“This is insane,” he murmurs. “She told me it wouldn’t come to this.” The room stays quiet while we wait for him to speak again, the revelers beneath us blissfully ignorant of what’s going on above them. Lorenzo is really the key to getting other Augurs to help us out, and without his support we may as well give up. I’d really like Agnes to make an appearance right about now to back me up. I don’t know for sure if she would, of course, the woman being as unpredictable as English weather, but she might have something useful to say.
“I think I need a moment with my business partner, if you could give us the room,” Enzo eventually says without turning around. This isn’t what I’d hoped to hear, but it isn’t a no, so that’s progress at least. Beryl, Lou, Jer, and I turn to leave, but I’m surprised when he adds, “You too, Marco.”
Marco’s head snaps up. “Sorry. What? I’m not going anywhere. This is my business, too,” he insists. Lorenzo says something in Italian that sounds like he’s annoyed, and I hear the word bambino in there somewhere. I think he called him a baby. Ouch. Enzo switches to English suddenly. “...And right now, you’re on the opposite side of a very risky proposal, so I can’t trust you to be impartial. Leave, before I make you.”
Marco opens his mouth to argue but Beryl gives his arm a gentle tug.
“Come along, dear. We’ll be back before you know it,” she says, ushering him out the door, and I don’t miss the pointed look she gives to the remaining men in the room before we leave.
I give Marco a sympathetic frown, but he looks away, the pain of his cousin’s disloyalty evident on his face. All we can do now is wait.
CHAPTER 10
As if in answer to my prayers, Agnes stands on the landing outside the office, which is already crowded as it is. Jer, Lou, and Beryl take a seat on the steps below, while Marco and I wait for Agnes to say something. She waits until the door closes behind us before she speaks.
“You’ll have to tell him about my sister’s note eventually,” she says to me, without even a ‘hello.’
“Nope. Not going to happen. Nice of you to drop in, by the way,” I retort. I don’t even bother to ask how she knows. She can see the future, so she may even know how this all turns out in the end—not that she’d tell anyone.
“Unless you can tell me that Ella won’t get hurt, I’m not bringing her note into this until the last minute,” I reply.
“Curtis, Lorenzo is a stubborn Italian at the best of times, without people asking him to risk his life, and his business. He’s not about to help you without knowing the full story. That includes your family’s involvement, and the fact that Ella may be as dangerous as Munday and the Duke.”
That she would even entertain the idea that Ella is on the Duke’s side fills me with foreboding.
“Did you see something?” I ask through gritted teeth, unsure if I’ll be able to bear the answer.
“It doesn’t matter,” she replies quietly.
“Did you see something, Agnes?” I hiss, not realising that I’ve taken a step towards her until Marco puts a restraining hand on my shoulder.
“I told you, it doesn’t matter. The future is currently fluid. It changes every few minutes, and you’re lucky I even came up here to see you. I’ve been nursing a migraine ever since you all paid a visit to Marvin,” she complains, pushing her spectacles up on her nose.
I feel bad then, for allowing myself to lose my temper so quickly. I don’t begin to understand how her powers work, but if she sees a new version of the future every time something happens to us, it must drive her mad.
“Fine. I’m sorry,” I mutter, backing away.
“They don’t even know that your aunt is currently aiding and abetting the Duke, nor that your cousin—"
“Half-cousin.”
“—fine, half-cousin, is Edward Clarence.”
“I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” I shrug. I wish I could cut that part of my family out of my life, and I’ve succeeded in ignoring it ever since I found out. I don’t need her rubbing it in.
“Well, Enzo never does anything without calculating profits and losses beforehand, and what you’ve asked him to do could ruin him financially. You’re a bad investment as far as that goes, and not telling him the full story makes you worse.”
“Nothing gets past you, does it? Look, I’m only asking for him to round up some Augurs to help us, not to give us a load of money. I thought that you guys had been working on bringing a group of Augurs together for this exact purpose anyway, so there’s no reason why this should affect the club,” I point out.
