The Covenant of Shadows Collection

by Kade Cook

  Gabrian sits straight up, gulping for air, and fighting for breath. She swings her arms ferociously at the empty space around her as her mind slowly registers where she is and that she is safe in her room. Her heart beats wildly in her ears as the sweat pours off of her feverish body, drenching her night shirt and the blankets surrounding her.

  She jumps, hearing the creek of her bedroom door as it opens. “Are you all right, Gabrian?” Sarapheane asks. “I heard you yelling.”

  “It was just a dream,” she whispers, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

  “It must have been quite the dream,” Sarapheane suggests as she enters the room and makes her way over to sit on the edge of Gabrian’s bed.

  Gabrian gives her a meek smile then looks away for a moment in thought. She returns her gaze back to her mother’s calm green eyes. “Do you remember when I was a child and you used to find me out at the garden’s gate late at night sometimes?” she asks, certain her mother remembers all too well.

  “Yes. I remember,” Sarapheane replies, raising her brow. “It used to scare me half to death when I would go to check on you at night, and you would be missing. For a while it became a nightly ritual for us to go searching for you only to find you down by the gate in your nightclothes.”

  “I was not asleep,” Gabrian confesses dropping her chin and peering at her mother through her long teary lashes.

  Sarapheane’s soft gaze falters for a moment—her lips no longer carrying a smile. “What do you mean you were not asleep?”

  “Late at night, when the house would get quiet, I could hear someone calling my name so I followed it. The voice. It was never inside the house. It was always outside, calling me from within, and it always led me to the gate where I would see him, a boy, waiting for me.”

  “I see.” Sarapheane’s eyes dart slowly around the dimly lit room, bouncing off shadows as she begins to recall her memories. “All I remember is when we finally found you, you always told us that your friend Ayden was there with you, and for us not to worry. He would watch over you,” Sarapheane recounted, sounding a bit distraught.

  “After we moved to the city, I went years and years of not having those dreams. But tonight…they came back. He came back,” Gabrian admits, drawing her legs up to her chest—wrapping her arms around them as she rests her cheek upon her knees. “…at least in my dreams.”

  “Oh,” Sarapheane exhales softly.

  Gabrian notices the sudden disappearance of Sarapheane’s smile. Her eyes no longer glimmer as a soft crease forms on her brow before she turns away—a look Gabrian knows always means worry.

  “He told me to learn to fight back,” Gabrian reveals, hoping this would help. “Or they would destroy me.” Sarapheane quickly turns her eyes back to Gabrian, and she swears what she sees is fear in her mother’s eyes.

  Sarapheane softens her gaze, and her smile returns. “Ah, Gabe. You just met with the Covenant of Shadows, and they upset you,” she says, playing nervously with the fringe on Gabrian’s blanket. “And you are leaving today to go back to the city. It is natural to have anxiety, and your dreams are just your mind’s way of sorting things out—however deranged the dreams may seem. Don’t let it worry you.” Sarapheane reaches up and playfully tugs on one of the loose strands of Gabrian’s long dark hair.

  “Do you think so?” Gabrian runs her hand through the top of her hair, bunching it at the top and grumbles. “Ah, you are probably right.”

  Sarapheane leans in and kisses Gabrian on the forehead before getting up off the bed. “Now, go get cleaned up, and I will start breakfast. Orroryn will be here at eight sharp to take you back.”

  The very thought of food causes Gabrian’s stomach to churn, but she did not want to offend her mother’s kindness. “That sounds great, Mom, thanks.” Gabrian’s mouth does water at the thought of fresh warm coffee though, with all the strange alterations she has had in her need for sustenance lately, she is pleased to know her craving for caffeine is alive and well.

  DONE WITH HER shower and finished with her packing, Gabrian makes her way down the staircase and into the kitchen. Grabbing a coffee from the counter, she heads into the living room and joins her parents. They sit quietly watching the sun steadily climb its way into the sky—chased by the darkening storm clouds that the man on the radio had threatened were on their way. Sarapheane and Jarrison had planned on taking Gabrian back to her apartment in Manhattan but with the return of Gabrian’s dreams, they had other things they needed to attend to today.

  Without so much as a word between them, they sit and listen to sound of the maple log crackling and snapping as it burns slowly in the stone hearth. The kitchen clock strikes the hour, and the eight o’clock bells begin to chime—echoing loudly throughout the house.

  Gabrian stops biting her nails at the sound and all faces in the room suddenly clear of expression. Her eyes seek out theirs and they share a timid smile filled with encouragement. Then, just as the eighth bell finishes its toll, from the wooden kitchen door comes a knock announcing Orroryn’s arrival.

  Gabrian’s vacation is over.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Borrowed Beauty Secrets

  BURIED SHOULDER DEEP in paperwork, Gabrian barely hears the knock on her office door before Rachael peeks her head in around the side of it. “Hey, you!”

  “Hey,” Gabrian replies, setting her files down on the desk. “Come on in.”

  “When did you get in?” Rachael enters the room, quickly trots over to the chair in front of Gabrian’s desk, and takes a seat.

