Child Of Mist: Wicked Ways (Book 3): Child Of Mist

By Lola StVil

The team has battled and sacrifice to get this far but evil is resilient. It will hunt them to the ends of the earth. In the past they were able to count on each other but things have changed. And now, their biggest worry is their very own leader. The darkness inside Rayne is growing stronger. Does she have what it takes to hold back the evil that haunts her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lola StVil
• Release date: Aug 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393520948

Lola StVil

Lola StVil was seven when she first came to the US from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She attended Columbia College in Chicago, where her main focus was creative writing. She is the author of the best-selling Guardians series and the Noru series.

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WICKED WAYS

CHILD OF MIST, BOOK 3

By- Lola StVil

© March 20, 2020

Dear reader,

I apologise for having pushed this release back so many times. My staff and I had a hard time getting stories out due to the pandemic. We hope this story takes your mind off things, if only for a little while. Thank you for your patience.

Best,

Lola

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

RAY SPEAKS

Run, Nikita’s voice says in my head.

I can hear the desperate edge to her voice as she gives me this last instruction, but still I don’t move, because something else has just clicked into place for me. I can use my necromancy powers to bring Nikita back if I can just channel them correctly like Darius told me to. I did it for my mom right after I was born. Surely, I can do it for Nikita now.

I drop to the ground beside Nikita, unfrozen now. I take her hand in mine and I lean closer so I can hear her whispered words. Tears run down my face as I clutch her hand and listen to her voice. It’s only when I realize that her mouth isn’t moving that I work out what is really going on here—her voice is in my head. I’m using my necromancy powers to communicate with her, which means she’s definitely dead. I feel another surge of grief as any chance I had for spending a bit of time in denial vanishes without a trace.

I close my eyes and hold my hands over Nikita’s body.

Come on, come on. Wake up. Please wake up, I whisper as I move my hands around in circles in the air above Nikita’s body.

Nothing happens. Most likely because I have no idea what I’m doing. With each moment I waste trying to find this power inside of myself, I’m conscious of the time that’s passing. Every second can make a difference here; every second takes Nikita’s soul, her essence, a little bit further away from her body and makes it that little bit harder to pull it back. As I think of Nikita’s soul leaving her body and floating away, I remember how Tobias lifted his head to the sky and sent a mist floating out of his mouth and pulled my mom’s soul back to her body that way.

I don’t know if I’m doing it right or not, but I throw my head back and spread my arms out like I saw Tobias do and then I close my eyes and open my mouth. I don’t know what to do next, whether it works on its own or whether I have to sort of will it. Whatever I have to do, I would gladly do it if I only knew what it was.

I am starting to really panic now as I picture Nikita being lost to me forever. Eden might be my biological mom, and don’t get me wrong, I love my mom, but in my heart, I know Nikita has been more of a mom to me than Eden ever has, and the thought of having to face the rest of my life without her by my side is just too much for me to bear. I have to do this. I have to.

I am kneeling in the dirt, feeling the empty desolation inside of myself at the thought of losing Nikita, and then I feel it. I feel something inside of me shift slightly. It’s a strange feeling, but it’s not painful. If anything, it’s kind of nice. It makes me feel all warm inside. I feel my jaw being pulled further apart, and even that doesn’t hurt, although I feel like it should.

I open one eye a crack and peer out, and I almost gasp when I see a thin yellow mist floating out of my mouth and up towards the sky. I stop myself from gasping, afraid that if I suck in the mist, I won’t be able to get it out of me again. My pain and panic are beginning to settle as I realize I am doing it. I am using my necromancy skills and I am going to save Nikita. It’s all going to be alright after all.

I close my eyes again, concentrating on the feeling of power that’s starting to form within me. I literally hold the power of life and death inside of me, and knowing that both excites and terrifies me. As I am relishing the feeling of power, I hear a noise to my right, like a foot scraping across the ground. I open my eyes and my concentration is gone and the yellow mist fades away.

I start to turn towards the sound, but before I have so much as registered the flash of movement I see out of the corner of my eye, Nikita’s body spasms and lifts slightly off the ground. My jaw drops. Did I do it? Did I save her life?

I start to smile and then the smile drops away as horror fills me. Nikita’s body spasms again and then it implodes, sucking into itself and vanishing, and just like that, the only mother I’ve ever really known is gone from this world. I am instantly consumed with a deep, overwhelming sadness that leaves me feeling like I’m going to drown in it. I stay on my knees, my head down, my hair hanging in my face. I don’t know what I did wrong, but whatever it was, it’s wiped Nikita off the face of the earth.

Nikita? I say inside of my head.

There’s nothing. Not even so much as a hint of me reaching anyone or anything outside of my own head.

No, I whisper.

Oh yes, a voice says.

It’s a voice I recognize from inside my head. The voice of Zavier. I look up, expecting to see a monster, but instead I see someone familiar.

Tobias …? I …? How …? I stutter.

