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

I looked him over, not sure if he was joking or not.

“Not exactly. I can afford laser eye surgery now.”

“And a personal trainer.”

Jackson smiled, but I noticed the expression didn’t reach his eyes. Thankfully, his irises were still their usual shade of green.

“Are you…” I let the sentence fade away, my own fear stopping me from asking the hard questions.

“Scared?” Jackson asked.

I nodded.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I mean, I still feel like me. Just… better somehow. Whatever’s changing inside me, I’m pretty sure it helped me win the tournament. I don’t know how to feel about that.” He lowered his head. “It kinda feels like cheating.”

“You didn’t know,” I argued.

“No, but I also don’t know what I’m going to be at the end of this.”

My bottom lip began to tremble as tears formed in my eyes.

“Don’t,” Jackson whispered. “Think about Aruba, okay?”

I nodded, knowing I wouldn’t be able to think of anything else but the trouble I’d gotten him into. He had to realise that this was my fault, right? If I wasn’t weird and the Infernal hadn’t targeted me, he never would’ve been possessed.

“What about you?” he asked, deflecting the conversation away from his predicament. “What are you going to do now?”

I shrugged. “No idea.”

“You shot lightning bolts out of your hands and almost died because of it,” he declared. “I think you better find out more about that, huh?”

“Always the level-headed one, aren’t you?”

“I know what things are worth, remember?” He winked, then curled his hands around mine, which were still grasping the metal bars.

The air shimmered between us and he jerked away.

“What was that?” I let my hands fall away, squinting as the air returned to normal.

“There’s a barrier,” Jackson explained. “It’s designed to keep demonic creatures in.”

“What a mess, huh?” I felt a barrage of tears coming again and I swallowed hard. I wasn’t a crier, but what else were people supposed to do in this kind of situation? Waiting around wasn’t something I subscribed to.

Romy coughed to get my attention, the sound echoing around the vault.

“I think she wants something,” Jackson whispered, flashing a half-smile.

“I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

“I know,” he replied. “Go do you, then tell me how it goes, okay?”

I nodded and backed away from the bars, feeling awful for leaving him there.

“Ramona wants to see you,” Romy said, closing the door behind us.

“Dr. Surly is in the house, huh?” I asked, glancing down the metallic hallway.

“Ramona’s not so bad once you get to know her.” She chuckled, her blue eyes sparkling as she nudged me away from Jackson’s cell. “She’s been working around the clock to figure out what’s going on with your friend.”

“Oh.” I felt bad for my sassy outburst as we walked down the hall, our boots clip-clopping on the metal walkway.

To my surprise, a portable laboratory had been set up in the next room. Benches laden with microscopes, beakers and vials, little refrigerators, computer screens, and other bits and pieces were set up in a grid-like pattern. A whiteboard with complex mathematical formulas hung at the opposite end, and a man I didn’t recognise furiously scrubbed out an equation before writing it again.

I had no idea what half of this stuff was for, but I got the feeling Greer wasn’t lying when she said they were doing everything they could to help Jackson. A little trust began to filter in at the thought.

Ramona glanced up from the microscope she was peering through and rubbed her eyes. When she saw Romy and me, she rose and came to meet us. She looked exhausted, and the three empty coffee cups on the table were an indicator that there must have been a great deal of all-nighters.

“Scarlett, how are you feeling?” she asked, pressing her palm against my forehead.

“Tired. My head aches and my ears seem a little sensitive.”

“That’s normal,” she replied with a slight nod as she let her hand fall away. “Overuse of Light draws from all the senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell. You may feel a little overwhelmed for the next few hours, but you’ll make a full recovery.”

It was reassuring, but my thoughts were on Jackson.

“I’m not really worried about that, honestly,” I stated as Ramona turned back to her makeshift laboratory. “How’s Jackson?”

“We’ve managed to slow the transformation for now,” she replied matter-of-factly. “But our attempts to stop the mutation have been thwarted so far.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means he’s taking on the characteristics of a demon. Sorry to put it so bluntly, Scarlett, but that’s the reality of his situation.”

I swallowed hard and glanced uneasily at Romy, who’s expression was unreadable.

“Is he going to die from this?”

“Unlikely,” Ramona replied. “I’ve determined his DNA was compromised when he was first possessed, though the contact was minimal at the time. Which is why it wasn’t detected until now.”

“The alarms went off when he walked into the Sanctum carrying you,” Romy explained. “We have anti-demon measures set up all along the perimeter of the complex, and something inside him tripped them.”

Remembering the first time we’d crossed the Sanctum’s threshold, I frowned. Nothing had happened then.

“He wasn’t yet sufficiently altered for the wards to identify the changes,” Ramona explained, preempting my thoughts. “When we repaired his soul, it dampened the effects. I suspect that why it’s taken so long for his symptoms to manifest.”

I turned my attention to the medical equipment, not knowing where else to look.

“Don’t worry. We’re working on it as a priority.”

“Thank you.”

The door opened behind us and a man entered, wearing a full Natural uniform—black T-shirt, tactical pants, and combat boots. He whispered something into Romy’s ear before departing, leaving me staring after him curiously. Something was going on.

“Scarlett,” Romy said, “you’ve been summoned.”

I scowled and made a face. “They couldn’t wait a day before handing down their verdict? They really like making people squirm, don’t they?”

The Natural sniggered and nudged me from the room, leaving Ramona to her work.

“I can see why Wilder likes you,” she said when we were