A Gathering of Shadows

  “Must have,” grumbled Alucard, hoisting Esa up under his arm and depositing her safely on his desk.

  “What do you expect?” She yawned. “I was holding that flame for ages.”

  “Forty-three minutes by the clock,” he said. “And the whole point of the exercise is to keep your mind from drifting.”

  “Well then,” she said, pouring herself a drink, “I suppose I’m just distracted.”

  “By my intoxicating presence, or our impending arrival?”

  Lila swirled the wine and took a sip. It was rich and sweet, heavier than the usual sort he kept decanted on the table. “Have you ever fought a Veskan before?” she asked, dodging his question.

  Alucard took up his own glass. “Behind a tavern, yes. In a tournament, no.”

  “What about a Faroan?”

  “Well,” he said, lowering himself into the opposite chair, “if their battle manner is anything like their bed manner …”

  “You jest,” she said, sitting forward, “but won’t you have to fight both, in the Essen Tasch?”

  “Assuming I don’t lose in the first round, yes.”

  “Then what do you know about them?” she pressed. “Their skill? Their fighting style?”

  The sapphire glittered as he raised his brow. “You’re awfully inquisitive.”

  “I’m naturally curious,” she countered. “And believe it or not, I’d rather not have to go looking for a new captain when this is over.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, few competitors actually die.” She gave him a hard look. “As for what I know? Well, let’s see. Aside from Veskans growing like trees and Faroans taking my facial fashion choices to an extreme, they’re both rather fascinating when it comes to magic.”

  Lila set the drink aside. “How so?”

  “Well, we Arnesians have the Isle as a source. We believe that magic runs through the world the way that river runs through our capital, like a vein. Similarly, the Veskans have their mountains, which they claim bring them closer to their gods, each of which embodies an element. They are strong people, but they rely on physical force, believing that the more like mountains they are, the closer to power.”

  “And the Faroans? What is their source?”

  Alucard sipped. “That’s the thing. They don’t have one. The Faroans believe instead that magic is everywhere. And in a sense they’re right. Magic is technically in everything, but they claim they can tap into the heart of the world simply by walking on it. The Faroans consider themselves a blessed race. A bit on the arrogant side, but they’re powerful. Perhaps they have found a way to make themselves into vessels. Or perhaps they use those jewels to bind magic to them.” His voice colored with distaste when he said this, and Lila remembered Kell telling her about White Londoners, the way they used tattoos to bind power, and the way Red Londoners saw the practice as disgraceful. “Or maybe it’s all for show.”

  “It doesn’t bother you, that everyone believes different things?”

  “Why should it?” he asked. “We all believe the same thing really, we simply give it different names. Hardly a crime.”

  Lila snorted. If only people in her world took such a forgiving stance. “The Essen Tasch is itself a kind of lesson,” continued Alucard, “that it doesn’t matter what you call magic, so long as you can believe.”

  “Do you really think you can win the tournament?” she asked.

  He scoffed. “Probably not.”

  “Then why bother?”

  “Because fighting’s half the fun,” he said, and then, reading her skepticism, “don’t pretend that’s a concept lost on you, Bard. I’ve seen the way you lunge into trouble.”

  “It’s not that….”

  And it wasn’t. She was just trying to picture Alucard in a magical duel. It was hard, because Lila had never seen the captain fight. Sure, she’d seen him hold a sword and make grand gestures with it, but he usually stood around looking pretty; before his display back in Sasenroche, she’d had no idea how good he was at magic. But the effortless way he’d performed at the Inroads … She couldn’t help but wonder what he’d look like fighting. Would he be a torrent of energy, or a breeze, or would he be like Kell, who was somehow both at once?

  “I’m surprised,” said Alucard, “that you’ve never seen the tournament yourself.”

  “Who says I haven’t?”

  “You’ve been questioning my men for days. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

  Obviously, she thought.

  “So I’ve never been.” Lila shrugged, taking up her drink again. “Not everyone spends their winters in the city.”

