“Vi, I…I can’t believe I have to do this to you,” Steph said, as she followed me and sucked in a deep breath. “I mean, I totally want you to hibernate, you know, do your thing. I don’t want to be part of the problem, but…I found something and I think…I know, you have to see.”
I just nodded and followed her down the hall toward the spare room. Spence moved to follow us, but Steph gave him a look and he turned back to the living room.
“You’ve been busy,” I said, taking in the chaos that was Lincoln’s spare room. Boxes were open everywhere and papers piled up in what I imagined were all chronological or alphabetical or numerical order, or something else incredibly intelligent that would be way beyond me yet totally normal for Steph. Then I realized something else.
“Steph, Lincoln never even comes into this room himself. He’s going to freak.”
“Violet, honey.” She braced a hand on my shoulder. “I know you’ve been to hell and back. I do. I really get it and I don’t even know how you’re holding it together, but right now I need you to look at some pieces of paper and follow what I’m about to tell you.”
“Whatever this is, can’t it wait?”
“That’s the thing, sweetie…”
I looked up.
Steph shook her head.
Perfect.
I sat on the floor and Steph sat beside me. She picked up the first piece of paper that showed me bank records: transfers from Lincoln’s mom’s company, big lump sums going into some account. Then she showed me more of the same and a piece of paper that showed the bank account where the transfers had gone.
“Are you following?” Steph asked, watching me, reminding me that somehow all of this mattered.
“Big money transfers from her company to this account and I take it this account is somehow linked to Nahilius, right?”
“Right,” she said, sifting through the papers in her next pile.
“Steph,” I started to complain, but she shoved another piece of paper under my face and pointed to a line at the bottom. It was another bank transfer sheet. This one had funds, almost as large, going from Nahilius’s bogus account to another.
My eyes widened as I looked at the piece of paper. “Do you know who this account belongs to?” I asked, starting to understand.
Steph pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. “I had to hack into the computer files of the bank’s main server and could be going for a long vacation in jail very soon, but…” She waved the piece of paper.
“You know who Nahilius was working for?”
Trust Steph to delve deeper than anyone else had dared to consider.
She nodded. “And I want you to promise me that after you look at this, no matter what—no matter what you want to do—you have to swear you will not leave this room until I say you can.”
“Steph, stop messing around,” I snapped.
“Promise.”
“I’m not promising anything. Give me the damn paper or I’ll stand up and take it from you.”
Steph stared at me. I stared back and wondered if I actually had it in me. She didn’t budge.
“Steph!” I yelled.
“I love you, Violet, so no. Not until you promise.” She held strong but I saw her cringing just a little, her fingers clenched tightly to the paper. She was scared of me.
I recoiled. “Oh my God, Steph, I’m sorry. I…Everything is so messed up.”
“I get it. Don’t think I haven’t worked it out, Vi. I know the moment Nyla lost Rudyard, you lost…I’m sorry. And I feel like a cow having to do this to you, but I know if you promise me, you will do it, and I know you can’t look at this piece of paper until you promise me.”
I threw my head back and looked at the ceiling. “Okay. I promise.” I stood up and Steph unfolded the piece of paper.
“I’ve got a new name for Mr. Burke’s list of great betrayers,” Steph said, as I read the words that made so many things click into place.
I scrunched the paper in my hand and bit down hard. “I’m gonna kill—” But Steph cut me off.
“Not until I tell you, you can leave the room,” she said crossing her arms.
“But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it also is dreadful?”
C. S. Lewis
Steph let me be for the first half hour. I sat on the ground, staring at the piece of paper, trying to put all the pieces together. Steph went about putting all the other paperwork back into boxes, leaving a few key documents in a small pile. Eventually, she sat beside me and helped me try to fill in the gaps. Every now and then, I’d leap to my feet and charge for the door, furious and needing to do something. Each time, Steph pulled out the “You swore” card and I’d slump back to the ground.
After we had gone over about as much as I could handle, I groaned. “Lincoln will be back soon. Maybe we should go out.”
Steph just headed back to the last of the boxes after passing me her laptop.
“Why don’t you read over my chem notes first? You have a few classes to catch up on.”
I wanted to throw the computer against the wall. I couldn’t have cared less about chemistry. But Steph wasn’t going to give, so I opened the file and stared at the screen. I opened the wrong notes and up popped the ones from last week.
Gradually, as I read through our classwork on precious stones and their characteristics, my curiosity grew.
“Are you connected to the Net?” I asked.
“Yep,” Steph said, lugging a heavy box up onto a few that were already stacked.
I found what I was looking for quickly. For some reason, I wasn’t surprised. Miss Stallad’s excitement at giving a class that had just popped into her mind that morning now made perfect sense.
They’d been leaving clues everywhere.
I sighed with crazy frustration and felt like such a puppet.
“Damn angels.” My head fell back against the wall, looking up to the ceiling. “Why do you have to play all these games? Why couldn’t you just tell me?” I might’ve been able to do something different, save Rudy.
