Everlasting Flame

by Katelyn Anderson

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Christina Sky. She sure lived up to her name. Her hair was light blue and white, puffed up like a cloud. Blue was the more dominate colour; after all, there was more sky than clouds. Her hair seemed thin flowing down her back but she somehow managed to add volume to the top. It was quite stunning, really. She had long eyelashes. It was probably the mascara that did it. Dark blue eyeliner flicked across her eyes with a slim tail tip. The darkness of the blue made her eyes look bluer than the sky. The fairness of her skin added to that effect. If her favourite colour wasn’t blue, I’d say she’d be rocking some kind of gothic outfit. The black laced choker around her neck was a good indication. She was in her early thirties and didn’t have any wrinkles. I highly doubted a Tainted Being worked their way up to the top of an agency that killed their kind for a living. Perhaps her job wasn’t as stressful as everyone thought.

  Winters, Anthony, and myself were sitting in Sky’s office. Her office was a lot friendlier than Dane’s. The colour scheme wasn’t so depressing. Paintings of the Northern Lights covered the cream coloured walls. The office furniture was black with specks of silver, imitating the night sky. The floor was made from white marble tiles that were outlined with silver and gold designs.

  I hadn’t actually met Anthony before. I didn’t really know how he got caught up with Dane. He was the nicest guy I had ever met and actually had a sense of humour. He had chocolate brown hair and green eyes that sparkled like emeralds. You could tell he was a sweet person just by looking at him. He had a kind face and a natural smile.

  Anthony was the only one in the room not wearing an agent dress code. His clothes were presentable but you could tell he didn’t belong in the building. He wasn’t going to stay long. Dane put him on the first flight out when Winters called to tell him the latest case developments. Anthony was the only approachable person with powers Dane had. I was thankful he didn’t send Maria. I would have felt inclined to shoot her, multiple times. Anthony didn’t trigger any violent urges; he was lovely.

  “I appreciate that you took the time to see us, Agent Sky. I understand you have a busy schedule,” Winters began after taking a sip of water.

  I saw the discreet ripples in his glass from a tremor in his hand. He was nervous. I would be, too. Opening up about magic to a person clueless of its existence wasn’t an easy task. It’s not something you bring up in casual conversation. That’s why Anthony was here. Reading minds was a neat parlour trick but he couldn’t make lightning zap out of his fingers. Lorenzo could.

  “I’m surprised it took you this long to reach out to me. Your group has kept to themselves these last six months.” Sky spoke in a very posh English accent. “Did you finally work out that you needed help solving this case?”

  Winters gave me strict instructions before we got here. I was to keep my smart ass comments to myself and only speak when spoken to. I didn’t appreciate her tone of voice but I kept my mouth shut. It wouldn’t kill me to behave myself for a few moments, right? I owed Winters after the hug neither of us would speak about again. It was a one-time-spur-of-the-moment thing.

  “The case is solved. I apologise for keeping to ourselves after you’ve been so hospitable. We were under a lot of pressure and just wanted to get the job done as soon as we could. I know what it’s like having another branch on your turf. It becomes a competition and makes local agents uneasy.”

  Sky tapped her manicured nails on the desk; more blue to add to her obsession. “You can cut the nice guy act. I’ve heard stories about you, Winters. You’re a hard ass and don’t suck up to anyone.”

  I fought the impulse to laugh. I bit my lip to stop the smirk from forming and to prevent giggles from escaping my silent shell. That was probably one of the hardest things to do. I really wanted to laugh. The posh accent made the comment even funnier.

  “Only when I have to be. Out of courtesy, I’m being polite. The news I have to share is delicate and being a hard ass won’t make it any easier on you,” Winters spoke, keeping his tone soft.

  Winters gripped my knee tightly in warning, knowing I was close to laughing out loud. That was his way of telling me to hold it together.

  “Yes, we need help, but not to solve the case. We need more men,” Winters continued.

