I look from her to the ladder, my temper sparking even as a voice whispers that this is enough . . . for now. Take her promise and go, and figure out the rest later.
“I didn’t misrepresent myself,” she says softly. “All right, maybe I led you guys to think I’m your age. I’m a college freshman. You would have found out the truth as soon as Paige arrives. I am a Sabrina—I just joined a little late.”
“And you joined the Sabrinas for the same reason you joined the conference? A legitimate desire to learn with zero ulterior motives?”
She shoves her hands in her pockets and rocks on her heels. “That’s complicated, Logan, but I’ll take it up with Paige. I can absolutely guarantee I’m not a threat.”
“You tricked my sister. Got on her good side when she really needed a friend . . . who she’s now going to discover is a fraud.”
“What? No. I’m eighteen, Logan. I like Kate, and I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t be friends. It’s not like I’m a thirty-year-old pretending to be a teenager. What Kate saw is the real me. There’s just . . . a little more.”
I nod and glance at the ladder again.
“Go,” she says. “Allan and I will be fine. We’ll search for Kate and watch for her, and I will not poke around or anything else.”
“What if the witch comes back?”
“She won’t. This is just her hideaway for . . . extracurricular activities.” She looks at the mummy. “We’re safe here.”
“Fine, but before we go, I need you to speak to Allan, at least briefly, and make sure he’s okay staying with you, given the change in circumstances.”
She agrees, and we head downstairs.
Allan is fine with it. More fine than I am. Before we go, he takes me aside. We go into the kitchen where he leans against the table, hands shoved in his pockets.
“Does Kate know?” he asks.
“About Holly?”
“No, about . . . me.”
It takes a moment to realize what he means. When I open my mouth, he says, quickly. “You didn’t know. I could see that. I’m guessing, then, that if Kate knew, she never told you.”
I shake my head. “If she knew, she would have told me. She didn’t.”
He relaxes, and I remember our conversation yesterday about Kate.
“That was the problem, right? You wanted more than she was ready to give. Relationship-wise.”
“Is that what she said?”
“Sure. Did you think it was something else? It wasn’t. She really did like you. Just not as a long-distance boyfriend.”
“You thought that’s why she broke it off,” I say. “She found out you were trans.”
“That I was trans and didn’t tell her,” he says. “Her first kiss with a boy, and then she finds out . . .”
“That you’re a boy. If Kate did discover you were trans, she might have asked a whole lot of awkward questions, but that’d be it. She kissed a boy. She wouldn’t have thought of it any other way.”
He exhales. “Okay. Thanks. I still need to mention it to her.”
“Only if you want to.”
“I want to. And I’m glad it wasn’t about that.” A soft laugh. “Which seems a little weird. I’m glad she dumped me because of me.”
“She broke it off for exactly the reason she said she did. You lived on the other side of the country, and honestly, she wasn’t ready for a boyfriend. She just wanted a cute guy to kiss.”
Allan laughs again. “Okay. Fair enough. And I know I overdid it, chasing her. She was just . . .” He shrugs. “Kate is a force of nature, and for me, it was even more than that. I grew up in the Cabal, which meant growing up with kids who knew me before. Kate didn’t. She saw a guy—one she liked—and that was a first for me, so I went overboard. When she broke it off, I figured someone told her. I’m glad that wasn’t the case.”
“And I’m sorry if Marchocias outed you. That wasn’t right.”
“That’s probably the least demonic thing she’s done today. It was fine. Holly knew. Sorcerers and witches always do.”
“Because of the gaze.” Witches recognize sorcerers on sight and vice versa.
“Yep. That makes it extra weird for me. Male means sorcerer, except, as Holly would argue, that’s not actually correct because they’re two separate races. It’s not like witches have sons who are sorcerers and daughters who are witches. I’ve been calling myself a sorcerer, while technically, I’m a male witch, so maybe I should embrace that. But then I have to explain something I don’t want to explain to every new supernatural I meet. I’m still working it out. For now, though, Holly’s right that I’ve been intentionally ignoring witch magic, conflating it with gender identity when it’s a whole other thing. It’s just . . .”
