Death Before Daylight (20 page)

The knocking was ten seconds late.

“Come right in,” I said and opened the
door.

I was wrong again. My father hadn’t chased
me. Noah had.

He fiddled with his pockets, lingering in the
hallway. “Are you sure I can come in?”

I couldn’t say no. I gestured to my room, and
he stepped inside, his brown eyes moving over my walls. Unlike him,
I didn’t have decorations up. I kept everything organized. My room
was the only thing I ever had control over.

“You can sit,” I said.

Noah sat on my bed like I had ordered him to
do it, but he looked around like a stranger. He had been in my room
before, and a part of me wondered if the illusion had affected
parts of him it shouldn’t have. Jessica had gone through the same
thing, but she was older. Noah was just a kid.

I sat on my desk chair. “You okay?”

“Are you?”

I stared at the preteen, the one I used to
fight to keep out of my life, the boy whose dad had ditched him
after Mindy’s divorce, the kid who referred to me as his brother.
Not stepbrother. And he reminded me of Jonathon when his mother
left his family. He had sat in the same place when he told me. That
night was the first time we took a flight against the rules, and
for the first time, I wished Noah were a shade, so I could take him
out, too.

“I’m okay,” I started, but Noah stopped
me.

“Did you guys really break up?” His hands
curled into fists against his khakis, reminding me that Mindy still
chose the clothes he wore. “You two seemed good for each
other.”

He was upset, but I didn’t know why, because
I hadn’t taken the chance to get to know him. “Things change,” I
managed. “It doesn’t mean that it’s a bad thing.”

Noah glared at the carpet. “That’s what
happened to my dad and mom.” The divorce. “I—I don’t think you’re
like that.”

“I’m not,” I said it before I could stop
myself.

Noah’s brown eyes were glistening when he
finally looked up at me.

I swallowed my nerves. “Look, Noah,” I
paused. “Jessica and I are teenagers. Teenagers break up—”

“Not you two.” He shook his head. “You look
at Jess like Jim looks at mom.” His face flushed as he finished his
rant, “If you leave her, Jim will leave mom.”

“That isn’t going to happen, Noah.”

My stepbrother wiped his nose. “I like it
here.”

“I know.” I moved across the room to sit on
the bed next to him. “You’re never going to have to leave here.” I
brought my hand up to lay it on his head, but I couldn’t bring
myself to touch him. “You’re my brother, okay?”

Noah glanced up, but our eyes only met for a
minute. He wrapped his arms around my torso before he tore himself
away. When he leapt from the bed, a grin broke his lips. “If you
tell anyone I cried, I’ll tell everyone you have a nightlight.”

A chuckled escaped me. “Fair deal.”

He nodded, but the beam left his face when my
dad entered the room. The door had been open the entire time. I
didn’t even know how long he had been standing there.

“Noah,” he said. “Can I talk to Eric
alone?”

He glanced at me like he was willing to fight
my dad if I wanted him to. “Get out of here,” I said, and he
did.

My father shut the door, and a silence
barrier was up just as I had predicted, but he didn’t scream when
he spoke. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t—”

“What happened between Jess and you?”

“Nothing.” For once, the truth came out
without a fight. “We broke up. That’s it.”

“What do you mean, ‘that’s it?’” His voice
rose and dropped like he was fighting himself, not me. “Eric, as
much as I hate to admit this as your father, I know how much you
love Jess—”

“I—I—” I couldn’t say I didn’t love her. Not
again. Once was enough. All I could manage was four words. “The
prophecy is wrong.”

He glowered. “The prophecy might be cryptic,
but it was never wrong.”

“Then, Darthon would be dead.”

“Stop dwelling on that,” he snapped. “The
prophecy is not wrong about your feelings for Jess. I witnessed it
myself. Don’t tell me I imagined it.”

“You might have.”

He pointed to my hands. “Then, why are you
wearing your ring?”

I stared at the jewelry my late mother left
behind, the single gift she had given me, but it hardly seemed like
a gift now. It was a reminder of what Darthon had told me about my
bloodline. If I were going to ask my dad about it, this was the
time to, but I opened my mouth only to shut it again.

