CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) (6 page)

"When Warden Caelius said a newcomer was coming, I assumed he meant a transfer from another state—someone who knew what they were. Kadence doesn't." Cole shoved Danny's feet off the dash.

"How can't she know? That goes against the Doctrine."

"Not if she's a fledgling."

"Seventeen-year-old girls aren't fledglings." Danny put his feet back up. "You have to be wrong."

"I'm not." Cole eyed Danny's feet. "It explains why the Nefarius were on her like glue. Easy target." He shook the thought from his head. It only pissed him off.

With any newcomer just awakening to their powers, the Primordial were told to keep their distance and not expose
themselves until the fledgling was settled into their common house. But most newcomers were really young, so it was highly unlikely that a person would just run into one on the street—or in a club. Once in a while someone would move from another state or country, but when that happened, they were fully trained, and much older. Kadence should've fallen into the latter category, except she didn't.

"Well, go to the Warden and tell him." Danny crossed his ankles. "This is his problem, not ours—not yours. We need to focus on the crystal we found. The Mortal Coil symbol, and all that other crap the Shadow was rambling about.
That's
our job.” He yawned again, rubbing his eyes.

"I'm not telling the Warden anything yet. Not in regard to
Kadence, anyway.” Cole pulled off the side of the road and
knocked Danny's feet off the dashboard again. He grabbed a roll of gauze from the glove box.

"Because that would be too simple a solution?”

"When the Warden realizes there's an issue
in regard
to Kadence, I'll let him take it from there."

"This isn't your problem to fix."

"You don't know that yet." Cole wrapped the gauze around his bleeding bicep, covering the worst of the tear. He wanted to punch Jake in the face for ruining his jacket.

“Really? It's pretty damn obvious how this is going to go. We have a Doctrine, rules we live by, an oath we abide by, or did you forget all of that? No, you didn't because you taught it to me. Maybe we should ask Tiffany how it reads. I'm sure she's memorized the Doctrine word for word."

"This isn't about her." What could Cole say? Danny was right. Alliances were fixed in stone. Rules were set—had been set
forever
, as
far as any of them knew, and Cole never had any intention of
breaking even one of them.

Until now.

"
Kadence was with Giselle
,”
Danny said. "Leave
this alone."

Cole tossed him the keys. "No."

"Leave it alone."

"No." Cole hopped out of the Jeep. "Kade was wielding a crystal in the club."

"What?" Danny almost fell out of the passenger’s door. "Why didn't you say that before?"

"Because I thought...after I saw her with Giselle, that maybe I'd
been seeing things...it was dark in Crystalline, lights flashing everywhere, and why would she have a crystal if she was with Jake's
crew?"

"I'm completely confused." Danny shook his head.

"So am I."

"You're positive she had a crystal?"

Cole nodded. "I picked it up off the floor and handed it to her. A small telum. I should've said something, but I was—" Too busy staring at her. He'd wanted to say something, but Danny was yelling his name, and the second Shadow was stalking the club because Jake had let it go somehow, and Kadence was staring at Cole like he alone made the sun rise, and Cole just ...froze. The feeling that had come over him when he'd realized who Kadence was, was something he'd never felt before.

“Hello?"

Cole coughed. "Sorry, just thinking."

"Yeah...I see that." Danny smirked. "Listen, I had nothing to do with
any of this
when it comes up later."

"Your virtue is safe with me." Cole zipped his jacket.

Danny hesitated. "Maybe I should come. Four eyes instead of two."

"And put your virtue under fire?
I'll be fine."

Danny glanced up at black sky. "Dammit, you piss me off sometimes. A crystal?"

“Yep.” With a grin, Cole took off, running up the mountain.

***

It took about eighteen seconds before Cole was standing in the woods across from Kadence's house. The two-story home was lit up like a museum. Having a house that resembled a comet in the night sky wasn't exactly operating under the radar, and Cole was fairly sure Kadence was as far under the radar as possible.