I know Tobias is dead. I killed him myself. And yet here he is right in front of me, grinning at my misery. I suppose that’s fair. I did kill him after he tried to help us. I mean, it was a misunderstanding, but I can understand why he would be happy to see me so sad. What I can’t understand is how he is alive and well and standing beside me at all.

Yes, the resemblance is striking, isn’t it? Tobias says in the voice I know as Zavier’s.

Is it possible he managed to trick us all completely? That Luna got it wrong when she said Tobias was just taken over by Zavier? Has Zavier somehow managed to change his physical appearance to match Tobias’s looks?

Tobias or Zavier or whoever the hell he is laughs at me and shakes his head.

Don’t look so puzzled, Rayne. Surely you’ve heard of twins before, he says.

You’re not Tobias? I ask, raising an eyebrow, sure I am being led into some sort of trap but unsure as to what exactly the trap could be.

Ugh no, Zavier says, a shudder going through him. I’d sooner be dead than be that self-righteous little shit.

The tone of Zavier’s voice and the way he spits the words out in contempt convince me that he’s telling me the truth. I don’t know what to say to that. I don’t know what to say to any of this. I feel like I have been thrown into the middle of a dream, or more truthfully into the middle of a nightmare, but at the same time, the pain inside me is way too real to be anything but the real thing. I can’t let myself believe this is a dream, because when I do eventually sleep and then I wake up and nothing has changed, I think that would break me completely.

A new sense of dread settles slowly over me when I realize that if Zavier is willing to treat his own twin brother the way he treated Tobias, then there really are no limits as to what he might do to me. Despite that, I can’t stop myself from blurting out how I feel about his treatment of Tobias.

So let me get this straight. Tobias was your twin and yet you used him and then let him be killed? I say.

Zavier nods and then he smiles at me. It’s so strange watching Zavier. He’s like a cold version of Tobias. If it wasn’t for the fact that his eyes look almost dead inside, then it would be easy to forget myself and think I was with Tobias again.

Yeah, Zavier says. His grin widens. We really are quite similar, aren’t we?

Excuse me? I snap.

Well think about it. You used him to teach you how to use your necromancy skills, or at least you thought that was what he was teaching you. And then you killed him. Zavier grins. I mean as you said, I let him die. But you were the one who actually killed him.

That was completely different and you know it, I say.

Whatever. Zavier shrugs. It doesn’t make him any less dead though, does it? It’s quite a record you’ve got there now. Two people killed in one day. I mean you might not have used the blade on Nikita, but that doesn’t make you any less of her killer.

I have heard enough. All my fear and my grief melts away, although I am sure that’s only temporary. It turns into a ball of rage like nothing I have ever felt before. I am no longer thinking about the consequences of my actions. All I am thinking about is taking Zavier the hell down.

Quite the temper you have there, Rayne. You know, if you could catch me by surprise, who knows, you might even have a shot at getting one over on me. But you’ll never catch me by surprise … Zavier starts.

… Because I’m in here, he finishes, his voice echoing through my head this time rather than him speaking out loud.

He smirks at me and then goes back to speaking out loud again.

You’re almost as easy to read as Tobias was, he spits out.

I am curious as to why he hates Tobias so much. It probably isn’t important right now, but I really do want to know, and asking the question might help buy me some time to think of a way out of this.

Why do you hate Tobias so much? I ask. I always thought twins were close, like really close. I thought it would have been you and Tobias against the world.

It should have been I suppose. But my parents ensured that didn’t happen, Zavier says. For a second, his voice softens and I get a glimpse of the man he could have become. As quickly as it came, it slips away and Zavier is back to cold contempt when he goes on. They abandoned me, but they kept their precious little Tobias. They thought he was better than me? Well I sure showed them.

Showed them that they were right, I think but don’t say.

So now what? You’re going to make the whole world burn because your momma didn’t hug you enough? I say.

I know I shouldn’t taunt Zavier, that I’m only going to make it worse for myself if I make him more angry, but I can’t help it. I could have sympathy for the guy if he was a bit bitter, but this is beyond that.

I prefer to think of it as improving the world by ridding it of the problem humans and those fae who think they’re better than other people, but you can call it what you like. I have nothing to lose at this point, and an insult from some punk kid isn’t going to worry me. But despite you knowing all of that already, I feel like there’s still this little part of you that thinks you can win this war against me, Rayne. I think perhaps you need a little reminder of just how far my influence and power goes. What can I do to convince you to play by the rules? I mean, killing the only real mother you ever had didn’t work, so what would? Zavier says.

He crosses his arms and rests his chin on one palm, drumming his finger against his pursed lips like he is thinking about his question, although I am almost certain it’s just for show and he already has a plan in place. He drops his arms and beams at me.

Of course, that’s it. I’ll have some of my people kill Kace. Maybe that will convince you to work with me, he says. Shame I didn’t think of that before. Maybe then Nikita could have survived a little bit longer. Oh well.

