Alex

Morning is so young that not even the first lights of sunrise have washed over the horizon. In fact it’s dark enough that the sky beyond the city’s glowing fingers is a soaking black abyss.

A fine rain, almost mist, cuts through the warm lights of passing street lamps. I wrap my jacket tighter around my body, failing to shield myself from the moisture seeping through my clothes.

Somehow what was supposed to be a small mission now involves a whole troop. Ezra and Emi who lead the pack, whispering amongst themselves; Nick carrying an unconscious Joan with our new Atlan parasite in tow; Hamid and Amy, lingering behind with me in the shadows; and Julian Harris for some fucking reason, even though he looks like absolute shit. He just couldn’t take no for an answer. 

“How much longer?” he whines, somewhat weakly. The palor has yet to leave his face and I can't help but question the motives of his idiotic stubbornness.

“No one said you had to come,” I scowl before slicking the hair out of my eyes. It's gotten too long again and now water gathers at the tips, falling into my face. “You should be resting.” Julian’s lips curl up into a mocking grin, even though the pain shines clear beneath.

“Aw, is the big bad instructor worried about lil ol me?”

I ignore him, knowing anything I say will be yet another foot in the grave.

“No need to bicker,” Ezra chirps, “We’re here.”

“And where exactly is ‘here’?” Nick asks hesitantly. We’ve stopped in front of a narrow alley, a place where not even a single stray sliver of light can be found. 

“A word of warning to you all-” Ezra's voice is a bare whisper over the rain. “Our host is not particularly fond of humans.”

“You’re telling us this now?” Emi hisses. Her hands are shoved in her pockets, presumably wrapped around a knife. Not that it would do her much good here.

“And you’d be quick to learn that Laverna is… slippery.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” Nick says, readjusting his grip on Joan. He’s been carrying her this whole time and has yet to so much as flinch at the weight. I suppose it’s hard to forget his sheer strength just by looking at him. He’s a boulder.

“If I am the Element of Vision and Illusions, Laverna is the Element of… Trickery. Just keep track of your wallets.”

“Great,” Julian mutters dryly.

“Call a spade a spade, darling. You’ve never been one to sugarcoat around me.”

We all tense at the new voice, scanning the darkness for its owner. But even I, with the extent of my abilities, cannot track them. That is, until, they are standing right in front of Ezra, only an outline in the dark with two glowing cat-like jade eyes shining from the shadows. 

“Laverna,” Ezra smiles, matching their seductive tone. “Beautiful as always.”

“Ezra. A flirt as always.”

“It works, though. Doesn’t it?”

“Depends,” Laverna hums. “What is it this time?”

“I’ve come to ask a favor.”

“You know better than to ask favors of me.”

“Unfortunately, our circumstances are dire.”

“So it would seem. Is this why you brought your little pets?”

I feel those jade eyes searching me up and down, burning into me before moving onto the next person. They return, lingering on me as they speak. A silent threat.

“You know, these animals once called me a goddess. And now they look at me like they don’t know who I am. Don’t you miss it Ezra? Being worshiped?”

“Quite honestly, not in the slightest.”

“I always forget your modesty.”

“So will you help us or what?” Julian scowls. The darkness seems to breathe as Laverna takes interest of the boy. I barely blink before her dark outline is melded beside his. I can see her a little more clearly now, her long black curls loosly cascading down the small of her back, her dark robes and blood red lips. Everything about her screams divinity in a dangerous way. Her olive skin is blemishless to a point of inhumanness. She’s eerily beautiful, the way a siren would be before luring a sailor to his death.

“Julian Lysander Harris. Son of Marcus Hugh Harris and Violet Lucinae Rowani. Both names of status that mean something to someone but, frankly, nothing to me. You’ve got quite the tongue on you. If you want to keep it, best learn when to hush. Yes?”

Whatever remaining color that was there now vanishes from Julian’s cheeks. He bites his lip hard, harder when she strokes a finger along his chin, her nails so sharp that a thin line of blood breaks through the skin. He whimpers, an answer enough for her.

“I see you haven’t changed a bit, my dear,” Ezra chuckles, smoothing out their white robes that have darkened in the rain. 

“Only in wisdom.”

“And patience.”

They stare at each other for a long minute as the rain picks up around us, sweeping into a storm. But the silence is broken with the sound of their sudden light-hearted laughter.

“It’s unfortunate how entertaining you are, my sweet. I can never say no to a pretty face like yours,” Laverna sighs. I blink and, when my eyes are opened, we are no longer in the rainy dark alley, but what looks like the vestibule of an old castle. 