  “Take who you need. There are a lot of families waiting for their loved ones to come home. I won’t get in the way of that,” Sky said.

  I think that statement killed my laughter and replaced it with two things: an itch in my throat and water in my eyes. I kept a good poker face but hearing that made my heart break. I resisted the urge to softly curse and kept my opinions to myself.

  “They’re not coming home, Agent Sky. That’s what I’m here to discuss,” Winters said, tone careful and gentle. He released his grip on my knee and held his hands in his lap. “We are dealing with a madman who’s poisoned the minds of those he captured with magic.”

  It was hard to tell what was going through Sky’s mind when Winters used the M word. I saw a smile twitch in the corner of her lips. I wasn’t sure if the moisture in her eyes was from shock, or restraint from trying not to burst into hysterical laughter.

  “Magic?” she repeated with raised eyebrows. Scepticism oozed from her posh accent. She shook her head, quivering her sky coloured hair.

  When Winters didn’t say anything else and kept a neutral expression, Sky pursed her lips. She looked at all three of us individually for confirmation that Winters was being serious. I think she was waiting for one of us to laugh, an indication that it was nothing but a joke. None of us were joking or laughing.

  “Seriously? That’s a new one. Next you’re going to tell me that leprechauns and fairies are real.” Sky paused to laugh. “Winters, I don’t know what you’re playing at. Clearly the case has taken its toll on you and your team. Hand over the information and my branch will handle capture and rescue. We don’t need this fairy-tale nonsense to spread.”

  “It’s not nonsense. How do you explain the existence of Tainted Beings and the flames they control?” Winters replied, keeping his cool. I felt him tense up beside me during Sky’s rant.

  “Science,” Sky stated firmly. “There is no such thing as magic.”

  “Winters, may I?” Anthony intervened.

  “Knock yourself out,” Winters muttered, finishing his water and setting the empty glass down on the table with a loud clunk. I didn’t have to be telepathic to know that Winters wanted to be drinking something a lot stronger than water. Scotch, perhaps.

  Anthony placed his hand on the edge of the table, ready to grasp an imaginary glass. Winters’s empty glass shot across the table into Anthony’s grasp before sliding back to where it was. It was like watching a Ping-Pong ball. Backwards and forwards it went. Sky snatched the glass off the table before it smashed into the water jug and made a mess.

  That was unexpected. I thought Anthony was just telepathic. Telekinesis was also one of his talents. He didn’t ooze magic like Lorenzo and Damian did. All I could feel was a slight chill from the air conditioning. Anthony didn’t have a strong gravitational pull of power. It was subtle and discreet.

  “Still clinging to your science?” Winters asked, using air quotations. My sass influenced him every day. It was as if he was channelling me. I was about to say something similar until he took the words right out of my mouth.

  “Sliding a glass across the table like a Ping-Pong ball isn’t enough to convince me,” Sky mentioned curtly. Seems Winters wasn’t the only one channelling my train of thought.

  Yup, knew we should have gotten someone who could shoot lightning bolts out from their fingers.

  Anthony waved his hand over the top of the water jug in a circular motion. Water gradually rose out of the jug, spinning around the glass like a tornado with a quiet slosh. It was mesmerising.

  Anthony changed the way he was moving his hands, gradually sculpting a work of art. A finely detailed rose, the size of a large sunflower, sat in the jug, held together by Anthony�
�s magic. It nearly looked like the flower was made from glass. The water was still swirling, making the petals quiver. He flicked his hands, scattering the water and moulding it back into a snowflake that slowly turned like a ballerina in a music box.

  “I could do this all day, Sky. What more will it take to convince you that magic is real?” Anthony asked, lowering his hands. The water fell back into the jug with a loud plop. “There are people out there who take advantage of their gifts. They inflict pain on unsuspecting victims. They try to form an army for world dominance with their power. The man responsible for the disappearances has poisoned the minds of those you wish to save. They will kill you, and they will keep killing until nobody is left to stand up against them. Eliminating every last tainted soul is the only option, Sky. This will not end with Oliver’s death. Everyone infected by him must die, along with him.”

