| |
The next day, I packed up a few of the books that Artie loaned me and waved goodbye to my mother.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"I am going to go see Azolata. Hopefully, he has his shop open. There is a new ink for the tattoo that he said would help with all of this," I said and gestured vaguely to myself.
My mother gave me a disapproving look but nodded. "Don't forget to study. And be careful, Celia told me what Artie and his new friend saw last night."
"I will, I promise," I said and waved as I left the front door.
It was starting to get to me, the way that everyone was telling me to be careful. I was wondering if they knew something that I didn't.
Instead of cutting through the woods like I normally would, I went through town. Artie and Billie had seen Azolata's brother in the woods, so if I was going to be careful like I promised my mother and Eli I would, I decided to stick to places where there were more people.
I wanted to laugh at myself. It's not like this guy was a run-of-the-mill online stalker. If he was a god, he could show up where he wanted.
When I got to Azolata's shop, the girl at the front waved me into the back. "He's in the back, doing something with the inventory."
I nodded but she stopped me as I was about to push through the door.
"Who's the new guy? The hot one?" She asked.
For a minute I was confused. Eli wasn't new. Neither was Dante.
Then I remembered Stephen.
He was hot, but I wasn't going to tell anyone that. He had a swagger that I didn't care for. He was absolutely sure of himself in almost every single situation. I liked Stephen but he was verging on arrogant. Those big blue eyes and that easy smile could win grandmas and babies over and everyone in between. I was not jealous of that.
"Stephen? Oh, he helped me and Eli with some shifters that were encroaching on Celia's territory the other day. She asked him to stay for a few days just to make sure the coast was clear. Why do you ask?"
The girl rolled her eyes and tipped her head towards the back. "You'll see."
I made my way down the hall and pushed open the door to the back room. The first person I saw was Celia, standing there with her arms crossed. Then I saw Stephen, sitting in a chair that was turned backward. He had his arms folded over the back of the chair and was watching Azolata closely.
"– did not consider this would ever happen. Not that I could prepare you in either case, because if I had said a word to you or anyone else, you would have suffered torture beyond your capacity to understand," Azolata was saying.
Celia glanced over at me. "But, now that you can say some things, is that all there is? Or is there more?" Celia pressed.
She began to pace. I could only imagine the stress she was under. With the rival packs and now gods, along with the Ascendancy and the Convocation.
Not to mention Dante and I joining the pack.
Azolata plucked a vial from a shelf and studied it. He shook his head and put it back.
But he did not answer the question.
"So when you answer me, you are able to answer without anyone being in danger of torture or death. But when you don't answer me, it's for my own good and you are trying to keep me alive by keeping your siblings at bay?" Celia said.
Azolata did not answer.
Even from the outside looking in, it was frustrating.
Celia growled.
Azolata looked over at her and said, "Now imagine what it's like doing this for four thousand years."
Celia leaned against the wall and pressed her forehead to the wall. "Can you tell me if this is good or not? Can you tell me if your captor getting weaker is good?"
Azolata rearranged a few more things before he turned to her and sighed. "I cannot answer that. And not because of my imprisonment. I honestly don't know. I don't know if it's good or not that she is growing weaker. I know that it's good that I might be able to break from her soon. But she is a force of magic all on her own and if she grows weaker, I don't think that's a good thing for our magic overall."
Celia sighed. I looked over to Stephen but his eyes were still glued on Azolata. He was studying him closely like he was trying to puzzle out some answer that he had yet to understand.
I watched as he raised a hand to his neck and tugged the necklace out from underneath his shirt. He twisted the ring that was on the end of the necklace over and over in his hand and I realized that it was an unconscious gesture. Probably something born out of confusion or nervousness or boredom, but whatever it was, Stephen didn't realize he was doing it. Probably no more than he realized that he was staring at Azolata like that.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be studying?" Celia asked.
"I am. But I figured that I could study and get another tattoo while I was at it. I think the least ideal place to lose control of my magic would be during my trial," I said.
"Here it is," Azolata said and he pulled a vial from the back of the shelf. It was covered in a layer of dust and he brushed it off.
"What is that?" I asked.
"The last thing that we need for the ink in your new tattoo," Azolata said and led the three of us from the back room into a private room.
I rolled up the sleeve of my shirt and settled into the chair that was centered in the room. Celia took the only other chair in the room and Stephen brought in an extra chair. The girl from the front brought in a table for me to put my book down on so I could read while Azolata worked on the latest tattoo.
Stephen settled in and returned his gaze to Azolata.
I looked over at Azolata. Nothing about him had changed, at least not outwardly. It was like finding out that Eli was a werewolf all over again. For some reason I expected him to be different, to look different. But he wasn't. He was the same slightly awkward, kind of mysterious guy that I had come to know. It was hard to imagine him as a god, especially one as powerful as Artie and Billie said he was.
I couldn't help but glance between Stephen and Azolata a few more times. Stephen didn't seem to even realize that he was doing what he was doing. He was staring at Azolata like someone would stare at the sun rising for the first time.
"Did you do something to Stephen?" I asked.
Azolata looked up and over at Stephen. Stephen blinked and blushed. He looked away.
Azolata shook his head. "No. He came here this morning and asked if he could hang out. He's been here ever since."
I looked over at Celia and she shrugged. "He was here before me."
I frowned and studied Stephen for a moment. We knew some about him, but for all intents and purposes, he was a stranger. He could have been something other than what he said he was and we wouldn't know until it was too late.
