The Onyx Vial (Shadows of The Nine Book 1) (32 page)

Chapter 26

Killian leaned on the railing of Xalen’s office balcony, his hand on Baron’s head, his eyes on the darkness filling the rock tower’s tunnel sky. If only Fenix was allowed to fly in that inky emptiness. But the sight of a Stoalvenger above the city would stir Bolengard into the very panic Ariana threatened to cause.  

He searched the glittering black perimeter for the tree where Xalen’s daughter expected to find her. It was nothing more than a blurry speck of golden light. But he somehow doubted she was there. She’d been missing for a while. The city had slept and woken in the time since she’d stormed off. She seemed smart enough to know how to stay hidden. But what if she’d been spreading accusations about him instead?

The thought distracted him. It kept him awake. Not even Baron’s return to health, nor the warmth and comfort the dog provided, could ease him into the realm of dreams. He knew how important it was to sleep—to watch over his brother—but he woke often, always with another contingency plan for when things in Bolengard went bad.

A heavy knock sounded. Baron’s head dipped away from Killian’s hand. He followed the dog’s gaze through the dimly lit office as George emerged from behind the thick wooden door, his face haggard from sleeplessness.

Baron lunged toward him.

“Ally,” Killian said sharply.

Baron skittered to a stop, one word changing him from an attack dog to a peaceful pet. The dog planted his furry hind-end on the woven burgundy rug, just a stride from George’s feet, and lifted his wolfish snout like a soldier awaiting commands.

George’s faded green eyes widened, then lifted to meet Killian’s. “Xalen’s not already here?”

Killian shrugged.

George raked a hand through Baron’s scraggly black fur and offered Killian a weary smile. “Where are we with your brother?”

Finally. Something to focus on that was still going according to plan. “He has the Vial and he’s on the move. Uneventful journey so far. He spent the whole time alone in a coach, fiddling with the dagger and thinking about a girl.”

George heaved a sigh, nodded, and dropped into the ornately fashioned couch on the opposite side of the room. “Seems Harold is on schedule, then.”

Killian frowned. George was not relieved, as he should be. Was Ariana’s disappearance really affecting the hardened Elite Operative that much? “Did you find Ariana?”

George tugged at the ends of his grey-black hair, cinching the band that kept it bunched at the back of his head. “It’s Mahdis all over again,” he muttered. 

"
Who?”

Baron shot into a stand and his ears pulled back. Voices drifted from the hallway.

“…are my conditions.” Was that Ariana’s voice? “I won’t be persuaded to—”

Xalen’s low murmur.

“Of course I understand the gravity of the situation.”

Yes. It was her.

George perked a bit with recognition. Baron stalked toward the door.

“
Hup
,” Killian commanded.

Baron hesitated, turned his eyes to Killian while he kept his face pointed to the voices. Killian narrowed his eyes. Baron slunk back and planted himself at Killian’s side.

“…this on
my
terms.” Ariana tramped through the door a half step in front of Xalen, as if
she
were leading
him
. She ground to a halt at the sight of Killian, Baron and George. She clamped her lips together. A hundred different emotions crossed her face, lighting her sapphire-grey eyes like ashes dancing in hot blue flame.

Killian tensed, twitching his wrist instinctually, finding comfort in the sharp-edged pendant that dropped into his palm. What terms was she trying to establish?

“George. Progress with Ionia?” Xalen asked, his face clouded with impatience as he maneuvered around Ariana and continued toward his desk.

Killian kept his eyes on the girl. Her chest rose and fell with the steady pace of a tempered anger. She looked… powerful. Capable. Different. Her dark, wavy hair hung to the lace edge of her crimson camisole. The scars on her forearms gave her the distinct air of a warrior. Her soft taupe pants were tucked with precision into her roughened leather boots.

She had something to bargain with. The tells were ones he’d learned early, and they were easy for him to spot. 

“Killian. Is this confirmed?”

Killian tore his gaze from Ariana, quickly piecing together the conversation he’d just blanked out. Ariana surveyed him like a hungry falcon, though confusion crept into the corners of her eyes.

He ignored her, turning to see Xalen flipping through a pile of messages on the desk. They were asking about Hunter and the Vial. George had said they were on schedule. “Yes,” he answered.

Xalen’s acknowledgement was barely a nod. “Proceed, Ariana,” he sighed.

Her eyes lingered on him—confused about his knowing what Hunter was doing, most likely—then her focus snapped to George. Killian returned to examining her.

“You said you could get me reinstated at Ruekridge,” she said. “Did you mean it?” Her voice was calm. Even.

But he could tell how tightly she was wound. She held her arms down with too much awareness of them. He could imagine the voice in her head, commenting on how uselessly they hung by her sides. He could almost feel how the more she focused on them the more she itched to move them, to make them somehow useful.

It seemed she wanted Ruekridge as badly as he did. Why?

Ariana crossed her arms over her chest, playing at impatience, but Killian knew she’d given in to that voice.

He covered his snicker with a cough.

George stood slowly, his gaze not meeting hers until he reached his full height. He spoke solemnly. “Would you believe me, Ariana, if I said yes?”

Ariana’s swirling sapphire eyes narrowed. She regarded George with a cool calculation she’d lacked completely when he'd tried asking her about Hunter—as if, with George, she knew exactly what to say.

Maybe she did. There was something familial about their interactions. They were a lot like Xalen and Asrea, actually. Though Ariana was clearly not the obedient type.

