Darkness Watching (Darkworld #1) (29 page)

“Wow,” I said, then jumped back as David blinked at me.
Oh shit. He really will think I was assaulting him.

“Ash?”

“Quick question,
venator,
” said Claudia. “How much do you value your memory?”

“Huh?”

“We could do this the easy or the hard way. If you play nice and don’t report us, I’ll leave you untouched. If you can’t promise that, I’ll remove all your memories of the last twenty-four hours. You’ll still walk away unscathed. I’m feeling generous.”

His face paled. “Remove my memories?”

“Yeah. You
venators
love Influence, don’t you?”

“You’re not registered! It’s illegal.”

“Oh, cry me a river. You won’t remember it anyway.”

“Look.” I could see his hands shaking; Claudia genuinely scared him. “I won’t say a word, but they might read it from me anyway. You don’t lie to them and expect no repercussions.”

“Coward. All right, then. Ash, help me.”

She drew the shadows around her once again, and the cold feeling rushed through my body. Suddenly, I saw a series of images before my eyes, David talking to me, ice forming over his body…

Not images. Memories.

Claudia’s voice spoke from somewhere nearby.

“Just the recent ones.”

“How―”

But some strange sixth sense guided me. The closest comparison I could think of was using a computer mouse or game controller to guide the actions of an on-screen character. I was both here and not here, holding the images in my hands and scattering the ones that showed past events. Me turning him to ice, our argument, Claudia following him into his room.

A pang went through me at the sight of David and me sitting at the bar. Would I have to erase that one, too?

“Stop.”

The images faded away, and, with them, the shadows creeping in around my vision. The fluorescent lights of the flat corridor seemed unnaturally bright after the fog of memory.

“I thought you’d be a natural,” said Claudia. She leant on the wall, panting as though she’d run a long distance. “Right. You, go back to bed.” She kicked open David’s door and pushed him inside. His mouth was half-open and his eyes glazed.

“It’ll take him a few minutes to come to his senses, but he won’t remember any of it.”

“Mind telling me how I did that?”

“We broke into his mind through the Darkworld.” She sank to the floor. “Holy hell. You know, it’s only the second time I’ve done it. The last job took four of us. Leo’s overly-curious flatmate saw us using magic,” she added. “This guy was tougher, being a magic-user. Did you see the shadows?”

“Um.” My mind struggled to process what she said. “Did you say we
broke into his mind?
”

“Yeah. So?”

“Isn’t that what you said demons do?”

“No! Well, I guess… it’s the same principle, but we couldn’t go any deeper in than that. Demons go right through, see every thought and memory of your entire life at a glimpse. They have total domination. Magic-users can manipulate memory and sometimes dreams, but no more than that.”

“Dreams,” I said. “Sometimes I’d swear someone was manipulating mine.”

“Maybe they are,” she said. “The Barriers are strong here, but low-level mind-manipulation like this still works here. And dream manipulation, I guess. It’s where the idea of nightmares come from.”

“And sleep paralysis?”

“I’ve no idea. Look, the fortune-teller’s an expert on that kind of thing―well, all sorts of magic, really. She’s the person to ask.”

So the next day, after a sleepless night spent returning my room to its former state, I went into town with Claudia and, for some reason, Leo, who turned up outside our block saying he was bored.

“
Paradise Lost
isn’t interesting enough,” he said. “It gets boring after the part with the Devil. Milton was blatantly Satan’s bitch. You read it?”

Claudia interrupted before I had the chance to reply. “When you’ve finished your intellectual discussion,” she said, “we should get a move on.”

“Why, do you think the
venator
will come and arrest us for talking outside the flat?”

“It’s not
funny
, Leo.”

I said nothing, just ignored the unpleasant plummeting sensation inside as it hit me that everyone thought David was the enemy. Whatever he’d done, I didn’t think he was a bad guy. But maybe I was just blind.

Blind and stupid.

The market wasn’t on in town, as it was a Sunday, but the fortune-teller’s tent was still there, tucked away in a corner of the square near the entrance to the cemetery. The tent this time looked smaller, folded in upon itself, and no one else seemed to acknowledge it, leading me to conclude it was hidden to everyone except us. The three of us approached it casually, and, without bothering to ask for admittance, Leo slipped through the front gap.

Madam Persephone sat behind the table, as if she waited for us.

“You again,” she said to Leo. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Master Blake?”

“It’s Ash who needs to talk to you,” said Claudia. “There’s a spy for the Venantium in her flat, and we think he broke into her room.”

The fortune-teller looked at her sharply. “Broke into her room?”

I nodded. “My room was totally ransacked. I don’t think he took anything, but he didn’t even bother to cover up his tracks.”

“Are you sure the intruder took nothing?”

“I think so. Nothing important.”

“Check again. Make sure.” She looked more troubled about the possibility of a thief than that one of my flatmates was a spy. “As for the
venator
, I’d advise you not to do anything rash. Do you have any proof he was the thief?”

