“I never thought Ronan the power-hungry sort,” Carden said with a shake of his head. “So what is he thinking?” He pinned a sudden look on me. “Is that pup doing an errand for you?”
“Stop calling him ‘pup.’” My voice was sharper than I’d intended. I forced my next words to come out calm and even. “What kind of errand would he do for me, anyway?”
“Your mother,” he said, going in a direction I hadn’t expected. “Those scrolls might lead him to her.”
“Could they?” I felt a familiar spike in my chest—the waning and waxing of hope and despair. “What would the scrolls have to do with my mother? They’re old as dirt, and she can’t be much older than forty.”
“Aye, but word is, she’s kept company with those who are even more ancient than I.”
Carden had recognized my mother from a photo. For weeks, I’d thought he’d disappeared, but he’d actually gone in search of her. He’d found only a cold trail, but for me it was enough. Now that I knew she might be alive, my dream, above all else, was to find her.
“We could look for her,” I said. “You and me.” I stared at him in the dawning light. He was steadfast and affectionate. Caring and carefree. He was incredibly appealing, and I adored him. He’d been there for many of my darkest hours with that rakish smile and easy laugh. “We could run away. We’d be together. We could be happy.”
The words left the taste of dust in my mouth, so much an echo of what Ronan had said to me in the dream. But I couldn’t imagine either of them wanting to run away, much less with me.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed, wanting to challenge him. To actually
see
that he loved me rather than merely hear the words. “We’ll leave here. Find my mother. Then run off somewhere and just…be.”
His gaze became distant at the mention of my mother. All thoughts of love fled as I suddenly feared that he was hiding something about her.
“What?” Maybe my mother didn’t want to see me, didn’t want to be found. I hadn’t seen her since I was four. Years change a person. And why had she left in the first place? “What does that look mean? Do you know something?”
“Only that it’s too soon.” He scooted closer to me and spoke gently. “Things need to settle here before we make any moves. The Directorate is on alert. We couldn’t leave now.”
“But…if things are so unsettled, isn’t it a good time to leave?” I mustered a smile, wondering what he wasn’t saying.
His eyes were shuttered. “There’s much to do yet. Much that keeps me here.” But then, as if a light switched on inside him, his attention for me returned. “Our day will come.”
Our day will come.
Why did I hear something else in those words? Something that went beyond our relationship to encompass the balance of power on
Eyja næturinnar
.
CHAPTER TWO
The Isle’s rigorous academic schedule stopped for nothing, not even the murder of one of its most celebrated instructors. It was the Advanced Combatives seminar for me that morning. But not even a few good knocks upside the head could jar the dark thoughts from me, and I left class feeling defeated. Not that I was beaten by any challenger. I’d become pretty accomplished at sparring and was well on my way to ascending to Guidon. No, it was my emotional demons that had me fighting for my life.
First, there was Ronan. Would we ever talk about what had happened between us? He’d taken off to who-knew-where and was probably in all kinds of danger because of what I did. Meanwhile, his sister, Charlotte, was out there somewhere. Only now she was a vampire, and she was gunning for me.
And then there was Yasuo. My oldest friend on the island was becoming Draug—a brand of mindless demon that had the reasoning power of a goat and the temperament of a rabid jackal. And yeah, once again,
my
fault. It was my fault he was becoming that way, his mind broken after watching his girlfriend, Emma, sacrifice herself for me in one of Alcántara’s sick competitions.
Emma. My best friend who might or might not be out there even now, somewhere, suffering.
Then there was my mother. Apparently she
was
alive out there, but my boyfriend, my maybe-bonded-for-all-time vampire, wouldn’t take me to find her yet.
And what about Carden? Would I feel this strongly about him without the blood bond we shared? Was our connection permanent, or had my dreaming mind been onto something? Could Ronan really soothe my blood fever and help me break the bond?
Was that even what I wanted?
I couldn’t deal with any of that right now, but there was one thing I could do: check in on Yasuo. His transition from cute, floppy-haired LA boy into Draug was almost complete. Recently, he’d stopped coming onto campus altogether. But I knew where to find him.
My destination was a steep ridge that rose like a gnarled spine from the center of the Isle. I didn’t know what about that place called to him, but I often found him there, just sitting and staring.
