Prophecy (Residue Series #4)

by Falter, Laury

  “I’m not hurt. Not physically,” she confirmed.

  Only then did I release the breath pent up in me. It came in a rush as I shook my head in amazement. “I was so sure…”

  She knew what I was thinking, what had consumed me since we’d been separated, not only weeks ago but also tonight. “You were sure Lacinda would hurt me in retaliation? For being the one you love?” She smiled tenderly at me, a move that made me want to pull her close. The only reason that kept me from doing it was Stalwart and his men. We weren’t safe yet. “I think,” Jocelyn went on, “that she believed she could win you over.”

  Jocelyn’s eyes shifted to the topic of our conversation, beyond my shoulder.

  “She clearly had no idea what she was up against,” I said, a grin surfacing freely for the first time in weeks. “She has nothing on you.”

  The smile that brightened her eyes sharpened my need to hold her, but I didn’t get the chance. A rustling sound told me that someone was moving, and that the noise was coming from the direction of doorway.

  By the time I spun around, I caught only a glimpse of Stalwart carrying Lacinda in his arms, her feet dangling loosely, his arms cradling her as they disappeared into the dark hallway. Stalwart’s men swiftly stepped in to block the door. Eran, reached them first, demanding, “Step aside.”

  The men stood firm.

  “MOVE!”

  They didn’t.

  I stopped next to Eran, and warned, “Move or you will be hurt.”

  When they didn’t budge, and with all of us knowing Stalwart and Lacinda were probably on the first level by now, I took the guard in front of me as Eran took on the other. Our fists landed at nearly the same time, sending Stalwart’s men backwards against the doorjamb in near unison.

  What struck me was that they didn’t put up a fight; they made no effort to defend themselves, taking the full brunt of our force without any detectable cringe. I think even Eran tuned in to it because he paused uncomfortably before stepping over their bodies and taking off down the hall.

  By the time we reached the first floor there was no sign of Stalwart or Lacinda, but there were footsteps behind us. I turned, ready to tell Jocelyn she needed to stay back when Maggie appeared in the concealed doorway.

  Instead, it was Eran who delivered a warning. “Magdalene…,” he said cautiously.

  Ignoring him, she moved past us, into the foyer, her head swiveling from side to side in search of Stalwart or Lacinda. Jocelyn rushed by me, surveying the room the same was as Maggie.

  “Jocelyn, you need to stay back.”

  “Both of you need to stay back,” Eran demanded, pinning Maggie with a stare.

  Evidently, he didn’t like his girl involved in danger any more than I did.

  Just as Maggie had done, Jocelyn disregarded our demands and moved to Maggie’s side. “They’re gone?” she asked, scanning the area as Maggie was doing.

  The level of frustration at her placing herself in the line of conflict was apparent, but there wasn’t time to discuss it.

  Only a brief moment passed before Maggie ducked her head while staring through the foyer windows, “No, they’re not.” And then she disappeared, moving faster than I’d ever seen a girl manage, leaving the front door open behind her.

  Eran pursued her, out the door and down the steps before Jocelyn or I even had time to respond. Then I was on the porch, with Jocelyn at my back. My arm immediately rose to block her from pursuing them because I saw something that made me question the legitimacy of my eyesight.

  Stalwart and Lacinda had vanished, Eran and Maggie too. But just above the tree-tops, fading into the night sky, was a pair of massive birds, their wings flapping furiously in the same direction Stalwart and Lacinda had been going.

  5

  DISSENSION

  “JAMESON…JAMESON.”

  It was Jocelyn’s voice pulling me out of my concentration, coaxing me back. I knew this because only she could rouse me back to life.

  I turned to face her. This time, though, it was the urgency in her tone that did it. “Right, I know…,” I assured her. Despite the threat I’d left with Lacinda, The Sevens’ next step was an obvious one. “They’ll be coming back.”

  “Quickly, and with a larger force,” Kalisha declared, coming up behind us.

  “Then we’d better get going.” I stopped, though briefly, to level my focus on Kalisha. “All of us.”

