Fire Fall

by Bethany Frenette

  “At the park, right after the Harrower attacked. I heard her voice. She said my name.”

  “Iris,” Leon repeated, giving me a searching look. “What about Saturday?”

  “I wasn’t certain that time. I thought I imagined it—that’s why I didn’t mention it.” I glanced away quickly.

  “This is your cousin?” Mickey asked. “That girl who was at Harlow Tower. The one who was responsible for all those killings last year.”

  I thought of the twin scars on the backs of my ankles, slender lines of puckered flesh where Harrower talons had torn through the skin. Tink bore those scars as well. But we were the lucky ones. We were alive. Patrick Tigue and Iris had bled Kin girls all across the Cities in their hunt for the Remnant, and most had not survived. She and Tigue left a trail of bodies behind them—names that were etched in my memory, faces I still saw in my sleep. Mickey’s investigation into the deaths was how he’d stumbled upon the Kin’s secrets in the first place. But, guilty or not, it wasn’t as though Iris could be arrested and prosecuted.

  Mom must have had the same thought. Though Mickey alerted her to any suspicious reports that might indicate Harrower movement, there wasn’t much he could do in this situation. “Iris is a Kin problem,” she told him.

  Mickey snorted. “She’s an everyone problem, from what I remember.”

  “But not everyone can deal with her. We can.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “She’s been there—Beneath—all this time?”

  Mom hesitated a moment before answering. “We think so.”

  I looked at Mickey. He knew better than any of us just what the Beneath was like. But for once, he was entirely unreadable, his face blank. No hint of Knowing came to me—not that familiar sense of stillness and quiet. No flicker of memory. Finally, he said, “Poor kid.”

  “Sympathy would not be my first reaction,” Mom said.

  The blank expression vanished. He gave Mom an amused look. “Wasn’t mine, either. It was just the better one.”

  “Regardless,” Mom continued, “if Iris is back, we need to figure out what she’s after.”

  “Revenge,” Leon suggested. “She’s trying to get back at Audrey.”

  But that didn’t seem right. Iris had never wanted me dead. She’d needed me. Needed my blood.

  For an instant, Harlow Tower rose in my mind. I saw the gold lettering that spelled out its name, the flat surface of its roof, powdered with snow. I saw Iris across from me, the triple knot burning against her throat. She kicked a knife toward me. The metal was cold in my grip. Show me your blood or I’ll show you his, she said.

  And then—

  Audrey.

  “I don’t think she was meaning to attack me,” I said. “She’s been trying to communicate with me. She’s…” I remembered my dream. Listen. “She’s trying to tell me something.”

  “By sending Harrowers after you,” Leon said.

  “Sounds like her standard MO,” said Mickey.

  “No,” I said. Another memory surfaced: the two of us standing on a deserted street. An empty gray sky above us. Something clicked into place. “She’s trying to break through the Circle, I think. She must be trapped Beneath. When we were there before, she couldn’t get us back out on her own, remember? We needed Shane to bring us back out. She must be trying to use the demons’ powers to get through and talk to me.” And since Kin powers didn’t work well Beneath, it had apparently taken more than one attempt.

  “Last time she wanted to talk to you, she tried to get you to unseal Verrick,” Mom said. “I think we can agree that whatever she wants, it isn’t anything good.”

  “But what are we supposed to do about it?” I asked. “Go Beneath and ask her to stop? Send Shane with a cease and desist order?” If he was even still in town.

  “If she’s tried this twice, she’ll try again,” Leon said.

  I was worried about Iris, too—but not for the same reasons. “Hey, I’m not helpless anymore, remember?” I said. I might not have had any Guardian powers of my own, but neither did Iris. “If it comes to an Amplifier versus Amplifier showdown, I’m pretty sure I can take her.”

  Mom sighed. “On her own, Iris isn’t strong enough to pose any real danger. But if she’s allied herself with another powerful Harrower, then we may have a situation on our hands. Esther needs to be made aware of this—and loathe as I am to even say it, the elders should be involved. I’ll let Ryan know the Guardians need to be on the lookout. And I don’t want you taking any chances, Audrey. Keep your phone on you at all times. If you sense something suspicious, don’t wait for Leon’s instincts to kick in. Call him. And then call me. Got it?”