  “Early yesterday morning. I couldn’t sleep last night so I thought I would get a head start on the day.” Gabrian notices Rachael staring at her wide-eyed, then tilting her head—narrowing her eyes. It is almost like she is studying her face, looking for something. “What are you doing?” she quizzes, well-aware that Rachael has always been a bit peculiar at times.

  “I am harboring jealousy.”

  “What?”

  “Your face,” Rachael replies as she continues to stare at Gabrian.

  “What about my face?”

  “It looks so different. I mean, it looks the same but you look incredible.”

  “What are you talking about?” Gabrian clearly has no idea what Rachael is going on about. After she arrived home, Gabrian had spent all morning cleaning and scouring her apartment from top to bottom from the messy state she had left it in. That night she tossed and turned, her mind racing—sorting through everything that has happened. She worried about being monitored by the Covenant, about meeting the legacy group, about the fact she might Vamp out on her unsuspecting clients—a constant energy source all at her disposal. How could Rachael possibly think she looks incredible when she feels like a ticking time bomb, barely capable of keeping herself together?

  “I know that our bodies are young and that aging is not really a pressing issue for us at the moment, but even for our age, your complexion looks flawless. Your eyes gleam a brilliant blue like the colour of water over ice, and your skin looks as smooth as alabaster.” Gabrian wrinkles her nose and flutters her lashes in annoyance. “Despite your odd facial expression, I would say that being a Borrower really does become you.”

  “Rachael, please.” Gabrian scoffs at the absurdity of her suggestion. She shakes her head and returns to her papers. “Don’t you have something better to do than to torment me?”

  Rachael raises her hands in retreat and stands up, turning toward the door. “Hey, I am just stating the obvious here. No need to shoot the messenger.”

  Gabrian wonders about Rachael’s observation and looks up at her. “Do I really look that different?” If Rachael thinks her looks have changed that much, maybe her clients might notice too.

  “Relax. If anyone asks about it just tell them you had one of those fancy spa vacations,” Rachael advises. “Most people believe those places are like finding the fountain of youth. They will not even blink an eye at it. Although...” she says, raising her finger to her red
pouty lips as though she has just realized something.

  “Although what?” Gabrian looks up through her lashes and purses a frown—growling at Rachael in frustration with her infamous ability of not finishing her thoughts.

  Rachael furrows her brow and grins. “Hm...you might want to make sure to tell them that you went someplace overseas so they will not try to book a spot as soon as they leave their session with you.”

  “Great, Rach.” Gabrian waves her out the door, clearly agitated by this new dilemma. “Thanks.”

  Rachael spins on her heels, still wearing a sassy grin. “Glad I could help,” she chirps, exiting the room, and closes the door behind her.

  Gabrian sighs and leans back in her chair, delightfully amused by her assistant’s quirky attempts to welcome her back. She spins around to face the world behind her. Gazing out over the urban landscape from her office window, high above the busy streets below, Gabrian sighs, sensing the subtle hum of life as it begins to stir within the waking city and corners of her mouth curl upward as she takes it all in, glad to be home.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Aged Insight

  THE TRIP TO the Legacy School for Gifted Children seemed to take Gabrian less time than she anticipated. She had not looked forward to it all week, knowing she had to go through with it. The meeting with the Headmaster, the tour of the school’s facilities, the lectures, and the awkward introductions to her new instructors—she dreaded it all.

  When she finally arrives, Gabrian is greeted with sincere humility. There are no false smiles or negative rumblings of the minds’ voice coming from any of them. These people are just like her. They welcome her into their establishment with complete acceptance and willingness to support all her endeavors.

  As she walks through the hallways of the Legacy building, she feels the age of the walls descend upon her like somehow she is walking back through time. The school itself feels alive, almost like it has eyes watching her as she explores its private innards. Gabrian basks in the fact that this structure of higher learning is old and filled with mystical history.

  As well as its age, Gabrian also feels the Magikal energy pulse vibrantly throughout the structure’s halls like veins through a body, lending lure and vitality to its character. The walls are decorated with pictures of students long passed, most of them probably still quite able-bodied considering their purpose of attending such an institution.

  Being here amongst these people and in these rooms, she becomes hopeful and quite intrigued. The potential of what such esteemed members of the Realm could empower her with and the vastness of the knowledge that they could bestow upon her seems almost limitless. As Gabrian stops to take in the immensity of the universe she enters into, she decides her purpose here will become more about her and less about what the Covenant demands from her.

  She allots all the available night courses they provide in order to maintain her work schedule, which she is graciously thankful for.

  On her way out, a middle aged man in a charcoal coloured suit—wearing a fringe of grey just around the edges of his ebony coloured hair—insists on walking her to the exit. He—being the Headmaster of the institute, Dean Gideon Blithe—had sensed her hostility when she first arrived but now that the tour is over, he is quite pleased to see it has dissipated and been replaced with her excitement. He looks down at her with pale green eyes and smiles, gazing out over the night sky of the city. Having been there himself some time ago, he understands her frustration about her new world.

  “You know, Gabrian, the Realm can be a most beautiful place if filled with the right company.”