  Her reaction was a slight drop of her jaw, a clear sign that she felt some relief at being included, and from the looks of it she hadn’t experienced that sensation in a very long time.

  Less than a minute later, we were in flight, Jocelyn using her ability to levitate us upward.

  Once we were out of unaided sight from the ground, she asked in a rush, “Where’s my family?”

  When I was done listing their safe houses, she wanted to know about mine, and I told her. Sedated by this news, she finally asked for our destination, one I’d purposefully kept from her until it was necessary because I knew how she would take it. “The village?” she repeated, confused.

  I nodded. “Remember the platform built on stilts just outside the village boundary? The one where we…where we almost…” I paused realizing she might not want me to bring up the first time we attempted to make love, not with Kalisha right next to us. “The one where we…”

  “Celebrated our birthday?” she finished for me.

  “That’s the one.”

  Cluing in, as she always seemed to do, she pressed, “Why not the village?”

  I opened my mouth to answer and then didn’t.

  “What, Jameson? What aren’t you telling me?”

  Every effort I ever made since meeting her was to ensure Jocelyn felt only pleasure, no pain. And now I was about to fail in that undertaking.

  She had been locked away for weeks, without any news from the outside world, from our world. And she had no idea that it was in shambles.

  “What, Jameson?” she persisted.

  I sighed, a sign, I was sure, that made her think I was refusing to concede to her. She began to insist again when I finally answered her. “The village is gone.”

  Processing my disclosure, we dropped slightly in the air before she contained herself.

  “Gone as in destroyed?”

  “In a way. It might as well be.”

  “What happened?”

  “I disbanded it.”

  She looked at me in shock.

  “It was the only way to ensure their safety.”

  “But we were strong, Jameson,” she argued, as she tended to do.

  “Not strong enough.”

  She fell silent, evaluating me. “What happened after I was abducted from the bayou? After we were separated?”

  I looked away, knowing she wanted to hear, believing wholeheartedly that she shouldn’t. But she would learn about it eventually, and it would be better coming from me.

  “We fought them, Jocelyn. Hard. The number of Vire uniforms on the ground when it ended was…It was like the night sky had turned on its head, covering the earth in black. But it wasn’t enough. We didn’t get enough of them. A few got away, went back to the Ministry to acquire more forces, more units, more contingents…more Vires. The thing was…I knew it was happening, because if I were those Vires it’s exactly what I would have done. So I ordered everyone to pack up, to leave, hide before the Vires returned with a force we couldn’t handle.” I then confessed the other part of my motivation for forcing the village to scatter. “It was the only way to make sure they didn’t kill you right off. You would still be useful to them if you could serve a purpose. Sartorius found one, and you lived.”

  “Jameson,” she said, her voice just above a whisper, her hand reaching out for me. But I couldn’t bring myself to meet her halfway, not after having failed her in so many ways. That wasn’t what she was thinking, though. She only had my welfare in mind, always. “Everything you’ve been through…It’s not fair. We should be worrying about classes, te
sts, where the best house party is on Friday nights.” Her voice hardened as she went on, the wind speed noticeably picking up along with it. “We shouldn’t be consumed with surviving day to day. We shouldn’t have enemies so devoted to killing us that every move we make needs to be strategic by design.” As she finished, her voice became bitter. “We shouldn’t have to hide.”

  I knew what she meant. We deserved our freedom. She had just been released from a prison encased in rock, and she was no closer to it than if she were still huddled inside those bars.

  I wanted to hurt someone…preferably a Seven. But also I wanted to tell her that it wouldn’t be long now, that the fight would be brought to us if we didn’t bring it to them. Instead, I held back, knowing it would serve no purpose. In the end, all I could do was place my hand over hers, trying to comfort her with touch as best I could. We stayed that way until the bayou came into view, when the sight of two figures standing on the platform caused her fingers to slip away.

  “I thought you said the village is unoccupied.”

  “It is,” I assured her. “We aren’t in the village.”

  As we landed, I noticed that the bayou had a mystique about it tonight, as if the moldering cypress tree stumps, the glassy, black water, and the silent insects who inhabited this part of the world knew that a secret meeting was about to take place.

