Puppet/Master (The Vale Chronicles Book 1)

by Joel Abernathy

  Realization shit down Arden’s spine like an icy blade. “You’re going to destroy them?”

  “You saw what your blood did to Eric. You were all too happy to destroy him.”

  “That’s different!” Arden cried. “They’re not all sick. What about the ghouls? They’re practically vampires themselves.”

  The Chrysalus’ silence told him everything he needed to know. “No!” he yelled, straining with greater force against the vines. “I won’t let you do this!”

  “And how are you going to stop me?” it challenged, its voice softening. “Theirs is a pitiful, cursed existence. It would be a mercy.”

  “That’s not for you to decide,” Arden spat. “Just because you made this world doesn’t mean you get to tear it apart!”

  “Silence,” the Chrysalus ordered. The sky was all but black and the clouds reached down like grasping hands. Arden gasped as a stream spun down from the sky, becoming a whirlwind headed straight for him. The force of the smoky clouds parted his lips and his scream was soon muffled as it billowed down his throat.

  He could feel the Chrysalus morphing, tearing him apart from the inside and rearranging all the bits and pieces. It was agony and it was beauty. It seemed to happen in an instant and it also seemed as if it would never end. The force of the smoke expanding within warred against the vines crushing him and he was certain he’d explode when an all too familiar coldness began to spread down his throat like ice water.

  The coldness drifted down to his core and through his limbs, and the smoke that had all but drained from the darkened sky seemed to freeze and expand in his lungs.

  “No!” The hissing voice seemed to come from everywhere, and from multiple sources. It rose into a grotesque choir and the sky itself split open. As soon as the vines fled and retreated into the ground, Arden took a great breath and separated the smoke caught in his lungs from the lost pillar hovering in the air.

  Before he could make sense of what had just happened, the field of flowers caved into a great crevice in the earth and he went tumbling down into a black abyss. It felt like he would fall forever when he was suddenly jolted awake on the table, grasping for the first thing he could reach.

  It just so happened to be Elan, as he realized when his eyes finally opened. The vampire was watching him with a bewildered look on his face and he reached to steady Arden as the chimera coughed and sputtered, grasping at his throat. Blood came up and sprayed from his lips, but it was the crushing pain he could still feel within his chest that had him in a panic.

  “Easy,” Elan cried, holding Arden still against his chest.

  “Arden!”

  The sound of Dusk’s voice was soothing at first, but even though the fae was looking at him in concern rather than the disgust that had been in his eyes on that stage, Arden still wanted to shrink away when Dusk took him into his arms.

  “You’re awake,” Dusk breathed, taking Arden’s face in his hands. The tenderness of his touch made no more sense than the relief in his eyes.

  Arden pushed away his own feelings of grief and shame, knowing he had to warn them. “It’s coming,” he choked, his voice as hoarse and rattling as it felt like it should be.

  Elan and Dusk exchanged a worried look. “What?” the fae asked.

  “The Chrysalus,” Arden moaned. It felt like just speaking the name gave it power. “It’s coming to destroy the surface world, and everyone in it. I gave it my body to stop Eric, but I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know what it wanted.”

  “Shh,” Dusk whispered, holding Arden to his chest as he stroked the chimera’s hair. The affection was the last thing he’d expected, but he automatically relaxed in spite of the fact that the devil himself was on his heels. “It’s alright. It was just a dream.”

  “No,” Arden protested, trying to pull away. “It wasn’t a dream! It tried to take over, but something stopped it.”

  Elan looked over at Dusk, frowning. “The blood?”

  Dusk hesitated. “I don’t know. Arden, you’re sure you saw the Chrysalus and you weren’t just dreaming?”

  “Yes, I—” he stopped when he realized he didn’t have any objective facts to back up his assertion. He only knew what he’d felt, and knew the terror that still had him convinced the Chrysalus was ready to break into the world through him at any moment. “It had to be real.”

  “Even if it was, you’re here now and you seem pretty in control,” Elan reasoned. It was hard to argue with the vampire’s objective assessment, even though he had more reason than anyone to be flustered.

  For the first time since waking up, Arden allowed himself to think about something other than the energy that had almost overtaken him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, at a loss for anything else to say. “Eric is gone. I…”

  “I know,” Elan interrupted. He gave Arden a faint smile, and while it didn’t reach his eyes, it seemed genuine. “When you’re feeling better, you’re gonna have to tell me all about it.”

  Arden looked up at Dusk and realized the fae seemed more afraid for him than of him. Still, he’d never get that look out of his mind. Dusk might have regretted letting him see the truth, but that didn’t mean it had changed. “Your fever is gone,” the fae said softly, his hand pressed to Arden’s forehead. “Whatever it was, it’s over now. You’re safe.”

  Arden knew that was a lie, too, but he didn’t have the strength to argue. For the moment, the storm within him had faded to a gentle rain. “Where is Leo?” he finally asked.

  Dusk and Elan exchanged a look.

  “He’ll be back soon,” Dusk promised. “You should rest.”

