Mercy
“I’m sorry, you want to do what now?” Dr. Madsen didn’t seem overly keen on my proposed plan, but it wasn’t like we had much of a choice.
“The Sagax agreed to meet up with us, but since she’s technically angelic, she isn’t allowed to be seen by any humans. And she refused to meet us anywhere outside, because she doesn’t feel it’s secure,” I said, having to speak louder over the static interfering with the phone call. “And there’s no way in hell anyone is going to want to invite her inside their house. Can you think of somewhere we could go?”
“I still don’t understand why you would wish to summon her. Taking up company with creatures like the Sagax isn’t something to trifle with—”
“It’s complicated.” I looked to Blaine who merely nodded. “I just want to know if there’s anything I should be aware of before I talk with her. Is there, like, some kind of protocol?”
“For every question you ask, she’s allowed to ask you one in return, and you have to answer it…” A heavy sigh. “I don’t like this, Kat.”
“I know, but I need answers.”
“Well, you’re not meeting her alone. How about you invite the Sagax to the University? The dorms just closed for Winter Break, so nobody will be at the library. You can come meet me at the study room where we convened last time.”
“You mean when you pointed a gun at me?” I jabbed, half-laughing at the flabbergasted expression Blaine shot in my direction.
“You are joking?” he mouthed.
I shook my head.
“How’s seven o’clock sound?” asked Madsen.
“We’ll be there.”
***
Blaine slowed down to a stop on the side street next to the college, pulling out a pair of binoculars from his bag in the backseat. Holding them up and adjusting them accordingly, he shook his head. “I don’t like this.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The security cameras aren’t on.”
“So? Everybody’s gone. The security staff probably shut them down. Or maybe Madsen did. Maybe the Sagax can’t risk being caught on tape.” I hit the redial on my phone, only to meet the same voice messages. No one was picking up. Not Reese, not Madsen, not Val, not Mark or Carly.
He cut the engine to the Cutlass and placed a spare key in my hand. I turned it over, realizing it was for the car. “If something happens in there, promise me you will run. Promise me you won’t stop, for anything. If things go sideways, you leave, with or without me. Understand?”
“Blaine—”
“Do you understand?”
“...Yes.”
“Okay.”
We climbed out and locked the doors behind us, slinking through the shadows until reaching the side of the building. Blaine peered around the bend, motioning me forward. It was like The Town That Dreaded Sundown. There wasn’t a single car on the street or in the nearby lot, and not a single soul could be seen down the long stretches of sidewalks. We snuck up to the front entrance and tried each of the doors. Thankfully, the left one pulled open. Neither of our Omen runes was glowing, but that didn’t stop Blaine from taking some precautionary measures. He shut the door behind us and fastened the lock on top.
“Stay behind me,” he whispered, heading into the foyer.
Our eyes shifted across the entire place, still not seeing another soul in sight. I pointed to the map on the wall, indicating where the library was stationed. He nodded. We darted into the closest corridor, creeping alongside the wall as we moved further along. Without the sunlight gleaming in from the windows, the dimly lit halls cast shadows across half of the space. The cold breathed its ways through the glass, and the icy winds batted into the panes, causing the windows to creak. I couldn’t discern a single thing from the darkness outside, leaving me with the aching suspicion that someone could be watching us.
We navigated our way through the maze of corridors, eventually reaching the dining hall. Blaine held up his hand, signaling me to stay put. He headed out into the commons with knives gripped in both hands. A thump! echoed from an adjoining hall, sounding like a heavy door closing.
“Go,” mouthed Blaine, shooting his glance up the nearest staircase.
I scampered across the room and darted up as he followed behind me. He shoved me against the wall as footsteps reached the commons from the ground floor. We peeked around the bend to see a young husky guy sporting a university sweatshirt saunter through the dining hall with a gym bag slung over his shoulder. Blaine turned the corner to meet me and rested his back against the wall as well, letting out a much needed sigh. He didn’t waste another second after that. Hustling through the next three corridors, we finally reached the library.
