Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Twelve

Andrew was gone when I woke up. Tyler and Hailey hadn't moved except that Tyler had sat back in his chair at the side of my bed. They both looked concerned, though I couldn't imagine why. Half my time here had been spent in bed after passing out.

"Where's Andrew?" I asked, sitting up so fast, I felt a wave of dizziness roll through me. The room refocused and I said, "He's going to tell everyone I'm here and they'll tell Marcus! We gotta go. Now."

"Aly—"

"No, Tyler. Marcus knowing that I am here is not a good thing. Or have you forgotten why you had to help me already?"

"Andrew isn't gone," Hailey said quickly in a single breath so she couldn't be cut off.

I closed my mouth and turned to stare at her. Slowly, with many deep breaths, I calmed my mind of its paranoia and fear. "W-where is he if he's not gone?"

Tyler pointed to a darkened corner on the opposite side of the room. A single cot lay in the shadows, low to the floor with a single mattress where Andrew lay unconscious.

"Why is he sleeping?"

"Are you kidding?" Tyler asked, laughing. "How long was I here after we met in the hall and you cured me of Darkness? Having your soul cleansed by you is exhausting, Aly, and judging by the light you produced with him, you gave this just as much effort."

He wasn't wrong, though I'd never admit my reasons. I wasn't proud of using him. By taking Andrew by surprise so Tyler and Hailey didn't realize what I was doing, he hadn't been given a chance to say if being helped was what he wanted. It was wrong. It was selfish. It was... as bad as the rules the Brothers followed.

"So why did you help Andrew, Aly?" Tyler asked.

"I'd rather talk about what I came here for first," I said, looking back to Andrew. "Think you could take him to his dorm so he can't hear us?"

"No need," Hailey said. "We put him there so that he couldn't hear anything unless he got up. By then, we'd notice and shut up."

"Okay..." I looked at Tyler and he nodded. "Fine. I need to know what you learned from Darkness. What does it know about me? What does it want? And why? Do I, uh, do I scare Darkness?"

"Darkness?" Hailey asked. "Aren't we Dark Souls?"

"Yeah, but you aren't Darkness," I told her. "Trust me. I'll explain what it is later."

"Deryk already asked and we compared what I know with what he remembers. There's very little difference," he said.

"What is different?"

"They—it—exhausted its ability to take over angels. Darkness doesn't know if it's because it found the only angels willing to accept it or if it took over too many angles and there's a tighter chokehold on their coming and going because of it."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It's been taking Dark Souls willing to defect instead. Depending on how much purity there is, Darkness doesn't always need to ask permission, either. The more purity, the better the prey, though."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "With angels, Darkness can alter their appearance. With Dark Souls, they can duplicate appearances."

This was where the risk of coming back to Hell's Fire started to pay off. It was better than expected. I had just asked David—it hurt too much to think of him as Mike—if they could shapeshift and he hadn't known.

"How?"

"Shadows?"

"What?" Hailey asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. Instead of being bored with what she didn't know, she was listening intently, fascinated. "Is that what Justine meant when she was talking about some students who didn't have shadows?"