Dark Illusion, page 7
part #2 of Arondight Codex Series
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Ugh, don’t tell me this is another one of your teaching moments.”
He glowered and I shook my head, clearing away my anxiety over Jackson. I’d asked him to come here and he was being locked up, again, but it was about more than his mutation. It always came back to Arondight. The sword was everyone’s end game, which didn’t just make me a target… I was the target.
“No one else knows I’m here, do they?” I asked, dread pooling in my gut.
“Oh, they know about you, but not everything,” Wilder replied. “I suspect Greer hasn’t told them about your affinity with Arondight.”
“Why? Doesn’t she trust our own people?”
“It’s not all for one and one for all,” he shot back. “Not all humans are fighting for the same agenda, are they? It’s the same with us, Purples. Life is never that simple.”
I’d spent all this time learning how to fight demons and now I had to worry about my own people, too? If this Inquisitor knew about my contact with Arondight, what would he do? Take me away and experiment on me? Use Light to pry my memories from my mind? I’d become a lab rat, just like Jackson. What had I done bringing my best friend back here?
I slapped my palm against my forehead and groaned in frustration. “I need to see Jackson. I can’t leave him again.”
I made to walk off, but Wilder grasped my arm.
“Go after dinner,” he said. “I know you think you’re about to be betrayed, but Greer and Aldrich won’t let any undue harm come to him.”
“And Brax?” I scowled.
“Brax does things by the book.” Which, in my mind, made him dangerous.
“I don’t trust him.”
“Say that a little louder, Purples,” Wilder said, rolling his eyes. “Your probation has barely been lifted and you’re already mouthing off your superiors.”
“Wait… When was my probation lifted?”
Wilder smirked in that annoyingly handsome and arrogant way he had. “The other day.”
“Why didn’t you tell me!” I shrieked.
He slapped his hands over his ears. “Because I knew you’d get into trouble five seconds later and have it reinstated in record time.”
“This is bad,” I murmured, fisting my hands into my hair. “So, so, bad.”
“Which is why we need to train,” Wilder said. “You have to be able to control your Light, Purples.”
“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked again. “What’s going to happen to me?”
Wilder’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t know the answer, either.
“Then I want to know how to use my Light,” I said, my lip curling. “If it comes down to it, I’ll—”
“What did I just say about running your mouth off?” He grasped my upper arm and began to drag me through the Sanctum. “We don’t know anything yet, so untwist your knickers.”
“If it comes down to it, I’ll do what I have to do, you know.”
“I know…” he said, “and that’s what worries me.”
I’d calmed down by dinnertime. Wilder let me off my diet for the night, so the lamb casserole, with chocolate mousse and whipped cream for desert, went a long way to soothing the whirlwind of fury I’d been all afternoon.
When I got to the vaults, I was let in by the guards without any objections.
The floor-to-celling bars, and metallic walls and floors, were unsettlingly familiar. So was the chill in the air. Jackson sat on the ground beside the bed, his arms resting on his drawn-up knees.
“Fancy meeting you here again,” he said when he raised his head.
I curled my hands around the bars. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Feels like it.”
He drew in a deep breath, looking exhausted, which was saying something considering he was supposed to be this hybrid super solider.
“I know I was mad at you, Scarlett, but I’d never let them use me to get to you,” he said. “I’m not the vindictive type. At least…I think I’m not.”
“You’re not,” I said firmly. “And I believe you.”
“I’m sorry how things went between us. I was hurt and I lashed out. I shouldn’t have let it get that far.”
I shifted from foot to foot. I’d thought about it a lot since the night he left the Sanctum. How I could’ve been so blind to his feelings for me? I’d been distracted by all the stuff going on with Wilder and discovering the demon world, but before that, I’d been so wrapped up in my own problems I hadn’t noticed. If we were talking about guilt, I had plenty of my own.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“I know I’m a part of this now,” Jackson went on. “There’s no escaping your war anymore.”
