Shadow Reign (Shadow Puppeteer Book 2) (9 page)

“Amber?”

Sorrow caught in my sore throat. I wanted to cry. I wanted to feel anything besides pain and anger, but the shadows took that from me. Amber’s shadow didn’t respond to my voice, but instead, shot through the dark energy that ebbed and pulled at the room. She pushed it back and I had to help her.

I didn’t have a candle flame for focus. The burning herbs were gone and the salt was a wall. All that remained was my sheer will to survive and pull of my heartstrings knowing Amber was dead. I focused my internal energy. I drew the shadows in my mind’s eye, letting them swirl and churn like they did overhead. I drew visual lassos around them and took a deep breath. There was no room for doubt. This had to work.

In my mind, my breath was as pale as the salt that guarded me. I blew upward at them and at first nothing moved. The edges of my brain were starting to hurt and my skin broke out in a sweat. No room for failure. If this didn’t work, they would drag me to that dark place.

I blew harder, visualizing the lines of my breath swirling in opal colors. This time the shadows moved through the death door, swept up in the wind that sucked everything else from the room. The ceiling still churned with the energy storm. It was the same concept I used when manipulating objects. I molded my hands as if I were physically touching the clouds, and then pressed them together.

The air popped, releasing the energy. My heart was still pounding when light flared in the fireplace, pushing the remaining shadows back. I clasped my hand over my right eye, but it did nothing to save me from the pain.

“That was dangerous. You let the shadows get out of hand. They almost got you,” she mumbled. Her stick clicked along the stone as she picked her way through the mess.

I didn’t have the energy to argue. Amber’s shadow was gone, leaving me with the emotions I wanted to feel earlier. I sat, losing the energy to stay on my feet. I knew it was safe to uncast my circle, but I was shaking. There was a deep rooted coldness in me, made worse by the spirit that tried to fill my empty cavity. It felt like that spirit dragged claws through my muscle and my insides were just as damaged as my outsides.

I felt so hollow. “Amber’s dead.”

Zephyr stopped just outside my circle before sitting down in front of me. Her face was a mask of hardness in the past, but now, something keen of sorrow softened the crows’ feet at the edge of her eyes.

“Let me see your fingers,” she said.

I mumbled the words that deactivate the circle. Out of conditioning, I thanked the four corners, north, south, east and west for protecting me. She handed me the patch and I took it, slipping it over my strange eye before offering my hand.

My fingernails were bloody and torn from being dragged across the floor. My pinkie and ring finger were bruised and already swollen. She grasped the pinky and without warning, set it. I screamed and the physical pain was just as mind numbing as the sorrow. The tingling nausea slid through me and down into my lower gut. I would’ve peed if I didn’t have better control.

When she grasped my ring finger, I was ready for it. I braced myself, but the tingling nausea still slid up my arm and through my spine. It was overwhelming. My brain tittered on the edge of blacking out when a dainty cup, no larger than my thumb was thrust at me.

“Drink this, it will make you feel better,” she said.

I took the tiny tea cup and threw it back like a shot. The bitter liquid burned my lips and the roof of my mouth. Only after putting the cup down, I realize my mistake. If the liquid made me drowsy at all, Kelaino could postpone my proposition. Amber was dead and I hated them for it; however, there was still Rex to think about.

“They killed her just a little bit ago,” I said.

Zephyr said nothing as she took my hand and started wrapping it. Before she could twist it around my palm and through my fingers, I pulled back. I needed to be as limber as possible to face Kelaino’s challenge. As hurt as I was, I couldn’t risk my bandaged hand slowing me down.

“Just tape my fingers. I need as much dexterity as possible,” I said.

“Spoken like a true warrior. We’ll see if your training will save you.” Utan stood in the doorway.

I stood on shaky legs before Zephyr pulled me back down, and started unraveling her handy work. Forget the tape. I wasn’t going to walk into this letting Rose know I had weaknesses. If it damaged my hand that was something I’d deal with later.

He motioned that I should follow and I did.

