Court of Nightfall (4 page)

The inside of the Cessna smelled like my dad. His cologne. A musky, minty scent that made my eyes burn with unshed tears. I ran my hand over the control panels. I knew this plane better than I knew my own bedroom. I'd spent countless hours flying in it with my dad, learning what every light and button meant.

I could fly it myself, but everything inside me had gone numb, so I let Jax take the controls. I still had so many questions, so many things that didn't make sense about this night, but I only had the voice for one in that moment.

"Where are we going?"

He didn't take his eyes off the controls as we taxied down the short runway my dad had built. "Castle Vianney. In New York."

I knew where Castle Vianney was. Everyone did, even though no one had ever been there except those chosen for Vianney Academy or the Four Orders. It was on Vianney Island, what was once Wards Island, and was kept under lock and key by strict orders of the Pope. "Why are we going there?"

Nothing made sense anymore. The world had turned inside out and had taken everything I'd loved and destroyed it.

My stomach dropped as the plane left the ground and became airborne. I'd always loved this feeling. Relished it. But tonight, there was no joy, not even in flight.

"Everything will be explained when we get there. I…" he finally looked at me, his eyes softening. "I'm sorry, Scarlett. I'm so sorry. I can't tell you anything more. I'm not allowed. But, I promise, you'll understand soon. Can you trust me? Just for a little while longer?"

His dark eyes pleaded with me, but my heart remained unmoved. I trusted no one, I realized. Even my parents had betrayed me. Lied to me. I couldn't give him my trust, not anymore, but I could give him some time. How else would I get my questions answered? He was my only link to discovering the truth.

I reached down and felt the bulge in my shoe, making sure the chip was still there. Not the only link, then. I had one other place to look for answers.

I closed my eyes and the weight of the day smothered me in darkness.

***

His back is to me, the tall man with broad shoulders, a black cloak billowing around him.  Woods surround us, dark, foreboding, the trees towering over us with long shadows born of the night. He walks forward, and I run to him, but the woods stretch before me, putting him forever out of reach.

The air around me is thick, heavy, coating my lungs, making it hard to breathe. Dead leaves fall from the trees as I run past them, catching the moonlight on their frail brown skin.

The man before me stops. I run faster, knowing I must reach him, knowing he is important, but again the woods trick me.

I trip and look down, expecting to find a root has caught my foot.

It is not a root, but a hand. A skeletal hand attached to a decaying body. I scream, stumble forward, only to land on more dead things. I realize that what I thought was ground piled in leaves is really piles of corpses, eyes forever open, staring at me with accusations unspoken but heard nonetheless.

I keep running, trying to escape the death around me. I arrive in a clearing where the corpses form a hill of dead bodies. The man in black stands at the base. On top is a throne, a giant gleaming thing made of midnight, with a blood red banner over it.

Sitting on the throne is a little girl in a white lace dress, her long blond hair parted into braids with white ribbon. She's playing with a giant glowing ball. Our eyes meet. She smiles, but something isn't right with that smile. Her teeth. Two of them protrude, too long, too sharp. She holds the white glowing ball out to me.

The man, his back still turned to me, speaks, his voice filling the clearing. "Choose!"

The girl's voice repeats. "Choose."

Together, they chant, "Choose."

I don't understand. "Who are you?" I ask, but my voice is carried on the wind and dies before it reaches him.

I run to the man, grip his shoulders, turn him to me…

***

I woke with a start, my head still filled with the voices of that man and that girl. The plane hit the pavement of a runway. That was what woke me. We landed.

I looked out the window at my first glimpse of Castle Vianney.

I climbed out of the Cessna—out of my father's plane, out of the last familiar piece of my life—and walked into a world that blended the past and the future into something new. The grounds, the landscape, the castle that towered over the small city of Vianney, looked like a piece of history transplanted into the modern age.

Jax saw me staring as we walked through the airstrip toward a parking garage. "The castle itself was rebuilt from the remains of a castle in France. After the Attack on Diamond Head and before the Nephilim War it was transported here piece by piece."

"Why not just build something new?"

"They say the building itself holds ancient magic, though I suspect what the ancient's thought of as magic is mostly Angel Technology. I don't know if that's true or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. Strange things have been known to happen in the castle."

"Why am I here? Where are we going?" My clothing had stuck to me with blood and sweat and God only knew what else. My hair hung in clumps around my sore, bruised head, the normal pale blonde stained red.

Despite all of that, I couldn't pull my focus from the world around me. I marveled at how it all looked in color, at how much I had missed with just Evie translating my black and white existence.

And I wished more fiercely than anything that I could share this with my parents. This new awareness. But I shoved that aside. I would pull out that pain when I was finally alone and had a moment to break down. Because once I started crying, I feared I would never stop.

And there were still answers to uncover.

"We're going straight to the Council. I tried to argue you needed rest first, but they want to talk to you. With the weapon missing, it's a matter of global security at this point."