“I screwed up again,” I wailed. “I thought I was doing the right thing by bringing you back. Ramona said—”
“You better not tell me anything,” he interrupted. “Nothing about your training, the whole purple thing, what the Naturals are up to. On second thoughts, it’s probably better not to talk to me at all.”
I curled my hands around the bars. “Jackson, I can’t just leave you here.”
“If this is a two-way street, then they’re already listening. Who knows how long they’ve been in my head? I’m not going to do anything that puts your life in danger, Scarlett.”
“They mightn’t know yet,” I argued.
“I agree with Greer and her man posse. I don’t want to take that chance.”
“Even if they try and cut you open?”
He lowered his gaze and swallowed hard. “Don’t remind me.”
“If you could help…would you?”
He shrugged. “Do I have a choice?”
“Of course you have a choice,” I replied.
He was silent for so long, I was starting to believe he wasn’t going to reply. Then, he met my gaze and said, “Who am I to pass up a chance to save the world? A video game is one thing, but to do it for real?”
I knew he’d say yes. Jackson was pure, and no demon mutation could ever change that. I smiled, but a part of me was on the verge of bursting into a flood of tears.
I wanted to tell him that everything would be okay, but I couldn’t promise him something I couldn’t deliver. He’d had his life irrevocably changed because of who I was. Before this was over—if it ever reached that point—more people would get hurt. Romy, Greer, Alo, Valeria, Martin, Aldrich…Wilder. No one was safe anymore.
And it was all because of Arondight.
7
It was so quiet, I imagined I could hear a pin drop on the other side of the Sanctum.
Everyone who wasn’t on duty had assembled in the foyer, our stoic figures overseen by the massive statue of the Lady of the Lake. It was formal and a little terrifying, if I was being honest with myself, almost like we were waiting for a storm to strike us down.
Wilder was beside me, and Romy was on my other side, our hands clasped behind our backs as we stood to attention. Greer, Aldrich, and Brax waited at the head of our ranks, their gazes locked on the entrance.
There’d been a heaviness in the air ever since it was announced that the Inquisitor was coming. It didn’t take me long to realise it wasn’t an honour to host such a high ranking Natural, but an irritation. We enjoyed far too many freedoms, and everyone knew it.
Training with Wilder was one thing, but now my position as a Natural was becoming as real as a human solider poised on the front lines of a battlefield, gun in hand. I was part of the hierarchy, but I was at the bottom of the barrel.
The doors flew open, the sound echoing off the walls and bouncing around the glass dome. A wave of unfamiliar Naturals strode into the Sanctum, their boots thumping across the marble. At their head was a tall man with long blonde hair, a chiselled expression, and hard grey eyes. I had to lean a little to the side to get a good look at him, but there was no doubt this guy was the dreaded Inquisitor, Julius Wainthrope.
He walked with all the air and grace of a dictator and dressed like a flamboyant goth—he had a long, black trench coat on over a crimson collared shirt, black trousers, and matching winklepicker shoes. He’d fit right in at a goth club in Camden, that’s for sure. He even had that cliquey aloofness down pat.
The Inquisitor came to a halt in the centre of the foyer and raked his gaze over the assembly. Whatever he thought about us, he didn’t show in his expression as his entourage of black-clad Naturals lined up in formation behind him.
“Inquisitor Wainthrope,” Greer said, inclining her head in a gesture of respect, “welcome to the London Sanctum.”
“Spare your pleasantries, Greer,” he said, his gaze cool. “This isn’t a diplomatic visit. It’s an inquiry.”
From the look on her face, Greer was not expecting that the Inquisitor was here to do a stocktake of the Sanctum’s comings and goings.
“After the breach, I would have expected you to be more forthcoming,” he said without even so much as a blink. It gave him an evil appearance and I instantly bristled. “I have to wonder what else you have left out of your reports.”
Remain calm, Scarlett.