  Silence filled the room after Anthony spoke.

  I had managed to last this long without saying something sass related, so I remained silent.

  Sky was thinking. The strain was visible on her face.

  “My team is not capable of taking down an army singlehandedly. We need more agents who will be open enough to accept that magic–”

  “No,” Sky interrupted Winters; her sharp voice cut across his sentence with ease. “I’ll give you the agents you need but the existence of magic stays in this room. We will tell the agents joining on your mission that the victims have been drugged with a fatal dose of poison that makes them deranged and has no cure, that killing them will be an act of kindness. Once the mission is completed, we will tell the waiting families that the missing were already dead by the time we got to them. Case closed. Get out of my office.”

  “That’s–”

  “Winters,” Anthony warned, shaking his head. He was the only one in the room that knew exactly what Sky was thinking.

  When I stood from my chair, I gripped Winters’s shoulder gently. “We all knew that it would come down to this. At least she’ll give us the men we need.”

  “Joan Grayson, is it?” Sky asked me, her tone still sharp.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said.

  “I heard rumours that you wiped out over a hundred people in less than a day. If you have a mass murderer in your team, then why did you come here and ask me for men who come nowhere close to Joan’s kill count?”

  “Don’t answer that, Winters. I’ve got this,” I said, giving his shoulder a quick pat before I let him go. “I’m not a superhuman. Those criminals I killed had no idea I was coming or knew what hit them. What we’re dealing with now comes nowhere close to what I did. These missing people are highly trained field agents, not thugs. They’re expecting us. They know we’re coming, eventually. We need all the help we can get. Our team has always been proud and independent but we know when we are in over our heads. That’s why we came to you for help,” I paused to take a short breath. “Just because I’m a mass murderer doesn’t mean that I don’t regret what has to be done. Neither of us wanted it to come down to this but it’s out of our hands. They need to die. They cannot be rescued. Everyone sees us as an elimination squad but we had hoped to save these people, not kill them. Our hearts are just as heavy as yours.”

  Sky pursed her lips and dropped eye contact with me to stare at Winters. “Will thirty do?”

  “That will suffice,” Winters replied, rising from his chair. “Please get them ready as soon as possible. I want to get this over with and go home.”

  “I’ll call them now and get them to gather here for a debriefing. Do you have the coordinates?”

  “So you can send them without us? I don’t think so. I’ll give them that information after you debrief them,” Winters said, making his way to the door with long strides. “Joan, you know where to find me when you’re done.” The door slammed shut behind him.

  “You two stay,” Sky said, reaching for her phone. She made a few calls to get together the required agents, telling them all to meet her in her office in thirty minutes.

  I remained standing, gripping the back of an unoccupied seat.

  Anthony got up from his seat and stood beside me. We were the same height.

  Sky’s eyes fell on Anthony. “Just how much information did you get out of my head?” she questioned, borrowing the infamous smooth tone of voice that Dane was so fond of using.

  “Enough,” Anthony replied with an innocent shrug. “I never expected to find an undercover council member at the head of a T.E.A branch. Most curious.”

  “Wait, what?” I breathed, struggling to believe that sliver of information.

  Now it made sense why Sky was so adamant that the existence of magic wasn’t to leave this room. The council was strict about their rules and the exposure of magic to a civilian was forbidden. What I didn’t understand was why she was here. The council forever prattled on about keeping out of the war between humans and immortals, yet here she was, running a branch.

  “If you like living, I suggest you keep your mouth shut,” she advised us, blue eyes glittering with a pulse of magic that echoed her unsteady heartbeat; that was adrenaline making her heart race.

  “Dane wouldn’t believe me so I don’t plan on telling him anything,” Anthony said, sensing the tension and her eagerness to silence us. He subtly nudged me in the ribs.

  “Likewise. I won’t say a word,” I said, prompted by Anthony’s nudge.