“Yes, but his business runs exclusively on his reputation. If he is seen to be risky, putting Augur lives in danger, he won’t be able to keep the club open,” she replies.
“I think you’re being overdramatic.”
“She’s not, actually,” Marco interjects. “The only reason people come here is because of the safety it provides. Being a member of this club includes the security that we provide and the assurance that the world outside won’t know you’re here.”
“You harbour Augur criminals?”
“No, no. The opposite, actually. We provide safety for those who don’t want trouble, who want to have a good time without worry from the craziness outside. That’s why we don’t allow Air in here,” Marco explains.
“Fine, but I’m still not telling him about Tilly and Edward. They’re nothing to me as far as family is concerned, and nobody is going to change that. It wouldn’t help us anyway—last I checked, he and Gio hated the Clarences as much as I did.”
Agnes doesn’t approve, I can see, but she rarely does when it comes to anything I do, so it’s nothing new.
“If you don’t admit your connection to Edward and the Duke, it’ll only end badly for everyone,” Agnes persists. I know that, aside from my closest friends and the ATU, no one else knows that Tilly is my father’s missing half-sister. It’s not a fact I like to promote, and it’s definitely not something I want to tell Enzo and Gio.
“Can we safely assume that I’m not telling them anything about it and move on, please? I’ll have Gio suck my thoughts out of my head if needed, but short of that, I don’t want to talk about it,” I say firmly.
Agnes says nothing. She examines her short, stubby fingernails instead, for no particular reason other than that she has likely gotten fed up of scowling at me.
You’d think that Agnes would do anything to get her sister back, to save Augurs from being turned into a bunch of unstoppable, psychotic weapons of magic by a man who thinks of nothing but more power for himself. But she approaches every situation with the same confusing calm, the usual cryptic demeanour, and her frustratingly obscure emotionless responses. Perhaps knowing the future would drive anyone else insane, and the only way for her to deal with her visions is to separate herself from reality. But, God damn, it makes me want to scream at her sometimes.
“Enzo has a few Augurs that are on standby in case he asks them for help,” Agnes eventually says.
“Ah, so that’s what you’ve been doing all this time?”
“Well, I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs,” she replies indignantly.
“So, when we came here last time to show Enzo your vision, he just up and put a team of superheroes together for you?”
“Not heroes, Curtis, just Augurs who are brave enough to do something about the crappy situation we’re all in. Not unlike you,” she says, gesturing to everyone else on the landing. “But I convinced Enzo we wouldn’t need to ask them for their assistance unless it was absolutely necessary. They’re a group of people who like to help out when the discrimination gets too tough or crimes against Augurs become too much and there are no police around to handle it.”
“They’re vigilantes?”
“That’s a very fancy name for people who helped to put out a hate-crime fire in an Augur’s shop the other week, or the lady who helped a local mother get over the death of her son, who was murdered because he was dating an Augur.”
>
My heart drops like a ton of bricks in my chest. “How come we didn’t know about this?”
“Nobody cares about this part of town, Curtis. Why do you think I stayed, why I wasn’t by your side, trying to get glimpses of Ella and help you whenever I could? I couldn’t very well abandon these people when things are so much worse here than anyone outside of Stonewell is led to believe.” She sounds mournful, as if she’s replaying some of the horror that she’s seen in her mind.
“The police are no help?” Beryl asks, turning from her spot on the stairs to look at us.
“This part of town is practically zoned off in terms of police help. Some of them try, but an officer was beaten up for trying to break up a fight between an Elemental and a Normal about six weeks ago, and we haven’t seen any since.”
“The Augur attacked a police officer?” Lou asks incredulously.
“No, the Normal and his friend did, for trying to help an Augur.”
My mouth hangs open in shock. Lou curses and snakes her head.
“The neighbourhood watch got him out of there in one piece.”
We remain silent as we each try to process this information.
