The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2) (21 page)

Thad cleared his throat.

Right. “Hey, uh, er…” I started, “nice job over there.”

Nice job?

Vera studied me with her large, dark eyes. Those same eyes looked to Alex and a light flickered in them. “Alexander was slow this morning. Late night?” Vera’s voice was sultry. It was the kind of voice that would stun just about any man into doing whatever she asked of them, especially with her looking the way she did.

Alex, however, smiled innocently and glanced back at me.

“Are you feeling better?” Vera asked, amused.

“Yeah, I am, thanks. Amazing what a few hours of sleep will do,” I said.

She turned to Alex and smiled—she had a very beautiful smile—and he smiled back and brushed some dust from her shoulder.

I swallowed and clenched my teeth.

“Alexander always fights your battles.” Vera said his name like Ah-legs-zahn-dah. “The Nord would’ve beaten you into pixie dust if he hadn’t stepped in.”

I felt a sort of defense for Stefan and stood a little taller. “I can handle myself just fine“—I looked at Alex—“not that I don’t appreciate what you did.”

“Tell me,
Stef
”—Alex arched a brow—“do you remember what I did?”

I was saved from answering by a sharp, “
Veranna
!”

Vera stiffened and narrowed her eyes. Her anger flushed before she took off towards a lady who had appeared before the crowd. The lady wasn’t wearing nearly enough clothing for winter, but rather had such a bold presence that she seemed to melt the frost she stood upon. Her hair was long and white-blonde, much like Vera’s, and her features had the same dangerous beauty that Vera’s had.

It must be her mother.

“Here,” Alex said, tossing me a sword. He raised the blade as his eyes locked with mine. “Fight me.”

What?

There was no way I could fight him. He’d know in two seconds that I wasn’t Stefan. “Alex, I don’t really think…”

He held the sword to my throat, attracting the attention from those around us.

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Fight. Me.”

The crowd that had been forming was now cheering and prodding, wanting us to fight, begging us to fight.

Alex held his sword flat, glaring down the metal at me. “You didn’t forget our tradition, did you?” His gaze was intense.

The others laughed at his taunt, but I knew he wasn’t joking. He was searching.

I swallowed, adjusting the sword in my hands. It was much heavier than my daggers.

I glanced back at Thad, who had started cheering with the crowd.

Some help you are.

Alex wiped the sweat from his brow, his jaw set with purpose, and he moved.

Our swords clashed, and the crowd cheered even louder.

Alex’s breath clouded the air, his eyes fierce. I’d forgotten how fast he was, and he seemed even faster than before. It was hard enough following his movements, let alone blocking his sword. But he wasn’t giving it everything. He was holding back, testing me, trying different things and watching my reactions like a game of cat and mouse.

A cold breeze barreled through and I wiped the hair from my face.

Alex set his mouth and the next thing I knew, my arm was wrenched behind my back and he held his sword to my throat. His breathing was heavy in my ear. “What are you playing at?” His whisper was sharp.

I gasped for air. “I don’t know what you’re—”
breathe
“—talking about.”

“You don’t, do you?” He stepped on my foot, hard, and pushed me down, my sword slipping out of my hands.

The crowd gasped with surprise and wonder.

I stumbled to my feet and grabbed Stefan’s sword. When I looked up, Alex was glowering at me, jaw clenched.

He had stepped on the foot Stefan had broken and I hadn’t so much as flinched.

He came at me fast and strong, and it took everything I had just to keep him at bay. Each blow burned my arm as I deflected; the courtyard filled with the sounds of clanging metal.

“Fight me,” Alex said through his teeth, so low I barely heard.

Clang
.

“I am,” I growled.

He shook his head, arching out of the way of my jab. “Mean it,” he said. His expression was hard; the green in his eyes shone with something brilliant and threatening.

The wind rustled through the courtyard again, lifting my cloak.

I thought of Fleck. I thought of his fear and how much he depended on me, and how powerless I was to help him, how powerless I’d always been. And then I thought of Alex. How much I had cared about him—still cared about him—and how much he kept hurting me.

My thoughts flashed through me in a split second, and the next breeze that rolled through the courtyard filled me with rage.

