by April White
I looked around the room. “Where?”
“Up in the tower.”
“No way. That room’s warded.”
“Then I don’t know, go out the window or something.”
I looked out at the sheer drop below. “I’m not Spider Man.”
Adam was freaking out. “Seriously, you have to hide. Do your warding thing. Whatever. Just don’t let them find you.” His whisper took on a panicked note as he turned toward the door. It began to open just as Tom grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear, “I have Aislin’s cuff.”
Wards
Well, that was unexpected.
My See-Monger friend, the only other mixed-blood I knew – who was afraid of heights and had weird, flashy visions when I bumped into him – stole Aislin’s cuff and let them blame me.
The door to the office swung open and without conscious thought I felt a ward come up. Tom still held my arm so the ward covered both of us. I felt him move in closer to me under the protection of invisibility, and part of me wanted to push him away. But I didn’t, and when I saw who entered the room, I was glad I hadn’t.
“Do you have her? Is she here?” The way Phillip Landers spoke to Ava and Adam was like he expected to see them. Was it a planned meeting? That thought made my stomach hurt.
“Of course she is. What, you can’t see her?” Ava’s voice was full of scorn for her uncle, and I was stunned that sweet, lovely Ava had it in her. Tom’s grip tightened on my arm and I resisted the urge to flinch away. Ava turned to her mother. “You’ve already convicted Saira and you expect me to be on your side?” Ava pushed past her parents and left the room.
“Come back here, Ava.” Camille Arman had a perfectly cultured voice that sounded expensive and bossy.
“Let her go, Mom. You guys have been doing this for a week, and we’re both sick of it.” Adam had lost the panic from his voice and was back to casual indifference. Good for him.
I could feel Tom’s heart beating next to my arm. I had slowly moved us back against the wall and my shoulder was pressed against his chest as the Armans and Mr. Landers spread out around the office. The multitude of mirrors on the walls cast weird reflections and made the room feel crowded with enemies. I could only hope that our images weren’t visible in those Seer mirrors.
The last time I’d seen Adam’s dad he had a goofy grin on his face from a marathon session of video gaming with Ringo. This was not that guy. His expression was serious, and I got the sense he was here as back-up for his wife. Adam got his height and surfer-build from Mr. Arman, and I knew it probably pissed Mr. Landers off to have such a handsome brother-in-law.
Like his sister Camille, Phillip Landers was short and dark-haired. They were both striking, but what was petite and powerful on Camille was just small and annoying on her brother. The twins had filled me in on the drama of the older brother who believed he should rule the matrilineal Family, and the younger sister who had firm control over the vast Seer clan. The Seers made my small, dysfunctional family seem like a poster child for healthy relationships.
“She’s here now. The light is right, we’re gathered together just as I’ve seen. The girl and Aislin’s cuff are in this room.” Mrs. Arman had always scared me, but now she practically had sparks shooting from her eyes.
“You know what, Mom. I’m out too.” Adam looked and sounded disgusted with his mother as he headed for the door.
“Adam, you come back here this instant!”
Adam did turn around, but this time he was the one on fire. “No, I’m done. Saira didn’t take the cuff, and even if she did, she would have had a reason. But you’ve been witch-hunting her and turning this whole place upside down just like the Mongers did in their search for the Sucker. I’m not going to be that guy, Mom. I won’t be part of anything that shoots first and asks questions later.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Adam. Of course we’re not condemning the girl without a trial. But we’ve all seen her with the cuff and you must admit, it’s the only thing that makes sense. She’s taken a valuable Family heirloom and we just want it back.”
Not for a second did I believe that’s all Camille Arman wanted. Based on her expression, I figured she’d have me cheerfully drawn and quartered even after she got her precious silver cuff back. Despite the fact that I didn’t steal the damn thing in the first place.
