feet to only barely touch the ground in order to ke
ep him comfortable or to make it clear who was in control. Whether compassion was the motivation, or the will to dominate and humiliate, Asher accepted it as a necessary indignity.

  But there was something else. As he was dragged along, there would be moments when frightening visions shook his senses. He didn’t expect another dose of what happened in Azevin. Although they were both covered up for the purpose of not being recognized in a town so close to Velsmere, he also noticed Saros took extra care to prevent their skin from touching. Still, there were times when lost footing or other sudden movements allowed enough contact for Asher to experience strange sensations — a choking net of black roots pressed close to his face, as he was blinded by dark sludge invading his nose and mouth. He held his body stiff against the illusion, knowing it would pass, and as the tangle of gnarled tendrils and oozing filth began to clear, he could see glimpses of Kittie’s eyes and sturdy fingers, her lips moving quickly to form silent, urgent words. Asher was certain that none of his own thoughts and feelings were being pulled from him as Saros was trying desperately to hold in his own sensations, but seeing his rival exposed was just as unsettling as dealing with his own soul laid bare.

  It still left unanswered the question of why Jeremy’s internal struggles were seeping so easily out of him and into Asher’s consciousness. The unknown range of the former Arch’s physical powers now seemed like a trivial concern in the face of this. What influence could he have over a mind he connected with?

  Asher was troubled by the remembered image of Kittie fighting to make her way through the aggressively churning mire. He had the impression there was something more frightening to witness once it was all cleared away. “Saros. What you saw, back on the road with Kittie… Is Kayla—”

  “I didn’t do anything to her,” Jeremy blurted out, defensively. “I don’t know why she froze up like that; she was blind to everything…”

  Asher eyed him coldly before forcing his gaze back to the window, his expression flat. “What happened?” Even though he turned his face away in order to make Jeremy feel more comfortable with making his confession, Asher sensed his companion’s muscles tightening in frustration. “Is it Za’in?” he asked quietly.