Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (23 page)

Strange flowers in
shapes and colors she’d never seen before blew their perfume in the breeze. It
smelled amazing, like vanilla cake, peppermint, and baking bread all rolled
into one.

“Where are we?” she
asked.

“You wanted to see the Empathy
Collective. There’s not much besides meditation rooms inside, but the garden is
special. Especially when I do this.” He concentrated and flicked his hand, and
one by one the flowers began to glow.

“Oh Cy…” Valerie
breathed.

“I finally made
something living glow last week—I’ve been trying and failing for years,” Cyrus
said proudly.

They were distracted
from their conversation by the sight of two people locked in a kiss a hundred
yards from where they stood. As the garden lit up, flower by flower, she saw
that it was Henry and Kanti. They were so absorbed in each other that they
didn’t even see what was happening around them.

“Aw, he stole my spot,”
Cyrus said. “But he’s got the right idea.”

Before Valerie knew what
was happening, he pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers. The
warm, pleasant touch of his lips against her own was nice, and she began to
respond. But something in her mind screamed—wrong!

She stepped back, away
from Cyrus. He seemed confused, unsure why she’d pulled away.

Then a pained expression
flickered across his features. “S-sorry,” Cyrus said, shutting his eyes. His
peace had been shattered for the second time that night. He turned and ran. Valerie
didn’t follow.

As much as she knew that
the kiss would change everything, somehow she was able to hang on to her own
peace of mind. She and Cyrus would figure everything out—the strangeness of the
circumstances and Dasan’s magic had confused him.

But even in her relaxed
state, that didn’t really ring true to her. Cyrus hadn’t been surprised by what
had happened. Somewhere in her, she knew that he had wanted this, been waiting
for this. How would he cope with her rejection?

It was the first worry
to surface, and she dreaded the return of the rest. Instead of going to bed,
she stayed outside, walking and thinking. As Dasan promised, her worries didn’t
return all at once. She absorbed each one as it returned and kept moving.

By dawn, Dasan’s magic had completely faded, but she
did achieve a measure of peace, ready to face all of the problems crowding her
mind. She sat down on the steps of the Healers’ Guild, which was still locked
against her, and fell asleep.

Maybe unsurprisingly, Valerie dreamed her
terrible dream about sinking into darkness again, but it had lost some of its
poignancy. Someone nudged her gently awake and she sat up, shrugging off a
blanket that had mysteriously appeared to cover her as she slept. Henry walked
across The Horseshoe holding two steaming mugs.

“Hot chocolate. I
finally found a little shop that makes it, and it’s the best I’ve ever had.”

She took a cup and blew
on it before sipping. “Thanks. How’d you find me?”

“Oberon told me you were
here on my way to my Guild this morning.” Henry made a face. “I guess he
doesn’t know it was us who followed him the other day. And now I feel kinda bad
about suspecting him. He was all worried about you. I think that blanket is
his.”

“Really?” she wrapped it
around her shoulders against the chilly morning air.

“Cyrus told me about
last night.” Henry said, changing the subject. Valerie looked at him in shock,
remembering the kiss. Henry almost spilled his drink as his mind touched hers
and he saw what had happened. “He kissed you?”

“I thought you said—”

“He told me about Shade
or Jack or whoever.”

She rubbed her eyes and
touched her hair, which was a tangled mess. “It was a long night.”

“A long time coming, you
mean,” Henry said with a smile.

He wasn’t just talking
about her kiss with Cyrus. She hadn’t seen her brother this happy before. “So are
you and Kanti official now?”

He nodded. “She said she
was going to wait as long as it took—forever, even.”

“I guess you decided to
shorten her sentence,” Valerie said.

“I’m the luckiest guy in
the world,” Henry said, his expression reverent.

“The universe, even,”
she teased.

“Want me to visit your
friend with you?” Henry asked.

Valerie shook her head. “He
might want to see me alone. He’s been through a lot.”

“Okay. Let me know what
happens though.”

Henry left, walking
toward the Empathy Collective with energy in his stride. It was one less worry
to carry on her crowded heart.

This time when Valerie
tested the doors of the Healers’ Guild, they opened easily. She made her way
back to Shade’s ward and knocked quietly on the door. Nightingale answered, his
gaze wary.

“I’m sorry. I know you
needed your space to work last night, and I should have given it to you,” she
said immediately, not wanting to be thrown back out again.

