Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series)

by Monica O'Brien

  Brie pulled out of his grip. "When I was a human, I knew I was different—and it wasn't because of my dad.

  I always felt isolated, apart from regular teenagers. I didn't understand what drove them to care about the things they did." She bit her lip. "Even in the Hallow world, I felt out of place. It's because I'm not like you. I can feel the difference now."

  Brie put her hand on Rykken's heart. It felt cold against his body, like snake skin. Behind Brie, Kennedy's lips were curled, her face twisted into a smirk.

  "Let me see that emerald dagger," Brie said, gesturing to Kennedy. For a second, Rykken thought she might use it as a weapon against him.

  "Brie, don't," Rykken said half-heartedly, but he could feel his energy draining with each word. Whatever Kennedy had done to him to make him weak worked.

  "I want to trace the Silver Smoke symbol for myself," Brie said. "Learn how things work in our world."

  Kennedy smiled, but there was something in her expression. Hesitation. "What are you worried about?" Brie asked, clearly seeing it too. Brie held out her hand. "You already know you're stronger than me."

  Kennedy handed Brie the dagger, then turned those silver eyes on Rykken once Brie walked away with it.

  She gleamed at Rykken, rushing toward him and tracing his throat with her index finger. He tried to make a sound, but his vocal chords shriveled under the pressure, dead.

  Kennedy followed Brie to the symbol. Brie tossed the pendant-turned-dagger between her hands, a pained look on her face. Rykken remembered the first time he'd shown her the pendant, how it gave her headaches.

  He wondered if that's what she was fighting now.

  Kennedy watched Brie's movements, giving her a bit of space to explore. "You know, you don't really need the dagger to trace it," Kennedy said. "You can trace the symbol with your fingers—once along the cross, three times along the wings."

  "Good to know," Brie said, still looking at the dagger.

  "Why don't I hold that for you," Kennedy said, her anxiety evident.

  Brie touched the tip of the dagger to the top end of the cross. She dragged the dagger down as if she were tracing it, but the dagger sunk deeper and deeper into the wall, like a knife slicing the building apart.

  Before Rykken even knew what was happening, Kennedy was standing over him. "Any further and I kill him."

  Brie didn't even look at Kennedy and Rykken—she simply dug the dagger into the wall further, cracking the building open and separating the symbol into two parts on detached walls.

  Kennedy held her hand over Rykken, her rage apparent. An indescribable pain rattled under his skull and blood ran from his nose and eyes. He was dying quickly, he could tell.

  But a moment later, the pain weaned. A faint light pierced through the red liquid pooling in his eyes.

  Blood spewed from Kennedy's chest, a glimmer of emerald sticking out right over the spot where her heart was.

  Brie ran over, pulling Kennedy's limp body off of Rykken while he rubbed the blood from his eyes and mouth. She pulled the dagger from Kennedy's back, letting Kennedy sink to the floor. Brie shoved the dagger into her heart savagely.

  "That's for Rykken's family," she said. Dark, rouge liquid spurted from Kennedy's chest, all over Brie's hands and arms, but she didn't stop. Rykken wished she would. Instead, Brie pulled the dagger out and stabbed Kennedy again. "And that's for my brother."

  Kennedy grabbed Brie's arm, and Rykken wished he could cover his ears. He didn't want to hear Kennedy beg for Brie's mercy.

  "Pilot..." Kennedy mumbled. "Tell Pilot that you killed the only girl he's ever loved."

  Brie's next thrust froze in midair, hovering over Kennedy's body as the wicked girl laughed, then choked up blood.

  "Mmphh," Rykken murmured, trying to get Brie's attention. Whatever Kennedy did to him caused serious damage, and he still couldn't speak, but he wanted the stabbing to end. Now.

  Brie ran over to him, looking horrified. She dragged Rykken's body to the gap in the walls. "I don't know if I broke the symbol," Brie said. "Do you want to take your chances? Thessa survived it once."

  Rykken nodded, wishing he could drift into unconsciousness. He doubted that he stood much of a chance against the Silver Smoke symbol if it almost killed someone as old as Thessa, but he didn't care. He wanted to get Brie out of there, away from Kennedy and back to the Hallows, where she could be safe.

