The voice chuckled darkly, a sound I hadn’t heard in centuries, but one I remembered like I remembered my own name. “So you think. I’d love to enjoy your company once more, Atlas Crawford. We certainly have much to discuss. You’ll find me in my study.”
“Pretentious weasel…” Hannah sniffed as my Shadows followed me down the staircase.
“In my study, meh, meh, meh…” Callaway mocked, though when I cut the two a side glare, their mouths popped shut immediately.
A dark wooden door opened to a lavish hallway, where priceless paintings and knick-knacks from the past decorated ornate hutches and shelves all along the walls. The wallpaper was the same from our days at Chandler Academy, signifying the Death Elemental department. It was black with primroses dancing in lines, their vines tangling with one another. An eye was in the center of each rose, which always felt like it was staring down at me each time I walked alongside the ominous wallpaper. “Gods, does that horrific sight bring back memories…” I grumbled as I followed the sound of classical music coming from the end of the hallway.
“Of course Chandler’s golden boy would still be obsessed with a decaying, decrepit academy. That place needs to be burnt down already,” Vincent added as he let his fingers trail the wallpaper, so he could feel the texture once more.
“Seraphine will never destroy that place. It’s the only bit of home she has left. Her memories aren’t as poor as the rest of ours, after all. Can you blame her for being sentimental?” I set my hand on the ornate doorknob and turned it carefully, revealing a mystical library straight from storybooks. The floor to ceiling bookshelves were full of tomes older than I was, by a lot, held together by hand-woven gold threading to keep them up to date. I recognized the pattern of the stitching, as the man who catered to these tomes was at his desk, weaving the golden string through the spine of yet another tome.
His eyes were focused entirely on his work, at first, until they glided upright to consume me. There was a lustful undertone to the way he gazed at me, with eyes I had not met the gaze of in over two thousand years. He hadn’t changed much, if at all, really. His attire matched what was current during the time we trained under Chandler’s wing. He wore an antiquated suit with a black brooch from Seraphine that sat on his breast pocket. She had bestowed this upon him during his tenth teacher of theyear ceremony, an honor he won multiple times, but was always humble about. His hair was short compared to the long locks he adorned when he taught me, but his eyes were still as sharp and poignant as ever. His demeanor matched them; he was astonished to see me, delighted, in fact, despite knowing I was not here on good terms.
“You’ve changed so much, so very, very much. You’ve filled out your frame, grew your hair out…” He stood to come around the table and let his fingers glide through strands of hair that sat on my shoulder. “Your eyes sparkle more now than ever before. Two little diamonds in the center of a grand universe.”
“I take it you know why I’ve come to see you?” I questioned.
“Hardly. After the falling out we had, I never thought I’d see you again, admittedly.”
“I wonder whose fault that was?” I hissed, making Ambermourn’s expression fall into deep sadness. I backed up a step so he would let go of my hair, which he still held in his thin hands, before moving to smooth it back into place. “You went behind my back and filled my son’s head with nonsense. He is a nervous wreck as is, and you concocting fairytales to send him over the edge is not helping.”
“Fairytales?” he scoffed, turning on his heel. His near translucent eyes glimmered with disbelief at my words, so deep that even I felt it. “Atlas, what of what I told the boy is false? Are you, or are you not, one of the Four Horsemen?”
“I am,” I bitterly answered.
“And are you, or are you not, subject to the same summons as the rest of them, should someone speak it into existence?”
“I am,” I repeated.
“Then where was I false? What story did I concoct?” Ambermourn held his hands up to front innocence. “I simply warned the child of what could happen if he were not careful. You all have been handing your books out to anyone andeveryone since these Successors arose, and with spells that dangerous inside, someone had to remind him of the importance of keeping the tomes safe. I would have done a grand job had you trusted me-…?”
“And I don’t,” I cut him off, “and for good reason. You act as if you wouldn’t use those spells against us had you had the chance yourself.”
“What do I gain in unleashing the apocalypse on Earth?” he popped, his shoulders rising and falling. “Why are you sure I’m up to no good? Two thousand years is a long time, Atlas. People change, drastically, at that…”
“Some people, yes, but you are not a person.” I slunk forward and hovered over him menacingly, the black smoke of my cloak consuming his body. “You are a snake in the grass, moving about the shadows until you find your chance to strike. You have wronged me severely in the past, so why, now, should I not question your intentions, especially regarding my son?”
Ambermourn’s mouth pulled into a slick side-smile, and he brushed some of the smoke from under his nose as he spoke, “You used to be so fond of me, in many ways, might I add. You’re letting one teeny, tiny thing ruin a companionship that favored us both-…?”
“You and I will never take part in any kind of relationship that benefits one another again, regardless of the nature of that relationship. Not as friends, as lovers, as student and teacher, nor as comrades at arms,” I shot over him, my tone bubbling with betrayal.
His smile fell into a flat line. “You don’t have to be so cruel about it, ya know?”
“How else am I meant to get my point across?” I stepped back and pulled my cloak closed around myself, as if to conceal my body from his prying eyes. “You seem to forget that my tangling with you is what led Phillip to do what he did to me. You filledhis head with the idea that I would submit to his ‘fantasies’ because of what transpired between us, and all that led to was Gehenna for me. You just couldn’t take no for an answer, couldn’t accept that we were nothing more than a good time, and had no consideration for anyone other than yourself. You didn’t care how badly he hurt me, because you didn’t get your way, and that’s all that mattered.”
Ambermourn cut me a dangerous glare, one backed by anger he had been trying to suppress, but it was now bubbling to the surface. “Yes, how could I forget? You stringed me along for some good grades, and when word got out that Atlas Crawford was not the faithful little angel that everyone claimed him to be, you went and blamed me for you leading Phillip on-…”
“Leading him on?” I got in his face again, and this time, he shrunk beneath my horrifically ominous energy. “I neveronceled him on. You told him all about the dumb shit we did, which, by the way, was exactly that: dumb shit. We simply enjoyed one another’s company, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not my fault that you took things the wrong way.”
He sniffed and moved to light a cigarette, which he puffed three times in a steady row before he gestured to the door. “I get it, alright. You want me to keep my hooks out of your kid, but news flash: nothing I said was false. You are a ticking time bomb, and someone needs to make sure that kid knows what you are capable of. He’s the next God of Death, and it’s his responsibility to keep you in line.”
“I do not needanyoneto keep me in line, especially the likes of you.”
“Is that all you came here for? To berate me? I’ll have you know that God of Death or not, you have no right to enter my home and treat me this way, especially after all I’ve done for you.”
I settled down to his surprise, my shoulders slacking as my body relaxed. I was going too far past what I had actually planned to do and needed to get to the task at hand. “You’re right. You do not deserve such cruel treatment. You were simply looking out for me, as you’ve always done.” I brought my hand up and let it trail his cheek, then his neck. He swallowed against my touch, his eyes moving to follow the path my hand took. “I suppose I just wanted to reconnect a bit, to see what you’ve been up to these past few years, and things came out the wrong way. Do you think you can forgive me?”
“I-…I suppose I could…” His lip quivered slightly as he brought his hand up to catch mine. I didn’t pull away to his surprise, which made him swallow again. “You’re… I mean to say…” he cleared his throat, “Is there anything else I can do for you, while you’re here?”
