by Leia Stone
Drea gasped as she smacked Marlow’s arm, forcing her to lower the device. “Don’t you dare! She’s not possessed.”
I backed up a step as I eyed Marlow’s scanner. That thing better not go off anywhere near me.
Jacob dropped his feet from Gage’s furniture and leaned forward with a frown. “She shouldn’t be manifesting powers until her birthday, and not until after she’s chosen her house and gone through one of the ceremonies.”
“I told her that already,” Gage growled.
“Well, I got some powers early. Big deal, okay? Can we focus on Gran and my mom?”
“Your mom?” Drea asked, her brow creased in confusion.
I quickly gave them the rundown of what happened while they all listened, completely absorbed in my story. Their faces ranged from shock to horror as I went on about my time in the Netherworld and Shadow City. Only Dash seemed unperturbed. Gage just tapped away on his phone like he was bored.
By the time I’d finished, Drea had worn trails into the carpet. “Your mom’s alive?”
“Yep.”
“Apollyon wanted to see you?”
“Yep,” I confirmed.
“Why do the demons have it out for her?” Jacob asked the room.
“Probably the same reason she heals,” Skye inserted. “Maybe she’s special.”
I shifted uncomfortably, spooning a mouthful of peanut butter into my mouth. “It doesn’t matter. I need to get Arthur’s talisman, save my gran, and then get my mom back.”
“Your gran might have answers as to how your mom is still alive and why Apollyon would want to kidnap you,” Marlow added. “She still hasn’t woken. The healers don’t think she will until you choose, or we heal the curse.”
My stomach tied into even tighter knots at that.
“My father most likely stores his talisman in his penthouse,” Gage spoke up. “He doesn’t need it for rudimentary magic like I do. He’s a master Shade. But he’s on business in London so we have to wait until he gets back.”
Dash barked out in snarky laughter. “Wait until he gets back? I like to rob places that are uninhabited.”
Dash seemed like the kind of guy who had experience robbing places, as mean as that sounded.
Now it was Gage’s turn to laugh. “You think you could get within a hundred feet of my father’s house without being killed? No, we have to be invited.”
Dash pulled the hood away from his face, and I was shocked at how handsome he was. He spent so much time hiding behind that hoodie, now that he’d finally fully revealed himself I was a bit speechless. Dark wavy hair fell to his chin as he glared Gage down with steel gray eyes. But I could see why he covered himself up so often. A long scar ran from the top of his ear, along his jaw, to the bottom of his chin. I’m sure he was self-conscious of it, but I thought it was sexy.
“Then get invited,” Dash snarled. “He’s your daddy.”
Gage was still, the muscle in his jaw ticking. “He’s a glorified sperm donor. He would never let me in there without him around.”
Drea frowned. “Didn’t you grow up there?”
Gage cut a frosty glare to her. “I’ve lived at the academy my whole life, first in London and then here.”
Boarding school? My heart dropped into my stomach. No one to put him to bed at night, no one to put Band-Aids on his booboos. Even with all of Gran’s memory issues, she gave me a beautiful childhood.
“Call your dad,” Jacob demanded, coming to his feet. “Tell him Tatum is thinking of becoming a Lumen. She’s undecided and you really want to wow her with a date in his penthouse. We all know that’s a plausible story, because you’ve done it before.” Unbridled disgust flashed in Jacob’s eyes. That girl Britt must have meant a lot to him.
Gage narrowed his eyes at Jacob but didn’t do anything else as he seemed to consider it.
“He might say no,” he finally said, his voice even and controlled, not rising to Jacob’s bait, but not refuting the insinuation either.
I frowned.
“Don’t let him,” Dash responded. “I know how men like him work. They are all ego. He would rather die than lose Tatum to the Lumens, especially if she’s wanted by Apollyon.”
Gage shook his head. “We haven’t considered the possibility that he might be working with Apollyon, and as soon as I say I have her, demons will show up to take her again.”
