Promise of Shadows (15 page)

“Well, you did punch him in the face. I don’t think that is an endearing trait.” Leave it to Cass to break it down like that.
I sigh and collapse on a decorative bench. Nanda has one of the nicest backyards I’ve ever seen. It looks like a park, and I realize I should spend more time out here enjoying it. I pick a daisy and tuck it behind my ear. “Do you think he’s still mad about that?”
Cass shrugs.“Probably not. But you don’t have time for romance anyway. We need to talk about tonight,” Cass says. I straighten, because in my irritation over Alora I’d completely forgotten that tonight was the big night.
Tonight I would find out what happened to Whisper’s shade.
I lean back and take a deep, steadying breath. I can’t believe I let myself get distracted from finding Whisper. What kind of sister am I? “Okay. What do we need to do?”
Cass quickly outlines the plan, which involves a lock of my hair, some of my blood, and fire. Easy enough. Most summoning spells involve something personal. Since it’s my sister, I should contribute the necessary ingredients.
But something about her expression makes me think she’s holding something back, and I’m pretty sure it’s not just my paranoia this time. “Okay, so what’s the big deal?”
Cass sits next to me on the bench. Instead of answering right away, she fiddles with the knots at her shoulders. Even after more than a week in the Mortal Realm she still wears a bedsheet toga. She can’t get over the idea of pants. I think they kind of gross her out.
Personally, I’m glad to have jeans, even if they’re too-big handme-downs Nanda got at the local thrift store.
“Cass,” I say, drawing the word out.
“There’s something you need to know about the spell.”
“Is it going to kill me?”
“Not directly, no.”
I sigh. “Please, no guessing games. I’m getting a little fed up with piecing out information.”
Cass nods and clears her throat. “There’s a chance that the spell could pull in anyone looking for you.”
That doesn’t sound good. “Explain.”
“When you do a summoning spell, it’s kind of like sending out a message of where you are, like that thing Nanda showed me on the glowing box.”
I frown until I put her words together. “You mean the map? On the computer?” Nanda had been trying to explain to Cass exactly where Virginia and Ulysses’s Glen were in relation to the tiny Greek island where Cass had lived. The entire exercise was a failure as a whole, since Cass couldn’t comprehend a whole other country, much less continent. Cass had been pleased to know that Greece was still a country, though she was dismayed when Nanda had gleefully shown her the ruins of the temples.
After that Cass quit asking about the outside world, and we quit telling her. She didn’t need any additional complications. There was plenty of time for her to get used to the new world.
Cass’s expression twists in confusion again, and she nods. “Yes. Like how the little flag told Nanda where we were? You’re going to be the flag for anyone looking for you.”
I take a deep breath. “So anyone looking for me will be able to find me.” I take a quick inventory of the people looking for me. The cerberus. Maybe Hermes and the Æthereal High Council. Probably Ramun Sol. After all I’m sure he’s heard by now that I’ve escaped from Tartarus. Also, there’s the small problem of the Acolytes I killed a few days ago. My stomach clenches with guilt when I remember how easy it was to break the one Acolyte’s neck.
Number forty-three,
I think. It’s easier than thinking of it as murder. Just an act attached to a number. It’s a nice way to distance myself from the way his vertebrae ground together. Because if I think about the killings too hard, I start to wonder what kind of people they were. What made them join the Acolytes? Maybe that guy had a wife and kids. What about the other five? What happened to them? There wasn’t even dust left behind after the darkness was finished with them.
I take a deep breath and think about the little girl clinging to her mother’s wings. The Acolytes made their choice. Who knows how many children they murdered, innocents like Blue and Tallon’s little brother? I did the world a favor getting rid of them.
I have to believe that, otherwise the guilt could rise up and bury me.
“Zeph!”
I shake my head and give Cass a wan smile. “Yeah, I get it. So how long will I be waving the ‘Here I am!’ flag after we do the summoning?”
Cass shrugs. “Don’t know. Because of your strange abilities the spell could be stronger.” Cass glances back toward the house. “We may want to try to leave the house to do the spell. You know, go somewhere where we don’t have to worry about others getting hurt.”