My mother’s death was one I had to face, but
I wanted to deal with Camille’s first. She had raised me more than
anyone. She deserved the attention. I would have to ask my father
after I visited Camille’s grave. I only hoped I had enough time to
do both.

“I guess I am wearing it,” I muttered.

“You guess?”

I didn’t respond.

“Are you going to take it off?”

I shook my head.

My father groaned, and my bedroom door
squeaked as he leaned against it. “This is why Jonathon and you
fought, huh?”

I cringed. “Urte told you, then.”

“Of course.”

“If it means anything, Jonathon punched me
first.”

“And you punched him back,” he pointed
out.

“I only did it to defend myself.” I couldn’t
tell him about Camille. I cursed instead. “Jonathon is an
idiot.”

“Right now, Eric, I don’t think you have the
right to call anyone an idiot.” His words were harsh because they
were true. “Why’d you break up with Jess?”

Because I’m under Darthon’s control.
The words were so easy to think but impossible to say. My neck felt
like it was on fire. I had to grab it to calm down. I already had a
plan in place, one I had thought over carefully, one I had obsessed
over since I dumped Jessica, but taking action was another thing
entirely.

“Her death causes Darthon’s,” I struggled to
start.

“Is that what this is about?”

“It’s true.”

“So, what if it is?”

I despised how calm his voice was. I yearned
for him to yell at me. I missed how he was when I was a kid, when
my mom had died, when he blamed me for everything.

“You know it’s true?” I pressed, considering
my plan.

I listened to my father’s breath as he
hesitated. “We believe it is.”

“And you don’t want to kill her?”

“Of course not.”

“Never?”

“Never, Eric.”

It was everything I needed to hear. “Then,
you should know why I left her.”

My dad waited, and in his silence, I wondered
how much Jessica would hate me when she found out what I would
say.

“She’s one of them, Dad.” I couldn’t stop my
next move any longer. I had to fight back. “Jessica is a light,
too.”

28

The meeting was called shortly after
midnight, but I waited for Pierce to come to my house. He had to
reach me over my phone, and for once, I had the ringtone on. It
only took him fifteen minutes to arrive, but it took us thirty
minutes to get to the shelter. We walked in complete silence.
Meetings were never a good thing, and when we arrived, all of the
faces confirmed my hesitations.

The remaining elders—Bracke, Urte, and
Luthicer—were present, and Eric stood against the wall. The only
face that surprised me was Jada’s. She stood in the far corner. I
didn’t have a chance to say anything, though. Before I could, Urte
announced, “Everyone’s here.”

“Great.” Bracke sat at the head of the table.
His blue eyes and black hair mirrored Eric’s as Shoman. Everyone
was transformed like we were facing a battle instead of holding a
discussion. “Shut the door, Eu.”

Luthicer cleared his throat. “Bracke—”

Eu was dead. In all of the commotion, the
leader of the Dark had somehow forgotten. He was more like Eric
than I realized.

“Right.” Bracke cursed. “Urte.”

Pierce’s father had already closed the door
before the order came, and he lingered near his son in a way I
hadn’t seen him do before. The other father-son duo—Shoman and
Bracke—couldn’t have been further apart. In fact, Shoman was closer
to me, and I couldn’t help but stare. Somehow, his shade appearance
seemed different, like Eric was peeking through his own skin.

“I’ve asked you all to come here to discuss
an important change, but I would like to clarify one thing first—a
rule above all other rules.” Bracke’s voice tore my concentration
away from Shoman. “Nothing we speak about today leaves this
room.”

My guard chuckled. “That’s very
Fight
Club
of you, Bracke.”

“Pierce.” This time, the warning came from
Urte instead of Luthicer. Pierce’s jokes were no longer welcome,
and by the silence of everyone else, I didn’t feel welcome
either.

I swallowed before I asked, “What’s this
about?”

“You should know more than anyone else.”
Bracke leaned his elbows on the table, and for a minute, I
remembered how Darthon had looked sitting across from me. “Isn’t
there something you want to tell us?”

My heart skipped. “No.”

“About the Light realm?” His eyes said it
all. I recognized the look only because Eric had the same one. This
was my last chance.

