Chapter 21 #2
There it was again. That glimpse of something beneath the golden surface.
I thought of the cleansing ceremonies I had witnessed, the half-bloods screaming as light burned away parts of their essence.
I thought of political rivals who had simply.
.. vanished over the years. Of the way my father's smile never quite reached his eyes when he spoke of mercy.
I loved him. But I had never been blind to what he was.
"I will deal with Serkan," he continued, his voice regaining some of its old iron.
"This illness will not prevent me from reminding the court who rules here.
A few words in the right ears, a few truths revealed about where Serkan's own loyalties have wandered over the centuries.
.." He waved a hand dismissively. "He will be handled.
They all will. Let them see that Gün Ata is not yet ready for the pyre. "
"There is more," I said. "Hakan carries Erlik's blood. He is the son of the God of the Underworld. His mother kept it hidden for two hundred years, but now..."
I watched his face carefully. Watched for surprise that did not come.
"You already knew."
"I have watched that boy since he was a child, Ada.
Since before your mother passed, when you two used to chase each other through the border forests thinking no one saw.
" He shifted against the pillows, and I caught the grimace he tried to hide—the flash of pain he did not want me to see.
"I watched the shadow in him grow alongside the light.
Why do you think I approved his courtship so easily?
A nobody apprentice, asking to court my heir?
" That cold smile again. "I wanted to see what would happen.
Whether love could tame what lived in his blood.
Whether you could be the chain that bound him to the light. "
The words hit like a slap. "You used us. You used our love as an experiment."
"I gave you what you wanted." His voice hardened, then softened just as quickly—the shift so smooth I almost missed it.
"I gave you happiness, Ada. Months of joy with a boy who worships you.
Would you rather I had forbidden it? Watched you pine and rebel and make yourself miserable?
" He reached for my hand, and despite everything, I let him take it.
"I am your father. Everything I do, I do for you. Even the things you do not understand."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to rage at him for the manipulation, for treating our love like a piece on a game board. But he looked so tired. So diminished. And beneath the calculated words, I could hear something else—fear. Fear of leaving me alone in a world full of wolves.
"Does your blessing still stand?" I asked quietly. "Now that you know I know what he is?"
"We are not our bloodlines, little light.
The boy is not his father any more than you are me.
" His grip tightened on my hand, and for a moment the mask slipped entirely.
I saw exhaustion. I saw love. I saw a god who had ruled for three thousand years and was finally, impossibly, afraid.
"My blessing stands. I will deal with Serkan and his decree—this illness will not stop me from protecting what is mine. "
"He wants to marry me, Baba. Truly marry me. Not a political arrangement, but a real union."
"I know." That small smile again, warmer now. "Why do you think I have been so patient with both of you? Waiting for you to stop sneaking around and simply tell me what I already knew?"
Despite everything, I laughed. "We thought we were being so careful."
"You were about as subtle as a sunrise." He chuckled, then winced at the effort.
"Go to him, Ada. Tell him that nothing has changed.
My blessing stands. But warn him—the path ahead will not be easy.
The darkness in him will call to darkness in others.
There are those who will use your love as a weapon against you both. "
"I know."
"No, you do not. Not yet." His eyes fixed on mine with sudden intensity.
"You must be prepared to fight for each other.
To protect each other from forces that would tear you apart.
The council already positions themselves against you, and they will use any excuse—including your choice of husband—to deny you what is yours.
" He paused, his gaze growing distant. "And be wary of those who offer friendship too easily.
Not everyone who smiles means you well."
"Then I will prove them wrong. All of them."
"Yes." Pride blazed in those tired eyes. "I believe you will." His hand released mine, falling back to the coverlet. "Now go. Find your shadow boy. Tell him that Gün Ata is counting on him to protect his daughter when I can no longer do so myself."
I leaned down and pressed my lips to his forehead. "I love you, Baba."
"And I you, my starlight." His eyes closed. "Now go. And come back to me when you can. I find I am not quite ready to face the eternal light alone."
The Border District felt wrong the moment I entered it.
The streets that normally bustled with the chaotic energy of the Boundary Quarter were nearly empty. Shuttered windows and locked doors presented a united front of wariness, and the few people I passed hurried along with their heads down, avoiding eye contact.
I quickened my pace toward Elif's apartment, my heart beating faster with each step.
The door was ajar.
I stopped, my hand raised to knock, cold dread settling in my stomach. Elif's door was never ajar. The woman guarded her home with the paranoia of someone who had spent two hundred years running from shadows. To leave it open was unthinkable.
Unless they had left in a hurry.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The apartment was in chaos. Drawers hung open, their contents spilled across the floor. Clothing lay scattered, half-folded, abandoned in the middle of packing. A cup of cay sat on the table, its surface filmed with cold, and beside it a plate of bread that had begun to harden at the edges.
No Hakan. No Elif. No note.
"Hakan?" My voice echoed in the silence. "Elif?"
Nothing.
I searched the apartment with growing desperation. The bedroom, where Elif's dresses still hung in the wardrobe but her traveling cloak was gone. The kitchen, where supplies for a journey had been gathered and then left behind. The small washroom, where Hakan's razor still sat beside the basin.
They had been here. Recently. And then they vanished.
Something glinted on the floor near the door. I bent to retrieve it, and my heart clenched.
Milan's ring. The silver band he wore on his right hand, the one he never removed. It lay in the dust like a discarded promise.
"I wondered how long it would take you to get here."
