Chapter 20 Every Sharp Blade Cuts
Every Sharp Blade Cuts
ANNA
Iwas in the dorm commons, studying for a big Valyrian test we had the next day, when Isabella said something that made me look up.
“It feels like an eternity ago, doesn’t it?” she asked. “That the nine of us in our group made that jump.”
A shiver ran down my spine as I stared at her. Her attention snapped to mine as if she sensed my alarm. She’d said nine. None of the other Initiates remembered that Cody and Skylar had been with us at the waterfall, not ever gave any indication that they’d had any idea they’d ever existed.
Was she hiding that she knew the truth? Or was her subconscious memory starting to recall them?
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said, her smile faltering. “I guess it feels like more of us should’ve made it.”
“You know, don’t you?” I asked, quietly. “You remember them.”
I dropped my book, stood and jerked on her arm, pulling her into my dorm and slamming the door.
“How long have you remembered?” I whispered fiercely.
Isabella frowned. “Not long. He told me not to tell anyone that I knew.”
“Who did?”
“Devon, he’s the guard I’ve been dating,” she said.
I paused. “You’re dating a guard?”
“Well—” she started, but I cut her off.
“Isabella! Do you know what this means?” I snapped.
She stared at me, half terrified, half worried.
“What?”
“Listen to me,” I said. “Very carefully.”
“I got it!”
“Are you serious? He told you?”
Isabella nodded excitedly, shutting the door to my dorm. “You’d be surprised how easy it is to get a guy to tell you whatever you want when you promise a blow—"
“Bella! Just tell me what he knows,” I said, sitting up in my armchair.
Isabella watched me with heavy indecision. “Okay, fine. But promise you won’t tell anyone else?”
“Fine, I promise,” I said.
She sighed and looked around to ensure we were alone.
“Devon told me they found something near where Skylar was last seen in the catacombs—by you,” she said. “It was a cuff link—with a raven on it.”
After classes the next day, I headed to my dorm, deep in thought.
I was pretty sure I’d just bombed a final exam, but I didn’t even care.
I couldn’t get Malakai and Everson out of my head.
If the cufflink did belong to Malakai, then that must’ve been why he was obviously threatening Everson.
There was no doubt in my mind that he’d hurt Skylar.
Everson had to do something about it, too. But would he hurt an Initiate?
I lit the wall sconce and nearly burned myself when I saw someone sitting in the corner. Melanie was there, the shadows of the unstable flame flickering across her face. “What the hell are you doing in here?” I snapped, breathless.
“Thought we would catch up,” she mused. “It has been a while.”
I growled in irritation. “Get out of my room.”
“I know what you were doing out there,” she said. “What did you find?”
“How did you know what we were doing?” I asked. “Are you having us followed?”
Melanie’s lips twisted upward malevolently. “Don’t you have too many investigations going on?”
“What are you talking about?” I snapped.
“Are you not also trying to figure out why your mother is dead and if the scary shadows are your fault or not?” she asked.
I didn’t move a muscle.
How did she know about that?
My body was shivering, as if the cold I’d felt that night had taken hold of me again. It started in my head, seeped into my eye sockets, and down my neck to my lungs. An icy vine drove through me, forcing the chill to spread.
I thought of the Aurkai room and the files they had on all the Initiates. Could that have been in there? Those would have been sealed records, making it hard to access them within the system. And this bitch had access to it?
Heat welled up from the pit of my stomach like I might breathe fire, stifling the vining veins of ice in my chest.
“Ezreal found your account of that evening to be quite interesting. He said he once met your mother here; that her death wasn’t a great loss, be it by shadows or a mentally unstable little girl,” she said, rising from the seat and nearing me with a taunting smirk.
She only narrowly dodged my fist and caught the second in her hand, her grip surprisingly strong.
“You are not bad for an Initiate, but you are still an Initiate,” she said, barely a few inches from my ear, before thrusting me back by my fist. “You are in over your head,” she sneered.
“And by the time you realize that it will be too late. How many of your little group that leaped into the falls have to vanish before you understand that?”
I was shaking.
Why were the Initiates that were missing all from our group? Did that mean they were coming for the rest of us? Riya, Eli, Ji-Han, Isabella and me?
I burned with fury, my hands shaking as I rounded the corner.
The main meeting area in the catacombs was empty, and I grabbed one of the torches from the wall sconce.
I was sick of this back-and-forth game of mind fuckery with these people.
I wanted to know what the hell they knew and I wanted to know now. I had to find Malakai.
As I moved deeper and deeper into the dungeons, the air grew colder and damper.
Finally, I heard voices in the distance, and shadowy figures in the light flickered on the stone walls.
I navigated the thick chains scattered across the floor and the twisted bars of old cells that looked as if someone had tried to pry their way out.
The voices were getting louder, and when I rounded the next corner, I knew I was close.
I steeled my nerves, certain I was being reckless, but I was mad enough to be this foolish.
I took a deep breath and noticed an odd scent permeating the corridor. It was mingled with smoke, but oddly distinct, with a metallic edge and a cooling, almost mint-like quality. As I entered an open cavity of cells, I found the source of the smoke.
The chamber was vast—a deep, hidden space far from the oversight of the guard and staff at Nightfall above.
