by Nicole Maggi
“I have to go.”
“Just stay in tonight.” His tone froze me. It was the old Jonah, the one who used to talk to me in a made-up language. I stared at him. Did he know? “You can do without Josh for one night. Just stay in—with me. We could play Risk, like we used to.”
I searched his face. He examined the paint on the wall and wouldn’t let me meet his eyes. Either he knew what I was up to or he was trying to grasp at something old and familiar, when it was him and me against the world instead of me against him.
Whichever it was, I didn’t have time to figure it out. I had one night to get this done, and Nerina was waiting for me.
I crossed to him quickly and touched his arm. “We’ll play Risk tomorrow. I promise.”
He nodded, still not looking at me. I backed away until I reached the bathroom and shut the door. Inside the darkened room, I leaned against the counter and bent over until my forehead touched the cool marble. A hot lump spread from my throat to my chest to my belly. I knew what I was doing could save Jonah. But I was also betraying him.
I took a deep, ragged breath and straightened up. Fast, before I could change my mind, I opened the window and climbed out. The cold air froze in my throat and nostrils as I breathed in and out, in and out. I focused on one thing at a time—avoiding the loose shingle, knowing the exact notch in the tree to put my foot in, how far I had to slide down before I could jump to the ground. When I got there, I couldn’t help it; I looked up. Jonah stood in his window, his figure a dark outline against the soft light in his room. I wasn’t sure if he could see me, but I raised my hand and saluted him.
I’d been spending so much time at Nerina’s that I could find my way there in the dark. I knew the exact stone to push and how many counts it took for the door in the ground to open up. I knew the door would already be closed above my head when I reached the bottom of the stairs.
Nerina stood in the living room, pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. A tight black cap covered most of her hair. She was dressed much like I was: tight jeans, tall boots, dark turtleneck. Her gaze swept over me, and she planted a hand on her hip. “We look like twins.”
“Well, I wasn’t exactly sure of the proper attire.” On the chair next to her, I spied the book. “Are you taking that?”
“Sì.” Nerina turned in a small circle. “I think I have everything we need.”
“You think? Be sure.”
She shot me an annoyed look but did one more check. As she switched off the lamp next to the sofa, a creak echoed above our heads. The secret door was opening.
“Heath and Alessia always call or text before they come over,” Nerina said. Her eyes were wide, fixed on the top step where any moment someone’s foot would appear.
I backed up slowly until I was right next to Nerina.
She tore her gaze away from the staircase and reached down under the sofa. When she straightened, she held an iron crossbow in her hands. It was loaded.
“Whoa,” I breathed.
“Get behind me.”
I did as she asked. I wasn’t about to mess with a chick carrying a crossbow. She raised the weapon to shoulder height and aimed it at the stairway. The door stopped moving. A footstep thudded on the top step. First, a pair of Chuck Taylors appeared, then two legs in corduroy, then an entire person as he got to the bottom step. I relaxed a little. I mean, what bad guy wears Chuck Taylors?
“Are you Nerina?” he asked, somewhat breathlessly.
“Who’s asking?” She didn’t lower the crossbow.
The man pushed his little wire-rim glasses up his nose. “I’m Aaron. I’m from the Redwood Clan.”
“Prove it.”
I wanted to kick her. The guy was wearing a sweater-vest, for Chrissakes. And he probably weighed all of a hundred twenty pounds soaking wet. Nerina’s oversized Fendi bag might’ve weighed more than he did.
Aaron pushed up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a silver chain-link bracelet. I bit back a gasp. It wasn’t unlike the one Jonah always wore. The one that contained his caul. I tensed as he slipped it off his wrist and walked toward Nerina, holding the bracelet out to her. “In bocca al lupo.”