  “Got it.” I paused. “What happens if the Guardians catch her?”

  “Then a decision will have to be made,” Mom said. She looked away. “Iris did some terrible things. Even if she wanted to come back to the Kin, they most likely wouldn’t let her. She got Guardians killed. The elders will never forgive that. It’s probable they’ll seal her powers, to guarantee she’s no longer any sort of threat.”

  The sealing of powers wasn’t an easy subject with Mom. Or with me, for that matter. “Is that what you would do?”

  “I don’t know, Audrey. Ask me when she’s not endangering my daughter, and I’ll give you a better answer.”

  I didn’t reply. I looked past her, through the window. Dark had fallen outside, and tiny insects were collecting on the screen. Shadows were thick in the yard.

  Iris was out there somewhere, waiting in the Beneath. And whatever her purpose was, she wasn’t going to stop before succeeding.

  Leon was right. She was going to try again.

  In the days that followed, Iris’s return was never far from my thoughts. I found myself listening for her, always—a thread of sound in the air, that particular pitch to her voice as she spoke my name. She seemed to whisper just beyond my hearing. I was alert for any sense or sign, any prickle of Knowing. At night I tossed and turned, chasing sleep. My dreams were nebulous and disjointed, images of smoking skies and sunlight underwater that evaporated the moment I woke.

  I called Gideon as soon as I got out of bed on Saturday, to make certain that Iris hadn’t tried her hand at haunting him.

  “For the fiftieth time, I’m fine,” he told me. Some of my tension eased; his exasperation was strangely reassuring. “And the role of my mother is already taken, so you and Tink can quit auditioning any time now.”

  “Tink’s been pestering you, too?”

  “When is she not pestering me?”

  “Fair point,” I said with a laugh. “But admit it. You like us fussing over you.”

  I was relieved to hear him sounding like himself, but I couldn’t quiet the voice that echoed in the back of my mind, murmuring that Iris was here, Iris was home. Biding her time, maybe, waiting for any opportunity. She would emerge from Beneath once more. And Iris knew.

  I wasn’t the only one struggling with Iris’s reappearance. Shortly after I’d finished my conversation with Gideon, Elspeth called.

  “You saw my sister,” she said. Her voice was thin and strained.

  “I didn’t really see her,” I answered. “I heard her.”

  “How did she sound? Is she okay?”

  Iris hadn’t exactly been okay before she’d gone Beneath, and I doubted an extended stay had improved her any. I hesitated, choosing my words carefully. “I don’t know. I’m sorry, Elspeth.”

  “If you see her again…tell her to come home. Just to come home.”

  I guessed that meant Elspeth didn’t share Mom’s theory that the Kin elders would have Iris’s powers sealed if she were ever caught. Or maybe Elspeth just wanted her back in any capacity. Within the worry of her tone, I caught the faint note of hope.

  I swallowed. “I’ll tell her.”

  Tink was right—Mr. Alvarez did call to ask for my input on the Harrower attack the previous weekend. But since he’d been informed of Iris’s involvement, most of his questions revolved around h
er: when I first heard her; what I thought I heard; why I thought she might be contacting me. I came up with a hasty excuse to get him off the phone.

  Leon wasn’t quite as easy to dissuade.

  We spent Monday morning in the basement of the house, where Mom’s exercise room functioned as our training space. When we’d first begun our lessons, Leon had taught me the basics of fighting as a Guardian and defending myself against Harrowers. Then, after I’d started amplifying, the focus of our sessions shifted. Most of our time was spent practicing fighting together, working side by side. We’d concentrated on learning to move in sync and to anticipate one another’s actions. Recently, we’d gone back to sparring.

  Now that I could share Leon’s powers, we were more evenly matched, but since the Amplification meant he was still stronger, he was wary of injuring me. I felt no such compunction. I doubted I could hurt him even if I tried. But the best part of training together was that Leon could no longer just vanish and reappear across the room. He flatly refused to teleport while I was amplifying. Ever since he’d accidentally transported us to Iowa a few months ago, he’d decided it was too dangerous to even attempt.

