A Dance with Darkness: An Angelfire Novella (HarperTeen Impulse) (5 page)

When I was alone here, the house had a hollow echo, a hungry feel to it. The empty halls and lavishly decorated rooms were so void of life that I roamed just to fill the spaces with my footsteps, breath, and voice. The high ceilings provided lovely acoustics and it seemed to me that the manor was meant for music. I would sing through the halls, saving a different song for each room, until the house became some fragmented reflection of a home.

I wouldn’t always sing happy songs. Sometimes I sang about being lonely, and when I became so, I returned to Nathaniel’s cottage on the outskirts of London. He never fretted over my absences, which often stretched for days, because I’d always been a bit of a nomad. I was nearing a century in age and for my entire life, I’d never stayed in one location for too long. I got restless, as I did when I stayed with Bastian. I enjoyed being around him, but I was free to come and go as I pleased, and I took full advantage of that right.

On the evening of Bastian’s return from his latest excursion, I was singing again, and when I sensed his arrival, I began to dance. His familiar presence, though demonic, stirred something in me, gave my bones a bounce to them. The front door opened and footsteps shuffled in and I twirled down the hall toward him, singing my song about a doe wandering through a garden, but when I saw his face I halted abruptly with my skirts fluttering around my legs.

It was not Bastian who had arrived, but his son, Cadan. He smelled of horses and his boots and breeches had traces of mud on them. His expression was filled with the same amusement that often seemed to gleam in Bastian. His eyes, fixed on me, were light in color from a distance, but this close to him I could see flecks of red and violet flames flickering in their jewel-like depths.

“I’m sorry,” he said, surprising me with his apology. “I expected Bastian to have returned by now. I didn’t think anyone else would be here.”

“I thought you were him.” I felt my cheeks burning violently with embarrassment. I’d just bounded into the room, singing and dancing like a little girl. He could only think that I was entirely mad.

His gaze broke and flitted absently around the room as a little smile formed on his mouth. He was easily as beautiful as Bastian, but where Bastian’s appearance was striking darkness, Cadan’s light hair and eyes reminded me of a snowfall on a sunny afternoon. Mistaking Cadan for Bastian wasn’t terribly far-fetched. Their powers felt very similar to me. Still, Cadan had never before rushed to his father’s home to greet him upon arrival. “You …” he said, and trailed off for a moment. He licked his lips as his crooked smile widened in one corner of this mouth. “You have a lovely singing voice. The songbirds must envy you.”

“Oh, not right now, I’m certain,” I grumbled in return. “What a fool I must look like.”

“You’re not a fool,” he said. “Happiness is a great improvement to our world.”

I wasn’t sure if he meant the entire world or the world of the demonic, but I laughed anyway. “If you insist. You just caught me singing and dancing by myself. I’m a little mortified.”

He shook his head and drew closer. “Don’t be. If you manage to get Bastian doing the same, I’d rob the queen’s jewel chest for you in gratitude. He could do with a more lighthearted disposition.”

“For the queen’s jewels, I’d be willing to give it a go,” I said. “What if I fail?”

His handsome features twisted into a funny knot as he considered my question. “Then I will have to join you and we will sing and dance and be lighthearted together.”

I smiled at him despite myself, and gave him a nod in agreement. “We’ve got a deal.”

An awkward, momentary silence fell between us as the joke seemed to die. Thankfully, Cadan leaped to the rescue before the situation got too uncomfortable. “I haven’t come early, have I? He’s due before this dawn, correct?”

“That was my understanding. I have to admit I’m surprised to see you here to greet him. Did you have a meeting? I don’t mean to impose.”

“No, no,” he stammered, his gaze breaking from mine again. “I was to … report to him … concerning … matters.”

Meaning he was not at ease with sharing his purpose with me. “Matters,” I repeated. “I see. I can be on my way. It’s no tr—”

That instant I sensed the arrival of the real Bastian and when I noticed Cadan’s shoulders tense and bunch together, I understood that he’d sensed his father as well. I gauged Cadan’s reaction, the way his entire body responded in fear. His face remained a canvas of blank emotion, but his hands were shaking. When he saw that I noticed, he balled them into fists, and even that couldn’t mask his dread.

The creak of Bastian’s carriage and the hoofbeats of the horses pulling it slowed to a stop. When he at last appeared through the doorway, I was too unnerved to leap into his arms, though I longed to. I’d missed him and it was clear that he was happy to see me. He swept me close, wrapping an arm around my waist. I cupped his cheeks in my hands, smoothed my thumbs over the few days’ worth of stubble on his jaw, and he kissed me. I’d also missed the softness of his lips on mine and the taste of his breath and skin. He buried his face into my neck, breathing in my scent as he held me close.

“Madeleine,” he sighed against my bare skin in a sultry way that made it clear he wished to sigh my name against the rest of me.

His whiskers tickled and I wiggled away from him—reluctantly so—with a scolding look. “You haven’t shaved.”

He rubbed his chin and flashed me a broad grin. “There wasn’t exactly an opportunity to do so where I’ve been.”

“Where?” was on my lips, but my voice wouldn’t work. I couldn’t bring myself to ask, because I knew wherever he’d been, he’d been with a demonic agenda. I knew it. He knew it. How long could we continue pretending that we weren’t on opposite sides of a war, that if things between us were as they should be, we’d be trying to kill each other?

The light in his eyes dimmed and he tore them away from mine. “Cadan,” he said harshly, acknowledging his son’s presence for the first time. “Please join me in the study.”

