Forsaken (Book #1)

At lunch Cassie finally got the chance to corner me and question me about Grayson and Lucian. I didn’t know how I should answer her questions. I knew that I couldn’t tell her the truth but I also didn’t want to lie to her. However there were no other options. Still I guess I could try to answer her as truthfully as I could.

“Okay, how do you know both of those hotties?” Cassie said dragging me to a circle table and forcing me to sit down.

“Um…Grayson is new to the area so I showed him around. And Lucian saved me from getting mugged.” I answered a little unsurely.

Cassie’s eyes grew wide and she slapped me on the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were almost mugged?”

“Because I didn’t think that it was that big of a deal.” I answered. “Just relax Cassie.”

She huffed, and crossed her arms looking petulantly at the top of the table. I knew that she was mad at me for not telling her that I had been almost mugged – but I hadn’t been almost mugged I had also been killed by supernaturals. That was something that I couldn’t just blurt out to her. Not only would she think that I was crazy but she’d be put in even more danger.

I sighed looking around the lunchroom. The freshmen were gathered in their little clusters, casting furtive frightened glances at the seniors who were sitting at the tables in the center. Wrappers were scattered across the floor and the sophomores were tossing food and laughing uproariously. Before she could get the chance to confront me once more, Grayson and Lucian were walking towards us.

Lucian looked completely and utterly relaxed as he carried his tray towards us. Grayson on the other hand looked like the definition of uncomfortable and angry. His hands were clenching the plastic tray so hard I was surprised it didn’t break. He lightly slammed the tray onto the table, sitting beside me. Lucian gave a pleading look to Cassie and reluctantly she scooted over, so that he could sit next to me.

Seriously, what was this third grade?

I grabbed a fry off of Lucian’s tray popping it into my mouth. “So Cass, are you going to be holding a back-to school party like you did last year?” I asked her, stealing another fry off of Lucian’s tray.

“Get your own food petite moineau,” Lucian whispered in my ear.

“Um, I don’t think so.” Cassie answered hesitantly as I stole another fry from Lucian. “The freshmen will think that they are invited when they aren’t, and it’d just be too complicated. Besides, there is always the Halloween party. Speaking of which, the two of you are invited.”

“Can’t.” Lucian said with a shrug, batting my hands away as I tried to steal another fry. “Family plans.”

“Me too.” Grayson added.

A pout appeared on Cassie’s face. “Seriously?” She asked her voice filled with disbelief. “Well, you’re still coming right Calla?”

“Of course,” I answered a strained smile on my face as both Lucian and Grayson looked at me. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, girly.”

Cassie relaxed in her seat looking immensely relieved. “Thank God.”

The bell rang and I stood up, stretching my arms above my head and cracking my back. Then with a smile, I headed to my next class hoping and praying that I wouldn’t share it with Grayson or Lucian.

* * * * *

Unfortunately, I shared six out of my eight classes with Grayson or Lucian, and sometimes both. The classes that both of them were in were filled with tension as they glared at each other. I wanted to keep the peace, but interacting with Grayson made Lucian angry – I have no idea why – and interacting with Lucian made Grayson angry.

It was a lose-lose situation for me. When school ended Grayson cornered me by my locker and then dragged me outside and to the gym after instructing me to call my driver that I was hanging out with friends. I didn’t like being ordered around but I couldn’t exactly fight off Grayson. When we arrived at the gym we headed upstairs to our private practice space that Grayson had reserved for the rest of the year.

Grayson pushed open the glass door, shrugging off his leather jacket and tossing it into a corner of the room.

“We aren’t going to be doing hand-to-hand today.” Grayson told me as I shrugged off my own jacket. “We’re going to be doing weapons and trying to get you to access your abilities.”

“What kind of weapons? We’ve tried bows, katanas, daggers, rapiers, and swords that are bigger than I am. None of them have fit!” I said throwing my hands up in the air in frustration.

“There is one weapon we haven’t tried. They were the first weapons crafted for Ilya, and they were her favorite. But in the war, there was a lot of movement and she left them behind in the capital.” Grayson explained, going over to the chest in the center of the room. “Maybe these weapons will work for you.”

He lifted the lid of the chest and I moved closer. Grayson carefully lifted the red velvet cloth in the chest and reverently extracted one sword which he handed to me before grabbing another one which he also handed to me. They were light weight and very sturdy.

The hilt of the sword was that of a wolf head and the eyes of the wolves looked to be made of sapphires. Hesitantly, I twirled one of the blades in my hand surprised at how familiar this felt to me. The blades appeared similar to a katana but different all the same. On the pommel in small swirling letters was written a phrase: Cor el ni ella.

“Grayson, what does this mean?” I asked holding the swords out to him.

He took them, eyeing the inscription. “It’s a phrase, in the language of the Valkyrie. Since the war the Demons have adopted the language. It means, ‘Forever I love you’.”

“So Ilya’s lover gave her these swords.” I murmured, as he handed me the swords again.