  Brie pulled him through the opening, which brought about a new round of searing pain. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was Kennedy, blood covering her hands, wrenching the glinting, emerald dagger from her chest.

  *****

  "What is she doing here?" Clara asked. Pilot rushed to the window that peeked out into the van Rossum's front yard, but he didn't see Kennedy, Brie, or Rykken on the front steps. Sirena had filled Pilot in on the results of their blood tests: one pure-blooded son of Gabrielle and two mixed-blooded fraternal twins, a son and a daughter, who both carried equal amounts of the blood of the most powerful archangel, Michael, and the most powerful archdemon, Luci. Pilot was born 10 months earlier than Brie because he was an earthlie and Trinities took longer to develop in the womb. Michael and Luci were sworn enemies, and a child between them was unheard of until Brie.

  Thessa, Clara, and Cora showed up at the van Rossum's shortly after, with a promise to Sirena that they wouldn't turn Brie in—whatever that meant.

  Clara opened the front door for Cora, who walked into the van Rossum's living room, dragging Annie along by the arm. "I found her lurking in the bushes when I parked Pilot's car." Cora led a wide-eyed and somewhat petrified Annie to the couch, before gesturing for her to sit. "Well, I sort of parked it. I wasn't technically driving the car when I transported it back here."

  Annie mouthed "transported" to herself, before shaking her head several times. She was staring at Pilot, but he looked away. He was already worried sick about Brie and Rykken, and Annie just made him feel more guilty.

  "I didn't find Brie and Rykken at the river," Cora continued. "I sensed a supernatural presence, but they were gone when I got there."

  Thessa sat calmly in an overstuffed chair, largely unconcerned about his sister or Rykken. "Let's go over this again," she said. "We've ruled out the school, Rykken's house, Waikiki, Sandy Beach, and the river where Rykken was found."

  The tips of Clara's eyebrows were almost touching as she stared at Annie. "Give me your hand," she said to her. "I can help you can forget any of this happened." Annie shook her head violently and locked eyes with Pilot, unable to speak.

  "Not now," Pilot told Clara. He grabbed Annie's hand and pulled her away from the couch, out of Clara's reach. Clara glared at him, but he shrugged her off and said, "She's in shock." Annie clung to Pilot, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his shirt. He let her, resting the palm of his hand on her head and stroking her short, spiky hair. He noticed Cora watching them, but when he tried to catch her eye, she quickly turned away.

  Sirena burst down the steps. "They're upstairs!"

  Pilot pushed Annie away and chased Sirena up the steps, a mixture of relief and dread rushing through his body.

  When he reached the guest room where Rykken normally stayed, he found Brie collapsed on the floor holding Rykken in her lap. Rykken was drenched in blood.

  "Help me," Brie said softly, colorlessly.

  Pilot and Sirena rushed over to help Rykken into the bed. They stripped as much of Rykken's clothes as they could without hurting him further. Pilot barely noticed the other Hallows lined up against the walls, not moving to help them.

  Annie appeared at his left, holding warm, wet washcloths. She sat next to Rykken's bedside and dabbed his body to coax the blood from it.

  Brie hadn't moved from her spot on the floor; she was staring at the three Hallows standing against the wall, who were staring back at her.

  Pilot knelt down next to Brie. "You can trust them," he told her. "They aren't going to hurt you."

  "At least not yet,
" Sirena grumbled under her breath. "Rykken's dying," Sirena announced much louder. Annie whipped around, alarmed, but none of the other Hallows acted like this was meaningful news.

  Even Brie didn't seem surprised.

  "Well do something!" Pilot roared. "Use magic or whatever the hell you do!" He felt sick; the Hallows' hadn't even looked at Rykken, and they were already giving up on him. Had Kennedy done this to him?

  He shook his head, ashamed of himself. Of course she had. When was he going to accept that Kennedy was an assassin and murderer?

  Brie pulled herself up over the side of Rykken's bed and wrapped his hand in hers. She then described the events leading up to Rykken's condition—how Kennedy had trapped them with the Silver Smoke symbol, how Kennedy had hurt Rykken and tempted Brie, and how Brie had weakened the symbol enough to get Rykken out, but not enough to avoid damage.

