Vespertine

Quinn awoke to a pair of hazel eyes looking at her in concern.

“What…” she faltered. “What happened?”

She recognized the boy in front of her, vaguely. It took her a moment to remember that he was the weird one that had mistaken her for a sorcerer. The one named Jesus. She almost felt like laughing.

“Am I dead, Jesus?” She asked, sounding a bit delirious.

Caiden breathed out in relief. His power had worked. She was fine.

She sat up groggily. “Seriously, what happened? Who are you? The last thing I remember…” She looked around and saw Marissa lying on the floor, eyes closed serenely. She felt panic rising in her chest as she remembered what had happened.

Marissa had gutted her. Salvatore had died. And then Quinn had…

She looked at her abdomen. Her shirt was covered in blood, but underneath, her skin was smooth and unbroken. She stared in shock, uncomprehending.

“I healed you,” Caiden said quietly, taking in her confused expression.

She raised her head, still stunned. He could see tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Who are you?” She whispered. “And why did…why did this happen?”

Caiden had been kneeling in front of her, but he moved so that he was sitting next to her against the cavern wall. He leaned his head back against the rock wall and sighed.

“My name isn’t Jesus. I’m Caiden Riis.”

“That explains nothing,” Quinn said faintly.

“I’m a sorcerer.”

“Oh.” She looked at him. She thought that her instinctive response to hearing that should have been to kill him, or at least knock him out, but she felt no desire to maim the guy who had just saved her life. Supposedly. Besides, everything was upside down now, and Salvatore…

“I was part of the unit that you guys were fighting, only my job was to stay behind as a last resort, and heal the other members if needed. Except things didn’t go exactly according to plan.”

“They never do,” Quinn mumbled numbly, remembering that Sal had told her that once.

“Yeah. And when I saw everybody fall, I was supposed to go out, but I don’t know. I was confused by what was happening.”

“What was happening?”

Caiden glanced at her, and then at Marissa’s crumpled form. He shifted uncomfortably. “She happened.”

“Marissa,” Quinn muttered. “I think she…she tried to kill me.”

“Which is weird,” Caiden said, “Considering she just took out two of our sorcerers. But that in itself was weird, because the last time I checked, her name wasn’t Marissa and she isn’t mortal.”

“What are you talking about?” Quinn asked helplessly. “That’s Marissa Queens. I’ve known her for a couple years now.”

“I’ve known her since I was two,” Caiden replied softly. “Her name is Scarlett Rowan. And she’s a sorcerer.”

“…Why?” Quinn whispered. The question didn’t make sense, but Caiden knew what she was trying to ask nonetheless.

He sighed. “I have no idea. I’m confused, too.”

“What did you do to her?”

“Knocked her out. She’ll probably be out for at least another ten minutes.”

“But why? Aren’t you a sorcerer?” Quinn sat up, still holding her stomach, though it was completely healed. Her heart felt heavy and leaden, like her arteries had suddenly gone into hibernation and her blood crawled like snow through her veins.

Caiden rubbed his eyes and didn’t remove his hands from his face. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice muffled by his fingers. “It was just a reflex. Before I knew it I jumped out, knocked Scar out, and healed you.” He peeked at her through his fingers. “You’re not gonna kill me, are you?”

Quinn managed a wry smile. Her cheeks felt stiff from her tears. “I think that might be rude, even if you are a sorcerer.”

They were silent for a moment. Quinn’s mind was swimming with too many thoughts, too many questions that she could barely formulate into spoken word.

Caiden turned his head to look at her. “Who was she to you?” He asked, softly.

Quinn closed her eyes and chuckled bitterly. “Marissa’s…she was my friend. She was like my role model. So beautiful and strong and smart.” She let the words fall like barbs. “I thought she was honorable. The epitome of what the V’s stood for. I think I…I think I even had a crush on her.”

Her laughter had turned to sobs, quiet ones that wracked her chest and made it hard for her to breathe. Caiden looked at her with sympathy, unsure of what to say.

“But she isn’t. She is…I don’t know who she is,” Quinn whispered.

Caiden looked at Scarlett, at her familiar auburn locks and lithe frame. The sister he grew up with—not by blood, but close enough. He felt as though he was viewing this whole scene from some remote, distant place, and hadn’t come around to the fact that this was a reality he would have to deal with, yet.

“I don’t know who she is, either.”

“Why would she do any of this?” Quinn asked. “It’s one side or the other. Sorcerer or mortal. But she pretended to be on ours, except she attacked some of yours, too. I just…I don’t understand.”

Caiden rubbed his temples. “Me neither.”

There was another silence.

“What do we do now?” Her voice was soft and helpless, and a little hoarse.

“I guess we go back to whoever we report to.” He winced when he realized that Salvatore had been the leader of the V’s, and Salvatore was dead.

“And who do you work for?”

“Astor,” Caiden replied. He looked at her. “This isn’t what it’s supposed to be like. We’re supposed to be fighting each other.”

Quinn closed her eyes. “Nothing is what it’s supposed to be like right now. And you saved my life. I’m not going to fight you.”

When Caiden didn’t respond, Quinn opened her eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I still don’t really know why you did it, but thank you. You should go back to Astor. I can’t complete my mission now, and you have to take care of Mar—Scarlett.”

Caiden felt his heart sink as he looked at Scarlett. How was he supposed to explain this to Astor? Scarlett knew what had happened, she knew that he had doubts about his role, and once she awoke she would tell Astor the truth.

Quinn noticed his pained expression. “Tell Astor you thought she was a traitor,” she urged. “Say you attacked her because you saw her attacking sorcerers, and you were just trying to defend your unit.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, a little unconvinced. “I’ll do that.”

He stood up, and then looked down at Quinn, still slumped against the wall. “You should go. They’ll all wake up soon enough.”

She tried to stand, but stumbled and fell back against the wall again. Caiden frowned. “Are you alright?”

“It hurts,” she whispered.

He bent down, lifting her shirt to examine her abdomen. It was smooth, with no signs of having ever been punctured. “That doesn’t make sense. I healed you. You should be uninjured.”

She laughed, and Caiden didn’t understand until he looked at her face, smeared with grime and blood and dirt, and saw that her tears were making tracks in the dust caking her features. “I don’t think it’s the kind of thing you can heal, Caiden.”

He felt a pang, looking at her, with her stiff fingers and numb legs against the wall.

She was heartbroken.

Her brother’s corpse lay near them. And another dead person, the one she had known as Marissa Queens, had evaporated into thin air. All that remained was Scarlett. He almost felt like crying for her, though he barely knew her.

“I’m sorry,” he said, very quietly. “But the sadness won’t kill you. On the other hand, if they wake up, they will.”

Quinn nodded, exhaustedly. “You’re right.” She forced herself up, bracing her arm against the wall for support. She looked at him for a prolonged moment, as if she had something to say, but didn’t know how to phrase it.

Caiden decided to speak for her. “Next time we meet, we’ll be fighting.”

“Yes.” Quinn paused to choose her next words carefully. “But I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.”

Caiden nodded in acknowledgement and offered her a small half-smile. And for a second, they were just two children who didn’t quite know if they believed in what they were fighting for, children who had just realized that they had been lied to and that they themselves were the most honest people in the room.

And then Brietta stirred, and Quinn was a V once more, and Caiden was a disobedient chess piece that would have to answer to Astor shortly.