I spun, light flaring around my fists, and found Melo sitting in the window frame. Her russet fur was ruffled, her turquoise eyes sharp with concern beneath her usual sardonic expression.
"Melo." I lowered my hands. "What happened here?"
"I don't know yet." She leaped down from the window and padded toward me, her tail swishing. "I've been following you since the palace. The whole district is crawling with Light Court patrols — guards knocking on doors, dragging people out. Someone's stirred up a hornet's nest."
"Hakan and Elif —"
"Gone. The apartment reeks of old magic. Shadow magic, but not his kind. Something fouler. Older." Her ears flattened. "Whatever took them, it was fast."
I looked down at the ring still in my hand. Melo sniffed at it.
"That's Milan's," she said. "He never takes it off. Whatever happened here, it happened fast and it happened hard."
I closed my fingers around the ring. It was still warm. I slipped it into my pocket without knowing why — instinct, maybe, or the need to hold onto something that belonged to someone who loved Hakan when the rest of the world was trying to destroy him.
Before I could respond, the air in the center of the room began to shimmer.
Melo's hackles rose. "Get back."
A tear opened in reality—darkness pouring through like water through a crack in a dam. And then a figure stumbled out, collapsing to his knees on Elif's worn carpet.
Milan.
He looked terrible. His dark hair had come loose from its tie, hanging around a face that was ash-gray and sheened with sweat. His clothes were torn, and there was blood on his hands, though I could not tell if it was his own.
"Milan!" I rushed to his side, catching his shoulders before he could fall further. "What happened? Where are Hakan and Elif?"
He looked up at me, and his eyes were wild, unfocused.
"The portal. I opened a portal — the guards were at the door, Serkan's decree — I was taking them to a waystation between realms." He shook his head, pressing his palm to his temple.
"We stepped through. All three of us. But something was waiting on the other side.
The darkness — it grabbed them and threw me back.
Sealed the portal behind me before I could —" His hands clenched.
"I've been trying to reopen it for hours.
I can't get through. Whatever took them, it's stronger than anything I've ever felt. "
"Who took them?"
"I don't know. But the magic — it was old. Ancient. The kind of power that belongs to gods, not men." His gray eyes found mine, and the fear in them was something I'd never seen from Milan before. "Ada, they have Hakan and Elif. And I can't reach them."
"Breathe." I gripped his shoulders harder, forcing him to focus on me. "Milan. Breathe."
He sucked in air, his hands trembling. "Something took them, Ada. Something intercepted my portal and took them somewhere else. I've been trying for hours to trace the path, but it's like they vanished into —"
Melo circled him once. Stopped. Her hackles rose so fast it looked like a wave passing through her fur.
"You smell of Kara Cehennem." She said it flatly. Not a guess. A fact. "Sulfur and ash and old screaming. It's in your clothes, your hair, your skin." Her turquoise eyes found mine. "Someone opened a door to the Dark Hell and threw him back through it."
Milan's face confirmed it before his mouth did.
"Erlik," I said. The name sat in my throat like something sharp. "Hakan's father. He has them."
Milan's face went even paler. "If Erlik has them..."
"Then we have to search for them." I stood, pulling Milan up with me. He swayed but stayed on his feet. "You said you opened a portal to take them somewhere safe. Can you trace where the magic diverted?"
"I can try. But the shadow paths are treacherous, and if Erlik is involved..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I should have been more careful. I should have checked the paths before we stepped through."
"Self-flagellation later," Melo interrupted. "Planning now. Ada, your father's condition has the council circling like vultures. If you disappear into the shadow realms chasing your boyfriend, they'll use it against you."
"I am not going to just leave him—"
"I'm not saying leave him. I'm saying be smart about it." The fox's eyes met mine. "You can't fight every battle at once. You need allies. Information. A plan that doesn't involve charging blindly into the underworld and hoping for the best."
"She's right." Milan straightened, some color returning to his face. "Give me time to trace the path. A few hours, maybe a day. I'll find where they were taken."
"And in the meantime?"
"In the meantime, you go back to the palace and make sure those vultures don't strip your inheritance while you're not looking." Melo's tail swished. "Your father gave you his blessing. Now make sure you have a throne to share when you get your shadow boy back."
I wanted to argue. I wanted to tear open a portal myself and charge into the darkness after Hakan.
But Melo was right. Even before she'd found her voice, she'd been right — every warning look, every flattened ear, every time she'd placed herself between me and danger when I was too stubborn to see it coming.
I'd spent my whole life reading her silences.
Hearing her speak didn't change the fact that I'd always understood what she meant.
"Fine." I looked at Milan. "Find them. Whatever it takes."
"I will." He met my eyes, and beneath the exhaustion, I saw determination. "I've protected that family for two hundred years. I'm not going to stop now."
I nodded, then turned toward the door. Melo fell into step beside me, her small body a warm presence against my ankles.
"You know," she said as we stepped out into the darkening street, "for someone whose entire world just got turned upside down, you're handling this remarkably well."
"I am screaming internally."
"Ah. That's more like it." She glanced up at me. "For what it's worth, we'll get him back. The boy's too stubborn to stay captured for long."
Despite everything, I felt my lips twitch. "Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"It's supposed to be accurate. Comfort is extra." Her tail brushed my leg. "Now walk faster. Those vultures aren't going to intimidate themselves."
I turned toward the palace, toward the dying light and the gathering dark, toward the thousand battles that waited in the shadows.
And I began to walk.