Promise of Shadows (16 page)

They killed my sister and they killed my Cass. All my fear has disappeared in my burning need for revenge.
I fall to my knees. I’m exhausted. I can feel my heart slowing. But I still pour everything I have into sending the darkness out to find the Acolytes and stop their hearts.
Because Cass is gone and my heart is broken.
Someone shakes me, and I turn my head slowly. Tallon kneels next to me. His dark eyes are filled with worry. He isn’t wearing a shirt, and I dimly realize it’s because I’m wearing it. I look down, but my eyes don’t want to focus.
“That’s enough, Zeph. You have to call it back.”
“Call back what?” My brain doesn’t want to work. I’m so sleepy. Why won’t Tallon just let me sleep?
“The darkness. Please. Everyone else has fled. You have to call it back.”
At first I don’t know what he’s talking about, but then I feel it, tiny tendrils of death snaking out across hills and valleys, searching for more Acolytes. So many gone. And it’s still hungry.
I close my eyes and urge it to come back. At first it doesn’t want to listen, like an errant puppy sniffing out a rabbit trail. But then I tell it how much I miss it, and how much I need it, and it comes rushing back.
All of the darkness comes rushing back.
I gasp as the power slams into me. The shadows are glutted and huge, fat from the deaths of so many. It’s too much. Too much destruction, too much darkness. I did this. I gasp as the swell buries me under a wave of erebos. I’m drowning under the weight of my own power.
Then Tallon is there, siphoning it off and using it. His hair whips around his head as he pulls in the darkness, and I turn my head to watch him. Smoky tendrils wisp around his eyes, and he grits his teeth as he pulls in the power so that it won’t kill me. I didn’t even know he could use the erebos. Suddenly the design on his shoulder makes sense. Not a tattoo, but shadows etched into his skin. A halo of darkness surrounds him. He is absolutely gorgeous.
I smile at him, and it’s enough to get his attention. He looks down at me. “Too much, Peep.”
“No. It will never be enough,” I say. And then I surrender to the shadows.

at me with garish red lips. She keeps mumbling and talks out of a mouth in her throat. Only every time she tries to speak, blood sputters forth, and I can’t understand what she’s trying to tell me.

Finally she shrugs sadly and falls backward into darkness. I scream and reach for her, but she’s falling and I can’t get to her.
I startle awake when I realize it isn’t a dream.
Cass is dead,
I think.
I open my eyes and sit up. I’m on the couch in the living room, and gray daylight streams through the window. A tattered quilt covers me, and the stink of worry permeates everything. It smells like a musty closet mixed with lemon cleaner and sweaty gym socks. The scent is so cloyingly strong that I turn in the direction of the doorway to the kitchen. Nanda stands there. Her eyes are red rimmed.
“How long was I out?” I ask.
Her lips purse. “Two days. The boys have been strengthening the wards daily. You pissed the Acolytes off but good.”
I vaguely remember the fighting in the street. “How many of your neighbors were hurt?”
“Not many. We lost Marjorie, an old Fae woman, and a couple of others. But it’s nothing compared to the blow you dealt the Acolytes. Alora said from what she can read in the Strands of Time, you killed at least a thousand of them up and down the Eastern Seaboard before Tallon got through to you. Maybe more. The Strands are snarled right now.”
I want to puke. A thousand Acolytes gone because I let my darkness loose. I can’t even imagine that many vættir. The Aerie only had about a hundred of us at our fullest capacity. There were fifteen of us in my year group. A thousand . . . it’s so many.
I’d kill three times that to bring Cass back.
“Cass is dead,” I say.
“I know. Blue found what was left of her.”
My head snaps up. “What was left?”
“Ramun Sol completely incinerated the house and the surrounding area. It took six hours to put out all of the fires.” Something in my expression must show my emotions, either that or she can smell the horror I feel.