His gaze raked over the assembled Naturals, and I resisted the urge to hide behind the guy in front of me. The Inquisitor’s eyes seemed to fix on me for half a second longer than everyone else before he moved on, but I couldn’t be sure.
Whatever his assessment of the London Sanctum was, I didn’t know. His expression didn’t change once. Not even his eyeballs twitched. All he did was turn and stride into the main hallway like he owned us all. And I suppose he did in a way.
The moment he glided from the foyer, followed by the council and the unfamiliar Natural escort, we all sighed in relief and broke rank.
“That was tense,” I drawled.
“It will be until he leaves,” Romy declared. “Better be on your best behaviour.”
“My reputation proceeds me.” I mock bowed, much to Wilder’s annoyance.
“Best not advertise, Purples,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“So I don’t get to practice with my arondight blade?” Disappointment flared inside me and I pouted. I know I complained, but I was really starting to find my love of fighting. It gave me the strength I’d longed for my entire life.
“Wilder’s got a point,” Romy said, patting me on the shoulder. She waved to us as she returned to her duties, leaving Wilder and I alone in the foyer.
Everyone else had cleared out, wanting nothing more than to get away from the tense energy left behind by the high and mighty Inquisitor.
“C’mon,” Wilder said, “it’s no use hanging around here.”
We returned to the gym where several groups of Naturals were discussing the hot topic of the day—Jackson and the incoming Inquisition.
“He’s going to get fried,” some guy said. “Wainthrope is going to pry him open with his Light.”
“It’s not his fault,” a woman replied. “He can’t help what happened to him.”
“It’s not about fault. That guy was mutated by a demon. We all know they have a single purpose.”
“Don’t listen to them,” Wilder said, noticing my building rage. “They don’t know the whole story.” I took a step towards them, but his hand shot out, grabbing my upper arm. “Leave it, Scarlett.”
Seeing red, I shook him off. Approaching the group of Naturals, I tapped the guy—the one with the big mouth—on the shoulder. He turned and stared at me, his eyebrows rising.
“Excuse me,” I drawled, “you want to shut your mouth up about my best friend?”
“Well, if it isn’t Miss Demon Lover herself,” he replied with a smirk.
A flare of pure rage flared inside me and I felt my Light tingle. Shoving it away before I lost control, I glared at him, wondering how Wilder controlled himself under the onslaught of such ignorance. Unlucky for the Natural standing in front of me, I didn’t have a shred of the control my mentor held.
“You have no idea…” I snarled. “None at all. So you better shut your mouth before your lies come back and bite you in the arse.”
He laughed and sized me up. “And what are you going to do to stop me? A woman your size?”
I didn’t like the way he said the word woman and I bristled. “Let’s spar,” I declared. “If I win, you shut the hell up about Jackson and learn your manners.”
“And if I win, I get a kiss. Full tongue.”
I scowled and grabbed a practice staff from the rack. Pervert. “Is that all?” I taunted. “You can’t do better than a kiss?”
“I can.” The Natural’s gaze darkened. “You’ll see.”
“Staffs, no Light,” I said. “I want to beat you on skill alone.”
He grinned, under the impression I’d just handed him the win. “You’re on.”
Wilder grasped my shoulder and turned me around. “You do realise I can order you to stand down.”
“But I know you won’t,” I fired back. “How many fights did you get into at the academy protecting your honour?” He narrowed his eyes and I snorted. “See?”
“That guy has a good ten years of experience on you, Purples. You can’t win.”
“Says you.”
“If you lose, he won’t just go after a kiss,” Wilder said angrily. “He’ll press you for more, even if you say no.”
“All the more reason to teach him a lesson.”
It took him a moment, but Wilder seemed to realise there was no stopping me. “Don’t use your Light, not even by accident.”
“I know.”
“Purples…” He gave me a look that had concern etched into it and I felt a pang ricochet in my heart.