“Vi, any chance you might be able to fill in those of us without a direct link?” Steph said, hands on hips.
So I did.
• • •
I heard the front door. Lincoln, Magda, and Griffin had arrived. Steph had now had me locked in the spare room for almost two hours. It surprised me no one had come in. They were probably giving me space—or themselves.
This shouldn’t have been possible.
I stood up. “Steph, I’m okay. We have to go out, otherwise Lincoln is going to come down here and see you’ve been through all his mom’s stuff.”
A look of panic flashed across her face, but she held her ground.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I took a deep breath. I needed to be okay right now. “Yes.”
Steph stood up and opened the door. “Okay, maybe you should go have that shower now. I brought over a change of clothes for you. I didn’t know if you’d have anything. They’re in the bathroom.”
“Thanks, Steph,” I said, giving her a quick hug.
“It’s okay. I stayed at your place last night anyway.”
“I didn’t mean for the clothes.”
“I know,” she said with a smile as we left the room.
Steph pulled the door shut quietly behind us. I darted across the hall and hovered just inside the bathroom door. I could hear everyone talking, but I just couldn’t face them yet. I needed a few minutes alone.
Spence had been down to the corner store and Zoe was offering round glasses of orange juice. Griffin was on the phone, getting back to business. I heard someone start walking my way, so I quickly closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower. Then I heard another door close. Lincoln’s bedroom.
I stripped, got in the show
er, and couldn’t even stand. I just sat in the corner and leaned against the tiles as the water washed off dried blood and dirt that had remained hidden beneath my sweats. I rested the side of my head against the wall, knowing that Lincoln’s room was on the other side.
I listened to the banging.
Drawers being pulled out and slammed back. His closet door—I’d heard that one slam before. I didn’t know how it was still on its hinges. Then I heard a thud nearby and then a smaller one almost exactly level with my head. It was a thin wall.
I imagined Lincoln there on the other side of the wall, sitting in the corner of his room. I put my hand to the wall and let it slide down the wet tiles.
There would always be a wall.
Even so, I eventually dragged myself out of the shower and changed into the black jeans and red T-shirt Steph had left for me. One thing I knew about Lincoln, he had to say it out loud.
• • •
I knocked on his door and opened it. My heart clenched. He was sitting on the floor, exactly where I had imagined he’d be. He didn’t even bother getting up.
I sat opposite him on the edge of his bed and looked at my feet.
“How’s Griff?” I asked, my voice crackly.
“You know Griff. Blames himself.”
I nodded.
“You were amazing back there. The way you healed Spence. You…You’re amazing,” he said, stopping himself from saying something else.
“You too. I saw you take down at least three of them and then…Thanks by the way. I don’t…um…I don’t think I ever said so.” In all the commotion, I hadn’t even thanked him for saving my life.
“I’m so useless to you when Phoenix hurts you.” He dropped his head into his hands. “I can’t help, I can’t stop it, and it kills me. The idea of you in pain, hurting so badly—I’d do anything.”
“I know.”
“We’re soul mates, Vi. I know you’ve had your doubts, but I’m sure of it,” he said, glancing at me for just a moment.
“I know,” I whispered.
“No wonder Rudyard and Nyla wanted us to know everything.” He slammed a fist into the wall. “I could never do that to you. Risk leaving you like that.”
“I know. Me too.” And even though running my heart through a shredder would have hurt less, it was true. I couldn’t commit Lincoln to a future like Nyla’s, knowing that Phoenix had a physical hold over me that meant he could kill me at any time. There was no way I’d risk bonding my soul with Lincoln’s and then stealing his away when I died.
He stood and came over to sit beside me. My entire body ached, craving to reach out and touch him.
“I don’t know how to do this, but I know there’s no other way.”
“We just keep fighting. Like Rudyard says—said—that’s what Grigori do,” I said, letting the numbness in, wanting it to surround me.
“Yeah,” he agreed, nodding sadly. His hand moved toward me instinctively before he stopped it and stood up.
He walked toward the door. “I should go check up on everyone.”
“Wait. Linc, there’s something I need to tell you,” I said, standing too, bracing myself.
But he already had his head out the door, and we could both hear the raised voices.
“Something’s going on,” he said.
What’s new?
I followed him out of his room and down the hall.
“What’s happened?” Lincoln asked Spence when we reached the living room.
“Got me. Zoe and Salvatore were over in the corner talking and then, all of a sudden, Salvatore just lost it. I think he’s frustrated by the communication problem.”
“Oh,” said Lincoln, as if it didn’t matter.
But knowing everything I now knew and watching how Salvatore, Zoe, and Steph were all whispering hurriedly, I got that feeling. The bad one.
I looked over at Griffin. Magda was speaking, looking like she was collecting her bag to leave. Steph must have said something Salvatore didn’t like because he was shaking his head, getting more and more upset. Zoe was just looking confused.
“What is going on over there?” Griffin asked, distracted from his conversation.
Salvatore stepped forward. “I am sorry for these troubles, Mr. Griffin. I am trying to give explanation. I must tell these things I know.”
