Reign Fall (13 page)

“This isn’t a gift, it’s a curse. It’s messing my life up.”

“Why hasn’t your mother told you anything yet?” I asked, frustrated by all of this. “Can’t she see you’re in trouble here? I mean, your eyes...”

He frowned at me. “What about my eyes?”

“Princess?” a female voice said from behind me. I jumped a little with surprise at hearing my official title in the human world, but then looked over my shoulder to see Chris’s mother approach.

I’d met Dr. Irena Sanders once before at her office. Rhys had an appointment with her for his official kingly prophetical reading, and he’d taken me along with him. Irena was a dragon oracle living in the human world. She was the one who’d given the prophecy about us getting married one day. Also, the one about the shadows surrounding me and wanting to devour me.

I stood up and faced her. “Hi Dr. Sanders. And, please, it’s just Nikki here.”

“Of course. My apologies.” She lowered her head a bit with respect although there was something glittering in her eyes that told me she wasn’t too thrilled to see me again. “You know my son?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Thanks for waiting with him until I got here.”

“You haven’t told him anything about what he is.” I couldn’t keep the edge of accusation out of my voice.

Her amber-colored eyes flashed, a bit of the initial distrust shifting into actual anger. “With all due respect, this is not your concern. I’ll take care of Chris. He’ll be just fine.”

“He should have been told a long time ago so he could prepare himself.”

“You don’t know anything about this.”

“Mom?” Chris asked, confused. “What are you talking about? And how do you two know each other?”

“Come, Chris, we’re leaving.” She held out her perfectly manicured hand to him. Irena was well-dressed in a designer pantsuit and looked impeccable in every way. Not a hair was out of place. I never would have guessed if I’d just met her that she was capable of shifting into a fire-breathing dragon at will and also of seeing the future. By appointment only.

Chris looked toward the guidance counselor’s office. “I need to get my sketchbook.”

“Leave it,” she said sharply. “I’ll take you home. You’ll rest for the weekend and then you’ll feel better. I’m sure of it.”

“Dr. Sanders,” I began, “this isn’t right. You have to tell him everything. Can’t you see that he’s in trouble here?”

She gave me a thin smile. “Lovely to see you again, Nikki. But I’m sure you have plenty to keep you occupied without interfering in my son’s life.” Chris cast another confused look over his shoulder at me, a deep frown creasing his brow, as his mother firmly led him away from the guidance counselor’s office. I watched him leave, not knowing what else I should do.

Of course, she was right. This wasn’t my business. And for all I knew, she was going to take him home and finally have the talk that, as far as I was concerned, should have come years ago.

I hadn’t known my father was a demon because he lived in a different world. He didn’t even know I existed until I turned sixteen. Chris had grown up with his mother, and she’d still kept the secret of what she was—and what he could potentially become himself—away from him. It wasn’t fair.

Despite our differences, I did hope he was going to be okay. I hated seeing anyone in that kind of distress.

The next moment Ms. Matthews, the guidance counselor, exited her office with an empty coffee mug in hand. She didn’t even look at me as she walked down the hall toward the teacher’s lounge.

I didn’t hesitate. I slipped into her office, scanning it quickly. I didn’t see anything on top of her desk or on her bookshelves, so I went to her filing cabinet and opened up the top drawer.

There you are
.

I grabbed Chris’s sketchbook, closed the drawer, and left the office with the stolen merchandise clutched against my chest.

I mean, I
was
half-demon. I might as well do something evil.

o0o

The sketchbook weighed heavily in my bag all afternoon, but I didn’t dare pull it out and look at it yet. I kept expecting Ms. Matthews to come bursting into my classes and demanding that I give it back. But she probably had no idea where it went, if she’d even realized that somebody had taken it.

Finally, school was over for the week, which was a huge relief. I headed straight to the washroom, locked myself in a stall, and pulled the sketchbook out of my bag. I flipped through the pages quickly to get an overview of the contents. Almost every page was filled.

Chris was a good artist. But these were some disturbing pictures. I saw why his art teacher would have been concerned about his current mental health.

I’d expected to find different stories here, kind of like a comic book. But all I got was the same thing over and over, just drawn differently.

