“No,” Thessa said. “He’s not. We had a good meeting. Now, don’t worry about me. I just need to check on something before I leave here. I’ll be back soon.”
She ended the call without waiting for Clara’s response, feeling only a small twinge of guilt over it.
Clara couldn’t know what she was doing; she wouldn’t understand. Cora, maybe, but Clara… she had a clear cut view of what was right and wrong. She wouldn’t understand how Thessa had broken the Hallow laws to protect them… and how she was determined to do it again.
She only had to blend through two more hallways to reach her goal, but they were the most crowded with people.
She took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the pillar, trying to blend in. Buzz had spread about her presence in the capitol, and she didn’t want to be recognized, especially not in the Great Library, attempting to enter the classified section.
She reached the end of the second hallway and entered a wide open space with a statue in its center, of Michael striking down Luci from the heavens.
She quickly ducked behind it and waited.
Several minutes passed before someone with classified access walked through. The door opened easily for him, likely recognizing his blood.
As it swung closed, Thessa focused her mind on the door, slowing it down just long enough to slide through the open space without coming into contact with it.
Now inside, she immediately ducked between the two closest bookshelves to avoid being seen. She wouldn’t be able to transport through the rows of shelves to get to the section on blood magic, but she could duck through each shelf to keep from drawing attention to herself.
She did this several times, wondering if it was too easy. The classified section was quiet and empty, just the way she needed it to be. Still, if this was all the security that the capitol could throw at her, she wondered if things were worse than President Vega had let on.
She had seen it happen many times before; the Hallows who survived the hard-fought wars had children who grew up in peace. Those children stayed soft, making them ill-prepared for the battle that was always to come.
There was always another war to be fought, as the world tipped to one side or the other, Hallows, Nephilim, Hallows, Nephilim… on and on it went like a wheel, spinning, spinning, neverending.
Thessa could tell that the current tenor of the city was peaceful and unassuming instead of alert as it should be. These were soft children, not war-worn ones. They had lost their vigilance somewhere along they way, which could only be good for her larger cause, the one she had started on with Bes so many years ago.
But for now, she needed to get that recipe.
She scanned the shelves, walking all the way down the aisle, looking for the most advanced among the books about blood magic. When she finally reached the end, she spotted the book—a book she hadn’t seen in about a hundred years, since the first time she retrieved it for Selena Coristou-Michael, the last daughter of Michael to rule the Hallows.
Therapeíes tis Psychís.
Cures of the Soul.
She reached up, pulling the brick-like book from the shelf, allowing it to fall open in her arms. It was heavy, heavier than she remembered. She materialized a table next to her and set it down, laying it flat. She flipped to the very back, scanning the handwritten index for the blood of Michael.
Michael’s blood was the only thing strong enough to have kept her and the twins hidden for all of those years. It was so rare that there were only two people left who had it: Milena’s sister and Milena’s daughter, the latter of whom she was now charged with keeping safe.
She thought back to the day Milena first presented her with the elixir she’d made, fifteen years earlier. “This will keep you and your girls safe,” she had said, “As long as I’m alive.”
“I can’t use this!” Thessa had told her. They had been dodging the New Order for years on their own… or at least they thought they had. Until Milena confessed that she believed her mother had used the same elixir to protect her children and any who helped them.
“It’s your choice,” Milena had said. “He’s only getting more desperate, though. The twins could be next.”
She wasn’t wrong, and though it went against Thessa’s moral compass, her promise to Bes, to keep the twins safe, mattered more to her than the laws or the old ways of the Hallows. The New Order had been rounding up Hallows with purer blood and unique powers. The twins were bred of some of the oldest, most powerful blood around… and Vega wanted them for his collection, so he could use them in his wars against the old ways, and the Nephilim.
She took the elixir made from blood magic and gave it to the twins without telling them what it was—a violation of their trust, certainly, and making them complicit in breaking the Hallow laws.
Milena had likely bound the elixir to her own life, and Thessa imagined it used her blood. Which meant that the recipe for the elixir would require another daughter of Michael to give her blood willingly, and someone to give up their life for binding.
Thessa flipped through page after page, going through dozens of recipes that contained the blood of Michael, until she found the one:
A small piece of amethyst
A small piece of quartz
1 handful of rosemary
3 drops of Michael’s blood
3 drops of Luci’s blood
3 drops of vervain
1 lifebound
Blood of Luci? Thessa thought, reading over the ingredients. It was the only ingredient she didn’t have, and the one she would have trouble accessing, since Luci’s blood was nearly as rare on the Nephilim side as Michael’s blood was on the Hallow side.
Thessa whipped out her phone, took a snapshot of the recipe, and closed the book. As she was placing it back on the shelf, she heard a shuffling noise behind her.
She flipped around, ready to strike if it seemed necessary.
“Margarita!” she whispered in surprise. Thank Theos it was an ally, though one who reported directly to Mateo Vega.
