Darkness Fades

Chapter 17

It takes the rest of the day for Sylas to finish changing back into himself. It’s a painful process full of screaming and body shaking. His skin molts off, like feathers, and beneath it is rejuvenated skin. He’s not wearing a shirt and keeps picking off pieces on his back, neck and chest, flicking them onto the floor. He seems to be gaining his strength back by the minute, breathing easier, moving lighter, like the Sylas I first met.

While we wait, I update him on everything that has happened. The escape, Nichelle, Maci falling from the cliff and about Mathew; how I need to take the papers back to him so he can help us find a cure. That supposedly he can read what’s on the papers and maybe find a way to end the Highers’ plan of greed once and for all.

“So other people and colonies really exist.” He muses at this, rubbing his jawline, pacing back and forth to stretch out his legs in front of the crates I’m sitting on. He said they feel extremely stiff from being crooked and bent and it’s sort of hard for him to walk.

“I’m guessing that’s why the Highers are creating their army… they don’t want to risk anyone becoming more powerful than them. I’m betting their plan is to find all the other colonies, send their armies in to round the people up and then take control of them.” He pauses, glancing at me. “Or kill them.”

“It makes sense,” I admit, reaching forward and peeling a stray piece of skin off his arm. “They don’t want the chance of an uprising, so they send abominations to take control of the cities and kill any people who try to resist.”

“I’m guessing that you and I are onto something.” He smiles amusedly at me while picking off one last strip of skin from his stomach. He looks completely normal. “You know what,” he flicks the piece of skin onto the ground, “I feel so much better now.”

I flip the knife around in my hand, playing with it. “You look better now.”

“Better?” he asks with a crook of his brow. “Or sexy?”

I roll my eyes, but my stomach flips. “Glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor.”

“You know you’ve missed it.” He waits, his silence challenging me to say otherwise. When I don’t answer, I’ve pretty much agreed he’s right.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

“We should probably get going if you’re feeling better and it should be dark by now.” I hop off the crates and put the knife away. “There’s no point sitting around and wasting time.” I walk over and pick up the papers.

Sylas glances around the room. “I need a shirt or something.”

“Well, where did you get the pants?”

His eyes darken. “You don’t even want to know.”

He’s probably right, so I take off my jacket and toss it to him. He catches it and puts it on. It’s large on me, but still a little too small on him. He manages to get it zipped up then we head out a door that leads to the outside. We’re on high alert because of the abominations. Although, I now know how to change Sylas back if he gets bit, I’d rather keep the getting bit on my part low.

Sylas grabs the door handle behind him, but pauses. “What about Aiden?”

I pause, deliberating what the right thing to do is. “Um… I guess we should probably find him.”

“Are you sure?” he questions. “You do realize that the Highers are probably searching for us, right? They have a connection with their army and will probably know that you are here right now…. Plus, they’ll probably figure out that I’m no longer with their group of soldiers and search for me because I know stuff.”

“You think they know that you reversed back to a Day Taker?”

He shrugs. “I’m not sure. But if they do figure it out and find out that you’re the reason why I’ve changed, you will definitely become their top priority.” He lets go of the doorknob and takes hold of my hand, his skin temperature matching mine “You’ve got to promise to be cautious. If the Highers get their hands on you… well, they’ll have what they need to become what they’ve always strived to be. Perfection.”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure they don’t get their hands on me,” I tell him determinedly.

“We’ll make sure,” he presses, his dark eyes turning to liquid black like the ink on the papers that I’m holding. “We’ll make sure that they don’t get their hands on you.”

“You know, you sound so good at the moment,” I say in a light tone.

The corners of his lips quirk. “Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold.”

He lets go of my hands and then we head out the door, checking the hallway before stepping out. It’s silent as we back our way down the hallway, the only noises are the soft flaps coming from the plastic above us and the crunching as we step on debris. I follow him down the hall, folding up the papers the best that I can, then reach forward to put them into the jacket pocket that Sylas is wearing. He tenses and freezes from my touch, startled. When he glances at me, I shrug.