“Complicated.”
“Yep, and all I really wanted to do was touch base after Marchocias outed me. I’ll stay here and help Holly, and you can take Edward.” He grins. “I’m calling him that forever now.”
“He’ll love it.”
“I know.” He claps me on the shoulder. “Take care out there, and hopefully, we’ll have Kate when you return.”
Chapter Fifteen
Kate
I bring Chloe and Derek up to speed.
When I get to the pyre part, Chloe says, “I thought you were kidding about that.”
“No supernatural jokes about being burned at the stake.”
“True.” She lowers her voice. “Are you okay?”
“They couldn’t light the damn fire. We escaped with a little help from our friends.” I nod toward Elijah.
“Good, but that’s not what I mean. They tied you to a stake.”
“I . . .” I want to fluff it off, but the memories rush back, and instead, I hear myself saying, “I couldn’t believe it was happening. The half-demons, I understood—they were infected. But there were others without that excuse, and I kept thinking I could appeal to them because, obviously, no sane person would do that.”
I rub down the goosebumps on my arms as Elijah moves closer, his gaze shadowing. I manage a weak smile for him and then turn to Chloe.
“We know supernaturals aren’t fond of werewolves and vampires,” I say, “but we’ve never dealt with anything like this. It was . . . harder than I expected.”
“I can only imagine,” she murmurs. “We’ve seen the fear and the prejudice and the paranoia. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“We’ll be okay. Meeting you guys helps. I grew up pestering Sean and Savannah for stories about the Edison Group subjects. You’re kinda like superheroes.”
Chloe blushes. “I don’t know about that, but I’m glad to meet you, too.”
“So, to continue my story, we escaped, only to be chased by Marchocias’s hell beasts. Magic must keep them outside the camp perimeter. We fled to a warded cabin where we were safe, but trapped. Then Elijah and I found a hatch in the floor, which turned into a whole other adventure, complete with jars of eyeballs and disappearing doors.”
“Jars of . . . ?”
“Dark witch. It’s a long story, and I’d rather tend to the injured so I can return to my brother ASAP.”
“We’ve already done that. The injuries all seem superficial. I’m not sure what’s keeping them unconscious, but for now, that isn’t a bad thing. I was just trying to get answers from the dead. As you can imagine, they’re too freaked out to be coherent.”
“Also, ghosts tend to forget the events surrounding their deaths.”
“Correct. I’m going to suggest, then, that we accompany you back to your brother and the others. We aren’t getting cell service here, but this is definitely something we need to turn over to the council. That’d be your mom, right?”
I nod and glance at Derek, waiting for him to say he’s not going anywhere with Clayton Danvers’s daughter, but he only grunts and waves for us to lead the way.
We set out. Derek hangs back, following at a distance, and I use the semi-privacy to whisper to Elijah, “You’ve been quiet
.”
“Just trying to get up to speed. You obviously know who these two are. All I know is that my dad’s notes definitely warn me to stay away from the Cains. However, now that I’ve met one, I can see that Dad was . . . definitely not exaggerating. He’s a real peach, isn’t he?”
“You know I can hear you, right?” Derek calls up.
“If you couldn’t, I’d be calling you a lot worse than a peach.”
“You got a problem with me?”
Elijah pivots to face Derek. I start to grab his arm but decide against it. At the same moment, Chloe does the same, and we exchange a look, her lips tweaking in a wry smile.
“Boys,” I mouth, and her smile broadens.
“You’re being an asshole,” Elijah says. “Kate and I have been through hell in the last twenty-four hours, and you’re treating us like kids who waltzed out of the forest and started poking around, asking stupid questions instead of, you know, giving you the answers to your questions.”
Derek crosses his arms.
“So yeah, I have a problem with you,” Elijah says. “The real question is, do you have a problem with me?”
