“What does the Red Thread faction want?” I asked, peering into his frightened brown eyes. I’d finally gotten to him. I could tell.

“There’s an uprising coming, among our people. We’re tired of the Aeternae’s imperialism. We’re pushing for freedom,” he said. “Rimia is growing restless, but few people know that here. The master commander has been sending soldiers to my home planet, looking to stifle the growing rebellion. We’re merely trying to do what we can from here.”

Kalon was visibly disturbed by the revelation. “What you can? Like what? Trying to kill me, the son of the high priestess?”

“Well, we were hoping to take you hostage, actually. Hence the darts,” the Rimian replied.

I smacked him in the cheek, causing more blood to pour from his cuts. “Well, that clearly didn’t work out so well. Also, you started off with a bold-faced lie, and it’s not going to help you further down the road. Listen, we’ve got people at the palace accusing you of working with the Darklings, and I want to know everything you know about those bastards, because they killed my friend. I’m out for blood, and my tolerance levels are dismal.”

The Rimian dry-swallowed, staring at me. “We are not working with the Darklings. They’ve got something else entirely going on. We’re trying to get to them, to break them from within. As far as we’re concerned, they’re the enemy.”

“What else do they have, as you say, going on?” I asked.

“It’s a bit hard to explain.”

“Try,” I snapped, raising my clawed hand again.

“The Black Fever! They’re trying to stop the Black Fever!” The Rimian whimpered. “It’s a rumor, at least. It’s what I heard. That one of their main objectives is to stop the Black Fever from spreading. We know it’s coming again because the Darklings are mobilizing sooner and faster than before. We’ve seen them out in the streets, and near the orphanage and other gathering spots. It didn’t take a genius to put it together.”

“This doesn’t make much sense. Why would they keep going after Valaine, then?” Kalon replied, shaking his head. “She’s an Aeternae. Part of the ruling class. Not to mention all the other Aeternae they’ve killed over the years.”

The Rimian sighed deeply, aching from his position against the column. “Word has it the Darklings offer up the life of an Aeternae as a sacrifice, and that it usually stops the plague from wiping all of them out.”

“What?” I croaked. “How the hell is Valaine’s death going to stop the Black Fever? It’s an actual disease. Sacrifices are so primitive! What are these Darklings thinking?”

“I don’t know. But they spend considerable amounts of time and resources to find the right Aeternae, every time. Every fifteen thousand years they do this. The attacks, the killings, they usually spike before the Black Fever breaks out. Then, once it fades, the Darklings fall back into the shadows. We’ve theorized that they kill the wrong people, frequently, looking for that right Aeternae… It’s likely they’re after Valaine now because they think that if they sacrifice her, it’ll stop the Black Fever,” the Rimian explained.

I looked at Kalon, and he was as outraged and as befuddled as me. “Are they insane? A murderous cult?” I asked.

“Well, they’re definitely not the anarchists we thought they were,” Kalon muttered.

“And the Red Threads? What are you up to?” I asked the Rimian.

“I told you. We’re revolutionaries. I’m telling the truth. We were going to kidnap Lord Kalon here for ransom. We need funding for weapons.”

Kalon and I exchanged an intrigued glance, before I moved my attention back to the Rimian. “What about Nethissis? What do you know about her death?”

“Who’s Nethissis?” the Rimian asked.

“Our witch friend. Copper hair, yellow eyes…”

He nodded slowly. “Right. I’ve seen her. But I don’t know. Where was she killed? And how?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out, as well. We found her in the palace gardens,” I said.

The Rimian scoffed, visibly disgusted. “That place is teeming with Darklings, and most people don’t even know it. They’re impossible to detect. As for your friend, I honestly have no information. But if she was killed by Darklings, then she probably saw or heard something she shouldn’t have. Otherwise they would’ve let her be. If there’s one thing I know about the Darklings, whoever they are, it’s that they do not kill without reason. They’re always looking for sacrifices to the Black Fever. Call it a cult, if you will. Their faith demands blood.”