“I don’t want to be holding them if we have to run,” I say.

He stares at my hand as I pull away and then, when he looks up, he has this strange look in his eyes. He reaches forward and tucks a strand of my hair out of my eyes before turning away and heading up the hall again.

When we reach the end, the hall exits to the outside through a hole in the wall. We slip into the shadows of the night, carefully treading through the park to the dark streets, keeping to the alleys while listening to the vampire cries around us.

Sylas pauses for a moment when we reach a corner of a building and then sticks out his hand behind him, grabs hold of me and pulls me forward. I step up to the side of him as he puts his fingers to his lips, warning me to stay quiet, then he peeks around the corner and motions for me to do the same. I lean around him and look into the street. There are fires burning in barrels everywhere and three figures standing next to one of the closer fires, wearing all white that matches their hair. Their snow-white skin carves their perfect features and their pale eyes are haunting.

Highers.

I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I want to; I want to see if they’re talking about something that could clue us in on what they know. I start to sidestep around Sylas, wanting to get closer, when he catches my arm, but I shake my head and point to my ear. He hesitates then lets me go, following on my heels. We stick to the shadows and then duck behind a rusted vehicle on the street, just out of the glow flowing off the flames in the barrels.

Gabrielle’s voice rises and I tense, recognizing the sound of it far too well. I strain my ears to listen, hunkering low at the same time Sylas sits down on the rubbly street with his legs out.

“We need to send our army out,” he says. “Now that we know where some of the humans are hiding.”

“If Kayla gets the papers back to Mathew,” another one says, his voice is unfamiliar, but it holds the same icy tone, “eventually they’ll be able to figure out Monarch’s work. He’ll be able to figure out the cure.”

It grows quiet and I dare to peek up through the cracked window of the car. Gabrielle’s peering around the dark streets, his pale eyes ultimately resting on the rusted vehicle we’re hiding behind. I hold my breath, thinking he knows we’re there, but then he turns back to the other Highers.

“It’s more important to find her first, so we can capture her,” a Higher says, one that looks familiar, but I can’t quite place. “It’ll take some time for Mathew to decipher my work and we need her blood more than anything.”

I gasp when I realize Monarch is speaking and then slap my hand over my mouth. Sylas reaches up and pulls me back down, shaking his head at me.

“You need to stay down,” he hisses.

He’s right. I can’t allow my emotions to make me become reckless. I was trained not to.

“How do they know about the papers?” Sylas whispers. “And if they did, why didn’t they just pick them up to begin with and destroy them.”

“I have no idea.” I pause. “Unless someone told them.”

Gabrielle and Monarch grow silent but then a shuffling sound causes Sylas to lean forward, carefully peeking around the corner from our hiding spot, ready to bolt if we have to. However, they’re still standing in the same spot, in a circle, Monarch and Gabrielle in the center.

“How do we even know that Aiden is telling us the truth?” Gabrielle sneers. My eyes widen as I feel Sylas tense beside me, his fingers brushing mine. Aiden? He was talking to the Highers? Was he the one who told them about the papers? I hate to think it, but he has to be.

“Aiden’s been programed by me since he was a small boy,” Monarch replies, swishing his robe behind him as he moves over beside the fire, peering at it. “Just like all of the children, he can’t lie to me, even when he fights it. He can try all he wants, but in the end, he tells the truth against his own free will without even understanding what he’s doing. He was telling the truth about the town and the papers.” He pauses and tears his eyes away from the fire, looking around. “And we’ll know in a few days what will happen to Aiden.”

“As I said before, we need to send our armies in and have them take over the town,” Gabrielle says in a low voice as he walks up beside Monarch. “We need to bring all the people back to us before Kayla returns there. We’ll have Mathew as our prisoner and without him, Kayla won’t understand how to make the cure.”

