4. Puncture
CHAPTER FOUR
PUNCTURE
Saya Claymore
“Don’t stray too far from me.” Serun pushes his palms against the wooden doors, which grind over the limestone floor as they open. “Without guidance, you can get lost in the Sunken City.”
Serun walks without looking at me. Yet, his ears flick, bending as if he is listening to my footsteps as I follow him.
The sound of flowing water fills my ears as it rushes between the cracks in the stone floor. Perhaps the reason they call it the Sunken City is that it is being taken by the sea. An island that lost its mantle.
This place seems ancient, in a way. A castle from one of those books that spoke of Earth before humans came to Kepler, with curved stone entryways and watermarked doors with old, stained wood.
I breathe in and taste wet stone.
Torches hang from brass fixtures, the flames flickering in the cool breeze, whispering in the wind. Pure shadows stretch around us, while flashes of the orange warmth from the torches tingle against my chilled skin.
As we round the corner, I look back the way we came, wondering if the others are following, only to see a wall. What?
I stop and reach out, my fingertips brushing the solid rock.
“Kamai,” Serun says softly, drawing my attention away from the wall and to where he waits at the end of the hallway ahead. His eyes narrow slightly at the wall, then he turns away. “You shouldn’t stray too far from me.”
“What happens if I do?”
He shrugs. “I suppose you will get lost, and I will have to come and find you.”
I’d rather not be a nightwalker’s entertainment for the night.
“What does kamai mean?” I say as I resume walking. “You said you would tell me after I accepted your offering.”
“Technically, you didn’t accept my offering.” He smirks. He fucking smirks.
“Then I suppose I will just ask someone else. It’s Daryun, and I am going to an Undercity filled with nightwalkers. I’m sure someone will know…”
He just keeps on smirking.
Serun leads us to an open hall, and my eyes widen a fraction at the stained glass windows. Unique shapes join to depict a faceless naked man reaching out, as if longing to grab someone’s hand, but there’s no one there.
Magnetic orange, purple, and blue hues shatter across the walls as the pale moonlight beyond shines through the stained glass. Fragmented diamonds glimmer across my dirty, bloodstained gown.
“How long was I in that coffin for?” Turning my focus on Serun, my hands curl into fists, and my arms stiffen at my sides. “Has it only been one night?”
“Yes,” he says without looking back as we make our way across the open hall towards the door on the other side. “One long night.”
I walk faster, trying to keep pace with his long strides. “Is there a reason I cannot go with the blond man with the expensive voice and flashy clothing?”
Serun breathes a laugh. “Reyes. My brother’s name is Reyes, kamai.”
So, they are all siblings.
Warm light spills from the entryway ahead, washing over my body as we pass through. He takes me down another corridor lined with nondescript doors. There is nothing different about them for me to be able to get my bearings or map a way out of here.
Sudden doubt crawls over my body like a thousand ants panicking at the coming rain. Do I want to escape right now? Reyes is looking for Cole. So…I suppose I have to play along. When I have my brother, we will leave. We will finally be able to go home.
Serun’s shadow twitches down his back and spills across the limestone. It’s not as wet in here compared to where we came from. Warmer, too. Torches burn by every door, drinking away all shadows save the ones Serun wears.
Red and white banners loop across the ceiling and cling to the walls in a curved pattern. Side tables bear fake plants. None desire to lean into my presence the way plants did in Cherry Bloom village.
“Here, kamai.” Serun stands by the door nearest the end of the hallway that turns left. “You will spend the day in here.”
With a flicker of a look at him, I say, “I doubt I will sleep in a castle filled with nightwalkers.”
His eyes crinkle, amused, and he rests his hand on the door handle. “Feeders use this room. A human sanctuary. Nightwalkers cannot enter unless they have an invitation.”
I lift my brow and stare pensively at him. “Nightwalkers need invitations to enter feeder rooms?”
“Yes.”
“Then how come you could enter the private room?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs. “Nightwalkers can enter most industrial places—but there is something about houses or apartment rooms that poses a problem if there is a heartbeat inside.”
“That makes little sense…”
“Magik need only be learned. It doesn’t have to make sense.” Serun turns the handle, then taps the wood, revealing a reasonably sized room beyond, with an open bathroom behind an oak divider.
After I step inside, I face Serun and say, “I do not give you permission to enter. Now, show me you aren’t speaking with your liar’s tongue.”
“Very well, consort.” He casually enters the room. My shoulder jerks back and the tingling sensation of magik prickles my fingertips.
Liar—
Serun grunts. The shadows encasing him collapse as he drops to one knee.
Blood slips down his cheeks from the corners of his eyes, and with a locked jaw and grimace, he struggles to rise.
Blotches of crimson seep through his shirt, and I panic at what I can only describe as age writhing across his skin.
My magik stills, and I take a step towards him. “That’s enough!”
Shadows swarm around him, and he reappears outside the room. Blood drips against the limestone floor, and he wipes the corner of his mouth with the back of his arm. His skin turns to marble once more, and the blood flow ceases. “May we talk now?”
“Are you…okay?”
He chuckles deeply. “Depends. Are you more comfortable sleeping now that you know I cannot enter without your permission?”
“Not really. No.” Peeking back the way we came, then at him, I say, “Do we have time to talk? The sun will rise soon, and I am sure you want to clean yourself up.”
He cracks his neck. “It won’t take long.”
Blinking slowly, I step out of the room and lean against the wall beside him. “Then talk.”
Serun looks away, his arms tensing, thickening with veins. Shadows now lick up his shoulders like flames on dry wood. It’s as if he wants to shut me out and hide from the world. “I bit you because I didn’t want to say goodbye on the rooftop. I’m…curious about you.”