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with his answers, but I also knew he couldn’t give me more. His heartbeats were steady, his pulse even and strong. There was no deception in his response. This was all he knew, and it bothered me for two important reasons: one, it didn’t bring me any closer to Nethissis’s murderer, and two, it merely verified that Valaine was the Darklings’ target. That put my brother at risk, as well, since the two had become more or less inseparable since last night’s attack.

“This isn’t good,” I said, getting up and turning my back on the Rimian. Kalon joined me, equally concerned.

“What do you think?” he asked, leaning closer.

“He’s telling the truth,” I replied. “But it’s not helping much, is it?”

“We know they’ll keep going after Valaine,” Kalon said. “They won’t stop until she’s dead. I reckon our only chance to figure out who the Darklings are is if we capture one of them alive.”

“What about the Red Thread here?” I whispered.

“Oh, he’s liable to be charged with treason. He’ll have to surrender his friends to avoid the death penalty, at best,” Kalon said. “Conspiring against the Aeternae, trying to kidnap me… both capital offenses.”

We turned around to face the Rimian again, only—he was gone. His ropes were loose, the ends cut neatly with a blade.

I gasped. “Crap.”

Something moved at the back, through the darkness. A door opened, light pouring through as the Rimian escaped. My heart started thumping, angry in its rhythm, as I realized he’d played us. While we’d been interrogating him, he’d been working on his ties, likely using a blade he must’ve kept up his sleeve or something. I had not thought to check his sleeves, nor his boots. This was a terrible mistake.

“Come on!” Kalon said. “We need to get him!”

He dashed across the hall and bolted through the back door. But this was supposed to be the end of a cul-de-sac. Where was the Rimian going? I remembered seeing a tall wall behind the house, but I doubted he had the ability to jump over it, especially after I’d dislocated one of his kneecaps.

It dawned on me then that he’d probably gone around the house, so I ran back out through the front door. I saw him at the beginning of the alley, limping slightly, and I heard Kalon behind the mansion.

“Kalon!” I shouted. “Out here!”

Seconds later, he joined me, and we ran after the Rimian. Neither of us was done with him. He could still give us useful intel about the Darklings—and, as far as Kalon was concerned, about the Red Thread faction, too. I had no interest in getting involved in going against a revolutionary movement, but Kalon and I shared a common goal in this Rimian.

Finding out as much as we could about the Darklings, so we could wipe them out, once and for all. I was also dying to learn more about their weird, sacrifice-demanding faith. Where the heck had that come from? What exactly had powered it into such a bloody practice? And was there any truth behind it? Would an Aeternae sacrifice truly stop the Black Fever?

Tristan

We left two of the golden guards to handle the scene at Egan’s house. The children had yet to learn of what had happened, and that made my insides clench, but there wasn’t much we could do. Valaine and I had to keep moving and head back to the palace.

“We haven’t gotten much out of today, huh?” I asked Valaine as we made our way down the alley. She pointed to the very end.

“If we go left there, it’ll take us around a Nalorean neighborhood. It’s quieter than most. You’ll like it,” she said, avoiding my question. A dark look had settled on her face, casting shadows over her almost-black eyes.

“What’s wrong, Valaine?”

A bitter smile fluttered across her lips. “Where do I begin? Thrice now, the Darklings have tried to kill me. Two of my attackers were people I knew personally. I grew up with Egan, and I never even saw it coming… not to mention his wife.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, you know. If there’s one thing I actually take pride in being good at, it’s my ability to investigate events like this. My sister and I once had to figure out what happened to an ancient tribal chief, having only his bones, his hut, and the accounts of his people, passed down from generation to generation… and we did it. I think we’ve got this.”

“I hope so. I don’t fear for my safety, but I do worry they’ll hurt other people I’m fond of, either by attacking them or by coercing them, like they did with Egan and his wife.” Valaine sighed.

We turned left at the end of the alley and found ourselves in an otherworldly place. A quaint little neighborhood with dark blue houses and white-framed windows, pots of flowers and neatly trimmed shrubs everywhere.

“We know more now than we did a few hours ago, if you think about it,” I said.