The irritating part of researching an event that no one wanted to talk about was that whoever had written these history books had gone to great pains to remove any mention of the events that surrounded the war with the Locust Court. There were lots of cryptic passages regarding a great weapon that was unleashed to protect the world against the hungry spirits. Some historians even referred to that weapon as the last defense of the Empyrean Flame. But they never said what the weapon was or how it defeated the Locust Court.
I knew those cryptic hints were about the Eclipse Warriors. I just didn’t know how to dig any deeper to find out the truth about them. It was driving me crazy.
The closest I got during my research came in a book about military units in the Portal Defense Force. Those were the frontline troops in the first phase of the Utter War, and they were the last ones still stationed in the Far Horizon when the war ended. Most of the information about those units was boring, though I did learn that students from the School of Swords and Serpents were impressed into service after the Empyreals suffered tremendous casualties in the war’s opening stages. Abi’s unit, the Scholar’s Brigade, still had many of the same commanders that had served during the war. They must have been powerful Empyreals to resist the effects of aging for so long, or they’d been blessed by the Flame with extended lifespans. Maybe they’d be able to answer some of my questions.
I considered asking him for an introduction, then discarded the idea. Abi would want to know why I was looking into this, and if he caught me in a lie, our friendship would be on the rocks again. It wasn’t worth the risk just to hear an adult lie to me.
The most intriguing tidbit was hidden amongst all the boring lists of names and ranks in that same essay. There’d been a unit known as the Lost. They’d apparently been distinguished in service and had been instrumental in turning the tide against the hungry spirits during the war’s final stages. Despite that, they warranted only a single paragraph of description, which ended with the strangest euphemism for death I’d ever read.
The Lost left the Far Horizon for stranger places and were never seen again.
I let those words roll around in my head, hoping that’d jog something loose. That sentence didn’t line up with what I knew about the Eclipse Warriors, who’d all been executed by the Empyreals who’d created them. Maybe the Lost had made a break for it when they found out the fate of their Earthbound counterparts. That would have been enough to convince me to run away, too. Only, there wasn’t anything beyond the Far Horizon except dead worlds and hungry spirits. Running into that would only have been a slower and more painful death for the Eclipse Warriors.
I was just about to request a book on Empyreal cosmology when a hand fell on my shoulder.
My Eclipse nature instantly activated the Borrowed Core technique to harvest beast aspects from the rats that scuttled along the ceiling above me. It forged a single serpent and lashed out at whoever had been foolish enough to touch me.
Aspects of fear and confusion flooded into my aura, strengthening my serpent. Before I even knew what was happening, the construct had wrenched the hand away from my body and slammed its owner against the wall of the library cell.
“Jace!” Rachel shouted. “What are you doing?”
The sound of my girlfriend’s voice shattered the spell of violence around my darker nature, and the urge retreated. My heart froze, and I prayed my Eclipse nature hadn’t hurt my girlfriend.
Rachel’s robes were in disarray, one sleeve torn almost completely off. She cradled her right hand against her chest, and a livid purple bruise had already started to rise against her skin. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her lips trembled.
I reached out for her, but Rachel pulled back.
“I’m sorry,” I said, ashamed of what had happened.
“Your eyes,” Rachel whispered, her voice low and wavering. “What are you?”
The words stung more than a slap. I blinked hard, willing the darkness of my Eclipse nature to leave me. The look of terror on Rachel’s face was like a knife through my heart, and I knew she’d seen the truth about me in that moment.
Even if Rachel didn’t understand the change that had overtaken me, she knew it was horrible.
“Rachel,” I said, “it’s me, Jace. You just surprised me, that’s all. My new technique—”
“That was more than a new technique,” she whispered.
“Please,” I begged. “Let me explain.”
The terror in Rachel’s eyes convinced me to tell her everything, even if that was a death sentence for me. If I couldn’t control myself, if I hurt those closest to me, then maybe I didn’t deserve to live.
Rachel wasn’t in the mood to listen to anything I had to say. She bit her lip and backed away from me, her eyes locked on mine as if she were afraid I’d attack her again if she dared to look away. When she reached the door, she bolted out of the library cell.
I followed my girlfriend. I had to talk to her. I needed to make her understand.
I nearly collided with Clem, who was heading into my cell as I was rushing out.
“Jace?” Clem stopped me with a hand on my chest. She looked down the hall at Rachel’s fleeing form. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said, raking my fingers through my hair.
“Oh, Jace,” she said. “I’ll talk to her. She looked really upset.”
“No,” I started, then stopped at the quizzical look on Clem’s face.
“She’s my friend, too,” she said. “Even if
