Chapter 12

“I think that there’s a traitor in the council!” That jumped right to the top of the list of things said to me that blew my mind.

“What,” I asked, still not believing my ears.

“Look, I know what I am saying sounds ludicrous but...”, Emma said, not completing her sentence.

“You think!” My voice had gotten really high pitched, a clear sign of whenever I was in panic mode.

There was a brief moment of silence, with us just staring at each other, not knowing what the other was thinking. Finally, the silence got to me and I said, “What do you want from me anyway? I am the least equipped to deal with this situation. If you didn’t know, let me tell you, I have been an Untethered for just a few weeks.”

“I know this is too much to take in at once but don’t get overwhelmed. I just wanted to let you know so that you could watch out for any further attempts on your life,” Emma said in a placating tone.

That didn’t soothe my nerves at all. In fact, it only served to fray my nerves even more. Further attempts on one’s life aren’t something a man wants to be constantly on the lookout for. Not for the first time and I suspected not for the last time either, I cursed my luck after entering this world. I mean, if you can’t even trust the guardians of the Untethered, who the hell can you trust?

We tried for some small talk after that but the conversation was stilted after that, as expected. My last day at the council headquarters was spent looking at everyone with mistrust.

I especially hated the fact that I was suspicious of Shadow, Light, and Nova after all they had done for me. It seemed like a poor repayment of their services and I found myself unable to meet their eye as they came to send me off as I was about to leave the headquarters. If they sensed something was off with me, they didn’t say anything, instead of giving me a few pointers to follow when I trained on my own.

I had just exited the premises when I ran into the current bane of my existence, Emma. She just looked at me before proceeding to walk beside me, matching my pace. After a few seconds of me trying to quicken my pace and get rid of her and her continuing to match me step by step, I had finally had enough.

“What do you want now? Not content with compromising my relationship with my teachers?” I was unable to keep the snide remarks to myself, tired of whatever game this woman was playing with me.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after our talk last time,” Emma concerningly said.

“Yeah, I am okay. No need for you to worry.” I said in a flat tone, eager to end this conversation.

“Good, just look out, will you?”

That had me reaching my breaking point. My frustration at this situation, my guilt at my suspicion towards my teacher and the fear of the threat to my life, all these emotions had been warring inside for the last day and now I needed to vent.

“I said you didn’t need to worry. What part of that didn’t go through your head? And tell me something, why are you worrying about me anyways? I mean, in all our conversations till now, you have never given the impression that you gave two hoots about me. So, what changed now?”

“And most importantly, how do I know you aren’t the suspicious one? The traitor? The only thing you have accomplished is poisoning my mind when it comes to the council. How come you are hanging at the council anyways? Didn’t you say you were slotless? So, what makes you so special?”

Emma’s face had morphed into stone during my tirade. She didn’t let any of her emotions show as she said, “Sorry for being bothered about you. Anyways, I just wanted to come to you with a warning. The scent of the grim reaper lingers until something powerful washes it away. Like the red Luna. And it’s tomorrow. So, I just wanted to warn you to not wander into that area because the griffin may come back. Because I don’t think that the reason for the griffin coming there in the first place would have gone way, not while the mark of the grim reaper still permeates the environment.”

With that said, she just turned around and went her way, not looking back even once, leaving me behind in a pit of guilt and foreboding. The whirlwind of emotions that was raging inside me had me conflicted and had clouded my emotions. Now I had seemingly treated another person unfairly and jeopardized my relationship with them.

This constant looking behind my back, the suspicion regarding every person, I knew it was going to be the death of me. I was not the kind of person who thrives in paranoia and never would be.

With these thoughts swirling in my mind, I reached home. I stayed home, not having any desire to go to the club and seeing Frank or Frost. I didn’t think I could confront them with the situation. The reason for this was twofold. The first being the last time I had seen Frank he hadn’t known anything about the council and I didn’t think one month would have changed that. Secondly, Frost was on the council. And that made him a suspect. And I didn’t think I could bear to look at Frank and Frost with suspicion clouding my eyes. The guilt would be too much for me to bear, especially after all they had done for me.

So, that’s what I did for the rest of the day. Lazing about, stewing in my own emotions, not knowing what to do or what lay ahead. The day passed in a strange sort of melancholy that shouldn’t be the highlight of a teenager’s day.

In the evening, I was looking at the two moons in the sky, bathing the world in their divinity when I remembered something Emma had said. That Luna was going to be red tomorrow. And how the trace of the grim reaper would not be washed away from that area and that would draw out the griffin again. Which meant the reason for the griffin coming to that area in the first place should still be there.

That all meant one thing. Evidence. Either there was a traitor in the council trying to kill me or there wasn’t. And I just wanted to put my mind to ease one way or another. Having to watch my back constantly didn’t seem to be doing me any favours. I needed to be certain to plan the next course of action.

So, it was after this inner contemplation that I decided that I had to revisit the area where I had unlocked my ability. Tonight. It didn’t matter that the trace of the grim reaper would still be there and I would put myself in danger, I just had to know. It was a foolish and dangerous plan, to be sure, but I didn’t have anyone else to rely on and this is the best I could come up with alone.

I set out an hour before midnight. The night seemed to be stifling, filled with ominous silence, reflecting my own mood perfectly. I set myself on a brisk pace, constantly on the lookout to see if anyone was following me. I was seeing moving shadows at every corner and I wasn’t even in the area yet.

I reached the area finally. I don’t know why but I felt that there was an imaginary threshold just before entering the area. Like I knew that there was no going back once I entered. A now or never sort of situation. With a deep breath, I stepped past that threshold.

At once, I could tell something had changed. The air seemed charged as if live wires were running through the environment. The stench of death and blood hung in the air, the entire area telling anyone who would listen that this area was recently a guest to death itself.

I didn’t need to look at my tattoo to know it was glowing. Or rather, the mark of the reaper, the scythe was glowing. The dim light, red as blood, seemed to glow eerily in the pitch dark of the night, making my heart clench more times than I could care to count.

As I continued to walk deeper into the area, the tattoo seemed to glow even more brightly. Eventually, it was bright enough that someone would who just came into the area could be forgiven if he thought that the Luna was red tonight.