Fractured Truth (18 page)

Liam’s jaw muscles flexed, but he turned back to Dr. Han. “Who is the Council going to send? More Lycans?”

“If they want to help, I will accept it.”

“Then you’re sealing our fate,” he said.

It was my turn to speak. I started first with Liam, my
anger close to the surface from my earlier run. “Lay off Lycans. Whatever issues you have with them, deal with it and move on. It’s your problem, not ours.” I turned to Aaron next. “As for May, I want to rescue her more than anyone. She saved my life, after all, but we can’t risk more lives to do it.”

Aaron opened his mouth to speak, but I stopped him. “If you give me a little time, a week maybe, I think I can get some of the older girls ready and, together with Lycans, we can get inside that warehouse. I’m sure May will still be there, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sophie and the others are too.”

The small group was silent, all looking at me like I’d grown a second head.

Dr. Han spoke first. “It’s too soon, Llona. You can’t expect the girls to learn everything you know in one week.”

“I get that it’s a lot to ask,” I said, “but let them decide, especially the ones who are over eighteen.”

“I can’t allow it.”

“No offense, but if those girls want to avenge their friends’ deaths and try to recover the ones who were taken, they have every right. It’s not your call to make.” My insides were boiling, unnaturally so.

“It is my call,” Dr. Han said, his voice strained. “I’m in charge of this school and everyone in it, and I won’t send Auras to their death.”

I shrugged. “Then we’ll leave. I’ll train them somewhere else.”

“Llona,” Liam warned.

I raised my hand. “Don’t. A lot is going on right now, and it’s about time we all put on our grown-up panties and do something about it.”

“This is reckless,” Arik said.

Aaron stepped close to me. “I’m with Llona.”

Arik rolled his eyes. “Of course you are. Dr. Han is right. We can’t risk any more lives. Not this soon.”

I turned to Liam. “Well?”

“I’m sorry, but they’re right.”

I huffed and said to Aaron, “I’ll be in touch.” I walked by the rest of them and headed to my bedroom, all the while trying to get ahold of my anger.

I entered the elevators and, as soon as the doors closed, I lit two Light balls and spun them in the air. This seemed to chase some of the darkness away. I inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. Dr. Han and the others were right, of course. It was too soon. And this killed me.

The light dissipated and I leaned my head into the side of the elevator. Maybe if I worked night and day with the older Auras, they might be ready in a couple of weeks, but could we wait that long? The doors opened.

I trudged to my room, feeling more depressed than ever. Passing May’s room made it worse.

I opened my door and gasped as cold air engulfed me. I walked to the thermostat and tapped on it. It said fifty-nine degrees even though the dial was up to seventy.

I grabbed a blanket off my bed and wrapped it around me. I was about to collapse backward into bed when I heard movement from within my closet. “Who’s in there?” I asked and stepped back. The blanket fell from my shoulders. Because of everything that happened last night, I expected the worst to come slithering out, but thankfully it didn’t.

Rose stood in front of me, her face smeared with soot. “They’re dead,” she said. “My sisters. They killed them.”

“Rose!” I went to her and took her hands in mine. “I’m so sorry. I thought they might’ve gotten you too. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to see you!” I hesitated. “How did you get away?”

“With much difficulty. It took all my strength to hide from them.”

“I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.” I gave her a hug. She felt fragile and small in my grip. When we separated, I asked, “How did you get to my room without anyone stopping you?” She would’ve been hard to miss in her condition.

“They see what I want them to see. Besides, I didn’t want
to talk to anyone just yet. You’re the only person on this earth who knows me now.” There was a great sadness in her voice. I couldn’t imagine such a fate.

“I’m glad you’re here. This is where you belong.”

“How did Vykens find us?” she asked.

I opened my mouth to speak but didn’t know what to say. How could I tell her that it was partly my fault?

“You did this?” she asked, as if reading my mind.

“I didn’t mean to. I was talking to my boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend, or really, my dead boyfriend—”

Rose shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I have plenty of time.”

“Then can we do something about the temperature in the room? I assume you had something to do with that?”

