“What’s that?” I asked, dread clutching my throat.
“I… I’m not sure,” Amane replied. “I haven’t seen anything like this before.”
“What weapon was used? Where did this happen?” Amal asked Kalon. Valaine moved close to his side, visibly concerned. There were a few black veins still visible around his eyes. He… He must’ve gone into full Aeternae mode, and that worried me even more. Nothing here made sense!
“In the basement. There’s a whole network of tunnels and hallways and chambers,” Kalon said. “I think the Darklings have been using it for a long time. They’ve infiltrated everywhere.” He looked at Valaine, his eyes glassy and filled with fear. “There are still Darklings among the gold guards, too. Trev met one of the ringleaders. It… It was Zoltan.”
We all went blank and silent for a split second, stopping everything as the name sank in, and the face associated with it came into focus.
“Zoltan… Zoltan Shatal?” Valaine managed, completely blindsided. Kalon nodded once, staring at my sister. I could almost feel the guilt surging through him. He felt awful. I could see it in his eyes.
Amane wiped the blood from her face and other wounds, meticulously cleaning and disinfecting them, while Derek cut his wrist and drained some of his blood into a glass vial. Amane looked at him. “I’m going to need more,” she said. “Esme has lost a lot of her own.”
Sofia exhaled and gave some of hers, as well, filling several vials, which Amane then set into a steady drip, the needle piercing my sister’s wrist. I could barely hear her heart beating, and that just made everything worse. It became difficult for me to concentrate.
“Yes, Zoltan Shatal. The chief councilor of Visio is a damn Darkling,” Kalon said, his voice trembling with rage. “Esme was following Trev, and I was following Esme… I worried, naturally. When the Darklings jumped them, I was still halfway through the corridors, sneaking through. There were so many hostiles down there, it was unbelievable… all clad in black leather or black armor… it didn’t make sense. By the time I got there, Esme was already injured; Trev was about to get killed. I lost it.”
“You released your full strength,” Valaine concluded, her index finger brushing over a dark but fading vein under his right eye. He nodded again.
“And Zoltan?” I asked, already itching to kill that two-faced son of a bitch.
“He vanished,” Kalon said. “I started tearing into his people there, just to stop them from killing Trev and Esme. And he was gone.”
“Did you see what weapon was used?” Amal insisted, swabbing the black gash on Esme’s thigh. Tiny black spots framed it, standing out on her pale, almost white skin. I had never seen her like this.
“It was strange. Like a half-moon,” Kalon replied, frowning and crossing his arms, never looking away from Esme, who seemed to be asleep.
“A half-moon,” Derek repeated after him, then pressed a button on his earpiece and walked away from the table. He was talking to someone, but I could not hear what he was saying, my attention shattered, most of it focused on Esme’s slow heartbeat. When he came back, Derek was livid, and I didn’t know what to make of it, except suspecting that there was more trouble ahead for my sister.
“Derek, what is it?” Sofia asked, while Amal and Amane kept working to stabilize Esme.
“I think I know what weapon was used. But it… it’s strange,” Derek said. Looking at me, he could see that I was already on the edge of sanity. “A Reaper scythe.”
I felt as though someone had snatched the ground from under my feet. Gripping the table’s edge, I gawked at him for a while. “A what, now?” Not that I didn’t know what a Reaper scythe was, but what the hell was such a blade doing all the way here on Visio? “Why would Zoltan Shatal have a Reaper scythe?”
“Kalon?” Valaine asked, hoping he might have some answers.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’ve never seen that thing before.”
“Were there any survivors? Did you send the gold guards down into the basement?” Sofia replied, and Kalon shook his head again, eyes on Esme.
“No survivors. I would’ve dragged them out here myself,” he said. “And I haven’t had time to alert anyone. I had to bring Esme up here.”
Valaine exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment. “Okay. I’ll go alert my father, as well as the Lord and Lady Supreme. Zoltan Shatal is now an enemy of the empire, a killer at large,” she declared. “I promise you we will not rest until he is brought to justice. I’ll lead the guards into the basement and raid the entire place, turn it upside down and whatever else I can do.”
“Thank you, Valaine,” Sofia said, giving her a soft half-smile.
“Do you mind if I join you?” Derek replied, looking at Valaine. “I need to see that basement for myself.”
“Of course,” Valaine murmured, then came around the table and placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Be careful out there.” I sighed. “Especially with the gold guards.”
“I have no choice. But I will summon my father. He’ll bring in our private troops. The Crimson dynasty has a small army of its own. Their loyalty cannot be doubted.”
I wasn’t sure if that was true, but it was probably better than nothing. As Derek and Valaine went out to ring the alarm on Zoltan and the palace basement, I found myself shivering, my eyes stinging with tears as I had another look at my beloved sister.
Amal noticed my expression, her hands pressing tight on white gauze against the blackened wound. “She’s stable, Tristan. Esme is going to live. But the wound… if it was caused by a Reaper scythe, it will take longer to heal. Not even vampire or Aeternae or any kind of living blood can speed this along, I’m afraid.”
“But she’ll be okay?” Kalon asked, hopefulness tinging his broken voice. Blood had dried on his shaky hands. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. There was so much crazy to unpack from this entire incident, I didn’t even know where to begin explaining things to him.
The Aeternae didn’t, or at least weren’t supposed to know about Reapers and Death and their scythes. Was Zoltan the only one? Were all the Darklings aware? If so, how could we get ahead of this? What connection did their use of Reaper scythes have with their endgame of offering Aeternae sacrifices to stop the Black Fever? There were so many pieces missing from this puzzle, I couldn’t even wrap my head around it properly.
I bent down, whispering in Esme’s ear. “You’re going to be okay, sis. And I will be here, watching over you… waiting for you to wake up. Just come back to me. Please.”
Her breath hitched, if only for a fleeting moment, and I knew, deep down, that she could hear me from beyond, inside the layers of sleep and exhaustion to which she had succumbed. Kalon was stiff as a board, not moving a single inch. He was worried sick about her.
Had it not been for him, I realized, my sister would’ve died down there.
Zoltan was out there, free and incredibly dangerous. He had a Reaper scythe, and he was a Darkling—that organization spread farther than I’d thought. How many other people knew of their whereabouts? Who else knew about the basement and the scythe? The more we’d dug through this festering pile, the more questions we stumbled upon.
But I would be damned if I was going to let the Darklings win. They had almost killed my sister. That switched something on inside me. Something feral and vicious. It demanded retribution. If anyone was going to take Zoltan’s head, it was going to be me. That much I knew, in the midst of all this murkiness.
Nethissis
Seeley had a look of pride about him whenever he looked at me. It must’ve had something to do with what I’d accomplished regarding Rudolph. I welcomed it. It made me feel incredibly good, which was a rare emotion for me these days.
We’d spent the last few hours talking about Zoltan and the ghouls, reaching the same conclusion. The guy had put together one hell of an operation down here, and chances were that few people knew about it—except the Darklings. I’d seen them through the hallways; I’d heard them mentioning Valaine and how important it was that she was to be killed. We couldn’t understand why, but at least we had a few undeniable facts to work with.