Nightingale nodded. “I
am the authority in this Guild, and no one may undermine me.”

That seemed a little
extreme to her. Valerie was glad that the Knights were more democratic. But it
wasn’t the time to argue. “May I see Shade?”

“I assume you mean Jack.
He’s in the corner,” Nightingale nodded toward a bed by a window. “His body
will heal, but the wounds to his mind are beyond what I can repair. I will
consult with Dasan later today on this matter.”

Without another word,
Nightingale turned to attend to a patient, and Valerie made her way to Shade—Jack,
she corrected herself.

“Hi, Jack. Do you
remember me?”

Jack’s eyes ertr
unfocused, but he nodded. “Valerie. I had to find you. But I can’t remember
why.”

“It’s okay,” she said
gently. “You found me because you knew I’d keep you safe. You’re going to get
better here.”

“Am I sick?”

“Not for long, I
promise. Do you remember what happened?”

His eyes went wild. “You
can’t let him find me; he’ll kill me! My friends, they’re gone, as good as
dead!”

Nightingale was by his
side in an instant, and he pressed his hand against Jack’s pulse. There was a
brief hum of magic, and Jack fell backward onto his pillows, unconscious.

“I don’t want to scatter
his mind further. We must keep him calm. Your presence here clearly agitates
him. You need to leave.”

She bit back her
protests. “Can I come back to check on him?”

Nightingale considered
her request. “Tomorrow, but no sooner. By then, Dasan will have seen the boy
and there will be more news to tell you.”

Valerie nodded and left. It was time to contact Gideon
and Juniper to bring the Knights home, since the guide they were expecting was
unconscious in a hospital. Her last hope that somehow they would find Jet
before Reaper contacted her for the trade vanished. Saving Jet’s life—and
possibly Darling’s—depended entirely on her now.

Valerie decided to
return home for a shower, before contacting Juniper and Gideon with her news.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t sense Sanguina’s presence
until it was too late.

“Wait,” Sanguina said,
holding out her hand to stop her in her tracks.

Valerie recoiled from
her touch. “Get away from me. I have nothing to say to you.”

“You owe me nothing, I
know. But I owe you a debt I can never repay. Do you understand that?”

“I don’t want anything
from you.” Valerie tried to push past Sanguina, but the ex-vampyre held her
ground.

“You can’t listen to
Zunya about meeting with Reaper alone. You’re headed straight into a trap.”

“What do you mean?” Valerie
asked warily.

“Whatever Zunya’s
promised you, it isn’t worth it. Reaper will take what he wants, and he’s too
powerful for any one person to stop him.”

Valerie shook her head. “I
don’t expect you to understand, but I don’t have a choice. I know that he could
take my life, but if there’s even a chance of saving Jet and Darling, I have to
take it. Can you honestly tell me that he won’t kill Jet if I refuse to meet
him?”

Sanguina didn’t need to
answer. She lowered her eyes. “Why do you sacrifice your life so easily? It,
too, has value. Do you think a warrior like Jet would thank you for ending it
for his sake?”

“Stop trying to confuse
me. I’m doing the right thing.”

“Take someone with you.”

“Reaper would kill us
both on sight. I’ll risk my own life, but not someone else’s,” Valerie said.

“Even me?”

“Even you.”

“It’s unlikely he’ll
kill me on sight, since he thinks I’m still loyal to him. And if he does, it’s
no big loss—to either of us,” Sanguina reasoned.

Valerie searched
Sanguina’s face, perplexed. “What changed you? You hated me. Now you’d die for
me?”

“You changed me. Back
into a human. And there’s something else. When I saw that you carried Pathos, I
knew who you were. But that’s not my story to tell you.”

“Then whose is it?”

“Your father’s.”

Valerie’s mind reeled. “You
know him? You said you owed me—take me to him and we’re even!”

Sanguina sighed. “He
doesn’t want you to know. He thinks you’ll hate him.”

Her eyes filled with
tears. “I won’t. I swear.”

“I can’t bring you to
him—I made him a promise that I can’t break. But I will tell him what you said.
It may take me some time—he isn’t easy to find when he doesn’t want to be.”

“Why doesn’t he want to
be found?”

“He says he’s broken,
and he wants to put the pieces back together before he meets you and Henry.”

“I’ll find him without
you,” Valerie said bitterly, pushing past Sanguina roughly.

“Promise me you won’t go
to Reaper alone!” Sanguina called after her. Valerie didn’t reply.