  Brie didn't say anything about Kennedy's current state—where she was, if she was hurt—and no one asked.

  Pilot held back, trying not to think of the questions on the tip of his lips. His friend was dying, and he shouldn't be worried about the girl who'd tried to kill him. Besides, the answer was obvious—Brie and Rykken wouldn't have escaped unless Kennedy was hurt.

  She was a bad person, he told himself. She manipulated you. She tried to hurt Brie and Rykken. But the only thing he could think about was that sad girl who told him of the sister who controlled her every movement.

  Rykken was getting worse by the moment. Because of Kennedy, Pilot told himself. His best friend was dying because of Kennedy.

  Pilot soon found himself slumped over in a corner of the room. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten there, he just knew that his mind was racing, confused, yelling at him. He opened the bottom drawer of the dresser next to him and pulled out a small, gold wall clock. The clock looked otherworldly, with a jumble of leafy, metal branches surrounding the face. Pilot promptly broke it over his head.

  The physical pain distracted him from the mental pain. No one noticed him; they were all huddled around Rykken's bed. He scooped the largest pieces of the clock, plus a marble-sized rock that had been lodged inside, back into the drawer to hide the evidence.

  Brie's tears turned to screaming as the life drained from Rykken's body. She placed her hand over Rykken's heart, trying to do something that Pilot didn't understand. A trade, Pilot heard Sirena say. Her life for his. Sirena dragged Brie away from Rykken's bed, saying something about how it was too late for him. That Brie was just going to kill herself. That Rykken was done either way.

  Clara and Cora held Brie back, forcing her into submission with their powers. Annie was nowhere to be found, and Pilot wondered what the Hallows had done with her. Thessa approached Rykken's bed, peering down at him. Pilot felt defensive, the same way he had felt when Clara approached Annie earlier, but he didn't bother trying to stop any of them. He couldn't. They were Hallows. They were going to do what they wanted, just like Kennedy had.

  Her choice, Pilot thought. Whatever may have happened to Kennedy, she always had the upper hand, which meant she had a choice. She was a bad person. She manipulated you. She tried to hurt Brie, and she probably killed Rykken. He repeated these things to himself, over and over again, as he huddled in his corner.

  Quietly, Thessa put her hands over Rykken's chest, crawling into the full-sized bed beside him. She slowly slipped into unconsciousness, the color draining from her face.

  Clara cracked a weeping scream. She let go of Brie, and Brie limply slid into Cora's arms. Clara rushed to the bed, but she was barricaded from Rykken and Thessa by some sort of invisible wall.

  Cora set Brie down next to Pilot. "Hold onto her."

  Clara continued to pound on the invisible wall. After several minutes, Cora firmly pulled her away.

  Rykken and Thessa laid next to each other, both at various stages of unconsciousness, unreachable in more ways than one.

  Pilot wrapped his arms around Brie, trying to comfort her. Sirena sat near him now, staring across the room at nothing.

  "There are bits of glass all over the floor," she said quietly, brushing her hands on the jeans she was wearing. She looked at Pilot's forehead. "And you're bleeding."

  Before Pilot could respond, Brie dug her fingers into Pilot's arms. "Kennedy," she gasped in between sobs. "She's hurt. I don't know if she made it."

  Pilot's heart dropped. He let go of Brie, clasping his hands in his own lap. His mind spun with images of Kennedy, staring at him with vacant, dead eyes.

  "Who?" he asked, though he didn't want to know the answer.

  Brie told him anyway. She didn't look at Pilot when she finished talking; she just dragged herself to floor and curled up in a ball.

  Sirena shot Pilot a warning look. "It was in self-defense," Sirena whispered so that only Pilot could hear. Sirena knelt to the floor, rubbing Brie's back, like one might rub a child's back at daycare during naptime.

  Pilot repeated the words to himself, over and over again in his head. Brie hurt Kennedy in self-defense.

  Rykken is dying because Kennedy is a bad person.

  Clara was talking to herself too. "Thessa, you don't have to do this," she whispered. Pilot didn't know what she was referring to, but he didn't have the energy to find out. He needed everything he had left to hold back the tears that were threatening to pour at any minute. And the anger. Because that was dangerously close to surfacing, and then where would he be?

