When Copper Suns Fall (17 page)

Holding my breath, I entered the word
Tainted.

Just as I suspected, the scene before me
changed. I stared at an angel dressed in red armor with black wings
flowing behind him. The Tainted might be the relatives of fallen
angels with bad attitudes, but they were wicked beautiful. An
unearthly presence surrounded them that pulled at your soul,
sucking you into their mind trap. The sight unnerved me. After a
while, the picture moved, changing into a battle scene between red
and silver armored angels. I squeezed my eyes shut, thinking I was
more tired than I realized.

I opened them and gasped. Now the Tainted
angel was stomping over black, smoky figures with sad, yellow eyes.
He smiled, a manic and cruel one, as the figures stretched toward a
girl tied to a bonfire pole. I stared at her silver dress flowing
against the flames. A dress like the one I’d worn inside the dream
at the Ruins. The angel turned his head and gave me a wry smile I’d
recognize anywhere. Seth Alton. The girl lifted her head. It was my
face. No way. Cold chills stole my breath, and the screaming
figures rattled my heart.

“Stop this.” I clicked the X until the
Tribunal’s heartagram symbol popped back up on the screen.

“Okay, um, that’s quite enough angel info
today.” Dazed and winded, I headed through the double doors leading
into the main lobby. I stopped at the pile of books I’d chosen.
What did everything I’d just seen mean? My head denied the answer,
but my heart knew. Mind racing, I picked up the first book. It
shook in my trembling hand. I placed several historical texts to
the side:
Paradise Lost, the Color Purple, Pride and Prejudice,
Bram Stoker’s Jewel of Seven Stars, and the Stand.
I half
expected to see the pictures on the covers start moving like the
computer did when, a chilly draft swept across the room. Creeping
Willies tickled my neck. Spinning around, I faced none other than
Thoughtmaster Alton.

“I thought I locked the door,” I said in a
whispery voice.

“Unlocking doors is my specialty, Lotus.
Don’t you remember?” He strolled over to the desk in front of me
and placed his palms on top. I was Lotus for him, today. Not
champion the way I was on training day.

Seth studied me a long time with his choir
boy’s face. He gave me a fascinating smile, as he stepped around
the desk and toward me. An image of the demonic angel from the
computer floated into my mind. I searched my memory. Had the
angel’s face belonged to Seth? Or was it Faris’s? Illusion danced
in my head as his peppery scent, ancient and intriguing, filled my
nostrils, making me feel swoony.

“Library is closed,” I said.

He took another step toward me. Each step he
took, every head tilt or glance was slick, calculated, and
distracting. “I wanted to check on my favorite trainee. She’s past
her curfew.” I didn’t say a word. “Beautiful necklace. I meant to
say something about it before now, but I’ve been…unfocused.”

The spell broke. My fingers drifted to the
lump hidden by my shirt. “You can’t even see it.”

He smiled wider. Stephen King’s book fell
from my hand. I glanced at Seth. He shrugged. When I bent over to
pick it up, my necklace slipped out of my shirt. His hungry-eyed
gaze rested on it. After an awkward moment, he said, “Ever wonder
about the galena talon holding the stone?”

My voice stopped working. Say something,
dummy. No luck. An eerie presence surrounded Thoughtmaster Alton,
staggering me the same way it did the first time we met. It was the
same way he made me feel in English class and on that first
training day. He seemed so much older than his eighteen years.

“The galena grounds the seraphinite’s power.
A little thing called equilibrium. Without that balance, the
seraphinite eats at your soul. Piece by piece. The power can even
make you a monster. To get balanced, means binding the magic.
Training.”

He took a step closer, towering above me,
invading my personal space. This wasn’t like training camp. His
mood was different, less restricted, almost desperate. Still, I was
somewhat afraid of him. I stepped backward, bumping into the holds
bookcase behind me. Gold specks flickered in his pupils, those eyes
with no reflection. “I think I’ve had enough training for a while,”
I said. “Besides, I need my fingers to work so I can play the
harp.”

“You can never have enough training,” Seth
said.

“Well, um, I don’t think running obstacle
courses inside a library would work. Sorry,” I said. He made a
whispery laugh, lifted a fingerless gloved hand up to my face, and
stared into my eyes. “Congratulations on your success in the Ruins.
I heard many fascinating things.”