Adam was about to launch another attack but he was interrupted by the very noisy, very timely arrival of Mr. Shaw barreling into the room. I saw Ava beckon to Adam from behind Mr. Shaw. Adam didn’t want to leave, but he finally took her silent advice, and Mr. Shaw clapped his big hand on Adam’s shoulder as he passed him. It was the first sign of real friendliness I’d seen between them.
I could feel Tom holding himself tightly behind my shoulder. His body heat was the only thing keeping the frigidness of the ward from overtaking me completely, and I struggled to hold it up.
“What the bloody hell is wrong with you people!” Mr. Shaw was in full Bear mode, despite the human form he currently wore. Mr. Arman was tall, but Mr. Shaw topped him by at least three inches and probably fifty pounds of pure muscle. “I heard what young Arman said to you and he’s absolutely right. This isn’t who we are, and it’s certainly not who we’re on the verge of war to become.”
Phillip Landers stepped forward. “This has nothing to do with you, Shaw. You can leave now.” He looked like a terrier facing a pit bull, and it would have been funny except it most definitely wasn’t.
“It has everything to do with me. You’re in my school, hunting my student, and intimidating your own kids into helping you.”
“They’re our children first.” Mrs. Arman still sounded imperious, but she wasn’t quite so bossy with Mr. Shaw.
“That’s right, they’re your children. And yet you hound them and spy on them and make them choose you over their friends. What kind of parents are you? What kind of example are you showing them? You’re just bullies, all of you. Adam compared you to Mongers, but he’s wrong. You’re worse. At least Mongers are honest about their witch hunts.”
Mr. Landers had gone still with rage. “You dare compare me to a Monger? You know what Walters did to my family! You know what he did to my wife! I let his half-Monger bastard call me ‘dad’ for God’s sake. How dare you compare me to something so unspeakably vile.”
And just like that, I dropped the ward.
And slapped Phillip Landers.
The room was utterly silent, except the slamming of my heartbeat was like the ticking of a time bomb in my ears. I wanted to kill Landers in that moment for what he had just done to his son.
“You don’t deserve him.” I spat the words and it seemed to unlock the freeze frame that held the room.
Landers looked behind me at Tom, and his face flushed an angry red. Then he grabbed my upper arm, hard. “Give over my cuff.”
“Oh, it’s yours now? I thought she was the head of the Seers.” I indicated Camille and my voice was low and fierce as I tried to pull my arm away. “Take your hand off me.” But his grip was hard and he yanked me to him. And with his other hand he hit me across the face.
Damn, he hit hard.
I could feel blood well at the corner of my mouth and tears automatically fill my eyes, which pissed me off almost as much as being hit had.
Apparently it pissed off Mr. Shaw too.
“You’ve. Gone. Too. Far.” Mr. Shaw just managed to get the words out before he rage-changed.
I’d seen Mr. Shaw transform into a Bear before and it was a fairly terrifying thing. This was like that, only ten times worse. Because he was pissed. The Bear went straight for Landers, who tried to use me as a human shield. I twisted out of his hands and started for the door, but Mr. Arman caught me, and his grip was much stronger than his brother-in-law’s.
“Put her in the tower!” Camille was furious and more than a little panicked at the proximity of a massive, enraged Bear. Mr. Arman half-dragged me to the tower door and shoved me inside. As he slammed the door shut
I realized Tom was already there. He must have slipped away to hide there from the mayhem in the office.
And then the deadbolt clicked into place.
“Crap!” I pushed against the door, and instantly the freezing cold of the wards seeped into my bones. Not only was it a locked room, it was a warded room, which meant I couldn’t even clock us out of it.
I pounded on the door and yelled, “Hey! Open up!” But all the sounds from the room on the other side of the door had gone silent, and I realized this room was warded against everything. A very effective hide-out … or prison.
Tom’s face was pale and he looked like he was going to be sick. I grabbed his arm and dragged him upstairs to the tower. “Here, lie down.” He sat on the floor of the bare tower room and put his head between his knees. His breathing seemed ragged and shaky, and all my own anger faded in the face of what he had just heard.
“I’m so sorry, Tom. No one should ever have to hear something so … nasty.”
