I carry on. “The easiest way to become untraceable at this current point is through witches’ potions. I’m going to ask for some and I’m going to ask for her to look into the future, tell me what I need to know. I remember when I went, my mother—we were only picking things up—but she mentioned that only witches could tell fates in the future, and a way to avoid that fate. My mother said that she never wanted to do any business with a witch again after she saw this one when she was pregnant with me. She never told me what she was told, only that she was reluctant to come back to ask for a potion, but this witch is the last living witch on earth. It’s her or nothing.”
“I’ve been drunk in bars and heard people joke about witches and how they once ruled this entire world. I didn’t think they were real. What does she look like?” he asks.
I blink. “I remember her being the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, that can’t be true.” Finnegan looks at me. “The most beautiful woman is sitting right next to me.”
I laugh. “Wait till you see the witch. It’s definitely magic or something, but she is beautiful in a strange way, and I don’t even like women.” He shakes his head at me, turning the truck off. “I’m surprised you haven’t been to a black market. Didn’t your job as the Starlight Assassin take you out of the city?”
“Not really. My jobs, well, were mostly in the city for the alpha, to do his dirty work. I did travel to Morriganis City once and to America to the small Nexus colony there, but in truth, I was only looking for you in those cities. My job was just a reason to go. Hollis checked the black markets for you.” He spits out his name, and an owl hoots in the dark, so loud I can hear it through the small gap in the car window.
“Morriganis City…where my aunt lives.” I wince. “I don’t think I want to meet any more family members after last time.” Finn looks at me, and he doesn’t hide his wince. “You’re right; it’s definitely too soon to be joking about it.”
“It’s not that, Sun. We haven’t really talked about Georgina or that power. My Nexus claims she is still alive. I guess a twin would know. There is nothing more powerful than the Gods—but now there are you two. Do you understand that? What you’ve been born with—if you could control it? The Vian would never be able to stop you. The Nexus would bow to you. You’d be a God, Gwen. You said Georgina amplifies power, but that means the power is yours. If you took her power…then you’d be unstoppable.”
“If I killed her for her power, then I’m just as evil as the Vian I want to stop,” I admit, and Finn looks away. “It happens when I shift, this grey power, and it’s uncontrollable to me. But in the last few days when I’ve shifted, it’s not happening. No trees have died; everything’s been okay around me. Maybe it’s gone.”
“I don’t think it’s gone,” he tells me. “Death still shadows you. I can sense it. It’s like something in the corner of your eye that you can’t see but you can feel is watching you. Death watches you, Gwen, and my Nexus knows it. It’s not here to take…but it’s here, nonetheless. It’s been there for you—it always has since we met.”
Death has been my shadow since I was born, and now I plan to dance with it.
I open the old truck door and look back. “They have plenty of illegal weapons here. I once saw a dagger that had poison magic woven into it, and no matter how many times you used it, it never ran out of poison.”
Finnegan’s eyes light up. “Well, that’s one way to lure me into a creepy forest.”
“I could take my top off and lead you with my tits if you prefer?” I counter.
He coughs on a shocked laugh as I climb out, grinning to myself as I shut the door behind me.
“I have a locker here with cash in it. I have them at most of the markets, just so you know,” I explain as he locks the truck before we begin the walk down the very creepy path into the forest.
“How did your parents get so much money?” Finnegan asks. It’s a fair question and one I’ve never known the answer to.
“I don’t know.” I pull my bottom lip between my teeth. “I know at least twenty-odd places that they’ve stored a lot of cash, like millions, but I don’t know how they did. I don’t know why they didn’t spend some of that cash on us sometimes. There were a lot of times we…”
I only stop because it’s my go-to when speaking about my past. Finn links his hand with mine. “It’s me. You’re only talking to me. I want to know all of your past.”