I nod. Cass is right. If the cerberus turn up, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But Ramun Sol or Hermes? I imagine Nanda lying on her patio, the way Whisper was when I found her. I shiver, despite the warmth of the day. I can’t put her in danger. She’s all the family I have left.
“All right, do you have any ideas?”
Cass nods. “Yes. When I was talking to the Hecate, she told me about all of the empty houses in the neighborhood. One belonged to a Fae family that fled after an Acolyte raid a few months ago. There’s already a few strong wards around the building that I can fix to suit our needs. We can cast the summoning spell inside.That way if anyone besides Whisper’s shade answers the call, we can trigger the wards and buy ourselves some time.”
It sounds like Cass has been thinking about this. “Great. But what’s the plan after that?”
She levels a look at me. “We run, Zeph. Just like before. Only this time, we do it alone.”
Her words sink in, and a surge of panic rips through me. “You mean, just leave everyone behind?”
“Yes. They’ve helped us enough. If you do this and then return here, you’ll put them all at risk. I’m willing to put my life on the line to help you find out what happened to your family. Do you want to put them in danger as well?”
I open my mouth to object, then shut it. Cass is right. I can’t ask that of Nanda. She’s already done enough to help me. They helped me escape the Underworld, after all. That’s more than enough. I won’t put them in any more danger.
Because it’s really just a matter of time before one of the people who want me dead shows up. And I’ll do anything I can to make sure I don’t see anyone else I care about get hurt.
“So then, I guess that means we’re leaving tonight, huh?”
Cass nods slowly, her green eyes deep pools of calm. I envy her. Inside I’m in turmoil. Leaving feels like I’m abandoning the Promise and the whole messy prophecy. It’s almost like I’m giving up on the vættir. Because it’s not just the shadow vættir that are in trouble. Eventually all of the shadow vættir will be gone, and then the Acolytes will come for the bright, too.
But I push aside all my doubts and force a smile. “So what’s the plan?”
Cass starts talking, and I let my mind wander. I try not to let my doubts about leaving show as Cass relates her plan. Even though I know it’s the best thing I could do for Nanda and everyone else, I don’t want to go.
For the first time, running away feels like failure.

the kitchen Nanda, Blue,Tallon, and Alora relive some funny story about the last time she was in town. Alora goes to some college for Fates, where they study the Strands of Time and buy dresses that barely cover their boobs. Not that I’m jealous of all the attention everyone is paying to Alora. Because I’m not.

Much.
I punch the couch pillow in my lap and watch the flickering screen. I’m not quite sure what’s going on, I just know that it has something to do with people living in a house and basically being completely awful to each other in between bouts of drinking. Cass can’t understand what they’re saying; her grasp of English extends to “yes,” “no,” and a few choice swears that Blue taught her. Still her face scrunches up as she watches the show with me. Some things you don’t need to understand the language to figure out. It’s not a program I’d normally be interested in, but I need something to distract me from tonight’s planned activities.
Have I mentioned how much I dislike magic rituals? They’re just as likely to go horribly wrong as they are to work.
Besides the summoning, I also have our escape to worry about. Right now the plan is to wait until everyone goes to sleep and then sneak out without disturbing the wards too much. Cass wanted to put the house under a sleeping spell, but I worried that if something happened, they wouldn’t have a chance to defend themselves. After all it was only about two weeks ago that we arrived to Nanda’s house under attack. Who knows what will appear when we trigger the summoning spell?
The show goes to commercial, and there’s a knock at the front door. Cass and I look at each other, debating whether or not to answer it, when it comes again.
“What happened to your wards?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “They weren’t triggered. Must be a friend.”
The knock comes again, a little more frantic this time. I get up, and as I pull open the door, my mouth drops open in shock. There have to be about fifty people in the front yard, all vættir. I recognize the Harpy with the little girl and a few others in the crowd from the day I killed the Acolytes. The Gorgon at the door isn’t familiar though.
“Are you the Nyx?” she says, not even bothering to introduce herself. The blue snakes of her hair hiss in agitation, and I lean back.