He gulped another couple breaths of air. There were bags under his eyes, and he looked like he’d been tormented a lot longer than just the past ten minutes.
“You can have the cuff if you take me with you.”
The cuff. I glared. “Why should I? You’ve been letting me take the heat for the theft for days and now you want to come with me? How does that make you trustworthy?”
“Whether or not you believe me, the truth is I took it because I saw you’d need it. I didn’t know when you’d be back, but I saw you come back for the cuff.”
Huh. Interesting. “Why didn’t you just let me ask for it instead of turning me into a criminal in the Seers’ minds?”
“Families don’t just hand over their treasures, Saira. There’s no way you could have gotten it by asking.”
He may have had a point, but I wasn’t going to give it to him. His breath shuddered and he put his head between his knees again.
“Tom, what’s going on? Why do you want to go?”
His eyes found mine. “You heard my fa—Phillip. I’m the half-Monger bastard he barely tolerates. You knew I was mixed blood because of how you react to Mongers. I didn’t want to believe you, but honestly, I knew it too. I just didn’t realize… my mother…”
“Was forced.”
Tom scoffed. “It’s a pretty big secret to keep in a Family of Seers.” He got to his feet and brushed off, then wandered over to the window and looked out at the midday sun. I felt the ticking clock and I knew I had to get out of that room soon. “I don’t know why they didn’t see my mixed blood. Maybe it has something to do with not seeing things you don’t want to.”
I snorted. “Oh, awesome. So truth is relative with Seers too? Well that makes me feel so much better.”
“I don’t pretend to know much about how my Family’s gifts work. But I think I can do something most of them can’t. Maybe because of my mixed blood.” He took a deep breath. “I specifically See Mongers. I see what they’ll be doing, and if they’re close, I can See exactly where they are.”
My eyes narrowed. “So you’re like a road map to Mongerville.”
The ghost of a smile hit his lips. “Something like that.”
Fascinating. And potentially useful.
“This Wilder guy’s a Monger, right?” he asked.
“Yeah, underneath the Vampire beats all that warm and fuzzy heartlessness.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, shut up, you’re only half heartless.” I grinned at him and the ghostly smile got a little more substantial. “And I’m like a nearly extinct half beast, so we’re even.”
“But you see my point, right?”
“I see how you can be helpful to me. But I still don’t know why you want to do it.”
Tom sighed. “You know all those flashes you get whenever you touch me?”
“Yeah.”
“They’re full of Mongers.”
“Ick.”
“Exactly. You remember I told you they were getting stronger?” I nodded. That felt like a lifetime ago, or maybe even a whole timeline ago.
“Well, they’ve gotten even more powerful since you went back. And I heard what you said about maybe Wilder causing a time split.”
“It may not be a proper split yet because Elizabeth is still alive, but it seems to be heading down a really dark path.”
“That’s the thing. If all the changes I’ve been seeing in the Monger camp are from things he’s causing, he needs to be stopped.”
“What did Mr. Shaw mean about us being on the verge of a war?”
“Did you notice how quiet the school is right now?”
“The halls were noticeably empty. Is that what you mean?”
“The heads of Families felt we were all at risk of exposure to the regular population, so they made Miss Simpson send all the Ungee kids away.”
“Well, that’s weird and isolating.”
“I’m pretty sure your grandmother would have yanked you out of school too, if anyone knew where to find you.”
That got a giant eye-roll. As if Millicent had any say over me anymore, since all I had to do was threaten to Clock out and she shut right up. “Why? This place is a fortress.”
“Exactly. St. Brigid’s is one of the most defensible buildings in England. The whole place can be locked down like a stronghold, and the Mongers know it. The Armans used the theft of the cuff as their excuse for hanging around here since you left, but really, it’s Descendant politics. As many Descendant adults as they could get to help keep the school out of Monger hands, the better.”
I stared at him. “Then why do they have me locked up?”
Tom’s look was tinged with pity. “Don’t underestimate the power of a good bargaining chip.”
