Darkness Fair (The Dark Cycle Book 2) (5 page)

SEVEN

Aidan

My arms are empty when I open my eyes. I spent the night lying next to Kara, worried about what might happen next. But it appears we made it through without incident.

The sun is low in the morning sky, painting the horizon orange and pink. Kara is up, looking through her closet, tossing socks and shoes and shirts behind her. A blue Doc Marten lands on the foot of the bed.

“Where the hell did I put that damn thing?” she mumbles, rising up on her toes and pulling a box off a higher shelf. She shuffles around inside it before dropping it and grabbing a second one.

I rub the sleep from my eyes and yawn. “What’re you looking for?”

“Nothing. I don’t know.”

“Oh . . . kay.” I sit up and study the closet vomit. “That’s a lot of crazy for nothing.” Obviously she’s more energetic than she was yesterday.

“I know. It’s just dumb.”

I stand and step over the piles of clothes to get to her. “How’re you feeling? Better?”

She smiles, still looking through the shoebox in her arms. “No bloody eyes this morning, so that’s a bonus.”

I wonder if she realizes something weird happened yesterday, more than the blood. It appears she’s still oblivious. I have no idea what happened either, so I’m not sure how to bring it up.

“Good,” I say, peeking over her shoulder. The box is full of photographs and papers. “Seriously, what are you looking for?”

She snatches up a folded piece of paper and lifts it above her head like she’s found gold. “Ah-ha! Bazinga!”

“Oh goodie, a paper.”

“It’s my earthquake keeper.”

“Your what?”

“Since forever, whenever there’s been an earthquake, I’ve written down the date and time and stuff. Then I carry the list around with me the rest of the day for good luck.” She holds out the paper, and I see a list of dates and some details like epicenter or the day’s weather, each line written in different ink. “I told you: lame,” she says.

What an odd thing to be looking for. “Are you expecting an earthquake in the near future or something?”

“Ha!” She points in my face, like she caught me being slow. “You didn’t feel it? Happened like an hour ago.”

“An earthquake?” Strange I didn’t feel it. Not the first time I’ve slept through one, though.

“Yeah. I wonder why they always seem to happen early in the morning. Weird, huh?”

“Is this a hobby of yours? Chasing quakes?”

“I’m a California Girl. I just think it’s interesting. Plus, it’d be nice to know when we’re about to break off into an island.”

I laugh, surprised by this goofy side of her. “You’re so cute.”

“Laugh it up, prophet boy who can’t even feel an earthquake.” She crinkles her nose. “And I’m not
cute
.”

I lean close and kiss her furrowed brow. “If you say so.”

“How did Kara’s visit with the doctor go?” Sid asks me as he comes in the back door from his shed after lunch. I’m sitting at the kitchen table with Jax, reading the text I’ve written to Rebecca, not sure I should press “Send.” I need to apologize for being a no-show yesterday. I have no idea what she’s thinking because she never called or texted to ask where I was.

It shouldn’t matter, but it does. It tastes like sawdust in my mouth when I think about hurting her.

“Kara’s okay, I think,” I say. The doctor came and went pretty quickly. “No more blood and he said her vitals looked good. She slept fine last night, too. He scheduled her an MRI at his clinic in a couple weeks, just in case.” I need to tell Sid about the blue energy that came from her and seemed to go inside me, but that definitely isn’t going to happen with Jax in the room.

“Oh, she slept good, huh?” Jax wiggles his brow up and down. “You get her nice and tuckered out?”

I roll my eyes and stand from the table, slipping my phone in my pocket without sending the message. I head toward the office and motion for Sid to follow me.

Sorry I didn’t come yesterday
,
the message in my pocket says.
I need some time. I hope you understand
.

Understand what? That she can’t be a part of my life right now? That no matter how much of a mystical connection Rebecca has with me, it makes things impossible to balance when she’s in my life? She’s too pure and good, and this place I live in right now is steeped in death and pain. People around me get hurt, so protecting her means keeping her far away for now. If seeing Kara bleeding from her eyes doesn’t confirm that, then nothing will.

But I also know that the reason I can’t seem to press “Send” is because none of that matters. I can say she needs to stay away all day long and it won’t change a thing. Rebecca will still be there, standing just at the edge of my sight, a part of my future, like Ava said.

And Ava’s visions were never wrong.

Once Sid and I are in the office I shut the door. “Did you find out if the curse is making Kara sick?”

He shakes his head, looking exhausted. “I still have a lot to read through, though. Maybe I’ll get Connor to take me to Eric’s warehouse later today. Is Kara sleeping?”

“She’s heading out with Connor to check one of their cameras at that old psychiatric hospital. She isn’t in the mood to sit still, and apparently there’s trouble with one of the feeds.”

Sid lights up a little at that. “So she’s feeling better!”

“I’d say she feels
more
energetic, not less.”

“How strange,” he says, eyes wandering to the floor in thought.

“And there’s something else,” I say, not sure why I’m so hesitant to tell him. “A weird thing happened when . . . well, when she kissed me yesterday.”

A frown creases his brow. “Do you mean after the blood-show? You kissed her—was that wise?”

“Do you want to know what happened, or not?” When he nods, I continue. “Her energy, her blue light, was really thick and it sort of . . . entered me. I felt it. I felt
her
.”

“It actually entered your body?” His voice is tight and full of concern. “Has this ever happened before?”

“No, this is a first, as far as I know. Could it be connected to the bleeding? Why would her blue light actually go inside of me? It’s only touched me before.”

Sid shakes his head and studies the floor between us. “I can’t know for sure. Perhaps after I figure out why she’s bleeding, we’ll have an answer. In my experience, the exchange of power only occurs when one half of a powerful whole is attempting to heal another—one mate trying to mend the other with their essence.”