“My whole life has been secreting and lies… Gods, I don’t even know how to tell you everything. It’s odd to talk about everything.” I clear my throat. “There were a lot of times when we didn’t have food, when we were starving for days and sleeping on dodgy floors of abandoned buildings. They told me it wasn’t safe going outside, and I wanted to believe them, but sometimes I think and wonder, if we had all that money…couldn’t they pay for us to disappear safely? To guarantee at least we had food. There’s a lot of questions I would love to ask my parents, but they’re gone, and I’m starting to realise that I loved them too much. Maybe love clouded my judgment of their behaviour—especially when I now know they gave my twin sister away to the Vian like she was nothing, gave her to them to be turned into a monster, yet hid me, and I was a monster too. It doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
“No, talk about favouritism,” Finnegan mutters. “But she is your twin sister, Gwenieve. Your family. Do you want to try to speak to her? Without the Vian king around?”
“After what she did, she’s nothing but dead to me,” I snap, but it’s too quick, and Finnegan knows it. He sees right through me but, to my relief, he doesn’t push me on the subject of Georgina.
Finnegan’s hand is tight in mine as we come to a clearing. Every tree here is the same, oak and covered in shadows except for one. Moonlight pours down onto a single silver tree in a bright clearing. Despite how beautiful it is, my skin feels like spiders are crawling all over it. Finnegan trusts me, and it’s never clearer as we walk straight up to the tree. I lift my hand and let my Nexus crawl out, turning my nails black and long. I run my nails roughly down the tree, scratching the bark, and it bleeds red. As soon as the blood starts dripping down the silver oak, a portal rips out the centre of it, the whole tree creaking as it bends apart, revealing an arch of shimmering magic, showing something more than the forest on the other side.
“We need to watch our backs,” I warn Finnegan. There will be Vian here, and worse monsters than them lurking about. News of what happened to Starlight City will be everywhere by now, and we are walking targets. I imagine the Vian king has a hefty price on me and my safe delivery to him. Money turns even the pure-hearted dark. I pull up the hood of my sweatshirt, and Finn does the same, concealing our faces the best we can. “Let’s get what we need and go.”
For a minute, all I do is remember my trip with Alek to the black market. I remember us fighting. I remember him pinning me against a tree. I remember his tongue. Heat flushes my cheeks. When I blink, Finnegan is staring at me, eyes darkening in a delicious way that makes me lose focus all over again. “Youcan tell me what you were thinking about when we’re alone in the car later.”
I wink at him before I nudge him forward through the portal with me. The warmth of the market hits me first, from the crackling fire baskets that line the middle of the market. Tents and stalls sit on either side, vendors being visited by hundreds of cloaked customers. I don’t stare at anyone too long as we slip into the crowds, and I lead Finn to the lockers, rows of them that line an old tent. It’s dark, but I find the locker easily, the number twenty on the outside in black ink. I rest my hand on the metal, and it glows black before clicking open. “They are all linked to my bloodline.”
Finnegan hums as I open the bag, checking the hundreds of thousands in different currencies inside before taking a bunch and handing it to Finnegan. I zip it back up and put it on, closing the now empty locker. “One day I’ll empty all of them, and then they are really gone. My parents, I mean. They won’t still be looking after me anymore.”
“But you will never be alone, Sun.” He kisses the side of my head. I close my eyes for a moment before taking his hand and going back to the main part of the market together. We visit a few of the tents, stocking up on weapons. Finn looks like he’s shopping for his birthday present at nearly every store we go to, his questions never ending, and he buys a shit ton of weapons, holders for them and a few poisons. Eventually we get to the back, to the old tent that’s withered and covered in red leather and so much smaller than the other tents. The door’s slightly open, and I step in, Finn coming in behind me. There she is—the witch I remember from my childhood.
Eternally beautifulis the only phrase I can ever think to describe her. Her smooth pale skin is the perfect olive colour, and there isn’t a scar, a blemish or anything to be seen. Her dark black hair hangs over her shoulders in delicate soft waves thatno curling iron would ever have gotten as perfect as this. She has thick eyelashes, and there is no need for makeup when she naturally looks perfect. A red dress hangs off her curves as she lounges on a throne-like chair in front of a wooden desk. The tent is bare other than this.
She glances at us both before resting her eyes on me. A challenge lies in her eyes, and I don’t lower my gaze. Her eyes are the only part of her that’s not beautiful. Her eyes are nothing but endless pits—almost black. She blinks once. “Even as a child, you commanded a room, Gwenieve. Oh, how your mother was intimidated by you. Did she ever tell you how she feared you so? Fear can often be the only feeling in the world that overrides love.”
