CRYSTALLUM (The Primordial Principles Book 1) (44 page)

Kade stopped, or she tried to. "No."

"Come along, child. You are only making it more difficult on yourself. There is nothing left for you here."

"Do you love me?" Cole's voice rolled out, and no matter how hard he tried to keep his tone even, it broke.

Their gazes met, and a shiver coursed through Cole's entire body. Kade's eyes closed, tears spilled. She always tried to be so strong, but the word poured out, off her perfect lips. "Yes."

Before Kade had even closed her mouth, Cole was at her side, and Dracon's taloned hand was wrenched off her neck. A hard surge of energy hit him straight in his chest. Cole caught Kade's limp body as she fell from Dracon’s grasp. A blur of blue careened on the right, green on the left, and Jake and Danny sped from the trees. Dracon flew straight up into the sky as they converged on him, nothing but a silver streak.

"Take her!” Cole shifted Kade’s body into Danny’s arms and transformed into the falcon, standing six feet tall, and like a bullet shot from the barrel of a gun, the falcon dove. Not down, but up. Straight up into the black sky, like a rocket, and true to all hunting falcons, it went straight for Dracon's neck. Talons dug into red flesh. Dracon shrieked, and with blinding speed, the falcon dove again, straight down, the demon in its grasp, and shifted its trajectory in mid-air. The falcon tucked its wings, and like a missile homed in on a target, it shot toward the side of the mountain. Careening its body upward at the last second, it let the demon go.

Blood splatted against the rock.

Kade screamed.

THE FALCON PERCHED OUTSIDE
the window on the highest branch of an Umbrella Pine tree overlooking the Ward's infirmary, its large black eyes seeing clearly into the hospital room. Kade lay in bed sleeping, her small hands curled into fists overtop white sheets. She'd been that way for hours, and the falcon hadn't moved.

"Are you going to come down at some point?" Danny yelled up into the tree. "The Warden summoned you."

Cole didn't answer. It was the third or fourth time that Danny had come yelling at him to come down and transform. The Warden could fly up to Cole in his true form as an eagle for all he cared, but until he knew Kadence was okay, Cole wasn't answering anyone's summons, wasn't coming down, wasn't transforming.

"None of this is your fault, Cole.” Danny sighed. "You did what you had to do. Jake and I already told the Warden we would have done the same thing. No one blames you."

Cole kept his eyes fixed on Kadence. Kyle was dead, and not one single bone in Cole's body regretted that action. He knew days ago that he would have broken every rule he swore to uphold to protect Kade, and he hadn't even flinched when he'd seen Kyle next to her in the clearing. He had kept his word. Getting near Kade had been the last thing Kyle ever did.

But Dracon was different, and even though Cole knew he would have done the same thing all over again, he still wasn't sure it had been the right thing.

"You can't stay up there all night," Danny said. "You need to eat.
Sleep. You're not helping Kade by sitting outside her window. The doctor said she's okay, Cole. Minor damage to her larynx and
trachea. A sprained shoulder. The blood on her chest and neck were only a flesh wounds. She’ll be okay in a few days.”

That opened up the line of communication.
"What about emotional damage? Did the doctor diagnose that? The fact that she's probably damaged for life now?"

Danny sighed. "No, he didn't. But what were you supposed to do? I would have done it, Jake would have done it."

“Dan, I threw her dad into the side of a mountain!”

"You threw Dracon."

"Same thing!”

"It's not, and you know it."

"You can go now."

"Cole...I'm sorry. That I wasn't there faster."

"I know that, Dan.”

***

As daylight turned to dusk in Rome, the landscaping lights surrounding the Ward clicked on, highlighting the sidewalks and pathways running through the maze-like garden grounds. The
falcon waited. As the moon rose and darkness settled, it released its grip on the branch of the Umbrella Pine and swooped down to the window ledge.

Over the past twelve hours, it had memorized the nurse's schedules and waited patiently for the current one to leave. The nurse adjusted one of the tubes in the crook of Kade's arm before
leaving the room, the wide door swooshing closed behind her.