“Then we’ll have to be quick. In and out.” Drea rested her hand on a sword at her hip.
Gage looked at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but I was just about to publicly grovel when he spoke. “You’ll get me proof that you’ve destroyed the voice recording?”
Drea’s mouth popped open. “Wait, you’re only helping Tatum because she’s blackmailing you?”
Gage shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “Of course. Why else?”
“Why else indeed?” Drea lifted a brow, suspicion evident by the look on her face.
“We might be able to get in with only an invitation, but it will take a team of us to get out with his talisman. It’s not like I can recruit any of my friends to help,” Gage added.
“You get us in, and we’ll be your team,” Drea confirmed, and the others nodded, even Jacob.
I didn’t feel worthy of this kind of loyalty right now. My emotions were all over the place.
There was a knock at the door and all five Lumens plus me grabbed our weapons and brought them forward. Mine was a spoon, but I was ready to throw down if needed. Scoop someone’s eye out.
“Relax. It’s pizza. I was worried Tate would start eating my countertops if I didn’t feed her,” Gage spat.
His words were ugly, but his actions were sweet. He wasn’t bored on his phone; he was ordering pizza. One of the butterflies tried to take flight in my stomach but I pushed it down, crushing its wings with visions of Claire and Gage making out.
Die, butterflies. Die.
After paying for the pizzas, Gage dropped five large boxes on the counter and told us all to dig in while he went to the back room and called his dad.
I was on my fifth slice when that story about growing up in a boarding school, coupled with him losing his mom so young, wormed its way into my heart.
Gage was broken, and dang it, I really liked a good project.
“This might be a trap,” Gage said for the tenth time.
We were two blocks from his dad’s Manhattan penthouse. Drea and the others were following us, but sticking to the shadows, ready to jump to action when they were needed. Gage said Arthur had been all too eager to get me into his house where he’d told Gage to keep me safe until he could get home. It was totally a trap, but also the only way I was going to save my gran.
“Then it’s a trap,” I declared, slipping my arm into the crook of his.
Drea had loaned me a pretty red silk dress that thankfully went mid-thigh and actually covered my butt. Gage and I now just needed to pose as a couple on a date for all of his father’s cronies who were watching.
“He said he would disable the security system remotely and be here in… ” He glanced at his watch and then shook his head in disgust. “We probably only have like forty-five minutes to pull this off.”
“Then let’s go.” I pulled him across the street.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dash and Jacob scurry down an alleyway, then I heard the beating of wings.
“See you up there,” Drea whisper-screamed, and disappeared around the corner with Skye and Marlow.
Operation Steal Arthur’s Talisman was in full effect. We passed one more block and Gage slowed, stopping us in front of a fancy building with a glass door lobby.
Gage nodded to a front doorman. “Hey, Mickey.”
Mickey nodded curtly and opened the frosted glass door. “Long time no see, son.” I recoiled slightly, flinching at the sight of the black shadowy snake around Mickey’s neck.
My palms were sweating, and I wasn’t sure I could trust myself to speak, when Gage paraded me across the shiny obsidian
floors and up to a bellhop desk.
“I’m Arthur Alston’s son,” Gage told the demon sitting behind a bank of computer screens.
I swallowed hard, trying not to look into his slitted pupils. He looked human but for the snake-like eyes and black scales, both of which reminded me too much of my most recent captor, Trilok. This demon’s nose was broader, and he had patches of peach human skin poking through the dark scales. It was as if he were turning into a human or something. Maybe a level nine?
I shivered involuntarily, and Gage cleared his throat.
“ID,” the demon growled.
This guy must have been new, because Gage didn’t seem to know him like he knew the doorman.
Gage produced an ID and the man scrutinized it before looking up at me, nostrils flaring. “And this is Tatum Powers?”
I bristled at his casual mention of my full name. Gage went very still. “Yes. My date. Now, if you will excuse us.” Gage plucked the ID from his hand and stepped away from the counter, heading for the elevator. The demon picked up a phone and started speaking into it.
