The keeper of eden, p.31
The Keeper of Eden, page 31
She flinched as he touched her right shoulder again and his jaw clenched at the deformity he could both see and feel. “Have you seen Sarina for this?”
“No,” she whispered. “Please, can you fix it.”
He probed the area as gently as he could. “It’s going to hurt.”
She nodded, steeling herself as he put his hand against the deformed joint and placed her forearm over his shoulder.
“Deep breath,” he commanded, waiting until she focused on drawing in air. “On three. One, two…”
He adjusted her shoulder with a resounding pop on the count of two so she wouldn’t tense against him. She clapped her other hand over her mouth to stifle the scream. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into his lap, pressing her face against his shirt to muffle her sobs.
“I just want to go home,” she whispered between shuddering sobs and winces of pain. “You should have left me at the Academy.”
His heart clenched at her words. That she thought of the Academy as home, even though the Director had tortured her, used her, and hurt her… the fact that he and Nathan hadn’t been able to give her any reason or time to consider anywhere else home.
He reached for one of the bags they had brought with them and found a medical kit.
“Tell me what happened.” She drew back at the anger in his voice, shaking her head. “I’m not asking, December.”
She stared at him, fear shining back at him, like he was a predator about to snap, and she would be his next victim. He started to clean what wounds he could, as gently as possible.
“I was on my run to the temple when Tanner jumped me.” He listened and waited for her to finish. “I found something in a book—some sort of rune—that I remembered seeing there. He took the papers. Called me a sacrificial lamb.”
She shuddered, and he sensed there was more to it that she wasn’t telling him and he waited for what came next. But she was done, the memories making her quiet once more and it was enough to tell him what he needed to know.
“How did you get away?”
She sniffled as she pulled the glass knife from a sheath. Blood covered the blade when she held it out to him. He let out a breath. “He took the others.”
He ran his knuckle down her cheek.
“I’m going to find Nathan and we’re going to fix this,” he said. Her eyes widened and she started to shake her head.
“You can’t,” she said, pleading with him, pulling away. “Please, don’t. I don’t want you two to get hurt, too.”
“Don’t worry about us,” he said.
“But the trials…”
“The trials don’t matter, Little Lamb. Nathan and I can handle ourselves.” He wrapped a blanket around her. “I’m going to get you home.”
Her eyes raised to meet his as he continued, “I’m not talking about the Academy. We are going home together. You, me, Nathan. For as long as you’ll have us. I’m going to find a way to get away from Ahren, and then we can go wherever we want.”
A tear spilled over her lower lids, and she wiped it away before he pulled her closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, and even though he knew she must be hurting, it felt like the biggest gift in the crazy world of the Covenant.
“Do you want me to help you to the bath house? Or to change?”
“No,” she said, her voice tight with pain.
“You should try to get some rest,” he said. She nodded against him and he helped her slide her beneath the blankets, tucking them around her. He turned off the lights and was nearly to the door when she called out.
He paused, meeting her gaze. “Be careful, Wayden.”
“I’ll be back before you even know I’m gone,” he promised before slipping from the room.
Gods help anyone who got in his way, because he was not in the mood for empathy.
He found Nathan in the sparring tower, beating a dummy until it broke.
The Covenant was quiet, which he thought odd for the time of night. He supposed everyone was getting ready or resting for the trials.
“What’s happened?” Nathan demanded, taking one look at Wayden’s face and the bag hanging from his shoulder.
“Tanner has crossed the line,” he snarled angrily. He thought of all the ways he was going to make Tanner pay on the way here. If he’d learned anything from Amara slipping through his grasp though, it was to end it sooner rather than later. “He cornered and beat December on her run.”
“What?” Nathan said, going rigid. “Where is she?”
“She’s sleeping.”
Nathan pulled his shirt back over his head. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find him, make him tell me where the Codex is, then I’m going to kill him.”
Painfully. He just needed to find Tanner first.
“Are you coming?” Wayden asked He turned on his heel and marched for the door.
He didn’t particularly make it a habit to find out the daemon’s habits, but he knew that Tanner usually hung out in the courtyard with his entourage into the early hours of the morning, but he hadn’t seen any sign of him when he came here.
He marched straight for the only Acolyte he saw. The boy looked up and panicked. Nathan grabbed him before he could bolt, putting a knife to his throat. The male squeaked and went still.
Wayden nearly laughed. How this Acolyte made it this far in a cult full of would-be assassins for hire…
“Where’s Tanner?” Wayden demanded.
“L-library!”
“Kill him,” Wayden commanded, looking to Nathan.
“We can’t just go around killing people,” Nathan said. Wayden shrugged.
“I’m not opposed to the idea,” he answered. Nathan shook his head and whispered something in the Acolyte’s ear that had the boy going pale. He released him and he ran off before any other questions were asked.
Wayden was surprised to see that no one had been posted outside the library doors as a look out, though he doubted the truth of the fae’s words. Tanner may be a cocky bastard, but he wasn’t completely stupid. He had risen to the rank of Apprentice, after all.
Nathan pushed open the door.