  Jocelyn continued to squint through the darkness until we were close enough for her to distinguish the women. Being that one was squat with a robust belly and her companion was thin, frail, and stood like a drill sergeant, I knew Jocelyn would figure it out quickly.

  Then she laughed, a sound filled with relief, and the second her feet touched the ground, she ran for Miss Mabelle to throw her arms around the stocky woman’s shoulders.

  Jocelyn sighed into her meaty shoulder. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

  And finally…finally…I saw the first unrestrained sign of happiness in Jocelyn since she had been ripped from my arms and imprisoned. Since then she had slept on a rock floor in an empty five by five cell, used as a tool by Sartorius and as a game piece by Lacinda. And still, here she was ignoring all that, ignoring those memories in favor of making this new one. She amazed me.

  Despite the old woman’s frown clearly visible over Jocelyn’s shoulder, there was contentment in her eyes, too. Unfortunately, it never made its way into her response. “N’ what a loss that woulda been fer ya,” she replied without any hint of humility.

  When they separated, Jocelyn hugged Miss Celia as Miss Mabelle pinned her eyes on me, like a cobra preparing to lurch at its prey. “‘bout time, Jameson,” she spat. “Been here so long now, I got moss growin’ up my arms.”

  “Nice to see you too.”

  Miss Mabelle scoffed and rolled her eyes at me.

  By that point, Jocelyn pulled away from Miss Celia with a perplexed look on her face, her eyes darting back and forth between the two women. “You’ve-you’ve been here the entire time?”

  “Sho’ have, afta’ helpin’ all dem otha’ witches find a place ta hide.”

  “Wadn’t easy,” added Miss Celia, shaking her petite head. “Wadn’t easy no way.”

  These women always seemed to acquiesce to a compliment, so I said, “But I knew you could do it, and do it well.”

  “Shish,” Miss Mabelle sniffed, and turned her head away.

  “Why here?” Jocelyn interjected. “I thought it wasn’t safe to be here.”

  “It weren’t, not until all you witches left. Now it’s nothin’ more than swamp with a few stilt houses, least that what The Sevens seem ta think.”

  “They want the people, not the place,” added Miss Celia. “By the time we got everyone placed, Sevens decided not to come ‘round hea no mo’. They mo’ interested in otha’ things….” She turned pointedly to address the quiet woman standing behind us. “Like people who cause trouble fer ‘em.”

  Miss Mabelle took her ever-present cane and dramatically ambled around me, giving me a disdainful glare in route before stopping purposefully in front of Kalisha.

  With a firm slam of her cane against the platform, she stated, “It’s an hona’ to meet ya. You done good, girl. Took a lot to keep all that ya know to yerself.”

  Kalisha blinked in apparent surprise. “You know me?”

  Miss Celia smirked shrewdly. “‘int much we don’t know.”

  “Kalisha,” I interjected, “these women have been made privy to the records that forecasted our future, the same ones that you and your contingent stole from The Sevens…which landed you in prison all those years.”

  “Are you Vires?” she asked, coming to the only conclusion she could.

  Miss Celia chuckled.

  “No, we ain’t,” said Miss Mabelle spinning around to return to Miss Celia’s side, peering over her shoulder mischievously on her way there. “But we jus’ as dangerous.”

  Kalisha, who remained in a state of cautious amazement, overcame it, and a smile rose up as her eyes trailed Miss Mabelle back to the edge of the platform. As if she finally came to the realization that she was in like-minded company, she asked a seemingly banal question that did a good job at stirring the rest of us. “So you know that our future rests in the hands of these two, then?” She gestured toward Jocelyn and me.

  I noticed the faint clever grin rise on Miss Mabelle and Miss Celia’s faces, and was just about to question them on what they knew that we didn’t when Jocelyn launched into answering Kalisha’s question. “They’ve heard the highlights, but not the details. We need to fill them in.”

  Kalisha gave her a deliberate stare, which seemed like she was asking if we were ready for that part of the story.