I
walked from Zephyr’s room to mine in a haze. Amber and I had our differences, which was a nice way of putting it. She made my life hell, but outside of high school, she wasn’t that bad. When it came down to it, I wouldn’t call us friends, but we weren’t enemies either. She didn’t deserve this.

Rose was as good as dead.

Utan stood to the side of the beaded curtain. I didn’t trust him at my back. “You’ll be brought to the ritual room when you’re done here.”

With that, he left. I felt the hustle and bustle of bodies in my room before I moved through the curtains. My bed was removed to fit the larger tub, the rack of clothing and the handful of sith that were busy dumping warm water and liquid from colorful glass bottles into the bath. The minute I was noticed, two sith promptly grabbed at my clothing. I jumped back, accidently hitting my injured fingers. The pain cleared the haze just enough for irritation to set in.

“You must hurry,” a sith said.

The desperation in her tone got to me and I allowed the two to help undress me. With my injured hand, I was unable to pull my clothes off as fast as they did. They escorted me to the tub and I pushed their hands away when they tried to help me in.

The water was so hot, it stole my breath. There wasn’t a chance to adjust before rags went every which way. My eye patch was yanked off before I could protest. They scrubbed my hair and rinsed me off. Within seconds, I was pulled out and toweled off. It was the quickest bath ever. It didn’t give me a chance to relax my tired body.

This group was different from the ones I saw lingering in the hall with Kelaino the first day. They were dressed modestly and none of them held eye contact. I had to push them away to dress myself in the black tight shorts and sleeveless shirt. I sat on the edge of my bed while they weaved purple string into my braid.

I wanted to be touched, to know that I could get comfort from it, but there was none. My mind was on matters too grave to find comfort. My heart squeezed at the thought of Amber’s spirit passing through. Where did it go? My guilt was heavy. I couldn’t save her.

The beads parted and I immediately recognized the devilish grin on the sith who came in. She leaned against the wall with her leg propped. There was no modesty in her bones. Despite her appearance, her presence brought relief. She was gone for so long, I thought she was dead. I got my eye patch back before the other sith quickly exited my room, leaving us alone.

“I found your guard. I forgot how beautiful he is. You like keeping dangerous friends, don’t you?”

What I knew about the Unseelie, I could count on two fingers. As for dangerous alliances, they kept falling in my lap. I thought he was a vagabond on the street, until I heard the music he played on his guitar that was meant for someone else. He’s helped me out of two sticky situations. I was disappointed he wasn’t here to help me again.

“Is he coming?”

“No,” she said.

That shook me. “What do you mean no?”

Anger surged in me. He went through a lot of trouble saving me from a Berserker fight. He exerted a lot of energy rescuing me from World Congress’s rehabilitation building and moving me to an island where I could hide. The Reincarta wasn’t his limit, was it?

“It bothers you he isn’t coming?”

I stopped mid-sentence, realizing my anger had full control of me. I needed to control it like I needed to learn how to control the spirits. The anger was linked. They were angry. They wanted life and when I was angry, so did I. The last thing I needed was to be
this
connected to the dead.

I couldn’t lie when she watched me so closely. “I was hoping he would.”

“He said head to Mississippi when you get out of here.”

Mississippi. That’s where Katrina, Jose and D were heading before the surprise attack from World Congress. Was Bliss working with the Diablos and the Unseelie Court? I was really out of my league.

“Does the Unseelie Court have anything to do with the Diablos?”

The sith shivered and the green of her eyes intensified. “The faeries have nothing to do with the Diablos. The Seelie and Unseelie courts are interested in who will win the final battle. World Congress has everyone hiding, including the faeries. It’s not what it was five hundred years ago.”

“Mississippi, was that the only thing he told you?”

Her smile was telling. “You wanted him to swoop in and save you? Do you fancy yourself a princess, Belen McKnight? Faeries do like the human court.”

“I don’t have time for this.” There was a table with weapons laid out and I wanted to get as many on as possible before Utan came knocking.

She followed me and positioned herself so I had to notice her. I slid the back sheath, shoulder hostlers, hip hostlers, and knife sheath on both arms and inner legs. It felt good having the weight of the knives in their prospective spots. I slid my favorite
b
o
in place and barely checked the guns, empty of bullets as I suspected, and stuck them in the holsters, before the sith motioned to get my attention.