  That also meant he wouldn’t consider letting me try it on my own. Sharing his powers technically meant that I could have teleported—if I’d known how. But if there was a secret to it, Leon wasn’t telling.

  How do you Know? he’d asked, the one time I’d brought it up. How do you breathe? It’s not something I can explain. It’s instinct. I just do it. Then he’d paused. And even if I could explain it, I wouldn’t.

  His newest training idea involved trying to break my Amplification. He claimed this was to help me work on maintaining the bond, even under duress. To me, it seemed more like he was just trying to see if he actually could break it—and it had turned into something of a competition between us.

  I was expecting another round of our ongoing contest when we began our session, but Leon wasn’t concentrating. Or at least, not concentrating on training. I managed to throw him almost immediately, and instead of going on the offensive, he just lay there on the exercise mat, his forehead knotted in a frown.

  I nudged his shoulder with the tips of my toes, then pulled back quickly in case he decided to catch my foot. “All right, what’s your strategy here? Are you trying to lull me into a false sense of security?”

  “I’m thinking,” he said.

  “Horizontally?”

  He hopped to his feet in one smooth motion. “I’ve been trying to figure it out. Iris has been gone for six months, so why has she come back now? What is it she wants from you?”

  “You said you thought it was revenge,” I replied.

  “You said you thought it wasn’t.” He paused, his frown deepening. There was a slight hitch in his voice. “Do you think she’s still trying to unseal Verrick?”

  “It wasn’t Verrick she wanted,” I said quickly. “It was his knowledge of the Remnant. And the Remnant is gone.” I hadn’t seen Brooke Oliver since the day Leon and I had killed Susannah, but I knew the elders had sealed her powers, and that she and her mother had been sent away from the Astral Circle. As a Remnant, Brooke had had the ability to open new passages Beneath—an ability that Harrowers coveted, and the Kin feared. An ability that had been deemed too dangerous to even be allowed to exist.

  “Iris might not be aware of that,” Leon continued. He ran a hand through his hair. “Or she might just want to unleash him anyway.”

  I didn’t want to talk about Iris, and I definitely didn’t want to talk about Verrick. “Or maybe she just decided that spending the rest of eternity in a realm overrun by reptilian hellbeasts wasn’t such a good plan, after all.”

  Something in my tone must have alerted him. His hand came down on my shoulder. His words were quiet. “Do you know something?”

  Instead of answering, I turned and threw him again.

  From the ground, he made a noise that was half-laugh, half-sigh. “Audrey.”

  “What? It’s not my fault you’re not paying attention.”

  “I’m trying to have a conversation.”

  “And I am trying to train. Isn’t that why we came down here?”

  He stood once more, but now he was on his guard, observing me closely. I studied him back. His tie was askew and his hair was in disarray, but he still had that easy grace and confidence in his stance. He was all vigilance, watchful and ready for any movement I might make. His blue eyes were intent on mine. A smile tugged at his lips.

  “That’s better,” I said, grinning.

  When I attacked again, he was prepared for it. He caught me in a hold as I went for the throw, and though I still managed to unbalance him, we both ended up on the floor.

  I rolled away, laughing, and scrambled to my feet. Leon was half a second behind me.

  Though I was already amplifying, I hadn’t really been using his powers until this point. Now, as we circled each other across the exercise mat, I felt the hum of the bond and the surge of strength in my veins. It burned between us, crackling, almost tangible. Leon gave me a crooked smile. He feinted, but I didn’t react. I waited, watching for an opening.

  When I saw an opportunity, I didn’t hesitate. I rushed forward with all the accelerated speed of my borrowed Guardian powers.

  This time I didn’t attempt a throw. Instead, I caught his shirt at the shoulders and steered him backward, shoving him against the wall. Hard. Then I jumped up, pushing my body against his, and kissed him.

  For a long moment, he kissed me back. Eagerly. Hungrily. His arms tightened around me, one hand tangling in my hair. I pressed my fingers to his chest and inched even closer.