  There were so many things I wanted to say to that woman. I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to knock some sense into her. The council should have intervened a long time ago but they hadn’t done anything. What was the purpose of being in control of one branch? Maybe it wasn’t just one branch. Maybe there were more undercover members, waiting for the opportune moment to bring the foundation down right under Dane’s nose.

  “Good,” she replied, easing up ever so slightly. “I know what would happen if I were to kill you, Joan.”

  I had a feeling she knew exactly who I was. I prayed Anthony was no longer reading her thoughts or else I would be done for.

  “The same can be said for you, Anthony. I don’t plan to tango with two bringers of death,” Sky added.

  I almost said my uncle is not a bringer of death but I stopped myself before my lips could speak that sentence.

  “You’re not human, either,” Anthony commented. “Your mind is a very complicated structure, one I have not encountered before.”

  “The council keeps many treasures and rare artefacts. You’re right, I’m not human.”

  “If you’re not human, then what are you?” I asked, still struggling to believe that this was happening. I was waiting for someone to pinch me to convince me that I was still awake and this wasn’t a dream.

  Christina Sky rose up from her desk and shrugged off her jacket. She began to unbutton her blouse, starting from the bottom and working her way up. She gave us her back when she was nearing the top.

  The blouse fell from her body and I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. Wings covered her back, tucked together after being restricted by clothes. Her wings stretched several feet once they were granted freedom. The white feathers looked silky smooth. They were beautiful. Her wings folded inwards with a soft swish. She retrieved her blouse from the floor and slipped her arms through the sleeves, covering her wings.

  “Angels and demons exist in this world, too. Pray you do not have the misfortune of running into demons. They are beasts rather than men,” she said, facing us once again when she was presentable. “Run along. We have a criminal to stop and lives to take.”

  “That’s not a very angel like thing to say,” I murmured.

  Could someone please pinch me? The world got turned upside down and I was finding it hard to believe that what I saw had been real. Cyrus could manipulate minds, and I was sure Anthony could too, but I didn’t sense any foul play from Sky. Besides, my mind defence was solid, thanks to Cyrus.

  “A fallen angel,” Sky corrected my earlier comment.

  I wanted to stay to interrog
ate her on my own, to bring up all of the council’s wrongs, but this wasn’t the time. I also wanted to question her to ask why a council member was running a T.E.A branch. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t tell me anything. Oliver and his victims had to be stopped before things got out of hand. I could complain about the council being utterly useless another time.

  Sky knew who I was, and what I was, yet said nothing. The way she stared at me made my skin crawl. A sea of knowledge swum in those piercing blue eyes.

  Anthony escorted me out of Sky’s office because my legs refused to walk on their own. They were numbed by shock. He didn’t drag me. He gently pushed me along, a hesitant hand pressed against my lower back to nudge me forward.

  Angels and demons, you’ve got to be kidding me.

  When Anthony and I were alone in an elevator, he started chuckling quietly.

  “What’s so damn funny?” I snapped, folding my arms defensively and moving away from him.

  “The look on your face, for one.”

  I cursed softly and kicked the wall, inches away from where Anthony was standing. He should be grateful that I didn’t kick his shin. “That took me by surprise is all. I never expected that to happen, at all.”

  “I can cross encountering an ancient celestial being off my bucket list,” Anthony said, grinning like a fool.

  “You’re unbelievable. How can you act so calm after what just happened?”

  Anthony’s green eyes lit up with amusement. His smile didn’t falter. “Joan, I spend most of my time within Dane’s vicinity. I’m used to dealing with crazy and the unexpected. Calm and collective is my resting face.”

  “She might kill us both in our sleep,” I mumbled, rubbing my arms when they prickled with goosebumps.

  “The Angel of Death is afraid of an angel, how ironic.”

  “Shut up before I punch you.”

  Anthony laughed. His grin faded and turned into a frown. “I’m curious, Joan. What did Sky mean by not planning to tango with two bringers of death? Dane is one. Who’s the one who watches over you?”

