Beetle nervously rakes a hand through his tangled brown hair. Ash nudges him.
“Ask her,” he whispers.
“Do you want to come to my birthday party?” Beetle blurts out to Day.
“What?” Day stammers.
“Forget it, nothing, don’t worry,” he says.
“Were you being serious?”
He nods, not looking at her. “It just won’t be the same without you there.”
She thinks about it for a moment. “All right. I’ll come, on the condition there are no drugs—”
“There won’t be, I promise. I’m getting clean,” he says.
“And Ash isn’t there,” she continues.
“He’s my best friend. He’s coming,” Beetle challenges her. “You can’t keep avoiding me just because you don’t like Ash. I don’t like your friend, but I’d be willing to hang out with her.”
“I’m so honored,” I mutter.
“Please come,” Beetle says to her.
Day sighs. “Only if Natalie comes too.”
Beetle nods.
“That’s enough out of you kids! Get a move on—I haven’t got all day,” Mr. Lewis scolds as he leads us through the ticket office and into the exhibitions.
“Ladies first,” Beetle says to Day, letting her through the turnstile.
She rolls her eyes, but a slight smile plays across her lips. Beetle goes next. At the exact same time, Ash and I move to the turnstile and clumsily bump arms, sending electric shocks shivering right down to my fingertips. Ash inhales sharply, like he felt them too. There’s an awkward moment, then Ash steps back.
“After you,” he says softly.
As Ash follows me through the turnstile, a dark thrill caresses my body, and I know he’s watching me. Sebastian catches up with me a moment later and takes my hand, dragging me away from Ash.
“I don’t want you anywhere near that nipper, all right?” he says to me.
My heart skips a beat. Maybe I wasn’t being paranoid earlier. Does Sebastian suspect I have feelings for Ash? “Fine,” I snap back.
Day hurries after us.
The first room we’re dragged around is a new exhibition on Purian Rose. I occasionally scribble down a few notes, in case Mr. Lewis tests us on it later.
“Isn’t it fascinating?” Sebastian says as we walk past the waxworks of Purian Rose.
The exhibit charts his meteoric rise to power, from his early days as an unassuming government official, to his inauguration as president, right through to the present day, where he is the head of church and state. Somehow in the middle of that, he managed to find the time to write the Book of Creation and start a war against the Darklings. That waxwork frightens me the most, as he’s standing on top of a pile of dead Darklings, the victor in the “war against corruption.”
“He’s a true inspiration,” Sebastian continues. “I hope to achieve as much one day.”
“How can you admire him when you know what he did to my family?” I say.
Day looks at me with curiosity. I never told her the full story of why Polly was tortured and my father killed.
“He who walks on the path of sin will suffer the wrath of His Mighty,” Sebastian says, quoting the Book of Creation.
I’m too flabbergasted to speak at first. Is he insinuating Polly and my father got what they deserved?
“Who are you?” I say.
“I’ve just had my eyes opened to the corruption around me, Natalie,” he says.
We carry on with the tour. I cross my arms, silently seething at Sebastian. How can he be so callous? He cared for Polly, once upon a time. Walking nearby are Chris and Gregory. Chris looks agitated and bored as his brother stops to inspect every exhibition.
We enter a dimly lit, semicircular room filled with stuffed dead animals and fossilized skeletons. There’s a Lupine—a giant wolflike creature with beautiful soft gray fur, a winged Nordin Darkling skeleton, the skull of a catlike creature with long saber teeth, and a waxwork of a Wrath, which sends tremors down my spine.
“What’s that?” Day asks, looking at the skull of the catlike creature.
“That’s a Bastet,” Sebastian says.
I read the information placard beside the skull.
BASTET—Origin: Emerald State. Lifespan: Unknown. Diet: Darklings.
These rare creatures were once falsely worshipped as gods. They grow to six feet in height, and live in prides of up to two hundred. Bastet venom is highly toxic to Darklings and has been found to contain traces of the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio necrosis.