  Cora, who hadn't said anything, hadn't cried or tried to reach Thessa or bothered to comfort Brie, let go of her sister and made her way to Pilot. She knelt down in front of him, the light from the room surrounding her in a halo.

  "Come with me," she said, grabbing his hand, cupping it gingerly in her own. "I know how to make this easier."

  *****

  Brie woke up dazed and aching from passing out on the cold, unforgiving floor. What had she done? She was losing Rykken and she was losing Pilot, and she was maybe losing herself. At the least, she was losing a sense of what was right and wrong, true and real. Sirena rubbed Brie's back to comfort her. But Sirena didn't know, didn't understand what Brie really was—

  a murderer, who had just killed one of her own kind to save her boyfriend. Rykken would probably die anyway, and Pilot... Brie didn't even want to think about Pilot. Instead, she focused on how much she hated Kennedy for involving her brother in the first place.

  Brie didn't see Clara or Cora or Pilot anywhere. "What's happening to Rykken and Thessa?" she whispered to Sirena.

  Sirena's expression didn't change, but there was a flicker of pain in her eyes. "She's trying to save him, like you tried. Only Thessa has lived for so long that there's a chance it might work."

  Brie stared at a chip of glass on the floor, trying to process the information Sirena had given her.

  A minute passed, maybe two. "When you put your hands over his wounds," Sirena said, "weren't you trying to perform a Cronus ritual?"

  "No." Brie flicked the glass across the room. "I don't even know what that is." She hadn't tried to perform anything on Rykken—all she had tried to do when she touched him was lend him her transmutative healing abilities so he could heal faster. Was that what Sirena meant?

  "I could have sworn—" Sirena blinked, shaking her head. "There is only one way to save someone's life when they are in the condition Rykken is in—the Cronus ritual, which allows a Hallow to sacrifice his or her own life in place of the person dying."

  "Oh," Brie said. "Thessa is sacrificing her life for Rykken's?" Brie was surprised by the tone in her own voice, so dull and unfeeling. She wondered if she was so far deep into shock that nothing, not even one of her friends dying, fazed her anymore.

  "I don't know Brie—either way, we can't do anything for them right now." Sirena pulled Brie into an upright position. "Now that Pilot's gone, what really happened with Kennedy?"

  "I killed her," Brie said, finally feeling the weight of her own words. "I thought she was going to kill Rykken. The emerald stone from the pendant ha
d a sharpened tip, so I threw it at her back. I've never even thrown a knife before—where would I have? I have terrible aim normally. But this was just like when I was playing volleyball—I could control where it was going. Sirena, I hit her in the heart." Brie felt an onslaught of tears coming on. "She's dead, Sirena. Dead." Brie buried her face in her knees.

  "It's not your fault," Sirena said, reverting automatically to stroking Brie's back. She sounded worried.

  "It was in self-defense."

  Brie knew in her heart, though, that it was her fault. She could have just wounded Kennedy to escape, but blind hatred had taken over. When she held that emerald dagger in her hands, she wanted Kennedy dead. She acted on those impulses, and no matter what Sirena or anyone else said, Brie knew the truth. The circumstances of Kennedy's death were irrelevant if Brie's intention had been to kill her in the first place.

  The permanence of the murder seeped into her, not unlike the depression that had blanketed her just months earlier. Kennedy knew how to get to her, and she'd risen to every bait Kennedy had tempted her with; but what if Kennedy was right? What if Brie was on the wrong side? What if she had just made the worst mistake of her life?

  Sirena left Brie to her thoughts, which were running wild. The uncomfortable knowledge that she was a Trinity among Hallows dangled over her for several minutes, until there wasn't any point in pushing off the conversation any longer. "You know I'm a Trinity," Brie said. "Why are you still trying to protect me if I'm a Trinity?"

  "Because," Sirena said immediately, "we can find the stones. We can fix you." Sirena's answer came too fast, like she was trying to convince herself. The tone in Sirena's voice also bothered Brie—like Brie simply had an ear infection that required antibiotics. To be fixed or cured meant that there was something dangerously wrong with Brie in the first place. But Brie knew that already.

  "Sirena, I killed someone. I'm a murderer."