Nightshade Academy Episode 5: Deadly Contract Read online

  CHAPTER 5

  The blizzard picked up again.

  I’m pretty sure my blood has frozen over, but I hang on. With the speed Ginzo’s moving at, I know that not much time has passed, but this cold can make a fleeting moment seem like an eternity.

  “Ginzo,” Helena scolds, “warm them up. I don’t want them frozen to death.”

  Heat radiates from Ginzo’s skin like a furnace in place of the nothing he was generating before. Slowly, feeling returns to my limbs and fingers.

  “I see it,” Kian says, silencing chattering teeth. “The border.”

  Thunder grumbles and flashes inside a wall of gray clouds reaching high into the sky.

  “Shouldn’t the outside be crawling with vampires?” Archer asks.

  “The storm will keep most people out.” Kian frowns. “I guess this means he’s really inside. The fairies didn’t stop him.”

  Helena said Madeline squealed.

  “The fairies are fine gatekeepers, yes,” Helena interjects, “but they aren’t all-powerful.”

  Helena and Ginzo are proof enough of that.

  Helena snaps her fingers, and Ginzo jolts to a stop. His huge clawed feet dig grooves into the tundra, and one of his big paws swings at us. He rips us off our rope, though he leaves the three of us connected, and tosses us into the storm wall. We get tangled up when we hit the ground rolling, but Archer and Kian think fast, slicing through the bits holding us together. Thunder bellows overhead and lightning flashes down much too close for comfort. It singes a patch of frosted grass black, and smoke drifts up from the space, too much like Colors leaving bodies. The plants’ browns are gone.

  Little blips of too-bright Colors swirl inside the storm: a cluster of fairies. Kian whistles and shouts, “Remember me?”

  The fairies pause, but then they blink and drop. I prepare for them to dive-bomb us, but they don’t. They flit up and down and around and all over, paying special attention to Kian. One lands in his hair and rubs its face against his forehead, gold against chartreuse. One taps his cheek; others pull at his coat. They’re tugging him back the way we came. They don’t want him inside of Nightshade.

  “I know,” Kian says. “Bad things are going on. We’re here to help.”

  “Yeah, now that Helena has so kindly left us to our own devices,” Archer grumbles.

  I rub my neck. “She must have a plan. We made a deal.”

  “One she doesn’t have to keep,” Archer says.

  “But I think she has every reason to. I think we’re worth the hassle to her.”

  “Hassle,” Kian scoffs.

  The fairies jingle as a lightning bolt flashes overhead, right on top of us. I expect burning when it takes my vision away, but it doesn’t touch us. I blink until the spots clear from my vision. No new charred marks on the ground. Was I imagining it? The fairies jingle again and the piece of stormy sky directly above us clears. Archer and I stumble backward, and the clear sky follows us.

  Kian gently catches one of the pixies tugging on his coat. He opens his palm and holds it up to his face. “Please, help us.”

  The pixie sits in his palm, arms crossed. If I squint, I can see the thin hairs of grass fibers or something similar covering its body. They shine so brightly I’m not sure I’ve ever realized they wear “clothes.” Or maybe not all of them do. Kian would know.

  Focus, Nova. Now isn’t the time to think you should get to know the fairies better. Kian gives them enough attention for ten people anyway. It’s because of him you aren’t a burned chunk of flesh. Probably. They did take a shot at him to get to Helena and Ginzo before. Can’t forget that.

  Unpredictable little insects.

  The pixie rocks forward on Kian’s palm, rolling to its petite feet. The other fairies hover above us, shielding us from the storm. Whenever lightning comes close enough to singe my arm hairs, they all swing in the same direction, and the electricity bounces off an invisible forcefield—or something. The flashes of light aren’t so blinding anymore, either.

  “Thank you,” Kian says.

  Archer looks at the ground, but she mumbles her own thanks.

  A navy-blue fairy bobs in front of me and places its hand on my nose, forcing my eyes to cross. “Thank you,” I say.

  There are things I can do on my own, things I was forced to, but there are also things I can’t, and I’m glad I’ve got help. Maybe it’ll end badly, but I have a chance, one I wouldn’t have on my own.

