The Moon's Fangs | 1

“Blaire…?” my voice barely surfaced over a whisper.

Reks’ footsteps closed in behind me, saying something in a hushed tone, but I couldn’t focus on anything else but the dainty shape peering down at us from the sharp-edged hole.

“Is that you down there, Aims?” she called out. “Omigod, it so is. I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

My heart leaped in my throat. Her voice. Her perfect, bubbly voice. Fresh tears welled up in my eyes, and I still couldn’t manage to speak louder than a whisper. “Is that… really you? You’re n-not… you’re really…”

“How’dya get all the way down there?” she asked, as if there genuinely wasn’t anything wrong in the world.

I cried and laughed at the same time. Joy skipped through my veins as I cupped my lips and called back to her. “Hold on, I’ll be right up!” I turned to see Reks standing right next to me, staring up at Blaire. A dark, unreadable expression clouded his eyes. I pressed against his arm to get his attention. “Reks, warp me up there.”

He grabbed my shoulder with a firm grip, speaking low and with urgency. “Amelia. Something’s not right.”

“What? What do you mean?” I pulled away from his hand, pointing up as if he somehow missed a very important detail. “That’s Blaire. She’s alive! What’s not right about that?”

He advanced closer, providing a better look at the grave expression painting his face, demanding my immediate attention. “Think, Amelia. How did she get here?”

I blinked, shaking my head. “Does that matter?”

In the back of my mind, I felt Nox trying to reach out to me, insistent and almost frantic with worry. I mentally closed off my senses to the Guide, blocking it out completely, utterly resistant to any opposing words.

“Yes.” He hissed. “It’s been—”

“Is everything okay down there, Aims?” More sand trickled in as Blaire stepped closer to the edge and called down to us. “Who is that guy?”

“He’s a friend! Everything’s fine.” I cupped my hands around my mouth to call back to her, then hit Reks in the chest with the back of my hand, lowering my voice. “What is wrong with you? Get me up there before she falls.”

A thud echoed from above our heads.

My eyes flashed, seeing Blaire had not fallen, but jumped down to the first beam, and was already crouching down to leap for the next.

Icy fear spiked through me.

We had both grown up racing each other on the same obstacle courses the firefighters used for training, but this… this was different. Brash and wholly unsafe.

“Blaire!” I screamed, voice breaking. “That’s dangerous! Those beams aren’t stable!”

Reks cursed under his breath, pulling my body behind his own. I went to fight back, but his following words turned me rigid.

“I’m sorry. But if you won’t listen to reason, then you leave me no choice.”

No choice?

He advanced too fast for me to stop him - before I could put together what he intended to do.

His Guide shot out of his wrist, towards my best friend.

“No!” I cried out against the blind terror choking me. I shoved Reks to make him stop—make him stop! But just as she landed on the middlemost beam, Luk lashed her across the cheek, tearing through her soft tawny skin.

My breath seized in my chest, overcome by horror. In horror of what Reks had done. And in horror of what should have happened, yet did not.

Denial dripped through me, even as proof of Reks’ concern stared me right in the face.

Blood didn’t trickle down her cheek. Not even a drop. Blaire stopped. She lifted a hand up to touch the gash across her cheek. A skin-split gash that gleamed like pink diamonds in between. And, Gods—her fingers… the tips of her fingers were skinless down to the first knuckles, matching the diamonds under her cheek.

I stared up at her, eyes burning. “Blaire…?”

Her hand dropped from her cheek as a sadistic smile spread across her face. Her pure brown eyes now had a long slash of citrine-yellow through the centers, like bright and cruel lightning ripping through an entire planet.

Sickness churned in my stomach.

“Gee, your friend looks awfully similar to this guy my master had beef with like forever ago.” she laughed in a way I’d never heard before. “Wonder how’d she reward me if I brought him back too—”

Everything happened at once.

On that last word, Blaire launched herself off the beam in a sharp dive, like a rocket planning to crash directly into us.

Reks’ arms wrapped around my body to wrench me out of the way just as Blaire flung dozens of little gems in a wide spray mid-dive.

I screamed, but it couldn’t be heard over the consecutive booms, like fireworks suddenly going off in every direction. Warmth pressed into my face as Reks shielded my head with his hand from a wide burst of shrapnel. For a moment, I felt us go airborne. I squeezed onto Reks for dear life before realizing he warped us to the top of a beam.