Large lanterns of fire hang above our heads, casting flickering shadows onto the stone walls. Candles float around us, dancing in an invisible sea. I sweep the hood of my head to make sense of my surroundings. Now washed in warm light, Laverna looks even more haunting. Her almond eyes are painted in crimson red, like her lips. Sea green jewels hang from her pointed ears, matching the jewel diamond on her forehead and the color of her eyes. A black inked line cuts down the center of her face, blossoming into black vines along her shoulders, exposed beyond the deep cut of her black robes.  

“Why have you come?” she asks after scanning us all with scrutiny. When no one dares answer, I open my mouth.

“To wake her up.”

Laverna pauses. Suddenly she’s right in front of me, grinning wildly, dangerously. She tilts her nose to my neck and breathes in deeply. 

“You’re not like the others,” she says, her voice an enchanting velvet. She’s trying to get a response out of me, like I’m sure she does most people.

I don’t give her the satisfaction. I keep my lips sealed, stare straight ahead.

“You’re different. Troubled. You’re like me, you hate them don’t you?” She purrs, dragging her fingers up my bicep. I steady my breathing, shake the urge to swat her away.

“You have come for another reason, haven’t you?” She asks. “You smell of heartbreak. I can fix that, you know,” she whispers in my ear. I feel everyone’s eyes on me, burning holes through me. “I can make you feel bliss again. Wouldn’t you want to?”

“We’ve come for one reason only,” I say, though my voice comes out strangled. “To wake Joan up.”

“I can make you forget. You’ll be happy, free without the shackles of love or wisdom. Knowledge is pain, isn’t it?” she says lowly, enchantingly. Her breath tickles my lips. I still don’t fall for it.

“No. I don’t want happiness, not if it’s a lie.” I expect her to frown at my words, at my abruptness. But her smile stretches up her cheeks, devilishly.

“Oh I like you,” Laverna purrs. “Tell me, what do I have to do to make you look at me? Just a peek?”

She runs her hand up my chest, then down to the waistband of my jeans. I'm desperately fighting the urge to break her fingers.

“If these looks won’t do it for you-” she hums. Laverna begins to transform before my eyes, much like Ezra. But I know this body that she mimics. I know it quite well.

Her long black hair has transformed to fiery auburn locks, dusting a narrow set of paleand freckled shoulders. Her jade eyes turn emerald, her cheeks a dusty pink. I reel away, turning to look anywhere but her… but him. I know Aiden isn’t here but my heart clenches so violently in my chest it feels like someone has stopped it entirely. I shudder but swallow the noise before it becomes a whimper. Still I see him out of the corner of my eyes, dressed in such thin fabrics it’s like he’s practically naked. 

“-how about this?”

I know it’s not him. I know. But it takes everything in me not to lean into Aiden’s touch, his fingers, even his scent.

“Please stop,” I beg beneath my breath. I know everyone’s watching me lose my composure. I can’t.

“Laverna,” Ezra says, flashing her a look.

“Do you know what the strongest human emotion is besides desire?” She asks, still whispering close to my ear.

“Fear. And this boy scares you like nothing else. And still you long for him. You love him. Pitiful. But if you stay here with me… I’ll make all that pain go away. You’ll be with him. Forever.”

“No. No more lies. It was my choice and now I’m living with the consequences.”

“So stoic. But isn’t it unfair? He left before giving you the mercy to explain yourself? Humans are weak. Humans are vile, ugly and sad creatures. But it’s why we need each other’s company. Mortality and misery. Such beautiful chaos they make.”

“Will you wake Joan Wu up?” I ask, mustering as much firmness as I can in my tone. She giggles, finally transforming back to her image. 

“For the right price.”

“Alexis-” Ezra warns. I ignore them.

“What price?”

“That’s the spirit.” She snaps her fingers and large black vines shoot up from the cobblestone, twining around the bodies of everyone around me except for Ezra, Joan, and myself. I lock eyes with Emi as she shouts. But vines coil around her mouth, as they do everyone else, before any words can escape. She screams and fights against the restraints like the others but it's no use. They're trapped.

I turn away from the scene, back to her. Laverna smiles.

“You have something I want.”

“And what may that be?”

“Alexis!” Ezra yells, but this time I look at Laverna’s jade eyes, shimmering with mischief. They flutter, half-lidded.

“Mortality.”