“If that’s what happened, then it should’ve been
my
power entering
her
, not the other way around.” She was the one who was sick.

“I can only think it’s linked to the blood. I’ll need to keep looking, but this might help in finding an answer.” He sighs and turns away, walking over to the door. Before he opens it he asks, “Have you been reading Eric’s journal? Any new tips on Ava?”

I’m not sure why he’s asking that now. He hasn’t pushed me to talk about my sister for the last two weeks or so.

“I’ve been reading it,” I say, “but no new tips.”

I’ve actually been reading it obsessively ever since Ava left, trying to understand my powers and figure out how to bring her back. The only possible solution I’ve found would be to complete the spell that the Heart-Keeper started when he slid the silver dagger into her chest. I admit, some days I miss her so much that I consider going for it and praying that she’ll awaken fully herself and that the Darkness won’t win. But there’s no way to be sure I’d bring the pure Ava back by completing the spell. And the girl who opens her eyes on that altar needs to be
my
Ava. Plus, there’s no way that I could actually cut out my sister’s heart.

“Why do you ask?” I say.

“No reason,” he says, red sparking in his eye.

I give him a look.

His cheeks flush as he realizes he’s caught in a lie. “Old habits. I’m just . . . I’m not sure when the correct time to tell you certain things is. And as things are, with Kara—”

“You tell me as soon as you know. Don’t keep stuff from me, it won’t help either of us.”

“Yes, very wise. My apologies.”

When he just stands there, studying the surface of the table beside me, I prod. “Well?”

He grips his cane tighter and his nerves spark sharply enough I feel it through the muffled energy of the house. “I may need to show you.”

I follow him as he walks out the back door to his shed. We stand beside the weathered structure and the dark magic seeping out makes an ache grow in my bones. I hate this place. It’s an oil spill in the middle of a nature preserve, mucking up the air and killing life all around it.

The blood circle on the door has been freshly repainted—I don’t even want to think of what furnished that. The smell of sage and anguish seems to permeate the wood.

Sid unhooks the three locks and opens the latch, but before letting me see past him, he turns and says, “Just keep this between us, please.”

“Sid, get on with it.”

He sighs, looking pained, and moves to the side, motioning me into the shed. My feet root to the ground, though. I won’t totally immerse myself in the dark casting magic again. The weight of that power is a feeling I never want to relive. Ever.

The altar is across from the door, covered in dried wax and blood. There’s a pentagram made of black yarn, and black candles stand at each point of the star—the sight of that formation makes my skin crawl even more, reminding me of my mom’s casting habit and where it’s brought us. And to top it all off, a cat skull is sitting to the side with the Chinese character for
sneaky
etched on its forehead. Scrolls are stuffed into the wine racks underneath, overflowing, with more of them stacked on the floor in the corner. Rows of bottles filled with mysterious objects, liquids, and powders rim the shelf above it.

Sid’s bed is against the wall to my left, and at the foot sits the trunk, the prophecy stone carrying my destiny tucked inside.

It all looks the same. “What are you trying to show me, Sid?”

He pushes the door open wider, letting the light spill higher on the wall beside the bed. The symbols for
grounding
shimmer in the light, newly painted just like the one on the door. My stomach rises at the sight of so much fresh blood.

Until I see . . . something
else
. Oozing down from the ceiling like black tar.

A chill rushes over me. “What is that stuff?” Obsidian-colored liquid drips down the wall, running in thin lines, as if the wood is bleeding demon blood.

“As you know, this shed is made to be a talisman that helps me stay in this time. It mimics a doorway.”

“Like the cave, you mean.”

“Yes.” He steps into the shed and points with his cane at the red circles on the wall. “And this is why I put these marks here, to weave the time spell into the fabric of the structure itself. But then this began early this morning.” He motions to the black ooze. “It bubbled out after the ground shook under me.”

“That was an earthquake, Sid. They happen all the time. This is California.”

“Does that happen all the time?” He points at the tar-like substance running down to the floor.

“I don’t know what the hell that
is
.”

“It’s a sign of crossover!” He throws his hand in the air, looking exasperated.

A crossover. A demon crossing over? “But that would leave a sigil behind.”

“Only if the demon crossed over in this spot from a Veil state. And that would be a burn mark. The black blood is a sign that something crossed through the
doorway
. It manifests in all the linked sites.”

“And this is linked to the dam.”

“Yes. This is linked to the Devil’s Gate, where I took you the day I told you about your father. That’s where I came through, so that’s the power I was attempting to mimic.”

“So the demon could have come through that gate.”

“Or it could have come through any of the linked sites.”

“Like the beach cave.”

He nods.

“Is there an earthquake every time a demon crosses over? This happens a lot?”

He shakes his head. “Absolutely not. The Key Keepers are angels of Light. They’ve guarded the doorways since right after the time of Noah. They despise demons and never knowingly let them through. So, no. No demons ever cross. Unless they’ve escaped.”

“What do you mean, ‘right after the time of Noah’? Who guarded the doorways before that?” I ask.

“No one. In the time of Noah, demons and angels walked among humans, unhidden. To my brethren and me it’s always been known as the Cycle of Darkness, and it’s blasphemy to speak of it—no one wants to tease the ears of the Key Keeper.”

“Well, what about the demon I killed yesterday? That thing was corporeal. Didn’t it get called up through a doorway or something?”

“A demon called over by a human is merely going from a Veil state to a corporeal state. They’ve been on this side of the doorway, behind the Veil, for eons. Some lower-level demons were given leeway to remain here, kept in check because they reside on the other side of the Veil. The stronger and more deadly demons were locked away in the place we call Sheol.”