by Nia Night
“Trust no one, Iliana,” the Angel said, and shot up into the open air above the coliseum, massive white wings carrying him out of sight.
I was a fucking fool.
If Kieran’s whole charade really had just been about the Warden making an example out of me, I was turning out to be one star of an example. Take no males was part of The Code, a tenet of our belief system, and what it meant was that other than fornication, males served absolutely no purpose in a Sister’s life save for to fuck her up.
And look what had happened to me in trusting a male. I’d gotten all fucked up.
Now I was fucking up again, because as soon as the Angel was out of sight, I was back at the bar outside the arena, asking the bartender for whatever they had that was strongest. I’d let him go, and I should have killed him.
The alcohol took the edge off my nerves, and I did my best to refocus on the task at hand. Angel or no, I still needed to locate the Shadowborn and draft his help for Vida. And now the matter seemed even more urgent, because despite the fact that I didn’t trust Kieran, he’d planted a seed in my head.
I’d left the child with a Demon. And not just any Demon, but the Demon King of Darkness. Ibrahim.
That motherfucker had spun a hell of a story as well. The only person I did trust in all of this was the child, and more than anything else, she seemed to be just a pawn in a game neither of us fully understood.
She was also the essence of every problem I faced. Without her, none of this mess would have happened in the first place.
I knew that was dickish of me, but I was bitter, and strung tight. I wanted nothing more than to binge drink myself into a stupor and wake up to find that all of this was just some dream. I had no business looking after a child. I was a lush and an assassin.
These thoughts surprised me with their negativity, and I shoved them away, afraid to entertain them too long. Also, I was quite drunk, and despite my failure to do what I’d come to do, I thought I should probably find somewhere to lie down before I passed out.
But because the Fates seemed to hate me, the thing I was looking for waltzed right by me, forcing me to follow.
If the figure that passed through the hall was not the Shadowborn, then I was a monkey’s uncle. Shadows seemed to leak out of him as he glided along, a cloak shielding his face and form from view. As I watched, he slipped out of the place and out into the open night.
I followed him through the parking lot, to the streets beyond, keeping far enough back and close enough at the same time.
Or at least, I thought.
I was just getting ready to sneak up on him when I was stopped in my tracks.
Like, I literally couldn’t move. My boots were rooted to the concrete beneath them, my muscles unresponsive to my commands. I stood on a darkened street near the coliseum, realizing that there was no one else around this area.
“Why are you following me, Demon?” asked a voice that was out of place in the setting.
The black form of the Shadowborn appeared before me out of nowhere, the air around the dark cloak shimmering as magic rippled through it. When he pushed his hood back, I saw that it was not a he at all, but a her.
I was captivated for a couple heartbeats by the pure presence of her, the power that emanated from the shadows she seemed to float in. Her eyes were a brilliant violet, her hair as pale as the moon, and she was young, younger than me, even. Likely not a day over twenty.
“I’ve come to ask for your help,” I said, struggling against the magic that held me so easily and firmly in place to no avail.
The Shadowborn snorted and turned on her heels, silent as a wraith.
I spoke quickly. “The child. I need you to cast a spell to mute the beacon of the child who is one of seven keys.”
I had no idea if she knew what I was talking about, but she paused in her tracks and looked back over her shoulder. “A child,” she repeated. “Seven keys.”
It wasn’t exactly a question, but I nodded in answer, a movement her magic allowed me. Despite the urge to lash out with my own magic, see if my flames could burn through whatever brand she held over me, I stayed my hand.
I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
The Sorceress came closer, peering into my face as she maintained her magical hold on me. She smelled like lavender and vanilla, like a faraway land. Reaching up, she pulled back the sleeve of my jacket to reveal my right wrist, and took note of the scar where there had once been a tattoo. I felt magical fingers uncurl my own fingers to reveal the silver keyhole on my palm as she took note of that as well.
“You’re the child’s new guardian?” she asked.
I nodded again, not missing the disbelief in her tone.
She breathed out softly through her nose, her violet eyes swirling in a way that made me fear I might get sucked right into the depths of them if I stared too long. After a moment of studying me, she waved her hand, and a portal that swirled not unlike her eyes opened in the air beside us, a wormhole to another place.
I stumbled as I realized I once again had control over my body, and stared as the Shadowborn bid me to follow before stepping through the portal and disappearing from sight.
Ten hells, I thought. That thing could lead absolutely anywhere.
I cursed and followed after.
16
The feeling of traveling by portal was disorienting as fuck.
I stumbled, righting myself as my head swam. Blinking, the world around me slowly came into focus.
We were in a simple studio apartment, one room with a bed that folded out of the wall and a single window in the other. A small, circular table and two chairs sat before the window, with the Shadowborn occupying one of them. A cup of steaming tea was in her hand, her face hidden in the shadows of her hood.
I claimed the seat across from her. She continued to stare out the window with those violet eyes. “Will you help us?” I asked. “Will you perform the spell?”