He takes another step, getting in Derek’s face . . . or as close as he can manage.
“Can’t have a problem with you if I don’t know you,” Derek says.
“Exactly. You don’t know me. You don’t know Kate. So lose the fucking attitude. I don’t know who you are, but we don’t have time for that, and Kate doesn’t deserve your bullshit.”
Derek says nothing.
“Do you doubt our story?” Elijah waves at the camp just behind us. “Go check the stakes they drove into the ground. Now, don’t get me wrong. We do appreciate having someone else here to help. I’d just like it better if you treated us like fellow supernaturals, starting by explaining why you’re here.”
Derek still says nothing. Elijah glances at Chloe, and a slight shake of her head says they aren’t ready to share that yet.
“All right,” Elijah says. “Then I will trust Kate when she says you guys can be trusted. But I’d appreciate a little less attitude and a little more mutual respect.”
“While we watch for hell hounds,” I say. “And demons. And dark witches. And also stray half-demons wandering about with gas cans.”
Elijah tosses a smile my way. “Multitasking for the win.”
He lifts his hand, and I high-five it, and Chloe smiles.
“You two make the most adorable couple,” she says. “How long have you been together?”
“We met about . . .” I check my watch. “Thirty-six hours ago. Also we’re just friends.”
“But it’s been a very intense thirty-six hours,” Elijah says. “I’d say it equals roughly thirty-six months in real time.”
“True enough.”
We resume walking. Chloe keeps up beside us, Derek right behind.
“Is that a Texas accent?” she asks Elijah.
“Born and bred, ma’am. Just outside Austin.”
“Oh!” I smack his arm. “Tell them how your parents met. It is the best story.”
He slides a smile my way. “You tell it. You’re better at stories.”
I glance at Chloe, my gaze flicking back to include Derek, who stays behind but doesn’t pretend he’s ignoring the conversation. “So, his mom’s a veterinarian, and one day, someone drops off this really big black dog that’s been hurt and knocked out. It’s a small town, so they put it straight into a kennel behind the local vet’s. She shows up and . . .”
“It’s not a dog in the kennel.”
“Bingo. There’s a guy. An injured naked guy.” I glance at Elijah. “Was your dad hot?”
“I . . . am so not answering that question.”
“Well, you’re hot, so genetically presuming, he was also hot.”
Chloe chokes on a laugh, and Elijah shakes his head and says, “Kate is brutally honest. Sometimes it’s flattering. Sometimes, not so much.”
“Hot naked werewolf in the kennel. Also injured, which always adds to the romantic appeal.”
“She patches him up, and they fall in love?” Chloe says.
“Nah, it’s way more romantic. She knocks out his ass with ketamine, ties him up and interrogates him. Then they fall in love.”
She grins. “I like your mom, Elijah.”
“Thank you,” he says.
Derek says, “So how does your dad feel about you hanging out with the Pack?” There’s no challenge in it, but Elijah still stiffens, and before I can cut in, he says, “I don’t know. Maybe your girlfriend here can ask him.”
“What?” Derek rocks forward, his face darkening.
“Because she’s a necromancer,” Elijah says. “What the hell else would I mean?”
“Elijah’s dad passed away when he was little,” I say. “But he left notes and videos to help, and his mom’s there for him, too. As for the Pack . . .”
I try not to sneak a sidelong glance at Elijah. “He has reason to be wary of them, same as you, Derek. Elijah’s half-brother was Pack, and he died before we were born. Elijah’s dad sent his brother to the Pack, and I’m betting he regretted that so, like I said, good reason not to trust us.”
“But now he’s teaming up with you?”
“He’s teaming up with me,” I say. “I am Pack. I’m not the Pack. What he does after this is his call. Same as it will be yours. Forced recruitment never goes well. The American Pack didn’t do it even in their darkest days. Anyway, so that’s Elijah’s story.”
“And now can I ask about you two?” Elijah says. “At least the part Kate already knows?”
“Oh!” I say. “Yes, Elijah’s parents’ story is cool, but this one is even better. No offense.”