Sweat dripped down Alex’s temples as he avoided my blows, countering them.

“That’s it,” Alex whispered as we spun around each other.

He was breathing heavily now, but there was satisfaction in his eyes. He was helping me win. He wanted me to win, but he wouldn’t just let me. I had to earn it as an equal.

Round and round we danced, our swords ringing throughout the courtyard, strong and true.

He stared into my eyes, then, as if he saw me as me—not Stefan. It was in that moment he hesitated, and it was all I needed.

I kicked his sword from his hand, held mine at his throat, and he raised his arms in surrender.

The crowd gasped and cheered, but Alex didn’t react. He continued holding my gaze, until at last his lips pulled up into a grin and my heart fluttered.

He looked away, retrieved his sword, and shoved it back in its sheath. I turned around and caught a glimpse of Lord Commodus and the headmaster, standing off to the side of the courtyard, watching me. No sooner had I made eye contact than they turned and left.

I handed my sword back to Alex. He was studying me, his features tight and sharp.

“Were they watching the whole time?” I asked.

He took the sword from my hands. “They’re always watching.” He held my gaze a moment longer, and then he walked away.

I found Thad, grabbed his arm, and pulled him through the courtyard.

“I need to show you something,” I said.

“Can’t it wait?” Thad asked, glancing at the clock tower.

“No.” I pushed through the doors, back inside the castle walls.

“Oh, come on! I’m supposed to be making a guest appearance at the ladies’ brunch!”

I faked remorse. “I guess they’ll have to endure without you, then.”

The halls were busier now, as people had begun waking.

“Mind telling me what this is about?” Thad asked with Egan trailing behind us.

“Not yet.”

Thad was pretty good about not putting up a fight. Well, right until we started down the steps that led to the lower library.

“Oh, no,” Thad said, planting his feet at the top of the stairs while Egan whimpered beside him.

“What do you mean, ‘oh, no?’”

“I’m not going down there.”

Egan’s tail swept the stone floor, and I put my hands on my hips. “Why not?”

“That place is creepy.”

“Thad. It’s a lib-rar-y.”

He nodded. “Exactly.”

I grunted and stepped down.

“Seriously, Rook, you know what’s in there?”

I made a face. “Books?”

“‘Books,’ she says.” He shook his head.

“Look,” I said, annoyed, “I need to talk to you and it’s the only place I know no one goes—I was down there for hours all by myself, remember?”

He studied me a moment, rolling a fresh piece of dried grass between his lips as Egan rubbed his nose against my leg.

Finally, Thad took a step down. He followed me all the way down, through the long, dark torch-lined corridor, and we stopped before the door of the lower library. A draft of cool air breathed over my skin and was gone, and Thad watched the shadows, wary.

I tried the door; it was locked. I tried again.

“Huh.” I let go of the iron ring. “It wasn’t locked before.”

Energy pulsed from Thad; the air around us shuddered and faded.

“No, it’s not locked,” Thad said quietly, dusting his hands. “It’s been sealed.”

Egan whimpered and wiggled between my feet.

“Sealed?” I asked.

“With magic.”

I stared at the iron dragon’s head holding the iron ring in its teeth. “It wasn’t sealed when I came down here with Sir Armand.”

“Well, it is now, and I can’t break it. Only the person who made it can, so—” he turned to me “—looks like you’ll have to just talk to me in this cold, dark, creepy tunnel.”

Cold air tickled my neck and I shivered.

“Unless you can think of some place warmer?” Thad offered.

“No…” I glanced down the dark corridor. The hall was empty. There was no sense of life or emotions except the amusement coming from Thad. This was as safe and private as I would get. “There’s a portrait in there,” I whispered.

“Wait.” Thad’s brows knit together. “You wanted to bring me to a library to show me a painting.”

I watched the shadows. I didn’t like them.

Quit being paranoid; there’s no one down here except you two.

“I found it, when I was in there picking thorns,” I said.

“Great. Don’t tell me King Darius stole the Mona Lisa and locked it behind that door.”

“Wait, how do you know about the Mona Lisa?”

