Chapter 7
~Velra~
The Fade.
It was happening.
I was here.
I was taking that step that I’d so long shied away from.
Actually, more like, shielded myself from.
I looked down at the token now pulsing in my hand because I was right in front of the secret entrance to the Rifted Cradle where this big blowout party was being held.
It was literally just a wall of a shed on the campus grounds about an acre from the main building.
I went to step forward, to pass through, but I pulled up short.
I figured there would be lots of people in there, but they’d likely be spread out all over the place, not the way it had been in the Grand Atrium that day.
Son of a bitch. I’d centered myself for this very moment and here I was being crippled by it anyway, in spite of mentally preparing for the last two hours, which had even included moving out of my comfort zone and not sticking with my usual all-black comfort outfit.
I was wearing a violet leather wrap-dress covered in faux silver studs with thigh-high boots.
I’d never been able to stand out before, seeing as though so much of my life these last few years had been about needing to keep a low profile and hide away.
But I didn’t need to be that intensely cautious anymore.
I was free now.
I could make actual choices, actual life choices.
Coming to Wraeven had been about reclaiming that, reclaiming me.
Or, at least, this new hybrid version of me.
I hadn’t been able to even properly explore that ever since I’d been… altered.
This party tonight was another step further down the new path I was trying to carve out for myself.
And it was ridiculous that I was stuck here on the periphery when all I had to do was literally walk forward.
I shook out my hands and cracked my neck.
Come on.
Do it. Get a grip, girl.
“Need a hand there, or too busy with the jazz hands?”
I spun to see Sylas Morgrave now standing right there, just a couple of feet from me.
He was dressed a world away from his usual get-up as well.
A pair of black straight leg jeans molded to his muscular legs with maroon, beige, and black scarves woven through the belt loops. He was wearing an asymmetrical dark crimson-gray tank, no jacket, his toned arms on full display.
He looked more relaxed in this much more casual clothing, and ready to let loose.
“I was just heading in.”
“You were getting close this time.”
I flinched. “How long have you been standing here?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Six minutes.”
“What? Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you ask me to move out of the way?”
“You were psyching yourself up. I didn’t want to disrupt that.
Because, like I said, you were getting close.
” The corner of his mouth turned up. “Dark Beauty.” His gaze raked over me and it was absolutely not subtle as he basically drank me in.
“You’re certainly living up to one part of that tonight. That dress… stunning.”
I shifted at his overt compliment.
I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was so… brazen.
“One part?” I asked, unfortunately retreating to a comforting tactic of redirecting a dicey subject somewhere else.
“The other is that inner dark beauty that you carry with you. The care, the heart, the altruistic aspect. Despite so much pain you still hold so much light. It’s rare. More than you may actually realize.”
“You heard that from Kai Hunter?”
“Well, Nyx does like to talk up those he adores. Although, in your case it wasn’t really talking up, it’s an indisputable fact.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“We both know you could have put down that Dark Fae bully in an instant with your power set. Instead, you stood there and suffered. All because you didn’t want to inflict hurt or damage, despite the fact that it would have gotten you out of that situation.
You weren’t just frozen to the spot from panic, it was due to being afraid you’d harm those around you.
Despite it all, everything you’ve endured, others were your priority.
That says a fuck of a lot.” He stepped up closer.
“I may have looked a little deeper into your background. Before the experiments, you were even fighting for the rights of your people back then—a secret unit that worked to undermine the tyranny of the Royal Fae Court that your parents were members of. You see, little Wraith, what Chimera Circle changed you into may have altered your supernatural makeup, but it didn’t alter you. Not who you are at your core.”
His words hit so hard.
But not in a painful way.
I didn’t know what to say, how to even begin to—
“I have an idea.”
“You… what?”
“A way to make it a more pleasant experience when you cross that threshold there.”
“Blow right through and stop being so ridiculous?”
“It’s not ridiculous. Not in the least. In fact, it’s actually incredible that you’ve gotten to this point already.
” He held out his hand. “If you’ll give me a little bit of your trust for a few moments, we can work together to get you through that door.