I don’t even have time to blink before her sharp claws shove through my chest. I can only gasp silently as I feel her fingers stab through the tender flesh beneath my ribs, ripping through the muscle like tissue paper. The pain is like no other, a searing icy flame in my torso, seizing hold of my heart, stilling the breath in my lungs.

I hear my choking, gagging, guttural sounds of failed breathing. But it sounds so far away, like the sound is coming from a room far away in the labyrinth.

“I was nice enough to go for the one with the highest chance of survival,” she hums, batting her eyelashes at me. I look down at where her arm is protruding from my midsection. But, instead of blood, a thick black sap oozes out from my below my chest.

“Yours is more valuable anyways, Dark Prince.”

With a crunch I feel something in my chest snap. The pain is so unbearable that I’m fighting hard to stay conscious. The only reason I’m still standing is because she’s holding me up by my ribcage.

And then she twists and pulls her arm from my body, tossing me to the cobblestone like trash. Before my eyes, the thick black sap begins to mend itself, slowly closing the cavity in my chest. I gasp, writhing on the floor where I’ve fallen, unable to do anything but slither in agony. Still, I clench back my screams as best I can.

“Beautiful,” she says softly. My vision has blurred and spotted in places, but I can see enough to notice something glowing in her hands. Something black, if black could glow.

It’s small, the size of a coin. In fact, that’s exactly what it looks like. A shimmering black coin dusted in smoke.

“Always about the theatrics,” Ezra says with orchestrated calmness, though the concerned look in their eyes as they glance my way gives them away. I’m not dead yet. Just wishing I was.

“At least put him to sleep,” they sigh. “That choking sound is grating.”

“Really?” Laverna asks curiously. “I quite enjoy it.”

“Well I don’t.”

“Fine. But only because you’ve caught me in a good mood, dearest Vision.”

She waves a hand listlessly in my direction, her eyes not leaving the coin in her palm. The agony shooting through me stops alltogether when she does. I wonder for a second if I just died and that's why.

I gasp, heaving on the ground until I can shove air back into my lungs. Sweat drips from my hair, stinging my eyes as I look around frantically. My hands are numb. Everything is fading, blurring into colors and darkness and back again. 

“I’m surprised he’s still awake. That one is even stronger than I thought he’s be.”

“He’s the prodigy of our Province,” Ezra says, somewhat affectionately.

My eyes flutter shut, unable to withstand the heavy weight of exhaustion. I feel a gentle hand on my forehead, slicking back my hair from my face.

“It’s ok, Alexis. You can rest now. It’s ok,” Ezra whispers. I assume Laverna’s back is turned for them to be saying this. It’s enough for me. I’m too exhausted to fight.

There is no sleep that comes for me, only dark comatose.

It’s like I blink and suddenly I’m awake again, still on the floor of the castle antechamber. 

The weirdest part is how normal I feel. Like I didnt just get stabbed and had something stolen from my body. 

The others are still scattered around me on the floor, seemingly asleep, no longer hanging from their vines.

Except Joan. Joan isn't here. And neither is Ezra. Or Laverna.

But I hear voices from the darkness. So I close my eyes and follow it, the same way I used to do for Finch. Physically I'm still in the antechamber but my eyes are in the shadows.

I see a door, a locked door. Bolted. And then I hear voices, muddled as though underwater.

"We gave you your price, Laverna."

"And I did what I could."

"Then why are her eyes not opening?"

"I broke the curse. Now it will be up to her whether or not she wants to come back."

"Is there nothing you can do?”

“Does she mean this much to you? It isn’t like you to go to such lengths for a mortal, Vision. Not since what happened-”

“-Yes well consider this an attempt at rectifying that mistake. That’s all.”

“...It’s like I said. It’s up to the girl now."

And, suddenly, I am the shadows wrapping around Joan’s body, breathing so shallowly it’s hard to tell if she’s even alive. But I feel a pulse beneath my ghostly fingers.

Wake up, I tell her but I am only a shadow. Still, I speak as though she can hear me.

Joan. I know how selfish it is of me to ask more of you when it was me who failed you. But I need your help again. Aiden needs your help. We all do. I’m sorry. But I cannot let you rest. So wake up.

I slam my ghost hands on the table she’s lying on. They make no sound nor movement.

Wake up!

Her eyes shoot open, her mouth stretched into a heaving gasp. Neither Ezra nor Laverna have noticed yet but Joan is awake. She looks frantically around, not yet moving her head, trying to soak in all of her surroundings.

And then she begins to cry.

***