“You’re taking
him
there, aren’t you?” She glared at Killian.

He faked a yawn, holding her gaze with all the boredom he could muster.
Answering a question with a question… a tactic of hard-headed diversion
. It hadn’t worked on him, of course, but the way Ariana turned George into something weaker than the Elite Operative that he was, Killian wondered if she might not succeed.

“Ariana.” George spoke her name with a warning.

She was clearly willing Killian to drop dead on the floor. But when he remained standing, she turned her frustration back on George. “I’m not as null as you seem to think,” she said. “He knows about Ruekridge, and I know you can’t keep him here in Bolengard. Where else can you take him?”

All true
. She had a fearlessness he’d never admit he admired.

“That leaves you two choices: take him there personally, or risk him alerting his…” she wrinkled her nose… “
father
and let him find it on his own—which won’t be hard, considering you’re letting his brother in.”

Clever. Such a change from the laughably excessive dramatics she’d shown him yesterday.

“So you might as well tell me. Option one, yes?”

George sighed, cast a brief look to Killian and Xalen for approval, then nodded.

Ariana settled her weight into her hip. The look on her face said her suspicions were confirmed, and the color in her cheeks said…

That’s strange. She’s pleased by it.

“Does that affect your answer to my question? Would you believe me?” George asked.

Ariana regarded him coolly.

She was a deeper study than Killian had expected. If he wasn’t careful, she’d turn this game she was playing on…
No, she’s not in the same league.

“In any other circumstance? I would. But in this case,” Ariana shrugged, “I think you’ll reinstate me, whether you were lying or not.”

George cocked a peppery brow. “Oh? And why is that?”

Because she knows something you don’t.

“She knows how to destroy the Onyx Vial,” Xalen said, his voice a mixture of agitation and weariness.

George drew taut. Killian straightened.

“Or so she says,” Xalen added.

Ariana pinched her lips together, trapping the emotion in her eyes. She was struggling not to retaliate. It was important for her to remain in control.

He could empathize.

She took a slow breath, kept eye contact with Xalen, and spoke evenly. “I
do
say so. Because it’s true.”

“How could you know something like that?” George questioned.

Killian cocked his head. He hadn’t figured her as a liar, but he couldn’t help wondering the same thing. No one, not even his father, knew a way to destroy the Vial.

She turned to George, her eyes flitting past Killian’s face with obvious avoidance. “I have never lied to you. Left out a few things, maybe. But never lied.”

“You going to leave out a few things
now
, too?” George asked.

Ariana considered him for a moment.
Devising a way to deflect his inquiry.

“If I tell you everything, what use am I to you?” she reasoned, letting her arms uncross.

He hiccuped a breathy laugh of admiration.
Smart girl.
She could definitely play this game. But how good was she? Could she take it as far as he could?

“What would stop you from leaving me here again?” she went on.

“The record of your behavior here so far,” Xalen answered.

Ariana turned to him, her hold on the calm façade slipping. Her widened eyes and rounded open mouth revealed her true emotion. Indignant.

He’d expected better of her somehow.

She regained composure in the next instant. “Just because I’m unwilling to tell you doesn’t mean I’m not telling the truth.”

Decent counterpoint.
One that cast her in a better light without revealing anything further. Something
he
’d have done. Then what about the slip? Was it intentional? That was no method he’d ever used. Maybe she
was
that good after all. If so, she’d be a worthy asset. But he had to be sure. It was time he tested her himself.

“My family has been searching for that
truth
for ages,” Killian said, playing up the arrogance she’d accused him of before. "There's been nothing anywhere."

George and Xalen both shot him a look of surprise, as if they hadn’t expected him to enter into the discussion so abruptly. 

"Well your
family
must have forgotten about Hunter, then, because
he
was the one who had them."

Killian couldn't cover his surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"The pages." George's words were both question and answer.

"That's why you kept them," Ariana said, full of a surety and conviction now. "You saw the drawing of the Vial, thought the pages were mine. But you couldn't read them, so you didn't know what my intent was.
That's
why you threw me in a cell."

George inclined his head. "Indeed."

Hunter had documents about the Vial. Was that why his father had wanted his brother dead instead of retrieved? No. That still didn't make sense. Why kill Hunter? What did he gain by that? It was a question that haunted him. He forced away those thoughts and focused on what mattered in the moment. "Why were these pages she's talking about not translated when the book was fixed?"

Harold opened his mouth, but Ariana beat him to it.

"Because I had them," she said.

"You just said the Strattons had them."

Ariana's cheeks bloomed pink. He had her figured out now.
Being challenged heated her. She didn’t know how to handle it.
"I took them back."

"You mean, you stole them."

She glared at him.

How far could he push her before she cracked? "So... you're a liar
and
a thief. You'd fit right in at my family dinners."

She recoiled, as he'd known she would. “You horrible prag. I'm nothing like you. And the only way I'd be at a dinner with your family is if I had slipped poison in their drinks.”

He smirked, but all she would see was raised eyebrows and an emotionless smile.
He didn’t let her slight get to him the way it had last time—before he’d recognized it as part of her defenses. She’d been reduced to foul language quicker than he’d expected, though. Like water over heat. Once she began to boil, she wouldn’t stop until long after he took her off the fire. It amused him. 

Ariana stepped toward him. Baron readied to attack with a menacing growl, but she didn’t appear to notice him. “I'm
not
lying. And
you
have no right to accuse me of doing so.”