“After all, it had been the Bloodbourn who had been created from the first men. During ancient times, the Bloodbourn slew the creatures no other Divinblood could slay. And only the Bloodbourn still remained true to the traditions of the first Divinbloods.” The words fell out of Adrian’s mouth seamlessly, as if he had recited them hundreds of times before. It occurred to me that because Adrian was Bloodbourn, he must have been exposed to these beliefs.
“Is that what you believe?” I asked quietly. Part of me was afraid to hear the answer, afraid to know that he might possess some deep-seated grudge against the Irisbourn, and therefore me.
Adrian exhaled loudly. “It’s what they wanted me to believe. It’s what I told myself I should believe. But I couldn’t, and that’s part of the reason I’m here right now.” Adrian looked down to his wrists before going on.
“The Blood King prepared the Bloodbourn for a clandestine attack on the Irisbourn, to finally eradicate the Irisbourn race from Fallyre and restore proper power to the Bloodbourn. From the beginning, the unsuspecting Irisbourn stood no chance. The Bloodbourn had been taught to kill since they were children. By twelve, many of them had already tamed and trained their first dark beast.
“When the Bloodbourn attacked in full force, the Irisbourn were utterly unprepared. Most of the Irisbourn were slaughtered or went missing, including the Irisbourn Queen. The Queen’s husband, the new King, was captured and later killed by the Blood King himself. Later the Queen was discovered and held captive by the Blood King, while he hunted down the surviving Irisbourn in Fallyre.
“The remainder of the Irisbourn kingdom was left in uproar. The Beastbourn retaliated violently against their rulers’ murderers, but they too were struck down by the Bloodbourn. When the Beastbourn defense fell, the Spellbourn and Strongbourn had no choice but to submit to Bloodbourn rule. Within weeks, the Irisbourn race had been eradicated, and the rule of the Blood King had begun.” Adrian fell silent, and all I could hear was my pulse in my ears.
“Are there any other Irisbourn?” I asked softly.
Adrian grew somber. “You are the first free, healthy Irisbourn I’ve seen. The Blood King’s genocide has been very thorough.”
“And yet, I’m here.” The thought of being the last of my kind frightened me.
“Someone hid you here, disguised you as a human in a human family. You would have only been born just before the Blood War, so it wouldn’t have been very difficult.”
“But my parents, they were human… It couldn’t have been…” I struggled to work out the logistics in my mind. “Couldn’t my parents have been disguised too? Couldn’t my sister and brother be Irisbourn as well?”
“It’s possible, but highly unlikely,” Adrian said slowly, apologetically. “The problem is, you weren’t just pretending to be a human; you were actually physically turned into a human. There is only one way we can be turned back into the mortals the gods created us from, and that is through an ancient, multifaceted ritual which requires the aid of a Bloodbourn, Spellbourn, Strongbourn, and Beastbourn. There are few today who know how to do it, and even fewer willing to attempt it. Amongst the handful of Divinbloods who have tried it, the majority did not survive. So even if it had been done on your entire family, it would have been unlikely that all five of you would have survived the ritual to become humans.”
“How do you know that we’re not just Divinbloods pretending to be humans, like you?”
“Once you get used to being Irisbourn, you’ll be able to subconsciously recognize who’s a Divinblood and who’s not. We have certain distinctive characteristics – the way we move, the way we speak, the way we look – that we can’t hide from each other, even for a Divinblood turned-human. When I first saw you, I mistook you for a Divinblood. You wouldn’t believe how surprised I was, finding you as a Divinblood in the human world. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized that the blood that coursed through your veins was undeniably human.”
“You must have been sorely disappointed then,” I muttered. I suspected it was probably my graceless fall from the gate that convinced him I was a human.