Me. Darkness. Me as human Nikki. Me as Darkling Nikki. Darkness. The Shadowlands castle behind me. To my left. To my right. More darkness surrounding me. That scary dark figure with the outstretched wings on several pages. A close-up of my face, but I’m looking to the left as if trying to see who or what is behind me. I looked scared.

More darkness.

On the last page, there wasn’t a sketch, but words he’d scribbled down before going over and over them with his pencil to make them dark and ominous.

THE SHADOWS WILL REIGN.

Pushing back against my fear, I shoved the sketchbook into my bag and went to my locker to drop off my books.

“Nikki?”

It was all I could do to stop the scream that rose in my throat. I spun around to see Melinda standing next to me.

“Oh, hey. Melinda. Hi.”

“Thank God it’s Friday,” she said.

“You can say that again.” I tried to put what I’d just read out of my mind. It could mean a lot of things, I didn’t even want to guess. But I did want to talk to Chris again as soon as I could.

She opened her locker and shoved her own books and binder into it. “So when are you coming over? The others will be there by seven-thirty and we’re going to order pizza then, but feel free to come earlier.”

“Right, the sleepover.” I really wanted to try to get out of it, since I had too many other things on my mind. But I wouldn’t. I’d go and be a good friend. I’d try to get along with Larissa and Brittany. I’d hang out with the new girl, Clara. Maybe for a few hours I’d feel normal again. It was a goal.

Anyway, there wasn’t much I could do that night. About Michael, about Rhys, about Chris, about my father. About anything.

“You
are
coming, right?” she asked after I didn’t speak for a moment.

“Yeah, of course I am. Wouldn’t miss it.”

She looked relieved. “Well, good.”

I frowned at her. “Everything okay with you?”

“Me? Sure, never better. Why?”

“I mean, New Year’s Eve you were beyond depressed. Monday morning you were really angsty about being back. And even with Rhys hanging all over you, you didn’t seem too thrilled about everything. Remember?”

She waved a hand. “That was a momentary glitch. It’s over. Everything’s great now. Better than great. I’ve never been happier.”

I eyed her skeptically. “Okay.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t know. If you say you’ve never been happier, then who am I to argue?”

“So the sleepover?” she asked cheerily.

I wouldn’t push her right now. I would try to be as happy about this evening as I could. For Melinda. I really think she needed this.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I said. “I just need to pick up a few things at home first.” And to find somewhere to stash Chris’s sketchbook of doom.

She nodded. “Good. And don’t worry about Larissa. If she acts up, I’ll let her know that you’re my best friend and nothing is ever going to change that.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing,” she confirmed. She grabbed me and gave me a tight hug that I returned. I hoped I looked suitably enthusiastic.

A part of me did wish I could tell her the truth about everything—after all, that’s what best friends did. But another part of me knew that my being half-demon was a secret I could never share with her.

I had to keep reminding myself that she wasn’t a demon slayer any longer. She’d told Patrick to get lost. Everything was better now with her—at least, I really hoped it was.

All the other crazy stuff in my life could wait until tomorrow. Tonight I would be Melinda’s best friend forever. And all was right with the world.

I got to Melinda’s just before six o’clock with my overnight bag in hand. She opened the front door to her parents’ huge house with a big smile on her face. And, for an hour and a half, we caught up on everything that had happened this week. I’d been so busy with my own problems that I’d barely spent any time with her in person or on the phone. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed her. Suddenly, I was normal Nikki again and it felt pretty great.

The others arrived right on schedule at seven-thirty and we ordered pizza. Melinda’s parents were out for the evening, giving us plenty of privacy.

I knew they wanted Melinda to be a demon slayer and had been the ones to arrange her lessons with Patrick in the first place. Demon slaying was allegedly something that was passed down through family lines. She was the latest in her line. I didn’t know if her parents—either one

—were also trained slayers. They encouraged her, that was all I really knew. Her parents didn’t look like demon slayers. They looked like Melinda’s parents—an accountant and a magazine editor. But, for all I knew, that could only be their cover identities.