  His smug expression faltered. “You could have simply asked me.”

  “And endured your speculation, your answers that are questions, your constant probing?”

  “I’ve been told my probing is quite pleasant.” Lila snorted into her cup at this. “You cannot fault a captain for wanting to know about his crew.”

  “And you cannot fault a thief for keeping secrets out of reach.”

  “You have trouble with trust, Delilah Bard.”

  “Your powers of observation are astonishing.” She smiled and finished her drink. Her lips tingled and her throat burned. It really was stronger than usual. Lila didn’t usually drink much; she’d spent too many years needing every faculty she had to stay alive. But here, in Alucard Emery’s cabin, she realized something: she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t running. Sure, it was a balancing act every time they spoke, but she knew how to keep her footing.

  Alucard offered her a lazy, inebriated smile. Drunk or sober, he was always smiling. So unlike Kell, who always frowned.

  Alucard sighed, and closed his eyes, tipping his head back against the plush chair. He had a nice face, soft and sharp at the same time. She had the strangest urge to reach out and trace the lines of it with her fingers.

  Lila really should have killed him, back when they first met. Back before she could know him. Back before she could like him so much.

  His eyes drifted open. “Silver and gold for your thoughts,” he said softly, lifting his glass to his lips.

  Esa brushed against Lila’s chair, and she twined the cat’s tail around her fingers. “I was just wishing I’d killed you months ago,” she said with easy cheer, relishing the way Alucard nearly choked on his wine.

  “Oh, Bard,” he teased, “does that mean you’ve since developed a fondness for me?”

  “Fondness is weakness,” she said automatically.

  At that, Alucard stopped smiling, and set his glass aside. He leaned forward and considered her for a long moment, and then he said, “I’m sorry.” He sounded so … earnest, which made Lila instantly suspicious. Alucard was many things, but genuine wasn’t usually one of them.

  “For growing on me?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “For whatever happened to you. For whoever hurt you so deeply that you see things like friends and fondness as weapons instead of shields.” Lila felt the heat rising to her cheeks.

  “It’s kept me alive, hasn’t it?”

  “Perhaps. But life is pointless without pleasure.”

  Lila’s bristled at that, and got to her feet. “Who says I don’t feel pleasure? I feel pleasure when I win a bet. Pleasure when I conjure fire. Pleasure when—”

  Alucard cut her off. Not with a word, but with a kiss. He closed the space between them in one single, fluid motion, and then one of his hands was on her arm, the other against the nape of her neck, and his mouth was on hers. Lila didn’t pull away. She told herself after that it was surprise that stopped her, but that might have been a lie. Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was the warmth of the room. Maybe it was the fear that he was right about her, about pleasure, about life. Maybe, but in that moment all she knew was that Alucard was kissing her, and then she was kissing him back. And then, suddenly, his mouth was gone from hers, his smile floating in front of her face.

  “Tell me,” he whispered, “was that better than winning a bet?”

  She wa
s breathless. “You make a valid argument.”

  “I’d love to press the point,” he said, “but first …” He cleared his throat, and looked down at the knife she had resting against the inside of his leg.

  “Reflex,” she said with a smirk, returning the weapon to its sheath.

  Neither one of them moved. Their faces were so close, nose to nose, lip to lip, and lash to lash, and all she could see were his eyes, storm blue, and the faint laugh lines that creased their corners, the way Kell’s creased the space between. Opposites. Alucard’s thumb brushed her cheek, and then he kissed her again, and this time there was no attack in the gesture, no surprise, only slow precision. His mouth grazed hers, and as she leaned forward into it, he drew playfully back. Measure for measure, like a dance. He wanted her to want him, wanted to prove himself right—the logical part of her knew all that, but the logical part was getting lost beneath her pounding heart. Bodies were traitorous things, she realized, as Alucard’s lips grazed her jaw, and began to trail down her throat, causing her to shiver.