“Do you want to tell it then, Kate?” Chloe says with a smile.
Elijah chuckles. “Nah, she’s not the least bit interested in telling it, are you, KitKat? That look on your face? Like you’re going to explode? That’s just gas.”
I sock his arm again, and he grins at me, his eyes . . . God, that look in his eyes, the warmth of it washing over me, making me feel as if I’m on that mossy rock again, basking in sunlight.
“You can tell it, Kate,” Chloe says. “Something tells me your version will be more flattering than the truth.”
“Okay,” I say. “So, what do you know about the Edison Group experiments?”
“Uh, very little?” Elijah says. “I heard you guys talking about Mason being a subject, and I know they were conducting experiments on supernaturals. Genetic alterations in vitro, right?”
“Right. There were several branches. Project Genesis was about tweaking existing races, creating Gen-2 Supernaturals if you will. Better powers and reduced side effects. That’s what Chloe and Derek were part of. It seems like a positive experiment, but they were more interested in perfecting their results than helping their subjects.”
“We were lab rats,” Chloe says. “Expendable.”
“So they escaped. The Edison Group pursued, and they blew their lab to smithereens. Kaboom!”
“Well, not . . . exactly.” Chloe smiles. “But close enough. The movie version would definitely have more kabooms.”
“After that, they went on the run, pursued by the remnants of the group. They eventually joined forces with the subjects of Project Phoenix, which was about resurrecting extinct supernatural species, like skin-walkers and benandanti.”
“That’s the really cool experiment,” Chloe says.
“It’s all cool. Anyway, the two groups joined forces and . . .”
“Blew up the remnants of the group?” Elijah says. “No, wait. I’ve heard they’re still around. In pockets here and there.”
“Yep,” Chloe says. “Because as cool as blowing up a lab is in the movies, in real life, it just cuts off one head of the hydra. There was the Edison Group, plus the Cabal that sponsored it, plus every fringe group that wooed away one of the scientists. You could keep lopping off heads, but they’d only keep growing. So we took the boring option.�
��
“The sensible option,” Derek corrects.
She puts her arm through his as she falls back to walk with him. “It doesn’t make as good a story, but it means that we’re around to tell it. Otherwise, our options were death or life as a lab rat or life on the run. We cut a deal with another Cabal who would protect us and train us. While they hoped we’d join them as future employees, that wasn’t a requirement.”
“Sounds like a nicer Cabal than any I’ve heard of,” Elijah says. “Oh, wait. That’d be Paige Winterbourne’s husband, right? Lucas Cortez? The Cabal he runs with Sean Nast? You did mention Sean, Kate.”
“I did, and you are correct,” I say. “Originally, it was the Nasts, and this was Sean’s special project. Then it became part of Lucean—Lucas and Sean’s Cabal. The subjects grew up. Some of them agreed to work for Lucean. Some . . .”
“We lost some,” Chloe says, her eyes clouding with grief.
“Lost to the dark side,” Derek says quickly. “They didn’t die. Well, a couple . . .” He clears his throat. “Chloe means that there were offers from other Cabals and groups, and a few of our old group went there. But yeah, most joined Lucean.”
“And you guys?” Elijah asks.
When they don’t reply, I say, “That is where my story ends. All I know is that everyone went off to college, and from there, Sean says he needs to respect their privacy. Which really means that I need to respect it because they aren’t actually characters in a story I’m following.”
“Simon works for Lucean,” Derek says. “That’s not a secret, and it’s not an issue, either. He made the choice that was right for him. So did Tori, who’s there, too. We’re . . .”
He glances at Chloe.
“We’re still finishing school,” she says. “Sean knows he can call on us, but we aren’t interested in being full-time Cabal employees. So we—Derek, myself, Maya and Daniel—kind of do our own thing. We’re never going to lead normal lives, and we don’t want to. We have skills—from the Cabal training and our time on the run—and we use them to investigate things that interest or concern us.”
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