I skipped lunch and made my way through the most barren part of the island. The dimming was imminent, that time of the year when the sun skimmed the horizon and would not fully rise again for weeks. Soon the sky would be a relentless slate gray, neither dark nor light. It made my skin itch with longing…for darkness, for daylight…for something.
As I clambered up the last rocky bit, sure enough, there was Yasuo. It was weird, though. He was sitting in the middle of the trail, like he’d just stopped and dropped. He could’ve sat on top of one of the boulders surrounding us. A slight shift to the northeast and he would have had a lovely view of Crispin’s Cove in the distance. But no, he was just stopped in the middle of the gravel. Gray below, gray above.
It didn’t matter to me, though. I was just happy to have a chance to see him. Every once in a while, I’d catch a glimmer of the old Yas. The way he’d sometimes rake his hand through his hair. How his long legs twined like a pretzel when he sat, making him seem like a giant kid. It threw me back to a time when he was human, and we were friends. Best friends.
Him, Emma, me.
I gave a little cough, as much to clear the emotion from my throat as to warn him of my approach. “Hey, Yas,” I said, sitting down beside him.
He didn’t speak to me. That was happening more and more. Disturbingly, this time he didn’t even seem to be looking at anything. His dead eyes just aimed straight ahead.
It was awkward, sitting in the middle of the trail on a slight incline, but I angled myself even more toward him, trying to catch his eye. Awareness prickled up my spine, putting my back to the open like that, but I was desperate to connect.
“Look, Yas. I brought you something from breakfast.” I fished a slice of bread wrapped in a napkin from my coat pocket. It was a rare treat, one he’d always loved. “Bread with currants. Your favorite, right?” I held it out to him.
His gaze didn’t waver. He didn’t even budge.
Whether or not he had thoughts in that head, I’d never know. I’d stopped trying to communicate in any meaningful way with him weeks ago. I was just happy that he’d stopped trying to kill me.
I placed the bread in his lap. With a twinge, I realized that he wasn’t wearing a coat, despite the biting chill in the air. One more notch of his humanity gone.
But I’d fight it. Ronan had the misericordia, and if that blade could make vampires, maybe it could unmake Draug.
I patted his leg. “I have to assume you’re in there somewhere, Yas. I need you to be in there. There must be some cure for you, and until—”
“Hey, little girl.” A voice, faint and teasing on the wind, startled me. “Can I join your party?”
“Crap,” I whispered. I’d
known
it was stupid to expose my back. I looked around, extending my senses, trying to determine if this voice belonged to friend or foe.
“Language, young Acari.” The voice was closer now. It belonged to a woman. “The rocks have ears.”
Where was it coming from? I rose to my knees. My hands were poised over my stars, but I tried to keep my tone light. “How is it I always feel so alone, yet I seem to be constantly surrounded by—”
And then I saw her. Charlotte.
Not friend. Enemy.
Ronan’s sister stood high atop the ridge behind us, dark hair and dark cloak flapping in the wind. She was every inch the avenging beauty.
Last I saw her, she’d been raging at me. I’d killed Dagursson, and who’d have guessed anyone would’ve chosen to ally with such a megacreeper as that ancient Viking?
Carden’s words reverberated in my memory:
There are those who’ve chosen sides, who are making their secret loyalties known.
I’d killed Dag, and Charlotte wanted me to suffer for it. The only reason I was still alive was because Ronan had been with me. He’d stopped his sister from hurting me.
But now I was alone. Correction—I spared a quick glance at Yasuo—just as good as alone. Was I strong enough to take her down?
“Do finish, Annelise. Or do I call you Drew? That’s what people close to you call you, isn’t it? And I have a feeling we’re going to get
very
close before this is done.” She gave me an evil little smile, fangs gleaming despite the gray half-light. “You said you’re constantly surrounded by…?”
I attempted a weak smile. “By things that want me dead.”
This was Ronan’s sister. His
sister
. The one he’d adored, the only link to his past.
Cold plumes of dread wended through me. If she attacked me, could I really kill her?
I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. She was quite possibly Ronan’s last surviving family member. He was too important to me to go there.
But her cold gaze told me that I wasn’t going to be winning her over with my humor any time soon.
