Chapter 13 - Blaze
CHAPTER 13 - BLAZE
I didn’t like this one bit. Darkness. Shadow. The perfect opportunity for specters to take me back there. Back to the man who could complete the job Nelle failed. Mark me as his. Enslave me.
You belong to him, the darkness whispered in a cold menace that dripped down my spine.
The darkness knew it. I knew it. My brothers and bonded didn’t get it no matter how hard I tried to convince them.
Wrought iron gates rolled open, and the dread in my gut squeezed to the point of aching. Talon stepped over the threshold of the Academy into the driveway outside of the walls. Luna waited beside me, her fingers sealed around mine, Cole flanking my other side, waiting for me to move.
Headstone’s claws tightened on my shoulder, and not even his steady presence reassured me.
Sweat turned my hands clammy, and my armpits weren’t much better. Racehorses galloped in my veins, and the breathing technique taught to me by the djinn failed to slow my heartbeat. Muscles in my neck were rock-hard as I scanned the quarter-mile driveway winding out from the Academy’s grounds. Fear crashed in my chest, anticipating a djinn emerging from a portal the minute I stepped out of the wards, capturing me and dragging me to the Brotherhood’s castle.
“Are you okay?” Luna squeezed my hand, worry shading her eyes, and I blinked at the wisps curling off her shoulders. “Do you need a minute?”
Darkness. Death. Malevolent forces out to capture me.
I crushed my eyes shut, fighting the surging anxiety clawing at my chest. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“Yes, you can.” Luna’s free hand sandwiched mine, her warmth at odds with the cold taking hold of my body, and I cracked my eyes open.
Her gargoyle hopped onto my shoulder, nuzzling me with his beak, cawing at me. I twitched my head away, the magick in his stone stinging my skin. My bonded called him back to his resting place on her shoulder.
Talon checked the watch he wore over his granite wrist. “We have to get moving. Gable’s expecting us.”
Move. Impossible. Lead filled my legs, and I couldn’t lift them if I tried. My fault for refusing a mind-relaxant tea before our departure time. Anxiety was officially behind the wheel. The ache in my chest said I was one step away from a panic attack, and I hadn’t stepped a foot outside of the Academy yet.
I stabbed my fingers through my hair, trying to pull air into my lungs.
Talon’s hand thumped on my shoulder, and I jolted. “You’re safe with us. Nothing will happen. We’re not far from the Academy and can portal back at any second.”
“Safe?” I let out a bitter laugh. “Your men failed to protect me when I was weak, and they took me!”
Nelle was about to have her way with me when my brothers and bonded attacked Camus’ castle. I couldn’t escape the feeling of her disgusting, cold fingers on my shirtless chest.
I shook his arm from my shoulder, easing the burn of his stone palm. Headstone, my gargoyle, rocked on my other arm, digging in his claws to stay upright.
Skepticism. Dread. Anxiety. All new emotions to me that fed the darkness wrapping around my lungs and squeezing, growing stronger from my fear, tension, and Talon’s mounting impatience. This damn snake branding rewired me, and I didn’t like the man I met in the mirror.
Talon’s jaw hardened. “I’ve had scouts out all day and night. The gargoyles haven’t reported a thing. I double-checked myself because there won’t be another fuck-up on my watch.”
My bonded swiveled to face me and took one step backward, crossing the line of the gate. The land was spelled for a mile in every direction, protecting us, but that didn’t stop the Brotherhood from opening a portal outside of our gate to distract Talon when Camus invaded the library. I didn’t put anything past the serpent’s cunning.
“Just breathe and take it one step at a time.” She beckoned me with her hand.” We’re here with you. Every step of the way.”
I shook my head. Not happening. I tugged at her to return, but I had no hope when she was determined to get me to Gable’s. My pulse skyrocketed.
Talon’s fingers whitened around his spear, his patience thinning. “You have nothing to worry about. Gable’s place is warded inside and out. I checked for our safety. They can’t get inside.”
Soldier mode. Safety assessments. Surveillance. He thought like a warrior, the fear of danger beaten out of him. None of it reassured me.
I backed away from the iron gates. “They can get us at his door.”
“Are you gonna argue and make excuses or are we gonna visit Gable?” Talon’s eyes flared dark gold. “We need to fix you and find out what the sixth symbol is.”
He was not in the mood for my shit after a long day interviewing staff members and Guildlings caught with dark magick items in their rooms.
Decisions used to come so easily for me. Now I couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast or what to wear. If I could stomach food. Apples seemed to be the only thing that didn’t turn my stomach or lurch back up my throat.
Shadows swallowed Machattie Park opposite Gable’s shop. Specters might be lurking in the murk, ready to pounce, and take me again.
Luna let go of me and stepped up to him, putting a hand on his arm to silence him. “Don’t. This is hard for him.” Her gaze lifted to me. “I was scared to leave the Academy after the nursing home reunion with my grandfather, and Blaze comforted me.”
The reminder of my lost powers sent me into a tailspin of a different kind, and I rubbed my forehead with the back of my hand.
Talon let out a long breath, his knuckles stroking her cheek, eyes paling to a buttery gold, and she clutched his wrist, running her palm along it.