Griffin nodded, seeing Salvatore’s distress. “Stephanie, would you mind translating for Salvatore?” Griffin requested.
Steph looked at me, worried. I gave her a resigned shrug. Lincoln saw and shot me a questioning look.
“I think you’re about to find out,” I mumbled.
Did everything have to happen like this?
“Okay,” Steph said.
Salvatore spoke to Steph in Italian. Nothing he said seemed to shock her that much. I didn’t take it as a good sign.
When he had finished, she looked back at me nervously, then licked her lips.
Shit.
“Okay. Salvatore, as you all know, has the strength to detect lies. Unlike your gift, Griffin…” She swallowed; she was freaking out.
Shit shit shit.
“Salvatore’s looks for the threads that interconnect and then lead to more. He says it’s sometimes like looking at a fine strand that is out of place,” Steph continued, talking as much with her flailing hands as with her mouth, “weaving in and out of many larger pieces of fabric, holding them together. When that thread, no matter how small, comes away, it can unravel the rest.”
“Yes, Stephanie, we understand his gift. Could you please get to the point?” Griffin asked, losing patience.
“Yes. Um…Salvatore has a question for Magda.” She swallowed again, hesitantly.
Magda didn’t say anything. Instead, she just looked around like this was all a waste of valuable time.
“Well, what is it?” Griffin asked.
“He would like to know…why she lied back at the tomb. He believes—thinks, really—that when she told Lincoln she tried to kill Phoenix to save Violet’s life, she was lying.”
“Well”—Griffin looked at Salvatore—“I’m sorry, Salvatore, but that just isn’t possible. Magda wouldn’t lie about something like that. She has no reason to, and anyway I would have seen the absence of truth if she had, and I didn’t.”
Salvatore said something to Steph, who finally seemed to be getting back some of her Stephness.
“Salvatore says you’re wrong. He believes Magda has a way of clouding truth. She’s protecting herself and attracting trust in others. He says you’re too close to her to see past it, but he’s been seeing it for some time now and he’s sure.”
“This is ridiculous,” Magda said, looking around the room convincingly. “I don’t have any protection against my own Grigori partner. Lincoln, surely you don’t believe this?”
Lincoln looked at me and then to Salvatore. “I’m sure you have your reasons, Salvatore, but it has been an incredibly traumatic time for everyone. We have no reason to doubt Magda…or Griffin’s abilities for that matter.”
Salvatore shook his head, frustrated. Zoe stepped up beside him. “Listen, I’d be the first to admit he can be backward, but if he says she’s lying, she’s lying.”
Steph took out the piece of paper from her pocket that I had earlier scrunched up. She smoothed it out, looked to me, and after I nodded, she walked up to Magda and gave it to her.
Magda snatched the scrap from Steph’s hand, and as she took in what it was and what it meant, her eyes grew wide. Panic.
“Take off your necklace, Magda,” I said, stepping forward, putting a quick hand on Steph to lead her back to Salvatore and Zoe.
She looked at me like she wanted to rip my throat out. Funny, I felt exactly the same way about her.
“No,” she said, looking to Griffin again. “This is crazy.”
&n
bsp; “As you can see, Steph has been really busy. She doesn’t like to boast or anything, but she’s a genius. I told her about a conversation I’d had with Onyx. He’d explained how Nahilius was only a gun for hire. I mean, I thought that meant he was working for Phoenix. In a way, he was, not that Nahilius knew it, though. He actually believed he’d come back here to sell that building and get the money, didn’t he?”
“I have no idea what story you are trying to concoct. Are you that desperate for attention?” She looked at Griffin. “She has a problem, Griff.”
I took a step toward Magda. “I’m not the one with the problem, Magda. I’m not the one who gave Phoenix the information about titanium; I’m not the one who betrayed all Grigori by giving exiles a new defense against us.”
“Violet,” Griffin warned, moving to stand beside Magda.
“Do you know what makes sapphires blue, Griffin?” I asked, pushing harder. “Titanium,” I answered without waiting. “The same metal exiles now know can confuse our senses. You discovered it, didn’t you, Magda? Being Griffin’s partner has had its advantages, and you figured out a way to harness them for your benefit. It must’ve been years ago when you first hunted down that necklace.”
Magda started to take a small step back but I was too quick. I reached out and ripped the chain from her neck, hoping it hurt her.
Magda’s hands went to her throat in shock.
I half laughed, even though none of this was funny. “Kashmir sapphires are the rarest because they are the richest blue. You know, I Googled them. Only a few have ever been discovered. Some believe they even attract divine favor and…can weave truth.”
“Violet, stop this,” Griffin said, but I could see the wheels turning, his mind going into overdrive.
“I’m sorry, Griffin”—and I really was—“but I can’t.”
“Ask her now, Lincoln. Ask her why she tried to return Phoenix,” Steph said.
Lincoln looked from me to Magda to Steph, then Salvatore, and finally back to me. In the end, he would trust me.
“Why did you do it?” he asked Magda.
“I told you why. I did it to save her.”
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