maybe Trev was it.
“I’ll give you the Red Thread leadership, every name I’ve got, as soon as I enter the Darklings,” the Rimian said. “I’ll have no use for them, then.”
“And you’ll follow up with the Darklings, too?” I replied.
He nodded. “Absolutely. I just need to get to the ringleader. Once I know who that is, I can cut the head off the beast. But my only way in is if I become an Aeternae,” Trev said, and gave Kalon a meaningful gander. “It’s time, old friend.”
Kalon thought about it for a moment. “You’re getting yourself in danger. Are you sure about this? If they find out you’re lying, they will cut your head off, and it will all have been for nothing.”
“I’ll go down swinging,” Trev said. “Turn me, Kalon. It’s my prize. I’ve earned it.”
“It’s irreversible. You can never go back.”
“Just turn me, Kalon!” Trev snapped. “We’re wasting precious time here!”
From where I stood, Kalon came across as hesitant. He didn’t really want to turn his friend into an Aeternae, but honor compelled him. Trev had, indeed, earned this opportunity upon winning the Blood Arena tournament. It was time for Kalon to come through for him. In the end, Trev becoming an Aeternae worked to everyone’s advantage, because he was more than eager to infiltrate the Darklings.
And if we brought those SOBs down, I could consider Nethissis’s death properly avenged. If he pointed out her killers… well, that was one heckuva bonus.
Kalon breathed out. “Come to the palace with us. I’ll have a small room set up for you, where we can go ahead with this.”
“You need privacy,” I murmured.
“I have to drain him of most of his blood, then give him some of mine,” Kalon said. “It’s not something we do willy-nilly, in the middle of the street.”
I remembered about the whole process being quite similar to humans turning. Transitioning into an Aeternae was a deeply private and personal affair, as Trev would have to deal with a sudden and powerful thirst for blood. He needed a controlled environment in order to overcome the first few days of the process. Kalon would be by his side at all times.
Once that was done and over with, Trev would then be introduced to the Darklings. Finally, I had something more concrete to help solve Nethissis’s murder. I wasn’t going to leave this place until I got the truth.
Tristan
Even with some of the Red Thread faction in prison, it didn’t feel like much of a win for us. We were no closer to discovering who’d killed Nethissis, and most of the Aeternae we dealt with—mainly the upper echelon, with the fortunate exception of Valaine and Kalon—didn’t even believe that Nethissis had been murdered. It felt like an uphill push, but it was only the first day.
I was nowhere near ready to let go of it.
Everything was connected. That baffled me and scared me the most. One way or another, everything was connected. The Red Threads, the Darklings, the Black Fever, Nethissis’s death. Whether the links were mere coincidence or the result of years of thought-out conspiracies, I wasn’t sure, but I had learned long ago that coincidences weren’t always just that.
Esme and I agreed to keep digging. Kalon and Valaine were still on our side and were equally invested. Valaine had every reason to get to the Darklings, since they had tried to kill her repeatedly. Kalon, her friend, seemed willing to do whatever it took to protect her.
Upon our return from the city, the four of us had sat down in my room, going over the details and assumptions we’d made so far. Kalon and Esme had said they might have something in the pipeline, but they didn’t go into details. I, of course, had demanded more information, but they’d both insisted they would tell us when the time was right. Valaine had convinced me to trust Kalon on this. “If he says he’s got something, he’s got it. Give him time,” she’d urged me.
I’d relayed everything back to Derek, Sofia, and Amal. The three had said the same thing. “Give it time. You’ll get to the truth, eventually.” I wanted to believe that with all my heart, but I worried there were elements working against us. My inner voice told me that we were in for a world of trouble, and we didn’t even see it yet.
Now, dinner in the palace was more awkward than ever. Valaine and Corbin had joined us, along with Kalon and his mother,