Keeping the crossbow pointed at him with one hand, Nerina took the bracelet into her other hand. She brought it close to her mouth and whispered something I couldn’t understand. The bracelet glowed blue, so bright it emitted a hum. She gave it back to Aaron and lowered the crossbow. “Welcome, friend.” She opened her arms, and they hugged as if they had known each other all their lives.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
Nerina stepped back from Aaron. “I asked the bracelet to reveal itself—and it did. It contains the caul of a Benandante.” She placed the crossbow on the coffee table. “From the Redwood Clan? How did you find me?”
“Dario sent me.” Aaron pushed his glasses up again. “I’m the head of my Clan, and when Dario first arrived, we revealed our identities to each other. He said that if anything were to happen I should come to you, and he told me where to find you.”
“Who’s Dario?” I asked.
“What’s happened?” Nerina ignored me, her eyes searching Aaron’s face.
“We’ve retaken the Redwood site,” Aaron said. “It’s back under Benandanti control.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” I stepped next to Nerina, but neither she nor Aaron even looked at me. This being ignored thing was really getting on my nerves.
“Why didn’t Dario come to tell me this himself?”
“He’s been captured.” Aaron swallowed, his Adam’s apple bouncing. “By the Malandanti.”
Nerina clutched at the back of the armchair. “How long?”
“Last night. I got on the first plane I could.” Aaron ran a hand through his hair. “We think we know where he is. And we think he’s still alive—”
“He is,” Nerina murmured. “I would feel it if he weren’t.”
I looked at her. She had made reference to this connection between the Benandanti, how they fed off each other’s energies, like how I fed off the book. “Can’t you just do that telepathy thingy with him?”
Nerina shook her head. “It’s too far. And the Malandanti have ways to block that.” She took a deep breath and reached for Aaron’s hand. “What do you need me to do?”
“Rescue him,” Aaron said. “I can’t do it on my own. And the rest of my Clan needs to be at the site. We’re under constant attack by the Malandanti there—”
“But wouldn’t the Malandanti be busy with Dario?” I asked.
This time they both looked at me.
“It’s the Malandanti’s own Concilio that’s captured Dario,” Nerina said. “Isn’t that right, Aaron?”
He nodded.
“Wow,” I said. “They bring in the big guns for the important people, I guess.” I tossed my hair. “Okay, so you’ll leave tomorrow. But we need to go—”
“What?” Aaron snapped.
I glared at him. Dude in a sweater-vest pulling attitude with me?
“We need to leave now,” he said. “There’s a red-eye out of Bangor in two hours.”
“Hold up, Batman,” I said. “Nerina and I were just about to leave for a super-important, top-secret mission. So step back, buddy.”
Aaron puffed himself up, like a scrawny peacock about to make a play for a hen way out of his league. I squared off in front of him. Bring it on, Chuck Taylors. But Nerina placed a palm lightly on his chest, and he deflated a little. Then she turned to me. “I’m sorry, Bree. It will have to wait.”
“But it can’t! The executives are all out town, just for this one night. This is our only chance in who knows how long—”
“If I wait until tomorrow, Dario could be dead.” Nerina’s voice was quiet, but it cut through me like the arrow resting in the tip of her crossbow. “Or, worse, tortured. He can withstand a lot, but we need to find him before he’s forced to give up information.” She took my hands and looked me in the eye. “Please understand. Dario is my family. I
must go to him.”
I didn’t say anything. She took that for acceptance and dropped my hands.
“I’ll just be a moment,” she told Aaron.
While Nerina threw a few things in a bag, Aaron and I stared at each other in uncomfortable silence. For a chick with so many designer clothes, she packed faster than I thought was humanly possible.
I followed them up the stairs, my brain clicking as though it were stuck between two gears. When we emerged into the night, Aaron said, “My car’s up on the road,” and they took off, skirting around the pasture so no one would see them cut across the farm.
Nerina didn’t even say good-bye; they barely looked at me as they left. I watched them disappear into the darkness, my insides seething.