“Seriously? There’s no way they could use me like that. Simpson and Shaw, not to mention my mother and Millicent, would never let them.”
“They’d be within their rights if they found Aislin’s cuff on you.”
I stared at Tom in growing horror. “So that’s it? You’re working with Mongers again?”
He looked startled. “What? No!”
“You stole the cuff to plant it on me so the Armans had justification to trade me in?”
His eyes widened. “I told you, I want to go with you. I took the cuff for you, not to trap you with it.”
I studied Tom for a long moment. I thought he was telling the truth, but if I was going to bring him with me I had to be sure.
“How did Seth Walters get you to See for him?
I’d managed to catch Tom off guard. “He said he had proof my mom had an affair with someone else, and he’d make sure my da… Phillip found out about it unless I worked with him. But he said it like it was still going on and it never occurred to me …”
“The guy’s a pig.”
“You’re telling me nothing I don’t know.” There was bitterness in Tom’s voice that made me cringe, and there didn’t seem to be a lot to say after that.
Just for fun, I tried to draw a spiral. I didn’t even get the slightest glow from the edges, and definitely no hum in my ears. The windows had a magnificent view, but two of them didn’t open, and the one that did led to a 20-foot drop down to the pitched roof of the nearest attic wing. I wasn’t kidding when I told Adam I wasn’t Spider-Man. It was the kind of drop that needed an extension, and then something to keep you from flying off the roof below with sheer forward momentum.
I was exhausted, but too cold to lie down and sleep. The time bomb kept ticking away, and the longer I stayed locked in this room, the less chance I had to keep Elizabeth alive. The memory of her execution vision gave me the zoomies, and I started pacing.
Finally, Tom got sick of my constant motion. He told me to sit on the floor with my back to his and my arms curled around my knees. His body heat at my back kept me from going hypothermic in the warded room, and I finally slipped into something resembling a coma. It wasn’t enough sleep to make up for the night I’d missed, and was just enough for me to be completely
groggy and disoriented when the sound of the bolt being thrown back jolted me awake.
The Bear
“Ten minutes.” Mr. Arman’s voice rumbled from outside the door as Mr. Shaw stepped through it. He quickly held his finger to his lips to keep me from speaking as he climbed the stairs. The door closed behind him and the bolt shot into the lock again.
I flew down the stairs and threw myself into his arms. I didn’t even realize he carried me back up until he finally put me down on the floor in the tower room.
“Now then, show me that hand.” His voice was gruff and full of emotion.
“How’d you get them to let you in?”
“I threatened them. How else?” He winced as fresh scabs came off with the cloth around my hand. He caught Tom’s eyes. “It wasn’t right what Landers said. Not right and not fair. And so you know, not representative of how the rest of us feel.” Mr. Shaw bent to study the skin on my hand, probably to give Tom a chance to compose himself.
“Thank you, Mr. Shaw.” Tom’s voice broke. I shot him a quick smile before he looked away.
Mr. Shaw led me over to the window to examine my hand more closely in the light. “You’ve got a bit of red starting at the edges. How did it happen?” He let go of my hand to fish around in his pockets. ”Devereux and young Ringo are still intact, I trust?” Mr. Shaw pulled a tin of green medicine out and began slathering it on the open wounds.
“Hopefully. They were when I left.” I told him in bold strokes everything that had happened since we left while he rewrapped my hand in a fresh bandage, also from his pocket. When I was finished, he turned to Tom.
“You have the cuff on you?”
Tom looked startled, but then nodded.
“Use it to figure out how to get her out of here.”
“He’s coming with me.” As I said it I realized it was true. Tom needed a chance to make his own name, to get out from under the ones both his fathers carried.
Mr. Shaw looked speculative, but said nothing as Tom pulled the bracelet out from under the sleeve of his sweater. He took it off and looked into the convex mirror of the polished inside. I moved around behind him, but the only thing I saw were ghostly echoes of pictures. And then I touched Tom’s arm.
