Dark Descent: The Arondight Codex - Book One by R Nicole (best books to read all time TXT) 📗

The longer I wandered, the clearer it became that whatever spell Wilder had put on the troll doll was long gone.

What was the point? I sighed, my eyes brimming with unshed tears. I’d never be a part of anything, always a victim, never winning, just holding my head above water, waiting for the wave that’d finally drag me under.

Wandering down the street, I realised I was approaching a familiar location. The Hung, Drawn, and Quartered stood before me, a shining beacon of warmth in the icy darkness of my self-pity.

I’m going in there, I thought. I’m going in there and if he’s not inside, I’ll just get something to drink and maybe something to eat. Then I’ll go home. I’ll go home and fill my prescription tomorrow. It would be better to forget than to deal with not being able to control my own safety. If I was on my pills again, then the demons would leave me alone. Seemed logical.

Stepping into the pub, I scanned the tables, searching for the familiar leather jacket and messy hair that belonged to Wilder. Déjà vu shivered down my spine as my fingers coiled around the troll doll. He wasn’t there, but I could feel him. Taking another step, I lingered, my gaze finding a form I recognised.

He was leaning against the bar, his shoulders slumped. Raising his beer glass, he threw his head back as he downed the last sliver of brown liquid, then slammed it back down. Nodding at the bartender, he turned, then froze when he saw me staring at him.

“Took you long enough,” he drawled.

Nothing had changed about him. He was still wearing his leather biker jacket, worn jeans, tight black top, and gruff smirk.

“I see them everywhere,” I replied, blurting out the first thing I could think of. “At the supermarket, on the bus, where I work.”

He narrowed his eyes and stepped closer. Grasping my arm, he wrenched me around and practically dragged me out of the pub and onto the street.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said, his voice low and threatening.

“Let me go!” I pulled out of his grasp and shoved him.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Purples.”

“I have no way to protect myself. I can’t fight them, they follow me everywhere, I want…” I swallowed hard, “I want to be one of you.”

I didn’t realise it until that moment that wanting to fight meant joining the Naturals, but as soon as the words left my mouth, I knew. I’d never felt that kind of conviction before. Always drifting, always just existing pay day to pay day, always lacking a purpose. I wanted to fight.

I wasn’t on any medication, so I figured my Light would have a chance to manifest properly. If I had access to it, then maybe I could do something. The way the arondight blade had clicked into place in my hand had been exhilarating and the more I dwelled on it, the more I wanted to feel it again. In that moment, I’d been powerful and for someone who’d always struggled her way through life, it was everything.

“You want to be one of us?” Wilder mocked. “More than human?”

“I think we already established the fact that I already am.”

“We train from birth to become Naturals.” He turned his back on me and started to walk away. “It’s too late for you. Go home, Purples.”

It was a slap in the face. One minute I was told I was special, the next he said it didn’t matter. The old Scarlett would’ve swallowed her tears, tried to hide her embarrassment, and melt away, but I wasn’t her anymore. Not after the moment I’d seen a demon stalk me in the lane behind 8-bit.

“It’s too late for you to grow a heart, Wilder, but it’s not too late for me to learn to fight,” I shouted. “When I couldn’t tell you people what you wanted to hear, you dumped me on the street like I was trash, and I’m here to tell you I won’t stand for it.”

Tearing the troll doll out of my pocket, I threw it at him with all the strength I could muster. It slammed against his back and fell to the ground, tumbling over and over until it came to a rest by his boot.

Wilder stopped dead in his tracks and turned. His expression was made up of pure anger, and his eyes flashed silver.

“Take me to see them,” I said, determined not to let him intimidate me.

“You really are a piece of work,” he muttered.

“Takes one to know one.”

He hissed through his teeth and raked his hands through his hair. “I need to find a new drinking spot.”

“And I’ll just find that one and the next and the next. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just go to the Sanctum myself.”

“They won’t let you in, Purples. The moment you cross the threshold, you’ll just be in an old factory with a flock of pigeons that’ll shit on your head. You can’t just walk in and make demands.”

“They know me,” I said, recalling what the demon at 8-bit had said. “They know my name, they know where I work, and they know I can see them. Either I fight back or—”

“Or?” Wilder prodded, daring me to voice my ultimatum.

“Or I go back on my meds.” I shook my head and glanced away. “That way I’ll block out my Light for good. Without it, I can’t see them. Maybe in time I’ll forget you even existed.”

“You’d give up your Light?” He looked shocked, like I’d suggested amputating a limb.

“I never knew I even had it!” I exclaimed, throwing my hands into the air. “Even if I did, they told me it’s blocked. By the meds or whatever, who the hell knows? But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m being stalked by demons in the supermarket. At the produce section of the supermarket, Wilder.” I sighed for what felt like the billionth time that day.