"You upped your running time again? I just mastered your last speed increase." Danny came up beside him, out of breath.

Cole smiled. "Told you, you didn't have to come." He tucked
himself into the tree line as an SUV pulled into the driveway.
Kadence stumbled out the passenger door and lost her balance on the slick driveway. Reaching for the side mirror, she stopped herself from falling, her dark blond hair billowing over her shoulders like a cloud. Cole took a step forward, an overwhelming need to make sure she was okay jolting through him, but Danny halted him with a hand on his arm.

The expression on Kadence's face, jaw set, hazel eyes narrowed,
told Cole she probably wouldn't have appreciated his help,
anyway—or anyone's. Her dad, or who Cole guessed was her dad, opened the front door, and Kadence stomped across the yard, her heart-shaped face all red. Cole wondered if she was mad that she almost fell. With a grin, he watched her stomp up the front steps and enter the house. She wasn't anything like he expected. Unable to stop smiling, he turned around.

"Really, dude?" Danny stared at him. "Did we come all the way up here so you could stare at some girl you don't know?"

"Shut up." Cole made his way across the road.
For a mountain house, theirs really was over the top. Way too nice and way too bright. It stood out, and that was something the Primordial tried to
avoid.

“So, we’re good now? There's nothing here.” Danny tracked across the road after him. “Giselle did what you told her to, which further confirms that Kadence is one of them. Crystal or not. Can we go now? You can ease your weary mind and all that?"

Cole glanced toward the second-story windows and back at the forest. He'd come to make sure the house was all clear and nothing unwanted had tracked Kadence home, and everything seemed...fine, but, without her being under the protection of one of the common houses, it would've been all too easy to do, and— "You know only Primori can wield crystals."

"Yes, I know that." Danny yawned. "You had to have seen it wrong. It was dark in Crystalline."

Cole shrugged. "Maybe."

"She's fine. Nothing followed her."

With a halfhearted nod, Cole glanced at the upper windows again. He had an overwhelming urge to knock on the door, but of course that was completely insane. Kadence didn't even know him, not to mention it was probably near midnight.

"Her dad's here." Danny motioned toward the SUV in the driveway. “She's safe. The Nefarius didn't mean Kadence. Come on.
We still need to let Plumb and Warden Caelius know what we found in the Hive, and I'm tired as hell."

Cole's feet seemed glued to the ground. He couldn't quite make
them move. He didn't know that feeling—that odd sinking
sensation. Kind of like falling, or driving over a bump in the road too fast. He couldn't catch his breath, either, and he didn't want to leave.

"At that kind of speed, I'll beat your time back down the
mountain without even having to run." Danny edged forward.

Cole cracked a smile, and Danny, taking that as a sign of
encouragement, apparently, took off. With a curse and a groan, Cole took one last glance at the house before racing after him.

***

The Brotherhood common house sat high in the mountains between a stretch of low lying valleys and sharp cliffs riddled with gorges. With brown logs, and a green metal roof, the large house had been built into the side of the mountain. At a distance it was hard to see from the rocky road, and that was the point: concealment.

The property stretched over twenty acres, and between the size of the compound itself, the high altitude of its location, and the rough terrain surrounding it, most visitors and curious eyes were kept to a minimum, just the way they liked it.

About thirty kids resided in the house ranging from third grade
to twelfth. Since there were so many of them, they all attended public school in a lame attempt to “blend in” with the community, but they were always seen as outcasts. Wayward kids. The ones whose parents ditched them in a boarding house because they were
too hard to
control. The kids to steer clear of. It was better that way. Humans and Primordials may have looked the same on the surface, but they were different in so many ways underneath. It didn't bother Cole to keep his distance from kids at school. Less nosy people, less to lie
about.

Leaning
against the pillows stacked along his headboard, Cole focused on a gold chain hanging from his hand, and the tiny star dangling from it. The Shadow's words ricocheted in his thoughts:
The days, they change; the fields, they shift; the moon and stars align. The nexus is transforming.
You do not feel it.
The Patriarchae has found the Araneum.