A Rifted Cradle is a suspended, contained space perfect for high-risk and volatile magic.
As such, a blended Wraith-Necromancer concealment spell is doable, especially with what I’ve come to understand about the illusion-rich chaos of The Fade.
Necromantic and Wraith magic is part of the same twilight resonance which allows us to naturally harmonize with each other’s magic.
If you can summon just a sliver of your Dark Fae power at the same time, it will work to stabilize the effect, making the concealment spell highly sophisticated and durable. ”
“So, we’d be using necromantic tethering and Wraith cloaking with a little Dark Fae misdirection?”
“Precisely. We’ll blur into the ambient shadows and illusions, passing unseen and undetectable to even the most honed senses.”
I stared out at him, looking between his eyes and his offered hand. “Why would you help me like this?”
He smiled salaciously. “Would you like the brazen, filthy answer, or would you feel more comfortable if I stuck to the other reason at this juncture?”
Even though they were from entirely different worlds and backgrounds and there was so much different about them, that from him really reminded me of Lazriel.
“Ah, you can’t allow yourself to veer toward the first answer, because you’re already committed to another?”
I jolted. “Committed? No. It’s just… I’m meeting somebody in there.”
“I see. Well, it is possible to share rather than limit yourself. Of course, in your case, one step at a time.”
Before I could even begin to process that major mind-fuck, he gestured at his offered hand. “Shall we then?”
I sucked in a breath, then took his hand.
Heat infused me in the very next moment and a gasp escaped me at the unfamiliar rush of his magic wrapping around mine, fusing together.
His grip tightened and his eyes locked with mine, glowing vibrantly with his dark-red power. He looked absolutely entranced and taken with this joining, even more than I was.
His other hand was fisted down by his side and shaking a little.
I frowned. This sort of spell should be nothing for a necromancer of his caliber.
He’d also gone abnormally quiet—especially from what I knew about him.
He was concentrating, but not merely on the spell.
I studied him. Wait. Was he… measuring something, cataloguing our interaction and fusion? Why?
Because I’d impacted his power accidentally once before?
I went to pull away instinctively, something feeling off, but it was too late, my shadow magic swirling around us, just as tendrils of his dark-red power wrapped around them, encompassing us wholly within moments.
I gritted my teeth then called my Dark Fae magic to stabilize it, watching as my purple power infiltrated the swirling matrix enveloping us.
It calmed within moments, then all the color drained from it and it became a translucent film, undetectable to anyone beyond it, melding into our surroundings.
“Well done,” Sylas said.
I stared at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I turned back to the magical doorway.
And then, with him connected to me via the spell, I finally took that step forward.
Holy hell.
The Fade was really something.
An experience fused together by special magic and illusion.
Shadow-chutes coiled from the trees. They were long, twisting slides made of shadow and cold smoke.
Riding one was like sliding through a tunnel of pure night, like floating through icy fog.
They were honestly a treat to experience and I’d actually done it once before with Nyx when we’d had some downtime at Crossborn.
Above, blood-colored clouds pulsed and silver upside-down trees twisted out of stone ceilings like ghostly veins. Stars sparkled in amongst it all.
Vines snaked across the curved cavern walls and magical fog drifted past my ankles.
Everywhere power flowed freely. Magic-wielders levitated above as they danced, some holding vampires and wolves there with them, the erotic beat reverberating around.
Beyond this main area, there were several specially conjured environments.
One area flickered in and out of focus, its glass walls showing people’s deepest desires—most sexual in nature. Because it was that kind of party where inhibitions didn’t exist.
There was a crimson pool where students floated and drank elixirs, some laughing and chatting, some playing catch with a shimmering levitating magical golden ball of light, others immersed in some erotic play right there in front of everyone else. I winced at that… definitely not my thing.
There was a magical arcade area as well where games, dares, and contests were taking place—some Dark Fae and Shadowmancers engaging in shadow duels.
Some creating mini-illusions with each contestant vying to produce the most creative one.
And then there were vampires leaping and speeding from tree tops and racing.
There was even an arm-wrestling contest taking place where many were gathered around.