Rose’s gaze shifted to the thermostat, paused as if concentrating, then looked back at me. “It will warm up in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” I picked up the blanket and wrapped it back around me until it warmed up. “Where to begin?”

“From the beginning.”

I didn’t start talking until I got a good pace going, back and forth across my room, while I tried to figure out where to begin with Christian. Utah, I decided. I spoke of my first days of school when I met Christian, who turned out to be my Guardian, and how, over time, we came to love each other. I told her about coming to Lucent, and how I tried to end it with him to keep him safe. And then I spoke of his death. I almost cried during this part, but darkness was still too close to the surface. And finally I told her how Christian hadn’t really died at all. Cyrus had turned him at the last second, and now Christian was back, but not the man he once was. Unfortunately, I had figured this out too late.

Rose didn’t say anything after I said it was me who gave them the hint that the witches were close by. Eyes downcast, her
fingers twisted the ends of her burnt sleeve. It must have been hard to hear that someone she trusted had betrayed her. Guilt tore at me, but I didn’t look away from her.

“I thought all hope was lost,” I said, “but now you’re here, and we still have a chance at stopping Cyrus and the Shadow.”

Her fingers stopped moving. “I meant what I said before. There’s no calling it back. Only an Aura’s Light, all of it, can trap it and send it back to the hell it came from.”

A sick feeling twisted my stomach, and I sat on the bed. An Aura was going to have to sacrifice her life.

“I’m sorry, Llona. I do have some good news. After you left our home with Charlie, my sisters and I cast a spell over Lucent. It’s protected from the Shadow as long as its controller doesn’t step foot on the grounds. That may give you some comfort.”

It was a thin silver lining. “That is good. And at least he won’t be able to make another Shadow without the three of you.”

Her fingers twisted at the fabric again. The trim on the gray of her sleeve was hanging by a thread. “Actually he can. If somehow he’s able to find two other witches, all he would need is me as I’m the one who created the spell to make the Shadow. Not even my sisters knew how it worked.”

Rose stood in front of me, probably waiting for me to say something, but I simply couldn’t think. I felt like the snowball just kept getting bigger and bigger. When I didn’t speak, she walked to my dresser and picked up a picture of May and me. She studied it for a minute before turning around and saying, “There’s one more problem.”

I threw up my hands. “Seriously?”

“Cyrus still has the ruby.”

“Ruby?”

“It’s what we use to hold the Shadow’s essence.” She must’ve noticed my confused expression, because she continued, “When my sisters and I created what you call the Shadow, we had one purpose: to use its dark energy to do our bidding in times of desperation. However, when we no longer needed it, we needed
something strong enough to contain its power. The ruby accomplished this.”

“So when an Aura eventually uses her Light to destroy the Shadow, it doesn’t really get rid of it for good, does it? It just sends him back to this prison you created.”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes tight as if the snowball had hit me in the face. When I opened them back up, I asked, “Why did you give Cyrus control of the Shadow in the first place?”

She walked toward the window and peered out of what should’ve been sunlit glass. Instead, it was gray as if another freak storm was approaching. It was probably easier for her to stare across an uncaring and unfeeling great beyond than to have to look at a person and explain how she gave a monster control of an even bigger monster. I would’ve done the same.

“Cyrus came to us all those decades ago when we were living in England. He was nice at first, even offering us money for control over the Shadow, but we refused. We knew the destruction it could cause in the wrong hands and didn’t want to relive the past. When we didn’t comply, Cyrus threatened our lives. I told my sisters that we needed to disappear, go live in some other part of the world. They laughed at me, insisting that we had more power than him. And at first we did. We withstood his many attempts to get at us, but one night he overwhelmed us with Vykens and fire. Much like he did last night.” She turned back around. “I would rather have died that night than give Cyrus control of the Shadow, but my sisters begged me. They said our survival was more important. And so I gave in. We were there with him, standing over the ruby, as he said the words needed to release and control the dark energy, your Shadow.”

I finished the story. “And then my great-grandmother killed it, or I should say, sent it back to the ruby.”