  Then again, not long ago, I would have never dreamed of doing something like this for other people, so there’s that.

  The fairies lead the way through the storm and the flat expanse of tundra. It all looks the same to me, but they know where they’re going. I hope.

  I’m trusting them.

  Eventually, thunder echoes behind us instead of all around, becoming scarce. I don’t know how long or far we’ve walked, but we’re near the end. The gray is thinning. We’ll step inside of Nightshade any minute.

  Grays turn to off-whites. The fairies shift formations and more come to join them. They circle around us, stopping at our backs, and then they push us forward. I instinctively dig my feet into the frozen ground. Clouds swirl into intricate loops and curls before spitting us out on the other side, into a clear and temperate atmosphere. We quickly shed our coats and any other extra layers. Heatstroke won’t help anything.

  Nightshades sit at our feet: banana peppers, potatoes, belladonnas, and so many more. Aspens and Sitka spruces, and other trees I can’t identify, obstruct our view. The soft brown Colors of plants mellow out the fairies’ blinding rainbow array. The little creatures spit us out where the foliage is dense everywhere I turn. There’s no path, and I have no idea where we are in relation to the castle. I can’t see it.

  The fairies tug at Kian, anywhere they can get a hold of him. With their urgency, I expect to hear a lot of jingling, but they’re deathly quiet. Kian looks over his shoulder and jerks his chin. Then he moves. Archer and I follow as quietly as we can with the plants rustling around us.

  I squint as we go, look every which way, trying to gauge where we are. Finally, I find a gap in the foliage. It’s not large, but I see familiar gray and black stones that must belong to a castle wall. A figure passes by that gap, too. I jerk but take another step forward before I can stop. I run into Kian, who’s already stopped. Archer lets out a shuddering breath. The figure keeps moving. Their Color is one I don’t recognize, but that’s not saying much. It’s not like I know everyone in Nightshade.

  “They’re taking us to a back door,” Kian whispers, “the one with the quickest route to the dungeon. Looks like it’s kind of guarded by unfriendlies, though, so step lightly.”

  Archer pulls the watermelon tourmaline from her pants pocket and closes her fist around it. “Get ready, Nova.”

  I nod. Sounds like there might be no avoiding using it.

  I hope everyone is okay.

  The fairies pull, and Kian nearly falls on his face. He quickly scans to his left and right. “It’s clear.”

  When I step out of our plant cover, I feel naked.

  “There,” Archer says and bolts ahead, opening a small black door I’ve never seen before. We must be behind the castle. There isn’t much here aside from a cobblestone path hugging the castle’s perimeter and all the nightshades and trees we emerged from.

  The fairies let go of Kian and slip through the door first. I’m the last to enter, and I shut the door with a soft click. The fairies fly so closely together it’s as if they’re one giant rainbow ball. And they’re fast. We have to run to keep up with them. They stop at a junction and glance down all hallways. Then they dart down a flight of stairs.

  Every time my feet hit the ground, the sound echoes; it’s worse when there are no royal-purple carpets. I worry about the echoes carrying into the castle’s depths. More stairs. There are way more of them than I remember. Down and down and down until torchlight flickers on the stones. I blink and my eyes adjust to the dark shadows ahead of
us. Now I just need a better angle so I can see inside the row of silver-lined cells. That must be why the fairies are leading us down here, right?

  Hopefully that means everyone is alive.

  The fairy ball splits in two, one half going left and the other half going right, once we hit the bottom. Kian, Archer, and I freeze.

  “What way should we go?” I ask.

  “Nova?” Emery’s voice comes from one of the cells.

  “Fairies!” a man shouts. “Catch them!”

  “Shit,” Archer mutters.

  “Run,” Emery says, low but urgent.

  Two figures rush toward us from the left, dandelion yellow and autumn brown. Autumn Brown, male based on the voice I heard, swipes a butterfly net through the air, catching a portion of the fairy cluster and depositing them into an empty glass jar he has under his arm. Dandelion Yellow is a woman, based on her silhouette, and she’s coming straight for us.

  Kian growls and Archer grabs my hand, the watermelon tourmaline eating into our palms. I extend my free hand, and that knocks Dandelion Yellow off her game. She tries to stop, suddenly skittish, but I catch her wrist. Pink-lavender devours her Color bit by bit. Our paint is much more opaque. She doesn’t stand a chance.