“Well, no,” I said, “but he hates me. Isn’t that proof enough? I don’t know anyone else who would do something like that. Besides, only a magic-user could have gotten past the spell Claudia put on my room.”

“And only demonic magic could have undone those bindings,” said the fortune-teller, “which leads me to conclude that either this young man is a traitor, or there is another magic-user at your university, one dabbling in demonology.”

“And they’re summoning the shadow-beasts?”

“That is most likely.”

“A demon gave me a warning yesterday,” I said suddenly. “In town.”

“A warning?” Madame Persephone’s eyes flashed.

“Well, I think it might have been a warning. It was pretty vague.” I repeated the demon’s words, as well as I could remember.

“They’re after your heart?” said Claudia blankly. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Who knows?” said the fortune-teller. “It is not uncommon for demons to fabricate, to beguile and deceive you. I would not dwell on it. Now, you should leave.”

Taken aback by this abrupt dismissal, I said, “But what about David? I can’t let him get away with breaking into my room.”

“Do you have a shield?”

“Yes, but it didn’t work. The intruder got in through my flat. That’s why it must have been David. He lives just down the corridor.”

“If that’s the case… just make sure you always lock your door.”

“Helpful,” I said, sarcastically. “I did lock it, I’m sure of it. And I always put the bolt on the inside when I’m sleeping.”

“I see.” She frowned. “Does the shield cover the door?”

“Oh, crap,” said Claudia. “That must be it. We only put it on the room. The outside of the door wasn’t affected.”

“An easy mistake to make,” said the fortune-teller.

Claudia groaned, slapping her forehead. “I’m an idiot for not thinking of it. Sorry, Ash.”

“It’s no problem. I didn’t consider it, either.”

“So,” said Claudia, addressing the fortune-teller again, “back to the demons. Do you think they’re after something from Ash?”

“Demons prize magic above all else. They target those with strong magical potential who can see them. But, in Ashlyn’s case, they may be after something else.”

“But what?”

“Who can say? It’s an enigma.”

There was something in her eyes I couldn’t place, something like sadness, or regret, carefully repressed. Was she telling me the full truth? What were the demons after? Did I have some power they desired? I still had no idea of my own strength, and it disturbed me to think of what I’d done to David, instinctively and viciously. I had to learn to keep my powers under control—but how could I do that when the only advice the fortune-teller gave was cryptic nonsense?

The flame-like lights of Satan’s Pit span around me as a stranger approached across the dance floor, masked. He took my hand and I accepted. As he twirled me around, I said, laughing, “Take off the mask, I want to see your face.”

He obliged, and I froze as I looked into the blank, violet eyes of a demon. A third eye winked at me from the centre of his forehead, this one ice-white and gleaming like a single star in the night’s sky.

I backed away, into the crowd of other masked figures. One put his hands on my shoulders; I instinctively wriggled away, twisting to find myself faced with another demon. This one’s eyes burned with a fevered light, and the third eye―the demon’s heart―gleamed vivid blue, like lapis lazuli. Beside him, another figure removed its mask to reveal purple eyes, and its gleaming hematite heart.

One by one, the figures unmasked and look at me with their true eyes, until I looked at a constellation of lights, gleaming in the darkness, demon hearts glittering like the collection of precious stones inside the fortune-teller’s tent―

“Give us your heart, Ashlyn,”
the demons whispered.

And I knew.

I knew what they meant.

I lifted the amethyst pendant over my head and held it up, so the stone was positioned in the centre of my forehead. I saw myself reflected in the eyes of the demon closest to me, and I saw, with a thrill of horror that jolted me awake in an instant, my own eyes burning violet, like those of the other demons.

I lay in the darkness and felt waves of horror course through me.

I am one of them. I am a demon.

That was why I couldn’t summon fire. That was why they were so fascinated by me. That was why shadow-beasts stood no chance.

And that was why someone wanted me dead.

Did David know? Was that why he’d ransacked my room, looking for―?

I leapt out of bed in an instant. I’d assumed nothing had been taken, but now I thought about it, I didn’t recall seeing―

I rummaged frantically through my jewellery box, panic rising with every second.

No.

“No,” I whispered. “Oh, God, no.”

What was it Claudia had said? A demon’s heart attracted other demons because it was a potent source of magic… David had seen me wearing it plenty of times…

Aunt Eve,
I thought. She’d sent me the pendant; she must have known what it was. Now I thought about it, that letter she’d sent with the necklace had sounded a little odd. I couldn’t remember the wording, but I was almost positive I’d read the words, “Guard your heart well.”

But the letter was gone, too… Had the same thief taken it? How could anyone else possibly have known about it?

Without even beginning to formulate a plan, I left my room. I stood in the middle of the corridor, my heart beating fast, indecision rooting me to the spot.

A voice spoke behind me without warning, a familiar one.

“Be grateful I didn’t kill you.”

I turned around.

“It would have been much easier, but I need you alive. You shouldn’t have interfered.”

The world was beginning to blur before my eyes, and it felt as though someone sifted through my mind, scattering memories like scraps of paper.

“Why?” was the only word I managed to say, before everything went black.