  “They can handle it,” Jocelyn reassured her.

  Kalisha nodded and opened her mouth to speak only to have Miss Mabelle stop her. “Not yet. They’s some otha’s who’ll wanna hear dis, too.”

  “Oth-” I began before filling in the blank. “We aren’t alone out here in the bayou, are we?”

  Without answering, Miss Mabelle tapped her cane impatiently against the wood plank. “Come on now, chil’, don’t have all night.” That was Miss Mabelle’s courteous way of asking Jocelyn to use her levitation abilities, to which Jocelyn responded with a smirk in my direction.

  “Some things just don’t change,” said Jocelyn, a message meant solely for me.

  “N’ ya kin be thankful fer that!” said Miss Mabelle with a sharp nod. “Back ta the village, Miss Jocelyn…n’ ya kin hurry it up.”

  Stifling a smirk at her sharp tone, Jocelyn lifted us all into the air and deposited us, by Miss Mabelle’s instruction, on the dock outside the shack my parent’s had resided in while here. It was dark, silent, and seemingly barren. Regardless, when Miss Celia cleared her throat to insinuate it was time for Jocelyn to return the black shirt I’d given her, she did it quietly. It wasn’t until we were all inside, the door closed behind us, that I heard any sign of life. It came from the corner of the room, a rustling that immediately made my muscles tense. After so many weeks in Vire territory, my nature was to prepare for a coming threat. But when the dim light of the lantern gradually flooded the room, it was familiar faces staring back at us.

  And I openly laughed at myself.

  The rustling instantly grew louder as Jocelyn and I became engulfed by our families. No one spoke, the threat of being overheard was still a concern, but they showed their distress for each of us in their expressions. Jocelyn’s mother, Isabella, gave me a deep nod of appreciation for bringing her daughter back while hugging her tightly. I wondered if she’d ever let her go, literally or emotionally. Being notorious for her strong sense of protecting others, it actually surprised me when she agreed to allow me to infiltrate the Ministry on my own. But then, she probably knew there was no other way.

  When the room settled, my smile faded, and I launched into the news I’d been keeping to myself, knowing it would tear at them. “I’m happy to see you, all of you. I truly am, but this is not a safe time for a
ny of us. You are exposed here, whether you believe it or not. Being inside the Ministry gave me firsthand knowledge of the dangers we’re facing, and they are not…,” my expression grew sullen, “…they won’t be easy to overcome. The Sevens have weapons, stockpiles that would fill every shack in this village from floor to ceiling. Their forces are almost ready for attack, and they’re working around the clock to get to that point. They’re organized, prepared, and they have a plan in place. My guess is that it’s a pretty solid one because they’ve been torturing Dissidents.”

  I saw heads nodding, and Isabella spoke up. “We’re getting word of disappearances every night, from every province.” She paused before adding, “Isadora is gone. Braith. Cornelia. The Thibodeauxes.”

  My jaw tightened as the last two names evoked painful memories. I kept their deaths to myself seeing no reason to drag our families through their last minutes. Instead, I summarized my assessment for them. “They’ve targeted those who pose the most danger first.”

  And The Sevens will pay for that, I said to myself.

  While taking a second to draw in a deep breath and recalibrate my emotions, Jocelyn surprised me with news of her own.

  “That’s not all,” she mentioned, and then struggled with how to phrase the words. “There’s really no appropriate way to say this so I’m going to just…say it. Sartorius isn’t like us.”

  That instantly made me curious. It was the same warning Eran had given me back at the Ministry.

  Then she dropped the bomb she’d been withholding. “Sartorius…he has wings.”

  Everyone, myself included, reacted with astonishment, some more disbelieving than others.

  “Wings…?” Alison repeated skeptically.

  Knowing she was facing an uphill battle to convince her audience, Jocelyn reminded us that this wasn’t so far-fetched.

  “When the Ministry was attacked there were sightings of large birds swarming overhead, and a feather was left behind.”

  “So you’re saying…Sartorius attacked his own Ministry?” Charlotte asserted sarcastically, and I gave her a stern look.