Chapter Twenty-Nine
Darcy
Gabriel crests the hill with a wild look on his face, his blue eyes darting from me to Nate to the scythe in my hand. I have the sudden urge to hide it behind my back, but I don’t think that would do much to salvage the situation.
The situation, which has spun wildly out of control. I wanted to do this quietly. Carefully.
I didn’t expect to have an audience.
Tater Tot hops around me, his tail wagging madly. I pat his head absently, trying to get him to calm while Aelia, inexplicably also here somehow, collapses at the stone steps of a mausoleum, dumping a bag of candy out on her lap.
None of this is going according to plan.
“Aelia. What are you doing here?” I lick my lips, panicked and trying to hide it. Aelia flicks me a Mars bar, and it sails right by my head.
“I’m here to help.” She picks through the candy in her lap, finds a bag of Skittles, then tears the top open. “Gideon knows you’re here.”
“Who is Gideon?” Nate asks.
“No one,” I answer, watching as Gabriel moves closer. I try to force a smile—try to force my shoulders to relax—but I’m playing a part I have no stage direction for.
“Hey!” My voice warbles and breaks. I swallow, and try to cobble myself together. Pretend, Darcy. “I’ve got this under control, okay? You don’t need to be here.”
Gabriel doesn’t slow, still walking toward me with a stony expression. “What the fuck are you doing here, Darcy?”
I flinch.
Nate shoves his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “What are any of us doing here, am I right?”
He chuckles, side-eyeing the scythe in my hand. I told him it was a prop for a Halloween costume and he bought it, but doubt entered the equation when Aelia came storming over the hill with a massive blade of her own.
“Darcy said she had something to show me in the graveyard. Thought it was a little suspect, it being Halloween night and all, but figured it couldn’t hurt!” Nate turns to me, looking for reassurance. “Is this some sort of secret, undead rave?”
I scratch lightly at my eyebrow. “Um—”
He bumps his shoulder against mine. “It’s cool. You can trust me. Wish you would have told me, though. ’Cause I keep glow sticks in my car.” He eyeballs the scythe again. “That thing looks super realistic. Where did you get it?”
He goes to touch the blade, but I move it out of reach. I would have avoided bringing it out altogether, if I could. But I needed to summon Gideon.
Which I would not have done if I had known Gabriel, Aelia, and Tater Tot were on their way.
Another figure appears at the top of the hill, out of breath, holding a bunch of flowers. Frank teeters between two massive stone angels, looking like he’s one gentle breeze away from rolling down the hill.
“Oh my god,” I mutter.
Aelia’s eyes narrow. “Who is that man and why does he keep following us?”
“He followed you here?” I ask.
“Ran into him at the gate,” Aelia answers. She’s finished with her Skittles and moved on to a box of Nerds.
Gabriel drops his head back, mutters a curse to the heavens, then turns and starts to stride back up the hill. “Frank!” he calls. “I told you to get in your car!”
“You don’t tell me shit,” Frank yells back, easing his way over the slope.
Gabriel grumbles something under his breath, reaching for Frank’s arm as he helps him over the uneven ground. Tater Tot nudges my thigh with his nose, and I stare down at him.
“Couldn’t have stayed home, could you? Couldn’t have kept everyone else away? Just this once?”
He drops back on his haunches, giving me a goofy, but pleased look. I love him so much it feels like my chest is overflowing with it, this strange, scraggly creature I found in the alley. The first thing that ever loved me back, scythe and all.
My eyes dart to Gabriel. He’s staring right at me with a searching expression, looking for an explanation I don’t have. I feel unzipped by that look on his face. Like he can see down to my very bones.
Next to him, Frank wheezes out an unsteady breath. I frown at the flowers in his hands.
“Are those the daisies I killed?”
He shrugs, rearranging them so they’re no longer crushed by his arms. “Didn’t see the point in throwing everything away.”
“But they’re dead,” I point out.
“Hm.” He huffs, his bony shoulders rising to his ears. “Still beautiful, though.”
The words echo like a church bell. Around and around again, clanging in the cavern my heart used to be.
Still beautiful, though.
My magic pricks awake in curiosity, and I try to silence it.
“Okay, well. Fun as this has been—” Aelia stands from the stone steps, dragging her bag of sweets over to my feet. “It’s time for you to go.”
I shake my head. “I can’t.”
“You must. Gideon knows where you are. He’ll be here any minute.” She curls her fingers around the handle of her blade and lifts it in the air. The scythe begins to hum, shadows pulling from around the tombstones to circle us both.
Nate takes a step backward. “Okay. What the fuck?”
She spins the scythe, but I grab it before she can slam it back into the ground. Her wide eyes look up at me in surprise.
“What the hell are you doing, Darcy?”
“I told you. I’m not going anywhere.”
My arm starts to shake under the push of Aelia’s magic. On the other side of the small clearing, Gabriel calls his sword with a quick roll of his wrist. His blade flashes in the melting light.
Nate’s eyes grow as wide as saucers. “Okay!” he repeats. “What the actual fuck? Does everyone have a weapon?”