  “Not Cyrus,” was all I told him before stepping out of the elevator. “You’ve served your purpose. You don’t need to get involved in the mission ahead. Go back home, Anthony.”

  “On the contrary. I need to make sure Ruby and Matt haven’t been compromised by Oliver’s magic... and then I’ll leave,” he said, following me out into the hall. “Not gonna give me the name of the person Sky was referring to?”

  “Nope. It’s none of your business. I will shoot you in self-defence if I feel you prodding around in my head, so don’t get any ideas,” I muttered.

  “I’m not allowed to say anything anyway,” he said with a shrug. “I know what Dane will do the moment I open my mouth about Sky’s true identity so I’m keeping this bombshell to myself. Humour me.”

  “I’m not giving you a name so stop asking,” I repeated, voice firm.

  I knocked on the conference room door. My knuckles stung from how hard I knocked. I didn’t realise how irritated and frustrated I was. I let out a relaxing breath and rolled back my shoulders in an attempt to calm down. Today felt like a day where I would permanently be on edge. There was no calming me down.

  Claire opened the door. Her blue eyes reminded me too much of Sky’s piercing stare. Her blonde hair was tied back in a tight ponytail. “No civilians past this point,” she said, directing that comment at Anthony.

  “Let him through, Claire. He’s one of Dane’s allies,” Winters called out.

  “Oh, sorry. My mistake,” she said, stepping aside and letting us both through.

  The conference room was built to hold over fifty people, which was funny considering there were never enough chairs. A large mahogany table took up the majority of space, a wide oval that held the reflections of everything in the room. Black leather chairs were dotted around the table, around twenty, if not more. It never got to the point where I was bored enough to count how many seats were in the room. The projector screen had a thermal satellite image, undoubtedly the coordinates of where Oliver was holding his puppet army. I wasn’t sure if thirty extra agents were going to cut it. There were a lot of people on the satellite image.

  Winters was standing by the projector screen, assessing the situation with a head tilt. His studying was interrupted by Anthony’s quiet murmur in his ear, requesting to spend some time alone with Ruby and Matt.

  “Ruby, Matt, go with Anthony. It won’t take long. He just needs to make sure you haven’t been compromised by Oliver’s magic,” Winters said, glancing over his shoulder when he spoke.

  “What if we are, you gonna kill us too?” Ruby muttered, rising up out of her seat.

  “No. You haven’t been stuck with Oliver for six months, unlike our missing persons. I’m not going to hurt either of you,” Anthony reassured them, voice soft.

  “Use my quarters. They’re the closest,” Winters said, handing Anthony his keys. He grasped Anthony’s hand and leaned forward to whisper something in his ear. “I need my team in one piece for this mission. Don’t give them back to me with their minds in pieces.”

  “Of course,” Anthony replied, sliding his hand out of Winters’s tight grasp. “I’m delicate.”

  Ruby and Matt left with Anthony. It seemed silly to have this large conference room to ourselves when there were only five people remaining. It would fill up when the selected agents spoke with Sky and came down here to receive their final briefing.

  I still couldn’t believe that an undercover council member, not to mention a fallen angel, was running the London T.E.A branch. I’m glad Anthony was with me when that happened or else I would have considered myself mad for believing such a thing.

  “I’m not sure if thirty agents are going to be enough. Won’t it just be better to bomb the place and be done with it?” I suggested. “We’re wiping out everyone in the building anyway. Might as well do it with style.”

  “We don’t use bombs, Joan,” Winters advised me, voice cold and sharp. “We aren’t terrorists.”

  I waved my hand around even though Winters had his back to me. “Fine, whatever, but using an air strike will minimise our casualties dramatically.”

  Winters snapped the pen he was holding in half. The broken pieces fell onto the floor. “We can’t launch an air strike without scouting the area first. There could be innocent civilians in there. Any scout we send will either be captured, set off traps, or come back to kill us after being influenced by Oliver’s magic.”