“I don’t know.”
My answer sets off the crowd behind the Gorgon. People begin murmuring, while others shout quotes of some sort. I hear “She will come to you in a haze of uncertainty!” and someone else shouts, “If she’s the Nyx, why did the Acolytes just attack my cousin in Canada?” I take a nervous step backward, and Nanda is there, pushing me behind her.
“Marnie, what a surprise,” she says, her voice not at all friendly. “I thought we agreed to wait on this.” Nanda closes the door behind her as she and the woman on the porch begin to argue. I turn around, and Alora and Tallon are there, Blue and Cass hovering in the doorway to the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” Tallon asks, the first words he’s spoken to me in what feels like forever. I shrug.
“I don’t know, angry mob coming to kill the Nyx?” I’m only half joking. There weren’t any torches or pitchforks, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before. And it never ends well.
“If they meant you any harm the wards would’ve been triggered,” Blue says. Cass watches us, her calm expression making me wary. But then I realize she doesn’t know what’s going on because we’re speaking English. I slip back into Æthereal.
“The wards seem to be holding, for now,” I say. “Who knows what will happen if the riffraff decide they’re no longer just here to ask a few pointed questions?”
From out on the porch there’s a crashing noise and some yelling. Tallon opens the door and rushes out, Blue on his heels. Alora pushes past me to watch the scene on the porch through the living room window. A hand pulls me backward, and I look over at Cass.
“Perhaps this would be a good time to go,” she murmurs, and I nod. Everyone is distracted by the commotion out front. We can use the opportunity to slip out, instead of waiting for everyone to go to bed.
I run upstairs to grab my pack, which is shoved under my bed. I debate leaving a note, but there isn’t time. Besides, what would I say? That I’m afraid to be the Nyx? Thanks for letting me crash here, but I’m bailing?
I come downstairs to find Alora and Cass talking. Alora’s hands gesture wildly, while Cass listens with her arms crossed. They see me and freeze. Alora’s expression turns guilty before she slinks off toward the living room window. Cass comes over to me.
“Are you ready?” Cass asks.
“Yeah. What was that about?”
Cass shakes her head. “Nothing important. Let’s go.”
I glance over at Alora, who stares out the window with an intensity that seems false. “Don’t you think she’ll say something?”
Cass adjusts her pack. “No, she’ll keep her mouth shut.”There’s an edge to Cass’s voice that scares me enough that I clamp my lips closed.
We quietly exit through the kitchen, slipping out the back door without incident.
And then we’re off.

The layout of the house two down from Nanda’s turns out to be nearly the same, thank the gods. We enter through the kitchen, which has been ransacked. Cupboards hang open; dishes and utensils are strewn about the floor. I quietly snag an overturned bowl before we make our way into the living room. This room looks a little better, but the tang of the family’s fear scents the room. They must’ve been very scared for their emotions to still cling to the walls.

“Do you know how long ago this family left?” I ask Cass as we head upstairs.
She shakes her head. “Before Tallon and Blue came to the Underworld to find you. Alora said that things had been getting worse.”
I frown. “Alora?” How many times did she and Cass powwow?
“Yes. We spoke at length today while you were watching your soap operas with Blue.”
My face flushes because I hadn’t even noticed the two of them talking. “What else did she say?”
“Nothing of import,” Cass says, the edge back in her voice. I take that as a cue that it’s none of my business and drop it.
There are two bedrooms upstairs instead of the three that were in Nanda’s. We climb the stairs slowly. “I think we should do the summoning spell on the roof,” Cass says.
I stare at her. “Seriously? The roof ?”
Cass nods. “You aren’t afraid of heights, are you?”
“No, but . . . never mind. We can do the spell on the roof. We should be able to climb onto it from one of the bedroom windows.” It’ll be uncomfortable to sit on the sloping roof for very long, but if Cass wants to cast the spell up there, then that’s what we’ll do.
The first bedroom we check has a window-unit air conditioner blocking the only window. The second has two unblocked windows, and I’m hoping one of them will lead to the roof.