Opulence gleamed as firelight danced across the chamber, a warm glow cast across the vaulted room that was bigger than any of the other chambers in the catacombs I’d seen.
Goblets clinked in the distance as laughter and hushed secrets filled the air, along with a decadent scent of melted chocolate and herbal smoke.
Centuries-old chandeliers hung high overhead, the glow of the candles doing little to penetrate the velvet shadows lurking in the chamber.
It was within one of those shadowy corners that I found Malakai lounging on a red velvet chaise lounge.
He was near one of the fireplaces, drinking deeply from a goblet.
His expression was commanding, his gaze unwavering as he watched me.
Heat rose in my cheeks as that night in the Raven Room flashed through my mind.
Annoyed, I shoved it away, refusing to think of it.
Several others around him took note of me, Adepts trying to get in with him. A woman was in his lap, her dark hair dangling down as she was cradled against his body. A deep smirk spread across his face as he saw me.
“Anna, how surprising—and without Blake, interesting. Draknir, offer our guest a drink,” he said, speaking to the thick, scowling man beside him. He moved across the room and lifted a goblet into his hand, and brought it to me, holding it out for me to take.
I spied the silver goblet.
“I didn’t come here for drinks,” I snarled. “I came here to speak with you. Alone.”
Malakai cocked his head to the side. “Ah. Even better.”
He pushed the woman aside, and I was shocked to see Reece lying limp on the cushions, her eyes heavily lidded.
“Reece,” I cried, rushing forward, but Draknir blocked my path, spilling the drink on my shirt.
“Get out of my way,” I said, but I stayed focused on Malakai.
He got to his feet, taking his time, unbothered by my tone. “Oh, that is right, you went through the tasks with her, did you not?”
“I swear to god, Malakai, if you hurt her—”
“What?” he said, his tone menacing and cutting me off. “What would you do?”
He moved closer, putting his hand up, signaling Draknir to move aside. He approached me head-on, unyielding in his silent assault on my space.
“What would you do, Anna?” he said, his voice low.
I didn’t move, watching the others out of the corner of my eye. I noticed Reece stir and saw a flash of blood.
“Something is happening at Nightfall,” he said. “I know you sense it.”
I scoffed. “Stop acting like you aren’t in the know. I saw you with Everson the other day. I know you're trying to keep him quiet.”
Malakai smirked. “Oh, did you, now. Everson is nothing. And while I appreciate your confidence in me, there is more going on here than even I am aware of. What is interesting about it is that, somehow, every time I get a piece of new information, you are involved.”
“What?” I asked. “What information?”
“I hear whispers, but despite that, your presence here is no less than the crashing of a tidal wave upon an ancient and long-standing society, which is not considered a good thing,” he said.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “I’m not anyone special.”
Malakai began to circle me. “I am inclined to agree, but my sources say otherwise. If we were on the same side, it might prove quite powerful. Perhaps powerful enough to figure out what happened to your missing friends.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“What do you know?” I asked, my voice low.
“First, I need your loyalty,” he said. “Then I shall tell you.”
I shook my head. “That’ll never happen.”
Malakai pursed his lips. “That is too bad.”
“Tell me what you know about them? Did you kill them?” I asked, my voice hollow.
Malakai smiled innocently. “Truly. I am flattered. Goodness, look at you. Are you going to scream for Blake? Do you think he will come to your rescue? He might, the way you have him focused on that slender waist of yours. The Blake I knew before—he would not even hear you.”
What was he talking about?
“I don’t need him,” I seethed, my body tense with adrenaline.
“Are you sure about that?”
He slowly reached out, slipping a piece of hair behind my ear. A shiver ran through my skin where he touched me, and he let out a quick, taunting laugh.
“You are like a little doe, lost in the deep dark of the woods,” he said.
His eyes flickered down to my shirt, wet with the drink Draknir spilled all over me. The tug at his lips made me glance down.
I faltered. There were bright red stains across my shirt. My skin crawled as I smelled the metallic scent clinging to me.
“What’s going on?” a soft voice called.
Reece was stirring.
“Reece,” I called. “I want you to come to me, now.”
I withdrew the daggers I had hidden within my blazer.
I saw the thick red substance in the goblet Malakai held earlier and our eyes met, but the moment they did, his trailed down my face and stopped on my neck.
A chill descended my neck and down each limb as my grip tightened on the daggers. Something was stirring within me, deep and unnatural, collecting in clustering flares of combustion that left me shaking with energy.
I felt it pouring into my hands and slipping into my blades. Displeasure emanated from him.
“This is no fun,” he sneered. “I thought you wanted to see me alone?”
I took a breath, keeping tabs on everybody in the room.
“I did, but now I want to kill you,” I said, lowering into a threatening forward stance.
Reece was awake now and looking around in shock.
She tried to get up, but one of Malakai’s lackeys grabbed her shoulder, shoving her onto the sofa.
“Let her go,” Malakai said.
Reece got up and rushed over, standing behind me.
“Grab the torch,” I told her, never taking my eyes off Malakai. “I’ll be right behind you.”
He watched me with amusement, his eyes bright with mirthless mischief.
I backed away from him, slowly, never letting my guard down.
“Do not worry, Anna. I shall make sure we get alone time soon.”
His presence clung to me long after I left the catacombs.