  He must have felt the tremor, because he smiled against her skin, that perfect, serpent-charming smile. Her back arched. His hand was at the base of her spine, pulling her against him as he teased his way along her collarbone. Heat blossomed across her body where his hands found her skin. Lila knotted her fingers in his hair and pulled his mouth back to hers. They were a tangle of limbs and want, and she didn’t think it was better than freedom or money or magic, but it was certainly close.

  Alucard was the first to come up for air.

  “Lila,” he whispered against her, breath jagged.

  “Yes,” she said, the word half answer and half question.

  Alucard’s half-lidded eyes were dancing. “What are you running from?”

  The words were like cold water, jarring her out of the moment. She shoved him away. His chair caught him behind the knees and he tumbled gracefully into it with something half laugh, half sigh.

  “You are a bastard,” she snapped, blushing fiercely.

  He tilted his head lazily. “Without question.”

  “All that, whatever that was”—she waved her hand—“just so I’d tell you the truth.”

  “I wouldn’t say that. I’m more than capable of multitasking.”

  Lila took up her wine glass and threw it at him. Both wine and cup hurtled through the air, but before they reached his head they just … stopped. The glass hung in the air between them, beads of purple wine floating, as if weightless.

  “That,” he said, reaching out to pluck the goblet from the air, “is a very expensive vintage.”

  The fingers of his other hand made a swirling motion, and the wine became a ribbon, spilling back into his glass. He smiled. And so did Lila, just before she snatched the bottle from the table and hurled it into the fire. This time Alucard wasn’t fast enough, and the hearth crackled and flared as it devoured the wine.

  Alucard let out an exasperated sound, but Lila was already storming out, and the captain had enough sense not to follow.

  II

  RED LONDON

  The bells were ringing, and Rhy was late.

  He could hear the distant sounds of music and laughter, the clatter of carriages and dancing. People were waiting for him. They’d had a fight, he and his father, about how he didn’t take things seriously. How he never took things seriously. How could he be king when he couldn’t even be bothered to arrive on time?

  The bells stopped ringing and Rhy cursed, trying to fasten his tunic. He kept fumbling with the top button.

  “Where is he?” he could hear his father grumbling.

  The button slipped again, and Rhy groaned and crossed to his mirror, but when he stepped in front of it, he froze.

  The world got quiet in his ears.

  He stared into the glass, but Kell stared back.

  His brother’s eyes were wide with alarm. Rhy’s room was reflected behind him, but Kell acted as though he were trapped in a box, his chest rising and falling with panic.

  Rhy reached out, but a horrible chill went through him when he touched the glass. He wrenched back.

  “Kell,” he said. “Can you hear me?”

  Kell’s lips moved, and Rhy thought for an instant that the impossible reflection was just repeating his own words, but the shapes Kell’s mouth made were different.

  Kell pressed his hands against the mirror, and raised his voice, and a single muffled word came through.

  “Rhy …”

  “Where are you?” demanded Rhy, as the room behind Kell began to darken and swirl with shadows, the chamber dissolving into black. “What’s going on?”

  And then, on the other side of the glass, Kell clutched his chest and screamed.

  A horrible, gut-wrenching sound that tore through the room and raised every hair on Rhy’s body.

  He shouted Kell’s name and beat his fists against the mirror, trying to break the spell, or the glass, trying to reach his brother, but the surface didn’t even crack. Rhy didn’t know what was wrong. He couldn’t feel Kell’s pain. He couldn’t feel anything.

  Beyond the glass, Kell let out another sobbing cry, and doubled over before crumpling to his knees.

  And then Rhy saw the blood. Kell was pressing his hands to his chest, and Rhy watched, horrified and helpless, as blood poured between his brother’s fingers. So much. Too much. A life’s worth. No, no, no, he thought, not this.

  He looked down and saw the knife buried between his ribs, his own fingers curled around the golden hilt.

  Rhy gasped and tried to pull the blade free, but it was stuck.

  Beyond the glass, Kell coughed blood.