“There’s one more thing he said.”

I was growing annoyed with her. “What?”

She twisted a navy blue marble between her fingers. It caught the firelight and glowed. When she had my attention, she tossed it to me. The marble was warm from her body, reminding me that she was a completely different species from Utan.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I asked.

“Bliss works in mysterious ways,” she said.

“He didn’t give you any instructions?”

“Maybe blood would refresh my memory.”

I pulled the largest blade on my belt and pointed it at her. She got the hint. Her eyes narrowed and she pushed her shoulders back. I really needed to learn more about the faeries.

“He said to throw it in the Mississippi River when you get there. The message will be carried to him and he’ll come to find you.”

My attention returned to the marble. There was nothing special about it. It didn’t even glow with the inner light that I saw in the sith’s eyes. For something that belonged to the Unseelie, I was disappointed. I slid it in my pocket and put the blade back into place. There were still a few weapons left and a utility belt stocked with a pouch of throwing stars, though the second pouch, probably intended for extra bullets, was empty. I attached it to my hip, not use to the weight and added the grenades from the tabletop to the empty smaller pouches.

“You’re going to die there. No one comes back,” the sith said.

“Comes back from the challenge? What’s there?” All these weapons weren’t lost on me. I was getting ready to face something big.

Zephyr pushed through the beaded curtain. “That’s enough, sith. Return to your master.”

The sith immediately snarled, ready to lunge at Zephyr. The old voodoo priestess just leaned on her walking stick, not intimidated. I held my breath until the sith righted herself and walked out of the room. I felt guilty having so many weapons. It felt like I was letting Zephyr know I didn’t trust the training she provided.

The tension in her shoulder said she had something to say. She hobbled over and thrust two pouches at me. “Try not to lose these.”

I took them and glanced inside. One was full of salt, the other had a candle, lighter and vile that looked like blood when I held it up against the firelight. Ritual wasn’t my strongest ability. My throat and chest still ached where that shadow tried to enter me.

“I can’t see the death doors, but I know they’re there. Shadow Puppeteers use them to get from one point to the next. You can travel between the living realms and the dead. In the world of the living, it will only take you to a spot where someone has died. In the land of the dead, it can drop you off anywhere,” Zephyr said.

The dead door was something I never wanted to see or use. I feared it.

“Pay attention!” Zephyr sharply reprimanded. “Death follows the Shadow Puppeteer so you can open the doorway with the blood of someone dead. It’s better to open the doorway when there are bodies lying around. If you need a quick exit from the situation, you are prepared.”

She indicated the pouches at my hip. I didn’t want to open the doorway. I didn’t trust that it would let me go once I walked through.

“Is that it? That’s all the advice you’re giving me? Where am I heading? What should I expect?”

She shook her head. “Shadow Puppeteer, you are a threat to many people here. You don’t need help figuring the rest of this out.”

Utan pushed the curtain aside, but didn’t step into my room. “Your presence is requested.”

My heart wanted to pound out of my chest. Uncertainty was the worst part. I was trying to save Amber from Rose. Now I had to think about Rex and I had no idea what state he was in. I hoped I’d feel his spirit if he was dead.

Callicantzaros’ stood in the hallway waiting for me with swords drawn. Two siths, obviously servants due to the way they were dressed, waited just ahead of them with torches. I slowed my breathing, refusing to show my anxiety, but I couldn’t stop the sweating. I was so inwardly hot that I couldn’t feel the cold in the hall.

More servant siths waited around the corner with burning sage and wood instruments. Just behind each sith were two candle holders. My heart began beating fast. This was new. I wasn’t prepared for what was coming. Everyone wore a black robe, which made me grateful for the shorts and top. I didn’t want to fight in a robe that could get tangled around my legs.

The front guard pulled a bell from his robes and rung it with every slow step we took down the last hall. I opened my mind to the spirits without lowering my shields. It was something Zephyr taught me. The spirits weren’t here though.