I glanced over the room, skipping from face
to face until I landed on Jada. Her white and black hair exposed
her as a new breed of shades, but it mainly reminded me of how she,
a brand-new member, had a name, and I didn’t. I was always going to
be Jess. Shoman even called me that now. Darthon was the only one
to offer me a Name, but my identity was in the Dark. Although my
enemy had tried to tear it apart, I held it close to my heart—the
same one I had tried to stab.

I fought the urge to touch my scar.

“Jess?”

My name was spoken by Luthicer, the only man
in the room who had eyes like Darthon.

I bit my lip, unable to tell them anything
yet. My pain was mine. Protecting the Dark was the only thing that
mattered. My other half, the part the Light claimed, didn’t matter
until the Dark was safe. I would find a way to save myself
after.

“I have nothing to say,” I managed.

Bracke brought his fingertips up to the
bridge of his nose, as if he were adjusting glasses that were no
longer there. “Is it true that you’re also a light?”

My neck snapped as I looked at Shoman. He was
the only person who could’ve told. “Eric.”

He focused on the ground.

“Look at me,” I demanded.

“This isn’t about me, Jess,” he emphasized my
name, but his eyes didn’t rise. I could only see the blue eyes in
his father’s face.

“Shoman told me,” Bracke confirmed, placing
emphasis on the first descendant’s name in the same way Eric had
focused on my nickname instead of my full one. “We wanted to
confirm it with you first.”

I had lost my chance. My lie was exposed for
everyone to see.

My back pressed against the wall when I
stepped back.

“They won’t hurt you,” Shoman spoke as
quietly as he did when he broke up with me, only reminding me of
how the Dark hadn’t hurt me, but how he had.

My fingers curled into a fist as I confessed
the words I didn’t want to say, “It’s true.” I was half-light. Not
a half-breed. But a full-breed, depending on who lived. I saw it in
the red rain.

“What?” Pierce stepped away from his father
to lay a hand on my shoulder. His green eyes searched my face in a
way his human eyes never did. They were focused, and his expression
fell when he looked at me. He turned around to face the elders.
“Come on,” he groaned. “This is just more shit Darthon is trying to
confuse us with.”

“It’s not,” I stopped him before he got
yelled at again.

Pierce laid a hand on my shoulder like he
didn’t mind if he was scorned. “Jess—”

“It’s true,” I promised.

I half-expected his hand to drop, but it
didn’t. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak either.

“So, are you absorbed, then?” Luthicer’s
monotone voice broke the tension.

“No.” My head shook. “Not entirely,” I
clarified, thinking of Darthon’s words. “He asked me to come back
if I wanted to be absorbed, if I accepted it.”

Shoman choked, but before I could see his
expression, he had covered it with the unreadable face he had when
I first met him—when he insisted on being called Welborn instead of
Eric.

“I won’t,” I spoke more to him than anyone
else. “But Darthon wants me to.” I turned back to the others. “He
thinks I’ll love the Light power now that I’ve felt it.” The words
escaped before I realized I had told them more than I intended.

I covered my mouth, only to drop my hand to
my side. I couldn’t undo what had been done. If I could, I wouldn’t
have a scar on my chest.

“What are you saying?” Urte asked.

My eyes landed on Shoman because I could feel
his powers. They vibrated through the room like the chilly wind on
his birthday. For once, he looked back at me, but his stare was one
I had never seen before. It wasn’t warm like the time I had met him
on the river’s railing. It wasn’t the confusion I had seen in his
car when he told me his middle name—James, after his father. It was
the sharp sting of a glare from one enemy to another.

I stepped behind Pierce as if instinct had
taken over. The uncontrollable need for comfort consumed me.

“It’s okay.” My guard finally let me go. “No
one is going to hurt you. Right, guys?”

Everyone nodded. “You’re on our side, Jess,”
Urte said.

“No matter what,” Luthicer seconded.

Jada was smiling. It was that reason I
stepped to Pierce’s side, the side furthest away from Shoman. I
couldn’t worry about him anymore. I had to take action for
myself.

“Darthon—” My voice shook as I swallowed my
decision. “Darthon said Camille started the process when she gave
me her powers in the Light realm.”