Towering oak bookshelves greeted us as Blaine pried open one of the dual ornate bronzed doors, the hinges squeaking shrilly across the vast open space. The library was sparsely lit, the cathedral vaulted ceilings not even visible overhead in the darkness as we headed in deeper. I looked behind me, seeing the entrance shrinking in the distance. With each step, the harder the pang in my gut hit me. Nothing felt right, and Blaine sensed it all too well. Still, our Omen runes weren’t igniting.
“About time.”
I shrieked, whirling around to my right. Mark and Carly were seated at the set tables just off to the side of the private study room. Blaine’s shoulders finally slackened, spotting his brother pacing in the specified doorway.
“Cutting it close, ay?” Val gestured to the askew face of a large antique clock at the end of a bookcase in the distance. It was only a couple minutes to seven. “The doctor with you?”
“Madsen?” I shook my head. “He isn’t here?”
“No, and we’re gonna have to close up shop,” said Reese, emerging from the study room. “The Sagax won’t show if Mark and Carly can see inside.”
The pair was sitting far enough away that it shouldn’t have been a problem, but we pulled the shades to be safe.
“Give a holler if you hear anything, okay?” said Val.
Mark gave a thumbs-up while Carly just rolled her eyes, feigning annoyance. Her heel was tapping nervously against the carpet, a sign that she was still far too rattled from earlier.
Reese’s cell sounded off a moment later, officially declaring it to be seven o’clock. With no sign of Madsen, we had to draw the door closed.
“Hey, Princess.” Those boyish dimples lit up Reese’s face the moment he came to me, and the sight, the nickname, all of it—it felt like a sucker punch to the gut. Thankfully, the dimples disappeared as he scowled, spotting who was behind me. Then his gaze fell to my clothes, to the blood still tarnishing me. I hadn’t even realized it was all over the bottom of my shirt. “Jesus, Kat! What happened? Are you hurt?”
Reese raced around the table, and panic replaced his glare as he grabbed me, looking for any sign of an injury. When he couldn’t find anything, his hands cupped my face, and I couldn’t fight the tears as I pulled away from him.
“Kat? What’s wrong?”
“You guys having any problems with your phones?” Val asked.
“Yeah, my calls keep dropping out, and hers won’t even go through,” said Blaine. “We’d been trying to get a hold you, but you weren’t answering.”
“Mind telling us why we’re here?”
Neither of us had any intention of answering, but it didn’t matter. Black mist filled the corner of the room, and an all-too creepy figure emerged from the billowing cloud. The pale woman had opted to abandon her previously pallid dress for a black gown as inky as her bone straight hair. The Sagax was only a couple inches taller than me and definitively thinner, yet her unnatural presence even spooked the likes of Val as instinct sent both him and Reese recoiling at the sight of her.
“A truth for a truth, my darling.” Her pale green eyes immediately locked on me, and she strode forward. The Sagax’s attention however cut to the young man standing beside me. “You brought your mate, I see.”
She took her time examining Blaine, and he angled himself in such a way that he placed himself between the Sagax and me, clearly not trusting the individual who stood before us. The woman smiled, or at least appeared to. Her pale lips merely stretched, baring a glimpse of startling white teeth.
Val grimaced, trying to mask his repulsion. “If looks could kill,” he mouthed.
“Why have you summoned me, royal girl?” the Sagax cooed. She took one look at me, and immediately spotted me stealing a glance over towards Reese. “Ah-ha, you wish to know the truth regarding your beloved.”
Reese stiffened. “Wait, what?”
“How long have you known?” My mind replayed every moment we’d shared, and I had to bite back a sob. “How long have you known about me? About what I am?”
Reese shook his head, confused, and Blaine cut him off before he even had a chance to speak, handing over his cell. “I’d choose my words very carefully if I were you.”
Reese looked at the screen, and any hope I had vanished as he paled. It wasn’t shock, or surprise, or even confusion on his face as he looked at the image of his father. It was guilt.
I staggered back, feeling something deep within me snap.
He knew.
“So what then? Did your father order you to spy on me?” Reese tried to step closer, but I shoved him back. “Is that why you suddenly wanted to be around me? Was all of this just some sick game for you?”
“What? No!” He was shaking his head again. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Then tell me what it’s like, Reese!”
“Kat…” His gaze kept drifting around the room, at the audience all gawping at us. “Can we talk about this, alone? Please.”
“No, I want the truth, now.”