  “Hold on,” cried Rhy.

  Kell was kneeling in a pool of red. A room. A sea. So much red. His hands fell away.

  “Hold on,” pleaded Rhy, pulling at the knife with all his strength. It didn’t move.

  Kell’s head slumped forward.

  “Hold on.”

  His body crumpled.

  The knife came free.

  * * *

  Rhy wrenched forward out of sleep.

  His heart was pounding, and the sheets were soaked with sweat. He pulled a pillow into his lap and buried his face in it, dragging in ragged breaths as he waited for his body to realize the dream wasn’t real. Sweat ran down his cheek. His muscles twitched. His breath hitched, and he looked up, hoping to find morning light spilling in through the balcony doors, but was met with darkness, tempered only by the Isle’s pale red glow.

  He bit back a sob of frustration.

  A glass of water sat beside his bed, and he gulped it down with shaking fingers while he waited to see if his brother would come barging in, convinced the prince was under attack, the way he had those first few nights.

  But when it came to nights and mornings and the dreams between, Rhy and Kell had quickly developed a silent understanding. After a bad night, one would give the other a small, consoling look, but it seemed crucially important that nothing actually be said about the nightmares that plagued them both.

  Rhy pressed his palm flat against his chest, lessening the pressure with the inhalation, increasing with the exhalation, just as Tieren had taught him to do years before, after he’d been taken by the Shadows. It wasn’t the abduction that gave him nightmares in the months that followed, but the sight of Kell crouched over him, eyes wide and skin pale, the knife in his hand and the rivers of blood streaming from his severed veins.

  It’s all right, Rhy told himself now. You’re all right. Everything’s all right.

  Feeling steadier, he threw off the sheets and stumbled up.

  His hands itched to pour a drink, but he couldn’t bear the thought of going back to sleep. Besides, it was closer to dawn than dusk. Better to just wait it out.

  Rhy pulled on a pair of silk trousers and a robe—the latter plush and heavy in a simple, comforting way—and threw open the balcony, letting the night’s icy chill dispel any dregs of sleep.

  Below, the floating aren
as were nothing more than shadows blotting out the river’s glow. The city was speckled here and there with lights, but his attention drifted to the docks, where even now ships were sailing sleepily into port.

  Rhy squinted, straining to pick out one ship in particular.

  A dark-wood vessel with silver trim and blue-black sails.

  But there was no sign of the Night Spire.

  Not yet.

  III

  THE ARNESIAN SEA

  Lila stormed across the Spire’s deck, glaring at anyone who chanced to look her way. She’d left her coat in Alucard’s cabin, and the night wind hit her like a wall, piercing sleeves and skin. It bit and burned, but Lila didn’t turn back; instead she welcomed the sobering shock of the cold air as she crossed to the ship’s stern, and slumped against the rail.

  Bastard, she grumbled at the water below.

  She was used to being the thief, not the mark. And she’d nearly fallen for it, focused on the hand in front of her face while the other tried to pick her pocket. She gripped the rail with bare fingers and stared out at the open sea, furious: at Alucard, at herself, at this stupid ship, the edges of which were so fixed, and so small.

  What are you running from? he’d asked.

  Nothing.

  Everything.

  Us. This.

  Magic.

  The truth was, there had been an instant, staring into the hissing fire, when it had stared back, hot and fierce, and listening, and she knew she could have made it grow, could have torched the whole cabin in a moment’s temper, burned the ship, and herself and everyone on it.

  She was starting to understand that magic wasn’t just something to be accessed, tapped into when needed. It was always there, ready and waiting. And that frightened her. Almost as much as the way Alucard had been able to play her, toy with her, twist her distraction to his advantage. She’d let her guard slip, a mistake she wouldn’t make again.

  Bastard.

  The cold air helped cool the fire in her cheeks, but the energy still surged beneath her skin. She glared at the sea, and imagined reaching out and shoving the water with all her strength. Like a child in a bath.