My brow twitches, and I taste metal. My magik flurries in the air with rage over the reason being so simple. Serun trapped me in this marriage because he didn’t want to say goodbye.
Selfish. Reckless. Fucking ignorant of any feelings but his own.
Raising my hand, the dagger instantly materialises this time, glinting silver.
Serun doesn’t move, and as the blade nears his chest, my ear flicks at the rush of wind behind me.
I turn around to find the shadows forming another version of him, like he did after I crawled out from the grave.
I drive the blade towards this version, but he tilts his head slightly to the side and the blade sinks into the stone like butter.
With a curled lip, I glare at Serun leaning against the wall, his red eyes sliding away from the sunken blade and back to me. “If you want to kill me, you need to stop using silver. Wood works best, consort.”
Shadows flare, and my dagger melts to ash. Exhaling a breath, I step away and mutter, “Light. I am trying to kill you with light.”
“Where there is light, there is shadow,” he says as he pushes off the wall.
“Were you leaning against the wall the entire time?”
“No. Just sensed your presence and moved quickly. Although your reaction time amused me, if only a little.”
Wonderful. I am amusing to him. My tongue rolls across my fangs before I say, “What do you want from me, Serun?”
Sweet, sun-kissed red eyes lower to my neck, then back up to my face. “Want? Desire. Refuge. I do not know what you are to me, but I wish for you to let me stay by your side until I do. I can learn more about you, and you can learn all there is about me.”
I unclench my jaw. “Learn about me? Serun, I gave you all of me when you bit me, yet all you gave me were fragments of you. How can I trust you when you spin lies with your truths?”
Serun takes an urgent step forward, raising his hand. Panic rises as his body looms over me. I flinch away, plunged into a memory of cruel hands in my hair, stinging blades of grass, and my cheek pressed into the soil.
I turn my head and close my eyes, bracing for impact.
How easy it is for men to take. To control.
“Kamai…” I open my eyes when the pain doesn’t come. Instead, he cups my cheek, his thumb brushing at the wetness there. He wears that soft look I remember from when we were stargazing. “I will keep my liar’s tongue at bay with you.”
Confusion hits me like a tidal wave, and when I try to force it to stop, sparks hit my heart and make it stutter to a now familiar beat.
My ears pull back when I say, “I don’t know where to go from here, but I will learn all there is to know about the Lord of the Undercity.”
His hand lowers. Tension stirs in the air, a quivering mess of emotions. “The sun will rise soon,” he says softly.
I open my mouth, but only air comes out. Swallowing a lump, I say, “I’d like to thank you for saving me. But I don’t want you to believe it means I forgive you for burying me alive and tricking me into being your consort.”
He scratches his chest. “Then say your thanks, Saya.”
Heat flares across my cheeks. “Thank you, nightwalker.”
Serun breathes a laugh and dips his head. “You are…strange. I didn’t expect you to thank me. How…sweet.”
I stare blankly at him and drawl, “Don’t you have a deathbed to crawl back into?”
Shadows slip across him, wrapping around Serun like spider silk. With it, amusement stirs the aura surrounding him, and he leaves with a smooth, “Good day.”
I close the door behind me when he departs and stare into the unfamiliar room. It’s one space, with the bathroom and bedroom combined. The bed has satin sheets, and it faces the door. Nearby, a divider screens the ceramic claw-foot tub and shower.
I lock the door, sliding the bolt into place, before I make my way across the carpet and over to the bathroom.
Stepping onto sandy yellow tiles, I reach for the towel hanging on the corner of the divider.
As I do, I catch my own movement in the mirror above the basin.
My stomach spasms, tingling with disgust as I face myself.
Blood stains my throat and coats the torn dress that barely covers my chest. Most of it from where that slayer shot me.
I face myself. Raw. Real. Without my glamour.
In every way, I look like a nightwalker: pointed ears, sharp red eyes, long fingernails, and fangs hidden behind pressed lips.
The only difference is my white hair and icy skin.
Devan made it sound like these traits aren’t from being a nightwalker.
So, where did they come from, if not my nightwalker side?
I grimace and step behind the glass shower screen, turning the faucet on. As the water warms, I remove my clothes and toss them aside before stepping underneath the spray. My tense muscles start to unknot.
Tipping my head back, I run my fingers through my tangled mess of hair. Dirt and blood flow like a stream down my body and swirl down the drain by my feet.
A bottle of shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and salt scrub sits in a cubby beside me. As I grab the salt, my body tenses at the fleshy clumps of blood and brown hair I’ve washed loose. I want to ignore it, but I know what it is.
Strands of Manni’s hair knot around my trembling fingers.
Deep, panicked breaths escape as I scrub at my hands. The strands loosen, blood slipping from my fingertips and melting into endless guilt.
After a few deep breaths, I start to wash my chest, clearing a path of gruesome filth to reveal a wrinkled scar. I touch the mark, and there’s no pain—nothing to indicate that I was recently shot.
Serun’s blood must have healed the wound. It looks old, silvered, rather than wrinkled red.
Not wanting to think about it, I hurry to finish washing, then wrap myself in the towel and make my way to the dresser. One of the nightgowns I find is white. Familiar. I slip it on, and it’s a little loose, but it does the job as I button the front to hide my scar.
Fucking Jax. If anyone does anything to Cole before I reach him, I will kill them. It will be a slow death. Slow enough for them to hear the deep thud of their own heart in their ears before it gives out as they choke on their last breath.
And with that thought, I crawl into bed, and finally sleep.