“So, Enzo has a team, the neighbourhood watch, but he might not let us ask them for help?” Marco surmises.
“They sound like just the kind of people we need,” Beryl adds.
Agnes shakes her head. “I told you, Enzo won’t ask them for help unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“I think it’s necessary now, Agnes,” Beryl says, speaking up for us all.
“We can’t just stand around here, waiting for an invitation,”
Lou says, getting up. “You’ll just need to lie and tell him that you had a vision of Enzo’s dream team helping us or something.”
Agnes isn’t a natural-born liar, but I’ve seen her convince people to do things for lesser reasons.
“I can’t,” she replies quietly. We all look at her questioningly. “If I could, I would,” she says, sighing, “but Enzo has Giovanni check every vision I have.” Her cheeks redden slightly with embarrassment. Agnes has never been anything other than completely in control of everyone around her. To hear that Enzo is using his cousin as a lie detector for her makes me a little angry, although I’m not sure why. She may be my girlfriend’s sister, but she’s never been that nice to me. Yet, in more ways than one, she’s still my family. My real family, not the mess that constitutes the Duke, my Augurist father, and his invisible half-sister, but the family I made for myself. And for that reason alone, I feel defensive of her.
“He doesn’t trust you?” Lou asks incredulously. Agnes shakes her head, which could mean anything.
“Let’s just say he’s not a very trusting man.” She turns away, and I wonder if we’ve hit a nerve. “It sounds worse than it is really. He wants to make sure he can see all of my visions for himself, in case I misinterpret them. You know how it is. The future does one thing, we try to change it, and it makes it worse.”
I’m not sure if she’s trying to convince us or herself, but I feel awkward staring at her, so I look at Marco instead, who seems to be wrestling with his own emotions at this news. He opens and closes his fists, his jaw clenched, staring at the ground. I think I know the feeling of disappointment that he must be experiencing right now; the idea that someone will have your back, that you can rely on them, only to find that they aren’t who you thought they were. I get the same feeling every time I talk to my dad—not that we’ve spoken in a long time.
“No!”
We all look up at the shout that comes from within the office. It sounds like Enzo has lost his temper.
“Oh, hell,” Marco exclaims, disappearing through the closed door before anyone can stop him. I don’t wait for an invitation, opening it and following him into the room. I’m grateful to see that everyone else follows me in, with only Agnes hanging back. Marco stands in front of an irritated Enzo and a defeated-looking Giovanni.
“Enzo, this isn’t just business. This is life or death. This is the difference between having somewhere for Augurs to go that is safe or having no city left at all. If you can’t see that, then you’re more narrow-minded than I thought,” Marco spits.
“That’s enough, Marco,” Lorenzo says, putting out a hand in front of him, as if that alone will stop the flood of anger flowing towards him.
“No, it’s not enough! I’ve done everything you’ve ever wanted for this family. I followed your father into the Society, and Gio back out again when it didn’t please you. I gave up friends and a normal life to work for you. I’ve looked up to you, learned from you, carried out your orders. I’ve never once questioned your decisions or authority, but I’m not going to stand by and let my friends get hurt just because it’s bad for your business.”
“Easy now, brother,” Giovanni says, looking wary.
Normally the tables are turned; I’ve seen the fiery side of Giovanni more than once, but rarely this side of Marco.
“You’re no better than him if you won’t stick up for what you believe,” Marco retorts.
“You’re the one that ran off to join the anti-Augurs because of your friendship with a Normal,” Gio says pettily.
I almost want to groan at the childishness of his argument.
“They aren’t anti-Augurs, they’re anti-terrorism. There’s a difference. Besides, Curtis is obviously more of a man than you two,” Marco spits back.
“ENOUGH!” Lorenzo slams his fist against his desk, making the rest of us in the room jump.
The moments of heated silence that follow are unbearable, waiting for one of them to speak. I feel like an intruder, an uninvited guest who’s walked into a family feud that has nothing to do with me, but I can’t very well leave now.