Gage pressed the button for the elevator. “It’s definitely a trap,” he whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear him.
“I don’t care,” I shot back.
Take me back to the Netherworld. I would be able to get my mom, then.
The elevator door opened, and Gage tugged me inside, giving the demon guard a nod before hitting the penthouse button. The guard flipped a switch on his desk and then the elevator doors shut, and we started to ascend.
“Drea—” I started when Gage suddenly moved forward, pressing his lips to my neck and catching me off guard.
“We’re on camera,” he whispered into my ear. “They can hear you.”
My brain short-circuited then. I knew he was just trying to get the message to me without being heard by the guard on the elevator camera, but holy yum. His lips trailed across my neck, his breath splashing over my collarbone as heat shot through my body.
With one last brush of his lips on my skin, he pulled back and then I was met with his burning green gaze.
“I’m sorry I kissed Claire in front of you. It was a shitty thing to do,” he said.
I froze, I hadn’t actually expected an apology. “It was.”
His brow furrowed, and I opened my mouth to say more when the bell on the elevator dinged and we jolted to a stop. When the doors flew open, I was ready for anything—demon attack, Netherworld portal, his dad holding a sword. But instead I was met with a gigantic open room oozing so much opulence I could only stare in shock, my mouth hanging open.
The floors in here were white quartz with a gray vein running through them, and flecks of… I leaned in close… gold.
An open entryway gave way to a living room which was decorated with blues, creams, and golds. It was not my style at all, but it had a charm to it.
“My dad dropped the protective wards,” Gage muttered, looking up into the corner of the room. I followed his gaze and noticed a small camera propped in the corner. The red flashing light blinked, and I chewed my lip. “But I’m sure he’s still watching,” he added.
Where was Dash? He was supposed to—
We were momentarily plunged into darkness, and then the lights flicked back on. I glanced at the camera again and there was no red light. He’d taken out the security cams.
“Go time.” Gage dropped my arm and rushed forward, through the glitzy apartment and back to the sliding glass door. I followed him, trying not to focus on the jaw dropping view of downtown.
A blur of white and gold feathers streaked through the air and then Jacob and Dash both dropped onto the balcony with Drea and Skye in their arms. Marlow was our lookout on the ground and would notify us if she saw Gage’s dad or any demons.
Gage threw the door wide open, and the boys retracted their wings as they set Drea and Skye down and then stepped inside.
“I have Marlow on speaker,” Jacob informed us as he looked around the space, taking it all in.
“All clear down here,” Marlow’s voice came through his cell phone.
“Nice crib.” Skye ran her hand over the back of the sofa, and Gage looked at Drea.
“Did you get it destroyed?” he asked her, wanting to verify that I couldn’t use the voicemail of him calling in the demon attack against him before moving forward with our plan.
Drea nodded, handing him her phone. He read something on her screen and then sagged in relief, nodding to the back of the apartment when he passed it back to her.
“My father’s office is this way.”
Jacob and Skye stayed back, light weapons drawn, while Dash and Drea followed Gage and me to a set of double doors.
Gage indicated a keypad. “Battery operated. You can’t bring it down the same way as the cams.”
Dash chuckled at that and pulled out some little black zipper case. It was the size of a book, filled with tiny wires and screwdrivers and… nail scissors? Taking a pocketknife, he popped the panel off of the wall and Gage stiffened. “Careful, don’t damage the casing. I need this to look like his talisman was already missing when I got here.”
Dash looked up at him. “You really think he’ll believe that?”
Fear crossed Gage’s face and I chewed on my lip, pulling him to the side while Dash worked on the door.
“What?” Gage asked in an annoyed tone.
“If you really think your dad will find out it was you and hurt you…. I won’t do it,” I told him. “I can find another way to get it that doesn’t involve you.”