There were no Acolytes immediately inside the door, waiting to get the jump on them. In fact the library was silent. More silent than even a library should be. Wayden reached for two blades, the familiarity of the handles bringing him a layer of confidence. He wasn’t about to take any chances.
He glanced up at Nathan and saw the same concentration and concern staring back at him. Nathan locked the door, and they separated to opposite sides of the library.
Even after ten years away from the army, he slipped into that quiet state he’d been taught, controlling his breathing to prevent excess noise, and softened his already quiet steps. He tightened his fingers around the knife handle as he stepped to the end of the shelves, checking the aisle with each step.
The library was eerie, the flickering lights only reaching so far down the aisles.
Across the library, he saw Nathan mirroring his movements. Further and further they searched, until they lost sight of the door and the lights became sparse.
Wayden paused, peering through the shadows.
Something was wrong. He had no clue what, but the feeling hung around like a bad smell. Each shadow could hide a new danger if he wasn’t careful.
Voices floated through the air. Quiet, hushed…ethereal. Wayden’s palms grew slick against the knife handles as he turned the corner, following the sounds.
There, in the back at the end of the aisle, Tanner knelt on the ground, his wings tucked in close about his body. He was simply…sitting with his back to them.
Wayden caught Nathan’s gaze and gestured for him to move in.
His movements were silent, but his heart pounded in his chest. There was no way he could mask the sound, but Tanner didn’t move. Didn’t even act like they were there.
Something was very, very wrong.
He stepped behind Tanner, drawing his head back by his hair and held the dagger to his throat while Nathan stepped up beside him.
Too late, Wayden saw the candles flickering in front of Tanner. The rune surrounding the candles flared and Tanner’s body turned into a limp pile of bones and flesh on the ground, the skin turning gray and withered. The body fell backward, eyes open in an eternal stare as the illusion fell away.
The face was that of the Acolyte Tanner killed for yielding that day in the sparring ring.
Wayden scrambled backwards with a curse.
“What is this?” Nathan hissed.
“Dark blood magic,” he spat, looking around. The rune seemed to have set off a chain reaction, slowly crawling up the shelves and spreading out. A trapping rune, triggered the moment that he crossed the rune around the Acolyte’s body—they were caged.
“The great Reaper of Dhracora and you couldn’t even sense a simple trapping rune?”
Wayden jerked his head up, looking for the source of Tanner’s voice, but the daemon was well-hidden. Tanner’s laugh reverberated through the library. “I told you once before, Reaper, that you didn’t belong here. You can’t possibly contend with my power, and you certainly can’t contend with the Masters. Did you enjoy my handiwork on your Little Lamb, by the way?”
Hands shaking, Wayden clenched his eyes closed as rage dug into every fiber of his body. He was going to kill the daemon and he was going to do it slowly, but for now he had to focus on finding him.
“Did you miss the part where the lamb has teeth?” Wayden said, his voice deadly calm.
Tanner scoffed. “Maybe she did before you tucked her safely into bed. What was it she said to you before you left?” Tanner paused for effect and Wayden’s blood drained from his face. He would have noticed someone hanging around within earshot…It was impossible…Wasn’t it?
Wayden searched the shadows, the need for violence growing with each pump of blood through his veins. “Oh, that’s right. ‘Be careful, Wayden’…how sweet…but she didn’t put up much of a fight.”
“He’s lying,” Nathan said, but the panic staring back at Wayden told him that Nathan didn’t even believe his own words.
Wayden shook his head. “No, he’s not.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“Because that’s exactly what she said,” Wayden admitted quietly.
Tanner’s laugh echoed around him. “And what was it you answered her, Reaper?”
When he spoke, Wayden’s voice shook with rage, “Where is she.”
Wayden turned on the spot, his gaze searching out every shadow within the library. If they could hear Tanner, then he had to be close.
“I’ll make you a deal, Reapers. If you can find me, I’ll take you to the Codex and let you see her before she dies,” Tanner promised, the sound of his smile evident. “That’s what you wanted, right? For me to take you to them?”
“What game are you playing at?” Nathan demanded, spinning in circles as he searched for Tanner up and down the aisle ways.
Wayden felt a breeze against his right cheek, but that was impossible…there was nothing but a blank stone wall with no gaps. He squinted as he reached out to feel the wall. It was rough stone, hard beneath his fingertips. He pulled back. But there was the breeze once more. Straight ahead of him.
He closed his eyes. The hum of magic coiled through his bones. Something much more powerful than he had ever produced. He pushed against the stone, still feeling that breeze against his face, trying to ignore Tanner’s baiting. If the daemon had wanted to kill them, he could have tried already. No, he wanted to drag out his sick little game.
“I should thank the weakling though,” Tanner said, his voice conversational. “If she wasn’t such a book-rat, then I never would have found the missing papers I need that’s going to seal her own death. She was so busy looking for information on the Codex that she didn’t even realize what type of knowledge she had access to.”
Nathan had disappeared and Wayden couldn’t even hear him anymore.
