Chapter 12 #2
“It was interesting,” I said, watching for any hint of awareness.
He hid it well, but I caught the momentary tightening of his eyes. He didn’t like Malakai any more than I did.
“What do you think of him?” I asked.
Caelan scoffed. “I do not know him.”
“Oh,” I said. “Where are you from?”
“It is a small city,” he said. “But my family has lived there for generations,” he said.
“That sounds amazing,” I said. “I can’t imagine knowing that much about my lineage,” I said.
“We are close,” he said, “but there is always conflict and never enough warriors to vanquish our enemies. War always looms on the horizon.”
I tried to remember if Caelan had said where he was from and places in the world where recent conflicts were brewing. I didn’t want to be rude and pry about such a sensitive topic, so I didn’t ask. He sounded so old-fashioned and like he’d lost people.
“That’s…awful,” I muttered, unsure what else to say. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “We are strong. Besides, that is why I am here. I am certain there is a way to bring my people peace.”
I smiled faintly. “What about Saryna? Is she from your city?” I asked. “Isabella likes her.”
Caelan glanced at her, and his expression softened. “Saryna is from a much larger region. She is talented. I think you both will get along well.”
I caught his eye and lowered my voice. “You have feelings for her, don’t you?”
Caelan turned toward me slowly, his pale blue eyes searching mine.
“I have known her for some time,” he said. “It is not meant to be.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “Different circles, I guess.”
“But you’re both Aurkai, and you’re both here now,” I said. “How is that a different circle?”
Caelan’s expression grew tight, and he gave me a side glance.
“You ask a lot of questions,” he said.
“Well, this is a pretty weird place,” I said.
He pressed his lips together in acknowledgment. “I have to admit that I agree.”
I sighed. “I think I’m going to head to my dorm. I don’t know that this is my scene.”
Caelan looked at me oddly. “Scene?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Like, it’s not my kind of social atmosphere.”
He made a silent “oh” with his lip. I chuckled under my breath.
“And for what it’s worth, from where I stand, you and Saryna don’t seem to be in different circles at all,” I said.
Caelan’s expression was unyielding as he watched her. She was alone now; Isaac and Isabella having wandered off. Maybe he’d go talk to her.
I slipped away, leaving him to his thoughts.
I had a million questions, like where he and Saryna were from, that they were in such vastly different social circles that he couldn’t ask her out.
But now wasn’t the time. For the moment, they were letting their guard down a bit.
Start bombarding them with questions, and it would be right back up.
I moved through the rooms, scanning for Blake and Melanie. Something was going on between them, and I’d been itching to know what it was ever since my first day at Nightfall.
In the distance, I heard the haunting sounds of Isaac’s violin. The deeper into the rooms I ventured, the darker it got. Fewer torches were lit, and a sweet, hazy smoke hung in the air. My footsteps grew gentler. The stone floors became uneven, with small rocks scattered about.
A couple embraced, their forms shrouded in shadow. Hidden in the corner of the room, they were in another world. I moved on, entering an empty room.
I gasped.
It was an intact dungeon cell.
The door of the cell curved into an arched peak, the iron, thick and elegant. My fingers grazed across the bars of a darkened cell. It shifted under my hand, creaking.
I paused.
Seeing cracks in the stone wall, I slipped past the barred door of the old cell.
I let my hand graze the gritty stone wall, powdered residue sticking to my fingers.
“Blake!”
I stiffened.
It was Melanie.
I focused on the crack in the wall, the faint bit of torchlight slipping through. I saw two figures, but it was hard to make out much else.
That voice was raw and unguarded. It was nothing like Melanie’s. She was usually cold, sharp, mean. Hearing her break like that scraped at the inside of my heart.
“I do not want to do this anymore.”
Blake. He sounded weary, his voice soft and detached.
I held my breath.
“I’m sorry,” Melanie pleaded. “How many times must I say it?”
A silence followed but was interrupted by a shuffle.
“Stop,” Blake said, his voice strained. He sounded exhausted, like he did not want to have this conversation again.
Melanie cried out in a low, anguished sound. “It was a mistake.”
A bang against the wall made me jump. The torchlight vanished, and dust filled the cell from the reverberation of the sudden impact.
“Then say it,” Blake growled.
My nerve endings ignited like a fuse. I stood there, unable to move.
The animosity surrounding them was strangling.
There was pain in his voice, so sharp and raw I was almost concerned for Melanie.
And anger—the same voice that had guided me over fallen trees and uneven earth.
His voice had power in it, power that made me as curious as I was alarmed.
I couldn’t run if I wanted to—I was paralyzed, and they were right there, on the other side of the wall.
An uncomfortable silence followed.
“You cannot, can you?” he whispered.
His voice was poignant, poetic, but I didn’t understand—what could she not say?
A sudden shift, and the crack of torchlight streamed freely again.
“We are done.”
Footsteps sounded through the wall, and I sank into the shadows. The footsteps trailed around the cell I was in and back into the central rooms, before fading to silence.
I released my breath silently. Nearing the crack, I peered through.
Melanie stood alone, her expression devoid of emotion. I would’ve sold my soul to know what she was thinking.
An intense pressure hit me.
Everything was black, and panic flooded my veins. Someone was holding me down, their weight bearing against me.
My back hit cold stone. I thrashed, but it was useless. I’d never stopped it before; I couldn’t stop it now.
The pressure released me quickly, and I gasped for air as a feeling took hold of me like it might destroy me.
She couldn’t love him—she couldn’t feel love at all.
Melanie’s eyes snapped onto the small crack where the torchlight breached the wall. She shifted quickly, moving out of sight.
I stayed still as a statue as she passed the barred door that I was behind, her footfalls echoing into the silence until there were none.
What. Just. Happened?
My knees hit the floor, tears wetting my skin. Was I having a hallucination? What poor timing. If she saw me, she would’ve destroyed me.
I leaned against the wall and breathed.
That was intense; it was almost like someone had been holding me down.
I pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter.
The realization that Blake and Melanie had a far more serious relationship than I thought made my stomach drop.
Close enough to have had a serious falling out.
I swallowed, trying to focus my mind. I wasn’t here to flirt in the woods; I came here for a reason and tonight revealed more than a history between them—it meant their families must have been close.
Caelan was nothing like them. What did that mean?
Were these families spread across the world?
Were there different secret societies other than Nightfall?
And what were they doing? There was a class structure among them that I didn’t understand.
They were all powerful, but some of them were…
more powerful—as in the kind of power that made people disappear.
I stood up. But Blake didn’t seem that way—at least until tonight. He felt… safe, but the truth was, I didn’t know him. Not at all.
I shoved the thought away.
I had to get closer to them.
The Aurkai.
They knew Nightfall’s secrets, but were they my friend or my enemy?
As I slipped out, I saw the couple that had been hidden in the shadow before. This time, a candle lit their faces.
It was Malakai and Skylar. They were deeply entwined on the chaise lounge; her skirt lifted to her hip.
Malakai slowly ground his hips against her, eliciting soft moans from her.
Malakai pulled away from her mouth for a moment.
There was something feral in him—it was the complete opposite of what I’d felt in Blake’s presence.
The fire glowed in his pale green eyes, heavily lidded, his dark lashes nearly touched his cheekbones.
We connected, and a foreboding tension took hold of me.
Something about him had paralyzed me. A sense of danger crept through my mind as I thought of Skylar, but what could I do?
I shattered the connection between us. There were too many shadows here. I’d stayed too long.
So I ran.