  “Send a drone instead of a person,” I suggested.

  “And alert them that we’ve found their base of operations? No. We must use the element of surprise. It’s the only thing we have left.”

  Claire’s hand fell on my shoulder the moment I opened my mouth to say something else.

  I stayed quiet after Claire’s warning gesture. She knew Winters better than anyone in this room. She was silently telling me not to push him any further. He had a short temper and he was on the cusp of losing his cool. Snapping pens could easily lead to snapping necks.

  “I agree with Joan, Winters,” James said, pushing up his glasses when they slipped down his nose. “We are going to be killing a lot of innocent people inflicted by Oliver’s magic regardless of our course of action. I doubt there’s a sane person left in that building. Bombing it is the best option. It’s in an isolated location, too.”

  Winters leaned his forehead against the projector screen and let out a heavy breath that shook his shoulders. He remained like that for several moments, as still as a statue. I was scared to break the silence. The whole team was.

  “I am not going back to Sky’s office to ask her to authorise an air strike,” Winters finally said.

  “I will,” I volunteered. Perhaps it was stupid of me to do so but it gave me an opportunity to speak to Sky alone. I had a lot of questions, questions I was hoping she would answer. The worst she could do was kick me out. She already told me she wasn’t going to kill me.

  “I’ll g
o with you,” Claire offered.

  “Nah, I’m fine. Stay with Winters before he throws chairs around the room.”

  “Don’t give me temper tantrum ideas, Joan,” Winters said, a slight growl to his voice.

  “I once threw my entire kitchen set at my ex-boyfriend. Smashing things is highly therapeutic,” I said before Claire pushed me out of the room; I heard Ryan and James sniggering.

  “I’ll take him to the shooting range to cool off. Perhaps I’ll find some ceramic plates for him to shoot,” Claire said, smiling. “You better go before he decides to throw a chair at you.”

  “Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll let you guys know how I get on.”

  “Just call. I doubt we’ll be sticking around this room for much longer.”

  “Alright. Call you or Winters?”

  “Either or. I’m afraid to leave his side right now.”

  “Yeah. This case has taken its toll on all of us, physically and emotionally. I better get to Sky’s office before the agents she called show up. Catch you later, Claire.”

  “Bye, Joan,” she said with a wave, slipping back inside the conference room.

  I sighed and made my way down the hall to get to the elevators. I glanced at Winters’s quarters when I walked by but didn’t hear a peep. I was hoping Anthony stayed true to his word and didn’t cause them any pain. We were already hurting enough as it was. None of us had been prepared to wipe out the missing people.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket while I waited for the elevator. I had switched it onto silent before entering Sky’s office. I didn’t want a phone call to interrupt our meeting.

  I glanced at the screen to see who was calling and smiled.

  “Hey, beautiful,” Lorenzo said when I answered my phone.

  “Hey. You’re calling me extra early today, what gives?”

  “I guess I felt a little bad for calling late last night. How did you get on?”

  “With?” I prompted, slipping into the elevator when the doors opened. I wasn’t alone so I had to be careful with what I said over the phone. There would be no talk of magic or angels. The people in the elevator would think I was nuts.

  “Giving your team the bad news,” Lorenzo reminded me.

  “Oh, right, sorry. It’s been a crazy day and my mind is all over the place,” I explained, tapping the floor I needed to go to. “It’s not a phone call conversation. That much I can tell you. I doubt you’d believe me face to face, either.”

  “Humour me. You know I believe just about anything you tell me.”

  “Just about anything?”

  “Yes, dear. Just about anything,” he reiterated.

  “I don’t know whether to laugh or be offended.”

  “Both, definitely both,” he said, pausing to chuckle. “When can I expect you to be home? I miss you.”

  “Soon...” my voice trailed off and I let out a heartfelt sigh. “Today, hopefully, if everything goes according to plan.”

  “Famous last words.”

  “Tell me about it. I want a vacation after this case. Totally earned it.”