And the closed door that led to the basement where her training had taken place was something I tried very hard to ignore every time we passed it.

Clara seemed very uncomfortable at being around Larissa and Brittany—not that I blamed her

—so I tried my best to make her feel welcome. She was really pretty with gorgeous long dark hair and really nice blue eyes. I was quite sure, if she got over her shyness, that she’d be readily accepted into the Erin Heights social scene way faster than I had been. Not that I’d been accepted fully
yet
. It was only my friendship with Melinda that earned me a spot at the Royal Party’s cafeteria table.

“Clara’s from Los Angeles,” I said to the others, using my inside information to get a conversation going that involved the timid girl. We sat in Melinda’s big living room, which had a huge flat screen television we planned to watch a couple movies on later. We sprawled on two oversized sofas facing each other.

This info was met with looks of interest.

“Why did you move here?” Larissa asked.

Clara crossed her legs next to me and took a sip from her can of Sprite. “Not much of a choice. I had to come here. I like it better back home, the scenery is a bit more lush and green all the time, and there’s never any snow, but you have to do what you have to do.” Brittany nodded sagely. “It’s so annoying to be forced to go wherever your parents want to go. Like we have no say at all until we’re eighteen.” Clara shrugged. “I’m getting used to it. People have been really nice to me so far.”

“We need to get you a boyfriend,” Melinda said. “And you’ll be as happy here as the rest of us are.”

“Who says we’re all happy?” I asked, wryly.

She sent a grin in my direction. “Nikki, you need a boyfriend who actually lives in town.

Then you might be happier.”

I didn’t really need the reminder that Michael lived nowhere close to me and couldn’t visit me of his own free will. It was so unfair. “And you need one who isn’t a foreign exchange student.”

“Rhys is a foreign exchange student?” Clara asked. “Where’s he from?”

“Not sure, actually,” Melinda replied. “He’s never told me. I know he has a room at the hotel in town and goes home on weekends and holidays. England seems too far for that.”

“And he doesn’t have an accent,” Larissa pointed out.

She shrugged. “I guess he’s from the States.”

“I’m from the States originally,” I said. “And I’m not considered an exchange student. Same with Clara. Rhys must be from some other magical land.” Yeah, I was being a troublemaker when it came to the faery king. I couldn’t help it.

“Well, I don’t know.” Melinda frowned a little. “I guess the difference is you guys moved here permanently with your parents. Rhys is going back home eventually.”

“When might that be happening?” I asked with a thin smile.

Melinda shot me a look. “Hopefully not soon.”

“His parents must be really rich if he can afford to stay at the Erin Heights Inn every day rather than staying with a family in town like most exchange students would. Plus, how much fun could it be to stay in a hotel all the time?” I didn’t know why I felt like talking about this tonight. Maybe there was something in the pepperoni.

She shrugged. “I guess you’d have to ask him yourself.” I had. Rhys hated staying at that lonely hotel all by himself and avoided it as much as possible. Now that his advisors were okay with him being here—thanks to the stupid marriage prophecy—maybe it was easier for him to go back to the Faery Realm after school every day.

It was possible he was there right now looking for the Shadow book for me.

“Maybe he’s got a private jet and can go wherever he wants on the weekends,” Brittany said.

“I mean, he dresses great. His clothes are all designer. He’s probably rich. Plus he’s super hot.

You’re so lucky, Melinda.”

“I know. I am lucky.” Melinda had a forced smile on her face. “Want to watch the movie now? Or...I don’t know. Maybe we can play a game first?” I looked at her skeptically. “Like Monopoly? Or Trivial Pursuit?” She shrugged. “Or something on the Wii. I have bowling. That’s surprisingly fun, you know.” I laughed. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“How about Truth or Dare?” Brittany suggested. We all looked at her. “What? We used to play that all the time back in ninth grade, remember?” Melinda nodded, then a smile came to her face as if she was reliving the memory. “Right.

You always picked dare. And you always got in trouble.” Brittany laughed. “I’m a rebel.”

Melinda and I exchanged a glance. I wanted her to say no, that it was a stupid game that nobody really liked playing anymore, but instead she said, “Fine with me.”
Great.