Our shoes had only just touched the beam, yet he already made his next move against Blaire. The cyan glow of his snaky tendrils slithered out of his wrists while keeping me secured under one arm. Something about his aura felt dangerous and finalizing, like I might be about to witness this man put his vitiate title to work.

“No, don’t hurt her—!” I grabbed his arm, pleading.

He held back his attack, but the look in his eyes foretold tragedy.

What he had said to me back in his armory cast a looming shadow over my thoughts, my fear. From ground level, Blaire chunked another handful of gems through the plumes of debris directly at us. Reks pinned me back in, leaped, and twisted.

My heart pounded in my throat as we slid across the beam, and the little gems exploded upon the first thing each touched. Several erupted against the walls of the greenhouse.

Reks shielded our faces as shrapnel flew out in every direction. He pinned me against the beam, using his entire body to do the same. Instinctually, I spread my hands over the back of his neck, pulling him in close. Terror lit through me at the thought of Reks getting hurt because he protected me instead of himself.

Like an unstoppable torrent, sand surged inside the dome from several holes the gemmed bombs created.

“We need to get out of here!” Reks yelled over the gravelly roar of cascading sand.

I slid out from under him to push myself up to my feet. My trembling made it difficult to keep my balance on the aged beam. “We can’t leave Blaire!”

Before Reks could stand straight, the beam creaked and shuddered. It sent a familiar sense of dread to the pit of my stomach. It was going to give out. “Reks!”

Too late.

Just as the beam ruptured and fell out from under our feet, Reks slipped as he attempted to spring over to grab me. No. I reached out for him, but something rock-hard slammed into my chest, knocking the breath right out of my lungs.

Stars blitzed my vision as Blaire arm-barred me and slung a couple gems the size of dice at Reks. He couldn’t get a grip on the beam - the sharp angle wouldn’t allow it. Something was wrong. Blood. I could see blood running up his forearm. He had no way to shield himself against the bombs.

“No!” I shrieked.

My eyes locked with his wide stare the moment before the pink gems triggered. The detonation blinded me. I cried out again as it set off a deadly spray.

Blaire hauled us up on the next highest beam, steeling her painful grip around my arm.

“Blaire! What is wrong with you!” I tried to wrench my arm away to no avail. “You have to stop. Talk to me!” I pulled ineffectually and frantically searched the plumes of dust for Reks. But the dust only grew thicker as more sand poured in, filling the dome up with the intention of burying us alive. I couldn’t see him. “Reks! Reks!”

Oh God. Had he fallen in? What if… oh God.

A cold, foreign laugh came from Blaire. “You didn’t see? I bound one of his hands to that beam… heh, total definition of a divebomb. It’s safe to say your cute boy-toy might not look all shiny and new next time you see him.” A terrifyingly innocent grin spread across her face. “My crystal pierced right through the middle of his hand like butter. He’s probably choking on dirt as we speak!”

The color drained from my face. Raw terror clawed its way through me, having no place to go. No escape.

The Blaire I knew wasn’t capable of this. Blaire would never do this.

The tears dried from my eyes as something dark mounted in my chest. I stopped pulling away from her and instead grabbed her arm. The crystal under her skin felt adamant. All too real. “Blaire.” I shoved her back a step. “I don’t know what the hell happened to you, but this isn’t right. You’re not in your right mind. Look around you! This isn’t you.”

Blaire stepped up to my face with a fierce glow in her new, citrine-slashed eyes. “Maybe I should knock you out for the trip. Master never said I couldn’t leave bruises. Actually, she might even prefer it.” she giggled maniacally.

Master.

My voice trembled with both fear and fury. “I’m not leaving him. If you’re not going to help, then stay out of my way.”

“Nighty-night.” Blaire sang, reeling her fist back.

Blaire changed. And whatever changed her thought to have the advantage over me. But I changed too.

I opened my senses back up to my Guide and I reacted. Nox reacted, not missing a single beat. It gushed through me like a tidal wave, shattering the opening barrier like a thin wall of ice.

With Nox’s guidance sparking through me, I ducked and pivoted under her swinging fist. The sharp movement forced her body to twist at a bad angle, slipping off the beam’s edge, trying to use me to pull herself back upright. I didn’t let her. I vaulted off the beam as hard as I could on the opposite end.

Blaire refused to let go of my arm. And she paid a terrible price for it.

Her arm hit the beam at an impossible angle as gravity took us. Pink crystal punctured through her skin, shattering and cracking as her arm broke from the force of our opposing weight. And this time, she did bleed.

