In a patch of high grass, Gem noticed tiny white blooms sprouting from wild weeds. May weather was magical and breathed life into the world. She found a spot that wasn’t too overgrown and sat down in the warm sunlight. A caterpillar was munching on a nearby leaf, and Gem let it crawl on her finger before moving it safely away. The clouds were puffier than usual today, like cotton balls drifting across a blue ocean. When a light breeze picked up the ends of her hair, she wished she could hear the deep melody of wind chimes. Not the small ones that sounded like fairies giggling, but the tubular ones that were as tall as her. She’d once put wind chimes in the courtyard, but Christian had taken them down. He hadn’t done it to be mean, but it hadn’t occurred to her how something like that might drive a Vampire crazy.
After thirty minutes, she glanced up at the windows. At the same moment, two sashes opened, and Viktor stared out. Could he see her?
How could he not? She probably looked like a flower amid all this green grass with her lavender locks and floral dress. When he turned away, she took a deep breath.
Gem held the blade in her right hand but hesitated as she looked down at the red book. She imagined Keystone filing out of Niko’s room and standing in the hall while Viktor closed himself in the room to watch Niko for any changes.
A breeze skated across her skin, and she took it all in. What an exceptionally beautiful day. Branches creaked in the nearby trees, and a sparrow swooped low before ascending into the sky. The sound of leaves rustling in the trees soothed her broken soul. Books referred to it as psithurism, but to Gem it sounded like the world telling her, “Shhh. Everything’s going to be okay.”
The sun warmed her arms, and she was glad that she’d worn a dress. The purple-and-yellow floral prints against the white fabric blended in with the scenery. The only downside was the itchy grass rubbing against her legs.
“Now or never,” she said, turning the blade so the tip pointed down.
She gripped the handle tightly, enclosing the opal stone so it pressed against each of her palms on either side of the knife. With her fingers laced together, to anyone observing, it would have looked like she was praying.
Maybe she was.
Gem channeled her core energy and formed a ball of blue light. It crackled between her palms, and she tightened her fingers to keep it contained. She hoped the spell wouldn’t backfire and blow her to smithereens. Energy channeled into her hands like a gathering storm, and the ball spun like a vortex as she struggled to contain it.
The fiery blade vibrated in her hands, and the heat intensified by the second as her energy flooded into the opal. The stone absorbed it like a sponge, and though she couldn’t see the size of the energy ball increase, she knew it was growing. As the power became stronger, the grass beneath her burned away, and steam rippled from her hands.
Gem grimaced from the searing pain. The energy culminating within her was so violent that she thought she might fly apart. When her hands began to weaken and she could no longer contain the power, Gem raised her arms to the sky and drove the Destroyer into the book. The tip of the blade pierced the red leather cover like hot metal through flesh, and rust-colored light poured out like blood. It wasn’t the force of her strike that split the book apart; it was the power in the stone.
Whispers of a language she had only read but never heard spoken aloud escaped the pages. It filled her ears like biting ants, and she cried out. The blade had impaled the book, but something else was happening. Her hands shook violently, and afraid to let go, she held on tight.
The ground shook with tremendous force. A streak of light escaped the opal at a sharp angle and struck a tree, setting it ablaze. Gem’s face heated as if lava filled her veins. That heat radiated to her eyes, lips, mind, and core light—the very thing that made her immortal. She heard what sounded like trumpets, but the noise was coming from the book. The pages turned to molten lava and burned away at the edges. Embers flew into the air and transformed to ashes before floating to the ground.
Her hands glowed with blinding light. Gem held on, refusing to let go as her core energy continued funneling into the book. Page by page burned away, and hot tears streamed down her face.
This was it. There was no turning back. In just moments, Gem would become a pile of ashes, and the wind would carry her away.
“Gem!” a voice called out from the distance.
She couldn’t tell whose voice it was or how far away the person was. Maybe from the window, maybe from right behind her. It didn’t matter anymore. She had a destiny to fulfill. Her skin iced with cold sweat. The ground beneath her had turned black with soot, and flames were engulfing the tree.
The remaining pages of the book swirled in a magnificent vortex that resembled a snake eating its tail. When a powerful burst of energy exploded from the blade, the last thing Gem saw was a shower of golden light.
So beautiful, she thought. Death is so beautiful.
Chapter 8
Claude said a heartfelt goodbye to an honorable man who had given his life to save Claude’s partner. That was how Claude had chosen to accept Niko’s death, even though no one was certain as to why he’d fallen unconscious.
Gem was a sensitive girl, so Claude understood why she hadn’t joined them. People needed to say goodbye in their own way. As much as Claude wanted to hang on to hope, every man deserved dignity. Claude wouldn’t want to be a vegetable—not in a million years. Giving up on Niko hadn’t been easy, but it was the right thing to do. They had all joined Keystone knowing the dangers and likelihood of losing teammates, but stepping out of that room was a punch to the gut. Claude couldn’t even remember the last thing he’d said to Niko when they were on that train, but it probably wasn’t something good. He regretted his jealousy and anger in that moment and wished he could have told Niko how much he appreciated his going to Gem’s aid.
After all, Claude knew the value of a good friendship. His family had taught him a lot about close bonds. Viktor advised each of them to be careful about getting too close to one another because of the innate dangers of their job, and that was another reason he’d created that rule about sexual relationships. Immortals learned how to keep a safe emotional distance from others, but it hadn’t been easy for Claude.
Especially when it came to Gem.
That girl had won his heart the first time he’d seen her roller-skating down the hall with her crazy hair, which was pink at the time. Gem had always covered her pale roots with outrageously bold colors until Claude volunteered to dye it a lovely shade of purple. She’d never gone back to pink, blue, green, or any other color since. The hues often varied, as did the special effects, but Gem trusted him completely with her locks. She made him laugh, and styling her hair had brought them closer together. In some ways, she reminded him of his sister.
So when Claude heard her screaming, he lost it.
Raven held out her arms for balance when the mansion shook. “Is that an earthquake?”
Claude smelled fire. When he followed the scent to an open window, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He spotted Gem in a net of blue and orange light. Had she lost control of her emotions and wielded an energy ball, one she couldn’t contain? Lightning struck a tree in a blinding flash, the source coming from the ground and not the sky. The tree was ablaze, and everyone rushed to the window to look.