  “Sleep,” I say, and Archer backs up my play. Dandelion Yellow drops, and I release her hand before her dead weight hits me.

  Wow, I didn’t think that would actually work.

  Glass shatters. Autumn Brown curses, and the escaped fairies yank his hair. Kian shoves his fist just below Autumn Brown’s ribs. Autumn Brown drops to his knees, gasping. Kian locks his arms around the vampire’s neck. Autumn Brown fights, but Kian doesn’t let up until he’s passed out from the lack of air.

  “Maybe we should kill them.” Archer kicks Dandelion Yellow’s prone form. “We don’t know when they’ll wake up again. Don’t look at me like that, Nova. We already fed who knows how many vampires to a demon. What’s the difference?”

  The difference is we didn’t make the killing blow, but my stomach churns anyway.

  Kian tsks. “Let’s find the keys.” The moment he says that, the fairies who went right come back into view, key ring dangling from their many tiny hands. But they’re not alone. There’s a vampire at their heels.

  “There!” Someone shouts to our left.

  Shoes hitting stones pound down the stairs.

  We’re surrounded.

  Everyone in the cells starts shouting. Archer, Kian, and I fight or flail. Archer drops the watermelon tourmaline when a vampire knocks her down, and I scramble to grab it. I shove it inside my pants pocket seconds before someone grabs me and strong-arms me into an empty cell. Archer and Kian get thrown on top of me, and a vampire kicks the silver-bar door shut. Another snatches the key ring from the fairies and locks it up tight. The fairies scatter after a cluster is caught in a net and thrown into another glass jar.

  At least some of them got away. Not sure what they’ll be able to do for us, though. If Ginzo and Helena plan on helping at all, now would be a good time for them to show up.

  Archer and Kian roll off me, and I suck in air since I can breathe again. You’re so stupid, Nova. Things were going well for a minute, and I actually thought we were going to free everyone. I’m such an idiot.

  Kian grabs the bars and growls at the vampire closest to us, but his skin lets off steam, and he has to let go.

  “Yeah, growl all you want,” a male vampire with a maroon Color says and then chuckles. “Touch those bars again, too.”

  I distinctly remember Kian being able to touch those bars before, but it must have been one of those day-versus-night things. It must have been day last time…

  “You idiot,” a female says. Her Color reminds me of an apple peel, the classic red kind. “This cell is for the demon.”

  “It’s the only one in this area not stuffed to the brim. What do you want? We’ll stick them somewhere later. The boy at least. Eduardo will want to know his girls are here.”

  Eduardo. The name leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Since he first popped up at Elysian Fields, my world was turned upside down. He’s hurt Archer, captured Nightshade.

  It’s time to put an end to him.

  CHAPTER 6

  “You all right?” Maroon asks the two vampires stirring on the floor.

  “All right enough,” Autumn Brown replies, rubbing his stomach.

  “Good. Go tell Eduardo his daughters are here. Everyone else, get back to your posts.” Maroon twirls the key ring with his pointer finger. “I’ll stay here.”

  “Sure, take the easy job,” Dandelion Yellow mutters.

  “Get going.”

  I stand as close to the burning silver bars as I dare. True to Maroon’s words, he’s the only one left. Archer nudges me with her elbow and tilts her head. We step back while Kian steps forward. Archer presses her lips to my ear and whispers, “Do you think we can take his Color without touching him at all?”

  I shrug. “Worth a shot.”

  It’s not like we have any other options here. I didn’t get a good look at who’s been imprisoned, but the cells to either side of us are packed. No one’s strong enough to break through this angel-blood-infused silver.

  Kian kicks a silver bar with a clang. Then he shakes out his foot.

  “Seriously,” Maroon says, “try to break them. I’m happy to watch.” He leans back against the decrepit brick wall, arms folded. His teeth flash white, fangs protruding.

  “Why are you so loyal to Eduardo?” That’s Madeline’s voice. She’s as calm and composed as ever, not even raising her voice. But there’s something different. Her voice is too thin.