“Actually, I was intrigued.” Adrian’s eyes widened. “You were human, but you also weren’t. It was puzzling. Afterwards I found myself watching your family as they entered and left the house – not in a malicious way, I was just curious – but they weren’t like you.” Adrian said it quickly, as if he were confessing a crime that he wanted to get off his chest. “Your brother was born human, I’m sure of it. I never saw much of your sister, but I’m certain she’s human too. You were the only one who was different.”
I swallowed thickly and tried to absorb this new information. If I thought about it, everything he said made sense. It would explain my parents’ lack of embarrassing baby pictures of me, while they had an endless supply of photographs of Heather and Matt. Plus, I always knew that I looked nothing like my siblings and little like my parents. Sometimes, when I was younger, I had even fantasized that I had been adopted. Apparently I had been right.
I exhaled loudly in defeat and moved onto my next question. “Then how did I become Irisbourn if I was human?”
Adrian’s brow creased in thought. “To be honest, I don’t understand how you did that. I’m only familiar with the ritual because I knew one person who performed it. Until tonight, I didn’t think that a child could even survive it. I think that when I met you, your human body was already beginning to change into that of an Irisbourn. Maybe it was stress or your new surroundings, or maybe the ritual just wore off. I can’t explain it. Whatever the cause, the transformation must have been straining your human body.”
“I guess that would explain why I keep fainting,” I grumbled.
“How many times has that happened?” Adrian asked with concern.
“Two? Actually, three including this one.”
“When did they happen?”
I sighed. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but the first time, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw this pale face above my bed.”
To my surprise, Adrian didn’t laugh. If anything, his expression grew more serious. “Describe it.”
“Ugly and white, with hollow eyes. What’s weird is that I thought I saw two of them last night in the hallway, but no one else could see them. Oh, and they were wrapped in some sort of shroud as well.”
“Did they look like they were screaming?” Adrian asked slowly.
“Yeah, only no sound was coming out. How did you know that?” I sat up straight, relieved that someone finally understood what I had seen.
“They’re wraiths.” Adrian’s voice grew heavy, his face solemn.
“Wraiths?”
Adrian shifted his weight to make himself comfortable. I knew I would be in for a long explanation.
“They’re from our world. Throughout the extensive Irisbourn reign over Fallyre, the Irisbourn took many creatures under their protection. One of these creatures was the sprites. The sprites were quite striking, with their flaxen hair and marble white skin. When fully extended, their spectral, translucent wings were said to be twice the size of their entire bodies, and they were only slightly smaller than Divinbloods. No matter how much they aged, they always resembled children, and perhaps that was why the Irisbourn were so willing to take them in, despite the sprites’ reputation for trouble. With time, the Irisbourn were able to gain their trust, and the sprites, in gratitude, wished to give back to the Irisbourn for their generosity. Most sprites established roles in Divinblood society as servants to the Irisbourn in their homes and palaces. Each sprite family would attend on an Irisbourn family for generations. The sprites grew fervently loyal to the Irisbourn.
“However, during the Blood King’s invasion, the sprites were separated from their Irisbourn families and captured. The Blood King ordered a dark curse to be placed on all sprites, condemning them to wander Fallyre in search of any remaining Irisbourn, so that the sprites might kill the race they had once served. What the Blood King did not
realize was that the sprites’ devotion to the Irisbourn was too potent for such a curse to break. Instead of the sprites carrying out the Blood King’s evil wishes, the sprites were transformed into unsightly creatures torn between killing their masters and defending them. They roam the darkness in anguish, hoping to find their masters, but never able to hurt them. We call them wraiths.”
“So they’re not dangerous?” I stressed.
“Completely harmless. They’re attracted to you because you’re Irisbourn.”
My heart went out to the poor creatures. The fate of the Irisbourn had already been bad enough without the sprites being dragged into it.
“Why are they invisible to everyone else?”
“Humans,” Adrian emphasized, “can’t see them, because wraiths have been touched by dark magic, and our dark magic doesn’t belong in this world. It’s literally purged from human minds.”
“Ignorance is bliss,” I murmured, as I broke a bead of water that had condensed onto my glass. The liquid ran down my hand and dropped onto the blanket, making a wet circle.