What are you doing back here? Margarita signed to her. She was born deaf and a Hallow, one of the only in the world, and no one knew why her ears didn’t heal like the rest of her body.
Just a trip down memory lane, Thessa signed back. The daughters of Michael sent me here to retrieve books for them. She didn’t provide more information; Margarita might be an old friend, but she didn’t know about Milena’s dealings with blood magic.
Vega is watching you, Margarita signed. You’re lucky I’m the one that found you.
Thessa nodded in agreement. He’s lucky it was you and not someone else, too.
Be careful, she signed back. He has the numbers to use against you.
Thessa shrugged; she was not afraid of anything Vega could do to her. She soldiered on solely for Bes—for his beliefs, for his cause, for his daughters.
How is Sirena? Have you heard from her? Thessa wondered if she had confided in Margarita about her motivations to visit Brie.
Margarita shook her head. She’s still very angry at you. And Milena’s death has torn her apart. She still struggles to understand her sister’s choices.
Thessa rolled her eyes; Margarita understood. They both knew that Sirena was unpredictable and erratic, even more so since her only sister married an earthlie and had children with him.
She was mad at Thessa for keeping them apart for so long, making both Milena and Sirena believe that she was the only daughter of Michael left. Thessa had done it for their protection, because it wasn’t safe for them to know about each other.
It didn’t matter. Sirena had never forgiven her, and blamed her for Milena’s choice to abandon her place—their places—as the rightful heirs to the Hallow kingdom.
Sirena had always intended to lead a revolution against Mateo Vega and the New Order. She had never intended to lead it alone, once she learned of Milena—but that dream was quickly yanked from her when Milena married James van Rossum.
Now
, Thessa supposed she wouldn’t have to to do it alone… not if she had Brie.
Was that why she was in Oahu, poking around at Brie’s school?
Margarita tapped her, signing to her something that Thessa missed the first time.
She frowned. Warning? she signed back.
Margarita nodded. Vega is a patient man. He believes the daughters of Michael survive, and you’re the key to finding them. He wants Clara and Cora. He wants you.
He won’t get us, Thessa signed back. Nor the daughters of Michael. Thessa wanted to ask if she could count on Margarita to not mention her library visit to President Vega, then decided against it. Margarita was Sirena’s best friend from childhood, and a confidant. She had helped Sirena evade the New Order for more years than should have been possible. She would not pass on any information that might put Sirena in danger.
Can you help me get out of here? Thessa asked instead.
Margarita tilted her head to the side, then nodded. She pulled something out of her pocket. It is my last. They are not easy to create. She held out a black Z-shaped tube, motioning for her to press the button.
Where will this take me? Thessa asked, trying not to look like she was suspicious. What if she was wrong? She hadn’t spoken to Sirena or Margarita in seventeen years; what if Margarita had switched sides in that timeframe, and this was all an elaborate trap?
Then again, if Mateo Vega wanted to hold her in Barcelona, he could have done so earlier at their original meeting.
Center, Margarita signed.
She held out the device again, and this time Thessa took it.
Thank you, Thessa signed. She pressed the button and felt a whoosh as she transported out of the Great Library and to the center of the city.
Hallows of all ages bustled around her as she considered her next move. She had found the recipe, or at least she thought she had, that had once protected her and the twins from the New Order finding them. For fifteen years, they had been able to breathe more easily, still keeping low profiles, but knowing they couldn’t be found.
They could have that security again. She had everything in the recipe, and she had Milena’s daughter to provide the blood of Michael willingly.
But how did Milena get her hands on the blood of Luci?
Thessa knew of only one way she might be able to procure it, but it involved yet another unscrupulous act of disobedience.
And she didn’t know if the man who could help her would even consider taking her meeting.
She ducked through the city centre until she found an alleyway where she could record a private conversation.
She pulled out her transmitter and concentrated on his face, conjuring his vibrational signature to the best of her ability through every part of her body.
“Hi, Branson. I need to meet with you, as soon as you’re available. I have something you want, but I need something in return for it.”
Then, she shut her transmitter and set her intention that he and only he would receive her message.
Chapter 11 - Brie
The next few days passed without incident. Brie didn’t see the blonde girl again, and she didn’t have any more trouble at school.
She had tried to get Pilot alone so she could ask him if their mom had any relatives that he knew of, or just if he had any information about someone who looked like them. But she hadn’t been able to corner him; he kept a crazy schedule between school, homework, water polo practice, and hanging out with the water polo guys between practices. It seemed like he was always gone, or busy… or someone else was with them, like Rykken, or their house manager, Annie.
Rykken. She hadn’t spoken to him much; in fact, he had gone back to nearly ignoring her, like he used to do. He was still polite to her, he still talked to her when her brother was around, and he said “hi” to her during the class where they sat next to each other. He hadn’t tried to reignite their conversations about the blonde girl or her lyrics and poetry, though.
She supposed she should be happy about that. After all, he had kept his promise not to tell Pilot about her skipping school, and he hadn’t told anyone about her scribblings, either.
