Griffin dropped his glass of orange juice. He could see her lies. “Oh, Magda. You wanted to kill her?” Griffin said.
Lincoln’s mouth was open. He was stunned.
“Actually, she wanted to kill Phoenix and me. Me to get me away from you,” I said to Lincoln. “And Phoenix because after getting rid of Nahilius, she was covering her tracks.”
“I don’t understand,” Lincoln said, probably willing it not to be true.
“This is crazy. She’s trying to turn everyone against me!” Magda started up again.
“Stop!” Griffin yelled so loud she jumped. “Stop lying. I knew that damn necklace did something. I knew it. I let you get away with things, covered up for you, hoped you would find your way. I never thought you were this…evil. Do you have any idea how many lives you have destroyed? How many you have endangered by giving over the knowledge of titanium?”
“Steph went through all the boxes of your mom’s company documents,” I said to Lincoln, who, by his mortified expression, I gathered was quickly starting to piece it all together. “Onyx told me Nahilius was working for someone. I thought it was Phoenix, but it was never Nahilius working with Phoenix. Steph found records, the bank transfers from your mom’s company to Nahilius, and then almost as much transferred out of his account into another unnamed account. The piece of paper Magda is holding shows that she is the owner of that account.”
“No,” Griffin said, shaking his head at the unforgiving truth.
Lincoln looked from me to Magda, his jaw clenched tight. “You were working with Phoenix?”
“He forced me!” Magda said quickly.
Lincoln half smiled as he shook his head. “No shadows, Magda. I’d be able to see if you were under his influence.”
Magda was silent but frantic.
“Since you came back from your vacation, you’ve been working with him. You brought Nahilius back, used him to drive a wedge between Violet and me, so Phoenix could get to her. I trusted you.”
“Lincoln, it’s not what you think. I didn’t know you back then, I…When I realized who you were, that you were going to become Grigori, I pulled Nahilius out of your mother’s company and I told him to disappear. I saved her.”
“You killed my mother!” Lincoln screamed.
Everyone was silent.
“Why, Magda?” Griffin finally asked, the words breaking.
Magda walked toward the door but then seemed to reconsider and turned back on him.
“Because you have all the power. You could’ve made us great, but you could never see the possibilities. It was all about the damn cause.” She tossed her head toward Lincoln; her eyes were actually welling. “Because I would’ve done anything for you to look at me the way you…” She shot me a poisonous look. “You ruined everything!”
She was moving at full speed. I barely had time to react when her hand reached my neck and she flung me back onto the dining table. But Lincoln was faster and was there in an instant. He thrust her off me with one hand and such force that she flew through the air until she slammed into the far wall.
Lincoln helped me up. Gentle hands. Only touching where necessary and yet every spot where we were connected still burned.
“I’m okay,” I said, giving him permission to move away from me.
Magda was back on her feet. She looked as if she was about to pounce again.
“You think you have everyone fooled!” she screamed at me. “But your true colors will show soon enough.”
Griffin moved in on Magda slowly. His head bowed. When he stood right in front of her, his hand went out in a snap and braced her neck as she had mine. He pushed her back into the wall she’d just collided with and heaved her into the air, his arm fully extended.
I held my breath as I saw the muscles in his arm flexing tight, the expression on Magda’s face exposing her pain. She couldn’t breathe, and he was close to crushing her windpipe altogether.
“A strike to Violet is a strike to me,” he said, echoing the words he’d said to me when I’d slapped Magda. “Give me a reason not to squeeze.”
Magda put both hands on Griffin’s shoulders, as if consolingly. He must have let his guard down for a moment, because when her knee flew up to hit him under the chin, he released his grip on her and she landed on the floor.
“Sure thing, Griff,” she snarled, making for the door again.
Spence and Salvatore beat her there and stood in her way, but Griffin gave a small wave of his hand and they stood aside.
Magda smiled at Griffin. “You’re too weak. And when you try to figure all this out and keep stumbling on the big questions, remember: the answer is the very thing you fight so hard for.” She took the handle, pulled it open, and paused without looking back, just long enough to say two words.
“Free will.”
“The sin both of men and of angels, was rendered possible by the fact that God gave us free will.”
C. S. Lewis
I don’t know who found the bottle of vodka. I didn’t care. No one did. Hard liquor was probably a bad idea, but one by one we took our seats and Spence started to pour.
Looking at us all, slumped around the dining table, it was clear—not one of us had escaped the last few days unscathed. I couldn’t remember when we’d last slept. I didn’t even know what time of day it was, only that it was now dark.
“To Rudy,” Spence said.
We all raised our glasses and drank. My throat burned and I relished the distraction. Spence refilled the cups one by one.
“And Nyla,” Griffin said.
And though we didn’t want to admit to it, we didn’t want to deny it either. We raised our glasses and gulped down the poisonous truth.
To Nyla.
“What now?” Zoe asked.
“We fight,” Lincoln and I said in unison without looking at each other.
“I’m sorry, Violet and Lincoln,” Griffin said, clearing his throat. “I knew Magda was up to something, but I swear, I never thought…” He couldn’t finish.