The falcon opened its wings. A rush of energy preceded a blast of air, the quick current finding every crevice in the old wooden window frame, and unlocking it from the inside. With another rush, the window slid open, and the falcon flew into the room, settling on the footboard of Kade's bed.

Wide, black eyes took in every part of her body, from head to foot. The bird tilted its head to the side to get a better view of her face. Her skin was unscathed, but her throat and neck bore vicious red and purple bruises, and her arm was in a sling.

She breathed normally, her small hands folded loosely over the crisp hospital gown. Her hair lay out like a fan over her shoulder, the little gold loops she'd been wearing the day before glinted on her ears. With a rush of electricity that crackled like a lightning storm, energy filled the room, and Cole transformed with a small cry, standing over the bed.

He opened his mouth, but words wouldn't come. It seemed like he was being punished as he stared at her. Kade should never have
been put in this position. He should never have left her alone. He thought about how he'd made her laugh at the Kinship when the doctor had pricked her finger. She'd listened to all of his stupid stories with life in her eyes. As if she'd never been told a story or
read a fairy tale in her life. Cole wondered now if she had. Probably not.

Of all the conversations they'd had, she never said much about herself. Cole always found himself having to pry things out of her,
and as he gazed at her, he wished he'd asked more questions. Had more answers. Known more about her. Everything there was to know. Not just about the moon on her palm, or the fact the she was an Anamolia, but the other things. What her favorite color was, her
favorite song. What movies she liked, books she'd read, food she ate. All the little details that seem so simple, meaningless, until someone realizes that they don't know any of them. All the details that bring a person to life. That make them who they are. Cole didn't know enough of the details. He doubted anyone did. Kade truly had always been alone.

He reached for her hand, aligning it with his own. It was cool under his touch and he hoped she was warm enough. Colorado wasn't a place for someone who couldn't get warm unless they were submerged in a hot spring. He smiled a little, picturing her yelling at him for jumping in the water with her fully dressed, but his smile vanished just as quickly, and he laid her hand back on the sheets.

“Give all to love; obey thy heart.” He sighed. “Ralph Waldo Emerson.” Cole touched the tip of her finger. "I'm so sorry, Kade." He headed toward the door. Closing it behind him, he lifted his head and his eyes met the Warden's, sitting in a chair in the stark white hallway.

“You love her." The Warden's hands were steepled under his chin.

Cole didn’t answer.

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.” He placed his hands in his lap. “William Shakespeare. I would have let you see her, had you asked.”

"I know." Cole leaned against the wall.

"Danny and Jake told me what happened. Jake confessed of his wrong doing, egging you on to engage in another fight."

Cole nodded. "He's not so awful, really."

"No. He envies you. He also assured me that he would have taken care of Kyle in a similar manner, albeit not snapping his
spine."

"I didn't plan to do that."

"I am sure you didn't. Anger gets the best of us at times and Kyle was a threat. To all of us. You did what your true nature told you to
do. No one can fault you for that. The fact that Kyle was
masquerading as a Primeva is quite disturbing. What I do not understand is the story I was given about Dracon. At least not fully."

"I don't either." Cole crossed his arms over his chest. "He said he was Kade's dad. That he knew my dad."

The Warden bowed his head. "A Keith Sparrow was in the Brotherhood with your dad, years ago, that is true. But the person I know to be Kadence's father is not the same man. Although he goes by the same name."

"What?"

"I have kept tabs on the Sparrows for a long time, not closely enough, clearly, but tabs all the same, and the Keith Sparrow who went to school with your father isn't the man Kadence knows."

"Huh? Wait, you know. Don't you? What Kade is." It wasn't a question.

"I have known for a long time."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Why didn't you?" He raised an eyebrow. "Kadence posed no threat to anyone. She was a shy girl who kept to herself, was moved from state to state by her father because of his various hospital transfers. I thought it best, given the circumstances, that we leave her be. There were no outward indications that she had a clue of her birthright. And like you, I would assume, I did not think it fair to subject her to being the Ward's new lab experiment."

Cole's jaw might have well been on the floor.