“It’s not that simple—”
“Did you know who I was when we first met?”
“What? No.”
“When did you find out?”
Reese looked over at the woman, and she simply gestured towards me. He had to answer. “Right…right after I left the theater.” He had told me later that demons attacked him, and it didn’t take a bond for him to know where my thoughts had gone. “I didn’t lie about what happened. It’s just… I was ambushed. I wasn’t strong enough at the time to defend myself against an entire pack of demons. They were about to haul me away when my old man showed up. He ran out on my mom a week after I was born, so it was the first time I’d ever seen him that I could remember.”
“What did he tell you about Kat?” Blaine demanded.
“He said I needed to stay away from her.” Reese swallowed hard. “He claimed that she already knew what she was, and that all she would be was trouble. Demons were planning on using her for something, and the ones who had showed up outside the theater were there for her, to keep an eye out on her. He wouldn’t tell me what they wanted with Kat, but he said that if I interfered, they’d come after me…after my mom. It was why he abandoned us all those years ago.”
“What do you mean?”
“Right after I was born, an old friend of my father’s tipped him off. There was a bounty on his head for something that he had meddled in, and if the people who were after him learned about my mom and me, they’d use us against him. So he did the only thing he could. He ran, to protect us.”
“But I didn’t know what I was!” I cried.
“And I only figured that out after you were killed in the accident.” Reese’s glare cut to Blaine. “Or should I say ‘car crash,’ seeing how it wasn’t very accidental?”
“Don’t push it,” the Dark Mage warned. Bitterness poured off him, engulfing my senses as Blaine tried to wrangle in his own anger.
I shook my head, demanding myself to refocus. “Did you give me up to Reynolds? Or was that your father?”
Reese froze, and that guilt immediately vanished, replaced by utter indignation. “You honestly think I would do that to you?” I didn’t amend my accusation, only further inciting his ire. “No, I didn’t tell anybody anything about you. Ever. Not my old man, and certainly not that piece of shit.”
“I don’t believe him,” Blaine growled.
I couldn’t ignore that Reese’s nickname for me happened to be exactly what I was about to become, I didn’t know how Reynolds’s men tracked me down, and I now knew that his father was somehow involved with the very people who wanted me dead. But against all better judgment…I did. I still believed him.
I looked to the Sagax, and she nodded. Relief and guilt simultaneously crashed into me. Reese was telling the truth.
The woman strolled over to him, seeming to appreciate his face. “You do look an awful lot like your father.” Her hand brushed his own for an instant, but it was enough to startle him. “Oh, how history repeats itself. Though I do believe it will end quite differently.”
He recoiled from her, defensive. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You Uriel men certainly seem to have a penchant for the women of the Ravyn bloodline. Unlike her mother however,” the Sagax gestured to me, “she reciprocates your affection. Something Katalin never granted your father. You may be hurt by your beloved’s misgiving, child, but do not doubt her love. For what she has endured, it would be foolish of her to not be guarded. She cares just as much for you as you do her.”
Reese returned my gaze, and although his hurt was still evident, understanding filled those amber eyes.
The Sagax’s head tilted as her gaze drifted back to Blaine. “I cannot, however, say the same about you, Prince. I saw many things in your mate’s heart last time I touched her. Not only do you scare her, but she truly hates you.”
Unable to swallow the lump in my throat, I inadvertently pulled my eyes from Reese to look at him.
That icy gaze was already locked on mine. Only, Blaine smirked. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”
The raven-haired woman clicked her tongue, and immediately, Blaine grimaced, looking like someone had just smacked him upside the head. The expression only worsened as he squeezed his eyes shut. What started as mild annoyance suddenly twisted into physical pain as Blaine’s hands gripped the sides of his head. He bit back a scream, sinking to the floor. I wanted to make a move for him, but the Sagax’s merciless gaze left me glued in place as she observed Blaine’s agony in utter indifference.
“Lie.”
It was only then that I realized what she really was. The Sagax didn’t force you to speak the truth. She punished you for being dishonest.
“Why would that surprise you?” she asked flatly, peering down at the Prince.
Blaine didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure it was because he was afraid to, or if maybe the pain was so unbearable that he couldn’t. By the veins bulging in his face and down the length of his neck as he panted, I suspected the latter.