We slink through the room in the near dark. The streetlight outside provides some light, but not much. Like the rest of the house, the place is trashed. Dolls lie on the floor, a few trampled underfoot. A tiny stuffed dragon lies facedown in the middle of the chaos. For some reason seeing the thing makes me sad. This was probably a little girl’s room. The shelves hold a collection of dolls with ceramic faces and eyes that are a bit too lifelike. It’s creepy, especially since the rest of the room has been destroyed.
I open the window and lean out. The opening is close enough to the sloping angle of the roof that I can grab the edge and pull myself up. I bite down on the edge of the bowl so that I have two free hands, and then I’m out and up.
Once I’m on the roof, I lean over the edge to help Cass up. She weighs next to nothing, but the angle is awkward, and I have to strain to help her climb up. By the time she’s next to me, we’re panting from the effort.
Getting onto roofs was much easier when I had wings.
From here we have an almost clear view of Nanda’s house. The crowd is beginning to break up, although there are still knots of people here and there. I wonder what they’re all talking about.
And I wonder how long it’ll take Tallon to notice that I’m gone.
Ugh, why do I even care?
I settle onto the roof, the bowl next to me. It’s tricky because the roof slopes, so I have to draw up my knees and plant my feet on the shingles to keep from falling off. Cass sits beside me, her leather sandals loud as they scrape across the rough surface of the shingles.
“Do you know what that is?” Cass asks. She stares at my arms. The dark swirls are just now beginning to peek out of the bottom of my short-sleeved shirt. I pull the sleeves down, trying to cover the markings.The material just bounces back up, the curving edges once again visible.
I shake my head. “It just started after we got here. I forgot to ask you about it.” And my doubts about Cass made me hesitant to bring it up. But she doesn’t need to know that.
Cass traces one with her finger, and I jump at the sudden contact. She pulls back her hand. “Elias had the same marks. It’s from the erebos.”
I look at the marks. “What does it mean?”
Cass shakes her head. “He never told me.” There’s sorrow in her words, and I study her. Her mouth has the slightest downturn, and I actually get a whiff of her sadness. It smells of lavender and powder with a tinge of rain.
I wonder if Cass is starting to get some of her emotions back. If she is, then maybe my wings could grow back. I want to ask her, but now is probably not the time. I swallow the words I want to say. “So, how do we do this, again?”
Cass walks me through the steps. I haven’t done a summoning in a very long time. And like most magic, I’m not very good at it. The night I killed Ramun Mar, it took me three attempts to get ahold of Hermes. By the time he showed up, I was light-headed and blubbering from the blood loss.
I hope this works the first time.
I extend a talon and slice open my hand before I think too much about it. Blood wells up, dark and shining in the moonlight. I hold my hand over the bowl, making a fist to squeeze as much out as I can before it seals over. The cut was deep, and about half an inch of blood fills the bowl before it heals. I pray it’s enough to get Whisper’s attention.
My middle twists and tangles with anticipation. I’ve waited so long for this moment. Now I just hope I can get the answers I’m looking for.
I balance the bowl carefully on my knees, while Cass saws off the bottom few inches of one of my ropy locks with a steak knife. The snarled hair falls into the bowl. She tucks the knife away into the folds of her bedsheet toga and then looks at me.
“Are you ready for this?” she asks.
“Yes. No. Maybe.” I sigh. “Let’s get this over with before I throw up.” The nervousness churns my stomach now. I really wish I hadn’t had a third pork chop at dinner.
Cass nods. “Say the words of binding.”
I lean over the bowl and repeat the words that Cass taught me, high Æthereal that basically says that I freely give up this little bit of me. The words tangle on my tongue, but I can sense the power in them. This spell is much more complicated than the silly little summoning spell Hermes taught me to call him. This feels powerful.
The bowl begins to feel heavy, like it holds more than some blood and hair. I turn to Cass. “Can I get a little flame, please?” I could try to do it, but I don’t feel the need to embarrass myself when I know she can conjure flame without much thought.