I stomped through the woods back to the farm. One night. One freaking night when the Guild executives were definitely not in the office. I knew that for sure, because I had booked all of their flights to New York. They were there for a huge meeting with the international offices, and their building in Bangor would be empty.
One freaking night, and it had to be the exact same night Redwood Guy showed up.
I passed the chicken trailers and kicked the side of one, making the chickens inside squawk in protest. When I got close to the barn, I stopped. Nerina hadn’t even said how long she’d be gone. I guess you couldn’t put a time limit on rescuing your buddy from the bad guys, but still. Three days? A week? Two weeks? In that time, the Malandanti could wreak some serious havoc. In three days, the Malandanti could get wind of Nerina’s absence. In a week, they could decide to attack the Waterfall. In two weeks, Jonah could be dead.
I hugged myself and looked past the barn to the farmhouse. The upstairs lights were on. Alessia was probably doing her homework, like a good little schoolgirl.
Wait a second. The gears in my head locked into place and started spinning. I needed a Benandante to perform the spell . . .
And there was one, sitting twenty feet away.
Chapter Sixteen
The Break-in
Alessia
A soft but insistent pinging against my window jerked me out of the reverie I’d fallen into over my biology book. It was a sound I hadn’t heard in a long time. When we were younger, Jenny used to do it all the time until Lidia caught her and told her to use the front door, for Santa Maria’s sake.
I slid off my bed and shoved the window open. A pebble bounced off my forehead. “Dammit!” I leaned out the window and looked down.
Bree stood on the ground, about to take aim again. She caught sight of me. “I need to talk to you,” she stage-whispered.
I pointed to the driveway to indicate that I’d come down.
I drew back into my room. Now what? Was she back for more biscotti? It wasn’t even nine. Lidia was still up. This had better be good.
I tiptoed down the stairs and out the front door in my socks.
Bree stood under the eaves of the house, half-hidden in shadow.
“Not exactly the best time for a house call.”
Bree rubbed her gloved hands over her arms. “You think we could go inside? It’s like Alaska out here.”
“Fine, but be quiet. My mother is still awake.”
We crept up to my room. I shut the door and shoved a throw blanket into the crack between floor and door just to be safe. When I turned around to face Bree, she was just inches from me. “We have to break into the Guild tonight.”
“What?”
She sighed and pinched her forehead. “Nerina and I were supposed to break into that room—the one locked with magic—tonight. But she . . . had to leave, and I need a Benandante in order to perform the spell, and it’s the one night when they’re all away and so we have to go. Now.”
“Wait.” I waved my hands in front of my face. “Nerina left? Where did she go?”
“Some guy from the Redwood Clan came. He said they reclaimed the site, but the Malandanti captured one of them. Dario. The Concilio dude.”
I tried to process all of her words, but everything was jumbled. “We reclaimed the Redwood site? I have to tell Heath.” I turned toward the door.
Bree grabbed my upper arm, hard. “No.” The sight of her face stilled me. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright. Her hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat even though it was drafty in my room. I had never seen her like this. “How much simpler can I make this for you? All the executives at the Guild are in New York. The offices are empty. There’s no chance of my dad or anyone walking in on us. It has to be tonight. But Nerina left me high and dry. You have to help me.”
I drew my arm out of her grasp, my mind whirling. This had bad idea written all over it. Then again . . . Nerina was handling the Redwood issue. If she needed Heath to know about it, she would get in touch with him. Besides—I remembered now—he was on patrol tonight with the Stag. And if all the Guild executives were out of town . . .
“Just let me change my clothes,” I said and went to my closet. What the hell did one wear to break into a super-secret magic room?
We barely made the last bus to Bangor. Bree wanted me to “borrow” Lidia’s car, but I convinced her that was a terrible idea. I wasn’t sure how we were going to get home from Bangor, but we’d have to cross that bridge when we got to it.
I tried not to think about the last time I’d taken the bus to Bangor. The day I had skipped school with Jenny, when I had still been normal. And then, coming home that night, the world had turned upside down, and my life had been changed forever.