“I can’t believe you’re endorsing this,” I declared, taking the piss, rather than give into the feelings I could allow myself to have.
“You know I’m not endorsing anything.”
“If I lose, I’ll make sure he only gets his kiss.”
Wilder’s gaze darkened. “Don’t lose, Purples.”
My fingers began to ache like they did when I desperately wanted to touch something I couldn’t and I tightened them around the staff.
Stepping past him, I pushed away the unfamiliar feelings and kicked off my boots. The mat was cool against my bare feet and I stretched, waiting for my opponent to do the same. The fact that this was my first fight with a Natural other than Wilder hadn’t escaped me, but there was no way I was backing out now. Besides, I had to learn sometime, right?
Facing off against the Natural, I centred myself just like Wilder had taught me. There was a reason I picked the staff—as my second favourite weapon next to my arondight blade, I was constantly drilling with it.
The guy sneered arrogantly, already believing he had this in the bag. Seriously, how could a woman who’d only been training seven weeks take him out? Well, he was about to find out.
We clashed, the force of the blow vibrating up my arms. I was pushed back, stumbling a few steps before I regained my balance and dodged to the side as another strike came my way. I twisted, my staff following my movement, and I brought down the end on his lower back, then struck at his knee with my heel.
My foot slammed into the Natural right where I wanted it, and he crumpled to the mat. He rolled, sweeping his staff at my legs.
I fell, my back hitting the mat and the air drove from my lungs. Wilder had taught me how to continue fighting if I was winded, and I immediately sucked in a deep breath as I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a staff to the face.
“Hey!” Wilder shouted from the sidelines, but the Natural wasn’t listening.
He struck again, but I’d kept moving clear across the mat. I used the momentum to push to my feet and sweep the heel of my staff around. The Natural hadn’t anticipated the move and the staff slammed into the side of his head, sending his bulky frame reeling.
A tense moment passed as I stared down at his prone body, then the assembled Naturals began to hoot and holler. I’d knocked the guy out cold!
My chest heaved and I relaxed out of my fighting stance, putting a few steps between me and my opponent.
Abruptly, the gym fell deathly silent and I felt the cold presence of authority lingering behind me. Uh oh…
Turning, I saw the Inquisitor watching us with interest, flanked by the council. Greer looked troubled, Brax was impassive as usual, and Aldrich seemed impressed…to a degree.
Julius Wainthrope smiled the way a serial killer smiled over his prey, and I suppressed a shudder of revulsion.
“Impressive,” he said, his creepy smile widening. “And you are?”
I set the staff on the floor, never taking my gaze off him. “Scarlett Ravenwood, sir.”
He studied every inch of me, before he said, “Keep up the good work, Miss Ravenwood.”
No one moved until the entourage left the gym, and when they did, voices began to murmur excitedly. Wilder didn’t look impressed, and I felt a pang of regret…and disappointment.
The Natural who I’d just beaten to a pulp spat and glared up at me. He’d regained consciousness just in time to find out he’d just been humiliated in front of one of the most powerful men in the Naturals’ hierarchy.
“Need a hand?” I asked sweetly. “You can use your right one to get—”
“Scarlett,” Wilder barked.
I walked away, not feeling any better about protecting Jackson’s reputation. I’d just made an enemy and drawn attention to myself.
Nice going, Scarlett. I’d just done the next best thing to running headfirst into danger as I could get.
When dinnertime rolled around, I was relieved to leave the gym, my fight, and my encounter with the Inquisitor behind.
Romy, Martin, Valeria, and Alo were sitting at our usual table, and once I’d collected my meal, I joined them.
They were eyeing the group of Naturals who’d escorted the Inquisitor when I sat down.
“You do realise they know you’re staring them,” I said, sprinkling a little salt onto my asparagus stalks. It didn’t make them taste any more deliciously bland, but it was better than nothing.
“Everyone’s staring,” Romy declared. “We aren’t special.”
“They’re mean-looking,” Valeria said.
