Page 53 of Chasing the Night

Chapter Seventeen

Learning the Trade

Messiah

I watched her go, unable to prevent myself from worrying over her, even after such an extreme lesson. She couldn’t comprehend. Not the way I needed her to. None of them ever did, not until they were cornered. I swallowed hard and forced myself to look away when she met Ender at the ramp.

It was foolish, but sometimes when Chalice stood in the distance, I pretended she was Lisette. They were so strikingly familiar, it was astounding. While my secret game eased my grief a bit in the short term, I had found as time went on now, that I no longer recalled the sound of Lisette’s voice. In my dreams, it was now Chalice that called to me.

By the time I straightened up the office and found my way home, daylight was threatening. I climbed the stairs even though my legs felt like they were made of led and somehow managed to shrug my way out of my cloak. There was no way in this world or the next that I was going to crawl through the Villa to my chambers. The library! No one reads at such an hour. Surely.

Before I could prove myself right, or wrong, Atticus cleared his throat so harshly it made me reach my sword. A quick glance brought my attention not to him, but to a body on the floor behind him.

“En…” I gasped, rushing past Atticus.

It was exactly what he wanted. He shut the door behind me and left me to discover that it was Demetri, not his twin on the floor. Ender sat rigid near the hearth, his eyes fixed on his brother, his face pale save the redness around his eyes.

As I drew near Demetri’s slumped form, I could hear the deep high-pitched sound of an injured lung. He wore no shirt, the indented blue and black area on his ribs betrayed his problem to anyone who glanced his way.

“You have to let Ender fix him, Father.” I closed my eyes and willed my voice to remain low and respectful. His was an ego made of glass, one wrong step and he would kill Demetri just to prove he could.

“Hmm. I have to? The only thing I have to do is die someday. We all have to do that… looks like he’s doing it a little quicker than the rest of us,” Atticus answered, just as smoothly.

Why?

The question screamed on repeat in my mind, but I knew better than to trust myself in saying it. It would carry too much of what I was desperately trying to swallow back. My pinky twitched, betraying the nerves and energy I was tingling with. I slowly curled my hand into a fist and pretended to feel for a hangnail while casting a brief glance toward Ender.

“Whatever was the reason for such a violation? Something perhaps we all should take to heart?”

He was drinking before the sun rose, so it was safe to assume he had been up all night. The possibility that this was anything other than pay back for last night’s fiasco was slim to none. But why was Demetri the one suffering? I arrived at the answer a moment before Atticus gave it. The reality landing so heavily I scoffed on a laugh.

“I wanted him to know what it felt like. To be forced to stand by and watch while everything you worked for is fucked up right before his eyes,” Atticus casually explained, without taking his eye off Ender.

“Atticus…” Uncle Icarus called from the doorway. “Let them tend to him. We must speak.”

“We can speak later.” Atticus waved him off, then turned to me. “I had her set, Messiah. Set!” His face was so close to mine I could taste the Cognac on his breath. “She was to be the Princess of Rochambeau… Now what?”

Veins surfaced across his forehead and his jaw clenched so tightly I just knew he was going to punch me.

“She has no use to me now. None,” he fumed.

“Stop having a tantrum because you can’t fuck her,” Isabella’s voice cut through us all. Even Demetri on the floor froze with a grimace.

“She’s proving to be a quick learner in some of the finer arts,” I quietly offered.

“Oh… “Isabella glanced toward me, lent her weight against mine, and whispered in my ear. “She has talents even you couldn’t dream of.”

Her eyes rolled up and down me while Atticus bristled. She laughed playfully and patted my chest. “Fine, tell me what you would have her for, Messiah?”

“She has taken an interest in teaching herself to shadow walk, and I’ve been tutoring her in extraction.” While we spoke, Ender’s eyes followed the volley of opinions, but he remained stiff and mere paces away from his twin.

The door squeaked ever so subtly, alerting us all to Uncle Icarus’ presence, still in the doorway. Though he was younger than Atticus, his hair had already turned into a distinguished grey. His blue eyes were always shifting with dishonesty, but they lacked the cold callousness that Atticus boasted. At the moment, he was fixated on Demetri who was now in the fetal position and half unconscious.

“You cannot risk him right now, Atticus. He is your advocate. Let the boy find treatment,” Icarus suggested again without meeting his brother’s gaze.

Rather than the explosive scene I had been met with, Atticus merely nodded.

“See to him, Ender, Messiah.” Isabella bid, finally peeling herself away from me and Icarus.