Midnight and Henry were both gone when
Valerie came home. She quickly checked her mirror to see if Juniper was there,
but she saw only her reflection. She remembered that she could leave him a
message for the next time he checked it. Quickly she explained about
Shade/Jack’s return.

After leaving the
message, Valerie was at loose ends. She wished she could knock on Cyrus’s door
for some advice or lighthearted distraction, but thinking about seeing him
again made her stomach hurt. Instead, she decided to visit Kanti, bursting into
the room without knocking like she always did. Kanti was singing in the shower.
She had never heard Kanti so much as hum, and it made her smile, in spite of
everything. At least there was one piece of happiness amidst all the pain.

Valerie heard a knock on
the door and opened it without thinking that this was no longer her room, or
her place to answer the door.

“Valerie, darling,
wonderful to see you!” Pauline, Kanti’s mother, was a vision in lavender.
Valerie blinked, realizing that a strikingly handsome older man, who must be Kanti’s
father, was by her side. Behind them were three stunningly beautiful girls who were
a few years older than Kanti.

“What are you doing
here?” Kanti’s voice sounded emotionless. She stood in her black bathrobe, her
hair dripping.

“That’s no way to greet
your family, Kanti,” her father said sternly. “A young lady is always a
gracious hostess.”

“Even in a hovel like
this,” the sister with auburn hair said with disdain.

“Thanks, Isabella.
Missed you all so much,” Kanti said sarcastically.

“Oooo I missed you, too!”
another sister, this one with chestnut hair, said, oblivious to the tension.
She gave Kanti a big hug.

Kanti gave an
exasperated sigh but hugged her back. “Valerie, this is Amaryllis. And my other
sister is Peach.”

Peach waved shyly.

“I’m George,” Kanti’s
father said, shaking her hand aggressively.

“Valerie’s the friend I
told you about. The powerful one,” Pauline said with a significant look at her
husband. Kanti’s mother’s power was to sense how much magic other Conjurors
possessed, and she had been impressed when she first met Valerie in Elsinore.

“Indeed? Then it is a
pleasure to meet you, young lady. I do hope you’ll be a good influence on our
Kanti here,” George replied.

“It’s nice to meet all
of you,” Valerie said.

“Again, what are you
doing here?” Kanti asked, crossing her arms protectively in front of herself.

“We wanted to see where
you’ve been hiding yourself, dear,” Pauline said.

“Why now? You’ve never
come before.”

“You belong at home.
We’ve come to bring you back,” George said.

“That isn’t happening,”
Kanti insisted.

“We shall SEE,” Ani
said, stepping from a shadowy part of the hallway. Valerie tried to slam the
door against her, but she put her hand out. “WHAT could be the problem?”

“You tried to kill me!”
Kanti said. She turned to her mother. “How could you let her near me?”

Pauline shifted
uncomfortably. “Now, dear, she’s your aunt. Of course she’d never hurt you.”

“Your little friend
Henry lied,” Isabella said. “Duh.”

Kanti’s face darkened,
and Pauline jumped in. “I’m sure he was mistaken. I’m sure he was trying to impress—er—protect
you. Very noble, of course. But Ani assures me…”

“Get out,” Kanti said, humming
with magic. Valerie had never sensed so much power from her before.

“That’s no tone to take
with your parents,” George said, but he took a step backward.

“NOW!” Kanti said, and
Valerie watched in astonishment as the creepers that were part of the wallpaper
in the hallway began to peel off, coming to life as real, winding vines. They wrapped
themselves around the feet and wrists of her family.

“Enough! We’ll leave for
now and talk about this with you when you’re more reasonable,” George said. “We’re
staying at The Palace Hotel.”

The vines continued to
wind around her family’s limbs. Kanti wasn’t listening to her father’s words.
Her face was stormy. Amaryllis whimpered as a vine tightened around her wrist. “Ow!
Kanti!”

Her sister’s words
snapped Kanti out of her trance, and the vines slackened. “Sorry,” she said to
her sister, absently rubbing Amaryllis’s wrist.

“It’s okay. Make it up
to me by taking me to a fabulous party tonight!” she said, the incident already
forgotten.

“Come,” George said, leading
the rest of his family away. He shot his youngest daughter a last, stunned
glance before he turned the corner. Kanti slammed the door shut after them.

“They’re your family,
your blood. You can’t avoid them forever,” Valerie said.