"Furthermore," the warden continued. "Her father was a prominent surgeon who also posed no threat to the Ward or humankind, and seemed to want to live a normal life. He'd lost his
wife when Kadence
was very young." He shrugged. "I suppose the old man in me wanted to give him some peace. Of course, now I believe I made a terrible mistake."

"Grandfather..." Cole was speechless. "You knew she was born a Primori?"

He waved a hand in the air. "Of course I did. No Primordial is born into this world without my knowledge."

"But...you knew he turned her into an Anamolia and you didn't do anything?"

"Of course not. I had no idea that her father had done it. As I said, Kadence was a lonely child. She kept to herself, played in
abandoned churches from time to time, and in the woods. She had no friends to speak of."

Cole frowned. Everything she'd told him had been true, and he'd doubted her when she needed his trust the most.

"I had people keep an eye on her," the Warden continued. "Make sure she wasn't getting into trouble, but as soon as we located her, her father would move again. It was like trying to track smoke. I assumed that she simply found a fusionem crystal somewhere. She wouldn't be the first Primordial to do so, and quite frankly, no one knew how they worked. Did one simply have to hold it? Touch it to be turned into an Anamolia? I chose to leave her be."

Cole was dumbfounded. "I read that the crystal only works if it's held between two opposing forces, positive and negative."

"And that may be, but no one was sure. We still aren't. When her father moved her here I was not surprised. A seventeen-year-old girl who knew she was different from everyone else ... questions of her origin would have eventually risen. So, I welcomed them with open arms, knowing there would be a risk involved. Kadence's father still wanted very little to do with me, only speaking to me on the phone, but he was adamant that Kadence be placed in one of the common houses because his work had become too much for him to care for her as he needed to. I waffled about where to place her for quite some time. A true born Primori, turned into a devil god."

"So you put her in the Kinship because of the Devil's blood."

"Yes. I thought it wiser, not knowing her personally, to go that route. I thought it best that you keep your distance from her for the same reason."

"I don't even know what to say." Cole rubbed his forehead.

"Tell me what you know."

"Dracon said that he was Kade's dad, that he turned her into an Anamolia when she was a baby with a fusionem crystal. He needed her to shut down the Araneum."

"And you were hoping to beat him to it?"

"Basically," Cole admitted. "I thought if Kade learned how to reroute the lines, we could move its location, minimize the threat."

"And
that
is the reason why you will inherit all of this. Your judgement has always been on the mark.” The elder man gestured toward the building and rose to his feet. "We have plans to make."

"What? But...” Cole motioned to Kade's hospital room.

"Kadence will be fine. Angry, but okay. She will need a friend when she wakes. I assume you want that role?"

"Yes, but, I...killed her dad."

"No." He retrieved a photo from his suit pocket and handed it over. "Do you recognize this person?"

"That's Mr. Sparrow."

"True." He nodded. "A Mr. Kevin Sparrow, not Keith. They are twins, or they were. Keith died years ago, along with his wife, leaving a baby behind. I didn't confirm it until just about an hour ago."

Cole sucked in a breath.

"Kevin Sparrow was a born a Primori, as was his brother, Keith,
but he was a frail child. Unfit to join the ranks of the Primordial within the Ward, as his brother had. He was bitter about the Ward’s choice,
wanting to have the same respect his brother, Keith, had as a Primori. It is not frequent that we turn our backs on our own. It
seems as though that bitterness turned him into a monster of sorts. This man in the picture is Kadence's uncle, not her father."

Cole's head was spinning. "She doesn't know?"

"Why would she?”

“I…”

“It looks as though Kadence’s mother's accident was not an accident at all. We are still looking into the specifics, but it seems
Kevin Sparrow is responsible for her death, as well as his own
brother’s. He simply assumed the role of his twin brother.”

“I…my, god,” Cole let out a breath. “I don’t even know…who would do that?”

“Someone who is not of their right mind. Someone who has something to prove. Kevin, I am sure, hates the Ward, the entire Primordial race, and everything we stand for. He wanted to be one of us. Since he could not, it seems he wanted to destroy us. Hatred manifests itself in terrifying ways.”