“Gross,” I mutter.
“Look, this is pretty cool,” Sebastian says, pressing the cat’s saber teeth. They retract into the skull cavity. “They do that to prevent their fangs from getting damaged.”
“Its teeth are shimmering,” Day says.
“That’s what makes Bastet ivory so valuable; it’s imbued with the venom. People used to make ornaments and jewelry from them. Obviously Bastets are very rare these days; the poachers took most of them.”
I inspect the other animal exhibits as Sebastian and Day chat. The animals’ dead eyes stare at me as we walk by, making me feel uneasy. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m being watched . . .
A flash of blue catches my eye from the display to my left. I peer into the shadows. Huh, there’s nothing there. Stop spooking yourself, Buchanan!
Sebastian stops talking. His hand curls around the hilt of his sword.
“Is everything all right?” I say to him.
He nods, although he’s clearly distracted by something.
There’s movement to my right, making me start, but it’s just Chris Thompson sneaking off to one of the other rooms when Gregory’s back is turned, followed by the drug dealer Linus.
“Stay close,” Sebastian says to me.
“What’s wrong?” Day asks.
“My V-gene is triggering. I can sense a Darkling nearby,” Sebastian replies.
Day looks at me, worried.
“Just keep moving,” Sebastian says.
We round the bend, and my heart wrenches as I spot Ash having a smoke with Beetle. Wisps of smoke spill from Ash’s parted lips, and for a fleeting moment, I wonder what it would be like to run my tongue over those lips, taste the smokiness of his mouth.
Sebastian lets out a sigh. “False alarm. I was just sensing that nipper.”
“Stop calling him that,” I say.
A sensation like molten lead suddenly leaks into my stomach and scorches my insides as darkness spills over my skin. The Sight. Ash looks in my direction, alarmed. He’s by my side in a heartbeat, Beetle soon behind.
Sebastian draws his sword, pointing it at Ash.
“A Darkling’s hunting her. I can sense him using the Sight,” Ash says to him.
“Where is it?” I ask Ash, terrified.
“I don’t know,” he says, surveying the room.
“I’ll go look for it,” Sebastian says.
“No! Don’t leave me.” Images of Truffles’s bloodied body pop into my head.
“We have to get rid of it,” Sebastian says.
“I have an idea. Do you trust me?” Ash asks me.
I look up at his beautiful, earnest face. My heart contracts.
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Look into my eyes,” he says quietly.
I obey. He holds my gaze, staring at me, into me. His black eyes sparkle like stars in the dusky light . . . they’re so pretty . . . all glittery . . . they’re making me sleepy. Soon I’m lost in them, sinking, falling, until there is nothing left but him and me. Suddenly the darkness that has enveloped me starts to lift as Ash shifts the power of the Sight from the other Darkling over to him.
Mine . . . mine . . . mine, he’s telling them. Leave her, she belongs to me.
The darkness evaporates.
Ash blinks, breaking the spell.
I let out a shaky sigh. “Is it gone?”
“I can’t sense it anymore,” Ash says.
“I’m going to check the perimeter. Wait here,” Sebastian says to me, flashing Ash a bitter look. “You lay one fang on her, I’ll slice your head off. Understand?”
Ash’s fist clenches, but he says nothing as Sebastian stalks away.
Day hugs me. “Do you think that’s what—”
“Killed Truffles?” I finish for her. “Yeah. I think I’m being hunted, but why?”
“You’re a prime target for the Legion Liberation Front,” Beetle says, referring to the Darkling militia group that fought the Sentry during the war.
I turn to Ash. “Thanks for protecting me.”
“No problem. I just didn’t want to get blamed if you got attacked.”
Anger flares up in me. “Don’t put yourself out for me! Next time, just let the damn thing eat me.”
I stomp away, furious at myself for ever thinking that Ash Fisher had a heart. He catches up with me a moment later beside the Bastet skull.