Enzo glares at his cousins before shooting a look of pure disgust at me, for no other reason, I think, than the fact that I’m in his line of sight. I glance at Marco, who may have decided to keep his mouth shut, but it doesn’t stop him from shooting daggers at them with his eyes. A part of me is grateful that I have a friend willing to put himself on the line for us, even if it must be hell for him to defy the two men he’s looked up to his whole life.
Minutes roll by, no one daring to look at each other for more than a second at a time for fear of another outburst. I study Enzo, his obviously strong physique under the expensive suit, the perfectly trimmed beard and combed hair. The only thing that detracts from the look is the vein pulsating in his temple while he calculates what to do next.
Giovanni isn’t as slick as his cousin, but he still looks better than when he was waiting tables at the restaurant with me. We were friends back then. It feels like a lifetime ago, when I was blissfully ignorant of the existence of so many Augurs in my presence. When all I wanted was to ask a beautiful girl out on a date.
I wish someone would say something, anything, to break the silence, but I know it can’t be me. I need to keep my mouth shut and let the Gregorios fight amongst themselves this time.
Just when I think someone will finally break, I hear a small moan from behind me, and I turn around to see Agnes’s eyes roll in the back of her head. My reaction time is too slow as her knees buckle, but Enzo leaps across the room in two huge strides and catches her before she falls backwards down the stairs. He lifts her up with relative ease and places her gently down on a settee in the far end of the room, away from the glass windows that look over the club.
I’ve only seen it once in person before, but I know this means Agnes is having a vision. Not a little know-what-you’re-having-for-dinner-tomorrow vision, but a full-scale, life-changing mega vision.
Everything I’ve heard so far about Enzo and Agnes’s relationship has made me think he’s a bit of a cold and calculating bastard, but all I see on his face now is a look of pained concern. Agnes murmurs incoherently, her hands shaking slightly and only the whites of her eyes visible. Enzo puts a firm hand on her arm and brushes a loose strand of hair away from her forehead, such a personal and inti
mate gesture I feel like I have to look away.
When Agnes had her last big vision, she was driving a £300,000 car down the motorway, with me in the passenger seat. It was the most terrifying few seconds of my life, but it was brief in comparison to now. Minutes pass before she gasps and opens her eyes, staring blankly at Enzo until she manages to focus.
“That was longer than the last one,” he whispers, his smooth face creasing into a frown.
“It was complicated,” she replies hoarsely, pulling her hand away from his when she notices their fingers entwined.
“Giovanni.” Enzo snaps his fingers, and Giovanni muscles his way in front of us.
“Enzo, please. I need to rest,” she says, her voice barely a whisper.
“This will only take a second, and Gio will be gentle, won’t you?” Enzo turns to his cousin and fixes him with a warning look.
Agnes doesn’t seem to have the strength to argue, and I open my mouth to protest on her behalf, but Lou clamps her hand on my arm and gives me a subtle shake of her head.
We give Gio a wide berth and allow him to approach Agnes, placing his hands on either side of her face and leaning down to press his forehead against hers.
We wait.
The vision is shorter when Gio looks at it, pulling away perhaps only half a minute later, but he looks shaken.
“What is it?” Enzo insists, reading his expression.
“In a minute,” Gio replies abruptly, moving away from us all. I think that Enzo is about to protest, but he gives him space and nods, letting him process whatever it is that he’s just witnessed.
Gio backs away, looking between each of us with a grim expression. I don’t know what he saw or what to make of his silence, but I can’t shake the feeling of alarm that is fighting through me as he appraises us all.
“Enzo, I’m going to help them,” Gio says quietly. Enzo opens his mouth, but Gio interrupts him. “You can stay here and look after the club and everyone here. I’ll contact the neighbourhood watch and make it clear that you’re not with us. If they choose not to help because of that, then so be it. I might still be able to fight.”
Shattered by Magic Page 13