“I’m sorry, brother.” His voice came out softer. “Today was shitty. Kymbal’s family wrangled a political favor and had his record cleared despite the ledger records and camera footage proving his corruption. The higher-ups declared he’s free to continue working here.”
Cole lifted a rock to feed his new gargoyle, and it pecked at his fingers. “Fuck. That guy’s like a cat with nine lives.”
The guy was a thorn in my side I could never remove.
“Tell me he’s not reappointed to the headmaster position?” Irritated, I retrieved a rock from my coat pocket and tossed it.
Headstone launched off my shoulders to hunt it, swooping low as it bounced off the pavement into the grass, where he landed and pecked it with his beak, crushing it and gobbling it.
“No. Thank the angels!” Talon barked out. “The entire Tollen squad would have gone on strike.”
A relief to know Kymbal’s power ebbed, just like his days within this facility were numbered once we got him on something solid that his family couldn’t use their pedigree to redeem him.
Talon ate up the space between us, setting a heavy palm on my shoulder again. “I need to nail him on something he can’t weasel out of. Gable’s associate gave me evidence, but I’m slow to comb through it.”
That meant tying Kymbal to the role of the Academy’s second traitor, and to do that, we had to seek evidence further afield, where I wouldn’t be useful to the cause when I was like this.
“I’ll do what I can.” I stabbed at my hair. “For now, I’ll take this next step.”
Come to us, the darkness urged as I stared down the driveway.
No. I wouldn’t let this own me any more than it did.
“Thank you, brother.” Talon’s hand shook my shoulder, gently shaking Headstone, whose claws hardened but didn’t hurt through my clothing.
He stepped back and jerked his head, signaling for me to make the first move. My lungs locked as I forced one foot over the gate line, then the other. Anxiety scaled, scratching at my skull, my throat, and chest. I sucked in short breaths, unable to get enough air in.
Luna came back to me, taking my hand. “That’s it. One more step.”
I forced my shaking legs to move.
“Good,” Cole echoed, linking our fingers.
“You gonna skip too?” Talon teased him.
“Absolutely.” Cole grinned back.
Luna let out a short laugh that spurred my legs to wobble forward. “Just a few more.” She nodded at Talon, and he started to write the sign to open a portal. “A little further. That's it.”
Yes, come to us, the darkness chimed in. You belong with us.
Adrenaline crashed in my veins, and my pulse jacked up to distribute it. Shadowy fingers reached up from Luna’s shoulders. What little fruit I ate threatened to make an unflattering appearance.
No. They’d found me.
“Brother? Cole’s voice strained like a guitar string about to snap.
“I can’t.” I stumbled to a stop, swaying, desperate to breathe, my vision spotting.
I never felt this weak or hopeless before. The power of the djinn gave me a confidence no man ever possessed. Arrogance that I was invincible and impervious.
Luna’s palms hit my chest, steadying me. “Breathe. Calm. It’s safe. There’s nothing here to hurt you.”
I jabbed my fingers at the murk climbing off her shoulders. “It’s right there.”
“There’s nothing there,” she reassured, her palm coming to my face, the shock of warmth on the iciness of my face startling me backward. “Your mind’s playing tricks on you.”
Come to us , the darkness pressed.
Warm hands braced the sides of my face. “Listen to my voice.”
The sound of an angel banishing my fears.
“It’s me. Luna. Your bonded.”
I couldn’t see her amid the dark haze of my vision.
“Just breathe. Nothing else. Can you do that for me?”
“Yessss…” I stammered.
I sucked in air and dislodged the block in my throat.
“Very good.” Her palm stroked my face. “Come back to me.”
Her hands eased on my face as she moved away from me, and I chased her, needing her touch and comfort.
“That’s it. One more step.” The stabs of anxiety receded with every word and soft caress.
I felt a vacuum grip me and pull me to another location. A pop sounded as the Veil light spat us out at our location.
I blinked at the bright light, the darkness shrieking and retreating deeper.
“We’re here,” Luna cooed, her warm forehead coming to my bent one. “You’re safe. You did so well to get this far. You’re so brave.”
I leaned into her touch, every soothing word, taking in more air, putting a hand on my chest, my heart thudding violently. It felt off to have her reassure me when that felt like my job. That thought fell away as I steadied my breathing and pulse, sinking into her embrace.
“It’ll get easier each time to leave the Academy.” She held onto the back of my neck and ran her fingers through my hair.
The darkness hissed its defeat.
Palms thudded on my shoulders.
“Great work, brother.” Talon.
“Wanna skip now?” Cole.
I barked out a nervous laugh and smacked the back of their heads, feeling a little more like the old me.
I wrapped my hands around the back of her head and kissed her silky hair. “Thank you, sweetness. For not giving up on me.”
Her palm returned to my face. “Never.”
“And I’ll take you up on the offer to skip, Cole.”
My brother tucked his arm closer to my body, flanking me between him, my bonded, and Talon to my rear. “Nothing’s getting through us, brother.”
Luna’s mouth curled at the corners with a partial smile.
Talon’s fingers burned on my shoulder. “You ready to go inside?”