With a sigh, he sat up and walked to his desk, placing the
necklace in the bottom of a white-satin-lined wooden box. His fingers grazed the various medals nestled inside. Every one given for valor, the highest praise a Primordial could be granted by the Ward. A few pieces of paper with handwritten quotes littered the bottom of the box, along with a photograph that was face down.
Cole's finger brushed it, but he couldn't bring himself to turn it over. Hadn't been able to look at it in years. Today was no different.

A knock on his bedroom door took his focus away from the treasures, and he closed the box, securing the lid with a small lock, before placing it back in the desk drawer, and answering the door.

Danny leaned against the frame, eyes half open like he was about to pass out standing up. "Plumb's waiting for our reports."

"Lead the way, sleepy."

Ms. Plumb's door stood halfway open at the end of the hall, a stream of white-orange light illuminating the green shag carpet. As far as common house Leads went, Plumb was probably one of the best Cole had ever met. She stuck to Ward rules without being too strict, and she was motherly without being overly controlling. Her gaze lifted as they walked into her office; her entire head wrapped in a psychedelic scarf that looked more like a turban gone wrong than anything remotely attractive.
She wore a long, bright fuchsia night gown that clashed with the turban.

On the left side of the wood-paneled room, a fire roared in the stone fire place. Black and white photographs of birds and the Rocky Mountains adorned the walls, and a faux bear skin rug complete with fake head and bared teeth, covered the worn wooden floor.

Cole closed the door and stood next to Danny in front of Plumb's desk.

"So? What did you find?" The skin underneath Plumb's eyes was smudged dark, wisps of hair escaped her turban.

Cole shoved his hands into his pockets. "We tracked a Nefarius host from Boulder to Venice, Italy, where they paired up with the Filios Daemoneum."

"Paired up?"

“Apparently,” Cole said. “We followed the blacked Leygate they fled through into an abandoned Alveare in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then back to Boulder. We ended up in a club downtown. Two Nefarius were killed, and one of them confirmed they were working with the Devil's Children."

"We found the Mortal Coil symbol in two separate Hives, as well, and we found a crystal," Danny said, with a glance at Cole.

Plumb held out her hand.

Cole retrieved it from his pocket and handed it over. "It seems pure."

She held it up to the light before handing it back. "What else?"

"The Shadow I killed said some...enlightening things." Cole cleared his throat. "It said,
'He will come for her. And she will come for all of the Primordial race. Even the Primeva are not safe. Everyone will go under.'"

Plumb's brows rose. "And did it enlighten you with who he was?"

"I asked who it meant," Cole went on. "To give me a name, and it said, the Patriarchae. It said, 'the days, they change; the fields, they shift; the moon and stars align. The nexus is transforming.'"

Plumb sat at her desk, various flower arrangements, files, and stacks of old Charles Dickens novels cluttering the top.

"That's not all," Danny cut in. "It said the Devil's Children
needed the Nefarius' help."

"Why?" Plumb asked. "Did it say why?"

Cole let out a breath. "It said, 'the Patriarchae has found the Araneum.’"

"Oh, my god." Plumb's hand went to her mouth.

"It told us we were already dead," Danny said. "Not that I believe a word of any of it." He eyed Cole. "All the Nefarius are fiends. They can't be trusted. It said the Anamolia would destroy us
all."

"The Anamolia?"

"Exactly," Danny said. "The mythical being no one has ever seen before."

"Regardless, this is disturbing. I'll send the report to the Warden. I'm afraid to ask if there is anything else." Plumb glanced at Danny, who shook his head. "Okay, then. Both of you get some sleep. School starts Monday." She gave a quick grin that said, “Glad it's you and not me.”

They turned to leave.

"Cole?"

He stopped.

“Warden Caelius may prefer to issue someone else to lead the investigation once they read the report...if they choose to investigate."

"I can handle it." He didn't turn to face Plumb.

"I'm not sure that's the best idea."