As I watched him glance at Azolata and only a few moments later return to staring at him, I wondered if he was more than he said he was; just a simple human with his kid sister in tow, trying to maintain some kind of balance that was better left to people with abilities far beyond their own.
To stare at Azolata like that, to spend all this time here with him, it made me wonder if he was trying to weasel his way into the good graces of one of our potentially strongest allies.
I tried one of the techniques that Artie had taught me, one of the things that freely let me see Eli and Dante's auras and often gave me a little insight into a person's emotional well-being. I had used it only in passing before, something to pass the time and see the array of colors when crowds gathered close. It was like having a prism of color at my command. When I tried it with Stephen, I expected what I always got with humans.
Humans were often a dizzying array of colors that left me blinking like I had stared at the sun too long. Even shifters, though they tended to only have a single color, were rich jewel colors; sapphire, ruby, violet, emerald, citrine. Vampires, without exception, were always blue-white.
I took a deep breath and let my magic nudge up close to Stephen and then let myself breathe out as I saw.
"Don't –" Azolata started when he realized what I was doing. I heard a clatter as he reached his hand out, maybe to shield my eyes or perhaps to turn my face away.
He was too late.
When I tried to glimpse deeper into Stephen, what I got was a blinding flash of light, tinged with a ruby red at the edges. I immediately looked away and shielded my eyes while I pushed away from Stephen. I heard something fall to the ground but I couldn't see what it was and for a moment, I was terrified I was blind.
I stumbled into Azolata and then pulled away from him. The light that resided in Stephen gave me an instantaneous headache, much like the one that I used to get when my magic was unstable. It was like drilling a hole through my head and pouring ice cold water into my brain. The only relief I found was when Celia grasped me by my upper arms and held me still.
"What happened?" She asked.
When I looked up at her, she was blurry and it took a few seconds before she came back into focus. I realized that she was wiping my face and when her fingers came away bloody, my heartbeat skyrocketed.
Stephen was standing and Azolata was shielding him with his body like either Celia or me were going to attack. Azolata looked panicked and Stephen seemed confused, but only politely so.
"Get out," I whispered and kept my eyes on Azolata.
"Not until you tell me what happened," Celia said and her hands tightened on my arms.
I looked up at her and realized that I was trembling. I couldn't tell her the truth, tell her what I saw, tell her what I understood, because when I looked over and Azolata, I could see him silently begging me.
Begging me for what, I didn’t know.
Pleading like that was like taking hope from a dying man.
"I guess that's why we're here. My power isn't as even as I thought it would be. It's happened before, these short overloads and it's like sparks are flying. I blew a fuse. I'm fine, I promise, but this is weird magic, something that I need to show Azolata. Please?" I begged.
Celia didn't look like she believed me nodded anyway.
"I need to go check on everyone else, but I want you to rest today. Don't study too much, okay? If you need me, I will be working later," she said and cupped my cheek briefly.
I gave her a strained smile but nodded.
"If you don't mind, I'm just going to go get a coffee and I'll be right back," Stephen said.
"Yes, of course. Perhaps you should get one for Lou as well," Azolata whispered.
Then we were alone.
I did not move from my position against the wall. I could only stare at Azolata as he stared back. The moments of silence stretched on uncomfortably. I didn't know where to begin.
"It's him, isn't it?" I whispered.
Azolata didn't answer. I realized that he couldn't, not the way my question was framed.
"Stephen, he is Yaotl, isn't he? I brought him back to you," I whispered. I didn't want to sound arrogant, like that was a prize for me to hold over his head. In fact, it terrified me, thinking about how I had done something as huge as this without realizing it
Azolata took a few steps over to me and reached out to my shoulder. "You can't tell him. You can't tell anyone. If you do, this is all for nothing."
I studied Azolata and wondered what he had seen, what he had been forced to witness, sitting on the sidelines as the world passed him by.
"It's all about choice and intent. Even with Yaotl. It has to be his choice to come back to you," I said.
Azolata nodded.
"And if you influence him in any way, it all goes down the drain. I know you want to tell him, but you can't. If you do, then we won't find a way out of this, will we?" I pressed.
Azolata shook his head. "No. Not you, not me, not anyone, not ever. We cannot influence him in any way. Everything that he does has to be his own choice."
I felt sick with temptation. To break Azolata out of this prison, to stop his siblings and to have probably the strongest ally walking the earth, someone who could grind the Ascendancy and the Convocation underneath the heel of his boot like they were nothing better than cockroaches-
All I had to do was tell Stephen who he really was.
"I won't. I swear it. But how long will it take? How long can you wait?" I asked.
The relief in the room was palpable.
Azolata stepped away and that familiar mask of distant politeness settled down over his face once again. "I've waited four thousand years to see them. Now that they are close enough to touch... That alone is enough to satisfy me for the next four thousand years," he murmured.
He turned away from me and I could only stare at his back. I couldn’t even comprehend what he had just said to me.
“Them?” I choked.
He nodded.
“Billie?”
“Yes, Lou. Billie as well. Who else would accompany Stephen across a time span such as this?” He asked patiently as he straightened everything I knocked over.
I tried to find the words, but there were none, not for a loss like this. Not for something gained like this either.
“Shall we begin?” Azolata asked and gestured to the seat that I was sitting in as Stephen opened the door. I kept my eyes on the wall as my thoughts whirled in my head and Stephen handed me a hot chocolate. I concentrated on that; the thick warmth of it, the sugary richness coating my tongue and imagined shadows coating the lie that I was forced to tell now.
“Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that.”