Gage froze for a second, barely breathing, not even blinking, just staring at me, expressionless. “I can handle my old man. You just save your gran.”
He moved to step away from me and I caught his arm. “After tonight, when I get the talisman—”
“You go back to Lumen Academy, have your ascension ceremony, and have a nice life.” His jaw clenched as he ground his teeth together, but there was a hint of vulnerability in his eyes. He didn’t mean it.
I stepped closer to him, letting my body brush up against his. “Come with me,” I whispered.
His sharp intake of breath was audible, and he looked at me in shock.
“Got it!” Dash muttered, and then the doors opened.
Gage and I were stuck in a stare down. I was going to Lumen Academy, and I didn’t want to give up on him, give up on that spark of goodness I saw inside of him. He blinked, shaking his head as if coming out of a daze, and then brushed past me, moving into the office.
A deep sigh escaped my chest. I wasn’t going to give up on Gage, but I did need to focus on the task at hand.
I stepped into the space and moved around a large oak desk to a shelf of books behind.
“What is the talisman?” I asked Gage, knowing he’d probably withheld this information from me until I made good on my promise to destroy the evidence.
“I don’t actually know for sure, but—”
“You don’t know for sure?” I shrieked. “Are you kidding me? All this risk and you don’t even know exactly what we’re looking for?”
Dash and Drea riffled through papers and drawers, ignoring our spat.
“I didn’t grow up with him like a normal dad! I told you that!” he yelled, and I instantly felt bad.
“Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry.” Anxiety made me extra cranky.
Gage walked over to a painting and stared at it with his head cocked to the side. “I remember him playing with a black pearl a lot when I was little. Back when my mom was still alive. I suspect it’s that.” He pulled the painting off the wall, and we all stared at a safe built into the wall. “Bingo.”
Every single one of our heads swiveled in Dash’s direction. The Lumen chewed his lip, inspecting the safe. Moving forward, he placed his hand on the metal door.
There was a pop and Dash’s body was thrown across the room and into the opposite wall. Drea shouted and ran to him. A trickle of blood flowed from one of his nostrils and both his ears. S
haking his head, he wiped at the blood under his nose, smearing it across his cheek as Drea helped him to his feet.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Demon magic.” Dash looked to Gage. “I can’t crack the safe until the ward around it is removed. None of us are experienced enough to do that, so you’re going to have to.”
Gage paused, indecision clear on his face.
“You can do that, right?” I asked.
His gaze swept to me and held. A muscle in his jaw jumped, and then he nodded. “Yeah, I got it.”
He turned to the safe and lifted his hands, muttering another round of nonsense words as his fingers poked and prodded at some invisible points. It looked like he was shocked a time or two, because his hands kept spasming. He pulled them back a couple of times to shake them out.
“I’m almost there,” Gage announced a few minutes later.
Dash nodded. “Good. I’ll need my other kit once you’re through. It’s in the duffle on the patio.”
“Got it!” Drea answered and bolted from the room.
Not thirty seconds later, Drea was back, Jacob in tow.
“It’s down,” Gage said and stepped away from the safe to make room for Dash.
A fine layer of sweat now dotted Gage’s brow and I noticed a tremor in his hands as he rubbed the cuff concealing his talisman. He didn’t take the leather covering off this time like he had with me, and I wondered if that was because Dash and Drea were in the room.
He caught me watching him and quickly shoved his fists in his pockets. I frowned, concerned he was hurt or injured from removing Arthur’s protection ward, but knowing he was too stubborn to ever admit it if he was.
“So, not to make anyone panic or anything, but Arthur just stepped out of a cab,” Jacob informed us as he looked down at his phone screen. Gage went rigid.
“With a super creepy dude,” Marlow added over the cell phone speaker.
Dash cursed and then went into blindingly fast mode. He tore open his other kit and pulled out a doctor’s stethoscope, placing the metal circle to the wall of the safe.
Okay, we straight-up just went Ocean’s Eleven on this robbery.