With a nod Cass produces a handful of fire and drops it into the bowl. It flares up when it hits my hair, and the blood sizzles up into a thick dark smoke. I blow the smoke away and hold my breath before I say, “Whisper Mourning, you are summoned!”
The smoke billows around us, and for a moment I worry that someone might see it and call the fire department. But then it swirls and coalesces into a female figure with giant wings, her short, ropy locks pulled into pigtails. My heart leaps.
“Whisper,” I say, and the smoke figure turns to me. Her expression is sad and angry at the same time.
“Peep, what have you done?”
Screaming echoes down the street toward us, and Cass scoots to the edge of the roof. She turns back to me. “Acolytes. In the street. They’re running this way.”
I turn back to Whisper, and she shakes her head sadly. “He was just waiting for you to do this, Peep. Now you’ve led him right to you.”
I grip the bowl tightly. If I drop it, Whisper will leave. “Wait, who? Why aren’t you in the Elysian Fields?”
Whisper’s smoke form wavers, like a TV screen on the fritz. “Because he has us. So many of us. All to stop you.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about, but the sounds of fighting filter down the street toward me. I should go help them, but I need to know what Whisper is talking about. “Who, Whisper? Who has you?”
“I do.”
I drop the bowl and scrabble around on hands and knees in the direction of the voice. Behind me, with a knife to Cass’s throat, is a man with pale skin and a long, drooping mustache. His hair is completely white. He wears the purple uniform of the Acolytes, a radiant sun emblazoned on his chest. His brother’s uniform bore the wavy lines of the sea. Nearby, a golden monkey-type creature hisses at me. A kobalos.
“Ramun Sol.” I’ve never met the Æthereal, but he looks exactly like his brother, Ramun Mar. The first person I ever killed.
But not the last.
Rage surges through me, hot and sharp. The darkness rises up, fast and hard, ready to destroy. I gasp at how easily the power comes. Wisps of darkness curl around my hands and up my arms. There’s comfort in its strength.
Ramun Sol laughs. “Ah, now it all makes sense. You were here all along. The Æthereal High Council has been wringing its hands and asking Hades to turn you over, like a bunch of simpering old women. Meanwhile you’ve been running around the Mortal Realm like some mythical hero. Do you actually believe you’re the Nyx?”
“Let her go,” I say. His words sting. They’re exactly the same doubts that I’ve had all this time. The darkness surrounding me hesitates at my uncertainty.
I won’t let him be right. He can’t be right. I have to be the Nyx. I have to be able to kill him.
The people screaming in fear on the street below are counting on me.
Ramun Sol opens his mouth to say something, but before the words leave his mouth, Cass pulls out the knife tucked into her robes. She jams it into his thigh, twisting the blade viciously. Ramun Sol screams as Cass summons her fire, feeding it down the knife blade and into the wound. He releases his hold on her, and Cass is tilting her way across the roof toward me.
“Hurry,” I say, holding my hand out to help her over the apex of the roof. She gives me a smile, and for a single moment her face is more than just pretty. She’s radiant.
“I believe in you, Zephyr. I always have.” Something furry jumps at my face, screaming. I swat at it, and it isn’t until I bat the creature away that I realize it was the kobalos. Damned demons.
I drop my hands in time to see the kobalos jump on Cass’s chest, propelling her backward into Ramun Sol’s arms. He laughs and grins at me as he holds a knife to Cass’s throat.
“No. Please,” I say, panic slamming my heart against my ribs.
“Her shade shall help to burn away the shadow vættir, once and for all.”
Without another word, he parts her throat with the knife.
Time slides to a stop as Cass’s toga turns scarlet. My heart beats once, and again. The bright smile at Cass’s throat is garish and outlandish. My brain refuses to see it, refuses to acknowledge what it means.
No. Oh gods, no.
Cass isn’t just Cass anymore. In my mind she’s Whisper, lying on the patio, sightless eyes staring up at the night sky.
I’ve failed her. I failed both of them.
The kobalos jumps on Cass as Ramun Sol releases her. It parts her chest easily, pulling out her heart and devouring it. The golden creature turns and screams at me, its muzzle covered with blood, then it runs off across the roof, disappearing in a bright, camera-like flash.