But his silence, combined with Pilot’s constant absences, had left her lonely. She spent her lunches with Cora and Clara, though the latter twin still hadn’t warmed up to her. She wasn’t sure why Clara resented her, but she wondered if it had something to do with her mother. There was so much she still didn’t know about their world.
Cora, on the other hand, was fairly helpful in answering Brie’s questions. Lunch time had been the most educational hour of Brie’s school day thus far.
But aside from the twins, she hadn’t made a single friend at her school. And since it seemed like the still-absent Thessa had assigned them to baby-sit her, she was pretty sure that Cora and Clara didn’t count as real friends.
It was Friday, though, and she was determined to talk to her brother before his games that weekend.
“Mrs. Velasquez?” she said softly, standing at her math teacher’s desk. “I’m done with my test.”
She handed it over, and Mrs. Velasquez took it.
“That was fast, Brie,” she said, flipping through it. She tilted her head as she read the answers, seemingly approving. Brie had done some of the trigonometry stuff previously at her old school, so she hadn’t even studied much for the test, though she knew she’d need to do decently well to ask her teacher for a favor.
“Looks good,” her teacher said, looking up at her over large rimmed glasses. “You can sit at your seat and work quietly on whatever you’d like.”
“Actually, I was wondering if I could visit my brother in the library. He has a study hour right now.”
Her teacher squinted her eyes, as if thinking through it. “How about I write you a library pass so you can study there for the rest of the hour?”
“That would be perfect,” Brie said, hardly believing her luck. At her old school, it would have taken a lot of begging. She wondered is DeRosa Academy was just more lenient with their rules.
She collected her things, got her handwritten hall pass from Mrs. Velasquez, and headed toward the library, hoping to catch her brother alone.
She had rehearsed what she was going to ask, how she was going to ask it… she had so many questions for him. Not just about their mom, about him, too.
Was he a Hallow? Had strange things been happening to him, too? Cora and Clara had only realized her own powers when she accidentally set those fire sprinklers off on her first day of school. They didn’t think her brother had the same powers, and they had been watching him closely. But what if they were wrong?
She reached the library and spotted her brother easily, though he was with a friend that she had seen around. They looked like they were working on homework together.
Damn. She wondered if she should try later… It seemed like there was never a good time to catch her brother.
The friend he was sitting with looked up and seemed to recognize her. He said something to Pilot, who looked up as well; when his eyes landed on her, they were full of concern.
Now she had to go through with it. She approached the table, taking a seat next to her brother.
“Hey, what’s up? Are you okay? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in class?” Her brother’s questions came out in a rush.
“No, I’m fine,” she said. “I just needed to talk to you about something.”
“Heyyy,” Pilot’s friend across the table said, his eyes fixated on her. “I’m Justin.” He spoke at a regular volume, with no regard for the fact that it was a library.
“He’s no one,” Pilot whispered, somewhat playfully, somewhat seriously. “Just ignore him. What did you want to talk about?”
She knew that tone. Pilot only used it when he wanted to say something truthful, but didn’t want to make waves.
Which meant he didn’t want her associating with this friend. He was being overprotective of her again.
“Hi,” she said, smiling
politely at Justin. “You’re on the water polo team, too, right? I thought I recognized you.”
“That I am,” Justin said. “I’ve got the arm strength to prove it.” He flexed his arm for her, and she reached out and touched it. It seemed like her only option.
“Impressive,” she said, amused.
Pilot watched all of this, with a look of irritation on his face. “Okay,” he said swiftly. “This is not happening.”
“I’m just being friendly,” Justin protested. He turned back toward her. “Brie, you’re looking extra pretty today, by the way. Maybe it’s because this is the first time I’m seeing your eyes up close.”
She raised her eyebrows, though the whole thing made her want to laugh. Justin was completely harmless, and obviously just trying to egg Pilot on. But her brother’s shoulders had tensed and his expression had gone hard.
“Well, thanks,” she said, unsure where else to go with it. Should she compliment him? She was used to people in the media telling her she was pretty, but she didn’t know what to do with a teenage guy who was brazenly saying it to her face, in front of her incredibly overprotective older brother.
Pilot huffed, clearly irate. “You were saying you needed to speak to me in private?”
“Alright, alright,” Justin said. He winked at Brie, which made her smile. “I can see where I’m not wanted. “Real quick—” he pointed at her. “Brie, party tonight. Jimmy’s private beachfront. Come meet us there, the whole high school will be out.”
It was the first she had heard of it—then again, she didn’t have anyone who would have invited her. She nodded. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Good,” he said. He stood up, giving Pilot a playful punch in the arm. “Don’t let this guy tell you you can’t, either. You only live once.” He winked at her again, grabbed his things, and headed off to a few tables down, where he sat with some other friends.
She looked at Pilot. “You’re going to a party tonight?”
Instruments of the Angels (Hallows & Nephilim: Waters Dark and Deep #1) Page 7