  Sleep was the last thing Arden planned on doing anytime soon, but he took the blanket Elan draped around his shoulders, along with the cup of water. There was a strangely familiar taste in his mouth and it took him a moment to realize it was blood. He was all too glad to be rid of it.

  “I need to see Vox,” he insisted.

  Dusk hesitated. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Arden.”

  Elan glanced at the security screens across the room. “Speak of the devil.”

  Arden’s heart leaped as he saw the ghoul cross the screen and a moment later, the doors slid open. He waited with bated breath, but the moment those clear blue eyes met his, he knew.

  Vox was back. Whatever else had changed, that alone made everything worth it.

  Chapter 39

  Vox

  Six Weeks Prior to the Turn

  “We have to go, now.”

  Green Eyes looked like a scared rabbit with his wild brown locks jutting into his pale, pretty face. He’d sounded like a broken record for the past week and a half, ever since the Headmistress had announced that their graduation was forthcoming.

  “We can’t,” Blue Eyes protested. “They’ll catch us.”

  “If we don’t leave, they’ll turn us,” Green Eyes choked, reaching for his hand. Nineteen years. They’d known each other for nineteen years, and the only name Blue knew his friend by was the one his heart spoke so clearly in the deepest of dreams. The whisper of their skin brushing in stolen kisses in the dark, the only moments that ever felt like theirs.

  It was hard to say when the spark of friendship and survival bonding had turned into something else, but Blue didn’t have a name for it either. He only knew that whatever it was, it was the only thing that made this life worth holding onto. The only thing that kept him from viewing their impending graduation as the ascension they had all been conditioned to see it as.

  Green’s fingers wound through his and the shorter young man stepped closer, lowering his forehead to Blue’s collarbone. “You’ll forget me.”

  “I would never,” Blue insisted, cradling the back of the other’s head. He smelled like flowers. He always had.

  Green looked up at him and the look in his eyes broke a heart of stone. “I’m nothing. They all know it, but you,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “You’re a chimera. I know it. They never remember.”

  “I’m not
a chimera,” Blue said firmly, gripping his hand tighter. He’d once wished for it. After all, no one wanted to become a ghoul. He wasn’t sure when things had changed. All he knew was that he’d happily endure an eternity of ghoulish existence, as long as they could be together.

  The sorrow in Green’s eyes as they filled with tears told him this wasn’t the first time they’d had the same conversation in his mind. “You’ll see,” he whispered. “And when you do, it’ll be too late for it to matter.”

  Blue hesitated. What was he supposed to say to that? He looked at the crack of light visible underneath the door to the maintenance closet they’d locked themselves in. They only had a few moments between classes and they were slipping away fast. Soon, someone would come looking for them and if they were found together, they really would be separated forever.

  The Headmistress had no tolerance for coupling. She’d made an example of the last two, a boy and a girl who were barely sixteen at the time. It had been three years, but Blue could still hear their screams.

  “The Headmistress assigned me to guard the dorm tomorrow night,” Blue murmured. It was a privilege only the most promising candidates close to graduation were afforded. Blue could see through it well enough, even if the illusion was all he’d ever known. They were grooming the candidates to take authority over their peers. Separating those who were most likely to be chimeras, training them to see themselves as above the rest.

  The other young man’s eyes widened in confusion. Blue continued, “I’ll have the key card to the east wing of the laboratory. There’s a window there. The latch is broken. It’s a long shot, but if we could get out to the grounds…”

  The hope on Green’s face made the terrible risk seem worth it. Even if there was only a slim chance of success, the promise of what could be waiting on the other side was too tantalizing to continue to ignore. “Really?”

  Blue leaned down to kiss his soft lips. “Be ready. You can’t bring anything.”

  It wasn’t hard. None of them had any personal memorabilia, save for the identical sets of clothing they were issued each year. Still, he knew Green would be tempted. He’d always been a sentimental little fool.

  Before Blue could pull away, Green caught his hair up in his hands and pulled him in for a deeper kiss. There was something different about this one. Something desperate and dizzying that left him breathless and wanting more. Wanting something that wasn’t his and never could be, because they both belonged to Eric.

  “I love you.”

  The words were said with such purpose, a tremor of fear in the other candidate’s voice, as if he knew full well he was committing treason just by saying them. Love was not something any of them were permitted, nor something Blue even felt capable of understanding, but those words filled him with life all the same. They burned and ached in the most intoxicating way.

  He wanted to say them back. He did, but how could he? The flicker of disappointment in Green’s eyes faded into acceptance as he reached up and caressed Blue’s face. “I’ll be waiting,” he promised before slipping out of the room.

  Blue stared at the door, his heart still pounding. He had lost his damn mind to even be contemplating this, and Green had lost his long ago. It was a plan that was doomed to fail from the start, but no matter how he tried to convince himself, he couldn’t give it up.

  A step into hell with Green at his side felt safer than a lifetime spent where he was.

  Present Day

  Vox had woken up twice in his life without recollection of where he had been or what he was doing. Like the first time, he remembered the important things, at least in bits and pieces. Arden was always the largest, most crucial piece, now and then.

  It wasn’t the first time he’d awakened hooked up to a dozen different machines, either. He sat upright and tore off the wires, some attached beneath his skin.

