Court of Nightfall (The Nightfall Chronicles #1)(12)

I keep running, trying to escape the death around me. I arrive in a clearing where the corpses form a hill of dead bodies. The man in black stands at the base. On top is a throne, a giant gleaming thing made of midnight, with a blood red banner over it.

Sitting on the throne is a little girl in a white lace dress, her long blond hair parted into braids with white ribbon. She's playing with a giant glowing ball. Our eyes meet. She smiles, but something isn't right with that smile. Her teeth. Two of them protrude, too long, too sharp. She holds the white glowing ball out to me.

The man, his back still turned to me, speaks, his voice filling the clearing. "Choose!"

The girl's voice repeats. "Choose."

Together, they chant, "Choose."

I don't understand. "Who are you?" I ask, but my voice is carried on the wind and dies before it reaches him.

I run to the man, grip his shoulders, turn him to me…

***

I woke with a start, my head still filled with the voices of that man and that girl. The plane hit the pavement of a runway. That was what woke me. We landed.

I looked out the window at my first glimpse of Castle Vianney.





Chapter 7


Castle Vianney


I climbed out of the Cessna—out of my father's plane, out of the last familiar piece of my life—and walked into a world that blended the past and the future into something new. The grounds, the landscape, the castle that towered over the small city of Vianney, looked like a piece of history transplanted into the modern age.

Jax saw me staring as we walked through the airstrip toward a parking garage. "The castle itself was rebuilt from the remains of a castle in France. After the Attack on Diamond Head and before the Nephilim War it was transported here piece by piece."

"Why not just build something new?"

"They say the building itself holds ancient magic, though I suspect what the ancient's thought of as magic is mostly Angel Technology. I don't know if that's true or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. Strange things have been known to happen in the castle."

"Why am I here? Where are we going?" My clothing had stuck to me with blood and sweat and God only knew what else. My hair hung in clumps around my sore, bruised head, the normal pale blonde stained red.

Despite all of that, I couldn't pull my focus from the world around me. I marveled at how it all looked in color, at how much I had missed with just Evie translating my black and white existence.

And I wished more fiercely than anything that I could share this with my parents. This new awareness. But I shoved that aside. I would pull out that pain when I was finally alone and had a moment to break down. Because once I started crying, I feared I would never stop.

And there were still answers to uncover.

"We're going straight to the Council. I tried to argue you needed rest first, but they want to talk to you. With the weapon missing, it's a matter of global security at this point."

I glanced at Jax, this boy I'd grown up with, the boy I'd run my first lemonade stand with as a child. My first crush, my only real friend. His jaw was set in a hard line and he walked with purpose. He walked like a soldier. And he looked like a stranger.

"And why am I here? You didn't answer that."

He stopped and finally looked at me, and for a moment a flicker of the boy I knew flashed in his eyes. "Because this is the only place you'll be safe, Scarlett." He reached for my hand and held it. "I failed your parents. I can't fail you too. I can't lose the last person I love."

Earlier today those words would have swelled my heart to bursting. Now, they fell at my feet like a dead thing. I said nothing in response and followed him through the parking structure, to a black car. I looked around and realized all the cars in this section were black, with U.F.I. plates.

"You work for the U.F.I.?" I asked, not even surprised anymore.

"I'm a Teutonic Knight. A Guardian. Like my father was, once. I work for the Four Orders under the authority of the Pope. The U.F.I. just handles the paperwork."

Everything, all of it, my whole life had been a lie. "Your father didn't die in a car crash, did he?"

I got into the dark sedan and slammed the door shut. Jax started the engine and pulled out. "No, he didn't." His face looked haunted, and I could tell he wouldn't elaborate.

So I didn't ask for more. In that moment, as calloused as it sounds, I didn't care about his father while my own father's body was left to rot on our lawn.

The sights of the town blurred past me. Storefronts and small homes with big yards, a downtown area with street vendors set up on cobblestone streets. Ever-glowing lights lined the walking paths, and a steel sculpture of a cross hovered over an intersection. Once again, that mix of old Europe and Angel technology created something surprisingly beautiful. Most shops were closed at this time of night. We'd been flying for three hours. I reached up to tap on my e-Glass, but remembered it wasn't there.

Jax caught my movement. "I'll pick you up a new one. I know you need it to help with colors."

Yes. Colors. That wasn't true anymore, but I knew I couldn't tell him that, though I didn't know why. "Thanks." I would need it for other reasons, though. I'd need it to review the chip I had, and to keep tabs on the outside world. They'd of course bug whatever device they gave me, but I could override that easily enough and make it my own—and bring my Evie back. I'd spent too much time custom-coding her to lose all of that now.