The Sagax knelt down, stroking a finger beneath his chin. Blaine’s entire body locked up with what I could only assume to be the same glacial sensation I’d experienced from her touch. He gasped, obviously wanting to pull away, but his body betrayed him, keeping him rooted to the spot. The Sagax’s eyes rolled back into her head until only the whites showed. She sighed, her pale green irises returning mere seconds later. Blaine wheezed as he doubled over, trying to regain his bearings the moment she released him from her hold.
The Sagax studied him with the most peculiar expression, or at least as much as her limited features would allow. “She doesn’t know, does she?”
When Blaine finally lifted his head, blood seeped from his nose. What the hell had she done to him?
“No,” he spat.
“Why not?”
The Dark Prince’s shoulders shook with quiet rage, but he didn’t dare cross her again. “It wouldn’t change anything.”
The Sagax seemed to consider this.
But I wasn’t having any of it. “What are you talking about?” I demanded.
She looked to Blaine, as if waiting for his consent. He only glared at her as he rose up from the floor. When it was made clear she would get no such thing, the Sagax continued, speaking on another subject I had no interest in hearing. I needed answers, and I would be getting them, even if I had to beat it out of someone.
Refusing to look at me, Blaine whirled around, heading right for the door. He shoved his weight into it, only to find it wouldn’t open, despite the locks not being in place. Blaine shot the woman a murderous glare, and she apparently relented, because he shoved it open a second later, disappearing into the library.
Reese and Val called out after me, but I was already out the door, in hot pursuit.
“Blaine!” I was forced to run just to keep up with his long strides as he charged towards the exit. “What was that back there?”
He didn’t so much as slow down, plowing right through the doors into the hallway.
“Blaine! Will you stop?” I finally managed to reach him, snatching hold of his arm. Energy burned beneath his skin, and I realized I was touching his runes. Instantly, everything went black.
***
“Kat? You okay?” Blaine’s voice echoed in my mind.
The darkness invading my vision slowly faded away, leaving me to observe the massive bonfire burning in the distance. Loud music blasted through the air, the heavy bass vibrating the ground beneath my feet. I whirled around, seeing all my old classmates.
“Whoa,” he chuckled.
I spotted Blaine amongst the many partygoers, just as he caught…me.
Not ten feet away stood a seemingly drunk version of myself, now safely secured in Blaine’s arms. My breath caught as I stumbled back.
The bonfire.
This was the night I died.
I’d gone inside Blaine’s mind.
“You know, I’ve been hoping you’d show me some interest for awhile now, but I never imagined you’d literally throw yourself at me,” he laughed uneasily, trying to steady me in his hold.
God, I couldn’t even stand upright. What had he really done to me? Drugged me? Used magic of some kind?
“Kat?” The Prince deserved a freaking Oscar, because he appeared genuinely concerned as he brushed the hair away from my face. “How much have you had to drink?”
Vanessa and Carly howled something at the two of us, but my attention redirected to Blaine’s eyes. I followed his gaze, spotting Daniel who was leaning contentedly against a concessions table. Carly’s ex cast him a shit-eating grin, tapping the watch on his wrist.
Blaine’s spine immediately stiffened. “Hey, how about I take you home?” he whispered to me, reaffirming his hold around my body. “You don’t look so hot.”
Why was I seeing this?
I followed after Blaine as he directed the drunken version of me across the field to his car. Just as he helped me into the Mustang and fastened my seat belt, I heard it. Loud and clear.
“Kat!” It was a male voice. Unmistakable.
Reese.
I spun around. Blackburn’s rust bucket pick-up truck stood out like a sore thumb amid the mass of luxury cars parked around the tree line of the open field. Reese leapt out from behind the wheel, the engine still running, and started pushing his way through the hoards of tipsy classmates.
Blaine closed the passenger door, his eyes frantically darting between Blackburn and Daniel. He looked…horrified. The Dark Mage hastened around the car to the driver’s side as Reese barked out, “Ryder!”
But Reese wasn’t fast enough. The Mustang roared as the car turned over, kicking up grass and dirt in its wake as it revved and drove off across the field.
