Dark Seraphine (The Seraphine Trilogy) (40 page)

“What has my little flower decided to do?” Seth whispers to me as we stand under the silver light, holding on to each other.

Clasping my hands behind his neck, I move his head down to my lips and say, “She’s going to assassinate the head alchemist.”

* * *

Hours pass before the Great Hall empties. And then I’m inside the hallways of the alchemist’s house, the place where I trained to earn Gabriel’s wing medallion. Dressed as the Caducean warrior Desmond, I creep along the hallways hidden by the darkness.

Months of my life have been spent inside these walls
,
so I know this floor plan like it’s one of my body parts. For safety reasons, no one outside the Caducean tribe is allowed to enter the training barracks. Anyone caught breaking in could be sentenced to death. The key to the head alchemist’s room will only work for those touched by the Archangel Gabriel’s blood.

I reach Mabry's
chambers
. For months, I've studied his schedule, so I know he lies sleeping now. Inside his spacious room, candlelight illuminates the form in his bed. He sleeps soundly, which is kind of odd for someone in such a powerful position.

I repeat his last words, the ones where he said my parents needed to die for the cause, over and over in my head.
Even so, my
heart beats loud and fast. It screams for me to reconsider my plan, but tears at my mind when I think of betraying Seth. Terrified doesn’t begin to touch the way my skin crawls and stomach lurches.

My short, but loud breaths almost give me away. I raise my hands above my head,
my mother’s Celtic
dagger aimed over his chest. The form in the bed shuffles a tad just before it bolts upright to a sitting position.

But the person staring back at me isn’t Mabry. It’s Keta.

I gasp. A thousand thoughts rush through me, leaving me dizzy. From in the shadows beside the bed, Carl steps into the light. He carries a fireblade and aims it
s red tip straight at my chest; but
the only thing I see is my best friend's face.

"I'm sorry, Des. I couldn't let you do this," Keta says, shuffling out of the bed.

“It’s over, Desmond. We know what you’re planning to do,” Carl says. So Keta hasn’t told him everything. He still thinks I’m the boy who trained with him over the past six months. I glance around, wondering when the head alchemist will enter the room.  “Don’t worry, I told Mabry to meet me at the practice fields outside of town. I wanted to confront you myself first.”

I lower my dagger and
strengthen my resolve.
None
of the other boys made it across the fire lake. I was the only one. Tonight
,
I pull from the same strength. It
fuels my courage, giving me the guts to move on with my plans.

“I knew I should’ve taken
both
you and your sorry brother out when I had the chance.” Behind me, Levy steps into the room. Another boy stands beside him. “That's right. I know the assassin's secret. The farm girl who fooled us all into thinking she was one of us. You got sloppy, though, Desi-mond. I saw you leave with your bitchy little friend after the ceremony
,
and I followed you.”

Keta
and I exchange nervous glances. Carl looks surprised too. Sweat covers my palms.

“You're no better than your sorry traitor father. Mabry wasn’t the one who l
ifted that spell. He's too weak-
minded to pull off something like that. You want to know who lifted the barrier? I did. Your father should never have had protection like that in the first place.”

My body tenses just b
efore my muscles start to quiver
. The candlelight
casts
shadows
over
Levy's eyes, making him look devious. As he stands here killing me with his words, I almost expect him to become the monster I suspect he has always been. But then, I’m a demon slayer. Getting rid of monsters is what I do.

“You went through all that trouble, the pain, the torture. Things only men should worry with in the first place. And just so you could hear about how I brought your sorry father down,” Levy says. “And you thought I was all looks and no brains. Poor mixed up servant thing. I don’t even know what to call you.”

Keta moves toward me. I recoil a tad. I’m still not
sure how I feel about her.
Levy’s words root me to the floor as if I'm paralyzed like grandfather. I don't think I’ll ever be able to move again.

In one night three people I care about more than life itself have betrayed me. And in one final thought
,
I decide I will stay true to my vows, I will protect grandfather, my brother,
and
my mother's memory.

“You weren’t supposed to tell this pompous ass
hole,” Keta says to Carl. Levy shoots her a hard look. Suddenly
, I'm more afraid
for her than myself.

“You told me not to say anything to him. So I didn't,” Carl says to Keta.

“Don't worry. Mabry's safe. He knows that I’ll handle this in my own way,” Levy says, and I realize how much I hate his voice. “He sent me to handle our little assassin who wants to be a man. So handle her like a man we'll do.”

“You are such a coward. There isn't a man in here that couldn't take you down,” Keta says, before she pays any mind to me warning her as best I can, before Carl can react to Levy's fist, balled up so tightly that it shakes.

And then Levy moves over to Keta so fast no one even notices what happened until she lies on the floor beside Mabry's bed, sobbing, her nose gushing blood.

“What the hell, Levy,” Carl says, dropping his fireblade and rushing over to Keta.

Watching Levy hit my best friend ignites the dynamite inside me. I charge at Levy who doesn't see me coming and send a swift kick straight at his nose. A crack echoes in M
abry's lunch room sized bedroom,
and Levy stumbles backward, cursing.

“You broke my nose, bitch!”Levy yells.

“Is that right? Good. Now you match my best friend,” I say. The boy beside him, the one I recognize as a Levy gr
oupie, moves toward
me.

“Don’t touch her. I got this one,” Levy says to the guard headed my way.

A broken nose doesn't do enough damage, not for someone as vile and vicious as Levy. So I send another foot in his direction except this time he grabs my ankle and swings me into the metal bed post. My back cracks, pain paralyzes me, and my legs go numb.