Thad looked at me as if I’d grown a third arm and was picking my nose with it. “Uh, because Leonardo da Vinci’s mother was originally from the Arborenne? Come on, Rook. No one from Earth has a fraction of that imagination in their genes.”

Seriously? “Anyways,” I continued, “the man looked just like my dad, but his name was Eris Mordryck…I didn’t catch the last name, but it began with an ‘R’.”

The grass between Thad’s lips stopped moving, but he recovered quickly with a smirk. “And you don’t think the fact he looks just like your dad has something to do with it? Maybe it was taken when your dad was young? Probably just some misprint—”

“No.” I shook my head. “He looks like him, but he’s different. I can’t explain it, really, and then I overheard Lord Commodus and the headmaster talking about him, and then Tran said he was dead…”

“He is dead,” Thad whispered.

A cool waft of air carried his whisper away, deeper into the shadows.

“You knew about him? So why did you act like—”

“Rook.” He pushed himself from the wall and looked past me. “When—” he swallowed “—Eris died, the king wanted his memory dead, too. Every relic, every possession, every
portrait
…burned. Even mentioning his name was considered an act of treason.”

That sounded a little extreme, and also sounded exactly like the king. “But why did he…”

“Eris was his son.”

Wait…what?

Eris was…his son? “You’re serious.”

Thad scratched Egan between his droopy, frightened ears.

“As in my dad’s brother?” I asked.

“As in your uncle, has the same mother as your father…” He waved off the rest.

My dad had a brother. I had an uncle. Well, a deceased one. “Wait, so does my dad know about this?” I asked.

Thad scrunched his nose. “Pretty sure he does.”

My anger flared. “Does Stefan know about this?”

“Not that I know of. Our generation was left in the dark about that one.”

“So how do you know about him?” I asked.

“Come on, Rook. I know everything.” He winked.

My dad had a brother.

Strange. Why hadn’t he ever said anything? “When did he die?”

“Oh, almost nineteen years ago.”

Right around the time I was born. Right around the time my mother had died. Well, no wonder my dad had a difficult time talking about that period in his life. And maybe that was why I’d never heard about an uncle.

“How did he die?” I asked.

Thad chewed on the piece of grass and messed with his rolled-up shirtsleeve. “Not sure,” he said. “Information’s limited, you know, but rumor is he had been experimenting with dark magic and it killed him.”

“So the king just decided to try to get rid of his memory because he was
experimenting
?”

Thad shrugged. “Just what I’ve heard. But—” he stood tall “—he’s dead, though, so it doesn’t matter.”

The man in the fields, the one I’d seen back at my home in Fresno. It was the same, and he wasn’t a vision or a replica—he had been real. He had materialized in front of me. My skin scrawled, seeing his haunted face, reliving his horrible memory.

I glanced back at the menacing shadows. “What if he’s not dead?”

I thought I saw the shadows move.

“Well, that’s the dumbest—” Thad started.

The torches at the end of the hall went out.

I stared at the darkness. “Did you?’ I whispered to Thad.

“No,” he whispered back.

Cold air blew over my skin, and I felt it. Burning like ice, seductive and terrifying, ravenous with an appetite of thousands.

Something was down here, with us, waiting in the shadows.

Chapter 14

The Keeper’s Flame

T
he next torch went out as though swallowed by a living black cloud. A cloud that was moving closer, toward us. It filled the spaces in the hall, the darkness palpable as it devoured the next torch…and the next.

I couldn’t move. I wanted to run, but my legs were like lead, stuck to the stone floor. Cold air burned my nose and lungs, turning colder by the moment.

It was almost upon us, now.

Air and darkness swirled around us in a maelstrom, screaming in a chorus of horrible otherworldly voices.

I wanted to scream but my body was frozen as though possessed by an unnatural force, while cold fingers twisted my insides, making them burn.

And then it was gone.

The darkness, the cold, the terror—all of it.

The torches burned as though they’d never stopped burning; the hall was empty and quiet as though it’d never been disturbed.

Thad stood beside me, wide-eyed, with his hair standing out on all ends.

“What was that?” I gasped.

Thad started backing away, towards the staircase. “Our cue to leave, I think.”

I swallowed, looking back down the hall. “But did you
hear
that?”