“Don’t defend them. I
was an embarrassment to all of them until I was cursed with this beauty and
magic.”

“It’s not a curse,”
Valerie replied. “It’s who you truly are. All your years before were to teach
you to value yourself for more than power and beauty. Now you have both. Think
how much good you could do in the world.”

Kanti’s shoulders
slumped. “You’re right. I know I’m being a brat about this. But I can’t forgive
them yet for all those years when I might as well have been a piece of
furniture for how much attention they gave me. It’s time for them to get a
little taste of how that feels.”

“Having a family is a gift. Don’t waste it,” Valerie
said, but then let the subject drop.

“I hate to say it, but I
think Val’s right,” Henry said to Kanti that night while they had dinner in the
Imaginary Friends’ dorm cafeteria. They held hands under the table, eating with
their free hands. It would be obnoxious if it wasn’t so adorable. “You’ve got
to forgive them some time.”

“I say forget ’em,”
Cyrus said, dropping his tray at their table and sitting down. “Sometimes
parents suck.”

When Valerie met his
eyes, Cyrus turned tomato-red. He stared down at his food and started shoveling
it into his mouth.

“Sometimes everyone
sucks,” Henry said. “Doesn’t mean they can’t be redeemed. Your parents are
trying.”

Kanti sighed, a little
dramatically. “Fine, I’ll meet them. But you’re going with me,” she said to
Henry in a tone of voice that sounded like a queen issuing a command.

Henry didn’t seem to
mind. “Of course. And we should bring Val, too, since they already like her.”

“Good idea. Maybe the
fact that she’s your sister will carry some weight in terms of them accepting
that we’re together. What about you, Cy? We could use some comic relief.”

“Well too bad. This
clown isn’t performing today,” Cyrus said darkly.

“Wow, your death stare
has gotten much better,” Kanti teased, but Cyrus didn’t crack his usual grin.

“I’m busy. I’ll meet
your horrible family some other time, okay?”

“Sheesh, fine,” Kanti
said. She turned to Valerie and mouthed “what’s with him?” Valerie turned her
gaze back to her plate.

“Is there something I should
know?” Kanti asked loudly. Henry squirmed in his chair. “Henry?”

Valerie could swear a
little buzz of magic emanated from Kanti, but she didn’t think her friend knew
she was using it.

“Cyrus and Valerie
kissed when they were under Dasan’s magic,” Henry blurted out.

Valerie wanted to sink
through the floor.

“You’ve been holding out
on me,” Kanti said accusingly to Valerie. Valerie couldn’t meet her gaze. “Hey,
you guys are really upset about this.”

“You think?” Cyrus said,
and stalked away.

Valerie followed him.
She caught up with him in the hall outside of his room.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He turned and examined
her face. “What for?”

“I hurt you.”

“Yeah. Last night was
one of the worst nights of your life. But it was one of the best of mine. Do
you know how much that sucks?”

She stepped closer. “That
wasn’t even close to one of the worst nights of my life.”

“So you’re not sorry
that it happened?” Cyrus asked hopefully. Valerie looked away. “See, that’s what
hurts. Not just last night. Every time you mention Thai, you’re rejecting me
over and over again. I thought when you came to the Globe, things would be different.
But you never saw us as anything other than friends.”

“Best friends.”

He shook his head. “I
want more than that.”

“So is it all or nothing
then?” Valerie asked, suddenly lightheaded at the thought of Cyrus fading to a
nonexistent role in her life.

“I’m not saying that.
I’ve been avoiding this for so long. Maybe Kanti’s right, and it’s good that
it’s all out in the open now. I need time to figure out how this can work.”

“Are you going to leave
me?” Valerie hated how small and pathetic her voice sounded. It was incredibly
selfish to expect him to stay by her side when every time she was happy with
Thai it would cause him misery.

“Never, don’t think
that,” Cyrus said, taking a step closer to her. “Things can’t be the same, but
it doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop loving you or stop wanting to be a part of your
life.”

She took a raggedy
breath. “Thank you.”

“Oh just come here,” he said, and pulled her into a
hug. She felt so fragile, like a strong wind could blow her into a million
pieces. The only thing holding her together was the knowledge that Cyrus hadn’t
abandoned her yet, even all those years when he wasn’t allowed to be her
imaginary friend. He had still watched over her. She had to trust that he
wouldn’t leave her now.