Carl mo
ves toward him, but the boy who
came with Levy attacks him this time. An insane part of me wants to laugh at Carl
,
who is always much better at cracking jokes than he is with fighting. But anger can turn even the calmest person into a beast. I know this better than most people do.

Le
vy isn't finished with me yet
. He straddles my body, pulls me up by the collar, and punches me in the nose, the eyes, my mouth. Five blows later, I don't feel as though I have a face any longer, and my legs still won't move. Seth had better be happy about the vial I stole from the artifact room just before I came in here. Something has to be worth this beating I'm taking.

“I have to say you're a lot tougher than your traitor mother. She was so weak when I strangled her. Begging for me to spare your life, hanging on to that dried up purple flower her husband gave her.
Pathetic. Maybe you can deliver a fresh one to her after you get judged and sent to Hell.”

Levy smacking around my best friend and beating the crap out of me are bad things. But Levy confessing that he’s the one who murdered my mother ignites the fire demon trapped inside me all these past years. Back throbbing with pain, I focus on the power given me by Gabriel. I shove Levy away from me and straight into Carl
,
who has just finished taking out the groupie.

Even though Carl fights like a true warrior, the evil inside Levy makes him vicious. He turns on his best friend, wrenches Carl's fireblade from his hands, shoves him against the wall, and drives the fiery tip into his chest.

Keta's screams fill the room
and tear through my heart
. Levy spins around, a wicked grin stretching across his face. But crazed Levy doesn't expect me to throw the Celtic knives, the ones that once belonged to my mother. I
toss
them across the room and watch them sink into his midsection. The knives pierce all the way into his gut. At first, I think he isn't going to die. Didn't someone once tell me that cowards are gutless? Hissing and gasping, he claws at the air around him. His body thuds to the floor just as Carl slumps in Keta's arms.

Levy’s dying eyes stare at me as I slide
across the fl
oor toward him. When I reach his body
, I remove the dried rose from my pocket
, the one
grandfather saved all those years. The same one mother held while the monster lying before me squeezed the life from her. I pull Levy's jaws apart and stuff the drie
d flower into
his mouth.

“So when you get to Hell, you can tell Bernael that the assassin sends her love in this rose. Tell him he didn't stop me three years ago. He only made me that much better.” I position one hand on top of his head and the other one below his jaw. And then I slam his mouth shut, holding it closed until his lifeless eyes stare back at me, glaring even in his death.

Behind me, Keta throws herself across Carl's
motionless
body and sobs. “I love you, Carl. Don’t leave me. Please, please don’t do this to me.” He lifts a hand up to her face just before his body slackens.

Keta cradles Carl, her secret lover, rocking until his body goes still. I can't help but wonder when my heart drifted so far away from my best friend, a girl who is a sister to me. I move over to where she sits holding Carl and reach for her hand.

“Don't. Please don't ever touch me again. He kept your secret safe. It died with
them
both.
Just get away. Go!” Keta hisses and glares at me with eyes that will haunt me even in death.

I ease back toward the door, a knot of something clogging my throat. Keta screams. Carl’s body lies still in her arms. I tremble and force my feet to stay away from her. I can do nothing but offer her memories now, more pain than I’d ever wish for anyone. I turn, remove my knives from Levy's gut, and ease out of Mabry’s room. I dare not take a glance back at Keta, or I’ll throw myself at her feet for sure.

Outside the room, stomping feet head toward me. All the commotion has awakened the rest of the house. My body is too numb to think. All that I planned has gone wrong and my best friend, the girl I love more than
anything
, dismissed me in the most devastating way ever. Seth. Once I find him, I can give him the vial and rest in his arms.

First
,
I have to deal with the other boys, my housemates. Most Caduceans are still out celebrating, so there can't be too many of them heading my way. I position mother’s Celtic knives
and wait, sweat beads prickling across my forehead
. I may not have a lavender rose to remember me by, but I have a hellacious uppercut that’ll work in its place. And it does work for a brief moment. Filled with raging hate, I slice, wound, and sever the limbs of the first three warriors. But twenty Caduceans against one warrior, even an assassin’s daughter can’t beat those odds.

* * *

The next morning, Seth strolls into the prison as if there are no guards stationed outside
my cell. Right away,
the darkness and bad dreams of the previous night disappear. He comes for me even after everything that has gone wrong.

“How did you get by the guards?” I ask, lacing my fingers through the bars and around his. He gives me the strangest look as if he’s both bored and glad to see me.

“Baby Caduceans don’t stand a chance against me,” he says, easing his hand away from mine.  “Did you get it?” An uneasy feeling pulls at my stomach, but I remove the vial from my pocket and hand it to him anyway. His eyes light up. I don’t think I remember a time when he looked at me with as much eagerness as he does the vial. 

“Levy was the one who lifted the veil, not Mabry,” I say, watching him caress the vial as if it’s his lover.

“I know,” he says without looking at me, and my heart skips about four beats.

“What do you mean, you know?” I ask, my voice rising.

He turns his dark-
blue eyes on me. A glare swims inside them
,
and I take a step back. Where has my prince gone?

“I mean, I know that it was Levy who made the call. I also know that your mother like her daughter was an assassin. A confused one,
but a killer still
. I respect that. With this vile, I can free the ones I love now, too. You can understand that, can’t you, Desi?” He eases backward as he says these things. Shock has taken my voice, my heart, my soul and rolled them into a package for the reaper. This boy I love has betrayed me. The vial was what he wanted the entire time.