“We know, Griffin,” I said, wanting to reassure him.
“None of us did.” Lincoln added.
“I owe you an apology too, Salvatore,” Griffin went on, nodding at Salvatore, who returned the gesture. “And a debt of gratitude to you, Stephanie.”
No one said much after that for a while, just mumbled here and there. Every now and then, another penny would drop.
“The exiles in the alley who killed the homeless?” Lincoln said.
I nodded. “I think Phoenix provided them and Magda sent them. I’m gathering there was never a group of exiles who she took out on her vacation, probably just one exile and she didn’t take him out.”
“Phoenix,” Lincoln said, clenching his jaw.
Another stretch of silence until Griffin had a lightning-bolt moment. “That’s why she would never stay long around me! She was scared the sapphire’s influence wouldn’t hold.”
We all just nodded as the theory sank in. It explained a lot of her quick exits when Griffin arrived.
And finally.
“She wanted me to kill Nahilius. She knew it would change me forever, make me doubt everything,” Lincoln said quietly.
I didn’t need to respond. I’d figured the same thing. That Magda wanted Lincoln to do it so he would feel so isolated from everyone else, especially me, that he would turn to her. When her plan backfired, she killed Nahilius to silence him. I took little comfort in the realization that it wasn’t me Nahilius had called a bitch.
“Violet, you lead us now,” Griffin said as Spence lined up more shots. “Phoenix was right. You are from a Sole Angel, the highest rank. That makes you our leader.”
I looked around the table expecting, and ready to welcome, intervention. But no one argued.
“No. It just gives me a right to choose. I don’t
want to lead, Griffin. I have school and you’re our leader. If I’m ranked highest, then I get to say who’s in charge, and that’s you.”
I held out my glass and then drank. Lincoln did the same, followed by everyone else supporting my decision. Finally, Griffin nodded.
“For now,” he said and drank.
“While we’re getting things sorted,” Spence piped up, “I, um…I’ve made some decisions of my own.”
“Let’s hear ’em,” Griffin said, his country accent now thick under the influence of alcohol. He was resigned to anything at this stage.
“I’m not going back to New York. I’m staying here.”
When we all just looked at him, he shrugged. “Well, I’ve got no parents waiting for me and I’m not very well going to leave the one person who can heal me until my partner comes of age, am I? And anyway, I’d like a chance to return the favor,” he said, shooting me a genuine smile. “That is, of course, if that’s okay with everyone,” he added, looking at Lincoln then glancing at me. After everything that had happened, he was giving Lincoln the chance to tell him to get lost.
I think Lincoln appreciated the gesture, although I was sure it stuck him like a pin. I know it did me.
“You can stay here,” Lincoln offered. “I’ll clear out the spare room.”
I shot Lincoln a look. I never thought he’d clear out that room.
“It’s time,” he said, answering my unspoken question. I was glad for him.
“We’re going to apply for permission to return as well,” Zoe said. “We want to be here to help fight what’s coming, but first we need to go back and check on Nyla and debrief everyone at the Academy. It’s only right.”
We all nodded.
Griffin took another drink. I think he was taking two for every one of ours.
Lincoln’s phone rang. He answered as he got up and walked away from the table. While he was talking, Steph used her own version of best-friend telepathy with me—a series of raised eyebrows, head tilts, and one mouthed “O-kay.”
I nodded to them all.
“That was Dapper,” Lincoln said when he returned. “He’s been trying to get hold of you for a while,” he said to me.
“Oh.” I stood and went over to my phone still on the charger. I made a show of turning it on and shoved it in my pocket. I heard the voice mail bell chime a few times. I’d check the messages later.
“We have to go to Hades,” he said.
“Look, honestly, Dapper can deal with Onyx or throw him out on the street,” Griffin said.
Lincoln kept moving and shrugged on a coat. He wedged open the door with his foot, waiting for us all to get up. “It’s not Onyx. Let’s go.”
And like good little soldiers, we all got up and followed.
“The star that leads the way is your star…You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”
It may as well have been a lifetime ago, those moments Lincoln and I shared in Jordan. In some ways, I wished they’d never happened.
Okay, that was a lie.
The city seemed different, foreign to me somehow. I was so exhausted, but still my legs carried me on. Nothing would ever be the same. Even the air felt different. Jordan had changed me, irreversibly.
Maybe it was for the best. Maybe I needed to be given a dose of harsh reality. Somewhere along the way, I’d obviously lost sight, forgotten to protect myself and keep control of things. Now I would pay the price.
Lincoln walked up ahead with Spence, flanking Griffin in case he tumbled over. Poor Griffin. He carried us all, felt responsible for leading us, and now, after everything that happened in Jordan, to have discovered Magda had played such a terrible part…This was one thing for which I knew he’d blame himself for a long time, even though he shouldn’t.
This was only the start. I didn’t just feel doom settling around me now. It had moved in, taken possession. Lincoln looked over his shoulder, caught my eye, and turned back. I wanted to scream.
