Page 45 of Above
In the time it took me to scan the area, Celeste had walked up to the door, rapping on it four times in an odd pattern. While no light shone through the windows of the shop, the door still opened, a cloaked figure motioning her inside.
“What in the stars is she doing?” I whispered, though no one was there to hear me. I continued cursing her as I made my way to the sweets shop, hoping that I could get an idea of what was inside before attempting to shadow walk in.
Through the dark window, I could see that no one appeared to be inside, which meant there must have been a lower floor. Maybe some sort of secret entrance? Stars, I wished I would’ve been faster. But I wasn’t, which meant going in and figuring it out as I went. Just as I was about to summon my shadows, a loud shout came from behind me.
“Hey, you! What are you doing out here after curfew?” It was a guttural voice, a slight slur to the words that made me think perhaps this official had been drinking on the job.
Turning, I watched as he ran toward me, his face a pinched mix of rage and excitement. No one good ever wanted to be an official. It was a position for the power hungry that were too lazy to earn such a thing. The ones who wished not to make Dajahim better, but to somehow make their own lives worth something—to prove that being a shaytan would always mean more than being an eadi.
Easily, I could simply show him I was a shaytan and send him on his way. There were no curfews for magic-wielders. But I found that I was willing to lose some time.
“Hello, officer,” I hummed, tugging my hood off. I was no incomparable enchantress that would send men and women to their graves, but I was beautiful, and he seemed more than desperate for anything. Every assumption I had made about the man proved true as he pulled off his own hood, revealing eager blue eyes and a twisted thin mouth. His skin was sallow, his hair stringy, as if he had been drinking and sweating to the point of irreversible filth. He smelled like the bottom of a wine barrel that someone had taken a piss in.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty thing?” he crooned, reveling in his victory. It wasn’t uncommon for eadi to offer sexual favors in exchange for their freedom. Many who didn’t were submitted to beatings and imprisonment, or hangings if the crime was great enough. Even punishments such as those were for the stars’ entertainment. If we dared bore them, they just might do even worse.
“Yes, I am,” I offered back, grabbing the hem of my night shirt and pulling it down to reveal the swell of my breasts, catching the beast’s attention.
“You’re in luck, I happen to have a cock in need of a good sucking from a pretty little eadi whore like you.” His hand grabbed my cheeks, thumb and pointer finger digging in until my lips puckered. His drooling mouth neared mine, and I took the opportunity to unclip the bottle of stars knew what at his waist and smash it against his head.
His eyes rolled back in his head, large body going stiff as he crashed to the ground.
As I stared at him, watching blood seep from his head and hearing his strained breaths, I wondered when I had stopped caring about hurting people. When I had become the type of person to revel in spilling the blood of others.
Maybe I had always been heading that direction. Perhaps it was the magic of the stars that willed us to be such a way. Or, possibly, it was the system that Celeste and so many eadi hated that seeped into my bones.
Bending down, I placed my hand on his head and did my best to heal it slightly, hoping that it would make the incident look more like an accident so that no eadi were blamed. And it was that action—my gut instinct to help—that allowed me to take a deep breath. Ididcare. At least, I did when it counted. When the people deserved my hesitation and empathy.
Regardless, I didn’t have the time to think, because the door had long ago closed, and I was missing whatever was happening inside. I bent down and wiped my hands clean on his black uniform, my shadows wrapping around me after, lighting a dark fire within my bones as they took me into the shop. As I had thought, there was no one in the room, silence and stale sweets my only companions.
Had they snuck through a back door? Was there another room somewhere? We had a back room in our apothecary, so this shop should too, right? Extra stock and cooking tools needed to be stored somewhere. I took the chance of summoning a tiny light burst, only able to see a couple of feet in front of me as I explored the area. There was a small kitchen behind the center glass counter, but no one was in there. The door that led to the back of the building was locked from the inside with a chain, which must have meant they hadn’t escaped that way. Somewhere inside then.
Sliding my hand across the walls, I tried to find some sort of secret entrance. A mechanism that would open a wall or reveal a door. Something that could be made rather than conjured. When that proved futile, I bent low, inspecting the floorboards. This was where luck found me. One corner of a small, oddly placed rug was bent over, the area unfit for walking but still upturned.
“Gotcha,” I gloated, my voice so soft it was barely a whisper. Kicking the thickly woven rug to the side, I found a brass handle, the smallest sliver of light seeping through the four edges of what had to be a secret door.
Too risky to enter. The room wouldn’t be bigger than the building, and this one was quaint. I doubted the areas would be sectioned off, so whoever was in there would see me immediately. I could attempt to cloak myself, but that was finicky magic that required more focus and talent than I possessed under so much stress.
Groaning softly, I pressed my ear to the small slit and focused.
“Yes, the end will be good. Maybe even that night. We are running on borrowed time,” someone said.
“But what if—“ the voice grew somehow quieter, the rest of their sentence gone.
They continued to talk at that quieter volume, aggravating me to no end. My mind wandered, thinking of Celeste’s words in her last letter. Would she do something dangerous like protest? Maybe this was where those people met, the eadi preparing to fight the shaytan regime. Not that they could win. Elites had been conquering worlds for millennia, they wouldn’t lose to a group of eadi.
We.We wouldn’t lose.
If Celeste took part in some sort of rebellion, it would be me she’d face.
Suddenly sick, I shadow walked back to the academy, vomiting in the bushes as I pictured Celeste’s smoky eyes staring off into the sky, forever unblinking, as I stood above her in triumph.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nova
“I decided today as I walked home from the border after morning grunt duty that I would buy my family their first dose of haya. I saved enough for three, and maybe that would bring me some peace. But now that I’m holding it, I feel more terrified than ever.”
-From the journal of Nova Tershetta, 9260 AS