“I’m sorry, Zephyr.” There’s so much pity in her voice that it undoes what little control I have. A sob hitches in my chest, and I cover my mouth.
A Harpy doesn’t cry,
I remind myself. But I’m not a Harpy.
I’m the Nyx.
Nanda walks over and sits next to me on the couch. “I was wrong about her. She was loyal. I wish I could’ve seen that before it was too late. But I’m glad you did,” she rasps. I can’t answer. Words won’t force themselves past the lump of guilt in my throat, and if I open my mouth, I’m pretty sure that the only thing that will come out is a scream.
I wrap my arms around my middle and try not to cry, but it’s hard. Tears slip down my cheeks unchecked, and Nanda lays an arm across my shoulders.
I should’ve done more. I should have done
something
.
I saw what Ramun Mar did to my sister. I shouldn’t have hesitated.
My stomach lurches and my heart seizes with pain.
It’s my fault Cass is dead.
Nanda sighs. “Your hair is gone as well. It was badly burned from the flare Ramun Sol attacked you with. I had to cut off most of your locks. I saved as much as I could.”
I shrug.“No big deal. I’m not a Harpy anyway.”I look in her eyes and confess. “I failed my Trials right before I was sent to Tartarus.”
Nanda laughs, the sound sharp and short. “You think those antiquated tests are what make a Harpy? Please, child. You’ve fought more battles than most of the Matriarchs. You’re more than a Harpy. You’re the Nyx.”
Her words should make me feel better, but they don’t. All I can think is that I should’ve been able to save Cass. She was my friend, and I doubted her. I let her get killed.
My thoughts must show, because Nanda puts her hands on her hips and sighs. “It’s not your fault she’s gone, Peep. But I’m smart enough to know that’s something you’ve got to come to terms with on your own. I’m going to go make you something to eat. Things tend to look better with a full belly.”
I nod, and she moves off into the kitchen. I’m not sure there’s enough food in the world to close the hole in my chest.
Why did Cass have to die?
I wipe away my tears, but fresh ones take their place. At the doorway Nanda stops and turns around. “I know it probably doesn’t seem like it, but you did everything you could. You saved a lot of people, Zephyr. I was wrong about Cass, but she wasn’t wrong about you. Cass always believed in you. I do too.”
She disappears into the kitchen, and I pick at lint balls on the quilt. I sniff and force myself to stop crying. Would Nanda still believe in me if she knew that my selfishness is what brought the Acolytes to Ulysses’s Glen? What would she say if she knew that I was the one who got her neighbors killed?
Ramun Sol never would’ve found me if I hadn’t done the summoning spell. No matter how I look at it, Cass’s death is my fault.
And so are the deaths of all the other vættir.
The front door opens, and Blue walks in, his arms full of bags. Behind him is Alora. The two of them chatter happily, and I recognize a few of the names on the bags.They’re all from mall stores. An ugly feeling rises up in my chest.
Cass is dead, I’m unconscious, and they decide to go
shopping
?
Blue stops short, stumbling forward a little when Alora runs into him from behind. He gives me a wan smile. “You’re awake.”
“Yeah. Surprise, surprise. Did you find any good deals?”Sarcasm drips off every word, and Blue winces.
Alora steps around Blue and gives me a wide grin. I’ve never wanted to hit someone so much. “We actually went shopping for you. You know, since your clothes burned up while you were fighting Ramun Sol.” Her matter-of-fact statement just makes me angrier.
“Wow, thanks for your concern. But I’m sure I could’ve borrowed something from your mom.”
Alora plops down on the couch, completely oblivious to the death glare I give her. “I know you could, but the Nyx cannot meet the Oracle wearing running shorts and an old T-shirt. Look,” she reaches into the bag and pulls out a slinky summer dress in a bright blue shade. “What do you think?”
“I think you are out of your mind. There is no way in the seven hells I’m wearing that.”
Blue snatches the dress out of Alora’s hands and puts it back in the bag before pulling her up off the couch and taking her place. It’s such a smooth move that she doesn’t even have a chance to look put out.