“She did, but then, a couple of years ago, the ruby was stolen from us.”

“How is that possible?”

She sighed, and I was about to offer her a chair when she continued. “This is most perplexing to us too. It happened while I was away one early morning fetching supplies. Someone came into our house, bewitched my sisters into telling them about the ruby, how it works and its location, and then left with the ruby all without a single fight. There’s only one being who could hold such power over us—another witch. We thought we were the only ones left, but we were wrong.”

“I haven’t seen or heard of any other witches with Cyrus.”

“It was probably a one-time job sort of thing. That’s how most people use witches anyway. We’re not the type of creatures who maintain long-term relationships with outsiders.” She shook her head in frustration. Frost grew on the window behind her. “But it’s not the other witch I’m worried about. With the ruby, and already knowing the words to the spell, Cyrus was able to conjure the Shadow again, which he obviously did. If he manages to kill me and then destroys the ruby with the Shadow freed as it is, it will be his to control forever.”

“So the ruby can’t be destroyed as long as you’re alive.”

She came to me, bringing with her a cold gust of wind. “You need to get the ruby back. If something happens to me, there’s no stopping the Shadow.”

“Will you help us?”

“I will give you my knowledge, but I’m an old woman, older than any tree on the land and not nearly as strong. I simply can’t fight battles anymore. I don’t have the stamina or the stomach for it.”

“But you’re hardly useless. You got in here without being seen, you did the cool thing with the temperature, and I’m pretty sure you can read minds.” I stood up. “We need you, Rose. It’s not just your sisters they’ve killed. We’ve all lost people close to us because of Cyrus. Help us destroy him.”

“How?”

“Help me figure out a way to get the ruby back.” I paced back
and forth again, burning a new trail in the carpet. There had to be a way.

“I will do what I can,” she said.

“Before we decide anything, we need to tell the others, especially Dr. Han. He has a lot of experience with these sorts of things.”

“And I want Charlie there.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because I sense he’s more like me than the others. And he’s very handsome.” When I smiled, she added, “I always concentrate better when I have something good to look at.”

I laughed. “I think we have that in common. Have you eaten yet? They’re serving breakfast downstairs. While we’re waiting for Charlie to arrive, you can visit with Dr. Han. I bet he’ll show you around.” I shrugged. “And who knows? Maybe Lucent will become your home.”

She gave a small smile and followed me out of the room and to the elevator. I glanced at her, admiring all the cool things she could do. This made me think of something I hadn’t considered before. I asked, “Your house. How come you couldn’t stop the fire? Wouldn’t that have been easy for you?”

She tightened her mouth as if unsure how to answer me.

“What is it, Rose?”

Her eyebrows rose and she shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Fire,” she says, “witches are powerless against it. Not many know this, but Cyrus found out and used it against us.”

That explained their hatred of Furies. The elevator doors opened, and I guided her down the long foyer. Her eyes darted back and forth at the paintings on the walls. Most of them were of revered Auras from the past. I didn’t know half of them.

Rose startled when we reached the entrance to the dining room and stepped back. “I don’t want to go in there just yet.”

“Um, okay. Just wait here. I’ll bring him to you.”

I ducked inside. Dr. Han was in his usual seat next to the
other teachers. I looked around further. Kiera and Tessa were in the center of the room, and behind them, next to another exit, Liam and the twins were eating while standing up and talking.

“Liam,” I whispered, knowing he would hear me.

He turned around.

“Rose survived. Call Charlie. She wants to tell him everything she just told me. You and the twins are welcome to join.” I glanced away from him and back to Dr. Han.

He was staring back at me, as if he had seen my exchange with Liam. I motioned him over. A minute later I was introducing him to Rose.

“I’m sorry about your sisters, but I’m glad you survived,” he said to Rose. “Let’s go to my office where we can talk further.”

“She wants Charlie here,” I said. “Liam’s calling him now.”

Dr. Han raised his eyebrows. “Very well. How about we get you some fresh attire then? And by the time you’ve dressed and eaten breakfast, Charlie will have arrived.”