I leaned my forehead against the cool glass window and peered out into the night. Darkened fields gave way to soft residential streetlamps. The buildings grew closer and closer together until we were on the outskirts of the city. The bus stopped in the middle of a block populated with tall office buildings. Bree nudged me, and we slid out of our seats.
“You girls gonna be okay here?” the driver asked, squinting down the desolate street.
“We’re meeting my dad,” Bree said, giving him a sweet smile. “He works in this building.”
“Well, okay, then.” The door swooshed to a close behind us, and the bus pulled away from the curb.
I planted my hands on my hips. “Now what?”
“Come on.” Bree marched around the side of the building to a small, silver door marked Employees Only. She checked her watch, then waved a card in front of the electronic pad next to the door. I heard a click. She pulled the door open, and we slipped inside.
The fluorescent lights in the hallways were turned down to half, giving off a soft, bluish glow. I shivered. It almost looked like my aura. I looked around, my gut turning over on itself. I was inside the Guild. I was in the beating heart of the Malandanti.
“The office is on the third floor,” Bree whispered. “We should take the stairs.”
“Why?”
“To get to the elevators, we’d have to pass the security desk.”
“So?”
She rolled her eyes. “There’s a security guard sitting there, genius. I’d rather not explain to him why we’re here?”
I grabbed her arm. “There’s a security guard? Jeez, Bree.” The back of my neck itched, as if I were being watched. I looked up. Sure enough, above my head, a camera angled down on the hallway. Its red light felt white-hot on my face. I flattened myself against the wall. “Can they see us?”
“Not at this moment. The angle changes every three minutes.” She pulled me toward a door labeled Stairs. “I timed our entry so the camera wouldn’t be focused on the door.”
“Nicely done.”
“Please. Give me some credit.” Another wave of her pass got us into the stairwell. “I have this worked out perfectly.”
We jogged up the two flights of stairs. When Bree swiped her card to get us onto the third floor, I briefly wondered if there was a link from her card to security that would alert them to our presence. I followed her out into the hallway and pushed the thought out of my head. We were in too far to back out now. I only hoped she
had a plan in case we were caught—because I sure didn’t.
The floors up here were marble, the walls painted a white so bright it glistened. Sleek, black doors with frosted glass windows lined each side of the hall. Far down, opposite us, the hallway opened into a large reception area with an enormous, curved black desk. The words The Guild Incorporated hung over the desk, seemingly in midair, but when I squinted, I saw there was actually a glass wall behind the desk, and the words were painted in sharp, deep black on the clear glass. Everything was so stark, all black and white and marble. Totally at odds with an organization that sold its message as the deepest shade of grey.
“Which door is it?” I asked.
“The fifth one on the left.”
I moved to go down the hall, but Bree flung an arm out and knocked me back. “Wait!” She pointed above the first door. A camera perched like a predatory bird, facing away from us. “It will turn this way in about ninety seconds. Be ready to move.” She looked at me, and as she talked, I kept my eyes fixed on the camera. “We will only have three minutes to perform the spell before the camera catches us. That includes getting to the door.”
“Well, are you going to tell me what I have to do?” I’d asked her repeatedly on the bus ride here, but she said my part was simple and to just chill out. Like that was going to happen.
Bree peered at her watch. “All you have to do is transform. Sixty seconds to go.”
“What?” I stepped away from the wall. “I have to transform? Why the hell didn’t you tell me that?”
She glanced up from her vigilant clock watching. “What’s the big deal? It’s like second nature to you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but—” I spread my arms wide. “Look where we are! Transforming here would be like waving a giant ‘I’m a Benandante’ flag. Do you know what—?”
“Move.”
I shut my mouth and ducked. We ran along the wall, passing beneath the camera at the precise moment it switched directions. I counted the doors—one, two, three, four—and stopped.