I feel my insides go cold as Zavier says Kace’s name. I just lost Nikita. I can’t lose anyone else. I just can’t.

No. Please. You don’t have to do that. I’ll do whatever you want, I swear it, I say.

In that moment, I actually mean it. If it will keep Kace safe, then I will do it, no question of it. Zavier smiles at me, a sad smile that I’m sure is an act, hiding the utter glee he is feeling at being able to break me this way.

You mean that. I know you do. But unfortunately I don’t trust you enough to keep meaning it, and I can’t risk you forgetting my reach at a crucial moment. No, Kace will have to go, he says. And for the record, I am not taking any pleasure in this. I would have much preferred for you to see the potential we had working together and do it because you too relish the chaos.

That does it. In that moment, I don’t care if he kills me. If he does, then it will save everyone else and it will ruin Zavier’s plan to spread chaos and misery across the world. I don’t give myself time to tell myself this is a mistake, because if I do, I am giving Zavier a chance to read my intention from my mind. Instead, I just act.

I jump up from my knees and spring at Zavier, ready to take him the hell down. As I spring towards him, I am already lifting a rock with my powers, but Zavier just laughs at me. I feel him inside of my head, pulling at my thoughts, and before I can stop it, the rock I am moving changes direction and starts heading for me.

I feel a sharp stinging pain as it connects solidly with my temple and then my vision goes black.

CHAPTER TWO

KACE SPEAKS

To say today has been a weird day would be the understatement of the year. It would be like saying that the Hulk has some minor anger issues. The day went from the pain I felt at thinking we’d lost Eden after she was killed in a battle, to relief that she was alive after Tobias saved her, using his necromancy powers to bring her back from the dead. And then there was more euphoria when Ray killed Tobias, ending the darkest dark fae in history. Or so we thought until Luna filled us in: Tobias was never a dark fae—he was innocent, being used by Zavier, who was controlling his mind. And then our happiness came crashing down completely. Especially Ray’s as she was consumed by guilt.

We realized that not only had Ray killed an innocent guy, but we were no closer to ending the dark fae. We are no closer now to stopping Zavier than we were before, and if he can infiltrate people’s minds like that, then to put it bluntly, we are completely fucked. How can you beat someone who can sit miles away and still know every step of your plan the very second you know it yourself? It’s impossible surely.

I think everyone understands that we are up against someone who is unbeatable, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to hide my desolation and convince everyone that we’ve got this, that this is just a minor setback. If only I could bring myself to believe that. I have a really bad feeling in my gut about this.

I stand up abruptly. I can’t just sit here getting more and more anxious. I have to do something, even if that something is just making sure Ray is okay. The guilt at killing Tobias after she found out the truth about him must be eating her up, and I hate the thought of her being alone when she feels that way. I know that no amount of me telling her she didn’t know the whole story, that she didn’t murder an innocent guy knowingly, is going to make her feel any better, but I am hoping that just knowing that I am on her side and there with her might be enough to make her feel at least a little bit better.

Where are you going? Leti asks as I head for the door.

To check on Ray, I reply.

She said she wants to be alone, Deja points out.

I shrug my shoulders.

I know. But what we want and what we need aren’t always the same thing, I tell her.

She opens her mouth to say something else but I walk away before she can. She’ll only try to convince me she should be the one to go to Ray. I don’t think she understands that as much as I want to comfort Ray, it’s not just about her. It’s about me as well. I need to be close to Ray, because when I am, it feels like anything is possible, and in her presence, maybe I can even convince myself that we can beat Zavier. I need to rekindle that spark of hope inside of myself, and if anyone can light me up inside it’s Ray.

I make my way to the room Ray has been staying in. I tap on the door and when she doesn’t respond I stick my head around the door. The room is empty, the bed still neatly made. I back out of the room and glance along the hallway towards the bathroom, but the bathroom door is wide open and I can see the room is empty. I smile to myself when I realize where Ray must be. She must have gone to my room so she could feel close to me. Maybe she wanted me to come to her all along. I should have realized it sooner.

I hurry up and rush to my room. I push the door open and my heart sinks. My room is empty too. I search all of the rooms and find them all empty. I head back downstairs, panic starting to nibble at me.

I told you she wouldn’t want to see you, Deja says.

Is there a bit of glee in her voice as she says that? I think there might be, but I can’t be sure, and besides, I have more important things to think about than whether or not Deja is jealous of Ray and me.

She’s gone, I announce.

Gone? What the hell do you mean ‘gone’? Gone where? Eden asks, sitting up straighter.

I shake my head. As if I wouldn’t have mentioned where she had gone if I knew.

I don’t know. The last time we lost Ray, Tobias had her, I say, finally voicing my main worry.

Well he doesn’t this time, Luna says.

I am aware he’s dead, Luna. Now really isn’t the time to be sarcastic, I say.

"I’m not being sarcastic. I didn’t