“Of course I will,” she answered simply. “Muting the beacon is one of my responsibilities. I couldn’t refuse if I wanted to.”
A huff of air I hadn’t realized I been holding whooshed out of me. I’d expected it to be harder than that. “Great,” I said, moving to stand. “So I’ll just go get Vida—”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” she said, pausing me.
Because of course it wasn’t. “What do you mean?” I asked, setting my bottom back down on the chair.
Since I’d joined her at the table, she had not looked at me once, had kept her gaze out the window. I followed her lavender eyes and took in what was beyond as well, a stone sinking in my gut as I did so.
The City of Shadows was beyond the pane, and yet, it was not the city we had been in moments ago. The landscape and buildings, the streets and sidewalks were the same, but something about it was different. Off.
It took me a moment to pinpoint it. When I did, that stone that had settled in my gut grew three sizes. I knew what was different about the city beyond.
Everyone in it was dead.
Ghosts and spirits, lost souls and dead dreams. The portal the Shadowborn had led me through had taken us through the third Veil. To the Land of the Dead.
Not the most appealing place for a former assassin.
I swallowed as I stared out at the city beyond, knowing that I was not going to like whatever the Sorceress across from me told me next.
“In the heart of the city blooms a flower,” she said, musical voice drawing me in even as I wanted to pull away. “I need the flower to cast the spell for the child. If you can retrieve it and bring it to me, I’ll do as you ask.”
“Okay,” I said. “So where do I find this flower?”
“In the heart of the city.”
I managed to keep my eyes from rolling. “Right, and where is that, exactly?”
“Exactly where you’d expect a heart to be.”
A small growl sounded in my throat. “Does everything have to be a Gods damned riddle?�
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The Sorceress met my gaze now, and though both her voice and face were as fresh and sweet as they came, there was a spark in her purple eyes that showed a little fire.
“If I knew exactly where you should go,” she said, “I’d tell you. This is as new to me as it is to you. In fact, there are several players on this board who are new to their positions. It seems the very young have been aligned against the very old, fighting for things we hardly understand.”
I sat back in my seat as I absorbed this. “How long have you been the Shadowborn?”
“I was chosen by the Fates as a child,” she answered. “The same as you. Same as the others. But only one Shadowborn can exist at a time, so I was not called forth to fulfill the duty until the previous chosen died. Which was about two months ago.”
My jaw dropped. “Two months?”
“How long have you been the child’s guardian?” she countered. “When did her previous guardian pass?”
“About two months ago,” I answered.
She nodded as this information settled over me.
“What else do you know?” I asked.
“I’m to assist you and the child,” she said. “I’m to cast the spell to mute the beacon, and when the time comes, I’m to cast the final spell as well.”
“The final spell? What the hells does that mean?” Because I sure as shit did not like the sound of it.
Her violet eyes were as serious as the dead beyond the window. “The Veil will fall eventually, and when it does, the world will go to war. Wars need warriors. That’s what we are, Sis. Warriors in a conflict we didn’t create, but must face, nonetheless.”
“Well,” I said, ignoring the address, “that sounds shitty as shit.”
One side of her pink lips pulled up at this, but her face remained stoic. “Agreed,” she said.
“Did you receive some sort of briefing that I missed? You can’t be much older than twenty. How do you know these things?”
“Two months ago I was a normal Sorceress, attending one of the best academies my kind has to offer, only a couple of semesters short of graduating. When I was passed the mantle of Shadowborn, I had access to the academy’s library, which is massive. Naturally, I dug around for information. And I found it. I was forced to leave the academy and come here. To wait for you and the child.”
The shadow that passed over her expression told me that there was more to this story, that whatever had happened back at her school was still a bitter memory, that she likely begrudged the position she’d been pushed into as much as I did.
“If the Veil is going to fall anyway, why are we even bothering with all of this?” I asked. “If war is inevitable, what’s the point?”
“We’ve been drafted by the Fates, who knows why those old bitches do what they do?”
Okay, so I definitely wasn’t the only bitter one.
“Do we have any free will at all?” I mumbled, staring back out the window again at that dead city beyond. Was I really going to have to walk through there? Few things in all the realms shook me like that prospect.
“That’s a question philosophers have argued for generations,” she replied, drawing my attention back to her.
As she said this, I realized that though we were probably not far off in age, she had grown up in a school with a massive library, had likely taken classes to develop a whole wealth of knowledge about the supernatural world, while I’d spent all my formative years learning how to do just one thing. I realized just then that I had never really had actual conversations with any females my age outside of the Sisterhood, had never gotten to know anyone who didn’t share the title of a Sister.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
The Shadowborn eyed me for a moment before answering. “Arabella,” she said after a time. “But people usually just call me Bella. What’s yours?”
“Iliana.... And people usually call me Iliana.”
I earned an almost full smile for this, and though I had no way of being sure, I got the feeling that it was the first smile Bella had cracked for a while. I tried to remember the last time I’d exhibited the expression and couldn’t.
“So get the flower in the heart of the city, bring it to you. That’s what comes next.”