  She stops at the door and glances up at him briefly then turns back to the night. He pauses for a moment to gather his thoughts. “I hope you will not let the mindset of a few overinflated Relics outweigh the importance in understanding a beautiful gift such as yours.”

  Lines form above the bridge of her nose as her eyes drop—bouncing over each visible flaw in the steps in front of her before lifting them to seek out his moonlit eyes in search of his meaning. “You think my gift is beautiful?”

  “Yes I do, very much so,” the Headmaster replies, still gazing out over the city.

  “Why? Everyone else seems to be afraid of it,” she prompts, curious to get a glimpse of insight into how his mind may work.

  “You are looking at it the wrong way, my dear.”

  Gabrian tilts her head as she tries to understand his meaning.

  “You are treating your gift as if it were a curse and that is where your trouble lies.” He turns, breaking away from his daydream and focuses his attention on her. The reflection of the dusk-to-dawn light hanging overhead casts an eerie glow to fall within his pale green eyes, making his gaze upon her almost haunting and profound—drowning her within his world of knowledge. “I do not believe that anyone would want you to be saddened by it. Instead, I should think that they would want you to celebrate and nurture it. As it is truly that, a gift, handed down to you by the ancients themselves.”

  Gabrian smiles and nods, grateful for the Headmaster’s aged words and for the kindness he has bestowed upon her. She is not sure if it is the meaning of the message itself or if it is the way his voice had wrapped so gently around each spoken word that made their exchange so enchanting, but some of the doors that lay hidden deep within her mind begin to unlock. The physical pressures that harbor within her head—which threatened her with many migraines ever since she was a child—begin to subside.

  Gabrian sighs, feeling the instant relief from the strange occurrence. The Headmaster’s face twitches for a moment then lightens, seeing her show of content. “Good night, my dear,” Gideon says pausing for a moment, pressing his hand against the means of exit. “Before you go, I would like you to remember something.”

  She nods in accordance to his wishes.

  “Tomorrow is a new day, and it is within the bounds of this realization that brings new possibilities.”

  She glances over at him and wonders just how old he truly must be to have such an ostensible magnitude of unbiased depth to him.

  “Good night, sir,” she meekly whispers.

  Then she turns back around to feel the winter’s icy breath on her face as the Headmaster pushes open the school’s large wooden door to enable her to take her leave. She stares out over the city that lies before her, and her heart leaps as she envisions the array of endless possibilities that her future holds for her.

  Gabrian takes a step forward out into the night, this time with hope, and for once, without shame.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Beauty and Essex

  AFTER A WEEK of being back in the city, Gabrian finds herself trying to establish some sort of happy balance between attending night classes and catching up with her clientele. She has been gone for a month so getting back into the swing of things seems a little more trying than usual. The first few days are a bit overwhelming. Her schedule is booked solid with clients and her nights follow with training at the Legacy school. Being busy keeps her mind occupied for a while, but once everything falls into a routine, she finds herself thinking about Shane on her downtime.

  Gabrian had hoped to receive a call from him while still in Maine, but he had already told her he was leaving and that the chances were slim. But now it had been a couple of weeks since they spoke, and there is still no call. The silence of the phone begins to eat away at her. Every other second she finds herself staring at it as if that would make it magically ring. If only I had those kinds of gifts, she thinks quietly to herself.

  Getting up from her desk, she steps toward the window and stares blankly out over the city. She leans forward and rests her head up against the window, hearing the gentle rhythm of rain against the glass. It reminds her of Maine. The soothing sound of Mother Nature’s percussion section pulls her back to a time when the steady tip-tapping beat upon the tin roof of her parent’s house would hush her to sleep as the sky would open up above them. She felt a twinge of home sickness for
it.

  Before she had never really taken much notice of the rain, let alone cared to hear the gentle rhythm of its intoxicating lullaby, but now that everything has changed, somehow the little things that seemed so insignificant have taken a more prominent stance to her.

  Her mind is all over the place. Whatever she had been before seems to have taken a backseat to the Borrower Magik she has been harboring within her. The focused and dedicated doctor of the mind she had worked so diligently to become reels in her own delusion of what her life is to be.

  Gabrian pulls herself back to the present and backs over to her desk, picking up her phone to check the time. It is four thirty. Thank goodness, she thinks and sighs deeply. With no more clients booked for the afternoon, her workday is almost over. And since it is Friday, there are no classes at Legacy tonight either so her evening is free.

  “Now what to do,” she ponders out loud, letting her mind relax and drift for a moment in a hazy state.

  Through the cloudy daydream of nothing in particular, her subconscious returns her delightfully back to the night she had met Shane. She stands silently at her desk, sifting through the events and becomes caught somewhere in the daydream, just staring at her phone.

  Not hearing Rachael enter the room, Gabrian jumps at the sound of her voice. “You know, if you stare at that thing too long, you are going to get brain damage.” Gabrian realizes she had been staring at her phone again, and how strange it must have looked. She shakes her head and slides it across her desk into a pile of files to the left. “Ah!” she grumbles. “Obviously it must be working.” She turns to look out the window again and sighs. “What is wrong with me, Rach? I used to be all about helping people and working all hours of the day, but now all I do is think about Maine.”