“KAT!” Reese bellowed, clawing his hands through his hair. He doubled over, out of breath, watching in dread as Blaine’s car disappeared after turning onto the nearby road. “Shit.”
He knew what was about to happen. He’d seen the omen when I ran into him back at the gas station. He had tried to warn me, but I just thought he was crazy…
In an instant, the scenery vanished, replaced by the eerie quiet of some remote rural back road. The only light came from the crescent slice of moon resting overhead.
“You got the paperwork ready?” remarked a cool voice. Its owner tossed the remains of a lit cigarette to the ground, grinding it out beneath his boot heel as he pressed the phone back to his ear.
Val.
“And does it say specifically that it was ‘decapitation’? That’s very important.” He appeared to like the answer on the other end of the call, because he grinned. “We need an ambulance and some squad cars. What’s your E.T.A.?” The smirk turned baleful. “Terrific.”
Tucking the phone back into his jacket, the black-clad Mage strode out into the street, affirming his place in the middle of the right lane just as a roaring engine hummed in the distance. The all too familiar Mustang raced around the deep bend, barreling right at the man. Tires squealed as the car suddenly wrenched sideways, narrowly dodging Val as it went into a tailspin. In an instant, the vehicle plowed into the boulder just off the road. The devastating impact sent debris hailing out all around me, and I shrieked as a jagged piece of metal went sailing right through my phantom figure.
Val whistled what sounded like “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” as he casually sauntered down the road towards the wreckage. He plucked out his cell again as he peered into the passenger window…at my broken, bloodied body. Of all things, the Dark Mage snapped a picture. Of me, and then one of Blaine.
The pictures I’d been receiving weeks after the accident…
I couldn’t breathe.
Val strolled around to the driver’s side, finding the flashlight function on his phone to be useless. He plucked out an actual flashlight and sighed as it better illuminated the inside of the crushed interior. The Dark Mage unsheathed the massive blade holstered around his waist, studying Blaine’s beaten body.
Using the butt of the sword, the ruffian smashed the window, letting out a hearty laugh. “‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.’”
Val reached inside and unlatched the lock, prying the crumpled door open. Blaine barely managed to cough as his brother pried his limp body from out of the driver’s seat. Val scowled, dropping him onto the pavement thoughtlessly as he noted the blood now staining the cuffs of his jacket.
“Come on, Prince Charming,” he scoffed, giving Blaine a light smack on the cheek.
Blaine’s eyelids fluttered as a small Sowilo healing rune glowed on the outside of his forearm. I had the same one, obviously, but had never ignited it before. He coughed again, this time with a little more relief.
“That’s more like it.” Val straightened up, wiping the blood from his hand. “Don’t want to leave your mate waiting now, do we?”
Realization seemed to dawn on him, because Blaine’s eyes flew open with a start. He painfully angled his head in horror over to the opened driver’s door of the car. At me still inside. “Kat…”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
He kept muttering the word as he tried scrambling up from the pavement. Resistance sent him back into the ground though, and he let out a stifled yelp. Considering the amount of blood soaking his entire body, it was safe to assume he had more than just a few broken ribs. His whole face was even masked in red. The pain didn’t keep him down for long. Using the door for leverage, he managed to lift himself enough to stagger upright. The Mage gnashed his teeth the instant he stood. Limping on only one foot, he hobbled around the backend of the car towards the passenger side.
“Not so fast.” His brother pressed his boot into Blaine’s left ankle. It was already bowed at a grotesquely unnatural angle, and the pressure only snapped it further, sending the young man crumpling back to the ground in blinding pain. Val just shook his head with a bemused chuckle. “That’s why I told you to turn it off. So long as you still have your emotions, pain will continue to be your greatest weakness.”
“Why?” Blaine seethed. His entire body shuddered from unadulterated agony, but his eyes were bright and alert, ablaze with a murderous rage.
“Why?” Val mocked.
“I told you I was going to take care of it. You didn’t need to hurt her!”
“Is that right?” His brother only smiled, kneeling down in front of him. He fetched out a small vial from his jacket pocket and dangled it in his face. “No worries. I already did ‘it’ for you. ”
Blaine lunged forward, forcing Val to grind his foot harder into his brother’s twisted ankle until the boy aguishly fell back against the bumper of the ruined car. “What did you do to her?”