She nodded. “So it would seem… For what it’s worth, I don’t envy you.”
Bella was looking back out the window again, at the city where all those dead roamed. The city I would need to pass through to get what we needed. After all the lives I’d taken, I shuddered to think about what I would find there.
Who I would find there.
I had to swallow twice before I could speak. The unsettled feeling overcoming me was both unfamiliar and unappreciated.
“I need to go back and tell the child and the Demon where I’ll be going,” I said, glad that this was a valid excuse that would serve the double purpose of buying me a little time before I had to step into that world beyond the window. “Then I can come back and search for the flower.”
“The Demon?” Bella asked, head tilting, pale hair shifting like waves of moonlight.
I waved a hand. “Just a pain in my ass,” I said. “But I need to check in.”
Bella nodded. With a twist of her fingers, another portal opened beside us. The swirling vortex tugged at the stray strands of my hair, the indistinguishable depths welcoming me. A small orb appeared in the Sorceress’s palm, and she held it out to me.
I took the marble sized orb and looked up at her in question.
“When you’re ready to go, smash the orb, and I’ll come to you,” she explained.
Thanking her, I stood to go, gathering a breath before stepping into the portal.
“And Iliana?” Bella said.
I looked over my shoulder, into the swirling purple of her eyes.
“Be quick,” she said, head tilting toward the window. My gaze followed the movement, and I fought another shudder that tried to ripple through me. “The dead are gathering. They know you’re coming. And I think a few have a bone to pick with you.”
There was nothing I could do to fight the shiver that snaked up my spine then, no way to shake the feeling that a goose had just walked over my grave.
Without another word, I stepped into the portal.
17
And found myself exactly where I had been, back in the world of the living, standing on a darkened street in the City of Shadows.
I tried not to think about the fact that beyond the third Veil, a host of spirits was gathering, waiting for me to enter their realm in search of the flower. A bone to pick with me, Bella had said. Sounded fucking awesome.
Not.
I trudged back to the Tenebris, my boots feeling heavier than they had an hour ago. When I reached the hotel, the Demon bellhop greeted me with a nod, and I crossed the lobby and boarded the elevator that would take me down to where the child and Demon waited.
I found them having dinner at the long table to one side of the room, and joined them without waiting to be invited. Piling myself a plate while Ibrahim watched on with annoyance, I told them what I had learned.
“When are you supposed to do that?” asked Vida, referring to my entering the Land of the Dead in search of the flower for the Shadowborn.
I shrugged. “As soon as I’m done eating, I guess,” I replied around a bite of chicken.
“I’m coming with you,” said the Demon, speaking for the first time since I’d sat down.
I snorted. “No, you’re not. Besides, someone needs to stay with Vida.”
“Vida can come with us.”
“The hells she can,” I snapped.
“I’m not asking,” Ibrahim added, dark eyes presenting a challenge.
A series of colorful words went through my head, but I was tired. Tired of arguing and fighting. If the fucker wanted to come, fine. He could come.
On top of that, if I was being honest, the Angel had put some doubt into my head about whom I could trust, and perhaps I was better off keeping the chi
ld by my side from now on. I debated mentioning my encounter with Kieran, but settled on keeping it to myself. This was partly because I didn’t trust the Demon sitting across from me, and partly because I was embarrassed that I hadn’t killed the Angel when I’d had a chance.
“Okay,” I said.
For once, I seemed to have surprised the bastard. “Okay?” Ibrahim repeated.
“Yeah, whatever. You want to come, then come.”
We finished the rest of the meal in silence.
It occurred to me that there was a specific reason Ibrahim was so eager to visit the Land of the Dead, and also that depending on what we found there, it could change the already shaky dynamics of our little group.
He’d already told me that a Sister had killed his brother, and he was trying to find out which Sister that was, and who had hired her. In my career, I’d killed over two hundred people in the name of the Sisterhood. Could the Demon’s brother have been one of them? Of course he could have.
But that was an issue I’d deal with when and if it came. For now, I wanted to get this trek through the dead world over with as swiftly as possible. In order to use the orb Bella had given me, we had to return to the hotel lobby, as visitors could not just enter Ibrahim’s realm without his permission.
The other Demons in the lobby watched in curiosity, but did not approach us as I placed the little orb upon the marble floor and smashed it under my boot. A bit of strange magic scented the air with lavender and vanilla, and a moment later, the Sorceress appeared.
Bella blinked as she took in her surroundings, pale hair spilling out of her dark cloak. When her purple eyes settled on Ibrahim, she turned to me with raised brows.
“He’s the pain in my ass I mentioned,” I said in answer. “He’s coming with me.”
Whatever Bella thought of this, she didn’t comment. Instead, she asked, “You ready?”
I shrugged. It didn’t seem like I had much of a choice.
Bella turned on her heels and glided over to the hotel entrance, nodding beyond. I followed the motion and saw what waited beyond as a shiver shot up my spine. The street was crowded with spirits, the city gray and lifeless.
