Kaylin! What was happening with Kaylin? I struggled to stand, but my stomach lurched, and I turned to the side, coughing until I spit up a mouthful of diluted blood. My throat felt raw, but my stomach quieted and my thoughts began to clear.
“Its sound . . . It causes internal bleeding. Your friends, your people, they all bled out when it attacked.” I leaned against my grandfather, and he wrapped an arm around me.
Grieve struggled, moving over to sit by us. “Are you all right?”
I nodded, faintly, and looked around. Lannan and his men weren’t anywhere in sight. “Lannan! Is he still inside?”
At that moment, the vampire appeared at the mouth of the Barrow. The look on his face was chilling. I’d never seen Lannan look so shaken.
“It’s over. Cicely, you’d better come see.”
Slowly, not wanting to see whatever it was that had put that expression on his face, I started forward. Check frowned, but Lannan shook his head.
“The creature . . . the cloud . . . It’s gone. I believe Kaylin vanquished it.” And then the Golden Boy turned and walked back into the Barrow, still looking oddly strained and bewildered.
With a nervous glance at Grieve and Hunter, I set out, escorted by Check. The others fell in behind us. As we entered the Barrow, once again the desolation and age hit me, but this time I didn’t feel the inner push from Cherish to reclaim my place here. This time, all my worries and thoughts were with Kaylin. Lannan was standing against a half wall, and he nodded for us to join him.
I glanced around. “Where’s Kaylin? Where did he . . .” But my voice trailed off as someone stepped from behind the wall. Kaylin? Or was it . . . Holy crap. I couldn’t take my eyes off the creature that stood in front of us.
When we’d gone to the home of the Bat People in search of the charm to waken Kaylin’s demon so he wouldn’t slide into a permanent coma, we’d met them. The Bat People were the children of the night-veil demons, a hybrid created by the creatures. The Bat People were shadowy, tall, and gaunt, with skin stretched thin as if over a skeleton and wings resembling those of a bat. They had faceted, bulbous eyes. Though they were called the Bat People, they weren’t shifters. Not like the Cambyra Fae. They lived in the shadows, in the Court of Dreams, where everything flickered in a perpetual state of half light.
Now, the creature that emerged from behind the wall looked like a morphed picture of Kaylin . . . and one of the Bat People. Not as tall as they were, for Kaylin was fairly short, the figure stood there. Wings had emerged from his back, and though the face he wore was Kaylin’s, and his hair was still long and ponytail bound, he had taken on an otherworldly look.
“Kaylin? Is that . . .” I didn’t know how to ask my question. Hell, I didn’t even know what to ask.
But he knew. He laughed, and I realized I’d heard that laughter once before: when I woke up his demon and brought him back to himself. I’d heard the laughter before Kaylin had regained control over himself, before he’d harnessed the night-veil.
“You know who I am, Cicely. You know me.”
“You’re Kaylin’s demon.” No question, just an acknowledgment of facts. I knew I was right, and my heart began to shatter, just a little.
“Yes, I am Kaylin, and I am his demon, but Kaylin is now the one in the background. I don’t know if he exists separate from me now. How can he? I’ve fully emerged.” And then, Kaylin—or his demon—softened, and a faint smile flickered on his lips. “Kaylin would have died unless I took over. Together, we vanquished the cloud creature.”
“Can you . . . Will you let him return now? Kaylin, that is?” Again, I knew the answer and didn’t want to hear it, but I had to know for certain.
“How can I? When I emerged, when we threw ourselves into the fight together, his only chance was to give way to me fully. He now lives in my body, rather than the other way around.” He stepped back. “Kaylin knew that you couldn’t fight the creature. He knew that he was the only one who stood a chance of defeating it.”
Horrified, realizing that we’d just lost Kaylin—that he was gone from us, and probably forever—I sought for something to say. But there were no words there. Thank you wouldn’t suffice. And I’m sorry would only make the night-veil laugh. He wasn’t sorry to be in control of Kaylin’s body.
Hunter stepped forward, his hand on my shoulder. “Demon, tell the girl the truth. She needs to know, for her conscience.”
“What?” I darted a glance at my grandfather. What was he talking about?
But Kaylin-the-demon knew, because he let out another laugh. “All right, Father Owl, I’ll let her off the hook.”
Turning to me, his wings fluttered softly in the dim light as he crossed his arms. “Cicely, this would have happened anyway, eventually. Night-veil demons, when implanted in the soul of one of the magic-born, evolve. After we waken, we metamorphose into our final forms. Kaylin’s transformation just came far sooner than it would have if he hadn’t given over control to me. On a conscious level he didn’t know this would happen, but deep inside? He knew.”
As I continued to stare at him, Kaylin ducked his head. Once again the sly, sweet smile I so keenly recognized broke through, and I caught a glimpse of him peering through the night-veil’s eyes. “I guess it’s a good thing Luna wouldn’t have me after all. I would have broken her heart.” And then he turned toward the entrance of the Barrow.
“Kaylin, where are you going?” My paralysis broken, I took off after him. “Don’t leave. Night-veil or not, you’re our friend.”
Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes. I wanted desperately to do something—to change what was happening. I’d always been a control freak, and not being able to make a difference in a situation like this was terribly painful for me.
Kaylin turned, his wings almost whipping across my face. He stepped closer, and I realized that he’d retreated again, and now it was the night-veil facing me. He reached out and pulled me close.
“You, too, went through a transmutation, Cicely. You are not the same person you were a month ago. Everything changes. Everyone evolves.”
“I know but . . .” There was nothing I could say to that. He was right, of course. I just didn’t want to say good-bye.
“I would thank you for freeing me, but that would only make you feel worse. So I will say this once. Remember it welclass="underline" There was nothing you could do. You could not fight your opponent, and Kaylin and I . . . we could. Kaylin made the choice. He knew what had to be done. Don’t tarnish his memory with your tears. He chose to help you in this war you fight. Let him claim his victory.”
And then he let go of my shoulders.
“Where will you go?”
“First, I must return to the Court of Dreams. Then . . . I don’t know. I doubt our paths will cross again, but there is never anything certain in this world, so for now, I simply say farewell, Queen Cicely Waters. May you destroy Myst and all her kin, and live happily ever after in your icy realm.” With that he turned and ducked out of the Barrow, and Kaylin Chen was gone from my life.
I turned back to the others, feeling bleak and worn. I wanted to cry but felt numb all the way through. And we still had a quest ahead of us. There wasn’t time to mourn someone who hadn’t died. Kaylin was gone, yes, but he still lived, and he had become who he was destined to be.
“Let’s go. We have to find Myst’s heartstone.”
Nobody said a word, but we fell back into our marching order, and I led the way through the Barrow, following the hollow and empty passages by what seemed to be rote memory. I didn’t know where we were going, not really. If you pressed me to tell you how to get there, I wouldn’t be able to give directions. But I knew the way, as sure as I knew my own heartbeat.