We both screamed. Her from the pain, and me from the thought of that pain. Pain I caused her. Oh God. My stomach took a sickening lurch. Her grip on my arm slipped instantly, sending me to plummet to the rising sandpit down below.

To make matters worse, I still couldn’t see Reks anywhere.

The second my boots hit the sand, my legs slipped through to the knees, pulling me in like quicksand. “Reks!” I screamed, shoveling sand out of the way with both hands.

Where was I supposed to look? Where should I dig? He was buried alive.

He couldn’t breathe.

Panic ensued.

Nox’s projection self materialized across my shoulders.

Blaire grunted as she pulled herself back up on the beam, her broken arm dangling like a hook on a hanger rack. My eyes widened as she drove her arm back in place with a powerful thrust, and an equally powerful scream of pain. The pink crystals gradually began to mold back together under her flesh like liquidized diamonds, though the inflicted flesh remained mangled and in severe need of medical attention.

“No, no, no, no-” I kept digging, heart pounding against every fiber of my being. The further I dug, the deeper I sank. But I couldn’t stop until I found him. I wouldn’t stop until I found him! “Please -oh god- Reks!”

~Here!~ Nox hissed frantically, nose-diving into the sand only a few feet away. Its particles dispersed, marking the spot I needed to dig Reks out.

I struggled to drag my legs out of the sand to get to the spot.

“The sand - it’s getting worse!” It piled up around me as the desert continued to pour in. I was too close to one of the sand torrents. The weight of it began to pile against my lower back. It worked against me, filling in dirt as I tried to push it away.

A cold shiver ran down my spine as Blaire jumped down into the sandpit. Small, pink pieces of broken crystal plucked out of the sand and out of things around us, making their way back to her, reforming at her fingertips. The gemmed bombs. Her body was made of them.

If she reached me, I had a bad feeling I wouldn’t be able to get away with what I did last time. That inhuman look etched on her face didn’t belong to my best friend. This time, she wouldn’t allow me the chance to fight back.

She delicately pinched at her growing fingertips, turning her crystals into sharp points. Like claws.

I panted, digging faster and faster with each terrifying step she took to close the gap between us.

I nearly screamed when something suddenly surged out of the sand between my arms. It was a sight I never thought I’d be relieved to see. A cyan snake-like whip.

Luk raced upwards and looped around a beam above my head. I would’ve laughed and cried at the sight of the serpent, but Reks burst forth from the sand, gasping for a long-awaited breath of air. My heart soared and twisted at the same time. He was alive!

“Grab my neck—” He coughed, covered entirely in sand. “Now!”

I didn’t hesitate. I threw my arms around his neck, never wanting to let go. The metallic scent of blood filled my nose, leading me to notice a wide, sand-drenched stream of crimson staining the side of his neck, sourcing from a head wound.

Luk pulled him out so quickly and Reks executed his next moves so efficiently, I could barely keep up.

While being dragged out, he wrapped his opposite arm around me in a tight squeeze, pulling our bodies together. His Guide propelled us upwards, uprooting us from the sand pit. A tendril from the arm holding me coiled around both of us, binding our middles together in a secure, multilayered loop. I gripped the back of his neck when his hand left my waist so he could pull his gate ring off his finger.

Reks managed to do all of that in a matter of seconds.

During that time, Blaire pulled herself up on a beam and sprinted in our direction from down below. “Amelia, don’t go! Don’t leave me again!”

Again.

That’s not what I wanted. But this wasn’t her. It was an imposter in her skin… an imposter wearing our charm bracelet. And I was too afraid to think about why she… looked like my Blaire. My best friend.

Tears chillingly slipped down my sandy cheeks. The look on her face was not one of desperation for losing a friend - but one of fear of missing her target. Fear of disappointing her master.

Clenched in her small fist sat a handful of her gemmed explosives. She had produced so many at once this time, her crystalline fingers ripped away the skin up to her second knuckles. She reeled her arm back, lightning-scored eyes going furiously wide and unblinking as she prepared to hurl them at us.

“Reks!” I cried out in warning.

He was already looking at her over his shoulder as blood rushed down his forehead and the side of his eye.

He gritted his teeth and yelled - throwing his gate ring in the air the moment Blaire hurled the gemmed explosives.

Author's Note: AHHH! Blaire is back, but not anywhere near how we expected. What do you think happened to our sweet, boy-crazy Blaire Bailey?