Val shrugged, admiring the tiny vial still in his hand. “Just got your buddy, Daniel, to line the rim of her soda can with my special formula. A few more minutes, and she would’ve been as dead as a doornail, regardless.”
“Then why do this?” Blaine sneered, gritting his teeth as he gestured at the wreckage.
“To teach you a lesson.” He rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Be grateful, brother. At least you get the luxury of bringing her back.” Despite the cruel mask he was donning, the restraint in Val’s voice was all too obvious. “You’re not ruining this for us, not out of petty sentiment.”
“I did everything you said. I told you I’d handle it!”
“Then, pray tell, where were you speeding off to?” Val’s gaze shifted over the backend of the car, down the vacant stretch of road. “You obviously knew there was something wrong with her. And this place is crawling with private roads and scenic views. You could’ve taken her to any one of them and just waited for her to die so you could work your magic. Yet, here you are, having gone out of your way to head to…where else?”
I took a closer look down the winding path to the quadrangle road sign in question. It was blue with a large white H printed in the middle of it. Beneath, it read, “5 Miles.”
The hospital.
Blaine had been trying to take me to the hospital.
***
Like a kick from a mule, my body rocketed backward and I stumbled away from Blaine as my vision snapped back into place. I couldn’t fight the tears. My entire body was shaking with an emotion I would never have a name for. And his eyes… His eyes were so wide and petrified that it only shattered what little there was left of my sanity.
“You killed me!” I had screamed at him, time and time again. “You killed me!”
His answer every time: “I brought you back.”
I’d always assumed he meant that he resurrected me after he purposely crashed his car. But the figure in the road… I’d seen it that night.
“No.” I just kept shaking my head, stumbling back, back, back. I tried to speak, tried to find the words I needed to express the chaos in my mind, but all I found was a handful of spare letters. “Why?”
Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you tell me?
Why?
Why?
Why?
I wasn’t sure if Blaine could hear those thoughts, but I suspected as much, seeing a faint tremble ravage his body. My chest tightened all the more. Someone so seemingly resilient was standing before me, visibly gutted and vulnerable.
I finally managed to take a step forward, but he immediately cowered back.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
“You tried to help me.”
He scoffed, redirecting his eyes to the floor. “A lot of good it did.”
“It…it wasn’t your fault.”
He matched every step I took toward him, refusing to let me come closer. His back finally met with the wall, only inciting his chest to rise and fall faster.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Stop.”
“You brought me back.”
“Please, stop,” he pleaded, his voice so weak the words were barely audible. Blaine flinched, as if my very touch singed him, feeling my fingers cup his jaw. I angled his face to meet mine, and he forced his eyes shut.
“Look at me.” Please. He heard the word spoken only to his mind, and all attempts at control vanished. I’d never done that before. I’d never felt my thoughts travel through that bond. But I’d felt it this time. His eyes snapped open. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What difference would it make? It was still my fault. You’d still hate me…” He tried pulling away, but I secured my hold on him.
“I don’t. I can’t.” I didn’t fight back the tears pouring from my eyes. “You scare me—terrify me even—because I don’t know who you are. You’re the caring stranger I met at a party, and the man I thought I killed, and the crazed lunatic who’s as damned as he seems, and the boy who’s so beautifully broken… I am scared of you, but I can’t hate you.”
Blaine stopped breathing.
Why did you put a hex on me?
He laughed the strange sort of laugh that wasn’t a laugh at all. “I didn’t.”
My hands slipped from his face. “…What?”
“I never put anything on you.”
“But your mark…”
“I never put anything on you.”
What did that mean? Who put it there? Did Raelynd? How?
His finger ran over the bottom of my lip, tracing the curve of my mouth. “Tu es meus verum coniunx.”
He said that to me once before, the night of my Great Rite. What did it mean—
His hands dropped to my jaw, angling my face up to meet his as he repeated the words against my lips. He kept saying my name, and his every touch was the cure to an ache I didn’t even realize I had. “I never meant to hurt you.”
I was suddenly sobbing, remembering the last time he had tried to tell me, when I had lashed out at him, when I had told him that no one could ever love him, that no one could ever care about him.