“And the second time…?” Adrian inquired expectantly.
“The second time was in the woods last night. I was walking, and I guess I lost track of time. When I woke up, this creature was there. It was …” I shook my head. No single word could describe it. “I tried to run, but it caught up to me.”
Adrian stared at me in horror. “What happened?”
“Well, I lived,” I replied, gesturing to my living, breathing body. Adrian narrowed his eyes at me in impatience. “Fine, fine. I must have changed into a panther, or whatever, and attacked it, because it turned into dust as soon as I hit it. Like poof.” I made a flowing motion with my hands. Well, it didn’t actually go poof, but that was a moot point. “And when I got home, my sister pointed out my purple eyes.”
“What did this thing look like?” Adrian spoke hastily, so hastily that I had to take a moment to decipher what he had said.
“Uh… bony… bulging white eyes… and needle teeth,” I remembered. “Lots and lots of needle teeth.” I blinked to clear my mind of the image.
“And you killed it?” Adrian’s voice was thick with disbelief.
“I guess so? It kind of just disappeared, so I’m not sure if you’d consider that killing,” I replied skeptically.
Adrian ran his hands through his hair and groaned. “I’ve been tracking that thing for a week, and now you’ve gone and killed it. And you haven’t even been a full Divinblood for a day!”
I shrugged, unsure how to respond. “You’re welcome?”
“You shouldn’t be. You should be dead, going after a caecus like that. You’re extremely lucky to be alive right now,” Adrian warned me in a shaken voice.
“Caecus?” The word was unfamiliar to me, obvious by the ridiculous way I had chosen to pronounce it.
Adrian didn’t seem to notice. “The caecus demon is one of the dark beasts under the influence of the Bloodbourn. They’re not to be trifled with. Their sense of smell makes up for their blindness, and they have an incredibly… gruesome… way of hunting. They play with their food – that is, they torture their prey until it dies from its own agony. The caeci have become quite popular amongst the more sadistic Bloodbourn.
“The Bloodbourn sent many caeci to Earth to track down any Divinbloods, usually surviving Irisbourn, who had managed to flee Fallyre. The caeci had been instructed to ignore the humans, though. After all, mysterious human disappearances wouldn’t help the caeci sneak up on any Divinbloods in hiding.”
“That explains why it found me in the woods, then.”
“Actually,” Adrian interjected, “that one was tracking us, not you. Coming across you was likely just an accident. It helped that it was weak, too; there aren’t a whole lot of large animals that it could feed on in the area.”
“See, I did do you a favor then,” I pointed out. I was trying very hard to stay on the bright side, while Adrian overwhelmed me with this new information.
Before Adrian could respond, the door at the side of the room flung open, and Arisella strode right in. She raised an eyebrow at us, making me aware of the fact that, throughout the conversation, I had been unconsciously leaning toward Adrian in increasing increments. I quickly returned to an appropriate sitting position with my back ninety degrees to the bed.
“Listening to your conversation from the next room is quite difficult,” Arisella pouted. “Do I have permission to rejoin you?”
My knuckles grew white around my glass, and for a moment I was afraid I would shatter it.
Adrian turned his head to me, letting me know that I should answer.
“No,” I said adamantly.
“Adrian!” Arisella complained. She looked so much like a frustrated child who hadn’t gotten her way. I had to remind myself that underneath, she was still the same psycho killer who had tried to skewer me with knives.
Adrian only shrugged. “You probably traumatized her. What would you expect?”
“Forgiveness?” Arisella said like it were obvious. “I had to do it; she understands that.”
“Actually, please enlighten me,” I encouraged sarcastically. “Tell me why in the world you thought trying to kill me was such a crucial procedure.”
Arisella’s eyes flashed toward me in disdain. “In case you haven’t realized it by now, my brother and I are in hiding.” My eyes widened in surprise. To my irritation, I’d never even considered that.