  Abruptly, he lifted me from him and set me on the ground, moving a few steps away. His face was flushed, but all he said was, “That isn’t working this time.”

  “Kissing you?”

  “Distracting me.”

  “You seemed pretty distracted,” I said.

  “Audrey, we need to be serious here.”

  I felt a flash of annoyance and let it flare. “I don’t know what Iris wants with me, okay?” I said, clenching my hands into fists. “She didn’t send the Harrowers out with some secret coded message—two snarls for peace and friendship, three for impending doom. I don’t know why she’s targeting me. And I’m not to blame for it.”

  “I didn’t say that. I’m just trying to—”

  “To protect me. I know.” I stalked toward him, erasing the distance between us. “But I’m fine. If she sends another Harrower, we’ll take care of it. I won’t hesitate. I promised you that already. You protect me and I protect you, that’s how this works, remember?” Still amplifying, I pushed him with such force that he stumbled and sat down on the mat.

  He raised an eyebrow. “You have a strange notion of protection.”

  “Sorry.” I reached out a hand to help him back up, but he hooked a foot around my leg and sent me hurtling down to the mat beside him.

  “Sorry,” he echoed, smirking.

  It was the smirk that did it. Something inside me snapped. Furious, I whipped around and launched myself at him. He’d been climbing to his feet, but I bowled us both over. I landed awkwardly, the breath rushing out of my lungs, but I didn’t relent. We grappled a moment, rolling. My elbow connected with his ribs. He grunted, trying to thrust me away from him. When that didn’t work, he caught me, clasping me against his body. I stilled.

  “Okay,” I said. “You win. Are you going to let me go?”

  Leon wasn’t fooled. He didn’t relax his hold. “That depends. Are you done going crazy?”

  In response, I wriggled and kicked, trying to free myself. Finally, he flipped me over, pinning me to the ground with my hands above my head.

  “I guess that’s a no,” he said.

  For once, he was using his full Amplified strength. I couldn’t break loose. I glared up at him mutinously. “You’re cheating,” I said.

  “I’m employing necessary self-defense measures.”

  “And,
what—you’re just going to keep me here indefinitely?”

  “You could try telling me what’s going on with you,” he suggested.

  “I thought you needed to be taught a lesson.”

  The smile he gave me now wasn’t a smirk—but it was close. “How’s that working out for you?”

  My glare went from mutinous to murderous.

  He laughed, then rested his forehead against mine. “All right, brat. Let’s try this again. If I let you go, are you going to play nice?”

  I responded by biting his lip.

  The bite became a kiss, and the kiss was hot and dizzying. Any thought of retaliation evaporated. Leon released my arms, and I looped them about him, one hand in his hair, the other tracing the ridge of his spine. His hands slid down me, and his mouth trailed along the hollow of my throat.

  When he stopped again, I opened my eyes to find him grinning down at me. “I win,” he said.

  Breathless, I gaped at him. It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. I’d stopped amplifying.

  “That’s not fair,” I panted.

  “Now who’s distracted?”

  His mouth came down on mine again before I could answer.

  There was no sign of Iris during the following week, and no further Harrower activity. The Cities were quiet—but it wasn’t a calm sort of quiet. It was tense, expectant, like a breath being held. The Guardians were on edge. Iris’s role in the hunting and harming of Kin girls had not been forgotten, and her culpability in their deaths would not be easily forgiven, if that was what she was seeking. I thought of Anna Berkeley, the girl I’d hoped to save, her blond hair and the plum-colored coat she’d worn. I thought of slashed ankles. A street turning red.

  Since the Kin had no courts, and no way of bringing Iris to trial, the Guardians—in conjunction with Esther and the elders—were formulating a plan.

  “The system isn’t perfect,” Mom said. “But it’s the only one we have.”

  For once, I didn’t want to know the details. My hope was that Iris would simply never resurface. It could be that the Beneath would swallow her once more, I told myself. Just carry her off into the farthest recesses, into the dark heart of the void, and she would never again breach the surface. Maybe she was happier there, as Shane had said. Maybe she had only meant to say good-bye.