“I’ll put these in your room, Nyx,” she says, picking up the bags and climbing the stairs.
I turn to Blue. “Anyone else calls me ‘Nyx’ and I’m going to gut them.”
Blue laughs and leans back against the couch. “Gods, what a week.” He turns to me, the lavender-vanilla scent of his concern rolling over me. “How are you doing?”
“Gee, my best friend is dead, I just killed about a thousand people, half the neighborhood saw me butt-ass naked, and the Acolytes are trapping the shades of the people they kill. How do you think I feel?”
“Well, no one saw you naked except for Tallon.” Blue waggles his eyebrows, and my face heats. He laughs. “Relax. He was the only one strong enough to get through the erebos without getting swept up into it. I doubt he was really checking out your goodies at the time. The rest of us just saw you looking like some badass avenging goddess cloaked in darkness.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” I say, completely insincere. My fingers tingle, and my stomach is unsteady at the memory of Tallon next to me, talking me through pulling the darkness back. It would be a memory I’d cherish if it wasn’t tied so closely to Cass’s death.
Blue continues. “As for the Acolytes, well, they’re not worth worrying about. Half of them are murderers, and the other half are deviants that get off on bullying others. They’re barely human.”
“Blue, all vættir are barely human.”
He gives me a look, and the forest-fire scent of his anger surprises me. “No, we are human. That’s why the Æthereals fear us. Because we’re human, and our emotions make us dangerous.”
I open my mouth to argue, but then reconsider. “Okay. So no one saw me naked, and the Acolytes deserved to die because they were all murderers.”
“And deviants.”
I wave my hand. “Whatever. But that doesn’t make me feel better about the trapped shades or Cass.”
“What do you mean, the trapped shades?”
I quickly fill him in on Whisper’s missing shade, the summoning, and what Whisper told me on the roof about her and so many others being held captive. Blue frowns. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“No. And now they have Cass as well.”
Blue leans forward, a small frown pulling together his pale brows. “Do you know what they’re stockpiling the shades for?”
“No.”
“It sounds like the old magics.”The front door slams, and Tallon walks into the room. “There are some spells that use shades as a power source. It’s nasty stuff, the kind of magic the Hecates used to do in the old days.”
My heart does a swan dive as Tallon comes to stand next to the couch. He’s gorgeous, his long dark hair pulled back in a braid. Even with dark circles shadowing his eyes, he looks amazing.
Blue scrubs his hand over his face. “We should find Kyra and ask her what she knows about this.”
I shake my head. “Cass said Kyra had fled. She spoke with a Hecate named Jeanine. But I don’t know how she found her.” Tears threaten to well up, because it seems so hopeless. “Gods, what do we do now?” I can barely breathe, and I want nothing more than to just hide until this is all over.
Tallon levels a gaze at me, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “First of all, you stop panicking. You’re the Nyx. So act like it.”
His tone snaps me out of my self-pity, anger rising up sharp and hard. “I just killed a bunch of Acolytes, and my best friend is dead. The last thing I need right now is your attitude.”
Something flashes across his face. Satisfaction? “You’re right. I’m sorry.” His tone is contrite, and I don’t know what to say. Next to me, Blue makes a choked sound. Tallon sighs. “I’m worried and I took it out on you. How are you feeling?”
“How do you think?” I’m not ready to call a truce so quickly. He can’t snap at me and be a jerk and expect me to fall all over myself when he apologizes.
He nods, and his expression softens. “Take a shower. Get dressed. Eat something. I know Jeanine. I’ll go down and talk to her, see if she knows of any spells that would require such a large number of shades to be invoked, okay?”
A spark of memory flares.“And kobaloi. Ramun Sol had a kobalos with him. So did Ramun Mar, the night he killed Whisper.”
Blue frowns. “A kobalos?”