“You know that we can’t execute that command on our own,” Monarch says, turning to face Gabrielle. The two stand tall, rising to each other’s height, like they’re both trying to be commander, and the rest of the Highers hover back and watch. They looks almost the same, hair like snow, eyes that match, and I wonder if the man that I once thought of as my father is even in there anymore or if he’s dead.

“We must present it to the rest of the Highers and it must meet their approval. Rules. Remember?” Monarch asks.

“That could take days,” Gabrielle growls. “Even weeks.”

“We go by rules and order for a reason,” Monarch reminds him. “Everyone agrees, or we don’t go through.”

Gabrielle considers this for a long time with the fires crackling as the only backdrop noise. “Fine.” Gabrielle sounds angry, yet he agrees. “But we need to do it quickly. I want the army sent out as soon as possible, so that the humans are caught off guard.”

Monarch nods and then they hurry off in the opposite direction toward where the street narrows with the other Highers following behind them. I wait until they’re gone before I sit back down behind the car on the ground covered in ash drifting from the burning barrels.

There’s silence between us, neither of us knowing what to say about any of this—about Aiden.

“What do you think Monarch meant when he said that they’d know in a few days what was going to happen to Aiden?” I finally dare ask Sylas.

Sylas shakes his head as he stares out at the dark street in front of us, lined with broken cars. “I don’t know, but apparently Aiden told them everything he knew about Mathew and the cure.” His tone is tinged with anger.

“It wasn’t Aiden’s fault,” I say, because it’s not. I know what it’s like to be controlled like that. “You can’t blame him. Monarch said he programmed him to obey him and not to lie to him.” I always felt that Monarch cared about me. How wrong I had been to believe that. He was and always would be nothing, except a liar. A fake.

A Higher.

“This is bad, Sylas. We can’t let them send their army to that colony. Those people will be an easy target for the Highers and I left Maci and Greyson there… and if they capture Mathew, there’s going to be no hope left for a cure.” I blow out a stressed breath, thinking of poor Maci and how she’s injured. I thought I was keeping her safe by leaving her there, but now I’m not so sure.

“Then we need to leave now if we want to beat them there,” Sylas tells me, his eyes burning with determination. “We’ll have to let Aiden take care of himself.”

“But—”

He holds up his hand, cutting me off. “You have to let him go… you can’t save everyone, Kayla.”

I feel queasy as a memory surfaces in my thoughts.

“You need to learn to let go of your emotions, Kayla,” Monarch tells me, sitting beside me on the floor. “You can’t let yourself become attached to people.”

“But what about Sylas and Aiden?” I ask. “I don’t want anything to happen to them.”

Monarch looks disappointed in me. “There are other things more important than Sylas and Aiden. Much bigger things, and there will come a time when you’ll have to choose your battles; to let someone go. You need to realize that you can’t save everyone. Not if you are going to save the world.” He pauses. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I nod. “Yes, I understand. Getting the cure and saving the world is the most important thing,” I answer robotically.

He gives me a small smile, but his eyes are filled with remorse. “Good girl,” he says and then pats my head

I lean back against the wall as he injects my arm with a needle. I’ve gotten so used to it that I barely feel the sting. My vision grows blurry as his voice fades.

“I just hope you’ll remember this when the time comes,” I hear him say and then I slip into unconsciousness.

I blink my eyes. Sylas is snapping his fingers in front of my face. I shake my head as I look at him.

“Having another memory flashback?” he asks me, brushing ash out of his hair.

I glance around in the steel buildings, listening to the cries of the vampires from somewhere in the distance. “Yeah, and I think you are right. We’ll have to leave Aiden for now.” I hate saying it, but it feels right. “We need to get these papers back to Mathew and help them before the Highers’ army arrives.” I get to my feet and brush my hands down the back of my jeans, dusting off the dirt.

Sylas stands to his feet as I turn around and then we make our way back through the streets lined with barrels and vampires, heading towards Mathew and the colony. We move as fast as we can with the vampires’ screams piercing the air all around us, winding around cars, leaping over them, knowing we have to hurry. My only hope is that we make it back before the Highers’ army gets there.

That we can save the world before it’s too late.