“Wh—what did you hear?”

“Oh, where do I start? First I’ll say how
proud I am our training paid off?”

“What do you mean, Thoughtmaster Alton?” I’d
promised to keep Faris a secret. For some reason, I had the feeling
Seth already knew. Yet another secret for him to dangle over
me.

“Can the formalities. There’s no one here but
us,” Seth said.

Head swimming, I was losing myself in his
eyes. I focused on thoughts of Faris, the ruined lands, Micah. Heat
flowed across my skin. I flinched, closed my eyes. Images of
animals, women, and children fleeing for lives about to be lost in
a wink went through my mind. “I’ve waited a long time to make you
see and feel as I do. Take my hand, Chela.”

“How about I make you feel, instead,” I
said.

He wanted me to take his hand, so I did. The
voice I heard wasn’t mine. The tone was low and seductive as if
something else had borrowed my body. Fire surged from my wrist to
his. A paprika scent tickled my nostrils. Sizzles sounded across
the library. Seth’s face crumpled. He gasped and snatched his wrist
from my grip, shooting me a look between anger and awe. The strange
power in my body vanished, replaced by nausea and weak muscles. I
closed my eyes to ground the spinning room.

“What’s happening to me?” I said.

“You’re no common girl with some nuked-up
ability. You’re beyond chromo gifted. True celestial blood is in
your veins,” he said with flushed cheeks and a smile on his
heart-shaped mouth.

“What does that make you?” I leaned into
Seth’s chest. He held my head back, stroking my face with his
thumbs. Not in the way a boy would touch his lover, but more like a
prize, a game. That’s all I’d turned into for everybody these days.
One thing I’d learned from Father was Thoughtmasters only used the
power of the mind to teach emotional control. Seth had gone beyond
that. “You’re Tainted,” I said.

He sighed, smiling as if my words pleased
him. “Those are bold words coming from the lips of an Epiclesium.
Son of the fallen and the daughter of a seraphim, I call that true
chemistry. What do you think?”

I couldn’t say a word. Father had never told
me the celestial name for the human-seraphim mix. My ignorance made
me feel helpless and angry. Things I didn’t need to feel while
standing so close to a Tainted.

“Do you even know who you are? What you can
do?” He took a step back and slid his hands down my arms, stopping
at my wrists. Tingles sprinkled over my body. “Come with me, Chela.
All of your questions will be answered, every one of your fears,
gone. I can teach you balance. Come.”

“A Tainted Thoughtmaster running away with
his student? Sounds a bit scandalous, doesn’t it?” I swallowed
hard.

“No more than a seraph hiding her true
identity.”

“Besides, you aren’t even a real
Thoughtmaster. You shouldn’t even be in this city,” I said.

He shrugged, still smiling. “You’d know best.
She who has friends of the lesser, as in no chromosomal gift
status.” He was talking about Lexa, again. But I swayed because his
offer intrigued me.

My first thought? Seth was violating my
personal space, and that annoyed me a bit. My second thought was
the crazy one. I wanted to say yes, even though I understood
leaving with him wouldn’t be a good thing. What if he could show me
the way to help Micah? Sure, he was probably fooling me. It’s what
Tainteds did best. Penetrated the mind until all your desires,
wishes, and loves belonged to them.

Blobs eased across the ceiling, covering the
cherubs. Seth’s gaze traveled up to where they floated around us.
“Ah, the dark ones, lost souls looking for a seraph’s light.
They’re getting closer. But I can make them go away. Let’s leave
together. Tonight. Say yes,” he said.

A familiar boy’s voice came from behind him.
“She won’t be going with you, Seti.”

“Faris,” I whispered. Relief seeped into my
tense muscles. The blobs faded.

Seth narrowed his eyes at me, and then turned
to Faris. “The shadow walker is back. You jump started another war.
Your people are nowhere near ready for what’ll happen.”

“I’m sure you’d like to think so,” Faris
said.

They argued as if they were rivals. I almost
expected them to fight in the library. Instead, he moved away from
me, turned, and strolled past Faris. The two boys glared at each
other a bit just before Seth moved on toward the exit. He glanced
back at me and tapped his watch. “Don’t make me have to send my
furious angels back to find you, Chela.” His cocky smile sent a
silent but clear message. He wasn’t giving up on his offer.