I glanced at Jax, this boy I'd grown up with, the boy I'd run my first lemonade stand with as a child. My first crush, my only real friend. His jaw was set in a hard line and he walked with purpose. He walked like a soldier. And he looked like a stranger.

"And why am I here? You didn't answer that."

He stopped and finally looked at me, and for a moment a flicker of the boy I knew flashed in his eyes. "Because this is the only place you'll be safe, Scarlett." He reached for my hand and held it. "I failed your parents. I can't fail you too. I can't lose the last person I love."

Earlier today those words would have swelled my heart to bursting. Now, they fell at my feet like a dead thing. I said nothing in response and followed him through the parking structure, to a black car. I looked around and realized all the cars in this section were black, with U.F.I. plates.

"You work for the U.F.I.?" I asked, not even surprised anymore.

"I'm a Teutonic Knight. A Guardian. Like my father was, once. I work for the Four Orders under the authority of the Pope. The U.F.I. just handles the paperwork."

Everything, all of it, my whole life had been a lie. "Your father didn't die in a car crash, did he?"

I got into the dark sedan and slammed the door shut. Jax started the engine and pulled out. "No, he didn't." His face looked haunted, and I could tell he wouldn't elaborate.

So I didn't ask for more. In that moment, as calloused as it sounds, I didn't care about his father while my own father's body was left to rot on our lawn.

The sights of the town blurred past me. Storefronts and small homes with big yards, a downtown area with street vendors set up on cobblestone streets. Ever-glowing lights lined the walking paths, and a steel sculpture of a cross hovered over an intersection. Once again, that mix of old Europe and Angel technology created something surprisingly beautiful. Most shops were closed at this time of night. We'd been flying for three hours. I reached up to tap on my e-Glass, but remembered it wasn't there.

Jax caught my movement. "I'll pick you up a new one. I know you need it to help with colors."

Yes. Colors. That wasn't true anymore, but I knew I couldn't tell him that, though I didn't know why. "Thanks." I would need it for other reasons, though. I'd need it to review the chip I had, and to keep tabs on the outside world. They'd of course bug whatever device they gave me, but I could override that easily enough and make it my own—and bring my Evie back. I'd spent too much time custom-coding her to lose all of that now.

We drove onto Vianney Bridge, a drawbridge, currently open. It was the only way into the castle, which was surrounded by a moat and various rivers separating it from Manhattan and Queens. We passed through the giant open gates, covered in engravings of knights. The grey stone façade of the castle gleamed in the moonlight with chips of obsidian, giving it a beautifully ominous feel. It stood in a square with four towers, one at each corner, rising high into the sky.

At the end of the moat, two guards stood to either side of the castle entrance, dressed in light armor with a "V" crest on the right side of their chest and a Celtic cross on the left. Jax held out his hand and showed them his ring, something I hadn't noticed him slip on but that had the crest of Teutonic Knights, wings in red and black. They nodded and he ushered me into the castle courtyard.

A gentle breeze blew the hair off my face, cooling my fevered skin as we walked down a path surrounded by trees and gardens. "This is where many students come to walk, hang out, read or study," he said. We only saw two students this late at night. Both had on black cloaks with the V crest embossed in gold and silver thread on their chests and their back. "Those are Initiates," he said. "Once they are accepted to one of the Four Orders they'll receive the uniforms for their Order during their training."

"The Four Orders… Teutonic, Inquisition, Hospitaller and Templar, right?" I asked, recalling what I'd learned from the news. They used to be secret, but in our modern world it was hard to keep secret societies, so the Orders had 'come out of the closet' in a manner of speaking, and owned up to their role in the government. However, just about everything they did remained shrouded in shadows and mystery. Knowing they existed was one thing, knowing what they did under the cover of their Order was another thing all together.

"Exactly," Jax said. "The Inquisition ferret out rule breakers and enforce the rules. Hospitaller is the Order for healers and medical research. Teutons, my Order, are the soldiers, the guardians and protectors of the innocent. The last and most difficult to join are the Templars." He looked at me, his eyes holding deep sadness. "Your parents were Templars."

I knew this, or had suspected this, hadn't I? But hearing him confirm it shook me to my core. Templars were said to be dead, killed off hundreds of years ago, and most believed that true. But there were a few who remained over the ages, living lives in hiding until they could rebuild what they'd lost. They were the protectors and keepers of secrets, the inner circle that knew things no one else did.

It was these secrets that killed my family. It was these secrets I had to unravel.

Jax led me into the castle, with high ceilings and walls covered in ancient paintings and tapestries depicting great battles. Torches lit the hallways, but rather than fire, they contained a different kind of light, something that didn't make smoke and glowed blue rather than red—Angel light. Old and new. Ancient and modern. The past and the future.