“Minor demon used by some of the Exalteds for errands in the Æthereal Realm. But they don’t usually cross into the Mortal Realm,” Tallon adds.
I’m surprised he knows what they are. I only know because Harpies are required to have a working knowledge of the entire Æthereal bestiary. The more you know about creatures the easier it is to kill them.
But how does Tallon know that bit about them being used as servants in the Æthereal Realm? Has he spent some time there?
I stretch, and my stomach growls. “So I go get pretty, you talk to the Hecate, and then what?”
“And then we go and see this Oracle of Alora’s,” Blue says with a shrug. “If she doesn’t know what’s going on, no one will.”
Tallon heads toward the front door. “Don’t dawdle. We need to get moving as quickly as possible.”
He says it like I’m still that little kid chasing after him, begging him for a piggyback ride. “What’s your deal, Tallon? Huh? Maybe you should back it down a notch.”
He gives me a sympathetic look. “I know you’re upset, Zeph, but you need to think beyond your own hurt right now. You know your sister’s shade isn’t the only one the Acolytes have. They’ve killed a lot of vættir over the past few years. Who knows what will happen to their shades once they do this spell? You can let your sister be devoured by the Rift, but I’m not letting that happen to my brother.”
Too late I remember Blue talking about their youngest brother, and how the Acolytes murdered him in the middle of the street. Shame heats my cheeks. And here I didn’t think it was possible to feel any worse. “Gods, I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
“No, that’s the problem, isn’t it? You never think. All you do is react.” Tallon takes a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry I spend so much time yelling at you, but we have a lot to do. Alora said we have to go all the way to Pennsylvania to find this Oracle. That’s like an eight-hour drive from here. Get cleaned up, and I’ll talk to the Hecate.” Tallon leaves without another word, the door slamming behind him. My shoulders slump.
Why do I always ruin everything?
Blue stands and wraps me in a hug. “Don’t worry about him. He’s just on edge because he was worried about you. He didn’t think you were going to make it. There was so much darkness. . . .” Blue trails off, and I hug him back.
“I’m going to go take a shower,” I say. I pull myself free and climb the stairs to the extra bedroom, where Alora is laying out the clothes they bought for me on the bed. She turns with a grin when I enter.
“I got you several different bras, since I wasn’t really sure what size you were. There are also three different kinds of underwear. You struck me as more of a boy-short kind of girl, but you never really know these days—”
“Out,” I say, pointing at the door. She opens her mouth to argue, and I shake my head. “I am not discussing underwear with you. Please get out.”
She clamps her mouth shut and scurries out. Just before she closes the door, I call her name. “Alora.”
She ducks her head back into the room.
“Thank you.”
She grins. “Anytime. It’s an honor to help you fulfill the Promise.” She closes the door behind her, and I groan.
I have the awful feeling that living up to other people’s expectations is going to get me killed.
I strip off the running shorts and T-shirt and walk into the bathroom to start the shower. I’m shocked by the glimpse of my reflection that I get. My entire body is covered in the twining black vines now. They curve up my neck, stopping just short of my face. I look down at my arms and legs, which are also covered with the dark lines. I look over my shoulder at my back reflected in the mirror. The swirls seem to be concentrated the most where my wings used to be, covering the scars in between my shoulder blades. It’s beautiful and terrifying, a physical manifestation of how much I’m changing.
I should ask Tallon about the marks, what they mean. His angry zigzags must be tied to the erebos. Since he knows everything, he probably knows what the markings mean. Cass said Elias had the marks as well, but the memory of our last conversation makes me well up. It takes a few moments of deep breathing to fight back the tears.
I swallow down my loss and continue to study my reflection. My hair is also different, but I was expecting that. The long ropy snarls are gone. In their place is a halo of blue curls that stick out in all directions. After the solar flare that Ramun Sol generated I’m lucky I even have hair.The tiny curls are a nice change, and the lack of hair makes my silver eyes look huge.