Aelia blinks, then lets her arm fall. The humming stops and the shadows recede. “A scythe isn’t a weapon. Technically, it’s a farm tool.”
Nate’s gaze bounces from my scythe to Gabriel’s sword to Aelia’s scythe again. “It looks like a weapon.”
I nod at her blade. “Put that away.” I point at Gabriel. “And you put that away.”
“No,” they say in unison.
Panic is starting to claw at my throat. Gideon will be here any minute, and there are too many people. Too many opportunities for collateral damage.
I don’t want them to see.
I don’t want him to see.
“Darcy.” Gabriel’s voice is authoritative, demanding my attention. He’s all hard, brittle edges, absolutely uncompromising in his fury. This morning, I left him in bed, soft and sleepy and perfect. Now he’s looking at me like it was all a dream.
Maybe it was.
“What are you doing?” he asks.
I bite the inside of my cheek. “I need you to leave.”
He adjusts his grip on his sword. “Yeah, sweetheart. That’s not going to happen.”
“Please,” I whisper, and I watch what it does to him to hear me beg him for this. How it splinters across his face and makes his eyes go soft. “Please,” I say again, my voice breaking around the word.
He shakes his head. “I won’t leave you.”
Aelia’s eyes dart from me to him and back again. Understanding makes her mouth go slack.
“Oh, shit,” she whispers. “I thought you wanted to stay for the dog.”
I don’t say a word. I can’t look away from Gabriel. It’s just me and him and the thread that loops between us. The one I’m desperately trying to sever before it gets him hurt.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“Don’t be fucking sorry. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Nate scratches roughly at the back of his head. “Yeah. I’d actually love to know what’s going on, too.”
“I brought you here because—” My mouth goes dry, the words sticking in my throat. “I brought you here because—”
“Because Darcy is a very smart girl and has made a very good choice.” Gideon strolls around the edge of the mausoleum, his hands in the pockets of another perfectly pressed suit.
Charcoal, this time, with jet-black sunglasses to match.
“I must admit, meeting at the graveyard on Halloween feels a bit campy, but I suppose I can appreciate a bit of drama.”
He offers me a tight smile and a tilt of his head, then flicks his fingers in the direction of Nate, who might as well be one of the marble statues affixed to the top of the cemetery gates. His mouth gapes open, his eyes blown wide. I’m not entirely sure he’s breathing.
“Is this the one, then?” Gideon asks, sauntering over. He inspects Nate with his hands behind his back, like he’s a pack of hot dogs at the grocery store. One he doesn’t particularly care for. “All this commotion over a mere scrap of a soul.” He clicks his tongue. “Shameful.”
That seems to rattle something to life in Nate. “I’m sorry?”
“Nothing to apologize for, dear boy. It’s not your fault I find mortals to be unimpressive.”
Nate blinks owlishly from behind his glasses. “Is this some sort of cosplay thing? Like—are we in a LARPing situation?”
“I have no idea what that means.” Gideon turns toward me, expectant. “Shall we?”
Gabriel is suddenly between us, manhandling me behind him. “You’re not taking her.”
Gideon’s eyebrows arch in surprise. “Oh, hello.” He leans side-ways, smiling at me over Gabriel’s shoulder. “I didn’t know there would be Guardians here.”
I fist my hand in the middle of Gabriel’s shirt, ready to pull him away if I need to.
“Here I am,” Gabriel grinds out. “Off you go.”
Gideon tuts and shakes his head. “But it would be so rude of me to leave when Darcy’s called me here. Wouldn’t it, Darcy?”
Gabriel sucks in a sharp breath and the graveyard goes silent and still. Even the crows that have been bickering on the roof of the mausoleum have gone watchful.
I close my eyes, the hand in Gabriel’s shirt twisting tighter. This is the hardest part of my plan. The part where I need to tell the truth.
“Yes,” I whisper.
Gabriel turns his head to the side, and all I can make out are the lines of his profile. “Darcy? What’s he talking about?”
I tug at him until he’s facing me, then touch gently at his cheek. I hope that one day he might find the space to forgive me. If anyone could, it would be him.
He is a Guardian, after all. The very best of us.
“There is a debt that must be paid,” I say quietly. “There are people I answer to. You’ve known this from the very start. You tried to tell me, but I didn’t listen.” A sigh trembles out of me. “You were right all along.”
Something in his face fractures. “No,” he whispers.
I let myself look at him for another moment. His wild blue eyes. His dark and riotous curls. The scars that inch up over his heart. He was the last thing I expected when I came to this town.
I let go of his shirt and turn to Gideon. I try to summon all my bravery. “I’m ready now.”
Gideon smiles. “Good girl.” He holds out his hand to mine, palm up. “You’ve made the right choice. Grab your mortal and we’ll be off.”
I shake my head. “Nate won’t be joining us.”
Gideon’s smile turns gentle. Condescending. Mocking.
“Darcy,” he says gently. “You owe me a soul. A life for a life.”
I nod. “Yes. I’m giving you one,” I agree. “Mine.”