Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

Anora and the Betrayal

By the last hour of the day, I’m desperate for the comfort of my room. I want to be close to my poppa’s things. I want the weight of his soul around my neck. I think about what he might say if he were here, but I already know: Admit to your mistake. There’s nothing wrong with an apology.

I should have believed Shy and Natalie when they confronted Lennon. In the moment, I’d been so certain standing up for her was the right thing to do, but I was blind.

She’d been behind the posts. That’s why she watched people, learned their secrets. That’s why she was untouchable.

But did that also mean she took my coin and killed Lily? I can’t say, and that makes me afraid.

Instead of going to PE where I’ll have to face her, Shy, and Natalie, I head to the library. If I can’t go home, I’ll surround myself with one thing that brings me comfort—books.

The library is quiet, and only a few people turn to stare at me. I head into the stacks, searching for a place to hide and read. As I navigate the maze of shelves, I halt, heart jumping into my throat. A man sits, slumped over in the corner, head resting against his chest. He’s too pale to be asleep. The lights create a shiny spot at the center of his head where his hair has thinned. His arms lie at his sides, both palms up. He’s dressed in a blue checkered shirt and brown pants. He doesn’t have any outward injuries, but he’s fallen in such a way that it looks like he was pushed.

As I stand here, the spirit disappears and reappears inches from where I stand. Stumbling away, I stifle a scream and watch as he plucks a book from the shelf. He leafs through the pages for a moment before dropping the book, hands going to his chest, which rises and falls quickly. He stumbles back, landing against the wall. His eyes meet mine, round and full of fear. He slides to the floor, breathing fast until his head falls forward on his chest and his arms unfold to rest at his sides.

He’s dead.

I twist to flee and run straight into a body. Pushing away, I come face to face with Thane. With my heart still racing, I can’t keep from cursing.

“God! Why are you always where I don’t want you to be?”

Thane raises a dark brow. “Who pissed in your Cheerios?”

Then he seems to notice the man behind me.

“I see you found Mr. Richardson.”

“You know him?”

“He’s one of the school ghosts, but most of us forget about him because he keeps to the library. He died about ten years ago from a heart attack.”

I shiver.

“The rumor is he was found by a couple students who came here to have sex. If you ask me, the faculty keeps that one going.”

Thane says it in jest, but I feel sad for Mr. Richardson. I twist to see him flicker and fade, reappearing a few steps away. The urge to capture his soul rises inside me, like a flower blooming before the first frost. I know it would be a mistake, since I can’t open the gates, but I also know that the faculty and students who have made him into a ghost story keep him here, bound to this one spot, reliving his death over and over again.

I twist, facing Thane again.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I came to find you,” he says. “I heard you haven’t had a very good day.”

“That’s an understatement.”

He smiles a little. “Maybe I can make it better?”

“Unless you can get me home without an army of shadow knights noticing, you can’t.”

He shrugs one shoulder. “I can’t promise anything. Fucking Valryn are everywhere—in raven form and in human form…but I’m willing to try.”

“Really?”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” he says. “We can’t leave now anyway. We’ll have to wait until after the vigil starts, when people are a little more distracted.”

I can wait if it means getting to go home tonight.

* * *

I arrive to the vigil with Thane around seven, and as the sun sets, a sea of candlelight erupts in the dark. There are people everywhere, living and dead, on the field, on the track, and in the stands. This vigil goes beyond Nacoma Knight and Lily. It goes to Rayon High and Jake. It extends to the community.

I did this, I think as Thane and I find an open spot to stand. I’m a goddess of chaos.

Thane nudges me. “I know what you’re thinking. Stop.”

“You can’t know,” I say.

“This isn’t your fault.”

I don’t argue with him. No matter what Thane says, I’ll always feel responsible.

The sight of black birds flying overhead catches my attention. They land on the light poles and the stadium.

More shadow knights.

“They’re here to pay their respects just as much as they’re here to watch you,” Thane says.

I know that, and their presence has me searching the crowd for Shy. I haven’t seen him since lunch. I spot him surrounded by several students. He’s dressed in a Nacoma Knight hoodie and jeans. His head is bowed, and his blond hair falls into his eyes. I think about how his features change when he shifts into Valryn form—how his hair turns to silver and makes his eyes look bluer. How fit he looks in that black suit.

He rolls his shoulders and then his neck, and I get the feeling he’s trying to shake the feel of me watching him.