  “How about a cruise around the Greek Islands, first class?”

  “Sounds wonderful,” I said, stepping out onto my floor. “Hey, I’ve gotta run. I’ll call you later, ‘kay?”

  “Alright, love. Be safe and be careful.”

  “Always am. Love you.”

  “Love you too,” he said before I ended the call.

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I had been holding when I reached Sky’s door. It was open. I knocked since I didn’t really feel like barging in unannounced.

  “Come in,” Sky said, glancing up from her desk when I entered. “I didn’t expect you to be back so soon. Close the door, will you?”

  I did as she asked, mainly because I was going to shut the door anyway.

  I took the seat closest to her and made myself comfortable, sinking into the black cushy chair. My heart was beating ever so slowly. My stomach twisted into an uneasy knot. I had to be mindful of what I said. The last thing I wanted was to ruin the outcome of this case due to my nature of not knowing when to shut the hell up.

  “I’ve come on behalf of Winters to request an authorisation for an air strike. Our target’s base of operations is isolated and it’s the best course of action. It will minimise our casualties dramatically,” I told her.

  Sky riffled through her desk drawers and pulled out a remote. She tapped a button and a projector screen slowly descended from the roof, covering up the paintings on the far wall.

  “Coordinates?” she asked, flicking on the projector.

  I gave her the coordinates without hesitation. She needed to know where the building was before she made the decision to authorise an air strike. She typed the coordinates into her computer, pulling up the satellite image on the projector screen. She switched to thermal scanning and scratched her chin.

  “Hmm, that is very interesting,” she said, doing a quick headcount. “Yes, I see what you mean. An air strike will be the best course of action. Every person in that building is infected by Oliver’s magic.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “I can see the magic flowing through their veins. It’s so strong that I can’t determine if Oliver is in that building, too. Each person is a mirror image. I’ve never seen something like this before...” her voice trailed off in thought. “Yes, I’ll authorise an air strike. If reporters ask, I’ll tell the media that the missing people were infected with a disease that would ultimately put an end to life as we know it.”

  “How are you so comfortable with lying?” I murmured, feeling the knot in my stomach become tighter.

  “The world isn’t ready to hear the truth, Joan. Magic must remain a secret to avoid fear and chaos from spreading. I’m sure you know what it’s like to keep secrets close to your heart,” she said, pouring herself a cup of tea.

  I shook my head when she offered me a cup of tea. “Everyone has secrets.”

  “You can speak freely in this room. It’s warded to stop people from eavesdropping. Anthony’s telepathic range is quite frightening,” she said, stirring her tea. “Your teacher taught you well. Even I haven’t seen such impenetrable mind defence.”

  “Then how did you know who I was?”

  Sky’s eyes fell on my pendant, the one Damian gave me for my eighteenth birthday. I never took it off. It was a part of me. She held the crescent moon with the tips of her fingers for a short moment before letting it fall.

  “I recognised the dormant magic inside that pendant of yours. Damian is well known within the council. When I read your file before you came here, I wasn’t sure if you were the same girl one of our members went out of their way to save,” she paused to sip her tea and set her cup down on the desk. “Why did you choose this path?”

  “Because the council has done nothing to put an end to this war. I wanted to make a difference.”

  “I’m in charge of the second most influential T.E.A branch. I’m here for a reason, Joan. We are waiting for the opportune moment to strike.”

  “The magic council is known for not involving themselves with the war between humans and Tainted Beings. It’s basically your slogan.”

  Sky smiled, showing her pearly white teeth. “Perhaps that’s what we want everyone to believe,” she told me, winking. She held up her hand before I had the chance to speak and dialled a number on her cell phone, holding the phone to her ear. “Connect me through to Myles. I have the coordinates for an air strike that can’t wait.”

  Sky left her free hand raised, signalling me to stay quiet. I didn’t plan to annoy the one person who was capable of changing everything. I needed her on my side.

  I pulled out my phone and sent the following message to Claire: It’s done.