“Your little girlfriend will serve as my blood sacrifice so I can rip open the Veil after I take the Codex, I will be the one to free Mendax from his prison, and I will be hailed as a hero,” Tanner continued. "Have you ever tried your hand at blood magic, Reaper? It's exhilarating the things you can do with a bit of blood."
Wayden swept the books off the desk in frustration.
“You don’t even know what’s been in front of you this entire time, do you?” Tanner taunted. “You’re a disgrace of a Rune mage.”
His words struck something and Wayden did understand it. It was like the rune he had encountered in the desert their first day. But this one was much more powerful, able to mimic the feel of solid materials and trick the brain into believing it was real.
He opened himself up to the magic and reached out his hand once more expecting to feel the rough stone, but then his hand keep going.
“Wayden, don’t!”
His eyes flew open and he fell at Tanner’s feet.
The daemon cursed and scrambled backward. Wayden stood up and slammed him into the wall, bouncing his head off the stone.
“You’re forgetting one thing… I’m a godsdamned Reaper.”
Fear flashed through the daemon’s eyes, and he stopped moving as soon as Wayden shoved a knife through the membrane of both wings into the soft stone behind it, pinning them in place and thrust another knife against his throat.
Wayden gripped the bone of Tanner’s wing. Flying was everything to a daemon. Even with accelerated healing, the bones would never set right once broken and the daemon would never fly again.
“Let me go and I’ll take you to her!” Tanner screamed as Wayden added pressure and the tendons pulled tight.
“Double cross me, and I will ensure that these never hold you up again,” Wayden said with a snarl. “Let my brother through.”
“No.”
Wayden increased the pressure even further and the knife blade began ripping through the membrane.
Tanner gritted his teeth. “Dimittis.”
Wayden recognized the rune-words: Release.
The wall of stone disappeared and Nathan stumbled forward.
He started for Tanner. “You—”
“Leave him,” Wayden warned, holding Tanner’s glare. “Seems we’ve reached a mutually beneficial understanding.”
Tanner glared at both of them as Wayden continued, “Isn’t that, right?”
Tanner mumbled something that not even his hearing could pick up. Nathan looked ready to rip his head off at a moment’s notice.
“I don’t like this,” Nathan grumbled.
“I don’t like it either, but what choice do we have right now? He can lead us to the December.”
“So he says. What if he’s lying?”
“What if he’s not?” Wayden countered. He had never been around Tanner much, and there was little doubt that the daemon talked too much, but he had never heard him tell an outright lie
“I’m standing right here, assholes,” Tanner snapped, wincing as the knives slid further through his wings. Nathan stalked toward him, careful to stay out of arm's reach.
“Why should we believe you?” he snarled.
Tanner groaned.
“The catacombs are a maze. If you kill me, you’ll never make it, and your friend will die. You need me alive.”
“Your word is next to useless to me,” Nathan said.
Wayden threw his bag toward the ground and reached inside, grabbing the length of rope.
“Put his hands behind his back and tuck his wings between them.
“You can’t—” Tanner started.
“We can, and we will,” Nathan said.
Nathan grabbed the knives and pulled them free, twisting Tanner around and grinding his face in the stone as the daemon cursed. He wrenched his wings together before he could flare them out and twisted his arms around them and tied the rope around his wrists quickly.
What if the daemon was lying? What if he had mentioned December simply because he knew it would catch Wayden’s attention, and he had a lucky guess on what they had said to one another? But everything screamed Tanner was telling the truth. Or most of it.
He couldn’t imagine what December was going through right now. Which is why they needed to find her.
“Lead the way, daemon,” Wayden spat, giving Tanner a shove.
Chapter forty-three
Nathan
Nathan glared at the back of Tanner’s head while the daemon limped along, leading them through the catacombs.
Wayden may be all right with following him to an unknown fate, but Nathan would be damned if he wasn’t prepared to take the daemon down at the slightest hint of betrayal. It was only a matter of time. He kept one hand near his blades; the other tightened around the crystal-powered torchlight.
Some corridors led to dead-ends. Some of them led to caverns. Most of them were nothing more than tight spaces with runes marked along their walls. Nathan suspected Tanner was trying to get them lost.
Rats scurried about, not caring about their presence, squeaking as they crisscrossed in front of them like a macabre parade. Nathan shuddered. It reminded him of the Arena. He had woken up too many times with rats scurrying along his body searching for any crumbs he may have left behind.
“We’ve been walking for hours, daemon,” Wayden said. “Where are you taking us?”
Tanner snorted. “Did you really think the Catacombs would be easy to get through? Not even all the Masters know of their existence,” he said with an eye roll.
Nathan raised an eyebrow. Did he expect them to believe him? He wanted to grab December and leave this godsforsaken hellhole. The tricky part would be getting out of the contract he’d agreed to with Ahren because if he had any doubts of the vampire’s intentions, he no longer did.
Nathan’s gaze swung side to side as voices crawled from cracks in the ceiling to drip down the walls like a symphony of grating screams and voices that were barely there. The runes scribbled into the wall grew increasingly haphazard, and some looked frantically drawn, though he couldn't understand any of it.