“Hey, blondie, why are you mad at me?” he asks.
“Just leave me alone,” I say.
“Not until you tell me why you’re so pissed.”
I let out a frustrated scream. “By His Mighty’s Name, you are so annoying!”
“Okay, so we’ve established I annoy you. Anything else?” he asks, a small smile playing on his lips.
Yearning unfurls inside me. I remind myself I’m meant to be mad at him.
“Yes! You don’t care about anyone but yourself. You only help others if it helps you somehow,” I say.
“Ouch.” He looks genuinely offended.
“Well, it’s true.”
“No it’s not. I helped you because . . .”
“What?”
“I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Oh. Then why did you say otherwise?”
He shrugs. “Because I shouldn’t care what happens to you.”
“But you do?”
He doesn’t say anything. Instead he turns his attention to the exhibition. I nervously look around me to make sure no one is watching us, my heart pounding a mile a minute, aware that I’m crossing over some invisible line by talking to him. Sebastian’s checking the perimeter, Day’s chatting with Beetle, and the rest of the class is in the next room. We’re alone.
Ash turns to me, a determined look in his eyes. “Natalie, there’s something I’ve wanted to talk to you about.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really? What?”
He takes a deep breath. “I don’t really know how to say it, so I’m just going to come out with it. You’ll probably think I’m insane.”
“Okay . . . ,” I say, wondering where this is going.
“The other day, when we were in our history lesson, we bumped heads and—”
“What do we have here, then?” a boy’s voice says behind us.
The boy with the purple hair—Linus—saunters by with his two goons. The tattooed girl gives me a hard look, daring me to make eye contact. I don’t.
“Since I last checked, this was still my neighborhood,” Ash says.
Linus smirks, his hand closing around a glass phial sticking out of his jacket pocket. It’s filled with a milky liquid that shimmers with a golden hue when the light catches it.
“Not anymore, nipper. This is Mr. Tubs’s ground now,” Linus drawls.
Ash grabs Linus by the collar, and the boy flinches. His goons close in.
“This is my turf,” Ash says.
“People are watching,” I warn him.
He releases Linus and indicates some nearby doors. “The exit’s that way. I suggest you use it.”
“Make me.”
Ash’s jaw tightens. He can’t do anything, not here.
“Sebastian will be really interested in hearing you were here, Linus. He might even call you in for questioning. Again,” I say.
He turns his attention to me. “What makes you think he don’t already know I’m here, sweet cheeks?”
What does he mean by that?
The tattooed girl loops an arm over Linus’s shoulder and presses herself provocatively against him.
“Let’s go test out the merchandise,” she murmurs.
Linus shrugs her off him and smooths his collar. They head down the corridor toward one of the other exhibitions.
“What was in that tube?” I ask Ash.
“Darkling venom, Haze,” he explains.
“I thought Haze was white. That stuff had a golden shimmer to it.”
“It’s probably that Golden Haze that’s been doing the rounds.”
I’m about to carry on our conversation about what happened when we bumped heads in history lesson, when Sebastian enters the room. I step away from Ash, not wanting to give Sebastian any reason to cause a scene.
“Did you find anything?” I ask him.
“No, the nipper’s long gone,” he replies, sheathing his sword.
I let out a relieved sigh.
A scream from the next room startles us all, and a moment later, the tattooed girl sprints out of the room, tears spilling down her face. She pushes past us, heading for the exit. Without thinking, I rush into the next room, wondering what all the drama’s about, and instantly wish I hadn’t. Sprawled on the floor are the bodies of Linus and the shaven-headed guy, their dead eyes staring up at the ceiling. Their faces are contorted in a mask of pain, their lips as black as coal.
Clutched in Linus’s dead hand is the open phial of Golden Haze.
16
ASH
“THE FIRST RULE of surviving a Darkling attack is to run,” Sebastian says to the group.