“From the Blood King?” I assumed.
“From everyone under the Blood King’s influence.” Arisella’s sapphire eyes burned into mine.
“We may have sort of gone rogue,” Adrian added nonchalantly, trying to defuse some of the tension that Arisella had dragged into the room.
“And now the Bloodbourn are looking for us.” Arisella swept her dark hair from her face and lithely fell into a large armchair by the bed. “We should be safe, as long as idiots like you–”
Adrian shot Arisella a nasty look, and his sister gave an aggravated sigh. “Fine – as long as ignorant individuals, such as yourself,” she rephrased, looking at Adrian to gauge his approval. Adrian shook his head, which Arisella somehow interpreted as a sign to continue.
“… don’t attract attention to this area by creating suspicions in the Divinblood community.”
I was appalled by her accusation. “I don’t attr—”
“Right now, your eyes are blaring ‘Hi, all murderous Bloodbourn! I’m Irisbourn! Kill me!’” Arisella said with mock enthusiasm. Her face immediately darkened. “If the Bloodbourn even suspect that an Irisbourn is here, the entire area will be flooded with Bloodbourn, and then we’re all screwed.”
I froze at that realization. My eyes had attracted a lot of attention, but just from my classmates, not from any Divinbloods. But, then again, I couldn’t tell who was from their world and who wasn’t.
“I attacked you because I needed to evoke a response from you,” Arisella continued. “I needed to be absolutely sure you were Divinblood, and not some human with colored contacts, before we could tell you anything. We also needed to make sure you could be trusted… and if not, taken care of.”
I gaped at Arisella. So somewhere in the back of her mind, she truly was considering killing me.
“We can’t just invite anybody in here.” She indicated largely to the house around her.
“And, luckily, it looks like you can be trusted,” Adrian pointed out, relieving some of the anxiety from my rapidly beating heart.
I nervously wove my fingers through my hair and realized that, in the dim lighting, the thin strands looked charred, almost the color of coals rather than their normal warm brown. “What do we do now?”
“We prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Arisella said lightly, almost flippantly, while she bounced in her chair to tuck her tiny feet underneath her.
I stared at her, openmouthed. “Which is?”
“The Bloodbourn find us, of course.” Arisella said it like I was stup
id. “Someone’s going to get awfully suspicious when he finds out his caecus demon mysteriously vanished.”
Adrian groaned. “I don’t think anyone has figured out we’re here yet. After all, it’s not unusual for a Bloodbourn beast to go missing on a hunt.” Adrian turned to me. “But we still need to be careful. Even if the Bloodbourn don’t know we’re here, they’ll definitely be monitoring the area more closely now. We’ll have to train you to defend yourself, in case they find us.” Adrian watched me carefully, waiting for my reaction.
“Okay,” I said. It seemed like something reasonable to agree to.
“You’ll also have to learn how to attract as little attention to yourself as possible,” Arisella said with severity. “You will meet us before and after school, and in the afternoons and on weekends you will come directly here.”
“That’s not happening.” Training was one thing, but spending every moment of my free time in the company of that witch was another.
Arisella looked offended. “In case you weren’t aware, learning to defend yourself against the Bloodbourn doesn’t just happen overnight. The Bloodbourn have spent every waking moment since childhood training to kill, so if anything, I’d put in some extra hours if I were you.” I opened my mouth to respond, but Arisella waved me aside. “Oh, and, by the way, since you’re Irisbourn, your head is worth considerably more to the Bloodbourn than ours are. Maybe you should learn to value your life as much as they’d value your death.” Arisella glared at me.
She made a point. “Fine, fine,” I grumbled. “I’ll do it.”
Still not satisfied, Arisella tapped her fingers against the arm of the chair. “Don’t forget, if you’re found, we’re found too.”
“Most likely,” Adrian added. He looked disapprovingly at his sister.
Feral (The Irisbourn Chronicles Book 1) Page 10