Bastian led Cadan down the hall and into a room. Behind them, Bastian shut the door, sealing me out of their conversation. I moved silently into the hall and leaned my back against the fine wooden paneling to wait. Despite Bastian closing the door, their voices traveled through it with ease.

“Well?” Bastian barked without wasting an instant.

“They’d already given it to the guardian,” Cadan said. “I didn’t get there in time.”

Bastian loosed an ugly, gruff sound. “You are proving to be more and more useless every time I look at you.”

“I went to the village you instructed me to, but it was too late. They’d already cleared out.”

“So the blame is mine, you’re saying?”

Cadan was silent.

“Did you search every building?” Bastian asked. “Every house?”

“I questioned every villager. They knew nothing and they were punished for their ignorance.”

My blood ran cold, but my heart wanted to second-guess Cadan’s claim. I couldn’t see him doing such a thing.

“Perhaps I should punish you for yours as well.” The malice in Bastian’s tone made me much more certain of his conviction than I was of Cadan’s. “I can’t believe you let them give the book to a relic guardian. You have no idea how powerful they are, or how hard they are to kill.”

“The souls I reaped in your name should atone for my failure,” Cadan replied after some time.

“You’d need to reap the whole of Europe to atone for your failures. Just go.”

Cadan emerged from the room, his features grim. He headed past me for the front door, but I caught his arm, halting him.

“For one so voracious,” I said in a very low voice, “you dine quite neatly. Almost undetectably.”

He stared at me and I did not balk beneath his gaze. He knew that he may have fooled Bastian, but he didn’t fool me. Bastian was too arrogant to even consider that his subordinates, those I was growing to understand he intentionally made to fear him, would lie to him. He was that confident, that proud.

Cadan exhaled, softened, and gave me a desperate, pleading look. He was begging me not to say anything. Of course I wouldn’t. In return, I smiled gently at him and touched his arm to reassure him. The gesture seemed to surprise him and he looked down at my hand. He ruffled, confused and flustered, and hurried from the house and out into the night. I watched him shut the door behind him, unable to help the concern I felt for him tighten on my heart. When had he last felt a gentle touch? Kindness shouldn’t shake him like it just had.

I felt Bastian’s fingertips caress the nape of my neck, sending a shiver through me. His lips followed, pressing kisses along the path he’d just marked. I closed my eyes and swallowed. “Why are you so harsh with him?”

Bastian did not skip a beat with either his hands or his lips. “He needs a firm hand.”

I moved away from him, not out of his reach but far enough so that he knew I would not let it go. “I don’t think he does. He’s afraid of you.”

Bastian beamed with so much satisfaction that my stomach turned. “You don’t understand our ways, Maddie. The only way to make them follow me is to make them fear me.”

“Including your only son?”

He sighed and all of that pompous air rushed out of him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Can we talk about it later? It’s almost dawn and I’ve been traveling all night.”

Somehow I didn’t think that weariness alone had made him so sharp to Cadan.

Bastian took my hand and I allowed him to draw me close. His large hands rubbed my shoulders and his mouth grazed my jawline. “Come to bed,” he whispered, his breath hot against the tender skin below my ear. “Let me show you just how much I missed you.”

Fire flashed through my belly, but I tightened my teeth and pulled out of his arms again. “I’ve got to go,” I lied. “I have too much to get done today. Please forgive me.”

A wicked smile spread across his gorgeous face. “I don’t think I can.”

I backed away toward the door.
He kills. Bastian kills and reaps.
“I’ll come by tonight, or tomorrow night.”

“Maddie …”

“You clearly need to rest after your tiresome journey,” I said. “Good-bye, Bastian.”

I left my back to him and once I was outside, I spread my wings and jumped into the air and into the Grim. Soon, Bastian’s manor was out of sight. I flew toward London, waiting until my scent would fade and my trail would be lost, and then I turned north toward Nathaniel’s cottage. It wasn’t until the gently smoking chimney came into view that I realized I was afraid of Bastian following me to Nathaniel. I was supposed to trust the man I loved. The doubt pressing on the furthest reaches of my mind sent a shiver through me that was very different from the one Bastian had sent through me earlier.

“WHAT HAPPENED?”

My head snapped up from the book I’d been reading and I found Nathaniel staring at me quite expectantly. The dawn had been sprawling across the countryside when I’d arrived and he didn’t question me when I curled up in the spare bedroom to sleep. He always kept a room for me in case I stopped by. It had taken me some time to fall asleep and when I finally had, it was only to wake and doze off over and over until nightfall. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Nathaniel could tell something was wrong, but I hadn’t yet decided on an excuse to tell him. I couldn’t tell him about Bastian, of that I was certain.

I set down the book. “I don’t know what you mean.”

His copper eyes flashed as he smiled gently at me. “You’ve been bouncing around for a month, happier than a skylark, and suddenly you come home with a rain cloud looming over your head. I can’t remember the last time I saw you sleep so fitfully. Something is troubling you. Has your lover done something? Would you like me to beat him up?”

I drew my face completely blank. “Who?”

He rolled his eyes. “We’ve been friends our entire lives. Did you think I couldn’t tell?”

No matter what I said now, he’d never believe me. He was too clever and he knew me too well. “I saw a different side of him last night,” I confessed. “It was a side of him I always knew he had, I suppose. I didn’t want to wake from the dream.”

His smile faded and he nodded, understanding. “Dreams never last if we’re lucky enough to wake up. The real world is where we ought to be, just you and me.”

Nathaniel was right, though his last words made me wonder if there was more to his meaning. I couldn’t live a lie, but I loved Bastian too much to give up on him that easily. He deserved another chance to prove himself worthy of the love I had for him. “I’d better talk to him,” I said, and stood to gather my things.