Page 40 of A Dagger of Twisted Starlight

“Yes,” Kalen answered. He picked one up off the table and kissed the head. “These are my Rachels.”

Now I understood. These weren’t manifestations of someone losing their mind; they were physical representations of the grief that held Kalen in a taloned grip. Grief was a faceless monster that loved to dwell inside the darkest parts of you, slashing out at random intervals, creating wounds that never truly healed, barely even scabbed over. These figurines were Kalen’s form of bandaging his wounds, staunching the invisible blood that flowed from the hole in his heart.

“I’m so sorry,” Blake said, hand on his chest. I echoed his sentiment.

“She was taken from me far too soon. I… I need you all to leave.” The anger returned with the blood-red tinge of raw grief. We couldn’t leave without the information we came for.

“The Time Turners. Who are they?” I pressed.

“They are the ones who promised I’d get my Rachel back. They lied. They’re all liars. Everyone. The world. Liars. You three, liars. Go!”

I glanced at Blake and Cassius and motioned to the door. Cassius started toward it, but Blake stayed at my side. “We’re on your side,” Blake said gently.

“That’s what they said. I found them because I was lost without my daughter. They offered me help in exchange for my devotion to their cause. They worship the starlight dagger, the tool they say can be used to solve all our problems. They recruit broken souls only to drain them of any hope, asking theimpossible of us while they reap the rewards. They never wanted to help me, help us. Their goal is ultimate power. They want the Chaos King to reign again. To have never been imprisoned.”

That revelation chilled the room. It settled on me like toxic dust from a nuclear fallout. “What did they do to you?” I asked. Kalen looked down at the figurine in his trembling hands.

“They were running experiments. They were trying to find the key to the dagger.”

My head spun. A hundred different questions swirled like a whirlpool. “Who is running these experiments?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Kalen practically spat the words out at me. “They’ve figured it out. They know what they need.” Those dark, pained eyes flickered to me. His thin lips slipped up into a crooked smile. “And what they need is you.”

Chapter 17

A Collection Of Rachels

Blake

Kalen’s wordsdropped into the room with the force of a nuclear bomb.

“Xavier?” I asked. I looked to the golden dragon, confusion clear on his face. His thick eyebrows pulled together. Wrinkles formed between them. His lips were parted as if he were about to speak, but no words came out.

“Yes,” Kalen answered. He had his attention pinned on Xavier. The feathers behind his ears twitched. “They discovered that the blood of a time manipulator must be spilled by the dagger in order to activate it.”

Holy shit…

“How do you know this?” Xavier asked. It appeared as if the dust started to settle around him, but the shock continued to play across his expression.

“I still have a few connections inside the group. I get fed information. But that doesn’t matter. I know they will never bring my Rachel back, that isn’t their goal.” Kalen ran his thinfingers over a figurine, kissing the head and holding it against his chest. Cassius stood next to me, silent. I shot him a worried glance. This was beginning to spiral.

“It would explain why they kept attacking us,” I said. My mouth began to feel like sandpaper. Things were falling into place but not at all how I expected them to. “I thought I was the one being targeted, but they were never after me, were they?”

Kalen shook his head, dark eyes narrowing to slits. “Why would they be after you? Can you manipulate time as well?”

“I wish,” I said.

“Who’s in charge of the movement?” Xavier asked. He took a step forward. His presence was one that commanded attention, but Kalen didn’t offer it to him. He continued to fawn over the figurine in his hand. He turned around, the kaftan he wore billowing around his bare feet. He delicately set the figurine down on the cluttered mantle.

“He has red eyes. Like blood. A monster who’s ready to spill it, ready to make the skies match his eyes.”

The air in the room chilled to icy levels. Those red eyes Kalen spoke about flashed across my vision. It felt like they were suddenly pinned to the small of my back. I tried to shake off the feeling, but it was only getting worse. I flashed back to my stalker, to the sensation of always being watched. My chest tightened, and my palms grew clammy. Maybe this was a mistake? Maybe I should have listened to Xavier, should never have gotten involved with this…

Xavier pulled out his phone and opened up the photo he had of the red-eyed shifter. “Is this who you’re speaking of?”

Kalen turned around. I noticed then that he had small marks up and down his arms. They were tiny dots, lighter incolor than the tan skin that surrounded them. Needle marks. What had they done to him?

Kalen glanced at the photo and froze. The feathers behind his ears pinned backward. His pupils flared, his teeth bared. “That’s him.”

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