My body ached. I felt tired and hungry, though when I thought of food nothing sounded remotely appetizing. A deep thirst dug a hole in my gut, but I ignored it. I studied my hands, still cut, still bloody, but nowhere near as destroyed as they had been. I remembered seeing my own bone protrude through the gashes. Now, though they were deep enough to show flesh, they would heal. They were healing.

We wound through passages in the castle and stopped in front of a tapestry. Jax moved it to the side and took out a key that looked as old as the stones. He pushed it into a lock in the wall, unlocking a secret door.

I hesitated, not sure I wanted to explore the bowels of the castle in the middle of the night. Jax held out his hand to me, his eyes begging me to trust him. "I know I lied to you, Scarlett. I know you don't trust me right now, and that's okay. But please know that our relationship has never been a lie. My feelings for you, even the ones I… I haven't been able to express, they have never been a lie. I won't let anything happen to you. I swear it on my life."

I took his hand. What choice did I have? I had to believe that the boy I grew up with was somewhere inside the soldier I didn't know. I had to believe that something in my life had been real. I couldn't deal with the alternative.

It hurt to hold his hand, but I didn't pull away and neither did he as we wound down a spiral staircase to what felt like hell.

In reality, we found ourselves in a large room with a raised platform to one end with five great stone seats forming a semi-circle above us.

In the middle seat sat an old man with a long grey beard and grey hair. He wore silver glasses and carried a carved walking stick with a crystal globe on the top. His black robes hung from sharp shoulders and had the V symbol on one side of his chest and a red cross, the Templar symbol, on the other.

Jax pointed to the woman to his right. "She's the Head of Hospitaller."

The woman looked to be in her early forties, Spanish, with cold, calculating dark eyes. Her A-line dark, straight hair framed her face sharply.

Next to her sat a man with a hawk nose, dark, squinty eyes, and a smile that made my skin crawl. "That's the Head of the Inquisition," Jax whispered. "Stay away from him if you can."

He didn't need to tell me twice.

To the left sat the Head of the Teutons, a young-looking blonde woman who held a sword and wore armor similar to the men at the drawbridge.

"Next to her is the Second Templar. The Chancellor in the middle is actually the Head of Templar, but there must be five council members always, so his second acts as the fifth."

The Chancellor turned to look at me, and the Council quieted down. To our left and right stood an unmoving line of guards, from the Teutonic Order, based on their armor. I couldn't decide if this made me feel safer, or more at risk.

"We bring this gathering to order," said the Chancellor in a commanding British voice. "We have come to hear witness and testimony of Scarlett Night on the death of Marcus and Violet Night and the theft of the weapon the Nights were tasked to protect."

Jax stepped forward. "I have brought her as instructed," he said in a formal tone.

The Head of his order nodded. "What's become of the weapon?" she asked, sitting forward on her chair.

The Inquisition Head gave her an irritated look. "It is the Chancellor's job to inquire, Gabriella. Can you not go through one meeting without speaking out of turn?"

The Chancellor pounded his walking stick on the ground. "Silence." He turned to the man. "And it is
also
my job to correct anyone on this council who speaks out of turn, Ragathon."

Ragathon bowed his head, but his eyes did not look contrite.

The Chancellor turned his eyes to me, and then they were all staring at me, each looking as if they would devour me with their questions. "Tell us everything that happened tonight."

With the fewest words possible, I recounted everything I could remember of the evening, editing out details I didn't feel entirely comfortable sharing. The chip I took. Shooting at the weapon. The man I vaguely remember seeing. The way I controlled that soldier and got him to kill the others and himself.

"And what happened to the weapon?" the Chancellor asked.

"I don't know. I was injured and lost consciousness, as I said. When I woke, the crystal box was empty."

Ragathon's head shot up. "The weapon was removed?"

"Yes."

"Where did it go?" Gabriella asked.

"I have no idea," I said truthfully.

The Head of Hospitaller, who had so far been silent, spoke. "Can you describe the exact details of the casing? What it looked like when you woke up? What was around it? Where it was? Anything you can remember, no matter how small or inconsequential it may seem."

I'd already said everything I was willing to, but I repeated myself. "It was in the back of my parents' truck in front of our house. The door was open. The case had been shattered, crystal pieces lying everywhere." I didn't tell them about the blood, because I couldn't have lost that much blood and survived. And my current wounds would not account for the amount of bloodshed I saw. Though they would find out if they had a team there. I thought for a moment and decided on the partial truth. "There was also blood everywhere. My blood. My parents' blood. Probably some blood from the soldiers my parents killed before dying. It was dark, so it was hard to tell."

Ragathon scoffed. "It's not that hard to see blood. Even in the dark."

"With all due respect," Jax said. "Scarlett is color blind. For her it would be hard to tell. She can't see any colors at all."

Ragathon ignored him and turned to the Chancellor. "With all due respect, Chancellor," though with the way his voice sneered, I did not hear any respect, "this does not add up. There's no way anyone could have penetrated the… box. Nor could the Nephilim have returned. I do not think the girl is telling the full truth."