He just hummed deigning not to answer me. Experimentally I took a few stabs with the sword. I pivoted on my feet slashing and stared at Grayson an excited grin pulling at my lips.

“Not bad,” Lucian’s voice murmured. “Not bad at all Calla.”

I whirled around my eyes going wide as I spotted Lucian standing near the door. His eyes were filled with pain barely masked behind his malicious expression. Behind him stood four people, all with orange eyes and dark hair.

“Too bad you won’t get to use them for very long.”

Those last words from him seemed to be a silent command to attack. Lucian hung back as the four people – I think they might be Demons – sprinted forwards, drawing blades from the inside of their coats. Grayson stepped closer to me pulling a dagger from his pocket. Then faster than the eye could see he was striking at one of the Demons who was parrying his blows quite well.

While Grayson was distracted with one of the assailants the other three targeted me. As one unit they lunged at me. I took a step back, swinging one of my blades up to parry them and using the other to slash at them. They scurried backwards as I took a few steps towards them, pivoting on my feet and slashing and stabbing at them in a deadly dance that I didn’t know that I knew. Two of the three Demons that I was fighting disappeared and I whirled around the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, just barely managing to parry their blows. Whirling, I kicked the Demon coming up behind me in the stomach sending her stumbling back.

There was a tingling sensation on my back and I rolled my shoulders, ducking out of the way of some of their slashes that came dangerously close to my head. I leapt backward dodging another one of their blows and was propelled further back than I thought I would be.

The fighting paused and they all stared at me.

“What?” I asked self-consciously.

What could possibly make them stop in the middle of a battle?

“Your back,” Grayson breathed eyes filled with wonderment as he stared at me.

“What about my back?” I asked confused, twisting to get a look at my back.

My jaw grew slack and my eyes grew wide as I caught a glimpse of gold. I concentrated, and the wings on my back moved. Slowly I rose into the air and then just as quickly I was falling to the ground as the wings just disappeared.

As soon as I had landed on the ground the Demons were once again on me. I rolled to the side, slashing at one of their legs and causing him to fall to the ground. I parried another blow and quickly crawled to my feet, ducking.

Blindly I stabbed. The blade slid through the flesh of the Demon in front of me and black blood spilled onto the floor of the training room. Before I was able to deal with the other two Grayson was on them, decapitating them swiftly. I pulled my sword out of the Demon and with guilt roiling inside of me, swiped the blade across his neck.

His head lolled back, the light leaving his eyes and he fell back onto the floor black blood pouring on the floor.

“Are you going to try to eliminate me too?” I asked Lucian.

He didn’t say anything just turned around and walked away before disappearing. Before Lucian had done nothing to make me hate him. He had saved my life. But today, he led his friends to me and then just stood by as they tried to kill me.

The only consolation that I had was that at least he hadn’t tried to help his friends. Still, I did feel a little hurt.

“You did well Calla,” Grayson murmured, tucking his blade back into his jeans. “Better than I had expected. Today, you grew closer to unlocking the powers of a Valkyrie.” His eyes grew a little hazy, “Those are the same wings that Ilya had.”

“Really?” I asked. “Did you know her?”

He let out a laugh. “No, I wasn’t alive then. But my grandfather, Henry knew her. He…liked to tell stories about her and how great she was.”

“The book hasn’t told me any stories about her.” I murmured. “Will you?”

“Maybe some other time Calla, preferably when the world isn’t in danger. For now let’s get back to practicing.”

Somberly I nodded my head, and paid rapt attention to him as he showed me different stances and ways to fight with the swords. I had thought fighting with two swords would be difficult, but something about these blades was innately familiar to me.

It was like when I was holding them I already knew what to do and how to do it. Then we started to spar with Grayson showing me how to disarm an opponent and vital areas to hit that would cause injury or death. I can’t tell you how many times Grayson disarmed me but I was slowly improving.

By the time we were finished sparring my arms were sore and I was drenched in sweat.

“You are doing well,” Grayson complimented me.

“Thank you,” I said huffing and trying to get my breath back.

“We have to talk about your friend’s Halloween party. You know that you can’t attend right?” Grayson murmured staring at me sternly.

“I have to.” I answered. “It’s her first part of the year and I’m always at her parties. She’s counting on me to be there.”

“Then you’re going to have to tell her that you can’t. Her party is on the day of Halloween. That’s when the Afterdark is going to try to summon Darya, and that takes precedence over a stupid high school party that you probably won’t remember twenty years later.” Grayson snapped his purple eyes burning with frustration and anger.

I wanted to argue with him but I knew that it wasn’t going to do anything. We’d just be at a stalemate – we were at a stalemate – and by arguing I would only succeed in making Grayson even angrier.

“We’ll see.” I just settled on.

Grayson nodded suspecting that that was the best he was going to get. Then he turned around and started walking away.

“Oh, and don’t talk to Lucian anymore.”