  “Wait!” a woman in a white coat cried as he rushed for the door. He ran past her, ignoring the fact that he was wearing nothing more than his mask and a pair of cotton hospital pants. He didn’t know how he knew where Arden was, he just did.

  The last few weeks were blurry. All he remembered was preparing for Arden to go on the mission. The fear and apprehension of losing him again. Then, nothing.

  The moment he saw the chimera wearing bloodstained robes in a hospital bed across the way, he froze. The way Arden and the others were looking at him left no room to doubt that there was plenty he’d forgotten, but it didn’t matter. He rushed over to take the chimera into his arms and held him tight, the memory of their first separation still fresh in his mind.

  “Vox,” Arden choked, pulling his arms around the ghoul. He felt weak. “Do you remember?” It sounded like he was pleading.

  Vox nodded. “I remember,” he murmured, stroking the other man’s back. “I remember everything.”

  “Even before?” Arden challenged. When Vox looked down and saw the look in his eyes, he knew. Arden knew. “We were together,” he whispered. “You never told me.”

  Vox gave him a faint smile he knew would only show in his eyes. Better that way. “It’s not exactly the kind of thing you spring on someone.”

  Arden’s eyes filled with tears just like they had then. They were so much brighter. Something about him was different, aside from the violet eyes, but Vox couldn’t quite figure it out.

  “I’m so sorry,” Arden said in the same small, broken voice.

  “For what?” Vox asked in dismay.

  “For not remembering.”

  Vox leaned in, pressing his forehead against the chimera’s. For the most part, it had been so long since he’d been human that he didn’t miss it, but kissing those lips… that was something he’d never forget. Never stop wanting. “It doesn’t matter. You’re here,” he said, glancing back at Dusk and Elan, who were watching them both with great wariness. “Why do I get the feeling I missed something?”

  Chapter 40

  Leo

  Of all the missions Leopold had taken over the years, the one that would forever weigh on his conscience was this one. He had no love for his uncle. He knew the man’s cruelty as well as anyone. He also knew that between Vaeyr and Lavien, the empire itself was much better off as it was.

  Not that it mattered. Leopold had taken an oath to prioritize the goals of Aeon above even those of his own people, and in that regard, he had earned the moniker of traitor.

  He could live with it. He would find a way to live with this, too, as he crept into his uncle’s bedchamber and sidestepped the streams of blood trickling from the bodies of the newly dead guards on either side of the door.

  He’d brought a blade rather than a gun, both for expediency and silence. The sooner he got out of the palace, the better. It wouldn’t take long for his identity to be compromised, and from that point on, his usefulness to Aeon would be greatly diminished, but it couldn’t be helped.

  Sure enough, the man was passed out from drink with a young woman and man on either side. They both had track marks running up their arms and their veins stood out bright blue against their respectively peach- and pink-tinted complexions. Synthetic, highly concentrated Chrysalus, no doubt. The elites were never lacking in ways to turn human blood into the latest vice.

  The woman’s glazed eyes fluttered open and filled with fear when she saw Leopold. He raised a finger to his lips over the kerchief covering the bottom of his face. By the time the drugs wore off, she would think he was nothing more than a nightmarish hallucination, and she wasn’t the one he was after.

  With a single stroke of his blade, the Emperor’s throat split open like a pomegranate. Blue blood poured over his skin and his fevered eyes opened only for a moment before rolling back in his head as he coughed and sputtered.

  The woman cried out in terror and dove off the side of the bed, while the young man slept on soundly, blissfully unaware of the blood soaking into his side of the sheet.

  Leopold turned away before the final glimmer of life could leave his uncle’s eyes. Th
ere had been a time when he was kind, but that was so long ago, and it hardly seemed to matter. Family loyalty was one thing. Decency was another.

  Leopold had never claimed to possess either one.

  The journey back to Ark was an arduous one, and when Leopold was within range of the tracker, he realized it was dead. He quelled his rage only by imagining his hands around Lavien’s neck and made straight for the estate.

  What he found was nothing like what he’d expected. He’d assumed he would be walking into a trap, since Lavien had defaulted on his end of the agreement, but when he finally tracked the other elf down, he was anything but triumphant.

  Lavien was sitting on the floor, holding Eric’s lifeless body in his arms as he rocked back and forth. The cobalt tears running down his cheeks made him look like a melting painting, but there was no mistaking the hatred, or the grief, in his gaze.

  Leo took a step back, at a loss for what to do. “What happened?”

  “Your fucking whore did this,” Lavien seethed, his voice strained with pain.

  Leo reached for his blade instinctively, but Lavien made no move toward him. The elf sneered, a far more malicious act. “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to take everything from you. Starting with them.”

  Killing Lavien was somehow more of a mental obstacle than killing Vaeyr had been, but Leopold would have done it, and without hesitation, if not for the vibrations of footsteps he could feel coming from down the hall. He knew he had seconds to escape, and if he didn’t, he would never know for sure that Dusk and Arden had made it back.

  He leaped through the window and onto the street below before taking off toward the nearest gate. Nothing about the mission had gone as planned, but if Eric was dead, their troubles were only beginning.