“Why’d you call him Seti?” I didn’t know what
else to say. Plus I was still mad because Faris hadn’t contacted me
since our venture in the Ruins.

“That’s his real name. Did he hurt you?” he
said.

“No. It was the other way around, I think.” I
thought about the sizzled-wrist thing and cleared it from my mind.
Thoughtmaster Alton was a Tainted, another exiled race of humans
related to angels. Now we both had secrets to hold over the other
one’s head. But if I’d figured out he was a Tainted hiding among
Thoughtmasters, then so had someone else.

“How do you two know each other?” I said.

“We don’t.”

“Are you sure about that?” We stared each
other down. “Okay, um, I guess you sort of followed me again? Is
that how you knew I was here?”

“Something like that,” he said.

“Now I guess you’ll do the guy thing and tell
me how you’ve been too busy to contact me, right?” I said.

He lowered his eyes and ran a hand across the
back of his neck. “I had things to do.”

His half answers irritated me. My head
pounded from my attempt to keep Seth out of it, and I didn’t have
time for a game of decipher the broody boy’s mood tonight. “Look.
I’ve got to get back to camp.”

“Stop playing your game,” he said.

“Okay. Four words this time,” I said. “And
what game do you think I’m playing, by the way?”

He stepped closer, but didn’t invade my space
the way Seth had done. “The one where girl gets killed trying to
play spy. He’s Tainted, Chela. Report him, and then leave the camp.
Case closed.”

“Have you lost your mind? I was carded.
Leaving the camp isn’t an option.” But I knew it was. I suspected
one of the main reasons I’d been assigned to my task was to flush
out twisted Thoughtmasters. True, Seth wore the Badge for crooked,
but my job wasn’t done yet. More than one Thoughtmaster knew
something about Micah. What Faris also didn’t realize was that
Lexa’s freedom depended on my truce with Seth. I couldn’t betray my
loved ones. “Thanks for doing whatever you did to get that poison
out of my system. But that doesn’t mean you can start bossing me
around.” I gathered my books. The time on my off-camp pass had
almost expired.

“You’re right. I’ll leave that to Seth,” he
said.

Heat rushed over my ears. “I don’t know what
you think Seth, or Seti, whatever might do. I can handle things as
you should know by now.”

“Oh, I’m sure.” He folded his arms and gave
me a smug look. “Have you practiced flying anymore?”

“Yeah. I can fly around anyplace, anytime.
Forget about all the other trainees who might see it and call me
out.”

“Short timers. Got it all figured out, don’t
you?”

“Monsters. Always stalking people in their
dre—” I wasn’t ready to talk about the dream with him. A smile
hinted on his lips. My cheeks heated. Was he playing with me?

“Let’s say, I am this monster. What does that
make you?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said.

“Don’t be fake. You fried Seth’s wrist like
soy meat.”

How long had he been watching us? A brisk
wind gusted through the flapping door Seth left open.

“Speechless for a change? Small miracles
still do happen, I see,” he said.

“I’m leaving. I’ve had a rough week, and your
half answers annoy me.” I flung the books I’d chosen into my
bag.

He sighed, shook his head. “Running away.
This will follow you to your grave.”

“Really? Ready to fill me in on what
this
might be?”

He leaned over and propped his elbows on his
knees. “Too much to explain. You’re not ready.”

“I figured. Just—just go away. Leave me
alone.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why? You did a great job of it this week,” I
said.

“Every time I go against my instinct…” He
closed his eyes, sighed, opened them. “I’m here to protect
you.”

“Yeah? Protect me with answers then.”

“Not yet.” He was going to play the vague
game. The crappy part? I couldn’t say anything about the dream we
had shared without sounding crazy. What if he actually didn’t
remember it?

I slung my backpack over my shoulder, trudged
to the exit, and walked into the cold nighttime air. I was relieved
to be free from the library’s heated tension. Faris followed,
brushing my shoulder when, he strolled through the door. A tingle
lingered on my arm where he’d touched me.

“Good night, Faris.” I pulled tight on the
handle, locking the door and making sure I’d done it right, this
time.

I took off toward the bus stop. A sulfur
stench filled the air the way it did that night outside the
Cradleshack. Faris took two steps to match my ten small ones.