Cass’s body slides off the roof, landing below us with the sound of crashing branches. All this has taken maybe seconds, and I haven’t moved. I can’t breathe, and the old panic surges back. He killed Cass. Cass is dead.
Cass, who saved my life. Cassiphone Pellacis, who helped me escape hell, who believed I was the Nyx. Cass, who never even knew that I was having doubts about her loyalty. My best friend is dead.
It’s more than I can handle.
Ramun Sol is still perched on the roof. He smiles at me again, his golden eyes seeming to glow. “Now we settle our grudge.”
“No, asshole. Now you die.” My voice is far away. I can’t feel anything. My entire body’s gone numb, and everything feels like it’s happening to someone else. Without even realizing it I’m up and running across the roof, the darkness rising around me. I catch a glimpse of fear in Ramun Sol’s eyes before I tackle him around the middle.We fall backward over the edge of the roof, and Ramun Sol drives the knife he killed Cass with into my back. I ignore it.
The darkness is too hungry to even acknowledge the pain.
We fall off the roof, crashing into the yard below. Ramun Sol tries to scramble away, but I’m on top of him. I’m not going to let him go anywhere. The darkness tears at his exposed skin, and he screams like a wounded animal. He summons his power, æther as bright as the sun, and just as hot. It explodes around us, lighting up the night.
The solar flare throws me backward off him. The darkness retreats into me to avoid the bright. My clothes burn away, leaving behind blistered skin and agony. My eyes can’t see anything, the light damaging the retinas. I hear the crackle of fire as the nearby trees and house go up in flames. But the darkness protects me. It wants to devour the brightness, and I laugh.
I’ve never been so excited by the idea of destroying something. I unleash the darkness.
I blink as my eyes repair themselves, and the pain disappears from my skin. I’ve just healed faster than ever before.
I climb out of a bunch of scorched bushes near the house. The darkness swirls around me, eager to fight. But Ramun Sol is gone, and rage sweeps through me. I scream out my frustration.
Around me the houses are burning, several destroyed by Ramun Sol’s solar flare. But my anger has left me spoiling for a fight. The sounds of battle filter to me from the street out front.
If I can’t kill Ramun Sol, I’ll tear apart his Acolytes.
The darkness swirls around me, hiding my nakedness as I calmly walk around the side yard and into the middle of the street. The Acolytes are fighting the people gathered in front of Nanda’s house. The vættir are sadly outnumbered, but it looks like they’re trying to defend themselves against the swords and clubs of the Acolytes. Bodies litter the street, most of them vættir from the neighborhood.
Blue swings his giant sword at a knot of Acolytes chasing a woman. Tallon has his own battle going on, his smaller blades whirling in a deadly circle. Even Alora fights, tiny throwing knives that reappear in the bandolier she throws them from. Infinity knives. That used to be my weapon of choice back in the Aerie.
The darkness snaps around me, anxious for release. It wants to hurt, to kill. My pain is its pain as well, and it hurts for my loss.The shadow’s bloodlust should scare me, but it doesn’t. Because I want the same thing it wants.
I want to destroy everything.
I send the darkness out, tendrils of it spiraling through the street. I can sense the Acolytes acutely, their corrupted brightness like rot on a piece of fruit. The first couple of Acolytes go down easily. The darkness understands the need for stealth and speed. It kills the Acolytes quickly, consuming their brightness without touching their physical forms. After the first dozen or so I realize that the darkness is saving its appetite. After all, you don’t want to stuff yourself on the first course of the meal.
I walk toward the battle, sending the darkness out farther and farther. First down past the end of the street, then over to the next street, where the Acolytes stalk a sleeping family. Farther and farther I send out the darkness. To the next street, and the next. The shadows spread out from me like a dark plague, killing those Acolytes it finds. A barrack of sleeping Acolytes in New York. A party of Acolytes at some college nestled among giant pines. Farther and farther the darkness goes, seeking out Acolytes, stretching impossibly far.