  “Power, sweetheart. If you had focused on power instead of on all these little pansy monsters and love, you wouldn’t be in this mess. You could have built an army here. You have an armored fortress! But hell, you made a school.” He laughs. “God, what a riot. Eduardo was right about you. Take the person you love more than anything and you squeal like a stuck pig. It was so easy to take this place. Hardly worth our preparations at all. I hope the demon at least puts up a challenge.”

  He wouldn’t say that if he had seen Ginzo in action out on the tundra.

  I bite my lip and wonder if this means Eduardo has the Crow.

  “Why didn’t you fight?” Kian asks. He almost grabs the burning bars, but he thinks better of it.

  Madeline chokes out a reply. “I didn’t want to lose anyone. At least here, we’re together, safe. Most of us.”

  “So it’s better to be imprisoned? We won’t be ‘safe’ forever.”

  “Kian,” Oskar speaks this time, “enough.”

  “We’re not going to get out of this if we just lie down and take it!”

  I touch Kian’s shoulder. This isn’t like him. I’ve never seen him lose his temper. I thought that was Oskar’s job, but they’ve switched roles.

  Kian grabs the back of my head and presses his mouth to my ear, hot breath coiling around my hair and skin. “Helena has done shit for us so far. I can’t lose anyone, Nova. What are we supposed to do?”

  “Hey, stop whispering back there,” Maroon says.

  Kian has a point, though. For Madeline to back down so completely, for so many of us to be here in the dungeon… I wonder what happened.

  “They took the Crow, Kian,” Oskar says.

  “Took him,” Kian echoes. “What does that mean?”

  Maroon answers. “Fucked her up.”

  “You, shut up!” Kian growls and grabs the burning bars. He doesn’t let go, though his skin sizzles. Blisters. Even his Color bubbles. “Shut. Up.”

  “What are you going to do about it, kid?”

  I grasp Kian’s shoulders and pull, but he won’t let go. His hands shake, and I pry them loose, careful not to touch the silver myself. Eventually, I get him away from it, but his hands continue to shake as they sit limply at his sides. I can’t see the burns through his Color, but they’re there, and they must hurt.

  “Kian, cover for us,” Archer w
hispers after jabbing him in the side. “Keep going. This asshole won’t listen, but let it all out. We’ll show him.”

  Kian barks angry words, but I stop listening. I have to concentrate. I grab the watermelon tourmaline and then Archer’s hand.

  Now what? I don’t know where to begin.

  “Concentrate,” Archer says quietly, below the raised voices. “I don’t know how or if we can, but we have to try.”

  I stare at a torch, the one on the wall opposite of our cell. The fire dances in my vision. My mind goes blank for a moment, because the fire is soothing. Flicker, pop. Flicker, snap, flicker, POP.

  I rip my gaze away from the torch and lock onto Maroon. His Color isn’t like the fire, but it’s sort of like the pond Kian likes to visit. The calm water, until it’s disturbed by a swishing fish tail or Kian’s bare feet. The thought makes me smile, though there’s really nothing to smile about in this situation. I want to end this, to save everyone here, and go back to that pond with Kian. Anywhere with Kian.

  Calm and smooth until disturbed.

  That’s what we’re going to do to this vampire’s Color. We’re going to disrupt the flow, match it and connect it to ours with a Color string. That’s exactly what Archer and I did to that ice fire’s Color, which means we can do it again. We just have to initiate it without touching this time.

  I visualize pink-lavender meeting maroon. Our combined Color doesn’t look much denser than Maroon’s, but it’ll have to be enough.

  Listen to us. Do what we say.

  The tourmaline burns my skin. I resist the urge to unlock Archer’s and my hands, to throw it and escape this heat. We do loosen our grip, though. The tourmaline moves, rolling around as if attracted to a magnet. It’s tugging toward Maroon. A flash of green and pink bursts through the cracks in our fingers before turning pink-lavender. With this crystal, we can do it. We can stretch our Colors outside of our bodies.

  Green and pink. I’ve never had a favorite color combination, but now I do. This is it. Green, this particular shade, is so like Kian’s, and it’s comforting, because he’s always going to be there. No matter what happens between us, he said one thing wouldn’t change: we’re family. I’m always going to be there to protect my family, too.