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m a ‘thing,’ am I?” She stood on that rock, hands on hips, all towering malice. “But you were right about something: I do want you dead, little girl.”
Maybe I could disable her somehow. Or at least try to talk her out of this standoff. Charlotte was a tall sip of badass. I was often stupid—something her brother liked to remind me of daily—but not stupid enough to fight her. Any fight with her would be my last, especially now that I no longer had the misericordia.
I stood and brushed off my hands. “I’m sure if you just wait ten minutes, some other creature will show up and do the dirty work for you.”
She gave me an exaggerated pout. “But dirty work is so fun.”
I forced a relaxed laugh. Just two gals sharing a joke. I did it to buy time, because I saw the shimmer of her urumi around her waist and knew she was stronger than I was. Far stronger.
I decided to try to appeal to the Charlotte she’d been when she was younger. Deep down, Ronan loved that part of her. “Look, we both care about Ronan. Surely we can find some common ground.”
“Common ground?” She leapt from the boulder, dropping directly in front of us.
She had a violent glint in her eye, and I wriggled my wrists ever so slightly, feeling for the homemade stakes tucked there. Ironically, it’d been her brother who’d given me the idea to make them. Did I think I could manage to stake her? Ronan’s sister or not, I was beginning to think I might enjoy the effort.
She trilled a merry, chiming laugh, which hardened into a sneer as her eyes landed on my forearms. “Look at you. You think you could kill me with your crude toys? Who do you think gave Ronan the idea in the first place?”
I shrugged, letting a stake slide low enough to rest in my palm. “I like the feel of them, all the same.”
She gave me an appraising look. “I see you have a backbone. Perhaps I’ll tear it out through your mouth.”
“Now that’s just gross.”
She smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll do it slowly so you’re aware of every second.”
It was official: she was totally insane. If I was going to face her, I needed a clear head, which meant I had to get Yasuo out of there.
I stepped in front of him and nudged him with my heel. “Get up, Yas. Time for you to go.”
“Yo, D. What you kicking me for?” It was Yasuo. The
old
Yasuo. He always used to call me by some nickname or other, like “Blondie” or “D,” short for “Drew,” my last name. His voice was small, but it hit me with the force of a blow.
Charlotte’s eyes lit up and shot to Yasuo behind me. “Well, well. Look who decided to join us.”
I edged away from him. I needed Charlotte’s attention on me. “Yasuo has nothing to do with this. This is between you and me.”
Her eyes flew back to meet mine. “It’s about so much more than you and me, little girl. More fool you for believing otherwise.” Slowly, she raised her arm to reach up and behind her. Was she hiding a weapon? I took a fighting stance, and she laughed outright. “At ease, Acari. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
I relaxed a little, but kept my arms slightly out, feeling a little like an Old West gunslinger. “What are you doing, then?”
“Oh, relax already. I have a little something for you.” Her tone turned snarky. “A wee gift. Since we both care for my brother, aye?”
It was time to face this head-on. Something told me I needed to show some bravado if I wanted to stay alive—to look her in the eye or puff my feathers or whatever it was creatures did in the wild to warn their enemies they were not to be underestimated.
Killing Master Dagursson had felt empowering. I’d killed a powerful member of the Vampire Directorate, and yet here I was, still standing. I wasn’t going to cower before these monsters anymore.
“Look,” I said, my eyes tracking her every movement, “I get that you’re pissed I killed Dagursson.”
Her arm froze in midair. “You killed more than just Dagursson.” She tilted her head and peered more closely at me. “At first I’d thought to kill you in return, but then I decided to have a bit of fun instead. You see, there are other ways to destroy someone like you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
I feigned boredom, all the while registering every flick of her gaze, every twitch of her fingers. “You’re a vampire now. What’s more fun for you than killing? We gonna have a slumber party?”
I needed to lead her away from Yasuo. His eyes had lost their focus again, leaving him completely tuned out and basically helpless. My gaze skittered around us, assessing my options. I couldn’t turn and flee—I’d topple right over the sheer drop that was several yards behind me. There was a path behind the boulders, but Charlotte had those at her back. My only other escape route was the way I came from, which was too far away for me to make in a quick dash.