Steph, who had been chatting to Salvatore, slowed her pace to meet mine. She linked our arms together like she’d done so many times before. Still my best friend.
“Would you like me to say something that will distract you?” she said.
“Sure.”
“Your dad’s coming home tomorrow.”
I sighed. “Wow, I guess he managed to cut his trip short after all,” I said, knowing I must have missed a number of calls from him, probably the messages my phone had beeped with earlier.
“Yeah, well, on the upside, I talked to him last night, told him you were out getting takeout. He sounded worried, but by the time I’d finished jabbering on about all the stuff we’ve been doing, he was fine.”
Thank God for Steph. And Dad, he just made it too easy, but right now I couldn’t complain.
“On the downside?” I asked, knowing there was more.
“He saw the Amex bill and didn’t buy the story I gave him about you needing a thousand dollars worth of urgent school supplies. He said he’d be expecting an explanation. I suggest starting with ‘I’m not on drugs!’”
I shrugged. It wasn’t ideal, but I could manage that. I was sure I could produce a few utility bills he hadn’t been following and make up a few extra expenses. It was the least of my worries.
“Are you staying over?” I asked.
Steph hesitated. “If…you know, if that’s okay.”
“Things still crappy at home?”
“Sort of.”
“Maybe we could go get an early breakfast at the mall before school?” I said, reinforcing that she was welcome to stay at mine. I really wanted to just sleep for weeks, but it would be nice to do something normal and I owed her a good talk. She clearly had things to fill me in on.
Steph nodded and gave me a nudge. It was all that was needed with us.
We turned the corner, the burnt orange doors to Hades shining at the end of the road.
I felt him as if the senses rose up from the ground, wafted like a heat wave. My grip on Steph’s arm tightened. His senses made me anxious, they were so powerful. But they weren’t at full force. He was holding back, just letting me know.
Jude.
The others all seemed to become more alert as we reached the entrance to the club, either sensing him too or just knowing he was present through intuition. Griffin seemed to sober himself and stand to attention.
There was a brief pause before we all moved into the heaving bar. I had just enough time to say, “Upstairs,” before the doors opened and music blasted out from inside.
We moved through the crowd, toward the unmarked door that led upstairs. Patrons of Hades were dancing, drinking, flirting. We must have looked like a pretty weird sight to all of them. As a group, we didn’t exactly look like we were out to party.
I prepared myself for anything. Jude had abilities that stretched so much further than he had shown. I didn’t know what he was capable of.
When we reached the bar, I spotted Onyx. He was wearing jeans and a white shirt. I’d never seen him in jeans before. He looked…stable. And that wasn’t all; he was working, serving a blond girl from behind the bar, and he looked like he was actually taking some kind of pride in it. That’s not to say I didn’t notice the large glass of what I guessed was bourbon or whiskey sitting by the register.
He spotted me after he gave the girl her drink and change, and his eyes narrowed. Strangely, I was comforted that he hadn’t changed completely. He cocked his head toward the door that headed upstairs, letting me know to follow him as he walked on his side of the bar.
He opened the door and leaned on it as one by one we all filed into the narrow stairway.
“This will be interesting,” Onyx said as I passed.
“Do you know who he is?” I asked.
He smiled his old wicked smile, but somehow it
had less bite now. “He’s the villain.”
Fragments of my dream floated back to me as I remembered my angel maker showing me flashes of the past, of decisions made. Jude’s choices.
“Why did he come here?” I asked Onyx.
“He’s been watching you for some time, I’d say. Waiting,” Onyx said, again his words striking a chord with me.
Griffin knocked on Dapper’s door.
“Come in,” called Dapper from inside.
The senses were now strong, and the flavor of apple seemed to mix with a foul aroma.
“Ew, that’s putrid. What is it?” I couldn’t help asking.
Griffin and Lincoln, as specialists in sensing the floral combinations exiles exude, were also wrinkling their noses.
“Dracunculus Vulgaris,” Griffin said. “A stunning flower that smells of rotted meat.”
We walked in and found Jude sitting on a stool at Dapper’s minibar. His robes were still the same dirty brown, still covering his face, his whole frame hunched over.
Dapper stood behind the small wooden bar, looking nervous, not taking his eyes from Jude.
“I don’t think I was clear when I told you lot not to bring your troubles here,” he said calmly, as if worried he might stir his unwanted guest.
Since I was the only one who had talked to him in the past, I felt I had to say something.
“Jude…” I started, unsure. “Why are you here?”
He didn’t answer. I looked to Griffin; he just opened his hands a little. But then Jude started to move. I saw Lincoln’s hand go to his dagger while Jude’s went to his hood and he revealed his beautiful face. This time I was prepared and stopped my hands from floating toward him.
Reaching into the sides of his robe, Jude revealed something else. The Scripture, the one he’d taken from Jordan. He raised his head, his baby blue eyes looking softly at mine as he held the parchment out to me.
“You’re just giving it to us?” I asked, worried to take it in case it was some kind of trap.
He nodded once.
“What do you want in return?” I asked, trying to concentrate as more images from my dreams flooded back to me. All the pain, the guilt, the responsibility.
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