Natalie stands nearby, ever in his shadow. When I first met them, I might have assumed it was because she liked him. Now, I know differently. It’s Natalie who meets my gaze first—fierce and indignant. She turns her head to Shy and whispers something in his ear. Whatever it is, it makes him look up.

His stare hurts my heart. Even at this distance, I can tell his eyes are red and glistening. The reality is, he’s been reliving Lily’s death every day since it happened, and it’s all because of me. Tonight’s just another repackaging.

He has to be sick of me.

I look away and hold my candle to Thane. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

He nods, taking the candle. Once I’m off the field and behind the stadium, a hand clamps down on my shoulder. I reach for it and twist, coming face-to-face with a man I’ve never seen. Judging by the hard set of his jaw, he’s a guard.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I say and shove him off. “Are you going to follow me?”

The answer is yes.

Except when I get to the restrooms behind the stadium, there’s an out-of-order sign posted on the women’s door. I turn to look at the guard, who raises a brow and glances at the men’s.

“I’m not going in there,” I say and stalk toward Emerson. The knight remains behind me, silent. I don’t like having him at my back; something about it feels wrong. Then I see red eyes ignite in the dark—my hellhounds are here, and their low growl causes me to slow. When I turn, the shadow knight attacks, striking me across the face. I stumble, and he draws his scythe just as one of my hounds rushes forward, vaulting over my head.

The knight shoves his scythe into the dog’s eye. It yelps, and the sound freezes my blood. I can feel my other four hounds fall into formation behind me. I’ve come to sense their presence just as I sense Shy’s.

“Stop!” I yell as the knight continues to stab my hound until it no longer moves. The knight straightens, breathing hard, and my other hounds let out a chorus of growls, the blood of their brother covering his weapon and hands.

“They told me you were a good fighter, Eurydice. No one said you let your hounds fight for you.”

I clench my fist, and his eyes narrow on my hand.

“What are you going to do? Steal my soul and call it self-defense?”

“Stay,” I command my hounds, and they whine in protest. I step forward, and the knight smiles, slicing at me with his scythe. I dodge, landing on the ground. As he approaches, I tangle my feet with his, and he trips. I roll out of the way before he can fall on me, and once he’s on the ground, I strike, digging my knee into his back and swiping the blade from his hand. I’m on my feet again, armed.

The knight stands, breathing hard. “Bitch!” He charges toward me but stops short when the hound he stabbed pounces. The knight’s screams fill the air as his body is mauled. Then someone grabs my hand, and for a moment, I think it’s another knight, but when I turn, I come face-to-face with Thane.

“Come on!”

He drags me from the hounds and the body of the knight, toward the parking lot.

He opens the passenger side door and shoves me inside the car. “Tell your hounds to go so they don’t draw attention to you. Stay here until I get back!”

Then he disappears. My hounds pace outside the car, prowling, but I do as Thane says and ask them to leave. They obey.

I’m shaking, and the car is stuffy and oddly quiet. The silence presses against my ears like my head’s been placed in a vise, then I hear a muffled beep. I look in the console that separates me from the driver’s side and then the glove compartment. That’s where I find it—Lily’s phone. The color and warmth drain from my body. What is it doing in his car?

I fumble with the phone, heart racing as I look through Lily’s messages. At the very top—the last person she texted—was Thane.

He said: Come to the train yard.

She responded: Be there soon.

She’d trusted Thane.

And he killed her.

I look up in time to see Thane coming into view.

Damn. And I sent my hounds away.

I shove the glove compartment closed and slip the phone in my pocket, but I can’t school my features fast enough to put on a show for Thane, because as soon as he gets into the driver’s seat of his car, he asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I say too fast. “You know, I’m just going to go…”

As my hand lands on the door handle, the locks click into place. I turn to face Thane.

“I’m sorry, Anora,” he says, but there’s something superficial about his apology and a darkness to his gaze I recognize: Influence. “I can’t let you leave.”

I don’t have a lot of room to fight, and I don’t want to use the thread on Thane. Still, I give it my best and fling my left arm out, toward his face. It’s more of a distraction than anything. My right goes for his stomach. The blow lands, and he grunts, but it doesn’t keep him from wrapping an arm around my neck and crushing me against him. His hand claps over my mouth and nose, and the only thing I become aware of is the pressure around my neck, the raw pain of having my body starved of oxygen. My vision blurs with hot tears, and saliva seeps into my throat and out of my mouth.

The sensation builds until it feels like his bones are cutting into mine, slicing through the arteries, detaching my head from my body.

And then there’s nothing.